Let the Kids “BeReal” on Social Media

Restricting Internet Use Is a Violation of Young People’s First Amendment Rights

My best friend’s 13-year-old son recently asked me to friend him on the social media app BeReal.

She had decided to let him download BeReal partially because it lets users post just once per day and has very limited chat features, and only under the condition that they had to be friends. But he was free to choose what and when to post, what to comment, and whom to befriend (including, to my amusement, me). My friend was treating it like a learner’s-permit version of Instagram or Facebook. Her son could …

by Doris Morgan Rueda | July 6, 2023

Can California Bring Everyone up to Internet Speed?

Broadband Is a Must for 21st-Century Life, and the Golden State Is Uniquely Poised to Tackle Its Digital Divide

by Christopher Ali | June 6, 2023

Imagine you’re a senior citizen in the midst of the pandemic. You don’t know how to book a vaccine online, so you’ve been on hold for hours. Or imagine you’re …

Pet Voice Isn’t All About the LOLZ

The Communication Tactic Dates Back Centuries. But the Act of Anthropomorphizing Our Furry Friends Has Become More Insidious in the Digital Age

by Jessica Maddox | January 5, 2023

Whether you love or hate people speaking as their pets, using cutesy terms like “pupperinos” and “heckin’ good bois,” or sharing grammatically incorrect cat speak memes, the concept of a …

How Rural Schools Survived the Pandemic

Educators in the Most Remote Parts of the State Have Faced Unique Challenges—And Found Some Silver Linings

by Niu Gao | October 6, 2022

In my 15 years researching and working in K–12 education, I haven’t seen anything like the COVID-19 pandemic disruption to education. This is especially true in rural areas, whose remote …

Where I Go: My Small, Queer Corner of the Internet

After Years of Searching for an LGBTQ Community, I Found it on Discord During the Pandemic

by José González Vargas | August 19, 2021

I remember Ángelo Ponce. He was a teenage boy in my hometown of Maracay, Venezuela, whose classmates set on fire for being gay. That was 2012. I was 21 at …

The Internet Needs Its Own Government | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Internet Needs Its Own Democratic Government

The Digital World Should Be Ruled by an Independent Coalition Beyond the Reach of Big Tech and Nation-States

by Joe Mathews | May 11, 2021

Today’s methods for governing the internet do not constitute a coherent system, much less a democratic one.

Instead, internet governance is a contest for power between the most powerful tech companies, …

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