(this piece previously appeared in Dutch in Knack) With a kitchen sink he entered Twitter’s headquarters on Friday, making it clear to everyone that they should acquiesce to his takeover. “let that sink in”. Why do so many people find it hard to let it sink in that Musk is now at the head of… Read More Why is it so hard to let Musk’s leadership sink in?
By relying solely on traditional media, we might not be able to create group immunity with a COVID-19 vaccine. A wave of conspiracies has washed over the information ecosystem and play into people’s deep seated fears. Science communicators can learn from conspiracy influencers how to reach people, especially on platforms like Instagram that have become… Read More What we can learn from conspiracists on social media
For almost a year now I have been diving in, and have been kicked out of several anti-vaccination Facebook groups. There is an ever growing community of people who refuse to vaccinate against diseases like Measles, Chicken Pox, Tetanus, Polio, HPV,… It’s become so big that the World Health Organization even named vaccine hesitancy one… Read More Anti-vaccination and the Tragedy of the Commons
“Most women who claim they were raped were rapebaiting. If they just let ugly men have sex once in a while, the world would be better for everyone. It’s just sex, they need to get over it” This was a post from the now banned Subreddit /r/Incels. A community of men who claim to be… Read More Banning online communities; is it too late to stop radicalization?
(This article previously appeared in Dutch on Knack – Datanews) The tendency to curse smartphones isn’t new. But I am becoming fed up with the articles, cartoons and art that are going for the low hanging fruit of bashing new media technology. From criticizing the display of personal life on social media and fishing for… Read More Is our “Digibesitas” giving us Technophobia?
(This article appeared earlier on Vice: The Motherboard NL) With all this talk about ‘digibesitas’, let’s add one more new-society disease to our vocabulary: Digital amnesia. It’s the act of forgetting certain things when you store them on you digital devices. I started to notice that my memory is failing me lately, and it’s was really beginning… Read More Digital Amnesia
Reddit’s foundations are crumbling. Disturbances are happening within the headquarters and the leadership. The frontpage of the internet is in anarchy. (Addendum: 2,5 years after I wrote this post, I came back on a lot of the opinions expressed in this post. The world had changed and I had been too naive to notice. I… Read More The Great 2015 Reddit revolt
Vrouw zijn op zich is geen sinecure. Maar vrouw zijn op het internet is een zeer zware identiteit om te dragen. Het is best mogelijk dat de volgende feministische golf zich online zal voordoen. En dan heb ik het niet over propaganda verspreiden via het medium ‘internet’ in plaats van met borden de straat op… Read More There are no girls on the internet.
Nathalie Van Raemdonck 