Published inZORA·PinnedMember-only‘Pimpin’ All Over the World:’ Passport Bros and the Eroticism of ExoticismGrowing up, my mother was always a fan of teachable moments. Opportunities for her to offer a lesson on life taught through the lens of developing critical thinking skills. One teachable moment that always stands out to me is focused on music and media. As a millennial, I grew up…Culture8 min readCulture8 min read
PinnedMember-only“TikTok, You Don’t Stop”: Forecasting the End of an EraI can always see the end of things before the beginning. And as most of the internet expresses their concerns about the end of the Twitter era, I have been more concerned with what it means for a social media platform to be at its end. Because, as we all…Social Media9 min readSocial Media9 min read
Published inOneZero·PinnedMember-onlyAre Censorship Algorithms Changing TikTok’s Culture?How social media users push back against the policing of speech — When I was a kid, my mother would speak in pig latin whenever she needed to have an adult conversation in front of my sister and me. Because I didn’t understand pig latin, I viewed these exchanges with childlike wonder, as a secret adult language or code that I could…Social Media9 min readSocial Media9 min read
3 days agoMember-onlyYou, Me, and ChatGPT: AI and Automation as an Extension of ExpressionI don’t know about you, but for me, this has been the year of automation and artificial intelligence. Everywhere I turn, there is a new person concerned about the future of AI an, precisely, the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT projects. As I am sure you have heard by now, this…Technology9 min readTechnology9 min read
Sep 12Member-onlyThe Gratitude TrapRecently, I started an iPhone note document titled “The Words,” filled with all the words I hear so often that I hate them. This list includes the usual offenders, words like “mindfulness” and “community,” which have become so overused in the culture that they are almost meaningless. But my least…Culture6 min readCulture6 min read
Aug 31Member-onlyStatistical Metrics and The Somatics of SafetyAs someone who has lived in multiple cities, whenever I move to a new place, somebody will almost always ask me how my current city compares to the previous one. And, while there was once a time when I would think about the pros and cons of living in urban…Culture7 min readCulture7 min read
Aug 22Member-onlyVirtue Signaling and the Ethics of AltruismRecently, I came across some not-so-surprising research findings about altruism in groups. Generally, altruism is defined as being selfless or virtuous in thought and deed, a positive societal trait. We want to be around people who put others before themselves or that care about humanitarian causes. However, despite the positive…Culture7 min readCulture7 min read
Aug 6Member-onlyQuinn and the Question of Soft Core “Corn”Every day there is another word we are not allowed to use on TikTok. While scrolling through my For You Feed, I came across a Live stream of a man and a woman and the words “Corn Addiction and Marriage Betrayal” or something to that effect. From lurking on the…Technology10 min readTechnology10 min read
Aug 4Member-onlyVirgo or Villain: Decoding Duality in the Latest Boots Riley JointNow that I am exploring the Blaxperimentation genre of film and television, I was excited to start watching the latest Boots Riley series on Amazon Prime, cleverly titled I’m a Virgo. Based on the title alone, I had some assumptions about what the series would say about spirituality and existentialism…Television10 min readTelevision10 min read
Jul 24Member-onlyThey Cloned Blaxploitation: Exploring Blaxperimentation and Black Futures in FilmDespite waiting months for the movie They Cloned Tyrone to come out, I still forgot about the official drop date. But even though I am late, the film was very much on time, and it brought up several themes that have appeared in some of the articles and books I…Film Reviews14 min readFilm Reviews14 min read