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Something is changing in our relationship with social media. For years, conversations about ‘digital detox’ felt like self-care platitudes – well-meaning but ultimately superficial. This time around feels different. Even those who’ve built substantial followings on these platforms are questioning whether they should continue their presence there.
Perhaps it’s because our tech oligarchs have shown their true colours. (Mostly orange, it turns out!) Perhaps we’re just collectively exhausted by the endless scroll and incessant ads. Or perhaps, as Anne Helen Petersen suggests in her latest piece, we’ve reached a cultural tipping point:
“The amount of space these technologies take up in our lives – and their ever-diminishing utility – has brought us to a sort of cultural tipping point. [Our feeds have completed their] years-long transformation from a neighborhood populated with friends to a glossy condo development of brands.”
The spaces we once inhabited feel increasingly alien, overtaken by algorithmic ghosts and corporate voices that leave us restless, overstimulated, yet empty and disconnected.
Petersen quotes Kate Lindsay’s writing about how boredom is missing in our lives – and it’s the perfect observation:
“Boredom is when you do the things that make you feel like you have life under control. Not being bored is why you always feel busy, why you keep ‘not having time’ to take a package to the post office or work on your novel. You do have time – you just spend it on your phone. By refusing to ever let your brain rest, you are choosing to watch other people’s lives through a screen at the expense of your own.”
We’ve somehow managed to internalise the ‘photo or it didn’t happen’ mentality. Quoting Freya Moon:
“[There is] the Gen-Z belief that posting is what makes something ‘real’ – a boyfriend, a vacation, a meal. We have mistaken others’ recognition of a thing for actually experiencing the thing.”
So now we’re in this moment of nonsensical world events and it seems we’re finally beginning to accept a simple truth: no amount of scrolling or sharing will save us.
“Climate monsters, cultural monsters, political monsters. You can’t fight them by consuming news, or quote-tweet dunking, or sharing a graphic. You can fight them through connection.”
I think we are, at last, on the path to realising that the revolution won’t be live-tweeted – it’ll happen in the spaces where we dare to exist without documenting every moment of it.
– Kai
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Spreadsheet Problems? SPONSOR
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Open-source collaborative spreadsheet
Spreadsheets are great. So great, in fact, that they often become too important to a team’s workflow. These load-bearing spreadsheets crack under the pressure. Grist is an open-source spreadsheet reinforced with the structure of a database that everyone can use, no code required.
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Apps & Sites
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This browser plugin lets you preview links in a popup so you don’t have to navigate away from the page you’re currently on. It’s handy for watching videos or reading articles (in focus mode). The Pro version lets you request a summary of the page and removes tracking parameters from the URLs you open.
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Open source coding co-pilot
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As an open source alternative to GitHub Copilot, Tabby is an AI coding assistant designed to help developers with code completion and suggestions while maintaining control over their data and infrastructure.
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A (Euro-centric) app to help you plan and navigate bicycle trips: “VeloPlanner puts the world’s official, signposted routes in one place. Download GPX files, access detailed route information, and plan your next ride with confidence.”
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Competitive music discovery
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Love this idea: Music League is a social platform where friends compete by creating themed playlists which they then rate and comment on. The person with the best song picks wins the competition. One big caveat: you need a Spotify account to play.
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Worthy Five: Rosie Spinks
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A question worth asking:
‘What can you edit out?’ My husband is always gently reminding me to remove a thing or two from my to-do list, ambitions, weekend plans etc. As a recovering overachiever, striking something off of my list is almost always a good idea.
A concept worth understanding:
Consistency. If you’re looking for the magic formula, the burst of creative inspiration, the silver bullet of productivity, you’ll be searching for a long time. If you want to write more, read more, work out more, create more, you have to start regularly using the time you have – not the time you wish you had. Becoming a mother taught me that you can accomplish a lot in 25 minutes a day.
A book worth reading:
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s latest book, The Serviceberry, is a short and convincing meditation on the interconnectivity of all living things. A botanist and indigenous teacher, Robin explores how the serviceberry tree offers up a powerful antidote to the individual striving at the core of modern life. It also includes one of my favourite sentences ever written: “All flourishing is mutual.”
An activity worth doing:
Legs up the wall, or viparita karani. This is the ultimate nervous system-regulating pose – an inversion that both gets you out of your head and connects you to the ground beneath you. It’s great for tight hamstrings, lower back pain, insomnia, anxiety. If I’m feeling frazzled, anxious, or just blah and only have a few minutes to reset, this is what I do.
A newsletter worth subscribing to:
The Small Bow by AJ Daulerio is a newsletter about recovery and sobriety, but in the most expansive way possible. I’ve noticed that people in recovery are some of the bravest, most wise teachers we have. Compassion – for self and others – just radiates out of AJ’s writing.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Rosie Spinks in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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A journey into the science of sight, memory & imagination
A fascinating account by science writer Sadie Dingfelder about her own neurodivergent condition called ‘face blindness’ (e.g. mistaking a stranger for her husband in a grocery store). Blending personal anecdotes with scientific research, Dingfelder sheds light on the diverse ways human brains function and perceive the world. “Can you visualize? Do you have an inner monologue? Are you always 100% sure whether you know someone or not? Do you know your left from your right? If you can perform any of these mental feats, you may be surprised to learn that many people – including Dingfelder – can’t.”
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The shadow economy of the super-rich
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian explores how special economic zones, tax havens and free ports are manipulated by the wealthy to operate beyond traditional national laws, creating a parallel universe that benefits the rich and powerful. “Over time, economists, theorists, statesmen, and consultants evolved ever more sophisticated ways of exporting and exploiting statelessness, in the form of free trade zones, flags of convenience, offshore detention centers, charter cities controlled by foreign corporations, and even into outer space.”
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Overheard on Instagram
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Tech has become oil.
I’m sure the oil industry 100 years ago was exciting, revolutionary, and optimistic, ‘Look how we can make travel and convenience so easy! We can get you to see your grandmother in Chicago in no time! Look how cheap and easy a plastic bag is! What a revolution!’ It was probably thrilling to work for an oil company. Or to find a well on grandpa’s farm and strike it rich rich rich. It was all so exciting until we realized it was killing us.
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Food for Thought
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Anne Helen Petersen examines how we’re collectively reaching a tipping point with social media, as its diminishing value and increasing demands push us to reconsider how we spend our time and attention. “The way that they have sucked my attention away from the writing and made my newsletter worse is proof enough that I don’t want to continue to use them in the ways the marketing gurus recommend... What I know for sure is that one year with the dumb phone culminated in the publication of my first book, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
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Rwanda’s MASS Design Group offers a fresh perspective from Africa – a continent rarely spotlighted for architectural innovation — demonstrating how architecture can heal communities through sustainable, locally-sourced construction. Their approach simultaneously restores land and strengthens regional craftsmanship, challenging conventional Western-centric narratives about where transformative design can emerge. “MASS projects begin by asking: who lives here, how do they build, what materials and skills are abundant in this landscape? The construction materials and methods for a project are then drawn from the specifics of a place and its people. This results not only in a physical building, but a network of bioregional livelihoods bound together around a structure.”
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Like many of you, I feel a strong sense of nostalgia about the early web in part because creating and exploring personal websites was so much fun and a big part of the experience of ‘being online’. Gita Jackson calls for a return to independent websites to regain control over online expression and content. “Even the best Twitter alternatives, like Bluesky, aren’t immune to any of this – the more you centralize onto one single website, the more power that website has over you and what you post there. More than just moving to another website, we need more websites.”
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Matthew Raw is a British ceramic artist who specialises in ceramic tiles used in creative ways.
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Sergio Duce is a Spanish artist and high school teacher who creates illustrations that capture the essence of everyday life, often critically reflecting on education and technology.
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For a small footprint, energy efficient, and low impact residence, this prefabricated shipping container home in my home state of Victoria ticks a lot of boxes. I love the muted palette inside and out, especially the cork walls & ceiling.
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Font of the week: Varese, a geometric and modular typeface inspired by early 1900s Art Deco posters.
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Notable Numbers
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The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees, in its latest push to help working mothers and boost record-low fertility rates.
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It takes approximately 700,000 megawatt hours of electricity to power Chicago’s more than 400 municipal buildings every year. As of January 1, 100% of them – including 98 fire stations and two international airports – is running on renewable energy, thanks largely to Illinois’ newest and largest solar farm.
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The world’s largest public gathering – the Maha Kumbh Mela – has begun in India. More than 400 million people are expected to take part in the six-week Hindu festival.
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Classifieds
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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