Digital Life

John Perry Barlow spent much of his life advocating for and fighting to preserve the openness of the Internet. Have those who grew up with his teachings kept that spirit alive?

Music & Culture

Tech Utopianism And Our Walled Gardens: Is It Time For A Jailbreak?

12:44pm February 12, 2018

by Stephen Witt

John Perry Barlow's death last week raised the question of whether his legacy as a fierce defender of tech freedoms and whether his influence on the generation that came after would be a lasting one.

Adam Frank, who has been working with computational science since its initial stages, weighs in on the new threat of computational propaganda.

Science

Computational Propaganda: Bots, Targeting And The Future

3:19pm February 09, 2018

by Adam Frank

Computational propaganda was invented by people who realized the possibilities emerging from the intersection of new technologies and behaviors they create — and it's frightening, says Adam Frank.

The good news for Twitter is tempered by a loss of about 1 million monthly active users in the U.S. compared to last quarter.

Twitter Announces A Profit For The First Time

11:11am February 08, 2018

by Merrit Kennedy

The company attributes the strong financial results to an expanding character limit – now 280 characters, rather than the previous 140 – and making it easier to thread a series of Tweets together.

John Perry Barlow, co-founderof the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the 2013 SXSW Festival at Austin, Texas.

Cyber-Libertarian And Pioneer John Perry Barlow Dies At Age 70

8:21pm February 07, 2018

by Richard Gonzales

He was an Internet visionary who foresaw conflicts between the government and individual liberty in the information age.

Consumer Reports says its testing found that Roku devices have security flaws that make them vulnerable to hackers.

'Consumer Reports' Says Roku, Samsung Smart TVs Have Security Vulnerabilities

4:50pm February 07, 2018

by Merrit Kennedy

"We found that a relatively unsophisticated hacker could change channels, play offensive content, or crank up the volume," the consumer watchdog says.

In 2011, CDs by Eric Clapton and Michael Buble were on display at Best Buy in Mountain View, Calif. According to Billboard, customers soon won't be able to find CDs at Best Buy.

Best Buy To Pull CDs From Its Stores, According To Report

6:06pm February 06, 2018

by Emily Sullivan

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimates that 112 million people worldwide now pay for access to streaming services.

What The Screen Time Experts Do With Their Own Kids

1:30pm February 06, 2018

by Anya Kamenetz

Many of these experts are also parents, and their work informs their approach to making rules with their kids about phones, TV and other media.

Screen Addiction Among Teens: Is There Such A Thing?

4:52pm February 05, 2018

by Anya Kamenetz

The psychiatric profession is still divided, but there are treatment programs, apps and a new public campaign to address media overuse.

Queue Listen Now

Earbud Nation: Your favorite podcast hosts can seem like open books — but to them, you're a blank slate.

Arts

It's All In Your Head: The One-Way Intimacy Of Podcast Listening

6:01am February 02, 2018

by Glen Weldon

An attempt to come up with rules to explain the singular appeal of roundtable discussion podcasts by a guy who's on one — and who's listened to hundreds more.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook Inc., attends a conference in Idaho in July 2017. Zuckerberg has announced — and celebrated — a drop in the amount of time users are spending on Facebook.

We're Spending Less Time On Facebook, And Mark Zuckerberg Says That's Great

7:18pm February 01, 2018

by Camila Domonoske

Zuckerberg says if people spend less time on the site — but the time they spend is higher-quality and involves more interaction — it's good for his bottom line. It's also good for society, he says.