If you’re interested in the intersections between popular culture and the internet, I highly recommend Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day newsletter. Substacks and the like have turned into the new blogs — I suspect because of the tools that allow people to subscribe to them for pay so there’s a profit motive. Should I be writing a Substack instead? Nah. Sounds like work.

Wednesday’s newsletter about the future of internet traffic now that search engines are in a rush to turn themselves into AI tools, is particularly interesting. Not all of the issues are relevant to my professional interests, but this one especially is. Social media has been a driver to websites for a long time, but that era is ending. And now search engines might go the way of the dodo too? Where’s that leave us? Interesting times ahead.

I used to be able to keep up on these things on my own just by being young and involved. Now I’m old and busy and I no longer have my finger on the pulse. I refuse to use Instagram or TikTok so I need younger people like Broderick to explain to me how these platforms are influencing things. I really need to subscribe and pay him for his hard work. Writing this here is my mental note to do so in the future.