Before we delve into the posts we’re reading and loving elsewhere on the internet, don’t miss Natalia Antonova’s dispatch from deep inside Fox News HQ. What she discovered will shock you!
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‘The Story of the Internet, As Told By Know Your Meme‘ (Kaitlyn Tiffany for The Verge)
The internet is alive with memes, and they’re an important part of cultural history, but few people are taking them seriously from a sociological perspective. Know Your Meme is preserving memes and tracing their history in a way that future generations will likely come to appreciate.
The daily process is what it always has been: a group email thread, a few hours sweeping the radar of subforums and websites, a soft deadline of 11AM or noon to decide on the day’s write-ups and updates. The life cycle of a meme has gotten shorter, so they spend more time on “flash-in-the-pan, 72-hour memes.”
‘Ball Breakers‘ (Megan Greenwell for Topic)
Interested in reading a fantastic feature about billiards and women in sport? This is it.
Women have been playing billiards since the sport’s earliest days, when it was a hobby for European royals in the 15th century. Mary, Queen of Scots, complained about being deprived of the game while imprisoned, and her body was covered with the cloth from her billiards table after her execution in 1587. But until the 1970s, there were few women’s tournaments, and decorum prevented most female players from spending time in pool halls with men.
‘Suicides, Drug Addiction and High School Football‘ (Juliet Macur for the New York Times)
Small-town America is dying: Literally. Suicide rates in some rural communities are extremely high, and they often go hand in hand with drug problems. Can troubled communities pull out of the spiral?
In 2016, the suicide rate in Jefferson County, a county of 32,000 people in which Madison is the biggest town, was 41.8 per 100,000 residents. It was the highest suicide rate for any Indiana county, and more than twice the state average. Compared with the national rate, it’s a startling 3.2 times higher.
‘As Drag Becomes More Popular Than Ever, Drag Kings Refuse to Be Ignored‘ (Hazel Cills for Jezebel)
While drag queens tend to occupy headlines and attention, drag kings have long been a part of the scene, and they’re fighting for recognition and acknowledgment. This feature includes profiles of people in the drag community, and it’s a fascinating read.
Complicating things further, kings are still fighting for recognition not just from audiences beyond the LGBTQ community, but audiences within it. “We certainly have a lot more legwork to do in terms of telling people that we exist and what we are, just because we don’t have a reality TV show that already tells people that,” says Goldie Peacock, 32, a Brooklyn drag performer who also teaches drag king workshops. But as drag continues to find a broader audience, representations of what drag can be, and what performances of masculinity can look like, are also expanding. Hustling in every small space they can get, drag kings have refused—and continue to refuse—to be ignored.
‘The Screen Time Debate Is Pitting Parents Against Each Other‘ (Lauren Smiley for The Verge)
Smartphones and screens in general have become a popular topic for demonisation and judgmental comments about other people’s parenting decisions. While lots of people have strong opinions about phone use, few of those opinions are backed by something critically important: Actual science.
Parents don’t need scientific research to tell them phones can be dangerous; they can deduce the ills from their own overuse. Julie, the proudly anti-screen mom, knows social media can make a kid depressed because she herself feels anxious when scrolling through “all these amazing lives” on Facebook, and has to remind herself every moment observing others online is a moment she is not working on her own goals. She has had to train herself, as a parent, to put down the phone, too.
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Photo: Julie Gibbons/Creative Commons