Welcome to Select All, a new site devoted to technology from New York Media.
We might look familiar. For the last few months, we’ve been running, under the name “Following,” as a sort of public beta of a tech blog — one focused less on gadget specs and stock prices than on technology as lived experience. Throughout that stealth-mode run, we’ve been guided by a fascination with the weird and wonderful ways in which people live online — the cultures, communities, behaviors, ideas, and jokes that have arisen as the internet, the smartphone, and the on-demand economy have become essential components of contemporary life. To this end, we’ve always kept the human experience at the core of our coverage, asking both what tech can do for us and what it can do to us.
Some highlights from the last few months: how Facebook got cool and weird again; Twitter’s growing harassment problem; the the rise of Instagram as a blogging platform; the meaning of vulgar tweets sent to celebrities; the rabbit holes of online conspiracy theory; the return of the command line; the “halpert”; the life and death of “LOL”; the rise of bots. And, of course, deep dives into important memes present (“Damn, Daniel”) and past (the classic, mysterious “Back at It Again, Krispy Kreme”).
But now we’re going legit. Select All will continue to report on the weird and wonderful ways people express themselves on the internet and social media. But we’ll also be widening our focus to include very personal recommendations for cutting-edge gadgets, the roller-coaster careers of the tastemakers of social media, and the ways in which the titans of Silicon Valley affect all of our lives. We’ll make use of a variety of formats: You can expect explainers, buying guides, reported features, critical arguments, personal essays, blog posts, and, yes, lists. There’ll be some video and some interactive packages, too. And above all we’ll carry over from Following our enthusiasm, curiosity, and sense of humor about the human relationship to technology.
We’re excited to get started. Or, at least, continue. You can like us on Facebook here, follow us on Twitter here, and email me at max.read@nymag.com.
