'How Snapchat built a business with confusing old people' and 4 other stories you should read

Here's what you missed by spending the week lamenting at the end Downton Abbey …

Chosen by Carly Miller, editorial intern

As a member of the last generation to experience life without the Internet, cover article by American Scholar This made a strong impression. Professor and author James McWilliams examines the nuances of the relationship between humans and digital without the need for deceptive claims to get us to put down our damn phones. Instead, he explores how we can develop a healthier relationship with technology. Drawing from sources like Socrates, David Foster Wallace, the World Economic Forum's bigwigs, and Gen Xers, McWilliams challenges us to accept boredom and push back against digital disarmament.

While I don't like calling myself a technician – which would be hypocritical since I sit at my computer and scroll all day – I am someone who stubbornly sticks to the line between digital life and IRL , sometimes at the expense of his social and professional connections. But reading this article made me acutely aware of how often, over the course of 15 minutes, I switch between tabs, chart my incoming emails, and instinctively, I jump when I hear a sound. humming of the phone hidden in his wallet.

Chosen by Joe Lazauskas, editor-in-chief

Two weeks ago, SB Nation posted a ridiculous apology story about Daniel Holtzclaw, a 29-year-old former college football player who was on trial this winter for raping 13 women black female while on police duty and was convicted of 18 counts. The story was met with an immediate and five-hour backlash, which resulted in SB Nation being vertically suspended. In its wake, the media industry has wondered one thing: How the hell did this get published?

SB Nation, after all, is not a blog for two. It's a cornerstone site of Vox Media, and the long vertical is said to give the site-specific credibility. In this installment, Greg Howard — Deadspin's best journalist and recent recipient of the David Carr Fellowship at The New York Times – recreating the basic shortcomings and biases within SB Nation before stitching together the idea of “long form” as a vehicle all together. This is a must-read and worthy of Howard's when he leaves for Times on March 15.

Chosen by Erin Nelson, Marketing Editor

According to author Robert Epstein, Google has subordinate control over individuals based on the order of search results (a phenomenon he calls the Search Engine Manipulation Effect, or SEME). For Epstein, this effect has more frightening social implications than the worlds depicted in 1984 and Brave New World, because this time, it's not fiction.

Presenting research on political elections and search engine behavior in the United States, Australia, and India, Epstein asked whether Google had more control over consumer decisions. Can the search engine and its conspicuous leadership change the way we think? Change the outcome of political elections? If we don't know about these changes, are we all just puppets in Larry Page's game? Whatever you do, just don't Google the answer.

Chosen by Dillon Baker, editorial collaborator

Last weekend, I watched a documentary Vice first. In fact, I watched three. The first two channels are part of the company's new cable channel, Viceland — one, called Weediquette , which explores the use of medical marijuana in children. cancer patient; Monday is titled Balls Deep , which is basically the 25-minute boiling down of a guy playing Woody Allen at a tent revival in Arkansas. The third investigation is a special investigation into ISIS.

I was a bit embarrassed watching them. I'm a young person, but I really don't know a person who doesn't reflexively tease Deputy ( see more: The Onion and Documentaries Now ! ).

However, the documentaries are not so terrible. Legally interesting ISIS; it includes interviews with captured ISIS agents and traveled to every front-line in Iraq – though it is more of a summary of recent Middle Eastern history than of any kind of groundbreaking investigation, like suggested title.

That kind of problem. Deputy , despite the reputation, but not all astute. For example, BuzzFeed News produced many high-impact investigative reports, which Deputy has never done, to my knowledge. This article clarifies why: Vice scared to provoke the corporate sponsors of its huge internal advertising agency.

No wonder people make fun of it.

Chosen by Jordan Teicher, senior editor

After reading this feature about Snapchat's advertising prospects, I believe that no one in the advertising industry really knows how to make the platform work. The only thing they know for sure is that Snapchat is extremely popular. And that disconnect makes for some great unintentional comedy.

One person who got it is DJ Khaled, currently on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek . (Think about that for a moment.) Khaled's path to Snapchat success, as the writers allude to, stems from the fact that he doesn't really have a lot of plans. He's just who he is – it's ridiculous in the way that you can't tell if he's serious or joking.

But thanks to the likes of Khaled, Snapchat can now charge brands seven figures to reach its audience of 100 million. The marketing executives cited in this section sound subtly stunned, desperate, and annoyed. The CEO of a media buying and selling company said, “It's like how the Kardashians are famous because they're famous. Snapchat is expensive because it's expensive. ”

In other words, he doesn't understand.