Five Things: Rewiring Childhood, SUV, Hyperlinks, Flannel, Princess Catherine
You don't want to miss these Five Things!
Well, good morning to you! It’s Sunday again and I have picked five articles for you to read. I know that just by looking at the subject line the keywords do not make that much sense. But trust me, all those five articles deal with relevant topics of our time.
I have to admit that the most emotional story for me is the one about flannel. I wore flannel before Seattle was a thing! It was part of my skateboarder outfit when I was a teen and older people back then really did not approve of me wearing a shirt open and not tucked in, especially while I was skating through the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein where my dad was a lawmaker. A really good flannel is not that easy to find, and it is even harder to find one made in the USA or in Germany, for that matter.
I also get emotional about hyperlinks and when people send me just screenshots without links it makes me cringe and I always try to politely ask to provide a link as well. I mostly fail at being polite. I think the hyperlink is one fantastic invention and I fear that content will be just inside of platforms in the future and not simply accessible anymore.
Anyhow, just read those five articles, really. 🕺
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How Big Tech rewired childhood
As a parent, this is a tough topic. All my kids have iPhones and they also have access to iPads and laptops. I want them to understand how the interwebs work and I want them to learn to use these tools. At the same time I know that there’s destraction, that there’s dopamine involved, triggered by app usage, there’s FOMO and a ton of other not so pleasant things as well. Of course I want my kids to experience the same childhood that I had, when I walked barefeet uphill in the snow against the wind to school and back. I refuse to turn into a cultural pessimist. I think we still need to adapt to the digital era. And I really liked the book by Stephen Johnson called “Everything bad is good for you. How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter”.
Can Cities Drive SUVs Off Their Streets?
I actually like SUV and I also refuse to add a plural s to an abbreviation, I’m so oldschool. Not those really gigantic SUV, but the cars that are big enough so that I can fit my whole family and a dog in it, that are a bit higher, which makes it easier for an old man like me to climb into, and that give me an added sense of security. I do understand that these cars create problems in cities. I currently drive a Polestar 2, which is a nice EV, but it is just too small. Still, I do think it makes a ton of sense to get those big SUVs out of the cities.
You aren't upset enough about the war on hyperlinks
Why Is It So Hard to Make Good Clothes in America?
The flannel shirt, made in America. I have many flannel shirts from American brands, but none of them are produced in the USA. The fashion industry has focused too much on fast fashion and on cheap production, we should change that.
Getting to the Bottom of the Kate Middleton “November Photo” Theory
My grand theory on all this: Kate Middleton is a person like everybody else and has some photoshop skills and like many parents she touched up a photo a bit. Happens all the time. But this whole conspiracy around this really was on a totally new level. And we’re not even talking about GenerativeAI here, just plain old photoshop.
That’s it. Have a great Sunday!
— Nico