Internet Friends

Seems like as good a time as any — okay, maybe good is a strong word — to revisit the topic of Twitter. Between the worldwide plague of grotesque elections and the worldwide plague of COVID-19, the Twitter vibes right now are the worst since at least the 2016 U.S. election, if not ever. Jon and Drew discuss why Twitter offers such a harmful attraction in times like this. Jon figures it’s time for his first big following purge in a long time, and he and Drew consider what it takes to shape your social media experience to be as close to what you want, given the way the platforms militate against it. What perplexes us is, it should be in social media companies’ interests to make their algorithms compassionate to their users, not merely stimulating. This status quo is so shortsighted. What precious few of the entities supporting the internet we live on seem to wonder is, what are people going to remember about them in 10 years? Will they remember their results from the March quarter 2020? Or will they remember whether they succeeded or failed to help people weather crises we lived out on their platforms? Bonus: A preview of Drew’s exciting experiments with ephemeral posts! Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew has a surprise for Jon! It’s an AlphaSmart Neo 2, a dedicated word processor. Jon, for his part, is thinking about buying a bass. They’re both seeking a lost feeling of having dedicated tools for the job they want to do. Increasingly, iPads and iPhones feel like general-purpose devices that can do lots of things, but they aren’t made for any particular thing, and in a lot of ways, they’re getting worse at each thing they can do as their capabilities get broader and more spread thin. Maybe creative work is better handled by specialized tools, and the digital part is better handled by… a desktop computer on an actual desk! What a concept! Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

For a while, our tools were no better at handling information overload than our brains were, but that’s starting to change. Jon and Drew discuss the never-ending practice of checking things — apps, inboxes, notifications — for new information. Everybody knows that feeling of going around and around checking the same few places to see if there’s anything new. For years, the only alternative was to have notifications blowing up your phone at all times, which was obviously worse. Now, though, operating systems are starting to add new layers of notifications and widgets to make checking quicker, easier to handle, and less urgent. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Jon and Drew discuss the next-generation augmented reality interface that Apple has already released into the world: AirPods. Jon got the new AirPods Pro, and he’s experiencing them not so much as headphones but as cybernetic enhancements for his ears and voice. Sound is such a neglected part of our environment, and we’re often surrounded by loud and annoying noise, a day-to-day problem Apple’s audio products can address. With AirPods Pro, the right software, and an Apple Watch, it’s already possible to have a complete post-smartphone AR experience — it just doesn’t have a visual component… yet. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Both Jon and Drew are slowly wearing out from the constant grind of new third-party apps and — even more so — from the pursuit of ever more automation using tools like Shortcuts. At best, it feels like a Band-Aid patching up missing features that should be built in. At worst, it’s nerdy customization just for the sake of it, even at the expense of simplicity and usability. The Apple fan community is embracing it hard now that Shortcuts is built in on every iOS device, but Drew and Jon question whether this is what people really want. Jon also gives his impressions of migrating from OmniFocus to Apple’s new Reminders, about which he has also written an extensive review (https://jonmitchell.net/blog/reminders). Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew’s new phone has him wanting to talk about cameras. Photography is moving away from being a technical practice requiring lots of tool-specific knowledge that has little or nothing to do with composing an image. It’s becoming a prosthetic extension of our eyes and minds that just captures what we see and resurfaces it for us later, thanks to the software running on the portable supercomputers that are our cameras these days. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Apple announced pricing and timing for Arcade and TV+, a new iPad, Apple Watch Series 5, and the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. They were pretty strong updates — Jon orders the watch live on the show, Drew will get the iPhone 11 Pro as soon as possible — but the most exciting news was probably the pricing, which is definitely friendlier than things have been for a while. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew needs an intervention. He’s reached that all-too-familiar point at which all the tools and processes and ways of doing stuff with computers stop working for him. Drew turns to Jon, whose digital system might be the best functioning thing in his life, to straighten him out. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Jon hates the web. It’s full of spies and thieves and ads. Not the technologies that power the web; those are great. The system of destination websites with their own economics is a lost cause, Jon says. Drew challenges him to think through what would happen if he deleted Safari from his devices. It’s more complicated than that, obviously, but it’s worth thinking through. Do we even need it? Well, yes. But the web needs a complete do-over back to the Wild West ’90s if it’s ever going to deliver on its promise. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew has been working on a theory of a patronage model for online creativity and shopping it around to anyone who will listen. Jon is a big subscriber to things and believer in the model, but he wonders why it hasn’t taken off already. The tools seem to exist already. Why isn’t it the cultural norm? Maybe it’s because the current examples, like crowd-funding and Patreon, are too transactional. People are clearly willing to pay for media in bulk now — see Netflix et al. Will those bigtime platforms make it easier for indie creators to get on there and get paid? Will dedicated crowd-funding or patronage platforms finally take off? Or will creators have to press on and find ways to connect directly to their thousand true fans? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew and Jon invent a new type of podcasting because the internet at the camp where Jon was working was too bad for a call. So they recorded while sending audio iMessages back and forth, and it was a perfect opportunity to talk about the state of messaging apps. The fragmentation among so many apps is getting old, but we can’t just all use iMessage, because we don’t all have iPhones. How is all this going to play out? Is Facebook domination inevitable? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew tweeted a video he found of a camera on a conveyor belt at a sushi restaurant, and it went viral. Like, really viral. Jon and Drew discuss what that was like. It made for a fascinating juxtaposition with a #BadFaithTwitter thread that went viral at the same time about a guy who found a brick of heroin in his van and successfully re-stole it from a gang member, or something… it doesn’t matter, because the dude made it up. As a tweet Drew saw recently said, every day, the internet picks a hero and a villain. You just have to hope that neither one’s you. Having been the hero now, though, Drew thinks it’s worth it for the #GoodFaithTwitter cause. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew and Jon consider the implications of Apple’s new augmented reality initiatives and SwiftUI, both announced at the end of the very long keynote after the stuff discussed in Part I (/special6). What do these two things have to do with each other? They’re both telling us all to get ready for the future — especially app developers. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Apple blew all the minds in its annual Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote in San Jose on June 3. Jon and Drew cover the announcements for tvOS, watchOS, iOS, iPadOS (which is a separate thing now!), and macOS, and they save all the heady future-y AR stuff for a second WWDC special. Maybe Apple should have done that for the keynote, too — two and a half hours was a lot! Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew’s longest Twitter break ever has ended, so both he and Jon are back! (That’s @DrewCoffman (https://twitter.com/DrewCoffman) and @ablaze (https://twitter.com/ablaze), by the way.) They both thought they were permanently over it… and they were wrong. It’s going to be different this time, though. Drew and Jon are only here for the use of Twitter in good faith. In this episode, they recap their ongoing discussion of what went wrong on Twitter, but now they’ve got a plan to fix it. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Twitter at @_NetFriends (https://twitter.com/_NetFriends).

Drew is intrigued by Craig Mod’s SMS-powered publishing. It’s both old-school and utterly new and strange. Likewise, the ascendancy of email newsletters is baffling, given how we’ve all come to feel about our email inboxes, but it also makes total sense. What technologies should one use to publish things anymore? Where is the line between communication and publishing? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Why do people try so hard on social media? Is it just for validation, or is it calculating? Is the motivator fame? Fortune? Is there a difference? Jon and Drew have tended to talk about the responsibilities of the platforms and their designers to promote community, but this time they want to talk about the part that’s the users’ (read: our own) fault. The desire to get rich and famous is like a pyramid scheme into which humanity has tricked itself. How could public-facing social media not play into it? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Apple unveiled a whole new direction for its services at its on-campus Steve Jobs Theater on Monday. Drew and Jon discuss Apple’s “It’s Show Time” event, announcing Apple News+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, Apple TV Channels, and Apple TV+. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon has some explaining to do. He’s back on Twitter a couple years after deleting his account and saying he was never coming back. What!? Why?? Even though Drew and Jon met on Twitter, these days it seems like they can’t be on there at the same time for whatever reason. Drew stopped logging into Twitter a month or so ago. It’s going well. Jaron Lanier’s new book, Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, was what convinced him. It’s Instagram Drew is wrestling with. Oh, the twists and turns of figuring out how to be happy on social media in 2019! Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon and Drew discuss the way they spend their time, as far as being online is concerned. The way things work now, going on and offline happens chaotically, in bursts, in reaction to whatever’s happening. Could it be more deliberate than that, and would that help us use our online and offline time better? They discuss ways the hardware and software tools they use could be redesigned to help with this, as well as ways we users could deliberately work towards it. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Drew and Jon are joined by Manton Reece (https://manton.org/), creator of Micro.blog (https://micro.blog). Manton’s current mission to build better community software started at about the same time as Jon and Drew’s internet friendship, around 2012, when Twitter took its turn from a flourishing ecosystem driven by users and developers to the siloed media company we now know and no longer love. To Manton, the solution to that has been staring us in the face since before Twitter even existed: bring back blogging. Micro.blog is not only a simple blogging service, it creates a place for bloggers — no matter where their blog is hosted — to meet, read, and respond to one another, bringing only the best parts of social media back to the open web. Jon (https://micro.blog/ablaze) and Drew (https://micro.blog/drewcoffman) are on board, and it’s a lovely community that’s growing noticeably all the time. The question is, how will we get it to the tipping point? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends). Special Guest: Manton Reece.

Jon and Drew are joined by Matthew Cassinelli of Workflow/Shortcuts (https://www.workflow.is/), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/matthewcassinelli) and Supercomputer (http://supercomputer.fm/) fame. Drew and Matthew started off as internet friends, and before long, they were getting (almost) busted taking illegal drone photos. Meanwhile, Matthew worked on the great app Workflow, which was acquired by Apple and became Shortcuts. Matthew has tons of internet friends now, especially in the so-called “Apple community.” What’s that like? It’s a mix. Some of it is everything he loves about technology and community. Other parts are harder, especially since his level of social media attention changed suddenly. But Matthew is real and upfront about stuff like that. He makes a great case that being your real self online is the way to be. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends). Special Guest: Matthew Cassinelli.

Jon has completed his second-annual New Year shutdown of an account with a massive tech company. Last year, he deactivated Facebook. This year, he has deleted all his Google accounts. Why? Why not? Behemoth tech companies are like jealous, demanding Gods in our lives. When it’s possible to stop using one, isn’t there some freedom in that? And that’s leaving aside the political aspect of rejecting companies that track us and invade our privacy. Drew hadn’t considered dropping Google before, but Jon’s alternatives sound interesting enough that Drew is intrigued. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

No more talking around it; Drew and Jon finally talk about religion. They discuss filter bubbles of beliefs online and whether it’s fun to follow people because of their spirituality. The internet gets wonderful when it brings contact with people with analogous beliefs, who teach you new languages in which to express your ideas and feelings. Then they turn to offline religious communities and wonder why they don’t quite feel like they’re working in this day and age. Can technology help? Is there a role for high technology in religious life? Is there a role for religion in high technology life? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

For a lot of folks of Jon and Drew’s generation, the origin story of getting into computers and the internet started with music. In the iPod era, people started building music libraries on their computers that grew to thousands of songs, and the internet was essential for discovering, sharing, and acquiring music. Some people — okay, maybe just Jon — still listen to music this way. Most people are just paying for streaming services now. Is there a right or wrong way to listen to music? Why does music matter so much? Is it different from other media that way? Will these ways of listening go on into the future, and if not, what will change? What will that mean for artists, and therefore for the music? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

For their first Thanksgiving special, Drew and Jon talk about food! At this point in history, food is totally a tech topic. Drew is into Soylent, because it doesn’t require him to interrupt his workflow. Jon is more into cooking lunch every day, precisely because it does. Food is a factor in work, community, health, and… well, life. Just in time for their native land’s most lavish food-centric holiday, this conversation considers how the way we eat reflects — or transforms — the way we work and live. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Smart homes. Jon is a latecomer, and Drew assures him that’s a good thing. All Jon has so far is Hue lights and speakers, but he’s getting pretty into it pretty quickly. Lightbulbs are easy, though? What about door locks? Cameras? Um, microwaves? Is it worth getting into all that stuff? Is it even easier or more convenient than the way things worked before? It’s an interesting category; unlike phones and tablets, adding smart home technology to your life isn’t just about you. Everybody in your house has to be into it. This doesn’t just apply to automation gizmos, it’s also about personalization for music and video services. How does a household navigate that? Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

The day has arrived! The new iPad Pro day, that is. Drew and Jon talk about the iPad as their new main computers — the most popular computer in the world — as well as the new MacBook Air and Mac mini updates and what this whole product line means for Apple. There were also interesting announcements about the Today at Apple program at Apple Stores. Apple is doing real-world social gatherings now, and they double as free educational add-ons to Apple products. It’s all very… human. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon and Drew discuss the role of writing in online media and community, and they try their best not to sound like old men (Jon has to try harder). There’s a rising tide of conventional wisdom out there that reading and writing are from a bygone era. Jon wonders what he’s supposed to do with his life if that’s the case — which, of course, it isn’t. The problem is really the usual underlying problem of limited and fragmented attentional bandwidth. They discuss the problems with video and why people tolerate them (answer: because the other solutions are too nerdy). They consider the pros and cons of tweetstorms, of which Drew provides a surprising number of pros. And, as all media pundits are wont to do lately, they wonder whether subscriptions inside preinstalled news apps can save the day. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon reports that Burning Man 2018 was exactly what 2018 needed, and it got him hyped up on community enough to try going back on Facebook. He lasted three weeks. There’s still something missing that it seems like social media should provide. The correspondence isn’t really the core feature; what online community should provide is a sense of presence. Drew and Jon reminisce about AIM statuses and consider how that indicator of presence could be updated for the technology of today and tomorrow. Social technology is still in its awkward teenage years, just like we were on AIM, but maybe it’s starting to grow up. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Drew and Jon emerge from their late-summer madness to discuss Apple’s September event, which announced the Apple Watch Series 4 and the iPhones XS, XS Max, and XR. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

This is a tough one, but it has a happy ending. Drew’s home was destroyed by wildfire. He and Kristine evacuated safely, and they’ve returned to Redding to begin rebuilding. Read Kristine’s story about what happened (https://selahliving.co/the-carr-fire-stole-our-home-but-it-cant-steal-our-hope-2594e233a0ad); it’s powerful. Drew explains how social media, phones, and the ability to post this story online played a fascinating — sometimes terrible, sometimes beautiful, sometimes perfectly boring — role in dealing with all this, from tracking the fire, to getting away from it, waiting to go home, and moving on toward what comes next. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Drew’s Twitter life has begun to feel like an addiction, which was why Jon deleted his account, and Drew’s considering that, too. They can’t discuss the addiction for too long without switching to the subject of recovery. Jon has been finding places where the healthy metabolism of online community is still happening, thanks in large part to Manton Reece’s Micro.blog (https://micro.blog). Jon and Drew examine their current online projects and how they differ from their output in Twitter’s heyday: Drew’s blog about the art he’s digging lately, Collected Goodness (https://collectedgoodness.com), and Jon’s @ablaze (https://twitter.com/ablaze) reading feed and new microblog/podcast about meditation, Grind Well (https://grindwell.org). They get into a little bit of how-to about microblogging and microcasting, including how Jon does it using only his phone. Life isn’t flourishing in the walled gardens — it’s out here on the open web, where good tools enable good work that supports good community. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Drew bought a coffee shop! Jon went on a seven-day silent meditation retreat. These are seemingly pretty different responses to the present moment, but what they had in common was a drive to do something significant in the physical world rather than the digital one. Drew and Jon discuss intentionally taking time offline and how much they even want to be on their devices day to day. Sometimes the limitations of technologies are their benefits, because they force us to think about how to use the tools instead of letting the tools use us. Jon considers how mindfulness can bring spaciousness and stability to the stressful stuff that happens online, which is just how it’s gonna be sometimes. But whenever we can, we have to discern and choose the healthy things — the things that support real community, rather than extract and commoditize our relationships. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Working entirely online is liberating, but it’s also frustrating, and Jon and Drew are both wrestling with it lately. Drew is compensating for the isolation by renting an office space with friends who aren’t coworkers, but they are co-workers… if that makes sense. Jon works from a home office and wishes he had a third place. They discuss why the technologies for virtual co-working like Slack and video chat don’t work very well. Can VR or other near-future technologies fix it? Hopefully. The promise of virtual work is not only that it lets us do the work we want to do, but that it lets us do our work exactly the way we want to do it. To that end, starting with this episode, Jon and Drew are introducing y‘all internet friends to Ablaze Interactions (http://ablaze.co) and Keyhouse (http://keyhou.se), their respective consulting agencies. Interested in working with one (or both) of your hosts? Get in touch! Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon asks Drew about his visit to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, the primary gathering of the Apple Tribe. Let’s face it: it’s a tribe, and it bears many of the hallmarks of tribalism. How much of the intense energy in the Apple Tribe is even rational? To outsiders, they’re “fanboys” — never mind their genders — but to themselves, they’re faithful underdogs. For Drew and Jon, it’s all about the community — and the livelihoods of the app developers who help the community run — not just the company. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Apple premiered iOS 12, watchOS 5, macOS 10.14 Mojave, and, uh, tvOS something-something today in San Jose, kicking off WWDC 2018. Drew and Jon weren’t in the room, as per usual, but that didn’t make them any less excited about the new features. They cover it all, but they were particularly excited by Apple’s new Screen Time and notification management features, Siri Shortcuts for building Siri-powered automation in one’s own language, new features in Messages, FaceTime and Photos that start to push social media companies out of the picture, Podcasts on Apple Watch (!!!), and other items Apple just checked off their wishlists. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon’s brother, Sam “DingoBongo” Mitchell, joins Jon and Drew for a continuation of the PUBG Mobile discussion in Episode 8 (https://internetfriends.show/8). They discuss the difference — if any — between playing this game online as adults and playing Halo in the basement as kids. They wonder why PUBG is the game to finally inspire this kind of devoted team play in the members of their squad, since it’s hardly the first of its kind. Plus: Drew, Jon and Sam play a round… and win! Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends). Special Guest: Sam Mitchell.

It takes more than simply hanging out to build community. It takes shared goals, and these days, it could be argued, violent video games are providing that better than so-called “social” apps are. Neither Drew nor Jon would have thought they’d turn to a battle royale shooter game for hanging out with people online, but then PUBG Mobile entered their lives (no Fortnite, thank you very much). It’s the true successor to the chat rooms of yore, before “social media.” Jon rustled up a squad of his finest warriors from the high school video game days; they’re internet friends to Drew, but to Jon this game is becoming his main way of keeping up with these old, now-distant friends. They discuss the aesthetics and social dynamics of PUBG’s antecedents: SOCOM, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Second Life, and Pokémon Go. We’re back to a style of hanging out and playing that prevailed before smartphones, and the company making the software isn’t even doing it on purpose. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Apple’s big annual WWDC keynote is a few weeks away, so it’s a good time for some new Hot Takes™. Inspired by Horace Dediu’s remarkable analysis (http://www.asymco.com/2018/05/07/just-in-time/) on the iMac’s 20th anniversary, Jon and Drew take the unconventional approach of looking at what Apple does in the middle of an era, rather than what they do to spark off a new one. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Follow-up on Garden (spoiler alert: nope) leads to a discussion of the evolution of keeping in touch, from actual pen pals through the IM years to the social media era, and the shifts in the nature of relationships that went along with it. Close relationships seem to make technological transitions more easily, but when one gets a little closer to hitting Dunbar’s number (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number), it can get a little weird. Drew had an urgent topic come up before recording, though, so it was urgent that they discuss how awesome AirPods are. The main topic this episode is audio as an interface, which means talking about headphones, but that’s just the hardware. The interesting part is how technology is transforming the audible dimension of human life. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

One of the downsides of being off social media is losing the automatic reminders to stay in touch with people. Since deactivating Facebook four months ago, Jon is trying to build a system to replace that. Drew found an app called Garden (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garden-stay-in-touch/id1230466454?mt=8) that seems to fit the bill. They discuss whether it’s okay or healthy to rely on apps for maintaining relationships. Think about it: How do you remember when someone’s birthday is these days? Exactly. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Jon has decided to retool everything on his phone, which means that something has gone wrong along the way. His ripping up of the digital floorboards turns into a conversation about our current ecosystems and the trickiness of answering questions that used to be simple like “What kind of phone should I get?” Recommendations aren’t as simple as they used to be, but perhaps they’re more important than ever. Also: Jon’s one-sentence review of the Apple HomePod. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Not-live from not-Chicago, Drew and Jon recap Apple’s March 2018 event focused on education. They discuss the new iPad and updated iWork apps with Pencil support, the new Everyone Can Create courses teaching students how to make music, make movies, draw and take photos, and a whole range of new software capabilities supporting students and teachers. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

It’s not just us: the story of social media has turned dark, and the leaders of the big platform companies are scrambling to fix it. Drew and Jon consider the prurient origins (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII_halftime_show_controversy#Legacy) of social media and wonder whether it’s possible for these companies to turn around. Zuckerberg and Dorsey are touting lofty new values (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-21/mark-zuckerberg-s-political-awakening) and shiny new metrics (https://twitter.com/jack/status/969234284610428928?s=21), but when you really look at the recent controversies (https://500ish.com/foot-in-mouthbook-c35a64cd9341), it kinda seems ridiculous to think new, hand-wavey stats will save them. Jon and Drew’s solution: Just let the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary (https://www.facebook.com/OldFriendsSeniorDogSanctuary) curate News Feed worldwide and be done with it. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Drew and Jon share their excitement and frustration about this transition period between the desktop and touchscreen worlds. They realize they’re talking about having fun with their Apple stuff, which the Apple commentariat seems to have forbidden recently. Inevitably, this leads them to how people talk about technology these days. Jon does a brief soliloquy on the evolution of tech news coverage and somehow ends up using a sports metaphor somehow. Tech is not sacred, so why is it so religious? They examine tech companies as almost mythic characters in a narrative — and how far this has gotten us from actually talking about what technology actually does for us. From there, optimism drives them to leave the media behind and talk about how their technology helps them live better lives. Thanks so much for listening. We hope you love the show as much as we do. Starting now, we’ll be posting new episodes every two weeks for a nice, relaxing, not overly notification-y pace. Talk to you then. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).

Drew (http://www.coffman.co/) and Jon (https://jonmitchell.net)’s internet friendship began with this no-longer-extant live video chat… show… thing (https://readwrite.com/2012/04/19/video_saving_the_web_for_later/) on April 19, 2012. Internet friendship has changed dramatically since then. In this episode, they trace the histories of their internet selves from the pseudonymity of forums and AIM through their first forays onto social media, the dramatic transformation caused by discovering Twitter, and… *sigh*… what’s happened to the internet since then. They consider the link between creativity and conversation, the place-ness of online places, what happens to society when the town square gets trashed, and the loss of online intimacy everywhere except for podcasts — hence, this podcast. Want to be internet friends? Write to Drew and Jon (https://internetfriends.show/contact) or find us on Micro.blog at @InternetFriends (https://micro.blog/InternetFriends).