The Terrible Things That Happen When You Like Everything on Facebook
Welcome to Reading List, Gizmodo’s Sunday afternoon roundup of this week’s best writing from around the web. Today we’ve got great stuff from Wired, New York Times Magazine, re:form, and more!
- Mat Honan performed what sounds like a simple and straightforward Facebook experiment: Liking every single item that popped up in his Newsfeed, just to see what happened. But after just 48 hours, the test had turned Mat’s feed into something unrecognizable and bizarre—and not just for Mat. [Wired]
- Mireille Silcoff examines the broad and bizarre world of YouTube unboxing videos, amateur footage of mostly-unseen narrators removing objects of (some kind of) desire from their packaging for the first time. In the process, Silcoff chatted with DisneyCollector, the YouTuber whose strangely soothing videos of unboxing just about anything have amassed millions and millions and millions of views. [New York Times Magazine]
- Paul Lukas explains the largely unknown code behind New York City’s asphalt tags, colored plastic plugs that road crews and utility companies use to keep track of the repairs and structural changes underneath our feet. You probably stepped over dozens on your last walk through NYC without thinking, but the information they hold is fascinating. [re:form]
- Josh Dzieza participated in a web-surfing competition. Sounds easy, right? We all surf the web pretty much every day. Bumbling into dark corners of the web is second nature for anyone with a mouse. But this competition was decidedly different, and Dzieza’s explorations reveal a lot about the invisible boundaries that define the internet today.
