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Dashboard Culture vs. Camouflage Culture

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · 5d

How the UFC White House fight defines our moment
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...

How the Attention Economy killed Camp, collapsed distance, and left us unable to critique a UFC fight on the White House lawn.

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Reposted by Matt Klein

Matt Muir @mattmuir.bsky.social · Aug 26

A final plug for the 2025 Tiny Awards - voting closes on 1 September, so you have a week left to pick your favourite lovely little website from the past 12 months to win a VERY SMALL prize. Great webstuff made by real people, celebrate it while you still can: tinyawards.net/vote/

This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.

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Reposted by Matt Klein

Matt Muir @mattmuir.bsky.social · Aug 22

No Web Curios til 5 September, but if you would like some Excellent Internet to help you while away the afternoon then might I suggest you check out this year's Tiny Awards finalists if you've yet to do so? Eleven brilliant little websites for your consideration here: tinyawards.net/vote/

This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.

The Creator Economy Is a Race to the Bottom for Human Dignity

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Aug 14

Like the starlets decades ago, today’s bedroom streamers have stars in their eyes. But dreams in the black mirror are not as close as they appear.

zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/creator-ec...

The hidden costs and house of cards in the age of influence

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jul 16

What do 5,000 dreams about AI reveal about our relationship to it?

Only in ZINE next week: open.substack.com/pub/kleinkle...

You Didn't Notice Anonymous Internet Browsing Was Just Killed

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jul 7

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jun 30

SCOTUS decision on age verification isn't just legal precedent, it's an artifact symbolizing our moment's anxiety about sexuality, paternalism and privacy online.

These laws curb traffic to compliant sites and drive users to VPNs and noncompliant sites.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/supreme-co...

What a new Supreme Court ruling means for privacy, free speech and the future of the internet

How to Build the Good Internet

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jun 14

Got home from the Apple Store with new AirPods and spotted dirt on the ear pieces. When I connect them, they connect as “Michael’s AirPods” with his Apple Care still going.

Brought them back. Essentially: “Our b. Nothing to see here. Go home with these new new ones.”

So that’s how Apple’s doing.

Reposted by Matt Klein

Alek Tarkowski @alek.bsky.social · Jun 7

“Making for the web is easy, but most of us have forgotten how – ceding our digital agency to platforms and corporate landlords.”

@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.

zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...

Stepping out of the dark forest and reclaiming a social, handmade and cozy web

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Reposted by Matt Klein

Andy Baio @andy.baio.net · Jun 3

The Tiny Awards are back, and so am I! After a year off, I'll be a judge helping to decide "the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web" made in the last 12 months. Nominations open until the end of the month, submit anything you love! tinyawards.net

This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.

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Reposted by Matt Klein

Matt Muir @mattmuir.bsky.social · Jun 2

For the past few years, me, Kris at Naive and Matt at Reddit have been running the Tiny Awards, celebrating the good bits of the web. THEY ARE BACK IN 2025 AND NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN! Please tell your friends and share the link, as a small act of resistence to everything being shit: tinyawards.net

This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.

Cultural Singularity & The Need for Friction: The Business Case for Thinking the Inverse

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Mar 24

A spot on 2025 experience:

Attempting to delete your 23andMe data as the company files for bankruptcy, preventing a new buyer from accessing your DNA, but the site keeps crashing. And this is the most interaction with the brand in 8 years as the experience was truly useless.

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Feb 20

Can understand the concern.

Curious what signals this as a playbook for brands to exploit darkness, and not an essay centered on humans, helping them navigating said dark change.

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jan 29

New working hyp:

Employee tenure is not long enough to instill fiduciary duty on brand work. As a result, you get a lot of work chasing the trend because employees want to resonate for now, not build for decades.

Brands require an Executive of Stewardship. Chief Legacy Officer.

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jan 28

Cultural-Singularity: When culture folds back in on itself amidst hyper-optimization and AI. The solution? Friction.

zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...

How "Hyper-Optimization" threatens creativity and how slowness will save us

Cultural Singularity & The Need for Friction: The Business Case for Thinking the Inverse

Reposted by Matt Klein

Dani Seuba @daniseuba.bsky.social · Jan 28

"The issue is just that “creativity” — especially online — is getting harder to surface and our platforms aren’t necessarily asking for it."

zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...

How "Hyper-Optimization" threatens creativity and how slowness will save us

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Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jan 19

Bring back Vine, you cowards.

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Jan 12

Thanks so much! ❤️

So appreciative to have you reading!

The Most Important Image of 2024

Reposted by Matt Klein

Daphné B. @daphneb.bsky.social · Jan 3

sur l'environnement médiatique qui change: lu et aimé
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/costco-guys

What The Costco Guys on Fallon reveal about our media environment

ZINE | Matt Klein | Substack

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Dec 24

ZINE is read in 49 states (and 133 countries.) But I’m desperately seeking a reader from: Alaska.

For the first Alaskan subscriber, I’m offering Founding Membership for life.

If you know any peeps in Alaska interested in decoding social shifts, give ‘em a ping!

ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com

Overlooked cultural trends explained. Webby-winning intel on our media and social shifts to understand tomorrow. Click to read ZINE, by Matt Klein, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of sub...

ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com

Arousal Quantified: 7 Trends Revealed via Pornhub's Data

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Dec 23

Read the full analysis and data points here: zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/pornhub-tr...

What millions of searches and clicks say about sexual desire

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Dec 23

The surge in android and animated sit beside a hunger for authenticity, while a deadly tension mounts between public legislation and private browsing. These aren't contradictions — they're constellations. Spots of light revealing the complexities of being human.

Matt Klein @kleinkleinklein.bsky.social · Dec 23

07. Hentai, Anime & Cosplay: Hentai held the top spot as the most searched term for now four years in a row. Data reveals this may not be naivety, but favorability. Interest in hentai (or cosplay) isn’t a flee of reality, but a reinvention of it.