Reading List: Tired Instagram Aesthetics, Wired Measles Outbreaks, and Other 2019 Head Scratchers.
Darlings! It’s Friday, and I went to bed at 9 PM last night, so I’m all ready to attack today with coffee and relentless optimism.
Let’s get to your weekend reading!
The Daily, How The Measles Outbreak Started (The New York Times) - There are reports that hundreds of people at UCLA and California State University are being quarantined after being exposed to two students with the measles. So it’s more important than ever that we understand why this outbreak of a disease that was considered eradicated in the US in 2000is happening: namely, misinformation and fear mongering.
Taylor Lorenz, The Instagram Aesthetic Is Over (The Atlantic) - Lorenz is perhaps the greatest chronicler of Instagram culture in our time (you must read How Comments Became the Best Part of Instagram and Custom Photo Filters Are the New Instagram Gold Mine and Instagram’s Wannabe-Stars Are Driving Luxury Hotels Crazy), and I love this dive into why the “carefully staged, color-corrected, glossy-looking aesthetic” is donezo. Could this be an end to a millennial pink era?
Julia Carrie Wong, 'It's not play if you're making money': how Instagram and YouTube disrupted child labor laws (The Guardian) - And related to the above, there’s a very real question about whether or not disparate legal protection for children in entertainment around the country are protecting those kids brought in to animate that bright and polished aesthetic.
Charles V. Bagli, As Durst Murder Case Goes Forward, HBO’s Film Will Also Be on Trial (The New York Times) - If you’re like me and a wee bit obsessed with true crime, you devoured the HBO document on the real estate heir accused of killing three, and gasped at the climactic final scene where Durst seemingly confesses to the murders. Well, now as the actual trial of Durst gets underway, his lawyers are contending that the audio in that scene was misleadingly edited. Hey district attorney friends of the Missive: just how much of an impact will that have on the case?
James Hohmann, The U.S. Chamber wants to disentangle its brand from the GOP and hopes to rebuild the center (Washington Post) - Does the US Chamber of Commerce distancing itself from the Trump GOP foretell a larger shift in conservative support for this administration? We shall see…
Have a wonderful day. Be kind to each other.
Xoxo Amy