Yes, You’re Being Judged By The Memes You Share.
Good morning my lovely nerds and nerd-adjacent! I am still so honored to get to hang out in your inbox every morning. And hey, do you know some awesome humans who also enjoy Quixotely-tilting at tech culture windmills over their morning caffeine? You should forward this here email and tell them to head on over to tinyletter.com/amynw and subscribe!
Hey Internet, what have you got for us this morning?
Today, in nightmare dystopic madness that has lowered the bar for digital creepiness to depths I didn’t know we could sink to: Is your pregnancy app sharing your intimate data with your boss? Thank you friend of the Missive Stefana for pointing me to this article that helpfully lets us all know that the apps used by millions of women are selling de-identified data to employers and medical insurers. You MUST READ THIS STORY because holy heck, it’s brutal. And yes, I’m of the mindset that the only reason an employer would want this data is a negative one, as stated by an academic interviewed in the story: “What could possibly be the most optimistic, best-faith reason for an employer to know how many high-risk pregnancies their employees have? So they can put more brochures in the break room?” And can we please just ruminate on how insane this quote from an HR professional is? “I want them to have a healthy baby because it’s great for our business experience… Rather than having a baby who’s in the neonatal ICU, where she’s not able to focus much on work.”
In other news, don’t judge me, but did I end it with a guy because his instagram was full of bad memes and fart jokes? MAYBE. Should I have sent him the Fast Company article on How to clean up your personal brand? Most likely: (HOT TIP: If you’re not willing to scream it at a cocktail party attended by your grandparent, don’t put it on the internet. Congrats, you’re officially a client, I’ll send you a bill.)
Related: Hot People Are Stressful. Key quote: “…in the long run, being really hot isn’t enough to keep people attracted to someone who has a terrible personality or a bizarre worldview. “
And finally, Is He a Great Listener or Just a CPR Training Torso?
You are all so delightful. Be kind to each other.
Xoxo Amy