Reading reality

The site’s editor-in-chief is social media theorist Nathan Jurgenson, who also runs the Theorizing the Web conference. Both ventures are financially supported by Snapchat, although Jurgenson claims that there is no editorial interference from the company.

The magazine’s remit is to publish essays about living with technology. It will post one article every weekday, and plans to expand to other media in the future. Jurgenson is keen to commission contributors who don’t consider themselves to be technology writers in the traditional sense. Recent posts have covered subjects such as the emotional constraints of emojis and the relationship between beauty apps, computer vision and the golden ratio.

‘We’re not a news or reviews site, but we will describe the technology world – specifically how that industry shapes the world we live in today,’ explains Jurgenson. ‘To that end, we aim to address the political uses of technology, including some of the worst practices both inside and outside the technology industry itself.’