Archive - The Etymology Nerd

I see more stars online than in the sky ✨

At some point in the last century, we collectively began looking at more representations of stars than stars themselves.

Jul 4 •

June 2025

social media and the collapse of ritual

Museums have kind of been freaking me out recently.

Jun 21 •

Algospeak is out in ONE MONTH

mom can you pick me up i'm scared

Jun 15 •

banality of the algorithm

This Tuesday, my father and I drove up to Bard College to pay our respects to the grave of Hannah Arendt.

Jun 6 •

why you should be smelling more things

One of the silly little quirks of being human is that we pretend that some experiences are more real than others.

Jun 1 •

May 2025

you're literally worshipping your phone

how scrolling becomes a religious act

May 18 •

what the “algorithm” is, what you think it is, and why those aren't the same

Isn’t it so convenient how I can upload a video to TikTok, and then the algorithm immediately understands that you’re my target audience?

May 9 •

the default isn't always best

“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was.”

May 5 •

April 2025

there is no online authenticity

at the end of the day, everything is slop

Apr 28 •

substack's discoverability paradox

I don’t think I’ve ever outwardly articulated my goals on social media, so here goes:

Apr 25 •

algorithms are killing coincidences. what does that mean for language?

Let’s start with the basics: humans do not think like machines do.

Apr 19 •

technofeudalism and the death of serendipity

I’ve always been a stubborn holdout against food delivery apps.

Apr 16 •

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