34 words the internet needed.
Placed by where each one happens. North is the person; south is the system around them. West is private — a feed, a mood, a second account. East is public, where everyone can see.
I · 14 words
Living online
How it feels to be on the internet for hours — and how people step away.
II · 6 words
Bad faith
Arguing, posting and pretending in ways designed to look like something else.
III · 9 words
What platforms do
The feeds, the rankings and the incentives that shape what reaches you.
IV · 5 words
Laws of the internet
Patterns people noticed often enough to name — half jokes, half rules.
All thirty-four, by group
Living online14
What platforms do9
Laws of the internet5
Where each story begins
Older than the internet, some of them.
The earliest date on each term’s own page, for all 34, from 1854 to 2024. Several were figures of speech long before there were feeds: echo chamber was one by 1924, and brainrot goes back to Thoreau.
- Before 1900Brainrot
- 1920sEcho Chamber
- 1950sParasocial Relationship, Context Collapse
- 1970sUncanny Valley
- 1980sLurking, Shadowban, Poe's Law, Astroturfing
- 1990sGodwin's Law
- 2000sFOMO, Rage Bait, Streisand Effect, Concern Trolling, Sockpuppet, Goblin Mode, Subtweeting, Vaguebooking
- 2010sDigital Detox, Filter Bubble, JOMO, Phubbing, Chronically Online, Engagement Farming, Sealioning, Touch Grass, Milkshake Duck, Bed Rotting, Finsta, Dead Internet Theory
- 2020sMain Character Syndrome, Zoom Fatigue, Enshittification, AI Slop