In this first volume of Remember the Internet, a series that tells a complete history of the Internet, one book at a time, journalist Ana Valens introduces us to the erotic gifs, hashtag fetish fan art, and sex worker resource blogs that combined to transform Tumblr into the vanguard of a user-generated sexual revolution. As she tells the story of her own online sexual and political awakening, Valens investigates how Tumblr’s technical architecture made it a convenient laboratory for social justice and sexual freedom, one that would ultimately clash with the government’s crackdown on sexuality online. 2021.
In the second Volume, Not just anyone can join the most elite Tori Amos tape trading webring of 1998. In a world before “search” and “social media,” teenage Megan Milks has what it takes, negotiating two-to-one trades of rare concert audio with some of the most intense “ears with feet” in the Toriverse, using their living room computer to navigate fandom friendships haunted with nascent queer meaning. In this new volume of Remember the Internet, Milks leads us through a world of bootleg concert recording on DATs and USEnet meetups, a world still inventing the rules for being with one another online: bring references, bring blanks.
Available September 21, 2021
In the third volume, Google Glass was supposed to replace phones and PCs, becoming the peripheral that turned the internet itself into a bodily function, making the instant overlay of real-time information into a new organic language. Where did everything go wrong? Was it the unchecked hubris of Big Tech, which had become addicted to solving problems that didn’t exist using grandiose solutions with prohibitive price tags? Was it a tone deaf marketing campaign that failed to take into account the secret loathing of Silicon Valley’s haughty elites? Or was it simply too early, a product before its time like the Palm Pilot or disco? Journalist Quinn Myers gets the inventors, users, developers, detractors, lovers, haters, models, and members all on the record in this slim new entry in the Remember the Internet series. NOT AVAILABLE FOR GOOGLE GLASS.
Available November 16, 2021
In the fourth volume, On Myspace, Noor al-Sibai is a scene queen: artfully curated and presented to rise to the top of the top 8. Off of it, she’s a teenager: dealing with trauma both personal and political, bad relationships, and understanding the ways in which the new world of social media is changing her relationship to each of these. In this new installment of Remember the Internet, Noor al-Sibai tells the story of growing up on Myspace as part of the first generation to come of age online.
Available Spring 2022
