What do I *still* read on the Internet?
On my desktop, because I'm an elder millennial
I used to read the Internet a lot. When I started at KISS Magazine, it was the first job where I was encouraged to be online all day because it was part of the role - consuming celebrity culture, watching trends and reading blog posts and online articles in the industry’s digital infancy. All that has changed, of course. Consumption is now mostly video and audio for Gen Z and millennials, and social media actively kills links to places like Substack and its ilk. Reading your computer, especially a desktop, is decidedly old-fashioned.
But there are still some old skool websites I visit religiously, where the analysis and information presented are still best done so in a post, not a caption, not a greenscreen talking short. And I read them on my iMac, mostly while I’m eating on breaks from work, and I love them. I even read via Feedly still, like I have since 2008.
I wish more people still blogged in the way I wish more people still produced and purchased magazines. I get it’s not instantaneous enough anymore and posts that took ages to write are often old news by the time they’re posted, but the beauty of the Internet is that you can edit them! Something we were never afforded with print, and why its eventual obsolescence is all but guaranteed in the breaking news domain.
So what do I still read and love? (Note: I love how shit most of these websites look, it’s actually very refreshing in the over-aesthetic TikTok/Insta age)
Two gentlemen who know fashion, but aren’t stuck up or elitist about it. They give honest opinions on the latest celeb looks, considered round-ups of prestige television shows they’re truly interested in and they don’t skimp on downloading high quality snaps from photo agencies - even in the age of social where they can screenshot what a celebrity wants you to see. I love them.
Like if DeuxMoi was a very old-skool glitchy blog. It’s wild, it’s crazy, it’s often proved correct but just as often the stories are fiction. If you take it for what it is, which is a straight up blind item guessing game, it’s a lot of fun.
I have mixed feelings about this one, because it’s VERY British royal heavy and makes no claims whatsoever to objectivity, which is its right. As a very liberal person, I personally enjoy its pro Democrat stance. I’d like more posts about celebrities and fewer about Tr**p and the Prince and Princess of Wales, but I still come across a post almost every day that I enjoy, and it keeps me hanging on.
As above, it’s the nuanced analysis and not just “reporting” that I like. Lainey often has the inside scoop on what’s going on, but it’s also very easy to disagree with the things she likes and focuses on. It’s something that’s missing from social media, where everything is very black and white, in or out, love or hate.
More like Insta with extended captions, but I find it comforting and always interesting to see what people are wearing and why, and to hear from an expert about why it works or doesn’t. Basically like menswear guy on Twitter, but a lot broader.
I pay to read the New York Magazine offerings because they’re fantastic. Killing it in both print and online. Sure, the oversharing essays are clickbaity but there’s so much good stuff. I’d pay to read the Vulture TV recaps alone, especially Brian Moylan on Housewives. I think it’s the only website I read religiously that’s gone paywalled, and I paid. Which is interesting!
I obviously consume loads on here - my favourites include
, , , and .What about you? Am I missing anything? I dabble in the big magazine’s sites, linked articles on social, the New York Times Lifestyle section and I have two go-to apps - The Journal for news, the Sunday Times for weekend long reads. But these are the babies I read religiously, and hope to for a long time to come.
Love this list. I recently got back into Popbitch and love that it hasn't really changed at all.
Love Tom and Lorenzo podcast! And Every Outfit too