This is the Reason Interview, where we go deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, policymakers,

and visionaries who are making the world more libertarian, or at least a little more interesting.

I'm Zach Weissmuller filling in for Nicospe.

This week, our guest is Catherine D, a writer and self-described internet ethnographer chronicling online

subcultures and digital media effects at default.blog, and in columns for The Spectator,

Tablet, GQ, Unheard, and various other publications.

In our conversation today, we talk about what happened to the internet, which once seemed a place of endless possibility, creativity, and freedom.

But that internet utopianism of the 90s and early 2000s dissolved into internet pessimism, where politicians fret about online misinformation and extremism.

Parents worry their kids are cooked by short-form brain rot.

And AI doomers warn us that synthetic minds will soon replace our jobs, our friends, and our romantic partners.

We examine the anti-smartphone movement and its goals, the death of reading, the rise of AI lovers,

the potential obliteration of online privacy in the name of safety,

and the disturbing relationship between internet nihilism and real-world violence.

And we explore D's proposed synthesis, internet realism.

It's time to step out of Fairyland and remember what our smartphones really are.

Tools. Tools humans use to reshape the world, but also tools that reshape humans.

Weald them wisely. Enjoy the recent interview with Catherine D.

Catherine D, thank you for being here on the recent interview.

Thanks for having me.

So you're a self-described internet ethnographer.

That would be someone who studies a culture by interacting directly with its participants

and thereby often participating in it yourself, which I think is quite aptly describes

...