I'm going to just put this out there: I don't understand YouTube.
I mean, I've seen viral videos, sports highlights, vlogs, and whatnot, but I would only categorize my YouTube consumption to be on a as needed basis -- as in "Hey, you've GOT to see this video!". I spend most of my time watching shows produced for TV. After reading the Forbes list for highest paid YouTube stars, I'm beginning to feel out of step (or maybe envious). The top earner is a video game commentator, pewdiepie, making a cool $12M a year! I think it's worth a pause to think about the gravity of this. When I was a kid, being a professional gamer would have been a pipe dream. Who would have thought that commentating while playing video games would have been enough? Side note, based on this esports (professional gaming) ranking, the world's top professional gamer, ppd, has career (!) earnings of only $2M. So why waste your time getting proficient at a game when you can just film yourself playing it? Two out of the top 10 earners from the Forbes list are video game commentators. Eleven out of 20 from this Business Insider list are video game commentators.

Just checking the news today and it looks like the new Ontario sex-ed curriculum (read in full here) is still feature material on The Toronto Star's website. Apparently, conservative parents think that vandalism is a good way to exhibit their moral superiority over this issue and their children have been regularly pulled out of class in protest of the new curriculum. Although I believe every parent is well intentioned, I think the actions of these parents border more on sheltering than protecting. Some of the rationale against the curriculum is so laughably twisted I can't believe anyone could say it with a straight face.

It's another sad day for all. Another media circus. Capped by another public address from Obama, but this time looking more languid and defeated than ever. From a President who was just hoping to slide into home base next year awaiting cheers to now see a home crowd at each other's throats. What's going on in America? and is this truly a First World Problem? 

I loved this week's This American Life Podcast about the infamous Toronto Tunnel Digger (Elton McDonald) from last winter and the follow-up article from The Star. It goes to show that sometimes you should just have more faith in people and give them the freedom to do what they want. It's also a good example of learning new skills as an adult to fulfill the dreams of your own inner child. 

Last July, the media and sadists alike feasted with glee on the news of the Ashley Madison data breach. Spectators gathered around the globe to watch the outed immoral cretins registered to Ashley Madison get their just desserts. What followed was a slow burn of extortion emails, resignations, linked government officials, suicides, and revelations of hypocrisy. There has been countless editorials written from either perspective from condemning users to justifying their behavior. 

Gender pay gap is a perennial hot topic and has been a frequently revisited issue due to the easily quotable headlines it produces such as 78 cents on the dollar. Although this disparity has been hotly contested and suggested as myth, it still remains a core tenet of the feminist movement.

The way we interact with technology is ever evolving. With products like Oculus Rift, Google Glass, and MS HoloLens, we are seeing the first steps beyond just interaction, but a gateway into integration. The human race should expect to one day be bionic. With the ability to augment reality, store and access all information, how we see the world will soon change forever. But sight is just the most obvious and common way we interpret the world. There are other senses yet to be hacked and augmented to this degree. To feel virtually, we have haptic technology. To smell virtually, we have digital scent technology. To taste virtually, we have gustatory technology.

It's no secret that nostalgia is a feeling exclusive to old people. The more time that passes, the harder it becomes to resist. Children don't waste their time reminiscing on yesteryear, they can't wait to grow up. Adolescents don't hold on to relics from their past, they shed them in order to grab hold of the new flavor of the week. But somewhere inyour early thirties you begin feel yourself aging out of the pop culture demographic that panders to hormonal teens and naïve twenty-somethings.

Countless afternoons and late nights are wasted clicking down the rabbit hole of Listicles that feed on our short attention spans, bouncing from one ultimately irrelevant topic to another. No one could better attest to this than the people at BuzzFeed which supply never ending lists of things you never knew you wanted to know about - like this and this.

The ever increasing momentum of the LGBTQ movement in the 21st century owes much of its sweeping success to the internet and its ability to rally and give voice to a global community. The internet provides a cheap, broad and instantaneous campaign tool for any disenfranchised group looking to sway public opinion. Surely any technology that advocates diversity is a good thing but in a new world of online bullying and insatiable vigilantism, who can distinguish between equality and conformity?