Clive Thompson’s latest column for Wired picks up on something I’ve noticed: “I save the little stuff for Twitter and blog only when I have something big to say,” as blogger Anil Dash put it. It turns out readers prefer this: One survey found that the most popular blog posts today are the longest ones, 1,600 [...]

It is getting harder and harder to find relatable characters in fiction these days. The average fictional character is either so thoroughly disinterested in email, social media, and text messages he never thinks or it, or else hastily mentions electronic communications in the past tense. Sure, characters in fiction may own smart phones, but few have the urge to compulsively play with the device while waiting to meet a friend or catch a flight. This ever present anachronism has made it so that almost all literary fiction is science fiction, a thought experiment as to what life might be like if we weren’t so absorbed in our iPhones but instead watched and listened to the world around us at a moment’s rest.

There are no sexist men in the 21st century, only stupid men. It’s time we reframe everyday misogyny in the West not as cagey determined acts, but evidence of staggering obtuseness. Consider: “This journalist has read so few books, he listed the top 25 novels of the decade and there are no women on it.” [...]