Why’d you like that celebrity photo on Instagram? Why’d you leave that restaurant review on Yelp? Why’d you text in lowercase, or turn on read receipts, or share your location? Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany ask real people the hard, meta, and occasionally silly questions about the way technology influences our thinking, changes our behavior, and affects our social lives. Produced by The Verge and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
https://www.theverge.com/whyd-you-push-that-button
episode 12: What does ‘being verified’ actually mean?
To some, "verification" represents more than a badge of authenticity, but others find it as a badge of success. Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany wonder why people want to be verified and what they’re willing to do to get the blue checkmark.
episode 11: Why do you use Close Friends on Instagram?
Is Close Friends a product response to finstagrams? If so, are people using it?
episode 10: Why you’ll never quit Amazon Prime
Recode’s Jason Del Rey explores the origins of Amazon Prime, why it’s so effective at keeping us locked into their ecosystem, and how it became the source of the company’s power.
episode 10: What keeps people on Snapchat?
In the social media world, Instagram has dominated as the most used app in 2019, but what happened to Snapchat? Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany dive into where Snapchat is after Instagram stole their innovative "story" feature, and what the people who still use it are using it for.
episode 9: Why do you slide into DMs?
In 2019, what's really going down in people's Instagram and Twitter direct messages? How has the behavior and usage changed over the past few years? Kaitlyn Tiffany and Ashley Carman interview people who found love in the DMs and others who didn't. Later, the director of product management at Instagram reveals why people use DMs, and how Instagram makes it easier for users to slide into them.
episode 8: Is auto-replying ruining email?
Do you use Gmail's "smart reply" feature when answering e-mails?
episode 7: Death Online: When celebrities die
In the third and final episode of the Death Online series, Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany analyze why people flock to Twitter after a celebrity dies. Guests include a reporter who is all too familiar with the phenomenon, a writer who fears the day his favorite celebrity passes, a musician we force to think about her own death, and a sociologist who contextualizes "celebrity death Twitter" in the broader history of public mourning.
episode 7: Death Online: Mourning a robot
What happens when your robot friend dies? Ashley Carman explores the grieving community surrounding the short-lived social robot Jibo.
episode 5: Death Online: Planning your digital afterlife
What’s going to happen to all of your tweets, Instagram photos, and emails when you die? To kick off a special three-part miniseries about Death Online, Ashley and Kaitlyn are in search of the perfect digital afterlife — and the skills they’ll need to clean up after themselves from beyond the grave. In this episode, they talk to an estate planner, a Tumblr star, an advice columnist, and a Why’d You Push That Button? listener who has no interest in being a Facebook ghost...
episode 4: Does deleting Instagram make you happier?
People are becoming more conscious of their phone and app usage to a point that tech companies, including Google and Apple, are building software to deter them from scrolling through apps like Instagram and Twitter.
On this episode, Kaitlyn deactivates her Instagram account to try and feel happier. Does it actually work? She and Ashley talk to users who have taken breaks from Instagram, a professor who studied social media abstinence, and Google to learn more.