The Predictability of a Social-Media Discourse

Welcome to Galaxy Brain—a newsletter from Charlie Warzel about technology, media, culture, and big ideas. You can read what this is all about here. If you like what you see, consider forwarding it to a friend or two. We’re still figuring things out in our new home so let me know what you think: galaxybrain@theatlantic.com.

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By the time you read these words, last Sunday’s Oscars slap will already be filed away in the dusty meme catalog in your head somewhere between “Binders Full of Women” and “Bernie Sanders’ Mittens” (Oh, you alphabetize your meme catalog? Sure, buddy.) In a week, you’ll only be 83 percent sure the slap didn’t actually happen in the Trump era. Everything online burns too hot and too fast. And because this is a newsletter that thinks a bit too hard about how information travels, I wanted to take a moment and do that for The Slap™.

I’m writing to materialize.