Doomscrolling, Threads and AI breakup texts have been handed an unofficial summer downgrade in a new tech-culture “in and out” list that reads like a group chat arguing with the algorithm.
The list, published by The Verge, pulls together staff picks across creators, internet culture, policy, entertainment and tech. Its running joke is simple: low-fi, weird and human is in; over-optimized platform behavior is out.
Several picks point straight at social media fatigue. One writer put webrings back on the “in” side while moving X’s “everything app” pitch to the exit. Another chose letting a phone battery die over doomscrolling, a tiny rebellion against always-on feeds.
Threads also took a hit, with Letterboxd picked over Meta’s text app. TikTok was treated with more ambivalence: full bootleg movies on the platform made the “in” column, while drawn-out multi-part story edits were pushed out.
AI landed in the same messy zone. Using AI to draft a letter to a landlord was treated as acceptable utility. Using it for breakup texts, or anything personal, was not. AI wearables that record everything and generative AI in movies also landed on the wrong side of the summer mood.
The joke works because it is not pretending to be scientific. It is a snapshot of a corner of online culture that seems tired of polished feeds, platform hype and tech that tries too hard to mediate every human moment.
