Close All Tabs
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Close All Tabs
Ever wonder where the internet stops and IRL begins? Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor. From internet trends to AI slop to the politics of memes, Close All Tabs covers it all. How will AI change our jobs and lives? Is the...
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'Twitter on a Vape' and The Great E-Waste Crisis
A legal loophole has led to a surge in single-use vapes packed with a surprising amount of electronic components. It’s also a glimpse into how our dis...
Sex Workers Tried to Warn Us About Age Verification Laws
Requiring internet users to verify their ages before accessing mature content may sound reasonable. Shouldn’t we be doing a better job protecting kids...
Send Pics? Roblox Wants to Know Your Age
Roblox is one of the most popular gaming platforms for kids, with millions of young gamers playing user-created games. It’s also been heavily criticiz...
Lessons for U.S. Netizens from Behind China’s Great Firewall
Are you going through “a very Chinese time in your life”? If so, maybe you’re one of the many American social media users who’ve jumped on the Chinama...
Love In The Time Of Doom Scrolling
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re bringing you an episode about love. We start with TikTok creator Jojo Manzo, who turned his late-night doomscrollin...
How the AI Data Center Boom Impacts Black Communities
Picture this… You move to a cozy home in an idyllic neighborhood: fresh air and birdsong in the morning and gorgeous sunsets at night. One day, you wa...
The Real Cost of AI Slop
How much does your own AI use matter? With all the warnings about AI’s adverse impact on the environment, it can be tough to understand what that mean...
Your Digital Footprint Reveals More Than You Think
How easy is it to find someone from a single video posted online? To find out, Morgan put her own privacy to the test. She asked TikTok creator JoseMo...
Are You Allowed to Record ICE?
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, it became an instant flashpoint i...
Save or Scroll: OpenAI’s Head of Preparedness, Global RAM Shortage, AI Artists, and a Manosphere Antidote
In a holiday installment of Save or Scroll, Morgan and the Close All Tabs team get together to talk over the stories they can’t stop thinking about. F...
Death, Robotaxis, and a Cat Named KitKat
When KitKat, a beloved bodega cat, was killed by a Waymo in San Francisco in late October of this year, the incident quickly went viral. It ignited gr...
One Year Later, The Internet’s Still Talking About Luigi Mangione
On December 4, 2024, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside a Midtown New York hotel. The subsequent arrest of 26-year-old L...
What Happened to Purple Moon Games for Girls?
Editor’s note: We updated one line to add context about a character in one of the Purple Moon games, which may affect how the character is understood....
Meet Ukraine’s ‘Geeks of War’
The Ukraine-Russia war has been called the most technologically advanced war in history. Ukrainian citizens receive notifications about incoming missi...
Where Do Games Go When They Die?
When Ubisoft, publisher of the sprawling open-world racing game The Crew shut down the game’s servers, cutting off access to even its single-player mo...
Alice Bucknell on How Virtual Spaces Help Us Cope With Reality
When wildfire engulfed much of Los Angeles earlier this year, artist and game designer Alice Bucknell found themselves stuck inside, replaying “Firewa...
A Political Reckoning for Twitch?
TwitchCon, Twitch’s annual convention in San Diego for all things streaming and gaming, is facing heightened scrutiny after streamer Emiru was assault...
Satanic Panic in the Age of the Internet
What do colorful and plush Labubu dolls have in common with Mesopotamian mythology? If you believe some viral TikToks, everything. Recent conspiracy t...
Beyond the AI Hype Machine
When ChatGPT launched in 2022, it kicked off what some have called the “AI hype machine” — a frenzy of promotion and investment that has sent some tec...
The All-Seeing Eyes of Modern Dating
What happens to dating when every misstep has the potential to go viral? That’s what happened in 2022, when social media posts warning about a few bad...
In Search of Thock: The Quest for the Perfect Keyboard
“Clacky,” “Poppy,” and "Thocky" may sound like the latest cereal elves, but they’re actually terms to describe the sounds of typing on a mechanical ke...
AI Prophets and Spiritual Delusions
AI delusions, chatbot psychosis, AI-induced religious mania… The phenomenon goes by many names, but the common thread is the same: someone starts talk...
Groypers, Doxxing and Charlie Kirk’s Death as a S***post
What is a “groyper?” The term began trending on Google in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death. Kirk, the right-wing podcaster and Turning Point USA...
23andMe (andGeneticPrivacy)
When 23andMe filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, it set off alarm bells among privacy experts and consumers alike. According to a 2025 survey, abo...
From MIT’s TeachLab: The Homework Machine
The Close All Tabs team is taking the week off, but we wanted to share something else we think you’ll be into: a new mini series from MIT’s TeachLab P...
Teachers Strike Back Against AI Cheating
Cheating in school isn’t new. But with AI making it easier than ever, teachers face a new challenge: where to draw the line and how to make sure stude...
Before ChatGPT, There Were 'Shadow Scholars'
Thousands of writers in Kenya make their living ghostwriting academic papers for wealthy Western students. It’s an industry known as “contract cheati...
Does Gen Z Have A Staring Problem?
Have you heard of the “Gen Z stare”? It’s the blank look some Gen Zers seem to give instead of the usual greetings or small talk—and it’s the latest s...
Is Algospeak Coming for Us?
Social media creators started using words like “unalive” and “seggs” to dodge algorithmic filters that might suppress “inappropriate” content. But the...
Save or Scroll: ICE + Influencers, Data Hygiene on Grindr, and Labubu Desserts
In another installment of Save or Scroll, Morgan teams up with internet culture writers Daysia Tolentino and Moises Mendez II to dig into the stories...
Bonus: A Big Win for the Internet Archive
Who decides what is and isn’t a library? The Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archiv...
OGs of Tech: A Latino Engineer in Silicon Valley
In a field obsessed with the future, sometimes it’s worth looking back. OGs of Tech is a new occasional series from Close All Tabs that looks beyond t...
Teens Under the Influence (of Chatbots)
Young people are increasingly turning to AI “companion chatbots” to meet their emotional needs. But a new study shows that these chatbots, which are d...
How the Furry Fandom Says Goodbye
Furries are often known for wearing full-body animal suits at conventions — but the characters they inhabit, called “fursonas,” are much more than cos...
Curls, Coils, and Pixels: Researchers Crack the Code on Black Hair Animation
The animation industry has long struggled to get Black hair right — from the infamous “Killmonger locs,” named after the Black Panther character and c...
The Spotify Effect, Pt 2: Micro-Genre Madness
Spotify didn’t just change how we listen to music — it changed what a genre even is. In this episode, producer and rapper Quinn reflects on being thru...
Elon's Great Crash-Out / Unmasked in LA
Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last...
The Spotify Effect, Pt 1: Ghosts in the Playlist
Spotify has morphed from a straightforward music library and search engine into a data-driven system built to feed you songs to match your mood and op...
Do You Hear What I Hear? Audio Illusions and Misinformation
Are you old enough to remember the “Magic Eye” optical illusion mania that gripped the nation in the 90’s—random patterns that you had to squint at ju...
Why Can’t Hentai Go Legit?
Hentai, sexually explicit Japanese animation (anime) and comics (manga), is a genre that’s been criticized for depicting violent or ethically question...