Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 26/09/2026Been reading reviews of James Marriott’s new book, “The New Dark Ages,” on the passing of the print age. It’s been covered by the leading British newspapers, but I think the best piece has come from the Cherwell, Oxford’s student newspaper. Smart to make it a bit more personal. 111
Reposted by Stephen HarrisonÉmna Mizouni ~ آمنة الميزوني @emnamizouni.bsky.social · 17/09/2026There are a lot of similarities between real life Wikipedia editors and the characters of the techno-thriller "The Editors" by @stephenharrison.com youtube.com/shorts/kiK9i...youtube.comPaid, Banned, Jailed, the other face of #Wikipedia | Optics PodcastYouTube video by Emna Mizouni 121
Reposted by Stephen HarrisonÉmna Mizouni ~ آمنة الميزوني @emnamizouni.bsky.social · 04/09/2026@stephenharrison.com shares his journey from a tech journalist covering @wikipedia.org to a techno-thriller author of The Editors. Full Optics Podcast episode will be live on Saturday 05 at 10 AM EST , 2 PM GMT youtube.com/playlist?lis...youtu.beThe journey from a tech journalist to a techno-thriller authorYouTube video by Le Salon 023
Reposted by Stephen HarrisonÉmna Mizouni ~ آمنة الميزوني @emnamizouni.bsky.social · 02/09/2026It's finally here! This Saturday, we will premiere our Optics Podcast episode with @stephenharrison.com. In this episode, we will dive into @wikipedia.org , the aim for neutrality, and the editing wars. Tune in on Saturday at 10 AM EST / 2 PM GMT. Link: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... 021
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 09/05/2026Worth noting that Pope Leo’s background is Augustinian. St. Augustine is the patron saint of printers. www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-leo... 050
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 08/05/2026This story is one of Lovett’s best. It’s rare that anything on Wikipedia gets a true conclusion, much less a relatively happy one where the parties agree they both made honest mistakes. Sometimes “assume good faith” works.edithistory.substack.comWhat's going on with Evan Spiegel's Wikipedia photo?A weird little Wikipedia story from recent days 082
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 19/04/2026A new medium is never an addition to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never ceases to oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them. —Marshall McLuhan, 1964arstechnica.comAnthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI modelsCompany hired Google's book-scanning chief to cut up and digitize "all the books in the world." 031
Reposted by Stephen HarrisonNitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 01/04/2026new from me (and not an April Fools thing): I spoke in depth with @ilyaslebleu.bsky.social, the Wikipedia editor who first proposed the ban on A.I.-generated text in English articles. we talked about the idea-to-policy process, the disagreements along the way, and what other platforms can learn:slate.comOne of the Internet’s Most Iconic Websites Just Took a Bold Stand. The Rest Should Follow.The fight to keep the internet’s encyclopedia bot-free scored a big win. 110949
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 11/03/2026One lovely part of book research is reading these deep cuts 020
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 22/02/2026*sigh* There comes a time in every millennial’s life when you’re officially recast as the old guy. Thanks to @vox.com for making me sound ancient in this otherwise fantastic piece about Wikipedia’s role in the age of AI. www.vox.com/culture/4787... 041
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 18/02/2026The Internet Archive stores physical books, preserving them as a back-up to digitization. Whereas AI companies despise the physical world so much they’ve shredded millions of books and tried to hide the evidence. 030
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 14/02/2026Pizza Hut is a core memory for me, the spot where we had so many class pizza parties. They were special, yes, but also just a normal part of mid-’90s childhood life. Now it’s a place of pilgrimage for anyone desperate enough to be “swaddled in a warm 20th-century embrace.”slate.comAn Old-School Pizza Chain Is Fast Becoming a Cultural Obsession. I Spent a Day at One to Find Out Why.People travel from all over for the gleeful novelty of pizza ordered from real menus, served by real people, and eaten off checkered tablecloths. 020
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 10/02/2026This one is for the Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman fans: “The medium is the metaphor” > “The medium is the message” 000
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 06/02/2026As a thought experiment, I’ve been updating the references in a few passages from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). What do you think? 031
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 04/02/2026Most writing about the Attention Crisis is gloomy, for good reason. But I appreciate this little book by Prof. Alan Jacobs because he highlights the rewards that come from the struggle of deep reading, as in this passage: 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 02/02/2026the Onion needs to update this for 2026 to mention AI summaries & give us one cause it’s too long 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 01/02/2026I love this new term “critical ignoring” because it points to yet another benefit of print. Our phones flood us with an endless amount of low-quality info that’s incredibly hard to ignore. By contrast, a physical book is a single-purpose device that excludes the background noise and lets you focus.wsj.comYour Key Survival Skill for 2026: Critical IgnoringIn an age of endless low-quality information, it’s time to fight our instinct to seek out and absorb all we can. It takes practice. 020
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 01/02/2026Eighty-four percent of Americans say they’ve adopted analogue habits to create boundaries with screens. Writing in notebooks leads the list at 32%, followed by reading printed books at 31% and using paper calendars at 28%. 051
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 29/01/2026While a lot of folks are understandably concerned about the loss of mass market paperbacks, there’s perhaps a more positive interpretation of this story. 🧵 1/5 120
Reposted by Stephen HarrisonAlly (in Euroskyland) @allybfraz.eurosky.social · 29/01/2026Oh man, extremely interested in this one 👀 111
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 28/01/2026Among the many topics missing from this piece is any discussion of the medium. Harry Potter was a print phenomenon, with most readers encountering the books in physical form, and huge in-person launch events. It’s not only that politics have changed. It’s that we’ve become increasingly disembodied. 020
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 27/01/2026This news means a lot to me. I'm writing my first nonfiction book, THE POWER OF PRINT, about why we think differently with paper versus screens, and why we should all aspire to reclaim our print brains. Coming 2027 from St. Martin's Press. @stmartinspress.bsky.social 3102
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 24/01/2026How can we expect 13-year-olds to focus on their assignments when a glut of entertaining video content is just a tab away? Digital tools have their place, particularly for student research, but sometimes a paper worksheet or handwritten response are simply better tools for deep learning.nytimes.comOpinion | The Screen That Ate Your Child’s Education 100
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 15/01/2026Anyone marking Wikipedia's 25th anniversary today can believe it’s an incredible success story for commons-based peer production and that there're aspects of the site that sometimes piss them off. Let's hope it lasts a while longer. My latest for WIRED: 27322
Reposted by Stephen HarrisonBruno Dias @brunodias.dev · 05/01/2026Microblogging is just a catastrophically bad form of human interaction. If you sat down to design a system specifically meant to make people act out and create harassment mobs, you'd be hard pressed to build something more effectively toxic. 236285
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 05/01/2026Anyone else conflicted by this Atlantic essay? I agree with the author that the “democracy depends on reading” line won’t be effective. Then again, promoting reading as a “vice” seems like a mistake, especially now as so many folks are starved for wisdom/virtue/healthy pleasures.theatlantic.comReading Is a ViceBeing a reader means cultivating a relationship with the world that, by most standards, can seem pointless and counterproductive. 120
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 03/01/2026As we start 2026, I’m grateful for the sharp, thoughtful people I’ve met on Bluesky, but I also want to keep in mind what my favorite contemporary philosopher says about posting: 000
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 31/12/2025Gotta love the do-it-yourself gumption in Adler’s 1940 guide How to Read a Book. “With nothing but the power of your own mind, you operate on the symbols before you in such a way that you gradually lift yourself from a state of understanding less to one of understanding more.” 040
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 31/12/2025One of the underrated benefits of print is the variety of forms. Heavy textbooks, faintly musky paperbacks, pocket-sized primers… Whereas digital tools tie the experience to a single, uniform environment. The knowledge sticks less, and we struggle to transfer what we’ve learned to other contexts. 030
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 27/12/2025We all know McLuhan’s, “The medium is the message.” He also said, “As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation.” By his logic, AI was always going to flip the framework, producing new appreciation for analogue forms. Let’s hope we make the most of the reversal.economist.comThe rise of AI art is spurring a revival of analogue mediaIt is not just vinyl. Film cameras and print publications are trendy again, too 022
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 24/12/2025Does anyone else bristle at this framing? WSJ says blue books are “torturing” students with hand cramps, and “nobody likes them.” Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.wsj.comThey Were Every Student’s Worst Nightmare. Now Blue Books Are Back.Cheating with ChatGPT has become a huge problem for colleges. The solution is painfully old-school. 1141137208
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 22/12/2025We can form intense ties with analog objects over years of use. That’s why Flaubert asked to be buried with his inkwell. But digital tech is mostly disposable. We value its connection to the infosphere, not the thing itself. No one’s dying wish is to be buried with AI glasses. 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 21/12/2025Looking to talk to people who bought a reMarkable tablet, or similar digital notebook with e-ink, and stopped using it after a few weeks or months. 000
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 19/12/2025Víctor Hugo, born 1802 in Eastern France, spent his teenage years filling notebooks with poetry and sketches. Eruptions from his restless mind. He developed a two-handed approach—one hand writing, the other drawing—that he’d later use while writing classics like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (cont.) 110
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 18/12/2025Engagement is not the same as learning. As a former DuoLingo user, I can attest that it’s a fun addictive game, but you don’t learn much. One independent study found DuoLingo users scored lower on a standardized language test than Babbel users, despite spending significantly more time on the app. 130
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 15/12/2025Intellectualism is the new counterculture.latimes.comAcademic lectures have invaded L.A. bars and tickets are selling out in minutesAttendees can geek out on topics from the use of AI in medicine to the psychology of deception, all in a fun, low-stakes environment. 092
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 11/12/2025Today I learned that Albert Wenger, head of the VC firm that originally backed Twitter, has this sticker on the back of his phone 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 10/12/2025Case study in the enduring power of print: BookTok creator Jack Edwards reaches millions of readers with his online videos, but always dreamed of seeing his work in physical form. He's now a books columnist for British Esquire and made a video about the thrill of tracking down a copy of the magazine 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 09/12/2025@404media.co is making a zine. “Print can totally sidestep Big Tech’s distribution mechanisms... It is a piece of physical media that can be organically discovered in the real world... we are hopeful that people like it and that we can figure out how to do more print products."404media.co404 Media Is Making a ZineWe are publishing a risograph-printed zine about the surveillance technologies used by ICE. 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 08/12/2025“The medium is the message.” Johann Hari on the message of printed books: 040
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 08/12/2025If you ask AI to describe its own writing style, it’ll say it’s too smooth, too neutral. “In fact, this is not even remotely true. A.I. writing is marked by a whole complex of frankly bizarre rhetorical features that make it immediately distinctive… It’s not smooth or neutral at all—it’s weird.”nytimes.comWhy Does A.I. Write Like … That? 142
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 05/12/2025When I argue for the benefits of physical books, people tell me that every generation misses the old ways. But no, this isn’t pure nostalgia. Yes, my dad used to complain about decline back in the 90s, but the scores weren't plummeting then. Today they're in a free fall. 051
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 03/12/2025-How to avoid the Redditization of Wikipedia -Jimmy Wales wrote a pretty good book about bipartisanship & Wikipedia -56% of Grokipedia entries carry the Wikipedia CC license, suggesting wholesale ingestion -GASP Talked about these topics and more for the latest "Between the Brackets" podyoutube.comTalking with Stephen Harrison about Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger and Elon MuskYouTube video by Between the Brackets 031
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 03/12/20251. Grokipedia borrows extensively from Wikipedia (more than half the time). 2. When Grokipedia doesn't copy Wikipedia, things get weird fast (hallucinations, citing Infowars). 3. Grokipedia seems to prefer first-person sources like LinkedIn to traditional, independent news organizations. (cont.)stephenharrison.comNine Based Takes on GrokipediaWhat's the point? Plus Jimmy Wales's book, Larry Sanger's Nine Theses 350
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 01/12/2025At first I avoided O’Dell’s book, assuming it was mostly about chilling out. It covers that, yes, but it’s really a defense of *all* activities that aren’t commercially productive but “produce” value which can’t be measured or exploited. Bird-watching, contemplation, wandering through a labyrinth… 040
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 01/12/2025It’s no coincidence that people are turning to handwriting on paper more and more. A.I. models regularly steal writers’ work. Anything posted online can be ingested without consent by the machines. The physicality of handwriting is a defensive maneuver, a strategy to protect the human voice.nytimes.comOpinion | Paper-and-Pen Diaries Are Forever 094
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 23/11/2025Philosopher Byung-Chul Han has been helping me think through why we identify with certain types of things (in my case, physical books) more than others. For Han, we are living in “the age of non-things,” in which “there is something almost utopian about the notion of possession.” 1/5 100
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 22/11/2025At the local coffee shop this morning, reading “Non-things” and thinking about why sitting with a physical book feels so different from scrolling. There’s a calmness to print that the feed can never give you. 010
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 20/11/2025Needed a break from thinking about Wikipedia so I’m reading this. The author is a rare books librarian at Oxford’s Bodleian and her little guidebook is delightful. 0201
Stephen Harrison @stephenharrison.com · 17/11/2025Why do some parts of the internet seem more robustly democratic than others? "A big piece of it is that they have a higher purpose. Wikipedia editors, at their best, they really do believe that there’s something more than partisan politics—and that’s the accurate reflection of reliable sources."slate.comElon Musk Has His Own Encyclopedia Now. Well, We Read Some of the Entries …He tried to buy Wikipedia. When that didn’t work, he made his own version—and it’s a mess. 062