The reason I’ve been devoting more & more time to ELIZA in my computing and info history courses.

Paris Marx@parismarx.com · last wk.

Good thing we don’t have a long history of people incorrectly projecting human traits on computers and overestimating what they’re really doing.

Meta automatically makes all images in public Instagram accounts fodder for anyone using the Muse Image AI model? Its stunning record of abuse and exploitation continues.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4w ago

“As part of this update, public Instagram profiles are now automatically opted into being fodder for generative AI remixes. All someone has to do is tag your account’s profile in a prompt—if it’s public—and they can use Meta AI to generate an image using your likeness.”

“Throughout, Monteiro reminds us of the uncanny ubiquity of these objects in our daily lives. 'Smartphones, smartwatches, and the like have accompanied us almost everywhere only for the last twenty years,' he writes, 'yet it has become difficult to imagine how life was before.'” buff.ly/SQupGGS

Screen and Shout | Literary Review of Canada

Shortly after I received my new work laptop, I became extremely frustrated with Microsoft OneDrive, which wanted me to save everything to the cloud. It seemed impossible to save any documents to the…

reviewcanada.ca

This AI trend at #4S and in #STS seems to be confirmed in the list of panels for Toronto 2026. Trying to find a home for a non-AI tech paper is tricky business.

Laura Watts@laurawatts.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy · 4mo ago

What's the cost to research – to an entire discipline – of "AI" living rent-free in our heads? @dawnnafus brilliantly lays out the loss to #STS from so many being focused on AI-hype: 24% of papers at #4S were on AI. https://4sonline.org/news_manager.php?page=43606

Makes you think how much more efficient and satisfied we might all be if we had more control over our technology.

The Verge@theverge.com · 4mo ago

I saved a doomed Windows laptop by embracing Linux

events.carleton.ca/event/the-en...

The Ends of AI: A symposium on technopolitics and intellectual culture - Events

AI is everywhere but nobody really knows what it is, what it means, or what its ends will be. Not even the sector’s major developers and investors. Institutions and individuals are told to prepare for...

events.carleton.ca

Popped into a London gallery (virtually) on Saturday to talk about Y2K tech culture and nostalgia. Big thanks to Anna Moss, Juliet Wilson, and all the artists in the INTERNET CAFE show at Hypha Gallery 1 for inviting me!

Had the great pleasure today of discussing ethical tech design and findings from Needy Media @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social to 150+ engineering students in Chennai, India, through the PALS workshops @ the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.

Today's episode of Turning Pages is with scholar @stephenmonteiro.bsky.social discussing Needy Media ( @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social ). Airs 11:30 am CT on UMFM 101.5 but is online now to stream/DL. umfm.com/programming/...

Turning Pages - December 10, 2025

101.5 UMFM (CJUM) is the official campus and community radio station of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. We provide a diverse range of music, talk, and specialty programming t...

umfm.com

A great Turning Pages interview with MQUP author Stephen Monteiro on his recent book, Needy Media: How Tech Gets Personal. Check it out:

Turning Pages - Stephen Monteiro on Needy Media

Stephen Monteiro - a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University - discusses his book Needy Media: How Tech Gets Personal (McGill-Queen's University Press) which

buff.ly

I’ve noticed gen AI abstracts are creeping into nearly every web-based search I do these days, veiling legit research under a distorting veneer. But this is especially sad.

Dr. Casey Fiesler@cfiesler.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.

Hey Montrealers, I’ll be part of the non-fiction lightening round at the Read Quebec Book Fair, Saturday at noon. Stop by! Copies of Needy Media available at the @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social table.

Read Quebec Book Fair - Quebec Writers' Federation

QWF is delighted to partner with AELAQ (Association of English-Language Publishers of Quebec/Association des … More info Read more

qwf.org

CBC’s Daybreak Montreal has a great weekly column on the smartphone’s hold on us, reported by Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft. I shared insights from Needy Media @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social on the Nov. 28th episode. URL below.

This one - Needy Media: How Tech Gets Personal - came out just 2 months ago, but it’s gotten me more media attention than I’ve ever had, because we all can relate to device dependency & data extraction.

Needy Media

What makes our portable, networked personal media devices – smartphones, tablets, smartwatches – so irresistible? Reacting to our touch, voice, or gaze, seizing and keeping our attention with sounds, ...

mqup.ca

Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 8mo ago

PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS! EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PUBLISHED BOOKS! gonna be reposting your books because hoo you made a book! www.versobooks.com/products/303...

Yes! I’ve been advocating for default off settings as the smallest/easiest step tech giants could take. “1. Ban Addictive and Manipulative Design - Features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and nudging loops should be off by default”

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 9mo ago

An emerging global consensus says online harms are the predictable outcomes of platforms designed for attention, engagement, and data extraction, writes Lena Slachmuijlder, author of a new guide to “Prosocial Tech Design Regulation.”

After years of digging through PDFs of back issues…

Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Behold: you can now see all 23 years of BYTE magazine in all its glory, all at once. Every issue on a single zoomable interface www.404media.co/byte-magazin...

Had a great conversation a few days back about device dependency and Needy Media with David Cooper on @lastshow.bsky.social. @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social

Dr. Stephen Monteiro: Your Smartphones Manipulates You - October 29, 2025

Podcast Episode · The Last Show with David Cooper · 10/30/2025 · 11m

podcasts.apple.com

“Investors turning down acquisition bids in pursuit of bigger offers is another sign that we’re in – or at least headed for – an AI bubble.”

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com · 9mo ago

CoreWeave's failed buy of Core Scientific is another sign of an AI bubble. But it's still shopping.

The idea that automation would produce a 3-4 day workweek was the rage in the first decade or so of digital computing. How’d that turn out?

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com · 9mo ago

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan says that, in a few years, we should be working a 3-4 day workweek because of AI.

What’s the link between Tamagotchi and the phone you’re reading this on? See my essay in @thewalrus.ca, adapted from my book, Needy Media @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social

How Tamagotchi Trained Millennials for the Era of Needy Devices | The Walrus

Digital pets changed the rules of how we treat tech, paving the way for attention-hungry smartphones

thewalrus.ca

As an advocate for local media, it’s been wonderful appearing on local radio shows nationwide this week to talk about Needy Media @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social. Thank you CHED Edmonton, CHQR Calgary, CKGL Kitchener, CFUV Victoria, and CHLY Nanalmo for listening!

Interested in how iPod personalization practices - the engravings, the tattoos, the skins - helped set the stage for today’s device intimacy? Check out the Toronto Star’s excerpt from Needy Media, my new @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social book. www.thestar.com/news/insight...

Our iPods, ourselves: a new book explores how we came to adore our devices

We took them everywhere and even engraved them. Then all of a sudden they had skins. As one theorist notes, the skins' arrival “explicitly connects the iPod to flesh, to

thestar.com

“But unresolved issues around the device’s ‘personality,’ how it handles privacy, and computing infrastructure might delay the launch.” Probably not.

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com · 10mo ago

OpenAI and Jony Ive reportedly face significant technical challenges as they work to develop a screen-less, AI-powered device.

Proud to be among this group.

McGill-Queen's University Press@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Today on the blog, we look back at the books we published in September! buff.ly/hZKvQiH

It’s here! Look for it at your local bookshop or library. Or get the ebook online.

McGill-Queen's University Press@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Surveying products and practices across a half century, in Needy Media Stephen Monteiro argues that the appeal of portable, networked personal media devices lies as much in how they behave as it does in the information they convey. Out now! buff.ly/J6uiBc4

Great historical research here - we should be wary of privacy concerns even with our less sophisticated personal media.

MIT Press@mitpress.bsky.social · 11mo ago

"The tension between surveillance and self-improvement, between control and liberation, is a recurring theme in the history of wearable technology."

In case you missed it, here’s my Needy Media conversation with CBC’s David Common on smart device intimacy, its historical roots, and its role in data extraction.

© CBC/Radio-Canada 2025. All rights reserved.

cbc.ca

How did our smart devices get so needy? Listen to my discussion on CBC’s The Sunday Magazine this weekend. And for a deeper dive, check out my book, Needy Media, out Sept. 16 from @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social

Just days until publication, Needy Media makes @quillandquire.bsky.social Fall nonfiction list. Too cool. @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social

New book out this fall - Needy Media: How Tech Gets Personal (@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social) - explores how sensory cues drive tech intimacy & data exploitation. www.mqup.ca/needy-media-...