About this site
Hi, I'm Mathew Ingram and this is The Torment Nexus. I started it when I was laid off from my job as chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review, where I worked from 2017 until September of 2024. Prior to that, I wrote about the intersection of media and technology for Fortune magazine, and before that for a blog network based in San Francisco called Gigaom. Before that, I was a reporter and columnist for a major daily in Toronto called The Globe and Mail, where I covered the rise of internet stocks, the advent of the social web, and became the paper's first blogger and later its first social-media editor.
The name Torment Nexus comes from a hilarious meme that Alex Blechman—a writer for The Onion, among other things—came up with awhile back, and I think it sums up so much about where we are right now in terms of our relationship with technology. Here Alex's original tweet:
This doesn't mean I'm anti-technology, by any means! I've been using digital technology of various kinds and (for the most part) enjoying it since I got my first PC — an Amiga 1040ST, with a graphic interface and MIDI support — in the mid-1980s. As for the web, it is easily one of the most fascinating and life-changing technologies I've ever come across, and I've been more or less addicted to it since Marc Andreessen invented the first web browser. Things like Google Earth continue to amaze me. I've also been an enthusiastic user of every social-media app from Twitter and Tumblr to Facebook and Google+ (RIP.)
What I'm hoping to do with this newsletter is to bring a critical eye and some historical context to discussions of how technology impacts both individual users and society as a whole. If the tech is being used in ways that are helpful, I will say so. If I think it—or its creators—are being misunderstood, then I will say that. And if the technology is being created or used in negative ways, or there are aspects people should be wary of, I will point that out too. It's even possible that in some cases, all three of the above things will be true. If you disagree or think that my perspective is wrong, I hope you will let me know! You can post a comment here, or reach me on either Twitter, Mastodon or BlueSky as @mathewi, or my email is mathew@mathewingram.com
If you like the newsletter, you could also let me know that – and if you think someone else might like it as well, please recommend it. And thank you in advance for subscribing at any level — your subscription allows The Torment Nexus to continue to exist. Thanks for being a reader! If you would prefer to subscribe and read through a service other than Ghost, the newsletter is also published on Substack, and you can find it here: https://tormentnexus.substack.com/ or I will also be publishing some or all of the posts on my personal website, which is here: https://mathewingram.com/work