Matt Klein
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social
Theorizing cultural change and our media.
Writer of the Webby-Winning:
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
Writer of the Webby-Winning:
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
Despite age check verifications around the world...
In a given month, Pornhub is still frequented more than The New York Times, Walmart and CNN combined.
More frequented than IMDB, ESPN, Zillow and Etsy combined.
More frequented than Netflix .com. Weather .com. Roblox .com.
In a given month, Pornhub is still frequented more than The New York Times, Walmart and CNN combined.
More frequented than IMDB, ESPN, Zillow and Etsy combined.
More frequented than Netflix .com. Weather .com. Roblox .com.
October 8, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Despite age check verifications around the world...
In a given month, Pornhub is still frequented more than The New York Times, Walmart and CNN combined.
More frequented than IMDB, ESPN, Zillow and Etsy combined.
More frequented than Netflix .com. Weather .com. Roblox .com.
In a given month, Pornhub is still frequented more than The New York Times, Walmart and CNN combined.
More frequented than IMDB, ESPN, Zillow and Etsy combined.
More frequented than Netflix .com. Weather .com. Roblox .com.
If you are not loud, you do not exist culturally, politically, or socially. In the age of the algorithm, cultural value becomes synonymous with measurability. Dashboards don’t give a shit about merit, substance or even truth.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
Dashboard Culture vs. Camouflage Culture
How the Attention Economy killed Camp, collapsed distance, and left us unable to critique a UFC fight on the White House lawn.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
October 6, 2025 at 4:10 PM
If you are not loud, you do not exist culturally, politically, or socially. In the age of the algorithm, cultural value becomes synonymous with measurability. Dashboards don’t give a shit about merit, substance or even truth.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
How the UFC White House fight defines our moment
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
Dashboard Culture vs. Camouflage Culture
How the Attention Economy killed Camp, collapsed distance, and left us unable to critique a UFC fight on the White House lawn.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
October 5, 2025 at 11:29 PM
How the UFC White House fight defines our moment
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/dashboard-...
Reposted by Matt Klein
A final plug for the 2025 Tiny Awards - voting closes on 1 September, so you have a week left to pick your favourite lovely little website from the past 12 months to win a VERY SMALL prize. Great webstuff made by real people, celebrate it while you still can: tinyawards.net/vote/
Tiny Awards
This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.
tinyawards.net
August 26, 2025 at 10:11 AM
A final plug for the 2025 Tiny Awards - voting closes on 1 September, so you have a week left to pick your favourite lovely little website from the past 12 months to win a VERY SMALL prize. Great webstuff made by real people, celebrate it while you still can: tinyawards.net/vote/
Reposted by Matt Klein
No Web Curios til 5 September, but if you would like some Excellent Internet to help you while away the afternoon then might I suggest you check out this year's Tiny Awards finalists if you've yet to do so? Eleven brilliant little websites for your consideration here: tinyawards.net/vote/
Tiny Awards
This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.
tinyawards.net
August 22, 2025 at 11:15 AM
No Web Curios til 5 September, but if you would like some Excellent Internet to help you while away the afternoon then might I suggest you check out this year's Tiny Awards finalists if you've yet to do so? Eleven brilliant little websites for your consideration here: tinyawards.net/vote/
Like the starlets decades ago, today’s bedroom streamers have stars in their eyes. But dreams in the black mirror are not as close as they appear.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/creator-ec...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/creator-ec...
The Creator Economy Is a Race to the Bottom for Human Dignity
The hidden costs and house of cards in the age of influence
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
August 14, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Like the starlets decades ago, today’s bedroom streamers have stars in their eyes. But dreams in the black mirror are not as close as they appear.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/creator-ec...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/creator-ec...
What do 5,000 dreams about AI reveal about our relationship to it?
Only in ZINE next week: open.substack.com/pub/kleinkle...
Only in ZINE next week: open.substack.com/pub/kleinkle...
July 16, 2025 at 3:04 PM
What do 5,000 dreams about AI reveal about our relationship to it?
Only in ZINE next week: open.substack.com/pub/kleinkle...
Only in ZINE next week: open.substack.com/pub/kleinkle...
SCOTUS decision on age verification isn't just legal precedent, it's an artifact symbolizing our moment's anxiety about sexuality, paternalism and privacy online.
These laws curb traffic to compliant sites and drive users to VPNs and noncompliant sites.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/supreme-co...
These laws curb traffic to compliant sites and drive users to VPNs and noncompliant sites.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/supreme-co...
You Didn't Notice Anonymous Internet Browsing Was Just Killed
What a new Supreme Court ruling means for privacy, free speech and the future of the internet
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
June 30, 2025 at 12:31 PM
SCOTUS decision on age verification isn't just legal precedent, it's an artifact symbolizing our moment's anxiety about sexuality, paternalism and privacy online.
These laws curb traffic to compliant sites and drive users to VPNs and noncompliant sites.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/supreme-co...
These laws curb traffic to compliant sites and drive users to VPNs and noncompliant sites.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/supreme-co...
Got home from the Apple Store with new AirPods and spotted dirt on the ear pieces. When I connect them, they connect as “Michael’s AirPods” with his Apple Care still going.
Brought them back. Essentially: “Our b. Nothing to see here. Go home with these new new ones.”
So that’s how Apple’s doing.
Brought them back. Essentially: “Our b. Nothing to see here. Go home with these new new ones.”
So that’s how Apple’s doing.
June 14, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Got home from the Apple Store with new AirPods and spotted dirt on the ear pieces. When I connect them, they connect as “Michael’s AirPods” with his Apple Care still going.
Brought them back. Essentially: “Our b. Nothing to see here. Go home with these new new ones.”
So that’s how Apple’s doing.
Brought them back. Essentially: “Our b. Nothing to see here. Go home with these new new ones.”
So that’s how Apple’s doing.
Reposted by Matt Klein
“Making for the web is easy, but most of us have forgotten how – ceding our digital agency to platforms and corporate landlords.”
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
How to Build the Good Internet
Stepping out of the dark forest and reclaiming a social, handmade and cozy web
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
June 7, 2025 at 8:23 PM
“Making for the web is easy, but most of us have forgotten how – ceding our digital agency to platforms and corporate landlords.”
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
Reposted by Matt Klein
The Tiny Awards are back, and so am I! After a year off, I'll be a judge helping to decide "the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web" made in the last 12 months. Nominations open until the end of the month, submit anything you love! tinyawards.net
Tiny Awards
This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.
tinyawards.net
June 3, 2025 at 11:39 PM
The Tiny Awards are back, and so am I! After a year off, I'll be a judge helping to decide "the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web" made in the last 12 months. Nominations open until the end of the month, submit anything you love! tinyawards.net
Reposted by Matt Klein
For the past few years, me, Kris at Naive and Matt at Reddit have been running the Tiny Awards, celebrating the good bits of the web. THEY ARE BACK IN 2025 AND NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN! Please tell your friends and share the link, as a small act of resistence to everything being shit: tinyawards.net
Tiny Awards
This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.
tinyawards.net
June 2, 2025 at 10:18 AM
For the past few years, me, Kris at Naive and Matt at Reddit have been running the Tiny Awards, celebrating the good bits of the web. THEY ARE BACK IN 2025 AND NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN! Please tell your friends and share the link, as a small act of resistence to everything being shit: tinyawards.net
A spot on 2025 experience:
Attempting to delete your 23andMe data as the company files for bankruptcy, preventing a new buyer from accessing your DNA, but the site keeps crashing. And this is the most interaction with the brand in 8 years as the experience was truly useless.
Attempting to delete your 23andMe data as the company files for bankruptcy, preventing a new buyer from accessing your DNA, but the site keeps crashing. And this is the most interaction with the brand in 8 years as the experience was truly useless.
March 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
A spot on 2025 experience:
Attempting to delete your 23andMe data as the company files for bankruptcy, preventing a new buyer from accessing your DNA, but the site keeps crashing. And this is the most interaction with the brand in 8 years as the experience was truly useless.
Attempting to delete your 23andMe data as the company files for bankruptcy, preventing a new buyer from accessing your DNA, but the site keeps crashing. And this is the most interaction with the brand in 8 years as the experience was truly useless.
New working hyp:
Employee tenure is not long enough to instill fiduciary duty on brand work. As a result, you get a lot of work chasing the trend because employees want to resonate for now, not build for decades.
Brands require an Executive of Stewardship. Chief Legacy Officer.
Employee tenure is not long enough to instill fiduciary duty on brand work. As a result, you get a lot of work chasing the trend because employees want to resonate for now, not build for decades.
Brands require an Executive of Stewardship. Chief Legacy Officer.
January 29, 2025 at 12:34 AM
New working hyp:
Employee tenure is not long enough to instill fiduciary duty on brand work. As a result, you get a lot of work chasing the trend because employees want to resonate for now, not build for decades.
Brands require an Executive of Stewardship. Chief Legacy Officer.
Employee tenure is not long enough to instill fiduciary duty on brand work. As a result, you get a lot of work chasing the trend because employees want to resonate for now, not build for decades.
Brands require an Executive of Stewardship. Chief Legacy Officer.
Cultural-Singularity: When culture folds back in on itself amidst hyper-optimization and AI. The solution? Friction.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
Cultural Singularity & The Need for Friction: The Business Case for Thinking the Inverse
How "Hyper-Optimization" threatens creativity and how slowness will save us
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
January 28, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Cultural-Singularity: When culture folds back in on itself amidst hyper-optimization and AI. The solution? Friction.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
Reposted by Matt Klein
"The issue is just that “creativity” — especially online — is getting harder to surface and our platforms aren’t necessarily asking for it."
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
Cultural Singularity & The Need for Friction: The Business Case for Thinking the Inverse
How "Hyper-Optimization" threatens creativity and how slowness will save us
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
January 28, 2025 at 12:37 PM
"The issue is just that “creativity” — especially online — is getting harder to surface and our platforms aren’t necessarily asking for it."
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/hyper-opti...
Bring back Vine, you cowards.
January 19, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Bring back Vine, you cowards.
Reposted by Matt Klein
sur l'environnement médiatique qui change: lu et aimé
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/costco-guys
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/costco-guys
The Most Important Image of 2024
What The Costco Guys on Fallon reveal about our media environment
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
January 3, 2025 at 5:23 PM
sur l'environnement médiatique qui change: lu et aimé
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/costco-guys
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/costco-guys
ZINE is read in 49 states (and 133 countries.) But I’m desperately seeking a reader from: Alaska.
For the first Alaskan subscriber, I’m offering Founding Membership for life.
If you know any peeps in Alaska interested in decoding social shifts, give ‘em a ping!
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
For the first Alaskan subscriber, I’m offering Founding Membership for life.
If you know any peeps in Alaska interested in decoding social shifts, give ‘em a ping!
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
ZINE | Matt Klein | Substack
Overlooked cultural trends explained. Webby-winning intel on our media and social shifts to understand tomorrow. Click to read ZINE, by Matt Klein, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of sub...
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
December 24, 2024 at 7:13 PM
ZINE is read in 49 states (and 133 countries.) But I’m desperately seeking a reader from: Alaska.
For the first Alaskan subscriber, I’m offering Founding Membership for life.
If you know any peeps in Alaska interested in decoding social shifts, give ‘em a ping!
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
For the first Alaskan subscriber, I’m offering Founding Membership for life.
If you know any peeps in Alaska interested in decoding social shifts, give ‘em a ping!
ZINE.KleinKleinKlein.com
🍆 NSFW 💦
Pornhub's Year in Review Data Report could be one of the most insightful and overlooked glimpses into the collective psyche. If we're to better understand our moment, we've got to be curious, respectful and comfortable with the uncomfortable.
The emerging trends:
Pornhub's Year in Review Data Report could be one of the most insightful and overlooked glimpses into the collective psyche. If we're to better understand our moment, we've got to be curious, respectful and comfortable with the uncomfortable.
The emerging trends:
December 23, 2024 at 3:49 PM
🍆 NSFW 💦
Pornhub's Year in Review Data Report could be one of the most insightful and overlooked glimpses into the collective psyche. If we're to better understand our moment, we've got to be curious, respectful and comfortable with the uncomfortable.
The emerging trends:
Pornhub's Year in Review Data Report could be one of the most insightful and overlooked glimpses into the collective psyche. If we're to better understand our moment, we've got to be curious, respectful and comfortable with the uncomfortable.
The emerging trends:
TL;DR: Shrek is searched more frequently on Pornhub than Superman, Batgirl and Star Trek.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/pornhub-tr...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/pornhub-tr...
Arousal Quantified: 7 Trends Revealed via Pornhub's Data
What millions of searches and clicks say about sexual desire
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
December 20, 2024 at 1:00 PM
TL;DR: Shrek is searched more frequently on Pornhub than Superman, Batgirl and Star Trek.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/pornhub-tr...
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/pornhub-tr...
I don’t understand how a +$1B global communications and business consulting org lays off +5% of its workforce two weeks before the holidays and still thinks they signal: “We know how to do good communications strategy.”
December 7, 2024 at 3:10 PM
I don’t understand how a +$1B global communications and business consulting org lays off +5% of its workforce two weeks before the holidays and still thinks they signal: “We know how to do good communications strategy.”
After a couple of weeks of extensively using Claude I’m increasingly concerned by the (inevitable) atrophying of our creative, critical and menial thinking. The thinking that feels like a weight rep.
December 4, 2024 at 12:25 AM
After a couple of weeks of extensively using Claude I’m increasingly concerned by the (inevitable) atrophying of our creative, critical and menial thinking. The thinking that feels like a weight rep.
I’m taking Qs, hot takes and curiosities via ZINE Office Hours (Substack Chat) over the next couple of days. Drop in and let’s chat…
open.substack.com/chat/posts/f...
open.substack.com/chat/posts/f...
Matt Klein in ZINE
ZINE Office Hours: Now - Thursday
Drop in any questions or observations, big or small, and let's chat. What's on your mind and how can I lend mine?
open.substack.com
December 3, 2024 at 4:21 PM
I’m taking Qs, hot takes and curiosities via ZINE Office Hours (Substack Chat) over the next couple of days. Drop in and let’s chat…
open.substack.com/chat/posts/f...
open.substack.com/chat/posts/f...