Why'd You Push That Button? | The Verge

Virtual dating is booming, but daters say it’s not enough

2020-07-15T10:28:37-04:00

Why'd You Push That Button? is back for a special episode all about virtual dating in 2020. The pandemic has forced many people to stay at home, which means dating has had to move online. For this episode, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I talk to online daters and Bumble's VP of strategy about how they're adapting to virtual-only dating. They try to figure out what, if any, features and behaviors will stick around after social distancing and the pandemic end.

Dating apps have leaned into virtual dates over the past few months. Tinder is launching video calls and added a feature called Global Mode, which lets you match with people around the world. Hin …

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Why do people care about being verified?

2019-08-07T10:00:00-04:00

I have sad news today: we're publishing the season 4 finale of Why'd You Push That Button? The good news, though, is that it's a really great episode! Today, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I are asking what verification on social media accounts really means. To some, it represents more than a badge of authenticity. We wonder why people want to be verified and what they're willing to do to get the blue checkmark.

I tell the story of my own journey to Instagram verification (weird flex, I know) and ask my friend Michelle what she thinks about me now that I have a checkmark. Afterward, we interview Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson about verification's …

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Instagram almost named its ‘Close Friends’ feature ‘Favorites,’ but translation problems stopped it

2019-07-31T10:40:14-04:00

Instagram introduced its Close Friends feature nearly a year ago as a way to give users a space to post less curated content, similar to what had become increasingly popular with secondary "Finstagram" accounts. On this week's episode of Why'd You Push That Button?, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I want to know how Close Friends is going. Who's using it? Why are they using it? Is the Finsta in trouble?

We chat with a few previous guests and our own close friends to figure out how Close Friends has changed their Instagram experience. We chat with Kaitlyn's sister, who previously told us about her Finstagram, as well as Verge senior reporter Andy Hawkin …

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People email Snapchat because they desperately don’t want to lose their Snapstreaks

2019-07-24T09:30:00-04:00

Kaitlyn Tiffany and I have spent a lot of time talking about Instagram product features on our Why'd You Push That Button? podcast. (Check out that back catalog.) So for this week's episode, we want to talk about Snapchat, the app that pioneered the Stories format. Instagram copied the ephemeral Stories three years ago, so what other features keep people on Snapchat?

For this episode, we poll multiple Snapchat users about the features that tie them to the app. For some, it's Snapstreaks, a feature that tracks and visualizes how long they've Snapped someone continuously. These users are so loyal to Snapchat that they'll email the company if …

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Instagram wants opening your DMs to feel like ‘walking into a party’

2019-07-17T09:30:00-04:00

It's incredible that Kaitlyn Tiffany and I haven't yet asked why people slide into other people's direct messages, but that ends today. On this week's episode of Why'd You Push That Button?, we want to hear love stories and stories of failed courtship attempts. We ask why people slide into DMs, and then we process how the direct message's connotation has changed over time.

We chat with our friend Blake who has slid into multiple DMs, as well as Tasbeeh Herwees, who called DMs the "new little black book" in MEL. Then we talk to a man named Thomas who met his boyfriend on Twitter through the DMs. We love love!

Finally, we take all our questi …

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Why does everyone get so worked up over Gmail’s Smart Reply feature?

2019-07-10T09:11:50-04:00

Kaitlyn Tiffany and I avoided talking about email as long as we could, but it's the fourth season of our podcast, so it's time. This week on Why'd You Push That Button?, we ask: why are people so worked up over Gmail's Smart Reply feature? Smart replies are suggestions that Google makes through artificial intelligence when someone begins replying to an email. It's similar to Smart Compose, which makes suggestions as you type. People have strong feelings about both of these features. (Please, do a search for hot takes. You'll find many, including one that calls them "evil.")

We interview Verge deputy editor Liz Lopatto about her Smart Reply …

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The worst Twitter is celebrity death Twitter

2019-06-26T09:30:00-04:00

This week, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I are coming in hot with a take: celebrity death Twitter is bad. On today's episode of Why'd You Push That Button?, we ask if there's a proper way to mourn a celebrity's death, particularly on Twitter. Is it really an authentic message when someone tweets, "oh no," along with the news of a celebrity's death? Does it even matter if the message is authentic?

We chat with a bunch of guests for this one: Ashley Feinberg, a reporter at Slate; Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet and author; Sidney Gish, a musician; and, finally, Timothy Recuber, an assistant professor of sociology at Smith College who specializes in mass media …

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They welcomed a robot into their family, now they’re mourning its death

2019-06-19T10:36:11-04:00

The robot showed up at Kenneth Williams' doorstep when he needed it most. Williams had just been laid off from his job when he plugged in Jibo, a social home robot, on November 1st, 2017.

"For that year [that I didn't have a job], it was a presence in my life every single day that I talked to," he says.

Jibo sat in Williams' bedroom, on his desk, where every day, it greeted him in the morning and ran through the weather and his calendar. Williams, 44, asked Jibo questions, requested music, and played its games. Jibo couldn't do much, really, but its most redeeming feature, the one that cemented it as a robot darling in its owner's heart, w …

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We’re all going to die — what happens to our Facebook accounts?

2019-06-12T09:30:00-04:00

This week on Why'd You Push That Button?, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I think about death. This slightly dark episode marks the start of our three-part miniseries, Death Online, which, as you can probably guess, tackles how the internet changes how we (and our things) die. This episode is about planning for our deaths. Yes, we know we should make a will and think about our physical assets, but for this episode, we're focused on our digital assets. What happens to all of our Instagram posts? What happens to our accounts? Does someone know our passwords?

We chat with a bunch of people who have thoughts, including Cat Frazier of the Animated Text acco …

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Would quitting Instagram make us happier?

2019-06-05T09:30:00-04:00

This week on Why'd You Push That Button?, we try to find happiness. Kaitlyn Tiffany deactivates her Instagram, I support her, and then we chat with other people who have dabbled with deleting the app. Most of them say Instagram made them feel bad, or took up too much of their time, or in Kaitlyn's case, made her sad after a breakup.

We talk to one of my most on-trend friends, Ryan Curtis, about how he and his wife quit Instagram one day just to see if they could handle it. Then we chat with Musa Nyangiwe, an influencer who quit, as well as Justina Semčenkaitė, another influencer who quit the platform.

With their stories as context, we talk …

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