A Defense of the Leaf Blower
Reassessing America’s most hated appliance
Ian Bogost
Ian Bogost is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He is the director of the film- and media-studies program at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is also a computer-science and engineering professor. Bogost is the author of 10 books, most recently Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games. Bogost is also an award-winning game designer whose work has been played by millions of people and has been held in collections internationally, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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Clara Molden / Camera Press / Redux A Calculator’s Most Important Button Has Been Removed
This is clearly a mistake.
Illustration by The Atlantic Please Don’t Make Me Download Another App
Our phones are being overrun.
Illustration by Liana Finck Don’t Fool Yourself About the Exploding Pagers
Your phone is not a bomb.
Illustration by Allison Zaucha / The Atlantic. Sources: Anwar Amro / AFP / Getty; Ramiz Dallah / Anadolu / Getty. The Death of the Minivan
It was a perfect vehicle.
Hans-Juergen Burkard / laif / Redux Twilight of the Emoji
The usefulness of these formerly fun discourse pictures is on the wane.
Illustration by The Atlantic Yet Another iPhone, Dear God
What do you mean, you don’t need four studio-quality microphones?
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Young Men Have Invented a New Way to Defeat Themselves
Rawdogging is a search for purity that cannot be achieved.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. AI Cheating Is Getting Worse
Colleges still don’t have a plan.
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Google Already Won
A landmark antitrust ruling will not change how people find information on the internet.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty.
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