Snowed In? 5 Internet Essays to Read to Break Away from the Algorithm

January 26, 2026 • Read in 6 minutes

Dear Hyphenly Readers,

This weekend will go down as one of the days with the most weather-related flight cancellations in US aviation history. A winter storm has threatened the very infrastructure of the country. From my window, the road is enveloped in a serene shade of white, and the thick clumps of snow threaten to damage the trees on the sidewalk beyond repair. 

So, if you’re like me, you’ve stocked up on supplies, read some devastating news, and… feel unsettled. In times like this, going back to what is familiar feels comforting. I’ve spent the weekend rewatching Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise trilogy as I yearn for something hopeful. But mostly, I’m trying not to sink more hours into an endless doomscroll.

Advice on the internet suggests the only way out of the algorithm is downloading app. An app that gets you to meditate, an app that locks you out of social media, an app that gives you quizzes so you don’t get Alzheimer’s. The stats tell you that 40% of Americans did not read a single book in 2025. People are tired of AI slop on their social media, AI generated books, and BookTok in general, there’s also been a steady push to go analog. Record stores are opening up everywhere, CD players and IPods are flooding the market, and “grandma hobbies” such as knitting and sewing are becoming increasingly popular.

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Hyphenly thrives on internet culture: whether it’s curating recommendations or breaking down internet controversies. So, while the push to go analog is exciting, it also makes me wary. Are we just giving into more consumerism and trends that’ll later flood a landfill? If the only way to break an algorithm dependency is to buy more products, are we really changing anything about our lifestyles? 

My goal every year is to read more. And although the statistics tell me otherwise, I’ve never met someone who doesn’t lament at the lack of reading in their lives. If you’re snowed in this weekend and can’t take anymore of the internet, here’s 5 essays to read:

1. “Just A Girl” Jenny Zhang’s Ode to Childhood Dressing Up (Sleek Magazine)

I had been stared at plenty of times, but it was always in the bad way. My first year of high school, I was boyish and underdeveloped. Most people I passed in the hallways at school made a point to let me know I was ugly – obscenely so. It didn’t help that I was Chinese in a mostly white neighbourhood and wore vintage dresses from my mother’s closet.

2. “The Cost of Choosing Yourself Every Time”: The Quiet Part Said Out Loud by Saadia Khan (Substack)

America’s hyper-individualism is often framed as freedom. We often hear slogans like ‘my boundaries’ or ‘my values’. And while the growing focus on self-worth and mental health matters, something essential keeps getting erased in the process, and that, to me, is reciprocity.

3. Kimchi Has Always Been a Part of my English: Elizabeth Lee (Electric Literature)

Korean food was for the home; outside of it, we should eat what others eat. She took this motto to heart, always listening carefully to my lists of the latest trends at school, food or otherwise.

4. My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek: Viola Zhou (Rest of the World)

Over the course of months, my mom became increasingly smitten with her new AI doctor. “DeepSeek is more humane,” my mother told me in May. “Doctors are more like machines.”

5. The I in the Internet: Jia Tolentino (CCCBLAB)

At ten, I was clicking around a web ring to check out other Angelfire sites full of animal GIFs and Smash Mouth trivia. At twelve, I was writing five hundred words a day on a public LiveJournal. At fifteen, I was uploading photos of myself in a miniskirt on Myspace. By twenty-five, my job was to write things that would attract, ideally, a hundred thousand strangers per post. Now I’m thirty, and most of my life is inextricable from the internet, and its mazes of incessant forced connection – this feverish, electric, unlivable hell.

Want to enjoy other longform content? I got you covered:

Be safe this week!

Team Hyphenly

This newsletter was curated by Suhasini Patni.

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