The Deep Meaning of the Facebook Vanity URL

Out on the town recently, at cocktail parties and gallery openings, artist An Xiao has been hearing her online name, “thatwaszen,” piercing through the din.

“I’ll be out and about in physical space, in public, and hear my name across the room,” Ms. Xiao told The Observer. A petite, 25-year-old digital media artist and photographer Read More

Superstar Avatars

Hillary Clinton: powerful, reliable, classic. These are the ideas that Ms. Clinton seems to want to convey about herself with her Facebook profile picture. In the black-and-white headshot, she’s looking off to her right, and all of her signature attributes are there: Big smile, pearl necklace, American flag pin. This picture presents the ur-Hillary. She Read More

Gary Vaynerchuk, the Oeno-trepreneur

“I think wine really needed me,” said Internet sensation Gary Vaynerchuk on a recent Monday at T Bar steakhouse on the Upper East Side, near the apartment he shares with his wife. “I think it’s way too snobby and elitist in this country, and I don’t think wine wanted to be positioned that way.”