My Internet: Noelle Perdue
The writer and historian is trying her hand at genuine online vulnerability.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
Every other week (or so) we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome Noelle Perdue, a writer, producer, and Internet porn historian who publishes the newsletter Porn World. She recently wrote the widely shared post Notes on Getting Destroyed, about the dark side of the journalist-to-influencer pipeline. Noelle likes to dip her toe into exotic animal husbandry YouTube pages and once had a brief moment of TikTok vitality making contraptions. —Nick
EMBEDDED: What’s a recent meme or post that made you laugh?
NOELLE PERDUE: I loved this one
EMBEDDED: Do you tweet? Why?
NOELLE PERDUE: I’ve never really tweeted (the platform just never drew me in), which always really surprises people. It never feels like a compliment when people tell me that I seem like I would be active on Twitter. It feels like they’re trying to tell me as nicely as possible that they think I’m annoying and self-righteous.
EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?
NOELLE PERDUE: I use Instagram as a professional page, but also (as many others do), a jungle-bird-esque mating display.
EMBEDDED: What types of videos do you watch on YouTube?
NOELLE PERDUE: I watch a lot of deckbuilding video game streams (Slay The Spire, Balatro, etc). Sometimes I like to dip my toe into the exotic animal husbandry pages, but only when it seems like they’re really committed to the animal’s care. I like Leafy Street. He’s committed to the animal’s care!
EMBEDDED: What do you like about TikTok? What do you dislike?
NOELLE PERDUE: I had a very brief moment of virality on TikTok—years ago—for making very simple stupid contraptions, which was fun. There’s an alternate timeline where that virality led me to make contraptions over and over again for the rest of my life, abandoning my writing career altogether and too scared of algorithmic punishment to expand on the initial concept. And I think that’s pretty much exactly what I like and dislike about TikTok.
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EMBEDDED: Are you concerned by the claims of censorship that some users have made since TikTok was taken over by investors led by Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump?
NOELLE PERDUE: Absolutely. I’ve always found Tiktok to be one of the most heavily censored platforms online, but I am definitely concerned about what direction—politically—that censorship has entrenched in after the sale. I think it’s easy to write off these platforms or pretend it’s all just silly or dumb, but ultimately social media is where young people are getting their news and being exposed to political influence. It’s worth being concerned about.
EMBEDDED: Do you watch Twitch, Kick, or any other livestreaming services? If so, which streamers?
NOELLE PERDUE: This is as good a time as any to come out as a longtime Northernlion superfan. I remember when his daughter was born!
EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
NOELLE PERDUE: My best friend Allie works in news journalism and to be totally honest that’s one of the main reasons I know what’s going on at any given point.
EMBEDDED: How do you keep up with the online discourse? How important is it to you to do this?
NOELLE PERDUE: I am a Substack doomscroller, and unfortunately it feels very important to me to keep up with online discourse. I tell myself it’s because I do “cultural commentary” and I need to know what the zeitgeist is saying, but I think it’s probably more of a straightforward pressing-the-bruise bad habit.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last strong opinion you had about a story, topic, or controversy online?
NOELLE PERDUE: Too many to count, unfortunately. I am currently in sort of a one-woman, one-sided battle against the emergency contraceptive brand Julie—for promoting unsafe women’s sexual health practices, but also just being weird and corny and a pharmaceutical company performing a relatable-cool-girl persona. It grosses me out!
EMBEDDED: How do you think Substack has changed media, if at all?
NOELLE PERDUE: I recently wrote about my complicated feelings on this. Not to say that Substack has created the journalist-to-influencer pipeline, but it has fortified it. On one hand, I think legacy media losing some of its iron fist control over information dissemination is a good thing. But I don’t believe this new expectation, that journalists must perform for online platforms to have their work seen and rent paid, is reasonable or responsible. I think both writers and audiences suffer for it.
EMBEDDED: How would you describe the culture of Substack, in terms of the types of writing and thinking that it has encouraged?
NOELLE PERDUE: There’s an interesting culture of performing self-hatred and revulsion on here. A diaristic style of writing where the author describes being an unlikeable or morally destitute character, but also revels in it. Not to say that’s “the” culture of Substack, but it’s undeniably a thriving genre.
EMBEDDED: Have you found Claude, ChatGPT, or any other AI tools useful? How so?
NOELLE PERDUE: I don’t use any AI tools. Sometimes I’ve made rational justifications for why; citing plagiarism, or the environmental impact, or flaws in the technology etc. etc., but the real reason is that I just don’t want to.
EMBEDDED: Do you believe that the AI bubble about to burst?
NOELLE PERDUE: In my work analyzing intimacy and pornography, it already has. Unless someone is being tricked into it, the novelty of a fully AI performer has worn off for most people. One thing that’s been heartening to see in the AI boom is how much people ultimately value human creativity and craft. Output for output’s sake only appeals to a relatively small percentage of people—certainly fewer than these companies anticipated.
EMBEDDED: What’s something that you have observed about the online behavior of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and/or Boomers?
NOELLE PERDUE: Lately I’ve been thinking about what my “tells” are that I’m not fully Gen Z.
Like, I recently updated my bio because I realized that the “x, x, x” format (for me: “porn historian, writer, former internet anarchist”) was going the way of lolcats and reaction gifs.
Or sometimes I take like 60 selfies and all of them end up having the distant, glassy-eyed intensity of an aging former child star who manages her own Instagram account. Do you know the look I’m talking about? I can’t shake it …
EMBEDDED: How do you find recommendations for what to watch, read, and listen to?
NOELLE PERDUE: I read a lot of nonfiction with citations, which tends to be how I find other books in areas I’m interested in. For example, I recently read Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” which is a play on the concept of the bag as feminist technology from Elizabeth Fisher’s Women’s Creation. I had never heard of Elizabeth Fisher, but now Women’s Creation is next on my list. I like when books are participating in conversation with each other.
EMBEDDED: Who’s the coolest person who follows you?
NOELLE PERDUE: Jan Hakon Erichsen follows me from when I went viral for making simple machines (callback!). He’s one of my favourite artists of all time. Sometimes I check if he still follows me- I would understand if he didn’t, but I always get a kick out of seeing that he does (at least as of 27/7/2026).
EMBEDDED: Which big celebrity has your favorite internet presence, and why?
NOELLE PERDUE: I really respect when celebrities have no internet presence. Any person who is already famous—in a way that they can live off without having to be online—but still chooses to remain in the hamster wheel of content output is totally unrelatable and in fact seems spiritually unwell to me.
EMBEDDED: How would you describe Tumblr’s legacy?
NOELLE PERDUE: I think Tumblr proved that girls and gays would be dominating media culture for at least another millennium. And my feet are currently beat up from wearing an absolutely decrepit pair of ballerina flats every single day for god knows how long.
EMBEDDED: Are you in any groups on Reddit, Discord, or Facebook? What’s the most useful or entertaining one?
NOELLE PERDUE: Oh my god. Okay, this is huge for me. I have been part of a Facebook group for nearly 10 years of people who think drinking their own piss can make them immortal. I could write genuinely 10,000 words on what I’ve observed and how I’ve tried to make sense of it—but the best part has been that, after many of them got divorced due to spouses not supporting their daily piss drinking, they made an offshoot matchmaking and dating group. A Facebook group for piss drinking singles. Sorry Love Island, I’m busy watching the piss drinking singles personal ad Facebook group!!
EMBEDDED: What words or phrases do you have muted?
NOELLE PERDUE: None, I’m a masochist
EMBEDDED: Do any of your group chats have a name that you’re willing to share? What’s something that recently inspired debate in the chat?
NOELLE PERDUE: I’m part of a group chat for sharing soup photos/recipes/recommendations called The Stock Exchange.
EMBEDDED: What’s your go-to emoji, and what does it mean to you?
NOELLE PERDUE: I like the “nodding” emoji. It feels calm and supportive. 🙂↕️
EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?
NOELLE PERDUE: I love a voice note and I love getting a voice note—unless it’s giving me information I actually need, then I would like it to be put in writing!
EMBEDDED: Do you pay for a music streaming service, and if so, which one? What’s a playlist, song, album, or style of music you’ve listened to a lot lately?
NOELLE PERDUE: I go wherever Joanna Newsom publishes, which takes Spotify off the table. But there’s something too clinical about Apple Music, I can’t put my finger on it. Right now I use SoundCloud, which I actually really enjoy and think is underrated.
EMBEDDED: If you could only keep one streaming service for TV and/or movies, which would it be, and why? What’s a show that you’re really into right now?
NOELLE PERDUE: BitTorrent. I’m worried that we’re losing the ancient texts of pirating content—these streaming platforms have gotten way too comfortable!
EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?
NOELLE PERDUE: Too Good To Go, easily. I think I have a latent gambling addiction and something about the “surprise” element of TGTG is so effective I’ve had friends stage interventions over how many stale pastries I’d collect in a week.
EMBEDDED: What’s the most basic internet thing that you love?
NOELLE PERDUE: Email. Email is perfect.
EMBEDDED: Is there any content you want but can’t seem to find anywhere online?
NOELLE PERDUE: Honestly if people did more Too Good To Go surprise bag haul videos I would probably be able to cut down by living vicariously.
EMBEDDED: Do you regularly use eBay, Depop, or other shopping platforms? What’s a recent thing you’ve bought or sold?
NOELLE PERDUE: I am a thriftbooks dot com power user. I think if you recommend a book to someone, you have to provide them with said book; either by putting it directly in their hands or getting it sent to their house. You’ve already given this person homework; expecting them to go out of their way to seek out and purchase it is totally unreasonable. So I buy and send a lot of books. The last thing I bought was Penny: A Graphic Memoir by Karl Stevens for a friend who recently lost their beloved cat.
EMBEDDED: Do you consume any content about fitness, diet, or other types of “wellness”? What creators or sites do you find most useful?
NOELLE PERDUE: I am obsessed with swholeanimal, though I’m not sure at this point his content is about “wellness” so much as like, biohacking to the point of The Fly-style body horror. He expanded the flexibility and width of his toes so much that he can make fists with his feet.
EMBEDDED: Is there a site you like for product recommendations? How do you decide, for example, which air filter to buy?
NOELLE PERDUE: I use Reddit for recommendations. I know brands try to subtly plug on Reddit so I usually only listen to comments from people that seem to have genuinely off-putting personalities. Like, if someone is being extremely condescending to the original post’s author *and* getting off-track in a somehow self-aggrandizing way while suggesting a product, I know that’s a genuine Redditor (said with love) and not a corporate bot.
EMBEDDED: Have you recently read an article, book, or social media post about the internet that you’ve found particularly insightful?
NOELLE PERDUE: I’m on a big Donna Haraway kick and I recently re-read Cyborg Manifesto. In tech media there’s incentive to constantly be responding to things the moment they happen (or ideally earlier!), but that can get into isolatory, horse-blinder territory pretty quick. Recently I’ve been enjoying reading theory from a couple decades ago and seeing how it lands.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?
NOELLE PERDUE: I’ve been trying my hand at genuine online vulnerability (terrifying) and the response has actually been really nice. I’m grateful for it.
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Love Noelle <3
Thanks for having me!