My Internet: Paul Skallas (LindyMan)

The writer believes that social media and the internet have become an invisible leash for humans.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Some weeks, we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.

Today we welcome Paul Skallas, who is known in his writing and on Twitter for championing a “Lindy” lifestyle informed by the wisdom of the ancients. In The Lindy Newsletter he recently proposed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plans to remake the American health system might be “exactly what we need” and shared his personal experience with Zyn, a “frictionless … modern addiction.”

Paul argues that the recent pivot to gendered content consumption is actually the return of a historical norm and believes that we’re in a fallen world of movies and TV (although he liked Ripley). —Nick

“I don’t read any newsletters. Most writing out there isn’t worth reading and is a waste of time.”

EMBEDDED: What’s a recent meme or post that made you laugh?

PAUL SKALLAS: From a post I recently made on X.

A few of the videos made me chuckle.

EMBEDDED: What shows up on your TikTok For You page?

PAUL SKALLAS: I don’t use TikTok a lot so I haven’t fine tuned the algorithm. I think right now it’s animal videos and cities from around the world.

EMBEDDED: Do you tweet? Why?

PAUL SKALLAS: Yes. I enjoy it.

EMBEDDED: Do you post on Bluesky, Threads, or Substack’s Notes? Why?

PAUL SKALLAS: I have an account on Bluesky and Threads but it’s not active.

EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?

PAUL SKALLAS: I don’t really use instagram much. Although, I do get the appeal. I just get bored of the image-filled internet after a while.

EMBEDDED: What types of videos do you watch on YouTube?

PAUL SKALLAS:

1. I have videos that I play before bed to help me sleep sometimes. Usually soft-spoken, low-stimulus and longform history videos that are meant to hypnotize you.

2. Interviews with people I am interested in.

3. I like listening to music on Youtube rather than Spotify if I’m working on my laptop.

EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?

PAUL SKALLAS: Twitter. I still read newspapers. A few smaller blogs and reddit pages.

EMBEDDED: How do you keep up with the online discourse? How important is it to you to do this?

PAUL SKALLAS: I don’t think one united discourse exists like it used to 20-30 years ago. Everyone is just fragmented into areas. There are a few things that unite everyone: employment, life milestones, financial anxiety, relationships/dating, family, leisure, ambition, failure, etc.

I try to focus my writing and ideas on that part of life and how modernity changes it.

EMBEDDED: What’s the last strong opinion you had about a story, topic, or controversy online?

PAUL SKALLAS: I think the right attitude to be online is to post like you’re at a cafe or bar riffing on some topics and then go about your day.

EMBEDDED: What are your favorite newsletters?

PAUL SKALLAS: I don’t read any newsletters. Most writing out there isn’t worth reading and is a waste of time.

EMBEDDED: How do you think Substack has changed media, if at all?

PAUL SKALLAS: Probably made it easier for people to subscribe to blogs through email.

EMBEDDED: What’s one positive media trend? What’s one negative trend?

PAUL SKALLAS: You can’t have the positive without the negative. The positive is more options, a richer, more pluralistic culture of art and life, but the downside is less shared understanding and references for people to connect with.

EMBEDDED: Do you have a take on the “manosphere”? Do you think Theo Von, Joe Rogan, and their peers have shaped young men’s political leanings?

PAUL SKALLAS: Content consumption is gendered. But that isn’t a new thing. It’s taking us back to a time where women and men formed and consumed their own cultures. For most of human history, men and women inhabited distinct social and cultural domains. This was reflected in the content they consumed and created, whether through oral traditions, literature, or material culture. It was the 20th century media monoculture that was a weird time where everyone was watching the same thing. It’s better this way. The masculine and feminine can express itself more fully in this modern environment. Men and women forming and consuming their own cultures is not only a historical norm but also a way for gendered ideals to flourish without compromise.

EMBEDDED: What’s something that you have observed about the online behavior of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and/or Boomers?

PAUL SKALLAS: I think generations that grew up only knowing social media and the internet are different than previous generations. It’s a form of domestication. Like a pet on a leash but invisible. Social media rewards specific behaviors (likes, shares, comments) and discourages others, creating a kind of operant conditioning. People, especially those who have never known life without it, may unconsciously align their actions, thoughts, and self-presentation with what gains approval online.

But also, growing up with the constant presence of cameras and public scrutiny leads to heightened self-awareness. More anxiety and reflection.

EMBEDDED: How do you find recommendations for what to watch, read, and listen to?

PAUL SKALLAS: Randomness. Someone irl suggests it to me. It pops up online through my browsing.

EMBEDDED: Have you had posts go viral? What is that experience like?

PAUL SKALLAS: You just mute the posts so your notifications are not clogged and move on to the next one.

EMBEDDED: Who’s the coolest person who follows you?

PAUL SKALLAS: There’s a fisherman in the Netherlands who follows me who retrieves boats on the seafloor in his off-days that were sunk in the 1970s in the North Sea giving families of the deceased closure.

EMBEDDED: Who’s someone more people should follow?

PAUL SKALLAS: The fun is in the discovering process.

EMBEDDED: Which big celebrity has your favorite internet presence, and why?

PAUL SKALLAS: Big Celebrities suck. Nothing of what they produce is any good. Because they have to care about their reputation. And if you care about your reputation you’re not really free to create anything good. And your online presence resembles that.

EMBEDDED: Are you into any podcasts right now? How and when do you usually listen?

PAUL SKALLAS: Podcasts bore me. They are meant to be consumed when you are doing something you hate (jogging, sitting in traffic, cleaning).

EMBEDDED: Have you ever been heavily into Snapchat? Do you miss it?

PAUL SKALLAS: No

EMBEDDED: When was the last time you browsed Pinterest? What for?

PAUL SKALLAS: I think once in 2018 I looked at it and got bored.

EMBEDDED: How would you describe Tumblr’s legacy?

PAUL SKALLAS: You will have to ask someone else that question.

EMBEDDED: Are you in any groups on Reddit, Discord, Slack, or Facebook? What’s the most useful or entertaining one?

PAUL SKALLAS: I’m in one group chat and that’s all I can handle. A lot of it becomes a huge time suck.

EMBEDDED: Do you use Slack or Teams for work? What’s the best thing about Slacking with your co-workers? What’s the worst thing?

PAUL SKALLAS: Just as LinkedIn feels performative because it's a professional networking platform, Slack and Teams inherently carry the weight of being tied to work. Even casual chats are colored by the knowledge that everything is recorded, searchable, and visible to managers or colleagues. This awareness fosters self-censorship, as people carefully craft their words to maintain professionalism, avoid misinterpretation, or sidestep potential conflicts. As a result, interactions can feel transactional or superficial.

EMBEDDED: Do you typically start searches on Google, Reddit, TikTok, or another source? Have you found Google’s “generative AI” summaries helpful?

PAUL SKALLAS: The AI chat bots are a good step forward. I like other sites like Elicit, and also reddit. It’s an interesting time to search information. Way better now than it was a few years ago.

EMBEDDED: What most excites you about AI chatbots and text and art generators? What most concerns you?

PAUL SKALLAS: So many books are overwritten because authors want to pack in as much as they can in order to appear smart and get published. Moreover, there are millions of research papers and novels and historical works like in the Loeb Classical Library. I’m glad we can get knowledge from those works directly from AI. It makes researching fun.

EMBEDDED: What is your Wordle starting word?

PAUL SKALLAS: I never played it

EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?

PAUL SKALLAS: Whatsapp voice notes vs texting is becoming a cultural distinction. I've noticed that the global south sends audio messages much more than the global north.

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?

PAUL SKALLAS: One of my followers is a professional musician. She made a classical playlist for me. It is quite delightful:

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?

PAUL SKALLAS: Look, I liked the show Ripley. But we’re in a fallen world now. Scaled up content like movies and TV shows are mediocre. For a variety of reasons. Just take a look around. Is any of this stuff any good? Be honest.

EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?

PAUL SKALLAS: I like the Radiooooo app

EMBEDDED: Do you regularly use eBay, Depop, or other shopping platforms? What’s a recent thing you’ve bought or sold?

PAUL SKALLAS: I like eBay. It has incredible staying power. I think it will be here for a long time even though there are a lot of other competitors.

EMBEDDED: Is there a site you like for product recommendations? How do you decide, for example, which air filter to buy?

PAUL SKALLAS: In the 2010s, there was a trend among millennials to meticulously optimize every purchase. Even mundane items like side tables or lightbulbs required scouring reviews and comparisons, a kind of “intelligent” petty consumerism. I’ve largely stepped away from that mindset. For a few key purchases, like a bicycle, I’ll still do my homework, but I’ve realized I don’t want to dedicate my mental energy to obsessing over products.

EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?

PAUL SKALLAS: I enjoy going online every day. Especially on Twitter. It’s fun.

---

Thanks Paul! Subscribe to his newsletter and follow him on Twitter.

More My Internet Ochuko Akpovbovbo ∙ Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez ∙ Jasmine Sun ∙ Tony Wang ∙ Foster Kamer ∙ Chris Gayomali ∙ Jerusalem Demsas ∙ Emily Sundberg ∙ Willa Bennett ∙ All