GoKawiilTaylor Lorenz doesn’t want to touch grass. The technology and culture journalist wrote the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet, and she has the screen time to prove it. Previously a reporter for mainstream media outlets, Lorenz built such a rabid following (and a legion of haters) that she decided to go independent in 2024. Now, almost 100,000 fans subscribe to her newsletter, User Mag, for her insider knowledge of virality and her freakish ability to contextualize how internet culture shapes, well, everything.
For our very first User Behavior, Lorenz defends her extreme digital diet, revealing how she’s first to the AI slop, what it takes to run a meme page, and why she’s not worried about any of this rotting her brain.
User Behavior A regular series that quantifies the tech lifestyles of the rich and/or famous.
Phone model: iPhone 15 Pro
I’m waiting for a decent upgrade. I'll upgrade when I get a better camera. I'm friends with an influencer marketing person at Apple, and I've never gotten a single free product out of it. It's a disappointment. I'm not big-time enough to make it on the gifting!
Computer model: 2024 MacBook Pro, 14-Inch
Standard. Good computer. When I was quitting my job, I thought, what's the closest to my work computer? And I bought that. Also, I edit video. So I need a little more horsepower.
Average screen time across all devices:
My iPhone screen time is around 10 hours or something. I am sort of horrified, but the thing is, for some reason, writing is less stressful to me on my phone. So I often write the first draft of everything on my phone. I am using it for work; I'm not just on brain-rot Instagram Reels.
I also like to listen to background noise all day, because I hate the silence of downtown LA. I just always have music on. And so my two most used apps are Spotify and YouTube. At night, I like to watch Netflix on my phone because I'm still on my family plan and I can only add so many devices.
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