How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Amanda Hess, a critic at large who writes about the internet, discussed the tech she’s using.

What tech tools are most important for doing your job?

Is logging off a tool? Signing out is important.

I cover the internet for my job, but I’m also very easily seduced by it, and that can be a dangerous combination. Procrastination can always be plausibly reframed as work. So I have technology that I use to mitigate other technology. Wearing an Apple Watch means that I don’t have to pick up my phone every time I get a Medicare scam call, which inevitably sucks me into scrolling mindlessly through every app on my phone. I have strapped an unsightly Apple product to my body in an attempt to keep another Apple product away from me. 🥴

You write about internet culture, which is a broad topic. How do you decide what to write about?

My beat is even wider than that: I’m a critic at large, which means I end up writing about television, music, movies, theater and books, too. My job is to identify themes across the culture, and I find myself investigating ideas more than platforms. I always have a few baby story ideas hanging around in my brain, and they steer my internet activity into one direction or another.