Catherine Prasifka
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Catherine Prasifka
@prasifcat.bsky.social
95 followers 66 following 30 posts
none of this is serious, OUT NOW / this is how you remember it, OUT NOW / John Broderick Writer-in-Residence 2025 / find my thoughts in the Irish Indo
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prasifcat.bsky.social
Ozempic: miracle drug, or yet one more product we sell women to make them feel bad about themselves?

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Giving up pleasure and forcing your body to suffer is too high a price for thinness
It would be incorrect to say that skinny is back. Skinny simply never went away. The last few decades have given us different versions of it – everything from heroin chic to the curvier Kim Kardash­ia...
m.independent.ie
November 27, 2025 at 10:35 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Yes, they’re ‘winter’ lights, not Christmas ones – after all, what have laser beams shooting from the Spire got to do with the birth of Jesus?
Dublin City Council’s annual collection of twinkling lights and projections are coming back to the city this year.
m.independent.ie
November 20, 2025 at 11:53 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: There is no ethical way to be a billionaire and near-trillionaire Elon Musk is living proof
Growing up, once children learn to recognise themselves in the mirror, they begin to ask themselves some important questions.
m.independent.ie
November 13, 2025 at 8:38 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Why ‘performative’ racism on social media is a growing threat we can no longer ignore
It must have been easier to get into ­politics before the internet. Before digital cameras and social media sites. Before everything came with a paper trail. Before consequences.
m.independent.ie
October 31, 2025 at 9:37 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about ChatGPT’s turn towards sex, and why that was inevitable.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Rise of the pornbots – how AI standards are being lowered to seduce us with titillating tech
Forget hover cars, jetpacks and colonising Mars – the strangest people you know have found a way to let you have sex with the dictionary. Finally.
m.independent.ie
October 23, 2025 at 8:15 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Bizarre and unfunny memes are rotting young people’s brains
Brainrot is a word that has come to define much of the content on our phones. It is content that is usually absurd, notably low in quality, sometimes offensive and always addictive. It keeps you scrol...
m.independent.ie
October 16, 2025 at 8:57 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Online debate has changed how we engage with politics, and it’s not good
Watching the presidential debate on Monday night, I could not escape the creeping feeling that it is all a bit pointless.
m.independent.ie
October 1, 2025 at 8:46 PM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: ‘The Traitors’ brought us together to enjoy and laugh at our shared Irishness
In the age of streaming, it is rare to sit down with friends and find you are all watching the same thing.
m.independent.ie
September 25, 2025 at 8:32 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
m.independent.ie
September 19, 2025 at 6:42 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week, I wrote about how nothing you post online is apolitical, once you have a following.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: When online words have such immense consequences, influencers must own what they say
Thirty years ago, if you had 10,000 followers you would have been a successful cult leader. Today, 10,000 followers will not even qualify you to be an influencer – there will be no brand deals or free...
m.independent.ie
September 11, 2025 at 8:43 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
Rough Drafts is back!

Whether you’re experienced or just getting started, this is an open mic for writers of all levels, genres, and interests. Come share your latest work, meet fellow writers, and get inspired!

Let us know if you can come by emailing [email protected].
September 5, 2025 at 2:51 PM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about the importance of so called ‘soft skills’, and why AI will not and cannot replace them. Don’t let tech bros fool you into thinking humanities degrees are useless!

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Don’t buy into the tech bros’ claims that AI can replace creativity, all it feeds us is slop
C AO offer day is not easy. The queasy anticipation, the fear, the unshakeable feeling that whatever offer you get will set you on an irreversible collision course with your future. The hope that all ...
m.independent.ie
September 4, 2025 at 7:49 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about whatever the hell is going on with Gavin Newsom’s social media presence, and what that means for the democrats.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Donald Trump’s ‘gotcha politics’ made him king – now Gavin Newsom is after his crown
A political shift is happening on X. Recently, your feed may have been dominated by AI-generated photos of California governor Gavin Newsom. He might have been riding a dinosaur and waving the America...
m.independent.ie
August 28, 2025 at 8:28 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about RushTok, Sydney Sweeney, and ‘tradwife’ being added to the dictionary.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: From ‘RushTok’ to Sydney Sweeney – why mindless scrolling is a threat to feminism
Every August, TikTok gets taken over by “RushTok” – the term for content created by, and centring on, hopeful new recruits for American college sororities. The name comes from “rush week”, the period ...
m.independent.ie
August 21, 2025 at 7:36 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about the term ‘clanker’ that’s been popping up online more and more lately. It’s a kind of imagined slur against robots, and it doesn’t speak very highly of our hopes for what the future will bring.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: The robots are here, and there’s a creeping sense the tech bros have created a world to which we never consented
We may already have the word of the year, if not the decade: clanker. Originating from the Star Wars universe, it has become a catch-all term used to refer to robots and AI. Any technology can be refe...
m.independent.ie
August 14, 2025 at 9:02 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about the importance of embracing silence:

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Silence is golden, but finding time to enjoy it without distractions is almost impossible
We are all adept multi- taskers: listening to music while we walk, watching a show while we cook, messaging a friend while we are reading a book. With phones, laptops and televisions all within easy r...
m.independent.ie
August 7, 2025 at 8:16 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about the new unskippable ads introduced by meta, the lengths they are going to to avoid regulation, and how we as users are paying the price (while also being the thing that generates revenue).

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Unskippable ads are just the latest social media ruse designed to undermine EU regulation
Instagram users may have noticed a change in their app experience over the last week: strange pop-ups that you cannot skip, vague regulatory language dressed up in preppy social media speak, blue hype...
m.independent.ie
July 31, 2025 at 8:47 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about what it’s like growing up in a cringe culture:

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: We’re terrified of being labelled ‘cringe’, but I’d rather embrace it than live in fear
Forgetting the name of someone you just met at a party – that’s cringe. Referencing a meme that’s gone stale? That’s cringe. The video of all the celebrities singing Imagine during the pandemic? Unima...
m.independent.ie
July 24, 2025 at 8:19 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This Is How You Remember It has now been translated into Portuguese!! So excited to get my hands on a copy. Translation is such a fine art: a translator has to breakdown and completely remake something in a new language. I’m so excited for my little book to reach more readers.
July 22, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prasifka
kildarelibrary.bsky.social
Just gonna leave this here😎

thank you so much @prasifcat.bsky.social for your kind words...

#Athylib info👇
www.kildarecoco.ie/library/Libr...
July 21, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prasifka
corkworldbookfest.bsky.social
Catherine Prasifka is the bestselling Irish writer of two novels, None of This Is Serious & This Is How You Remember It. She was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book awards in 2022. She holds a BA in English literature from Trinity College Dublin, an MLitt in fantasy literature
July 15, 2025 at 3:47 PM
prasifcat.bsky.social
I have a piece in the Sunday Independent today about Elon Musk’s new ‘companion’ AI chat bots.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Elon Musk gives us his sci-fi villain’s vision of the future — a chatbot that takes off its lingerie
Elon Musk is a science-fiction fan who refuses to learn anything from classic works of science fiction.
m.independent.ie
July 20, 2025 at 2:01 PM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about why, shockingly, tiny apartments won’t solve the housing crisis.

The issue isn’t the size, it’s that any savings will line the pockets of developers while the quality of the apartment stock is eroded. And they wont be cheap.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Micro studios may be a safe investment, but they are another slap in the face for young people
The Government continues to struggle to meet its housing targets, and it is all out of ideas. Except for one: what if apartments were smaller? What if they pared back regulation and allowed developers...
m.independent.ie
July 17, 2025 at 8:07 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about Tiny Chef and the attention economy. Mainly, I wrote about Tiny Chef.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Fate of Tiny Chef is a salutary tale about how short life is in attention economy
It is likely that you have never heard of Tiny Chef, the stop-motion character who starred in an Emmy-winning Nick Jr show. And if you have heard of him, it’s probably because you saw his heartbreakin...
m.independent.ie
July 10, 2025 at 7:20 AM
prasifcat.bsky.social
This week I wrote about people falling in love with chatbots and what the hyper-individualised world of the internet has done to our conception of love and relationships.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
Catherine Prasifka: Chatbots trawled our data, now they’re mining our deepest feelings
Over the last 15 years, we have seen technology replace humans in countless ways. Supermarket cashiers and customer service operators have been replaced by technology. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa ...
m.independent.ie
July 3, 2025 at 12:51 PM