set the internet to:

1997: the web is a place you visit.

page format: personal homepage

katherine dee's homepage

current mood: elsewhere
current music: Enya — Amarantine

i’m katya ungerman. i write as katherine dee about the otherworld behind the screen.

Everything there is online about this site is linked directly or indirectly to this document:

About
Biography, frequently asked questions, and an explanation of American Dreamland.
Read me or work with me
Publications, explorable articles, a timeline of ideas, and work.
default.blog
The current publication and archive.
The computer room
Machines, books, broadcasts, favorite sites, and a map of Fairyland.
Elsewhere
Other places to find me on the network.
Contact
Commission my writing, invite me to give a talk or lead a workshop, or hire me for something else.
about
read me or work with me
my weblog
contact
my computer room
elsewhere
guestbook

i’m katya ungerman. i write as katherine dee about the otherworld behind the screen.


an on air sign, currently unlit OFF AIRon hiatus
i co-host american dreamland, a coast-to-coast-am-inspired call-in show about the intersection of magic, the paranormal, and technology.

“I went out to the hazel wood, / Because a fire was in my head.” — “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” W. B. Yeats

sign my guestbook

✦ for my dad ✦

1997 edition · you are visitor visitor counter  ·  best viewed at 800 × 600 on a CRT

katherine dee's homepage at defaultfriend.net

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about

my name is katya ungerman, but i write under the name katherine dee. my username is almost always default_friend or default.friend.

i'm a writer and internet ethnographer. i mostly write about the internet but i also dabble in enchantment, spirituality, the philosophy of technology, and, sometimes, medicine. i'm the tech correspondent at the spectator and a staff critic at tablet.

for the last 5 years, i've been interviewing people about how they use the internet. you can read those interviews here.

questions people ask me
what is american dreamland?
i co-host american dreamland, a coast-to-coast-am-inspired call-in show about the intersection of magic, the paranormal, and technology.
what do you mean when you say the internet is fairyland?
a foreign country with its own etiquette, altered time, binding bargains, distorted mirrors, and paths back home. the rules for travelers are here.
is your work political?
no!! the biggest misconception about me. i know there's no such thing as a “view from nowhere” but also i am not particularly partisan. i am happy to hear anyone out.
where should i start reading?
start with the internet as the astral plane, then your phone isn't a drug. it's a portal to the otherworld.
why so many names?
it's a long story, but mostly an artifact of starting my writing career online, when handles and pseudonyms were an ordinary part of life. katya ungerman is my name, katherine dee is the name i publish under, and default_friend is the username that followed me from platform to platform.
do you speak or consult?
yes! happily. let's chat. more about consulting →

last updated: september 4, 2026, from the computer room.

← home

read me or work with me

step inside a piece

follow the links, enter the rooms, and see how the world of a piece fits together.

publications

AUDIO / 2024

first time caller: an art bell tribute

a 50-minute audio documentary on art bell’s legacy, with leah prime, john steiger, and ong’s hat creator joseph matheny. produced with taylor mcmahon.

listen on default.blog →
apple podcasts  /  spotify  /  youtube

AUDIO / 2024

adam lanza fan art

an audio reading of my tablet feature, followed by a conversation with producer taylor mcmahon about reporting the story and what happens when writing encounters a hostile online audience.

listen on default.blog →

what i saw coming

i follow small online worlds until their ideas become everyone’s conversation. here are the dated pieces, the threads i kept following, and the later moments that made the stakes clear.

work with me →

work & appearances

invite me to talk about mediated intimacy, fictosexuality, pseudonymity, girls online, fandom, and how online worlds become real. get in touch →

positions

internet real life

in 2024–25, i co-created, curated, and hosted two cohorts of internet real life with peter limberg: an interview series and “inverse course” looking for an internet-realist position beyond naïve optimism and reflexive pessimism. guest presentations and q&as were followed by private, unrecorded collective inquiry.

the two cohorts and guest talks

season one · november 8–december 6, 2024

season two · april 4–25, 2025

selected talks

grants & recognition

selected interviews & conversations

before this

before journalism, i worked as a copywriter for apple support and led internal editorial work at tesla; worked as a strategist at praytell, writing for brands and researching internet trends and film projects; ran community at repl.it; and researched archival media for pbs/wgbh, including american experience: the great war, NOVA, and frontline.

i have a bfa in dramatic writing from nyu tisch. in a past life, i wrote award-winning plays and screenplays.

← home

WAIT FOR MY BOOK TO SEE

rules for travelers, from the old surveys:

  1. never give your true name; travel under a use-name. names have power there. this is why you have a username.
  2. eat nothing they offer, and accept no cookie you cannot account for. those who eat are bound to return. (the persephone clause.)
  3. time runs differently inside. oisin rode home from tir na nog and three hundred years had passed. check a clock when you surface.
  4. cold iron keeps them off — but your machine is silicon, copper, and glass. you carry no protection.
  5. beware the glamour: their old word for making a thing look better than it is, and also ours.
  6. call them the good people, for they are listening. (yeats records the custom in the celtic twilight.)
  7. those who come back, come back changed. (the changeling problem.)

← home

contact

you can commission my writing, invite me to give a talk/lead a workshop, or hire me for something else. just book a time here.

consulting, research, and cultural forecasting →

email: katherine@default.blog
discord: default_friend#7482

for the last 5 years, i've been interviewing people about how they use the internet. read the case studies.

← back inside

the pool

← home

my computer room, 1997

click objects in the room. the Fairyland map is always visible.

My New England bedroom with white sash windows, a leafy garden view, floral bed, paper dolls on the CRT, pink boombox, radio, Tamagotchi and Fairyland map. The Tavern Mall World the framed flowers coast to coast barbie boombox KiSS paper dolls
floral bed, CRT, one pink boombox, compact radio-cassette player, Tamagotchi, Fairyland map.
★ WELCOME TO MY HOME PAGE ★

default_friend's corner of the web

NEW! now playing: Aqua — Aquarium

visit the Art Bell tape archive and browse my cool links.

UNDER
CONSTRUCTION [•_•] 001847

this page is always under construction

best viewed at 800 × 600 · 56K · first snow / Mass Pike crawling · tamagotchi: ♥♥♥
open the Fairyland map field copy: 1997

enter the MUD →

what felt new in 1997

on the shelf

data smog by david shenk (1997)

information overload, distraction, personalization, and the loss of common public knowledge.

the shelf changes with the year, following widely read and influential books about technology and online life. the reading log lives at storygraph.

the radio

LIVE FROM 1997

april 23, 1997 — nanotechnology with charles ostman

entering the computer room tunes the radio; if your browser blocks it, press play.

episode notes at the art bell archive

cool sites, circa 1997

links may open a period snapshot, surviving archive, or the nearest historical or working page.

← home

things hidden in the computer room

Select a file below, or find it by clicking an object in the computer room.

HEART PATCH / CASSETTE LABEL
1988/lincoln/ana_ng.side_a

ana ng: the other half of the world

“I don’t want the world, I just want your half.”

incoming fax / john titor?

read the related story →

a message from the time traveler.

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elsewhere

the MUD →

x: default_friend    instagram: default.friend

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for my dad

A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 1997 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 2002 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 2007 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 2012 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 2017 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 2020 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder, illustrated for 2022 A lit Jewish memorial candle in a glass holder

the great technologist, anthony ungerman, left us far too soon. 1965–2025.

he said:

(click the quote — a running list.)

this candle stays lit for as long as this page is online.

RoomPass+one room. five barriers.