Social media

Build up, tear down—new technology stirs up a cycle of progress and cynicism we’ve seen all throughout history.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin spent six years writing the definitive history of Reddit.

Finding balance in an age of smartphones, selfies, and imagined stardom.

Why virtue signaling does nothing.

Should kids be on social media? If yes, what are some good rules to have?

For the first time in Facebook’s history, the number of daily active users in the U.S. dropped—by about 700,000.

We’ve got the biggest comments. The best comments. You’re going to have such good comments that you’re going to be sick of how good these comments are. Believe me. 

The internet and social media have made persuasive appeals more powerful than ever before.

Pope Francis’ 2018 World Communications Day message explains the dangers of fake news and what journalists and the public must do to combat it.

The social media behemoth wants you to use their platform less, not more, than before. 

While it can often be tempting to unfollow friends who have differing political views than you, one philosopher tells us why we should embrace, rather than shun, such challenges to our worldviews. 

Why do you check your phone 150 times a day? Is it a conscious choice, or have the attention merchants gotten into your head?

A new study found that listening to other people speak—as opposed to just write—tends to make us think they’re more mentally capable.

A supervised learning algorithm can predict clinical depression much earlier and more accurately than trained health professionals.

We used to use technology. Now technology uses us. Silicon Valley ethicist Tristan Harris explains how the attention economy hijacked our self-worth for profit.

Users don’t need better media literacy to beat fake news. We need social media to be frank about its commercial interests.

Video of a man being dragged off a United Airlines flight sparks widespread outrage.

In what Tristan Harris calls a “race to the bottom of the brain stem,” media companies and advertisers will do almost anything to keep your eyes locked where they want them.

There’s a trillion-dollar underground economy hiding in plain sight, says Steven Kotler, and it can be measured in dopamine.

When you take off a virtual reality headset, you don’t remember seeing things, you recall experiencing them, says Kevin Kelly. VR will create a world of amazing opportunity – for us and for advertisers.

A careful analysis by two economists finds that phony journalism had little influence on voters and the outcome of the election.

Nowhere is anti-intellectualism more warmly incubated or does misinformation spread faster than in the online community, which is why Facebook – the third most-visited website in the world – has such a weighty responsibility.rn

Go fearlessly into the Internet, but not blindly, says Virginia Heffernan – each corner of digital culture has its best practices. Not learning them is a disrespect.

Researchers find more evidence of the link between social media use by young adults and depression.

A recent tweet from Donald Trump plummeted the value of Lockheed Martin’s stocks. What implications does this hold about the economic influences of social media? 

Despite our romanticized vision of social media as a global town square overflowing with diversity, the reality is that each user’s experience is hyper-filtered.    

One in five employees are distracted at work by social media, a Pew Research Center poll finds.   

If hate is a virus, the U.S. has got it bad. Oliver Luckett presents a fascinating perspective on how the 2016 election divided America, how social media mimics biology, and how the U.S. can start to rebuild.

Sean Curry takes aim at the rapidly evolving “gourmet” food industry that is warping our expectations, mindsets and first-world privilege to a scary new level. 

The question isn’t, “Are you a narcissist?” — it’s “Which type are you?”