Social Media

The American Eagle campaign, with its presentation of Americana as a zombie slop of mustangs, denim, and good genes, is lowest-common-denominator stuff.

A C.E.O.’s affair, caught on jumbotron and spread across social media, demonstrates that mass attention on today’s internet tends to be deeply undesirable.

An app called Opal finally succeeded at curbing my time spent on social media through a combination of mild friction, encouragement, and guilt.

Sharing casual moments from our lives on social media doesn’t seem to make sense the way it used to.

In an era that rewards online authenticity, political leaders are becoming the new influencers-in-chief.

How our ideas about point of view got all turned around.

The President has kept the upper hand so far, partly because of his bully pulpit, and partly because he has remained relatively understated.

Musk looks like the latest victim of a common Trump-era dynamic: the impossibility of sharing the President’s spotlight.

Spotify and YouTube barred the song, which salutes Hitler, from their platforms. It found its audience, anyway.

Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.

It makes sense that a man who yearns for a reality untroubled by other humans would be drawn to art that is untouched by anything human.

During testimony at Meta’s antitrust trial, the Facebook founder’s argument was, in so many words, that platforms like his are not what they used to be.

We participate in political memes to express our anxiety that whatever is coming next might be even more chaotic than what is already happening.

The first time around, the President’s bad deeds galvanized people on social media. This time, they’re looking to “flush out their brains.”

The author of “Jurassic Park” understood that technologies often wriggle out of the grasp of their creators.

Social media is no longer just a tool for politicians to get out their message; politicians now have to shape themselves into optimized vessels for social media.

Lawmakers attempting to regulate children’s access to social media must decide whether bans or warning labels are the optimal route for keeping kids safe.

The billionaire Frank McCourt is launching a “people’s bid” to buy the app, replace its addictive algorithm, and give users greater control of their data. Is it a publicity stunt or a sincere attempt to reform the digital age?

In 2016, I went viral for telling people to quit social media. In 2024, I ignored my own advice.

The attention economy has dominated the Internet for more than a decade now, but never before have its protagonists felt so central to American life—or had such direct access to the levers of power.