Why are there triple brackets around names on social media?
What started as a trolling mechanism is now a gesture of defiance.
BySocial Media
Find here all of the New Statesman’s comment and analysis about social media and the digital age.
The Tinder dating app isn’t just about sex – it’s about friendship, too. And sex
The lines between sex, love and friendship are blurrier than ever, as I found out quickly while using the app.
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An alien for Putin: are emojis changing the face of diplomacy?
Emojis could be the promised land of diplomatic history: they have the potential to speak across borders to a new, global citizenry.
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Doing a Radiohead: how to disappear online
The band has performed an online Houdini in advance of its ninth album – but it’s harder than it looks.
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Why Facebook became overly friendly
The social network is acting like that friend who plies you with drinks, compliments, and emoji in the hope you’ll spill some gossip.
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The Pill pushback
The contraceptive pill helped liberate women when it arrived in the UK in the 1960s. Now, spurred by experiences shared online and…
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Sex spreadsheets and thumb kisses: inside the world of couple apps
App designers have conquered dating, and have moved onto the world of coupledom.
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How YouTubers really make their millions
The teenage girls who make up Zoella’s fiercely loyal fanbase are customers, even if they aren’t aware of it.
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Algorithms may save us from information overload, but are they the curators we want?
Instagram is joining the legions of social networks which use algorithms to dictate what we see, and when we see it.
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Why Francis wants to be the first social media-friendly Pope
He believes social media is a “gift” from God.
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Twitter is 10. Where were other social networks after a decade?
Sold, relaunched, died; sold, relaunched, survived.
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Isis threats against Facebook and Twitter demonstrate how much it relies on them
Cutting off Isis's access to mainstream social media could take a bite out of its exposure - and even its operations.
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New app “Being” pushes online voyeurism further than ever before
The app, and the impulses that inspired it, are proof that we don't just want to watch the people we…
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Facebook official: the rise and fall of the relationship status
In the Noughties, it was a relationship milestone. Now, it's just another dead feature. What happened?
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PewDiePie kicks off YouTube’s first premium web series
Scare PewDiePie is the first series on YouTube Red, Google's attempt to generate revenue for original web programming.
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Why Twitter is dying, in ten tweets
It's ironic that the most heated discussions of the platform's weaknesses are playing out on the platform itself.
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How Zayn Malik is challenging power dynamics with a retweet
Sharing fanart can be a radical act.
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#Match4Lara: How social media can overcome your biological odds
For mixed-race and BME people in search of a donor, survival can be a case of beating the statistics.
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New social app Peach will be successful if it can achieve the “networking effect“
Peach is simply further proof of how difficult it is to build a wide user base.
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Stop clicking on wacky conspiracy theory posts
A new study analyses how conspiracy theories and other "misinformation" content are shared online.
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