Rachel de Souza: “Big Tech knows it harms children – it should get serious”
The children’s commissioner on social media, porn and the mental health crisis in schools.
BySocial Media
Find here all of the New Statesman’s comment and analysis about social media and the digital age.
The rise of “dumb phones”
Chunky bricks and Noughties flip phones are creeping back into the mainstream, as an antidote to smartphone addiction.
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Our parents were right: we can no longer trust what we see on the internet
I’d been lied to, by the very thing I hold in my hand for the majority of my day. How…
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Social media is taking a dangerous toll on teenage girls
The evidence is now clear: smartphones are the major cause of the mental illness epidemic among young women.
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Stop posting
Elon Musk has killed Twitter – so what should replace it?
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The death of workplace perks
Major companies are cutting back on benefits, from free meals to laundry services – and our understanding of what makes a…
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Banning TikTok will bring on the splinternet
Retaliatory censorship by Russia and China on apps and devices will lead to the West living in a parallel internet.
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UK government bans TikTok on corporate devices
The ByteDance-owned app will only be used on government devices in certain circumstances and will require security clearance.
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“Influencer boxing” and the rise of content as culture
The huge spectacle around Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury shows the influencer economy’s outsized impact on our entertainment.
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Inside the mind of Andrew Tate
A new documentary, The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate, examines the success of the social media misogynist.
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“I know when people are lying”: The disturbing rise of TikTok sleuths
On social media, speculative content has increased thanks to amateur detectives who believe their true crime obsession “helps me see…
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The NHS can’t help the mentally ill – can influencers?
Social media personalities are cashing in on the mental health crisis.
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The world can no longer afford for Twitter to be run so badly
Its outage this week was irksome for us – but a matter of life and death for Turks and Syrians.
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Plastic surgery isn’t feminist
Why aren’t we allowed to challenge the idea that Botox and fillers empower women?
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The tasteless, dangerous rise of charity porn content
YouTubers such as MrBeast are giving away millions in exploitative videos that spread the hollow gospel of “effective altruism”.
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We’re talking about “burnout” wrong
Through overuse and misuse, the term has lost all meaning.
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Your therapist shouldn’t be on TikTok
On social media, therapists are turning consultation room conversations into memes. It’s a sinister trend.
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Why we need more female monsters like Lydia Tár
Cate Blanchett’s fierce composer is a proxy for all the rage I’m not allowed, as a middle-aged woman, to express.
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Healthy habits aren’t as miserable as everyone says
There is a pervasive school of thought that says that making responsible choices has to involve endless self-sacrifice and little…
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Beauty standards are changing at speed. What’s the impact on our bodies?
Applying fast fashion standards to our bodies through normalised cosmetic surgery is a disturbing and dangerous trend.
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