The real problem with Instagram is not the photo vs video debate
This narrow binary between glossy, aesthetic photos or TikTok-style video overlooks a crucial, broader change in our digital habits.
BySocial Media
Find here all of the New Statesman’s comment and analysis about social media and the digital age.
If Silicon Valley wants to ruin Instagram, there is nothing we can do about it
The latest Instagram update is a reminder that the online spaces we have come to call home were never ours.
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We should fear TikTok’s influence on news media
The social media platform is now the fastest growing news source for adults. The potential consequences are disturbing.
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Social media’s not just making girls depressed, it’s making us bitchy too
Instagram taps into our competitive psychology and tendency for girl-on-girl bullying.
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Social media’s consent problem
We may have opted in to social media but we have not – could never have – agreed to everything…
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Dating apps need to stop pretending men and women want the same thing
Men don’t swipe for marriage.
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The Online Safety Bill has sparked a free speech culture war
As child safety campaigners push for stronger regulation, a growing faction of the Tory party is crying "censorship".
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The problem with Instagram’s new child “age estimation” software
Age verification AI raises questions about reliability, bias and privacy.
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Inside Jason Miller’s plan to turn the Big Lie into a big business – and a second term for Trump
The former presidential adviser is the brains behind the social media platform Gettr. Can it cement the false narrative that…
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Gary Lineker isn’t wrong to say he suffered racist abuse
True anti-racists know the boundaries of who is “white” are blurred – race isn’t biologically real.
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Jonathan Haidt: “America is the ghost of liberal democracies’ future”
The social psychologist believes bitter online discourse is hastening the spread of US-style recriminatory politics.
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Social media isn’t always bad for children, it depends how they use it
Our reductive debates about the internet’s effect on mental health badly need nuance. New research provides it.
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You said you’d stop watching Love Island. Now’s the time to stick to your word
Love Island knows to appear more progressive than Big Brother or There’s Something About Miriam – but it’s got the…
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Reviewed in Short: New books from Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Preti Taneja, Leo Damrosch and Hanna Bervoets
Shrimp to Whale by Pacheco Pardo, Aftermath by Taneja, Adventurer by Damrosch and We Had To Remove This Post by…
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Should Prince Andrew be forgiven?
The Archbishop of Canterbury forgets that forgiveness requires contrition.
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Can Zarah Sultana save the Labour left?
The 28-year-old socialist MP on her viral fame, social media abuse and Keir Starmer’s leadership.
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Social media lectures about abortion “privilege” don’t help anyone
It’s incorrect and unhelpful to claim white and wealthy women would not be affected by a ban, but online emotion…
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The Pfizer conspiracy is a product of Twitter’s armchair experts
Pseudoscience has been catapulted from conspiracist fringes into mainstream conversation.
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Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover should alarm us all
Can we expect Donald Trump and “pedo guy” slurs to return?
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The Online Safety Bill gets a second look
Duty of care, the role of Ofcom and “legal but harmful” content were just some of the issues scrutinised by…
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