Social media
The Facebook empire is beginning to crumble
When empires crumble they slide slowly at first, then the temple walls come crashing down. Facebook is not quite at…
I miss life before Big Tech
Do any of you remember the time when everything took place on the terraces and in outdoor cafés? Before everyone…
Blue-tick Twitter is spoiling Emma Raducanu's victory
How do you take the pleasure out of something so marvellous and joyful as Emma Raducanu’s US open victory last…
Technology is robbing us of the power to forget
Technology is robbing us of the power to forget
I was held to ransom by hackers
I was held to ransom by hackers
Mesmerising and monstrous: @zola reviewed
The distinction between on and offline life blurred long ago. The greatest spats, sexual self-fashionings and mad soliloquies now unfurl…
Isn't it time social media cracked down on racism?
No sooner had Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick thudded into the gloves of the Italian goalkeeper than you could see it…
The bogus business of stigma-busting
Our society is bristling with social stigmas, we’re told, even in the progressive West, even in London. Life is so…
Beware Boris's sinister crackdown on free speech
A Conservative government that boasts it is a defender of free speech against the attacks of ‘the woke’ is about…
Big Tech is turning into Big Brother
The Big Tech social media giants are having to rethink their policy of censoring anybody who suggests that Covid originated…
How TikTok can turn a book into a bestseller
How TikTok can make a book a bestseller
A brilliant, tense, ragged slice of drama: Waiting for Lefty reviewed
A Russian Doll is a monologue about Putin’s campaign to swing the Brexit vote in his favour. It stars Rachel…
TikTok intifada: the role of new media in old conflicts
The TikTokisation of global politics
The curious rise of cottagecore
Cottagecore, not to be confused with cottaging, is an aspirational lifestyle trend. The word is relatively new —although you’ll find…
The first-century saint who went viral
Laura Freeman considers how artists have depicted one of the strangest and most touching of the Stations of the Cross
Promising material squandered: BKLYN – The Musical reviewed
BKLYN — The Musical gives itself a headache for no reason. What does ‘BKLYN’ mean? Perhaps it’s a random jumble…
The true cost of Gordon Elliott’s crass stupidity
Thanks to Covid, there could be no spine-tingling roar at the Cheltenham Festival this year as the first race runners…
Clubhouse left me with one question: why am I here?
For my 13th birthday in 1995 I requested — and got — my own ‘line’. This meant that I could…
The myth of ‘progressive’ thinking
Too much weight is put on the idea of ‘progress’
How Facebook became a freedom-gobbling corporate monster
Southwark Playhouse is beating the latest lockdown with a zingy new musical about social media. The performers, Francesca Forristal and…
The big tech bullies
I was in the kitchen preparing the family’s dinner when the inauguration of Joe Biden was on TV, so I…
Bad influence: Instagramming from Dubai isn’t ‘work’
Instagramming from Dubai isn’t ‘work’
The tech supremacy: Silicon Valley can no longer conceal its power
Can anyone stand up to big tech?
@jack is the giant
Where is Jack? You know, Jack-the-Giant-Killer? The little fellow who caught the giant Cormaran in a deadfall and dispatched him…
Trump’s social media ban sets a dangerous precedent
Facebook and Twitter’s decision to suspend Donald Trump is, legally speaking, fairly clear-cut. Both are private companies which set the…
