Technology
I second that emoji
Why my generation has fallen for the smiley-face cult
Novel distractions
Procrastination is easier in the age of Google – but less honest
Click and flick
Romance is being killed off by the brutal marketplace of dating apps such as Tinder
Would you put your life in the care of Dr Droid?
There’s something wrong with the relationship between patients and their GPs. I’ve spent much of this winter in my local…
Nerds, spies and terrorists
Freedom of the press still matters when the presses are virtual
Technology without responsibility
We know they can be good citizens when they want to be. So why are the technology giants acting in ways that could endanger us all?
Blackberry fool
To survive as a technophobe in the 21st century, you must depend on the kindness of strangers
The parlour-game approach
A group of retired Somerset farmers were sitting about in the early 1960s, so Ian Mortimer’s story goes, debating which…
The latest horrific mutation
Following his beginnings as a science-fiction horror director, David Cronenberg has spent the past decades transforming himself into one of…
Licence to snoop
Police are using an anti-terror law to run wild in the public’s mobile phone records
Selfie obsession
People can’t seem to stop taking pictures of themselves – and their private parts. It’s the ultimate expression of our increasingly puerile and narcissistic society
Off the telly
In the world of YouTube and Netflix, generations no longer share a culture
The kick of the habit
I was waiting on an office forecourt recently puffing on an e-cigarette when a security guard came out. ‘You can’t…
The real dilemma of artificial intelligence
Having written (for a Times diary) a few sentences about consciousness in robots, I settled back to study readers’ responses…
Holiday kit – should it stay or should it go?
One inarguably good thing about electronic publishing is that it solves that old quandary about what books to pack for…
Plutarch on the iPhone
Adults, we are told, as much as children, become gibbering wrecks if deprived of their mobiles or iPhones for more…
Letters
Beyond the law Sir: In your leading article of 28 June you make the point that the hacking trial demonstrates…
The reassuring triumph of Big Mother
Feminism in modern Britain is not for the faint-hearted. Only the smartest, mouthiest girls on the social media scene dare…
Geek god
Believers in omnipotent machine intelligence are reshaping the world to fit their fantasies
Adam Smith vs the measurebators
Gandhi would test his resolve by sleeping between two naked virgins, an avenue not really open to me, as my…
How user-friendly is your house?
Old Glaswegian joke: ‘Put your hat and coat on, lassie, I’m off to the pub.’ ‘That’s nice — are you…
The luckiest kids in history
The statistics speak for themselves. Today’s gilded generation is the most blessed that ever lived
The wisdom of clouds
Children can teach each other, believes Sugata Mitra — if you give them the internet, a big screen and a helpful granny on Skype
A land of extremes
A few years ago I would have quite liked to live in America. I’m not sure now. For one thing,…
March of the robots
Will Self 28 February 2015 9:00 am
Nicholas Carr has a bee in his bonnet, and given his susceptibilities this might well be a cybernetic insect, cunningly…