Social Media

The billionaire Frank McCourt is launching a “people’s bid” to buy the app, replace its addictive algorithm, and give users greater control of their data. Is it a publicity stunt or a sincere attempt to reform the digital age?

In 2016, I went viral for telling people to quit social media. In 2024, I ignored my own advice.

The attention economy has dominated the Internet for more than a decade now, but never before have its protagonists felt so central to American life—or had such direct access to the levers of power.

A new documentary reveals social-media platforms’ iron grip on the lives of teen-agers, one that’s increasingly being linked to a slew of mental-health issues. How scared should we be?

“Social Studies,” a documentary series by Lauren Greenfield, follows a group of young people, and screen-records their phones, to capture how social media has reshaped their lives.

A reporter known for chronicling the “extremely online” is making the leap to the creator economy. The most surprising thing is that she waited this long.

Hint: You can’t, really.

On today’s social media, the only way to counteract the overflow of online content is to put out an overflow of your own.

A new crop of influencers showcasing regressive gender roles has soared in popularity in recent months. Is this life style a harmless personal choice or an existential threat to feminism?

Pavel Durov may have been detained for the company’s alleged illegal conduct, but his predicament is also a signal of government concern about digital networks’ outsized power.

Trump has always drawn ideas from the darker corners of the Internet, but his new opponent has found a different kind of traction by embracing the Web’s native formats.

The X C.E.O. has been using his platform to sound off on topics including Venezuela’s election, Trump’s campaign, and racial violence in the U.K.

Kids are mimicking the semi-professionals they see on their phones, imbibing ideas about beauty rooted in deep desires and capitulations.

A loose federation of hyperlocal Instagram accounts are both satirizing and codifying the habits of a homogenous consumer class.

Today’s social platforms can instantly convert even the most harrowing news events into misleading tidbits and gleefully empty jokes.

By mimicking classic film aesthetics, the Fujifilm X100 has become a digital hit.

From her home base in London, the “Girls” creator is working on a new semi-autobiographical TV series and finishing up a memoir. But, she says, “I definitely don’t want to be my own muse.”

Supporters of the Trump and Biden campaigns are trying to engineer viral moments to win the election through social media.

Gen Z creators are learning the lessons of Scorsese and Akerman: putting mom and dad in your work brings pathos, complexity, and a certain frisson.

In a digital landscape overrun by algorithms and A.I., we need human guides to help us decide what’s worth paying attention to.