When the first Inside Out movie was released, in 2015, reviews described how powerfully moving it was. More than a few mentioned one scene in particular, one moment when you better have a hanky handy. I’m a sappy parent, …
TikTok won’t win the election
Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”.
Let’s start with TikTok, which the …
TikTok won’t win the election
Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”.
Let’s start with TikTok, which the …
How TikTok is erasing girlhood
A few weeks ago, I saw my two nephews. My mum keeps a big box of our old toys, and the three-year-old loves the kitchen set: he delights in plonking radioactive-looking broccoli florets on plates or, learning from trips to …
Control and Censorship and Why the TikTok Ban is So Dangerous.
Lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban TikTok if Chinese owner Bytedance doesn’t sell its stake in the app. The U.S.’ moves against TikTok, which are yet to be signed off by the […]
Source: The Expose Read the …
The rise of stay-at-home girlfriends
On a summer’s day, TikTok influencer Gwen The Milkmaid can be found frying up all-American comfort food dressed in a floral prairie dress. “I don’t want to be a boss babe. I want to be a frolicking mama. I want …
Here come the female Andrew Tates
“Men do not love you, okay? So stop thinking that they do. They tolerate you. They lust you. That’s it.”
The YouTube influencer SheRa Seven’s advice for young women is as sharp as the wings of her black eyeliner. To …
The high priestess of celebrity therapists
Would you want to eavesdrop on an anonymous couple’s therapy session? Hear a woman talk to her husband about the revelation that he secretly fathered twins with a lesbian couple she had doubts about, just after he’d cheated on her …
Hag feminism is the future
At the beginning of the year, a scandal erupted over a TikTok trend of young women in tight clothes posting videos shaming men for hitting on them at the gym. As recently as 2018, the story would have been one …
The vengeful ex-girlfriends of TikTok
The girl in the TikTok video is wearing joggers, a lime green bra, and — for some reason — a pink ski mask. Her hair is blonde and stringy. She climbs atop the kitchen counter, attempting a yoga arm balance …
The trouble with online safetyism
Epileptics being maliciously exposed to flashing images. Children being bullied via social media. Adults being misled by material about medical interventions. Since it was conceived by academics in 2018, the Online Safety Bill — which returns to Parliament this week …
Who will rule Twitter next?
It is often declared that Twitter is not real life; too rarely does anyone add, because it’s far more important. As the primary vector for the construction and dissemination of political narratives, social media has become the central battleground where …
How manifesting was corrupted
Mindlessly scrolling through football transfer rumours on Twitter recently, I noticed some Liverpool fans trying something a little different. The club’s owners weren’t doing the business they wanted, so it was time, one fan suggested, to gather their mental forces …
Selfies have made you ugly
Modern man, wrote the social psychologist Erich Fromm in 1956, “has been transformed into a commodity”. Scroll through social media, and you will see this transformation is absolute. On one side, we are asked to rate glamorous, increasingly similar-looking people …
Hollywood needs nepotism babies
During the summer holiday, one week of family viewing was devoted to the Hunger Games series. It reminded me what a vintage star-is-born story it was when Jennifer Lawrence went from the indie hit to Winter’s Bone to making The …