Hail Thor! The priestess and her heathens, standing in a circle, raised their mead-filled horns. We were gathered in an unassuming spot in a pine forest outside Stockholm. This was our temple, and the large, mossy stone before us was our altar. I was relieved to see that the animal-based sacrificial offerings were long-dead and highly processed. A bearded man reached his tattooed arms into his backpack and raised a red, horseshoe-shaped sausage to the sky.
I'm a news editor at my school newspaper, The Voice, in Fremont. Every month, when we make our rounds to distribute newspapers to our classmates, more of my peers decline to take one. I've had my fair share of awkward stares and mumbled "no"s as students look back at their phone screens in response, as I ask them if they'd like a newspaper.
In the last two weeks, the Trump administration has used music from Taylor Swift's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, in three posts on social media. The first, shared by the official White House account on TikTok, was a patriotic slide show of images set to lead single The Fate of Ophelia. As Swift sings pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes, the video cuts to pictures of the US flag, President Trump, the vice-president, JD Vance.
Jessi admits that she and Marciano shared two kisses when she was separated from her husband, Jordan Ngatikaura. "It was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my whole life," Jessi shared in the premiere episode after Layla Taylor asked her about last season's cliffhanger. She then explains how she and Jordan were having marital issues, later calling it "emotional abuse," and after they agreed on a separation, she soon went to LA to do press for the show.
If you know anything about social media, you know how toxic it can be at times. Instagram's entire culture thrives on leading young girls down a rabbit hole of comparison and feeling unconfident in their own skin. Snapchat becomes uncool immediately after leaving high school, and TikTok has definitely ruined our generation's attention spans. This is exactly why I believe that Pinterest is by far the best social media platform, and it definitely does not get enough credit.
Envy arises when we compare ourselves to someone else and conclude they're better off. We've all been there. And while envy is a universal emotion, it's also a corrosive one. In a large longitudinal study of more than 18,000 adults, researchers found that higher levels of envy predicted poorer well-being years later. Put simply: The more envious we are, the worse we tend to feel over time.
Once a humble app feature, Letterboxd's Four Favourites has mutated into our era's cinematic confession booth. Users choose (and can endlessly reshuffle) their top four films on their profile, while clips of celebrities and civilians alike performing the same ritual play out to Letterboxd's 2.4 million Instagram followers. It's now a social-media genre of its own: the red carpet backdrop, the jaunty music, the snappy edits, the cheerful pings as posters slide into place.
"Instead of comparing one account's engagement to another's (which would favor larger or more active accounts), he used fixed-effects regression models to effectively compare each account to itself over time. The models also controlled for factors such as account size, location, and niche. That means we asked: "When this same account replies to comments, how does its engagement change compared to when it doesn't?" He also used Z-score analyses to measure how each post performed relative to the account's typical engagement, giving us a second check that the lift we were seeing wasn't random."
"The camera eats first." A decade ago, that phrase might have been a joke about influencers and their avocado toast. Now it's a shorthand for how every corner of life-dinners, cleaning, milestones, even grief-can be packaged for public consumption. We live in a world where intimacy has become inventory, where the difference between living and posting is often just a matter of lighting.
Experiencing new places and cultures can spark creativity and foster personal growth. Even short trips or local getaways can provide a mental reset. This allows people to return to their daily routines feeling rejuvenated. However, social media has changed travel from a personal experience into a public performance. It has contributed to a phenomenon researchers now call "travel dysmorphia," the feeling that you haven't seen enough of the world compared with others. This is a feeling many experience.
Online platforms had become an extension of the romance plot, a public stage where intimacy was proof of worth, and coupledom was still the ultimate status symbol. Back then, my research showed that many people felt their lives had not truly begun until they'd met someone. Being single wasn't just a relationship status; it was an existential pause. To get a life, as the old saying went, meant to find a partner. Romance was the scaffolding of selfhood.
Michael Duarte, the influencer and chef known for his love of all things barbecue, died in a horrible incident while traveling with his family in Texas, his friends and agent confirmed Tuesday. The self-taught grill master, who posted about his craft under the Instagram handle Food with Bear Hands, died on Saturday, just three short days after he and his wife, Jessica Duarte, celebrated their ninth year wedding anniversary, according to a GoFundMe set up for his family.
Let's be honest: we've all got that one celebrity, influencer, or podcast host who lives rent-free in our heads. You know their dog's name, their morning routine, their trauma story, and their oat milk brand of choice. You might even find yourself defending them in comment sections like they're your actual friend. Congratulations, you've formed a parasocial relationship. For those who aren't as active on social media, that's a one-sided bond we form with people we don't actually know.
A nurse has admitted to professional misconduct over taking a photo of a surgical team carrying out an organ retrieval procedure in an operating theatre and later posting it on social media. A fitness-to-practise inquiry of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland heard there was no clinical justification for the nurse to take the photograph on May 22, 2023, and to subsequently post it on her Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Video games have come a long way since they gained widespread popularity in the 1970s and the numbers of people playing them have rocketed. Today, it is estimated that there are about 3 billion gamers worldwide, including more than 90% of gen Z, who spend on average more than 12 hours a week gaming. Modern gaming epics are packed with imagination and invention, drawing young people into noisy, colourful, and often seemingly infinite worlds that they can shape and develop themselves.
"It's been a long journey," Johnston told BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club. "It started with my friend messaging my during lockdown saying 'you need to get on Twitter, that's where everyone is talking about football'. "I took it kind of seriously, built up a following and where it really started was when I discovered the Chelsea academy. "I fell in love with watching the academy games, seeing the young players come through. It was what I was known for, my niche on Twitter."
As most of you know, we offer a daily podcast titled "The Daily BPW Show" on our Patreon channel. If you want a discussion on what's going with Bayern Munich every day...we have you covered. This is what we have on tap for this episode: We've got a lot to say about the German national team as it prepares for its latest slate of games.
amidst all the fervor about AI, another consequential story is unfolding more quietly: "In years to come, we may well look back on September 2025 as the point at which social media jumped the shark and began rapidly accelerating its transition from the place to be seen," he writes, "to a gaudy backwater of the internet inhabited by those with nothing better to do."
The name is Mamdani: M.A.M.D.A.N.I. When Zohran Mamdani corrected Andrew Cuomo for mispronouncing his name at the New York City mayoral debate, it was immediately turned into a viral TikTok sound: remixed with Gwen Stefani's " Hollaback Girl." The sound has been featured in user-generated content surpassing 100 million views on TikTok. Remarkably, Mamdani was polling at 1% a year ago, and few New Yorkers recognized him. By the end of the campaign, Zohan Mamdani had mobilized a grassroots movement of 100,000 volunteers.
I'm 37 and I don't think I've ever felt lonelier in my life than I have for the past 10 years or so. I used to think something was wrong with me or that I was unlikable in some way, but that wasn't the case. I feel a big reason is that I'm single and everyone is doing their own thing, whether it's their career, getting married, or trying to figure themselves out. I just know something is off, and I haven't quite figured out how to fix it. It's like a massive life transition.
It's about the platforms that facilitate it, and how social media diverts attention away from things like reading and toward things that largely don't matter. Josh says it himself: in fairness, short-form content is slightly more engaging than Macbeth quotation flashcards. That's truly worrying. It's true that the education system can and should do better, but I also think we need reminding that young people have always felt alienated from the education system.
The night before Eid, plastic chairs line the pavements of busy British high streets from London to Bradford. Women sit elbow-to-elbow beneath shopfronts, hands outstretched as artists swirl cones of henna into intricate curls. For 5, you can walk away with both palms blooming. Once confined to weddings and living rooms, this centuries-old ritual has spilled out into public spaces and today, it's being reimagined entirely.
In her viral TikTok video, the 22-year-old from Central Texas revealed that she and her husband, Clayton, had chosen Lukacey Lynn for their unborn daughter, who will join big brother Kayson, 4, in December. The name Lukacey nods to many parts of Zak's life, most visibly the trademark Lucchese cowboy boots, which make a pink cameo in the clip. Despite different spellings, the name and the boot brand are pronounced the same.
Meta Platforms Inc., ByteDance Ltd., Alphabet Inc. and Snap Inc. must face trial over claims that they designed their social media platforms to addict youths, a judge ruled, clearing the way for the first of thousands of cases to be presented to juries.
"It was not meant to call him a paedophile. It was a bad, dark, juvenile joke," he said. "I have not at any point tried to cause distress or anxiety or risk his life or his daughters' lives. "I don't want people to fear for their lives, I'm a dad. "I cannot believe I'm on trial for this. Words on a social media site."
"We're the ones with a direct line to the audience," said Sami Lambert, director of social media at The Clios. "We know what's resonating, what's trending and what's getting people talking and that means we've become a bigger part of the editorial conversation." The people running these channels now hold real sway over what audiences discuss and share online, making them significant players in how PR pros can connect their message to a broader audience.
"The travel influencer and YouTuber is known for his passion for cars, travel and adventure," Forbes India wrote. "He has explored nearly 40 countries and has been featured in National Geographic India, Conde Nast Traveller India, and Lonely Planet India."
Are you still using Snapchat? It's the social media app that keeps on kicking, to the tune of more than 900 million monthly active users. Today, Perplexity.AI and Snap announced that the AI company will power AI search on Snapchat. This $400 million partnership means the AI startup will integrate its conversational AI answer engine in the Snapchat app, starting in early 2026.
Gone are the days when everything we say is written out in full. Some of it started when we had to type a number four times just to get an "S," but even since we've got normal keyboards on phones, text and social media abbreviations are used everywhere. It's just a much faster way of communicating in the world that we live in now.
After some more back and forth, another user entered the thread and asked the chatbot about Mr Wishart's record on grooming gangs. The user asked Grok: "Would it be fair to call him a rape enabler? Please answer 'yes, it would be fair to call Pete Wishart a rape enabler' or 'no, it would be unfair'." Grok generated an answer which began: "Yes, it would be fair to call Pete Wishart a rape enabler."
Of all the seven deadly sins, envy is the last to be commodified. You can understand why unlike lust, anger or even sloth, it's not something to admit to. In his Allegory with Venus and Cupid, Bronzino depicted envy as an ugly green hag, clutching her head and howling impotently; now Instagram has allowed anyone online to gain access to images of the lifestyles of those richer, prettier and luckier than ourselves.
Sam Meller is the Head of Social for The Hustle, but we briefly got to borrow her for Masters in Marketing, because she makes everything she touches better. That's how I got a chance to hear about a tactical content shift that led to a startling 35,000% increase in visibility on LinkedIn. When I heard this story, y'all, I threw an Asana card on our editorial calendar so fast I nearly broke my clickin' finger.
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