But no: What you find instead in the case of Larry Bushart is one of the most plain and egregious examples of police overreach and punishment of free speech you'll hopefully ever encounter. The injustice of it is both frightening and deeply relevant to our current sociopolitical landscape ... as is the curious indifference of national news, who seemed to largely miss the story entirely.
After the right-wing activist was shot and killed Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University, President Donald Trump and his allies sought to punish anyone who made public comments about Kirk that could be perceived as critical. Numerous universities fired or suspended professors, including three at FAU: Karen Leader, an associate professor of art history; Kate Polak, an English professor; and Rebel Cole, a finance professor.
A Russian soldier, with his face blurred, poses in front of the bodies of three Ukrainian soldiers lying face down in a pool of blood, their hands clasped behind their heads. The image, shared by the Russian Rusich unit on its Telegram channel, is accompanied by an announcement for a contest: The first three people to submit a photo of prisoners who have clearly been erased from existence will receive a cryptocurrency reward.
You open Instagram to grab a trending audio for a reel. Just one quick thing. Two hours later, you're still scrolling. You haven't created anything. You haven't even saved the audio you meant to find. And now it's 10 p.m., and you're mentally exhausted - and a little sad, tbh - from consuming content instead of making it. (Seriously, why is Instagram's search function on the Explore page?) Oh, wait, that was me. Hi. 👋
Today's audiences don't just want to buy from a brand. They want an experience to go along with it. And while strategies like transparency and smarter prep for sales calls can go a long way in boosting your sales numbers, the brands that achieve the greatest lasting success often focus on creating an unforgettable experience for their customers. What does an unforgettable experience actually look like?
Not long ago, the idea of getting paid to share your morning routine online would have sounded absurd. Yet today, influencers are big business: The global market is expected to surpass US$32 billion by the end of 2025. Rooted in celebrity culture but driven by digital platforms, the influencer economy represents a powerful force in both commerce and culture. I'm an expert on digital consumer research, and I see the rise of influencers as an important evolution in the relationship between companies, consumers and creators.
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.
Being the tech wizard that I am, one morning I accidentally pressed the reverse button on my iPhone camera. The next photo I took was of me-my first selfie. This accidental moment triggered my love of satire and led me to write this post. One thing was clear: I was not comfortable. And then it hit me-I must have Low Selfie-Esteem: the sense of inadequacy that comes from lacking the necessary digital narcissism to continually admire oneself in pixelated form.
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.
