The Hidden Dangers in Your Phone Number
Giving out your number may seem fairly innocuous, but it can have big consequences.
What Is Facebook Dating For?
An app that matches people based on their offline lives is a great idea—but 2019 is a strange time to have it.
Where Toxic Masculinity Goes to Die
Beard Board offers a rare avenue for constructive aesthetic feedback among men—minus the machismo that often accompanies it.
Tech Companies Are Quietly Phasing Out a Major Privacy Safeguard
More and more companies are failing to issue transparency reports to tell consumers how much of their information governments have demanded.
The World Wants Less Tech. Amazon Gives It More.
The world’s largest online retailer is diving headfirst into the techlash.
The Wildly Appealing, Totally Doomed Future of Work
WeWork was supposed to reinvent office life. Unfortunately, it did.
Disney’s CEO Gets Why Employees Want Their Bosses to Be More Political
People expect companies to step up because other institutions are failing them, Bob Iger said at The Atlantic Festival.
The Google Feature Magnifying Disinformation
Google’s knowledge panels contain helpful facts and tidbits. But sometimes they surface bad information, too.
Silicon Valley Is One of the Most Polluted Places in the Country
Microchip manufacturers contaminated the groundwater in the 1980s. Almost 40 years later, the cleanup still isn’t complete.
Famous for Looking Like Someone More Famous
Memes and moments come and go on TikTok, but its fascination with celebrity look-alikes is forever.
Algorithms Are People
The secret sauce of search engines gives tech companies an abundance of plausible deniability.
‘Close Friends,’ for a Monthly Fee
Influencer culture has normalized charging money for all kinds of intimacy.
Talk to People on the Telephone
It’s time to start calling your friends again.
The Military Origins of Layering
The popular way to keep warm outdoors owes a debt to World War II–era clothing science. An Object Lesson.
YouTube Videos Are a Gold Mine for Health Researchers
“Digital exhaust” from online life could be transformed into health insights. Should it be?
Can Facebook Fix the Dating World Tinder Created?
Before dating apps like Tinder, dates usually resulted from at least some baseline level of shared experience. Facebook wants to turn back the clock.
The Two Most Mysterious Words in Modern Shopping
I investigated the origins of my face wash and stumbled into the peculiar world of private-label products.
I Tried to Limit My Screen Time
It didn’t go well.
‘Storm Area 51’ Could Be a Disaster for Lincoln County
The Facebook event may have started in jest, but local officials are bracing for mayhem.
Coming Soon to a Battlefield: Robots That Can Kill
Tomorrow’s wars will be faster, more high-tech, and less human than ever before. Welcome to a new era of machine-driven warfare.