The most successful cultural movement of the last two decades counts over five billion people as its members (the majority of the living human population) and has never once had to ask anyone to join. It’s spread faster than any religion, any ideology, and with less effort on everyone's part. It has no leader, no founding text or manifesto, no headquarters, and no name. The only thing holding it together is an algorithm. We’re all familiar with doomscrolling: the compulsive act of scrolling...

In the digital age, how does war reporting change? When news of the war in the Gulf broke, I saw it on Instagram. A video popped up on my feed; it was filmed vertically, with dramatic music and a voiceover explaining what had happened. And just about thirty seconds later, it was over. My first instinct (which I find both uncomfortable and a little embarrassing) was to keep scrolling like I always do on the app. But I stopped for a moment because it felt so strange that after watching a video...

How to say what you probably shouldn't There is something ironic about how much effort we put into not meaning what we say. Freud called it parapraxis: the slip of the tongue that reveals what you weren’t planning to admit. The moment when unconscious feeling overrides conscious presentation. It happens when your defences are low – when you’re tired, distracted, or not actively managing perception. Most of the time, though, we don’t slip. We rehearse. We will run a sentence through our heads...