Social-media companies define how billions of people experience the web. The rise of synthetic content only makes their role more important.

People crying their hearts out online are selling intimacy—but the emptiest kind.

Today’s children face a world of constant surveillance. Their very sense of self is at stake.

We’re all on the Eras Tour, forever.

Celebrity legal disputes are juicier than gossip, less stressful than true crime, and unavoidable on social media.

Around the world, doctors have noticed teenage patients reporting the sudden onset of tics. Is this the first illness spread by social media?

Concern about hantavirus makes sense, but evidence so far suggests that most people have very little to worry about.

Young people are weathering the pandemic by posting photos of themselves in 17th-century plague-doctor outfits.

Democratic politics and pop culture have long been entangled—but entertainers seem a bit more sheepish about their endorsements lately.

OpenAI made the perfect tool for scammers.