Why subscribe?

Because you’ll get weekly (probably) analyses which look at how social platforms—Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc—are making the world a little bit more fractious all the time. It’s a phenomenon I call “social warming”, akin to global warming: we all contribute to it in tiny ways, but the effects are felt by all of us—some more than others. Just as we like driving cars because they make life convenient, but they all contribute to global warming, so using social networks can be really fun, yet it’s inherent in their design that the content we’ll tend to see is the stuff that outrages us, makes us angry, makes us react. And the spiral continues.

Buy the book! It’ll keep you off social media for a bit.

Who am I?

From 2005-2014, technology editor at The Guardian; from 1995-2004, science and technology correspondent and then editor at The Independent; before that, New Scientist, Business, Computer Weekly. Now: freelance journalist, speaker, moderator. You’ll usually find me on Twitter. I know, how ironic. I also write a daily newsletter called The Overspill. Also free signup, or just view it on the website.