social media
-
Why We Scroll Everything and Remember Nothing
I used to do a lot of family and pet photography. Weddings. Newborn shoots. Dogs mid-leap in a field. Grandparents holding hands. The sort of moments people say they want to “treasure forever”. And do you know what started to quietly frustrate me? People would look at a photograph for about three seconds. “Ah that’s…
-
Are Teen Social Media Bans Really About Surveillance?
Politicians love a simple story: “Kids are in trouble online. Ban them from social media. Job done.” It sounds tough, it sounds decisive, and it sounds like it’s “for the children”. Is it also nonsense? A Teen Social Media Ban Could Do More Than Protect Our Kids – It Could Supercharge the Surveillance State An…
-
Teen Social Media Bans Are Really About Surveillance
Politicians love a simple story: “Kids are in trouble online. Ban them from social media. Job done.” It sounds tough, it sounds decisive, and it sounds like it’s “for the children”. It’s also nonsense. A Teen Social Media Ban Won’t Save Our Kids – It’ll Just Supercharge the Surveillance State A ban on under-16s using…
-
Phone Addiction Is Stealing Real Human Connection
You’re mid-sentence. You’re telling someone about your day, something that happened, something that matters to you – and they glance down. Just for a second. Their thumb swipes. Their eyes leave yours. And you stop talking. Not because you’ve finished. Because you’ve been dismissed. You know the moment. We all do. You might be on…
-
Casualties of Misinformation & Psychological Impact
I wrote about a false Facebook post earlier. Someone with a platform and self-declared expertise posted statistics about UK Reform that actually came from Estonia’s Reform Party. Different country. Different party. Same name. When I corrected it with the source, I got blocked. In Brief: False information posted with authority doesn’t just spread lies, it…
-
Fact-Checking Gets You Blocked – A Misinformation Case Study
In Brief: I corrected false information on Facebook this morning. The person who posted it deleted the evidence, accused me of trolling, and blocked me. This wasn’t some random keyboard warrior spouting rubbish in a comments section. This was someone claiming to be a leading expert on violence against women and children in the UK,…
-
The Safe Space That Can Push People Closer to the Edge
We’re told that social media can bring people together. That it connects the lonely, offers comfort, builds communities. And in some corners, maybe it does. But in others, it becomes something darker, a factory of false hope. The Illusion of Safety in ‘The Safe Space’ I joined a group called The Safe Space. A Facebook community…
-
Facebook has seriously passed its sell-by date!
Facebook used to be a decent platform. It was fun. Well, sort of. For a while. But now it feels like a cesspit you wade through for the odd useful post. The rest is AI tat (or AI Slop as most people are referring to it as), scammy ads, tired “news” and links that take…
-
Your Brain Is Being Hijacked for Profit. Here’s the Proof.
In Brief: That viral post about Australian swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan threatening to boycott the 2028 Olympics over Lia Thomas? Completely fabricated. O’Callaghan never said it, Swimming Australia officially intervened to get it removed, and Thomas can’t compete in 2028 anyway because World Aquatics already banned her in 2022 after she lost her legal challenge. The…
-
Criticising the Machine Algorithm Game While Feeding It
There’s a pattern I can’t unsee anymore. It’s so flipping common. Plenty of tech commentators on YouTube and podcasts love to rant about algorithms. About AI. About attention. About how recommendation engines are rewiring us, shortening our focus, spoon-feeding us ideas instead of forcing us to think. They’ll ask the big questions. All valid questions.…