The Internet

My Media Diet: In her debut novel, Allie Rowbottom unpicks what longing for synthetic beauty can do to a person’s psyche. Here’s what the author – who’s well acquainted with Instagram’s dark underbelly – gets up to online.

The social app might position itself as the anti-Instagram, but it’s really just another avenue for us to pretend our lives are a highlight reel. Do we need the added (two minutes of) pressure?

Ickbait: If you use words like “oomf” or post selfies with people you don’t know, Daisy Jones is logging off.

The zine founder explores chronic illness and feminism in her debut book Poor Little Sick Girls. Here, she reveals what she’s been reading, scrolling over and memeing.

For too long, the World Wide Web has been shaped by tech capitalists in California. A non-toxic, ad-free digital world is possible – but how do we get there?

Tech giants have announced grand plans to “bring the metaverse to life”. And with the likes of Gucci, Ariana Grande and Man City on board, how long before the internet swallows us whole? Let’s find out.