Social media - Newslocker

I never imagined I’d have no social life in my 20s – but I’m fine with it

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0200

If you asked me a few years ago to picture how my twenties would look, I’d have imagined a diary full of after-work drinks, spontaneous weekends away and a group chat that never went quiet.The reality now, at the age of 24, is that I live three hours away from my closest friends and see them just once a year, some even less. And although this feels controversial to admit having such little face-time with friends, I am completely fine with it.After moving from Buckinghamshire to Cheshire, m

What Meta’s major child safety fine could mean for social media reforms

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0200

Meta has been ordered to pay a major $567m (£421m) fine to address harms to young people in the second part of a landmark case against the tech giant.A New Mexico court in the United States imposed the penalty on Thursday, local time, with Judge Bryan Biedscheid saying the bulk of the money would be directed to treatment services for children and teens.The case, which Meta lost in March, has already seen a jury levy $375m (£279m) in fines against the owner of Facebook, Instagram, Wha

What Meta’s £421m child safety fine could mean for social media reforms

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0200

Smoking is cool again. How embarrassing

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0200

When I was a child I was led to believe that great diabolical temptation, “smoking”, would present itself to me, serpentine, hanging around a disused bike shed or down a ginnel on the way home from school.It would probably involve peer pressure, and how I responded to it would determine both the course of my future and my classification as either a good or bad person. It did not seem difficult to do. I had grown up in a world where smoking was bad: bad for your health, done by bad gi

Putin is losing his battle with ‘Russia’s Zuckerberg’ – and being openly mocked

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0200

A day after being charged by Russian authorities with assisting terrorist activity and being placed on an international “wanted” list, the founder of the Telegram messaging app responded – with a meme.Pavel Durov, a 41-year-old tech billionaire sometimes dubbed “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg”, showed little sign of concern over the case launched by the Federal Security Service (FSB) last week.Writing to his 11.3 million followers from his haven in Dubai, Durov said

How Steven Bartlett fooled the world

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0200

When George Orwell wrote 1984, he devised a language, Newspeak, in which a simplified and restricted version of English was introduced to diminish the intellectual and emotional range of the population. When I read words like “grindset”, “hustle” and “maxxing”, I experience the same cognitive shrinkage. These are terms designed to gloss over the complex interrelations of capitalism, and nobody has come to emblematise this kind of vapid corporate jargon quite l

Dua Lipa: the ‘magical thinker’ unwittingly making Britain’s young women miserable

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0200

Who broke Britain? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which experts and writers debate the issues that concern them about modern Britain.• You won’t know James Bevan, but you should know what he did to this country
• Boris Johnson wrecked Britain. But this man left even deeper scars
• The hardcore socialist whose ruinous idea is why Liz Truss became PM
• Martin Lewis: the money-saving expert… who accidentally cost Brito

The worrying Japanese phenomenon of Hikikomori is emerging among our teens

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0200

There’s a term that strikes fear into Japanese parents: Hikikomori – when teenagers become so withdrawn that they don’t leave the house for months or even years.But perhaps it isn’t only a phenomenon in Japan: one in seven UK university students now show early signs of Hikikomori, according to a small survey.It could also be contributing to the growing number of British young people who are NEET – not in education, employment or training – said Dr Yoko Nagai,

Stormy Daniels: I’d rather be called a whore than a hypocrite

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0200

Welcome to Trump’s America, The i Paper’s World Insight series presenting the sharpest, deepest thinking on an era-defining shift in history and politics, investigating how Donald Trump and his administration have changed the US and the world – and where we go from here.• America can’t afford to retire
• The US is becoming impossible to live in
• The White House I worked for would have condemned this image. Trump refuses
• Maga lead

How pop music works in 2026 – and why it’s about to drastically change

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0200

From The Beatles to Billie Eilish, punk to K-pop, teenagers have been shaping the music industry for as long as it’s existed. They are the first to jump on new trends, the first to worship artists and the first to create a whole network of theories and discussion around releases. But that might all be about to change with the new social media ban for under-16s.It’s not the first, fifth or even 15th thing that the British government might’ve thought of when they began to imagine

Katie Hopkins: the queen of the hate economy getting the last laugh on Britain

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0200

• You won’t know James Bevan, but you should know what he did to this country
• Boris Johnson wrecked Britain. But this man left even deeper scars
• The hardcore socialist whose ruinous idea is why Liz Truss became PM
• Martin Lewis: the money-saving expert… who accidentally cost Britons billions
• The American woman who ripped the heart out of Cadbury
• The shadowy maverick who pulled Labour’s strings… and sun

Pinterest Launches 2 Powerful AI Marketing Tools.

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:28:00 +0200

If you’re a small business owner, you probably know how challenging it can be to attract new customers online while juggling everything else that comes with running a business. That’s why Pinterest’s latest announcement is worth paying attention to. The platform has unveiled two new

The post Pinterest Launches 2 Powerful AI Marketing Tools. first appeared on Immediate Future.

How to Stand Out as a Brand on Social Media

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 11:52:00 +0200

Social media in 2026 is brutally crowded. Everyone is posting, everyone is optimising, and most brands are still trying to sound like a polite corporate email with a ring light. If you want to stand out, you need more than consistency. You need identity. The

The post How to Stand Out as a Brand on Social Media first appeared on Immediate Future.

Social media giants could be forced to boost BBC content – four things to know

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0200

The Government is reportedly considering forcing social media giants to push BBC content towards users.The proposals would reportedly require platforms like YouTube, Facebook and TikTok to give greater prominence to the BBC and other public service broadcasters in feeds, search results and algorithms.Here’s what the proposals might do and why the plan is already drawing criticism.Priority to BBC, ITV and Channel 4Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) sources told The Telegraph the

Children hired as ‘dispensable’ weapons by hostile states

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0200

Children are being used as “dispensable” weapons by organised criminals and hostile states paying for crimes including murder and arson, international law enforcement leaders have warned.In Britain, the head of the National Crime Agency (NCA) said that “younger and younger” children were being investigated as the perpetrators of serious crimes and that a 15-year-old boy had recently been arrested on suspicion of trying to import a gun.Several of the suspects arrested over

Social media – the top news source

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:58:00 +0200

The latest insights from Reuters into news consumption behaviours sees social media topping the table. We look into why this is, and how it’s all potentially come about. The 2026 Digital News Report from Reuters revealed social’s top place in the news standings – based

The post Social media – the top news source first appeared on Immediate Future.

My trip to Makerfield convinced me I’ve got something very wrong

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:52:00 +0200

There is nothing like being right. Being so certain. Feeling the kind of self assurance that makes you walk taller and command a room with your thinking. That was where I was on Monday morning.Keir Starmer had delivered one of his most assured, most prime ministerial statements of his premiership – the long awaited, and indeed longed-for, ban on social media for the under-16s.It was time to give children back their childhoods, argued the PM. And to give parents a break from hammering them.

Emily Maitlis: My trip to Makerfield convinced me I’ve got something very wrong

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:52:00 +0200

Fake patriots have a new playbook – and it’s going to destroy the UK

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0200

There are two types of patriot: the kind who fetishise flags and the kind who prioritise people. In the UK, thanks to a toxic coalition of grifters, politicians and the richest man in the world, the first kind are currently enjoying a period of unprecedented dominance over the second.It took me years to fully understand what Samuel Johnson meant when he described patriotism as “the last refuge of a scoundrel”. As a child, a love for your country comes almost as naturally as a love of

1 Big Instagram Update for Businesses.

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 15:45:00 +0200

Instagram is giving users more control over what they see in the app by expanding its “Your Algorithm” feature to the main feed. The feature allows users to tell Instagram which topics they want to see more of and which they’d prefer to see less

The post 1 Big Instagram Update for Businesses. first appeared on Immediate Future.