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My Kid Wants to Be an Influencer. Is That Bad?

WIRED’s spiritual advice columnist advises a parent who’s freaking out about their 6-year-old’s ambitions to make a life online.
Ideas

AI Chatbots Are Learning to Spout Authoritarian Propaganda

The Hypocrisy of Judging Those Who Become More Beautiful

Normally, correcting disadvantages beyond our control is seen as laudable. So why do people look down on individuals who alter their looks?

Preferring Biological Children Is Immoral

Most people say they want their kids to be their own genetic offspring—but such a desire is in conflict with other evolving values around parenting and family.

Let Venice Sink

The impulse to save everything no longer makes sense. It's time to leave the city as a monument to the dangers of global warming—and rethink our relationship to heritage.

They Didn’t Ask to Go Viral. Posting on Social Media Without Consent Is Immoral

It's typical to ask friends for permission to share pictures of them. Yet people don't extend this courtesy to strangers, either because they think nothing of it or they need to go viral at all costs.

Your Project Management Software Can't Save You

Do-everything workplace managers like Asana and Trello promise organizational utopias. But they reveal limitations that date all the way back to the factory floors of the 1900s.

Google’s Search Box Changed the Meaning of Information

Web search promised to resolve questions. Instead, it brought on a soft apocalypse of truth.

How Signal Walks the Line Between Anarchism and Pragmatism

The privacy-focused messaging app arose from a fringe culture that emphasized individual autonomy and skepticism of authority. As it tries to go mainstream, can it escape its roots?

How Microsoft Excel Tries to Rebrand Work as Excitement

This banal type of office software has a long history of trying to pass itself off as whimsical.