Social Media's Influence on Our Lives

Kathryn Jezer-Morton, writer of The Cut's Brooding newsletter and the author of The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything (Viking, 2026), talks about her reporting on and experience with the way social media is changing our lives. Photo: BATH, UNITED KINGDOM - MARCH 29: In this photo illustration a 14-year-old boy holds an iPhone screen displaying various social media and messaging apps on March 29, 2026 in Bath, England. On top row left to right, the logo of social media platform Instagram is seen beside that of Meta’s Threads and Facebook. On the middle row from left is the logo of Donald Trump's Truth Social app, next to the logo of social media app TikTok and the logo of Elon Musk’s US online social media and social networking site 'X' (formerly known as Twitter). Along the bottom row, left to right is the messaging service WhatsApp, the logo for online video sharing and social media platform YouTube and the logo for the Bluesky app. In the UK, a ban on social media for under-16s has been backed by the House of Lords following the Australian law which aims to stop children under 16 from having social media accounts and social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram potentially being be fined for preventing children younger than 16 from having social media accounts. (Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.