TikTok - The Atlantic

TikTok

Everyone Thinks They Need a NeeDoh

April 3, 2026

Animated illustration of disappearing NeeDoh

It’s Not Gambling, It’s ‘Girl Math’

April 1, 2026

An illustration of a slot machine where the icons are coffee, stilettos, and a martini

Time-Travel Thursdays

The Celebrity Clock Is Getting Rewired

March 19, 2026

Collage of a woman with sunglasses smiling

Well, That’s One Way to Sell Americans on Electric Cars

March 13, 2026

A GIF of a flashing battery

What Was Grammarly Thinking?

Kaitlyn Tiffany

March 12, 2026

Illustration of three hands on a typewriter

The McDonald’s CEO’s Big Burger-Eating Mistake

March 5, 2026

A burger looks at its reflection in an iPhone screen

Enough With the Bros

February 26, 2026

An illustration of a shirtless man wearing a purple hat and sunglasses holding "Infinite Jest" next to an IPA

The Skin-Care Industry Is Coming for Toddlers

February 25, 2026

A toy car full of skin-care products

Slow Down, Charli XCX

Spencer Kornhaber

February 24, 2026

A collage of the singer Charli XCX

A Social-Media Ban Really Could Do a Lot of Good

Keith Humphreys and Jonathan Caulkins

February 2, 2026

Abstract illustration of an iPhone in a kind of animal trap with 'react' buttons from facebook falling out of it

A Survivor Contestant’s Empathetic Reality-TV Novel

February 2, 2026

Photo illustration of an eye on an old-fashioned TV screen

How to Survive the Information War

January 30, 2026

Image of Charlie Warzel and Amanda Litman, side-by-side.

The New Shadowbanning Panic

Kaitlyn Tiffany

January 28, 2026

A stylized illustration of a cracked smartphone against a dark-blue background. The phone displays what appears to be a TikTok-style video interface with text reading "ICE OUT" visible at the top. The image is heavily obscured by colorful digital-glitch effects—horizontal bars and rectangular blocks in cyan, magenta, purple, and teal—that fragment and distort the screen, suggesting censorship or digital interference. The phone has visible cracks across its screen, and the overall aesthetic conveys themes of social-media suppression or content moderation.

The Unhappy Literary Families of the Internet Age

January 13, 2026

an illustration of a phone turned into a book

The Common Friendship Behavior That Has Become Strangely Fraught

January 8, 2026

Illustration of two people talking to one another

The Friend-Group Fallacy

January 7, 2026

A colorful illustration of a man eating alone in his home as a group of friends walk by his window laughing

Just Break Your New Year’s Resolution Now

Richard A. Friedman

January 2, 2026

Illustration of a person sliding down a giant pad of paper with New Year's resolutions listed on it

Why the Cinnabon Story Doesn’t Make Me Happy

December 12, 2025

An illustration of gold balloons spelling "YOURE FIRED"

Rage Bait Is a Brilliant Word of the Year

December 6, 2025

Illustration of the angry emoji pasted on top of the bait area in a wooden mouse trap

Welcome to the Slopverse

November 26, 2025

Graphic illustration of a kaleidoscope view of four chat bubbles repeating with goo-like shapes around them.

The Inflammation Gap

Jason Liebowitz

November 4, 2025

A stethoscope entwined with wormwood

A Tool That Crushes Creativity

October 20, 2025

Purple ooze exploding out of a phone

The Cleaner Way to Get Ripped

October 17, 2025

Still frames from black-and-white archival footage of two men, each lifting a barbell in their right hand

Traditional Criticism Is in Trouble. Here’s What’s Replacing It.

Spencer Kornhaber

October 17, 2025

scene of many people reviewing music, performance and movies

Job Interviews Are Broken

October 15, 2025

Illustration of a robot figure in a suit and tie, looking at a laptop

Trump’s Dodgy Plan for TikTok

October 11, 2025

Illustration of the TikTok icon wrapped up in a yellow bow like a gift

The Publishing Industry’s Most Swoon-Worthy Genre

Rebecca Ackermann

October 5, 2025

An illustration of a medieval setting full of hearts: a "romancelandia."

The One Big Change SNL Is Making

October 1, 2025

Collage of the new cast members of "Saturday Night Live," with Lorne Michaels

The Preventable Return of Deadly Diseases

September 17, 2025

What It Costs to Be a Sorority Girl

Annie Joy Williams

September 5, 2025

An image of sorority girls running with their Greek letters on bid day.

The Logic of the ‘9 to 5’ Is Creeping Into the Rest of the Day

August 14, 2025

This Is the News From TikTok

August 2, 2025

Illustration of an influencer speaking to their smartphone on a tripod with a ring light around it in their home

The Discourse Is Broken

July 29, 2025

Image of Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad campaign

How Justin Bieber Finally Gave Us the Song of the Summer

Spencer Kornhaber

July 26, 2025

A photo-illustration of Justin Bieber singing

The Feminine Pursuit of Swoleness

July 3, 2025

A black-and-white photo of a young woman in a sports bra showing off large biceps

The Body-Positivity Movement Is Over

Annie Joy Williams

June 21, 2025

An illustration of a phone wrapped in a measuring tape.