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Technology and media

A person walks past a billboard under a bridge, featuring an image of eyes superimposed on a sky with clouds, next to a café entrance.

Work and vocation

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Kafka warned us: surveillance turns the watched into watchers

Surveillance changes us in powerful ways, as Franz Kafka warned. Neither the watched nor their watcher escapes unscathed

by George Alliger

A bowl containing a mobile phone, keychains, earrings, a key, and other small miscellaneous items.

Technology and media

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The pleasure, the pain and the politics of a digital detox

Studying why and how people take digital-media breaks can reveal what individuals and societies value in unmediated spaces

by Trine Syvertsen

Portrait painting of a large Renaissance family. The mother and father figures look at each other with disdain, the children are unsmiling.

Parenting and families

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DNA testing is easy. It can also turn your family upside down

DNA testing is bringing the era of family secrets to a close. When a surprise is uncovered, lives can change forever

by Libby Copeland

An ancient clay tablet with engraved cuneiform script on a black background.

History of ideas

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What did the ancient Babylonians discern in the skies above?

Ancient Babylonian astronomers help us see that our view of the world is as much a product of our senses as of our culture

by M Willis Monroe

Photo of a man wearing headphones, working on a laptop at a standing desk with red curtains and framed art in the background.

Learning and education

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To make online learning more three-dimensional, let it be bumpy

Effective online teaching requires actively tuning into students’ needs, to ensure they’re doing rich, difficult work

by William Germano & Kit Nicholls

A man in a light suit stands with a smiling woman while a faceless figure with exposed circuitry stands in the background.

Technology and media

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Chatbots remind us that natural conversation is artificial too

People fret about the authenticity of AI chatbots but precisely the same issues confront everyday exchanges between humans

by Larry S McGrath

People of different ages and genders sitting on park benches, some chatting, some looking at their smartphones

Technology and media

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The illusion of closeness: how social media redefined respect

As we share and like and post, have our notions of restraint transformed so profoundly that all dignity becomes abandoned?

by Lutif Ali Halo

Close-up of a hand holding a smartphone, finger hovering over a social media app displaying an image of a woman in a black dress.

Sex and sexuality

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Teenagers are going to sext, let’s teach them to do it safely

Preaching abstinence doesn’t work – in sex as in sexting. Instead, we should teach how to reduce risk and sext safely

by Joris Van Ouytsel