'Whether we like it or not, social media is the public square of the 21st century'

'Where is the line between the right to speech and the right to reach?'

Fay M. Johnson at The New York Times

"I've spent years working at some of the world's largest social media platforms," says Fay M. Johnson, a former trust and safety product executive at Meta and Twitter. "I've seen how the right kind of moderation can improve conversations, and how the wrong kind — or none at all," can "spread hate and spill into real-world violence." While "free speech is essential for a healthy democracy," social media platforms must make thoughtful decisions "about what speech to broadcast and how widely."

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'It largely comes down to societal expectations of how much men should do at home'

Heather Long at The Washington Post

New research from Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin "looks at the global fertility decline through the lens of macro economics" and speaks to the "anxieties shared by many women of my generation," says Heather Long. The findings suggest that "in places where men do more around the house, fertility rates are higher" and in places "where they do less, rates are lower." This "won't change unless the guy's expectations about what he's 'supposed to do' changes," Goldin tells Long.

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'Americans have allowed the so-called government to trample our God-given right to eat food that might kill us'

Rex Huppke at USA Today

Jim Jones, head of the FDA's food division, has "stepped down" to "protest" the "mass layoffs" happening under President Donald Trump's administration, says Rex Huppke. These layoffs "included people who review the safety of food ingredients." Now that RFK Jr. is "in charge of America's health," Huppke adds, "true lovers of liberty like myself will be free to eat whatever we want, happy in the knowledge it hasn't been 'inspected' by any 'health expert' to make sure it's 'safe.'"

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'Nostalgia for terrible things may sound absurd, but many people experience it'

Olga Khazan at The Atlantic

It is not unusual to "feel nostalgic for times that were difficult, unpleasant, or downright bad," says Olga Khazan. "Some people miss the early, eerie first few months of the pandemic, when time seemed to have stopped." The reason for this phenomenon, according to researchers: "Humans look to our past selves to make sense of our present. Reflecting on the challenging times we've endured provides significance and edification to a life that can otherwise seem pointlessly difficult."

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