After the latest spate of mass shootings, the world — and technology — is in danger of turning us into hermits. We can’t allow it. — Last week, a dirt bike backfired in Times Square. In another time or place, it may have registered as a brief diversion for New Yorkers, something that turns your head and distracts you while you walk. But in 2019, just days after mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso, it…

The black and white squares kept me sane, and now I can’t live without them — This is “I Can’t Live Without,” a column about the apps, gadgets, and services that make all the difference. There are certain words the New York Times crossword always comes back to. It is fond of the creme-filled OREO, of tides that EBB, of an old Russian TSAR (or CZAR)…

It costs $99, and we tried it — When Ryan Downey signed up to automatically promote his tweets, he thought he was doing himself a favor. Downey, a freelance journalist who joined Twitter in 2007, had previously experimented with the platform’s traditional method of advertising: promoting specific tweets to a tailored audience. He mostly did so because he…

Contentious elections, endless conflict — but a chance to become whole — When my parents told me we were moving to America, I pictured a carousel. Special, beguiling; a place where nothing bad ever happened. In my head, it was like a still photograph of something in motion. The lights were a warm streak of yellow, and the painted horses looked like…

It isn’t always the weaker decision — I was five years old the first time I ran away from home. My mother wouldn’t let me play with a set of watercolor paints, and I resolutely decided that it wasn’t a situation I could live with. I snuck out after dinner, but it was still light when I…

How late-stage capitalism, climate change, and space travel will transform our diets — When you think about the future, what do you picture? Is it a Jetsons-style province, filled with cities in the sky? Is it closer to Mad Max — a dystopian, environmentally ravaged hellworld where scarcity is the ruling principle? …