User Mag

usermag.co

A tech and online culture publication by Taylor Lorenz, featuring original reporting on how the internet is reshaping politics, business, media, and culture.

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Articles20

How Much of Substack Is Actually AI?

4/27/2026

I analyzed thousands of posts from the top newsletters to find out how much of Substack is AI. Some of the biggest “writers” on Substack aren’t writing at all.

The Girlboss-ification of AI w/ Kat Tenbarge

4/24/2026

+ Bezos’s private retreat, Alex Cooper drama, new MrBeast lawsuit, the OpenAI apartment, China’s ‘dark factories', Pasta sauce surveillance, and why big tech’s ‘tobacco moment’ isn’t what it seems

Influencers Are Replacing Themselves With AI Clones

4/17/2026

Anthropic girlypop dinners, new Costco Guys, BuzzBallz summer, Gen Z's silent scream, FBI aura farming, Elon Musk's TikTok, Mahjong mania, SantaCon fraud, andthe case against social media "addiction"

Skibidi Toilet fans are melting down

4/11/2026

+ Boy kibble, cyberdecks, Bierberchella, AI Michael Jackson babies, peptides overtake pickleball, dating app whimsey, deep runs, an AI storefront, YouTubers vs Apple, Claude Code whips and fairy wands

They're Putting AI Cameras In School Buses

4/6/2026

+ NeeDoh squishies, Twitch for pets, Waymo influencer merch, OpenClaw crashouts, Alix Earle's skincare blowout, smut book clubs, Surf social, AI's millennial cringe problem, and Sam Altman tea

Dopamine Is Not Why Kids Love Social Media

3/31/2026

+ YouTube Shorts rizz party, Clavicular's Club Stream, heat islands, MrBeast's Japan pivot, Costco's chocolate bunny, Twitch streaming as a dog, and the doomed project to cancel Hasan Piker

The Media Lied About the Social Media Addiction Trial

3/28/2026

+ LA's crypto kids, @user3266363816019, AI bedtime stories, slop signage, alpine divorce, a KitKat heist, the White House app, byyourselfmaxxing, and against the smartphone theory of everything

The Internet is Being Deleted (And You Haven’t Noticed)

3/24/2026

AI influencer awards season, vaping squirrels, RIP Sora, bestie-fication of media, peak MrBeast, the pop diva extinction, Zuckerberg's claw, a cowgorithm, Fortnite brain rot, LinkedIn “builder” plague

The Rise of Celebrity Clone Conspiracies

3/20/2026

+ Diner Gothic, LEGO slopaganda, cartel Olympics, ‘porn addiction’ influencers, a $178 Jensen Huang sweater, Afroman's 1A win, tech bro taste, supplement stacking, & how OpenClaw conquer the internet

How Powerful People Became Obsessed w/ Section 230

3/18/2026

The clout apocalypse, YouTube face, Meghan and Harry’s Netflix fallout, MOG World Order, CEO moats, sync music, the debate over influencers on the red carpet, and secret billionaire typing patterns

You Are Being Lied to About Algorithms

3/10/2026

+ AI Amish influencers, baby gut health, Kai Trump's Erewhon vlog, bed rotting for art, the Substack book, MrBeast banking, Quittr, a new Ellison, Ben Affleck's AI startup, Heated Rivalry fanfic drama

How Epstein Warped the Entire Internet

3/6/2026

Mr. Beast Islam, Roblox threesoms, the Staples Baddie, Parisian slop bowls, phone away from phone, AI pervert glasses, TX primary influencer wars, and prediction markets' billionaire founders feud

'Situation Monitoring' Products Are Flooding The Web

3/2/2026

+ Yapper ads, the Most Evil Gay Guy, pop culture OpenClaw, Gucci runway texts, Jim Carry conspiracies, #sendBaron, Zuck's $170M mansion, Opensource Palantir, and how the AIs kill

ICE’s Plan to Monitor Social Media 24/7

2/27/2026

+ PewDiePieAI, sustainable abundance, MAGA influencers go solar, disappearing summer break, YT's newest teen sensation, giving birth on livestream, a plan to bathe entire cities in sunlight from space

Why The Internet Is Broken

2/23/2026

+ Ai;dr, r/lanadelrey drama, total boomer luxury communism, American Girl novels, Benny Blanco livestreamer, Nicki Minaj bot farms, Slxughter, POLITICO's pink slime, and a YouTuber's fake ICE tip line

Dumbphone Owners Have Lost Their Minds

2/18/2026

+ Burnout feminism, slop surgery, sleepcations, serftok, Meta's celeb wrangler -> OpenAI, American Girl Ozempic, chatbot cafes, Tinder voting, 13 yr old skincare CEO, how crying girls will make u rich

They're Trying To Kill The Internet As We Know It

2/9/2026

+ Beast Banking, Clav's mogshot, a brainrot Reels slam poet, X's fake cancer cure problem, Polymarket Portal feet pics, AI Netflix, analog YouTube, Roblox ICE raids, and giving birth on Discord

The Rise and Fall of Livestream Fail

2/2/2026

+ Moltbook mania, Minecraft protests, wellness anarchists, travelscrimping, GlamBOT controversy, Tinder for clankers, French Zohran, and escaping a Chinese Mafia crypto slavery scheme

Can You Sue For Social Media Addiction?

1/30/2026

+ Slopagandists, WannaBeasts, r/massivecock vs ICE, America's Kill Line, peptide pushers, Boy Throb, viral armpitting, a new class of pro-Democrat dark money creators, and is Josh the new Karen?

Why Conservatives Hate Brooklyn Beckham

1/26/2026

A Dramageddon drag show, ManyVids AI psychosis, the far right's new goth girl, 13 yr old AI founders, UpScrolled > TikTok, Rumble Shorts, IRL Heated Rivalry, and Tay Zonday takes on ICE.