Congress calls for Match Group and others to do more to help victims like Mary, who lost $100,000 to app scammer

Mary met a man on the dating app Plenty of Fish in 2024. She told the Guardian she had been looking for a connection, but instead became the victim of a romance scam that cost her almost $100,000.

“There was a lot of conversation, and then it started with the constant contact, pressure and repeated asks for money,” Mary, who asked that her last name be withheld, said in an interview on Tuesday. “It just escalated really, really quickly.”

Quite a few parents aren’t convinced social media and AI are safe, and have been adapting accordingly

When it comes to their kids, many parents don’t trust tech companies any more.

Social media companies have spent the better part of the last decade arguing that their platforms are safe for teens, but quite a few parents aren’t convinced. They, along with a growing number of regulators, have increasingly accused companies like Meta of designing products that are addictive to younger users.

They’re the latest technological innovation no one asked for – now with added consent issues!

I went to a party recently. A fancy one, filled with expensive people and interesting clothes.

You might find this surprising, as I expend hundreds of words a week in this publication bemoaning human interaction, but I love parties. I like free champagne, passed appetizers and forced, go-nowhere small talk.

What, exactly, about the drink is so distracting? The viral debate raises bigger questions about who defines ‘professionalism’

The great iced coffee debate of 2026 is the latest submission to the young-people-just-don’t-get-it discourse and, of course, it’s as polarizing as ever.

Recruiters say you shouldn’t bring iced coffee to interviews, while young people are (rightly) asking: what’s the big deal? It’s one of those conversations that makes me cringe, given just how eagerly it springs up from the generational divide plaguing mainstream culture. And as usual, gen Z are cast as the entitled morons who want to live life with no rules or responsibilities, all to the detriment of the millennials and gen X-ers who have to deal with them.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist

Henry Ford’s 1926 policy held for decades before eroding into a 24/7 mindset. Here’s what we can do about it

It was a Saturday. In fact, the Saturday.

Almost exactly a century ago, on 25 September 1926, Henry Ford instituted a policy of weekends for his workforce. Although various labor campaigns had existed for decades to try to carve out what we now call the weekend, this was the first widespread adoption.