The decline is particularly striking among ninth-grade girls, according to Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University who published her analysis of the 2025 data on her Substack “Generation Tech.” In 2021, 30 percent of ninth-grade girls identified as lesbian or bisexual. Last year, 17 percent did. (Parks, The Washington Post)
Read MoreTikTok is filled with influencers dispensing all manner of advice on how to get ahead financially, whether it is saving to retire early, earning a passive income or using credit-card rewards to fund a globe-trotting lifestyle. But users are also finding big audiences showing the private money struggles many would be too embarrassed to share. (Brown, The Wall Street Journal)
Read MoreMany of the students I met don’t think about gambling in moral terms at all; some don’t even consider sports betting or prediction markets to be gambling. (Coppins, The Atlantic)
Read MoreZionism was coined in the 1890s to name the organized political movement to create a Jewish state. After that goal was achieved with the establishment of the State of Israel, in 1948, the label continued to be claimed by people who took pride in its existence and wanted it to survive and thrive. (Kirsch, The Atlantic)
Read MoreMore people are consulting psychics, casting love spells, and manifesting soulmates than you’d think — and they’re paying good money to do so. There’s a thriving online marketplace for love spells and rituals, suggesting that young people are finding something in magic that they can’t find in the dating industry. (Patterson, Dating News)
Read MoreIt’s hard not to see the traces of gambling money everywhere you turn these days: in sports broadcasts now blanketed with odds and sportsbook branding, in a podcast ecosystem underwritten by DraftKings and FanDuel ad money and, yes, in the influencer freaks rocketing to fame thanks to canny marketing spending by offshore casinos. (Read, The New York Times)
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