The Tech CEO Who Won ’t Let His Teens on Social Media

A decade ago, Joe Gagliese founded Viral Nation, a marketing agency that helps young influencers promote their content. The company is hugely successful, and Gagliese is a big cheerleader for the power of social media to connect, entertain and educate. But while working on the front lines, he’s also seen the dangers that come with it. Some of the child influencers he works with receive threats and racist comments. Others have been targeted by predators. He can’t believe how ugly the online world can get.

Gagliese and his wife have three kids of their own, aged 14, five and three, and they’ve imposed strict rules on their children’s screen time and social media engagement. His oldest daughter is the only person in her class who doesn’t have a smartphone. She’ll be allowed to get one when she’s 16, and even then she’ll be subject to limitations. Gagliese has written a fascinating essay for Maclean’s about why he restricts his kids’ internet use. “Some blame tech platforms. Some blame schools. But I believe it’s parents who need to step up,” he writes.

—Emily Landau, executive editor

During Beverley McLachlin’s 28 years on Canada’s Supreme Court bench, she ruled on laws that created a quantum leap in the state of human rights. Now she’s turned her mighty pen to the fictional kind of legal drama: her latest thriller, Proof, hits shelves on September 17. We spoke to McLachlin about her time as a judge and why, even as judicial independence appears to be wobbling worldwide, she still believes in Canada’s ability to serve justice.

Ned Moran used to rack up 12 to 14 hours of screen time a day. “I realized that I’d built my identity around this portable glass brick—outside of it, I had no idea who I was,” they write in an essay for Maclean’s. So they bought a $100 flip phone on Amazon—and it changed everything.

Want to find true love? Log off, says Treena Orchard, a Western University anthropologist who wrote a book about dating apps. “Relying solely on the algorithm restricts us from having those random, wonderful, unexpected sparks with new people,” Orchard writes. “Even if it doesn’t lead to long-term partnership, there’s nothing like a real-world connection to rekindle our bonds with each other.”

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