The kids are deleting their profile pics

A new way to navigate growing up online.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Meanwhile, my profile picture is me at 25. —Kate

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The other day, when I was indulging in my favorite pastime (scrolling the list of people who watched my Instagram Story) I noticed something strange: one of my coworkers had removed her profile picture. There was a grayed-out, anonymous graphic—the one that usually suggests the account has been wiped—in the circle by her name. I clicked and saw that while her grid pictures were still there, she had also deleted her bio. 

These were the hallmarks of someone who was about to start posting MacBook giveaways using obscure, virus-ridden links. I made a mental note to ask if she had been hacked. 

“No, no,” she told me later. “I’m cooking.”