Six great reads: ‘Fafo’ parenting, what tech does to us, and Patrick Bateman’s legacy

1. What technology takes from us – and how to take it back

Composite: Artwork by Anais Mims and Guardian Design. Source Photographs by Getty Images

Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out, wrote Rebecca Solnit in this beautiful long read, but it’s going to take collective effort.

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2. The rise of Fafo parenting: is this the end of gentle child rearing?

Illustration: Holly Szczypka/The Guardian

A backlash against gentle parenting had been brewing for some time and some mothers on social media are advocating a tough, no-nonsense approach to parenting. Does this teach children important lessons – or just make them feel isolated and ashamed? Emine Saner on the rise of “Fafo” parenting.

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3. How we draw the age of Trump and turmoil: two cartoonists go head-to-head

Composite: Guardian/David Levene

A special piece on Guardian cartoonists Ella Baron and Martin Rowson saw the pair face off, each producing very different cartoons in response to a prompt about Trump. We showed readers how two different generations of cartoonists operate: one in pixels, one in paint.

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4. ‘To say I was the favourite would imply I was liked’: Mark Haddon on a loveless childhood

“When I see washed-out photographs of English life in the 60s and 70s – cardiganed grandmothers eating roadside picnics beside Morris Minors, pale men sunbathing in shoes and socks on stripy deckchairs, Raleigh Choppers and caged budgerigars and faux leather pouffes – I feel a wave of what can’t properly be called nostalgia, because the last thing I’d want is to return to that age and those places where I was often profoundly unhappy and from which I’d have been desperate to escape if escape had been a possibility. Why then this longing, this echo of some remembered comfort?”

This remarkable piece of writing by Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was an achingly sad exploration of a childhood shaped by his parents’ lack of warmth.

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5. ‘Watching The Office recently, my heart just sank’ – Mackenzie Crook on comedy, cruelty and being TV royalty

Photograph: Matt Crockett

After a very hard landing into fame in the 00s, he decided to take a softer approach – and hit on a winning formula for classic comedy with Detectorists. The actor spoke to Zoe Williams about his obsession with middle-age and the “PTSD” on rewatching his breakout role in The Office.

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6. From incel culture to the White House: American Psycho’s dark hold on modern masculinity

Composite: getty/Guardian Design

“In recent years Patrick Bateman – specifically Christian Bale’s movie persona – has become a kind of aspirational figure for the very same men he was designed to mock …”

As the stage adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s notorious and misunderstood bestseller returns to the London stage, Tim Jonze explored how its tale of 80s yuppie nihilism feels more relevant than ever in the era of Andrew Tate, Trump and tech bros.

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