Axios PM

May 07, 2026
🍻 Happy Friday Jr.! Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 572 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
1 big thing: Gen Z leads social media exodus

Some Gen Zers — ages 14 to 29 — are ditching social media in pursuit of better mental health, Axios' Rebecca Falconer reports.
- It's part of a wider digital detox movement away from screens and toward analog options.
- Research suggests that social media use is waning — and that more people are embracing app-blocking products and "dumbphones" that lack social media apps.
📵 Chris Wells, a self-described former "Twitter and Instagram junkie," tells Axios that he's "99% off" social media after doing a "Month Offline" challenge.
- The 26-year-old says: "I didn't know who I was without my social media accounts, and when I quit, it was pretty miraculous."
- "The one thing that really came back to me was a sense of privacy. I hadn't really felt that since I was a kid."
🗑️ 17-year-old Aditi Ediga deleted her phone's social media apps last fall.
- Ediga says: "One reason why teenagers don't want to delete apps and stop using them is that they're scared they're going to miss out on stuff, and then I realized I wasn't really missing out on anything."
🤝 NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of a bestselling book on the effects of childhood tech use, tells Axios: "What you're seeing now, especially among Gen Z, is a self-correction back toward real-world connection."
- "They've felt the costs of isolation and are rediscovering what actually leads to flourishing."
🤳 Yes, but: Plenty of young Americans are still spending countless hours on social media, with platforms facing calls to ban or restrict teen access.
2. 🐝 Bumble is killing the "swipe"

Bumble's swipe feature will soon be no more, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told Axios' Sara Fischer on "The Axios Show."
💘 Wolfe Herd, who returned to the dating app as CEO last year, is making a big bet: ditching core features to pivot toward AI-driven matchmaking and attract new users ahead of a relaunch this year.
- The changes will roll out in select markets starting later this year, though Wolfe Herd was vague on what exactly will replace swiping.
💁♀️ Also changing: Bumble's signature women-go-first rule.
- Wolfe Herd said: "We will not force one gender over another to do something first" — adding that Bumble will preserve "the essence of what was always meant to be women making the first move."
3. ⚡️ Catch me up

- 🚢 Health authorities across four continents are trying to track down more than two dozen people who left a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship before the deadly outbreak was detected. Get the latest.
- 🏛️ Republican lawmakers in Tennessee approved a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP's advantage. Go deeper.
- 🍔 McDonald's rode value meals, loyalty perks and menu innovation to first-quarter sales growth, evidence that its affordability strategy is working. More from Kelly Tyko.
- ⚖️ Clarence Thomas is now the second-longest tenured justice in Supreme Court history, serving for 34 years, 6 months and 13 days. He'll overtake FDR appointee William O. Douglas in 2028 if he stays in the job. Go deeper.
4. 📸 Pics to go: New Artemis trove

NASA this week uploaded a massive trove of new images taken by the Artemis II crew on last month's lunar flyby.

Some of the 12,000+ new photos offer a rawer glimpse through the Orion space capsule's windows, as in the image above.
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