Taylor Lorenz

She is a columnist for The Washington Post. She was previously a technology reporter for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Business Insider, and social media editor for the Daily Mail. She is particularly known for covering Internet culture.

Taylor Lorenz
Lorenz in 2023
Born	October 21, c. 1984–1987 (age 36–39) New York City, U.S.
Education	University of Colorado Boulder Hobart and William Smith College (BA)
Employer	The Washington Post
Writing career
Genre	Journalism
Subject	Internet culture

Lorenz was born in New York City and grew up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, attending nearby Greenwich High School. She attended college at the University of Colorado Boulder and later transferred to Hobart and William Smith College, where she graduated with a degree in political science. Lorenz has said that the social media site Tumblr caused her to become interested in Internet culture.

Lorenz worked as a social media editor for the Daily Mail from 2011 to 2014, becoming its head of social media. After a short stint writing for The Daily Dot in 2014, she was a technology reporter for Business Insider from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, she wrote briefly for The Hill's blog section, and was assaulted by a counter-protester while covering the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. From 2017 to 2018, she worked as a technology reporter for The Daily Beast. In 2019, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. From 2019 to 2022, she was a technology reporter for The New York Times.

According to The Caret, Lorenz's reporting frequently concerns "Silicon Valley venture capitalists, marketers and ... anyone curious about how the internet is shaping the ways in which humans express themselves and communicate". Fortune named her to its "40 Under 40" list in 2020, saying that she has "cemented herself as a peerless authority" whose name became "synonymous with youth culture online" during her time at The Daily Beast and The Atlantic. The same year, Adweek included her on its list of "Young Influentials Who Are Shaping Media, Marketing and Tech", saying that she "contextualizes the internet as we live it". Reason magazine credited her with popularizing the term "OK boomer" in a story declaring "the end of friendly generational relations". According to TheWrap, "since her time at the Times, she's attracted an inordinate amount of online criticism, particularly from those in the right-wing media".

The Washington Post

In March 2022, Lorenz left the Times and joined The Washington Post as a columnist. Her book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Power and Influence on the Internet was published by Simon & Schuster in October 2023.

In April 2022, Lorenz wrote an article for the Post that publicized the identity of Chaya Raichik as the owner of the right-wing Twitter account Libs of TikTok. The details were retrieved from early iterations of the account. An online version of the article initially included a link to Raichik's real-estate license. The article led Lorenz to be accused of doxxing and hypocrisy for having previously spoken out against online harassment. Raichik said Lorenz doxxed her and violated her right to free speech. According to The Times of London, "supporters of Lorenz meanwhile pointed out that Raichik's followers were only too enthusiastic about doxing when it came to teachers being smeared as paedophiles". In a tweet, Lorenz said that her "whole family was doxed again this morning ... trolls have now moved on to doxing and stalking any random friends I've tagged on Instagram". Lorenz interviewed Raichik for an article about Libs of TikTok in February 2024.

In June 2022, the Post published an article by Lorenz about the coverage of the Depp v. Heard trial by YouTube personalities; the article incorrectly said that two YouTubers discussed in the article had been contacted for comment. Editorial corrections were made, including an admission that stealth editing had violated the paper's policy. Lorenz said in a tweet that the errors were due to a miscommunication with her editor, leading her to be accused of buck passing, though the tweet was reportedly discussed and agreed on by Lorenz and multiple editors. Lorenz was reportedly moved from the features staff to the technology team and Post senior managing editor Cameron Barr was "asked to review her articles before publication". Lorenz denied that she had moved teams, writing on Twitter, "I have absolutely not been demoted, not even remotely. My job has not changed at all." She added that news coverage of the errors by CNN and others was in "bad faith", "irresponsible and dangerous", and designed to "amplify a manufactured outrage campaign by right wing media & radicalized influencers, which is driving a vicious harassment/smear campaign against me".

Twitter owner Elon Musk temporarily suspended Lorenz's Twitter account in December 2022. The suspension followed a series of suspensions of journalists under Musk's new ownership of Twitter. Lorenz said she was suspended after asking Musk for comment on a story. Musk tweeted that the suspension was for "prior doxxing action".

Lorenz announced her engagement to Christopher Mims, a technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, in January 2015. She identified herself as a vegan in 2022. She has said she has "severe PTSD" from experiencing online harassment. She has also said she is immunocompromised.

• Lorenz, Taylor (October 3, 2023), Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 9780753560792