Tech companies have been making subtle and not-so-subtle changes to their rules for better access to data for building A.I. We took a look at some of them.
Our digital ecosystem thrives on division in everything from politics to pop. Devoted fanbases are one result - ready to unleash hell on haters
Being a geriatric millennial means I was born too late to take advantage of cheap house prices and too early to become an influencer. I was, however, born at the perfect time to be a fan. The late 90s were the halcyon days of teenage fan culture: technology was advanced enough to let you connect with other devotees through online discussion forums and pour your heart into fan sites (I had a GeoCities site devoted to the grunge band Bush). But it also wasn’t easy to spend unhealthy amounts of time obsessing online: dial-up connections meant regularly getting booted off the internet so your parents could use the phone.
Now, of course, there’s nothing preventing people spending every waking minute cultivating unhealthy parasocial relationships. Superstars like Taylor Swift have armies of fans that span the globe, ready to unleash hell on haters. Earlier this year, for example, Paste magazine published a (negative) review of Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poet’s Department without a byline, to keep the writer safe. The outlet explained that “in 2019 when Paste reviewed Lover, the writer was sent threats of violence”.
He’s the most popular YouTuber in the world, known for his extravagant videos and now … chocolate. Caitlin Cassidy goes to see what all the fuss is about during his Australia visit
It is just shy of 2pm and I am high on sunshine and pop music and free chocolate bars.
Insiders from sites such as eBay, Depop and Vinted give advice on how to get the best cash for preloved items
The competition is stiff, so finding the right place to sell your clothes will give you the best chance of getting them in front of people who might want to buy them.
Nigel Farage is outperforming all other parties and candidates on TikTokthroughout the general election campaign, analysis shows, eclipsing politicians considered most popular among young people.
Since the election was called, videos posted to the Reform leader’s personal account had more engagement and views on average than any other candidate – as well as the main channels of other parties.
Kristin Bride, a member of ParentsSOS, next to an apple tree she planted after her son Carson’s suicide in 2020. The apple’s variety is Sweet Sixteen, Carson’s age when he died.
Ordering mistakes frustrated customers during nearly three years of tests. But competitors like White Castle and Wendy’s say their A.I. ordering systems have been highly accurate.
TikTok creators gathered for a news conference with members of Congress in March. TikTok has said that a ban of the app would violate the First Amendment.
The facial recognition start-up doesn’t have the funds to settle a class-action lawsuit, so lawyers are proposing equity for those whose faces were scraped from the internet.
Linda Yaccarino told X employees that 65 percent of advertisers had returned to the platform since January, while admitting that the business continues to face advertising headwinds.
Christopher Blair, a renowned “liberal troll” who posts falsehoods to Facebook, is having a banner year despite crackdowns by Facebook and growing competition from A.I.
Word puzzles on LinkedIn. Logic challenges in The Washington Post. For news publishers and tech sites looking to both entice and engage users, games are serious business.
Social media users voiced worries about a move by Meta to use information from public Instagram and Facebook posts to train its A.I. But the scraping has already begun. Here’s what to know.
Meta sent notifications to European users of Facebook and Instagram letting them know that their public posts could be used to train its A.I. — including its chatbot and other services it develops — starting on June 26. In the United States, public posts are already being used to train the services.
According to data released by the FTC in its annual Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, nearly half of the fraud reported to the federal government in 2023 fell into the category of impersonation fraud — 330,000 scams impersonating businesses and 160,000 scams impersonating government institutions. Allure Security’s online brand impersonation detection data corroborates the FTC’s […]
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs ordered the operation, which used fake social media accounts urging U.S. lawmakers to fund Israel’s military, according to officials and documents about the effort.
The campaign focused on more than a dozen members of Congress, including Representative Ritchie Torres, left, and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader.
After some trying years during which Mr. Zuckerberg could do little right, many developers and technologists have embraced the Meta chief as their champion of “open-source” artificial intelligence.
The billionaire owner of X has increasingly been using his social media platform to criticize President Biden for his health and immigration policies, according to a New York Times analysis.
The platform will keep state-affiliated media accounts out of users’ feeds if they “attempt to reach communities outside their home country on current global events and affairs.”
Marc Andreessen, Chamath Palihapitiya and several other tech venture capitalists are increasingly criticizing President Biden and making their disaffection known in an election year.
Mr. Trump has treated Trump Media, which runs his social network Truth Social, as a low-cost sideshow. Now a big portion of his wealth hinges on its success.
The island democracy was early to ban TikTok on government phones, and the ruling party refuses to use it. But a U.S.-style ban is not under consideration.
Advertisers of merchandise for young girls find that adult men can become their unintended audience. In a test ad, convicted sex offenders inquired about a child model.
Mr. Musk has built a constellation of like-minded heads of state — including Argentina’s Javier Milei and India’s Narendra Modi — to push his own politics and expand his business empire.
Reddit’s first earnings report as a public company showed leaps in users and advertising revenue, along with expenses related to its initial public offering.
You’ve likely felt it: The dull pull downwards of a smartphone scroll. The “five more minutes” just before bed. The sleep still there after waking. The edges of your calm slowly fraying.
After more than a decade of our most recent technological experiment, in turns out that having the entirety of the internet in the palm of your hands could be … not so great. Obviously, the effects of this are compounded by the fact that the internet that was built after the invention of the smartphone is a very different internet than the one before—supercharged with algorithms that get you to click more, watch more, buy more, and rest so much less.
But for one group, in particular, across the world, the impact of smartphones and constant social media may be causing an unprecedented mental health crisis: Young people.
According to the American College Health Association, the percentage of undergraduates in the US—so, mainly young adults in college—who were diagnosed with anxiety increased 134% since 2010. In the same time period for the same group, there was in increase in diagnoses of depression by 106%, ADHD by 72%, bipolar by 57%, and anorexia by 100%.
That’s not all. According to a US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the prevalence of anxiety in America increased for every age group except those over 50, again, since 2010. Those aged 35 – 49 experienced a 52% increase, those aged 26 – 34 experienced a 103% increase, and those aged 18 – 25 experienced a 139% increase.
This data, and much more, was cited by the social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, in debuting his latest book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” In the book, Haidt examines what he believes is a mental health crisis unique amongst today’s youth, and he proposes that much of the crisis has been brought about by a change in childhood—away from a “play-based” childhood and into a “phone-based” one.
This shift, Haidt argues, is largely to blame for the increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidality, and more.
And rather than just naming the problem, Haidt also proposes five solutions to turn things around:
Give children far more time playing with other children.
Look for more ways to embed children in stable real-world communities.
Don’t give a smartphone as the first phone.
Don’t give a smartphone until high school.
Delay the opening of accounts on nearly all social media platforms until the beginning of high school (at least).
Writing for the outlet Platformer, reporter Zoe Schiffer spoke with multiple behavioral psychologists who alleged that Haidt’s book cherry-picks survey data, ignores mental health crises amongst adults, and over-simplifies a complex problem with a blunt solution.
Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Dr. Jean Twenge to get more clarity on the situation: Is there a mental health crisis amongst today’s teens? Is it unique to their generation? And can it really be traced to the use of smartphones and social media?
According to Dr. Twenge, the answer to all those questions is, pretty much, “Yes.” But, she said, there’s still some hope to be found.
“This is where the argument around smartphones and social media being behind the adolescent mental health crisis actually has, kind of paradoxically, some optimism to it. Because if that’s the cause, that means we can do something about it.”
Recent studies cast doubt on whether large-scale mental health interventions are making young people better. Some even suggest they can have a negative effect.
The Justice Department and state attorneys general say that Google has abused a monopoly over the search business, stifling competitors and limiting innovation, something the company denies.
Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s president of global business solutions, last June. In Manhattan Thursday, he said: “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side and that we will ultimately prevail.”
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