Tag • #social media

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Social media lies can unleash a dangerous contempt for others. We can stop it | Max Jeganathan

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 20:00

In our atomised society, we don’t just reject ideas and identities, we dehumanise those who hold them. There is a way out

The Bondi Junction attacker and the teen who allegedly stabbed the bishop used knives, but judging from the online reaction to both events, many of us have a different weapon in our hands: our smartphones.

Some fault lines simmer under our headlines – landlords v renters, ute drivers v EV advocates, zoomers v boomers. But sporadic moments of horror reveal our trust deficit.

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The ‘boring phone’: stressed-out gen Z ditch smartphones for dumbphones

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 13:00

The feature-free phone, launched at Milan design week, is the latest device to tap into young people’s concerns about attention-harvesting and data privacy

It’s almost enough to make you stop doomscrolling: dull devices are now cool.

The Boring Phone is a new, featureless flip phone that is feeding the growing appetites of younger people who want to bin their smartphones in favour of a dumbphone.

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The Anxious Generation wants to save teens. But the bestseller’s anti-tech logic is skewed

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 12:00

There’s no doubt about the mental health crisis facing young people. Jonathan Haidt blames our devices – which oversimplifies the problem

In the introduction to his new book The Anxious Generation , titled “Growing up on Mars”, Jonathan Haidt tells a fanciful piece of science fiction about a child conscripted into a dangerous mission to the red planet that will deform the young person as they grow. The journey is undertaken without the parents’ consent. The ham-fisted metaphor is that technology companies have done the same to children and teenagers by putting smartphones into their hands.

Haidt, a New York University professor of ethical leadership who researches social psychology and morality, goes on to argue that smartphones ignited a wildfire of anxiety and depression in gen Z around the world, by granting them “continuous access to social media, online video games, and other internet-based activities”. He says there are four foundational harms in this degradation of youth: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction.

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Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahad shot dead outside Baghdad home

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 07:47

Officials say unidentified man killed influencer who had previously been imprisoned over dancing videos

A man on a motorbike has shot dead a social media influencer known as Om Fahad outside her Baghdad home, Iraqi security officials said.

The unidentified attacker shot Om Fahad in her car in the Zayouna district on Friday, a security official said, requesting anonymity because he was not cleared to speak to the media.

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Weekend podcast: ‘I was hammered on stage’ – David Harewood on racism and success; John Crace on ‘tetchy’ Rishi; the answer to insomnia hell; and Baby Reindeer fall out

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 04:00

Beware of ‘ Tetchy Rishi ’ – the prime minister struggles to control his anger during the Rwanda bill press briefing (1m24s); David Harewood on acting, racism and mental health (9m08s); Phil Daoust’s surprisingly simple solution to insomnia hell (24m33s); and Stuart Heritage examines the dangerous fallout from Netflix’s Baby Reindeer (42m29s)

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ByteDance would shut down TikTok in US rather than sell it, sources say

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 7 days ago - 23:32

App’s ‘secret source’ algorithm reportedly core to operations of parent company, which sources say make a sale highly unlikely

ByteDance would prefer to shut down TikTok rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the US, four sources said.

The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance’s overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely, said the sources close to the parent.

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Laurence Fox ordered to pay £180,000 to two people he called ‘paedophiles’

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 7 days ago - 13:17

High court judge orders actor turned politician to pay £90,000 damages to each individual for social media libel

The actor turned politician Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay £90,000 each in damages to two people he libelled by referring to them as “paedophiles” on social media.

A high court judge made the order in London on Thursday.

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Reddit, AI spam bots explore new ways to show ads in your feed

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 24 April - 22:18

Enlarge (credit: Getty )

Reddit has made it clear that it’s an ad-first business. Today, it expanded on that practice with a new ad format that looks to sell things to Reddit users. Simultaneously, Reddit has marketers who are interested in pushing products to users through seemingly legitimate accounts.

In a blog post today, Reddit announced that its Dynamic Product Ads are entering public beta globally. The ad format uses "shopping signals," aka discussions with people looking to try a product or brand, machine learning, and advertiser product catalogs in order to post relevant ads. Reddit shared an image in the blog post that shows ads, including with products and pricing, that seem to relate to a posted question. User responses to the Reddit post appear under the ad.

A somewhat blurry depiction of the new type of ads Reddit is testing. [credit: Reddit ]

Reddit's Dynamic Product Ads can automatically show users ads "based on the products they’ve previously engaged with on the advertiser’s site" and/or "based on what people engage with on Reddit or advertiser sites," per the blog.

Read 19 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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TikTok questioned by EU over Lite app that ‘pays’ users for watching videos

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 17 April - 13:57

European Commission has concerns about app’s impact on children, as well as addiction

The EU has given TikTok 24 hours to provide a risk assessment over a new service it has launched in the EU amid concerns it will encourage children to become addicted to videos on the platform.

The watch-and-get-rewarded application, TikTok Lite, launched in France and Spain this month, effectively offering users prizes such as Amazon vouchers, gift cards via PayPal or TikTok’s Coins currency for points earned through “tasks”.