SOCIAL MEDIA

9Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR

Could Reading Social Media Before Bedtime Wreak Havoc On Your Sleep?

Social media before bedtime wreaks havoc on our sleep − a sleep researcher explains why screens alone aren’t the main culprit. “Avoid screens before bed” is one of the most common pieces of sleep advice. But what if the real problem isn’t screen time − it’s the way we use social media at night? Sleep deprivation is one of the most widespread yet overlooked public health issues, especially among young adults and adolescents. Despite needing eight to 10 hours of sleep, most adolescents fall short, while nearly two-thirds of young adults regularly get less than the recommended seven to nine hours. Poor sleep isn’t just about feeling tired − it’s linked to worsened mental health, emotion regulation, memory, academic performance and even increased risk for chronic illness and early mortal...

Election Interference Is More Insidious And Pervasive Thanks To Social Media

9Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA

Election Interference Is More Insidious And Pervasive Thanks To Social Media

Thanks to social media platforms, election interference is more insidious and pervasive than ever. Seemingly innocuous conversations, informed by online campaigns, could interfere with elections. (Matt Quinn/Unsplash), CC BY Election interference is a much broader phenomenon than is often assumed. Once limited to intimidation, voter fraud or hacking, election interference includes more mundane, pervasive and ubiquitous interactions. A seemingly innocuous and casual chat with a neighbour or barista could now be considered part of a hostile influence campaign. From this perspective, interference is less about how ballots are cast and more about shaping the motivations, intentions and contexts in which voters think about politics. Yet those same processes, debates, persuasions an...

9Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR

Roblox — Scary And Complex Transactions

‘Literally just child gambling’: what kids say about Roblox, lootboxes and money in online games. Roblox is one of the world’s most popular online platforms for children, offering a variety of “experiences” including games and virtual spaces. Most of the experiences are free, but offer upgrades, bonuses and random items in exchange for cash. What do kids make of it? In new research, we interviewed 22 children aged seven to 14 (and their parents) from November 2023 to July 2024. Some 18 of the 22 played Roblox. In the interviews, we gave children an A$20 debit card to spend however they liked, to help us understand children’s decision-making around spending. While four children purchased non-digital items with their debit card (such as bicycle parts, toys and lollies), 12 children made...

What Is The Fediverse — Social Media Without Big Tech

15Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, VIDEO REELS

What Is The Fediverse — Social Media Without Big Tech

The Fediverse Promises Social Media Without Big Tech – If It Can Avoid Familiar pitfalls. You’ve probably noticed lately that a lot of people are trying out alternatives to the big social media networks X, Instagram and Facebook. For example, after Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and started allowing far more disinformation and hateful content on the site, renamed X, advertisers and users started backing away. More recently, Meta’s decision to roll back hate speech rules has prompted many people to consider leaving Instagram and Facebook. Some of the most popular new destinations include “federated” services like Mastodon and Pixelfed, as well as the quasi-federated Bluesky. Federated means decentralized – rather than one central service, like X, federated systems have tens of thousan...

Social Media Offers A New Teaching Tool For Black History

18Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR

Social Media Offers A New Teaching Tool For Black History

Race Women on Instagram spotlights generations of Black women trailblazers. Have you heard of Rosetta Douglass Sprague? I hadn’t. Then I came across a black-and-white photo on Instagram of a stately yet solemn-looking Black woman who lived during the 19th century that made me stop scrolling through my feed. It’s Black History Month, and here’s an image of someone, although similar to those of which I’m familiar—Ida B. Wells, Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth—I’d never seen. As I read the post, I learned that she was the daughter of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. But she was also a trailblazer of U.S. history in her own right. Although her name is rarely, if ever, mentioned, Sprague was a founding member the National Association of Colored Women, the largest federati...

30Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA

Young Minds And Social Media

Social media rewires young minds – here’s how. That satisfying feeling after doomscrolling through endless TikTok videos or impulsively shopping online mimics the relief of scratching an itch. This is dopamine at work — a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) responsible for feelings of reward and accomplishment. Whether indulging in viral videos or engaging in new hobbies, dopamine creates a sense of achievement that keeps us coming back for more. However, reliance on these dopamine hits can lead to lasting brain changes, particularly in teenagers and young adults. This is what my team and I at London Southbank University study. We investigated which brain regions and connections change due to increased social media engagement — or “dopa-mining”, as we call it. Using social media lights ...

Martha Stewart The OG influencer In Today’s Digital World

12Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR, VIDEO REELS

Martha Stewart The OG influencer In Today’s Digital World

Martha Stewart paved the way for influencers. But not everyone finds her brand empowering From showing us how to cook the perfect turkey to mastering the art of folding a fitted sheet, Martha Stewart’s name has long been a byword for doing things well at home – “how very ‘Martha Stewart’ of you”. New Netflix documentary, Martha, promises insights into her extraordinary life – from a teenage model to the original influencer and America’s first self-made female billionaire, with a prison stay and friendship with Snoop Dogg along the way. Behind the expertly folded linens and immaculately set tables lies something more. Martha Stewart created a brand empire that redefined the domestic lifestyle, monetised it and paved the way for others. Beginnings and barriers Stewart’s connect...

8Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR, VIDEO REELS

Bluesky’s Resemblance To The Old Twitter Is Drawing Millions Of New Users

Bluesky isn’t the ‘new Twitter,’ but its resemblance to the old one is drawing millions of new users. What would you say at Twitter’s funeral? That’s the question my collaborators and I asked over 1,000 people on social media as part of a broader research project on Twitter migration. Responses ranged from the profane to the poetic, but one common theme was that despite its significant flaws, Twitter at its best was truly great … until it wasn’t. “The world is a better place for it having existed, and a better place now that it’s gone.” “It takes so little to destroy so much.” “I will miss it for what it could be in its best moments, but I will be happy that we can finally move on to healthier spaces.” For many, it was time to leave in the hopes of finding greener pastures. Since El...

7Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR

TikTok Ban Upheld

Appeals court upholds TikTok ban: 5 essential reads on the case and its consequences. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 6, 2024, upheld a law requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the video app by Jan. 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban on the app. The court rebuffed TikTok’s claim that the law violates its First Amendment rights. The appeals court ruling is the latest development in a lengthy saga over the fate of an app that is widely popular, especially among young Americans, but that many politicians in Washington say is a security risk. The ruling is unlikely to be the end of the story. TikTok is expected to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, though the court could refuse to hear the...

AI-Generated Images — The Latest Form Of Social Media Spam

8Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOP FOUR

AI-Generated Images — The Latest Form Of Social Media Spam

From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam. If you’ve spent time on Facebook over the past six months, you may have noticed photorealistic images that are too good to be true: children holding paintings that look like the work of professional artists, or majestic log cabin interiors that are the stuff of Airbnb dreams. Others, such as renderings of Jesus made out of crustaceans, are just bizarre. Like the AI image of the pope in a puffer jacket that went viral in May 2023, these AI-generated images are increasingly prevalent – and popular – on social media platforms. Even as many of them border on the surreal, they’re often used to bait engagement from ordinary users. Our team of researchers from the Stanford Inter...