CNN: Teens are exhausted by phone notifications but don’t know how to quit, report finds

CNN: Teens are exhausted by phone notifications but don’t know how to quit, report finds. “About one-fourth of notifications came during school hours, a finding researchers said suggests phones and apps could improve on cutting down unnecessary alerts at times when teens shouldn’t be disrupted — especially because, during school hours, most participants used their phone at least once for 43 minutes on average. But some teens used their phones for more than six hours during that time.”

University of Arkansas: Socially Unacceptable Brand Mentions on Social Media Cause Disengagement

University of Arkansas: Socially Unacceptable Brand Mentions on Social Media Cause Disengagement. “The researchers found that for highly connected consumers, socially unacceptable brand mentions on social media constituted a threat to their social identity. This threat in turn led to vicarious shame, motivating disengagement from the brand, a separation that can undermine the economic benefits of self-brand connection.”

PsyPost: New study uncovers a “vicious cycle” between feeling less socially connected and increased smartphone use

PsyPost: New study uncovers a “vicious cycle” between feeling less socially connected and increased smartphone use. “Using smartphones for extended periods could negatively impact mental well-being and social connectedness, according to a recent study from researchers at the University of British Columbia and a media lab in Germany. Unlike earlier research that relied on self-reported data, this study from the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships employed direct tracking of screen time, revealing a ‘vicious cycle’ in which feeling less socially connected leads to increased smartphone use.”

Yale Insights: A Better Algorithm Can Bring Volunteers to More Organizations

Yale Insights: A Better Algorithm Can Bring Volunteers to More Organizations . “An online platform was connecting millions of volunteers with opportunities—but many organizations were not finding any volunteers at all. Yale SOM’s Vahideh Manshadi and her collaborators found that the platform was steering volunteers toward a small group of opportunities. By building equity into the algorithm, they were able to help more organizations find the volunteers they need.”

British Library UK Web Archive Blog: How YouTube is helping to drive UK Web Archive nominations

British Library UK Web Archive Blog: How YouTube is helping to drive UK Web Archive nominations. “There currently exists a plethora of digital platforms for all manner of online published works; YouTube itself has become more than just a platform for sharing videos, it has evolved into a platform for individuals and organisations to reach a global audience and convey powerful messages. Recently, a popular content creator on YouTube, Tom Scott, produced a short video helping to outline the purpose of Legal Deposit and by extension, the work being carried out by UKWA.”

University of South Australia: Social media and low self-compassion behind rise in cosmetic surgery

University of South Australia: Social media and low self-compassion behind rise in cosmetic surgery. “But why is social media so persuasive and what is driving young women’s attitudes to cosmetic surgery? In a new University of South Australia study, researchers have explored just this, finding that young women who regularly engage with social media were excessively self-judgemental and more likely to consider cosmetic surgery.”

Northeastern Global News: Muting yourself might not be as safe as you think. This researcher found a way to get audio from still images and silent videos

Northeastern Global News: Muting yourself might not be as safe as you think. This researcher found a way to get audio from still images and silent videos. “Kevin Fu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Northeastern University, has figured out a way to get audio from pictures and even muted videos. Using Side Eye, a machine learning assisted tool that Fu and his research team created, Fu can determine the gender of someone speaking in the room where a photo was taken –– and even the exact words they spoke.”

Harvard Gazette: How federal missteps opened door to COVID misinformation

Harvard Gazette: How federal missteps opened door to COVID misinformation. “Federal agencies helped set the stage for a wave of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories about its origins through early missteps in messaging about the virus and control measures, stumbles that fueled public distrust and hampered government efforts, according to New York Times health and science reporter Apoorva Mandavilli. For instance, public health agencies failed to speak clearly and in a timely fashion about how the virus could spread indoors, Mandavilli said in a talk sponsored by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health Communication on Wednesday afternoon.”

North Carolina State University: New Method Helps AI Navigate 3D Space Using 2D Images

North Carolina State University: New Method Helps AI Navigate 3D Space Using 2D Images. “Photos are two-dimensional (2D), but autonomous vehicles and other technologies have to navigate the three-dimensional (3D) world. Researchers have developed a new method to help artificial intelligence (AI) extract 3D information from 2D images, making cameras more useful tools for these emerging technologies.”

VentureBeat: Google Bard fails to deliver on its promise — even after latest updates

VentureBeat: Google Bard fails to deliver on its promise — even after latest updates. “Unfortunately, in practice, I find Bard to be a disappointment on many levels. It fails to deliver on its core promise of integrating well with Google apps, and often produces inaccurate or nonsensical responses. It also lacks the creativity and versatility of OpenAI’s GPT-4 (It also has no personality or sense of humor, although some users might not take issue with that). Bard badly falls short of expectations.”

Analytics India: Google is Officially Killing the Internet with AI

Analytics India: Google is Officially Killing the Internet with AI. ” In the latest iteration of the company’s ‘Helpful Content Update’, the phrase ‘written by people’ has been replaced by a statement that search giant is constantly monitoring ‘content created for people’ to rank sites on its search engine. The linguistic pivot shows that the company does recognise the significant impact AI tools have on content creation. Despite prior declarations of intentions to distinguish between AI and human-authored content, with this move, it appears that the company is contradicting its own stance on the omnipresent AI-generated material on the internet.”

Washington Post: Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks

Washington Post: Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks. “Academics, universities and government agencies are overhauling or ending research programs designed to counter the spread of online misinformation amid a legal campaign from conservative politicians and activists who accuse them of colluding with tech companies to censor right-wing views.” The link is to a gift article so you should be able to read it without paywall.

Bloomberg: TikTok’s Rules Deter Researchers From Crunching Data on Users, Misinformation

Bloomberg: TikTok’s Rules Deter Researchers From Crunching Data on Users, Misinformation. “As TikTok gets more popular, researchers at leading academic institutions want to study what users are doing there. Publicly, the company says it’s open to this, and is partnering with academics. But researchers said so far, the video app’s rules about data are too burdensome.”

University of North Carolina: They combat patient loneliness with social media

University of North Carolina: They combat patient loneliness with social media. “Researchers in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and the College of Arts and Sciences are teaming up to demonstrate that social media can be used to improve well-being. They call their method the ‘social connectedness intervention,’ which uses social media to send messages to specific audiences, encouraging them to make in-person connections with other people.”