Tag Archives: public mental health

WIRED: Underage Workers Are Training AI

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WIRED: Underage Workers Are Training AI. “Driven by a global rush into AI, the global data labeling and collection industry is expected to grow to over $17.1 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research, a market research and consulting company. Crowdsourcing platforms such as Toloka, Appen, Clickworker, Teemwork.AI, and OneForma connect millions of remote gig workers in the global south to tech companies located in Silicon Valley. Platforms post micro-tasks from their tech clients, which have included Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, Google, Nvidia, Boeing, and Adobe. Many platforms also partner with Microsoft’s own data services platform, the Universal Human Relevance System (UHRS).”

NME: Megan Thee Stallion launches mental health resources site, Seize The Awkward

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NME: Megan Thee Stallion launches mental health resources site, Seize The Awkward. “Megan Thee Stallion has launched a new mental health resources website called Seize The Awkward…. Seize The Awkward features a series of videos in which Megan Thee Stallion opens up about various topics like checking in on friends and being vulnerable. There’s also videos from other stars like Noah Cyrus, Ava Max, Tyler Posey and athletes like American football player Caleb Williams and wrestler Big E.” This is the second mental health resources site launched by Ms. Thee Stallion.

The Conversation: Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation

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The Conversation: Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation. “Social media use has been shown to decrease mental health and well-being, and to increase levels of political polarization. But social media also provides many benefits, including facilitating access to information, enabling connections with friends, serving as an outlet for expressing opinions and allowing news to be shared freely. To maximize the benefits of social media while minimizing its harms, we need to better understand the different ways in which it affects us. Social science can contribute to this understanding. I recently conducted two studies with colleagues to investigate and disentangle some of the complex effects of social media.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison: Study Finds Teens, Young Adults Benefit From Clinician Advice About Safe Social Media Use

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University of Wisconsin-Madison: Study Finds Teens, Young Adults Benefit From Clinician Advice About Safe Social Media Use. “Teens and young adults who received a brief social media counseling session during a health care visit remembered the lessons and reported safer online behavior six months later, according to a large new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.”

Despair underlies our misinformation crisis: Introducing an interactive tool (Brookings Institution)

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Brookings Institution: Despair underlies our misinformation crisis: Introducing an interactive tool. “…we have built an interactive which highlights the places and populations that are most vulnerable to despair and misinformation. The interactive presents county level information on despair, access to credible local news, cognitive skill levels for high school graduates, COVID vaccination rates, and access to higher education opportunities.”

CNN: ChatGPT’s responses to suicide, addiction, sexual assault crises raise questions in new study

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CNN: ChatGPT’s responses to suicide, addiction, sexual assault crises raise questions in new study. “When asked serious public health questions related to abuse, suicide or other medical crises, the online chatbot tool ChatGPT provided critical resources – such as what 1-800 lifeline number to call for help – only about 22% of the time in a new study.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Study shows news coverage on Twitter combined crime, pandemic in disjointed narrative

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University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Study shows news coverage on Twitter combined crime, pandemic in disjointed narrative. “New research from Husker sociologist Lisa Kort-Butler suggests that in the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic, from the initial shutdowns, several waves of heightened disease and death and a waning sense of emergency, legacy news organizations continued to elevate crime news through Twitter, but often partnered the pandemic and crime in disjointed ways, and incorporated similar language with both. These crime and pandemic snapshots — in 280 characters or less — likely magnified a sense of instability and insecurity of Americans.”

CBS News: Howard County schools sue social media companies over impact to student mental health

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CBS News: Howard County schools sue social media companies over impact to student mental health. “Howard County Public Schools has filed a lawsuit against several social media companies, alleging their products are detrimental to its student body’s mental health, a spokesperson for the district said Friday.”

STAT News: Social media risks for youth mental health highlighted in new surgeon general report

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STAT News: Social media risks for youth mental health highlighted in new surgeon general report. “Amid what he called the worst youth mental health crisis in recent memory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Tuesday warning about social media’s impact on developing young brains.”

Washington University in St. Louis: Data from wearables could be a boon to mental health diagnosis

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Washington University in St. Louis: Data from wearables could be a boon to mental health diagnosis. “Depression and anxiety are among the most common mental health disorders in the United States, but more than half of people struggling with the conditions are not diagnosed and treated. Hoping to find simple ways to detect such disorders, mental health professionals are considering the role of popular wearable fitness monitors in providing data that could alert wearers to potential health risks.”

Associated Press: Elon Musk’s tweets about Texas mall gunman spread misleading claims, question shooter’s background

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Associated Press: Elon Musk’s tweets about Texas mall gunman spread misleading claims, question shooter’s background. “Misleading claims about the neo-Nazi gunman responsible for Saturday’s mass shooting at a Dallas-area shopping center are reverberating across Twitter, in large part because of Twitter owner Elon Musk.”

New York Times: Twitter Criticized for Allowing Texas Shooting Images to Spread

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New York Times: Twitter Criticized for Allowing Texas Shooting Images to Spread. “Though gruesome images have become common on social media, where a cellphone camera and an internet connection make everyone a publisher, the unusually graphic nature of the images drew sustained outcry from users. And they threw a harsh spotlight on Twitter’s content moderation practices, which have been curtailed since Mr. Musk acquired the company last year.” If you’re still using Twitter, I recommend TweetDeck as a client. Each column has a setting allowing you to turn media previews off.

Survey: Half of Parents Believe Their Children’s Mental Health Suffered Due to Social Media during the Past Year (Nationwide Children’s)

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Nationwide Children’s: Survey: Half of Parents Believe Their Children’s Mental Health Suffered Due to Social Media during the Past Year. “According to a new national survey conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of The On Our Sleeves Movement For Children’s Mental Health, half (50%) of parents of children younger than 18 feel their child(ren)’s mental health has suffered during the past 12 months because of social media use.”

US Department of Health and Human Services: HHS Launches New Website to Help People Find Support for Issues with Mental Health, Drugs, or Alcohol

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US Department of Health and Human Services: HHS Launches New Website to Help People Find Support for Issues with Mental Health, Drugs, or Alcohol. “…the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today launched FindSupport.gov, a new user-friendly website, designed for the general public, to help people identify available resources, explore unbiased information about various treatment options, and learn how to reach out to get the support they need for issues related to mental health, drugs, or alcohol.”

Rutgers: Google Search Predictions Increased Pandemic Fears, Anxiety for Spanish Speakers

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Rutgers: Google Search Predictions Increased Pandemic Fears, Anxiety for Spanish Speakers. “Research by Rutgers public health and information science experts found that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google search autocompletes – what the technology company calls ‘predictions’ – returned different results in Spanish than in English. In many cases, the suggested Spanish search terms were more fear- and stress-inducing than the English equivalent.”