All posts tagged: Medias

New study challenges assumptions about social media’s harm to mental health

New study challenges assumptions about social media’s harm to mental health

A new study published in Social Science & Medicine challenges widespread beliefs about the effects of heavy social media use on mental health. Contrary to popular opinion, the researchers found that the amount of time spent on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook has little to no significant impact on mental health indicators such as depression, anxiety, or stress. In some cases, the effect of social media use may even be neutral or positive, suggesting that the relationship between these platforms and mental health is more complex than previously thought. Social media has become a central part of daily life for billions of people worldwide, sparking debate about its psychological consequences. Some researchers have raised alarms about potential harms, linking excessive use to issues like depression, anxiety, and stress. Others have highlighted its benefits, such as fostering connections and providing entertainment. However, many studies rely on self-reported data, which can be prone to bias and misrepresentation. The new study sought to address these gaps by using objective data on social media usage to provide a …

Trump Has Found the Media’s Biggest Vulnerability

Trump Has Found the Media’s Biggest Vulnerability

Most major media properties are tied to larger business interests that can benefit from government policy—or be harmed by it. Chip Somodevilla / Getty December 18, 2024, 5:53 PM ET Now that the election is over, Donald Trump has returned to one of his most cherished pastimes: filing nuisance lawsuits. Abusing the legal system was a key precept of Trump’s decades-long career as a celebrity business tycoon, and he kept it up, out of habit or perhaps enjoyment, during his first term as president. The newest round of litigation is different. Trump has broadened his targets to include not just reporters and commentators but pollsters. On Monday, his lawyers filed an absurd lawsuit against the pollster J. Ann Selzer, accusing her of “election interference” and consumer fraud for a now-infamous poll released on the eve of the election that showed Trump losing to Kamala Harris in Iowa. (The lawsuit also names The Des Moines Register, which published the poll, and its parent company, Gannett, as defendants.) An even more important difference is the behavior of …

Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted by the SEC for ‘Massive Fraud’

Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted by the SEC for ‘Massive Fraud’

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago with “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company. The SEC charged the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, with “deliberate and systematic failures” in more than 1,500 audits. The charges include failing to abide by accounting rules, fabricating documentation to cover up its shortcomings, and falsely stating in audit reports that its work met audit standards. To settle the SEC charges, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine while its owner agreed to pay a fine of $2 million, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediately return a call seeking comment. BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers also agreed to permanent suspensions, effective immediately, that will prevent them handling SEC-related matters as accountants. The company had previously cycled through at least two other auditors — one that resigned the account in July …

Beyond Social Media’s Impact on Mental Health

Beyond Social Media’s Impact on Mental Health

A young writer, herself a member of Gen Z, has dared to point out the obvious about social media. Sure, it’s verifiably making us sad and anxious, but it goes beyond that: it’s turning us into bad people. Freya India, a columnist at Quillette and a new contributor to Jonathan Haidt’s Substack After Babel, notes that while it’s important to talk about social media and mental health, it’s just as vital to talk about what this stuff is doing to our character. She writes, Our loss of empathy, our lack of regard for others, our neurotic obsession with our own image — it’s taking a toll. Maybe subconsciously. But I think deep down we know it. We know when people are using their dying relatives for Twitter likes, filming their private moments of “quiet reflection”, all the way to posing on the train tracks at Auschwitz for their Tinder profiles, that the conversation can no longer just be about how bad social media is for our mental health. It has to be how bad it is for our humanity. What’s Become …

It’s all the media’s fault

It’s all the media’s fault

Well, we finally know who to blame. President Joe Biden unexpectedly (for the White House press pool, at least) showed up on the Howard Stern Sirius XM radio show Friday. It was a mutual love fest that surprisingly provided some insight — but you had to be a subscriber to listen. Stern, who dressed up in a suit a little too small for his expanding girth (according to him) fawned over Biden for a bit before asking him a few noteworthy questions. Biden confirmed he’d be willing to debate Donald Trump. That was the big news. But at one point the president turned the tables and asked Stern in essence, why does the media suck today? Stern blamed social media and Bident said he “hasn’t figured it out yet,” but that the “free press isn’t speaking up as much as it used to.”  “Everyone is scared,” Stern argued. Biden agreed. Excuse me? As Samuel L. Jackson said in “Pulp Fiction”: “Allow me to retort.”   Yes, the press sucks. If you need to understand how …

Commentary: Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s foreign influence, teen harm and data privacy problems

Commentary: Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s foreign influence, teen harm and data privacy problems

DATA SECURITY AND PRIVACY Proponents of the TikTok sale-or-ban law also claim that the app constitutes an unacceptable threat to data privacy. Gallagher asserted that the Chinese government could use TikTok for espionage to “find Americans, exfiltrate data and track the location of journalists”. Yet, there is little reason to believe Americans’ data is safer with US-based companies. Meta has had a wide range of data privacy scandals. Last year, leaked documents showed that even Meta engineers themselves have minimal understanding or control over how people’s data is used. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, co-sponsor of the House Bill on TikTok, invoked a case involving the dating app Grindr as a successful precedent for forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok. In 2020, the Chinese company that owned Grindr sold the app to a US company following security concerns similar to those surrounding TikTok. But, just last year, a fringe Catholic group in Denver purchased location and usage data from Grindr and other dating apps to track LGBTQ+ priests. Additionally, the Chinese government hardly needs control of TikTok to …

How a Pirate-Clad Pastor Helped Ignite Trump Media’s Market Frenzy

How a Pirate-Clad Pastor Helped Ignite Trump Media’s Market Frenzy

One afternoon last month, Chad Nedohin, a part-time pastor and die-hard supporter of Donald J. Trump, put on a pirate costume, set up his microphone and recited a prayer. Mr. Nedohin was opening his latest livestream on the right-wing video site Rumble, where he has about 1,400 followers who share a devotion to Trump Media & Technology Group, the former president’s social media company. “Faith comes from hearing — that is, hearing the good news about Christ,” said Mr. Nedohin, 40, his face framed by fake dreadlocks under a pirate-style hat. Mr. Nedohin and his viewers were waiting for the results of a merger vote that would determine whether Mr. Trump’s company could start selling stock on Wall Street. Soon the news about Trump Media arrived via an audio feed: It was going public. Mr. Nedohin raised his arms in celebration. A few minutes later, he cut to a video of a rocket blasting into the sky, with Mr. Trump photoshopped onto it. “We are holding Trump stocks,” he declared. “We are now financial investors …

It’s Time to Give Up on Ending Social Media’s Misinformation Problem

It’s Time to Give Up on Ending Social Media’s Misinformation Problem

If you don’t trust social media, you should know you’re not alone. Most people surveyed around the world feel the same—in fact, they’ve been saying so for a decade. There is clearly a problem with misinformation and hazardous speech on platforms such as Facebook and X. And before the end of its term this year, the Supreme Court may redefine how that problem is treated. Over the past few weeks, the Court has heard arguments in three cases that deal with controlling political speech and misinformation online. In the first two, heard last month, lawmakers in Texas and Florida claim that platforms such as Facebook are selectively removing political content that its moderators deem harmful or otherwise against their terms of service; tech companies have argued that they have the right to curate what their users see. Meanwhile, some policy makers believe that content moderation hasn’t gone far enough, and that misinformation still flows too easily through social networks; whether (and how) government officials can directly communicate with tech platforms about removing such content is …

Bluesky’s Future Is Social Media’s Past

Bluesky’s Future Is Social Media’s Past

Like any good citizen of the internet, I went hunting for memes when I first heard the news. Rachel Dolezal, the notorious race grifter who courted controversy in 2015, had been fired from her teaching gig for operating an OnlyFans account. I was in need of a good laugh. Only, I wasn’t having much luck. I happened to be in foreign territory, on Bluesky, the Jack Dorsey-endorsed social media app hailed as The Next Big Thing, when News4 Tucson broke the story. A specter of a bygone era, Dolezal is considered Peak Internet. In June of 2015, while serving as president of a local NAACP chapter in Washington state, she was outed for racial cosplay. Although born a white woman, Dolezal posed as Black. Debates ensued. Everyone had an opinion about her. There were thinkpieces, and thinkpieces about those thinkpieces. People accused her of co-opting a culture she had no right to, wearing a kind of blackface for personal gain. “Why can’t Rachel Dolezal transcend race?” Barrie Freidland asked in the Baltimore Sun. Ultimately Dolezal …