Login
TikTok Acts on Children’s Brains Like a ‘Candy Store’ Shortening Their Attention Span: Report
The way children are consuming social media, especially on TikTok, is likely negatively affecting their attention spans, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
“It is hard to look at increasing trends in media consumption of all types, media multitasking and rates of ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder] in young people and not conclude that there is a decrease in their attention span,” said Dr. Carl Marci, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
TikTok, known as Douyin in its home market, debuted in China in September 2016 as a short-form video sharing platform, primarily for lip-syncing and dancing videos, but became the most downloaded app in 2019, according to a paper published in NeuroImage last year.
The paper is one of several studies to examine the effect of TikTok on the brain, which examined how personalized videos, compared to general-interest videos, influenced the reward centers of the brain. The MRI scans of participants were highly activated in the addiction part of the brain who watched personalized videos, finding some users struggled to control when to stop watching.
White House Tells Agencies to Delay Vaccine Mandate After Court Win
The White House told federal agencies Thursday to hold off on reinstating a coronavirus vaccination mandate for millions of employees, hours after an appeals court rejected an earlier injunction that had blocked the executive order.
In a message to agency officials, the White House cautioned that “there are still procedural steps that need to take place to lift the injunction; at this time the district court’s preliminary injunction remains in effect.”
It’s not clear when the agencies might begin enforcing the mandate, which makes unvaccinated federal employees subject to discipline up to and including firing — unless they qualify for an exemption on medical or religious grounds or have such a request under consideration.
The White House’s message came after a ruling by a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to restore President Biden’s executive order. The court majority held that the Civil Service Reform Act, the general body of laws governing the 2.1 million executive branch workers, requires that any challenge to the order go through the government’s internal appeals channels, and not directly into the courts.
NJ Gym Owners Who Defied COVID Lockdowns Have Their Business License Restored
The owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, had their business licenses restored, nearly two years after they made nationwide headlines for defying New Jersey’s COVID lockdowns.
Atilis co-owner Ian Smith and co-owner Frank Trumbetti kept Atilis open to the public for the past two years, despite the revoked license, operating off of donations and merchandise sales.
Smith claimed that as a result of not complying with lockdown orders, he and Trumbetti received more than 90 citations, along with ten gym members who received citations; 9 criminal charges; that both he and Trumbetti were arrested, as well as one member; that local police changed the locks on the building, backed up their plumbing, and eventually boarded up the gym; that they were fined $15,497.76 every day they remained open, for 5 months; that $173,000 in fundraising for their legal defense was seized by the state; and that they owe more than $300,000 in legal bills.
Lockdowns in Shanghai and Other Chinese Cities Pose a Growing Threat to the Economy
China’s unwavering commitment to stamping out COVID by locking down big cities such as Shanghai threatens to deal a hefty shock to its vast economy, placing more strain on global supply chains and further fuel inflation.
Shanghai — home to China’s leading financial center and some of its largest sea and airports — has been under lockdown for 12 days, and there’s no sign of it ending.
Small businesses have been hit hard, with shops and restaurants being forced to shut down. Tesla, as well as many Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers, are unclear about when they can restart their factories. Meanwhile, port delays are getting worse, and air freight rates are soaring, putting even more pressure on global trade.
The stringent restrictions have dispelled any expectations that the country may relax its zero-tolerance approach toward COVID-19.
Return-to-Office Mandates Will Soon Be ‘Very Outdated,’ Says Atlassian’s Head of Distributed Work
Companies that adopted permanent remote-work policies during the pandemic are doubling down on their commitments to flexibility while major companies like Google and Twitter call employees back to offices this month.
But it’s only a matter of time before in-person requirements become passé, says Annie Dean, who leads distributed workforce strategy at Atlassian, an Australia-based software company.
“This conversation will seem very outdated as the next generation of leaders rises in the workplace,” she tells CNBC Make It, adding that “in the future, work is not a place. It can happen anywhere.”
In Latest Crackdown, China Targets Big Tech’s ‘Abuse of Algorithms’ That Influence Public Opinion
China’s technology sector was hit with another round of regulatory crackdowns by Beijing on Friday. The country’s internet watchdog wants to rein in potential “abuse of algorithms” by internet giants that dish out ads and content to users that can significantly influence their thinking.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will “conduct in-depth investigation and rectification of Internet enterprise platform algorithm security problems, evaluate algorithm security capabilities, and focus on inspecting large-scale enterprises with strong public opinion attributes or social mobilization capabilities.” CAC made no mention of which internet companies it would target.
Tech industry algorithms have been at the center of many political controversies in the U.S. Facebook, Twitter and Google have been ridiculed for using algorithms to flood news stories in people’s feeds with content that influences elections or exacerbates political polarization. Recently, Facebook and Instagram allowed calling for violence against ‘Russians and Russian soldiers’ when discussing the Ukraine invasion.
Cash App Data Breach Could Have Impacted More Than 8 Million Users
More than 8 million users of the mobile payment application Cash App could have been impacted by a data breach, according to a filing this week through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by parent company Block Inc.
On Monday, Block announced it had learned a former employee downloaded “certain reports of its subsidiary Cash App Investing LLC” in December without permission. That data, according to the filing, did not include usernames, passwords, Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses or bank account information. It did, however, include full names and brokerage account numbers which the company said are used to identify a user’s “stock activity on Cash App Investing.”
The only users affected, according to the filing, are the 8.2 million past and present Cash App users who use Cash App Investing. The company said it is working to contact those users to provide them with information regarding the incident.
How Apple Became One of the Largest Companies in the World
Apple (AAPL) is one of the world’s most recognizable companies. With a market valuation well north of $2 trillion, after briefly touching $3 trillion last year, its devices are universal; used everywhere from Alaska to Zimbabwe.
From the advent of the personal computer to the dark days following Steve Jobs’ ouster, to the unprecedented success of the iPhone, Apple is easily one of the biggest, most successful companies on Earth. And here’s how the tech giant made it all happen.
Why Russia Might Struggle to Maintain Its Digital Iron Curtain
On March 14, the same day Russia banned Instagram, Russian tech entrepreneur Alexander Zobov announced he would soon launch a local version of the popular photo and video-sharing app called Rossgram.
Zobov and his team “were already prepared for this outcome of events in advance and decided not to miss the opportunity to create a Russian analog of the social network popular and beloved by our compatriots,” he wrote in a post on the Russian social network VK. The plan, he added, was to launch by end of March for “partners and top bloggers,” and in April for everyone else.
The launch is still pending. “The product is currently under development. It is too early to talk about launch,” Zobov told CNN Business in a written response in Russian via a representative.
