Tech lords often vacillate between hype and doom, and Musk, who signed a petition to curb AI research until its effects are known, falls into that tendency, too.
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Ben Carson is a world-famous pediatric neurosurgeon and professor of medicine emeritus at Johns Hopkins. He … performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins who were attached at the back of the head (occipital craniopagus twins). The operation, which took place in 1987, lasted some 22 hours and involved a 70-member surgical team. Carson also refined a technique known as hemispherectomy, in which one-half of the brain is removed to prevent seizures in persons with severe epilepsy. – Britannica Carson started out comparatively disadvantaged but his mother made sure he got a good education: He later became active in politics, serving as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1917–21). But he also retained a longstanding concern for education, especially Read More ›
So are the piano teachers of the world doomed by the advent of Synthesia and its spawn of YouTube videos? It doesn’t look that way.
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The story highlights once again, the way X (Twitter) is one of the few important social media to resist government censorship.
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It’s hard to understand why anyone would doubt that irrelevant messaging from cell phones is a distraction for a student who is trying to learn a concept.
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The data seems to point essentially to one thing: the shift to living our lives online.
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It might make more sense to have conversations about age limits with TikTok. Like nicotine, should it be reserved for those above the age of 18?
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Mickelwait explained that shutting Pornhub down rather than merely forcing it to enact reforms is necessary because of how much damage has been wrought.
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Today’s censorship depends in part on the fact that failing mainstream media don’t want to know. Stories are increasingly broken by independent writers.
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Social media can be a tool for free discussions with people worldwide who may not go to the conferences, sign up for the courses, or read the books we do.
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If parents don’t want their children addicted to stimuli and behaviors in the same manner as to drugs or tobacco, then parents need to protect their kids.
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Noted social psychologist Jonathan Haidt notes that the mental health epidemic among teenagers, particular teen girls, really began around 2012 or so.
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This week, we ran a post covering a new public policy brief from the Institute for Family Studies and the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The brief conclusively demonstrated the tangible harms involved in exposing kids to the online world before they’re ready. The researchers concluded, in addition, that parents should not give their children digital devices. The stakes are too high, from increased risk of mental health disorders to learning impairments. Such warnings have been increasing over the past few years, thanks in large part to the in-depth research of people like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge. The Atlantic published an article today on how smartphones are hurting kids’ cognitive and learning capacities. Derek Thompson writes, Researchers such as Read More ›
A classic top-down discussion is now taking place on X, an intrinsically bottom-up platform — broadening access while threatening former gatekeepers.
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The lawsuit coincides with a new article from Jean Twenge, known for researching “Gen-Z” and their painful relationship with addictive digital media.
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Unplugging from the matrix may bring us back to a sense of individual identity and purpose.
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Last month a friend invited me to download a new photography app called “Lapse.” Perhaps you’ve already heard of it and downloaded it yourself. I decided to try it and see what all the fuss was about. The app’s opening screen was dramatic, with captions about the failures of previous social media apps to truly “capture” the present moment. The business model of social media apps, the Lapsers rightly contend, revolves around “likes” and gaining “friends.” What happened to taking pictures of real, human moments without minding the social reward they might reap? Photo-taking was about holding on to moments that mattered. It wasn’t about filters, validation, or identity. Lapse promises to be different. It’s a disposable camera on your Read More ›
Machines that process the private information you share with people you trust find ways to nudge you towards beliefs and actions the owners of the social media network want.
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Increasingly, the audience is fragmenting as people select their own individually crafted news streams. We must accept responsibility for the streams we create.
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Cal Newport ascended into the limelight upon his viral Ted Talk in which he called people to ditch social media. In this video from last year, Newport rehashes some of the main benefits of not having social media. Boredom is on the list, interestingly; Newport notes that most people no longer have moments of boredom, and as a consequence, don’t have any space in their lives to reflect, think, and work through their emotions. Andrew McDiarmid, a contributor at Mind Matters, has written on this in the past. He notes, Mind wandering, or stream of consciousness thought, gives us several mental gains, including the ability to consider obstacles to future goals, generate novel, creative thoughts, and place our experiences in meaningful Read More ›