TITLE: TV screen time associated with sensory differences in toddlerhood, study finds
https://www.salon.com/2024/01/11/tv-screen-time-associated-with-sensory-differences-in-toddlerhood-study-finds/?in_brief=true
EXCERPT: Parenting in the era of screens is no easy task. Screens are all around us, and there’s certainly no shortage of programming options for young kids. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers some guidance on screen time for parents, but scientists are still figuring out the potential health consequences (or benefits) of screen time.
This week, a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that children who watch television before the age of two may be more likely to exhibit “atypical sensory behaviors,” such as being disengaged in activities, seeking more intense stimulation or being overwhelmed by loud sounds or bright lights. The researchers looked at data on TV and DVD watching by babies and toddlers between 12 and 24 months provided by the National Children’s Study of 1,471 kids. They also looked at sensory processing outcomes that were assessed at 33 months, using data from the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile (ITSP) questionnaire.
The researchers found that any screen time exposure by 12 months of age, compared to no screen time, was associated with a 105% greater likelihood of those kids exhibiting “high” sensory behaviors instead of “typical” sensory behaviors at 33 months. At 18 months, an additional hour of daily screen time was associated with a 23% increased chance of the child exhibiting high sensory behaviors. The more children were exposed to TV by their second birthday, the more likely they were to be less sensitive to respond to stimuli, like their name being called, by 33 months.
This study adds to a list of growing concerns about screen time and developmental outcomes, according to the researchers.
“This association could have important implications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, as atypical sensory processing is much more prevalent in these populations,” lead author Karen Heffler, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Drexel’s College of Medicine, said in a statement. “Future work may determine whether early life screen time could fuel the sensory brain hyperconnectivity seen in autism spectrum disorders, such as heightened brain responses to sensory stimulation.”
TITLE: Our Kids Are Living in a Different Digital World
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/opinion/children-nicotine-zyn-social-media.html
EXCERPT: Maybe the best way is to explain just how different things are in the social media era from when today’s parents were teenagers. Take me, for example, an Xennial who came of age with grunge and Nickelodeon. This was the ’90s, when magazines ran full-page Absolut Vodka ads in different colors, which my friends and I collected and taped up on our walls next to pictures of a young Leonardo DiCaprio — until our parents tore them down. This was advertising that appealed to me as a teenager but was also visible to my parents, and — crucially — to regulators, who could point to billboards near schools or flavored vodka ads in fashion magazines and say, this is wrong.
Even the most committed parent today doesn’t have the same visibility into what her children are seeing online, so it is worth explaining how products like Zyn end up in social feeds.
Let’s start with influencers. They aren’t traditional pitch people. Think of them more like the coolest kids on the block. They establish a following thanks to their personality, experience or expertise. They share how they’re feeling, they share what they’re thinking about, they share stuff they like — and sometimes they’re paid by the company behind a product and sometimes they’re not. They’re incentivized to increase their following and, in turn, often their bank accounts. Young people are particularly susceptible to this kind of promotion because their relationship with influencers is akin to the intimacy of a close friend.
With ruthless efficiency, social media can deliver unlimited amounts of the content that influencers create or inspire. That makes the combination of influencers and social-media algorithms perhaps the most powerful form of advertising ever invented.
TITLE: Does Social Media Make Us More Human, or Less
https:/www.discoursemagazine.com/p/does-social-media-make-us-more-human
EXCERPT: There is a [another], less frequently discussed threat social media poses to our humanity: the increasingly blurred lines between human and brand interactions, with the rising trend of companies seeking to be perceived as human and humans seeking to be perceived as brands. As a result of influencer culture, individuals are realizing their power in the marketplace to become media empires and businesses in their own right. Companies, on the other hand, fear that if they are perceived as cold and institutional, they will lose relevance and the ability to influence online discussions.
At its most innocent, this trend can be traced in the warm and friendly tone that many corporations have adopted online. A good example is Slack, a cloud-based team communication tool. Slack’s own branding guidelines state that the company aims to use “a more conversational, human tone” in its marketing and communications.
But the trend has snowballed, to the point that a good corporate social media account might be defined as one that engages like a human. We laugh when Wendy’s roasts someone on Twitter. We talk about the many companies adopting the “bae” trend around the watercooler. Granted, we may balk when a company like SunnyD controversially taps into a dark human condition such as depression, yet we’ve generally accepted the way companies mimic human traits and interactions online, welcoming the strategy without much reservation.
Meanwhile, many humans are striving to become brands online. In 2008, a time of economic uncertainty, influencer culture began to take root online as the emergence of social media platforms offered fame and financial opportunity to creatives willing to turn talents and social capital into income. Since then, this world has exploded. Today, 86% of young Americans wish to be social media influencers, and online courses promise to teach them how to achieve this dream.
Individual influencers have attained their status by turning their personal brands into cash. A great example of this is Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, one of the highest-paid creators on YouTube. He has turned his YouTube fame into a business empire, and he was reportedly seeking a $1.5 billion valuation last year. The businesses associated with MrBeast now include a virtual restaurant brand and a chocolate company. Donaldson has transformed himself from a human engaging on social media into a giant corporation with multiple businesses and product lines.
TITLE: Top social media influencers gather in Dubai for 1 Billion Followers Summit
https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/future/2024/01/10/top-social-media-influencers-gather-in-dubai-for-1-billion-followers-summit/
EXCERPT: Influencers, many of whom first gained their fame, followers and financial success amid social media’s global ascent around 2007, have been faced with the challenge of quickly adapting to the changes in social content consumption.
When it was launched in 2010, Instagram, which put many influencers on the social media map, originally consisted of mainly photo content with various photo filter options.
Influencers made their mark by showcasing aspirational lifestyles and eventually made money through branded content and product placement on the platform, setting the standard for the influencer economy model for several years.
However, in recent years, the Meta-owned company has pivoted towards short videos, or Reels as the company calls them, in an attempt to catch up with Snapchat and TikTok.
What once worked for both influencers and businesses on that particular platform, soon took a back seat to videos, forcing many to change strategies almost overnight.
It is merely one of many instances throughout the social media world of companies changing strategies and altering platform options to adapt to a changing landscape.
The methodical growth of video platforms such as YouTube and interactive live-streaming platform Twitch, also helped to push the envelope for influencers seeking to grow audiences.
Also factoring into changes in the influencer world is the increasing prevalence of AI, which is streamlining the process of composing posts, scheduling content and even the generation of videos, photos and art.
In some instances, AI-generated social media accounts have cultivated large followings, prompting some to question the longevity of the people-powered influencer economy.
“AI can do it better, and it’s OK”, one of many panel discussions at the 1 Billion Followers Summit, addresses the AI-infused social media changes dramatically changing the landscape.
However, the social media influencer economy shows no sign of slowing down.
Despite the dramatic changes being thrust upon content creators, according to a report from Goldman Sachs, the creator economy market has the potential to double in the next five years amid an increase in digital media consumption and the emergence of new technology, possibly rising to $480 billion by 2027, from $250 billion in 2023.
The bank’s report went on to say that there were about 50 million independent online content creators around the world.
However, coupled with the potential economic upside for creators is a growing concern that social media use might be affecting mental health.
According to the 2023 Arab Youth Survey, most young people in the Arab world believe social media is having a negative effect on their mental health, and slightly under three quarters of those surveyed, 74 per cent, said they were struggling to disconnect from social media.