Big Tech Benefits from Coronavirus Crisis

Due to the coronavirus, most of the economy is hurting. While many stores are being forced into layoffs, big tech is actually benefitting from the recent crisis.

In fact, Amazon recently just hired 100,000 warehouse workers to meet growing demand. While many people are opting to buy stuff online rather then venture to stores and risk falling ill, Amazon has seen a major hike in costumers.

Another company that is actually benefitting from the recent crisis is Microsoft, with the numbers using its software for online collaboration climbing nearly 40 percent in the past week. Many people have to use its software for job collaboration as offices chose to work online.

Even Zoom, an application used by many colleges (even PSU) for online courses, has seen an increase in foot traffic.

These businesses have a huge responsibility to keep the economy at least somewhat afloat in a time when many businesses are hurting.

Sources:

nytimes.com//2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-facebook-amazon-youtube.html

Celebs Help During Pandemic

In a time like this where the world is facing a global pandemic, many celebrities are trying to use their social media platforms to help. While some are using their platforms to preach the importance of social distancing, others are taking a more hands on approach.

For example, Brittany Spears recently took to Instagram to post a video encouraging her fans to DM her if they are having financial troubles due to the pandemic (which could be caused by job loss/inability to go out). She said whether they needed “food or even just diapers” they should reach out. She has been responding to DMs by pay-palling people money.

In addition to Brittany, other stars have been spreading positivity in these trying times. Donatella Versace and her daughter donated €200,000 to a hospital in Milan, where hospitals are under huge financial strain due to being over-run and not having enough resources to deal with the influx of people they are receiving. Also, the CEO of Delta, a major airline, has foregone his own salary to help prevent layoffs.

In trying times like these, it is good to remember that there is still lots of good in the world.

 

Sources:

https://www.glamour.com/story/how-celebrities-athletes-and-regular-people-are-giving-back-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

https://www.instagram.com/britneyspears/?hl=en

Fleets: New Twitter Feature

Twitter has recently begun testing a new feature on its app: vanishing tweets. These vanishing tweets, called ‘fleets’ are being tested in Brazil, and apparently might be added as a mainstay feature on the app due to positive reactions. These ‘fleets’ are words, pictures, or gifs and only last 24 hours. They can not be retweeted or liked, and can only be viewed by those who follow the account posting them for the time they are up.

Personally, I do not like this concept. I think that the story feature on both Instagram, and now Twitter, is a bit silly. That is what Snapchat is based around, and these social media platforms are meant to be more permanent in comparison. Especially in Twitter, where the main purpose is to reach a large base via retweets, I feel like adding this disappearing feature is just copying other apps and taking away what makes Twitter unique. It seems to me that all apps are essentially morphing to become one, which is a bit silly.

Twitter apparently did this as a reaction to ‘cancel’ culture, where people’s old tweets resurfaced, to devastating results. I think that this idea that tweets will now disappear will lead to a false sense of security and lead people to tweet things they may later come to regret. No matter if the story is permanent or not, the Internet is forever, and people should remember that when posting anything.

 

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/03/06/twitter-fleets-goes-after-stories-its-own-version/4973061002/

https://twitter.com/hashtag/fleets?lang=en

Calorie Counting Apps Promote Disordered Eating

In an increasingly digital world, most things are now dependent on technology. Recently, calorie counting apps such as MyFitnessPal have become popular as a way to log food and become more cognizant of what you’re eating. However, these apps have led to the development of eating disorders and other unhealthy habits in many users.

According to Jack Henderson, a MyFitnessPal user, he would avoid all foods that could not easily be tracked when using the app. This caused him to eat a lot of packaged foods, which was unhealthy. Equally unhealthy was his reliance on the numbers in his phone controlling his perception of his hunger levels, and not his body.

When it comes to something as individual as eating and hunger levels, the calories we require ranges from individual to individual from day to day. By using an app with strict levels set, it leads to a discorded mindset.

In fact, in a recent study it was found that a substantial percentage (~75%) of participants used My Fitness Pal and that 73% of these users perceived the app as contributing to their eating disorder.

That is a vast majority. Calorie counting apps are not inherently bad, but they cause an unhealthy reliance on numbers and cause people to become out of tune with their natural hunger cues. This perpetuates eating disorder culture.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5700836/

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-48842898

The Rise of Fake News

In today’s fast-paced technological age, how we consume news is constantly changing. These new modes of consumption are thought by many to be simply new ways of looking at the same old information, but I believe technology is causing a shift in not only how we view the news, but what constitutes it.

The modes of consumption of today are not parallel to those of the past, and the anonymity and structure of the internet has caused us to become a more divided society. 

My morning routine consists of three hits of the snooze button on my phone, a tall glass of water, and a scroll through Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Technology is so ingrained in our daily lives that this is the very first thing I do, oftentimes while still laying in bed.

While I could easily be waking up and scrolling through the homepage of The New York Times, which would be a clear parallel to my grandparents and their morning perusal of the paper, I don’t. I, like many people my age, turn to the technology that is most popular to us (Snapchat, Twitter), and, for at least the first half of the day, this is where the majority of my news content comes from.

Before, news outlets were vetted and verified externally, as they had to have funding and readership to go to press. Now, according to Forbes, the main outlet for consuming news online is social media. On social media, anyone can publish anything for free. This caused the creation of ‘fake news’ to become a phenomenon. We saw this widespread in the past presidential election.

According to webwise, fake news is defined as ‘news’ stories that are entirely falsified, usually to sway people in one direction or the other. The other thing that fake news did, in addition to spreading false information, was further widen the divide between political sides. Whenever someone saw a story they did not like they could simply discredit it as ‘fake news,’ even if it was reputable.

The internet today is not simply a reiteration of the past. It is a new beast entirely. It allows anyone to say anything and what we consume today as ‘news’ may be nothing but ramblings.  This Internet is causing us to become less informed, despite the abundance of information it provides. And that is why I believe the Internet, specifically social media, has contributed to the rise of the fake news phenomenon. 

Sources:

Explained: What is Fake News?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2018/11/30/how-social-media-has-changed-how-we-consume-news/#618386a33c3c