You might think that having a new baby would make moms want to escape social media. But hold on, it's not that simple! A group of researchers sat down with 20 new moms, aged 23 to 42, to chat about their social media habits. These moms had babies between 0 to 6 months old and were part of a bigger s
Imagine this: US users, worried about a TikTok ban, are flocking to a Chinese app called Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote. This app, started in 2013, is a big deal in China, but not so much outside it. Until now, that is. It's like Instagram, but with a twist – it's focused on user interests, not
Elon Musk isn't a fan favorite in Britain. Polls show he's unpopular, and his social media following has dipped since he took control last October. Yet, when he recently focused on a old child abuse scandal, everyone in Britain paid attention. Why? Well, Musk is super rich and has a friend in the U.
Imagine this: a social media giant suddenly decides to loosen its rules on hate speech and ditch its fact-checkers. This is what's happening at Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, sees this as a return to the company's roots, promoting free speech.
A group of tech leaders and advocates has launched a campaign called Free Our Feeds to protect social media from being controlled by billionaires. They want to safeguard the technology behind Bluesky, known as the AT Protocol. Their goal is to create an open social media ecosystem that can't be cont
Last week, Meta announced plans to cut its US-based fact-checkers, just as wildfires raged in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, fact-checkers were busy debunking conspiracy theories about the fires. They faced a tough challenge: misinformation spread fast, and influential figures were pushing false claims. So
Social media has become a hotbed for spreading facts, false claims, and propaganda, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are great at processing language, but detecting propaganda is tricky because of the complexity of text interactions and the need to understand cont
It's no secret that physical activity is great for our health. But why do some people do it regularly while others don't? Research often uses surveys and interviews to figure this out. However, these methods can have biases that make their results less reliable. This is where social media platforms
Are you tired of billionaires controlling your social media experience? A group of famous people and tech experts, including Mark Ruffalo, think so too. They're working together to create a new social media system that puts people first, not profits. This system, called FreeOurFeeds, is built on a d
Imagine being bored at home during a snowy week in Fairmont, West Virginia. That's exactly what happened to Rowdy and Damon Dorman, a father-son duo who decided to make the most of the winter weather. They started building an igloo using snow blocks and an ice cooler. But they didn't stop at a regul
