#social media addiction

#social media addiction

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die: Gore Verbinski's mad, mad, mad epic is angry, angry, angry. And with good reason. The apocalyptic dramedy shoots its poison-tipped arrows at two of the most deserving targets in America right now: our addiction to social media and our willingness to let AI assume command of our lives. Both trends get eviscerated, trashed and stomped on (this is by no means a subtle film) in cathartic ways.

The tech-backed charity also edited out references to children feeling unable to stop using TikTok and Snap, social media exacerbating a devastating epidemic of isolation, and a passage questioning why people would want to spend years of their lives scrolling TikTok and binge-watching Netflix, the edits show. The 2026 iteration of the Childnet-run event takes place on Tuesday with more than 2,800 schools and colleges listed as supporters.

Are people turning away from social media? But that tide might be finally, yet slowly, turning. My Gen Z students have recently been the ones telling me about social media "cleanses", whereby they take a break from it all for a prescribed duration, and "grayscaling" their socials (whereby color images turn to black and white, making them less eye-candy-esque-and all around having better cellphone etiquette such as putting it away during class and turning it off at night.

oh my gosh yall IG is a drug,

Three of the world's biggest tech companies face a landmark trial in Los Angeles starting this week over claims that their platforms - Meta's Instagram, ByteDance's TikTok and Google's YouTube - deliberately addict and harm children. Jury selection starts this week in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It's the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms.

When AI wearable company Friend blanketed New York City with ads last month, there was significant backlash. Many of the company's ads (which included rage-baiting copy like, "I'll never bail on our dinner plans") ended up defaced with graffiti that called the product "AI trash," "surveillance capitalism," and a tool to "profit off of loneliness."