Researchers Claim Video Game Addiction Leads To Poor Psychological Performance

The world of video games is a popular activity for many users around the globe. But did you know the hazards that come with an addiction linked to the ordeal?

Well, most of us aren’t even aware of the fact that we could be addicted to video games or the risks that are attached. But thanks to a new study published, the world is gaining more knowledge on the matter.

Common effects include poor psychological performance like the inability to regulate emotions correctly and even response inhibition in some cases. And that’s just the start of indicators for risks of gaming disorders out there today.

As with any other activity, overuse or overindulgence comes with its fair share of drawbacks and serious impacts. Online gaming disorders were included in the recent manual published linked to mental disorders. It spoke about uncontrollable gaming which really affects an individual’s ability to engage in the social world, carry out daily functions, or even study appropriately.

The study even goes as far as understanding some striking differences in mental performance among individuals at high or low risk for the disorder.

This particular research comes to us by Shuai Wang and respective colleagues who included 57 high-risk individuals for gaming disorders and 52 low-risk ones in their sample size. The samples were mostly males and there were specific criteria for inclusion and exclusion. Moreover, the samples were asked questions regarding demographics, intelligence, impulsiveness, and response inhibition through means like eye-tracking.

The results proved how those with a higher risk for internet gaming disorders had lower emotional regulation, scored low on tasks linked to eye tracking, and had higher impulsiveness too. Moreover, those at high risk also proved to have greater game usage than those at a lower risk.

The reason why this study is being hailed is linked to the fact that it carefully evaluated the huge differences between people that were at a higher risk and those who were not for the online gaming disorder. Keeping all of this in mind, there are a few limitations worth noticing that the researchers face and outline in the end.

One of them had to do with the fact that the risk for the condition was measured through a scale administered at a single point in time. And that may lead to issues of bias and not provide a proper picture of gaming usage. In addition to that, the sample size was quite small and skewed as it entailed mostly males.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Musk Reaches Out To Investors For Twitter At Similar Price He Paid To Make Company Private

In what is being termed as a surprise turn of events, new Twitter chief Elon Musk is seeking investors at a similar price that he paid while acquiring the firm.

In case you didn’t know, so many investors have fled the company after they glanced over Elon Musk’s decisions to moderate content on the app and police various tweets.

The news comes to us as the company’s managing director is seeking new investors as mentioned by two people who are close to this effort for fundraising.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s manager has opted to set out an offer for shares at the price worth $52 which is the same that the Tesla CEO paid out when making the company private in October of this year.

For now, both Musk and Twitter didn’t exactly respond to requests for comments on the matter but it’s definitely a prospect that they hope to achieve success with soon.

At the start of this week, Musk was seen selling out shares for his own firm on the app and that is what made it $40 billion in total for shares sold in 2022 by Tesla. If we look at previous statistics, it’s actually the second biggest chunk of shares Musk has made since he bought the Twitter app. And it’s surprising, to say the least as the billionaire vowed that the wouldn’t be selling any more shares.

In the meantime, it was interesting as we witnessed the app’s advertisers walk away as so many feared the fate of this application in terms of Musk’s policing strategy. That certainly affected revenues and the ability to pay out interest on this mega $13 billion debt that Musk took to purchase this social media firm.

On the other hand, one of the app’s investors mentioned boldly how he did put out $1 million in the original investment made when Twitter was purchased. His name is Ross Gerber and now, he’s been contacted again as reported by Semafor.

In other news, after banning and reinstating some influencers and journalist accounts, the billionaire issued an apology by tweeting that "Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes."

Elon Musk is also looking for people's opinion on should he step down as head of Twitter? For now over 12 million users have participated in the poll and 56.4% want him to step down as Twitter's CEO, while only 43.6 percent still want him to be Twitter's Chief.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp Beta For Android Has A New Update For Users Which Will Keep Disappearing Messages

WhatsApp is working on a new update that will give the users ability to undo their disappearing messages. Disappearing messages on Whatsapp disappear after their expiration date, but now due to this feature users will be able to undo the expiry on disappearing messages.

In the new screenshot shared by WABI, it can be seen that once users have disappearing messages features on a WhatsApp chat, they will have the ability to turn it off. If users want to keep the disappearing messages, they do not need to do anything and the messages will disappear on their expiration date. But users have to turn the features off themselves if they want to keep the messages.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if the users keep a message, undoing it automatically deletes the message. This means once the message is deleted for everyone, users will not be able to retrieve it back. If users have kept a message, they have to make sure to not delete it accidentally because the message won't ever come back. WhatsApp also recently rolled out an update that lets users undo a deleted message. This is only for the "Delete for Me" option. You cannot undo a delete for every message once it is deleted.

This feature is still under development, as per the news from WhatsApp so we cannot say when it will officially roll out. Right now, it is not even available for beta users but it will be released in the next few days. WhatsApp is always working to provide every new feature that the user needs. It is good that the feature will be available soon because many users are waiting for it.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

After The Success of Lensa AI, The Demand For AI Art Apps Has Increased on App Store

Lensa AI is a huge blockbuster with almost $8 million in revenue from the US App Store alone. The numbers are still increasing and Lensa AI is becoming popular among people all over the world. Globally, Lensa AI has generated a total of $25 million, even after Apple and Google deducted their fees. This means that this net revenue is huge for a picture-editing app.

After this success from Lensa, the demand for AI art apps has increased. Many of the AI art apps have already climbed on the Apple Store. People loved Lensa AI and now they are looking for more apps like it. After Lensa AI became popular, there was a rise seen in other artificial intelligence based art apps too. Some of this was pushed by Ads by Apple Store but they do not do much and this means that people just love these apps in general.

According to AppFigures, the top five AI arts apps were downloaded in 11,000,000. Lensa AI is excluded from this data just to see how there's a surge in AI art apps after Lensa was released in November. Before AI art became popular, there were other apps too which were climbing up. These apps included Wonder, Dawn, Prequel, AI Art, and Voi. This year, these apps got many downloads before people moved onto AI Art.

There is speculation that it is just a trend fueled by the Apple Store but it's not true. The rise in downloads of AI Arts Apps can be seen on both Google as well as Apple Store. So it is probably not by some trend. After the Lensa app release, the demand for AI Apps increased to 1265% on the App Store while about 7 million downloads were recorded. On Google Play, this demand was a bit lower than App Store but high on the platform with 759% and about 3.7 million downloads were seen on the app.

It is too soon to say if the trends in AI Art Apps are just a phase or if people are going to let it be with them for the long term. One thing is sure people love using these apps and the App Store is having a blast with the profit it is gaining from them. Now we have to wait and see how much time it will take until people will get bored of it.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Survey shows 89 percent of industries became victims of identity-based attacks in 2022.

As per the latest study from One Identity, identity-based attacks in 2022 were observed in almost every company, including top firms. The report was based on the responses collected from 1,000 information technology experts. The survey showed that almost eighty percent of the industries came across this type of attack in 2022.

In response to such attacks, the companies have started to analyze their security measures. Eighty percent of the companies believe that a high-end security defense can help them either counter these attacks or minimize the damage. As per the report, phishing attacks were the most common, with almost sixty-eight percent of firms getting hit by them, followed by stolen credentials with thirty-eight percent.

Taking a look back on the last sixty years, it can be seen that things are pretty much the same when it comes to identity attacks. Industries are increasing their defenses. Ninety-six percent of them are using a number of tools to protect their data, while forty-six percent are using over twenty-five different tools.

However, increasing the number of defenses doesn’t mean they are now protected; in fact, it’s costing them over one hundred thousand dollars annually for tools that are not even being utilized.

Over 51 percent of the industries are now planning to strengthen their tools instead of increasing the number. Thirty-seven percent of them believe that such measures will make it easier for them to adapt to things changing with time.

With the new year just around the corner, it is believed that the number of identities being used by companies will keep increasing. Currently, 52 percent of the companies are already dealing with over 10,000 different identities. The latest approach suggests that a common ground for identities will make things easy to manage.

In this way, businesses can lower their annual expenditures and, furthermore, offer a much better-secured platform by protecting their data from such attacks.

Now all that's left to see are the results coming from a common ground for all identities. Since the frequency of attacks keeps rising every year, it’s hard to believe that it will help companies with their problem.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

How to Find Your Target Audience through Social Media?

Building your online presence and creating engaging content is the key to growth on social media. However, running your business with a perfect "Target Audience" is the thing that comes first.

Social Media has changed the way we live and communicate. Millions of users are leveraging social media, and it is a huge source of revenue for them.

Around 300 million people in the United States use social media; the number is expected to grow steadily by 2027. To find your own target audience, you can start by looking at the numbers for platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, where billions of users can be found.

Social media is a valuable opportunity for reaching your target audience if you have an effective content strategy.

The first step to finding your target audience through social media is by understanding the surrounding of your content. You should make sure it resonates with your target audience. To find out who exactly is watching your content, you will need to learn about the demographics. This demographic data helps marketers to know the likes and dislikes of the people who follow them on social media. It will help you improve and keep going.

The second step of this activity is all about deliverance and your attitude. When sharing your content, tone is an important factor. The way you communicate with content can allow you to reach new audiences. Responses from these new people are the key element to focus on. The other element that is really effective is the timing of your content. Content can become more well-liked when it is in trend. Depending on trends or other significant events, you might decide when and how to introduce yourself to a new audience.

Then comes the third step, which is all about the emotional state. It is essential not to give quick reactions against the response of your audience. Being confident and improving your content to meet their needs or interests, will benefit you in the long run. If you complete the very first two steps, the third phase will be simpler because social media analytics will be more consistent.

The social media environment is playing a significant role in modern audience discovery. Following these three steps can make it much simpler to understand how online practices work to find your targeted audiences. Take a look at the infographic below for more insights on how to find and build the perfect audience for your brand.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Study reveals the most innovative U.S cities of 2022

According to a study by The Fabricator, Seattle, which is a city in Washington USA, is the most innovative city in 2022.

The study emphasized that it is the people that bring the innovation, and to take complete advantage of the innovation, it is necessary to support and engage more and more STEM workers where STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

The report was generated keeping in view the total number of STEM workers, their average income, and the women percentage being employed. Additionally, the report also collected data in the form of the total number of college graduates having a STEM degree and thus developed this report of the most innovative cities in the USA.

As The Fabricator report ranked Seattle as the most innovative city in the USA, this is less astonishing as the city is the center for tech development and scientific innovation. Many places depict the fact that Seattle is the most innovative city in the US because of many firms and companies ranging from the Museum of Flight, and Living Computers – a famous museum, to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation lies in Seattle.

Moving forward, the report presented Baltimore, a city in the U.S. state of Maryland, as the second most innovative US city in 2022. Among many other factors, one of the reasons for placing Baltimore after Seattle is that Baltimore hosts an Innovation Week every year.

As we move in the list, one can see that San Jose (a city in the U.S. state of California) is in the third position, and why is it so? Well, it is the leading technology innovator across the U.S.

It would not be wrong to call the American state California the most innovative state, as it comprises 6 out of 10 cities that have been included in the list of most innovative cities in America by The Fabricator. Speaking of other states, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Colorado are the states having a lead in innovation after California.

The research also showed that Seattle is the city having the average STEM worker salary of around 124,000 US dollars which is the highest income in Washington, USA. A thing to note here is that Wyoming has a 63% lower average STEM worker salary than Washington. It has been mentioned in the report that Wyoming has an average salary of $68,770 for a STEM employee.

Another fact that the report shared, is that the state of Wyoming has just 2970 employees as STEM workers which is the lowest in the USA. The research has also done some standardization by state population, and it was discovered that Louisiana has the least percentage of STEM employees per hundred thousand people. It is not a coincidence that neither Louisiana nor Wyoming does not have a single city in the most innovative cities in the 2022 catalog.

Some of the key points are that the state with the highest number of STEM employees is the state of California having 662110 workers. This is because California hosts 6 out of 10 cities in the most innovative cities table. Besides, the demand for STEM employees is more and salaries are also better in California.

As far as women as STEM workers are concerned, Maryland, with 7.5%, is at the top of the list whereas South Dakota having only 2.6% is at the bottom.

Moreover, the amount of Google searches for STEM jobs can also be beneficial in predicting interest in such jobs per city. For instance, New York City holds the highest number of Google searches related to STEM jobs followed by Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

The report concluded by stating that for innovation to boost, it is necessary to support people by paying them well, and increasing diversity in workplaces so that a business can boom in the best possible way.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World