This Study Finds a Correlation Between Having Rich Facebook Friends and Good Heart Health

The people that you are friends with online can often be useful in several ways. People often try to befriend wealthy people through Facebook because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to build some kind of professional network. A study conducted by the American College of Cardiology revealed that this might also result in better heart health than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that around 900,000 deaths from heart attacks were analyzed during this study. 57% of these deaths could be connected to one extent or another to the wealth of that person’s friends on Facebook.

One thing to note here is that correlation does not always equal causation. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the findings of this study are certainly interesting with all things having been considered and taken into account. They seem to suggest that social networks that get you in touch with wealthy people can somehow give you a healthier heart, although the direct mechanism by which this occurs is not exactly obvious right now.

This could be quite helpful to know since it would allow doctors to better predict who is at greater risk of heart attacks and other types of cardiac related maladies and conditions. Predicting these sorts of things beforehand can have a strong impact on allowing the person in question to recover more quickly, along with providing options in terms of preventing the heart attack from happening to begin with.

The study also suggests that giving people tips on how they can improve their social networks could reduce the prevalence of poor heart health. It remains to be seen whether the findings of this study can truly be applicable in the real world, but chances are that there is something worthwhile that people can glean from it. If the findings are valid, they could indicate the importance of social media platforms like Facebook.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Musical Notes, PINless Chat Restoration and More: Here’s What Instagram Has in Store

It seems like Instagram is the only thing keeping Meta relevant right now, with the social media juggernaut struggling to stay afloat due to countless factors. Hence, it makes sense that Meta would want to pack Instagram full of as many features as possible.

There are three in particular that might be right around the corner with all things having been considered and taken into account. The first of these features, as per Alessandro Paluzzi, involves restoring chats that you might have lost.

Users have generally needed to generate a PIN that would get sent to their phone, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that they will now be able to restore chats with just their Google accounts. This has the disadvantage of not providing end to end encryption, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it will still make restoring chats way easier than might have been the case otherwise.

The second upcoming update has to do with the Explore page. The Add Yours feature allows users to customize their stickers, and this section is getting a shortcut that users can access through the Explore page. This will aid users in adding stickers to their stories without having to go through too much navigation or tapping.

Finally, the third feature might be the most exciting of all because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up bringing more music to Instagram. Users will soon have the ability to share up to sixty seconds of music in the form of Notes.

This is clearly an attempt to compete with TikTok, since the rising social media platform has made music a big part of its appeal. Instagram would obviously want to stay on par, so these musical notes are going to be an important aspect of its strategy moving forward.

These three updates show that Instagram still has a lot more to offer. It will be interesting to see how users respond when they get rolled out eventually.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Apple User Accuses Company Of Being Unhelpful After Her iPhone Was Stolen

A woman is accusing tech giant Apple of being unhelpful after her device was stolen last year in November at a bar located in Manhattan.

She says that a suspect ran off with her device after snatching it from her. Moreover, she assumed Apple would be reassuring and assist her with the entire process of recovery but that was not the case.

Reyhan Ayas who hails from Istanbul works as a leading economist at an intelligence firm called Revelio Labs. At the start, she spoke to the WSJ about an investigation regarding how iPhone robbers were on the rise and they tried to lock people out from their respective Apple devices via the likes of a passcode.

After using the user’s password, they would change it and start stealing money from their respective bank accounts.

A recently held interview with tech giant Insider spoke about how the suspect was simply standing out of the bar with her phone when the culprit and came took her iPhone 13 Pro Max. As per the account of the incident, he saw her using the phone and entering the password at a particular point in time. And that’s when he kept eyeing her, looking for the perfect moment to steal the device.

Hence, the 31-year-old was left with no choice but to borrow another individual’s device to try and locate the woman using her ‘Find My iPhone’ Function. But she was already locked out of the device by that period, she had no idea what to do and what was going on.

Therefore, the only thing that made sense to her at that point in time was filing a complaint with the police and showcasing alerts for requests for a password reset and more credentials for logins. This was right after her device ended up getting stolen.

Insider was seen reviewing the police report as well as the alerts generated in this case.

Since she did not have any access to the account owned by Apple, she couldn’t even make a login through a MacBook device. Therefore, she alerted the support team at Apple who told her to attain another SIM and another device. Despite doing all of this, she wasn’t able to gain access to the account.

Over the past one day, she had $10,000 taken away from her bank’s account as per a recently published bank statement that was seen by Insider. Therefore, the only way out was to open up a new ban account and shift her respective funds into it.

This whole time, she was trying to seek support from the Apple Store team. But as per her experience, they failed to assist her in all respects, She applied for an Apple Credit Card but didn’t get it easily.

The woman elaborated on how the company’s team kept on asking her if she tried ‘to find my iPhone’ and was getting really frustrated by that point in time. She says that obviously she tried it and her whole life was being torn down. But all these people wanted to ask was this.

Another one of her most recent chats highlighted how one Apple Rep explained to her that there wasn’t any way to get access to the iCloud account. She slammed the firm and says that they claim to be so helpful and secure but when it comes down to helping users, they’re far from excelling.

We won’t lie about the matter being highly disturbing and concerning. As explained by one former officer at the NYPD, so many similar crimes are taking place over the past two years in various US states and it’s about time tech giants like Apple got their act together.

Read next: Here Are The Most Popular Authenticator App Options From A Security Standpoint
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

More Bad News For Twitter Employees As Company Abruptly Fires Another 50 Workers

The firing spree at Twitter is not coming to a rest as the company has started to lay off 50 members of its workforce.

The news was confirmed today by The Information while other posts on social media showcased this as well. Clearly, it’s a surprising decision as many did not see this one coming.

Interestingly, not even the company’s head of payments, Esther Crawford was spared. He was responsible for overlooking the much-talked-about Blue Verification Subscription plan. Another report by The Verge spoke about how Crawford and the rest of the product team were fired on the weekend. And now, the hottest news regarding this aspect has to do with Elon Musk making new plans to clean the house and carry on redecorating using a new regime.

Esther was a Musk loyalist who parroted his talking points. She also famously encouraged sleeping at the office https://t.co/SdPvi4oI9J pic.twitter.com/dfyCudLc2H

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) February 26, 2023

Hearing that the Twitter layoffs last night were well above 50 and hit multiple departments including engineering. If you know more, get in touch.

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) February 26, 2023

Last year, after Elon Musk took over, Crawford was heard speaking about how he was forced to sleep at the office because only that would overcome the new demands set forward by the latest Twitter chief.

It’s actually very interesting to see how the news of the layoffs took place on the weekend when employees of the company found out that they were no longer allowed to use Slack. Some thought that may have to do with the fact that the company failed to pay the bill on time. Soon enough, the truth eventually came out.

Meanwhile, one person reported at the company how they ended up getting shut out manually from gaining access. And that is what struck fear in more members of the workforce how this is the first sign of many layoffs to arrive.

The strategy being used by Elon Musk to cut off employees from the main source of communication before firing them was a unique one. The firings started to drop like huge bombs and it rendered a very panicky situation across the board.

Another post by an employee spoke about how Slack was gone but no one had any clue about what in the world was going on. Meanwhile, another post stated how many individuals got an email on Saturday and that led to immediate access cut-offs. And then others called it a very confusing situation and that’s the most extreme one to take place in the firm’s history.

Meanwhile, another posting detailed more about the great extent of firings that arose including 50% at the HR department, 60% having to do with sales and marketing, and then another 35% in engineering. Finance took a 40% hit but the biggest was Project management where 80% were shown the door.

The affected workers would be getting a 30-day severance, the company went on to mention.

For now, the company is opting to stay hush on the matter and isn’t even releasing any public statement regarding the layoff that has recently occurred.

Twitter began this layoff round by releasing ad sales employees last week but little did anyone know that this would soon turn into something major. Moreover, one product manager set out his reservations by adding how he found out about this shocking news by getting locked out from his own email account.

Ever since Elon Musk took charge of the firm in October of last year, we’re hearing a lot about the headcount falling by nearly 70%. And this one is a real shocker because Musk promised that there would be no more.

After seeing what took place today, it can be said without any doubt that Elon Musk is keen on breaking promises and would have trouble with people trusting him in the future after this news went viral.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Here Are The Most Popular Authenticator App Options From A Security Standpoint

Social media giant Twitter made a lot of its users upset when it decided to introduce billing for the app’s two-factor authentication (2FA) security system.

Many were confused why a leading platform would even think about comprising the security of its users. But that’s when they justified the claims by mentioning how it might end up doing some harm than good.

Malicious actors are targeting this technology and taking part in identity theft that puts your data at risk. So it’s confusing as to which direction should one even go in. And while we do feel the company could have delivered the news in a smoother manner, it is what it is. But wait, there is no reason to lose hope.

You can carry on protecting your app in more ways than one, thanks to the authenticator app tool. This is actually more convenient as it allows you to log into your account instead of taking on some problem-based texting system.

But with so many apps of this sort in the industry, which one should a user really trust? Remember, the competition is stiff and the options are plenty, making anyone confused.

Thanks to insights provided by App Intelligence, we’ve got some great answers for you. And for starters, it’s the Microsoft Authenticator that seems to be leading the pack. To get a better idea of what exactly is going on on this front, we rounded up the top 10 most installed authenticator apps to have arisen in the year 2022. And here are the interesting findings from just that.

Tech giants Google and Microsoft are at the head of the pack. The duo saw a staggering 105 million downloads taking place last year through both the Play Store and the App Store. As per estimates, Microsoft had 58% of the total share from that. Google was next but the real shocker was for the third position. This went to Twilio. Most people didn’t even know the latter was an app authenticator, to begin with.

In 2022, it saw a staggering 5 million downloads on the App Store and Play Store. Yes, it’s not as massive as Google and Microsoft but it’s doing a pretty decent job considering many people don’t know about its existence for this purpose.

The rest of the list consisted of generic names other than Salesforce. And among those names, we had LastPass too who made headlines for its massive leak despite being a password manager.

When all the installations of these generic names were added all together, the answer was not even close to the likes of Google and Microsoft. But how are they even competing then? The answer is Search!

To be a little more specific in the talk, they’re getting fame through optimization on the App Store and Apple’s Search ads too. And to add a little more drama to this, all of them, except for one are paying for the advertisements on the App Store. They’re making use of their archrivals as keywords for better ranking.

Read next: This Survey Shows 65% of Americans Have Faced Credit Card Fraud
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Using Excess Social Media Causes Mental Illness In Teenage Girls As Per This Study

For a while now, we’ve been hearing a lot of news about how mental health and social media usage are directly linked. But at that time, there was no evidence of any causal link. Moreover, even if a direct link was found, it was outlined to be minimal and not something of too much concern.

Now, a new study is providing otherwise, leaving many to think twice about how social media can really play with young people’s minds without them even realizing it. This study by a psychology professor at NYU is really making many of us realize that the problem is growing as we speak. And there needs to be an alarm raised against it.

The CDC’s new survey is really showcasing how 57% of young females spoke in detail about how depressed and helpless they felt on most occasions. Some 30% claim to have had suicidal thoughts too. But it’s not just the females that are suffering from such negative thoughts. Males are feeling the same way as well and their respective rates for anxiety and depression may not be as great as their female counterparts but it’s definitely there.

In the past, it was revealed how things have been super difficult to show how there was a cause-and-effect relationship. There could be many causes of females feeling negative or bad about themselves. So to prove that it was directly related to smartphones or social media was a little hard for obvious reasons. Let’s not forget how there have been hundreds of studies linked to the same subject and mostly all have shown little to no effects.

But with this particular new study, things are definitely changing. The amount of details and evidence on display shows how social media is the main cause of the mental effects that young women display and with the dangers of self-harm linked to it, this is major.

The study had enrolled a huge sample size and there were a lot of interesting findings highlighted. The research further spoke about all types of digital media sources being the culprit and Netflix was a part of the list as well. But when you do isolate some apps from the world of social media, that’s when you see how the data is able to pass statistic tests and directly show a causal relationship.

Many argued in the past that correlation is there but not causal. This is different as it provides the latter with strong sources of evidence, with the authors concluding social media to be a leading detrimental factor for mental illness in young teens.

This might be one of the many reasons why we’re seeing apps like TikTok be deleted from the likes of all official devices across the United Kingdom. They claim the reason to be data protection issues and a similar stance was taken by the US recently too.

Read next: 70% of Gen Z Say They’ll Never Use Android
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp to Get Group Call Scheduling and More in Next Update

It’s always exciting to find out what’s around the corner for WhatsApp because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up indicating the path that the company plans on taking in the future. The TestFlight beta program is a great way to find out what features might be coming to the app in the next update, and there are two features in particular that we would like to address.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that WhatsApp users might be able to schedule group calls at some point, as per WBI. Emphasizing groups was a big part of WhatsApp’s strategy these past few years, similar to what Facebook has been doing with Facebook groups.

Beta testers that saw this feature said that it can be accessed by tapping on the phone icon that is on the upper right corner of the screen. If you are tapping the icon in a group, you will see a drop down menu that will give you two options. The first will let you call the group immediately, whereas the second will bring up another menu that’ll allow them to set a time and a date for a group call.

This will make it a lot easier for groups to function in a professional capacity than might have been the case otherwise. It could also expand group usage, which is something that WhatsApp has desired for quite a long time.

As for the second feature that many are predicting in an upcoming update for WhatsApp, it focuses more on Status Updates. Users will now be able to report Status Updates if they violate WhatsApp’s terms of usage, similar to what they can already do with messages that they receive through the app.

This could potentially improve the quality of content on WhatsApp statuses. They are WhatsApp’s answer to Snapchat Stories, but they have not been all that successful yet due to their odd placement. This feature suggests that WhatsApp is not willing to give up on them.

Read next: WhatsApp Might Start Allowing You to Edit Messages After Sending
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World