New Research Uncovers Surprising Insights into Social Media Use among Adolescents

A new study published in Frontiers in Psychology has revealed that gender ideologies strongly predict social media use among adolescents in the United States.

A curious new understanding of how teenagers use social media has been revealed by research into the subject. US researchers who published their findings in the journal Frontiers of Psychology have aided our grasp of this complex subject.

It can be challenging to ascertain gender disparities in adolescent social media use. Unexpected findings came from a research of cisgender American high school students who predominately used TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram; girls reported higher usage levels for emotional connection, confirmation of beauty, and social recompense. While boys tended towards utilizing co-activity or gaming platforms like Discord more frequently than their female peers to explore what causes these disparities.

Teenagers are flocking to popular digital platforms, and the most favored app is Instagram, with an overwhelming 92% of adolescents using it. Closely tracked by Snapchat at 88%, then TikTok (48%), there was no difference between boys or girls for the top two choices, yet interesting distinctions emerged throughout the rest of them, Tumblr has more female users than Discord, Reddit MMORPGs, and Steam, with a male majority on each platform.

This study produced an unexpected finding suggesting that teenage boys' and girls' perspectives on femininity and masculinity may be more comparable. However, teenagers' social media usage is still heavily influenced by traditional gender norms; the desire for online validation primarily drives young women as they attempt to exhibit masculine characteristics.

According to these findings, sexual characteristics and attitudes should be considered in interventions to decrease hazardous online behavior. It is essential to comprehend the psychology underlying teenage social media usage to encourage wholesome and secure online habits.

With adolescents increasingly turning to social media, gender differences in these platforms' usage have become more evident. While teenage girls use sites like Instagram or Snapchat for friendship bonding and validating their appearance, boys tend to seek out outlets such as Twitter or YouTube primarily for self-promotion and group activities. Unfortunately, some teenagers employ the same technology that was meant to connect others as a means of cyberbullying one another.

• Also read: The most frequently compromised websites are Facebook and Instagram

Boys and girls agreed that using social media to overcome challenges with the people who matter most to them was the most enticing use, even when they disagreed on less competitive activities. Females were more inclined than males to engage in emotional bonding (exchanging personal thoughts), attractiveness validation (assessing one's looks in comparison to others), social comparison, and making new acquaintances online. Surprisingly, there was little evidence that gender made a difference in cyberbullying; male and female users were equally likely to experience incidents.

This research demonstrates the complex relationship youth have with social media. While girls and boys often use platforms for different activities, cyberbullying is a common experience that does not discriminate on gender lines. Social media can be positive and negative for young people, so it is important to understand how they use it to ensure their safety and well-being.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

64% of Marketers Plan to Invest More in Influencers

Working with influencers used to be considered a very niche form of marketing, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it has risen in prominence over the years. Nowadays, countless marketers are willing to hire influencers in order to make their ad campaigns more effective than might have been the case otherwise. With 64% of marketers planning to increase budgets that would pay influencers, members of this field stand to gain a lot in 2023.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that TikTok is gaining a lot of ground in terms of influencer output. The Chinese short form video and social media app has managed to bridge the gap between itself and Instagram, although the latter is still the 8th most visited app in the world and is therefore highly valuable.

Influencers were asked what they expected to earn from the various marketing campaigns that they would be taking part in, and there was a lot of difference that could be seen based on the number of followers they had. Influencers who had fewer than a thousand followers stated that they expected to earn around $89 from a marketing campaign with all things having been considered and taken into account.

As for slightly more significant influencers, namely those who have between a hundred thousand to a million followers, their average expected payout is estimated to be approximately $1,000 for each campaign.

Small time influencers assumed that larger influencers would get upwards of $20,000 per campaign because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up being more in line with their renown. However, this was a massive overestimation. It is very unlikely that an influencer would end up getting paid such a tremendous sum of cash, even if they have in excess of a million followers.

This just goes to show that influencer marketing, while profitable, is not the massive money maker that people assume. Smaller influencers can still earn a decent living by doing what they love.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Medical And Life Sciences Marketers Shift Priorities to Event and Social Media Promotions in 2022

A recent survey conducted by Scorrmarketing demonstrated that fitness and life sciences marketers are shifting their focus away from email marketing in 2022. Instead, they are prioritizing event marketing and social media promotions to reach their target audience.

The study, which polled over one hundred and twenty-three healthcare and life sciences executives, found that 52% of respondents are planning to boost their event marketing budgets this year. This marks a significant shift from previous years when email marketing was the go-to tactic for reaching healthcare professionals and patients.

The reason for this shift appears to be the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With in-person events and conferences canceled or limited in 2020 and early 2021, marketers have had to find new ways to reach their target audience. As a result, many have turned to virtual events and webinars to engage with healthcare professionals and patients.

In addition to events, social media advertising is also becoming an increasingly popular tactic for healthcare and life sciences marketers. The survey found that 37% of respondents plan to increase their social media advertising budgets in 2022. This is likely because social media platforms provide a more targeted way to reach specific audiences, including healthcare professionals and patients.

Email marketing, on the other hand, appears to be falling out of favor. The survey found that email marketing rated 3.23/5. While on the other hand, webinars, case studies, white papers, and social media rated 3.84, 3.83, 3.74, and 3.63/5 respectively.

While email marketing can still be an effective way to reach healthcare professionals and patients, it may no longer be the most efficient or cost-effective tactic. As more and more people become inundated with emails, it can be difficult for healthcare and life sciences marketers to cut through the noise and get their message heard.

Of course, this doesn't mean that email marketing is dead. Rather, it may simply require a more targeted and strategic approach to be effective. This could involve segmenting email lists based on specific criteria, such as job title or specialty, and tailoring email content to the interests and needs of each segment.

In addition, the investigation also highlights that approximately 72% of organizations use social media promotions through various online platforms. Among these, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter lead to the front.

Overall, the survey results suggest that healthcare and life sciences advertisers are adapting to the changing landscape of the industry and are finding new and innovative ways to reach their target audience. While events and social media advertising may be more expensive than email marketing, they also offer the potential for greater engagement and interaction with healthcare professionals and patients.

As the industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how healthcare and life sciences marketers continue to adapt their strategies and tactics to stay ahead of the curve. Whether it's through virtual events, social media advertising, or other innovative approaches, the key to success will be staying nimble and responsive to the changing needs and preferences of the target audience.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

New Analysis Proves How The App Store And Play Store Continuously Fail At Filtering Fake Reviews

There are two main places that mobile users turn to when they’re in search of downloading an app of their preference.

And in case you haven’t guessed by now, it’s Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. But one issue that both these places have failed to overcome is linked to fake reviews.

It’s a constant struggle and people are failing at filtering those suspicious reviews out of their apps, as recently found by an analysis conducted by Which?

It made use of a special model that classified all sorts of suspicious review behavior on those apps and they found nearly 25% of the top 100 applications on Google Play have questionable reviews. As far as the App Store is concerned, the figure here was said to be 17%.

The trend has been spiraling upward for a number of years and various products and companies are really struggling. So if you do see a business doing well based on fake reviews across the stores, don’t be surprised, as this review confirms.

A large-scale analysis of such reviews on the respective platforms showed how people were paying hundreds of dollars to attain five-star reviews. And when you look at such data online, you’ll see a figure that’s close to 18,000.

This is massive and by benchmarking such apps, it’s a clear strategy to differentiate this from other trusted apps that arise in similar categories. After that, the behavior linked to certain reviewers was compared to attain a model that would be able to calculate the degree of suspicious activity arising.

Clearly, there were massive differences between both patterns of reviews.

With five stars, so many apps were making use of paid reviews and these had a much bigger proportion linked to five-star reviews. For instance, dating apps had massively positive reviews that comprised nearly 60%.

Experts from this study also made people aware of how they can note down suspicious activity in the form of review manipulation with ease. They’re usually comprised of bulk uploads. Yes, so many clusters of highly rated reviews arise over a span of just four to five days.

Then you’ll notice a break, right before another huge spike comes into play. Again, these were apps that were not too well known. They contrasted so much different when compared to the apps with fake reviews.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Are AI Assistants the Next Big Step for Autonomous Vehicles?

The concept of self driving cars has been around for a long time, but in spite of the fact that this is the case these types of autonomous vehicles have faced a few hurdles when it comes to being implemented in real world settings. The rise of ChatGPT has made a lot of people wonder how AI assistants could factor into the equation, with many stating that they could make these cars safer than might have been the case otherwise.

The trend of integrating various functions into the central display is already ongoing. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that AI assistants could be added to the mix as well. There’s already quite a bit of AI that can be helpful in that regard, with Siri and Google Assistant already responding to natural language in quite an intuitive way.

However, the costs of incorporating AI into self driving cars could be prohibitive because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making the cars unaffordable and expensive. Regardless, customers are demanding some improvements, and companies might have no choice but to meet them halfway with all things having been considered and taken into account.

There are many other features that customers want as well, such as tactile feedback. Also, it should be mentioned that many customers don’t like the touchscreen control panel. They still prefer the feeling of old school knobs as well as buttons. They aren’t just old fashioned, though. Such fixtures can be more visible since they are not displayed on screens and won’t become obscured by direct light falling on them.

All in all, it seems like companies need to start mixing a bit of the old with a bit of the new. There is no need to fix something that isn’t already broken. Customers might want AI, but that does not necessarily mean that they will also want their cars to start looking like spaceships that they won’t know how to operate with any degree of ease.

H/T: CPR

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Top YouTubers Are Sharing Their Payouts With Experiences Regarding The Shorts Monetization Program

It was early last month when we heard about YouTube sharing ad revenue from Shorts with its creators on the app.

The news was adored by plenty as they felt they were finally being treated for their hard work. Through the new Shorts Monetization Program, YouTube is giving creators a share of the ad revenue generated depending on the view count for the content produced.

A lot of creators went public with how much money they managed to earn through such an initiative after just one month. Similarly, they also shared their overall experiences and we’re delineating them for you below.

It was the latter part of 2022 when YouTube went public with the decision to help creators earn more money while promoting its Shorts campaign. In case you did not know, Shorts really does generate a lot of revenue for the app and it makes sense as to why such a paid program was rolled out in the first place.

Similarly, we saw some creators switch from TikTok to YouTube just so they could take part in this great money-making venture, and by the looks of it, things seem to be going great so far.

Creator James Seo happened to be one of those creators who says that he managed to produce a staggering $1455 with his Shorts content after receiving 32 million views. And that’s the equivalent of $0.04 for every 1000 views generated.

He further revealed how he was not overwhelmed by the figure nor did he feel underwhelmed. Moreover, he never relies on the likes of apps for his final income so this served as an added bonus for him.

Moreover, a total of seven different creators were seen sharing how much they ended up earning during the program’s launch. Obviously, the figure was different for each person but as a whole, some felt it was fairly less than what they were really expecting. But still, since the venture is new and it would take time for many to get acclimatized too, the figures were not bad.

As a whole, there was plenty of optimism regarding the endeavor. Meanwhile, two creators were seen speaking about how the revenue generated from Shorts was far less than what they make on longer-form content. But the fact that they end up gaining so much more exposure on Shorts really makes them realize that this sort of posting might really be worth it after all.

Then we had YouTuber Julia McNamee speak about her experience as well. She made around $3 from shorts but $585 from longer-form videos. And that’s interesting because her Shorts were shown at least 83,000 times in the feed and really did give rise to good visibility. Another creator by the name of Riley Lemon agreed with this and she surprisingly has around 92,000 followers on her channel.

Lemon further elaborated on how things like perspective do matter at the end of the day. No one is dumb enough to quit a regular job for the sake of just doing Shorts because that would never generate enough revenue for them. But at the same time, the whole experience is just another great opportunity to make your brand fully grow on YouTube which most creators aren’t able to achieve.

Another creator by the likes of Thomas Walters who happens to be the CEO of the leading influencer-based marketing agency called Billion Dollar Boy spoke about how the real gift at the end of the day has to do with a great earnings potential that arises with different brand deals.

With the right visibility attained through Shorts, you can really get great positivity and attain the right focus to keep you on the track to success.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google's AI Speech Models Get a Major Boost with Latest Upgrades

Google has recently shared an update on its ongoing efforts to improve its Artificial Intelligence speech models. The company has been funding heavily in this area, and its latest update highlights some of the progress it has made in recent months.

In a report, the AI team of the tech giant highlighted that it has been focusing on several key areas of investigation to improve its speech models. One of the main areas of focus has been on developing more acceptable ways to handle the variability in speech that exists across different terminologies and dialects.

Another area of priority for Google has been improving the marker of its speech-to-text transcription. In particular, the company has been working on ways to reduce errors and inaccuracies in its transcriptions, which can be a major challenge in certain contexts.

The business revealed information on its AI global speech framework, which can comprehend hundreds of spoken languages, earlier this week. The framework was developed using 28 billion rulings of text and 12 million hours (about 1369 years) of voice in more than three hundred several languages.

The Google Artificial Intelligence team has also been exploring new ways to improve the accuracy of its speech models through better training data. This has included efforts to collect more diverse and representative datasets that can help to improve the model's ability to recognize and transcribe speech from a wide range of sources.

Besides this, there are many challenges that the algorithm is facing currently. As per the investigations and the current competitions, the understanding algorithm must be adaptable, influential, and generalizable for models to enhance in a computationally efficient manner while growing language coverage and rate. Large volumes of information from numerous sources should be able to be used by the algorithm, which should also be able to generalize to new languages and use cases and enable model upgrades without necessitating thorough retraining.

Overall, Google's efforts in this area are part of a broader trend toward improving AI-powered speech recognition and transcription. As voice-based interfaces become increasingly common, these technologies will play an increasingly important role in everything from virtual assistants to customer service bots and beyond.

Of course, there are also concerns about the potential for these technologies to be misused or abused. For example, there are concerns about the accuracy of speech recognition technologies when used in legal proceedings, or when transcribing conversations that contain sensitive or confidential information.

Despite these concerns, it seems clear that AI-powered speech recognition and transcription will continue to be a major focus for companies like Google in the years ahead. As these technologies continue to improve, they will likely become even more widespread and powerful, potentially transforming the way we interact with computers and with each other.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World