Negative Headlines Get More Attention According To This Study

Taking a look at headlines on the internet might make it seem like the world is about to end, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the world just keeps chugging along. Why then does every headline seem to be so negative? Well, according to a recent study published in the Nature journal, it seems like the reasons for this trend are quite clear: negative headlines get more clicks 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 the study analyzed well over a hundred thousand variations of a story that were posted on Upworthy.com. Based on this study, it was found that every single negative word that was added to a headline increase the clickthrough rate by 2.3%.

It makes sense that news publishers would be negative because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up getting them exponentially more views. However, it also has an effect on the wider news industry. If everyone is using negative headlines, things will just keep getting worse since no news publisher will want to get left behind.

This also speaks to the ubiquity of a negativity bias among human beings. Our brains are hardwired to pay more attention to threats, and the news industry is capitalizing on that and essentially hijacking the bias to get more views on their news stories with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Social media platforms have been well aware of this for quite some time now, which is why their algorithms often boost content that will create divisions and cause arguments. The main issue here is that this trend will only worsen over time. Necessary steps must be taken to make the news more factual instead of warping it to cater to an inherent human bias to worry about the worst that could occur. Given that news publishers earn so much money from negativity, it is unlikely that this trend will change at any point in the near future.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Twitter And Elon Musk Mocked For Finding It Hard To Remove Users’ Legacy Blue Checkmarks

It appears Elon Musk may have fallen back on his own words regarding the app’s Legacy Blue Ticks.

For weeks now, we’ve been hearing how Twitter is pushing users to pay for their Blue Subscription plan or lose their verification status. The news comes as the app had decided to get rid of its classic legacy verification badge by April 1.

But so far, they have been largely unsuccessful at doing so as shown by leading social media experts who shared screenshots as evidence.

Twitter’s legacy blue tick removal is not as simple as it appears, explains a new report by the Washington Post. When done in a huge quantity, it would result in the entire system breaking down and to prevent that, engineers are steering clear of the endeavor as that’s the last thing the microblogging site needs is for the app to crash.

It’s deemed to be a very lengthy and complicated process so now if you actually buy the blue subscription, your legacy blue verification badge stays present and you’re given a verbal alert that claims you’ve attained Twitter Blue status OR Legacy Blue Verification.

The news sent the Twitter platform abuzz with many speaking about how Musk failed at doing a simple task that he had vowed to perform for such a long time. Meanwhile, others couldn’t help but mention how Musk couldn’t remove it because he and his team simply did not know how.

Elon Musk doesn’t know how to remove the blue ticks?

this is what we’ve got instead pic.twitter.com/EOLHr52OHI

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 2, 2023

But others are looking at this incident as a smart tactic from the platform’s heads as it means users would fall into the trap of paying for Twitter Blue and losing that verification status which the app is finding trouble removing. So you actually do lose out.

It was last month when tech billionaire Elon Musk claimed this legacy verified tick would be eliminated by the month’s start. Clearly, the deadline is crossed and we can only see on account, The New York Times has its verified status lost as they boldly claimed it wouldn’t be paying for the subscription.

Other employees who used to work at Twitter say that the removal process is actually very tiresome and complicated. It’s quite like the Excel spreadsheet which has a history of breaking. So many workers are now forced to experiment with workarounds.

There is actually no way to remove such badges as a whole so another alternative is to go case by case.

Meanwhile, last week, the Twitter chief stood by his decision to drop the legacy tics as they felt it was time for everyone to be treated equally. He also mentioned how it was important to keep bots and spam in control while adding how the app should never have different standards when it comes to celebrities and others.

But as we approached this month of April, accounts with the legacy status did not have their ticks removed. And we saw Musk even mention in a post how he was willing to give the app’s users a grace period of several weeks after which he would remove it. But now, that message has been deleted.

Read next: Twitter Makes A Portion Of Its Source Code And Algorithm Available For Public Inspection
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

These Insights Reveal What Questions People Are Asking Google

One of the things that binds pretty much all human beings together is our desire to ask questions. Studies have shown that children ask approximately 73 questions on a day to day basis. While this number tends to go down once we reach five years of age, our curious nature stays with us for pretty much our entire lifetimes!

A great way to figure out what sorts of questions people are asking is to take a look at Google because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up revealing search queries that people put in. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that SimilarWeb has just revealed some insights pertaining to the questions that people ask Google most frequently.

Unsurprisingly, the term that is used the most in Google searches is “what”. Most questions that will lead to solid and factual answers begin with some kind of “what” related statement, and it is essential to keep this phrase in mind in order to make the query easier to answer. With a monthly search volume of just under 2.48 million, this search query is the most popular one by a large margin.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, this is not a complete question, so we will have to move further down the list in order to see a finished phrase. The question that SimilarWeb found people were asking the most turned out to be “what is my ip”. This query has attained a monthly search volume of over 2.06 million, which just goes to show the ubiquity of this question with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The third most used query is “what to watch”. The internet is essentially a compendium of all human knowledge, and many users go to Google to make it easier to find something to view than might have been the case otherwise. The popularity of this request has given this term a search volume of just under 1.24 million.

It seems like voting is another issue that users flock to Google to resolve. However, rather than trying to figure out who they should vote for, users generally ask Google where they can vote. Hence, “where to vote” has become the fourth most popular question that users want Google to answer, since they likely already have picked a candidate that they want to cast their ballot for.

Interestingly, the fifth questions asked by users on Google might suggest that an extremely popular social media platform is starting to lose some of its user base. That’s because the fifth most asked question is “how to delete Instagram account”, and it has been used around 786,000 times over the course of a month.

This could potentially suggest that users are no longer willing to put up with Instagram, although other statistics suggest that no such trend is occurring. Either way, all of these questions give us a look into what Google users are most interested in discovering. Marketers can use this information to position their ad campaigns in a way that would be more effective.

Data courtesy Similarweb.
Read next: Here Are the Top Trending Google Keywords for 2023
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

This Data Shows Smartphone Brands Perform Best on Home Turf

Apple used to be the only truly dominant smartphone company in the world, but in spite of the fact that this is the case a number of other corporations have popped up to give it a run for its money. Nowadays, there are four major smartphone manufacturers that comprise 50% of global smartphone sales with all things having been considered and taken into account. These four companies are Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these companies mostly rely on their home turf to keep sales at the maximum limit. Samsung has the biggest monopoly of all, since over two thirds of smartphones sold in the East Asian nation come go to its home grown company.

Apple only manages about 24% of sales, but it does a far better job in the US and Canada because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up giving it home terrain advantage. Apple accounts for around half of smartphone sales in both these North American nations, although Samsung still does fairly well with just under 30% in the US and a third of all sales in Canada.

As for Huawei, it is the most popular phone brand in its native country of China. However, it only managed to gain 38% of sales more or less, with Apple coming in second with around 27%. This might be due to the highly diversified smartphone market in China which makes it difficult for any one company to obtain a majority of smartphone sales.

One thing that is fairly certain is that smartphone companies generally get more sales in their native countries than might have been the case otherwise. Xiaomi is the only smartphone company that gets a majority of its sales from other countries, such as in Spain where it is on par with Samsung as well as India and Mexico. While Xiaomi does not dominate any major market, it is still a major player in a vast majority of them based on the data.

H/T: Statista

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

AI Revolution: Chatbot Developers Earn Millions in Revenue

This week the hottest app trend is that the world of technology has been revolutionized with the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

According to AppFigures data, Android and iOS developers worldwide are jumping on the AI chatbot wave and releasing similar apps. OpenAI started an AI revolution with the release of ChatGPT, and many developers have followed suit, creating their chatbot applications. These developers are reaping the rewards, as some apps have earned more than a million dollars in revenue.

According to a brief analysis of the top 50 apps in the US App Store, many AI chatbots have amassed sizable profits over time. We have all been astounded by Kiyo, Genie, and AI Chatbot's astounding $3M in net revenue from the App Store since January! They have been averaging between $20K and $30K daily, which is interesting. These numbers demonstrate that it has been astonishingly profitable, and its success will only increase as artificial intelligence gains more and more traction.

These figures show a sizable market for AI chatbots and that developers can profit from them if their solutions are successful. AI chatbots are becoming increasingly common, and their popularity demonstrates how they can fundamentally change how humans engage with technology. Businesses are already making significant investments in creating AI chatbots, so this may be a fantastic chance for those hoping to profit from the trend.

There is little doubt that chatbots are here to stay, and people worldwide are starting to use them more frequently. Given their enormous potential for success, it makes sense that so many developers are choosing to use AI-powered chatbots for their upcoming major projects. The future development of this technology and its effects on businesses worldwide will be fascinating to see.

AI chatbots are swiftly becoming necessary for any organization. It can be used to automate monotonous chores and improve business efficiency. Businesses can offer a better customer service experience and boost their bottom line with the proper AI chatbot.

Launching a successful AI chatbot takes work. Ensure you've researched and prepared for the launch with an optimized keyword list, budget-friendly paid ads to kickstart it and guaranteed conversions from downloads into ratings. With all this set in place ahead of time, see your app rise above the competition rather than fail amongst them!

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Research indicates that many tech giants are laying-off workers as their revenues begin to drop

The majority CEOs of the largest tech companies believed that increasing the numbers of employees and expanding their workspace would boost up their revenues; nevertheless, they were unaware that they would have to pay for it. The CEOs of the companies claimed that hiring fewer staff increases the likelihood of overall increased efficiency and productivity since poorer productivity results from having a larger workforce, which inevitably lowers annual revenues.

Several businesses, however, became aware of this too late, but as soon as they did; they promptly began to take steps to reduce their workforce by 300,000 from the start of 2022.

Many CEOs of large organizations, including Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of one of the biggest tech companies, "Meta," admitted that they afterwards regretted their earlier belief that the pandemic's golden period would persist indefinitely. As many people started to spend more and more time on social media apps and various games, the share prices increased and therefore, companies expanded their workspace.

After the pandemic came to an end, many business owners didn’t see that their employing additional personnel would lead to such fewer sales.

To determine how much revenues have declined over 2018 – 2022, BusinessInsider conducted a research in which it was discovered that "larger is not necessarily better" by examining certain large corporations like Amazon, Meta, and Twitter and their revenues per employee. This study was conducted to determine the reasons behind the recent decision by numerous businesses to terminate their employees. However, to assess the data, many charts were used.

In the first graph, the number of workers and the number of revenues per employee since 2018 are displayed. The chart makes it clear why Amazon, Twitter, and Meta opted to lay off their employees the most, as Amazon had to experience a 6.9% decline in sales as a result of over-hiring to 1.5 million workers as of last year. In addition, there was a 14.9% and a 59.1% fall in Meta and Twitter, respectively. Nevertheless, while these three tech giants were experiencing a decline, other businesses witnessed an increase in their sales.

Moreover, the second chart in this study showed how much revenues these firms made per employee over the course of these five years. While firms like Apple generate the most revenues per employee with 2.4 million in sales, businesses like Twitter only saw 317,333k of revenues in 2022. According to the report, Apple, Microsoft, and Salesforce were the only Big Tech companies to experience an increase in sales.

So overall, it was not bad, especially when you consider that Apple has been fortunate with this trend; while other businesses panicked and saw a sharp decline in their profits, this tech giant nonetheless managed to keep growing its own. The third and final graphic shows that whereas Apple had 2.4 million revenues, the average for other firms was just 949.27k.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Harmful Consequences of Comparing Yourself to Others On Social Media

In today's era, several online platforms are a necessity of our lives, and with their increasing usage, there are growing concerns about their impact on our mental health. Recent analysis has revealed that comparing each other on platforms can lead to adverse effects on a person's mental state and emotional health.

The term 'upward comparison' highlights the act of resembling oneself with those who are thought of as better individuals. The study examined the effect of the comparison trap on approx. 7,700 people from various backgrounds, with an average age of 22 years.

The researchers collected data from the participants through meta-analysis. They also analyzed their online usage patterns and assessed its result on their mental health.

It highlighted that consumer trapped in comparison traps on online platforms experienced lower ranks of self-confidence and elevated levels of body dissatisfaction. Additionally, they also reported higher levels of psychological despair, including mental instability symptoms.

It also found that consumers who compare a lot were highly involved in unhealthy habits, such as extreme dieting or over-exercising. They can result in a range of problems, including eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and other mental health disorder

The study's results are significant, given the rapid usage of online platforms and the potential impact it has on our mental distress. The investigators recommend that these platforms should provide resources and support to help users engage in healthy behaviors and avoid unhealthy comparisons.

• Also read: TikTok Takes the World by Storm Among Grown-Ups

They have implications not only for individuals but also for policymakers and mental health professionals. The study suggests that interventions targeted at facilitating the comparison trap on these platforms could be efficient in promoting positive mental health outcomes. For example, universities could give education and resources to assist learners to engage in healthy internet habits, while mental health professionals could incorporate internet usage into their assessments and treatment plans.

Furthermore, it highlights the need for more research to better highlight the complex understanding between web presence and mental health outcomes. While this study focused on various traps, there are several other ways in which social media usage could affect mental health. Future research could explore how social media use affects different age groups, genders, and cultures and investigate the effectiveness of various interventions to promote positive mental health outcomes.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World