Social Media Referrals for News Sites Are at an All Time Low

Some of the most prominent news sites of the late 2000s and 2010s have started to fold up shop, with Vice and Buzzfeed being two of the most notable corporations that have been facing financial strife. Buzzfeed News has been shut down, and Vice is conducting mass layoffs, and it turns out that a steady decline in referrals from social media sites might be at the root of this with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Data provided by SimilarWeb revealed that these referrals have gone from over five hundred million in mid 2020 to just two hundred million in January of 2023. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this might be leading to the decline of these sites. Social media referrals are crucial because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up contributing to the virality of content. This worrying sign might indicate that things won’t be looking up anytime soon.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, some major news sites were able to stay relatively immune to the wider downturn. The Daily Mail managed to keep its organic reach high despite the difficulties that were being faced by other companies such as Buzzfeed, although even this company has seen its reach plummet as of late.

Social traffic’s decline will force many companies to acquire a stronger presence on search engines than might have been the case otherwise. 22% of the traffic going to Buzzfeed’s main site, which is far higher than the 8% of traffic that goes to the New York Times from social media sites.

All in all, we are seeing a paradigm shift in how news sites get in touch with readers and consumers. It will be interesting to see how these major organizations adapt to the new normal, since failing to do so has already laid low Pulitzer prize winners like Buzzfeed. The future will be rather uncertain as social media sites try to keep traffic in house as much as possible.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The Surprising Impact Of Technology And Social Media On Gen Z Mental Health Unveiled

Most of us associate the terms social media and technology with mental health in a negative context. But this next study might leave you at a loss for words.

New research from the McKinsey claims that the impact of technology and social media on the mental health of Gen Z isn’t as bad as it may seem. The latter entails people between the ages of 18 to 24.

Today, the younger generation does seem to have a fairly complicated relationship with the world of social media. And this new survey featuring 42,000 respondents from this generation really did provide researchers with some interesting findings.

No matter which part of the world people lives in today, respondents felt that social media could lead to fears of missing out or having a poor body image. But keeping this negative context aside, many did feel it helped them with making connections and developing bonds with others.

A total of 26 different nations were evaluated in this study and the questions thrown at them were linked to health like mental, physical, spiritual, and social.

MHI then went on to analyze the differences and similarities present across so many countries and generations. The authors hoped to create a new sense of dialogue on the matter.

On average, Gen Z is likely to make reports of poor mental health. This correlation is not causation and this kind of data proves how some relationships are complex like your mental wellness and your usage of social media.

There is a surprise related to how older people’s engagement through such platforms is on track with those hailing from Gen Z.

Millennials were the age group that was most likely to make a post online and while negative impacts of social media were seen across cohorts. People reported more about positive effects more than anything else.

More than 50% of the groups claim social connectivity and self-expression as positive points worth a mention when talking about social media.

Similarly, this study spoke about various signs from technology that give access to supporting mental health resources for the young generation.

Meanwhile, Gen Z respondents claim to be more likely than others to make use of platforms promoting mental health through digital means. Furthermore, some respondents explained how a few aspects like social media was actually helping their mental well-being improve. This includes using social media for the sake of self-expression.

There are so many young refugees as well as asylum seekers who are a part of this and they’re likely to cite some social media as tools for staying connected and limiting loneliness.

There are so many people present around the globe that continue to struggle with their wellness and that study proved that.

Around the globe, nearly one in seven people in the baby boomer group mentioned how their mental health has ended up declining in the past two to three years. This was in stark comparison with one of the four people from Gen Z.

Female Gen Zers were twice as likely to speak about poor mental health when compared to their male counterparts. Meanwhile, most countries that were surveyed showed a huge proportion of Gen Z respondents and their mental well-being.

This includes how poor it was when compared to others. Nations that spoke about citizens struggling the most with social health included Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Vietnam. But the report also noted how the degree of those suffering did display variation by region.

Gen Z participants located in countries like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia showed the greatest frequency of people having very good mental health.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Apple And Google Join Hands To Stop Stalkers Misusing Bluetooth Location Trackers Including AirTags

Tech giant Google and Apple are teaming up to stop stalkers from being successful at their malicious actions.

The companies claim stalkers are misusing location trackers that make use of Bluetooth technology such as Apple’s own AirTag.

Both firms set out a draft entailing standards and some of the best practices involved in the tech industry today. This would be dedicated to the Internet Engineering Task Force and would stop unwanted tracking from taking place through Bluetooth devices. The news was confirmed by leading iPhone maker Apple through a press release mentioned on Tuesday.

Such a specification that combines input from device producers and safety groups enables people to get notified while getting tracked via Bluetooth and without any form of consent.

At the moment, users of Apple were provided with alerts on their respective devices about unwanted tracking technology that may be located near them. But this alert is not applicable to Android platforms or any other label for trackers.

Trackers of Bluetooth are trying to make way for huge benefits for users. But at the same time, they’re also trying to make way for means entailing unwanting tracking, and to solve the issue, action on an industry level is required. This was confirmed today by Google’s VP for engineering of Android devices.

While Air Tags from Apple and other trackers using BlueTooth are designed to work around issues linked to missing things such as keys, devices, and wallets, they’re at the same time trying to make way for stalking people. Hence, it’s very possible for anyone to slip AirTags or other things for tracking into a bag without gaining consent and without the ability to track locations.

One of the main elements here is linked to reducing the number of misuse cases that continue to arise as we speak. It’s a situation arising on the OS level and that means it can detect trackers produced by different firms on a number of devices that people utilize on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, some Bluetooth device firms including the likes of Samsun, Eufy, Tile, and Chipolo mentioned how supportive they are of this initiative.

Both tech giants Apple as well as Google are trying to address some feedback regarding this matter after a period of comments ends. And they hope to release a plan that implements all standards.

Furthermore, Apple claims that it hopes its features would be up for grabs toward the end of the 2023 period. And that would be supported across future versions of Android and iOS.

Read next: Google And Instagram In The Spotlight As New Reports Speak Of Rise In Online Child Exploitation Rates
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Chrome Browser’s Lock Icon Is Being Replaced With A More Neutral Option Amid Misleading Concerns

The Chrome Browser’s lock icon is going away and it’s getting replaced with another option that is deemed to be more neutral in design.

The news was published today where Chrome revealed how it was keen on transitioning the browser that is known to alert users about their connection being a secure one. Now, the plan is to put forward an option that is not only more neutral but a design that sets forward a better experience for users.

The reason for this great change is linked to research that proves how this current lock icon might serve as a security risk and is misleading as well.

For those wondering why the lock icon is going away? Well, it’s an artifact that arises from a period when we saw secure connections as the exception and not a norm. At that time, users were counting on this green-toned lock as a reminder that all connections were secure and there was nothing to worry about.

In the past, a lot of people assumed that sites such as finance and e-commerce used to require secure connections and such sites did not carry out transactions or did not need to have connections that were secure.

With time, that attitude was changing and we saw Android maker Google and a few other firms reveal how they wished to encourage publishers to go from one secure connection to the next to better the privacy of users and their respective safety.

The tech giant went as far as making this HTTPS connection a factor for ranking. But mind you, still, some experts feel HTTPS is pointless for sites that are non-commerce.

There was a recently published announcement set out by Chrome that states how HTTPS is rare and at one point, the Internet Explorer showed up as alerts so users would be aware of secure connections through HTTPS and how things were alright. In cases when the whole HTTPS was not common, this lock icon got attention to further protections given by HTTPS.

But that’s not true today as HTTPS has turned into a norm and not an exception. And Google is making sure Chrome evolves accordingly with time.

Google’s own latest research shed light on how such lock icons are misleading for so many people and it creates a sense of false security across the board.

This lock icon doesn’t mean that this site is safe but it means such connections are coming forward through a secure protocol.

Some people used to think that this lock icon was a clear definition of a safe website and hence it automatically trusted that this website people were visiting was completely safe. But that is quite a harmful ordeal as phishing and malware websites tend to commonly showcase lock icons.

Today, Google says its studies prove that people keep on thinking that this lock icon is linked to safety.

Therefore, they want the world to know that this lock icon arose in the year 2016 after the research arose proved how so many people misunderstood the true meaning. And despite the firm’s efforts into clearing up the misconception, just a small majority, 11% understood what that lock really represented.

While the misunderstanding isn’t harmless, all phishing websites make use of HTTPS and tend to put out lock icons.

And now that this confusion is increasing as we speak, even organizations like the FBI are putting out guidance regarding the icon and how it doesn’t confirm website safety.

As a replacement, we’re hearing about a Tune Icon. This is a better representation of how secure a website is without trying too hard to imply safety.

Read next: Google Bans More Than 173,000 Developer Accounts And 1.4 Million Play Store Apps To Combat Malicious Fraud
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

A Closer Look At How Cutting-Edge Generative AI Technology Is Altering The Marketing Landscape

The world we’re living in today is clearly getting impacted by the evolution of technology. And recently, the hottest debate is linked to generative AI and its role in altering the marketing landscape.

The marketing sector is one that continues to evolve as we speak. And for businesses to stay ahead of the game, they need to be mindful of all the trends designed to keep a lasting impression on the audience.

Generative AI has arrived with a bang and today, it’s being hailed as one of the best and most groundbreaking advancements in the past few years. The impact on the marketing sector is believed to be huge and to help give the world a better picture of how that was made possible, well, we’re bringing forward a new study that highlights just that and more.

An infographic from Novacloud shows us how AI has really taken a toll on marketing trends. It’s a visual journey like no other that displays how such technology is affecting today’s landscape, for better or worse.

It’s all about curating customized content and elevating audience engagement too. Remember, generative AI redefines a great many possibilities linked to both firms and marketers. It’s truly a captivating world and one that needs to be explored further in terms of how it’s getting reshaped into something worth connecting with people and bringing out the most meaningful outcomes imaginable.

Today, a whopping 77% of firms are making use of AI technology including generative AI. The latter is the term reserved for producing an algorithm for new content that makes use of existing content. So when you feel content that’s already present in the market in the system, what you end up with is something evolutionary.

This could be in the form of audio, code, text, images, simulations, and video as well.

At the end of the day, the goal is to teach systems based on machine learning. By making use of existing content, the machine must make use of AI to come up with content that’s new.

Tools like ChatGPT are making use of 45 terabytes and that’s a lot. You can think of it as a huge amount of library space, bookshelf space, and a cost worth $12 million. Today, so many marketing professionals are finding new ways to better old problems.

So as we speak, the world continues to rapidly adopt the concept of Generative AI and so many sectors are using it today. Both high-tech/telecom and legal services stand at 28% while finance stands at 24%.

Retail is 22% while Automotives is 20%. Healthcare is 14% but this is just the start as trends have really picked up the pace in such a short span of time. Research has proven that in the past 5 years, Generative AI use has more than doubled.

Coming to the marketing sector, it has impacted email marketing, customer service, and marketing lead scoring the most with figures ranging between 83% to 87%. Fraud stands at 64% while cross-selling stands at 63% and service chatbots stand at 47%.

AI is really assisting with different growth areas and it’s making business productivity go up by 40%. Therefore, it would not be wrong to mention how such smart tools are really paving the way for more opportunities. Common ones that are in use today include Bard, Nova, ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Make A Video.

But despite achieving so many breakthroughs, it would not be wrong to mention experts feel the tools are still in their infancy. This is just the start and experts feel there are endless opportunities coming soon.

Read next: New Survey Says US Consumers Don’t Understand Common Terms Users To Describe AI Products
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Over a Quarter of Internet Users Say Their Browsers Are Too Cluttered

The internet has become a core component of the daily routines of billions of people around the world. According to recent data, over 5 billion people spend approximately 6 and half hours a day surfing the web, but there is a major problem that prevents their user experience from being optimized. Research conducted at Aalto University revealed that approximately 25% of people that use the internet everyday are beginning to get frustrated by cluttered web browsers.

Based on the findings in this research, users need to open up multiple tabs if they are attempting to conduct some kind of research. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that users are often hesitant to close tabs since this can make their research more challenging than might have been the case otherwise.

Additionally, users are facing problems with trying to perform an assortment of diverse tasks on one web browser. Most users have tabs open that service a wide array of needs because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up getting everything done in time. However, this leads to even more clutter, and as more and more tabs are opened, this clutter only becomes worse.

The only way to reduce this stress is to adopt a problem centric strategy that will lead users to modifying their behaviors. Closing a tab after you are done using it can allow you to decrease stress levels, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, most users prefer to just not think about stress while they are in the midst of experiencing it.

The purpose of this research was to shed some light on usage practices and how they can be changed to meet the needs of the day. Pop ups and other forms of ads might worsen the level of clutter that is inherent to browsers, which makes it necessary for companies like Google to do what they can to decrease intrusive ads such as these ones as soon as possible.

Read next: This Report Reveals Widespread Government Crackdowns on Twitter and Facebook
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

New AI-Based Decoder That Enables People’s Minds To Be Read Non-Invasively Has Been Created For The First Time

The power of AI technology cannot be denied and it appears that with each passing day, we’re getting to hear more about developments.

A recent breakthrough in this regard is now being spoken about that translates brain function into a long stream of continuous text that continues to be created. It’s a massive development that enables a person’s thoughts to be read in the most non-invasive manner and that too, for the first time.

This innovative decoder may even end up reconstructing speech with the help of great accuracy when people are busy listening to stories or imagining them in their minds, silently. And that too, only makes use of fMRI scan data. Meanwhile, decoding systems of the past now require surgical implants and this latest advancement puts up the prospect of how new ways are restoring speech in some people and these are struggling in terms of making communications due to strokes or other kinds of motor neuron conditions.

One neuroscientist mentioned how such a development is truly shocking because it’s working out so well too. And working on something like this for 15 years and now finally seeing it happen before your eyes is really something.

Such achievements go above the limitations that arise with fMRI which means that while such methods may map out your brain’s activity at a specific area with great resolution, there might be some kind of time difference that does make the whole concept of tracking in real time not a very fruitful ordeal.

This kind of lag does exist because the fMRI scans are designed for measuring the kind of response in terms of blood flow to your brain’s functions. And that would peak and go back to the baseline over a period of 10 seconds. Therefore, it means this is the most powerful type of scanner that can’t improve on something like this. It’s not only very noisy but sluggish in terms of neural activity.

Such limitations do make it so much harder to evaluate your mind’s overall activity in terms of natural speech as it provides a huge mishmash of data that arises over a timespan of a few seconds.

But with the development of such huge language models, you’re representing speech and giving some scientists the chance to evaluate various neuronal patterns that correspond to words having a certain type of meaning instead of attempting to read things out, one word at a time.

Certainly, it was not very easy or straightforward. You really had to undergo a very intensive learning process for this study, three volunteers needed to be inside a scanner for a span of 16 hours each. And they were busy listening to podcasts. Then the decoder underwent training to match your brain’s activity and that meant saying hello to huge language models like GPT-1 which happened to be a precursor for ChatGPT.

In terms of non-invasive technology, experts are calling this a huge development when compared to what was done in the past.

Read next: ChatGPT Just Failed This Accounting Exam
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World