The Impact and Importance of Children’s Technology Use

Step into any home, visit any classroom, and you’ll observe an emerging trend: devices like computers, tablets, and even smartphones in the hands of — sometimes, surprisingly young — kids. As children’s use of technology grows, it raises key questions about the impact on their development.

Tech gets a bad rap, and for good reason — nearly 2 in 5 parents consider excessive screen time the most significant threat to their child’s health, according to a recent study conducted by Preply, the online language-learning marketplace. But it’s not all about the digital bogeyman. Technology also gives kids unprecedented opportunities to learn, imagine, and grow.

So, are we raising a generation of “iPad kids”? Or is there more to it than mindless scrolling?

Time Spent on Tech

Kids these days love their screens, and the numbers prove it. On average, children dedicate a whopping 2.7 hours to screens daily, outside of school and homework. It doesn't stop there — as kids age, screen time swells from two hours for two to five year olds to 3.6 hours for teenagers.

This hasn't gone unnoticed by parents. In fact, 82% feel their kids are clocking in too much screen time, and 86% are trying to limit it. Despite these efforts, since 2020, 68% of parents have seen an uptick in their child's screen engagement. That's an extra 1.4 hours on screens according to mom and dad, with teens leading the pack, overdoing it by around 2 hours.

Sure, we're in uncharted waters. We're finding ways to strike a balance between tapping into technology's educational potential and preventing digital overload. With the screen time surge, especially thanks to the pandemic, parenting has become this mad scramble to figure out how to weave technology into our children’s lives in a healthy, beneficial way. Bottom line, it's a work in progress.

Potential Threats of Too Much Time Online

Unlike their kiddos, parents aren’t so keen on screens. As many as 45% worry their kids might be developing a screen addiction. Couple this with the 57% of parents who think too much screen time is rough on their children's social skills and physical health. We're not just talking about sore thumbs from gaming too long — it’s more fundamental, like losing the ability to strike up a conversation or kick a ball around.

And that’s just scratching the surface. Just over half (51%) of parents firmly believe that screen overload is throwing their kids’ focus out the window, making it much harder for them to learn, let alone achieve developmental milestones.

These stats paint a picture of the evolving challenges of modern parenting. It’s no longer simply about negotiating bedtime or eating vegetables. Parents are charting new territories as they aim to cultivate a healthy relationship between their kids and screens.

• Also read: Children Lack Ethical Maturity Required To Use Social Media Responsibly, New Study Confirms

This balancing act — fostering digital literacy and agility while ensuring their kid's physical health and social skills aren't left in the dust — can be extremely exhausting, especially when it’s hard, if not next to impossible, to monitor just how much screen time your kids are clocking.

Positive Impacts of Tech

While parents may express concern over their children's tech time, we've got to be fair and give technology its due. In fact, a significant 68% of parents see the bright side, acknowledging that technology plays an important role in boosting language development. Interestingly, it's the low-income parents leading this charge, most likely to vouch for tech's impact in promoting language skills in children.

Over half (55%) of parents also notice their children's vocabulary broadening thanks to technology. Creativity also gets a boost, according to the 53% of parents who say technology helps their kids bring their imaginations to life. So while battling overuse may be tough, it's clear that technology also earns its role in catalyzing important aspects of a child's development.

Some Final Thoughts

Let's not forget that old adage: You can have too much of a good thing. And when it comes to technology, it's quite the double-edged sword. But in reality, it’s neither all good nor all bad — it’s how we harness it that counts.

For parents, it’s about making sure kids aren’t just mindlessly swiping away, but instead are using digital resources to explore, create, and learn. Because, when approached carefully, there’s no denying technology is a serious asset to the hurdles of growing up.

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by Web Desk via Digital Information World

TikTok Adds Restrictions On State-Backed Media To Combat Covert Influence Campaigns

TikTok is making it very clear how it’s got zero room for covert influence campaigns that have grown in recent times.

The popular social media app just released a newsroom post confirming how it would be setting out new limits on accounts it feels receive support and backing from government officials outside their native nations.

The company adds a disclaimer tag to such accounts and it’s been happening since the start of 2022, which is when we saw a host of state-backed media houses taking part in such a ban including Russia and Ukraine, as well as a few from Belarusia.

While it was limited to just a few nations in the past, the newest report on this front says more nations are now getting included. But the question is, are we really surprised?

Absolutely not because it comes at a time when the world gears up for the election period and with more than 4 billion individuals from various countries getting prepared to vote, we can see how this could really be a much-needed step.

As it is, the company has close to 170 million users in the US alone and you can see how popular it is around the globe too.

During the start of this year, we’ve seen TikTok embark on a disrupting journey where it got rid of close to 15 different influence campaigns and moved nearly 3000 affiliated accounts in this respect. They were designed to impact political discourse and also add more data linked to the upcoming elections period.

The company went on disrupting a series of attempts related to elections in the country of Indonesia while targeting citizens based in the UK too. These were those who were found guilty of artificial narration regarding the current electoral period and process in the UK that was arising domestically.

A recently published statement by the app was also revealed where it said the goal right now was to make sure the community featuring 170 million Americans could discover content that’s not only real but reliable. These would have the most authentic chats on the app. Furthermore, the app’s head for US data security says TikTok is working aggressively to stop attempts at influence while making sure it is free and as far from manipulation as possible.

Media accounts linked to the state won’t be featured on the platform’s For You page because that is how the platform recommends videos to others via an articulated algorithm so if it has opted to shine such content, then so be it.

For a while now, the app has been facing serious scrutiny from different leaders who referred to it as the most controversial and insecure app. So much so that it is now facing a ban across the US. Remember, it’s got roots based in China’s capital city of Beijing as that’s where ByteDance’s headquarters happens to be.

If the company fails to sell the app to another American seller then it could soon be facing a complete ban in the nation as the latest bill signed by US President Joe Biden asks for just that.

So far, a deadline of nine months has been outlined but an additional three months could be given if need be. But from what we’re hearing, a sellout might not be on the cards for TikTok. And even if it is, it could come at a huge cost, not to mention be without the main glory which is the app’s algorithm.

The outburst of reactions and emotions has a lot of people talking for obvious reasons. It’s not popular for creators who earn a living through the app to see this take center stage in the US while calls for a reversal of the decision by the court of law were also made.

Many fear this new law is taking away a great source of their income and it’s just unconstitutional to strip them of their freedom. Moreover, a similar ban was attempted by former American President Donald Trump in 2020 but that couldn’t happen and in the end, the decision was reversed.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Reputation Matters: How Hardware Giants Outshine Social Media Platforms

A new report by the Harris Poll and Axios talks about which tech companies have the worst reputations around the world. Many big names in the tech world like Meta, TikTok and X were ranked the lowest in the list of companies having good reputations. According to the analysis, X (formerly known as Twitter) has the second worst reputation in the world and many people do not think of this tech company in good words. It has a reputation quotient score of 58.8. The tech company with the worst reputation and the lowest reputation quotient score is Trump Organization with 54.0 score.

Meta, a tech company founded by Mark Zuckerberg, ranked 97th in reputation. It had a quotient score of 59.6 while Spirit Airline was just above it with 59.1 reputation quotient score. TikTok was in the 95th place with 60.7 score. A social media platform, Reddit, was at 90th place with a reputation quotient score of 65.0. Comcast was at 84th place while Boeing was at 88th place.

The study found out that the companies that deal with hardware and software have far better reputation than any other social media companies. Nvidia had the best reputation and ranked first with 81.2 reputation quotient score. Sony was in fourth position with 79.8 score while Apple scored ninth position with 79.0 reputation quotient score. Samsung made it to the top ten at 10th position with 78.8 reputation quotient score.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft also had good reputations over all. They had 16th, 17th and 18th positions respectively and all had their score in 70s. Even with trust and safety concerns with tech companies like Sony and Google, these companies succeeded in ranking well with good reputation quotient scores.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Zoom Anxiety — How a Virtual Workplace Impacts Employees

Pop quiz: What do buffering video feeds, not realizing you’re on mute, and chuckling at jokes a split second too late all have in common? They're likely all contributors to a new form of workplace stress — Zoom anxiety.

As we move further into the era of the virtual workplace, many of us are grappling not just with the on-again, off-again relationship with our Wi-Fi connection, but also an unexpected flurry of anxieties unique to the digital domain. Preply, a language-learning marketplace, did a survey recently and found that as many as 94% of professionals have experienced anxiety during a work video call and 49% find virtual meetings way more fatiguing than the real deal.

So what’s behind these Zoom call jitters? Pull up a chair (virtual or real) and let’s hash out the realities of stressing out in the same workspace that lets you stay in your PJs.

Mental Health

It might seem a little strange that almost half of Americans feel more drained by Zooming than the face-to-face equivalent. After all, you’re sitting in the comfort of your own home. But 39% say they find this form of collaboration unnatural, so the medium may just prove to be more disruptive to the flow of things than meets the eye.

The 94% who’ve gotten anxious in virtual meetings offer more insight into the unique pitfalls of Zooming, too. Topping the list of stressors is what the experts call “hyper-gaze anxiety” — the unsettling feeling of many faces staring at us through the screen.

Almost half of us are also squirming under the anxiety of seeing our own “live” faces staring back at us. And let's not forget the fatigue that sets in as we constantly engage in the dance of observing others’ non-verbal cues and trying to keep up, all while feeling physically trapped in front of the screen.

Worries About Appearance

If you’ve ever turned on your camera in a Zoom meeting and suddenly noticed a wayward flyaway hair sticking out of your ‘do, you’re certainly not alone.

Even when you do keep up a picture-perfect appearance, your home office doesn’t always comply with the same professional standards — the dog barks during a presentation, or the kids make an unscheduled cameo.

• Also read: Equal Work, Unequal Pay: New Study Exposes The Gender Pay Gap In The Freelancing Economy

Playing professional in our pajamas is a surprisingly tall order. As many as 27% of us are more occupied with our own self-image during work calls than the actual contents of the meeting. A whopping 71% struggle to maintain good posture on screen, while 48% of us smile much more than we usually would — clear signs that we’re self-consciously overcompensating to put forth a more professional image, working against a medium where we feel it never quite translates.

Productivity

We've all been there, gearing up to deliver an A-list point when — bam! — a coworker unmutes first and beats us to the punch, leaving our thoughts hanging in mid-air. Talk about a blow to the ol' confidence: 75% of us have simply thrown in the towel on what we were about to say. Let’s not even get into the epic fail of delivering a business report to perfect silence, only to realize we were on mute the whole time, a faux pas experienced by 55% of us.

And then there's the awkwardness of our collective video call etiquette: 49% of us precisely choreograph both our entrances and exits to either make an impact or fly under the radar. You'd never just saunter off in the middle of an in-person meeting, right? But in the virtual world? Well, almost a third of us feel quite at ease getting up and wandering off-screen.

In fact, some of us, 31% to be exact, just vanish without even waving or uttering a goodbye! So, while video calls might be today's communication norm, they're also an entirely new beast that we're still far from figuring out how to tame.

Final Thoughts

With how widespread Zoom anxiety is, it's high time we start some candid conversations in our virtual workplaces. From toning down the stress spurred by appearance pressures in internal calls, to encouraging an “unmute-and-go” approach, there are plenty of ways to make this great virtual leap less daunting and far more efficient.

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

YouTube’s Sinister Side: Here's How The Platform Drives Users To Extremist And Alternative Content

It wouldn’t be wrong to mention that YouTube’s popularity enmasses millions of followers and it keeps getting stronger. The much-loved video-sharing app is adored by viewers and content creators and is home to videos galore.

But did you ever think about how simple it was to fall down the platform's rabbit hole where there is no limit on the sharing of online content?

Remember, there is never any kind of restriction linked to the content that people make, especially if it attracts the masses. But what if we told you that all that glitter is not gold?

Thanks to a new study by Northeastern University, we’re saying hello to more facts related to how the app is home to plenty of extremist and alternative forms of content that have great reliance on the platform to be promoted.

We saw in 2016 how the leading video search engine YouTube was in the line of fire for recommendations where extremist material was getting promoted thanks to some major changes done to the recommendation algorithm.

And while extremist material stays on the app, there are so many subscriptions driving users to this material or genre instead of the usual algorithm that most of us are accustomed to seeing.

Researchers from this study stated how the figures for problematic material on the app were significantly large and there was a huge audience for that type of material, even today. The only problem is that it is yet to be radicalized on the app.

Therefore, the question of where radicalization was occurring within the app is worth considering

The latest research on this front says extremists are relying on the video hosting abilities of the platform and off-site is where all the dirty things happen. So if you began at a location where you have exposure to bad things, you’re going to end up in locations where you get exposed to even more.

Today, YouTube is boldly talking about how it was forced to undergo changes to the algorithm for this same reason. Receiving this kind of criticism, brought out changes in 2019 as people highlighted how it was promoting conspiracy-related material that was spiking at an alarming rate.

Despite the changes, the material never vanished as a whole. So much content just simply shifted. Today, the app is not only related to itself but the fact that content could be embedded across any designated website is news.

More than 1000 residents from America arose for this study which were divided into several cohorts. It’s the first study of its kind where people were seeing all kinds of things arising on the app.

Content was studied that users came across frequently and there were some very interesting conclusions made in the end.

Users saw so much YouTube material getting promoted on websites instead of the app itself. And most of the material was linked to problematic material. The content was more promoted in the direction of websites belonging to political right-wing destinations. Some were expressing hate openly. And that was an eye-opening situation.

The study proved that those exposed to videos on destinations offsite were more inclined to search for content from areas featuring problematic material. But it does not take long for off-platform to transform into on-platform.

So what’s the solution to the problem? As per experts, it’s just stronger policies for moderating content. The app can well decipher where content is arising from and the fact that it continues to host such videos despite appearing at different websites is another problem worth mentioning.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Former Google CEO Shares Unsettling Predictions About Dangers Linked To AI
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Former Google CEO Shares Unsettling Predictions About Dangers Linked To AI

The recently held VivaTech conference in the French capital city of Paris had big names from the tech world in attendance. Amongst those included Google’s former CEO who had plenty to share.

Ever since his exit from the search engine giant, he’s not been sitting idle. In fact, he’s been very busy investing in a wide array of AI startup firms. According to him, all kinds of AI regulation must strike a balance and make sure innovation isn’t impacted.

He further went on to confirm how the creation of AI has paved the way for more kinds of dangers but some of the huge threats are yet to arrive. But when they do come into play, he strongly feels the world must be equipped to deal with just that.

Schmidt made it a very interactive conference where he says that it’s time we understand that computers that have the freedom to do whatever they want is never a great thing. People are just going to start unplugging them but who and what gets unplugged and when is another debate.

The mere thought of going on to replace AI systems in one go after they are equipped to do anything on their own is something that’s now raising some serious questions. It’s not a very comforting feeling but as per Schmidt, researchers have carried out a host of detailed trials on this front in terms of what dangers AI possesses and that the danger would soon come and we’d be able to witness it.

It’s worth mentioning how the ex-Google CEO has invested in a lot of things to better combat risks linked to the world of AI. Watching him partner with the likes of the makers of ChatGPT to roll out a massive program worth $10 million that supports tech research with OpenAI’s superalignment team cannot be ignored.

It’s linked to managing risks related to AI but it is said that OpenAI was forced to disband the team recently due to the main leads dropping out as a surprise. However, the company vowed to move ahead with another grant program while reassuring the public that everything was under control and that a backup option was present.

For now, the former Google CEO says that the AI we have in front of us isn’t dangerous, other than the fact that it’s full of disinformation. It’s not in many people’s control and really has a serious issue attached.

Today, disinformation has really turned into a massive issue than what many had predicted in the past. Major research on the likes of systems offered by tech giants like Meta showed how systems were automatically learning to roll out fake beliefs to accomplish a certain outcome that’s far from the truth.

So many Deepfakes are turning into a bigger problem as well. There’s so much more explicit content on the rise that’s designed using AI where real personalities are targeted such as celebrities and political leaders.

Talking about misinformation in another interview to Noema Magazine, Schmidt explained that.

"I think it's largely unsolvable and the reason is the code generate misinformation is essentially free. Any person, whether good or bad, has access to them. It doesn't cost anything and they produce very, very good images. There are regulatory solutions to that but the important point is that the cat is out of the bag or whatever metaphor you want. It's important that these more powerful systems, especially as they get closer to general intelligence, have some limits on proliferation and that problem is not yet solved yet."

Fake messages arising from big names from the industry are put into action and in the past, so many fraudsters were also arrested for the crime like those that tried to persuade voters in a certain direction during the elections.

As per the ex-Google CEO, the actual dangers had to do with big language models that were taking part in cyber and some biological attacks. They are not here yet but within a timeframe of three to five years, it should arrive.

Image: Noema Magazine / YT

Read next: The Growing Impact Of AI In Search: SEO Job Listings Experience 37% Decline In Q1 Of 2024
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Growing Impact Of AI In Search: SEO Job Listings Experience 37% Decline In Q1 Of 2024

The world of SEO hiring is taking a major hit as recent reports proved that SEO job listings had witnessed a 37% decline during the first quarter of this year.

The change is significant when you compare results during the same period last year. And experts claim the increased use of AI in search has resulted in this change to SEO hiring.

The news comes to us thanks to a recently launched analysis carried out by SEOJobs who compiled the information from more than 80k job listings. These were published by 4700 workers in 2023 and the start of 2024.

So which roles were impacted the most? As per the report, it was the mid-level ones. Meanwhile, senior SEO roles witnessed a 3% YoY rise during the first quarter of this year. Similarly, data entry-level roles saw a 1% rise but mid-level positions had the biggest hit with a 6% fall when compared to results from the first quarter of 2023.

The owner of SEOJobs also spoke about the impact of AI automation linked to the handling of commonly conducted routine tasks. This means firms now need experts who are capable of carrying out work on a higher level.

Remember, work that was once designated to be an entry-level position is now considered or done quicker and more cost-effectively via the use of AI. Hence, such entry-level SEO positions are believed to work around basic level facts related to search and any soft skills needed to compete with rivals at the middle level who entail close to three or more years of experience.

So many organizations wish to do a lot more with fewer resources and that means saying hello to the hiring of cheaper staff with less experience and then paying out for great results through senior-level SEOs.

When you look at things more positively, you will understand how more remote opportunities are present in the world of SEO and how they’re peaking as we speak, when compared to results from last year.

• Also read: Digital Decay: Nearly 4 in 10 of Decade-Old Web Pages No Longer Accessible

We cannot forget how there’s a certain lack of transparency for salaries of employees as highlighted in the report so more needs to be done on this front. As per recently published stats, just 18% of all job listings gave out pay details while there is a lot more disclosure for wages as many states are now requiring this to occur legally.

Other than the disruptions linked to the world of AI, there is a bigger picture featuring mega economic challenges that seemingly impact SEO employment.

As per data from the US, the pulling of listings for these job positions coincides with the slower growth in jobs across the American labor market. Employment didn’t change a lot in the past month across several industries. This includes those offering both business as well as professional services. And remember, most SEO positions do tend to come under this domain.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World