Men Beware: Your Smartphone Might Be Making You Feel More Alone!

Smartphones shape our social lives in unexpected ways, sometimes subtly cutting into our sense of connection. A recent study took a close look at how phones influence well-being across everyday situations—meals, waiting rooms, moments with friends and family, and even time spent finding directions. Across these, the research found that while phones help us stay connected to the world, they often disrupt the immediate connections with the people around us. This effect is strongest when phones pop up in social settings, especially for men, who seem to experience a threefold increase in feeling socially disconnected compared to women.

Why the difference? It may come down to habits and norms. Women, according to the study, often use their phones in ways that keep them linked to others—texting a friend, sharing a photo, or a quick update on social media. Men, on the other hand, may use their phones less deliberately in social situations, which can interrupt the flow of interaction, making them feel further apart. This gender difference is a key piece the study highlights, though researchers note that more exploration is needed to truly understand it.

The study was no small feat—it analyzed data from eight experiments with over 1,700 participants, each designed to bring out the nuanced ways phones impact social connection. The settings ranged widely: a friendly lunch, a room of strangers waiting in silence, or even moments when participants navigated new spaces. By comparing those allowed phone use to those asked to set them aside, researchers found that phones consistently diminished a feeling of closeness during shared experiences. However, if the phone was only used for practical reasons, like finding directions, the impact on well-being was minimal. This “when and how” factor of phone use could explain a lot about our social experiences.

Still, there are limitations. Most participants came from similar backgrounds—students and parents from British Columbia—leaving open questions about how different age groups or cultures might experience these effects. Plus, the study didn’t dive into specific phone activities. Future research could look at how various types of phone use—checking social media, replying to messages, or navigating apps—differently affect well-being and social connectedness.

The takeaway? Phones may support our social lives from afar, but the closer we are to others, the more they can interfere. This new study sheds light on what’s often an unseen influence, helping us understand how our constant connectivity could be quietly shaping our relationships.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

These Are the Media Giants Reshaping 2024: Google and TikTok at the Forefront

It's a known fact that over the years the global media brands have shifted from traditional broadcast media to tech companies. The consumers are now shifting towards online streaming and many TV brands are losing their worth because of them. Social media has also played an important role when it comes to attracting mass audiences.

According to the Brand Finance's 2024 rankings, Google remains the top valuable media brand with a brand value of $333 billion. It is followed by TikTok with $84 billion brand value and Facebook with $76 billion brand value. Instagram has increased its value by 49% ($70 billion) and has become the fastest growing media brand at fourth position in 2024. Disney got its value down by 6% and has the brand value of $46.7 billion now.

In this rankings, we note that most of the media brands are not only focusing on broadcasting but are now distributing user generated or third-party content on their platforms too. YouTube, Netflix and LinkedIn are also among the top ten most valuable media brands in 2024. The top ten media brands in 2024 are all from the USA with three being from China – TikTok, WeChat and Tencent.

Name	Country	2024 Value (M)	2023 Value (M)
Google	U.S.	$333,441M	$281,382M
TikTok/Douyin	China	$84,199M	$65,696M
Facebook	U.S.	$75,716M	$58,971M
Instagram	U.S.	$70,443M	$47,439M
Disney	U.S.	$46,717M	$49,508M
WeChat	China	$41,794M	$50,247M
Tencent	China	$36,055M	$38,059M
YouTube	U.S.	$31,721M	$29,710M
Netflix	U.S.	$22,815M	$24,150M
LinkedIn	U.S.	$18,812M	$15,507M

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

TikTok Takes the Lead: Gen-Z's Go-To Source for News and Product Discovery

If we say that TikTok is Gen-Z’s most favorite social media app, then it wouldn't be wrong. TikTok has dominated Gen-Z’s time and mind, not only in terms of entertainment but also for information and news consumption. According to a recent survey by Sprout Social of 4,400 participants from the UK, Canada, Ireland, US and Australia, all these respondents have at least one social media account and they follow at least five brands on social media platforms.

Gen-Z use TikTok the most. 63% said that they use it for news while 77% said that they use TikTok to know about the products. Instagram is the second most used, with 62% Gen-Z using it for news and 74% using it to get information about products. 48% Gen-Z using Facebook for news, making it the third most used app by Gen-Z for news. But for products, the third most used app by Gen-Z is YouTube (41%). Facebook is the fourth most used app by Gen-Z (39%) for product reviews.

Some Gen-Z (36%) use X for news. Gen-Z say that they like short-form videos of 15-30 seconds the most on these social media platforms.

In terms of consumer care, most Gen-Z prefer Instagram (72%), Millennials use Facebook the most (71%), Gen-X use Facebook (72%) and Baby Boomers also use Facebook (79%). TikTok is the second most preferred social media app for Gen-Z (62%). To compel users to buy their products, most brands post original content showing their products, post content from real consumers or target users with ad or promo codes.

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• The Real Reason Instagram Lowers Video Quality—And It’s Not What You Think!

• Is Elon Musk’s X Falling Flat? Surprising Stats Reveal a Major Engagement Problem
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Real Reason Instagram Lowers Video Quality—And It’s Not What You Think!

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, recently explained why some videos on Meta platforms look low quality after a while.

For starters, it is all about performance. When asked about older stories appearing "blurry" in highlights, Mosseri shared that they aim for high-quality playback. But, if a video goes unwatched for too long—since most views happen right after posting—Instagram will downgrade its quality to save resources. If the video gets popular again, they’ll restore its original quality.

In general, we want to show the highest quality video we can when someone is watching a story, reel, or photo. In that case, it's a photo, but still, if something isn't watched for a long time—because the vast majority of views are in the beginning—we will move to a lower quality video. Then, if it's watched again a lot, we will render the higher quality video. Also, if we are serving a video to someone on a slow internet connection, we will serve a lower quality video so that it loads quickly, as opposed to giving them a spinner. It depends; it's a pretty dynamic system, but the goal is to show people the highest quality content that we can.

He added that Instagram prioritizes higher quality (more processing and storage) for creators with larger view counts. This sparked some frustration among smaller creators who feel it puts them at a disadvantage. Meta has explained that they use different video processing based on popularity to manage computing power effectively.

It works at an aggregate level, not an individual viewer level. We bias to higher quality (more CPU intensive encoding and more expensive storage for bigger files) for creators who drive more views. It’s not a binary threshold, but rather a sliding scale.

The system isn’t tailored to each viewer, Mosseri explained, but works on a sliding scale. When a smaller creator questioned its fairness, Mosseri noted that viewers often focus on the content, not quality. Quality tends to matter more to creators themselves, who might delete videos if they appear poor, while viewers rarely notice. Still, not everyone agrees with his assessment.

H/T: @lindseygamble / Threads.

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• Google's John Mueller Encourages Adaptation to AI, Predicts Decline in Hype and Rise of Practical Uses

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by Asim BN via Digital Information World

Is Elon Musk’s X Falling Flat? Surprising Stats Reveal a Major Engagement Problem

When Elon Musk first thought of acquiring Twitter in 2022, he introduced many of his plans regarding the platform. He called Twitter “the digital town square” where all the discussions about humanity and related things happen. But soon he found out that Twitter is flooded with robots and many debates and discussions that happen there are mostly not human. So, he changed his mind about Twitter acquisition and backed out from the deal. But soon, he again changed his mind and acquired Twitter in October 2022.

Even after the acquisition, Elon Musk couldn't see anything digital town square on Twitter. Even though Twitter or X has more than 600 million monthly users, they are not still anywhere near monthly users of Facebook or Instagram. This means that Twitter shouldn't be called digital town square because it isn't as widely used as most people think.

Statista Consumer Insights find out that there aren't many daily active users of Twitter around the world. For instance, only 24% of US adult consumers use Twitter daily, while in the UK daily Twitter users are 30%. The percentage of daily active users of Twitter is even less in European countries like France (20%) and Germany (15%). Spain has the most daily active Twitter users (32%). If we compare Twitter users from these countries to users of other apps from the same countries, we find out that there are 70% daily active users of Facebook in the USA, 50% use Instagram regularly and 40% are active users of TikTok daily.

Country	2021/2022 Usage (%)	2023/2024 Usage (%)
Spain	40%	32%
United Kingdom	33%	30%
United States	28%	24%
Canada	28%	23%
France	24%	20%
Germany	16%	15%

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google's John Mueller Encourages Adaptation to AI, Predicts Decline in Hype and Rise of Practical Uses

Google’s John Mueller has a message for the world, especially those who aren’t huge fans of AI.

According to him, AI is here to stay and the quicker we accept this reality, the better. Secondly, he feels that taking a stance against AI won’t benefit you. And lastly, he wants everyone to know that the hype surrounding AI will likely be a bit different in the near future.

In case you haven’t noticed, many are starting to feel more insecure now about their future thanks to AI. But as per Mueller, you cannot hate or fear something when you’re not using it. The world of tech keeps on getting more advanced and the sooner you accept AI, the more you can benefit.

John predicted the AI hype will slow down soon as people will feel it’s monotonous. Similarly, he hopes those uses of AI that aren’t beneficial will die down but at the same time, they would be compensated with better or more advanced ones.

John further added how these aren’t his personal beliefs but the number of amazing advances in the field of technology since the past couple of years says so much and would continue to evolve.

To get better at AI, you need to play with it and see what makes sense and what gets those desirable results. This way, you won’t be left behind, he explained. John did acknowledge how the hype can be a lot for some to deal with and getting insecure is normal. A lot of misinformation does exist about AI and tools. This is why it’s easy to get insecure by feeling the hype is right.

With time, this too will settle down but for now, it’s hard to avoid falling into the pressure of AI. Things do evolve with time and this technology will do so as well, he feels. So where are all of these trains of thought coming from, if you might ask?

The answer is simple. It’s coming from understanding how systems work. He’s taken out time to understand what’s real and what’s the hype, encouraging others to do so. At the start, there’s always a lot of buzz. We saw that with Bing Chat, Google’s AI Overviews, and then ChatGPT. With time, things did calm down in terms of hype.

Image: Google Search Central/Youtube DIW-Edited

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Researchers Flag Accuracy Concerns in OpenAI's Whisper Transcription Tool

Researchers are worried about mistakes in OpenAI's Whisper, a tool that transcribes audio into text. According to the Associated Press, engineers and researchers found that Whisper sometimes “hallucinates,” meaning it adds extra details that aren’t actually in the audio. This is odd for a transcription tool, which should just capture what’s said.

Instead, Whisper sometimes throws in unexpected comments, like racial remarks or made-up medical advice. This is especially concerning if it’s used in hospitals or medical settings where accuracy is critical.

A University of Michigan researcher saw these mistakes in 8 out of 10 transcriptions from public meetings. A machine learning engineer reviewed over 100 hours of Whisper transcripts and found that more than half contained “hallucinations.” Another developer found issues in nearly all of the 26,000 transcriptions he created with the tool.

OpenAI says they’re actively working to improve Whisper's accuracy and reduce hallucinations. They also remind users that Whisper isn’t meant for high-stakes contexts, like medical decisions. “We thank researchers for sharing their findings,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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