Tag: social media

Instagram will let you rebuild your recommendations from scratch

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

The new feature will be available to users of all ages, including Teen accounts. “We want to make sure everyone on Instagram – especially teens – has safe, positive, age-appropriate experiences and feels the time they’re spending on Instagram is valuable,” Meta said. “We want to give teens new ways to shape their Instagram experience, so it can continue to reflect their passions and interests as they evolve.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/19/24300458/instagram-reset-content-recommendations-from-scratch

Brace Yourself for Ads on Threads in January

image via pcmag.com
image via pcmag.com

Meta execs have acknowledged that ads are coming to its newest social network. "We definitely plan to bring ads to Threads," Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, who also oversees Threads, said in April. "At the end of the day, we're a business, and Threads needs to make enough money to pay for the people and servers that it takes to run the service and provide it to people for free."

https://www.pcmag.com/news/brace-yourself-for-ads-on-threads-in-january

School Districts Notch a Win in Tech Addiction Case Against Top Platforms

image via pcmag.com
image via pcmag.com

School districts across 19 states claim that the companies do not adequately implement features like age verification, parental controls, and session timeouts. Design choices that allow for endless scrolling, coupled with targeted algorithms, mean kids have trouble putting down their phones, creating a doom loop that can interrupt sleep at best and create serious mental health issues at worst. The schools say they've had to dedicate resources to handle this, from confiscating phones to dealing with online behavior that spills into classrooms, including dangerous social media "challenges."

https://www.pcmag.com/news/school-districts-notch-a-win-in-tech-addiction-case-against-top-platforms

YouTube Communities are like mini Discords for creators

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

The Communities feature, which YouTube launched today at the Made on YouTube event in New York City, is sort of a mix of old-school forum, subreddit, and Facebook group. Once a creator turns on their community, anyone who joins can post, and people can reply to each other.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/18/24247529/youtube-communities-social-comments

As TikTok ban heads to court, ByteDance’s Lemon8 surges

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

As TikTok heads to court on Monday to argue against a U.S. ban, parent company ByteDance’s newer social app, Lemon8, is once again surging to the top of the App Store in the U.S. The push is due, in part, to increased advertising. Described by TikTok influencers as a cross between Pinterest and Instagram — or more recently, as “Pinterest on steroids” — the app had previously appeared in the App Store’s top charts when a TikTok ban was being discussed by U.S. lawmakers.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/16/as-tiktok-ban-heads-to-court-bytedances-lemon8-surges/