Given everything that’s going on between China and the US and the fact that we have an incumbent president who’s becoming increasingly desperate and angry, it’s a safe bet that TikTok’s 26.5m MAUs in the US can soon say goodbye to their favorite social media app.
Read MoreThe power of eyewitness videos
The human brain is wired so that watching something horrific unfold in front of your eyes is much more shocking than hearing or reading about it. I was vividly reminded of this when I saw the eyewitness video of George Floyd’s death. This is the same video that quickly spread across the internet and sparked massive protests not just in the US but also in Europe.
Read MoreThe relationship between heavy social media use and depression and anxiety
It makes perfect sense that heavy social media use (especially usage bordering to addictive behavior) is linked to negative emotions, but I would have assumed that boys and girls are almost equally affected. Perhaps that just shows how little I understand about teenagers’ psychology. In any case, it brings up the question what can be done about the problem – and what the role of parents, schools, and society in general (including Big Tech) should be in all of this?
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