This week, Instagram is expanding its controversial test of hiding ‘likes’ to US accounts. Followers of some US accounts will no longer see the number of likes that the people they follow are receiving. Account owners will still be able...
It’s Blade Runner month. The original movie was set in November 2019 in LA (screenshot of the opening scene above) and includes the famous line from the story’s hero Richard Deckard – “Replicants are like any other machine...
Here’s a quick summary of the top points made at this year’s Michaelmas London lecture from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford. The full video is also posted at the bottom of the page. The lecture was...
Can’t stop checking, swiping, updating, liking or just lurking online? There’s a reason for this: All of your favourite apps were built to be addictive by activating dopamine in your brain. That’s the pitch of a new collection of eight 7...
A brand without trust is a productAdvertising without trust is noiseTechnology without trust is obsolete Do you trust your bank? Trust is key to wellbeing, especially when it comes to money. Without trust there is stress, anxiety and sometimes even...
This week Google is launching five new digital wellbeing apps for android devices designed to help people find the right balance of technology in their lives. These open source apps are available on Google Play for consumers, and on Google’s...
Do you sleep with your mobile device? 29% of US teens now keep their mobile device in bed with them as they sleep (33% female, 26% for males). 62% of parents sleep with their device in reach of their bed. Two findings from the new report “The...
Apple’s rebranding as a privacy-first company continued this week its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose. At the event, Apple announced a new ‘Sign In with Apple‘ system to promote the safety, privacy and...
A new study by the American Psychiatric Association has found that over one in three US adults believe social media is impacting mental health in a negative way. Top findings of the national survey (n = 1,005, margin of error +/-3.1 percentage...
This week’s presentation by the Center for Humane Tech included some headline-grabbing stats, and a few great quotes, transcribed and source-checked here. 150. Number of times Millennials check their phone per day (Qualtrics and Accel, 2016)...
The Center for Humane Technology has just unveiled its new vision for technology to an audience of tech luminaries in San Francisco’s SFJAZZ Center. A culmination of six years of work, the ambitious agenda is to realign technology with human...
A new large-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT) has been run to assess the effects of taking a four-week break from Facebook. RCTs are typically used in clinical trials to assess the efficacy and safety of drugs and therapy. For Facebook...