A former Facebook product manager and whistleblower has indicated that the company is, "optimizing for content that gets engagement or reaction, but its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, it’s easier to inspire people to anger than it is other emotions." Facebook denies these claims, however some leaked documents from the whistleblower support these claims. You can read more about it here . In Canada and many first world countries,...

llustration: Jessica Karl While discussions around technology use are often focused on the impacts of addictive app design, a recent opinion piece by Parmy Olson highlights an emerging trend of apps that are moving away from this type of design. Instead, she discusses apps like BeReal and Wordle that are more focused on building anticipation (by requiring user engagement once a day) as opposed to compulsive checking throughout the day. She also suggests that companies like Facebook who...

Whether you use YouTube, Facebook or other social media platforms you may have noticed some changes to what and how you are viewing the content on your feeds. For example, you may be seeing more short videos being recommended on your feeds. It’s a trend that more and more social media companies are turning towards as they compete with the short-form video platform TikTok. Shorter videos allow users to see a variety of content in a shorter period of time. They also take less time to produce.