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The Biggest Change to Instagram in Years
Teenagers are said to live on their phones, and one of the places where they spend the most time is Instagram. For many years, the perception has been that they are totally unsupervised there, much to their detriment. That may be changing: Meta, which owns Instagram, announced today that teenagers who use the app will be subject to a slew of new restrictions, as well as increased parental oversight. Under the new policy, accounts made or owned by anyone under the age of 18 will have limited functionality by default—a bid, the company says, to give parents “peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.” ...
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‘We Are Like One Artist’: These Identical Twins Are in Sync From Graffiti to Gallery
They finish each other’s sentences. They say they don’t need words to communicate. Their creativity is in sync. “We are like one artist,” says Gustavo Pandolfo. His identical twin brother Otavio nods in agreement, adding, “There is a conversation in the air flying there, but only we can listen [to] each other.” ... “These guys have a way of just using their imagination to create all kinds of magical and unexpected renditions of things,” says Dr. Nancy Segal, a psychology professor at California State University Fullerton, who first encountered a mural by Osgemeos in São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park.
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Friendship and Diversity: A Path to Stronger Communities?
Podcast: Why do we gravitate towards friends who share our background and identity? How does this affect our sense of community and well-being? Under the Cortex explores.
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In Defense of Spoiling the End of the TV Show
The premiere of the first-ever season of The Golden Bachelorette has been on my calendar for months. I can’t wait to watch 24 men who have aged exceedingly well climb out of their limos and greet the star, Joan Vassos, on Sept. 18 at the Bachelor Mansion. I’ll pay special attention to a few of them—because I already know exactly which guys are making it to hometowns and fantasy suites, and which one will walk away with the final rose. ... When Jonathan Leavitt started researching spoilers, he wanted to prove that suspense is good—that waiting with bated breath to find out what happens enhances the reading or watching experience.
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Being Empathetic Is Easier when Everyone’s Doing It
As a grid of video feeds blinks into view, attendees across the country prepare for an ideological collision. All have signed up for a virtual forum billed as an “empathy cafe,” held to spark dialogue between police and community members. Among the participants are officers as well as people who’ve been burned in encounters with law enforcement. ... Increasing empathy, says Stanford University social psychologist Jamil Zaki, will take more than teaching skills such as listening actively to others. Empathy is a socially motivated process, Zaki and other researchers say, meaning that people won’t necessarily empathize just because they know how.
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Gen Z Has Regrets
Was social media a good invention? One way to quantify the value of a product is to find out how many of the people who use it wish it had never been invented. Feelings of regret or resentment are common with addictive products (cigarettes, for example) and addictive activities like gambling, even if most users say they enjoy them. For nonaddictive products — hairbrushes, say, or bicycles, walkie-talkies or ketchup — it’s rare to find people who use the product every day yet wish it could be banished from the world. For most products, those who don’t like the product can simply … not use it.
