April 17, 2020
by Tina Arnoldi
Meena, featured on Google’s AI blog, is a chatbot trained in a conversational model. The concept is that it conducts conversations that are more sensible and specific than existing chatbots. This chatbot, trained with 2.6 billion parameters, is designed to offer more humanlike conversations.
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February 29, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
A study from the University of Arizona examining the habits of teenage girls who take selfies found that taking and distributing selfies on social media isn’t associated with poor body confidence.
But selfies can become a problem if teenage girls spend a lot of time debating what photo of themselves to share, or heavily editing photos before sharing.
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February 28, 2020
by Tina Arnoldi
We're in a volatile political climate in the United States and are heading into what will be an interesting election. Whether it’s a twitter storm or fake news, there’s plenty of ammunition for social media fights over political beliefs. And recent research found that general social media use has a negative effect on political knowledge, which may only fuel the fire in upcoming months.
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February 21, 2020
by Tina Arnoldi
Dopamine fasting encourages people to avoid stimulation to become better versions of themselves. Dr. Cameron Sepah describes it as “an evidence-based technique to manage addictive behaviors, by restricting them to specific periods of time, and practicing fasting from impulsively engaging in them, in order to regain behavioral flexibility.”
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February 20, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
Break ups are never easy, but in the age of social media, they’re even more complicated.
That’s why a group of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder set out to explore break ups in the age of Facebook.
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December 20, 2019
by Tina Arnoldi
Facebook rolled out new photo filters and stickers to “act as an invitation for friends who might be struggling to reach out for support through Messenger.” This is meant to be a tool to encourage users to connect with friends online about mental health. But there are concerns about passive data collection on different platforms, such as Facebook, so it is debatable whether this will help or hurt mental health.
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November 18, 2019
by Elizabeth Pratt
Results from the 2019 Stress in America Survey have found shootings, climate change, politics and health care are some of the issues causing American adults significant stress.
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October 31, 2019
by Elizabeth Pratt
Critics argue teens spend too much time staring at screens, and that this is responsible for a rise in rates of depression and anxiety in teenagers.
But researchers from Brigham Young University have found that might not be true.
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September 27, 2019
by Elizabeth Pratt
Even for those disinterested in politics, social media and a 24-hour news cycle ensure it’s hard to miss the latest political debacle unfolding in the nation’s capital.
Now researchers have determined exposure to politics is having a negative impact on the mental and physical health of Americans.
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September 20, 2019
by Tina Arnoldi
Our consumption habits are not rational. We overindulge in multiple areas of life. While the brain processes information as rewarding, it can put more value on the information than warranted which is why we get into rabbit holes of information online.
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