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It offers a new level of detail about how the algorithm works.

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How TikTok Reads Your Mind (Published 2021)

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It’s the most successful video app in the world. Our columnist has obtained an internal company document that offers a new level of detail about how the algorithm works.

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Crawford, C. (2002). The art of interactive design: A euphonious and illuminating guide to building successful software. No Starch Press.

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Crawford, C. (2002). The art of interactive design: A euphonious and illuminating guide to building successful software. No Starch Press.

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In this book, Chris Crawford explains what interactivity is, how it works, why it's important, and how to design good software and websites that are truly interactive. Crawford's colloquial, conversational style makes it easy to grasp the fundamentals and the theoretical underpinnings of interactivity, as he discusses specific social and artistic issues.

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ABSTRACT

An understanding of what makes things interactive is key to the successful creation of websites, computer games, and software. In The Art of Interactive Design, Chris Crawford explains what interactivity is, how it works, why it's important, and how to design good software and websites that are truly interactive. Crawford's colloquial, conversational style makes it easy to grasp the fundamentals and the theoretical underpinnings of interactivity, as he discusses specific social and artistic issues.

Index Terms

The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software

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Published: 1 December 2002

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The Art of Interactive Design | Guide books

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ABSTRACT An understanding of what makes things interactive is key to the successful creation of websites, computer games, and software. In The Art of Interactive Design, Chris Crawford explains what interactivity is, how it works, why it's important, and how to design good software and websites that are truly interactive.

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International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS)

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International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS)

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ICIDS stands for the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. ICIDS is the premier conference for researchers and practitioners concerned with studying digital, interactive forms of narrative from a variety of perspectives, including theoretical, technological, and applied design lenses. The annual conference is an interdisciplinary gathering that combines technology-focused approaches with humanities-inspired theoretical inquiry, empirical research, and artistic expression.

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Dr. Janet Murray is a Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, as well as Director of the Digital Integrative Liberal Arts Center . She received her PhD in English from Harvard. Her primary research interests are interactive design, interactive narrative, and the history and development of representational media. Her widely known book, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, asks whether we can expect this new medium to support a new expressive art form, comparable to the Shakespearean theater or the Victorian novel in its ability to move and enlighten us.

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This website showcases the best work in motion design, animation, and visual effects. They have a section dedicated to explainer videos and other types of animated explainers.

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Ask Between the Keyframes X

Ask Between the Keyframes answers your most troubling Motion Design questions.
When seeking a full-time job, what do you think a Motion Design portfolio should look like and include?

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Ask Between the Keyframes X Ask Between the Keyframes answers your most troubling Motion Design questions. When seeking a full-time job, what do you think a Motion Design portfolio should look like and include?

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Alter, A. (2017) Irresistible: The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked. Penguin.

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Alter, A. (2017) Irresistible: The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked. Penguin.

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1. This book explores the ways in which technology has become increasingly addictive over the past few decades, and how social media platforms like TikTok have been specifically designed to keep us hooked. Alter examines the psychological, social, and cultural factors that contribute to addiction and offers suggestions for how we can regain control over our lives. He also provides insights into the business models and ethics of tech companies.

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"Irresistible is a fascinating and much needed exploration of one of the most troubling phenomena of modern times." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times bestsellers David and Goliath and Outliers "One of the most mesmerizing and important books I've read in quite some time. Alter brilliantly illuminates the new obsessions that are controlling our lives and offers the tools we need to rescue our businesses, our families, and our sanity." -Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take
Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction-an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken phone, and Millennial kids spend so much time in front of screens that they struggle to interact with real, live humans.

In this revolutionary book, Adam Alter, a professor of psychology and marketing at NYU, tracks the rise of behavioral addiction, and explains why so many of today's products are irresistible. Though these miraculous products melt the miles that separate people across the globe, their extraordinary and sometimes damaging magnetism is no accident. The companies that design these products tweak them over time until they become almost impossible to resist.

By reverse engineering behavioral addiction, Alter explains how we can harness addictive products for the good-to improve how we communicate with each other, spend and save our money, and set boundaries between work and play-and how we can mitigate their most damaging effects on our well-being, and the health and happiness of our children.
Adam Alter's previous book, Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave is available in paperback from Penguin.

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"Irresistible is a fascinating and much needed exploration of one of the most troubling phenomena of modern times." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times bestsellers David and Goliath and Outliers"One of the most mesmerizing and important books I've read in quite some time.

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Eyal, N. (2014) Hooked: How to build habit-forming products. Penguin.

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Eyal, N. (2014) Hooked: How to build habit-forming products. Penguin.

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1. In this book, Eyal explains how technology companies use psychology and behavior design to create addictive products that keep users coming back for more. He describes the four-step process of building a habit-forming product (trigger, action, variable reward, and investment) and provides insights into how to break these habits. Eyal also offers practical advice for entrepreneurs and product designers looking to create ethical and effective products.

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Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model-a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive "hook cycles," these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.

Hooked is based on Eyal's years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder-not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

Eyal provides readers with:

* Practical insights to create user habits that stick.
* Actionable steps for building products people love.

* Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.

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Revised and Updated, Featuring a New Case StudyHow do successful companies create products people can't put down? Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit?

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LeFever, L. (2012) The art of explanation: Making your ideas, products, and services easier to understand. John Wiley & Sons

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LeFever, L. (2012) The art of explanation: Making your ideas, products, and services easier to understand. John Wiley & Sons

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This book provides practical guidance on how to craft effective explanations that make complex ideas, products, and services easier to understand. The author emphasizes the importance of focusing on your audience's needs and interests, using storytelling techniques, and simplifying complex information into understandable chunks.

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The Art of Explanation, Enhanced Edition

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The enhanced edition features author Lee Lefever exploring the book’s concepts more in-depth with his iconic CommonCraft approach.

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This website offers courses and resources specifically focused on creating effective explainer videos.

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This blog offers tips and insights related to creating successful explainer videos.

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Explore our latest marketing videos and resources for the most actionable, tactical, and timely video marketing tips.

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The 5 Best Explainer Videos (& How to Make Your Own).

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The 5 Best Explainer Videos (& How to Make Your Own).

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There are some practical tips for making explainer videos and some examples of the great explainer videos.

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Today we'll be covering everything there is to know about explainer videos, from types of explainer videos, to explainer video examples, to tips for making a stellar explainer video that will jumpstart conversion rates. Ready to see why explainer videos are a must-have for any startup business?

Let's get started!

What is an explainer video?

Explainer videos are short online marketing videos used to explain your company's product or service. Explainer videos are often placed on a landing page, your website's home page, or a prominent product page. These types of videos have become extremely popular - some sites boast of conversion rates increasing by as much as 144% after including an explainer video on their website.

There's no arguing that online videos are fantastic assets for a business. The question is - how do you get your own explainer video?

Today we'll be looking at:

The best explainer videos on the web and why they work

Why explainer videos are good for business

The different types of explainer videos you can make

How to go about creating explainer videos for your website

Types of explainer videos

Live-Action Explainer Videos: A non-animated promotional video explaining your business's product or service. Examples of this include the Dollar Shave Club and PooPourri videos (see below). Live-action explainer videos are usually best for companies selling a physical product or people-oriented service, such as a restaurant or consulting group. Having flesh-and-blood people in your explainer video can create an emotional connection for viewers, as we are naturally drawn to other human faces.

Live streams on Social Media: These are pretty much the same as live-action videos, but without the ability to edit. This is a bit scary, but having raw footage-mistakes and all- shows that you have nothing to hide and humanizes your brand. Here's how to go live on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. You do have the option to save your videos to your account after the video is complete.

Animated Explainer Videos: The most popular type of explainer video, animation is often the preferred format for explaining services or intangible tech products like software. Some services involve few, if any, physical objects, making live action an unrealistic option. Animated explainer videos allow for more creativity, and are easier to edit or update when you want to make future adjustments.

Whiteboard Explainer Videos: A whiteboard video is an explainer video in which animation is hand drawn and erased on a whiteboard. This format of video has become popular due to its ease of operation and low cost, making it one of the cheapest types of explainer video to create.

5 great explainer video examples

With these types of promo videos becoming ever more popular, there are plenty of top explainer video examples to choose from. We've got a few favorites to show you.

With their video title, "DollarShaveClub.com - Our Blades Are F***ing Great," you know Dollar Shave Club is going for something edgy. They follow through and go all-in with this wacky video, which we also featured in our blog post about funny advertisements. What makes this explainer video work so well? Dollar Shave Club knows their audience really well, down to a tee. Their market is 20-30-something year old men who would be open to the idea of ordering a steady supply of razors online. The video's language and humor matches their ideal audience perfectly.

Dollar Shave Club is a great example of a well-structured explainer video. They start with a brief overview of the service (get great razors delivered to your door for $1/month), they introduce the problem (most blades are too expensive, have un-necessary features that jack up prices, and it's easy to forget about buying new razors), and re-iterate the solution their service offers (cheap blades delivered monthly to your door).
2. PooPourri
PooPourri is successful for many of the same reasons Dollar Shave Club is, and it's no surprise that their styles are quite similar. You'll notice that PooPourri's explainer video is largely live action, but switches to some animation to show the intricacies of how PooPourri works (no one wants to see a live action load dropped into a toilet). Also, check out that big green button at the end of the video - it's begging to be clicked, ending with a strong call to action.

It's worth noting that matching this tone of humor for your own explainer video would be quite difficult - most businesses will be better off more subtle humor. PooPourri is an outrageous product, so their humor can be outrageous as well.

Mint is a perfect example of why some businesses are much better off with animation rather than live action. Mint takes advantage of animation to illustrate how it draws financial info from different parts of a user's life and curates it all into one setup. Mint's animated explainer video also uses screenshots of the actual product, familiarizing viewers with the product's design and arrangement.

Airbnb uses a cool combination of live action and animation to show the unique (and reasonably priced) experiences obtained by using Air Bnb. This explainer video does a great job of showing the perks of the Airbnb system while also explaining them verbally.

Spotify relies exclusively on fun animation and a rockin' soundtrack to explain their digital music service. The video matches the lively music with fast paced cutting, and the video's color scheme fits perfectly with the Spotify design, so we already feel familiar with it. Not much needs to be said; Spotify doesn't over complicate, instead relying on a tune and a few lines of text to show that they're all about the music.

Do you have any favorite explainer video examples you recommend? What do you like about them? Let us know in the comments!

How to make an explainer video

We're going to take you through the steps of how to make your own explainer video! It's no easy task, requiring a ton of focus and effort, but we can guarantee it's worth the work.

Step 1: Write the video script

The script is the most important element in creating a good explainer video. Your explainer video could have the coolest graphics and most Morgan Freeman-esque voiceover in the world, and it wouldn't mean a thing without a solid script to get behind.

The script is where you'll need to spend the majority of your focus. It's best if you write your explainer video script yourself (even if you choose to hire a production company). You know your target customer's concerns and pain points better than anyone else, and the video is where those concerns need to be addressed. What freaks out your potential customers? What confuses them about your product or offering? If you haven't already done some research to answer these questions, now is the time to consider surveying your audience and figuring this out.

It is recommended that your explainer video script follow this general outline...

1. Quick overview of your product and what it does

2. Introduce the problem

3. Answer the problem with your solution (via product or service)

4. Call to action (e.g. sign up for our free trial by clicking here!)

5. Broadcast your trust signals (such as well-known clients, awards, write-ups, etc.)

Explainer video script best practices

Keep it short - 90 seconds or less is ideal.

Your key message and value proposition should be in the first 30 seconds. Don't keep folks wondering.

Speak in 2nd person, using words like "You" and "Your."

Use simple language - don't alienate viewers with technical terms they won't understand.

Keep in mind the tone you want for your explainer video. Most videos opt for a casual, conversational tone.

Try a touch of humor - videos with some subtle laughs tend to be more enjoyable.

Step 2: Recording the voiceovers

Once you have a script, you'll need a voiceover. Some options are:

Voices.com: This site has a large network of professional voice actors to choose from.

Craigslist: Ah yes, old reliable. You can find just about anything on crazy Craigslist, including voiceovers.

Fiverr: Yup, you can get a decent voiceover for your explainer video for just $5 on Fiverr! You'll probably have to pay a bit more than that ($5 is usually the starting price - some charge by the second, others by the word. Chances are you won't be in the lowest price bracket). Still, you aren't likely to find a voiceover anywhere for cheaper.

Step 3: Explainer video production

There are a number of different paths you can take when it comes down to the actual creation and production of your explainer video. Options include...

Bring Out the Pros: There are some very talented professional video production companies out there that can help you make a killer promotional video. You'll have some high explainer video costs if you go this route - be prepared to shell out anywhere from $5,000 - $20,000 for a service like this. The advantage is that you'll have video experts helping you every step of the way, and you're video is guaranteed to look great. Demo Duck, Wyzowl, LessFilms, Flikli, Explainly, and Studio Pigeon are a few explainer video companies to consider.

Pow Toon: if you're making animated explainer videos, have no animation experience, but want to do it yourself on a budget, Pow Toon is the way to go. Anyone with some basic computer skills can use this animated explainer video software. It likely won't be a masterpiece, but it's easy to create and free (to start at least). They even have a tutorial series to walk you through building your creation.

DIY Explainer Video with iPhone: That's right, you can film your own explainer video on your iPhone! This awesome post from Wistia will show you how. DIY filming is a great way to create cheap explainer videos. For the editing, iMovie or Camtasia are good choices. If you want to take on a DIY animated explainer video, this animation toolkit from Salsify can provide you with a ton of great animation tools and resources.

Hire a Freelancer: Experienced freelancers can provide high-quality explainer video production assistance at a much lower cost than a large production company. You should be able to find one easily enough on craigslist or other freelance sites.

Crowd Sourcing: One option you might give a go is the video crowd-sourcing company Video Brewery. Submit a general project overview and receive a bunch of proposals from Video Brewery's network of trusted freelancers. Choose one you like and you're on your way! Video Brewery notes that these explainer video costs usually run somewhere between $3,000 - $5,000.

Step 4: Music & sound effects

Chances are your animated explainer video or even your live action explainer video needs some sweet sound effects and music. Some places to score tracks include...

MusOpen: Offering free music resources such as recordings, sheet music, etc.

Free Sound: A database of Creative Commons licensed audio samples and recordings.

YouTube: The king of video itself offers some free background music to use in video creations.

Audio Jungle: Royalty free audio files including loops, sound effects, and more.

Audacity: This free tool isn't a source of audio files, but instead helps you create your own.

Remember to read the fine print carefully on these sites with regards to what is or is not permitted under the sound file's licensing agreement. Some are a cheap one-time purchase and royalty free, others require attribution, etc.

Step 5: Measure the performance of your explainer video

Measure video engagement and be ready to tweak the heck out of your video. You'll be able to see some solid data with YouTube Insight, but Google Analytics can take you even deeper down the rabbit hole, so long as you're game for setting up nifty custom event tracking.

Imagine seeing plays, pauses, how many viewers hit the 30 sec. mark vs. 60 sec. mark, etc. Wistia has some nice analytic tracking options too, and also makes it easy to sync up Wistia and Google Analytics.

Now enjoy the advantages of your new explainer video!

Explainer videos have a ton of benefits, such as:

Now go forth and create some killer explainer videos! Let us know how it goes.

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video marketing
      
    
    
            strategies and data to help you master video-based marketing and advertising.

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The 5 Best Explainer Videos (& How to Make Your Own)

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Explainer videos are short online marketing videos used to explain your company's product or service. They're fun to make, will jumpstart conversion rates, and are overall great to have for any startup business. Learn about all the ins and outs of explainer videos in this post.

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A YouTube channel that produces animated explainer videos on topics like science, technology, and philosophy.

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science universe space "black hole" life virus climate history education evolution biology humanism

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Animation videos explaining things with optimistic nihilism since 12,013. We're a team of illustrators, animators, number crunchers and one dog who aim to spark curiosity about science and the world we live in. To us nothing is boring if you tell a good story.

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15 Expert Tips For Creating Effective Explainer Videos In 2021.

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15 Expert Tips For Creating Effective Explainer Videos In 2021.

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There are some practical tips for making explainer videos in this article, which are worth learning from.

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An explainer video is an excellent way to introduce potential customers to your company or a new offering. The goal of an explainer is to explore a problem your product or service solves, then show viewers why they need it and why they should choose your brand over your competitors.

That's a lot of heavy lifting for one short video to do, but if you approach it correctly, an explainer video can live on your website and social media pages, serving as a virtual elevator pitch for your company. Of course, as consumers become accustomed to seeing explainer videos, their expectations for what they communicate and how are evolving.

To help your explainer video stand out from the crowd, the key is to relay your value proposition in the most succinct and compelling way possible. Here, the members of Forbes Agency Council shared 15 ways to create an effective one that does what it is supposed to do in 2021.

Forbes Agency Council members share tips for creating effective explainer videos in 2021.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Use An Influencer To Jump-Start Traffic
Consumers have come to love unboxing and how-to videos on social media platforms, so tap into that by using an influencer in your own explainer video. It will feel more authentic if it features a known influencer and could be more cost-effective to produce as well. You will also get a jump on driving traffic to the explainer video via the influencer's existing audience. - Lyle Stevens, Mavrck
2. Remember That Viewers Don't Know What You Know
It's easy to forget that some of the most basic things about your product, which you know intimately, could be completely new to the viewer: new concepts, new terms and new ways to solve a problem. Don't take for granted that the viewer knows what you know. Take the time to quickly review the fundamentals and speak in a common language (no acronyms) that is known by all. - Lori Paikin, NaviStone®
3. Be As Clear And Concise As Possible
At the beginning of the video, detail what you're going to be explaining and why it's important. Second, present the information in a visually appealing way. After following steps one and two, keep it short. You can only keep the viewer's attention for so long. Make sure you get to the point quickly and do it in a way that they'll remember. - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
4. Mine Customers' Social Comments For Tonal Clues
Use customer data such as keyword research, social comments, site search data and forums to determine new explainer video topics. In addition, mine comments and look for tonal clues. Do comments around a topic that use words such as "really" or "myth" suggest skepticism? These clues should guide the tone and creation of explainer videos to ensure they meet audiences where they are with content that resonates. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
5. Incorporate Movement And Branding Up Front
Whenever you're doing a video, especially for social, make sure that the first three to six seconds have movement and branding. Movement draws the casual viewer's eye toward the video, while immediate branding assists in viewer recall for subsequent conversion videos. Also, make sure to use either B-roll footage or captions to reinforce the action and accommodate the majority of viewers who watch on mute. - Ralph Burns, Tier 111

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
6. Use A Concise Problem-Solution Script
Use a concise problem-solution script that meets the audience at their level: not too trivial nor too advanced. First, outline a concise goal, or thesis, that is derived from a real problem that your customers experience. Once you have your goal, let your script flow naturally. Start by hooking the audience with a quick explanation of the problem, then describe the steps leading to the solution. - Ahmad Kareh, Twistlab Marketing
7. Don't Distract Viewers With Unnecessary Things
Explainer videos need to be focused on explaining. Too often, creatives will overdo it, and what is meant to be a straightforward, effective explainer video becomes too crowded with unnecessary things. The fewer distractions in an explainer video, the more focused the consumer will be on what is being explained. Eliminate the need for anything extra and keep the explainer video clean and concise. - Tony Pec, Y Not You Media
8. Keep Up With A Fast-Paced World
Viewers expect to receive clear answers to their questions within a short time frame, so avoid tangential dialogue and wordy backstories. In the context of a website, the video should be short and to the point, as it's only one part of the visitor's experience and they'll find additional information elsewhere. - Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions
9. Use Graphics To Add Understanding
The most effective explainer videos use graphics to add understanding to the story, not necessarily to mirror what the words are saying. You should use illustrations as opportunities to express the message via images. This is why explainer videos are so successful at breaking down topics: They appeal to both auditory and visual learners. - Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
10. Add Context With Evocative Terms Or Imagery
Explainer videos often act as introductions to your products and services, so be sure the content is engaging. Include clear and concise information that adds context without being overwhelming. Enhance video content with SEO keywords and imagery and quickly highlight important features. For example, a dispensary may want to focus on terms or imagery evoking cannabis culture. - Evan Nison, NisonCo
11. Craft A Compelling Storyline With Your Script
Even the most visually compelling explainer video won't be of much benefit without a compelling script to match. The best way to create a script that converts is to first establish your goals for the video and your company as a whole. From there, you can craft a storyline that clearly and concisely delivers the message you'd like to convey to your audience through your video marketing strategy. - Adam Binder, Creative Click Media
12. Create And Refine A Storyboard Based On User Input
A storyboard will help you organize and flesh out the key points you wish to capture in your explainer video based on the input of actual users. Before going into production, refine the storyboard as you get more eyes to review it and offer fresh perspectives. Keep the narrative simple and concise and break down technical concepts in a way that anyone can understand and follow. - Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications
13. Don't Skimp On The Production Quality
This means a concise, well-written script and higher video quality. If you're using animation, make sure it looks like it was produced in 2021 and not 2000. Make sure your main actor or narrator is easy to understand and lively, not robotic or too scripted in their delivery. Cheap videos are all too common and don't reflect well on a brand. - Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO
14. Focus On Answering Your FAQs
This is the "shooting fish in a barrel" answer, but what could be more engaging to your target audience than you understanding their worries and troubles, then anticipating their needs by creating content that addresses these concerns? It sounds so simple, but it is overlooked all the time. - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
15. Show Off The Benefits Your Customers Receive
Use an explainer video to show off the benefits customers get with your product or service as opposed to creating just the standard "how it's done/how it works" video. The only thing more important than the benefits is proof-social proof, awards, accolades and so on. Interjecting this social proof, or even some user-generated content, will speak far louder than traditional explainers, which focus on showing customers what is "under the hood." - Bernard May, National Positions

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Council Post: 15 Expert Tips For Creating Effective Explainer Videos In 2021

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An explainer video is an excellent way to introduce potential customers to your company or a new offering. The goal of an explainer is to explore a problem your product or service solves, then show viewers why they need it and why they should choose your brand over your competitors.

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This feature story explores how TikTok's algorithm and user-generated content are transforming the social media landscape, and how this is changing the way companies target and monetize audiences.

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How TikTok Is Rewriting the World (Published 2019)

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TikTok will change the way your social media works — even if you’re avoiding it.

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TikTok: The Story of a Social Media Giant

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TikTok: The Story of a Social Media Giant

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The article provides a comprehensive and balanced overview of the phenomenon of TikTok, offering both a celebration of its cultural impact and a critical examination of its potential risks and challenges.

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By Joe Tidy & Sophia Smith Galer BBC News

President Donald Trump has warned that he will ban TikTok unless an American firm buys its US operations. So how did an app attract millions of users but come to be seen as a national security risk in just two years?

Alone it stands, a red gummy bear atop a dimly lit stage, and the unmistakable voice of Adele singing. Then, as the unseen crowd joins in with the next line, the camera pans out to reveal hundreds more gummy bears singing along to Someone Like You.

It's silly and cute and extremely watchable. And for the fledgling video app TikTok, it did more in 15 seconds than marketing budgets of millions.

Posted in December 2018, it quickly racked up millions of views on the app but - more importantly - was picked up by thousands of copycats on other social networks.

The world was alerted to the app and TikTok has since attracted a vibrant, creative and young audience of hundreds of millions.

The Adele video sparked a trend on social media

TikTok's origins are different to the fairytale start-up story we have heard before. This is not an empire built by a couple of friends with a great idea in their mum's garage.

It actually started life as three different apps.

The first was an app called Musical.ly, which launched in Shanghai in 2014 but had strong US business links and a healthy audience in that key market.

In 2016, Chinese tech giant ByteDance launched a similar service in China called Douyin. It attracted 100 million users in China and Thailand in the space of a year.

ByteDance decided it was onto something and wanted to expand under a different brand - TikTok. So, in 2018 it bought Musical.ly, folded it in, and began TikTok's global expansion.

WATCH: What's going on with TikTok?

TikTok's secret lies in its use of music and an extraordinarily powerful algorithm, which learns what content users like to see far faster than many other apps.

Users can choose from a huge database of songs, filters and movie clips to lipsync to.

It's inspired some huge trends like Lil Nas X's Old Town Road or Curtis Roach's Bored in the House. Even the BBC News theme tune went viral as Brits made light of daily coronavirus briefings.

Many people will spend most of the time on the For You Page. This is where the algorithm puts content in front of users, anticipating what they will enjoy based on content they have already engaged with.

It's also where it shows content it thinks could go viral. The idea is that if the content is good it will travel, regardless of how many followers the creator has.

Many TikTok communities have emerged, brought together by the types of content they enjoy or their sense of identity.

Communities like "Alt" or "Deep" often feature creators who aren't necessarily looking to fill their wallets but who are simply on the platform to make funny or informative content. For them, it's not about winning the attention of big brands - it's about finding like-minded people.

The growth of TikTok and its sister app Douyin have been rapid.

In July last year the apps already had one billion downloads worldwide, of which 500 million were active users. A year later they were on two billion downloads and about 800 million active users.

The app's rapid growth has also put TikTok at the forefront of the minds of politicians. What does it mean to have a Chinese app so quickly become a large part of modern life?

Although the accusations are vague, India and the US have concerns that TikTok is collecting sensitive data from users that could be used by the Chinese government for spying. It has been alleged that every major Chinese enterprise has an internal "cell" answerable to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, with many of its agents tasked with gathering secrets.

India initially banned TikTok in April 2019, after a court ordered its removal from app stores amid claims it was being used to spread pornography. That decision was overturned on appeal.

When it banned TikTok again, along with dozens of other Chinese owned apps in June 2020, the Indian government said it had received complaints about apps "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data".

The US government opened a national security review of the platform in late 2019, after both a Democrat and a Republican lawmaker suggested it posed a risk.

More recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed TikTok was among a number of Chinese apps "feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party".

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office and Australian intelligence agencies are currently probing the app but haven't revealed what they are looking for.

It's of course worth noting that relations between these countries are tense, with the US at odds with China over trade, Indian and Chinese forces involved in border clashes, and the UK opposing new security laws in Hong Kong.

Exactly what TikTok does with data is contested.

We know from its privacy policy that it collects a huge amount, including:

Which videos are watched and commented on

Location data

Phone model and operating system

Keystroke rhythms when people type

It was also revealed that it read the copy-and-paste clipboards of users, but so did dozens of other apps including Reddit, LinkedIn and the BBC News app, and nothing sinister was discovered.

Most evidence points to TikTok's data collection being comparable to other data-hungry social networks such as Facebook.

However, unlike its US-based rivals, TikTok says it is willing to offer an unprecendented level of transparency in order to ease some of the fears about its data collection and flow.

TikTok's new chief executive Kevin Mayer, an American former Disney executive, said it would allow experts to examine the code behind its algorithms. This is hugely significant in an industry where data and code is closely guarded.

However, the concerns aren't just about what data is collected, it's also more theoretical - could the Chinese government compel ByteDance to hand over data?

The same concerns have been raised about Huawei.

The 2017 National Security Law in China compels any organisation or citizen to "support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work".

However, like Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, bosses at TikTok have repeatedly said that if this ever happened, "we would definitely say no to any request for data".

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is China's 10th richest person, according to the Forbes Rich List

Another concern is of the possibility of censorship, or of the app being used to influence public debates.

TikTok is one of the first platforms many young people will come to to share social activism content.

In May it promoted #BlackLivesMatter as a trend. But even as the hashtag drew in billions of views, there were criticisms that content from black creators was being supressed and that hashtags related to the protests were being hidden.

It is not the first time TikTok's algorithm has been criticised for the way content is chosen.

A report by The Intercept suggested that moderators had been encouraged to deprioritise content from anyone deemed too "ugly", or poor.

Last year, the Guardian reported that TikTok censored material deemed to be politically sensitive, including footage of Tiananmen Square protests and Tibetan independence demands.

Further reporting from the Washington Post suggested moderators in China had the final say on whether videos were approved.

ByteDance said such guidelines had since been phased out and that all moderation was independent of Beijing.

Will TikTok be banned?

Yet the discussions taking place with Microsoft about the possibility of buying TikTok's US operations show it is one of the most significant technology products in years.

TikTok has emerged as a meeting place for under-25s, whereas apps like Twitter and Instagram are often seen as being for older users.

But for those who use TikTok to have their voices heard, the possibility of a ban feels like a loss.

Downloads of shortform video app competitors Byte and Triller have spiked in the US as users prepare themselves for jumping ship.

But many, it seems, will hang on to TikTok until the very last moment - if that moment comes.

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TikTok: The story of a social media giant

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How did the social media platform get so big and where could it be heading?

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"TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by ‘Ugly’ People and the Poor to Attract New Users"

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"TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by ‘Ugly’ People and the Poor to Attract New Users"

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This investigative piece uncovers how TikTok's moderation policies and algorithm prioritize certain types of content and users, and how this can lead to discrimination and exploitation of marginalized groups.

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The makers of TikTok, the Chinese video-sharing app with hundreds of millions of users around the world, instructed moderators to suppress posts created by users deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled for the platform, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. These same documents show moderators were also told to censor political speech in TikTok livestreams, punishing those who harmed "national honor" or broadcast streams about "state organs such as police" with bans from the platform.

These previously unreported Chinese policy documents, along with conversations with multiple sources directly familiar with TikTok's censorship activities, provide new details about the company's efforts to enforce rigid constraints across its reported 800 million or so monthly users while it simultaneously attempts to bolster its image as a global paragon of self-expression and anything-goes creativity. They also show how TikTok controls content on its platform to achieve rapid growth in the mold of a Silicon Valley startup while simultaneously discouraging political dissent with the sort of heavy hand regularly seen in its home country of China.

On TikTok, livestreamed military movements and natural disasters, video that "defamed civil servants," and other material that might threaten "national security" has been suppressed alongside videos showing rural poverty, slums, beer bellies, and crooked smiles. One document goes so far as to instruct moderators to scan uploads for cracked walls and "disreputable decorations" in users' own homes - then to effectively punish these poorer TikTok users by artificially narrowing their audiences.

Today, The Intercept and The Intercept Brasil are publishing two internal TikTok moderation documents, recreated with only minor redactions, below. One lays out bans for ideologically undesirable content in livestreams, and another describes algorithmic punishments for unattractive and impoverished users. The documents appear to have been originally drafted in Chinese and later - at times awkwardly - translated into English for use in TikTok's global offices. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-headquartered company that operates a suite of popular sites and social apps, a sort of Chinese analog to Facebook. ByteDance, founded in 2012, has come under scrutiny by the U.S. government over its ties to the Chinese Communist Party and numerous reports that the app's censorship tactics mirror those of Beijing; Sens. Chuck Schumer and Josh Hawley have both worked to limit TikTok's use by government personnel, arguing that it presents a risk to national security.

TikTok spokesperson Josh Gartner told The Intercept that "most of" the livestream guidelines reviewed by The Intercept "are either no longer in use, or in some cases appear to never have been in place," but would not provide specifics. Regarding the policy of suppressing videos featuring unattractive, disabled, or poor users, Gartner stated that the rules "represented an early blunt attempt at preventing bullying, but are no longer in place, and were already out of use when The Intercept obtained them."

Sources indicated that both sets of policies were in use through at least late 2019 and that the livestream policy document was created in 2019. Gartner would not explain why a document purportedly aimed at "preventing bullying" would make zero mention of bullying, nor why it offers an explicit justification of attracting users, not protecting them.

Excluding Undesirable Users From the "For You" Fire Hose

One moderation document outlining physical features, bodily and environmental, deemed too unattractive spells out a litany of flaws that could be grounds for invisibly barring a given clip from the "For You" section of the app, where TikTok videos are funneled to a vast audience based on secret criteria. Although what it takes to earn a spot on the "For You" section remains a mystery, the document reveals that it took very little to be excluded, all based on the argument that uploads by unattractive, poor, or otherwise undesirable users could "decrease the short-term new user retention rate," as stated in the document. This is of particular importance, the document stresses, for videos in which the user "is basically the only focus of the video ... if the character's appearance or the shooting environment is not good, the video will be much less attractive, not worthing [sic] to be recommended to new users."

Under this policy, TikTok moderators were explicitly told to suppress uploads from users with flaws both congenital and inevitable. "Abnormal body shape," "ugly facial looks," dwarfism, and "obvious beer belly," "too many wrinkles," "eye disorders," and many other "low quality" traits are all enough to keep uploads out of the algorithmic fire hose. Videos in which "the shooting environment is shabby and dilapidated," including but "not limited to ... slums, rural fields" and "dilapidated housing" were also systematically hidden from new users, though "rural beautiful natural scenery could be exempted," the document notes.

The document, presented in both English and Chinese, advised TikTok's moderators that for videos shot in someone's house with "no obvious slummy charactor [sic]," special care should be given to check for slummy features such as a "crack on the wall" or "old and disreputable decorations." The mere appearance of residential disrepair or crooked teeth in the frame, the document shows, could mean the difference between worldwide distribution and relative invisibility.

The justification here, as with "ugly" uploaders, was again that TikTok should retain an aspirational air to attract and hold onto new users: "This kind of environment is not that suitable for new users for being less fancy and appealing." Social startups, eager to build on their momentum rather than disappear into the app heap of history, commonly consider growth and user retention to be by far their top priority, but rarely is the public privy to the details of this kind of nakedly aggressive expansion.

TikTok moderators were told to suppress users with "abnormal body shape," "ugly facial looks," "too many wrinkles," or in "slums, rural fields" and "dilapidated housing."

It's unclear how widespread this exclusionary practice has been. Gartner, the TikTok spokesperson, told The Intercept that "the policies mentioned appear to be the same or similar to those published by" German publication Netzpolitik in December in a story about how TikTok was artificially suppressing access to videos created by disabled, overweight, and LGBT users and represented an effort "at preventing bullying, but are no longer in place, and were already out of use when The Intercept obtained them."

However, the TiKTok documents reviewed by The Intercept include a range of policies beyond those reported by Netzpolitik, involving among other things the suppression of content from poor, old, and "ugly" users. Furthermore, these documents contain no mention of any anti-bullying rationale, instead explicitly citing an entirely different justification: The need to retain new users and grow the app.

In stark contrast to its practice of strategically suppressing the unattractive, infirm, and despondent, TikTok also conducted closed-door outreach to its more popular users, one TikTok moderation source told The Intercept. "Operators who spoke directly to influencers and official content creators always make video conferences with groups to pass 'safety rules', thus reducing the chances of creating videos that go against what [ByteDance] think is right", the source told us. According to this source, their office held regular video conferences between operators, a person from the "safety team," and select TikTok "influencers" to provide advanced warning of changes to the app's content policies, helping ensure that they wouldn't run afoul of any new rules or prohibitions as they made their way across two billion smartphones. Gartner did not comment when asked about this outreach.

Censoring Political Speech

While TikTok policies around the "For You" section had to do with suppression, that is, keeping certain content from becoming too popular, a second document obtained by The Intercept is concerned with censorship, laying out rules for outright removing content from the company's video livestreaming feature. The rules go far beyond the usual Beijing bugbears like Tiananmen Square and Falun Gong. Crucially, these rules could be easily interpreted to proscribe essential components of political speech by classifying them as dangerous or defamatory.

Any number of the document's rules could be invoked to block discussion of a wide range of topics embarrassing to government authorities: "Defamation ... towards civil servants, political or religious leaders" as well as towards "the families of related leaders" has been, under the policy, punishable with a terminated stream and a daylong suspension. Any broadcasts deemed by ByteDance's moderators to be "endangering national security" or even "national honor and interests" were punished with a permanent ban, as were "uglification or distortion of local or other countries' history," with the "Tiananmen Square incidents" cited as only one of three real world examples. A "Personal live broadcast about state organs such as police office, military etc," would knock your stream offline for three days, while documenting military or police activity would get you kicked off for that day (would-be protestors, take note).

Broadcasts deemed to be endangering "national honor and interests" were punished with a permanent ban, as was "uglification of countries' history," including Tiananmen Square.

Gartner refused to clarify whether the substance and intent of these restrictions are still in effect under different phrasing, for example, whether there is any current rule whatsoever against "harming national honor" or documenting police movements. "Like all platforms, we have policies that protect our users, and protect national security, for example banning any accounts that promote hate speech or terrorism, as outlined in our Community Standards," Gartner wrote in an emailed statement.

While the document outlines harsh penalties for some political speech, TikTok's treatment of racist broadcasts was milder. Streams that attempt "to shame/degrade individuals or groups on certain attributes such as disability, gender, color, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnics, beliefs" resulted in a user's suspension for a single month. After that, the user can stream as usual. Users that disparaged TikTok via livestream were to be suspended for three days, and the ones who promote TikTok's competitors could be banned forever.

Other moderation documents obtained by The Intercept indicate that TikTok has influenced content on its platform not just by censoring videos and disappearing users, but by padding feeds with content from "shadow accounts" operated by company employees posing as regular users. Internal employee guidelines reviewed by The Intercept suggest that ByteDance employees scoured Instagram for popular topics, downloaded the videos, and reshared them on TikTok to maintain a steady spray of appealing content; workers tasked with populating "Nice Looking" videos on the app were encouraged to check out Instagram posts tagged with "#BeachGirl," for example. Asked about such practices and their reflection in the guidelines, Gartner said, "we did not see that language anywhere in moderation guidelines or Trust and Safety policies after a thorough search of them" and did not respond further.

At the same time as TikTok contractors seem to have been pilfering "beach girl" content, women who didn't hew to TikTok's invisible modesty code could have their streams terminated and their accounts banned, the livestream policy document shows. Streams depicting someone wearing bikini or swimming suits outside of a "beach or swimming occasion" were to be punished with a one-week suspension, while accounts showing the "outline of female nipples" could be closed "forever." TikTok's livestream modesty code even applied to the arts: "Singing or playing music pornography contents, sexual cues, etc" are forbidden, as is merely "discussing the topic of sexual reproduction" on stream - acts TikTok classifies as "voice vulgarity."

"It is correct that for live streaming TikTok is particularly vigilant about keeping sexualized content off the platform," Gartner wrote in an email.

The content moderation documents obtained by The Intercept Brasil and The Intercept contain indications that standards enforced on TikTok livestreams originate in China. One document, while in English, contains clunky phrasing suggestive of machine translation, as well as references to a Chinese language font embedded in the file itself, while the second contains large portions of both Chinese and English text. The TikTok livestream policy guide details 64 possible infractions organized into 13 different categories, each corresponding to a specific penalty. The categories range from the obvious common-sense prohibitions ("Juvenile Improper Behavior") to the prudish and baffling: TikTok users who "Give the finger on purpose over twice" will have their stream terminated and their account banned for a day, while "disrupting national unity," left undefined, comes with a permanent suspension.

TikTok's political rules have proven controversial in the recent past. In September, the Guardian reported on similar content moderation documents that showed how TikTok "instructs its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong," among other authoritarian-friendly censorship rules. ByteDance, eliding this confirmation of TikTok's use to push Chinese foreign policy, acknowledged to the Guardian that "In TikTok's early days we took a blunt approach to minimizing conflict on the platform, and our moderation guidelines allowed penalties to be given for things like content that promoted conflict, such as between religious sects or ethnic groups, spanning a number of regions around the world. ... The old guidelines in question are outdated and no longer in use."

Public "Guidelines," Secret Rules

Many TikTok rule breakers will likely never receive a satisfying explanation for their punishment, because the existence and contents of the fine-grained rules have been kept out of public view. TikTok holds its users accountable to secret policies that, as on other digital platforms, attempt to dictate what is impermissible and how offending users are to be punished.

Behind a typical social network's public-facing generic "Community Guidelines" are actual rules, sprawling documents that give moderators nuts and bolts instructions on what to delete and what to keep. Precariously employed tech company moderators themselves are typically as excluded from the rule-making process as the users are, receiving policy updates from on high abruptly and with little rationale to help them with their Sisyphean enforcement gigs. Gartner told The Intercept that TikTok's moderation staff is "a combination" of staff employees and contractors, and that "Over the past year, we have established Trust and Safety hubs in California, Dublin and Singapore, which oversee development and execution of our moderation policies and are headed by industry experts with extensive experience in these areas." Gartner did not address why the documents viewed by The Intercept were originally composed in Chinese.

Multiple TikTok sources, who spoke with The Intercept on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional and legal reprisal, emphasized the primacy of ByteDance's Beijing HQ over the global TikTok operation, explaining that their ever-shifting decisions about what's censored and what's boosted are dictated by Chinese staff, whose policy declarations are then filtered around TikTok's 12 global offices, translated into rough English, finally settling into a muddle of Beijing authoritarianism crossed with the usual Silicon Valley prudishness.

TikTok's livestream feature is still being rolled out to the app's global user base, who will have only the company's publicized Community Guidelines to consult on the subject of what's allowed and what isn't. This anodyne "guidelines" page is a mix of vague boundaries and boilerplate marketing ("TikTok's mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. ... We remove all expressions of abuse. ... We do not allow sexually explicit or gratifying content on TikTok") too compressed to entertain nuance. TikTok's community guidelines also omit any signs that the content policies obtained by The Intercept - used behind the scenes by the service's invisible moderator teams - have threatened free political expression and provided for the censorship of large swaths of the world's population based on genetics, economics, and arbitrary decency standards. The matter of who decides what ugliness means for hundreds of millions of people in cultures around the world, what "disreputable" decor might mean, or how many wrinkles are considered "too many wrinkles" remain glaringly open and unaddressed, even in the internal moderator documents.

Instead, TikTok fans must continue to rely on the Community Guidelines page to guide their conduct, while the actual rules remain always on the verge of revision, revocation - or disavowal via corporate statement.

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TikTok Told Moderators: Suppress Posts by the "Ugly" and Poor

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TikTok, a China-based social media company, also has policies censoring various forms of political speech, leaked documents reveal.

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Qianjiang Evening News: The strictest ever! Douyin has upgraded anti-addiction measures for teenagers, limiting users under 14 to a maximum of 40 minutes per day.

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Qianjiang Evening News: The strictest ever! Douyin has upgraded anti-addiction measures for teenagers, limiting users under 14 to a maximum of 40 minutes per day.

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为了更好地完善这项功能，抖音官方还推出了"健康用手机 dou来找bug"征集活动，为期一个月。

抖音称，如果有用户发现，"有哪些方式可以绕过功能设定的限制，有什么设计不足让您使用起来麻烦重重，有什么您希望的功能还没推出，都欢迎填写调查问卷《抖音"14岁以下实名用户进入青少年模式"功能调研》，或者送邮件到feedback@douyin.com，以及通过抖音官方的头条号、微博、微信渠道留言告诉我们。"

活动从2021年9月17日开始，持续至2021年10月17日。在整整一个月的时间里，每一个产品漏洞被找到并确认后，第一位向抖音官方指出这条bug的用户，都将获得一份价值2000元的图书卡，以示感谢。

抖音相关负责人表示，自5月以来，平台投入了大量人力物力，以确保新举措有效落地，对于可能存在的误伤等问题进行优化。为了让这项功能在今后"漏洞更少，体验更好"。为此，抖音把此项功能的体验、测评、吐槽等权力完全交给广大的用户，"希望大家一起上线找bug，共同来评价。"

抖音将在2021年10月18日，公布感谢（获奖）名单、发奖方式，以及产品漏洞的修复时间表，"漏洞和感谢均上不封顶。当然，我们希望自己的bug越少越好。"

本文为钱江晚报原创作品，未经许可，禁止转载、复制、摘编、改写及进行网络传播等一切作品版权使用行为，否则本报将循司法途径追究侵权人的法律责任。

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史上最严！抖音升级青少年防沉迷措施，14岁以下用户每天使用时间最多40分钟

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为了更好地完善这项功能，抖音官方还推出了"健康用手机 dou来找bug"征集活动，为期一个月。 ...

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How Do Short Videos Destroy the Cognition of Contemporary People? ‘Information Cocoon’ is at Work.

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How Do Short Videos Destroy the Cognition of Contemporary People? ‘Information Cocoon’ is at Work.

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This article pointed out some of the dangers arising from addiction to short videos: a diluted sense of time; a pathological sense of aesthetics; and superficial thinking.

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说实话，我不是网瘾专家，无法提供科学有效的方法，但这件事令我感触颇深，进而想到一个话题 "短视频是如何摧毁当代人的认知" ，它的膨胀式发展对年轻人的成长到底有哪些害处？

以我有限的生活经历和对短视频的认知，我总结出短视频给年轻人带来的3条害处。

你有没有发现一个奇怪的现象，刷短视频会慢慢失去对时间的感知。

有时候，说好只刷半个或一个小时。结果，不知不觉两三个钟头过去了。

因为在播放视频时，人的眼球被流动的画面所吸引，且手机自带的时间功能，以"小字号"的方式置顶在屏幕的最顶端。

人在刷视频时，双眼根本顾及不到时间。慢慢地，人对时间的感知能力会被模糊化处理。在软件上耗费多长时间，也无法被清晰地感受到。

直到犯困，双眼睁不开时，才反应过来已经过去数小时。

举个例子来说，这与赌场没有钟表是一个道理。他们压根不想让你知道时间，因为他们想让你一直玩下去。

毫不客气地说，九成以上的短视频都是经过美颜处理过的。刷短视频时间过久，人的正常审美观念会得到改写。

最直接的表现是，过度沉迷于美颜滤镜的"人造"美貌中，会让人的审美变得肤浅，造成正常的审美认知失调。

那些低俗的"扭臀""摆腰""骑马舞"的主播，实际上绝大多数都是挂着羊头卖狗肉的三俗。
一锅烂狗肉装进"艺术"的铁锅里，骗过后台监管机制，直接呈现到受众面前。
不得不承认，短视频较以往最大的进步是，漂亮的主播越来越多，主播的身材越来越凹凸。

那些瘦身、长腿、丰胸等功能，已经彻底颠覆真实的现实美。殊不知，短视频里那种美女，世间鲜有，甚至有可能是男儿身。

一个人的"美"不仅局限于脸面、身材，包括举止动作以及说话谈吐。

而短视频无法给人提供一个综合的判断，在"快准狠""短多猛"的特点加持下，短视频带给人的是一种短暂的"猛料"美感。

它希望受众能够体会到一波又一波15秒钟的短暂快感。

因为美化功能是建立在互联网算法机制的基础上，所以观众看到的主播大多是趋同的。

动作是一样的，人脸也是同质化的。如同现在的小鲜肉，看起来都像是一个爹妈生养。

毫不夸张地说，无论是哪种短视频，它们的根本毒性是影响人的思考。

短视频是一种互联网"碎片化"的阅读。大量的"5分钟带你看完一部电影，8分钟带你了解一处旅游景点，10分钟带你了解名人的一生"等内容充斥其中。

从这点来说，短视频的特点是"短而快"，它极尽所能想要满足人类贪婪的欲望，如何在最短的时间内获取最大的信息量。

因为时间被压缩，所以短视频创作者必须对原来的电影、小说进行重新剪辑，组织语言，然后再绘声绘色地讲出来。

在这道加工的过程中，原作品的完整性得到破坏，然后再被重新组合起来。因此，短视频的内容十分杂乱无序。

它跟纸质阅读或观看电影不同，失去原作品层层递进的逻辑关系。

在过去，人类做学问是先读书而后发问。首先要自己亲自去读，遇到不明白的地方再向高人请教。

短视频则不同，它不需要你做基础阅读和基本努力，而是一群幕后创作者从网上东拼西揍一些文案，直接灌输给你。

再配合他们"快速"且富有"张力"的声音，让人觉得它们说得很带劲，正确到无法反驳的样子。
它跟吵架是一个道理，你吐字的速度快，别人骂一句，你能骂三句，且嗓门比对方高，胜利肯定就站在你那一方。
再往深里说，刷短视频获取知识的方式，如同吃被人嚼过的饭。久而久之，会让人连基本的咀嚼功能丧失。

众所周知，互联网运作的逻辑是一套算法机制。它延伸到短视频和网络阅读领域，被称之为"信息推荐"机制。

信息推荐机制会根据你的搜索记录、停留时间、点赞数量等因素，判断你喜好的网络内容。

一类题材你看得越多，系统会精准地分析出你对该类题材的喜好程度，然后持续地向你的手机推送，且越推越强越多。

这就是为什么人喜好的东西，总会莫名其妙地"跳屏"出现在手机显示里。

"信息推荐"机制有一个令人极不舒适的别名，叫"信息茧房"。实际上，当你被"信息推荐"分析透彻后，已经掉进"信息茧房"的坑。

在"信息茧房"里，你读到系统推荐的内容越多，它往后对你的推荐会更多。

不幸的是，你读到的内容都是一种内容或一类题材。从题材的角度来说，表面看你的阅读量在增加，事实上你知道的东西越来越少，思维变得越来越窄。

"信息茧房"像是有人精心为你编织的网，只不过有人把它美其名曰"高科技"。

那些所谓的互联科技巨头，并不是想让你成为有深度的人，它们只想获取你的时间，让你分泌更多的肾上腺素，因为只有你爽了，它们的广告收益才会爽起来。

犹记得，"信息茧房"或"信息推荐机制"刚刚诞生时，曾有良心学者指出它的弊病。

的确。我们要承认我们本质是我们那样的人，但是否有人思考过：

老马只有一言相赠，适当放下手机，去感受一下真实的世界。

人类发明互联网科技以后，到底是我们在使用科技，抑或是互联网操控着我们？现在来看，界限是那么模糊。

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短视频是如何摧毁当代人的认知？"信息茧房"在作祟

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说实话，我不是网瘾专家，无法提供科学有效的方法，但这件事令我感触颇深，进而想到一个话题 "短视频是如何摧毁当代人的认知" ，它的膨胀式发展对年轻人的成长到底有哪些害处？ 以我有限的生活经历和对短视频的认知，我总结出短视频给年轻人带来的3条害处。 你有没有发现一个奇怪的现象，刷短视频会慢慢失去对时间的感知。 有时候，说好只刷半个或一个小时。结果，不知不觉两三个钟头过去了。 ...

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How China takes extreme measures to keep teens off TikTok

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How China takes extreme measures to keep teens off TikTok

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How China takes extreme measures to keep teens off TikTok

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TikTok announced a one-hour daily limit for users under 18, but authorities in China have pushed the domestic version, Douyin, much further.

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TikTok Claims It’s Limiting Teen Screen Time. Teens Say It Isn’t. 

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TikTok Claims It’s Limiting Teen Screen Time. Teens Say It Isn’t. 

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TikTok Claims It’s Limiting Teen Screen Time. Teens Say It Isn’t.

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This month, the company announced a new 60-minute “daily screen time limit” for users under 18. But for most young users, staying on the app takes just a few taps.

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Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’

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Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’

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The families of two young girls who allegedly died as a result of a viral TikTok challenge have sued the social media platform, claiming its "dangerous" algorithms are to blame for their children's deaths.

Parents of two girls who died in a 2021 "blackout challenge" on TikTok, which encouraged users to choke themselves until they passed out, filed a suit on Tuesday in the Los Angeles county superior court.

Represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), a legal resource for parents of children harmed by social media addiction and abuse, they allege the platform's "dangerous algorithm intentionally and repeatedly" pushed videos of the challenge into the children's feeds, incentivizing them to participate in the challenge that ultimately took their lives.

"TikTok needs to be held accountable for pushing deadly content to these two young girls," said Matthew P Bergman, founding attorney of SMVLC. "TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally design products that push dangerous content that it knows is dangerous and can result in the deaths of its users."

One victim, eight-year-old Lalani Erika Renee Walton of Temple, Texas, is described as "an extremely sweet and outgoing young girl" who "loved dressing up as a princess and playing with makeup". She died on 15 July 2021 in what police determined was "a direct result of attempting TikTok's 'Blackout Challenge'", according to the complaint.

Lalani Erika Renee Walton. Photograph: Courtesy of the family

Lalani had received a phone for her eighth birthday in April 2021 and "quickly became addicted to watching TikTok videos", the complaint said. She often posted videos of herself singing and dancing, in hopes of becoming "TikTok famous".

In July 2021, her family began noticing bruising on Lalani's neck, which she explained away as an accident. Unbeknown to them, she had begun participating in the blackout challenge, which had first showed up on her feed weeks before.

On the day of her death, Lalani had spent hours on a family road trip watching videos, including posts of the challenge.

"She was also under the belief that if she posted a video of herself doing the Blackout Challenge, then she would become famous and so she decided to give it a try," the complaint said. "Lalani was eight years old at the time and did not appreciate or understand the dangerous nature of what TikTok was encouraging her to do."

The other victim named in the suit, nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received a phone when she was seven years old and used TikTok multiple times a day, according to the complaint. She "gradually became obsessive" about posting dance videos on TikTok and became "addicted" to the app.

In January 2021, Arriani's family discussed with her an incident of a young TikTok user dying as the result of a challenge, but the Arriani assured them she would never participate in dangerous videos.

Arriani Jaileen Arroyo. Photograph: Courtesy of the family

However, on 26 February 2021 she was found not breathing by her five-year-old brother. She was rushed to a local hospital but ultimately taken off life support.

"TikTok unquestionably knew that the deadly Blackout Challenge was spreading through their app and that their algorithm was specifically feeding the Blackout Challenge to children, including those who have died," the complaint reads.

The lawsuit lists a number of complaints against TikTok, including that its algorithm promotes harmful content, allows underage users on the app, and it fails to warn users or their legal guardians of the app's addictive nature.

TikTok did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The company has been criticized in the past for allowing dangerous challenges to spread. Doctors reported that the 2021 "milk crate challenge", which encouraged users to stack and climb milk crates, led to dislocated shoulders, ACL tears and even spinal cord injuries. In 2020, a 15-year-old girl died after participating in the "Benadryl challenge", in which users took a large amount of anti-histamines in an attempt to produce hallucinogenic effects. In 2020, two minors were charged with assault after participating in the "skull breaker" challenge, which caused one victim to have a seizure.

Attorneys for the SMVLC claimed the company knowingly allowed such content to proliferate on the platform because it increased engagement, user numbers and ultimately profit.

"TikTok prioritized greater corporate profits over the health and safety of its users and, specifically, over the health and safety of vulnerable children TikTok knew or should have known were actively using its social media product," they said.

The Walton and Arroyo families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and have requested a jury trial to take place in California.

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Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying 'blackout challenge'

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The families of two young girls who allegedly died as a result of a viral TikTok challenge have sued the social media platform, claiming its "dangerous" algorithms are to blame for their children's deaths.

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A 13-year-old died in Ohio after participating in a Benadryl TikTok ‘challenge’

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A 13-year-old died in Ohio after participating in a Benadryl TikTok ‘challenge’

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us department of health and human services

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A 13-year-old died in Ohio after participating in a Benadryl TikTok 'challenge' | CNN

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A 13-year-old in Ohio has died after "he took a bunch of Benadryl," trying a dangerous TikTok challenge that's circulating online, according to a CNN affiliate and a GoFundMe account from his family.

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Zhang, X. Y. (2021). Exploration on the Exploitation of Users by Short Video Platforms——From the Perspective of Digital Labor Theory. Radio&TV Journal, (07), pp. 132-134.

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Zhang, X. Y. (2021). Exploration on the Exploitation of Users by Short Video Platforms——From the Perspective of Digital Labor Theory. Radio&TV Journal, (07), pp. 132-134.

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This article points out that with the support of a huge number of users, the short video platform uses the productivity, consumption and user data of users to achieve huge capital appreciation, alienates users' viewing and production behaviors into labor, and then realizes the exploitation of users. From the perspective of digital labor theory, this article analyzes the exploitation methods of short video platforms from three aspects: double commodification, alienation, and coercion.

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短视频平台对用户的剥削方式探析-以数字劳工理论为视角

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Li, X. Y. (2022) Short video platform "digital exploitation" from the perspective of labor value theory. Voice & Screen World, (16), pp. 107-110.

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Li, X. Y. (2022) Short video platform "digital exploitation" from the perspective of labor value theory. Voice & Screen World, (16), pp. 107-110.

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This article points out that the digital information economy makes the exploitative relationship exist in a more hidden form of "digital exploitation". The article uses the labor theory of value as an entry point to analyze the mechanism of "digital exploitation" of the short video platform, revealing that exploitative relationships are established in the process of using the services provided by short video platforms and that the exploitation intensifies in the process of blurring the boundaries between labour and leisure.

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劳动价值论视域下的短视频平台“数字剥削”_李欣宇

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Nieborg, D. B. and Poell, T. (2018) The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New media & society, 20(11), pp. 4275-4292.

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Nieborg, D. B. and Poell, T. (2018) The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New media & society, 20(11), pp. 4275-4292.

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his article examines how the platformization of cultural production, particularly in the context of digital media, is transforming the nature of cultural commodities and the labor relations involved in their production.

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Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

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Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

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The premier peer-reviewed journal for authoritative research on understanding the social, behavioral, and psychological impact of today's social networking practices, including Twitter, Facebook, and internet gaming and commerce.

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If the address matches an existing account you will receive an email with instructions to reset your password.

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The Verge is a technology news website that covers a wide range of topics related to the tech industry.

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Kenya has ordered Worldcoin to stop collecting data in the country due to privacy and security concerns.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that they won't enter mass production until the fourth quarter of 2024.

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The latest tech news about the world's best (and sometimes worst) hardware, apps, and much more. From top companies like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your attention, Verge Tech has the latest in what matters in technology daily.

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The Journal of International Communication

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The Journal of International Communication

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It is an academic journal that focuses on the interrelationships between culture and communication.

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Alex Kantrowitz is a journalist who covers social media and digital culture for BuzzFeed News. He has written extensively on topics such as the rise of TikTok, worker organizing in the tech industry, and the cultural implications of short video platforms.

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Life in Apple's Information Systems & Technology division reminds some of a sweatshop. An exclusive excerpt from Always Day One, Alex Kantrowitz's new book on how the tech giants scramble to stay on top.

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Alex Kantrowitz (alexkantrowitz) on BuzzFeed

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Life in Apple's Information Systems & Technology division reminds some of a sweatshop. An exclusive excerpt from Always Day One, Alex Kantrowitz's new book on how the tech giants scramble to stay on top.

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Sarah Frier is a journalist who covers social media and digital culture for Bloomberg News. She has written on topics such as the rise of TikTok, the impact of social media on society, and the gig economy. Frier is also the author of the book "No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram."

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Sarah Frier is a reporter for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.

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Louise Matsakis is a technology journalist who covers the social and cultural impact of technology for Wired. She has been working on topics such as the impact of social media on society, and the rise of short video platforms.

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Louise Matsakis is a freelance writer covering tech. She was formerly a staff writer at WIRED covering Amazon, TikTok, and digital platforms.

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Yang Guobin is a Chinese academic and Professor of Sociology and Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading scholar of the social and political implications of new media technologies, including topics such as online activism, and the cultural politics of short video platforms.

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Crystal Abidin is a Singaporean anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Internet Research Agency at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. She is a leading scholar of internet celebrity, and social media, and has written extensively on topics such as influencer marketing, online fandom, and the cultural politics of short video platforms.

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Jack Linchuan Qiu is a Chinese academic and Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a leading scholar of the digital economy, including topics such as digital labour, platform capitalism, and the cultural politics of short video platforms.

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I grew up in China and lived in California during my PhD studies. Before relocating to Singapore, I was a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2020.

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Crystal Abidin is a Singaporean anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Internet Research Agency at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. She is a leading scholar of internet celebrity, social media, and digital labour, and has written extensively on topics such as influencer marketing, online fandom, and the cultural politics of short video platforms

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Curtin would like to pay respect to the indigenous members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Wadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.

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Dr. Turel is a professor of information systems and decision sciences at California State University, Fullerton. He has published numerous studies on technology addiction, including social media addiction. His research focuses on understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the problematic use of technology and developing interventions to promote healthy technology use.

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Dr. Turel is Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State University, Fullerton, and Scholar in Residence at the Decision Neuroscience Program, University of Southern California. His research interests include a broad range of behavioral, managerial and bio-physiological issues related to computer information systems and technologies. He has published over 190 journal papers in leading business, research methods, psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience journals. They include such information systems journals as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of AIS, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, and Communications of the ACM. Example psychology and neuroscience outlets include Journal of Psychiatric Research, Addiction Biology, Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Behavioural Brain Research, and Addictive Behaviors. His research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including for example, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, CBC, C|net, Times Higher Education, The Rolling Stone, and PBS. He is a Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly (since 2023; recipient of the Outstanding Associate Editor -2019 ) and an Associate Editor for Scientific Reports (the Open Access journal of Nature, since 2019).

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Dr. Turel is Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State University, Fullerton, and Scholar in Residence at the Decision Neuroscience Program, University of Southern California. His research interests include a broad range of behavioral, managerial and bio-physiological issues related to computer information systems and technologies.

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Dr. Kuss is an Associate Professor in Applied Psychology at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. She has researched extensively on problematic internet use and technology addiction, including short video addiction.

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Role

Dr Daria Kuss is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, Associate Professor in Psychology, the Lead for the Cyberpsychology Research Group, and a member of the International Gaming Research Unit. She has developed the MSc Cyberpsychology. Her current teaching and research focus on Cyberpsychology, the Psychology of Internet and Technology Use, and Addictive Behaviours. She supervises PhD researchers and MSc Cyberpsychology students and acts as mentor for staff in the Psychology Department.

Career overview

Dr Daria Kuss joined the Psychology Department at Nottingham Trent University in 2014, following her post as Lecturer in Applied Psychology at Birmingham City University. Prior to completing her PhD in Psychology at NTU, she worked with clients suffering from behavioural addictions and other mental health problems in Germany, allowing her to foster her interest and skills in behavioural and technological addictions, psychotherapy, and clinical psychology. Daria has completed an MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience with a specialisation in Psychopathology and an MA in Media Culture at Maastricht University in the Netherlands with distinction, and builds her research on the combination of these areas of interest.

Research areas

Dr Daria Kuss' research concerns the psychological aspects of Internet and technology use. She is specifically interested in understanding the place of technology use in today's technophilic culture, including the benefits and drawbacks of different types of technology use. Daria is a prolific writer and has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters and reports and regularly presents her research at international conferences and on the media.

Her current research projects include, among other things, psychometric, interview, ethnographic, focus group, experimental and neurobiological studies into Internet use, gaming, online social networking, smartphone use, online dating, cyberstalking and the use of gaming and online forums for mental health.

External activity

Dr Daria Kuss has worked with the World Health Organization, the European Parliament, and the Government Council of the Czech Republic. Her work has been featured in the House of Commons Select Committee reports. Daria is a member of the evidence group of the UK Council for Internet Safety and the UK Safer Internet Centre.

She is an award-winning author, and her dissemination includes over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles, three authored and one edited book, and over 100 national and international conference presentations, including regular keynote talks. Her most recent books Internet addiction - Evidence-based practice in psychotherapy (Hogrefe) and The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology (OUP) have been published in 2019. Her research has been covered in international news outlets, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC.

She has a very international profile and has been a Visiting Lecturer and Visiting Researcher at the University of Barcelona, Spain, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, Zadar University, Croatia, University of Athens, Greece, the University of Warsaw, Poland, Zürich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland, and the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Moreover, she acts as external examiner for PhDs and research projects on a regular basis.

She is currently a guest editor of Addictive Behaviors andthe Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy, editorial board member of Psychopathology, Frontiers in Psychology and JMIR Serious Games.

Her scholarly impact is evidenced by establishing research networks with colleagues from numerous European countries, Australia, the USA and the Republic of Korea, and she collaborates on various research projects, and organises research conferences/international research seminars/symposia internationally on a regular basis.

She is regularly involved in international consultancy work, including leading workshops in her field, and providing consultancy in the areas of mental health, social work, and the arts, as well as being an expert witness.

Sponsors and collaborators
Sponsors:
British Academy, The Leverhulme Trust, The European Parliament, The European Commission
International Collaborators:
Auckland University of Technology, Australia, University of Tasmania, Australia, Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Federation University Australia, University of Adelaide, Australia, University of New South Wales, Australia, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, Ghent University, Belgium, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, University of Macau, China, Mental Health Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China, Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR, China, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland, Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense, France, University Toulouse 2, France, Universite de Nimes Aix-Marseille, France; A. Rousseau, Universite de Lille III, France, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Nanterre, France, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France, University of Nîmes, Nîmes, France, Université Lille Nord de France, France, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, Outpatient Clinic for Behavioural Addictions, Mainz, Germany, Universität zu Lübeck, Germany, University of Ulm, Germany, Hellenic Association for the Study of Internet Addiction Disorder/Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, University of Athens, Greece, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi,India, SHUT clinic (Service for Healthy use of Technology), National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, India, University of Indonesia, Indonesia, Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, University of Ulster, Ireland, Second University of Naples, Italy, University of Padua, Italy, Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy, Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center, Japan, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, Ministry of Health, Malaysia, IVO Addiction Research Centre, The Netherlands, University of Bergen, Norway, University of Poznan, Poland, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawla II, Poland, Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Poznaniu, Poland, The John Paul II Catholic University, Lublin, Poland, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea, Federal Medical Research Centre of Psychiatry and Addiction, Moscow, Russia, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, Universidad de Valencia, Spain, Universite de Geneve, Switzerland, Hopitaux Universitaires de Geneve, Switzerland, Alcohol, Drugs and Addictive Behaviours, Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, Istanbul University Faculty of Health Science Department of Midwifery, Turkey, Turkish Green Crescent Society, Istanbul, Turkey, Palo Alto University, USA

Press expertise

Psychological aspects of Internet and technology use

Pathological and addictive online behaviours, their phenomenological experience, clinical presentation and treatment

Cyberpsychology

Gaming

Social networking

Smartphone use

Psychopathology / mental health (e.g. behavioural addictions and other mental disorders, their prevention; diagnosis and treatment)

Intersection between cyberpsychology and mental health (i.e. internet addiction, impacts of media on health and behaviour and the use of the internet to improve mental health and wellbeing.

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Dr Daria Kuss is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, Associate Professor in Psychology, the Lead for the Cyberpsychology Research Group, and a member of the International Gaming Research Unit. She has developed the MSc Cyberpsychology. Her current teaching and research focus on Cyberpsychology, the Psychology of Internet and Technology Use, and Addictive Behaviours.

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1. Common Sense Media is a US-based nonprofit that provides education and resources for parents, educators, and children on the safe and responsible use of technology, including social media and short video platforms.

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Common Sense Media: Age-Based Media Reviews for Families

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Common Sense Media is the leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families. Parents trust our expert reviews and objective advice.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 

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The EFF is an international digital rights group that works to protect civil liberties and defend free speech online

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Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF's online guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices.

Privacy Badger is an install-and-forget browser add-on that stops advertisers and trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.

SAN FRANCISCO-A new Arizona law that bans people from recording videos within eight feet of police violates the constitutional rights of legal observers, grassroots activists, and other Arizonans, says a brief filed Friday in federal court by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), two Arizona chapters of the National Lawyers...

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Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF's online guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices. Privacy Badger is an install-and-forget browser add-on that stops advertisers and trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.

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MediaSmarts is a Canadian nonprofit that works to promote digital literacy and media literacy, including for young people using social media and short video platforms.

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The CyberPeace Institute is an international nonprofit that works to protect the rights of individuals and communities in cyberspace.

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The CyberPeace Institute is a Geneva based organization protecting the most vulnerable in cyberspace. Independent and neutral, the Institute investigates and analyzes the human impact of systemic cyber threats, delivers free cybersecurity assistance, tracks the enforcement of international laws and norms and forecasts threats to Cyberpeace.

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CyberPeace Institute The CyberPeace Institute is a Geneva based organization protecting the most vulnerable in cyberspace. Independent and neutral, the Institute investigates and analyzes the human impact of systemic cyber threats, delivers free cybersecurity assistance,

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TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids

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TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids

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TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids

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The superpopular app can serve up a stream of anxiety and despair to teens. TikTok says it’s making improvements but now faces a flood of lawsuits after multiple deaths.

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Dr. Wei Peng is a Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. Her research interests include human-computer interaction, social media, and digital entertainment. She has published several articles on the topic of short video addiction. Here's a link to her profile:

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Dr. Wei Peng (Ph.D. in Communication, University of Southern California, 2006) is a Professor in the Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the psychological and social mechanisms of behavior change and their application in the design of interactive media for health and wellness promotion. Her recent projects focus on using conversational agents or chatbots, digital games, and mobile apps for health promotion, health education, and social change. Her broader research area is the social and psychological effects of information and communication technology. She was the PI of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to develop and evaluate an exergame for physical activity promotion among young adults. As a Co-PI, she has worked on a National Science Foundation grant to study how to use sensor-enabled and gamified technology to influence family routines for child obesity prevention. She has served or is currently serving as a member of the editorial board of Journal of Communication, Health Communication, Games for Health Journal, and BMC Public Health. She has published over 60 articles in journals such as Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Media Psychology, Health Communication, Journal of Medical Internet Research, BMC Public Health, Health Psychology, Journal of Health Communication, Computers in Human Behavior, CyberPsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Health Education & Behavior, Telemedicine and e-Health, Games for Health Journal, Computers & Education, Social Science Computer Review, Mobile & Media Communication, and Journal of Physical Activity and Health. She has also published in the leading venues of Human-Computer interaction, including P She is currently seeking motivated students who can work on projects related to AI and persuasive technology in the area of health misinformation.

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Wei Peng | Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences

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Dr. Wei Peng (Ph.D. in Communication, University of Southern California, 2006) is a Professor in the Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the psychological and social mechanisms of behavior change and their application in the design of interactive media for health and wellness promotion.

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John Herrman is a technology reporter who covers internet culture and platforms for The New York Times. He has written extensively on topics such as the impact of social media on society, the rise of TikTok, and the gig economy.

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John Herrman covers tech and media for Styles and the Magazine, and was one of the first three recipients of The Times’s David Carr Fellowship. Previously, he was a reporter for the Business section.
Before joining The Times, Mr. Herrman as a co-editor of The Awl and covered the Internet and t…

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D’Arienzo, M. C., Boursier, V. and Griffiths, M. D. (2019) Addiction to social media and attachment styles: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, (17), pp. 1094-1118.

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D’Arienzo, M. C., Boursier, V. and Griffiths, M. D. (2019) Addiction to social media and attachment styles: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, (17), pp. 1094-1118.

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This study systematically reviewed the evidence on Internet/social media addiction and attachment styles. Findings indicated a significant positive association between insecure attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and more intensive and dysfunctional use of the Internet and social media. Findings suggest that those with insecure attachment seem to use social media sites to substitute and compensate for missing affection from those around the individual, such as family and peers.

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International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction

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The Present Research in Context

Scientific interest in behavioral addictions has previously examined a variety of factors related to such behavior. A lot of the empirical literature on behavioral addiction has focused on personality traits. Although the results across studies are not always in agreement, extraversion, shyness, and self-esteem are three factors often examined. Extraversion, in particular in the case of adults, is positively related to both SNS use and to addictive tendencies (Kuss and Griffiths 2011; Ho et al. 2017). These results suggest that extraverts need a higher level of stimulation that can be obtained by social media use (Wilson et al. 2010). Similar results have been found in undergraduate students high in shyness who prefer spending time online than offline (Orr et al. 2009). Online interactions can be very appealing for those individuals with social anxiety (Boute et al. 2009) and depression symptoms (Andreassen et al. 2016).

There is a growing body of research that has examined the impact of attachment styles and its influence on internet addiction (more generally) and social media addiction (more specifically). The present paper systematically reviews the existing studies related to attachment styles contributing to Internet and social media abuse. It was carried out to better understand the relationship between attachment styles and addiction in general, and to examine the relationships between attachment styles and Internet addiction (and more specifically social media addiction). Based on previous literature examining attachment and addiction more generally, attachment theory appears to be a good theory in explaining specific aspects of social media engagement. For instance, attachment styles appear to influence time spent online and they can be used as frameworks to understand the reasons that drive social media usage. Risky behaviors have already been associated with attachment styles, and could represent a risk and predictive factor for addictive behaviors (Flores 2004).

Attachment Theory

This finding created interest about the different ways in which attachment can develop among individuals, and Ainsworth and Bell's ( 1970; Ainsworth et al. 1978), Ainsworth et al. ( 2015) work on this matter is worth noting. They identified three main attachment styles (with Main and Solomon 1990 later identifying a fourth). The first style is secure attachment, linked to a sense of worthiness (Bartholomew and Horowitz 1991). The second style is insecure avoidant, usually referred to children deeply independent from the attachment figure both emotionally and physically (Behrens et al. 2007). The third style is insecure-ambivalent (also called anxious). Here, children have untrustworthy expectations about the otherness (Bartholomew and Horowitz 1991); they exhibit dependent and rejecting behaviors at the same time (McLeod 2008). Finally, the disorganized and dismissing style is related to those children who maintain a sense of independence from an attachment figure (Main and Solomon 1990). Despite those four discrete styles, more recently, research has tended to opt for a dimensional model of attachment (Brennan et al. 1998).

Although attachment styles play a fundamental role in childhood, they also provide the script for future close relationships. Memories, cognitive scripts, and emotions associated with a specific style and create an internal working model of self and others (Bowlby 1988). It can be assumed that repeated contact with appropriate others at any time in their lifetime can lead to the formation of an attachment, but it will be often influenced by the past relationships (Bowlby 1979). Thus, these internal "programmed" patterns shape an individual's way of being in a relational environment (Obegi and Berant 2010). Consequently, in a way analogous to physiological homeostasis, the attachment system can be thought as a mechanism able to create a fixed distance-accessibility to others thanks to advanced methods of communication (Bowlby 1969, 1973, 1982).

Addiction as an Attachment Disorder

Methods

A systematic review was conducted using the following databases: Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, ProQuest, and Google Scholar for papers published from 2000 to 2018. Even though most studies concerning this topic were published in the past decade, a longer period was chosen because social networking sites (SNSs) date back to 1997. In order to shape the search, the advanced searches combined the following keywords: social media addict* or social media and attachment, or attachment styles or attachment theory, in addition social network* or social networking addiction and attachment styles or attachment theory. As for the simple searches, the keywords were social media, social networking addiction, Internet or Facebook use, attachment, attachment style, and attachment theory. Papers in three different languages were collected: Italian, English, and Spanish (those languages in which the authors were proficient). The databases were searched between March and May 2018. A total of 378 records were identified. The papers not meeting the inclusion criteria and duplicates were excluded. Because adolescents and adults are more likely to incuraddiction (WHO 2011), only those papers where the age ranges were over 13 years were included in the review. Dissertations and conference proceedings were also excluded from the review.

Results

A total of 32 papers were retrieved for the systematic review that met the initial inclusion criteria (see Table 1 for a complete list as well as all the main findings and methodological issues). Apart from a few studies that examined SNS usage via statements or questionnaire rather than using a psychometric scale (e.g., Longua Peterson et al. 2017), the majority of the studies utilized original, revised, or translated versions of validated online use scales. The present review examined internet use, social media use, and SNS use, but they are not the same. Studies examining internet use were only considered for inclusion in the present review if the use was linked to social communication (consequently, studies relating to online gaming and online gambling were excluded).

Table 1 Summary of the 32 studies on social media/internet addiction and attachment style reviewed on attachment and internet use

The Role of the Attachment Theory in the Most Used Scales

In this systematic review, the ECR (Brennan et al. 1998) was used in seven studies to assess attachment in the context of close adult relationships. Its revised version (ECR-R; Fraley et al. 2000) was used in four additional studies (therefore, the ECR was the most frequently used scale in the studies evaluated in the present review). The sample sizes range from 30 (Şenormancı et al. 2014) to 617 participants (Oldmeadow et al. 2013). The ECR/ECR-R assesses the two major dimensions of attachment (anxiety and avoidance; i.e., anxiety about abandonment or being afraid of disapproval). Those two dimensions were found to be related to different factors, such as Facebook intensity and experience, its engagement, social media addiction, the intensity of SNS use, internet use, and internet addiction.

In terms of usage, Oldmeadow et al. ( 2013) found a positive association between a higher attachment anxiety and a more intensive use of Facebook. Liu et al.'s study ( 2013) also reported a positive relationship between anxious attachment and high SNS use. Being anxiously attached was associated with decreased perceived interpersonal competency. Such individuals were therefore more likely to initiate online relationships, which may explain their high use of Facebook (Jenkins-Guarnieri et al. 2012) and addiction to it (Eroglu 2015). Yaakobi and Goldenberg ( 2014) reported a high positive relationship between that attachment style and the amount of time spent in bonding in such systems. The same study also found that anxious attachment negatively predicted the number of friends.

Other studies have reported that anxious attachment is positively associated with high nightly time on Facebook, nightly status update (Longua Peterson et al. 2017), and to general activity on Facebook (Hart et al. 2015; Andangsari et al. 2013). A higher amount of time spent online can lead to pathological behavior, as found in the study by Şenormancı et al. ( 2014). Their Turkish sample of patients with internet addiction reported daily Internet use of 7.5 h, and was related to anxious attachment. Oldmeadow et al. ( 2013) also found significant associations with different aspects of Facebook experience. For instance, anxious attachment was strongly related to Facebook comfort seeking, and that drives Facebook use particularly when feeling negative emotions. Similar results were reported by Hart et al. ( 2015) who reported a positive correlation between attachment anxiety and feedback seeking, and a positive relationship with attention received.

Attachment avoidance has been reported to have no significant relationship with Facebook attachment (Oldmeadow et al. 2013; Andangsari et al. 2013) and Facebook addiction (Eroglu 2015; Lin 2016). Furthermore, participants high in attachment avoidance have been found to be less likely to be happy about their Facebook profile (Oldmeadow et al. 2013). This attachment style positively predicted privacy1 (Hart et al. 2015), and was negatively (but not significantly) related to nightly status updates on Facebook (Longua Peterson et al. 2017), and to online capital2 (Lin 2015). Avoidant individuals were less to likely to be a social hub because they rarely initiated a social relationship or received a friend request by others (Yaakobi and Goldenberg 2014).

Results from Morey et al.'s ( 2013) study confirmed that there was a different engagement between anxious-avoidant attachment and forms of communication (such as in-person communication, smartphone use, texting, email, and SNS usage). They demonstrated that romantic partners with an anxious attachment preferred tools that allowed for greater intimacy and immediate response. In contrast, avoidant individuals, as previous studies have shown (Hart et al. 2015), were more likely to prefer mediated forms of communication, such as email, and less likely to be associated with mobile phone use and texting (Morey et al. 2013).

The Influences on Internet Engagement and Its Most Used Assessment Tools

It is important there is a bond whether it is with the mother (Estévez et al. 2017 or the father (Lei and Wu 2007) because any secure bond is better than no bond at all. A good relationship with one parent is enough to lead to positive outcomes if it is based on trust, security, and mutual understanding. Moreover, students experiencing pathological internet use are more likely to report childhood experiences of psychological and sexual abuse (Schimmenti et al. 2014). The same paper also found that youth who are particularly preoccupied with their offline relationships may use online environments as a virtual retreat and as a way of protecting themselves from feelings of loneliness, and their fears concerning offline interactions.

Discussion

The aim of the present paper was to review any associations between attachment and internet addiction (and particularly social media addiction). The results suggest that social media addiction may relate back to earlier stages in individuals' lives. Research has demonstrated that growing up in a well-functioning family helps individuals to form a mature healthy personality (Şenormancı et al. 2014). In contrast, it appears that families' inability to form emotional bonds appear to contribute to addictive behavioral patterns (Şenormancı et al. 2014; Estévez et al. 2017). This suggests that addiction, and more specifically social media addiction, can stem from issues that originate in infancy or childhood. Overall, the results of the studies evaluated provide support for the association between social media addiction and two types of insecure attachment (i.e., anxious and avoidant). The paper first evaluated the findings concerning the relationships with Facebook, which is currently the most popular SNS used in the world. Depending on the type of attachment, individuals experience social media in different ways (Oldmeadow et al. 2013). The present review provides evidence that individuals high in attachment anxiety appear to use Facebook to alleviate their lack of attachment functioning.

The Impact of Facebook Addiction

Of the studies reviewed, it would appear that the majority of insecurely attached adolescents use Facebook after being admonished by their parents (e.g., in Rao and Madan's study [ 2012] an adolescent claimed: "Sometimes I try talking to my mother, but she always says she's too busy, so I end up logging onto Facebook and I talk to my friends instead"; p. 8). Consequently, it appears that using Facebook fulfills the need for care and affection, and replaces and compensates for missing affection from family members (Rao and Madan 2012). Using Facebook becomes a means for social compensation (Eroglu 2015). However, individuals have different ways to accomplish the innate need for relatedness, and attachment style can influence its satisfaction (Lin 2016). For instance, high secure and anxious attached individuals achieve such a need by spending more time on Facebook, while those avoidant attached do not (Lin 2016).

Unfortunately, research indicates that the relationship between having trouble in interpersonal relationships and having a high engagement online constitutes a vicious cycle for those individuals, because they will be at high risk of social withdrawal (Shin et al. 2011). Furthermore, it is also possible that Facebook only provides a short boost to well-being, and that the positive effects dissipate once participants go offline (Hart et al. 2015). This may partially explain why a social networking site may form a compulsive habit for a small minority of individuals (Hart et al. 2015).

As for the avoidant attachment style, no significant relationships were found regarding intensive Facebook usage (Hart et al. 2015; Lin 2015; Oldmeadow et al. 2013). Avoidant individuals are more introverted (Hart et al. 2015) and they do not want to rely on others because they do not trust others to be attached with (Andangsari et al. 2013). They do not seek attention on Facebook because they feel independent, and because the interaction with others may remind them of the way in which they were repeatedly neglected by their caregivers in the past (Andangsari et al. 2013). In attachment theory, attachment avoidance is related to an individual's hesitance to become close with others (Jenkins-Guarnieri et al. 2012). Moreover, it appears that Facebook does not have a significant impact on their attachment needs (Andangsari et al. 2013). Individuals high in attachment avoidance do not spend a lot of time on Facebook, and are less likely to hold a positive attitude about it. Interestingly, a significant positive relationship was found between this attachment style and evaluation concern (Oldmeadow et al. 2013). This means that although they have feelings of being self-sufficient, they still have a level of concern about how others view them.

Regarding securely attached individuals, they are usually sociable, expressive, and use Facebook in a positive way. Because they are characterized by high self-esteem and have good social skills (and thus intimate relationships), they appear to be at lower risk of becoming addicted to the internet generally and to social media specifically (Bashir et al. 2017; Eroglu 2015; Monacis et al. 2017a; Odacı and Çıkrıkçı 2014; Rao and Madan 2012). They also have a stronger sense of control that gives them the opportunity to resist stressful conditions (Savcı and Aysan 2016). When they need help, they ask for it, knowing that it is possible to rely on their friends and family. Their secure relationships with parents give them the power to explore the world without fear, and to feel worthy of love. This enables them to feel safe in sharing feelings with others and to construct secure relationships (Assunção et al. 2017). These results suggest that individuals who already have mature social skills gain greater and healthier functions via Facebook usage (Lin 2015). Therefore, these individuals act using more functional coping strategies (Bashir et al. 2017; Mazaheri Nejadfard and Hosseinsabet 2017; Savcı and Aysan 2016) and are more protected against addiction to social media (Monacis et al. 2017b).

The Influence of Internet Addiction

It appears that those deeply preoccupied about relationships may use the Internet as a type of self-therapy, a safe environment where they can find what they perceive as missing in the their day-to-day lives, such as emotional support (Savcı and Aysan 2016; Schimmenti et al. 2014). On one hand, such "therapeutic means" (e.g., Facebook use) can optimistically lead insecure individuals to the path of secure attachment (Andangsari et al. 2013). In this way, insecurely attached individuals tend to withdraw from environment because they think that their self-efficacy is threatened (Eroglu 2015).

While the results presented here offer new insights into one risk factor for social media addiction, these studies have their limitations. One limitation is that the majority of the studies utilized self-report measures rather than actual behaviors. These methods raise the question of whether participants simply misperceive themselves. Thus, the accuracy of individual reports cannot be always guaranteed because these methods are subject to well-known biases (e.g., response biases, memory recall biases, social desirability biases). Future research will need to apply more sophisticated tools that are able to analyze personal profiles and features. In addition, all studies recruited samples that relied on a self-selected convenience sampling strategy (i.e., a biased sample with non-probability sampling).

Future research should focus on the relationship between avoidance and social media use because several of the collected coefficients approached significance. It would also be interesting to investigate what happens in the offline world after having gained more confidence through online social media use. Using social media may facilitate the development of social skills via the online medium. Consequently, using social media could lead to positive outcomes such as improved mood for individuals with different attachment styles. Another limitation is that the causal hypotheses and mediation models tested concerning attachment styles and social media engagement could not be confirmed because all the studies were cross-sectional. Future research should be carried out longitudinally and could examine the alternative causal models (e.g., that social media engagement causes attachment anxiety). Different studies should also continue to examine FOMO as a significant variable to study in the relationship between social media addiction and attachment styles. Finally, more research should be conducted to determine the impact of other types of social media (other than Facebook use), and to confirm if the results presented here can be generalized to populations of different ages, such as older adults.

Despite all these limitations, the present review collated and evaluated important findings explaining individuals' reasons for using social media in relation to attachment. This knowledge can be positively used to better understand how individuals attempt to cope with problems and past feelings, and to help develop prevention programs and clinical interventions. Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, serve a basic human need and individuals use them to satisfy their attachment need. Thus, the findings presented here suggest that a gratification model provides a useful framework in which to understand the effects of parental attachment on internet and social media addiction (Soh et al. 2014). The actions (or rather inactions) of parents appear to actively influence and contribute to children's addiction to social media, and can greatly influence their later lives.

Notes

1. 1.

Privacy is the tendency to protect personal information. In particular, an item that investigates this aspect in online interactions is "I only send friend requests to people who I have met before in person."

2. 2.

The term "online capital" is based on "social capital" and is a form of cultural capital built on online social networks. It includes the inclinations that arise from these networks to do thing for each other (cooperation, trust, and reciprocity)

References

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1. Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

Maria Chiara D'Arienzo & Valentina Boursier

2. Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK

Mark D. Griffiths

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Correspondence to Mark D. Griffiths.

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D'Arienzo, M.C., Boursier, V. & Griffiths, M.D. Addiction to Social Media and Attachment Styles: A Systematic Literature Review. Int J Ment Health Addiction 17, 1094-1118 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00082-5
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Keywords

Attachment style

Anxious attachment

Social media addiction

Facebook use

Internet addiction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Addiction to Social Media and Attachment Styles: A Systematic Literature Review

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Web-based communication via social networking sites (SNSs) is growing fast among adolescents and adults and some research suggests that excessive SNS use can become an addiction among a small minority of individuals. There is a growing body of research that has examined the impact of attachment styles and its influence on internet addiction (more generally) and social media addiction (more specifically).

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1. New Media & Society -  New Media & Society engages in critical discussions of the key issues arising from the scale and speed of new media development, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and on both theoretical and empirical research.

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Boeker, M. and Urman, A. (2022) An Empirical Investigation of Personalization Factors on TikTok. In Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022, pp. 2298-2309.

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Boeker, M. and Urman, A. (2022) An Empirical Investigation of Personalization Factors on TikTok. In Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022, pp. 2298-2309.

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This article tests and analyses the effect of language and location used to access TikTok, the follow-feature and like-feature, and how recommended content changes as users watch certain posts longer than others. The research shows that all the factors tested affect the content recommended to TikTok users. As well as the follow-feature had the strongest influence, followed by the like feature and video viewership.

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TikTok currently is the fastest growing social media platform with over 1 billion active monthly users of which the majority is from generation Z. Arguably, its most important success driver is its recommendation system. Despite the importance of TikTok's algorithm to the platform's success and content distribution, little work has been done on the empirical analysis of the algorithm. Our work lays the foundation to fill this research gap. Using a sock-puppet audit methodology with a custom algorithm developed by us, we tested and analysed the effect of the language and location used to access TikTok, follow- and like-feature, as well as how the recommended content changes as a user watches certain posts longer than others. We provide evidence that all the tested factors influence the content recommended to TikTok users. Further, we identified that the follow-feature has the strongest influence, followed by the like-feature and video view rate. We also discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the formation of filter bubbles on TikTok and the proliferation of problematic content.

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An Empirical Investigation of Personalization Factors on TikTok | Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022

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TikTok currently is the fastest growing social media platform with over 1 billion active monthly users of which the majority is from generation Z. Arguably, its most important success driver is its recommendation system. Despite the importance of TikTok's algorithm to the platform's success and content distribution, little work has been done on the empirical analysis of the algorithm.

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Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Immersive Media is an event by Filmakademie's Animationsinstitut.

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The event location is easily accessible by public transport The event takes place at public transport-compatible times To compensate the carbon footprint of FMX, we ask you, our visitors, how and from where you plan to travel to FMX Energy & Water Supply Arrival & Departure Catering Waste & Resources CO2 Offsetting Event Marketing & PR Procurement Accommodation The venue is supplied with 100% green electricity and district heating We define measures to reduce energy consumption (e.g.

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Southerton, C. (2021) Research perspectives on TikTok & its legacy apps| Lip-syncing and saving lives: Healthcare workers on TikTok. International Journal of Communication, (15), pp. 21

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Southerton, C. (2021) Research perspectives on TikTok & its legacy apps| Lip-syncing and saving lives: Healthcare workers on TikTok. International Journal of Communication, (15), pp. 21

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Drawing on a digital ethnography project, this article considers what could be learned about the “infodemic” from existing health information-sharing communities and creators on TikTok and examines the affective spaces of information they cultivate. Findings from this ethnography reveal that health information sharing practices on TikTok use playfulness, memes, and other platform elements, alongside familiar techniques of highlighting one’s expertise and relatability as a healthcare worker.

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Abstract

While TikTok's popularity has risen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, so too has concern about misinformation about the virus on the app. Many accounts of the "infodemic"-the war against misinformation being waged alongside the pandemic-call for an emphasis on authority and prioritizing content from official accounts on social media platforms. However, even before the pandemic, health professionals have spread information by drawing on their personality, as well as their medical expertise, as creators on TikTok. Drawing on a digital ethnography project, this article considers what could be learned about the "infodemic" from existing health information-sharing communities and creators on TikTok and examines the affective spaces of information they cultivate. Findings from this ethnography reveal that health information sharing practices on TikTok use playfulness, memes, and other platform elements, alongside familiar techniques of highlighting one's expertise and relatability as a healthcare worker.

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TikTok, health information, COVID-19, microcelebrity, infodemic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Abstract While TikTok's popularity has risen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, so too has concern about misinformation about the virus on the app. Many accounts of the "infodemic"-the war against misinformation being waged alongside the pandemic-call for an emphasis on authority and prioritizing content from official accounts on social media platforms. However, even before the pandemic, health professionals have spread information by drawing on their personality, as well as their medical expertise, as creators on TikTok.

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This is an annual conference where researchers and practitioners of computer graphics and interactive techniques come together to present their work.

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The ACM SIGGRAPH community is a global nonprofit organization serving the evolution of computer graphics and interactive techniques. With thousands of members across the world, the researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists, and business professionals of ACM SIGGRAPH are building the future of digital art and interactive design.

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The ACM SIGGRAPH community is a global nonprofit organization serving the evolution of computer graphics and interactive techniques. With thousands of members across the world, the researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists, and business professionals of ACM SIGGRAPH are building the future of digital art and interactive design.

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The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked

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The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked

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This book explores the ways in which technology has become increasingly addictive over the past few decades, and how social media platforms like TikTok have been specifically designed to keep us hooked. Alter examines the psychological, social, and cultural factors that contribute to addiction and offers suggestions for how we can regain control over our lives. He also provides insights into the business models and ethics of tech companies.

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"Irresistible is a fascinating and much needed exploration of one of the most troubling phenomena of modern times." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times bestsellers David and Goliath and Outliers "One of the most mesmerizing and important books I've read in quite some time. Alter brilliantly illuminates the new obsessions that are controlling our lives and offers the tools we need to rescue our businesses, our families, and our sanity." -Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take
Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction-an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken phone, and Millennial kids spend so much time in front of screens that they struggle to interact with real, live humans.

In this revolutionary book, Adam Alter, a professor of psychology and marketing at NYU, tracks the rise of behavioral addiction, and explains why so many of today's products are irresistible. Though these miraculous products melt the miles that separate people across the globe, their extraordinary and sometimes damaging magnetism is no accident. The companies that design these products tweak them over time until they become almost impossible to resist.

By reverse engineering behavioral addiction, Alter explains how we can harness addictive products for the good-to improve how we communicate with each other, spend and save our money, and set boundaries between work and play-and how we can mitigate their most damaging effects on our well-being, and the health and happiness of our children.
Adam Alter's previous book, Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave is available in paperback from Penguin.

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"Irresistible is a fascinating and much needed exploration of one of the most troubling phenomena of modern times." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times bestsellers David and Goliath and Outliers"One of the most mesmerizing and important books I've read in quite some time.

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Terranova, T. (2000) Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy. Social text, 18(2), pp. 33-58.

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Terranova, T. (2000) Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy. Social text, 18(2), pp. 33-58.

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In this essay, the author understands this relationship as a provision of "free labour," a trait of the cultural economy at large, and an important, and yet undervalued, force in advanced capitalist societies. By looking at the Internet as a specific instance of the fundamental role played by free labour, this essay also tries to highlight the connections between the "digital economy" and what the Italian autonomists have called the "social factory." The "social factory" describes a process whereby "work processes have shifted from the factory to society, thereby setting in motion a truly complex machine." Simultaneously voluntarily given and unwaged, enjoyed and exploited, free labour on the Net includes the activity of building Web sites, modifying software packages, reading and participating in mailing lists, and building virtual spaces on MUDs and MOOs. Far from being an "unreal," empty space, the Internet is animated by cultural and technical labour through and through, a continuous production of value that is completely immanent to the flows of the network society at large.

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High comorbidity between sleep and psychiatric disorders

Sleep disturbance is highly comorbid with many, if not most, psychiatric disorders (Benca et al., 1992, NIH, 2005). Moreover, sleep disturbance is increasingly recognized as an important, but understudied, mechanism in the complex and multi-factorial causation of the symptoms and functional disability associated with psychiatric disorders (A. G. Harvey, 2008a, Harvey, 2008b). As such, sleep disturbance may qualify for status as a transdiagnostic process.

Sleep disturbance in psychiatric

Advantages of identifying transdiagnostic processes

As discussed elsewhere (Harvey, Watkins, Mansell, & Shafran, 2004), processes may be descriptively transdiagnostic by virtue of simple co-occurrence across a range of psychiatric disorders. More interesting, of course, are processes that are mechanistically transdiagnostic, i.e. co-occurrence demonstrably arises from some form of casual inter-relationship between the process and psychiatric disorders.

Confirmation that a process is mechanistically transdiagnostic has clinical implications.

Aim

The aim of this paper is to continue the examination of sleep disturbance as a transdiagnostic process. Specifically, we will consider if it is biologically plausible for sleep disturbance to be mechanistically transdiagnostic ¹. As summarised above, phenomenological overlap between sleep disturbance and various psychiatric disorders is well

Human sleep: the sleep versus circadian distinction

Human sleep can be divided into rapid eye movement ('REM') sleep and non-rapid eye movement ('NREM') sleep, which is in turn divided into four stages (imaginatively called Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4). Sleep in adults follows an organized pattern starting with Stage 1 NREM sleep, deepening to Stage 4 NREM sleep, and then moving into REM, with each NREM-REM cycle taking between 70 and 120 min (Hirshkowitz et al., 1997, Shneerson, 2000).

The sleep/wake cycle is regulated by an interaction between two

Sleep disturbance and psychiatric disorder: evidence for shared/interacting neurobiology

The notable co-occurrence of sleep disturbance and psychiatric disorders has been discussed elsewhere (Benca, et al., 1992; A.G. Harvey, 2008a, Harvey, 2008b). Here, we take the argument for transdiagnostic significance a step further. We propose that sleep disturbance is aetiologically linked to various forms of psychopathology through: i) its reciprocal relationship with emotion regulation (box 3 of Fig. 1), ii) shared/interacting neurobiological substrates in genetics (box 1) and iii)

Clinical implications of sleep disturbance as a transdiagnostic process

A number of clinical hypotheses arise from the provisional conclusion that sleep disturbance is mechanistically transdiagnostic. First, if sleep disturbance and the symptoms/processes of psychiatric disorders are jointly maintained, then interventions for sleep/circadian functioning may also reduce the symptoms associated with the comorbid psychiatric disorder. Second, as flagged earlier, if sleep disturbance is truly transdiagnostic in this mechanistic sense, practitioners could be trained in

Conclusions

We have reviewed evidence suggesting that it is biologically plausible for sleep disturbance to be an important transdiagnostic process. We have shown that sleep disturbance is aetiologically linked to various forms of psychopathology through (a) its reciprocal relationship with emotion regulation, (b) genes known to be important in the generation and regulation of circadian rhythms that have been linked to a range of disorders and (c) the interplay between systems known to be important across

Acknowledgement

This project was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Grant Nos. R34 MH080958 and R01MH079188.

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Sleep disturbance as transdiagnostic: Consideration of neurobiological mechanisms

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Sleep disturbance is highly comorbid with many, if not most, psychiatric disorders (Benca et al., 1992, NIH, 2005). Moreover, sleep disturbance is increasingly recognized as an important, but understudied, mechanism in the complex and multi-factorial causation of the symptoms and functional disability associated with psychiatric disorders (A. G. Harvey, 2008a, Harvey, 2008b).

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The Social Dilemma (2020). By Jeff Orlowski.

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The Social Dilemma (2020). By Jeff Orlowski.

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Through interviews with former employees and senior executives of social media companies such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc., the documentary lets us know how these top technical experts use algorithm technology to collect and analyze user data in the background, simulate human behavior, and launch various targeted products make users stay longer and longer, and eventually become addicted, becoming more and more closed and extreme.

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监视资本主义：智能陷阱，别被手机操控！官方中字.The.Social.Dilemma.2020 _腾讯视频

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The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains

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The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains

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In this book, Carr examines how our use of technology is affecting our brains and our ability to think deeply. He argues that platforms like TikTok may be contributing to a society in which we are constantly distracted and unable to engage in sustained, focused thinking. Carr also offers suggestions for how we can cultivate our attention and sharpen our minds in the digital age.

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New York Times bestseller * Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

"This is a book to shake up the world." -Ann Patchett

Nicholas Carr's bestseller The Shallows has become a foundational book in one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the internet's bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioral effects of smartphones and social media.

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The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

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New York Times bestseller * Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "This is a book to shake up the world." -Ann Patchett Nicholas Carr's bestseller The Shallows has become a foundational book in one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the internet's bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

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Fu Peng, Li Bingbing, Yuan Shengbo and Zhao Hang(2022) Consumption of Audience Time, Economy and Emotion by Short Video Platforms——Analysis based on the theory of "Audience Commodity Theory” Information Technology, pp,127-130

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Fu Peng, Li Bingbing, Yuan Shengbo and Zhao Hang(2022) Consumption of Audience Time, Economy and Emotion by Short Video Platforms——Analysis based on the theory of "Audience Commodity Theory” Information Technology, pp,127-130

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Based on Smythe's "audience commodity theory", analyze how the short video platform "controls" and "consumes" the audience step by step, thereby exploiting their leisure time and living status. In the future, a benign ecological system integrating supervision-platform-audience should be built, so as to better safeguard the safety and interests of the audience, and then promote the healthy and stable development of the short video platform industry.

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短视频平台对受众时间、经济...于“受众商品论”理论的分析_傅鹏

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This is a PBS Frontline documentary film that examines the relationship between teenagers and social media. It focuses on how young people use social media platforms like YouTube to gain attention and validation through likes, views, and shares. The film also discusses the addictive elements of these platforms and how they can shape young people's self-esteem and worldview.

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Watch full-length episodes of PBS documentary series FRONTLINE for free. Generation Like - FRONTLINE explores how the perennial teen quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media - and how big brands are increasingly co-opting young consumers' digital presences.

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The people's platform: Taking back power and culture in the digital age

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The people's platform: Taking back power and culture in the digital age

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In this book, Astra Taylor explores how the internet has transformed our lives and changed the way we consume media. She argues that the rise of platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter has turned audiences into commodities, as these companies profit from our attention and personal data. Taylor also discusses the ways in which digital technology has impacted democracy, cultural production, and individual privacy.

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From a cutting-edge cultural commentator, a bold and brilliant challenge to cherished notions of the Internet as the great leveler of our ageThe Internet has been hailed as an unprecedented democratizing force, a place where everyone can be heard and all can participate equally. But how true is this…

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This is a book that explores the relationship between digital labour and the theories of Karl Marx. The book argues that the rise of the internet and other digital technologies has led to a new form of capitalist exploitation, where workers create value through their online activities. Fuchs begins by providing an overview of Marx's theory of labour, focusing on his concept of "surplus value," then goes on to discuss how this theory relates to the digital economy, arguing that companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon generate massive amounts of surplus value by collecting data from users and monetizing it through targeted advertising. The book also discusses the ways in which digital technologies have transformed the nature of work, making it more precarious and flexible. Fuchs argues that this shift has led to a growing class of "digital labourers" who are subject to exploitation and low pay.

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How is labour changing in the age of computers, the Internet, and "social media" such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter? In Digital Labour and Karl Marx, Christian Fuchs attempts to answer that question, crafting a systematic critical theorisation of labour as performed in the capitalist ICT industry. Relying on a range of global case studies--from unpaid social media prosumers or Chinese hardware assemblers at Foxconn to miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo--Fuchs sheds light on the labour costs of digital media, examining the way ICT corporations exploit human labour and the impact of this exploitation on the lives, bodies, and minds of workers.

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How is labour changing in the age of computers, the Internet, and "social media" such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter? In Digital Labour and Karl Marx, Christian Fuchs attempts to answer that question, crafting a systematic critical theorisation of labour as performed in the capitalist ICT industry.

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A digital media company that produces explanatory journalism content across multiple platforms, including its flagship site.

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Launch House promised young tech founders community. A Vox investigation found what happens when clout and cash are paramount, and protecting members falls by the wayside.

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