that social media is an “important contributor” to the teen mental health crisis. Last year, he issued an advisory making similar arguments, saying social media posed a “profound risk” to teen mental health. In his latest op-ed, Murthy cited a study showing higher social media use was associated with an increased risk of anxiety and depression, as well as a survey where almost half of teens reported “social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.
He also noted warning labels alone wouldn’t make social media safer — I mean, people still smoke — but would help better inform everyone. “There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place… there are just parents and their children, trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world.”
He’ll need support from Congress to make this happen, however. Cooperation in US politics has not been common this decade. However, there has been recent bipartisan support to curtail tech companies' powers — look at the TikTok saga.Oh, speak of the devil. TikTok has announced its new AI-created digital avatars for both creators and brands on the app.
According to TikTok, the AI personas should make it easier for creators and businesses to create branded content with a “human feel” — even if that human feel is an uncomfortable stranger staring at you from a bus stop across the road. There are two kinds of avatars: stock avatars based on paid actors and custom avatars based on existing creators and brand spokespeople. As Karissa Bell puts it, they giveLogitech has unveiled a mixed reality stylus for Meta Quest headsets — but not the Quest Pro.