Studies show the internet may be making us less agreeable and more reactive, but personality isn’t fixed. With awareness and effort, we can reshape our habits and reclaim our better selves.

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/data-shows-the-internet-is-making-our-personalities-worse-but-theres-reason-for-optimism/91253211
#DigitalWellness #SocialMediaImpact #MentalHealthOnline #Wellness #MentalHealth #SocialMedia

I am tired of living life. Exploitation is everywhere. I am a slave to Meta, X, YouTube, and Google; they have most of my data, but they haven't compensated me or provided me aid in return for my survival. I wish I could reclaim my personal boundaries online. Imagine creating content but not receiving anything in return. Only my family supports me emotionally and financially so far, but due to their own struggles, they are facing difficulties as well. People will react to or boost this post, but I will never receive genuine and sincere interactions. I am upset.

#digitalburnout #socialmediaexhaustion #creatorstruggles #dataprivacy #mentalhealthonline #contentwithoutcredit #emotionalexhaustion #onlineexploitation #platformslavery #supportcreators #digitalfatigue #dataisnotfree #creatorrights #invisiblelabor #reclaimyourdata #honestpost #creatorpain #notsupported #truthpost #helpnothype

I closed out November with a flurry of published stories, some filed weeks ago. I like finishing strong in November, since that’s the last month that freelancers can reasonably expect to write something and get paid for it that year.

One of the posts published in the closing hours of last month but not listed below was an extra for Patreon readers: a Web Summit recap covering things that didn’t show up in stories for my other clients.

11/27/2023: What part of ‘get rid of my data’ don’t companies get?, Fast Company

I pitched this piece months ago, then took far more time than I expected to report it out and finally write the damn thing.

11/28/2023: The 3 best international tech innovations of 2023, Fast Company

I helped judge this competition for the second year in a row.

11/28/2023: The 4 next big things in robotics and automation for 2023, Fast Company

My second batch of “NBTT” value judgments covered this high-tech sector.

11/28/2023: The 5 next big things in space and telecom for 2023, Fast Company

Of course I was going to accept a story assignment from my editor that would let write about space.

11/28/2023: Researchers: Maybe the Internet Isn’t Making Us Miserable After All, PCMag

I wrote up a study questioning the widely-held belief that social media and the Internet in general are making everybody stressed, lonely and resentful.

11/29/2023: The Best Cell Phone Plans, Wirecutter

This minor update covered new high-end plans at T-Mobile and Verizon and updated readers about AT&T and Verizon’s C-band deployment, among other things.

11/30/2023: OpenAI At A Crossroads: Can AI Threaten Humanity?, Al Jazeera

I joined AJ’s The Take podcast, hosted by Malika Bilal, to disucss OpenAI’s recent calamities and the prospects for AI to live up to the hopes (or fears) of some of its bigger supporters.

11/30/2023: Ex-EVgo CEO: It Can Take 6 to 18 Months to Put a Charging Station Into Service, PCMag

Recently-retired EVgo CEO Cathy Zoi taught me a few things about the state of the EV-charging business in the panel hosted by Resources for the Future in D.C. that I watched from home via Zoom.

11/30/2023: Google Celebrates RCS Hitting the Billion-User Mark With Multiple Feature Drops, PCMag

I got advance copies of Google’s blog posts about RCS topping a billion users and the software feature drops the company staged to celebrate the occasion, then made sure to remind readers of Google’s most recent announcement of the total number of Android devices–more than 3 billion, announced in 2022, which suggests that most Android users have yet to benefit from this upgrade to SMS and MMS.

12/1/2023: Facebook Whistleblower: Want to Help Kids? Keep Them Off Social Media, PCMag

I bikeshared into D.C. to watch a different tech-policy panel, this one at the Brookings Institution and featuring Melanie Dawes, chief executive of the U.K. telecom regulator Ofcom, and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Updated 12/11/2023 to add the Wirecutter guide that I had missed before.

https://robpegoraro.com/2023/12/03/weekly-output-data-minimization-next-big-things-in-tech-x3-online-mental-health-study-ai-risks-ev-charging-google-celebrates-rcs-milestone-child-safety-online/

#automation #ChatGPT #dataBreaches #dataMinimization #digitalWellbeing #electricCarCharging #EVCharging #EVgo #FrancesHaugen #GoogleMessages #mentalHealthOnline #OnlineSafetyAct #OpenAI #RCS #robotics #satellites #Space