But the widespread attention given to the blanking of Meta's Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms on Tuesday suggests another, perhaps less obvious tale: the one that shows that social media platforms, like the books or newspapers or insert-medium-here of other times in history, matter more than just being entertaining pastimes.
Wait, you mean those posts from that cousin you rarely see, sharing updates from her kids' lives? That reel from the influencer, introducing you to a culture or bit of knowledge you never knew? That photo collage you put up as a memorial to a loved one whose loss you're grieving? The back-and-forth debate between people on your feed trying to one-up each other on topics that interest you?
Yes. The technologies might be recent. But the things we use them for? That taps into something age-old: Humans are wired to love stories. Telling them. Listening to them. Relating to each other and our communities through them. And, of late, showing them to the world piece by piece through our devices - so much so that one of Instagram's primary features is called, simply, "Stories."
"Our narrative capacity is ... one of the best ways through which we are able to connect with one another," says Evynn McFalls, vice president of marketing and brand at the NeuroLeadership Institute, a consultancy that incorporates neuroscience into its corporate work. "Our brains like stories because it makes it easier for us to understand other people, other circumstances."
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A COMMUNITY OF STORIES
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Techlife News #645 من Techlife News.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Techlife News #645 من Techlife News.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
CLIMATE SOLUTION: MASSACHUSETTS TOWN EXPERIMENTS WITH COMMUNITY HEATING AND COOLING
Jennifer and Eric Mauchan live in a Cape Codstyle house in Framingham, Massachusetts that they’ve been cooling with five air conditioners.
TECH NEWS SITE GIZMODO SOLD FOR THIRD TIME IN 8 YEARS AS EUROPEAN PUBLISHER KELEOPS LOOKS TO EXPAND
Longtime technology news and review site Gizmodo has been sold for the third time in the past eight years, this time to a European publisher looking to expand its coverage of the digital scene.
ONLINE MARKETPLACE EBAY TO DROP AMERICAN EXPRESS, CITING FEES, AND SAYS CUSTOMERS HAVE OTHER OPTIONS
Online marketplace behemoth eBay said it plans to no longer accept American Express, citing what the company says are “unacceptably high fees” and that customers have other payment options to shop online.
CHINA LANDS A SPACECRAFT ON THE MOON'S FAR SIDE TO COLLECT ROCKS FOR STUDY
A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon Sunday (02) to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better known near side.
BOEING LAUNCHES NASA ASTRONAUTS FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER YEARS OF DELAYS
Boeing launched astronauts for the first time Wednesday, belatedly joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA.
SOFTWARE GIANT SAP AGREES TO BUY WALKME FOR $1.5 BILLION CASH
German software giant SAP has agreed to buy WalkMe in an all-cash deal valued at about $1.5 billion.
NEW ORLEANS PLANS TO SPIFF UP AS HOST OF NEXT YEAR'S SUPER BOWL
New Orleans hosts its 11th Super Bowl next year and the preparations involve showcasing the city’s heralded architecture, music, food and celebratory culture while addressing its myriad challenges, including crime, pockets of homelessness and an antiquated drainage system.
GOOGLE MAKES FIXES TO AI-GENERATED SEARCH SUMMARIES AFTER OUTLANDISH ANSWERS WENT VIRAL
Google said it has made “more than a dozen technical improvements” to its artificial intelligence systems after its retooled search engine was found spitting out erroneous information.
AI IS IMITATING THE DEAD AND DYING, RAISING NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT GRIEVINGY
When Michael Bommer found out that he was terminally ill with colon cancer, he spent a lot of time with his wife, Anett, talking about what would happen after his death.
FORMER OPENAI EMPLOYEES LEAD PUSH TO PROTECT WHISTLEBLOWERS FLAGGING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RISKS
A group of OpenAI’s current and former workers is calling on the ChatGPT-maker and other artificial intelligence companies to protect employees who flag safety risks about AI technology.