Facebook admits using the social media site makes you sad but wants you to keep using it anyway, self-healing glass could do away with smashed smartphone screens, and Twitter starts enforcing new rules around violence and hate.
Trending on Facebook today is Facebook admitting that it’s bad for your health. Researchers at the social media giant have found that passively scrolling through your newsfeed is distracting and depressing and spending too much time on the site often leads to negative social comparison and worse mental health. Facebook’s report points out that actively interacting with people on the site, however, like sharing messages and posting comments, can actually help strengthen your sense of community. So in summary, yes Facebook is bad for your mental health and yes, Facebook knows that, but hey, you should still use it anyways.
From Reddit is news that Japanese researchers have developed a new type of glass that can actually heal itself from cracks and breaks. The researchers accidentally found that glass made from low weight polymer called “polyether-thioureas” can heal itself when pressed together by hand at room temperature in just a few hours. While self-healing rubber and plastic exist already, this is the first time a hard substance has been able to achieve such a feat without needing high heat. This could have an incredible impact on the smartphone market, where an accidental drop could lead to a completely smashed and possibly useless phone screen.
And lastly, from Reddit again, Twitter has updated its rules on how it handles hateful conduct and abusive behaviour to reduce the amount of violence, harassment, and hate speech taking place on its platform. The social media site has come under fire in 2017 for doing nothing to stop the rise of hateful groups like the alt-right movement. So beginning today, Twitter will be enforcing much stricter rules and looking for accounts affiliated with groups that promote violence against citizens to further their causes. It will also be looking to ban any content that glorifies violence or the perpetrators of a violent act, as well as accounts that use racist, religious, cultural, or sexist slurs, even in their bios. Rules around hateful imagery will also now be enforced. While a single tweet won’t result in an immediate expulsion, Twitter could demand the offending tweet be deleted and will consider permanent suspensions for repeat violations.