The Blog Experiment | Technology Nonsense and Internet Tripe

Executing a good vacation takes time, effort, and, ultimately, a whole lot of luck. Of course, there are some issues associated with the industry, including environmental impact and a heightened focus on consumerism, but when you’re in the research phase of a new trip, you might want to find some influencers to take you along for the ride. SEE ALSO: How to use Tripadvisor’s AI-powered assistant to create a travel itinerary Influencers can provide travelers with inspiration about places they might not have considered, offer personalized takes on more well-known destinations, sprinkle in travel hacks, deals, itineraries and guides, and pepper their content with cultural insights that can make a trip more meaningful. Plus, you can always follow them for a bit of visual escapism, from their beautiful photography to video content that makes you feel like you’re really there. Maybe you’re looking for something specific, or maybe you just want to live vicariously through someone who travels full-time. No matter what you’re looking for in a travel influencer, here are nine on Instagram we love watching:Taniya Khanijow View this post on Instagram This travel influencer from India primarily gives tips for solo travelers — particularly vegan solo travelers. But she also helps her followers navigate the world of being a rent-free digital nomad.Pratik Jain View this post on Instagram This travel influencer walks his fans through exactly how to get the best deals — free trips, anyone? — on traveling everywhere from India to Universal Studios.Kritika Goel View this…Nine travel influencers on Instagram to help plan your next adventure

Finances can be a confusing space to navigate, and often, social media feels like a place that might make it make sense. People talk honestly about their financial woes online, and it can make you feel more open to following their advice — mainly because you don’t have to pay for it,Influencers on TikTok will tell you to get a high-yield savings account, or maybe they’ll tell you not to. They tell you how to invest or get an unstressful job you like that pays well. They tell you what you’re doing wrong — which, it turns out, is probably everything. They break down their paychecks and tell you why the advice you’re following — on the very site you’re following them — is messed up. If that seems confusing, it’s because it is. A new report by Edelman Financial Engines found that “more than a quarter of social media users (and 42% in their 30s) said they believed financial advice or information on social media that turned out to be false or misleading.”According to the report, since the vast majority of the population uses social media, and so many of us spend over three hours on it every day, we’re exposed to “curated lifestyles and consumerism can come at a cost.” The report shows that a quarter of users say they feel dissatisfied with their own personal wealth after using social media and comparing themselves to those online — and it’s worse for younger generations. SEE ALSO: What’s so…Think twice before following financial advice you find on social media

When you think of the term “Instagram stalking,” what kind of scenarios come to mind? Is it vetting an upcoming Hinge date’s profile to ensure they tick all the critical boxes: they have friends, they like to travel and they look the same in their tagged photos as they do the ones on their profile? Is it to suss out whether a couple has broken up? Is it being sucked into a black hole of scrutinising the fashion (and lifestyle) choices of your high school arch nemesis? As evidenced above, when we imagine ourselves digital sleuthing, it always involves other people. But look inward, and you might realise that you — yes you — are your own most dedicated viewer. For many on TikTok, it’s common practice: we share an Instagram story – a supposed 24-hour-only glimpse into our lives – and we find ourselves in a deadly cycle of replaying it and monitoring the viewer list. While the latter exists for a reason (allowing us the privilege of knowing if that person who we wanted to see the story, saw it), what is it that drives us to watch our content back? It’s not like we’ll find anything new – we’re the ones who published it, after all. This behaviour isn’t limited to stories, either. I’ll admit it: sometimes when I’m feeling down, I’ve found myself looking back over my grid, pausing on holiday photos, snapshots from nights out, birthday celebrations, and sometimes, a selfie where I know I look great….Why do we obsessively watch our own Instagram Stories?

Elon Musk’s social media platform X is losing users in two of its most important markets: the U.S. and UK.According to a new report from the Financial Times, Musk’s X has lost nearly one-fifth of its daily active user base in the U.S. and a whopping one-third in the UK.  Tweet may have been deleted The data, collected by third-party analytics company SimilarWeb, compares X’s daily active user numbers from May 2023 to September 2024.It’s important to note that as a third-party data firm, SimilarWeb does not have direct access to X’s internal user stats. The company collects data based on web traffic stats. While SimilarWeb’s data includes traffic from mobile devices to mobile websites, SimilarWeb cannot account for activity within X’s official apps on platforms like iOS and Android. SEE ALSO: Elon Musk reportedly surrenders to Brazil in battle over X ban However, some of X’s own internal user numbers are public information – at least as it pertains to the EU. Thanks to EU regulations known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires social media platforms to make this information available, we know that the SimilarWeb data showing a decline in X’s users is largely accurate across the board.X itself has recently reported a decline in users in the EU.X’s downward usage trendsX most recently shared its latest usage data, as required by EU law, last month. As Social Media Today points out, Musk’s company reported a decline in monthly active users over the last year.In X’s EU…Elon Musk's X is losing users in the U.S., UK, and EU. X's own data proves it.

Dateline: Amsterdam, 24th September 2024.I’ve often told the story of when, as a junior deputy assistant under-consultant, I worked on my very first payments project in a financial institution. On day one I asked what problems we were trying to fix and I was told by a grizzled veteran of banking infrastructure they were the same problems as always: payments were too expensive, too slow and too opaque. I wonder if the long arc of my career is at last heading to address these fundamental issues.Share Read moreThe Revolution Will Be Tokenised

In the digital age, where misinformation spreads rapidly, artificial intelligence has emerged as a potential solution for countering conspiracy theories. One such example is “DebunkBot”, an AI chatbot designed to engage users who believe in conspiracy theories. A recent study published in the in Science demonstrated impressive results: After brief conversations with the bot, participants’ belief in conspiracy theories decreased by 20 percent, with approximately a quarter of them abandoning those beliefs entirely. Moreover, these effects persisted even two months later, suggesting that AI could provide a long-term solution in challenging misinformation. As Gordon Pennycook, one of the study’s authors, remarked, “The work does overturn a lot of how we thought about conspiracies,” challenging the long-held belief that conspiracy theories cannot be debunked through facts and logic alone due to cognitive dissonance — the discomfort people feel when confronted with information that contradicts their deeply held beliefs. DebunkBot appears to bypass this barrier. However, the success of DebunkBot was largely due to its ability to provide tailored, fact-based responses to users’ specific concerns, rather than relying on generic debunking strategies. This personalized engagement allowed the bot to address each user’s unique beliefs, overcoming cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, which often fuel conspiracy theories. While these results are promising, they also raise broader questions: Can AI alone truly combat conspiracy theories in a world increasingly characterized by distrust of traditional institutions and information sources? Brendan Nyhan, a misinformation researcher at Dartmouth College, highlights a critical concern: “You can imagine a world where AI information is…Meet 'DebunkBot' can AI truly combat conspiracy theories?

If you’re sending a “View Once” message, photo, or video through WhatsApp, don’t be so sure that the receiver can’t view it again.Security researchers with crypto wallet ZenGo recently discovered a bug that allowed WhatsApp users to view “View Once” messages as many times as they liked. SEE ALSO: Meta updates WhatsApp and Messenger third-party chats in Europe In response, WhatsApp patched the issue. But, ZenGo researchers then discovered another exploit in WhatsApp’s temporary fix that once again allowed them to access these messages that had supposedly disappeared.WhatsApp View Once exploitWhatsApp launched its View Once feature in 2021. View Once allows users to send texts, photos, and videos that disappear after the recipient initially accesses them. Furthermore, to ensure the ephemeral nature of these messages, WhatsApp disables screenshots from being used in the app on View Once messages through iOS and Android. In addition, WhatsApp limits View Once messages to the mobile apps only.However, in a post last week, ZenGo Security Research Manager Tal Be’ery detailed an exploit that allowed his team to access View Once messages over and over again.Basically, as Be’ery explains, the View Once messages are only restricted from view in the mobile apps after being viewed. The media continues to exist on WhatsApp’s servers. If a user can find the URL for the media file, they can access the message or media file that was supposed to have disappeared.Be’ery went through the official channels with WhatsApp’s parent company Meta and reported the exploit through their bug bounty…WhatsApp 'View Once' messages are far more permanent than you realize

LinkedIn has been training generative AI with user data — a quiet change the public noticed on Wednesday.Users of the professional social networking platform owned by Microsoft were the first to notice a new option pop up in their data privacy settings called “Data for Generative AI Improvement.” SEE ALSO: How to turn off Google AI Overviews The setting options come with an explanation saying that this feature gives “LinkedIn and its affiliates” permission to “use your personal data and content you create on LinkedIn to train generative AI models that create content.”The setting is turned on by default.In addition, as 404 Media discovered in its initial report, LinkedIn appears to have launched its AI training without updating its terms of service to inform users.Don’t want LinkedIn and other third-parties using your LinkedIn data to train their generative AI to create content using your posts? Here’s how to turn it off.How to turn off LinkedIn’s AI trainingLogin to your LinkedIn account.Click your profile image on the header menu and select Settings & Privacy in the dropdown menu. Credit: Mashable screenshot Choose Data privacy on the left hand side menu. Credit: Mashable screenshot Select the Data for Generative AI Improvement option at the very bottom of the How LinkedIn uses your data section. Credit: Mashable screenshot Toggle the “Use my data for training content creation AI models” switch off. Credit: Mashable screenshot Thanks to the EU’s strong data privacy laws, LinkedIn is not using EU users’ data for its AI training. “We…LinkedIn is using your data to train AI. Here's how to turn it off.

Dateline: Paris, 18th September 2024.More than once in recent weeks I’ve had people ask why I am interested in digital currency, account-to-account transfers and decentralised finance. More than once, they’ve said something along the lines of “payments work well” or possibly even “the payments sector is cost-effective and provides excellent value for money”. I am unconvinced. Here are my last three payments. You can judge whether you think that the payments industry is working well or not.SharePayments in PracticeFirst, I needed to send some money to a friend of mine (who I have sent money to before) for sundry purposes of no relevance to the narrative. I decided to use instant payments (or what we in the UK call “faster payments”). I opened up my bank app and entered his account details. The confirmation of payee came back good, so I pressed the send button. I was just about to text him and tell him that I’d sent the money when a message from the bank popped up to tell me that they would be carrying out security checks so that my payment might be delayed. They said that they “usually” finish the checks and send the money within four hours, although it might take until the end of the next working day. (In fact they called me after about three hours to complete the security checks and allow the transfer.)In case you are wondering what this hold up is all about, remember that the UK was first into instant…Faster and Slower Payments

Instagram just unveiled a much more restricted way for teens under 16 to use its app. Known as Teen Accounts, parent company Meta says its part of a “reimagining” of their platform for teens, in light of ongoing concerns about youth safety on the app — and they plan to apply it to all Meta platforms in the future. A Teen Account is automatically set to private, with limits on who can message and interact with them. Accounts are placed under default content restrictions, as well, and the app will provide time limit notifications urging users to leave the app after 60 minutes. Teen Accounts are opted-in to an automatic, do-not-disturb sleep mode between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., silencing notifications and auto-replying to DMs. Sleep mode can also be adjusted to fully block a teen from using the app. Users under 16 can also select specific topics they want to be served in the app’s Explore page and post recommendations. Parents and guardians can be added to a Teen Account to monitor interactions, time limits, and settings — any changes to the default settings must be approved by a guardian. SEE ALSO: Spotify is piloting a Premium membership tailored for kids “Instagram Teen Accounts reflect the importance of tailoring teens’ online experiences to their developmental stages, and implementing appropriate protections,” wrote Northeastern University professor Rachel Rodgers in the company’s press release. “Younger adolescents are more vulnerable as their skills are still emerging and require additional safeguards and protection. Overall,…Instagram announces restrictive 'Teen Accounts' for users under 16