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Researchers are only just beginning to piece together the complex ways that technology affects young minds, but a new study raises some serious concerns. A paper published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, better known as JAMA, explored the relationship between social media use and cognitive performance in kids starting at age 9. The new research drew on data collected from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a massive, long-term study on adolescent health and brain development being conducted in the U.S. The ABCD study is currently following almost 12,000 children from age 9 to 10 as they age, with a particular focus on how things like sports, video games, technology, and other common childhood experiences shape health and behavior outcomes over the years. Opting to focus on social media use instead of passive screen time, the newly published research examined how different levels of social media use affected cognitive performance, measured by a standard battery of attention, memory and critical thinking tests. … Unlike passive screen time, social media use typically involves interactive, personalized, and cognitively demanding activities, yet there is a paucity of studies that have analyzed the associations between distinct longitudinal social media usage patterns and multiple domains of cognitive functioning, the authors wrote. The team analyzed data from more than 6,000 children, ultimately sorting them into three different groups based on their social media habits: a no or very low social media use group, a group that started with low use and began using social media for around an hour each day, and a group that started with high levels of social media use that ramped up to around three hours a day over time. The no or low social media use group was by far the largest, including 58% of the children in the study. The group that didnt use social media much at first but used it more over time represented 37% of the children, while the high use group was only 6% of the children in the study. The study looked at the participants cognitive test scores at age 9 or 10 and then again two years later, using no or low social media use group as a reference group to compare against the two groups of kids who used social media more frequently. The researchers found that kids in both groups with higher social media use consistently scored lower on cognitive tests measuring oral reading skills, short-term memory and listening comprehension. While kids who used social media more scored lower across the board when compared to the no to low social media use group, the group of kids who used social media the most performed the worst out of all three groups. Those results are both alarming and a little bit hopeful. Keeping kids away from social media altogether isnt necessarily an option for most parents, but putting limits on the amount of time they spend could mitigate the negative impact of social apps. Previous literature has hypothesized that social media use replacing more educational activities or schoolwork may explain the association between social media use and lower cognitive performance, the authors wrote. The specific associations between increasing social media use and poorer performance on the [Oral Reading Recognition Test] and [Picture Vocabulary Test], which tests stored language knowledge, support this hypothesis. Because both groups of children who were spending more time on social media suffered from lower scores, the authors suggest that stricter age restrictions could offer one possible solution. They also pointed out the limitations of their research. While the study was able to analyze test results from a huge sample of children as they aged, future research could benefit from examining if different social media platforms affect childrens development in different ways.
Category:
E-Commerce
General Motors said on Tuesday it would take a $1.6 billion charge in the third quarter as it reshapes its electric vehicle strategy following the scrapping of a key federal incentive, a move likely to dampen demand. U.S. carmakers have delayed or canceled new EV models and battery plants and pared other investments, citing weaker-than-expected demand. The market faces further strain after the Trump administration removed a $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs, a key support for the industry. EV adoption rate to slow “Following recent U.S. Government policy changes, including the termination of certain consumer tax incentives for EV purchases and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, we expect the adoption rate of EVs to slow,” GM said in a filing on Tuesday. Shares of the Detroit, Michigan-based automaker were down 2.5% in premarket trading. The stock has been up about 4.5% this year. Some auto industry executives, including Ford CEO Jim Farley, have warned that EV sales will drop significantly in the absence of the tax credit. However, some, including the CEO of Hyundai Motor North America, have said that the EV market remains resilient. Both GM and crosstown rival Ford had launched a program that would have allowed dealers to offer a $7,500 tax credit on EV leases after the federal subsidy expired, before walking back on those plans. The changes will not affect GM’s current portfolio of its Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac EVs that are in production. The Detroit automaker warned of the possibility of further charges as a result of the reassessment of its capacity and manufacturing footprint, which it said was still ongoing. The charges comprise a $1.2 billion non-cash impairment related to EV capacity adjustments and $400 million for contract-cancellation fees and commercial settlements. The charges will be recorded as adjustments to the automakers non-GAAP results for the third quarter scheduled for early next week. Utkarsh Shetti, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Wind and solar power have been under attack during Donald Trumps second term as president. He has called renewable energy a joke, canceled wind and solar projects, and taken actions to prop up coal and other fossil fuels as a way to secure the countrys energy independence. But the U.S. will struggle to have enough energy without wind and solarespecially as the tech sectors growing use of AI demands more poweraccording to Chuka Umunna, JPMorgan Chase & Cos global head of sustainable solutions, who spoke with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. The comments came as JPMorgan announced an initiative to invest $1.5 trillion toward security and resilience that includes investments for solar, battery storage, nuclear, and efforts to modernize the energy grid. The Trump administration has expressed support for expanding geothermal as well as nuclear energy. But Umunna said those wont be enough to help the country meet its energy demands, and succeed when it comes to AIwe will still need wind and solar as well. Its difficult to conceive of a situation in which they wont need to tap into those sources of energy, he said. We need more energy from all sources. Nuclear in particular takes years to come on stream, Umunna noted. Projects take an average of seven years, though the U.S. Government Accountability Office says nuclear power plants take 10 to 12 years to plan, license, and build. It can also take up to seven years to build new gas-fired turbines. Wind and solar, in contrast, are among the fastest (and cheapest) new sources of energy to build, with many projects taking just 12 to 18 months. Trump has also pushed his fossil fuel energy agenda as a way for the country to solve its energy emergency and achieve energy independence. But according to Umunna, renewables will actually help the country be more self-sufficient. The debate about sustainability, and whether or not to deploy renewable energy, is no longer a binary, he said: It involves complex issues of geopolitics and [economic] competitiveness as well. When it comes to green economy stocks, which have seen strong recent gains, investors see an advantage not only from the sustainability angle, but also around sovereignty, the strategic autonomy thematic, he added. JPMorgan has identified 150 stocks that benefit from both. JPMorgans Security and Resiliency Initiative is a 10-year plan to finance industries it says are crucial to economic security. It will invest in four main buckets: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies (including AI and quantum computing).
Category:
E-Commerce
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