80% of Australian adults support the social media ban

With Australia’s social media ban coming into force, a new survey from Monash University has found that almost four out of five Australian adults support the Australian government’s social media ban for children under 16.

The game blame

Long hours spend playing video games and scrolling social media have both been blamed for lowering the attention spans of young people, but research suggests social media has the most pernicious effect, underlining the value of Australia’s new ban on social media accounts for children.

If you can’t beat it, use it

Just as the internet drew advertising revenue away from print media, so AI summaries are depriving news organisations of the clicks they need to survive, forcing media firms to replace people with artificially generated slop content to survive themselves.

How big tech wrecked the internet

Cory Doctorow’s new book explains how a voracious handful of unscrupulous tech firms ruined the internet by baiting new users with free access to useful services, monetizing them on behalf of business customers, then extracting every penny of value for themselves by ruining the user experience.

The moral duty Australia’s media can no longer ignore

Australia faces a choice: allow our public square to be shaped by those who shout the loudest, or reaffirm that moral responsibility lies at the core of democratic communication and not every idea deserves a national stage.

Who will think of the children?

Just as Victorian norms sought to maintain a particular social order, the enforcement of age restrictions on access to social media platforms risk enforcing a narrow vision of what digital life should look like.

Alone together

The internet was supposed to make communication easier, bring knowledge to all, and strengthen democracy and connection. Instead, it has empowered authoritarians while splintering democratic countries into ever smaller and angrier splinter groups.

Another shot of smartphone

What makes our smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches so irresistible? It’s not just the apps. Hardware features such as face recognition, awareness sensors, and touchscreens play on the senses, tap into our emotions, and develop affective dependence.

Climbing out of the rabbit hole

New research challenges the idea of a ‘vicious cycle’ between psychological distress and conspiracy beliefs.

In pod we trust

While we shouldn’t blindly trust or dismiss any online platform, whether it’s a social media feed or a podcast, we must think critically about all the information we encounter in an age of misinformation and mindless AI slop.

Saving local news from extinction

Local newspapers are following many bird, insect and animal species into extinction across Australia, and the remaining outlets will have to adapt to a more hostile environment to survive.

Why don’t we trust the media?

Trust in public institutions and the media is in decline around the world, not least in Australia’s neighbour New Zealand.