#social-media

#social-media

The ESPN panelists on Friday's episode of "NFL Live" seemed to know in real time that they had made a mistake by uniformly picking the Texans against the Patriots in their prediction roundup prior to the divisional-round playoff game. So it was with a degree of predictability that the Patriots' team account was quick to troll ESPN following the 28-16 New England win over Houston at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

This week, our winning comment comes from @Roguelike, who was brave enough to declare that the term "hard launch" and, by association, "soft launch," is dumb. They commented on "After 3 Years Together, Timothée Chalamet Kind of Soft Launches Kylie Jenner on Instagram." I'm glad I'm finally an old, because the phrase "hard launch" is dumb, and while I know what it means, it's a dumb phrase that means nothing, and it's nothing words. Just like this entire comment.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Indiana defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler pulled out his phone and displayed a meme of Gilbert Huph, the aptly named, ever-scowling insurance boss of fictional superhero Bob Parr from "The Incredibles." But rather than a dark suit and tie, Huph is wearing an Indiana polo shirt and a headset. His arms hang at his sides, and one eyebrow is slightly raised as he glares ahead.

A French prosecutor Friday sought a one-year jail term for an Iranian woman accused of promoting "terrorism" online in a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens. Judgment in the case is expected on February 26. Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 39-year-old Iranian, was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting and inciting "terrorism" on social media.

Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda and Councilmember Jamelia Brown plan to bring forward a second censure resolution that would admonish Martinez after he reshared posts to his LinkedIn account that contained conspiracy theories about a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Australia's Bondi Beach. If approved, Martinez also would be required to undertake meaningful engagement with the city's Jewish community, including religious figures, and participate in at least 16 hours of antisemitism training.

Having had a fairly analogue childhood in the late '90s/early 2000s, the scope of my baby and childhood photos extends to the odd physical photo album and a couple embarrassing framed pics around my family home. The rapid digital revolution, particularly the arrival of social media, drastically changed media storage and the landscape of photo/video sharing.

In the past, researchers studying peoples' experiences with addiction relied mostly on clinical observations and self-reported surveys. But only about 5% of people diagnosed with a substance use disorder seek formal treatment. They are only a small sliver of the population who have a substance use disorder-and until recently, there has been no straightforward way to capture the experiences of the other 95%.

In case you didn't get the memo, everyone is feeling very Chinese these days. Across social media, people are proclaiming that "You met me at a very Chinese time of my life," while performing stereotypically Chinese-coded activities like eating dim sum or wearing the viral Adidas Chinese jacket. The trend blew up so much in recent weeks that celebrities like comedian Jimmy O Yang and influencer Hasan Piker even got in on it. It has now evolved into variations like " Chinamaxxing" (acting increasingly more Chinese) and " u will turn Chinese tomorrow " (a kind of affirmation or blessing).

Haki McClain, a 43-year-old Oakland man who goes by DJ Fetish and DJ King Fetish, was charged with 69 felonies, including grand theft, petty theft with two priors, burglary, and evading police. A 101-page criminal complaint, filed on Jan. 6, accuses McClain of crimes ranging from January through mid-November of last year, including 43 thefts at Bath and Body Works stores and 15 at various Victoria's Secret outlets.

Spain's environment minister has written to prosecutors to warn of an alarming increase in hate speech and social media attacks directed against climate science communicators, meteorologists and researchers. In a letter sent to hate crimes prosecutors on Wednesday, Sara Aagesen said a number of recent reports examined by the ministry had detected a significant increase in the hostile language that climate experts are subjected to on digital platforms.

After a 'short and sweet' appearance on the reality show in 2022, Ronan Keating's Jack son has wracked up a decent social media following ahead of returning to series three of Love Island All Stars for his 'revenge tour' - here's what you need to know

In President Donald Trump's second term, everything is content. Videos of immigration raids are shared widely on X by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), conspiracy theories dictate policy, and prominent right-wing podcasters and influencers have occupied high-level government roles. The second Trump administration is, to put it bluntly, very online.

In a video posted on TikTok, Grace Bennett, co-founder of the Canadian online store Bonjibon, claimed that she received two letters with the Department of Defense seal in the upper left-hand corner ( renamed the Department of War by president Donald Trump in September last year) expressing annoyance at her taking orders for toys and sending them to a naval base in the Middle East.

Nobody who has ever met a teenager, or read the news, will be completely at ease with the role of social media in young lives. There are horrific effects, which have been well documented and inadequately addressed ever since the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing suicide and self-harm content online. Many platforms, even those that seem anodyne, are purpose-built to spur anxiety, self-doubt, self-harm, anything that delivers attention.

The general public has no idea how much coffee Mayor London Breed drank. For all we know, her predecessor Mayor Ed Lee started each morning by wading into a kiddie pool full of macchiato. That's because neither of these mayors had their staff post even a fraction of what Lurie's team has to social media. Lurie, on the other hand, is seemingly perusing all the cafes in the Yellow Pages, A to Z, and taking his Instagram followers with him.

The modern digital landscape is dominated by warring platforms and constantly changing monetization schemes, leaving the average consumer with a daily scroll permeated by ads, slop, and the same six viral videos that have been circulating for years. During the early days of 2026, users on X popularized a word that encompasses why social media can feel just so annoying these days. It's called vagueposting - and you'll be seeing a lot more of it this year.

While liverwurst and powdered milk are boomer foods that have fallen out of favor over the subsequent generations, cottage cheese is a beloved food of older people that's now a fixture in social media recipes. It's not hard to find videos on TikTok in which health enthusiasts and fitness junkies all proclaim that cottage cheese is the best choice for nutrient-rich diets.

A 22-year-old Wicklow man has capped off a whirlwind year by being crowned Male Barber of the Year at the Irish Barber Awards, marking a major milestone on a journey that began cutting his brother's hair during lockdown.

If you're on a platform where this is allowed, I just don't feel comfortable," he said. "I don't feel comfortable with the fact that there's people that are going to use my image, or your image, or somebody else's image, and artificially generate something around it and maybe make it into something that you shouldn't publish.

When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn't wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts - through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive. On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time.

You can't get to the land of cool without first climbing cringe mountain.- Erica Mallett, New York Times. As dangerous as Everest and as technically demanding as K2, no discussion of the world's most challenging peaks is complete without a mention of Cringe Mountain. But for those willing to undertake the rigorous climb, the rewards waiting at the summit are extraordinary.

He said it would not even be wise to share something like that with your spouse. Now she thinks less of you, and she always will. She's not going to be able to get that out of her head, Walsh said. She might pretend to be sympathetic, or maybe she won't even pretend. What do you want? She's gonna pat you on the head? He continued, She's going to think less of you, and the same goes for anyone you divulge this information to.

Ever wondered what your Instagram feed says about your inner animal? Or why you scroll through TikTok like a cautious deer while your friend posts boldly like a roaring lion? The way we use social media mirrors the same personality traits scientists have found in animals for decades. Just as personality traits like neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion have been studied in animals, these same traits shape how we present ourselves online.

With the proliferation of social media, the MMA community has become more adept at scrutinizing even the smallest details ahead of big fights. The latest example involves a screenshot of Justin Gaethje taken from a recent video blog where the UFC lightweight contender appears to have sores on his neck and lip. That image has led to rampant speculation that Gaethje might have developed a staph infection ahead of his interim lightweight title clash against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324.

Minutes after Donald Trump announced a large-scale strike against Venezuela early on Saturday morning, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. There were fake photos of Nicolas Maduro being escorted off a plane by US law enforcement agents, images of jubilant Venezuelans pouring into the streets of Caracas and videos of missiles raining down on the city all fake. The fabricated content intermixed with real videos and photos of US aircraft flying over the Venezuelan capital