📡 The secret 💩life of an influencer
👋 Welcome to the last Pulse of September 2019!
Can you believe in just about 3 months, it’ll be 2020!? Is it me, or it’s just going faster and faster every day?
As I’m getting old(er), I’m starting to realise there’s always a lot more that I want to do; and one thing I’ve recently got really interested in is meditation… After listening to the story of Headspace on How I Built This, I thought I’d give it a try… and it was fantastic! Definitely recommended (both the HIBT episode and the Headspace app).
Happy meditating!
- Ben from [ perspective ix ]
📰 News
TikTok, the Chinese-owned beloved short video social network, instructs its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong, according to leaked documents detailing the site’s moderation guidelines. [Guardian] And it doesn’t end there. Apparently, pro-LGBT content is also banned on TikTok. [Guardian]
STOP VAPING! At least a dozen people have died of an acute lung condition related to vaping, and while officials aren’t ready to pin it on any one chemical or brand, they are warning that many of the patients reported buying THC cartridges from “informal sources” — which is to say off the street or online. [TechCrunch]
In his latest updates, Elon Musk claims that Starship should reach orbit within six months, and could even fly with a crew as soon as next year [Verge]
Facebook tries to end the popularity contest by hiding Likes again; pilot: Australia 🇦🇺 [TechCrunch]
Tesla starts rolling out their most significant software update ever with Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and more [Verge]
Instagram is reportedly testing dark mode, here’s what it looks like. [TNW]
🧠 Insights
The secret life of an influencer - Credit: Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
The secret 💩 life of an influencer
Scrolling down your Instagram feed, or the explore tab, there’s a good chance of encountering glamorous photos and or videos of beautiful beach holidays, luxury shopping and restaurants, breathtaking homes, and a lot more, by many “influencers” in different industries.
Before feeling envious, however, or feeling like your work and effort haven’t paid off; just remember that what you see on Instagram - and other social networks - is not the whole picture. At best, it’s a moment, carefully created to serve a purpose on the internet; the big picture might be VERY different!
Read the excerpt below from a story on the BBC about how a Chinese lifestyle influencer’s lifestyle was exposed by her landlord.
A social media influencer in China has been exposed for living a “double life”, after her landlord revealed her filthy living conditions, which contrasted with the glamorous image she presented online. Footage went viral showing the apartment of Lisa Li - a blogger with 1.1 million followers - littered with rubbish, mouldy food, and dog excrement.
Read more on BBC.
📊 Statistics
Top Grossing Health & Fitness Apps Worldwide - Credit: SensorTower
Top Grossing Health & Fitness Apps Worldwide for August 2019
The top grossing Health & Fitness category app worldwide for August 2019 was Calm with close to $6.9 million in user spending, which represented 17 percent growth from August 2018. Approximately 56 percent of Calm’s revenue was from the United States, followed by 10 percent from Great Britain and 6 percent from Canada. The full ranking of the top grossing Health & Fitness category apps for August 2019 is above.
Read more on SensorTower.
Social Media Traffic to Online Media Sites - Credit: MarketingCharts
Which Social Media Platform Generates the Most Return Visitors to Online Media Sites?
Changes to Facebook’s algorithms have not endeared the social media platform in the eyes of publishers, with many experiencing a decrease in referral traffic from the platform after the changes that occurred in 2018. However, per recent research from Parse.ly, Facebook still remains the top social platform for referral traffic by a wide margin.
Parse.ly looked at referral data from its network during the first six months (January – July) of 2019. During that time, Facebook had an average of 924 million referrals per month. To put this into perspective, the social media platform with the next largest number of referrals per month was Twitter, which averaged 97 million per month during the period of analysis.
The other top social media platforms like Pinterest (25 million), Instagram (17 million), LinkedIn (16 million) and YouTube (1.5 million) referred far less traffic to the network of publishers using Parse.ly.
Read more on MarketingCharts.
The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health - Credit: Statista
Mental Health: The Impact of Social Media on Young People
Is the end of the “like” coming? According to TechCrunch, based on the findings of researcher Jane Manchun Wong, Facebook is currently carrying out tests to reveal only a limited number of likes on a post. The social networking giant is currently conducting the same type of experiment in seven countries on its Instagram app.
What is the reason for this? To reduce the feeling of permanent competition and social pressure. As recent research has shown, this decision could be particularly beneficial for the mental health of young people. Based on the results of a survey of 1,479 people aged 14 to 24 years by the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health, the top 5 social networks have been ranked according to their impact on mental health.
It emerges that Instagram is the social media platform with the most negative effect on the psychological state of young people. On the other side, YouTube is considered to be the most positive network in this area and the only one in the research considered to have a ‘net positive’ influence. To establish this ranking, 14 factors were taken into account such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, self-image, harassment, and the opportunity to express oneself.
via Statista.
📱 Tools & Apps
AltStore: an alternative App Store for iOS that doesn’t need a jailbreak [macOS | Windows]
Glaze: Free illustration library for your products & presentations
Fresh Folk: An Illustration library of people and objects
🎧 Audio Stimulation
Hidden Brain - One Head, Two Brains
This episode of Hidden Brain is super fascinating. It searches for the answer to a deceptively simple question: why is the brain divided?
Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist explains why popular distinctions between the “left brain” and “right brain” aren’t supported by research; and he argues that one hemisphere has come to shape Western society — to our detriment.
🐦 Tweets of the Week
Elephants have their trunks; giraffes have their long necks – and human beings have their ability to do this...
(MRI of a person talking. Amazing!) https://t.co/rvudlcGFxG
When we watch TV, our TVs watch us back and track our habits. This practice has exploded recently since it hasn’t faced much public scrutiny. But in the last few days, not one but *three* papers have dropped that uncover the extent of tracking on TVs. Let me tell you about them.
🎮 Fun Stuff
Totally relatable!
by Derek Evernden (@bogartcreek) on Instagram
Wining the lottery mustn't interfere with your priorities - Credit: Reddit/u/slep4ever
Just found this screenshot of Uber from 2011 on my iPhone – 4 cars in all of NYC! (and no, that's not my address) https://t.co/jQ1thwM3fo
This is not goodbye...
This is a quick question: have you shared Pulse with anyone - ever?
Now, think about your answer and do the right thing. I’m sure you know how to do it.
Ciao!