Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said.
We stared down everybody who said it couldnt be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters, communications minister Anika Wells told reporters on Friday. Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back.
The figures, reported to Australias government by 10 social media platforms, were the first to show the scale of the landmark ban since it was enacted in December over fears about the effects of harmful online environments on young people. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures.
Officials said the figure was encouraging
Under Australian law, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Twitch face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33.2 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are exempt.
To verify age, platforms can either request copies of identification documents, use a third party to apply age estimation technology to an account holders face, or make inferences from data already available, such as how long an account has been held.
About 2.5 million Australians are aged between 8 and 15, said the countrys eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, and past estimates suggested 84% of 8- to 12-year-olds held social media accounts. It was not known how many accounts were held across the 10 platforms but Inman Grant said the figure of 4.7 million deactivated or restricted was encouraging.
Were preventing predatory social media companies from accessing our children, Inman Grant said.
The 10 biggest companies covered by the ban were compliant with it and had reported removal figures to Australia’s regulator on time, the commissioner said. She added that social media companies were expected to shift their efforts from enforcing the ban to preventing children from creating new accounts or otherwise circumventing the prohibition.
Meta removed 550,000 accounts
Australian officials didnt break the figures down by platform. But Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said this week that by the day after the ban came into effect it had removed nearly 550,000 accounts belonging to users understood to be under 16.
In the blog post divulging the figures, Meta criticized the ban and said smaller platforms where the ban doesn’t apply might not prioritize safety. The company also noted browsing platforms would still present content to children based on algorithms a concern that led to the ban’s enactment.
The law was widely popular among parents and child safety campaigners. Online privacy advocates and some groups representing teenagers opposed it, with the latter citing the support found in online spaces by vulnerable young people or those geographically isolated in Australias sprawling rural areas.
Some said they had managed to fool age assessing technologies or were helped by parents or older siblings to circumvent the ban.
Other countries might follow
Since Australia began debating the measures in 2024, other countries have considered following suit. Denmarks government is among them, saying in November that it had planned to implement a social media ban for children under 15.
The fact that in spite of some skepticism out there, its working and being replicated now around the world, is something that is a source of Australian pride, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday.
Opposition lawmakers have suggested that young people have circumvented the ban easily or are migrating to other apps that are less scrutinized than the largest platforms. Inman Grant said Friday that data seen by her office showed a spike in downloads of alternative apps when the ban was enacted but not a spike in usage.
There is no real long-term trends yet that we can say but were engaging, she said.
Meanwhile, she said, the regulator she heads planned to introduce world-leading AI companion and chatbot restrictions in March. She didnt disclose further details.
Charlotte Graham-McLay, Associated Press
Almost 1 million Frigidaire mini-fridges are being recalled because they pose the potential to catch fire, according to a notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) released on Thursday. The notice expands an earlier recall from 2024.
Canada-based Curtis International is recalling another 330,000 mini-fridges, on top of the 634,000 units it recalled back in July of 2024. The company has received at least six reports of the model EFMIS121 mini-fridges catching fire and resulting in property damage, per the CPSC notice.
The mini-fridges were sold exclusively at Target stores nationwide and online at Target.com from January 2020 through October 2023, for around $30.
What is the reason for the Frigidaire recall?
The mini-fridges internal electrical components can short-circuit and ignite the surrounding plastic housing, posing fire and burn hazards.
What are the product details?
This recall covers Curtis International six-can Frigidaire-brand mini-fridges, model EFMIS121, with limited serial numbers, in addition to certain mini-fridges with model numbers EFMIS129, EFMIS137, EFMIS149, and EFMIS175 that were previously recalled.
Frigidaire is printed on the front of the units. The model and serial numbers are on a label on the back of the mini-fridge.
This recall includes only the serial numbers identified below. The items were sold in the color red at Target stores.
Brand and product name: Frigidaire-brand mini-fridges, model EFMIS121 (plus EFMIS129, EFMIS137, EFMIS149, and EFMIS175 from a previous recall)
Units: About 330,000
Manufacturer: ShangYu North Electron Manufacture Co. Ltd. of China
Importer: Curtis International Ltd. of Canada
Manufactured in: China
Recall number: 26-199
Recall Date: January 15, 2026
What to do if you own one of the mini-fridges
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled mini-fridges and follow the instructions to register for a refund at recallrtr.com/minifridge.
Consumers should unplug and cut the power cord and write Recall using a permanent marker on the front door of the unit.
Consumers should dispose of the recalled mini-fridges in accordance with local and state regulations.
For a moment, Eric Adams was riding high.
Fresh off trips to Dubai and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the now jobless ex-mayor of New York City was back in Times Square on Monday to announce his first initiative as a private citizen: a new cryptocurrency coin that would also serve to beat back antisemitism and anti-Americanism.
Were about to change the game, he promised, without describing how, exactly, the digital asset would support those lofty ambitions. This thing is going to take off like crazy.
But after surging to a nearly $600 million valuation within minutes of its launch, the new coin, dubbed NYC Token, went into free fall, losing nearly 75% of its value by that evening. The drop came after an account linked to the token’s creation withdrew $2.5 million worth of coins, according to the crypto-analytics firm Bubblemaps.
Around $1.5 million was later returned, the firm said, though by then investor confidence had collapsed. To some cryptocurrency experts, the rollout had all the hallmarks of a rug pull. The scheme prevalent among celebrity-linked meme coins involves insiders hyping an asset then quickly dumping their stakes, saddling amateur investors with deep losses.
Others have suggested that Adams and his inexperienced team were themselves duped by savvier investors, who took advantage of a sloppy launch.
The debate has found Adams back in a mode of damage control that defined so much of his one-term mayoralty: denying misconduct, attacking the press and facing scrutiny about the competence of his inner circle of loyalists.
Through a former campaign spokesperson, Adams has released multiple statements in recent days clarifying that he had not profited off the token and had not moved investor funds, calling reports otherwise false and unsupported by evidence.
Like many newly launched digital assets, the NYC Token experienced market volatility, the spokesperson, Todd Shapiro, said Wednesday. Mr. Adams has consistently emphasized transparency, accountability, and responsible innovation.
A machine lawyer and an Israeli hotelier
Despite claims of transparency, Adams has so far declined to reveal his partners in the token.
But two people close to the project confirmed that Frank Carone, Adams’ former chief adviser and one-time lawyer for the Brooklyn Democratic Party, was closely involved in the launch. The two people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they had been asked not to disclose the identities of people involved in the token’s creation.
One of Carones former clients, Yosef Sefi Zvieli, a real estate investor linked to several Israeli hotels, was also part of its creation, Shapiro confirmed to The Associated Press.
Zvieli, whose involvement was first reported by Business Insider, previously owned a college dorm in Brooklyn, which drew complaints from students of filthy conditions and neglect. After defaulting on his mortgage, Zvieli hired Carone as his attorney and was able to turn the troubled property into a city-financed homeless shelter.
Their exact role in the token launch was not immediately clear, though at least part of Zvielis job involved reaching out to influencers ahead of the debut. Neither he nor Carone appeared to have direct experience in cryptocurrency. Messages left with the two men were not returned.
As questions around the launch swirled this week, Adams sought guidance from Brock Pierce, the billionaire crypto investor, and former Mighty Ducks child actor, whose private jet he sometimes used as mayor.
After looking into the project, Pierce said he was confident that no one has run off with anyones money.”
Though he described himself as Adams crypto adviser, Pierce said he was only made aware of the project after its launch. Had I been consulted, I wouldve put together a team of more qualified people who knew what theyre doing, he added.
Political-coin instability
Even within the largely unregulated world of meme coins, experts say projects promoted by politicians are especially prone to unsavory trading practices.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has faced fraud allegations for his own crypto promotion, which drew thousands of investors before swiftly collapsing. Coins launched by President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, also saw significant price fluctuations upon release.
The number of accounts that invested in NYC Token were far less than those ventures, totaling just over 4,000 as of Thursday, according to Nicolas Vaiman, the founder of Bubblemaps, which conducted an analysis of publicly available trade records.
Roughly 80% of those accounts had bought in during a 20-minute period before Adams had announced the coin but after it was made available for purchase, the analysis found. The window, Vaiman said, provided an advantage to insiders involved in the launch and other traders who pay close attention to new tokens.
Political coins are driven purely by attention, and the crypto community is aware that attention peaks right after the launch, Vaiman said. People know you don’t want to stick around, especially for such a vague prospect, like fighting anti-Americanism or antisemitism. What does it even mean? How are you going to achieve that in a token?
The website for the coin says a portion of the proceeds will be divided evenly among three causes: antisemitism and anti-Americanism awareness campaigns, crypto education for the citys youth and a scholarship initiative.
It does not detail which organizations will be supported, or what percentage of the proceeds will go toward charitable causes.
Uncertain fate
Adams has disputed that any money had been pulled by the token’s creators.
He has said the appearance of withdrawals were the result of adjustments made by the designated market maker, an entity that buys and sells orders of a new token to ensure traders can make purchases without major price shifts.
The market makers include FalconX, a well known digital asset broker. The company declined to respond to inquiries on the record.
As of Wednesday, a majority of accounts that invested in the coin had lost money, according to the Bubblemaps analysis. Fiften traders were down at least $100,000, while 10 had netted $100,000.
Pierce said he was still hoping the project could be salvaged, adding that the fate and outcome of this project will be determined in the coming days.
But some in the crypto world had their doubts.
It could be a legitimate project with just a really bad rollout,” said Benjamin Cowen, the founder of another crypto research analytics firm, Into the Cryptoverse. “But the way it was launched didnt instill a lot of confidence. Its hard to regain trust in the crypto community.
Jake Offenhartz, Associated Press
Rumors are circulating of potential strike action next month from CorePower Yoga instructors, who say they are paid less per hour than the cost of a single class drop-in fee.
CorePower Yoga has a cult following online, particularly for their Hot Sculpt classes, and currently has more than 200 locations across the US. But in the r/Corepower subreddit, a recent post urges members to pause or quit their membership to show support for instructors, who are fighting for fair wages and cleaner studios.
If you can stomach it to pause or quit your membership, it will benefit you as a consumer as well as the instructors who are paid on average $16/hour to teach and who are NOT paid for instruction preparation, playlist curation, and cue perfection, the post reads.
CPY instructors deserve better conditions and better pay to provide for you, the high-paying consumer. You deserve to get what you pay for. At ~$200/month, you deserve a pristine studio with well-compensated instructors.
The subreddit is now full of members questioning if their local studio is striking, or claiming theyve paused their membership in support of instructors.
While details of the strike action remain unclear, in a separate subreddit dedicated to CorePower Yoga teachers, a graphic posted last month claims the striking staff are demanding $30/hour compensation for CorePower instructors, $20/hour for cleaners, and studios to be deep cleaned a minimum of four times a year, suggesting they currently arent (alleged incidents of cockroaches, ringworm and black mold have also plagued the subreddit).
One CorePower member brought the conversation to TikTok, where the video quickly gained over 170,000 views in just two days.
Actually I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while, TikTok creator Carter Martin said in the clip. I go to CorePower. I’ve gone on and off for years. My best friend used to be an instructor, and I always thought it was insane that she got $20 to teach the yoga class.
She continued: You’re not just working the desk. You are literally teaching a specialized class based on specialized training that you’ve done and paid for through CorePower to be an instructor.
CorePower teachers are 200-hour certified or are certified through CorePower Yogas Intensive Yoga Sculpt program, according to the companys website. This training can run prospective teachers anywhere from $1,400 up to $4,000. Once qualified, instructors online have reported making anywhere from $15 to $20 an hour. (The company provided instructor pay details and rates in an interview with The Cut.)
Fast Company has reached out to CorePower Yoga for comment.
Meanwhile, to attend a class, drop-in rates run $40 in major cities like New York, while unlimited studio memberships are currently $259 per month.
This is something that we as instructors talk about all the time, another former instructor, Annie Williams, weighed in online. She goes on to detail how instructors are responsible for creating unique sequences for their classes, changed fortnightly, as well as the playlist. They are also required to arrive 30 minutes before class and stay 30 minutes after it finishes, she explained.
All of that work to get paid $20 to teach a class, Williams said in the video. It would just drive me insane when someone would come in and they had to pay $40 to take it. She added: I’m literally teaching 30 people.
For context, an instructor at a similarly buzzy fitness studio like Solidcore can reportedly make $100 per hour, when factoring in revenue share for a full class. Pay for class instructors at upscale gyms like Equinox, meanwhile, rumoredly starts from around $60-80 per class.
Some blame private equity for the studios decline. In April of 2019, CorePower Yoga was sold to private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners for an undisclosed sum. One month after that, over 1500 instructors joined a class action lawsuit alleging substantial underpayment of wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Later that year, CorePower Yoga agreed to pay $1,492,500 to settle allegations.
Price goes up, quality goes down, Martin concluded in her video. Another victim of private equity.
As protests in Iran intensify, satellite technology has become one of the only ways for people in the country to circumvent a total internet blackout and heavy restrictions on phone service. Now, as a number of people in the country turn to SpaceXthe company now providing free access to Starlinkthere are growing calls for Apple to get involved, too.
At least one member of Congress has now reached out to Apple urging the company to turn on satellite texting in Iran. The office of Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican from Georgia, confirmed to Fast Company that theyd been in touch with Apple about opening up satellite messagingwhich lets iPhone users send messages even when there is no wifi or cellular servicein the country, though they didnt say what response, if any, they might have received from the company. That outreach comes after, on Wednesday, Carter called on the company to do so publicly.
Apple, the leading phone brand in the world, must enable satellite messaging for Iran so they can message family and report atrocities being committed by the Iranian regime, said Carter in a social media post.
Some activists have called for Apple to turn on satellite-based messaging, a service that the company is quickly rolling out. One of these calls, which as of Thursday night racked up nearly half a million views on X, reads: During this nationwide blackout, the brutal killing of civilians has started in the past 24 hours. We urgently call on Apple to enable Satellite Messaging for users inside Iran, or confirm whether the service is already active and functioning without interference.
Communication is a lifeline. Lives depend on it, the person added.
It isnt immediately clear if this is something Apple can do, or what Apple might have already turned on in Iran. Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Globalstar, the satellite telecommunications company that supports Apples satellite-based texting service, did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Theyre expensive, but iPhones are used throughout Iran, and the government recently lifted restrictions on newer models. Still, Apples website says that the satellite-based texting feature is currently only available to people in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan, assuming theyre using an iPhone 14 or a newer model. Apple also offers another satellite-based service, called Emergency SOS, for texting emergency services, though, again, Iran isnt one of the countries where its available.
When asked about SpaceX and Starlink, a spokesperson for the State Department Fast Company on Wednesday, the administration is committed to helping to preserve and protect the free flow of information by the most effective means to the people of Iran in the face of the Iranian regimes brutal repression.
But the spokesperson did not address Fast Companys follow up questions about outreach to Apple, specifically. Neither did Florida Senator Rick Scott, who commended SpaceX for making Starlink available in Iran earlier this week.
I would welcome anything anything from any company, any government that can help people to send even one byte of data, Amir Rashidi, who focused on internet security and digital rights at the Miaan Group, which has been tracking the communications blackout in Iran, to Fast Company earlier this week.
A major fast food franchisee has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The franchisee, Sailormen Inc., operates 130 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen locations in Florida, and like the franchisees of other big-name fast food chains in recent years, has faced numerous economic headwinds. Heres what you need to know.
Whats happened?
On January 15, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen franchisee Sailormen Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Sailormen has been a Popeyes franchisee since the 1980s, and it currently operates 130 locations of the popular fried chicken chain.
The conditions leading to the companys bankruptcy filing centered on increased debt burdens, driven by several factors.
Those factors include, among others, the national impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on restaurant operations, consumer choice, high inflation, increased borrowing rates, and an increasingly limited qualified labor force, the company said in its filing.
As reported by Restaurant Business, in 2023, Sailormen parent company, Interfoods of America, had a deal to sell 16 Sailormen-owned locations to another company, but that deal fell through, leaving Sailormen liable for the lease payments on those stores, significantly contributing to the companys financial woes.
According to court documents, Sailormen Inc. owes around $130 million to various lenders, some of whom are suing the company.
How does this bankruptcy affect Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen?
Its important to note that the bankruptcy does not involve Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen or its owner, Restaurant Brands International (RBI). Sailormen Inc. is a separate legal entity from RBI and only franchises Popeyes stores.
However, the bankruptcy filing of a large franchisee is sure to worry other franchise owners about the health of the Popeyes brand.
To address those concerns, the president of Popeyes in the U.S. and Canada, Peter Perdue, reportedly sent out a note to relevant parties addressing the bankruptcy.
According to the note, which was obtained by Restaurant Business, Perdue told other franchisees that Sailormens bankruptcy announcement does not reflect the healthy unit economics that you are experiencing in your restaurants.
Of the four major fast food brands owned by RBIBurger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, and Firehouse Subs Popeyes ranks third in number of locations.
Burger King is by far the largest RBI chain, with nearly 20,000 locations, followed by Tim Hortons with around 6,000 locations. Popeyes has around 5,000 locations worldwide, and Firehouse Subs has fewer than 1,500.
In its most recent quarterly report, for the third quarter 2025, RBI reported net sales of $2.45 billion, an increase of 6.9%.
However, much of that gain came from sales increases at its Tim Hortons and Burger King stores, noted CNBC. During the quarter, Popeyes saw same-store sales decline 2.4%.
Fast Company reached out to Sailormen and RBI for comment.
Will Popeyes store close?
In Sailormen’s bankruptcy filings, it made no mention of the possibility of store closures, though no closures are by any means certain.
In the memo sent to franchise owners regarding Sailormens bankruptcy filing, Popeyes president Peter Perdue reportedly addressed possible closures.
While no one wants to find themselves in a process like this, we certainly believe that a large majority of their restaurants will continue to operate in the Popeyes system, he wrote.
Sailormen is by far the first major quick service restaurant (QSR) franchisee to seek Chapter 11 protection.
In recent years, a number of major fast food franchise owners have filed for bankruptcy. This includes the November 2023 bankruptcy filings for Wendys franchisee Starboard Group and Burger King franchisee Premier Kings.
And last April, another major Burger King franchisee, Consolidated Burger Holdings, also filed for Chapter 11.
Many of these franchisees have reported the same struggles as Sailormens, including foot traffic that never recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic as well as inflationary pressures.
Put down Wordle. New brain-exercise-for-the-day just dropped.
Can you read 900 words per minute? a viral post that has been doing the rounds on X, challenges. Try it.
If you made it to 600 words per minute, thats more than twice the speed of the average reader. If you made it to 900, congratulationsaccording to some back-of-the-napkin math, that makes you 278% faster than the national average (which is 238 words per minute).
By that same logic, it could take you around 40 seconds to read this 600ish word article. But should it?
As one X user pointed out, this is like brainrot for reading. Or as Jane Ollis, medical biochemist and founder at AI-powered neurotech company Sona, told Fast Company, Its the cognitive equivalent of watching Netflix on fast-forward.
The challenge uses a technique called rapid sequential visual presentation, or RSVP. The effect is bizarre, almost meditative, as your eyes passively absorb huge quantities of words at a rapid-fire pace. Eye movements shorten, the inner voice gets kicked out of the room, and the brain starts guessing what comes next, explains Ollis.
There’s another factor to consider when we read really fast. Its neural autocomplete, says Ollis. Very efficient. Not always accurate.
Research backs this up. Getting rid of sub-vocalizationsor hearing words in your mindmay increase reading speed, but has been shown to reduce comprehension of what is being read. And doing away with those extra eye movements, by placing words one on top of another rather than along a sentence (like in the X post), has also been found to have a similar effect on comprehension.
You know roughly what happened, but you wouldnt bet your reputation on the details. And neuroscience tells us that the good stuffinsight, memory, and learninghappens when the brain slows down enough to actually chew the information, explains Ollis. When people try to read at extreme speed, the brain doesnt suddenly get smarter. It gets lazier in a clever way.
For the deluge of text we consume on a daily basis (more than at any other time in history) this skill isnt unhelpful. From checking emails to scanning work documents to perusing social feeds, these are all effective use-cases for this kind of speed reading approach. (Its also a pretty fun challenge, to be honest.)
But the best way to read faster, without reducing comprehension, is simply to read more.
In a world obsessed with speed, Ollis says, attention might be the most rebellious skill we have.
When you think of tools for studying substance use and addiction, a social media site like Reddit, TikTok, or YouTube probably isnt the first thing that comes to mind. Yet the stories shared on social media platforms are offering unprecedented insights into the world of substance use.
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 disorderand until recently, there has been no straightforward way to capture the experiences of the other 95%.
Today, millions of people openly discuss their experiences with drugs online, creating a vast collection of raw narratives about drug use. As a doctoral student in information science with a background in public health, I use this material to better understand how people who use drugs describe their lives and make sense of their experiences, especially when it comes to stigma.
These online conversations are reshaping how researchers think about substance use, addiction, and recovery. Advances in artificial intelligence are helping make sense of these conversations at a scale that wasnt possible before.
The hidden population
The vast majority of people diagnosed with a substance use disorder address the issue informallyseeking support from their community, friends, or family, self-medicating or doing nothing at all. But some choose to post about their drug use in dedicated online communities, such as group forums, often with a level of candor that would be difficult to capture in clinical interviews.
Their social media posts offer a window into real-time, unscripted conversations about substance use. For example, Reddit, which is comprised of topical communities called subreddits, contains over 150 interconnected communities dedicated to various aspects of substance use.
In 2024, my colleagues and I analyzed how participants in drug-related forums on Reddit connect and interact. We found that they focused on the chemistry and pharmacology of substances, support for drug users, recreational experiences such as festivals and book clubs, recovery help, and harm reduction strategies. We then selected a few of the most active communities to develop a system for categorizing different types of personal disclosures by labeling 500 Reddit posts.
Policymakers and public health experts have expressed concerns that social media encourages risky drug use. Our work did not assess that issue, but it did support the notion that platforms such as Reddit and TikTok often serve as a lifeline for people seeking just-in-time support when they need it most.
When we used machine learning to analyze an additional 1,000 posts, we found that most users in the forums we focused on were seeking practical safety information. Posters often posed questions such as how much of a substance is safe to take, what interactions to avoid and how to recognize signs of trouble.
We observed that these forums function as informal harm reduction spaces. People share not just experiences but warnings, safety protocols and genuine care for each others well-being. When community members are lost to overdose, the responses reveal deep grief and renewed commitments to keeping others safe. This is the everyday reality of how people navigate substance use outside medical settingswith far more nuance and mutual support than critics might expect.
We also explored TikTok, analyzing more than 350 videos from substance-related communities. Recovery advocacy content was the most common, depicted in 33.9% of the videos we analyzed. Just 6.5% of the videos showed active drug use. On Reddit, we frequently saw people emphasizing safety and care.
Why AI is a game-changer
Platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube host millions of posts, videos, and comments, many filled with slang, sarcasm, regional language, or emotionally charged stories. Analyzing this content manually is time-consuming, inconsistent, and virtually impossible to do at scale.
Thats where AI comes in. Traditional machine learning approaches often rely on fixed word lists or keyword matching, which can miss important contextual cues. In contrast, newer modelsespecially large language models like OpenAIs GPT-5are capable of understanding nuance, tone, and even the underlying intent of a message. This makes them especially useful for studying complex issues like drug use or stigma, where people often communicate through implication, coded language, or emotional nuance rather than direct statements.
These models can identify patterns across thousands of posts and flag emerging trends. For example, researchers used them to detect shifts in how Canadians on X, the social media site formerly called Twitter, discussed cannabis as legalization approachedcapturing shifts in public attitudes that traditional surveys might have missed.
In another study, researchers found that monitoring Reddit discussions can help predict opioid-related overdose rates. Official government data, like that from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, typically lags by at least six months. But adding near-real-time Reddit data to forecasting models significantly improved their ability to predict overdose deathspotentially helping public health officials respond faster to emerging crises.
The role that stigma plays in substance use disorder is difficult to capture in traditional surveys and interviews.
Bringing stigma into focus
One of the most difficult aspects of substance use to studyand to addressis the stigma.
Its deeply personal, often invisible and shaped by a persons identity, relationships, and environment. Researchers have long recognized that stigma, especially when internalized, an erode self-worth, worsen mental health, and prevent people from seeking help. But its notoriously hard to capture using traditional research methods.
Most clinical studies rely on surveys or interviews conducted at regular intervals. While useful, these snapshots can miss how stigma unfolds in everyday life. Stigma scholars have emphasized that understanding its full impact requires paying attention to how people talk about themselves and their experiences over time.
On social media platforms, people often discuss stigma organically, in their own words and in the context of their lived experiences. They might describe being judged by a health care provider, express shame about their own substance use or reflect on how stigma shapes their relationships. Even when posts arent directly naming the experience as stigma, they still reveal how stigma is internalized, challenged or reinforced.
Using large language models, researchers can begin to track these patterns at scale, identifying linguistic signals like shame, guilt or expressions of hopelessness. In recent work, my colleagues and I showed that stigma expressed on Reddit aligns closely with long-standing stigma theorysuggesting that what people share on social media reflects recognizable stigma processes, not something fundamentally new or separate from what researchers have long studied.
That matters because stigma is one of the most significant barriers to treatment for people with substance use disorder. Understanding how people who use drugs talk about stigma, harm, recovery, and survival, in their own words, can complement surveys and clinical studies and help inform better public health responses.
By taking these everyday expressions seriously, researchers, clinicians and policymakers can begin to respond to substance use as it is actually lived messy, evolving and deeply human.
Layla Bouzoubaa is a doctoral student in information science at Drexel University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Big city or small town? Tourist trap or undiscovered sights? Following an itinerary or spontaneous exploring?
Travel has become a trend as generations raised on social media catch flights, not feelings. But Gen Z and millennials may also be redefining travelall in the search of a more authentic adventure.
Hidden-gem locations and no-stress getaways are top of the list for young travelers. Its a shift from the kinds of bucket-list destinations that have saturated Instagram and TikTok and fueled an overtourism crisis in recent years.
As traveler-favorite towns are combatting high influxes of visitors, some travelers are looking to new horizons.
Theyre also looking to AI to help plan trips. Rather than ask friends or scroll the social media feed, young travelers are turning to the technology for destination suggestions and deals.
Travel search engine company Kayak looked into the vacation trends of the future as younger generations jet set. Here are some of the top findings.
Hidden gems
The days of TikTok-planned itineraries may be waning, as posts with the #hiddengem hashtag increased by at least 50%.
Sixty-nine percent of Gen Z and 66% of millennials say they want to visit places theyve never seen before, according to Kayak’s 2026 WTF What the Future report.
Young travelers are searching for hidden gems (and the ability to claim they discovered them first). Influencers and travel gurus are quick to offer suggestions of their favorite underground vacation spots.
So where are young travelers headed? Check out some of the emerging destinations, as highlighted in Kayak’s report:
Cork, Ireland
Fez, Morocco
Sofia, Bulgaria
Praia, Cape Verde
Baku, Azerbaijan
Chongqing, China
Asunción, Paraguay
Barranquilla, Colombia
Halifax, Canada
Norfolk, VA
Slow travel
Beyond just looking for the next undiscovered dream vacation spot, younger travelers are increasingly looking for ways to actually unwind on holiday.
Where trips used to be about seeing every sight imaginable, TikTok creators are now promoting so-called slow travel. Sixty-six precent of travelers say relaxation and mental reset are their top priorities on a trip, according to Kayak’s report.
So what does slow travel entail? It might encapsulate a few trends: shorter trips, looser itineraries, and focusing on wellness.
Younger generations are certainly exercising their wanderlust, but theyre doing it at their speedand in a dream location they might be gatekeeping.
If a City is going to operate a multimodal transportation system, then it helps to understand the motivations of people who continue to choose personal cars for their short trips.
Bicycle advocates often talk about this in terms of bike trips not taken because of a lack of quality infrastructure. Survey after survey shows that many people opt out of cycling because of gaps in the bike lane network, busy intersections to cross, or other real or perceived pain points. And case study after case study shows that when cities create comfortable and convenient bike infrastructure, more people choose to ride bikes.
Theres a similar issue with public transportation that urbanists seem afraid to talk about: If people feel unsafe using the subway or local bus, theyll find another way to reach their destination.
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The feeling might come from witnessing violence on the subway, from knowing their city has decriminalized shoplifting, or from trying to explain to their kids why a person on the bus is yelling at strangers. If people dont feel safe and secure on public transit, theyre going to do what they can to opt out.
Safe systems
Theres no easy answer to this issue, but it doesnt help anyone to pretend like perceived safety is exaggerated. Or worse, to act like these fears are just part of some kind of suburban conspiracy against city living.
A safe systems approach to transportation involves enforcement, and that makes some urbanists and city planners uncomfortable post-2020. I get ityou dont want the boys in blue dragging someone into a squad car for not paying a $2 fare. But the average American is aware of stories much more disturbing than a teenager hopping a subway turnstile.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, transit system homicides increased 50% from 20202024 compared with the previous five-year period (20152019), along with an 80% rise in assaults. In August 2025, Iryna Zarutska was murdered while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ridership on the light rail and the local bus has been down since.
The thing is, a multimodal transportation system is much safer than one that prioritizes automobile trips at the expense of other modes. But most people dont know that because the news doesnt broadcast the 100+ people who lose their lives in preventable traffic crashes every single day.
Case study
In New York City, 2025 marked a turning point for subway safety. Governor Kathy Hochul announced that subway crime was on track to reach its lowest levels in 16 years (excluding the pandemic era). Accounting for surging ridership, the rate of major crimes per million riders fell to 30% lower than in 2021 and comparable to pre-pandemic lows. Felony assaults dropped sharply in the second half of the year (down 16% from 2024 overall).
MTA rider surveys showed perceived safety climbing dramaticallyfrom 57% of customers feeling safe in January 2025 to a record-high 71% by November 2025. This improved sense of security helped drive post-pandemic ridership records, with subway usage up nearly 8% for the year.
Safer than cars
Public transit remains far safer than the alternative most people default to: driving personal cars. Transit trips are about 10 times safer per passenger-mile than car trips, with far lower rates of traffic fatalities and injuries. Transit-oriented communities also see about one-fifth the per-capita crash risk overall, thanks to reduced vehicle miles traveled and safer speeds.
The sooner we talk openly about the real and perceived issues surrounding public transit, the better. The worst thing to do is downplay the topic out of fear that people might start sharing stories about perceived safety and crime.
Do you want more people to take the bus? Use the subway? Share rides with strangers? Then ask people who drive everywhere about transit trips not taken and take lots of notes.
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