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Millennial wealth in the United States has nearly quadrupled since 2019, outpacing both Gen X and baby boomers, yet most millennials don’t consider themselves rich. Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996 (give or take a year or two), are now worth a staggering $15.95 trillion, about four times what they were worth just five years ago, according to data from the Federal Reserve as reported by CNBC. As of 2024, the average net worth of a millennial was a whopping $333,096, according to Empower, a financial services company. Its data shows millennials managed to grow their wealth more than any other generation in 2024, increasing their net worth by 13.7% (compared to 7.7% for all Americans), and increasing their 401Ks by 15.6% (nearly double that of the average American). However, as millennials face high costs of living, due in part to inflation and high interest rates, many say they feel less wealthy than they appear on paper, a phenomenon known as “phantom wealth.” That’s because much of their net worth is tied up in assets not readily available, like 401Ks, homes, and the stock market. That’s as there are three main areas of growth that are driving millennial wealth: real estate; stocks and mutual funds; and money they are either inheriting or getting as gifts from parents and family. In the past several years, home equity has emerged as the greatest driver of wealth accumulation, and many millennials who bought homes before or during the pandemic are seeing their value greatly increase. Millennials have also, on average, contributed more to their retirement funds, increasing the value of their holdings both in stocks and mutual funds. Finally, they are also benefiting from their parents’ generosity, receiving financial gifts and inheriting wealth to pay off high student loans, mortgages, car payments, and high child care costs, financial planner Sophia Bera Daigle told CNBC.
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E-Commerce
Isnt AI supposed to make things simpler? asks a student in a new Saturday Night Live sketch. Technically, the answer is yes. Artificial intelligence is often pitched as a future-forward omni-tool for removing friction from everyday tasks. Of course, the student in this sketch (SNL cast member Sarah Sherman) only asks her question after AI has made one such task even more complicated. And thats just one of the many glaring flaws with AI, as it exists in 2025, that the shows writers illustrate to perfectionpresumably without any help from Sora. The premise of the sketch finds a high school investing in a new AI program that turns textbooks into educational podcasts. Its a barely veiled allusion to Googles NotebookLM, a program that creates breezy, conversational summaries from dense documentsand which quickly went viral after debuting last October. Unlike in real life, the SNL version of the fake podcasts has a video component. What the sketch portrays accurately, however, is the way AI products often have questionable utility, overinflate whatever utility they do have, and come brimming with glitches. The hosts of the podcast strain to sound natural, repeat key phrases again and again, and ultimately leave the skeptical students with more questions than answers. According to Gavin Purcell, a (very much human) cohost of the AI-demystifying podcast AI for Humans, the product this sketch is based on actually does offer some benefits. NotebookLM can struggle with getting all its facts right and, over time, the voices get repetitive, but its an interesting use case of how AI can break down complicated topics and make them more digestible, Purcell says. Try throwing an extensive Wikipedia page into it and see what comes out. You might be surprised. In the sketch, though, the program uses full textbooks rather than the smaller documents NotebookLM was made to condense. (The length of the average podcast the real product churns out is five to 10 minutes.) Condensing a whole textbook into a podcast would create something closer to a breezy, conversational audiobook than a short podcast snippet. And its exactly this kind of redundancy that AI tech too often offers. One need only visit the most recent CES to see this redundancy in action. That event was overflowing with AI-assisted devices like Boschs new smart crib, which lets parents know when their baby has pooped overnightas opposed to the age-old technology that has historically done so: a screaming baby . . . not to mention Samsungs new, AI-powered washing machine, which not only alerts users when their laundry is done, but also lets them take phone calls through the machine, for some reason. Beyond satirizing AI products whose usefulness is dubious, the SNL sketch also taps into AI true believers’ tendency to get overhyped too early. Anything that is useful at all suddenly becomes revolutionary. A student might understandably use a fake podcast to briefly learn about a specific topic, as Notebook LM demonstrated, but that doesnt mean the program is going to disrupt learning as we know it, let alone destroy the podcast industry. “NotebookLM was one of these small, quirky AI products that I don’t think Google even thought would blow up as big as it did, Purcell says. And, unfortunately, as often happens when something AI-based explodes into the mainstream, you get a lot of “OMG, PODCASTING IS SO DEAD!!” posts from hardcore AI people. In the past few years, experts have claimed that AI products like ChatGPT may fully reshape the legal and medical industries, among others. But ChatGPT has not yet demonstrated anything like the immaculate reliability it would need to truly revolutionize either field. Instead, its exhibited enough fallibility to only underscore the inherent value of human judgment. In one infamous example, a lawyer used ChatGPT to help a client sue an airline, and the program ended up hallucinating at least six precedent cases that did not actually exist. As long as such mistakes can ever happen, the hype around AIs power to remake every field in society should be taken with a grain of salt. And at this still-early stage in AIs evolution, mistakes happen all the time. The most prominent bug in the SNL sketch is an AI classic: One of the podcasters is depicted with six fingers. Generating anatomically correct extremities is something AI has long struggled with, but glitches manifest in all sorts of ways. McDonald’s recently had to shut down its experiment with AI drive-thru, after a flurry of viral TikToks showed unwanted bacon on ice cream and other bugs, and Apple has reportedly paused AI news summaries on its new iPhones due to persistent glitches. Maybe one day, malfunctioning AI will become a rare exception, but for now, its much closer to the rule. The final turn in the SNL sketch reveals one problem with AI that humans, so far, have only scratched the surface ofits malevolent side. Do we eat? Do we exist? asks the AI podcaster played by Timothée Chalamet.
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E-Commerce
Allison Burk’s teenage daughter struggled with uncontrolled emotions, a shrinking attention span and a growing tendency to procrastinate. A family doctor suggested ADHD testing, which led to an unexpected discovery: The teen had ADHDand Burk did too. During her daughter’s evaluation, Burk thought, “Wait a minute. This sounds familiar,” she recalled. I was able to piece together that this might be something I was experiencing, said Burk, of Columbus, Ohio. She subsequently underwent her own testing and was diagnosed with ADHD at age 42. More adults are being diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Diagnoses have been rising for decades but seem to have accelerated in the past few years. A recent study suggested that more than 15 million U.S. adults roughly 1 in 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. The condition always starts in childhood, but about half of adults with it are diagnosed when they are 18 or older. Some doctors say the number of people coming in for evaluation is skyrocketing. Just in our clinic, requests for assessments have doubled in the last two years, said Justin Barterian, a psychologist based at Ohio State University. Here’s a look at the phenomenon, and how to know if you might have the condition. ADHD symptoms in adults ADHD makes it hard for people to pay attention and control impulsive behaviors. It can be inherited, and is often treated with drugs, behavioral therapy, or both. It’s like there’s an engine in you and you feel like it’s always running, and you can’t turn it off except with medication, said Judy Sandler, a 62-year-old Maine woman who was diagnosed in her 50s. ADHD has been called the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorder in U.S. children, with more than 7 million kids diagnosed. Historically, it was thought to mainly affect boys (perhaps because boys with ADHD were seen as more disruptive in school) and to be something that kids grew out of. But experts believe many people aren’t diagnosed as kids and live with symptoms into adulthood. Adults with the condition talk about having trouble focusing on tasks, juggling responsibilities, and planning and managing their time. Some talk about not putting things away, and straining personal relationships with their restlessness, mood swings and impulsiveness. Burk said she was grouped with talented and gifted students in grade school but didn’t complete college until her 30s because, when I was 19, I hitchhiked across the country on a whim and ended up a single mother in her early 20s. She now works in marketing and media relations for Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Diagnoses have been rising Diagnoses have been climbing in both kids and adults, and the recent government report found adult ADHD was more common than earlier estimates. We havent had (federal) adult ADHD data in a long time, said one of the studys authors, Angelika Claussen of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were indicators of the rise, she added. Increasing demand for ADHD medication led to widespread shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. A 2023 study showed the rise in prescriptions was particularly notable in adults especially women. ADHD diagnoses and prescriptions were increasing before the pandemic, due partly to a change in general diagnostic criteria in 2013 that broadened the definition of ADHD and reduced the number of symptoms a patient needed to have. But case counts really seemed to jump in 2020, when schools were closed and many adults were forced to work from home. Its very difficult to focus when you are home and you have kids, Claussen said. That may have exacerbated the symptoms for people whod had mild ADHD but were able to cope before the pandemic. How ADHD is diagnosed in adults The last few years have seen growing cultural acceptance and curiosity about the condition, fueled by a proliferation of I have ADHD social media videos and online medical start-up companies offering 5-minute diagnostic quizzes. Indeed, the long-held belief that ADHD was underdiagnosed in adults has given way to recent debates about whether it’s become overdiagnosed. Theres no blood test or brain scan for ADHD. Experts say it is diagnosed when symptoms are severe enough to cause ongoing problems in more than one area of life, and when those symptoms can be traced to pre-adolescent childhood. Ideally, a psychologist or psychiatrist diagnoses it by taking careful histories from patients and from people who know them, experts say. They also might ask patients to take tests designed to check their memory and ability to concentrate. Doctors also must rule out anxiety, depression and other conditions that can have similar symptoms. But getting an appointment with a mental health professional can take months, and intensive ADHD evaluations can cost thousands of dollars. Many patients turn to family doctors or even online diagnostic quizzes, some of them connected to telehealth companies that prescribe medications. There is wide variability in this country in how people diagnose, how strict they are, and who they diagnose, said Margaret Sibley, a University of Washington psychologist. The American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders is drafting a first national set of diagnosis and treatment guidelines for health professionals who treat adults, and expects to release them later this year. The goal is “to improve the accuracy of diagnoses in this country,” said Sibley, who is leading the work on the guidelines. Mike Stobbe, Associated Press The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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E-Commerce
Is it a coincidence that this year’s Super Bowl LIX logo turns out to have the exact same colors of the teams playing? Did the National Football League know the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles would be playing Super Bowl 59 on February 9 in New Orleans all along? Or are fans taking this conspiracy theory one step too far? That’s what some fans are claiming on social media: that the Super Bowl LIX logo, which was revealed in 2024 before last year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, is proof that the game is rigged because it’s red and green, the colors of the Chiefs and the Eagles (along with a mixture of some yellow and purple). Those fans’ theory, which is now making the rounds but is unconfirmed, speculates that the NFL picks the Super Bowl teams in advance to increase profits, or possibly, for political reasons. (Some right-wing conspiracy theorists have said Taylor Swift‘s relationship with boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Chiefs’s tight end, is a PR stunt meant to increase NFL viewership, and also that Swift was a liberal plant at Chiefs games to help President Joe Biden win the last election.) This is not the first time fans have made this claim about the Super Bowl logo. Ahead of last year’s AFC and NFC championship games, social media account @NFL_Memes wrote on X, “Anyone else notice this?” and showed a picture of the teams that played in past Super Bowl games, which matched the colors of the Super Bowl logos. But, as USA Today noted, the meme lost steam after last year’s teams broke the trend. https://twitter.com/NFL_Memes/status/1722101822410633666 This year’s big game will be played at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, with the Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Kendrick Lamar with a guest appearance by SZA. The game will air on Fox and stream live on Tubi, DirecTV, Fubo, or the Fox Sports app. Stay tuned! We’ll have more details closer to kickoff about how to watch.
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E-Commerce
Those searching for “cute winter boots” on TikTok at the moment might be a little confused. A recent movement of the same name has nothing to do with footwear. Its a code phrase being used to discuss resistance to President Trump and his immigration policies while skirting censorship or bans on the platform. Many users have posted videos talking about their “cute winter boots” but showing warnings or slides of information to their viewers at the same time. Some posts see users discuss details about protests or recent developments, using a notebook or pieces of paper. Meanwhile, the sound over the video is unrelated or uses trending audio in order to avoid videos being flagged. When TikTok users mention cute winter boots protecting people from “ice,” theyre referencing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Nearly 1,000 immigration arrests were carried out on Sunday as Trump’s promise of mass deportations began. ICE officials have since been directed by Trump officials to up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500. Coded language is commonplace on social media Cute winter boots is one example of algospeak, a system of coded language designed to bypass algorithmic filters and spread warnings and information about such deportations. Another example is the phrase “Senator, I’m Singaporean,” a quote from TikTok CEO Shou Chews response to Senator Tom Cotton during a congressional hearing, where Cottons question implied that Chew was a Chinese government agent. Now, TikTok users frequently leave this phrase in comment sections to subtly warn others about potentially sensitive or flagged content in the videos. The “cute winter boots” trend also exploits the platforms algorithm, which favors product-focused content, to maximize visibility. Creators often pair their videos with unrelated but highly searchable pop-culture keywords, such as “Taylor Swift” and Sabrina Carpenter, to further boost their reach. Some of these videos also link to TikTok Shop, but instead of boots, they offer educational items like Night by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust memoir, or gear useful for protests, such as protective equipment. For those actually on the hunt for cute winter boots, youre better off searching elsewhere at the moment.
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E-Commerce
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