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Teenage YouTube users across the world will now get automatic reminders to go to bed and take a break from their screens. YouTube announced this week it was expanding such reminders to minors across the globe, ensuring they are full-screen and toggled-on by default. The feature first debuted in the U.S. seven years ago, and went automatic for minors in 2023. So-called “bedtime” notifications have grown in popularity, buoyed in large part by YouTube and TikTok. But it’s unclear how effective the notifications are in the first place. After all, YouTube users only have to click to close out the banner; on TikTok, its even easier to keep swiping past the text. It will be effective for a small proportion of people, but the onus is still on the user to turn it off, says Jon-Patrick Allem, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at Rutgers School of Public Health. These are all cosmetic things that may work for some people, but arent really going to shift user behavior. The rise of stop scrolling signs YouTube first introduced their overuse warnings back in 2018. At first, it was a simple opt-in take a break notification. By 2020, YouTube revealed that theyd sent more than three billion warnings, and added a bedtime reminder to their suite. This is the same year that TikTok also premiered their screentime management ads, headed by popular creators like Alan Chikin Chow and Gabe Erwin. A few years later, parents amplified concerns about their childrens social media usage. More and more data flooded the web about a teen mental health crisis, with an uptick in depression and anxiety. YouTube responded in 2023 by making their take a break and bedtime reminders more prominent on the screen, and making them mandatory for all American users under 18. TikTok debuted their own sleep reminder and silenced push notifications for users under 18 after 10 p.m. Now, YouTubes changes are global. In a LinkedIn post, Pedro Pina, YouTubes head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, wrote that the program ensures teens time on the platform is well spent. (YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.) But these reminders are still just suggestions: Rutgers’s Allem says that users see them as recommendations for best options, advice that theyre unlikely to take. There is no consequence if an individual acts or doesn’t act on this prompt, he says. It would probably be just as easy as moving on from the post like anything else you werent interested in. The one second that you take determining this isnt interesting so you keep scrolling, would that really be impactful? What does it take for us to actually log off? Beyond some limited content moderation, these warnings are the furthest major social media companies have gone to protect teens from addiction and overuse. But, in the wake of Jonathan Haidts The Anxious Generation and 2024s great upheaval around internet mental health, every pundit has their own ideas for further steps. The Surgeon General recommended cigarette-style warning labels; the State of New York demanded companies tamp down on their recommendation algorithms for minors. Allem rattles off a list of changes that would be more effective at stopping social media overuse. They could mandate lock-outs for minors during nighttime hours. They could force users to pay for increased hours using their apps. Or, the apps could be redesigned all together. Theres no natural stopping point for platforms designed with infinite scroll online, Allem says. We could consider default settings that were programmed to limit use, rather than allowing for unlimited use. But none of these changers are likely to happen anytime soon. All of this can be done quite easily, Allem says. It isnt done because it will tap into and reduce growth and profit.
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E-Commerce
As a child, Sunita Sah says she learned to be good. Growing up in the U.K. in the 1980s as the daughter of Indian immigrants, she was praised for being obedient and studious at home and at school. But she also experienced racial slurs and hostile stares. Sah lived in a place that didnt always welcome differencesand her family was different. Sah had long considered her mother to be a compliant person. Quiet and deferential, her mom was the model of goodness. But one day that changed. When Sah was 7 years old, she and her mother were accosted in an alley by teenage boys, who shouted at them to Go back home. They were alone, vulnerable, and outnumbered. Thats when Sahs mother did something surprising. Rather than shrink under their threats, she stood up straight and confronted them. You think youre clever? she said to the boys. You think youre so strong. Big, tough boys, right? Then it was the boys turn to shrink. They took off, and Sah and her mother continued on. Sah would come to realize that defiance isnt a personality trait, she says. We can choose. Sah, a physician, psychologist, and professor at Cornell Universitys SC Johnson School of Business, has spent much of her career studying decision-making, including how and when we choose to defy. Defiance is not reducible to strength or weakness, courage or cowardice. It is not solely for the brave, the strong, or the extraordinary, she writes in her new book, Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes. We all have the capacity to be defiant. WHY DEFIANCE IS SO DIFFICULT Defiancethe decision to act according to your own values when youre pressured to do otherwisemay be a matter of choice, but its certainly not an easy one. Many people find themselves wanting to stand up for what they believe is right, but unable to access that defiance. Nearly all of us have been rewarded for compliant behavior, over and over again. We get good grades in school if we study; we get positive performance reviews at work if we support the companys goals. Compliance is so conditioned, that for many its an automatic response. So when its time to defy and act according to our own principles, it feels unnatural. Compliance can be a good thing, but there is a dangerous side, too, Sah says. We learn quickly that we can keep earning promotions if we go along with shady business practices, or avoid retribution if we look the other way when we see a colleague being harassed. 1. WE DONT KNOW HOW TO DEFY Even if we want to side with our own values over external pressure, we dont always know how. If you see a colleague misleading a client, whom do you tell, and what do you say? Will it be enough to gently nudge someone to investigate the problem, or should you confront the person yourself? If were accustomed to complying, its hard to picture what defiance looks like. 2. WE WORRY ABOUT INSULTING OTHERS Another barrier is what Sah calls “insinuation anxiety, or the fear that we may appear to insult or undermine someone if we question their decisions or behavior. Rather than speaking up, we say nothing to avoid looking insulting or insubordinate. 3. THE COST OF DEFIANCE IS SOMETIMES TOO GREAT For some, the cost of defiance is too risky. Speaking up at work can cost you your paycheck and your healthcare. Weve seen corporate whistleblowers fired, dragged through court, and blacklisted in their industries. When the risk of defying is too great, we sometimes have to defer our defiance to another day when the costs are manageable. LEARNING HOW TO DEFY Defiance is a choice, Sah writes in her new book. Defiance is also a process. Two decades of research have shown Sah that defiance and compliance are not binary, but rather exist on a spectrum . . . encompassing a gradation of understanding, questioning, and action. She believes her mother had likely encountered those boys several times, perhaps defying them in small ways before putting her foot down. The difference between someone who does defy and someone who doesnt is preparation, she explains. Surprise can force us into compliance. Defiance can be practiced in small ways. You can envision yourself in the situation and practice saying aloud what you hope you will be able to say in the moment. The first time we speak up, we might stumble, but with repetition our voice grows more confident, she says. Practice is good because the best time to decide whether to defy or comply is not in the heat of the moment, Sah writes. Pausing can give you time to calculate the risks of defiance and form a plan to respond. Remember: You dont have to defy every time. If youre caught off guard and are unable to respond as youd like to, prepare yourself for the next opportunity. Most acts of defiance are not historic moments, nor are they necessarily memorable ones. But those small moments of defiance can help us build the muscle we need when it matters most. The forces that lead to compliance are more complex than they might appear, but they are not insurmountable, Sah writes. We may not always know how to defy. But we can learn.
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E-Commerce
For anyone considering buying an EV this year, theres a looming question: Will the federal tax credits for clean vehicles still be around by the time you file your taxes in 2026? Harbinger Motors, a startup that makes electric delivery vehicles for commercial use, decided to help its customers with what it calls an IRA Risk-Free Guarantee (referring to the Inflation Reduction Act). If the tax credit is discontinued, the company will cover enough of the cost to make the EV the same price as the diesel equivalent. The tax credit is impactful, says Harbinger cofounder and CEO John Harris. We built the company around the belief that you have to sell these vehicles at the same price as diesel vehicles for them to make sense for most customers. And when you start to throw all this uncertainty at the customer around, Well, maybe the price is going to be $20,000 higher than you think it is, these customers dont have the margins to gamble like that. [Photo: Harbinger Motors] Harris believes that the odds of the credit disappearing are lowwhich is why the company is willing to take its own risk in offering the program. Theres a lot of noise coming from the White House about electric vehicles, he says. Its mostly focused on mandates . . . but there is no mandate in the IRA. What the IRA really looks like is massive federal support for automotive manufacturingwhich last time I checked is a priority for this administration. If there was a 60-40 split in Congress, maybe the IRA would get repealed. But consider that the House margin is three seats. There are a dozen or more elected representatives just from Michigan. What youre really talking about is, can you convince all the elected representatives from Michigan to vote out the auto industry? I just dont think theyre going to do that. Though the political odds may keep the incentive in place, it’s sort of scary for a lot of customers, and so we’re prepared to just take the uncertainty out of the equation for them, Harris says. It’s not the customer’s responsibility to employ a government relations firm and understand all of these political dynamics. [Photo: Harbinger Motors] Harbinger makes the chassis for delivery vehicles that are roughly the size of FedEx trucks; some preproduction vehicles are in use with its customers now, and around 1,500 are on track to be delivered later this year. One chassis has a list price of around $103,200 (in the standard way that this type of vehicle is built, another company completes the vehicle for additional money). The leading diesel competitor has a similar list price for its own chassis, but dealers usually give discounts, so the typical transaction is $90,000. To make the vehicle truly cost-competitive, Harbinger is offering a $12,900 discount that will help replace the tax credit if it disappears and bring the cost down to around $90,000. If the tax incentive stays in place, customers will make a second payment to cover that discount. But because the tax credit itself is even largerup to $40,000customers could ultimately get the vehicles for less than they would have paid for a diesel truck. (Operating an EV, and fueling with electricity instead of diesel, is also much cheaper.) Most commercial EVs are much more expensive up front; the price difference between an EV and a comparable diesel version is often more than the full tax credit, so manufacturers are unlikely to offer a similar program. Harbinger has competitive pricing in part because of its manufacturing process. At its factory in Orange County, California, it builds its own partsincluding battery packs and motorsrather than using a complex supply chain. And instead of dealing with multiple layers of suppliers, it buys materials like copper in bulk at commodity prices. The company also has little exposure to the tariffs newly imposed on Mexico, Canada, and China because it builds its own parts. Companies that sell passenger EVs may also be unlikely to offer to cover the cost of the tax credit if it’s revoked, both because automakers are struggling with uncertainty about tariffs and because the vehicles are sold at higher volumes. In many cases, however, those cars and trucks are already close in price to the gas equivalents.
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E-Commerce
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