What's on Your Mind?

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the United States finds itself in the midst of another public health crisis. This particular pandemic is a psychological one: widespread loneliness and isolation. About half of adults in the U.S. report feeling lonely—what former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has characterized as an epidemic. The increase in social isolation has extensive costs for “schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished,” he wrote in 2023. As a business school professor who studies intergenerational relationships, I believe that our workplaces hold untapped potential for alleviating …

(Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Friday that his xAI has acquired X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction for $45 billion, including $12 billion debt. “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said in a post on X, adding that the combined company would be valued at $80 billion. Neither X nor xAI immediately responded to a request for comment. The billionaire’s AI startup, which was launched in 2023, recently raised $6 billion from investors in a funding round that valued the company at $40 billion, sources told Reuters earlier…

Betty White is making her mark on the nation’s snail mail. The beloved actor of “The Golden Girls” fame was celebrated with a new U.S. Postal Service stamp at a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Los Angeles Zoo on Thursday. Fans that were crowded behind barricades cheered as a blue curtain dropped to reveal the stamp featuring a portrait of White against a violet-colored background with lighter shades of bubbly spots in a nod to her sparkling personality. She wears a blue polka-dot blouse and peeking out of her blond curls is an earring shaped like a pawprint. “When I was working on the stamp surrounding myself with Betty White videos and pictures, I felt lik…

There’s a reason Haliey Welch seemingly vanished from the internet overnight: she’s the focus of an upcoming documentary exploring her meteoric rise—and dramatic fall—from viral fame. The 22-year-old influencer will be the subject of an upcoming documentary from Emmy-winning production company Bungalow Media + Entertainment, according to Deadline. “The documentary will chronicle how Welch, a young woman from a small-town with no active social media presence, unknowingly created a viral moment that gave way into a global phenomenon,” per a press release shared with the outlet. The documentary will focus on Welch’s “unexpected rise to fame, the scrutiny that followe…

Meta wants to revive Facebook’s old-school appeal by introducing a new Friends Tab, which will focus solely on posts shared by a user’s friends and family. This Friends Tab will replace the section in the app that previously displayed friend requests and suggested friends. Instead, users in the United States and Canada will now see a scrolling feed featuring photos, videos, friend requests, birthday reminders, and text posts. “Over the years, Facebook evolved to meet changing needs and created best-in-class experiences across Groups, Video, Marketplace and more, but the magic of friends has fallen away,” the company wrote in an unattributed blog post. “We’ll be ad…

If you’ve bought the antihistamine medication Benadryl from Amazon in the past few years, you’ll want to make sure to carefully check its packaging to make sure it is not part of the recall that was posted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) this month. That’s because a select Benadryl product sold on the e-commerce giant’s website has a fault that could lead to the risk of a child being poisoned. Here’s what you need to know. Benadryl Liquid Elixir sold on Amazon.com is being recalled On March 20, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission posted a recall notice on its website for Benadryl Liquid Elixir imported by Arsell Inc. of Brooklyn, N…

One of China’s largest server makers, H3C, has flagged potential shortages of Nvidia’s H20 chip, the most advanced AI processor legally available domestically under U.S. export controls, in a client notice seen by Reuters. The potential supply crunch could create obstacles for China’s artificial intelligence ambitions at a time when its tech firms are aggressively expanding their investments in AI. “H20’s international supply chain faces significant uncertainties,” the company said in Tuesday’s notice, adding that current inventory was nearly depleted. Geopolitical tension that is roiling global trade and supply of key materials was responsible for the uncertainty…

As return-to-office policies take hold and fully flexible work arrangements decline, employees are re-adapting to in-person interactions. One of the biggest challenges? Giving and receiving constructive feedback. Unlike praise, constructive feedback highlights areas for improvement—a critical driver of individual and organizational success, yet one that many find difficult. Whether remote or in-person, various factors, like overestimating negative consequences or fearing relationship fallout, often make both giving and receiving feedback feel high stakes. While virtual feedback has its own challenges—limited nonverbal cues, potential misinterpretation, and techno…

A new pair of studies from MIT Media Lab and OpenAI found that those who use the chatbot most heavily also experience the most loneliness. The catch-22: it’s unclear whether this is caused by the chatbot itself or if lonely individuals are simply more likely to seek out emotional bonds. Researchers analyzed millions of interactions and found that only a small number of users rely on ChatGPT for emotional support—but those who do are among its heaviest users. The MIT study found that higher daily usage of ChatGPT “correlated with higher loneliness, dependence, and problematic use, and lower socialization.” Since loneliness is a tricky feeling to quantify, researchers s…