What's on Your Mind?

If brands want to reach the shoppers of the future, they’ll need to meet them where they already are: playing video games. For this youngest generation, the coolest places to hang out aren’t the local mall or park but inside virtual worlds. While Millennials had Sega Mega Drives and Mario Kart, and Gen Z grew up on The Sims and Angry Birds, Gen Alpha — born between 2010 and 2024 and still under 17 — is coming of age in a world even more seamlessly integrated with technology. Gaming is no longer fringe culture; it’s where they socialize. Analysts at investment bank UBS recently found that while older generations still spend about two more hours per week on social p…

Hours before a federal law was set to take effect in January mandating that Chinese tech giant ByteDance sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, the social media app shut down. Though service was restored the next day, thousands of TikTok content creators were faced with the prospect of their source of income disappearing in an instant. The incident laid bare a common problem creators face: As social media algorithms change and platforms fold and emerge, creators need to find a way to grow their following and take it with them to different sites. That’s where LTK comes in. The 14-year-old company allows influencers to connect with brands, get commissions from products they…

Paris’s youngest neighborhood was built over the last two decades atop a former rail yard and a new station on the Paris Metro Line 14. Clichy-Batignolles, in the 17th arrondissement, is roughly split into thirds, with two developed areas hugging the massive, resplendent Martin Luther King Park. The quarter’s quiet, mostly car-free streets are fronted by stores, cafes, and schools. These businesses and institutions occupy the ground floors of apartment and office buildings designed in an astonishing array of shapes, materials and textures. Some structures are gently curved, others are sharply angular; some are covered in stucco, others in bamboo. Each unique building…

The discovery of a huge unexploded World War II-era bomb caused transportation chaos in Paris on Friday that included the suspension of high-speed rail links with London and Brussels and the closure of a vital road artery in the French capital, hobbling France’s busiest train station, dashing travelers’ weekend getaway plans and giving commuters a major headache. The cascade of transport woes spread from the rail to the road network, with Paris police announcing the closure of the A1 highway and sections of the capital’s always-busy ring road around the city, as bomb-disposal experts worked to make the half-ton explosive safe. Eurostar, operator of sleek high-speed trai…

Tesla’s market share in Europe continued to shrink in February as sales of the all-electric car maker dropped for a second month even as EV registrations overall on the continent grew. As competition grows and a slowdown in European economies hampers total car sales, Elon Musk’s battery-electric (BEV) brand has sold 42.6% fewer cars in Europe so far this year, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) showed on Tuesday. Tesla commanded 1.8% of the total market and 10.3% of the BEV market in February, down from 2.8% and 21.6% respectively last year. It sold fewer than 17,000 cars in the European Union, Britain, and European Free Trade A…

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock (NASDAQ: AMD) fell 9% before the bell on Wednesday after the company fell short on sales for its data centers, despite reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. (The stock is down 7% as of midday Wednesday.) That’s because the chipmaker’s core business is selling data center chips for graphics processing units used to power AI. It’s currently going head-to-head with Nvidia for market share of the lucrative, high-powered AI chip market. Shares in Nvidia (NVDA), meanwhile, were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced it will spend $75 billion in expected capital expenditure…

Imagine everyone around you sounds like they’re shouting underwater. That’s my world without hearing aids—a reality I’ve hidden since I was a kid. Words reach me as a cacophony of blended vowels, forcing me to piece together meaning from your lips, your expressions, your gestures. And a year ago, if you’d told me artificial intelligence would help me finally embrace this part of myself, I would’ve laughed in your face. Let me explain. In the days before social media could connect you to “others like you” with a single swipe, I was the only kid I knew who needed hearing aids. So at a young age, I made a decision to hide this at all costs. And I became an expert at i…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Tariffs, trade, imports, exports, prioritization, energy, and dominance are all words that have been flooding the headlines lately. In this world of globalization, it is an equilibrium of exchanges, ensuring we have enough of something but not too much. We see this balance come to life in supply and demand graphs of critical minerals, often in the context of batteries or energy dominance. …

A lot goes through our heads during company restructurings: Will I get laid off? Will my coworkers lose their jobs? What will happen to my workload if my team is affected? But in the wake of such events, if we don’t get laid off, we often ignore or dismiss the emotions that linger because we don’t feel we deserve to experience them. After all, we kept our jobs, we’re the lucky ones. Why should we complain or feel upset? However experts say that not addressing this so-called survivor’s guilt can negatively impact your confidence and productivity moving forward. “Those employees who remain, they feel either undeserving of being able to stay, or they feel respons…

Too often, we get stuck waiting—waiting for a boss, a higher-up, or even a partner to hand us the reins and tell us it’s our time to shine. But here’s the truth: empowerment isn’t something you’re given. It’s something you take. If things aren’t going your way, there’s no one else to blame—it’s up to you to make a move. If you’re tired of waiting for someone else to recognize your potential or tell you what to do next, here are three actionable steps to take control and empower yourself today: Stop Asking for Permission—Start Taking Initiative Empowerment begins when you stop waiting for someone to tell you what to do and start taking proactive steps toward wha…

In early 2024, Ben Collins was contemplating the future of the media business—and his place in it. He was in the process of resigning after spending six years as a senior reporter at NBC News, exhausted by the disinformation beat that took him to some of the darkest and most disturbing corners of the internet. It hadn’t helped that in December 2022 NBC News had suspended Collins from the Elon Musk beat following his highly critical coverage of the gazillionaire’s acquisition of Twitter. The media landscape looked bleak. Layoffs were decimating storied media titles like Sports Illustrated, and Collins was hearing rumors that G/O Media, the holding company owned by priv…

At least 112 North American bird species have lost more than half their populations in the past 50 years, according to a new report published Thursday. Among the birds showing the steepest declines are Allen’s hummingbirds, Florida scrub jays, golden-cheeked warblers, tricolored blackbirds and yellow-billed magpies. “These are the very real consequences if we are unable to conserve and protect the crucial habitats that birds need,” said study co-author Mike Brasher, a senior scientist at the nonprofit Ducks Unlimited. For several decades, waterfowl stood out as a conservation bright spot with duck populations growing nationwide even as many other groups of bir…

In 2034, Salt Lake City will join a short list of cities that have hosted a Winter Olympic Games twice, joining the likes of Turin and Innsbruck. But unlike in any Olympics of the past, skiers and bobsledders may glimpse a surreal sight overhead as they compete—flying air taxis. Though still nine years away from the Opening Ceremony, aviation company Beta Technologies sees the state of Utah as a proving ground for its electric planes. As competitors focus on major cities like New York and Los Angeles, Beta has inked a deal with Utah to start exploring transportation solutions across the very rural state. The Beehive State had a confluence of benefits for Beta, inc…

Online child abuse is a pernicious problem that’s rife in digital life. In 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received more than 36 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation—and a 300% increase in reports around online enticement of youngsters, including sextortion. And a new report by social media analysts Graphika highlights how such abuse is moving into a troubling new space: utilizing AI character chatbots to interact with AI personas representing sexualized minors and other harmful activities. The firm found more than 10,000 chatbots labelled as being useful for those looking to engage in sexualized roleplay with min…

The world is moving fast—so fast that many people feel like they can’t keep up. The beauty industry is meeting consumers where they are, slowing things down, looking to the past, and consulting nature for inspiration. Nostalgia and a desire to claw back more time, any time, were major drivers in beauty innovation over the past year. Arcaea worked with bioengineers to recreate the DNA of extinct flora from Borneo and extract its essence to create indulgent fragrances under the brand name Future Society. (The company also donates a portion of proceeds to stave off further extinctions on the island.) Delavie Sciences looked to the cosmos for a groundbreaking skincare produc…

When you think of an electrical outlet, the first thing that likely comes to mind is a simple, rectangular device mounted on the wall—purely functional, often hidden from sight. Architect and designer India Mahdavi has different ideas, though. Working with the high-end electrical brand 22 System, Mahdavi reimagined the outlet as a cheerful pop of color that’s reminiscent of a smiley face. [Photo: Thierry Depagne/22 System] Omer Arbel, co-founder of 22 System and design brand Bocci, asked Mahdavi to bring an unexpected element of joy to this everyday utility by creating a distinct colorway for the existing outlet face—transforming it from a discreet necessity i…

Now that the last pint of green beer has been poured, it’s time to move on to the next reason to celebrate March: college basketball. The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) annual single-elimination tournament, more commonly known as March Madness, kicked things off over the weekend with Selection Sunday. Here’s what you need to know heading into the First Four games and how to tune in. A very brief history of March Madness On the men’s side, the tournament dates back to 1939. Eight teams competed for the Division 1 Championship title, with Oregon taking home the inaugural trophy. The women got in on the action in 1982. Since then, the Tennessee…