ARTICLES
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OPINION | This Article is SO Cool! You Should Put it on a T-Shirt!
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, one of the most intriguing questions arises: Can humans truly distinguish between AI-generated text and that produced by human hands?
Tick-Tock, Goes TikTok’s Clock
Over 2 years after former US president Donald Trump first suggested banning TikTok from American devices, a bill to ban the popular social media app has been signed into law.
SATIRE | Things To Do Instead Of Doom-Scrolling
Doomscrolling may ignite an attraction to the Baylor Tutoring Center guy as he explains meiosis, but it will not help you get the grade you want in biology. Instead of wasting precious hours on TikTok, or worse, Reels, try doing these things to help satisfy those dopamine receptors!
Ontario School Boards Sue Social Media Companies for $4.5B
Five major Ontario School Boards have filed a $4.5 billion lawsuit against Snapchat, ByteDance and Meta, which collectively targets popular social media platforms TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, for allegedly “rewir[ing] the way children think, behave, and learn, leaving educators and schools to manage the fallout,” as stated in a press release.
OPINION | Child stars, Consumerism, and Cybersecurity: The World of Sephora 10-Year-Olds
A new term to describe a type of personality phenomenon was recently coined in the last year: a Sephora 10-year-old. A vaguely self-explanatory name, it is generally used to refer to female kids in the 7 to 12 year-old age range, identified by a couple of key factors — namely, an infatuation with specific cosmetic brands found within the Sephora chain that are generally popularized by social media.
Google Reaches a Deal for Canadian Online News Act
In June 2023, Bill C-18 — known as the Online News Act — was passed, requiring large companies to compensate media organizations if they wanted to continue showing news content on their platforms. In Nov. 2023, Google reached a deal with the Canadian government, agreeing to continue allowing Canadian news content on its platform and to pay $100 million per year to news publishers.
PROFILE | The “Face” Behind Faces of Vancouver
Over the past few months, anyone scrolling through Instagram or TikTok may have had the pleasure of finding an account called Faces of Vancouver. The account (known as @faces_of_vancouver on Instagram and @facesofvancouver on TikTok) is a video diary of Vancouver.
RIP Omegle: The Demise of the Online Chat Service
The online video chat service Omegle was shut down on Nov. 9. This followed the settlement of a 2021 lawsuit regarding the sexual abuse of minors on the platform, which was originally created in 2009 by then 18-year-old Leif K-Brooks.
Hamberites Debate on the new Snapchat Bitmoji
Snapchat‘s new Bitmoji style has sparked an ongoing debate among students, with many claiming that with each update, it worsens. In comparison to the 2018 avatar update, the new 3D avatar update in 2023 offers more realistic hair textures and facial qualities.
EDITORIAL | Bill C-18 is Strangling Canadian Journalism
As a reader of The Nest, you may have noticed that our Instagram account no longer shows any content. Nor, for that matter, does the account of any major Canadian news organization. This is because of legislation recently passed by Parliament.
Attention Spans Have Shortened with the Rise of Social Media
Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of “short-form” videos has increased explosively across social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Now, three years past their initial growth, experts are debating the effect of short-form videos on the attention spans of their biggest consumer: teenagers.
Andrew Tate’s Detention Extended in Romania
With his promotion of controversial ideas and extravagant lifestyles amassing billions of views and followers across various social media platforms, Andrew Tate’s popularity has skyrocketed within the last two years. However, the ‘Top G’ was arrested recently due to allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking, and has been sitting in a Romanian jail cell since the end of December 2022. Following a court proceeding in late February, Tate’s sentence has been extended for the third time, by another 30 days–until the 27th of March.
Review | Butterfingers: Viral-ish Foods, Gone Kind of Wrong
Over the last few years, TikTok and Instagram have churned out many different trends. There have been many butter-centric dishes spread over “For You” pages recently, so I tried some of them, so you don’t have to!
OPINION: The Rise of Instagram and Eating Disorders
Teenagers are no strangers to the positive and negative effects of social media. Instagram in particular has become a platform so integrated into the daily lives of adolescents, that often, its power goes unnoticed.
ANALYSIS: Singh For Me? A Look at the NDP Leader’s Use of TikTok
In the months leading up to September 2021’s federal election, Singh amassed nearly 850,000 followers and a cumulative 8.1 million likes on his official TikTok account, @thejagmeetsingh.