Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Large companies like Disney and Uber have arbitration clauses in their Terms of Use.</li><li>Arbitration is when a neutral third party settles a dispute instead of a jury trial.</li></ul>Companies are using a simple strategy to avoid courtroom litigation when disaster strikes: the fine print.Terms and conditions have become a ubiquitous part of life for many people, from purchasing concert tickets to applying for a credit card. The legal agreement between businesses and their customers spells out both parties' responsibilities under a contractual relationship.That legal agreement can include an <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-plaintiffs-law-firms-bring-mass-arbitration-cases-class-actions-2021-11">arbitration clause</a> that removes a customer's right to sue a company when things go wrong — whether the customer knows it or not. Instead, they can be forced to use a neutral third party to settle a dispute instead of a jury at trial.In some cases, companies are using infinite arbitration clauses, which can extend to individuals beyond the original contractual parties, requiring all disputes to be settled out of the courtroom, and can be enforceable even after terminating a service."Infinite clauses stretch to the horizon and last forever. They are less a contractual provision and more a kind of arbitration servitude," David Horton, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, wrote in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.It's a near-century-old practice that some legal experts say should be modernized for the digital age.<h2 id="27cb7a2c-c011-4afd-9917-00dc1588da6c">The Disney case</h2>In the case of large companies, arbitration clauses included in one service can often apply to any service the company offers.This scenario gained attention earlier this year after a New York State man filed a <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-wrongful-death-lawsuit-theme-park-2024-8">wrongful-death lawsuit against Disney</a> and a restaurant operator who runs a pub at Disney Springs. Disney does not own the restaurant.Jeffrey Piccolo's lawsuit said his wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, died in October 2023 from a "severe acute allergic reaction" after dining at Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant, where they asked a staff member on "numerous occasions" if allergen-free options were available. The staff member assured them the restaurant did, but Tangsuan collapsed inside Planet Hollywood later that night and was transported to a local hospital, according to the complaint.A medical examiner's investigation determined she died due to "anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system."<div type="image" title="A photo of a sign on a water tower with the Disney Springs logo" height="1704" width="2560" msid="115384767" hostid="261" sizebytes="276990"></div>In response, Disney filed a motion to compel arbitration, arguing that Piccolo could not sue the company because he had agreed to its Terms of Use when signing up for a free Disney+ trial years earlier and again when purchasing tickets to its theme park. Disney quickly found itself in a <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-wrongful-death-lawsuit-legal-argument-pr-nightmare-2024-8">PR nightmare</a> as people online called the move "very dystopian" and urged users to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions in retaliation.After the criticism, Disney reversed course and dropped its motion to compel arbitration. The case is pending in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Orange County, Florida."At Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations. With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss," Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, said in a statement.Although Disney relented, Piccolo isn't the only one to get caught up in the fine print, and he likely won't be the last.Lawyers and legal experts who spoke to Business Insider said there is little consumers can do to avoid arbitration clauses in an era when signing contracts often happens with the tap of a finger."I think the only thing we can do is opt out of the internet," Joseph Cammarata, a partner at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata &amp; Siegel, P.C. in Washington DC, told Business Insider.<h2 id="7db68ead-3086-4a47-adf0-1c0cf75edcf6">Large companies use arbitration to avoid damaging their reputations in a public trial</h2><div type="image" title="Preview of John and Georgia McGinty alongside the crashed Uber vehicle." height="3264" width="2962" msid="115384769" hostid="261" sizebytes="435138"></div>Like Disney, Uber made headlines this year for a 2023 lawsuit filed by Georgia and John McGinty in the Superior Court of New Jersey.In a September court filing, the couple said they were riding in an Uber in March 2022 when the driver ran a red light and crashed into another vehicle. The court filing said Georgia sustained multiple injuries, including rib, cervical, and lumbar spine fractures. She also experienced damage to her abdominal wall, pelvic floor, and a protruding hernia.John sustained "severe" fractures to his left arm and wrist and a fractured sternum, according to the lawsuit.Uber responded by filing a motion to compel arbitration, which that court denied. However, Uber appealed, and New Jersey's appellate division sided with the company, which said the McGinty's could not have a courtroom trial because Georgia agreed to its Terms of Use in 2022 for an unrelated Uber Eats order. The couple pushed back, saying their underage daughter made that order and have filed an appeal."While the plaintiffs continue to tell the press that it was their daughter who ordered Uber Eats and accepted the Terms of Use, it's worth noting that in court they could only 'surmise' that that was the case but could not recall whether their daughter ordered food independently or if Georgia assisted," an Uber spokesperson said in a statement.<div type="image" title="Georgia McGinty, who was involved in an Uber car crash." height="3024" width="4032" msid="115384772" hostid="261" sizebytes="674730"></div>Stacey Lee, a professor of law and ethics at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told BI that consumers are increasingly running into arbitration clauses, but how businesses use them isn't necessarily new."It has always been the default for businesses to want to go to arbitration for a number of reasons," Lee said."You're not going to have a class action lawsuit, you're not going to have it plastered on top of the front page, there's limited discovery, and businesses have a little more control over who the arbitrators are," she said.Arbitration usually has three arbitrators selected from the Arbitration Association of America. They're often business professionals with experience in a specific field."Their knowledge of the customs and norms of the industry is very different than a judge's, and because they're on the business side, they have a tendency to agree more with the business interpretations of how things work," Lee said.Cammarata said companies know juries might be less sympathetic to their arguments."They want to limit public accountability and responsibility," he said. "A jury may listen and say, 'Uber, are you kidding me?'"However, arbitration isn't inherently anti-consumer or unfair to the average person. Compared to courtroom litigation, arbitration can cost less money and be a quicker process. People also can request an appeal in arbitration, but it's not the same as a courtroom trial, where they would have the right to do so.This private form of settling legal disputes arose with the Federal Arbitration Act in 1925, making it nearly 100 years old. John Carpenter, a partner at the California-based law firm Carpenter &amp; Zuckerman, said the arbitration clause is due for an update."The problem is we're applying a statute that goes back to 1925 to 2024," Carpenter said, "It's an entirely different world. The world we live in now wasn't even conceivable in 1925."Carpenter said that arbitration was generally used to determine one-on-one agreements, but now "it's being used digitally in terms of use agreements and essentially contracting away an entire branch of government with a click."<h2 id="dcbb6564-3ff6-4ae5-98ab-600c97fc4c6e">How consumers protect themselves from arbitration clauses</h2>Cammarata said one way consumers can navigate arbitration is to check if a company's terms of use has an opt-out clause. That, however, relies on consumers reading through the businesses' Terms of Use, which are often lengthy and written in legal jargon."First of all, they haven't read it, so they don't even know that they agreed to arbitration, let alone to opt out," he said.Lee said that while courts tend to be critical of arbitration clauses in employment agreements, they're less so regarding things like streaming services or rideshare apps."Increasingly, courts are like, 'You can read. You scroll through and click yes. It is now your responsibility," Lee said. "You can walk away from the service, and it doesn't affect your life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness."John said he believes courts need to reexamine the Federal Arbitration Act."It's going to require legislative action to take a look at this," he said.

How century-old arbitration laws are failing consumers in the digital age

With the rise of <keyword id="3680372" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="food-delivery-apps" source="Orion">food delivery apps</keyword> like Swiggy and Zomato, India's urban population has embraced the convenience of ordering meals with just a few taps and getting them home-delivered. This technological shift has redefined the relationship between Indians and their restaurant dining habits. But has it also influenced their <keyword id="19956891" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="food-choices" source="keywords">food choices</keyword> and <keyword id="21015159" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="spending-patterns" source="keywords">spending patterns</keyword>? A new study from the University of South Florida hints at the possibility, highlighting how <keyword id="22470551" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-ordering" source="keywords">digital ordering</keyword> platforms significantly shape <keyword id="20347870" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="consumer-behaviour" source="keywords">consumer behaviour</keyword>, often leading to more indulgent food choices and higher spending. The study—co-authored by Dipayan Biswas, the USF Frank Harvey endowed professor of marketing in the Muma College of Business—examines the cognitive effects of ordering from digital screens compared to traditional methods like printed menus. The findings were published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. “While digital ordering can enhance convenience and efficiency, many consumers will opt for unhealthier food choices and spend more. Our research highlights the importance of understanding the influence of <keyword id="408193" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-devices" source="Orion">digital devices</keyword> on our decision-making,” Biswas said. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Digital menus and the Google Effect" comment="subhead" text="Digital menus and the Google Effect">Digital menus and the <keyword id="22532162" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-Effect" source="keywords">Google Effect</keyword></cmsannotation> The research included six studies conducted in restaurants and two in a USF lab, where Biswas and his graduate students analysed the impact of digital versus physical menus. Notably, the digital menus included not just mobile apps, but also touchscreen kiosks and tabletop tablets available in some restaurants for self-service. They reviewed over 23,000 orders from various establishments, ranging from independent restaurants to a major global dining chain with 1,000 locations across 23 countries. Food items were categorised as unhealthy, neutral or healthy. Unhealthy items were defined by portion size and type, such as fried foods and desserts, while vegetables and fish were considered healthy. Neutral items included most soups, large salads and steaks under six ounces. ALSO SEE: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/food/webstories/from-bengalurus-meghana-to-delhis-gulati-here-are-indias-best-eateries-as-per-zomato/slidelist/111979326.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">From Bengaluru’s Meghana to Delhi’s Gulati, here are India's best eateries, as per Zomato</a> The study found that 61% of digital orders, including those for delivery, were unhealthy—over 3% higher than orders placed through traditional methods. It also revealed that digital menus have a stronger impact on dinner choices, as consumers are more likely to be tired and reliant on technology later in the day. Consequently, digital ordering has less influence during breakfast and lunch. “Digital ordering modes foster a more automatic decision-making process with lower cognitive involvement. This is because digital tools encourage people to rely less on their cognitive resources and more on automated processes,” Biswas explained. This phenomenon, known as the ‘Google Effect’, implies that the availability of digital tools alters how people store and retrieve information, and even put in less cognitive effort overall. This is evident in tasks such as storing contact numbers instead of remembering them or navigating using GPS. It is this reduced cognitive engagement and more automatic decision-making in digital contexts that can result in more indulgent outcomes, manifesting as unhealthy food orders and higher overall spending. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111782872" title="Will alcohol home delivery be a reality soon? Swiggy, Zomato, and Blinkit smell an opportunity" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Next, Biswas plans to continue investigating how digital versus non-digital ordering affects consumption volume and perceived taste of the ordered items. He also aims to explore how the presence of a human, such as during in-person or phone orders, might influence consumer decisions, as opposed to the perceived anonymity of online environments.

Tech temptations: People go for unhealthier food, spend higher when ordering on digital devices, study suggests

The long-promised <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/club-penguin-died-disney-and-money-destroyed-a-community-2020-1">digital apocalypse</a> has finally arrived, and it was heralded by a blog post.Published on July 18, the post's headline sounded pretty arcane. "Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available," it declared. I know, I know — not exactly an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-cybertruck-apocalypse-inequality-2023-12">attack of alien zombies</a> from the death dimension. But the news nevertheless freaked me out. It means another swath of the web is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-childhood-internet-gone-club-penguin-neopets-webkinz-nostalgia-2024-8">about to disappear</a>.Here's the gist: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-google-killed-google-reader-2013-6">Google used to have an online service</a> that generated pithy, user-friendly versions of long, commercially unwieldy uniform resource locators — the key addresses that identify everything on the web. Shorter URLs are easier to track and better for online commerce. Google stopped shortening addresses back in 2019, but the concise URLs it had already created kept right on doing their job. Click on one and it would take you to the right webpage, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-internet-works-infrastructure-photos-2018-5#in-the-most-basic-sense-the-internets-job-is-to-carry-information-from-point-a-to-point-b-1">the way it's supposed to</a>.No more. In the <a target="_blank" href="https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/">blog post</a>, Google announced that as of next year, all of the existing shortened URLs are getting turned off. Poof. And on the web, if your URL doesn't work, you might as well not exist. You are unreachable. Without laborious renaming, everything behind those links — billions of them, a decade of digital content — will become inaccessible. Gone. Ask not for whom the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-a-404-error">404 message</a> tolls.Now, rendering a bunch of web content invisible isn't the end of days. Not by itself. The problem is, this kind of thing keeps happening. And it's getting worse. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-dead-instagram-tiktok-bereal-replaced-group-chats-messaging-2023-8">Social networks</a> go bankrupt. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-most-trusted-news-source-online-comment-sections-google-2024-6">Digital journalism sites</a> close up shop. Companies pull their online products. Links rot. Files get not found. The cloud, as wags have noted, is really just "someone else's computers." And when clouds get turned off, not even the silver lining is left to tell the tale.Maybe none of this matters much right now. But it will. The internet has become the default archive of our history and culture. And the whole thing is burning down before our eyes, like the Library of Alexandria — only worse. For the first time since people started carving letters into rocks, we're making a time with no history. We're about to enter the Digital Dark Ages.Attempts to quantify the scope of the problem are heartbreaking. <a target="_blank" href="https://harvardlawreview.org/forum/vol-127/perma-scoping-and-addressing-the-problem-of-link-and-reference-rot-in-legal-citations/">Half of links in US Supreme Court decisions</a> no longer lead to the information being cited. A report in 2021 found that <a target="_blank" href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3833133">a full quarter of the more than 2.2 million hyperlinks</a> on The New York Times website were broken. Even worse, the Pew Research Center estimates that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/2024/05/17/when-online-content-disappears/">a quarter of everything put on the web</a> from 2013 to 2023 is inaccessible — meaning almost 40% of the web as it existed in 2013 is simply not there today, a decade later.The degradation of those links wouldn't panic me so much if they hadn't replaced what came before them — if museum storerooms and dusty library stacks still served as the warehouses of our collective memory. It's not that I miss the days of wrangling with old newspapers preserved on microfiche, or trying to sweet-talk a librarian into an international interlibrary loan. I'm glad lots of old movies are streaming and many out-of-print books are only a few clicks away. But archives and databases are more than places to keep old stuff; what we save defines who we are. Today, so much of everything is only digital that when it disappears, it leaves a hole in our shared culture.Gawker is gone. So is the archive of The Awl, the beloved culture-criticism site. You can go to a library and read the entire output of long-dead newspapers like the Los Angeles Herald Examiner or New York Newsday, but God help you if you want to read old Vice articles. Shenanigans over the ownership of what used to be Paramount have resulted in the deletion of decades' worth of shows on MTV and Comedy Central.The <a target="_blank" href="https://slate.com/technology/2024/08/david-zaslav-warner-bros-discovery-culture-deleting-movies-tv-shows.html">Cartoon Network archive</a> is gone. So are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/11/these-crusaders-want-preserve-human-culture-online-their-latest-target-yahoo-groups/">Yahoo Groups</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cinema.usc.edu/spectator/43.1/01_Rudenshiold.pdf">Yahoo Answers</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.engadget.com/imgur-to-ban-explicit-images-and-delete-uploads-not-tied-to-an-account-122537118.html">big chunks of the Imgur photo service</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/dear-tumblr-banning-adult-content-wont-make-your-site-better-it-will-harm-sex">spicy parts of Tumblr</a> that got zapped in a porn purge, everything that ever happened on Friendster and the other pre-Facebook social networks, Club Penguin, Neopets, Geocities, AOL, and Prodigy. Vast swaths of video games made for obsolete systems are unplayable memories.Hard drives have a finite lifespan, and the ones the <a target="_blank" href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/music-industrys-1990s-hard-drives-like-all-hdds-are-dying/">music industry used for storage</a> in the 1990s ahead of the transition to digital are crumbling. The Department of Veterans Affairs is legally required to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-cerner-health-larry-ellison-28-billion-deadly-gamble-veterans-2024-5">preserve all medical records</a> for 75 years after the death of a vet — but it's having problems, in part because of a balky digital records system. And that's not to mention things like personal photographs, most of which now exist only on your phone, and nowhere else. Every email you sent or received in your last job, or anything a deceased relative had on their now-unusable computer? These are the things that make us us. Yet <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/search-web-email-google-streaming-online-shopping-broken-2022-4">I dare you to find them</a>.There are always brave souls out there who try to rescue scrolls from a burning library. But it's hard to rescue something that exists only in the ether. "If a library burns down, it's a tragedy, but most of the books survive elsewhere," says Mark Graham, a leading internet archivist. "But the digital world is inherently fragile and potentially ephemeral."Graham is director of the Wayback Machine, a decades-old project that seeks to collect and save digital copies of web pages, for posterity. Gawker? Yeah, they got most of it. And that Pew study I mentioned, which showed that more than a third of the recent internet had vanished? "When we redid their study using their data, we found that about two-thirds of that material was safely stored on the Wayback Machine," Graham says. "So really only a ninth is gone." The Wayback Machine automatically archives more than a billion URLs every day. It also performs constant maintenance on the hundreds of millions of links across all 320 language editions of Wikipedia, which are atrophying at a rate of 10,000 URLs a day. Most recently, Graham worked on preserving 5,000 videos from a YouTube channel run by Rohingya activists, whose people were subjected to genocide in 2017. "They asked us to archive it because YouTube regularly deletes videos from their platform," Graham says. "They don't even leave metadata up, so you don't know what was deleted." He says he got all of the videos except one, which was age-restricted.Usually, the Wayback Machine's biggest obstacle is paywalls. Most of the articles in the world's scientific journals, for example, are widely available to anyone with a university affiliation. But the articles are prohibitively expensive for the rest of us — even if our tax dollars paid for the research they describe. An archive isn't really an archive if no one can afford the entry fee.But now there's a new threat to archiving our lives: artificial intelligence. When websites don't want to let AI slurp up their content, they block a certain kind of digital crawler-bot — the same species of critter the Wayback Machine uses. "That's happened almost overnight," Graham says. AI, with its insatiable hunger for training data, can't access the sites. But neither can the preservationists. In the wake of artificial intelligence, more intelligence is going to vanish.Let's be clear: This is about more than just losing a few <a target="_blank" href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/07/to-preserve-their-work-and-drafts-of-history-journalists-take-archiving-into-their-own-hands/">news articles</a> or clips from your favorite Adult Swim cartoon. What <a target="_blank" href="http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71216">an archive</a> is able to save, down to what formats fit in its file cabinets or data banks, literally determines what gets remembered. If you preserve, say, bank records from the 18th century but not sewing patterns, your annals are going to leave out a lot of people. Similarly, if your digital archive retains only the records of profitable businesses — because the ones that go bust wind up nuking their servers — you lose the memory of everything those deceased companies labored for. And what gets remembered about the past determines what we're able to do in the present. "Society is memory," says Marlene Manoff, who served as a senior collection strategist at MIT Libraries. "When you lose that memory, what does that mean?"Unreadable hard drives and vanishing links aren't the only threats to the historical record. Consider the selfie. Fifteen years ago, a researcher from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography named Loren McClenachan wanted to know whether commercial overfishing and environmental changes were making fish smaller. So she looked at five decades' worth of <a target="_blank" href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01152.x">pictures of winning sportfishing catches</a> off Key West, Florida. The fishing boat company that ran the competitions, it turned out, had kept all the physical photographs, most of which had the date handwritten on the back.Armed with those artifacts, McClenachan was able to show that over the prior half-century, the sizes of prize-winning catches had declined by more than 50%. None of that data would have been available if all the fishers had kept the records of their catches on their phones. Instead we'd be subject to what's known as "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.wired.com/story/subtle-weather-shifts-might-make-climate-change-hard-to-see/">shifting baseline syndrome</a>" — the common assumption that whatever's normal today was the norm in the past, too.As the internet vanishes and we store our lives on our devices, we're actively choosing to punch huge gaps in our historical record. It's self-inflicted cultural amnesia, made worse by the fact that most of the web is in the hands of large corporations that place little value on preservation. "Over the long term, you can't preserve a digital object in its original form," says Manoff, the former MIT librarian. "But in the case of corporate ownership, the likelihood of responsible long-term stewardship of digital content in any form becomes increasingly unlikely."The Dark Ages, as historians used to call the early centuries of medieval Europe, lasted for 500 years. Our digital version may never end. A postliterate society leaves exactly as much of a mark on the world as a preliterate one. Which is to say, not much of a mark at all.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/adam-rogers">Adam Rogers</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

We're about to enter the Digital Dark Ages

For a long time, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/reddit">Reddit</a> felt like it wasn't a place for everyone. Not that everyone couldn't be there — it's free to join, completely anonymous, and you can lurk without an account — but it was also a weird, sometimes dark little corner of the internet, probably closer to 4chan than Instagram. It was a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-new-content-policy-2015-7">bastion of free speech</a> but <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ceo-said-racism-is-okay-2018-4">one that could get ugly</a>, something that Reddit leadership <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-war-users-community-free-speech-ellen-pao-victoria-taylor-2015-7">struggled to define and defend</a>. The interface was tricky to navigate for those not in the know.Nowadays, Reddit is a different — and more mainstream — beast. It's spent the past several years <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/reddit-and-the-struggle-to-detoxify-the-internet">cleaning itself up</a>. It's banned controversial subreddits and made the platform a more pleasant, user-friendly place to be. As its cofounder and CEO Steve Huffman told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/reddit-and-the-struggle-to-detoxify-the-internet">The New Yorker in 2018</a>, the platform worked to get its "shit together."Moderators of individual subreddits — users that manage communities and enforce their content rules — still run much of the show but under a tighter set of policies. The moderators are pretty good at keeping their own houses in order, and in a landscape where AI spam is making it increasingly hard to figure out what's authentic information, Reddit's community-driven content and policing shine. Real, actual, live human beings are talking to each other, which, on balance, is good. This broadening of the platform has also been reflected in the business. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddits-ipo-set-to-take-front-page-of-internet-public-2024-3">Reddit went public</a> earlier this year at a $6.4 billion valuation, and last quarter, the 20-year-old company turned a profit for the first time in its history. Reddit lovers and noobs are flocking to the site, thanks in part to the Google gods. The search platform is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-reddit-is-taking-over-google-right-now-2024-4">prioritizing Reddit's results</a>. There's speculation that it has to do with the companies' $60 million <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1ax1nyh/reddit_has_struck_a_60_million_deal_with_google/">deal</a> to let Google use Reddit's data to train its AI, though both deny that's the case.Normal people — or, rather, people who aren't so steeped in online culture — are also seeking Reddit out. If you've recently found yourself inputting whatever search term and then tacking "reddit" onto the end of the search, you're not alone: On the company's most recent earnings call in October, Huffman said it's the sixth-most-Googled term in the United States this year."Those are people literally typing the word Reddit into Google," Huffman said. "So they know they're going to end up on it. They're using, in this case, Google to navigate Reddit."In other words, Reddit is a little bit <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-getting-worse-spam-affiliate-links-duckduckgo-bing-2024-1">the new Google</a>. And while people may not be heading in droves to Reddit to search directly, the hope is — at least on Reddit's end — that they someday will.It's not just Google. Other tech platforms' missteps have become some of Reddit's gains. As Twitter has become a worse, uglier forum for discourse, Reddit has emerged as an alternative for users and advertisers alike. People are increasingly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vox.com/technology/23962999/best-product-reviews-shopping-reddit">using Reddit to find reviews</a> instead of turning to places such as Amazon, where the review section is often flooded with fakes. It's also becoming a more trusted place for reliable information — even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/10/white-house-reddit-disinformation/680220/">the White House is using it to combat misinformation</a>.Basically, if you want to get honest opinions about a crockpot you're considering or get a sense of what recovery from a medical treatment might be like based on real-life experiences, Reddit is becoming the place to go for more people, including people who would have shied away just a few years ago.For those not paying close attention, Reddit's most recent earnings report was a bit of a "Wait, what?" moment. Its <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/reddit-stock-skyrockets-earnings-beat-ai-growth-revenue-huffman-2024-10">stock popped</a> after the company announced that its revenue had jumped by 68% and its daily active users increased by 47% compared to a year ago. Revenue from ads was up, as was cash from other areas — namely, Reddit licensing its data to train AI.Much of the boost in eyeballs appears to be coming from people who are relatively new to Reddit or who don't have accounts. Reddit's daily active users who are logged in to their account is up 27%, but that metric is up by 70% for people who are logged out. This is a bit of a risky proposition for Reddit — Wall Street and advertisers are more focused on that logged-in number because, <a target="_blank" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/reddit-traffic-google-search-growth.html">as John Herrman at New York Magazine points out</a>, the Google algorithm can always shift against you, shutting off the traffic spigot. But for the purposes of looking at what's going on with consumers, the story is pretty clear: Lots of people are landing on Reddit more often, many of whom are casual browsers."It has gone from kind of a fringy and kind of, 'I'm not sure about it,' to very mainstream, and it's showing up in the numbers," said Mark Lehmann, the CEO of Citizens JMP Securities, one of the banks to help take Reddit public. He added that given how quickly the platform has grown and "monetized things even faster than people thought, I think it shows you the power of the leverage of the brand and the legitimization."To be clear, Reddit is still pretty small compared to other social-media sites. As <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=e1355fc23cfc066980304c13aa726ac457ef26acf9ae7b17eddf693d740d7560&amp;postID=672a7cbbd057d3e5c5c4df84&amp;postSlug=reddit-mainstream-google-traffic-stock-revenue-human-users-2024-11&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theinformation.com%2Farticles%2Fwhy-reddits-explosive-growth-could-last">Anita Ramaswamy at the Information notes</a>, Snap has over 400 million daily users, and Meta has 3 billion across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, whereas Reddit has 97 million. Reddit's growing fast, though, and it's got a lot of room to grow. Marcel Hollerbach, the cofounder and chief innovation officer of Productsup, an e-commerce software company, compared Reddit's potential growth to that of Amazon."When you look at product searches, they tended to start primarily on Google, and nowadays Amazon actually has more product-search-related traffic than Google has," he said. "I would assume that, I mean, it's a matter of time until people figure out that probably if they're searching for a conversation around something or they want real user feedback and not just like a Wikipedia page or something, they might directly start engaging with Reddit."Reddit's recent ascendance was not a foregone conclusion. I won't dive into the site's full history, but let's just say it's had its fair share of controversies and upheavals, including over-greenlighting some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-bans-r-fatpeoplehate-the-community-furious-ellen-pao-2015-6">pretty gross subreddits</a>, being a home for<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-jennifer-lawrence-nude-photos-on-reddit-2014-9"> leaked nude celebrity photos</a>, and allowing a fair amount of racist, sexist, offensive, and even potentially illegal content to run rampant. It's also dealt with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-blackout-48-hour-what-you-need-to-know-2023-6">revolts</a> from users and moderators. Even if you're not aware of the specifics of the fuss around Reddit, for a lot of people, it just had a reputation as being off the beaten path. In many ways, that's a positive — it gave space for people to anonymously have real conversations and engage with niche communities they might not find anywhere else. But there were also, as mentioned, some downsides.Part of what's happened with Reddit is that it's grown up. In terms of moderation, it's not perfect, but no one can even agree on what perfect is. If it wants to keep growing — and be on the public markets — there's a level of maturity that is necessary. Scott Kessler, the global sector lead of technology, media, and telecommunications at Third Bridge Group, pointed to the takeoff of r/WallStreetBets and the subsequent attention to the subreddit, especially during <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wallstreetbets-gamestop-nathaniel-popper-book-excerpt-2024-6">the GameStop short squeeze</a>, as a recent touchpoint that helped push Reddit into the mainstream. As much as WSB was treated as fringe at the time, it became much less so, especially after the media caught on. Two more things have caught people's attention when it comes to possible growth and performance: AI and data licensing and machine translation into other languages. Reddit isn't just reaching more people in the US, it's reaching more people everywhere. Going public, for Reddit, has entailed becoming a more welcoming place for users as well as for investors, Kessler said. If you're hosting a subreddit where illegal activity's going on, it's very different to deal with it as a private company than a public one."If you're public and these things come out, I mean, that could start having an impact on your market cap. And so that obviously will make a whole host of stakeholders unhappy," he said. It's not dissimilar to PayPal clamping down on gambling transactions in the early 2000s.Not everyone is thrilled with the normie-zation of Reddit. Jessica Melton, a 33-year-old longtime Redditor in Seattle, told me that it took a while for her to get the hang of Reddit when her then "self-proclaimed nerd" boyfriend introduced her to it in high school. But then, she felt like it helped her become her own person. It's where she found tips for approaching her first gynecological appointment, how she discovered she had a relatively common skin-picking disorder, why she decided to go to therapy, and how she navigated being the first among her friends to become a mom. She likes that there's more moderation now because there were some "really disgusting subreddits," but she also misses some of the specificity and smallness of the old days."There's way more ads, more sponsored stuff, more influencers in general, too," she said. "I have noticed more brands posting and pretending not to be a brand, and it's really obvious for people who have been on Reddit for a while. And it's annoying."To some extent, it's impossible to keep it too weird while becoming mainstream, and there's some specialness that's inevitably lost with growth. What's been gained isn't all good, either. Many of the factors that have driven people away from other platforms, whether it be Amazon or Instagram or Google, are things to which Reddit isn't immune. AI bots can talk on Reddit. Brands can overrun it. Just as search engine optimization operations have gotten good at gaming Google, they can likely do it on Reddit, too.Perhaps right now, Reddit's in almost a sweet spot: not so big that it's completely ruined by corporatization, not so niche and unwieldy that it's a hellscape. It's part social media, part search engine, part just a place for real answers, or as close to real as you're going to get on the internet today.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/emily-stewart">Emily Stewart</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

How Reddit went from a weird corner of the web to everyone's favorite digital hangout

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump loved Twitter during his first term. Now he's aligned with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter">Twitter owner Elon Musk</a>.</li><li>Does that mean Twitter will be important in a second Trump administration?</li></ul>Donald Trump is going to be president again. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>, one of his biggest backers, owns Twitter.Does this mean Twitter is going to be more important in the Trump 2.0 era?Probably?But we won't know how Twitter, which Musk has renamed X, will matter for some time.It was interesting, for instance, to see the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/charlieknews/status/1855946437638451607?s=46&amp;t=xhuXMba3HM4poWm9CQq-PA">campaign for the next Senate majority leader play out on Twitter</a> over the weekend, with conservative leaders, including Tucker Carlson and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/charlieknews/status/1855946437638451607?s=46&amp;t=xhuXMba3HM4poWm9CQq-PA">Charlie Kirk</a>, weighing in on the platform, as well as Musk and Trump.That fight is still ongoing, by the way. Here was Kirk on Monday morning, trying to rally the troops in favor of US Sen. Rick Scott:And at a minimum, it seems obvious to conclude that as long as Musk is aligned with Trump, Twitter users will see a lot of content on Twitter that supports Trump. As both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have reported — and plenty of people can see with their own eyes — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-twitter-x-wsj-washington-post-2024-10">Twitter already has taken a rightward turn under Musk's ownership</a>. And, obviously, lots of people in Trump's orbit are also enthusiastic Twitter users, starting with Musk himself.But the big unknown I'm thinking about right now is a pretty simple one: Does Donald Trump know, or care, about what's happening on Twitter?Trump famously loved Twitter during his first term in office. But he wasn't addicted to it the way many of us are — constantly scrolling for things to enrage or delight or distract. Instead, he was using it like a remote control — to program the media's coverage, and reality itself.Here's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/05/20/trump_interview_immigration_reform_china_trade_iran_terror_tax_cuts_2020.html">Trump in 2019, talking to Fox News</a> about the way he used Twitter:But note who Trump was talking to in that interview: Fox News.Trump 1.0 was a president who understood that digital media was important. But he was first and foremost a president who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, and his media diet reflected that: print newspapers and magazines, which he would scrawl notes on using a Sharpie. And, above all else: TV.<h2 id="11ca4a22-42c5-4094-aa04-c65ca86fe04e">Trump was the TV president</h2><a target="_blank" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/donald-trump-americas-first-tv-president/521640/">Trump was transfixed by TV</a>, and that meant TV was the most important medium during his first presidency. If you wanted to communicate with the president, the conventional wisdom became, you did it by going on TV because you knew he'd see it there. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house">Fox News in particular</a>.That was four years ago, and since then, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comcast-split-cable-tv-cnbc-bravo-nbc-peacock-2024-10">the TV landscape has continued to bleed money and audience</a>. <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/election-night-television-viewers-nielsen-ae958da29e922bb47efa54d93548376c">Election night ratings last week were down 25% from 2020</a>. Newish mediums and platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-donald-trump-podcasts-joe-rogan2024-11">podcasts, YouTube and TikTok are ascendant</a>, and Trump and his campaign spent a lot of time and effort over there.So is it possible that Trump, who is approaching 80 and <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y.M.C.A._(song)">played songs from 1978</a> at his rallies, has changed his media diet, too?I mean, sure? I guess it's conceivable that he went on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@TheoVon">Theo Von's podcast/YouTube show</a> because he's a big Theo Von fan.My hunch, though, is that he's getting his information the way he always has — by watching and reading Old Media. And, as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/08/us/politics/trump-personnel-cabinet-candidates.html">The New York Times</a> reports, by asking whoever's in his orbit at the moment:"Mr. Trump, who is a mix of competing impulses, is also doing what he always does: calling around to friends and associates, asking them who they think he should pick."And to be clear, what's happening on Twitter — or anywhere else online — can very much influence how the people who influence Trump think. But even they pay attention to TV — or, at least TV clips on the internet.Musk, for instance, spent part of his Sunday using Twitter to criticize "Saturday Night Live" — just like Trump used to do. "They are so mad that <a target="_blank" class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21" href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> won," he <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1855649149166968922">wrote</a>, adding:I'm very wary of looking at Trump 2016-2020 and confidently projecting that the next four years will be the same. But I will be surprised if Donald Trump, TV guy, becomes Donald Trump, Twitter guy.

Is this going to be a Twitter presidency or a TV one?

<ul><li>The <keyword id="24185102" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Honda-Activa-e" source="keywords">Honda Activa e</keyword> and QC1 electric scooters have been unveiled in India.</li><li>The scooters will go on sale in 2025, with bookings set to open on January 1.</li><li>Here’s everything you need to know about the first electric scooters from the company in India.</li></ul> Honda Motorcycle &amp; Scooter India (HMSI) has introduced its first electric scooters, the Activa e: and QC1, marking the brand’s foray into India’s electric vehicle (EV) market. The launch event took place in Bengaluru, with bookings set to open on January 1, 2025, ahead of deliveries scheduled later in the year. The company has said that the prices for its electric scooters will be announced in January 2025. The company plans on establishing <keyword id="24185739" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="battery-swap-stations" source="keywords">battery swap stations</keyword> in major cities, emphasizing battery reuse and reducing range anxiety. The company has established 84 battery swap stations across Bengaluru as part of its infrastructure rollout, with plans to expand into major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai. Customers will get three free services during the first year and a standard warranty covering up to 50,000 km or three years. <h2>Honda Activa e specifications</h2>The Honda Activa e is identical to its popular ICE counterpart, offering the same body and frame. However, the design is completely different, offering a more modern look and feel. It features a TFT digital instrument cluster with Bluetooth connectivity. It features a swappable battery setup, with the scooter featuring two 1.5 kWh batteries. The scooter is claimed to offer a range of up to 102 km on a single charge with the two batteries. The scooter will offer three riding modes – Economy, Standard and Sport. It is powered by a wheel-side motor with a maximum output of 6 kW, providing a top speed of 80 kmph. <h2>Honda QC1 specifications</h2>The Honda QC1 will be a more affordable option, designed for shorter rides. The QC1 features a similar design while offering a smaller LCD display to keep the costs down. It is equipped with a fixed 1.5 kWh battery, offering a range of up to 80 km on a single charge. The scooter is equipped with an in-wheel motor which generates between 1.2 kW and 1.8 kW power. It comes equipped with a 5-inch LCD instrument panel, under-seat storage, and a USB Type-C socket for convenience. We should know more about the electric scooters from the company in the coming weeks. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/indias-pc-market-reaches-new-high-with-4-49-million-shipments-in-q3-2024/articleshow/115719599.cms">India’s PC market reaches new high with 4.49 million shipments in Q3 2024</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/realme-gt-7-pro-with-snapdragon-8-elite-chipset-launched-starting-at-59999/articleshow/115689685.cms">Realme GT 7 Pro with Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset launched starting at ₹59,999</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/jio-airtel-and-vi-lost-nearly-11-million-subscribers-in-september-2024/articleshow/115565541.cms">Jio, Airtel and Vi lost nearly 11 million subscribers in September 2024</a>

Honda Activa e and QC1 electric scooters unveiled in India, to go on sale in 2025

Yena Kim describes her Shiba Inu, Bodhi, as her "soul dog." She hadn't planned <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/couple-travels-works-with-dog-spends-double-budget-pet-2024-8">to get a dog</a>, but when she held him for the first time 15 years ago, she knew he was special. "I truly believe that we were meant to meet," Kim, now 37, says. "He was meant to be my muse and inspiration."Ten years ago, Kim was working what she calls her dream job at Ralph Lauren when she decided to quit so she could spend more time with Bodhi. "It killed me to see his sad face as I left home for work," she says, "so I designed a new job where I can spend all day with him."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/mensweardog/">Menswear Dog</a> was born. The social-media brand features Bodhi modeling menswear outfits that Kim makes. For a couple of years Kim built the account on nights and weekends while working a day job as a marketing consultant so that she could afford a place in Brooklyn with a yard for Bodhi and her other dog, Luc. She even went without health insurance for a while to make sure the dogs were taken care of. (The pups always had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cat-got-cancer-assessed-pet-insurance-2024-10">insurance</a>.) Now she earns enough from Menswear Dog to focus on it — and her dogs — full time."Bodhi and Luc have forged a path for me and with me," she says, adding that taking care of her dogs has given her an "immediate sense of purpose."She isn't the only millennial who feels this way about her pets. The generation is leading the way when it comes to pet ownership — <a target="_blank" href="https://americanpetproducts.org/industry-trends-and-stats">almost a third</a> of US pet owners are millennials. And they adore them: In an online survey of American pet owners in April, more than a third of millennial respondents said they'd turn down a higher-paying job to spend more time with their animal companions.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-workers-return-to-office-reason-pets-dogs-2022-11">rise in pet ownership</a> stands in stark contrast to another recent trend: the decline in parenthood. The percentages of US women between 30 and 39 in 2022 who had never had children were the highest they'd been since at least 1976. As more millennials <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/death-of-typical-american-nuclear-family-economic-crisis-marriage-divorce-2024-3">move away from traditional family structures</a>, adopting a pet has become a new milestone. As a result, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-of-dogs-and-childless-adults-shaping-real-estate-urban-amenities-2024-10">millennials are increasingly spending time and money pampering their animals</a>. A MarketWatch report said pet spending increased by 67% from 2013 to 2021, and businesses including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dogue-dog-food-cafe-san-francisco-luxury-tasting-menu-photos-2022-10">dog cafés</a> and luxury cat hotels have emerged to cater to the growing demand. But pet trainers and veterinarians say excessive pampering may be leading to health and behavioral problems.A recent study published in The Lancet predicted that by 2100, more than 97% of countries and territories will have fertility rates below the levels needed to sustain their populations. Meanwhile, the number of people with pets continues to climb. In China, whose population has been shrinking, the urban pet population is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-china-city-dwellers-rather-raise-pets-than-toddlers-2024-8">expected to surpass the country's number of toddlers by 2030</a>.Hayley Kellard lives in the UK and has never had much interest in having children. The 40-year-old says she's happy being child-free — but when it comes to dogs, it's a different story. Kellard's family has always gently mocked her obsessions, joking that she likes dogs more than people, but she says she doesn't care."I say I get 'proody' instead of 'broody,' because if I see a puppy I'll just sit on the floor and let it climb all over me," she said. "I just think dogs are less demanding, they're so much fun, they're so affectionate, and they mostly don't have tantrums."Before her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Paddy, died in May, Kellard's life revolved around him. When she suffered from anxiety and depression, he was the only thing that got her out of bed some days. In his later years, Paddy lived in her spare room, where he slept on a double bed. Kellard and her husband even stopped going on vacations abroad because Kellard didn't want to leave Paddy at home alone. Instead, they'd go to dog-friendly cottages within the country. "Even at home, we got to a point where we didn't leave him home alone," Kellard says. "So if we were eating out, we'd go somewhere dog-friendly and would always order him a doggy sausage or share some of our meal with him."It's a real adjustment finding my new sense of purpose now my life isn't revolving around Paddy," she adds. By the end of Paddy's life, Kellard says, she was spending an average of £200, or about $260, a month on him — sometimes up to £400.Across the board, more pet owners are splurging on their animals. In its annual surveys, the American Pet Products Association has found that pet owners have reported spending more on things like treats, food, toys, and clothing each year. In response, a host of boutique pet stores have popped up. In 2022, San Francisco welcomed Dogue, a "pawtisserie" serving minimally processed artisan treats like pastries and "dogguccinos." New York City is home to spots like District Dog, which makes pup-friendly birthday cakes, and Love Thy Beast, which sells custom dog apparel. Luxury pet hotels such as Chateau Poochie in Pompano Beach, Florida, cater to dogs and cats with high-end boarding services: Cats can relax in "three-tier deluxe condos" with virtual coral reefs and private powder rooms, while dogs enjoy gourmet meals, spa treatments, and round-the-clock care.Despite how much effort Kellard put into taking care of Paddy, she says she still prefers pets over children because they require much less responsibility. "You can go on holiday for a week and leave your dog with a friend or family member. You can go out for a nice meal and leave the dog at home," she says. "I generally just find dogs a lot more relaxing than children. Children seem to need a lot more attention than dogs do."While some millennial dog owners <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-parents-dinks-childfree-boomers-economy-outlook-population-growth-birthrate-2024-2">are forgoing having children</a>, others are using dogs as training for parenthood.Michael Wang, who lives in New York City with his wife, Adriene Wong, describes their corgi, Dash, as their "starter kid." For years while the couple, who are in their late 30s, were dating, Wang protested Wong's desire to get a dog. "I was scared of commitment and scared of responsibility," he said. But on the way back from their honeymoon in December 2018, Wong revealed that they'd be getting a dog in a month. "What are you going to do? Divorce me?" she asked him.When Wang saw Dash in January 2019, his heart melted. He says he realized he'd been focusing on the negatives, such as the extra cost and responsibility, while forgetting about the "extra joy" a dog would bring into their lives. They decided to get their second dog, Lili, last November, a few months before their baby was due.The couple say they learn things from their dogs "all the time" and have been able to apply some of these lessons to parenthood. Wong says Dash and Lili have taught them patience in particular. But she says that "there's a lot more that goes into raising a human being than a dog, for sure."For some, approaching dog ownership as a trial run for parenthood may be more harmful than helpful for the dogs, given that the skills required to raise them are drastically different."We are not their parents, they are wholly different species from humans, and there is a total language barrier," says Mark Van Wye, the CEO of Zoom Room, a chain of indoor dog-training gyms in the US. Treating a dog as a "fur baby" and failing to create boundaries, he tells me, can lead to them thinking they're entitled to things such as toys, food, or even a space on their owner's lap. "This can lead to aggressive behavior, especially if they feel their 'rights' are being threatened," he says. "It's like giving a kid all the candy they want and then wondering why they're bouncing off the walls." Dogs who are treated as children could also become stressed — or at least their owners are increasingly concerned about them being stressed. The American Pet Products Association found this year that the use of calming products, such as anxiety supplements, diffusers, and chews, had grown by 168% for dogs and by 174% for cats since 2018. Van Wye says that dogs that are constantly doted on or "treated like they're fragile" often struggle with anxiety when they're left at home. "They've grown so accustomed to being the center of attention that they don't know how to cope when that attention isn't there," he says, adding that this can lead to destructive behaviors like excessive barking and chewing up furniture.Dogs' physical health is also a growing concern. A 2022 survey from the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention found that 59% of dogs were considered overweight or obese, a 3-point increase from 2018. Sean Prichard, the head canine fitness coach at Pant &amp; Wag, a dog fitness company, says he has noticed more people coming to him with obese dogs. He says he believes the issue stems from owners feeding their dogs as if they were children rather than sticking to proper canine nutrition. "Instead of feeding the dog on a set schedule with a set amount, I have several clients who feed their dog whenever the dog 'asks' for food, and this includes giving the dog bites of human food," he says.Dog owners can't be blamed entirely for the changing behavior. Dr. Eliza O'Callaghan, a managing veterinarian for Small Door Vet's New York City locations, told me that the pandemic had "definitely left its mark on dog behavior." She's seen the biggest shift in young dogs that spent the first couple of years of their lives constantly surrounded by their owners. "Now, as people return to the office, many of these dogs are struggling with significant separation anxiety," she says.Wong says she and Wang are "very guilty" of treating their dogs as babies. "We tuck them into bed," she says. She says that when they got Dash, she wanted him to have the "best diet," so she looked up recipes to make for him at home and bought organic ingredients and expensive chicken from Whole Foods. Wong recalled one day when Wang came home, saw her cooking, and asked what was for dinner. "I looked at him and was like, 'Well, this is for Dash,'" she says.Eventually, she realized it was too much and started buying dog food."We love them. We want what's best for them," Wang says. "Do we go overboard? Yeah, maybe sometimes. And then we'll reel it back."When I ask Kim whether she thinks she's ever gone overboard pampering Bodhi, she says the thought had never occurred to her. "I know there are people that are critical of dog parents who do 'too much' for their dog," she says. "I would urge them to take this energy and direct it towards dog parents that do too little and neglect or abuse their dogs instead."Pouring energy into pets provides a sense of companionship and purpose that has traditionally been fulfilled by children — while avoiding the lifelong financial and emotional commitment kids require. But just like with children, it's possible to go too far. And no one wants to raise a spoiled brat, human or animal.<a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/aimee-pearcy">Aimee Pearcy</a> is a freelance journalist who writes about technology and digital culture.

Millennials are raising pets instead of kids. It's not going well for the pets.

We’re all familiar with that annoying classmate who felt an inexplicable sense of pride in demonstrating how freakishly far back they were able to stretch their fingers. Combine them with the <keyword id="23485045" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="eyelid-flippers" source="keywords">eyelid flippers</keyword>, and you wish there was an actual clown school this circus duo could’ve actually attended instead. Now, there’s a new breed of freaks in town — and beware: they’re the chronically online kind. This means that you could be casually scrolling through Instagram, giggling at memes, and suddenly, there it is — a video of a bent pinky finger that looks a bit like it’s trying to become a tiny <keyword id="23485044" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="phone-stand" source="keywords">phone stand</keyword>. This is the world of “Smartphone” or “iPhone pinky”, where <keyword id="19919711" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gen-Z" source="keywords">Gen Z</keyword> folk are flaunting their oddly shaped fingers like they’re the next fashion statement. If you haven’t seen this yet, consider yourself lucky — or, maybe just overdue for a good cringe. <h2>What on Earth is a <keyword id="21645389" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="smartphone-pinky" source="keywords">smartphone pinky</keyword>?</h2>"Smartphone pinky" is the bend or dent that appears in your little finger from cradling your phone for hours on end. As phones have grown in size and weight, many people (especially Gen Zers) have developed this phenomenon by balancing the bottom of their phones on their pinkies while using their thumbs to scroll through endless content. This minor alteration to their anatomy is making its rounds on <keyword id="19897919" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media" source="keywords">social media</keyword>, with <keyword id="19932634" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="TikTok" source="keywords">TikTok</keyword> and Instagram users proudly displaying their dented digits. <div type="twitter" handle="TechLiandr" handlename="TechLiandr" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" id="1537365818157064192"></div>Gen Z isn't just noticing this new finger feature; just like the eyelid flippers, some of them are actually celebrating it. TikTok videos of people showing off their pinkies have become so popular that you might even see duets where others compare their own "deformations." Some find it hilarious, while others look genuinely horrified that their tech habits have left a lasting mark (literally!). <h2>Should you be worried?</h2>Medical professionals, while amused by the trend, warn that the effects of smartphone pinky might not be as harmless as they seem. Conditions like trigger finger, <keyword id="22810267" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carpal-tunnel-syndrome" source="keywords">carpal tunnel syndrome</keyword>, and cubital tunnel syndrome can be aggravated by the way we hold our phones. These issues involve nerve compression and tendon stress that could worsen over time if not addressed. <div type="twitter" handle="anon_gladstone" handlename="anon_gladstone" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" id="1769106284396032118"></div>Is your finger about to fall off? Probably not. But ignoring the signs of discomfort could lead to more severe problems. Persistent pain, tingling, or a locked joint could mean you're on the way to developing a more serious condition, which might require medical treatment. <h2>How to avoid developing a smartphone pinky</h2>Here are some tips to keep your pinky pristine: <ul><li>Go Hands-Free: Try a hands-free setup or a phone stand whenever possible.</li><li>Switch It Up: Alternate hands to give your pinky some rest and a much-needed break.</li><li>Accessory Power: Use a pop socket or grip for better phone handling.</li></ul> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="87555067" title="People are sharing pictures of their dented &amp;#39;smartphone pinky&amp;#39; after holding their phones, so asked doctors what the deal is" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The rise of smartphone pinky is both a badge of tech addiction and a gentle reminder to be kinder to our bodies. Whether you proudly show off your indented pinky or decide to take a <keyword id="20016195" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-detox" source="keywords">digital detox</keyword>, one thing’s for sure — our phones are changing us in more ways than we expected.

Gen Z folk are showing off their deformed ‘smartphone pinkies’ — and the images are horrifying

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple">Apple</a> missed sales estimates in Greater China last quarter.</li><li>Greater China is a key market for Apple, with new AI features expected to roll out in April.</li></ul>It looks like it's going to be a while until Apple rebounds from its troubles in China.The tech giant missed analyst estimates for its sales in Greater China — a key region for Apple, particularly for iPhone sales — during its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stock-earnings-report-call-live-updates-2024-10">fiscal fourth quarter,</a> which it reported Thursday. Overall, Apple reported strong iPhone demand for this past quarter. It also rolled out its highly-anticipated <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-intelligence-finally-here-with-launch-of-ios-18-software-2024-10">Apple Intelligence</a> software in the US in English on Monday. Some analysts have said this could drive consumers to trade up to new iPhones — like the iPhone 16 models — that can support the technology, though it remains to be seen how much that'll happen in the current period.While consumers may be buying the newest iPhones in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-16-here-but-china-questions-remain-2024-9">Greater China,</a> they'll have to wait until April for Apple Intelligence to launch in Chinese, however.Meantime, Apple is facing competition from local smartphone makers like Huawei and Xiaomi in the country.Apple is reportedly in talks with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-considers-alliance-baidu-ai-report-2024-3">Chinese tech giants, like Baidu</a>, to bring their AI power to iPhones in a partnership not unlike the one it's struck with OpenAI. All GenAI models must be vetted and approved by regulators in China.Apple will also roll out more AI features around April, CEO Tim Cook said on Thursday's earnings call. So far, the company has introduced a limited number of functions. "Apple is prioritizing execution over speed — a strategy that could prove to be either prudent or potentially costly depending on how quickly competitors advance their AI capabilities," analyst Jacob Bourne at EMARKETER, a sister company to Business Insider, said.Wedbush Securities analysts, who have an "outperform" rating on the stock, said the China region "should now be on a pace to show high single-digit growth and potentially double-digit as the iPhone 16 cycle plays out in this core region and AI likely hits in April."However, competition is stiff, and Apple Intelligence still needs time to prove itself. It'll take months to know for certain if AI can move the needle for Apple in Greater China.

Apple's China headache isn't going away anytime soon

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The New York Times' tech workers went on strike, risking disrupting the Times during the election.</li><li>The Tech Guild is seeking remote work protections, pay equity, and limits on subcontracting.</li></ul>The New York Times' tech workers went on strike Monday morning, threatening to disrupt the publication's operation during the presidential election and its aftermath.The Tech Guild, which represents workers like software developers and data analysts, said members would be picketing outside the Times' New York City headquarters. It asked the public to honor its digital picket line by not using the NYT Cooking app or playing popular Times games like Wordle and Connections.The stoppage could split the vaunted news organization between the Tech Guild and other newsroom members, who worry about how the strike could impact the outlet's ability to handle a surge in election-related traffic — especially as the Times increasingly depends on its digital operation. Digital-only subscriptions became the Times' biggest revenue stream in 2020."Sometimes you have to put the public service mission ahead of your self interest, and this is one of those times," said one newsroom employee, speaking anonymously to discuss the strike freely.The Times Guild, which represents non-tech workers, called <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/nytimesguild/status/1848727940969742519?s=46&amp;t=rey_6ejrzAuWHuW1na5T7g">on Times management</a> to complete a deal by Election Day."Can you imagine if our election needle didn't work, the app didn't open or the homepage went down?" the Times Guild said.The Tech Guild said it was bargaining over issues including remote work protections, pay equity, limits on subcontracting, and just cause.Times management has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/threat-of-new-york-times-tech-worker-strike-on-election-day-grows-174b1912">countered</a> that it made a strong offer promising tech workers generous pay and benefits, including total compensation (salary, bonus, and restricted stock options) of $190,000, or $40,000 more on average than journalists in the Times Guild."We look forward to continuing to work with the Tech Guild to reach a fair contract that takes into account that they are already among the highest paid individual contributors in the Company and journalism is our top priority," a Times spokesperson said in a statement. "We're in one of the most consequential periods of coverage for our readers and have robust plans in place to ensure that we are able to fulfill our mission and serve our readers."The Tech Guild, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/business/media/new-york-times-tech-workers-form-a-union.html">formed in 2021,</a> has been negotiating with management since 2022. It's made up of 600 members including designers, software engineers, data analysts, and project managers. It's represented by the NewsGuild of New York, which also represents more than 1,400 newsroom and business employees via The New York Times Guild. The NewsGuild also represents Business Insider employees.The Times signaled it's preparing for a long fight: Times Co. chairman AG Sulzberger wrote in a note that he expects the strike to continue at least through the election.This is a developing story and will be updated.

New York Times tech workers are going on strike at the worst possible time

<ul class="summary-list"><li>I moved to <keyword id="19901403" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="New-York-City" source="keywords">New York City</keyword> with my daughter to help her jump-start her <keyword id="23284712" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Broadway-career" source="keywords">Broadway career</keyword>.</li><li>During that time, I've been planning my own dream to become a <keyword id="19988129" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="digital-nomad" source="keywords">digital nomad</keyword>. </li></ul>When <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kids-fluent-spanish-english-how-to-do-it-2024-6">my kids</a> were little, I read an article about a "location-independent" writer, cut it out, and taped it near my desk. It stayed there for years until it literally fell off because the tape dried up. Since then, I've dreamed of someday <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/traveling-full-time-not-worth-it-wouldnt-do-again-2024-4">traveling the world</a> while writing. I thought it would only be a fantasy because my husband wasn't interested in such a life. But that changed when we decided to get a divorce. I'm about to take my first step toward making that dream a reality: traveling to Portugal at the end of September because I've been accepted as an <keyword id="23284714" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="artist-in-residence" source="keywords">artist in residence</keyword> there for two months. But at 57, I worry that I waited too long. And leaving <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/life-skills-crash-course-child-survive-freshman-year-college-2024-1">my daughter</a> behind is harder than I could've imagined. <h2>My daughter and I moved to the New York City area together</h2>My younger daughter always dreamed about a theater career in New York City and swore that was the only place she'd ever want to pursue her dream. In 2022, I asked if she was interested in moving to New York together so I could help her jump-start her career. I figured it would be the last thing I did before finally becoming a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/digital-nomads-looking-for-love-dating-mistakes-to-avoid-2024-9" target="_blank">digital nomad</a> abroad. My daughter said yes, and we worked on moving together to those bright lights of the big city. Once there, my daughter jumped head-first into auditions, applications, and productions. Meanwhile, I dove into planning the rest of my life as a digital nomad. I envisioned my daughter receiving accolades on some <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/emmy-awards-best-dressed-celebrities-red-carpet-2024-9">red carpet</a> the night before I whisked myself off to parts unknown. Two years later, her dreams haven't become a reality, and she's still looking for her big break. When I realized my daughter still wasn't where she wanted her to be professionally, I considered staying longer in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-rat-czar-war-rodent-infestation-eric-adams-extermination-2024-9">New York</a> to help her out further. I also considered putting off my <keyword id="23284713" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="traveling-dreams" source="keywords">traveling dreams</keyword> even longer. But I have a sense of urgency to start my travels because I'm 57 with some <keyword id="21705283" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chronic-conditions" source="keywords">chronic conditions</keyword>. I already know I can't do all the traveling I envisioned myself doing because of my age. Because of my health, I will have to go slow and make careful choices. I can't waste any more time waiting for the right time to become a digital nomad. <h2>Despite her lack of success, I am leaving my daughter behind</h2>My daughter supported me in leaving New York. She got an apartment with friends in Brooklyn and has already started building her life without me. My biggest worry is that she or my <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eldest-daughter-syndrome-fathers-caretaker-sibling-birth-order-estrangement-2024-7">older daughter</a> will need me urgently, and I will be out there with no quick way of getting back here. Maybe my youngest daughter is going to fall, and I won't be there to pick her up. But I keep reminding myself that she's not truly alone; she has her friends and her <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-bought-more-expensive-dream-home-sometimes-wishes-still-rented-2024-9">big dreams</a>. Honestly, it's me who will be alone, and maybe that's what I'm most afraid of. During the two years we spent setting up our respective adventures, there were times it was critical for me to be there, and other times, I was anxious to be on my own way. Through it all, I was acutely aware of time slipping through my fingers and a need to capture every minute. Those moments are gone forever, but I hope she'll see our time together as an important step in her life someday. We stumbled along, and I'm sure she helped me as much as I helped her. And now we both get to conquer the world — geographically apart, but always together. Correction: September 23, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated when the author asked her daughter whether she was interested in moving to New York. It was 2022, not 2002.

You Searched For "Go Digit" and got 11 results

How century-old arbitration laws are failing consumers in the digital age

Lauren Edmonds

Tech temptations: People go for unhealthier food, spend higher when ordering on digital devices, study suggests

Kunal Kambli

We're about to enter the Digital Dark Ages

Adam Rogers

How Reddit went from a weird corner of the web to everyone's favorite digital hangout

Emily Stewart

Is this going to be a Twitter presidency or a TV one?

Peter Kafka

Honda Activa e and QC1 electric scooters unveiled in India, to go on sale in 2025

Sourabh Jain

Millennials are raising pets instead of kids. It's not going well for the pets.

Aimee Pearcy

Gen Z folk are showing off their deformed ‘smartphone pinkies’ — and the images are horrifying

Ankush Banerjee

Apple's China headache isn't going away anytime soon

Jordan Hart

New York Times tech workers are going on strike at the worst possible time

Lucia Moses

I'm 57 and finally following my dreams of traveling while my daughter struggles to launch her career. It's hard to leave her behind.

Jennifer Della'Zanna

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

You Searched For "Go Digit" and got 11 results

How century-old arbitration laws are failing consumers in the digital age

Lauren Edmonds

Tech temptations: People go for unhealthier food, spend higher when ordering on digital devices, study suggests

Kunal Kambli

We're about to enter the Digital Dark Ages

Adam Rogers

How Reddit went from a weird corner of the web to everyone's favorite digital hangout

Emily Stewart

Is this going to be a Twitter presidency or a TV one?

Peter Kafka

Honda Activa e and QC1 electric scooters unveiled in India, to go on sale in 2025

Sourabh Jain

Millennials are raising pets instead of kids. It's not going well for the pets.

Aimee Pearcy

Gen Z folk are showing off their deformed ‘smartphone pinkies’ — and the images are horrifying

Ankush Banerjee

Apple's China headache isn't going away anytime soon

Jordan Hart

New York Times tech workers are going on strike at the worst possible time

Lucia Moses

I'm 57 and finally following my dreams of traveling while my daughter struggles to launch her career. It's hard to leave her behind.

Jennifer Della&apos;Zanna

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

Jennifer Della'Zanna