Kozminski Techblog

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Patrycja Piotrowska

10.01.2020

The pandemic has quickened the move towards a more computerized world and set off changes in the manner online media is utilized by individuals that are probably going to have enduring impacts.

Since the pandemic has started, most of the countries introduced lockdowns, closing down exercises that require human social gathering and interactions – including universities, schools, shopping centers, sanctuaries, workplaces, air terminals, and railroad stations and all of the entertainment places. The lockdown has brought about a great amount of people taking to the web and web based services to communicate, cooperate, and proceed with their work obligations from home. Internet providers have seen ascends in utilization from 40 % to 100 %, contrasted with pre-lockdown levels. Video-conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams have seen a ten times increment in utilization, and content conveyance platforms like Akamai have seen a 30 % expansion in substance use (Branscombe, 2020). Urban communities like Bangalore have seen a 100 % expansion in web traffic.

Distant socialising

In these long days of “separating” orders influencing about a portion of the total populace, online platforms are presently fundamental for everyday life. Physical distancing does not necessarily mean social separating since web-based media and video-chats services enable individuals to keep in touch with loved ones. 

In the previous years, many people were increasingly choosing smartphones, creating an industrywide center around mobile. Nowadays, most of the time we spend at home, with computers close nearby, people have all the earmarks of being recalling how unsavory it tends to be to squint at those little telephone screens.

Since most of the gathers have been forbidden, people all around the world are turning to web-based platforms like Netflix and YouTube, and hoping to associate with each other via web-based media sources like Facebook.

Moreover, some platforms like Netflix, have introduced new options to help household members stimulate group gatherings such as spending time together and watching a movie. Netflix Party enables people to watch together the same movie, with an option to chat while watching the film.

With the sport centers like swimming pools, gyms and fitness classes, individuals are going to platforms such as: FightCamp, Peloton, Fressi and Tonal. These kinds of websites organize fitness routines or stream fitness classes to maintain healthy and fit life, spending most of the time at home. Moreover, the engagement of streaming audio and online multi-player games is also increasing.

A generation of creators 

Today’s social media is all about going viral or going home. 

Discovering amusing or engaging content is the third most famous explanation we go via online media today (33%), simply behind occupying save time (34%). As it could be seen in the chart below, this concrete motivation is mainly cited by the younger generation – Gen Z (40%) – however it is also popular with millennials (35%). 

The possibility of social channels advancing into entertainment platforms is something that is known for a long time, however the flare-up has moved the concentrate away from simply watching it, to users likewise making it.

Making and uploading short recordings on social media platforms like TikTok is one of only a few online practices quickened by COVID-19 that has seen expanded engagement since the pandemic started in April.

Commonly, the primary group of users is intended for Gen Z, however the TikTok has also attracted a more diversified audience. More and more parents are creating as well as uploading videos with their children.

When parents join their kids in creating the videos, they bond with them, which is one of the reasons why the prevalence of family content is expanding on TikTok. Domino’s virtual film celebration crusade, which prizes fans for making home recordings, is a great representation of how brands can take advantage of this pattern.

Working and learning 

As organizations were advised to shut down their physical offices and employees were advised to stay in their homes, numerous organizations rushed to implement the virtual working environment platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. Although not every work can be done remotely, these services enable many firms to keep operating during these difficult times. 

The new way of learning has been changing the manner in which education is conveyed over the previous decade, change has been moderate and eLearning apparatuses have normally increased conventional ways to deal with instruction at most schools as opposed to supplanting them. Since all schools at all stages have been forced to close, e-learning is rapidly turning into the essential methods for education. 

What is the future of the digital world?

It is well understood that a pandemic has its serious consequences,  including changing the political form of the world and decimating domains. The digital economy and digitalisation have been developing so quickly and changed how we carry on with our lives in basic manners that it’s anything but difficult to underestimate it. Moreover, the effect of the coronavirus crisis will have severe consequences, however online platforms have offered many new options to adapt to the situation that a lot of them are proceeding to work. How this whole situation plays out is mostly dependent how people will respond to forming of the arising trends. 

Bibliography 

De’, Rahul, et al. “Impact of Digital Surge during Covid-19 Pandemic: A Viewpoint on Research and Practice.” International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier Ltd., 9 June 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7280123/.

Koeze, Ella, and Nathaniel Popper. “The Virus Changed the Way We Internet.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html.

Phill White Research Scientist Global X-Network. “How Digital Platforms Are Helping Us Manage through the Coronavirus.” Platform Value Now, 20 Apr. 2020, platformvaluenow.org/signals/how-digital-platforms-are-helping-us-manage-through-the-coronavirus/.

Trifonova, Viktoriya. “How Coronavirus Has Changed The Way We Use Social Media.” GWI, 13 Aug. 2020, blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-week/social-media-amid-the-outbreak/.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Are your social media practices supporting or withstanding the movement?


Patrycja Piotrowska
09.01.2020

When one thinks about body positivity, most of the time, two things come to mind, namely: women and weight.

For quite a while, the socially acknowledged beauty standard resembled this: blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and legs with a recognizable hole in the middle of them. Victoria Secret angels, runway models, and TV promotions put this picture of flawlessness to the American public for quite a long time. With the rising popularity of web-based media, it appears that these images are unavoidable. However, recently women are beginning to push back on this sort of showcasing and changing how bodies are perceived by the society and the media.

This kind of unreasonable beauty standard that is still on a big scale publicized, often causes the feeling of self-centeredness, low confidence, and issues with self-perception. The unrealistic images of beautiful models and celebrities, cause that other women compare themselves and are pressured to fit in to what is earning likes and acclaim. Photographs of drastic weight reduction are constantly promoted like anorexia development on platforms like Tumblr that empower harmful and unhealthy techniques for accomplishing these losses. It is very common for young girls that are exposed to underweight models and photoshopped advertisements to express their feelings concerning their looks and the need to lose weight, even if there is no need to do so.

The term “Body Positivity” begun to spread across the world throughout the internet in 2017, more than 4.3 million of people started to use hashtags: #bodypositive and #bodypositivity on Instagram. The movement is used among people of all ages and genders, however mainly by plus-size, and ethnic women that basically centers around the celebration and revolutionary confidence of noticeably bigger bodies—as another descriptor for what the movement is showcasing. Thanks to the users of social media platforms, the movement has become the mainstream, causing to some degree self-love revolution.

Extensively, body positivity states that “all bodies are acceptable bodies”. As such, just what you look like outwardly doesn’t – or ought not – decide your value as an individual. In western culture, this movement fights back the common valuations of physical appearance that are held by the society for a long time. Body positivity advocates across web-based media thus look to make assorted body types more obvious, in some ways as a suggestion to reconsider our social originations of what beauty truly means, and that such ideas are not fixed.

Why is body positivity so essential?

At the point when youngsters join web-based media there is an open door for them to get exposed to a wide range of individuals. Individuals who appear to be unique and individuals who seem to be comparative. For anybody whose nationality or appearance isn’t reflected back by their actual community, the online network can give them a feeling of having a place.

Particularly for young people who are experiencing pubescence and all the abnormal changes it involves, there is regularly an inclination of disengage from your body. During that period the childhood body that one is familiar with, is changing, however it still differs from the bodies that can be seen online. There is a wide range of issues that can be caused by not accepting our own bodies, such as: eating disorders, the need of surgeries or even self harm.

So many of those pictures are photoshopped, taken at the correct angle, or women on social media have undergone some medical and plastic procedures. Regardless of whether they have not, they are pictures of completely developed people, who maybe as a component of their profession accept measures to look as attractive as could be expected under the circumstances. Or even, they might be a part of a big photoshoot of a campaign.

Hashtags, like, “self-confidence” and “body positivity” are utilized to share photographs of women who probably won’t fit these conventional beauty guidelines. Such ads may highlight larger size women as style models; superstars without makeup; or not photoshopping any kind of “imperfections” like cellulite or stretch marks, all to challenge the beauty beliefs and standards that we underestimate. Promoting is one of the remarkable approaches to gauge shifts in consumers. Customarily tall, skinny, slender and fair looking bodies have since quite a while ago held pride of spot in fashion. At the point when well known brands reexamine their promoting procedures to highlight “normal” individuals, similar to when Mattel delivered another scope of Barbie dolls in various body types (Abrams 2016), these establish ventures towards what beauty is or can be, customary or something else.

Beyond curves

While larger size ladies were the first crowd of body positivity, ladies on the thinner side of the range have now been appreciating portrayal, as well. Body positivity once was all about embracing curves, without the feeling of pressure to lose weight, contradicting what is commonly presented on social media, however now it also means to embrace gaining weight, without feeling bad about that, if one’s body is naturally skinny.

By fighting prevalently skinny, lighter looking, and artificially glamorized portrayals of beauty in famous media, body-positive campaigners desire to energize (particularly youngsters) not to try to unreachable “awesome” highlights and to grasp their “flaws”. The findings of the Dove research have demonstrated that there is still a lot to overcome.

It is anything but difficult to credit these issues as originating from an American or Western preoccupation with triviality. However, the Dove research reveals that body negativity relates on a large scale to global pandemic. Not exclusively is female confidence consistently declining notwithstanding more extensive attention to similar issues, “low body esteem [is] becoming a unifying challenge shared by women and girls around the world – regardless of age or geography” (Dove 2018).

The tangle of perceptions of the good and bad approach to depict “beauty”, and particularly that helpless self-perception crosses sexes and nations, raises an interesting anthropological debate. Is beauty “socially relative” or are there all around recognized attributes? What is beautiful to one individual or perceived as delightful inside a community or culture may not remain constant for other people, yet are a few attributes favored over others all through the world? Nowadays, it is very common to accuse advertising and online media for the spread of “unreasonable” body standards and pressing factors. However, is this all truly new?




Bibliography

Barone, Fran. “‘I Have Worth’: Female Body Confidence and Perceptions of Beauty around the World.” Human Relations Area Files – Cultural Information for Education and Research, 23 Jan. 2019, hraf.yale.edu/i-have-worth-female-body-confidence-and-perceptions-of-beauty-around-the-world/.

Corp., ABS-CBN. “How Online Body Positivity Has Evolved And Why The Movement Is Now More Powerful.” Metro.Style, 1 Nov. 2020, metro.style/wellness/mind-and-spirituality/body-positivity-in-social-media/27887.

Dove. 2018. New Dove Research Finds Beauty Pressures Up, and Women and Girls Calling for Change. [online] Prnewswire.com. Available at: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-dove-research-finds-beauty-pressures-up-and-women-and-girls-calling-for-change-583743391.html [Accessed 25 Jul. 2018].

malayawilliams Like33 Comments, et al. “Why Body Positivity on Social Media Is More Important Than You Think.” Voices of Youth, 18 Aug. 2020, www.voicesofyouth.org/blog/why-body-positivity-social-media-more-important-you-think.

Mazu. “Body Positivity - Using Social Media for Good.” Medium, Medium, 4 Jan. 2018, medium.com/@MazuFamily/body-positivity-using-social-media-for-good-9ab02692422c.

Yeboah, Stephanie. “Why the Body Positivity Movement Still Has a Long Way to Go.” Vogue India, Vogue India, 29 May 2020, www.vogue.in/wellness/content/body-positivity-fat-acceptance-movement-still-has-a-long-way-to-go.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Recently, a big scandal for one of the largest tech companies has exploded. It concerned an anticompetitive behaviour in the market. More than forty states and the US government have accused Facebook of being engaged in an illegal action to buy out their rivals. In addition, they sued Facebook for abusing its dominance in the marketplace and for behaving in an anticompetitive way.

At the moment it is not certain what the future holds for Marc Zuckerberg and its social media giant company- but surely, he has not been at peace for the past a few nights.

With the documenting of the twin lawsuits on Wednesday, Facebook turns into the second huge tech organization to confront a significant lawful challenge this year, right after Alphabet Inc’s Google was sued by the US Justice Department. They were accused for utilizing its marketplace to fend off competition.

Nowadays social media is central to millions of people all around the world. Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition stated that: “Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”

For almost 10 years, Facebook has utilized its strength and monopoly power to squash more modest competition and snuff out rivalry. By utilizing its huge troves of information and money, Facebook has crushed or prevented what the organization saw to be possible dangers.

The Federal Trade Commission, particularly is aiming for a persistent warrant in federal court that could force the company to deprive assets, as well as Instagram and Whatsapp, and as a consequence the break up of Facebook, as it exists now. In addition, for the company to be broken up, if it is required.
Authorities blamed Facebook for taking a “purchase or cover” way to deal with potential opponents, harming contenders and users, who have lost control of their own data to help the association’s promoting income.

The lawful filings refer to inward messages from Facebook supervisor Mark Zuckerberg, for example, one email from 2008 that said it was “better to buy than compete”.

In an email from 2012, Marc Zuckerberg said that Whatsapp is a better platform for mobile messaging than messenger and that he did not think there’s any method to straightforwardly limit the advantage, which is their momentum and development rate.

The claims guarantee these messages show that Facebook was working a “systematic strategy to eliminate threats to its monopoly”. This would be a break of the Sherman Act, one of the US’s most seasoned antitrust laws.

The giant tech company has responded to the news of the FDC, by using Trumpian strategy. Facebook was so angry that it posted various tweets to disapprove of a “revisionist history” as well as the FTC wanting a “do-over”. Moreover, general counsel Jennifer Newstead said that: “antitrust laws do not exist to punish successful companies and that WhatsApp and Instagram have succeeded after Facebook invested billions of dollars in growing the apps.”

On the outside, it might seem unusual to some that only now the FTC is pursuing to break down the most powerful social media company in the world- especially that Facebook made the purchase of Instagram in 2012 for $1bn and Whatsapp in 2014 for $19bn.

However, the FTC has announced that overnight new evidence has been discovered, which might help in analysing previous decisions made by the FTC.

“The government now wants a do-over, sending a chilling warning to American business that no sale is ever final,” Facebook general counsel Jennifer Newstead said.
She said that the organization had contributed millions to make Instagram and WhatsApp fruitful and would guard itself “energetically”. Especially, that the arrangements under investigation were affirmed by regulators many years ago.

Facebook said that: “Antitrust laws exist to protect consumers and promote innovation, not to punish successful businesses”, depicting the public authority’s contentions as “revisionist history”.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is the lead in the legal fight, said that: “No company should have this much unchecked power over our personal interaction and social interactions. That’s why we are taking action today.”

It’s very hard at times to grasp exactly how enamourse Facebook is. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram – all claimed by Facebook – all have in excess of a billion month to month users.

What the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is contending is that there’s a motivation behind why Facebook came to rule this exceptionally worthwhile area – it procured the opposition unlawfully. In 2012 Instagram was expanding rapidly, this made Facebook worried. Zuckerberg once has said that Instagram was a threat to Facebook. From the present perspective, Instagram was bought for a very low price, which is $1bn. The same follows for Whatsapp, which in 2014 was expanding at a high speed. Therefore, the question is: “Was it going to threaten Facebook’s own messenger service?”

Both of these acquisitions were recently taken a gander at by the FTC and were endorsed. That is Facebook’s argument – that they purchased these organizations when they were a lot more modest – that there was nothing pre-appointed about their prosperity. All in all, don’t rebuff Facebook for building solid American organizations.

Regardless of whether Instagram and WhatsApp will be severed off from Facebook will currently be chosen in the courts – and these antitrust claims require significant investment. There will likewise be adequate open doors for claims. Try not to expect a separation of Facebook soon.

However, this is yet more indicated of where the courts and legislators are presently headed.

In Facebook’s situation, government authorities will have to demonstrate in court that the organization’s supposed offense prompted real-world, quantifiable damages to users or rivalry.



Bibliography

Asmelash, Leah. “Social Media Use May Harm Teens’ Mental Health by Disrupting Positive Activities, Study Says.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Aug. 2019, edition.cnn.com/2019/08/13/health/social-media-mental-health-trnd/index.html.

Bartz, Diane, et al. “Facebook Faces U.S. Lawsuits That Could Force Sale of Instagram, WhatsApp.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 9 Dec. 2020, www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-antitrust-facebook-idUSKBN28J2UL.

“Facebook Faces Biggest Legal Battle in Years as US Officials Launch Lawsuits.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Dec. 2020, www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/10/facebook-faces-biggest-legal-battle-in-years-as-us-officials-launch-lawsuits.

Fung, Brian. “Facebook Must Be Broken up, the US Government Says in a Groundbreaking Lawsuit.” CNN, Cable News Network, 10 Dec. 2020, edition.cnn.com/2020/12/09/tech/facebook-antitrust-lawsuit-ftc-attorney-generals/index.html.

Sherman, Natalie. “Facebook Facing US Legal Action over Competition.” BBC News, BBC, 9 Dec. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/business-55250366.


Ward, EJ, and technology correspondent Will Guyatt. “Facebook Facing US Legal Action over Social Media ‘Monopoly’, Will Guyatt Writes.” LBC, LBC, 10 Dec. 2020, www.lbc.co.uk/news/facebook-facing-us-legal-action-over-competition-will-guyatt/.

Ward, EJ, and technology correspondent Will Guyatt. “Facebook Facing US Legal Action over Social Media ‘Monopoly’, Will Guyatt Writes.” LBC, LBC, 10 Dec. 2020, www.lbc.co.uk/news/facebook-facing-us-legal-action-over-competition-will-guyatt/.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

In recent time, a big scandal for one of the largest tech companies has exploded. It concerned an anticompetitive behaviour in the market. More than forty states and the US government have accused Facebook of being engaged in an illegal action to buy out their rivals. In addition, they sued Facebook for abusing its dominance in the marketplace and for behaving in an anticompetitive way.
At the moment it is not certain what the future holds for Marc Zuckerberg and its social media giant company- but surely, he has not been at peace for the past a few nights.
With the documenting of the twin lawsuits on Wednesday, Facebook turns into the second huge tech organization to confront a significant lawful challenge this year, right after Alphabet Inc’s Google was sued by the US Justice Department. They were accused for utilizing its marketplace to fend off competition.

Nowadays social media is central to millions of people all around the world. Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition stated that: “Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”

For almost 10 years, Facebook has utilized its strength and monopoly power to squash more modest competition and snuff out rivalry. By utilizing its huge troves of information and money, Facebook has crushed or prevented what the organization saw to be possible dangers.

The Federal Trade Commission, particularly is aiming for a persistent warrant in federal court that could force the company to deprive assets, as well as Instagram and Whatsapp, and as a consequence the break up of Facebook, as it exists now. In addition, for the company to be broken up, if it is required.
Authorities blamed Facebook for taking a “purchase or cover” way to deal with potential opponents, harming contenders and users, who have lost control of their own data to help the association’s promoting income.

The lawful filings refer to inward messages from Facebook supervisor Mark Zuckerberg, for example, one email from 2008 that said it was “better to buy than compete”.
In an email from 2012, Marc Zuckerberg said that Whatsapp is a better platform for mobile messaging than messenger and that he did not think there’s any method to straightforwardly limit the advantage, which is their momentum and development rate.
The claims guarantee these messages show that Facebook was working a “systematic strategy to eliminate threats to its monopoly”. This would be a break of the Sherman Act, one of the US’s most seasoned antitrust laws.
The giant tech company has responded to the news of the FDC, by using Trumpian strategy. Facebook was so angry that it posted various tweets to disapprove of a “revisionist history” as well as the FTC wanting a “do-over”. Moreover, general counsel Jennifer Newstead said that: “antitrust laws do not exist to punish successful companies and that WhatsApp and Instagram have succeeded after Facebook invested billions of dollars in growing the apps.”
On the outside, it might seem unusual to some that only now the FTC is pursuing to break down the most powerful social media company in the world- especially that Facebook made the purchase of Instagram in 2012 for $1bn and Whatsapp in 2014 for $19bn.
However, the FTC has announced that overnight new evidence has been discovered, which might help in analysing previous decisions made by the FTC.
“The government now wants a do-over, sending a chilling warning to American business that no sale is ever final,” Facebook general counsel Jennifer Newstead said.
She said that the organization had contributed millions to make Instagram and WhatsApp fruitful and would guard itself “energetically”. Especially, that the arrangements under investigation were affirmed by regulators many years ago.

Facebook said that: “Antitrust laws exist to protect consumers and promote innovation, not to punish successful businesses”, depicting the public authority’s contentions as “revisionist history”.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is the lead in the legal fight, said that:
“No company should have this much unchecked power over our personal interaction and social interactions. That’s why we are taking action today.”

It’s very hard at times to grasp exactly how enamourse Facebook is. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram – all claimed by Facebook – all have in excess of a billion month to month users.

What the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is contending is that there’s a motivation behind why Facebook came to rule this exceptionally worthwhile area – it procured the opposition unlawfully. In 2012 Instagram was expanding rapidly, this made Facebook worried. Zuckerberg once has said that Instagram was a threat to Facebook. From the present perspective, Instagram was bought for a very low price, which is $1bn. The same follows for Whatsapp, which in 2014 was expanding at a high speed. Therefore, the question is: “Was it going to threaten Facebook’s own messenger service?”

Both of these acquisitions were recently taken a gander at by the FTC and were endorsed. That is Facebook’s argument – that they purchased these organizations when they were a lot more modest – that there was nothing pre-appointed about their prosperity. All in all, don’t rebuff Facebook for building solid American organizations.

Regardless of whether Instagram and WhatsApp will be severed off from Facebook will currently be chosen in the courts – and these antitrust claims require significant investment. There will likewise be adequate open doors for claims. Try not to expect a separation of Facebook soon.

However, this is yet more indicated of where the courts and legislators are presently headed.

In Facebook’s situation, government authorities will have to demonstrate in court that the organization’s supposed offense prompted real-world, quantifiable damages to users or rivalry.