Society vs Social 📵🚸

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we report on the call for social media to come with warning labels, and we weigh in on other proposals. Meanwhile, Adobe are finally in trouble with the FTC, Luma launches an AI Video Generator, and Apple plays ball with Android users, and the gold-standard has returned — to Crypto! DC’s startup failure rate is our Stat of the Week, and our GPT of the Week could help you win those elusive grants.

Our Top Take 🎬

📱📵 Social Media – US Surgeon General Calls for Tobacco-Like Warning Labels

US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy has called on Congress to introduce warning labels on social media platforms. Similar in concept to labels one might find on alcohol and cigarettes, the warnings would be targeted toward parents and minors. “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy wrote in the New York Times. The Surgeon General also backed his claims with some startling facts: almost 50% of adolescents say social media gives them body image issues, and those who spend more than three hours a day on socials are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. The “phone-based childhood”, a concept popularized and warned about by Jonathan Haidt in The Anxious Generation, has left many of our kids anxious, addicted to screens, scared, and, yes, sometimes suicidal. This warning label in itself won’t solve the problem, but it’s a clear call to action that we should all listen to. Here at 3Advance, we believe that social media should be taken as seriously as alcohol and tobacco, and we welcome Jonathan Haidt’s recommendations - that kids should be at least 16 years of age before creating a social media account. #SocietyNotSocial Read more here.

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We changed up this newsletter format! Scroll all the way down to let us know what you think. Meanwhile, we can’t help sharing here about how our Tuesday begun. No better way to start the day than the #GiftOfAppreciation. Happy Tuesday y’all. And thank you, Claire! 🙏 ☺️

🦾 GPT of the Week: The Ultimate Grant Proposal Writer

Created by our DC neighbor Marcus Finley, this week’s featured GPT helps grant applicants craft winning proposals. Marcus talks to Paul about GPTs, AI and the need to open more doors. Check it out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, and comment to join the convo.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 32.2%

📈📉 DC – Failure Rate of Startups Is Highest in the Country

While the DMV is a hotspot for entrepreneurship, it’s also got one of the highest failure rates for new startups, 10% higher than the US average. Staggeringly, 71% of startups based in DC fail within 10 years, with the #1 reason for failure (42%) being (lack of) product market fit. Sound familiar? This is why product-focused development matters. #DCStartupFail Read more here.

🕸️ What’s d’Appening

💛🖨️ Tether – Launch of New Platform for Digital Assets Backed by Gold

Tether, the web3 company behind the TUSD stablecoin (pegged to the US dollar), has announced a new platform, Alloy, where users can create tokens with value backed by physical gold. Crypto advocates believe that eventually, all financial products – real estate, stocks, salaries – become tokenized on the blockchain, making them easier to access, trade, and verify. This is the bet that Tether is making with Alloy. #GoldenToken Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📣 Promos

🤖 Get your free AI consultation: Book Now
🎧 Listen to our What’s Appening Podcast
🎥 Watch on YouTube / Facebook / LinkedIn
📱 Enjoy our ‘shorts’ on TikTok / Instagram
🔔 Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you’ll always know what’s appening in tech.
🌐 Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok
💬 We appreciate you and we’d love to hear your feedback. Just hit ‘Reply’!