Mashable

Meta's big event, called Meta Connect, took place on Wednesday and with it came lots of news.

While it might not draw the same excitement as an Apple Event, it certainly wasn't without headlines and developments. Chief among them: the Meta Quest 3S and the Orion glasses.

Mashable covered all the big news in detail. Here's everything that was announced as well as links to further coverage and more in-depth analysis.

Meet the Meta Quest 3S

Meta announced its new headset that promised good performance at a reduced price. The Quest 3S starts at $299.99, which is hundreds of bucks cheaper than Meta's other headsets. You should be still be able to do all the main attractions of an AR-headset, however, like play games and watch movies.

The Meta Quest 3S is available to preorder now.

Tweet may have been deleted Meta's AI gets the celeb treatment

Didn't you always want an AI assistant with a celebrity voice? Well, even if you didn't, it's here. Meta AI will now be able to answer questions out loud in the voice of a number of famous folks like John Cena, Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.

Mashable's Christianna Silva has all the details.

Meta's Ray-Ban glasses get AI updates

Meta announced a number of improvements to their Ray-Ban glasses. The glasses already featured cameras for taking photos and videos, as well as the capability to listen to audio. But now the AI features should be able to help with things like remembering where you parked your car, record or send messages, and translate speech in real-time.

Tweet may have been deleted The Orion glasses are here (kind of)

Meta debuted its AR Orion glasses that look like, well, glasses, instead of a whole headset. They overlay AR features on the real world, things like messages or games. Zuckerberg showed the glasses off but they aren't going to be released to the public just yet. The Meta chief said the company was still working on the glasses as well as finding ways to improve the look and drive down the cost.

Mashable's Chance Townsend has all the details.

Tweet may have been deleted Goodbye to the Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro

With the announcement of the new Meta Quest 3S headset, the company also reportedly shelved its older models for good. As Mashable's Alex Perry noted, that could be because the Quest 3S appears to be, on paper, a better product at a far lower price.

An updated Llama

Meta announced Llama 3.2, its latest in AI models. One major update is improved understanding of images. Meta noted, for instance, that a user could ask about their businesses sales and Llama 3.2 would able to answer the question by reading a graph of the data.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday a new law enforcement effort called Operation AI Comply. As part of the sweep, it took action against multiple companies that used artificial intelligence to "supercharge" deceptive products and services.

The cases involved AI-generated fake reviews, "the world's first robot lawyer," and online storefront schemes.

The FTC said in a statement that consumers lost tens of millions of dollars, lured by the promise that AI-enabled problem-solving and automation would save them time, money, and, in the e-commerce cases, lead to increased earnings.

Ultimately, the companies didn't deliver on their claims, and knew they were deceiving customers.

"Using AI tools to trick, mislead, or defraud people is illegal," said Lina M. Khan, the agency's chair. "The FTC's enforcement actions make clear that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books."

SEE ALSO: Could an AI chatbot talk you out of believing a conspiracy theory?

The FTC's complaint against Rytr, the company that offered the AI writing service, describes how subscribers could generate effectively fake reviews that had no basis in their user's input. The FTC said that, in many cases, the AI-generated reviews included false information that would deceive consumers interested in purchasing a certain product. Some of Rytr's subscribers created thousands of reviews that potentially featured inaccuracies.

The FTC argued that Rytr offered a service capable of disseminating a "glut of fake reviews that would harm both consumers and honest competitors." The FTC has proposed barring Rytr from advertising, promoting, marketing, or selling a service related to generating consumer reviews or testimonials in the future. The agency banned AI-generated and fake reviews in August.

As part of Operation AI Comply, the FTC took action against DoNotPay, a company that told consumers its AI robot could help them "sue for assault without a lawyer" and "generate perfectly valid legal documents in no time." While the company billed the service as "the world's first robot lawyer," it didn't conduct testing to compare its AI chatbot to a human lawyer. Nor did it have attorneys on staff.

Instead, the company told customers that it could check a small business's website for violations of federal and state law, a feature that was not effective.

DoNotPay told Mashable in a statement that the FTC's complaint related to services that "a few hundred" customers used, and which have "long been discontinued." The company noted that it settled the case without admitting liability.

The FTC also filed complaints against three companies that preyed on people looking to open online storefronts, including on TikTok, Walmart, Amazon, and Etsy. These business typically charged a significant fee to start an online store powered by proprietary software and AI that could boost their earnings. Some customers were required to purchase inventory that didn't sell.

One company, FBA Machine, promised customers they could operate a "7-figure business" that would be "risk-free." It falsely guaranteed refunds to customers who fell short of recouping their initial investment, which the FTC said ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In total, customers lost nearly $16 million to the scheme.

Another company, Ascend Ecom, told customers that they could start stores that would eventually produce a five-figure monthly income, thanks to its "cutting edge" AI tools. The FTC estimated that the scheme defrauded customers of at least $25 million.

UPDATE: Sep. 25, 2024, 11:55 a.m. UTC This story has been updated to include a statement from DoNotPay.

At Meta Connect, Mark Zuckerberg introduced Orion, Meta’s cutting-edge AR glasses that the company hopes might reshape the future of computing. Unlike traditional AR headsets, the Orion glasses are purportedly lightweight at less than 100 grams, and feature a wide field-of-view holographic display.

Orion lets users interact with virtual objects overlaid on the real world, all without isolating them from their surroundings.

SEE ALSO: Meta Quest 3S announced, adds cheaper headset to Meta line

Orion’s display architecture uses tiny projectors in the arms of the glasses to beam light into waveguide lenses, creating holograms at various depths and sizes. One of early testers shown during the presentation called it "the craziest technology" they’ve ever experienced. Other reactions shown during a montage Zuckerberg shared during his keynote were similarly ecstatic.

The glasses are designed to keep users connected to the physical world while interacting with digital content, allowing for everything from viewing messages to playing holographic games.

Credit: Meta

The glasses, currently codenamed Orion, will initially serve as a developer kit for internal use and select partners. Zuckerberg says Meta aims to refine its software and build diverse content before launching a consumer-ready version. With features like eye and hand-tracking, voice control, and a "neural interface" controlled by a wrist device, Orion offers a seamless, hands-free way to interact with the digital world.

Meta seems to be focused on perfecting the technology for a mainstream audience, rather than releasing a retail product. The current iteration won’t be made available to consumers, but Zuckerberg said future versions will be more fashionable and affordable.

"Orion is a time machine," Zuckerberg said. "These glasses exist. They are awesome. And they are a glimpse of a future that I think is going to be pretty exciting."

One of the best early (or early-ish) VR headsets is dead.

Meta has discontinued the Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets, as reported by TechCrunch. The news came shortly after the reveal of the new Quest 3S, which starts at $299 and more or less negates the Quests 2 and Pro with its inclusion of full-color passthrough and mixed reality features.

SEE ALSO: Meta Quest 3S announced, adds cheaper headset to Meta line

While the Quest 2 wasn't the first VR headset to work without a powerful gaming PC (obviously, there was a Quest 1), its sub-$500 price tag (which included controllers) at launch in 2019 made it an incredibly appealing option for the VR-curious. For many, the Quest 2 may have provided their first VR experience. The Quest Pro never seemed to catch on quite as much, most likely due to its $1,499 price tag, but its full-color passthrough and AR features felt ahead of their time.

SEE ALSO: Where to preorder the Meta Quest 3S

But the Quest 3S seems, on paper, better than both without being overwhelmingly expensive. At least there's that.

You can finally ask a question and get the answer in John Cena's voice.

Mark Zuckerberg announced at the Meta Connect 2024 developer conference that Meta's AI assistant, Meta AI, can respond back to questions you ask out loud on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

These voice responses, Zuckerberg said, will be "one of if not the most frequent ways we interact with AI." And it'll answer in AI clones of celebrities including John Cena, Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.

According to The Wall Street Journal, it's been a pretty expensive endeavor, costing Meta millions to use the likenesses of these celebrities. This comes just a few months after Meta axed its Meta AI celebrity avatars, those odd characters "embodied by celebrities" like Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg, and Tom Brady.

Meta debuted its new, cheaper headset during its Connect event on Wednesday. Dubbed the Meta Quest 3S, the company promised it has great performance despite the lower price.

Mark Zuckerberg himself announced the Quest 3S at the Meta Connect event. It costs $299.99, which is a steep discount on the newly reduced-price $499.99 Meta Quest 3 or $999.99 Meta Quest Pro.

SEE ALSO: Meta discontinues the Quest 2 and Quest Pro after revealing Quest 3S

Meta said the headset could do pretty much anything most folks want to use a headset for, such as watch a movie, immerse yourself in a concert, or play games.

Tweet may have been deleted

Meta has a detailed page on the different specs of its headset line. Here are the basic specs of the Quest 3S:

• Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 chip

• 8GB RAM

• 128GB or 256GB storage

• 1832x1920 screen resolution

• 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate

• 96 degrees by 90 degrees field of view

• Fresnel lenses

You're probably wondering how that differs from the Quest 3. The chipset and RAM are the same across both devices, but everything else is a little different. There is no 512GB storage option as there is with Quest 3. In addition, the displays are worse across the board; their resolutions and fields of view are lower, while the refresh rate isn't quite as variable. It also uses Fresnel lenses rather than pancake lenses.

SEE ALSO: Where to preorder the Meta Quest 3S

"Quest 3S is a big step in making mixed reality more accessible, and we hope you’re as excited as we are about the future of this technology," the company said in a statement.

With the discontinuation of the Quest 2 and Quest Pro, it seems like the Quest 3S is your new affordable VR headset of choice.

SAVE $60: Through Sept. 28, the Keurig K-Classic coffee maker is on sale for just $79.99 at Target for Target Circle members (membership is free). That's a savings of 43% and beats other competing retailers.

Opens in a new window Credit: Keurig Keurig K-Classic coffee maker $79.99 at Target
$139.99 Save $60.00 with free Target Circle membership Get Deal

Sometimes, you don't have time for that fancy Chemex or French Press. That's where Keurig coffee makers truly shine. For the busy bees looking to save some time during their morning routine, Keurig machines let you press a button and get a cup of joe in less than a minute.

The Keurig K-Classic is on sale for just $79.99 at Target for Circle members (membership is free) through Sept. 28. That's about 43% off its current retail price of $139.99, and the cheapest you'll find it across all the major retailers. It's currently full price at Amazon, on sale for $99.99 at Keurig's own website, out of stock at Best Buy, and only sold by sketchy third-party sellers at Walmart.

SEE ALSO: Yes, another Prime Day is coming. Here are the early deals to shop now.

Like all Keurig machines, the K-Classic features simple button controls to get brewing instantly. Just fill up the reservoir, insert a K-Cup (or use the reusable filter with your own grounds), and select your cup size. In less than 60 seconds, you'll have a piping hot cup of coffee at the ready. The reservoir can fit 48 ounces of water, which lets you brew six or more cups before having to refill it. There's also an auto-off feature than will shut down the machine to save energy.

If you're not a Target Circle member already and want to get in on the exclusive savings, it's super easy to sign up. All you have to do is enter your name, email, and other basic information to become a member. Unlike other retailer memberships (Amazon Prime, Walmart+, My Best Buy Plus, etc.), Target Circle is 100 percent free. Once you're officially a member and sign into your account, you'll see the savings automatically applied to your cart. With your new account, you'll also be able to shop the deals during Target Circle Week next month.

A little over a week after Google’s “Made by YouTube” event, the company is starting to roll out its conversational AI chatbot on the platform.

Dubbed the “Ask” button, this new generative AI feature is currently available exclusively to YouTube Premium subscribers on Android.

First teased late last year, the "Ask" button is a mobile-only tool that allows users to interact with the videos they're watching in a whole new way. According to a demo posted by YouTube on X (formerly known as Twitter), the AI can, for instance, pull up an ingredient list from a cooking tutorial or provide more details about a music video.

Tweet may have been deleted How to access the YouTube 'AI ask' feature

For anyone eager to try out YouTube’s new AI feature, there’s a catch: it’s not available on every video. According to YouTube’s support page, the “Ask” button only works on “select English videos,” which means it’s accessible on just 28% of the platform's nearly 3.9 billion videos — so good luck tracking those down.

On the bright side, if you’re not a YouTube Premium subscriber, the AI tool is still available on some academic learning videos, giving non-paying users a limited chance to experience it firsthand. The Ask button appears below the video player as a pill-shaped option next to the Share button. However, it has also been spotted as a swipeable option within the comments box.

As mentioned above, the tool is also only available on Android devices, with no word yet on whether it's coming to web or iOS.

Is Fitbit in trouble?

9to5Google spotted that Fitbit.com, the official website for the popular brand of wearable fitness trackers, is not long for this world. At the top of the page is a new message stating that the site's functions will move to the Google Store on Oct. 1.

This came only about six months after Google updated the site's branding to read "Google Fitbit" instead of "Fitbit by Google."

SEE ALSO: We're already seeing price drops on select Fitbit models ahead of October Prime Day Is FitBit in danger?

Back in July, Google shut down the popular web interface for looking at Fitbit health metrics, forcing users to use a mobile app that, at least at the time, didn't have as many features as the web interface.

In mid-August, Engadget claimed that Google is demoting the Fitbit brand to focus on minimalist, fitness trackers with long battery life instead of high-end smartwatches that are full of wide-ranging features. A few days later, TechRadar claimed that Google "quietly confirmed" that it will stop producing FitBit Versa and Sense models.

However, in a statement to Ars Technica, Google claimed that TechRadar's reporting was "inaccurate," adding the following:

"We are very committed to Fitbit, and even more importantly to the customers that use and depend on those products and technology. It's also worth noting that many of the health and fitness features we launched in Pixel Watch 3 were because of Fitbit's innovation and ground-breaking fitness advancements. In addition, we just launched Fitbit Ace LTE, and you’ll continue to see new products and innovation from Fitbit."

Based on these reports, it appears that Google is prioritizing the Pixel Watch series while gradually shifting away from the Fitbit "smartwatches," focusing instead on simpler Fitbit fitness trackers. As such, FitBit.com is likely getting shutdown because it'd be redundant; Google can simply sell Fitbit wearables via the Google Store.

Google bought Fitbit for $2.1 billion in 2019 and hasn't manufactured any new Fitbit watches since 2022. If you go to the Fitbit product page in the Google store, the Pixel Watch 3 (which is made to work with the Fitbit Premium subscription service) takes precedence over actual Fitbit models.

This is speculation, but it looks like the move here is to encourage Fitbit users to buy Pixel Watches instead. That's Google's prerogative, but longtime Fitbit users also have the right to be unhappy about it.

Wondering how to watch Meta Connect 2024? We've got your back.

Meta is ready to roll out its latest hardware and software trinkets this week, with Facebook's parent company set to host Meta Connect 2024.

SEE ALSO: Meta Connect 2024: What to expect, including Quest 3S and new AR smart glasses How to watch Meta Connect 2024

Meta Connect 2024 is scheduled to start Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, with a keynote speech by Zuckerberg kicking off the event. This will be followed by a developer keynote shared by several Meta executives at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. The livestream will be available to watch on Facebook via the official Meta for Developers page. 

People with a Quest VR headset will also be able to jump into Meta Horizon to watch Meta Connect in virtual reality. According to Meta, the VR experience will be inspired by the company's Menlo Park campus in California — and offer attendees the chance to unlock "exclusive rewards." Whether the promise of such nebulous incentives is worth it is a question only you can answer.

Meta Connect 2024 will run for two days, featuring talks on how to use some of the tech giant's tools for developers. You won't have to stay glued to your computer for the entire event, as some of the sessions will be recorded and made available to stream once Meta Connect ends. Meta hasn't specified which parts of the program might be left out though, so you'd be best off catching it live if you're super keen on a specific session.

What is Meta Connect?

Previously called Facebook Connect (and Oculus Connect before that), Meta Connect is an annual event where the company shows off all its shiny new tech and what developers can do with it. It's been the venue for some pretty big announcements as well, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing Facebook's rebrand to Meta during 2021's Facebook Connect.

We aren't expecting any similarly large revelations from the tech giant at this week's event. What we are expecting, however, are new product announcements, information about Meta's metaverse plans, and a whole lot of talk about AI.

What to expect at Meta Connect 2024

While we don't know the exact details of what Meta plans to announce this Wednesday, Facebook's parent company is expected to continue last year's heavy focus on AI. According to rumours, Meta's announcements may include updates on the company's artificially intelligent assistant Meta AI, as well as a more budget-friendly Quest 3 and a new pair of augmented reality glasses.

If you want to know more about what to expect, Mashable's Kimberly Gedeon has provided a rundown of all the rumours circulating in the lead-up to Meta Connect 2024.

Meta Connect 2024 is so close, you can almost taste it.

Launching on Wednesday, Sept. 25, the social media giant is expected to rollout hardware and software goodies that will intrigue VR gamer enthusiasts, AI aficionados, and smart glasses devotees. But what, specifically, does Meta have up its sleeves?

We have a few guesses based on some credible reports.

Meta Connect 2024: What to expect

Last year, the Meta Quest 3 was announced in early June, but it got its full reveal at Meta Connect 2023.

The headset boasted a sleeker, more comfortable design, as well as new AR capabilities, that made it more appealing than its predecessor. Once again, for Meta Connect 2024, the social media giant is expected to drop a new VR headset, but it's not necessarily an upgrade over the Quest 3.

Meta Quest 3S

Rumor has it that Meta is planning on revealing a cheaper, more budget-friendly version of the Quest 3 called "Quest 3S."

Tweet may have been deleted

Whether it was intentional or accidental, as discovered by a Reddit poster, Meta leaked Quest 3S in its own Meta Quest Link PC app for Windows. For the uninitiated, this software lets users connect their Meta-branded VR headsets to a PC, allowing them to access more demanding PCVR games with just the Quest Link cable (which helps users siphon graphics power from their PC's GPU).

The image appears to have the body of the Quest 2 (in that it isn't as sleek as the Quest 3), but it has different cameras on the front.

According to a leaker on X, Quest 3S will have the following:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip

• 1,832 x 1,920-pixel resolution per eye

• Up to 120Hz refresh rate

• Quest Touch Plus controllers

• 4 IR tracking cameras

• 2 IR illuminators for depth sensing

• 2 4MP cameras for passthrough

Regarding price, Meta Quest 3S will reportedly have a starting price of $299. For reference, the starting price of the Quest 3 was $499 when it launched last year, so if the reported price is accurate, you'll be saving $200 with Quest 3S.

AR smart glasses

Last year, Meta unveiled the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which is packed with Meta AI.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

This time around, according to a report from Business Insider, Meta is planning on releasing a new pair of spectacles that are totally unrelated to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Called "Orion" internally, these glasses will focus on augmented reality (AR).

AR incorporates virtual elements into your real-world environment. Meta's Quest 3 is capable of AR. For example, it has a "passthrough mode" that lets you see your true surroundings, but at the same time, you'll have the option to see or interact with virtual objects in your space.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, on the other hand, have zero AR capabilities. It can play music, take pictures, capture videos, take calls — and even lets you chat with Meta AI. However, it doesn't offer another augmented dimension — but Orion, reportedly, will.

Meta AI

Meta AI can be found across a myriad of Meta products, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and even the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

Credit: Meta

Last year, Meta introduced Instagram-based "Meta AI Personas," which were celebrity-look-a-like chatbots that didn't quite resonate with many people, including Mashable's own AI reporter Cecily Mauran.

Based on Meta AI, these chatbots featured the likeness of popular, high-profile people (i.e., Padma Laksmi and Snoop Dogg) while taking on roles like "Creative Writing Partner," "Travel Expert," and more.

However, this year, they got the boot.

This doesn't mean that Meta AI won't continue to be spotlighted during Connect 2024. We're expecting lots of AI updates during the livestream.

Meta Connect 2024 will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. ET. You can watch the livestream here on Facebook.

When you think of the term "Instagram stalking," what kind of scenarios come to mind? Is it vetting an upcoming Hinge date’s profile to ensure they tick all the critical boxes: they have friends, they like to travel and they look the same in their tagged photos as they do the ones on their profile? Is it to suss out whether a couple has broken up? Is it being sucked into a black hole of scrutinising the fashion (and lifestyle) choices of your high school arch nemesis? 

As evidenced above, when we imagine ourselves digital sleuthing, it always involves other people. But look inward, and you might realise that you — yes you — are your own most dedicated viewer. For many on TikTok, it’s common practice: we share an Instagram story – a supposed 24-hour-only glimpse into our lives – and we find ourselves in a deadly cycle of replaying it and monitoring the viewer list. While the latter exists for a reason (allowing us the privilege of knowing if that person who we wanted to see the story, saw it), what is it that drives us to watch our content back? It’s not like we’ll find anything new – we’re the ones who published it, after all. 

This behaviour isn’t limited to stories, either. I’ll admit it: sometimes when I’m feeling down, I’ve found myself looking back over my grid, pausing on holiday photos, snapshots from nights out, birthday celebrations, and sometimes, a selfie where I know I look great. I’m not the only one, either: while some flick through their social media profiles for a morale boost, others, like @xoxotatianaa on TikTok, state the facts: she watches her content repeatedly because she can, and she doesn’t care (and neither do the 667k others than agree with her). 

SEE ALSO: Why some people on dating apps just want to be 'pen pals'

So, why do we do it? Is it because we’re perfectionists, obsessed with our content fitting in with the digital version of ourselves we present to the world? Are we so hyper-aware of being perceived that we try to view ourselves through someone else’s eyes? Or are we just in love with ourselves?

"Say I get some new followers, I like to view my profile from the perspective of what they’re seeing..."

I posed the question to my own Instagram followers (via a story which, yes, I watched back a few times). "Say I get some new followers, I like to view my profile from the perspective of what they’re seeing, even if I know what my profile looks like," one friend, Tom replied. "When someone follows me, I wonder what they’re looking at, so I check through it to see what they see." Another friend, Kat, said: "I pretend I’m someone else because I want to see how other people perceive me and if they’d think I have a cool grid (I just cringed typing that out)."

Seeing ourselves from other people's POV

According to Eloise Skinner, a psychotherapist and author specialising in existential identity, there are several factors as to why we stalk ourselves – one being a desire to see ourselves from an external perspective (think Ariana Grande’s song POV). "The desire to understand how we’re perceived has been present in human instinct for generations," she explains. "As we try to understand ourselves – answering the timeless question of ‘who am I?' – we often draw on the opinions and reflections of others to guide us." She continues that when we don’t have that information handy, we take it upon ourselves to decipher the thoughts and opinions of others by imagining what they might see when they look at our profiles. 

Psychologist Zoe Mallet agrees, and says that evolution has shaped our innate desire for social acceptance and status, ingraining a "deep-seated need for social approval" into our being. "The tendency to present oneself favourably is a direct offshoot of this, online and offline," she says. "It’s a subconscious attempt to enhance our social standing, increase our chances of belonging and create a positive self-image, which is part of our survival coping mechanisms as humans." 

"The desire to understand how we’re perceived has been present in human instinct for generations."

Both Skinner and Mallet note that our attempts to control how we’re perceived existed long before the arrival of Instagram – like how we spend time picking out an outfit for an event, or what we say in a conversation with an acquaintance. Social media, then, has become a digital platform to project this onto – it’s an attempt to reflect the identity we want people to perceive us as embodying. Although it may seem like stalking ourselves is the best way of ensuring that we keep this identity in check, Skinner points out that for some, self-stalking is rooted in perfectionism. 

Take journalist and content creator Mared Perry, for example, who tells me that she watches her stories repeatedly for two reasons. The first is to make sure "content looks slick" in case of potential work opportunities, and secondly "because of the paranoia that other people may find something cringe, or that I’m oversharing". "Self-stalking could stem from a feeling of insecurity about our sense of identity, how we appear to others, or even a critical feeling about what we post and where we should improve," Skinner continues. "There’s a greater awareness of how we compare to others online – in other words, it’s easier to hold up our digital lives against someone else’s, to see what we like or don’t like." 

How am I presenting myself online?

It’s important to remember that not everyone uses social media in the same way. Some use it to maintain relationships and stay connected ("If this is the case, it might seem less important to present in a certain way," Skinner says), whereas for others, like Perry and journalist David Chipakupaku, it’s deeper than that – it’s an extension of who they are. "I want to show all the different facets of who I am on my social media, and I don’t want to be known for just one thing," Chipakupaku tells me. "I’ll share the different sides of myself – I’ll post a meme and I’ll share news posts. It’s about getting the balance right. Am I being too funny? Too serious? Too weird? Too much?"

He says that he’ll check his content over and over again due to a mix of "anxiety and sense-curating". "When someone taps on my story, are they going to come away with a full understanding of who I am? If yes, I’ve done it right. If not, I’ll add something or take it away. It sounds so insidious and weird, but it’s true." Mallet points out that this phenomenon is unique only to social media. "Think about how we show up in real life – there are limits to how many sides of ourselves we can show per situation or experience. We can’t go back and curate it. But online you can, which adds to this mounting pressure of wanting to present as perfect," she says. Skinner adds that while this pressure could be internal (the same impulse that makes us reflect on how we presented ourselves at a work event, for example), it can also be external: "For instance, the demands we put on ourselves to have a certain image, following or level of popularity on social media." 

There’s a host of reasons why we trawl back through our content (so it’s not just because we’re in love with ourselves, which isn’t always a bad thing). But does a distinction exist between this behaviour being normal and unhealthy? As of September 2024, Instagram has 2 billion active users globally, all of whom produce a lot of content. Skinner believes It’s pretty normal, then, that we’d want to look back over our content from time to time, like how we’d flick through a photo album, journal or scrapbook. "Social media can act as a storage unit for older versions of ourselves and our identities, so reflecting with appreciation, nostalgia or thoughtfulness can be a supportive, beneficial activity."

The signs to spot when we might be going too far? Other than if it’s taking focus away from other important parts of our lives, Skinner urges us to be aware of how the act of self-stalking makes us feel, in the moment and afterwards. If we find it motivating or comforting, great. But it also risks making us more critical of ourselves or leaving us wrapped up in the past. "If it makes us more self-conscious, self-absorbed or distracted from whatever we’d like to use social media for, it’s worth rethinking the habit," she advises.

Last year, research from Bournemouth University found that young adults who use social media passively (by browsing the content of others) are more likely to experience mental health problems such as anxiety and depression than those who share their own content (active users). Self-stalking puts a spanner in the works, though: we’ve posted this content ourselves, but we’re now the ones viewing it passively, too. While research into self-stalking doesn’t exist (yet), Mallet urges us to remember that from the start, social media was designed to be addictive. "When we post, we’re validated by the responses we receive and get a hit of dopamine. We want that hit again and again, so of course we’ll head back to the source where we experienced it before," she says. "It’s not that we’re addicted to looking at our own Instagram. We’re addicted to the feeling we get when we do."

Prime Big Deal Days isn't till October 8 and 9 — but many deals are already here. Check out the best book deals at Amazon already live before the sale even officially begins.

Early Prime Day book deals: Best book deal overall 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear $13.79 at Amazon (save $13.21) Get Deal Best book bundle deal Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Boxed Set Collection $26.47 at Amazon (save $23.48) Get Deal Best Kindle deal 'Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals' $2.99 at Amazon (save $17) Get Deal

Prime Day is here yet again — the bi-annual shopping event (this time known as Prime Big Deal Days) is coming up on October 8 and 9, and Amazon’s already offering discounts on countless products across all categories. One category you probably wouldn’t expect to see a lot of deals on is books, but that's exactly what we're seeing on Amazon's website right now. (Amazon did start as an online bookstore, so it kind of makes sense.)

We’ve found tons of book titles from a wide variety of genres that are currently on sale, from bestselling novels to nonfiction and children's books. Kindle and e-book editions are up to 80% off their typical list prices, while hardcover and paperback books are seeing discounts of up to 50% off. And this is before the official start of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days.

Here are just a few of the book deals that’ve caught our eye so far:

Best book deal overall Opens in a new window Credit: Avery Our pick: 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear $13.79 at Amazon
$27.00 Save $13.21 Get Deal Why we like it

If you’re not into self-help books, James Clear’s Atomic Habits might not be on your radar. But this is one of the best nonfiction titles to come out within the past few years, and it's currently 49% off in hardcover.

This book is all about teaching yourself to build good habits, break bad ones, and generally become more focused, productive, and successful in your daily life. And at just $13.79 for the hardcover, it’s a steal.

Best book bundle deal Opens in a new window Credit: Random House Books for Young Readers Our pick: Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Boxed Set Collection: 'The Cat in the Hat'; 'One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'; 'Green Eggs and Ham'; 'Hop on Pop'; 'Fox in Socks' $26.47 at Amazon
$49.95 Save $23.48 Get Deal Why we like it

Whether you have kids or you’re an adult who’s looking to add another classic book series to your collection, the Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Boxed Set Collection: The Cat in the Hat; One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish; Green Eggs and Ham; Hop on Pop; Fox in Socks is on sale for just $26.47.

That’s five iconic Dr. Seuss books for less than $30, which is an awesome deal considering each of these books typically sells for around $9 to $12 individually.

This book set is the perfect gift for new parents, birthdays, holidays, or just to add to the family home library.

Best Kindle deal Opens in a new window Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Our pick: 'Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals' by Oliver Burkeman $2.99 at Amazon
$19.99 Save $17.00 Get Deal Why we like it

If you’ve ever mumbled that 24 hours just wasn’t enough time in a day, Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals — currently 84% off the Kindle edition price — might be just the book for you.

This book has a ton of “life hacks” that can help you prioritize your time and figure out what's really worth doing — it's kind of an anti-productivity productivity book. If you're overwhelmed by the constant demands on your time and attention, this e-book promises to help you take back control and get more done.

You can get it for free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription, or pay just $2.99 to own it outright.

More book deals

• The Rule Book: A Novel by Sarah Adams — $12.09 $18 (save $5.91)

• Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus — $15.37 $29 (save $13.63)

• A Fate Inked in Blood: Book One of the Saga of the Unfated by Danielle L. Jensen — $16.99 $29.99 (save $13)

• The Ministry of Time: A Novel by Kaliane Bradley — $17.89 $28.99 (save $11.10)

• George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set: Song of Ice and Fire Series — $33.84 $49.95 (save $16.11)

On Wednesday morning, a tropical storm called Helene just off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula had just been upgraded to a hurricane — one all but certain to hit Florida on Thursday.

Now is the time when we all love to stare at cones and "spaghetti models" showing potential paths as the storm makes its approach, but right from the jump: Please be careful about how you consume this notoriously misunderstood information.

Tweet may have been deleted SEE ALSO: Why it's impossible to forecast the weather too far into the future NOAA's cone graphic of Hurricane Helene

According to NOAA, as of 4:00 a.m. ET Wednesday, "There is a danger of life-threatening storm surge along the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula and Florida Big Bend. The highest inundation levels are expected along the coast of the Florida Big Bend." In graphic form, that looks like this:

NOAA's cone graphic of Tropical Storm Helene showing threats to parts of Mexico and Florida. Credit: NOAA

As a reminder, NOAA's cone graphic is a fairly reliable prediction of the range of paths the center of the storm may take. The cone is not — as it may appear at first glance — a prediction of an ever-widening storm exploding into the inland United States. Severe wind and storm surge can, and probably will, occur outside the cone, and some areas inside the cone will emerge from the storm totally unscathed.

SEE ALSO: U.S. government plane snaps intense footage inside mighty Hurricane Beryl

If you're reading this, and it turns out you end up directly in the path of a hurricane, an evacuation order will be hard to miss. At this phase, rather than speculating about whether your specific neighborhood will face the high winds and storm surge that come from a direct hit from a hurricane, in most areas it would be wiser to just heed NOAA's broader warning from Tuesday:

Heavy rainfall will likely result in locally considerable flash flooding across portions of Florida, with isolated flash and urban flooding possible across the Southeast, Southern Appalachians, and the Tennessee Valley Wednesday through Friday.

Spaghetti model for Helene

Spaghetti models, like the NOAA cone model, visualize mathematical possibilities.

Unlike the cone, they present the actual paths predicted by a collection of computer models, all spilling out like spaghetti from Strega Nona's magical pasta pot. And like the cone, the spaghetti model can be deceptive. All the paths in the spaghetti model are both speculative and contradictions of one another. The actual storm will only follow one path, and it's almost certain that none of the predicted paths in this splatter of noodles will be perfectly predictive.

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The above model, posted online on the personal X account of Clark Evans, who works as a research physical scientist at NOAA, shows a fairly tight collection of paths. The storm appears to be headed to the Big Bend, and looks like it could easily thread the needle between Panama City Beach in the west and Tallahassee in the east — mostly avoiding heavily populated areas. But some paths in the spaghetti model do show the storm hitting those populous areas. If this spaghetti is to be believed, Tampa will not face a direct hit.

Outlier events most often do not come true. But events also don't conform to averages of predictions. Though top weather models can be astonishingly accurate, the weather simply occurs, and its precise schema is, and will always be, totally alien thanks to the incalculable number of tiny natural and man-made factors that contribute to outcomes.

Check out the best Amazon deals of the day as of Sept. 25: OUR TOP PICK Blink Video Doorbell $29.99 at Amazon (save $30) Get Deal BEST TV DEAL LG 48-inch C4 OLED evo 4K TV $1,096.99 at Amazon (save $503) Get Deal BEST ECHO DEAL Amazon Echo Frames (3rd gen) Sunglasses $199.99 at Amazon (save $130) Get Deal

Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days is less than two weeks away and deals are already abundant. We've been keeping our eyes peeled for the best ones to shop ahead of the big event. The early bird gets the worm, as they say. Or, in this case, the early shopper gets to take home great deals before everyone else.

Here are our top picks for the best Amazon deals of the day for Sept. 25, so you can be an early bird. If none of these catch your eye, check out our picks from Sept. 23 and Sept. 24, and keep your eyes peeled for brand-new selections each day this week.

Our top pick Opens in a new window Credit: Blink Blink Video Doorbell $29.99 at Amazon
$59.99 Save $30.00 Get Deal

The Blink Video Doorbell is already down to $29.99 at Amazon, which is 50% off its retail price and matches its Prime Day price from July. There's a chance it could drop even more on Prime Big Deal Days, but this might be the lowest price we'll see. Either way, you can rest assured you're getting an awesome deal if you shop early. This smart doorbell lets you see who's at your door even when you're not home with a 1080p HD live view and two-way audio, plus infrared night vision after the sun goes down. Get it for half price as of Sept. 25.

Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 48-inch C4 OLED evo 4K TV $1,096.99 at Amazon
$1,599.99 Save $503.00 Get Deal

Bring the magic of cinema home with a high-end TV like LG's C4 OLED evo 4K TV. A newer version of our favorite TV for gaming, the C4 features an updated processor, upgraded software, a 144Hz maximum refresh rate (vs. the previous model's 120Hz), and an even brighter and more dynamic screen. It also features a nearly invisible bezel and the ability to display artwork and photos like Samsung's The Frame TV. Basically, if you want the best possible viewing experience when you're watching and the option for it to blend into your space when you're not watching, the C4 OLED evo is for you. As of Sept. 25, you can even save 31% on the 48-inch model and get it for $1,096.99 at Amazon. That's a $100 drop from its most recent sale price and its lowest price to date.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo Frames Sunglasses (3rd gen) $199.99 at Amazon
$329.99 Save $130.00 Get Deal

If you prefer your tech to be discreetly disguised into everyday glasses, check out the Echo Frames. These babies are equipped with Alexa, so you can use them to control your smart home devices and ask important questions. Plus, you won't have to worry about taking out your phone or popping earbuds in and out to take calls, listen to tunes, or stream podcasts. They'll last you up to 14 hours on a charge and come in five unique styles, depending on the lens type. The sunglasses are currently on sale for just $199.99 at Amazon, which is a 39% price drop from the usual $329.99. Last Prime Day we saw them drop to $169.99, so we'll be keeping an eye out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, this is still a pretty great deal.

None of these deals catching your eye? Check out Amazon's daily deals for even more savings.

An "Apartment 7A" clip features Julia Garner pushed to her breaking point in "Rosemary's Baby" prequel.

In 1986, it was weird that The Legend of Zelda was about a guy named Link. In 1998, Nintendo reinvented the series in 3D, but didn’t mess with the franchise’s fundamental contradiction. In 2017, Zelda was reinvented yet again with Breath of the Wild (and further expanded in 2023 with Tears of the Kingdom), but still, the series' namesake has frustratingly almost always sat in the margins.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Nintendo and developer Grezzo finally addressed the elephant in the room and made a new, mainline 2D Legend of Zelda game where you actually play as Princess Zelda. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a pleasant surprise on a number of fronts; I didn’t expect to see a new Zelda game before Switch 2 launched, I didn’t expect Zelda to actually take the starring role anytime soon, and I certainly didn’t think Nintendo would find a way to successfully marry what Zelda used to be with what Zelda is now.

But it has, and for that we should all be thankful. Echoes of Wisdom is a mostly delightful synthesis of Zelda’s classic puzzle box sensibilities with a more open-ended design ethos, similar to Breath and Tears. It doesn’t close the loop on every idea it has, but that doesn’t stop it from being extremely fun.

Even if it wasn’t those things, it would still be rad just to finally play as Zelda for a full game.

Echoes of Wisdom asks Link to step to the sideline Sorry, little guy. Credit: Nintendo

Almost every Legend of Zelda game up until now has been about Princess Zelda being kidnapped or otherwise vanishing for nefarious reasons, leaving Link to go save her, usually from Ganon or someone adjacent to the series’ famous villain. Nintendo has occasionally veered away from this in the past (Majora’s Mask being the most successful example), but one thing that took me a bit by surprise in Echoes of Wisdom is how straightforward a Zelda story it is.

Mysterious purple rifts have begun opening up around Hyrule, sucking any nearby terrain, buildings, and people into an off-putting place called the Still World. Echoes opens with Link attempting to save Zelda (in this incarnation, the two have never met before), but instead, he gets pulled into a rift and it's up to Zelda to essentially do Link’s job for him.

Aside from the role reversal between Link and Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom plays out pretty much like any other game in the series. You’ll travel from one region of Hyrule to the next, interacting with Gorons, Zoras, Deku Scrubs, and other classic Zelda entities on your journey to save the kingdom. Each area has some underlying problem Zelda needs to solve, which always winds up with Zelda attempting to clear a dungeon of some sort.

Echoes of Wisdom is clearly meant to be more slight in the storytelling department than either of its two most recent predecessors. There is no voice acting, cutscenes are generally pretty quick, and the plot is mostly bereft of huge, shocking twists and turns. It’s humble and respectable, though I wish there was a tiny bit more here. 

It’s hard to explain why without getting into spoiler territory, but I’ll say that the final hour or so of gameplay in Tears of the Kingdom got me feeling teary-eyed and sentimental about Zelda, while Echoes never elicited a similar response in me. It’s frequently charming and funny enough that I’m fine with that, though. 

Echoes of Wisdom bridges old and new Tri is a cool little fella. Credit: Nintendo

Echoes of Wisdom may not be particularly adventurous with its narrative elements, but it more than makes up for that mechanically.

As has been covered by pre-launch marketing and my own hands-on piece a couple of weeks ago, this game is all about makin' stuff out of thin air. Zelda quickly meets a magical floating friend named Tri who gifts Zelda with a staff that can absorb the essences of inanimate objects and monsters. Once you’ve done so, you can spawn copies (or echoes) of that object or monster to your hearts’ content.

Well, almost. Tri has an energy meter that puts a strict limitation on how many (and what kinds of) echoes you can conjure. For example, a powerful Lizalfos monster is so expensive to make that you can only have one out at a time, but basic objects like tables are cheaper, so duplicating those is possible. Tri’s capabilities level up over time, adding to a nice sense of progression that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom didn’t necessarily have.

I would say the most impressive thing about Echoes of Wisdom is that I believe it has something for every kind of Zelda fan. If you love the improvisational problem-solving of the more recent games, there’s plenty of that here. If you love a smaller, more structured and linear adventure with actual dungeons, that’s also what Echoes of Wisdom is, and it has plenty of those.

Beds are very useful. Credit: Nintendo

Unlike Breath and Tears, you can’t just go wherever you want after the tutorial. There’s a mild illusion of non-linearity in parts of the story, but for the most part, you will go where the designers want you to go. Echoes also mostly lacks survival elements like needing to prepare for extreme temperatures, while totally eschewing the complicated physics engine of the other two Switch games. Sure, some echoes can float on water and some can’t, but generally speaking, everything behaves very predictably. 

By gatekeeping certain regions behind story progress and carefully placing new echoes near places where they might come in handy, Echoes of Wisdom’s designers have adeptly recreated the feeling of finding the hookshot or boomerang in an old Zelda without sacrificing player creativity in the process. Sure, that echo you just found outside the room you’re in might be the way to solve the puzzle, but there’s usually a faster and easier way if you really think about it.

Quickly, I’d also like to acknowledge the incredible addition of lock-on targeting to a 2D Zelda game. It works exactly how you think it should and makes aiming at faraway objects so much easier than it used to be. 

Echoes of Wisdom doesn’t always ask enough of the player The bind/reverse bond system isn't as necessary as it could be. Credit: Nintendo

I would estimate that roughly 80 to 90 percent of the moment-to-moment puzzle solving in Echoes of Wisdom is delightful and clever. There was usually at least one room in a dungeon where, after figuring out the solution, I’d think “oh man, that’s really neat!” to myself. 

Unfortunately, that other 10 to 20 percent is a problem. Echoes of Wisdom actually, at times, has too many ideas going on and doesn’t always know how to best deploy them. The "bind" mechanic is a great example of this. You can use it to telekinetically move objects and monsters around (not unlike Ultrahand in Tears of the Kingdom), which definitely comes in handy all throughout the adventure.

However, there’s another side of "bind" called "reverse bond" that will make Zelda mimic the object or monster’s movements, rather than the other way around, and that’s where Echoes of Wisdom starts to disappoint. This seems really cool in the tutorial, where you use reverse bond to clear gaps by floating underneath moving platforms. Strangely, though, the game almost never requires the player to use this mechanic again. I was able to clear the story and a decent number of side quests without reverse bonding to almost anything unless I forced myself to use it.

Even the echo system isn't without its faults. Over time, I found myself gravitating towards a small handful of very useful echoes for every situation at the expense of the literally dozens of others I’d found. By the second half of the game, I had a massive roster of echoes and regularly used about seven or eight of them. It's not that the opportunities for creativity aren’t there, but the game doesn’t always force you to be creative as much as I’d like.

Combat is another area where an abundance of ideas actually feels a little limiting. Creating echoes of monsters to fight on your behalf is the main method of taking out enemies, and I would say it’s also the most enjoyable. At its best, it feels like they’ve turned Zelda into Pikmin, with the player desperately avoiding enemies while ordering minions to protect them. 

You can change costumes, too. Credit: Nintendo

Sadly, Echoes of Wisdom doesn’t commit all the way to this idea. Not long into the adventure, Zelda unlocks "Swordfighter Form," which basically turns her into a ghostly version of Link with access to a sword. This upgradeable form is limited by an energy meter that becomes easier and easier to refill over time, meaning that by the end of the game, this was the only way I handled any combat encounter.

On top of that, Zelda eventually gets the ability to craft and deploy robotic automatons with powerful and unique combat abilities. This is a cool idea that is nonetheless totally optional and adds next to nothing to the game. Despite very much wanting to use them, I never found a single situation where throwing an automaton out into the field felt necessary. 

I can see how these are tricky problems to solve from a game designers' perspective. The uber-mainstream and family-friendly nature of any big-name Nintendo game is going to necessarily limit the difficulty level. Creating too many puzzles that absolutely require the use of one certain ability, echo, or automaton would be dissonant with the game’s mechanics, too.

But there’s still sometimes a noteworthy disconnect between the number of options you have at your disposal and the simplicity of the problems you need them for. I just never felt like there was a single dungeon or puzzle that brought all of these ideas together at the same time.

That Link’s Awakening art style is still adorable Zoras! Credit: Nintendo

Visually, Echoes of Wisdom uses the same lightly Funko Pop-looking art style as the 2019 Link’s Awakening Switch remake. Characters have big heads, little bodies, and beady little black eyes that are shockingly expressive for how simplistic they look.

It was a charming aesthetic in 2019 and it remains charming now. Most notably, Echoes of Wisdom actually runs a bit better than that Link’s Awakening remake did. The latter rapidly oscillated between 60 frames per second and 30 FPS depending on if you were indoors or outdoors. Echoes of Wisdom is sadly still pretty inconsistent relative to other games (it still varies between those two target frame rates), but it’s not quite as egregious as Link’s Awakening. 

Zelda always brings the noise

Would you be shocked if I told you a Legend of Zelda game has great music?

This is so unsurprising that it barely warrants a mention, but Echoes of Wisdom’s audio presentation is excellent. They gave Zelda her own little overworld theme song that will be stuck in your head for weeks. I also appreciate the occasional incorporation of "Zelda’s Lullaby" from Ocarina of Time, but Nintendo has been doing that for decades, so it’s not really new.

The tunes themselves are catchy and atmospheric, but the sparse instrumentation drives the soundtrack home. These aren’t giant, swelling orchestral productions; songs will usually sound like they could’ve been recorded by just a few people. It fits nicely with the less grandiose nature of the game.

Is The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom worth getting?

There are a couple of areas in which Echoes of Wisdom is a slight disappointment. Its story isn’t quite as ambitious as it could have been given the historic opportunity to make the first Zelda game starring Zelda. Mechanically, it bites off a tiny bit more than it can chew, leaving players with more options than they need or can even realistically use.

But everything else about it rules. Its aesthetic and music are endearing, the echo system creates tons of really clever puzzle solutions, and it harkens back to old Zelda games without abandoning what makes the newer ones special. The total playtime, even if you do a lot of side quests, also tops out at 25 to 30 hours, so it's a fulfilling adventure that doesn't monopolize too much of your free time.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom may not be a big Switch 2 blowout launch title, but it is a mostly delectable late-in-life treat for Switch owners.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch on Sept. 26.

"Daily Show" host Desi Lydic has responded to Trump's attempts to win back women voters during a recent rally in Pennsylvania.

For the first time since CEO Elon Musk's takeover of X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform is taking the public behind the scenes of its increasingly opaque reporting and moderation practices. Sort of.

Released today, the 15-page Global Transparency Report is the first public report on internal enforcement data beyond Dec. 2021 (Musk took over Twitter in Oct. 2022). It covers the first six months of 2024, and attempts to paint a picture of the platform's new enforcement ethos. According to the data, X received more than 224 million user reports, suspended more than 5 million users, and took down more than 10 million posts between January and June.

Previously, Twitter issued twice-yearly reports on its enforcement mechanisms via its Transparency Center. The practice began in 2012, and didn't stop until new ownership took hold over the platform's reigns. At the time, Musk spoke openly about fighting the government's "bullying" of social media platforms and tech leaders, which included shutting out researchers from internal data like transparency reports.

SEE ALSO: Blocking users will soon be banned on X

Now, the platform has changed its tune. "Our policies and enforcement principles are grounded in human rights, and we have been taking an extensive and holistic approach towards freedom of expression by investing in developing a broader range of remediations, with a particular focus on education, rehabilitation, and deterrence," the report reads. "These beliefs are the foundation of 'Freedom of Speech, not Freedom of Reach'— our enforcement philosophy, which means we restrict the reach of posts, only where appropriate, to make the content less discoverable as an alternative to removal."

The report is notably more scarce than previous iterations. It features a brief run down of user reporting and corresponding company action, covering a variety of policy areas, including child safety, abuse and harassment, platform manipulation, and suicide and self-harm. It depicts a hybrid machine-learning and human moderation process, featuring an "international, cross-functional team with 24-hour coverage," making enforcement decisions.

What "rehabilitation" looks like is not explained — although previous reinstatements of some of the platform's worst offenders, and the focus on account suspensions in the report, suggest X is moving away from outright banning.

X sent 370,588 reports of child exploitation, required by law, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)'s CyberTipline in the first half of the year. The platform says it also suspended more than 2 million accounts actively engaging with child sexual abuse media (CSAM). In 2021, X/Twitter reported 86,000 cases to NCMEC. The number increased to 98,000 in 2022, and then saw a massive jump to 870,000 in 2023.

An X spokesperson explained the jump in numbers in a statement to Mashable. "In 2023, X updated its enforcement guidelines to also suspend users who engaged with actioned CSAM content (Like, Reply, Share, Bookmark, etc.) and added additional proactive defenses. We saw a spike in enforcements after these changes (catching and cleaning up an existing problem), and we believe that those changes have been effective at discouraging users from either sharing CSAM or looking for it (the actions trending down over time, even though we continue to improve defenses)."

The report also offers (limited) information on government data requests and removals, formerly a major focus of Twitter's reporting as it then championed for a more "open" internet. At the time of the 2021 report, X/Twitter said it had fielded 11,460 requests for information from 67 countries, complying with 40.2 percent of them. In 2024, the platform reported more than 18,000 requests for information and 72,000 requests for content removal from an undisclosed amount of countries. X reportedly disclosed information in 52 percent of cases and complied with 70 percent of removal requests.

The report drops as the platform is subtly revamping itself and its generative AI offerings pre-election. In previous months, X has quietly reinvested in its safety and security teams, with Musk simultaneously redefining the notion of site wide "transparency" and supporting content moderation tools. The CEO also announced this week that the company will soon shutter the site's block feature.

For those of us TV fans who cut the cable cord ages ago, it's time again to cut... something. I don't honestly know what we're cutting this time exactly. But it's time to cancel all your streaming services. To use the industry term, churn out every month, and don't churn back in unless a particular service has something you just can't miss.

That's right: go cancel them all.

After all, how many of these ever-increasing monthly fees are you already tolerating? The average is reportedly four, and depending on whether or not you pay for the ad-free options, that could set you back about $75 per month. And four services isn't enough to keep you in the loop about everything buzzy on TV. If you just pay for four of the most popular ones — perhaps Netflix, Max, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ — you missed awards juggernaut Shōgun on Hulu (the ad-free version of which now costs an eye-watering $18.99 per month). And how have you survived 2024 without the Olympics on Peacock? Oh, and you're on track to miss out on Severance season 2 if you're not an Apple TV+ subscriber.

Tweet may have been deleted

The sneaky price spiral just goes on and on until you're paying more than the cost of cable — and there's a good chance you are.

Then again, you probably don't just watch your favorite shows. If you're like a lot of people, you often fire up a streaming service app, browse to whatever you've seen talked about online, and give it a try. And what's your reward for such open-mindedness? Perhaps you watched streaming services dump some of your favorite characters into festering swamps like they did in Secret Invasion, or Velma. Maybe you tuned into The Circle season 6, which featured the unwatchably try-hard plot twist of an "AI" contestant. Maybe you checked out The Idol, or Deep Fake Love, which you'd heard were so bad they're good, but they turned out to be so bad that you just want those precious hours of your life back.

Millions of Americans are already quitting in 2024. In response to password-sharing crackdowns, rising costs, and the proliferation of ads on streamers like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime — which one day decided to turn ads on for you by default — consumers in 2024 are cancelling streaming services in record numbers. 

But don't just make a mental note to cancel when the offerings on one service or another feel exceptionally dire; go cold turkey right now. The best part of streaming à la carte instead of paying all the time is the newfound freedom you'll feel not to watch the next big thing if you don't really want to. You'll soon notice that other, cheaper, better ways of consuming TV and movies have just become strangely attractive.

SEE ALSO: Netflix is axing its cheapest ad-free tier How streaming arrived at its cut-the-cord moment so fast

Cord cutting the first time around was a no-brainer because it felt like everyone agreed that cable was a drag. Watching TV in the '90s sometimes meant clicking around the upper channels of your cable package, waiting for something — anything remotely interesting, please — to come back from an epic commercial marathon. It certainly wasn't what you wanted as a paying consumer, but it was obviously the experience the pay TV industry wanted you to have. 

For millions of cord cutters (not to mention "cord nevers") that experience is gone forever, but the feeling of time and money flushed down the toilet, supposedly in the name of "entertainment," is back with a vengeance. 

A decade ago, it felt like the Silicon Valley disruptors had arrived to fix the entertainment industry. House of Cards showed up on Netflix in 2013 like a precision-guided missile of politically charged melodrama straight to the cerebral cortexes of "discerning" viewers like myself. (It turned out we weren't all that discerning; we were just TV gluttons at our first all-you-can-eat buffet). Netflix's addictive grand slam during its first at-bat was astonishing. The networks could never. HBO could sometimes, but who can remember what HBO's first-ever drama even was? (Answer: Philip Marlowe, Private Eye. Yeah, me neither). 

Netflix was defying the very laws of entertainment industry physics. The stream-and-binge TV era had begun, and it felt like nothing would ever be the same. The Big Data guru Rick Smolan told the New York Times' David Carr in 2013, "Programmers have been wandering out and shooting a shotgun into the night sky and hoping they hit something, and I end up paying $150 for channels full of nothing I want to watch. These guys know what they are aiming at." 

But the TV industry has fully reverted to its old ways in the decade since that House of Cards moment. The business is once again all about getting people to overpay for tons and tons of ad-saturated mediocrity. Dan Goman, CEO of the video software company Ateliere Creative Solutions, told Forbes earlier this year that, "For many years, streaming services offered subscriptions at rates that were enticingly low," but that, "We’re now seeing the industry gravitating toward familiar models — ads and bundles."

You already know the highlights here: One after another, streaming services are hiking their prices, in a series of moves designed to push consumers to cheaper ad-supported tiers which generate more revenue than the premium ones. Meanwhile, the services themselves kill programming users expect to be there in an effort to cut their spending on library content, all while degrading cherished brands, abandoning quality in favor of quantity, and — perhaps oddest and most irksome of all — cutting corners on audio, making it hard to literally hear the content we're paying our hard-earned money for. 

The term "enshittification" is overused these days, but this sort of thing is exactly what its coiner, Cory Doctorow, had in mind when he came up with it. As Doctorow wrote last year:

Why is Netflix putting the screws to its customers? It’s part of the enshittification cycle, where platform companies first allocate surpluses to their customers, luring them in and using them as bait for business customers. Once they turn up, the companies reallocate surpluses to businesses, lavishing them with low commissions and lots of revenue opportunities. And once they’re locked in, the company starts to claw back the surpluses for itself.

Do streaming services deserve your passive, monthly dollars?

Regardless of how you feel about the overall degradation of the streaming experience, maybe you just like knowing the content you love is available anytime you want, and that makes keeping your subscriptions worthwhile. But time and again, you've opened up a streaming service hoping to see something you could have sworn was there, and it was just... gone. It's not your imagination. On top of everything else, Streamland has become a messy place where it's never clear how to find what you want, and what you can count on today might be gone tomorrow.

Think the trashy reality show that binds your friend group together will always have a home on Peacock? Think your Disney+ subscription is a parenting must-have because it houses the whole Disney and Marvel animated universes? Think the long-awaited streaming service Venu (assuming it's ever allowed to exist) has the makings of the mythical stable home for sports programming that all sports fans have been dreaming of? 

Think again. Fire up any given streaming service, and what you'll see is the confusing result of behind the scenes wheeling-and-dealing, with no apparent thought given to reliability or viewer convenience.

As an illustration of this convenience problem, look at Sex and the City. The intuitive place to watch all things Sex and the City is Max, the service formerly known as HBO Max, but Sex and the City's availability on Max may well be in danger. Yes, SATC is safe on Max for now, but starting this past April, it became available on Netflix too. A bit confusing, but as soon as the dollars and cents penciled out, Max's parent company gave up exclusivity and let Netflix in on the action. If you can keep track of all this in your head, no big deal, but it gets worse: you'd better believe that one day soon, Max may very well stop streaming Sex and the City. If that sounds implausible, it shouldn't. You already can't watch the movie Sex and the City 2 on Max.

Max, like all streaming services, will unceremoniously dump its most treasured content if it feels like it. I cannot watch my personal favorite COVID-era movie, An American Pickle, on Max — nor on literally any streaming service whatsoever — even though it was an HBO Max exclusive when it debuted. And remember HBO's hit show Westworld? You already can't watch it at all on Max even though it bagged Emmys and was by some measures HBO's biggest hit of all time. Want to stream Westworld on a monthly service? As far as I can tell, there is one streaming service with exclusive streaming rights to Westworld: DIRECTTV's "Premier" streaming package, which will set you back — are you sitting down? — $149.99 per month.

This brand of chaos is the most reliable attribute in the streaming universe. Not even bundling Hulu and Disney+ together guarantees access to all things Marvel. To wit: Marvel's Runaways, a Hulu original is now exclusive to Apple TV+. The Office — a longtime NBC hit which achieved cultural critical mass only when it became a Netflix staple, is no longer on Netflix. For that you have to go to Peacock, the NBCUniversal streaming service, which is making itself a major destination by becoming the only place to stream the likes of Yellowstone, the biggest hit on the Paramount Network, but which doesn't stream on Paramount+. So you might assume you need the all-powerful Peacock for that other NBC mega-hit, Friends, right? Not so much. Friends is only available on... Netflix? Nope, for heaven only knows what reason (money), Friends is only available on Max. Netflix is no longer your destination for legendary NBC shows. Oh, except Seinfeld. For the next two years. And after that who knows? 

The promise of streaming in the first place was instant gratification, and subscribing to upwards of eight streaming services doesn't guarantee any gratification at all. What's a content addict to do?

Watch whatever you want. You're free.

After you cancel them all, you'll find that in a manner of speaking, you have more access to the programming you want, not less.

In the barbaric bygone days of content consumption, everyone tolerated something called "video rental." Before Netflix came along and started mailing people discs in paper sleeves (yes, that was once the entire Netflix business model), this way of consuming movies and TV involved the very real hassle of physically getting off your duff and going to a store. It also meant an even worse hassle that seems totally alien now: late fees. But in terms of content-for-money, this terrible system was vastly superior to what we have today. The viewing possibilities felt truly limitless. If your local chain video store didn’t have what you were looking for, you could hunt for it elsewhere in town, or — if it was really obscure — fork over the extra money and buy it, even if that meant importing a disc from another country.

That feeling of boundless possibility is partly why some people — mostly nostalgic film buffs — are still video store partisans. But you don't have to take on any such affectation to get the benefits of the pre-streaming lifestyle (and none of the drawbacks) thanks to this one weird trick: just watch TV and movies à la carte. À la carte video rental is admittedly a form of streaming, but without the subscription. And it couldn't be easier to get started: You can just Google the exact movie or TV show you want to watch, find a site that lets you rent or "buy" that piece of content for viewing on your preferred device or smart TV, and enjoy your truly personalized entertainment experience. 

Forking over these small amounts can feel like a splurge or even a defeat if you already pay the standard American $75 per month to access "unlimited" streaming content on a bunch of streaming services, but if you cut ties with those monthly fees, you'll instantly have a nice à la carte budget. Most movies will set you back somewhere between $2 and $5 (fresh-from-theaters new releases like Blink Twice can set you back $19.99, but that sort of extravagance isn't really part of the à la carte equation), and watching a single TV show episode can look like a $0.99 rental or a rather steep $2.99 "purchase" with no option to rent.

And à la carte is, in fact, essentially the only way to watch some of those favorites I mentioned earlier, like Westworld and An American Pickle. The freedom of being a streaming service cord cutter, then, means you're in a charmed position in which you can just not sweat the shrinking archives at the streaming services at all.

Not relying on streaming services changes how you watch, but only a little Tweet may have been deleted

Canceling your streaming services and getting yourself used to à la carte streaming are just two steps on the path to maximizing your entertainment dollar. While you're at it, an antenna and a blu-ray/DVD player are good investments that will pay for themselves in a hurry. What's more, your local library has discs you can bring home for free, and if you're honest with yourself, you probably have some movies and box sets collecting dust around the house that you could watch instead of chasing a new shiny object on one of the streamers. 

Now that you're free, you can make a bucket list of every movie and TV show you've ever hoped to watch, and just work your way through it.

As for me, I've started thinking about TV somewhat differently, but I don't feel nearly as cut off as one might think. I subscribed to Max recently so I could watch Curb Your Enthusiasm's final season, and while I had that subscription, I scratched a couple movies from the Max archive off my watchlist before canceling. When White Lotus season 3 comes out, this cycle will begin again.

Sports were a problem when I had streaming services, and it's certainly still a problem now that I don't, but I have an antenna for in-market games, and I watch baseball in bars — where other fans are — instead of at home.

But the best way to summarize my new TV outlook is my attitude toward the Star Wars franchise. I've completely avoided all the Star Wars shows, and I have no regrets, but I'm considering watching Andor. I might, and I might not. As a streaming cord cutter, I still enjoy taking risks on new streaming shows from time to time like White Lotus and The Curse, but I mostly prefer bucket list classics, or shows where I'm more or less guaranteed to get what I want, like Law & Order: Organized Crime (available for free with my trusty antenna). In short, I rarely involve myself in shows with those deliciously intriguing opening episodes, which might turn out to be genius, but let's face it, usually turn out to be the TV equivalent of low-effort clickbait.

So if the second and final season of Andor jumps the shark, I'll have dodged a bullet. If it gets the same rapturous response as the first season, then I'll know it's a good bet. I'll subscribe to ad-free Disney+ for exactly one month, and I'll watch the whole thing at my own pace.