Analysis: Recent headlines reveal the two truths about social media
CNN
A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter.
Two things have been made even more apparent in recent days: That social media can be exceptionally corrosive to society and that people will still continue to use the products in mind-boggling numbers. The storm of recent headlines might be tarnishing the reputation of Facebook and some of the other industry giants, but the numbers these companies are reporting in their earnings reports show that people will continue to use their products regardless.
Yes, there is a lot of huffing and puffing going on right now about how dangerous these products are, how unethical they behave, how for years they have poisoned the public conversation with hate and misinformation and outright lies and conspiracy theories. And yet, it must be asked: Has that compelled sizable numbers of users to logoff? To hit the delete button? To walk away from the toxicity?
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning.
In the year 1998 – when Bill Clinton was president, most households still had landline phones, and CNN’s website looked like this – Gallup and USA Today called up 1,055 Americans on those landlines and asked them for their best predictions about a year in the distant future: 2025.
Repeatedly this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flown to the United States to praise President Donald Trump as Israel’s greatest champion — and to quietly press him on taking more aggressive action against Israel’s enemies.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has a remarkable record of transforming his old dissenting opinions into the new majority view and setting the direction of the law in America.
(CNN) — One person was killed and another was left critically injured after two helicopters crashed in southern New Jersey on Sunday, officials said.
Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he targeted US political parties because they were ‘in charge,’ memo says
The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington, DC, on the eve of the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol told investigators after his arrest that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that he wanted to target the country’s political parties because they were “in charge,” prosecutors said Sunday.
The train’s main line only came into service in 2023, under a new program aiming to create an alternative to the Panama Canal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traded freezing, missile-tormented Kyiv on Sunday for the frescoed dining room at Mar-a-Lago, where he hoped to gain President Donald Trump’s sign-off on a revised 20-point peace plan to end the war in his country.
More than 30 million people are under winter weather alerts across the Midwest and Northeast early this week with another storm threatening to upend travelers’ plans on what is expected to be one of the busiest travel days this holiday season.
The night was warm and muggy over New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware, the kind of heat that clung to the metal skins of the alert fighter jets lined along the runway.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives here Sunday as his frozen capital of Kyiv comes under assault by Russian missiles and drones, a deadly reminder from the war’s aggressor that its attacks would continue even amid accelerated peace talks.
A Cuban immigrant who had built a new life working at a Kentucky scrapyard died on Christmas Day from severe burns suffered in last month’s UPS cargo plane crash, raising the death toll to 15, officials said.
At least 15 people were killed and 19 injured after a passenger bus plunged into a ravine on the Inter-American Highway in western Guatemala, authorities said on Saturday.