The COVID effect: How more time at home translated to record porn views
The line between work and play has became blurred during the pandemic.
16 July, 2020
Credit: Mariia Korneeva / Shutterstock
- Pornhub measured its daily traffic and reported an average increase of 24% in daily traffic compared to days before COVID-19 lockdown.
- During lockdown, VR porn has helped breach the gap between social distancing and human connection.
- There are many reasons it's better to pay for porn than rely on free websites: it reduces exploitation, the quality is better, and you can dive into the world of VR.
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<p>Since the breakout of COVID-19, we have seen an undeniable pattern: As countries went into isolation, their use of porn increased. Pornhub, the worlds largest porn website, measured its daily traffic and reported an average <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/coronavirus-update-april-14" target="_blank">increase of 24% in daily traffic</a> compared to days before lockdown. Interestingly, the countries that were slow to isolate showed no increase in traffic until they went into isolation.</p><p>To provide an example, Italy, which was one of the first European countries to go into lockdown, saw its use of porn increase by <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/coronavirus-update-april-2#demographic" target="_blank">57% on March 12</a> compared to previous days. Both the United Kingdom and the United States, however, which were slower to respond to the pandemic, saw an increase in porn traffic later in March, just as they began to tighten social policy.</p>
Porn sites' response to COVID
<p>Several porn sites made their premium features free during the pandemic so that people would be more inclined to stay at home. In addition, a number of websites enabled their verified models to upload content and receive 100% of the income generated from those videos in a bid to help support them during the pandemic.</p><p>From the beginning of March, there was a <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/verified-model-uploads" target="_blank">30% increase</a> of uploaded material from adult models compared to previous periods. Interestingly, more than 1,000 corona-themed videos were uploaded onto Pornhub, many of which received over one million views each. Surprisingly, corona and COVID were searched over 15 million times during this period.</p>How virtual reality bridged the gap of social distancing and human connection
<p>Porn fulfills a need when there is no one around but it's not quite the real thing so, after a point, it can leave us wanting a little bit more. Unfortunately, COVID is forcing us to wait a significant amount of time before we can really connect with someone, but thanks to virtual reality websites, such as <a href="https://badoinkvr.com" target="_blank">Badoink VR porn</a>, that little bit more was enough for many to stay at home, remain safe and satisfied.</p><p>Virtual reality porn is as close to the real thing as you can experience despite being completely alone. You can experience your sexual fantasies as though you are actually in the room watching or even experiencing the actors and actresses before you. When you look around the room or check out your company for the evening, you see it from a point-of-view perspective, which gives it a very realistic feel. It's the perfect bridge between reality and fantasy. Of course, it's no substitute for the real thing, but during lockdown, there are not many ways you can make it better.</p>Why paying for porn is better for everyone
<p>You may ask, 'Why pay for something when you can get it for free?' but COVID has highlighted the importance of looking after those who keep us going during difficult times. We have a reasonable expectation to pay for things that we use and consume, be it music, movies, and even dating sites, <a href="https://mashable.com/article/pay-for-your-porn-erika-lust/?europe=true" target="_blank">so why should porn be any different?</a> On some level, we recognize that we receive a better quality service or product when we make a financial contribution and doing so prevents the exploitation of others in disadvantaged circumstances.</p> <p>It's fair to say that few other industries have exploited people more than the adult industry and websites that offer free porn indirectly and perhaps unintentionally contribute to this due to video piracy, and lack of control over how the performers are being treated or rewarded for their effort. Paying for porn means that everyone gets a better deal, so consider finding a site that works for you. You can feel proud of being socially responsible and be sure to get a better quality product, especially if you are stepping into the modern era of virtual reality.</p>
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Dating over Zoom? Don’t be surprised if those online sparks fizzle in person
What are the chances that an online connection will lead to true love?
27 June, 2020
Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
For those dipping their toes into the dating pool during stay-at-home orders, it's been like swimming in a version of Netflix's reality series “Love is Blind."
<p>In the show, contestants must get engaged before ever actually meeting one another in person. And while a lockdown engagement might be a bit extreme, it's entirely possible that two people have grown to really like one another over the previous weeks and months. Maybe it started with a match on a dating app, followed by flirting over text. Then came regularly scheduled <a href="https://lifehacker.com/how-to-have-a-successful-zoom-date-1842885540" target="_blank">Zoom dates</a>. Perhaps they've even started envisioning a future together. </p><p>Now, as states start to ease restrictions, some may have broached taking the next step: an in-person rendezvous.</p><p>What are the chances that their online connection will lead to true love?</p><p>In my book, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Science_of_Kissing/SQhknRXlyvkC?hl=en&gbpv=0" target="_blank">The Science of Kissing</a>," I describe how compatibility requires engaging all of our senses. And absent the touch, taste and smell of a potential partner, people dating online during quarantine have essentially been flying blind.</p>
<h2>Muzzled neurotransmitters</h2><p>Human attraction involves the influence of cues that evolved over millions of years.</p><p>On a traditional date in a restaurant or move theater, we actively gather details about someone by walking side by side, holding hands, hugging and – if things get far enough – kissing. These experiences send neural impulses between the brain and body, stimulating tiny chemical messengers that affect how we feel. When two people are a good match, hormones and neurotransmitters bring about the sensations we might describe as being on a natural high or experiencing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-love-you-and-thats-not-the-dopamine-talking-5217" target="_blank">exhilaration of butterflies</a>. Finding love isn't rocket science – it's anatomy, endocrinology and real chemistry.</p><p>One of the most important neurotransmitters involved in influencing our emotions is dopamine, responsible for craving and desire. This natural drug can be promoted through physical intimacy and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772" target="_blank">leads to the addictive nature of a new relationship</a>. Of course, dopamine is just one player in a chemical symphony that motivates behavior. Intimate encounters also promote the release of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.12.021" target="_blank">oxytocin</a>, which creates a sense of attachment and affection, and epinephrine, which boosts our heart rate and reduces stress. There's also a decrease in serotonin, which can lead to obsessive thoughts and feelings about the other person.</p><p>In fact, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/alteration-of-the-platelet-serotonin-transporter-in-romantic-love/9599BA293019DFA6D05B315803B6D2A7" target="_blank">one study showed</a> that people who report that they've just "fallen in love" have levels of serotonin similar to patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. This chemical cocktail can even lead to trouble sleeping or a loss of appetite – symptoms people often attribute to meeting "the one."</p><p>Our noses also play a powerful role in who we fall for. The famous "<a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.1995.0087" target="_blank">sweaty t-shirt experiment</a>" reported that a man's natural scent may influence how women choose a partner. The women in the study nearly always expressed a preference for the odor of men who differed genetically from them in immune response to disease. Scientists theorize that selecting someone with genetic diversity in this region, called the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK27156/" target="_blank">major histocompatibility complex</a>, could be important for producing children with flexible and versatile immune systems.</p>
<h2>A kiss can make or break it</h2><p>While a man's natural scent may not be something women consciously notice early on in a heterosexual relationship, getting up close and personal can serve as a kind of litmus test for a couple. A kiss puts two people nose to cheek, offering a reliable sample of smell and taste unrivaled by most other courtship rituals. Perhaps that's one reason a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/147470490700500310" target="_blank">2007 University of Albany study</a> reported that 59% of men and 66% of women have broken off a budding romance because of a bad first kiss.</p><p>Complicating matters, factors that typically grab our attention in person are less obvious to recognize in a witty profile or photo. <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c9eb/6443b007a655105189c2decd6d598f5bbe2d.pdf" target="_blank">Studies of online dating behavior</a> reveal superficial features are correlated with the level of interest an individual receives. For example, short-haired women do not tend to get as much attention from men as those with long, straight hair, while men who report a height of six-foot-three or six-foot-four fare better than their peers at interacting with women. The initial focus on appearance promotes pairing based on characteristics that aren't significant in lasting relationships, compared with more important factors for long-term compatibility, like <a href="https://neuro.hms.harvard.edu/harvard-mahoney-neuroscience-institute/brain-newsletter/and-brain/love-and-brain" target="_blank">intimacy</a> and shared experiences.</p><p>Still, at a time when many of us are feeling more isolated than ever, online dating does offer some benefits. Quarantine has encouraged men and women to take additional time to learn about each other prior to meeting, sparing the anxiety of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201208/take-it-slow-if-you-want-your-relationship-last" target="_blank">rushed physical intimacy</a>.</p><p>For some couples, a real-world date will kindle the spark that began online. Many others will realize they're better suited as friends.</p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sheril-kirshenbaum-145748" target="_blank">Sheril Kirshenbaum</a>, Associate Research Scientist, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/michigan-state-university-1349" target="_blank">Michigan State University</a></em></p><p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dating-over-zoom-dont-be-surprised-if-those-online-sparks-fizzle-in-person-138899" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Yes, websites really are starting to look more similar
Was the hamburger menu always so ubiquitous?
29 May, 2020
David McNew/Getty Images
Over the past few years, articles and blog posts have started to ask some version of the same question: “Why are all websites starting to look the same?"
<p><a href="http://www.novolume.co.uk/blog/all-websites-look-the-same/" target="_blank">These posts</a> usually point out some common design elements, from large images with superimposed text, to <a href="https://uxplanet.org/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-hamburger-menu-and-its-alternatives-e2da8dc7f1db" target="_blank">hamburger menus</a>, which are those three horizontal lines that, when clicked, reveal a list of page options to choose from.</p><p>My colleagues Bardia Doosti, David Crandall, Norman Su and I were studying the <a href="http://vision.soic.indiana.edu/papers/webevolution2017chi.pdf" target="_blank">history of the web</a> when we started to notice these posts cropping up. None of the authors had done any sort of empirical study, though. It was more of a hunch they had.</p><p>We decided to investigate the claim to see if there were any truth to the notion that websites are starting to look the same and, if so, explore why this has been happening. So we ran <a href="http://vision.soic.indiana.edu/web-project/" target="_blank">a series of data mining studies</a> that scrutinized nearly 200,000 images across 10,000 websites.</p>
<h2>How do you even measure similarity?</h2><p>It's virtually impossible to study the entire internet; <a href="https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2020/01/21/january-2020-web-server-survey.html" target="_blank">there are over a billion websites</a>, with many times as many webpages. Since there's no list of them all to choose from, performing a random sample of the internet is off the table. Even if it were possible, most people only see a tiny fraction of those websites regularly, so a random sample may not even capture the internet that most people experience.</p><p>We ended up using the websites of <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/russell_1000index.asp" target="_blank">the Russell 1000</a>, the top U.S. businesses by market capitalization, which we hoped would be representative of trends in mainstream, corporate web design. We also studied two other sets of sites, one with Alexa's 500 most trafficked sites, and another with sites nominated for <a href="https://www.webbyawards.com/" target="_blank">Webby Awards</a>.</p><p>Because we were interested in the visual elements of these websites, as data, we used images of their web pages from <a href="https://archive.org/" target="_blank">the Internet Archive</a>, which regularly preserves websites. And since we wanted to gather quantitative data comparing millions of website pairs, we needed to automate the analysis process.</p><p>To do that, we had to settle on a definition of "similarity" that we could measure automatically. We investigated both specific attributes like color and layout, as well as attributes learned automatically from data using artificial intelligence.</p><p>For the color and layout attributes, we measured how many pixel-by-pixel edits we would have to make to transform the color scheme or page structure of one website into another. For the AI-generated attributes, we trained a machine learning model to classify images based on which website they came from and measure the attributes the model learned. <a href="http://homes.sice.indiana.edu/bdoosti/Papers/webdesign/p329-doosti.pdf" target="_blank">Our previous work</a> indicates that this does a reasonably good job at measuring stylistic similarity, but it's very difficult for humans to understand what attributes the model focused on.</p>
<h2>How has the internet changed?</h2><p>We found that across all three metrics – color, layout and AI-generated attributes – the average differences between websites peaked between 2008 and 2010 and then decreased between 2010 and 2016. Layout differences decreased the most, declining over 30% in that time frame.</p><p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329454/original/file-20200421-82714-2vu9rd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329454/original/file-20200421-82714-2vu9rd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip"></a></p><p>The graph shows website similarity of companies in the Russell 1000. Lower values mean that the sites studied were more similar, on average. (Sam Goree, Author provided)</p><p>These findings confirm the suspicions of web design bloggers that websites are becoming more similar. After showing this trend, we wanted to study our data to see what kinds of specific changes were causing it.</p><p>You might think that these sites are simply copying each other's code, but code similarity has actually significantly decreased over time. However, the use of software libraries has increased a lot.</p><p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329455/original/file-20200421-82645-ey0sgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329455/original/file-20200421-82645-ey0sgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip"></a></p><p>The graph on the left shows a decline in code similarity among Russell 1000 websites, while the graph on the right indicates an increase in library overlap. (Sam Goree, Author provided)</p><p>Libraries feature collections of generic code for common tasks, like resizing a page for mobile devices or making a hamburger menu slide in and out. We looked at which sites had lots of libraries in common and how similar they looked. Sites built with certain libraries – Bootstrap, FontAwesome and JQuery UI – tended to look much more similar to each other. This could be because these libraries control page layout and have commonly used default options. Sites that used other libraries, like SWFObject and JQuery Tools, tended look much different, and that might be due to that fact that those libraries allow for more complex, customized pages.</p><p>The changes of websites from 2005 to 2016 illustrate what's happening.</p><p>Sites with average similarity scores in 2005 tended to look less similar than those with average similarity scores in 2016.</p><p>For example, in 2005, Webshots.com and Yum.com were considered relatively similar, but had somewhat different color schemes and very different layouts. While they both mostly use white, blue and black, the site on the right has a blue background.</p><p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332794/original/file-20200505-83740-rkjqe6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332794/original/file-20200505-83740-rkjqe6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip"></a></p><p>Screenshots from 2006 of Webshots.com and Yum.com. (Sam Goree, Author provided</p><p>Two 2016 sites, Xfinity.com and Gilt.com, on the other hand, are even more similar: They both have a menu bar on the top and are primarily white and black with images. These pages have much less text and make better use of the higher resolution monitors that exist now.</p><p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332836/original/file-20200505-83745-nl06nz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332836/original/file-20200505-83745-nl06nz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip"></a></p><p>Screenshots from 2016 of Xfinity.com and Gilt.com. (Sam Goree)</p>
<h2>Is conformity healthy?</h2><p>What should be made of this creeping conformity?</p><p>On the one hand, adhering to trends is totally normal in other realms of design, like fashion or architecture. And if designs are becoming more similar because they're using the same libraries, that means they're likely becoming more accessible to the visually impaired, since popular libraries are <a href="https://darekkay.com/blog/accessible-ui-frameworks/" target="_blank">generally better at conforming to accessibility standards</a> than individual developers. They're also more user-friendly, since new visitors won't have to spend as much time learning how to navigate the site's pages.</p><p>On the other hand, the internet is a shared cultural artifact, and its distributed, decentralized nature is what makes it unique. As home pages and fully customizable platforms like NeoPets and MySpace fade into memory, web design may lose much of its power as a form of creative expression. The Mozilla Foundation <a href="https://internethealthreport.org/2018/" target="_blank">has argued</a> that consolidation is bad for the "health" of the internet, and the aesthetics of the web could be seen as one element of its well-being.</p><p>And if sites are looking more similar because many people are using the same libraries, the large tech companies who maintain those libraries may be gaining a disproportionate power over the visual aesthetics of the internet. While publishing libraries that anyone can use is likely a net benefit for the web over keeping code secret, big tech companies' design principles are not necessarily right for every site.</p><p>This outsize power is part a larger story of consolidation in the tech industry – one that certainly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/opinion/tech-companies-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">could be a cause for concern</a>. We believe aesthetic consolidation should be critically examined as well.</p><p><em>Bardia Doosti, David Crandall and Norman Su contributed to this article.</em></p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sam-goree-1025616" target="_blank">Sam Goree</a>, PhD Student in Informatics, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/indiana-university-1368" target="_blank">Indiana University</a></em></p><p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-websites-really-are-starting-to-look-more-similar-136484" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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The Global Hack is calling for help to address COVID-19 with innovative ideas
A global brainstorming marathon is throwing together brilliant ideas from around the world to rapidly develop solutions to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
07 April, 2020
Photo Source: The Global Hack Facebook event
- The Global Hack is a 48-hour online brainstorming marathon beginning on Thursday, April 9.
- The event is open to anyone with a solution to address the COVID-19 pandemic and socioeconomic problems caused by it.
- The prize pool is estimated at 120,000 euros, or about $130,000 U.S. dollars.
<p>A worldwide event to rapidly combat the coronavirus by linking together brilliant ideas from around the globe begins Thursday, April 9.</p><p>The<a href="https://theglobalhack.com/about" target="_blank"> Global Hack</a> is calling on the global tech community to develop and share breakthrough concepts addressing issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/164922557944001/" target="_blank">The online event</a>, which will run April 9-12, is seeking innovative approaches to urgently needed solutions addressing the health and socioeconomic catastrophe unfolding before the world.<br></p>
What is the Global Hack?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkxNzg1My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTkxMzE4Mn0.5-6HtXLj2a0feIL0ggwT6KrDp2PaGkJ4dTljUF9mUcQ/img.png?width=980" id="7884d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f4d7b7b0c64d2b1fe57a87ef2a035da3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Photo Source: Screenshot / The Global Hack Facebook event
<p><a href="https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/global-hack-coronavirus-covid19-hackathon" target="_blank">The hackathon</a> is a 48-hour, organized brainstorming marathon. The first<a href="https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/estonian-hackathon-covid19-coronavirus-solutions" target="_blank"> Hack the Crisis</a> event began in Estonia in mid-March. Organized by the Estonian start-up <a href="https://accelerateestonia.ee/en/" target="_blank">Accelerate Estonia</a> and <a href="https://garage48.org/" target="_blank">Garage48</a> in just three days, the event brought together 1,300 people from 20 different countries. One of the ideas presented, the <a href="https://voicebot.ai/2020/03/30/estonia-debuts-coronavirus-chatbot-born-in-a-hackathon/" target="_blank">SUVE bot</a>, is now used in government offices in Estonia. The bot is able to answer visitor's questions about the coronavirus in real-time. Another idea presented was <a href="https://www.getzelos.com/blog/coronavirus-crisis-hotline/" target="_blank">Zelos</a>, a platform that connects the most vulnerable, at-risk individuals with volunteers using a call center and task dispatch app to prevent further isolation.</p><p>"As this was getting into motion, during the [original] hack during those three days, the organizers were already seeing that this is going to be something huge," says Helery Pops, a communications volunteer for the Global Hack. </p><p>Soon after Estonia's Hack the Crisis, activists from 48 other countries took notice and organized their own hacks. Now, this week, the original organizers along with volunteers from several countries are putting together one unified, worldwide hackathon financially powered by European Commission, United Nations, and New America. Focusing on issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it's calling for innovators in countries across the globe to put their ideas into motion. </p><p>"This is our call to hack the crisis - not only to brainstorm solutions to prevent and stop the spreading of a highly-infectious disease but to think about how our lives will be different after this," said Kai Isand, head organizer of the Global Hack, in a press release. "The next step for the global movement is to come together in a unified hackathon event where teams will create projects that have a strong international socio-economic impact and create the needed rapid change." </p>How to Hack
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkxNzg1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzcyNzE3NH0.njD5Pg2-zXoI5vyddn9dBA17Ol3sqiX42EKkW4_2kWI/img.jpg?width=980" id="9b1fb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="62b57288d589972582e5b16ac7ced320" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Photo Source: The Global Hack Facebook event
<p>So, here's how it works. First, you come up with a brilliant solution to address the COVID-19 crisis that falls within one of the tracklists on the Global Hack's<a href="https://theglobalhack.com/" target="_blank"> website</a>. You then share your ideas and find a team to collaborate with on the app Slack, which you can <a href="https://theglobalhack.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-d9q40p37-i2r3AL5Ca7WpMctgQ~QqoQ" target="_blank">sign up for here</a> (If you already have a solid idea and team, you have until April 9 to upload the project to<a href="http://theglobalhack.devpost.com" target="_blank"> Devpost</a>). Once the hack begins, you and your team have 48 hours to come up with a solution. The hack will begin with a kick-off session this Thursday, April 9, at 1 p.m. UTC and end on Sunday, April 12. Some examples of categories include arts and creativity, economy, environment, governance, mental health, and education. You then join the appropriate Slack channel for your idea. If you don't want to submit your own idea, there are also challenges that require partners, so you can join one of those. Right now, the prize pool is estimated at 120,000 euros, or about $130,000 U.S. dollars.</p><p>Teams building the solutions and prototypes will also be in contact with mentors—experts and professionals in certain categories—who can help them bring their ideas to fruition. For example, if you developed an idea and needed help with the legal logistics, there would be a legal specialist who could talk you through it. Additionally, each track is lead by an inspirational line-up of entrepreneurs and global leaders including Steve Jurvetson, co-found of Future Ventures and board member at Tesla and SpaceX; the current and former presidents of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid and Toomas Hendrik Ilves; and former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, a past<a href="https://bigthink.com/how-can-we-promote-innovation-2" target="_self"> Big Think expert</a>.<br></p>Thinking beyond coronavirus
<p>While the idea behind the Global Hack is to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, Pops says that they are tackling the crisis through systematic solutions that reach further than just the virus.</p><p> "We want to make sure that the solutions that come out of it apply to a world after the crisis as well," she explains. As an example, she points to the SUVE bot invention as being an ideal solution because, while for now it may be utilized to help people understand what is going on with the health crisis, a year from now it may be a revolutionary way for governments to speak to their citizens. </p><p>"Those are the winning ideas, [those] that can be put into practice after the crisis as well," says Pops. </p><p>The concept of the hackathon might itself be one of those winning ideas. By uniting brilliant minds from around the globe with field experts, the Global Hack rapidly streamlines the process of a great idea becoming a real-life solution. Innovations that would have taken half a year under normal circumstances happen in days. </p><p>Because anyone motivated to act can participate, the hack also democratizes the chance to create a world-changing invention or prototype. </p><p>"There are some people who are joining who have had some resemblance of an idea for a long time but this gives them the platform to just do it super quickly and super well," says Pops. "And of course I think it gives people a lot of purpose as well." </p><p><a href="https://theglobalhack.com/?fbclid=IwAR2TsChL75i9p3Av4hHuwO-Nnc8Ue73PSTclxnsoIUOYPcEn2w4Nzuzek3Q" target="_blank">Join the Global Hackathon here.</a></p>
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Out-of-context photos are a powerful low-tech form of misinformation
The photos may not be fake, but the context is.
29 February, 2020
Photo by Tore F on Unsplash
When you think of visual misinformation, maybe you think of deepfakes – videos that appear real but have actually been created using powerful video editing algorithms.
<p> The creators <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjye8a/reddit-fake-porn-app-daisy-ridley" target="_blank">edit celebrities into pornographic movies</a>, and they can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ54GDm1eL0" target="_blank">put words into the mouths</a> of people who never said them. </p><p>But the majority of visual misinformation that people are exposed to involves much simpler forms of deception. One common technique involves recycling legitimate old photographs and videos and presenting them as evidence of recent events.</p><p> <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312964/original/file-20200130-41532-ipmqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w"></a></p><p class="caption"> <em>The meme applies misleading text to a photo. </em><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/turningpointusa/photos/a.376802782368444/2076532475728791/" target="_blank">Turning Point USA</a></p><p>For example, Turning Point USA, a conservative group with over 1.5 million followers on Facebook, posted a photo of a ransacked grocery store with the caption “YUP! #SocialismSucks." In reality, the empty supermarket shelves have nothing to do with socialism; the photo was taken in <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/shopping-aisle-empty-socialism/" target="_blank">Japan after a major earthquake in 2011</a>.</p><p> <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312965/original/file-20200130-41507-pd14ii.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w"></a></p><p class="caption"> <em>The caption tells a different story than the picture actually does. </em><a class="source" href="http://archive.fo/7Mjn0" target="_blank">Twitter screen grab</a></p><p>In another instance, after a global warming protest in London's Hyde Park in 2019, photos began circulating as proof that the protesters had left the area covered in trash. In reality, some of the photos were from Mumbai, India, and others came from a completely <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/protesters-hyde-park-rubbish/" target="_blank">different event in the park</a>.</p><p>I'm a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AUtiwQQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao" target="_blank">cognitive psychologist</a> who studies how people learn correct and incorrect information from the world around them. Psychological research demonstrates that these out-of-context photographs can be a particularly potent form of misinformation. And unlike deepfakes, they are incredibly simple to create.</p>
<h2>Out of context and incorrect</h2><p>Out-of-context photos are very common source of misinformation.</p><p>In the day after the January Iranian attack on U.S. military bases in Iraq, reporter <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/false-and-unverified-information-iraq-attack" target="_blank">Jane Lytvynenko at Buzzfeed documented</a> numerous instances of old photos or videos being presented as evidence of the attack on social media. These included photos from a 2017 military strike by Iran in Syria, video of Russian training exercises from 2014 and even footage from a video game. In fact, out of the 22 false rumors documented in the article, 12 involve this kind of out-of-context photos or video.</p><p>This form of misinformation can be particularly dangerous because images are a powerful tool for swaying popular opinion and promoting false beliefs. Psychological research has shown that people are more likely to believe true and false trivia statements, such as "turtles are deaf," <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.06.004" target="_blank">when they're presented</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0292-0" target="_blank">alongside an image</a>. In addition, people are more likely to claim they've previously seen freshly made-up headlines when they're <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.10.006" target="_blank">accompanied by a photograph</a>. Photos also increase the numbers of likes and shares that a post receives in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.04.005" target="_blank">simulated social media environment</a>, along with people's beliefs that the post is true.</p><p>And pictures can alter what people remember from the news. In an experiment, one group of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1362" target="_blank">people read a news article</a> about a hurricane accompanied by a photograph of a village after the storm. They were more likely to falsely remember that there were deaths and serious injuries compared to people who instead saw a photo of the village before the hurricane strike. This suggests that the false pictures of the Jan. 2020 Iranian attack may have affected people's memory for details of the event.</p>
<h2>Why they're effective</h2><p>There are a number of reasons photographs likely increase your belief in statements.</p><p>First, you're used to photographs being used for photojournalism and serving as proof that an event happened.</p><p>Second, seeing a photograph can help you more quickly retrieve related information from memory. People tend to use this ease of retrieval as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309341564" target="_blank">signal that information is true</a>.</p><p>Photographs also make it more easy to imagine an event happening, which can make it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1644" target="_blank">feel more true</a>.</p><p>Finally, pictures simply capture your attention. A <a href="https://www.cmo.com/content/dam/CMO_Other/ADI/ADI_Mobilegeddon/Q2-2015-Social-Intelligence-Report.pdf" target="_blank">2015 study by Adobe</a> found that posts that included images received more than three times the Facebook interactions than posts with just text.</p>
<h2>Adding info so you know what you're seeing</h2><p>Journalists, researchers and technologists have begun working on this problem.</p><p>Recently, the <a href="https://www.newsprovenanceproject.com/" target="_blank">News Provenance Project</a>, a collaboration between The New York Times and IBM, released a <a href="https://poc.newsprovenanceproject.com/" target="_blank">proof-of-concept</a> strate<em></em><em></em>gy for how images could be labeled to include more information about their age, location where taken and original publisher. This simple check could help prevent old images from being used to support false information about recent events.</p><p>In addition, social media companies such as Facebook, Reddit and Twitter could begin to label photographs with information about when they were first published on the platform.</p><p>Until these kinds of solutions are implemented, though, readers are left on their own. One of the best techniques to protect yourself from misinformation, especially during a breaking news event, is to use a reverse image search. From the Google Chrome browser, it's as simple as right-clicking on a photograph and choosing "Search Google for image." You'll then see a list of all the other places that photograph has appeared online.</p><p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312963/original/file-20200130-41554-1l6humx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312963/original/file-20200130-41554-1l6humx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip"></a></p><p class="caption"><em>FirstDraft, a nonprofit focused on fighting misinformation and improving journalism, provides tips for conducting a reverse image search. <a href="https://firstdraftnews.org/first-draft-flashcards/" target="_blank">FirstDraft</a>, </em><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" target="_blank"><em>CC BY-NC-ND</em></a></p><p>As consumers and users of social media, we have a responsibility for ensuring that information we share is accurate and informative. By keeping an eye out for out-of-context photographs, you can help keep misinformation in check.</p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lisa-fazio-319479" target="_blank">Lisa Fazio</a>, Assistant Professor of Psychology, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/vanderbilt-university-1293" target="_blank">Vanderbilt University</a>.</em></p><p>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-context-photos-are-a-powerful-low-tech-form-of-misinformation-129959" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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