Navigating the Latest in Tech and Social Media

[00:00:06] , Sam Bushman, Hey, it comes out as two different podcasts. One right when the show comes out on the weekend and then the other one midweek just to kind of keep you on your toes. Something to listen to that doesn't take too long.

[00:00:55] But hey, hopefully it'll be great for your life because we keep an eye on techs you don't have to so all kinds of little tech tidbits come in your way that you may not know about. We want to bring them to your attention.

[00:01:04] So what we'll do is we'll just watch the news, blogosphere and check it all out and bring to you the things that might relate to your life. It might be fascinating, educational, fun, interesting, unique all of that come into the table on TechWatch.

[00:01:16] First one upcoming changes to Venmo. Did you use Venmo? I have it but I don't use it very much. All the payment services, I probably use Cash App the most, PayPal second kind of a distant second really and then

[00:01:30] Venmo not really, Zello never. I mean there's a bunch of other ones too, but I don't really use Venmo. I know a lot of people do that.

[00:01:37] Cash App are probably the two most popular from a mobile point of view. PayPal still dominant on web and slash desktop and even on phones, but Venmo is really kind of part of PayPal aren't they the same company?

[00:01:50] You know I don't know about that. That's probably true just the way that Square and Cash App are kind of the same too. Yeah, so anyway, that's kind of the interesting and Square is kind of the server side of things because Square you know

[00:02:04] murders into all kind of shopping carts on the web and then yeah, it's more like for business which is that the It's business, but it's anybody has a website. Yeah, I guess right and it's kind of like

[00:02:13] Cash App is kind of their consumer sector reminds me also of like visible and Verizon how visible it's kind of the consumer version of Verizon and Verizon's like for business or whatever a little bit it's starting to

[00:02:26] You know turn that way over time too, but they say this we're reaching out to let you know That as of July the 1st 2024 transaction fees for receiving payments, and this is interesting They say tagged by the sender as a goods and services purchase

[00:02:49] Will change to two point nine nine percent Per transaction July it won't change a lot of heads up. It's fast. That's right It came out a little bit ago, though I saw a couple of weeks ago, but we just haven't had a chance to get to it

[00:03:04] But they say this change also won't affect fees for receiving payments into business or charity Profiles which may remain at one point nine nine percent Or I guess one point nine percent then plus a ten cent fee for Venmo to basically I

[00:03:25] Guess just conduct the transaction so it's basically the the one point nine plus the ten cents or whatever if you have questions They say get in touch with us. Thank you for choosing Venmo Venmo is a service of PayPal

[00:03:37] So I guess there's our you know Venmo service of PayPal ink The licensed provider of money transfer services Anyway, then they say please don't reply to this email ignore all that they give their address and but I

[00:03:49] Found this quite fascinating because what does that mean it means prices are going up As far as I can tell I don't think that's a cheaper price. They don't say what it's easy going from

[00:03:58] But yeah, the fees are going up. Well, it sounds like it's going from 199 or 1.99 to 2.99 If I correct and the other stuff won't go it'll stay the same Right, so part of it will go to 2.99 part of it will stay at the one point nine nine

[00:04:14] Anyway, I find that kind of interesting that's gonna make things more expansive for folks and Venmo. It always is I don't think I don't think people are gonna like that Jay. How much is cash app? Yeah, you know for

[00:04:27] For collecting I don't know. I don't think there's a merchant fee on cash app So the idea behind cash up which is a little bit different from everybody else Maybe Zello might be similar because that's a bank to bank like ACH kind of transfer stuff

[00:04:40] Or at least seems to be in that realm The idea behind cash app was everybody has their cash app balance and you can change things around or send money receive money And this is before the IRS's big

[00:04:52] 1099 kerfuffle about everything and transactions all the way down to $20 and then they upped it to 600 or whatever But um, the idea was you could be able to just shift money around like you would cash Basically, that's why they call it cash app you I can send you $10

[00:05:05] You could send Cameron $100 camera could send me $30 Whatever and there would be no fees on it because it would all be just back in Moving numbers on cash apps end and only if you got a credit card sitting on all the money gain and all the interest

[00:05:17] Yeah, exactly But it's good. But okay. Yeah, you could say that and that's good for them, but it's good for you Yeah, if I could send you 100 bucks and there's no fee on it and you don't have to give it even if it is a Service, you know

[00:05:29] Even if you know you're you're fixing my computer or something and I send you 100 bucks in there and you get 100 Bucks instead of you know, $97 or whatever. That is a huge difference and that's pretty good And they're gonna make the money on the interest

[00:05:41] They're also gonna keep me with balances in there where they can start to do things over time, too So anyway, I'm telling you that I think memo might be making a mistake here Jay, I

[00:05:50] Agree 100% think it's a mistake and I'm telling you right now people are gonna feel the less expensive options. It's not competitive I mean you have all these cash, you know moving things around kind of systems and Really?

[00:06:04] We should be seeing people if they want to be more and more competitive lowering rates and in trying to eliminate fees And I think them before we're actions too. Yeah I don't make sense for any transactions. I mean it makes sense for investors gonna happen with that

[00:06:17] but I'm just telling you July 1st watch your Venmo account if you're a business owner and see if it stays the 1.99 or whatever else and if there's other changes

[00:06:27] When a lot of times people do you see transfer apps? It was kind of friends and family and it would be free Yeah, so they're not gonna have that at all. I Mean if it's a goods and services purchase, that's kind of the debate

[00:06:36] So what in my mind they're taking on individuals more So if I'm splitting Rent with you or something there shouldn't be a fee right because it'd be the same as I'm giving you cash

[00:06:45] If you flag it goods and services, there will be if you flag it something else there won't be everybody just unflagged good No, I mean you can do it when it is

[00:06:53] But I mean if it's not I that's kind of stuff bugs right and if you do it wrong They might catch you at it and then find you or do something else to them

[00:07:00] And I don't know kick you off the thing or whatever. I mean, I don't know right But but yet you could do that and I you know To me a lot of the things that I transfer money to it just to basically pay somebody back for something

[00:07:10] Yeah, somebody buys dinner and I need to pay them my portion or we're all going in on something a birthday gift for somebody So I give them ten bucks or whatever Twenty bucks thirty bucks

[00:07:20] It's just an easy way for people to kind of split complicated fees and to do it digitally without cash Exactly, and I've heard this before with cash apps specifically Is that you should put if it's a reimbursement you should put the word reimbursement in there

[00:07:33] So if Sam paid for whatever, you know dinner and then I'm giving him I'm reimbursing him for my half or whatever If you put in there like dinner reimbursement use the word reimbursement Even though it's long auto text will or auto correct will suggest it for you

[00:07:47] Put that in there and that's supposed to flag it so it doesn't show up In that 1099 stuff for the IRS and everything else because it really is the same as pay me back

[00:07:56] Yeah, and you've already paid taxes come back and say hey, I bought lunch and here's the proof And here's the reimbursement I got and you're all good if you have your ducks in a row, right?

[00:08:04] Anyway, that's the way it's supposed to work. But I'm just telling you when they start raising fees That's the reason I brought it up. I don't like that Oh, I don't like to know if you have one of those accounts watch that baby

[00:08:12] Because it may be a lot more than you think it is over time I don't want you looking back a year going whoa They took 1% of all this other stuff and if you're doing a lot of business stuff

[00:08:21] It can mean a lot of money Jay. Yeah a thousand two thousand five thousand bucks whatever It's a shame because Anytime you see credit cards and merchant accounts you have these giant global

[00:08:32] multinational banks that are just siphoning off 3% or 2% or whatever of every transaction in the world and I just I don't like it. I'd rather see somebody's Transaction you don't think too much of it. You're just like oh it sucks, but whatever

[00:08:46] Yeah, but it's everything over and over it continues to be everything right? You know They say you take $50 and you pay the barber and he pays the Car wash people and they pay a restaurant or whatever and that $50 stays in the community

[00:08:57] But you do that and it doesn't take a very many number of times transactions Before there's nothing left of that in the community There's five bucks left out of there and everything else has been siphoned off at every transaction

[00:09:07] By these big banks, and I know they're providing a service I just think that if you're making that much on every transaction you could probably afford to lower the fees Not raising it's getting worse. That's for sure. All right. Anyway, what do you got Jay? all right, so

[00:09:22] interesting thing and this recently came out here the surgeon general now is calling for warning labels on social media apps and This would be your Facebook Instagram Twitter everything else in order to help inhibit the rising mental health crisis in today's youth

[00:09:38] The United States Surgeon General has called on the country to impose a tobacco style warning label on social media platforms On Monday in an op-ed piece in New York Times Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

[00:09:51] Warned about the dangers of miners using social media too frequently and for too long of a duration at such a young age which Miners aren't the only ones affected

[00:10:02] He explains that he thinks it would be beneficial for people to visit these platforms and be shown a warning message But that says something along the lines of this app has been associated with significant mental harms for adolescents

[00:10:13] He claims that the label would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe So I find it interesting. I don't do you think that those warnings have worked on cigarettes? No, no

[00:10:27] Actually, I think they've actually kind of made people kind of think oh, what's this? This is cool. It's something I can't have for the youngsters I think that's what it's done and then they make unique flavors to even add to that. It's been a bad deal

[00:10:37] but this guy this Surgeon general, I guess his name is Vivek Murphy or Vivek Murphy. That's right. I Guess in an op-ed piece in the New York Times is where he basically said hey the threat social media poses to children is an emergency

[00:10:53] And then he went on basically an urge Congress To put what a label on all I Guess we're just the apps just just what we need another pop-up like the cookie thing from the EU, you know

[00:11:08] Yeah, I mean it's nuts. I don't I don't I don't see the value there They say opinion the warning parents need about social media CNN So I don't know, you know when they express this

[00:11:20] I guess the question is is Congress gonna deal with this or is this gonna be something that They just kind of mandate and then somebody deals with in regulations over the FCC or wherever else

[00:11:30] I mean what's gonna happen here is this a he's just begging and it's an opinion piece and everybody can just blow them off And ignore him or does this really have traction?

[00:11:37] Do you think I I don't know that it has to be approved by Congress for a surgeon general thing I don't I mean, I don't know but my guess is if he gets enough support or gets enough

[00:11:45] You know feels the air and in the regs. Yeah, there's no law needed. No Congress needed It's just like hey whenever we find something a danger we're gonna be able to throw a warning on something Yeah, but now the comp which I don't think should be the way

[00:11:58] Why do you make that warning happen? Does it come with all the posts because it could be a teenager This could be a misinformation post. This could be a that net where you can have a gazillion warning labels on everything

[00:12:08] You get day. Yeah, you will. I mean really that's their whole head. I know It's ridiculous they go on to say additionally recent studies have shown that children between 12 and 15 years old who use

[00:12:21] Social media for more than three hours a day face twice the risk of having mental health challenges than those who didn't And that's probably true. There's a lot of peer pressure and social media just amplifies that I don't think kids should be on social media at

[00:12:34] All but that's a no and the question becomes how old and the question is is I don't think they should be on there Either but it should be a parental, you know deal or should that be government decided this kind of stuff, right?

[00:12:44] It should always be parental. I think the government doesn't need to decide it. That's just an opinion by me I'm not saying there should be a law, you know, I I dread that phrase there should be a law against that

[00:12:56] Yeah, you need a t-shirt about that yeah exactly there should be a law against that except right in the land of the free There should be a law against that

[00:13:03] Anyway, I understand and I think a lot of people want parents to be in charge. Some people are saying, you know talking about Even demand tick-tock to this day. It's still kind of a battle, right? Yeah

[00:13:17] Farce I think going on but it's it's almost a separate but yet related issue, right? Yeah certainly considered social media So I guess we're not gonna divide out that and make it worse or is there like an extra fee for tick-tock

[00:13:31] Well, he goes on to say why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when there are no Less urgent or widespread issues than those posed of by unsafe cars planes or food

[00:13:42] These harms are not a failure of willpower and parenting. They are a consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures transparency or accountability So I don't think a warning label fixes any of that personally

[00:13:55] But all I think it does cost a bunch of money for compliance people got to realize is the cost of compliance You know How you gonna basically do that in a way that way that follows the guidelines and if there's no?

[00:14:05] Guidelines that are specified in detail about this so they make this kind of vague reference or whatever put in the law very vague Then what you'll have as much of lawsuits out there like people do with the Americans with Disabilities Act the ADA and it's like

[00:14:17] Oh my gosh, you'll get a lot lawsuit because your website is not compliant Well, then hey, you're not complying with this reg or that reg and it'll be another hey

[00:14:24] We'll sue all these companies that don't have properly documented their quote surgeon general warning labels on whatever social media apps You know, where does that go when you launch the app is like the first thing you see is this big old warning

[00:14:36] Yeah, probably every time you launch it to He goes on to say and this will be the last of the wrap-up he says Murphy called on public leaders educators school administrators and parents to make a collective effort to keep young people away from social media

[00:14:49] As often as possible and I think probably that's the most effective part of his whole thing was Asking people to in in the awareness thing. I don't know that the label and a bunch of compliance bureaucracy is going to help Yeah

[00:15:05] Anyway, I just find it very interesting though But I think he's trying so we got to give him an e for effort Wow e for effort or a f for

[00:15:17] Causing grief for the American people. I know we'll see how those I don't see anybody who's gonna be happy about this Do you Jay? No, the social media companies certainly aren't happy about it parents. I don't think anybody who's gonna be happy parents

[00:15:32] I'm not happy. They're not gonna think that means a warning label is not gonna matter whether I let my kids on it or not Some people will be happy there. There are people and I'll give you an example say somebody who's

[00:15:43] Kid for example committed suicide or had some tragic event happen. They may feel like this is at least something in their mind But I don't know that it's enough. I literally I think in his last statement

[00:15:56] They're trying to educate public health leaders educators school administrators and parents on this issue as probably more effective and probably You know a better route but well and I like public service announcements for if you want to create a public service announcement

[00:16:10] That says hey, you know be aware of this and stuff. I don't mind promoting it educationally, right? What I don't like is the mandate for it. What if you create a super family Or you had social media app or whatever, right? Oh

[00:16:25] What would be a good example? Let's say we take Pinterest and we have these boards For family and family history and then we kind of combine it with being able to look up history records and okay

[00:16:36] But it's social media by nature, but it's family oriented. I have to put a big old warning label on there Well, like you mentioned earlier those tick-tock being social media. That's a video sharing site

[00:16:46] That's you know that kind of blurs the lines of social media social media can be anything now Anything that's interactive could be considered social media So in that case is bbs board i tech guys comm social media

[00:16:58] Well, yeah, because I mean people can participate they can call in they you know, there's Lots of ways that it could be considered. I mean if you looked at it Probably so would you say then? US lawmakers seek to ban or to have a label on

[00:17:17] Tech watch the family-oriented technology show or you but I had text you don't have to Have a warning label on it for hexaix I'm telling you this program is for the most part PG Absolutely, I say parental guidance suggested not because it's dirty or anything else

[00:17:30] But just because sometimes the topics kids might not understand or they might hear part of something if we're talking about robots I don't want them to get scared or whatever and so you might need to ask mom and dad to clarify

[00:17:39] What are they talking about mom and dad or whatever, but there's nothing in this program. That's why I say PG It's not even PG 13. There's nothing problematic in the show at all But yet the topics may be a little more complicated for youngsters

[00:17:50] I always recommend parental guidance in everything and whatever you're doing. Yeah, sure if you're little by all means. Yeah So anyway, I bring that up because I'm just saying we might have to have a warning label

[00:18:01] Depending on how you how broadly you define this because then you're gonna go back and say we're gonna marry Mary net neutrality with This too, right? No. Yeah, they're gonna put a warning about that a couple of weeks ago

[00:18:12] Pretty soon net neutrality says you're gonna have warning label for this but not that or are we gonna have net neutrality combined with net What would it be? We're gonna have to have trigger warning Because when if techwatch radio is not very political and it's not very

[00:18:30] Complex when is it gonna be they're just bullying us. I Don't know Anyway, I'm just saying that's something really to kind of consider to kind of think about right All right. Anyway, be wary your upcoming changes to Venmo

[00:18:44] That's something really important to kind of be wherever kind of understand surgeon general demands these warning labels US lawmakers banning tick-tock. Do you think they'll really ban tick-tock? No, I don't think that they will but they think that they will probably try

[00:19:00] There's a lot of stuff like talk about it though, but it never happens that I can see yeah But I don't think it's doable. How do you ban it? Well, you just I don't know

[00:19:09] I'm sure there's ways to block it firewall or whatever. We'll have a great firewall of China like they have Yeah, but do we want this America? Are we really gonna go down that road for are we really gonna embrace that?

[00:19:18] I don't think they like it. I think China is a problem But I don't think it's any worse than any other gathering app or whatever Google's just as bad So I saw a post from somebody on there

[00:19:29] recently a couple months ago when this was pretty hot topic and You know, she said it was a lady talking and she said hey, you know I can come home from work after doing you know work for eight ten hours a day

[00:19:39] I could sit down record a tick-tock post it and like 1.2 or 2 million people see this thing and They don't like that. That's so out of control You know, that's that's better than the ratings and I think it's CNN's getting with that. I know but that's too bad

[00:19:55] It's this is the modern era baby. Let her rip good for her A lot of people don't like that control that Sam you got to control the You don't like it just don't put a little of information

[00:20:06] I think I think if people want to have flows and clicks and views and ideas and whatever they can do all that There's a lot but you see places like Twitter

[00:20:16] Tik-tok even Facebook where news is breaking first and it's not it's not coming out from some of the mainstream medias That's fantastic. I know but you depends on what side of your Right, you know So I think that's the real reason with the tick-tock thing

[00:20:31] But I think that bite dance or somebody's gonna get around it they're gonna end up putting up a Corporation in the United States and some servers here and they'll appease them or whatever or the whole thing may just blow over

[00:20:42] Compromised, you know, I don't hear about it in the news right now, you know, you don't hear about it in the cycle we're talking about it but

[00:20:48] It could be that by the time the the date the deadline comes which is like what the first of the year or something Did that it all just blow over and it'll be a non-issue. We'll see. All right. Well, I

[00:20:59] Want to tease this this segment and then for the next show I want to highlight something important We'll start out with it. A study has found that tech companies can influence decisions of large numbers of voters Undecided voters I might add with search engine

[00:21:18] With search engines so they can control all this jade They can influence you based on you know, the way they manipulate the search engine results I don't think there's any doubt of this Google's been at this for a long time

[00:21:31] No one's really done much to stop it, but the study is conducted by Dr. Robert Epstein several other affiliates of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology that's kind of who put this together. The group is called a IBR t or whatever it is

[00:21:53] Anyway, they're seeking to try to determine You know whether the suggestions that pop up are Really that manipulative or what and their research shows big time if you haven't had the engines you control the thought

[00:22:07] How do you police that though? How do you say? Hey your search engine is steering people this direction or this other direction I mean, how do you how do you be the judge the final ultimate judge on what is?

[00:22:18] Neutral or what you know should be this a private company if if they want to do that And I don't you know, I don't agree with it necessarily, but I'm saying how do you? How do you make that stand? How do you prove that? I?

[00:22:32] Don't know and that the problem is they've in their research They kind of prove it now The question is if it's proven to the level of doing something about it in a lawsuit or forcing Google to change or you know

[00:22:40] Those might be different discussions, but the fact that it's happening is vital to understand its finding suggests that this that this searches They call the search suggestion effect or search suggestion effect is what's called Israel and powerful so much so

[00:22:59] That search engines and operators controlling search engines can literally Have the power to shift a large number of votes without the voter being aware that it's happening at all That's scary Jay, and then you think about AI coming on top of that. What is that?

[00:23:15] Well, and I know that's true. But again, I don't know I don't know what you can do about that very well, and and I think everybody does that I mean you or me or anybody?

[00:23:25] You hear it even on the show. I'm sure people even though we try our best to stay politically neutral There's you know our Biases or whatever probably slip out or steered people in one direction or another I don't think you can even help it in conversation

[00:23:39] let alone you take a tech company big or small and I think that's gonna kind of seep through I mean it's hard for people to be Completely neutral may even be impossible, you know for everyone to be completely neutral

[00:23:54] Yeah, do you think it's possible I think it's totally possible Because it depends on how aggressive the suggestion is but a lot of times people don't know the truth on things And you know if you suggest a suggestion

[00:24:08] Softly at first and then more directly as if it's a fact over time You can really change people's understandings and beliefs and opinions because again, they're kind of in a vacuum

[00:24:16] You know what I'm asking is do you think it's possible to be entirely neutral? No, absolutely not right? I wish it was but I don't think so. I think your bias is gonna come out

[00:24:27] The only question is you pretend you don't have one or you're admitting that you have one That's the only discussion left on that and I don't mean to make it political

[00:24:33] But it is a serious IT concern when Google and other big search engine companies can control the thoughts and beliefs and outcomes Of how people vote without people realizing they've been influenced. Thanks so much. Make it a great tech day. Will you?