Lower-Income Teens Rely on Facebook More Than Wealthier Peers
*By Amanda Weston*
Teens whose families earn $30,000 or less a year are more likely to rely on Facebook than their wealthier peers. [A Pew Research Center survey](https://qz.com/1355827/do-teens-use-facebook-it-depends-on-their-familys-income/) reported 70 percent of teens in lower-income households still use the platform, compared with only 36 percent of teens in the $75,000 and up bracket.
"A lot of them have to do with resilience and how teens use Facebook to kind of get ahead," said Hanna Kozlowska, a reporter at Quartz. "So they use it for networking for example, because they might not have as much resources as wealthier teens."
About half of all teenagers use Facebook, but Kozlowska said that lower-income students who may not have as much access to resources turn to the social platform to get in touch with teachers, ask for homework help, and create a support network. Their older relatives are also more likely to be on the platform.
The teens who are still on Facebook may not want to spend as much time there as they do, said Kozlowska, and their numbers could dwindle if the adults they usually connect with age or abandon social media.
"Facebook isn't actively doing anything to kind of help them, to elevate them," Kozlowska said, and that the company didn't respond specifically to the Pew study. "They said, 'Oh, yeah, this is just an example of how an ad-based free network is good' right? They didn't particularly elaborate on that," she said.
Facebook had the biggest differences between three income brackets. Instagram and YouTube were the most consistent.
For full interview, [click here] (https://cms.cheddar.com/videos/VmlkZW8tMjIxODQ=).
The price of Bitcoin hit a new all-time high last week following the Wall Street debut of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. Todd Cipperman, Founding Principal for Cipperman Compliance Services, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why ProShares' ETF got off to a hot start while Valkyrie's Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which debuted just days later, did not.
Edtech startup ENTITY Academy raised $100 million in its latest round of funding. The company's platform offers tech training to women via online courses, in areas like data science and software development. The courses include mentoring and career coaching from people working in the tech industry. ENTITY Academy's founder and CEO Jennifer Schwab joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to talk more about the company and the funding.
On Monday Microsoft reported that the same Russia-backed hackers behind the 2020 SolarWinds attack have been assailing the global technology supply chain and cloud services. The former White House CIO under President George W. Bush and CEO of the security consulting company Fortalice Solutions, Theresa Payton, joined Cheddar to discuss why cyberattackers are relentlessly focused on infiltrating tech companies and what the future holds in terms of combating them. "This will be an ever-present danger and a journey," she said. "Locking down your systems is not going to be something you do once, and then you set it and forget it. It's going to be an ongoing journey that we're all going to be on together."
Rishi Bharwani, the director of partnerships and policy for nonprofit Accountable Tech, joined Cheddar to discuss the hot button topic of regulatory oversight of social media giant Facebook. Bharwani discussed the bipartisan pieces of legislation already making their way through Congress and said the body should pass stronger data privacy laws, ban surveillance advertising, and require meaningful accountability and transparency from the company. "Now I think we've reached a boiling point where congressional action is needed and inaction is no longer acceptable," he said. Bharwani also called for a concurrent investigation into Mark Zuckerberg's company.
The United Nations COP26 climate talks are scheduled for October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland. Heads of state will be joined by private sector leaders to once again discuss the shrinking window of time left to take action against global temperature rise. Barbara Humpton, CEO of focused technology company Siemens U.S., is also attending and spoke to Cheddar about what she hopes to see during the conference for both the public and private spheres. "What we are really urging is that there are large commitments made in Glasgow and that we really commit to this next decade of action," she said.
Hertz, the car rental giant, has placed an order for 100,000 Tesla Model 3s and sent Tesla's value soaring, pushing it into the $1 trillion club during the trading day Monday. Dan Ives, managing director of equity research for Wedbush, told Cheddar's 'Closing Bell', "It shows [electric vehicles] going to the mainstream." The move gives Hertz a leg up by differentiating itself from competitors and shows Tesla's dominance in the marketplace, He noted. And as for that trillion-dollar valuation? Ives said he could see it rising even higher down the road.
Zaire Wade and Jalen Newsome, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of 'YNG DNA' join us to talk about their new NFT collection available Oct. 25 on WAX NFT blockchain.
According to new research by Twitter, the social media platform algorithm amplifies content from the "political right" rather than those on the left. The company says this data comes as the platform has been taking the time to research the implications of its algorithm and whether or not it has caused any "unknown harm". President and CEO of Media Matters for America Angelo Carusone, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
