Students: This is Ms.Mozena's yoga ELT from Washington Middle School in Dubuque,Iowa, and Channel One News starts right now!
Keith: You know, that is definitely a Channel One first: students doing yoga. That is pretty cool.
Arielle: Love it.
Keith: I am Keith Kocinski.
Arielle: And I am Arielle Hixson.
Keith: And I have to say, taking a little break and just slowing down looks like a pretty good idea. And a little less of this, right?
Arielle: Sorry. Yeah, I mean, you have a point there. This is pretty distracting. And I have to sayI love getting on Insta and Facebook, but now the very people who created these social media appshave a pretty big warning for you.Take a look.
It is a common question in today's tech-heavy world: Are we addicted to social media?
Tamia Taylor: I always grab it. It's always in my hand.
Lauren Sherman: The thing that's new about social media is the way that this social learning happens has changed. One of the reasons is that with mobile social media, teens have access to their peers more than ever. So they’re in that peer context almost constantly.
Arielle: But all the screen time is having an impact.
Chamath Palihapitiya: We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. We kind of knew something bad could happen.
Arielle: Now former executives from Facebook are raising concern about the effect the social media platform they helped create has on users today.
Palihapitiya: The short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works: no civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.
Arielle: Studies show 92 percent of teens go online daily, and 1 in 5 young people regularly wake up in the night to send or check messages on social media. When teens like pictures on social media, there is more activity in the reward circuitry of the brain, so for teens, getting a like on social mediafeels just like winning a prize.
Woman: It feels good when you get more likes than normal on a photo.
Arielle: Former Facebook presidentSean Parker is also concerned. He admits the initial goal was to get people hooked.
Sean Parker: You're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators, understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.
Jim Steyer: They, in many cases, have ignored the consequences, some of the downsides, of some of the innovations they brought to our society.
Arielle: Facebook issued a statement that says, in part, "We've done a lot of work and research with outside experts and academics to understand the effects of our service on well-being, and we're using it to inform our product development.…As Mark Zuckerberg said on the last earnings call, we are willing to reduce our profitability to make sure the right investments are made."
Some experts are saying that teens are losing their ability to communicate with others because of technology.What do you think about that?
Tamia: I agree to an extent. I feel like because people are so invested in their phones, their technology, that emojis and acronyms have beensubstituted for expression and communication.
Arielle: Now, the best way to navigate this fast-paced world is to maintain a tech–life balance, if there is such a thing.
Sherman: One thing that is important is for teens to be developing digital literacy skills, skills that allow them to use social media and use other digital media in a way that's responsible and a way that makes them feel comfortable.
Arielle: Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
Keith: And you just heard the Facebook statement mention profitability, which brings us to today’s Word in the News: profit.You know it is about money, right?Well, it is actually the money that is made in a business after all costs and expenses are paid.
Okay, next up, President Trump spoke from the White House yesterday, telling Americans that major tax changes could come before Christmas.
The president said Congress had reached an agreement on a tax bill that will deliver more jobs and massive tax relief for American families.The bill will allow a family of four making $75,000 a year to see their taxes cut by $2,000.
President Donald Trump: We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas — and when I say giant, I mean giant.
Keith: A big portion of the bill gives tax breaks to big businesses and the wealthy, and some Americans will actually see their taxes go up.Democrats say this will do nothing to help out middle-class Americans.
SenatorChuckSchumer: Tax cuts for the wealthiest, no help for so many in the middle class and tax increases for a good portion of those in the middle class.
Keith: All right, sticking with Washington, the big conversation yesterday in our nation's capital was focused on America's newest senator, Doug Jones. And he won with the help of African American voters, women and young people.
Alabama on Tuesday night elected the state’s first Democratic senator in 25 years. Doug Jones squeaked to victory by about one and a half percent. The Alabama results bring the Senate's Republican majority to a razor-thin 51 to 49 going into next year's midterm elections. That will make it even harder for President Trump to push his agenda through Congress.
Republican Roy Moore blamed his loss on negative stories about him.And although President Trump supported Moore,the state's other Republican senator didn't back him.
Senator Richard Shelby: I'll tell you;I didn't vote for him.
Keith: Tennessee Republican Bob Corker said he is proud of Alabama's voters.
Senator Bob Corker: I thought the people of Alabama did a great thing for our country last night.
Keith: President Trump disagreed.
Trump: A lot of Republicans feel differently. They're very happy with the way it turned out. But I would have — as the leader of the party,I would have liked to have had the seat.
Keith: All right, after the break, we want you to focus, and if you have problems doing that, well, no worries! We have got the trick for you.
Keith: It is time to get your geek on. Today we looked at how social media can be addictive, but screens can also be incredibly distracting, right? Well, it is a problem that these next two students wanted to solve by taking advantage of your time on the screen. Azia Celestino is logged into this one and has more.
Azia: For students there is a lot to get done and too many distractions.
Mada Teles: High school students especially have trouble with managing their own time.
Michelle Rhee: I have homework, I have to study for the test, I have a lot of things to do, like, on a daily basis, and I love Netflix — I love “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Azia: Dwight School juniors Mada Teles and Michelle Rhee know just how hard it can be to stay focused and manage your time, so they created Time Break.
Mada: It’sa time management app which is designed to help students.
Azia: Users who download the app can create to-do lists and set a timer to accomplish the tasks, upping their productivity.
Michelle: It's made by teens for the teens.
Azia: Time Break also tracks how long each activity takes to complete, revealing patterns behind students' habits.The app was a result of Dwight's Spark Tank programthat teaches students in grades 1 through 12 how to develop an idea from start to finish. And Mada and Michelle learned the first idea isn't always the final product.
I know that it started out as something else, right?
Mada: Yeah, so in eighth grade we had this project in design class to see how technology is affecting our lives, and then we both teamed up and created this app about how people could use their technology more effectively. It’s a topic that is very difficult to solve, I guess, like how people should use less technology, something that is very hard to do.
Azia: While presenting to professionals within the school community, Spark Tank students can find mentors, get advice and, if they are lucky, snag funding for their idea.
Matt Moran leads Spark Tank.
Matt Moran: What this program really does is show students that they have the potential to do the things that they're interested in now, when they're in school and have the support system around them to learn those skills in order to kind of realize their dreams and pursue their passions.
Azia: For Mada and Michelle, Spark Tank empowered them to do more than create an app.
Mada: Just, you know, having one person tell us, like, “You made a difference in my life — like, you really helped me get better grades in school and be more organized.”I think just hearing that, I would have done thousands of apps.
Michelle: It really helped me to look beyond and think about what I want to be in the future.
Azia: Azia Celestino, Channel One News.
Keith: And to check out other cool apps that can help students do things like fight bullying and prepare for college, just head to ChannelOne.com.
Well now, won't you look at that? The app is telling me we are out of time, soI guess that is all we have time for today.We will see you right back here tomorrow.
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