Social Pulse, Week of 4-8

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that that 82% of Americans say social media is a waste of time, and more than half believe Facebook and Twitter divide our country and spread falsehoods. But it’s not all terrible. The study also showed that 60% of Americans say they feel more hopeful rather than more worried when thinking about the changes that technology might bring over the next five years. So there’s that.

Hologram alert! Heavy metal rocker Ronnie James Dio passed away in 2010, but metal fans across the country can see him tour with his old bandmates this summer thanks to hologram technology. The inventor of the 🤘 will perform a 90-minute setlist featuring music from throughout Dio’s career, from Rainbow to Black Sabbath to Dio, and include hits like “Holy Diver,” “King of Rock N’ Roll” and “We Rock.” Here’s a look at how the hologram tech will work.

I’m loving the Nextflix show “Trigger Warning” created by rapper and activist Killer Mike (Run the Jewels), which puts revolutionary ideas to the test to achieve social change by doing things like “living black” for 3 days, or helping the Crips and Bloods try to market their own unique brands of cola. Killer Mike describes the show as “if an anarchist determined the status quo.” Highly recommended for your weekend binge!

The New York Times is leveraging the success its podcast, “The Daily,” with a new documentary video series called “The Weekly,” that will run on FX and Hulu. The weekly show will follow a reporter or team of journalists as a Times story makes its way toward publication. Can’t wait!

The Atlantic has a piece about college students using Instagram to meet new classmates and foster community through class accounts — specific Instagram profiles set up incoming members of a college’s freshman class to help everyone meet before the school year officially starts. Key quote: “Yet all the teenagers I spoke to said that they couldn’t imagine a Facebook version of class pages. In fact, several said they’d signed up for Facebook only in the past couple of months, so they could join the official Facebook group that their college’s admissions department created. … ‘The most popular post in our admission group is just, ‘Comment your Instagram handle… Facebook is just an easy way to find people on Instagram.’”

LinkedIn is adding new reactions to its platform to encourage more engagement on user posts in your timeline. In addition to “like,” you can now react in four other ways to posts with icons that indicate “celebrate,” “love,” “insightful” and “curious.” Noticeably absent is “haha.” This is LinkedIn, after all.

The r/changemyview subreddit has grown to a community of over 700,000 subscribers where people state their belief, explain why they believe it, and ask Redditors to change their mind. This week’s topics include: Julian Assange did nothing wrong; Toothpaste is a scam; Rhode Island should reorganize itself as a city state; and Final Jeopardy is Unfair and Should be Capped at $5000. Now, with the success of this format and hindrances of the Reddit technology, the creators are now launching their own standalone website – just in time for the 2020 election: ChangeAView.com. One of the key rules: “Enter with a mindset for conversation, not debate.”

This week we found a fantastic resource of Google Sheets Templates, including tracking website analytics, planning content, tracking social growth or putting together keyword research docs. There are more than 100 templates here, and they are all free. No catch!

Would you use Alexa to book your medical appoints or check your insurance plan or ask about your prescription drugs? The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon.com will soon have federal approval to use Alexa, its artificial-intelligence assistant, to track consumers’ prescriptions and relay personal health information. It’s a bid to insert the technology into everyday health care. There are already five healthcare companies setting up software to incorporate Alexa into our daily healthcare habits.