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“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”

–Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Social media platforms rn are like an ex around the holidays – showing up in notifications more often. According to new data reported by the WSJ, nearly every major social-media app has increased the number of its notifications since July 2023.

• Instagram is the worst offender, with users getting 12 more notifications in January compared with last July. Notifications from Snapchat, X, and Facebook have increased as well.

Inside the fabric of social media

The most important user metric for any social media platform that sells ads is time spent on the platform. And the reason why is simple: more time spent on the platform = more ads watched = more $ for the company.

Therefore, the reason for the increase in notifications is also simple: social media platforms want more user engagement. But the context behind this increase is where things get interesting.

Overall, social media users are posting less and instead opting for a more passive experience. In an October report from data-intelligence company Morning Consult, 61% of US adult respondents with a social-media account said they have become more selective about what they post.

And it’s not hard to see why. A survey conducted by research firm Gartner over the summer found more than half of respondents believed the quality of social media has declined in the past five years. They cited misinformation, toxicity, and the proliferation of bots as reasons it has gotten worse. An increase in ads and suggested posts didn’t help either.

Bottom line: How users interact with social media is changing. And platforms are trying to adapt accordingly.

• For example, data indicates that when recommending a movie or TV show to a friend, people are doing it more often in person or via text or email, and less often using social media. Enter: Meta and TikTok pulling a Yo Gotti and shifting more resources to build out direct messaging features (it's going down in the DM!).

The battle for attention and engagement is set to continue. But will users dig in or tune out? Some predict the latter. Per Gartner, 50% of users will either abandon or significantly limit their interactions with social media over the next two years.

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🇸🇻 El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was re-elected to a second term. The self-proclaimed “world's coolest dictator" won 83% of votes (with 31% voter turnout), while Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party won at least 58 of the 60 seats in the National Assembly. Bukele is credited for a 70% drop in El Salvador’s murder rate last year after the arrests of ~75,000 suspected gang members, though his move was criticized by human rights groups. El Salvador’s constitution technically prohibits reelection, but a high court ruling in 2021 allows the president to run again if they step down before a second term (which Bukele did weeks ago).

🇸🇾🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran-backed militants attacked an American military base in Syria, killing six US-backed troops. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a collective of Iran-backed armed groups, claimed responsibility for yesterday’s drone strike that killed six Kurdish soldiers. Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria have carried out 165+ airstrikes on American bases since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Over the same period, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched dozens of attacks on commercial and US naval vessels in the Red Sea. The attacks have prompted dozens of retaliatory US and UK airstrikes.

🇿🇲 A startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos discovered a major copper deposit in Zambia. KoBold Metals, a mining startup that uses AI to search for minerals crucial to the global green-energy transition, discovered what the company believes will be one of the world’s largest high-grade copper mines. KoBold aims to start producing copper from the mine within 10 years. Experts say the discovery could help the US cut its reliance on China for metals vital to green-energy projects.

Yesterday, Dartmouth announced plans to start requiring SAT or ACT scores for next year’s class of applicants (aka current high school juniors), becoming the first Ivy League school to reverse its pandemic-era policy that made standardized tests optional.

Dartmouth says its decision was based on new research from the Ivy League and other highly selective schools that indicates SAT and ACT scores help to predict students’ first-year college performance better than high-school grades (similar to red/green flags in the dating world).

• Per the data, students with a perfect 4.0 GPA in high school only earned college grades that were 0.1 point higher than those with a high school GPA of 3.2.

Big picture: If dropping standardized tests is cool, consider US universities Miles Davis. Over half of America’s ~3,800 colleges have scrapped their SAT/ACT requirement dating back to the early days of the pandemic, when all testing centers were closed. Nearly all of those schools are still test-optional, with the notable exception of MIT (and now Dartmouth).

👀 Looking ahead… Despite their waning influence in college admissions, the SAT and ACT are still an important part of the US education system. A total of 17 states currently use one or both of the tests as a way of measuring school quality.

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💬 Quoted… “We think it's gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again."

• Last week, police in Bellevue, Washington, made a house visit to check in on a man whose late neighbor was storing a Cold War-era nuclear missile inside his garage. Bomb squad technicians confirmed the missile was designed to carry a nuclear warhead, but said local residents were never in any danger since there was no warhead attached. In potentially related news, a huge man who answers to the name of “Reacher” was seen fleeing the scene.

🎮📈 Stat of the Day: Palworld, the open-world survival game often referred to as “Pokémon with guns,” has sold 7+ million copies on Xbox and 12+ million on Steam since it was released on January 19. It marks the largest third-party launch ever on Xbox Game Pass.

🤔 Did You Know?... An estimated 50% of all US car-crash deaths in 2021 involved people who weren’t wearing seatbelts.

📰 Worth a Read: Are you catastrophizing? Here’s how to stop assuming the worst → (Vox)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 17th annual International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Spotted Bear Ranch

• 💰 US markets fell across the board (S&P: -0.3%; Dow: -0.7%; Nasdaq: -0.2%). | 🍔 McDonald's reported mixed Q4 results; the fast food chain missed revenue expectations, citing conflict in the Middle East.
• 📸 Snap is laying off 10% of its workforce, or ~500 employees.
• ✈️ Boeing is reworking 50 undelivered 737 MAX jets after a supplier’s employee recently found misdrilled holes on some fuselages; the issue could further delay deliveries. | 💉📈 Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker, is buying three factories for $11 billion to boost output of its Wegovy and Ozempic shots; the diabetes/weight loss drugs have been facing shortages amid high demand.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚽🇺🇸 The 2026 Men’s World Cup Final will be played at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, FIFA announced.
• 🏀 Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid is undergoing knee surgery that’ll sideline the reigning NBA MVP for "an extended period of time."
• 🏆 This year’s Grammy Awards, held Sunday, had 16.9 million viewers, a 34% increase from last year, according to Nielsen and CBS. | 📰 CNN is exiting its morning chat-show format to focus more on straight news coverage.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Hers

• 🌳 A team of researchers found a 350-million-year-old fossilized tree species with a leaf-canopy 18 feet across, but a trunk just half-a-foot thick; the finding provides insight into what canopies looked like at an early time in tree evolution.
• 🧑‍🚀🇷🇺 Russian astronaut Oleg Kononenko set a new world record for the most time spent in space, at 879 days and counting.
• 👃🧠 People who frequently pick their noses are at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, per a new study.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🇬🇧👑 King Charles III has been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer; the 75-year-old UK monarch will postpone public engagements while he receives treatment.
• 🌧️ About 38 million California and Arizona residents were covered by flood alerts yesterday due to a “potentially historic” atmospheric river weather event.
• 🗳️ Former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley has asked for Secret Service protection, citing increasing threats she has received as she runs for the Republican presidential nomination. (Read more)

CLICKBAIT

• 🧗 Free solo climber Alex Honnold documents an Arctic ascent.

Yesterday, we covered how House Republicans are pushing for a standalone bill granting $17.6 billion in aid to Israel, while Senate Dems are seeking a broader spending package covering Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the US southern border.

❓ Our question to you: Which of the following congressional options do you most agree with?

• 🔵 The Senate bill: 31%
• 🔴 The House bill: 14%
• 🇺🇸 Funding for immigration, but not foreign aid: 21%
• 🌍 Funding for some or all foreign aid, but not immigration: 11%
• 🙅 No funding at all: 13%
• 🗣️ Other: 10%

Click here to read some of the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 7,148 votes and 497 longform responses.

🌟 They say anyone can find their place in NYC... even this little ewe, apparently.

The young sheep was found wandering Sunset Park in Brooklyn with no owner or form of identification in sight; it's unclear how the animal ended up in the Big Apple. 

• NYPD officers were able to rescue the animal and bring her to a local animal center, after which the sheep was sent to a sanctuary farm in New Jersey.
• “Not baaaaad for a group of cops with no experience shepherding a sheep,” the NYPD tweeted. 

❓ Trivia: Who invented the first electric battery?

🐕 True or False?... Scooby-Doo is a German Shepherd.

🤔 Riddle Me This: What are the next three letters in the combination "OTTFFSS"?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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❓ Trivia: Alessandro Volta

🐕 T/F: False, he’s a Great Dane

🤔 Riddle: "ENT" (Each letter represents the first letter in the written numbers: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, etc.)

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