Good morning. In this edition:

• 📱 Why it’s probably impossible to fix social media
• 📖 The dictionary’s new words
• 🤖 Bizarre physics experiments

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.54-minute read (942 words).

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"The wise warrior avoids the battle.”

–Sun Tzu (544 B.C. – 496 B.C.)

Social media is a familiar scapegoat for anything wrong with modern society. But according to a new preprint study, it's not the fault of engagement-driven algorithms, feeds that aren’t chronological, the presence of likes/reposts, or even our tendency to seek out negativity.

Instead, certain negative aspects appear to be a fundamental part of social media as we know it, with many of the proposed fixes to these root issues failing to actually reduce its toxicity.

Let’s break it down

The study examined what the authors identified as the three worst aspects of social media: the development of partisan echo chambers, how a small group of elite users have outsized influence (attention inequality), and how the most extreme or divisive voices are consistently amplified.

To try and solve these problems, researchers created AI personas to simulate online social media behavior, then tested several intervention strategies proposed by social scientists:

1. Switching to strictly time-based or randomized feeds
2. Inverting the algorithms that optimize engagement so that sensational content is less visible
3. Boosting users’ exposure to a diversity of viewpoints and opposing political views
4. Using "bridging algorithms" that promote content aimed at mutual understanding, rather than emotional provocation
5. Hiding social statistics—like reposts and follower accounts—to reduce influence cues
6. Removing biographies so that users’ identity and views aren’t readily available

None of the fixes worked

While a handful of changes showed modest improvements, none were able to fully prevent the worst aspects of social media. And in many cases, interventions that improved one area led to losses in others.

• Switching to strictly time-based social media feeds performed best at reducing the issue of attention inequality, but also made the amplification of extreme content even worse.
• Bridging algorithms showed modest improvement in breaking up political echo chambers, however, they also increased attention inequality.

The study concludes that social media’s negative outcomes appear to be an inherent feature of social networks where the probability of connecting to someone depends on how many previous connections that person has.

But…The problem may not stick around for long, according to Petter Törnberg, one of the study’s authors. He recently told ArsTechnica that social media is reaching a “crisis point” with the rise of mass-produced AI content that seeks to maximize attention, and predicts that conventional social networks likely won’t survive this AI onslaught.

📊 Flash poll (long-form): In your opinion, does social media need fixing? And if so, how would you fix it? The most thought-provoking and insightful answers will be featured in tomorrow’s newsletter.

• Click here to leave a response.

Institutional investors back startups to unlock outsized returns. Meanwhile, regular investors have to wait. But not anymore. Thanks to regulatory updates, some companies are doing things differently.

Take Revolut. In 2016, 433 regular people invested an average of $2,730. Today? They got a 400x buyout offer from the company, as Revolut’s valuation increased 89,900%.

No wonder 10K+ regular people are taking the chance on Pacaso.

• Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso’s co-ownership tech reshapes the $1.3T vacation home market. They’ve earned $110M+ in gross profit to date, including 41% YoY growth in 2024 alone. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
• The same early investors that backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay also backed Pacaso. And you can join them. But not for long.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏛️ President Trump expands 50% steel and aluminum tariffs to include 407 add'l product types.
• 🤖 Nvidia is working on a new AI chip for China that outperforms its H20, according to Reuters. | Meta is reportedly splitting its AI division into four groups and reducing headcount.
• 📝 Best Buy launches third-party marketplace, which adds more brands and items to its website and app; move comes as the electronics retailer looks to reverse slowing sales. | Soho House to go private in $2.7 billion deal with hotel operator giant MCR Hotels. | Air Canada flight attendants will return to work after union strikes deal with the airline; the multi-day strike grounded hundreds of flights and impacted ~500,000 customers.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with SuperMoney

• 📺 Nexstar, the largest provider of local TV in the US, is buying rival Tegna for $6.2 billion; the newly combined company's stations will cover 80% of TV households in the US. | Newsmax agreed to pay $67 million to settle a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over the cable news channel’s claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
• 💰 Robinhood to launch NFL and college football prediction markets.
• 🏈 Auburn University claims seven additional college football national titles, bringing program total to nine; the school previously only recognized Associated Press titles.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💊 Viking Therapeutics releases midstage trial data on its obesity pill that disappointed investors and health care experts; the company’s stock closes down 42%.
• ⚡ Tennessee Valley Authority enters first-of-its-kind deal with Google and nuclear startup Kairos Power to purchase electricity from advanced nuclear reactor slated for 2030.
• 🏥 Texas declares that its recent measles outbreak is over; 762 people were sickened since January, with the last confirmed case reported July 1. | 🇨🇳 China reports two recent milestones in program to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🌀 Hurricane Erin downgraded to a Category 2 storm yesterday morning as it runs roughly parallel with US East Coast; Erin still isn't expected to make landfall in the US, but forecasters say it’ll bring high winds and storm surges of up to 20 feet or higher.
• 🌍 Hamas accepts temporary ceasefire proposal offered by Israel in July that involves a 60-day pause in fighting; Israel is currently considering whether to accept the deal.
• 📖 Cambridge Dictionary adds 6,000+ new words, including social media slang like skibidi, delulu, tradwife, and broligarchy.

☝️ America’s favorite pastime might actually be…arguing about chips. To settle things, Instacart dropped its uber-official Nationwide Potato Chip Map, revealing which salty sidekick dominates each state’s snack aisle.

🤔 Did you know? Horses have nearly full 360° vision thanks to their side-set eyes, though they do have two blind spots: just under their nose, and right behind them.

📰 Worth a read: The newest tool for hazing wolves? Scarlett Johansson and AC/DC

🖱️ Clickbait: A man was perfectly frozen in ice for 28 years. The glacier just spit him back out

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Podiatry student Steffi Casimir is donating her time to help the homeless population care for their feet. Read more about her inspiring story here . 

What are the three highest-rated docuseries of all time, according to IMDb? (Hint: All 3 were narrated by David Attenborough.)

🏈 About to kick off: The crazy play set to drive the NFL completely haywire.

🤖 To the window, off the wall: AI comes up with bizarre physics experiments. But they work.

🖐️ Helpful: The five things people in the happiest relationships talk about every day, according to a psychologist that studies couples.

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DISCLAIMER: This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso's Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving the ticker symbol does not guarantee that the company will go public. Comparisons to other companies are for informational purposes only and should not imply similar success.