Media Perception Of Social Workers

Image: Instagram Instagram is introducing a way to livestream to a smaller, more private audience. Beginning today, Instagram users will be able to host Live broadcasts only available to their curated list of Close Friends. Up to three other accounts can join the Live broadcast and stream with the original user. The feature rolls out globally. Until this point, beginning a Live broadcast meant that anyone could tune in and watch it if your account was public, and all followers could watch the stream if you had a private account. Live videos are a popular feature for influencers and celebrities chatting with followers or fan accounts streaming live footage from concerts — in other words, content that’s more geared toward wide audiences and for public consumption. The ability to go live only to a small group of people feels closer to a giant FaceTime call than to a public livestream — and, indeed, use case examples offered by the company are decidedly more int

Image: TikTok TikTok recently launched a new Instagram-like photo-sharing app called Whee, as spotted by Android Police and APKMirror founder Artem Russakovskii. TikTok is explicitly positioning Whee as an app for sharing photos with only your closest friends. “Capture and share real-life photos that only your friends can see, allowing you to be your most authentic self,” according to Whee’s Google Play description . “Whee is the best place for close friends to share life moments.” Screenshots of the app listing feature things like a photo viewfinder, a list of friends to message, and a feed — and many of the photo captions highlight how the features are for connecting with friends. It seems that TikTok is still testing the waters with this new app. It’s currently available on Android in “more than a dozen countries,” but not the US, Android Police reports . I’m also not seeing it on the iOS App Store. TikTok and parent company ByteDance didn’t immediate

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing “ad breaks” that force you to stop and look at an ad for a period of time before you can continue scrolling. Several X and Reddit users reported seeing the feature, and Instagram spokesperson Matthew Tye confirmed to The Verge that ad breaks are being tested. Tye said Instagram would “provide updates should this test result in any formal product changes.” One Redditor spotted the feature when scrolling through stories and posts. After a certain amount of scrolling, Instagram prevented them from going further until they looked at an ad. As shown in the screenshot, Instagram displays an “ad break” icon with a countdown timer that shows how long until you can start scrolling again. When the user tapped the icon for more information about the feature, Instagram showed a message saying, “Ad breaks are a new way of seeing ads on Instagram. Sometimes you may need to view an ad before you can keep br