Guillaume Calderon Deblander

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Social networks have become completely part of our lives now. 39% of the human population are social network users (LSE, 2017). But how did we get so addicted?

One of the main features and the one we will talk about in this post is the like count that those social networks provide. Indeed, this like count allow the users to feel validated and a high amount of those likes will make us feel good about ourselves. This has driven the success of the social networks, which incite people to turn on their smartphone, log into the social network app and verify how many likes we have on our latest post. It gets us addicted (Keep It Usable, n.d.).

So why would Facebook and (Instagram) now decide to remove this like count from their social network?

Yes, the giant of social network is planning on removing this like count to all its users and has already started testing it in several countries (Constine, 2019).

The main reason for this is that users would compare themselves to other people and feel rejected and unapproved if their post did not get as many likes as expected or as someone else. This has led to a rise in the depression rate and loneliness amongst teenagers and young adults (Wong, 2019).

However, as mentioned earlier, likes, and the feeling of being approved is one of the reasons why people keep returning on social media and keep posting. Removing the like count might therefore strongly impact the attractiveness of such social media and thus decrease its popularity. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did mention that the company would now focus on improving the well-being of its users instead of the time users spend on the app (Schwantes, 2019).

We might now start wondering whether this is all part of a social-washing campaign, an actual ethical transformation or a simple suicide mission?

LSE. (2017). Social Media Platforms and Demographics. London School of Economics and Political Science. Accessed at:

https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/communications-division/digital-communications-team/assets/documents/guides/A-Guide-To-Social-Media-Platforms-and-Demographics.pdf

Keep It Usable. (n.d.). Psychology of Social Networks: What makes us addicted?. Keep It Usable. Accessed at: https://www.keepitusable.com/blog/psychology-of-social-networks-what-makes-us-addicted/

Constine, J. (2019). Now Facebook says it may remove Like counts. TechBrunch. Accessed at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/02/facebook-hidden-likes/

Schwantes, M. (2019). Mark Zuckerberg Says He Changed Facebook This Year to Improve Your Happiness. Here’s What You Should Do Now. Inc. Accessed at: https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/is-facebook-good-or-bad-for-your-happiness-science-found-answer-it-all-depends-on-how-you-use-it-heres-what-not-to-do.html

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Formula 1 has for decades been criticized by media about the amount of pollution the racecars release and how little effort is made to make a better impact on the environment. (Hanley, 2019)

However, during the past decades, the sport has been the leading innovator in terms of fuel efficiency and energy recovering systems. Indeed, because of regulations on how much fuel can be used per race, the racing teams have had to come up with innovative and brand-new ways to use the energy as efficiently as possible. This led Research and development to be where the majority of the teams’ budget is spent and is the reason why the cars are now so efficient.

Information management has been one of the greatest innovation factors for modern formula 1 cars. The latter have sensors all around them and allow to transmit within milliseconds the information received not only to the driver, but also to the pit board or even data centers at the other side of the globe. The compiling of all this data into comprehensive and useful information allows team to understand exactly where they are losing time, which parts of the cars need improvement, etc.

While someone might think that this efficiency only benefits teams in going faster than their rivals, it also directly flows down to your everyday road car or any motor. Indeed, some of the previously mentioned sensors are now widespread in road cars, delivering real time data to the driver, very often improving efficiency, for example with the tire pressure indicators (Rossi, 2016).

Moreover, in terms of fuel efficiency, Mercedes (a Formula 1 team and car manufacturer) has recently reached the milestone record of 50% thermal efficiency. This means that more than half of the fuel that has been injected has been used to move the car. Transferring this knowledge into the road car, their Mercedes Project One is offering a 40% fuel efficiency which is a record for road cars (Noble, 2017).

In addition, energy recovery systems now present in all hybrid cars are being improved every year in Formula 1 through the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS). The latter makes use of the kinetic energy that decreases during braking in order to transform it into electricity that will later be used to give power to the car. Car manufacturers like Volvo are now starting to use the KERS in their new cars, indicating again a future decrease in fuel consumption (Sarkar, 2016).

All in all, while indeed, formula 1 cars “waste” hundreds of liters of fuel each race, the technology behind them allow the whole planet to save more than thousands of liters every day in the streets, therefore contributing to a positive impact for the planet.

References

Hanley, S. (2019). The Gigantic Carbon Footprint Of Formula One. Clean Technica. Accessed at https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/30/the-gigantic-carbon-footprint-of-formula-one/

Noble, J. (2017). Mercedes F1 engine hits ‘remarkable’ efficiency target on dyno. Autosport. Accessed at https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/131772/mercedes-engine-hits-remarkable-dyno-target

Rossi, B. (2016). What we can learn from the F1 approach to data. Information Age. Accessed at https://www.information-age.com/winning-formula-what-we-can-learn-f1-approach-data-123461451/

Sarkar, A. (2016). Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems in Formula 1. Stanford University. Accessed at: http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph240/sarkar1/

Facebook and Instagram to remove like counts

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