In our modern era, it is difficult to imagine our lives without a smartphone. We can live without a laptop, without an Ipad, mp3 player (or those extinct already?), and some people claim they can even live without meat products. But the smartphone?

Apparently, that piece of metal and plastic is quite addictive. And the addictiveness of a smartphone is comparable to that of cocaine, according to researchers from the University of Maryland’s International Centre for Media. However, before we start bashing smartphones and throwing them into our trash, we have to ask ourselves, is it that bad? Water, for instance, is quite addictive too, but nobody runs around screaming that we need to drink less. In fact, most doctors recommend consuming a ton of water. So are smartphones are really that bad?

Lets consider purely biological perspective. First of all, frequent smartphone users might develop a bad posture, due to physically looking down all the time when using smartphone. It is also called the nerd neck, and can develop among computer users too. However, proper neck stretchings and exercises can combat the nerd neck situation, so that one is out of the list.
Secondly, the light from the screen. The blue light from the screen can mess up the circadian rhythms in our brain, as our brain thinks that blue light = day time. This alone might be the reason why so many people develop insomnia. But again, we can combat it by using blue light blocking glasses, which block the blue light from getting onto your eyes, which will positively affect your sleeping cycles. So this negative effect is also crossed out.
Finally, you smartphone might contribute to worsening of your health by actually killing you, in case you text and drive. And how to combat this problem is quite self explanatory – just do not text and drive at the same time.
Seems like smartphones are not that bad for us and our bodies after all! In case proper actions are taken, of course. However, the impact of smartphone use on mental health was not covered, and that topic is welcomed to be discussed in the comment section below.
Sources

New Studies Compare Smartphones to Cocaine Addiction

In the last years, a lot of attention got dragged by the developing technology of neural networks. This technology found its uses in many areas. For instance, in the last year Google team managed to, for the first time in programming histoy, create a program, based on neural network technology, that could reliably beat anyone in a game of Go. Or applications that can transform you face to being older, younger, or even another gender. Or a cancer recognition software. The list of potential uses for neural networks seems endless. However, like everything in life, the coin has a dark side too.
Consider the following video

as can be seen, neural network can be used with malicious intents. Currently, we already live in a constant state of information wars – both within and between countries. And, as can be seen from the video, if we add to the mix fake news videos that are hard to distinguish from reality, the result can be devastating. Such fake news can be used, for example, to manipulate stock markets, create political tensions, mess with peoples minds, and so on. Sounds scary, doesn’t it?

For example, lets remember this news article from 23 April 2013.
https://www.cnbc.com/id/100646197
In the article, the fake news about an explosion in White House is discussed. The fake news itself looked just as a sentence on twitter. Yet, it managed to create short but dramatic effect on stock market. And now, just imagine for a second, what would happen if it wasn’t just a piece of text, but an actual video, created with the use of neural networks, of Obama being actually exploded. The shock would be much more severe, and during that shock a lot of malicious people who created the hoax can get illegally richer. You can think of it as a gas grenade explosion, that creates a distraction, during which the ninja does his dirty job.
Or perhaps the neural network technology will never be capable of creating such fake news videos that will look real. We will see.