Twproject (say: T W Project) is a web-based project and groupware management tool created by Open Lab, an Italian software house founded in 2001. It won the 17th Jolt Productivity Award in 2007 in the project management category. In March 2019 it becomes property of Twproject company. It has widespread use in universities as a teaching tool in project management courses. It is used by Oracle Corporation, Prada, Calzedonia, General Electric and many other companies from corporations to small start-ups. == History == April 2001 - The idea of Teamwork came to Open-Lab founders from a need to overcome the PM tools used at that time. It was built in Microsoft ASP and Adobe Flash November 2002 - Open-Lab decide to move from Flash to HTML and from ASP to Java-JSP. Teamwork 2 development is started. June 2004 - Teamwork 2 released, using top open-source technologies like Hibernate, jBlooming, dynamic CSS, Ajax 7 January 2005 - Teamwork goes open source, under LGPL license; remains such until June 2006 (18 months): it is a hit application on SourceForge, with 38.000 downloads, covered by greeting but starving April 2005 - Open-Lab takes the decision to change commercial strategy to finance development of Teamwork version 3 6 June 2006 - Teamwork 3 is finally out (15 months development). New interface, many new features, agile support and much more 27 March 2007 - Teamwork wins the 2007 JOLT Productivity Awards for project management category July 2007 - Teamwork 4 development started: new interface, extended use of new HTML capabilities, JS-oriented interface, start using jQuery February 2009 - Teamwork 4.0 is out February 2010 - Teamwork 4.4: public project pages, Chinese interface. jQuery is getting more space in Teamwork December 2010 - Teamwork 4.6: released Mobile module available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry. Intensive usage of jQuery June 2011 - Teamwork 4.7: released Issue Kanban / Organizer January 2012 - Teamwork 5.0 development started. Lighter interface, extensive usage of dynamic pages, easier installer and first time approach. Learning curve highly reduced. A jQuery Gantt editor included and released free for the community July 2012 - Teamwork 5 released and also the free online Gantt editor November 2012 - Teamwork 5.1 with new trees and improved model for staffing March 2013 - Teamwork 5.2 with stronger support for customizations and Japanese interface. April 2014 - Teamwork has changed its name in Twproject because the domain teamwork.com has been purchased by Teamwork. April 2013 - Twproject 5.4 with a redesigned more powerful Gantt chart. August 2015 - Twproject 5 finale release. September 2015 - Twproject 6 with a completely redesigned user interface. March 2019 - A new company Twproject srl has been spun off. September 2021 - Twproject 7 has been released introducing WBS based management and workload management. == Features == Project & task management (with Microsoft Project import/export), and JSON format Gantt editor. Uses jQuery Gantt components Time tracking. Several entry points: dashboard, weekly view, issues, start/stop buttons Resource planning with weekly/monthly view, work load overview, unavailability from agenda Issue tracking & planning(with Kanban), e-mail integration, task dedicated inboxes Dashboard configuration, with customizable portlets and layout Message boards Scrum module Meeting and minute management, attached documents Agenda (Integrates with iCal, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Entourage, and Google Calendar) Document management, remote file systems link with NTFS, FTP, SVN, S3 (Dropbox, Google drive) Mobile application for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows phone == Integration == A complete JSON API is available for integrations. The applications runs in Java JDK 8+ on the Hibernate object/relational mapping. The standard distribution uses Apache Tomcat 9, but can run on any J2EE application server. Twproject is tested on these DB servers: MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSql, HSQLDB, but as uses Hibernate can run on many others. There is simple graphical step-by-step installer for Windows, Mac, Linux, .zip/.tar.gz/.rpm packages.
Egocentric vision
Egocentric vision or first-person vision is a sub-field of computer vision that entails analyzing images and videos captured by a wearable camera, which is typically worn on the head or on the chest and naturally approximates the visual field of the camera wearer. Consequently, visual data capture the part of the scene on which the user focuses to carry out the task at hand and offer a valuable perspective to understand the user's activities and their context in a naturalistic setting. The wearable camera looking forwards is often supplemented with a camera looking inward at the user's eye and able to measure a user's eye gaze, which is useful to reveal attention and to better understand the user's activity and intentions. == History == The idea of using a wearable camera to gather visual data from a first-person perspective dates back to the 70s, when Steve Mann invented "Digital Eye Glass", a device that, when worn, causes the human eye itself to effectively become both an electronic camera and a television display. Subsequently, wearable cameras were used for health-related applications in the context of Humanistic Intelligence and Wearable AI. Egocentric vision is best done from the point-of-eye, but may also be done by way of a neck-worn camera when eyeglasses would be in-the-way. This neck-worn variant was popularized by way of the Microsoft SenseCam in 2006 for experimental health research works. The interest of the computer vision community into the egocentric paradigm has been arising slowly entering the 2010s and it is rapidly growing in recent years, boosted by both the impressive advances in the field of wearable technology and by the increasing number of potential applications. The prototypical first-person vision system described by Kanade and Hebert, in 2012 is composed by three basic components: a localization component able to estimate the surrounding, a recognition component able to identify object and people, and an activity recognition component, able to provide information about the current activity of the user. Together, these three components provide a complete situational awareness of the user, which in turn can be used to provide assistance to the user or to the caregiver. Following this idea, the first computational techniques for egocentric analysis focused on hand-related activity recognition and social interaction analysis. Also, given the unconstrained nature of the video and the huge amount of data generated, temporal segmentation and summarization were among the first problems addressed. After almost ten years of egocentric vision (2007–2017), the field is still undergoing diversification. Emerging research topics include: Social saliency estimation Multi-agent egocentric vision systems Privacy preserving techniques and applications Attention-based activity analysis Social interaction analysis Hand pose analysis Ego graphical User Interfaces (EUI) Understanding social dynamics and attention Revisiting robotic vision and machine vision as egocentric sensing Activity forecasting Gaze prediction == Technical challenges == Today's wearable cameras are small and lightweight digital recording devices that can acquire images and videos automatically, without the user intervention, with different resolutions and frame rates, and from a first-person point of view. Therefore, wearable cameras are naturally primed to gather visual information from our everyday interactions since they offer an intimate perspective of the visual field of the camera wearer. Depending on the frame rate, it is common to distinguish between photo-cameras (also called lifelogging cameras) and video-cameras. The former (e.g., Narrative Clip and Microsoft SenseCam), are commonly worn on the chest, and are characterized by a very low frame rate (up to 2fpm) that allows to capture images over a long period of time without the need of recharging the battery. Consequently, they offer considerable potential for inferring knowledge about e.g. behaviour patterns, habits or lifestyle of the user. However, due to the low frame-rate and the free motion of the camera, temporally adjacent images typically present abrupt appearance changes so that motion features cannot be reliably estimated. The latter (e.g., Google Glass, GoPro), are commonly mounted on the head, and capture conventional video (around 35fps) that allows to capture fine temporal details of interactions. Consequently, they offer potential for in-depth analysis of daily or special activities. However, since the camera is moving with the wearer head, it becomes more difficult to estimate the global motion of the wearer and in the case of abrupt movements, the images can result blurred. In both cases, since the camera is worn in a naturalistic setting, visual data present a huge variability in terms of illumination conditions and object appearance. Moreover, the camera wearer is not visible in the image and what he/she is doing has to be inferred from the information in the visual field of the camera, implying that important information about the wearer, such for instance as pose or facial expression estimation, is not available. == Applications == A collection of studies published in a special theme issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has demonstrated the potential of lifelogs captured through wearable cameras from a number of viewpoints. In particular, it has been shown that used as a tool for understanding and tracking lifestyle behaviour, lifelogs would enable the prevention of noncommunicable diseases associated to unhealthy trends and risky profiles (such as obesity and depression). In addition, used as a tool of re-memory cognitive training, lifelogs would enable the prevention of cognitive and functional decline in elderly people. More recently, egocentric cameras have been used to study human and animal cognition, human-human social interaction, human-robot interaction, human expertise in complex tasks. Other applications include navigation/assistive technologies for the blind, monitoring and assistance of industrial workflows, and augmented reality interfaces.
Telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electrical or electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Long-distance technologies invented during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the electrical telegraph, telephone, television, and radio. Early telecommunication networks used metal wires as the medium for transmitting signals. These networks were used for telegraphy and telephony for many decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, a revolution in wireless communication began with breakthroughs including those made in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Other early pioneers in electrical and electronic telecommunications include co-inventors of the telegraph Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse, numerous inventors and developers of the telephone including Antonio Meucci, Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell, inventors of radio Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest, as well as inventors of television like Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth. Since the 1960s, the proliferation of digital technologies has meant that voice communications have gradually been supplemented by data. The physical limitations of metallic media prompted the development of optical fibre. The Internet, a technology independent of any given medium, has provided global access to services for individual users and further reduced location and time limitations on communications. == Definition == At the 1932 Plenipotentiary Telegraph Conference and the International Radiotelegraph Conference in Madrid, the two organizations merged to form the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). They defined telecommunication as "any telegraphic or telephonic communication of signs, signals, writing, facsimiles and sounds of any kind, by wire, wireless or other systems or processes of electric signaling or visual signaling (semaphores)." The definition was later reconfirmed, according to Article 1.3 of the ITU Radio Regulations, which defined it as "Any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems". As such, slow communications technologies like postal mail and pneumatic tubes are excluded from the telecommunication's definition. The term telecommunication was coined in 1904 by the French engineer and novelist Édouard Estaunié, who defined it as "remote transmission of thought through electricity". Telecommunication is a compound noun formed from the Greek prefix tele- (τῆλε), meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin verb communicare, meaning to share. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century. It comes from Old French comunicacion (14c., Modern French communication), from Latin communicationem (nominative communication), noun of action from past participle stem of communicare, "to share, divide out; communicate, impart, inform; join, unite, participate in," literally, "to make common", from communis. == History == Many transmission media have been used for long-distance communication throughout history, from smoke signals, beacons, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs to wires and empty space made to carry electromagnetic signals. === Before the electrical and electronic era === Long-distance communication was used long before the discovery of electricity and electromagnetism enabled the invention of telecommunications. A few of the many ingenious methods for communicating over distances prior to that are described here. Homing pigeons have been used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post had Persian roots and was later used by the Romans to aid their military. Frontinus claimed Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons. In the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a pigeon service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. In the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could only pass a single bit of information, so the meaning of the message, such as "the enemy has been sighted" had to be agreed upon in advance. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, when a beacon chain relayed a signal from Plymouth to London. In 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system (or semaphore line) between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres (six to nineteen miles). As a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. === Telegraph and telephone === On July 25, 1837, the first commercial electrical telegraph was demonstrated by English inventor Sir William Fothergill Cooke and English scientist Sir Charles Wheatstone. Both inventors viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph" and not as a new device. Samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on September 2, 1837. His code was an important advance over Wheatstone's signaling method. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed on July 27, 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time. After early attempts to develop a talking telegraph by Antonio Meucci and a telefon by Johann Philipp Reis, a patent for the conventional telephone was filed by Alexander Bell in February 1876 (just a few hours before Elisha Gray filed a patent caveat for a similar device). The first commercial telephone services were set up by the Bell Telephone Company in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London. === Radio and television === In 1894, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began developing wireless communication using the then-newly discovered phenomenon of radio waves, demonstrating, by 1901, that they could be transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the start of wireless telegraphy by radio. On 17 December 1902, a transmission from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, became the world's first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America. In 1904, a commercial service was established to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which incorporated them into their onboard newspapers. World War I accelerated the development of radio for military communications. After the war, commercial radio AM broadcasting began in the 1920s and became an important mass medium for entertainment and news. World War II again accelerated the development of radio for the wartime purposes of aircraft and land communication, radio navigation, and radar. Development of stereo FM broadcasting of radio began in the 1930s in the United States and the 1940s in the United Kingdom, displacing AM as the dominant commercial standard in the 1970s. On March 25, 1925, John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving pictures at the London department store Selfridges. Baird's device relied upon the Nipkow disk by Paul Nipkow and thus became known as the mechanical television. It formed the basis of experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning on 30 September 1929. === Vacuum tubes === Vacuum tubes use thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode for a number of fundamental electronic functions such as signal amplification and current rectification. The simplest vacuum tube, the diode invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming, contains only a heated electron-emitting cathode and an anode. Electrons can only flow in one direction through the device—from the cathode to the anode. Adding one or more control grids within the tube enables the current between the cathode and anode to be controlled by the voltage on the grid or grids. These devices became a key component of electronic circuits for the first half of the 20th century and were crucial to the development of radio, television, radar, sound recording and reproduction, long-distance telephone networks, and analogue and early digital computers. While some applications had used earlier technologies such as the sp
Digital classics
Digital classics is the application of the tools of digital humanities to the field of classics, or more broadly to the study of the ancient world. == History == Classics was one of the first of the humanities disciplines to adopt computing approaches; the first references to the use of computing in the classical humanities date to the early 1960s, which might be surprising considering the reputation of the discipline as old-fashioned and stuffily traditionalist. Major projects such as the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, founded in 1972, and the text collections of the Packard Humanities Institute set the trend, and there are still a significantly large number of ancient world projects among Humanities Computing projects today. Also, the success of traditional scholarly publications in digital guises, such as seen in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, and the early adoption of hypertext in high profile projects like the Perseus Digital Library helped to legitimize computing in the study of classics in ways that has not always been the case in other areas of the humanities. This apparent paradox may be as a result of the many methodologies and different sources of evidence that classicists have always had to embrace, from literary sources and linguistics, to art history and archaeology, history, philosophy, religious theory, ancient documents such as inscriptions and papyri, and so forth. The fragmentary nature of many of the texts and languages of the ancient world, the scattered evidence from the material culture of ancient Greece and Rome, and the necessity to evaluate all these varieties of evidence in context are particularly likely to benefit from digital approaches such as databases, text markup, image manipulation and machine learning. == Digital classics projects == There are currently several major projects that aim to encourage and develop digital approaches to classical scholarship. The Stoa Consortium at the University of Kentucky distributes news of the discipline, and serves as a peer-reviewed electronic publication venue, and encourages open source approaches to digital classics. The Perseus Project is a digital library that also provides a collection of digital texts and analysis tools to the public; principally (but not exclusively) classical. Digital Classicist is another project and community which shares information and advice about the digital humanities applied to the field of classics. Epigraphy.info is an international open community pursuing a collaborative environment for digital epigraphy. The Liverpool Classics Mailing List is a project which can be subscribed to in which one receives email regarding Classics events around the world, as well as call for papers, studentships and public lectures.
Software-defined mobile network
Software-defined mobile networking (SDMN) is an approach to the design of mobile networks where all protocol-specific features are implemented in software, maximizing the use of generic and commodity hardware and software in both the core network and radio access network (RAN). == History == Through the 20th century, telecommunications technology was driven by hardware development, with most functions implemented in special-purpose equipment. In the early 2000s, generally available CPUs became cheap enough to enable commercial software-defined radio (SDR) technology and softswitches. SDMN extends these trends into the design of mobile networks, moving nearly all network functions into software. The term "software-defined mobile network" first appeared in public literature in early 2014, used independently by Lime Microsystems and researchers from University of Oulu, Finland. == Limitations of hardware-based mobile networks == Mobile networks based on special-purpose hardware suffer from the following limitations: They have limited provisions for upgrades and usually must be replaced entirely when new standards are introduced. The individual components are not scalable in terms of performance and capacity, because the capacity of a component is fixed by the hardware implementation. Specialized equipment and its associated specialized software require vendor-specific training for the mobile operator's staff. Specialized hardware systems are usually supported and serviced by a single vendor, resulting in vendor lock-in. == Characteristics of SDMN designs == === Use of software-defined radio === SDR is an important element of SDMN, because it replaces protocol-specific radio hardware with protocol-agnostic digital transceivers. While many earlier digital radio systems used field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or special-purposed digital signal processors (DSPs) for calculations on baseband radio waveforms, the SDMN approach moves all of the baseband processing into general-purpose CPUs. SDMN radio systems also use hardware with publicly-documented interfaces that is designed to be readily reproducible by multiple manufacturers. === Commodity components === SDMN designs avoid the use of components that are specialized as to their functions or that are available from only a single vendor. This is true of both the hardware and software elements of the network. === Software switching and transcoding === The telephony switches of SDMN networks are software-based, including software transcoding for speech codecs. === Centralized, distributed, or hybrid? === A new SDN architecture for wireless distribution systems (WDSs) is explored that eliminates the need for multi-hop flooding of route information and therefore enables WDNs to easily expand. The key idea is to split network control and data forwarding by using two separate frequency bands. The forwarding nodes and the SDN controller exchange link-state information and other network control signaling in one of the bands, while actual data forwarding takes place in the other band. == Advantages of SDMN == The SDMN approach has many advantages over hardware-based mobile network designs. Because SDMN hardware is protocol-agnostic, upgrades are software-only, even across technology generations. In the radio network, these changes can even be made on a site-by-site basis. Because SDMN hardware is designed to be easily sourced and reproduced: SDMN equipment can be serviced by a wider range of vendors, lowering maintenance costs. SDMN equipment can be manufactured anywhere in the world, lowering production costs. Because SDMN software is based on commodity operating systems and development tools: Support staff can be trained more quickly because they are already familiar with the underlying software systems. Many aspects of the SDMN can be monitored and managed with pre-existing tools, because they are already available in the commodity operating systems. Because SDMN network components run on general purpose computers, the network components can be scaled up in capacity by adding more computing power.
TinEye
TinEye is a reverse image search engine developed and offered by Idée, Inc., a company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. TinEye allows users to search not using keywords but with images. Upon submitting an image, TinEye creates a "unique and compact digital signature or fingerprint" of the image and matches it with other indexed images. This procedure is able to match even heavily edited versions of the submitted image, but will not usually return similar images in the results. == History == Idée, Inc. was founded by Leila Boujnane and Paul Bloore in 1999. Idée launched the service on May 6, 2008 and went into open beta in August that year. While computer vision and image identification research projects began as early as the 1980s, the company claims that TinEye is the first web-based image search engine to use image identification technology. The service was created with copyright owners and brand marketers as the intended user base, to look up unauthorized use and track where the brands are showing up respectively. In June 2014, TinEye claimed to have indexed more than five billion images for comparisons. However, this is a relatively small proportion of the total number of images available on the World Wide Web. As of September 2025, TinEye's search results claim to have over 77.6 billion images indexed for comparison. == Technology == A user uploads an image to the search engine (the upload size is limited to 20 MB) or provides a URL for an image or for a page containing the image. The search engine will look up other usage of the image in the internet, including modified images based upon that image, and report the date and time at which they were posted. TinEye does not recognize outlines of objects or perform facial recognition, but recognizes the entire image, and some altered versions of that image. This includes smaller, larger, and cropped versions of the image. TinEye has shown itself capable of retrieving different images from its database of the same subject, such as famous landmarks. TinEye is capable of searching for images in JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP and TIFF format. Results generated from TinEye include the total number of matches in their database, a preview image, and the URL to each match. TinEye can sort results by best match, most changed, biggest image, newest, and oldest. User registration is optional and offers storage of the user's previous queries. Other features include embeddable widgets and bookmarklets. TinEye has also released their commercial API. == Usage == TinEye's ability to search the web for specific images (and modifications of those images) makes it a potential tool for the copyright holders of visual works to locate infringements on their copyright. It also creates a possible avenue for people who are looking to make use of imagery under orphan works to find the copyright holders of that imagery. Being that orphan works can be defined as "copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or impossible to identify and/or locate," the use of TinEye could potentially remove the orphan work status from online images that can be found in its database. === Fact-checking === It has been recommended by fact-checkers as a useful resource in attempts to verify the origin of images. As of 2019, TinEye specialized in copyright violations and finding exact versions of images online.
Problematic social media use
Excessive use of social media can lead to problems including impaired functioning and a reduction in overall wellbeing, for both users and those around them. Such usage is associated with a risk of mental health problems, sleep problems, academic struggles, and daytime fatigue. Psychological or behavioural dependence on social media platforms can result in significant negative functions in peoples daily lives. The risk of problems is also related to the type of platform of social media or online community being used. People of different ages and genders may be affected in different ways by problematic social media use. == Signs and symptoms == Signs of social media addiction or excessive use of social media include many behaviours similar to substance use disorders, including mood modification, salience, tolerance, stress withdrawal symptoms, psychological distress, anxiety and depression, conflict, and relapse, and low self esteem. People with problematic social media habits are at risk of being addicted and may require more time on social media as time passes. Frequent social media use may also be associated with self-reported symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Social anxiety (or fear of missing out) is another potential symptom. Social anxiety is defined as having intense anxiety or fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation. The fear of missing out can contribute to excessive usage due to frequent checking the media constantly throughout the day to check in and see what others are doing instead of doing other activities. Common signs include displacement, or replacing meaningful other activities with social media, and loneliness. == Causes and mechanisms == There are many theories for the mechanism or cause behind a person having problematic social media use. The transition from normal to problematic social media use occurs when a person relies on it to relieve stress, loneliness, depression, or provide continuous rewards. Cognitive-behavioral model – People increase their use of social media when they are in unfamiliar environments or awkward situations; Social skill model – People pull out their phones and use social media when they prefer virtual communication as opposed to face-to-face interactions because they lack self-presentation skills; Socio-cognitive model – This person uses social media because they love the feeling of people liking and commenting on their photos and tagging them in pictures. They are attracted to the positive outcomes they receive on social media. There are parallels to the gambling industry inherent to the design of various social media sites, with "'ludic loops' or repeated cycles of uncertainty, anticipation and feedback" potentially contributing to problematic social media use. Another factor directly facilitating the development of addiction to social media is the implicit attitude toward the IT artifact. Social media use may also stimulate the reward pathway in the brain. There is also a theory that social media addiction fulfills a basic evolutionary drives in the wake of mass urbanization worldwide. The basic psychological needs of "secure, predictable community life that evolved over millions of years" remain unchanged, leading some to find online communities to cope with the new individualized way of life in some modern societies. The "Evolutionary Mismatch" hypothesis holds that modern digital platforms amplify social competition and comparison in ways our ancestors never faced, possibly triggering maladaptive patterns such as anxiety, depression, or compulsive use. Similarly, some scholars compare social media to "junk food": The approach taken to develop social media platforms may contribute to problematic social media use. The ability to scroll and stream content endlessly and how app developers distort time by affecting the 'flow' of content when scrolling, potentially resulting in the Zeigarnik effect (the human brain will continue to pursue an unfinished task until a satisfying closure. Autoplay modes, the personalized nature of the content results in emotional attachment (the user values this above its actual value, which is referred to as the endowment effect), and the exposure effect (repeated exposure to a distinct stimulus by the user can condition the user into an enhanced or improved attitude toward it). The interactive nature of the platforms, including the ability to "like" content has also been linked. Even though social media can satisfy personal communication needs, those who use it at higher rates are shown to have higher levels of psychological distress. == Diagnosis == While there is no official diagnostic term or measurement, problematic social media use is conceptualized as a non-substance-related disorder, resulting in preoccupation and compulsion to engage excessively in social media platforms despite negative consequences. No diagnosis exists for problematic social media use in either the ICD-11 or DSM-5. Excessive use of an activity, like social media, does not directly equate with addiction. There are other factors that could lead to someone's social media addiction including personality traits and pre-existing tendencies. While the extent of social media use and addiction are positively correlated, it is erroneous to employ use (the degree to which one makes use of the site's features, the effort exerted during use sessions, access frequency, etc.) as a proxy for addiction. Indicators of a potential dependence on social media include: Mood swings: a person uses social media to regulate his or her mood, or as a means of escaping real world conflicts. Relevance: social media starts to dominate a person's thoughts at the expense of other activities. Salience: social media becomes the most important part of someone's life. Tolerance: a person increases their time spent on social media to experience previously associated feelings they had while using social media. Withdrawal: when a person can not access social media their sleeping or eating habits change or signs of depression or anxiety can become present. Conflicts in real life: when social media is used excessively, it can affect real-life relationships with family and friends. Relapse: the tendency for previously affected individuals to revert to previous patterns of excessive social media use. There have been several scales developed and validated that help to understand the issues regarding problematic social media use. There is not one single scale that is being used by all researchers. == Treatment == Screen time recommendations for children and families have been developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Possible therapeutic interventions published include: Self-help interventions, including application-specific timers; Cognitive behavioural therapy; and Organisational and schooling support. Medications have not been shown to be effective in randomized, controlled trials for the related conditions of Internet addiction disorder or gaming disorder. == Prevention == Prevention approaches include screen time monitoring apps and other tech-based approaches to improve efficiency and decrease screen time and tools to help with addiction to online platform products. Parents' methods for monitoring, regulating, and understanding their children's social media use are referred to as parental mediation. Parental mediation strategies include active, restrictive, and co-using methods. Active mediation involves direct parent-child conversations that are intended to educate children on social media norms and safety, as well as the variety and purposes of online content. Restrictive mediation entails the implementation of rules, expectations, and limitations regarding children's social media use and interactions. Co-use is when parents jointly use social media alongside their children, and is most effective when parents are actively participating (like asking questions, making inquisitive/supportive comments) versus being passive about it. Active mediation is the most common strategy used by parents, though the key to success for any mediation strategy is consistency/reliability. When parents reinforce rules inconsistently, have no mediation strategy, or use highly restrictive strategies for monitoring their children's social media use, there is an observable increase in children's aggressive behaviours. When parents openly express that they are supportive of their child's autonomy and provide clear, consistent rules for media use, problematic usage and aggression decreases. Knowing that consistent, autonomy-supportive mediation has more positive outcomes than inconsistent, controlling mediation, parents can consciously foster more direct, involved, and genuine dialogue with their children. This can help prevent or reduce problematic social media use in children and teenagers. == Outcomes == === Adolescents and teens === Increased social medi