• I had a simmilar situation, in my case when I set a budget to" risk" e.g when you get to it you close the business and also some insurance budget. It... made it easy to explain like a pre business plan. more

  • You want to come to some compromising decision between you and your husband in order to be successful in this endeavor. God bless.

  • What are you interested in doing? Consider who you are applying to and why. Some times we are denied because it was not meant for us. You never know... what kind of mess is going on behind the scenes. Do some research before applying and see if you could grow in any way with the company you apply to. Everything has a lesson to learn from. What would you learn from that company? How might they help you grow? I learned at Mc Donalds that I might be the first person someone sees to start their day and service with a smile 😊 was Mc Donalds thing. I also learned that people are very aggressive when they are really hungry (HANGRY)! I learned as a secretary (1st time) that I didn’t like the sound of the telephone ringing. I also learned in the Navy that orders are orders and no matter how old you are, you still need to ask permission to do some things.


    >A lot has changed and yet some things never change. Figure out what you like and want to know about. Where would your time be respected?
     more

  • Where are you searching city an state try PX

  • You did not say anything wrong.

    You asked a question and they don’t care to accommodate your knowledge. Be proud of yourself. That was not for you.... What is meant for you will not deny you. You asked before being hired as to what would be expected of you and how you could benefit at the same time. They don’t want to see people excel. They want subordinates and followers. You are informed and educated about your worth. They don’t want you because you are worth more than what they are willing to accommodate. Sounds like they want slaves to their mission. Do what we want and need. Do what we say and nothing else. You don’t have an opinion unless we give you one.

    Stay strong and what is meant for you will come.
     more

  • Loyalty is a pivotal point to every employer but not at the expense of the employee personality and prestige.

10 Practical Steps Employers Should Take to Mitigate AI Bias and Manage Workplace Risk


Artificial intelligence has become increasingly embedded in hiring, promotion, and employee management, which means that employers face heightened legal risks. From automated résumé screening to video interview tools and performance analytics, AI tools can amplify bias, create disparate impact, and expose organizations to regulatory scrutiny. Below are 10 practical steps you should consider to... mitigate bias and manage risk throughout the AI employment lifecycle.

1. Validate Before You Deploy

Before rolling out any AI tool, conduct rigorous pre-deployment testing. This includes bias and disparate-impact audits across protected groups (race, sex, age, disability) and job categories. Require vendors to provide documentation of their own testing, accuracy data, and bias audit results. Don't assume a high statistical correlation between a model's features and job performance means the tool is job-relevant. Always ask if the features logically relate to actual job duties.

2. Monitor Outcomes Over Time

Bias mitigation is not a one-time event. You should track demographic and performance data after hiring or promotion decisions. If patterns of bias or disparate impact emerge, adjust or retrain the model. Regular post-deployment audits are essential to catch "drift" as new data enters the system.

3. Establish Strong Governance

Implement clear policies for AI use, including documentation of all testing, audits, and remediation steps. Maintain records of how decisions are made, which features are used, and how human oversight is integrated. This documentation is critical for regulatory compliance and defending decisions if challenged.

4. Know the Model's Features and Filters

Demand transparency from vendors about which résumé factors or data points the model uses and which disqualify candidates. Understand the "disqualifying" features and ensure they are job-related and non-discriminatory.

5. Avoid Bloated Job Descriptions

Overly broad job postings that mix "must-haves" with "nice-to-haves" create data noise, making it harder for AI to identify true qualifications. This can lead to models weighing irrelevant factors (like education pedigree or résumé formatting), amplifying bias. The solution is to provide cleaner, more focused job data.

6. Strengthen Vendor Due Diligence

Vet vendors thoroughly. Require contractual assurances on data quality, explainability, audit access, and strict limits on data use and retention. Ensure vendors comply with privacy, notice, and consent requirements, especially when tools capture biometric-like data (e.g., voice, facial movement).

7. Comply with Emerging Regulations

Determine if the tool qualifies as an automated decision tool (ADT) under laws like NYC Local Law 144, California's pending ADMT regulations, Illinois's AI Video Interview Act, or Colorado's upcoming law. Complete required audits, notices, and candidate disclosures.

8. Maintain Human Oversight

AI should inform - not replace - human judgment. Someone in your hiring loop should review AI-generated scores or recommendations and retain authority to override automated decisions. Document when and why human intervention occurs.

9. Standardize and Accommodate

For tools like AI video interviews, standardize the experience: same questions, prompts, and instructions for all candidates. Provide technical guidance and offer accommodations for disabilities to avoid ADA risks.

10. Ensure Candidate Transparency

Disclose AI use to candidates and offer non-AI alternatives when possible. Transparency builds trust and is increasingly required by law.
 
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How to Become a Social Media Manager in 2025 (Key Skills & Tips)


What Skills Do You Need To Become a Social Media Manager?

Honing the necessary social media manager skills needed for the job can help bump your resumé to the top of an employer's list.

Here are eight skills to put into practice now:

#1: Copywriting

From an Instagram caption to campaign assets for a product launch, copywriting is a highly useful skill for social media managers.

Plus, given... that the attention span of social media users is so low, being able to write content that elicits engagement is critical. Plus, we've got the best ChatGPT Prompts for Social Media Managers ready and at your disposal.

#2: Curiosity

While this might not be a "hard skill" you list on your resumé, being curious is essential to being a social media manager.

Why? What works one month might not work the next. So, it takes a level of curiosity and openness to dig into what's happening and then come up with solutions.

TIP: If you're someone who doesn't enjoy constant change, social media marketing may not be the right career for you.

#3: An Eye for What Works on Social

It's hard to quantify, but being able to identify the type of content that works on social media, along with the brands (and creators) who are thriving on different platforms, is an important skill.

Paying attention to little details like aspect ratio, editing techniques, or even the use of memes, and then applying what you've learned (with your own spin on it), can help set you apart.

#4: Project Management

Social media managers often juggle multiple deadlines and collaborate with several people at a time, whether it's clients or other team members.

Without project management skills (and knowing what to prioritize), you won't be able to make as great an impact on your business goals.

TIP: 's social team loves this Digital Project Management course from Superhi.

#5: Nimbleness or Ability to Pivot

The one constant about social media? It's always changing.

Keeping up with industry news, current trends, and even pop culture moments will make your job easier.

Social media managers often have to pivot their content strategies and update their content calendars, so nimbleness is a must.

#6: Graphic Design and/or Editing

While graphic design, video editing, and social media management are very different, having basic design and editing skills can help create quick-turnaround assets, especially if you're a team of one.

While you don't need to be a professional, having an eye for design will benefit your career.

#7: Crisis Management

Compared to other marketers, social media managers arguably have a better pulse on their customers' wants, needs, and complaints.

And crisis management on any social media platform isn't for the faint of heart.

TIP: Bookmark our resource for handling a crisis on social media: How to Manage a Social Media Crisis: A Step-by-step Guide

#8: Public Speaking

Not every role will require on-camera skills, but being comfortable on camera can give you an edge.

Plus, being able to pitch your ideas or share results in team (or client) meetings will be important for showcasing your value as a social media manager.

Streamline your to-do list with Social Media Management. Plan, schedule, and publish your social posts -- find your perfect plan today:
 
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Help Wanted - Job Opportunities 4-1-2026


The Town of McCandless Police Department is currently accepting applications for the position of full-time police officer. Applications can be obtained at the Town of McCandless Police Department, 9955 Grubbs Road, Wexford, PA 15090 or download a copy at www.townofmccandless.org. Completed applications must be returned to the police department Monday through Friday between 8am - 4pm. Completed... applications may also be e-mailed to policeapplicant@townofmccandless.org. All applications must be received by Friday, April 24, 2026, at 4pm.

REQUIREMENTS: To be eligible, you must meet at least one of the following of 1, 2 and 3: 1) Have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college/ university. OR 2) Have at least 4 years (8,320 hours) law enforcement experience OR 3) Have at least 2 years (4,160) hours law enforcement experience AND one of the following: an associate degree from an accredited college/university OR have 4 years of military service with an honorable discharge. Candidate must also meet ALL of the following: Be at least 21. Licensed by the Commonwealth of PA to operate a motor vehicle. Be a citizen of the USA. At the time of appointment, be Act 120 Certified under MPOETC. Be of good moral character, must be physically and mentally fit to perform the full duties of a police officer and agree to uphold and abide by the Town's mission statement. Be free of habitual addiction to liquor or drugs. Be eligible to carry a firearm and be free from conviction of a disqualifying crime in accordance with the Police Officers Education and Training Program of Title 37 of the PA Code. Satisfy the requirements of Act 57 of 2020 pertaining to background checks.

Each applicant shall complete the prescribed application form. The applicant Is responsible for all information placed upon the form. False or incorrect information will void the application and any subsequent action taken upon it. The completed application and supporting documentation including, if appropriate, any claim for veteran's preference is required.

The date, time and location of a written examination will follow. A score of 70% is the minimum passing score on this examination. An agility test, oral examination, psychological and medical examination will also be conducted.

The Town of McCandless is an equal opportunity employer.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY

CONSERVATION DISTRICT

in Pittsburgh, PA, is seeking a full-time Controller to be responsible for managing financial operations, financial planning, record-keeping, and developing comprehensive reports for the Executive Director and Board of Directors. Send resumes to resumes@accdpa.org.

Hitachi Rail STS USA, Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, seeks a Senior System Validation Engineer to guarantee the compliance of complex systems (multi signalling technologies, mostly consolidated technology solutions) to the customer requirements and to build the required System Validation evidences in compliance with project schedules and budgets. Position is for a roving employee who will work in unanticipated locations throughout the U.S. Employee will have to relocate but travel is not required from any particular location. Apply at: https://careers.hitachi.com.

Hitachi Rail STS USA, Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, seeks a Senior System Engineer to be responsible for the overall system integration in turnkey projects to meet the requirements imposed by the contracts for Tender or Backlog Projects. Position is for a roving employee who will work in unanticipated locations throughout the U.S. Employee will have to relocate but travel is not required from any particular location. Apply at: https://careers.hitachi.com.

AEO Employment Services Co LLC seeks a Senior Analyst - Data Insights. This is a remote position, the employee can work from anywhere in the United States to drive retail and e-commerce insights. Duties include deep analysis of consumer behavior including website traffic, conversion rates and out of stock analysis. Apply at https://aeo.jobs with cover letter, resumé and salary requirements.

AEO Employment Services CO LLC seeks a Staff Engineer to develop global e-commerce applications. This is a remote position; the employee can live anywhere in the United States. Duties include designing and developing backend apps using Java/JDK8, Spring Boot and ATG. Apply at https://aeo.jobs with cover letter, resumé and salary requirements.

COMPENSATION ANALYST

Pittsburgh Regional Transit is seeking a Compensation Analyst to participate in the planning, implementation, and administration of wage and salary programs for the Port Authority of Allegheny County d/b/a Pittsburgh Regional Transit's (PRT) wage and salary programs. Conducts analysis and interpretation related to the organization's compensation programs. Participates in and interprets compensation surveys. Recommends changes to ensure the maintenance of company compensation objectives.

Essential Functions:

· Serves as process owner in administering the performance evaluation and leads the development of new performance evaluation program and the implementation of supporting PeopleSoft module. Participates in the administration of the associated merit program.

· Uses HRIS system to manage several wage and salary processes, including but not limited to:

o Employee compensation, transfer, job title, and other types of changes.

o Salary plans and structures within Peoplesoft foundational set-up tables for collective bargaining agreements.

o Job code and position management information.

o Researching and resolving

compensation related issues.

· Participates in transit industry and general industry compensation surveys. Conducts market reviews of company jobs to determine market competitiveness.

Job requirements include:

· High school diploma or GED.

· Bachelor's degree in business administration, human resources management, industrial relations, or related field from an accredited college or university. Related experience may substitute for education on a year-for-year basis.

· Minimum of three (3) years of experience in the planning and administration of compensation programs.

· Ability to conduct quantitative

analyses and interpret data including wage data, wage trends, and prepare spreadsheets to ensure adherence to compensation strategies.

· Ability to communicate effectively and professionally with employees and senior executives. Must be comfortable presenting programs to groups and members of senior management using complicated numerical analysis and present in an easy to understand for individuals who may not be mathematically inclined.

· Detail oriented and comfortable working in a fast-paced office environment; outstanding planning and time-management capabilities; and superior organization skills and dedication to completing projects in a timely manner.

· Ability to work in a diverse environment; experience working collaboratively with others; capability of adjusting priorities and deviating from routines.

· Knowledge and understanding of state and federal wage and hour laws.

· Demonstrated ability in the use of Windows, Microsoft Word, and Excel.

· Must be able to maintain confidentiality.

Preferred attributes:

· Progress towards Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) Designation from the World at Work professional organization.

· Training and experience in Peoplesoft Human Resources Management System (HRMS).

Annual Salary $63,500 - $95,300

We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Interested candidates should forward a cover letter (with salary requirements) and resume to:

Missy Ramsey

Employment Department

345 Sixth Avenue, 3rd Floor

Pittsburgh, PA 15222-2527

MRamsey@RidePRT.org

EOE

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

REPRESENTATIVE

Pittsburgh Regional Transit is seeking a Employee Relations Representative to function as the Employee Relations/Human Resources representative of Port Authority of Allegheny County d/b/a Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) for assigned divisions, within the scope of labor /employee relations matters.

Advises management on labor agreement interpretation and administration. Directs investigations, conducts disciplinary andgrievance hearings to ensure consistent, system-wide adherence and applications and represents PRT

at the first step in the grievance procedure. Screens grievance cases for arbitration and enters into binding agreements with unions in dispute resolution. Develops and implement Employee Relations training programs; identifies, recommends, and assists in facilitating other training opportunities, as required. Serves as a member of the PRT's negotiating team to participate in contract negotiations with union representatives.

Essential Functions:

* Utilize PeopleSoft HRMS to perform the following:

o Enter, update, and maintain discipline, grievances, and terminations.

* Function as the Human Resources Representative at the assigned divisions, expediting the resolutions of labor/employee relations matters as they arise day-to-day. Provides information on labor law and accepted labor relations practices.

* Advise management on the administration of labor agreements and provides interpretations to ensure fulfillment of contractual obligations. Ensures adherence to company policies and procedures for proper and consistent application and compliance.

Job requirements include:

* High school diploma or GED.

* Bachelor's degree in industrial/ labor relations, human resources management or related field from an accredited college or university. Experience within labor relations/ employee relations area may be substituted for education on a year-for-year basis.

* Minimum of five (5) years' experience in labor and employment law. No certifications or licenses required.

* Minimum of three (3) years' experience in a unionized environment.

* Knowledge of labor and employment laws.

* Demonstrated ability in the use of Windows, Microsoft Word, and Excel.

* Professional and effective oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills.

* Good organizational skills.

Preferred attributes:

* Previous supervisory and/or leadership experience.

* Oracle/PeopleSoft experience.

* General Human Resource experience.

Annual Salary $78,300 - $117,400

We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Interested candidates should forward a cover letter (with salary requirements) and resume to:

Glenn Huetter

Employment Department

345 Sixth Avenue, 3rd Floor

Pittsburgh, PA 15222-2527

GHuetter@RidePRT.org

EOE

MEDICAL PHYSICIST ASSISTANT

(MULTIPLE OPENINGS)

UPCI Cancer Services in Pittsburgh, PA seeks multiple Medical Physicist Assistants to work under the supervision of a Qualified Medical Physicist (QMP) performing machine and patient specific quality assurance (QA), participating in acceptance testing and commissioning of new equipment, and assaying radioactive sources. May need to work flexible hours as needed including afternoons and evenings and weekends to perform quality assurance measurements.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Physics, Radiation Therapy, Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering or related field and at least one (1) year of Medical Physicist Assistant, Medical Physics Resident, or related experience conducting and documenting

daily, weekly, monthly and annual QA checks; operating linear accelerators; performing HDR brachytherapy source calibration; performing dosimetric verification; working with treatment planning techniques including IMRT and VMAT; and utilizing Oncentra HDR treatment planning system for simple and complex HDR brachytherapy planning and Eclipse external beam treatment planning systems. Apply by following these steps; visit

http://careers.upmc.com and enter 260000L2 in the "Search Keyword/ Job ID" field and click Go.

EOE/Disability/Veteran.

PHYSICIAN-NEPHROLOGY

& INTENSIVIST

Regional Health Services, Inc. located at 600 Grant St., U. S. Steel Tower, 57th Floor, Pittsburgh PA 16219 seeks a Physician-Nephrology & Intensivist to specialize in kidney care and the treatment of diseases of the kidneys, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), polycystic kidney disease (PKD), acute renal failure, kidney stones, and high blood pressure; diagnose a wide variety of clinical problems representing the extreme of human disease and work as a member of a coordinated care team, either as the primary care provide or a consultant, treating a broad range of conditions common among critically ill patients, with technological procedures and devices used in intensive care settings, and in areas such as end-of-life decisions, advance directives, estimating prognosis, and counseling of patients and their families at UPMC Nephrology, 300 State Street, Erie PA 16507 and UPMC Hamot, 201 State St., Erie PA 16650. Has the ability to work remotely from home if necessary, but not on a regular basis. Position requires a Medical Degree, Doctor of Osteopathy, its equivalent or its foreign equivalent, must have completed a residency in Internal Medicine and must have completed fellowships in Nephrology and Critical Care Medicine, must have Board certification in Internal Medicine with subspecialties in Nephrology and Critical Care Medicine or an active candidate for Internal Medicine with subspecialities in Nephrology and Critical Care Medicine board certification, and must possess an unrestricted Pennsylvania medical license & DEA license. Apply at www.upmc.com by following these steps; click Careers at UPMC, Start My Job Search, and follow the link to continue to search and apply for openings. Select Advanced Search and enter 260000KZ in the job opening ID field. EOE

CLASSICAL HEMATOLOGIST

University of Pittsburgh Physicians located at 600 Grant St., U. S. Steel Tower, 57th Floor, Pittsburgh PA 16219 seeks a Classical Hematologist to focus on the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of blood-related diseases and disorders, encompasses various conditions affecting blood cells, bone marrow, blood vessels, and the coagulation system, diagnose and treat hematological conditions in both the inpatient and outpatient settings, complete clinical documentation in all electronic medical record system, attend appropriate Division or Department meetings, as necessary, and educate and teach Hematology Fellows and Internal Medicine Residents at UPMC Falk Medical Bldg., 3601 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh P A 15213, UPMC Presbyterian, 200 Lothrop St.,

Pittsburgh PA 15213, UPMC Magee -Womens Hospital, 300 Halket St., Pittsburgh PA 15213, UPMC Shadyside, 5230 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh PA 15213, and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, 5115 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh PA 15213. Has the ability to work remotely from home- not on a regular basis. Requires travel to various worksites within 5 miles. Position requires a Medical Degree, Doctor of Osteopathy, its equivalent or its foreign equivalent, must have completed a residency in Internal Medicine; must have completed a fellowship in Hematology/ Oncology or Hematology, and must have an unrestricted Pennsylvania medical license. Apply at www.upmc.com by following these steps; click Careers at UPMC, Start My Job Search, and follow the link to continue to search and apply for openings. Select Advanced Search and enter 260000L0 in the job opening ID field. EOE
 
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Why Some Young People Are Ditching Their Smartphones for Dumbphones, Flip Phones


Delivering a constant stream of messages, entertainment, news, alerts and more.

Now, some young people who were raised with these devices are deciding to get rid of them. They want to know ...

Justin messaged: Wow this...

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Editor's note: These pop-ups are annoying aren't they? To get rid of them, simply disable your Wi-Fi and put your device in airplane mode.

Price Drop

Multiple items in your cart are now available at a lower price.

Astrology

You should get out more.

Reminder

Pick up Bon Bon from the groomer

For most of his childhood, Shaawan Francis Keahna considered himself to be a fundamentally unattractive kid -- "too giggly and too gangly and too smart," as he put it to me recently, "with a face that was really, really adult, despite my youth. My biggest problem, of course, was that I was just plain weird." Growing up in Hayward, a former logging town on the Namekagon River in northwestern Wisconsin, he was often teased by white classmates for his Native ancestry and for his love of poetry and art. "It became a self-fulfilling thing," he said. "I internalized it and basically came to see myself exactly the way they saw me."

Then in 2014, shortly before his 17th birthday, Keahna persuaded his mother to buy him a smartphone, and practically overnight everything changed. Huddled in his bedroom, his face lit by the glow of the device's screen, Keahna spent hours clicking around Rookie, an online magazine founded by the writer Tavi Gevinson, and Tumblr, a microblogging site popular with teenagers and 20-somethings. Eventually he opened his own Tumblr account, which he populated with poetry and moodily posed selfies. Hundreds of likes and comments followed.

"I went from thinking I had nothing going for me, IRL, to the empowerment of being attractive to college students and getting scouted by modeling agencies," he wrote in an email. "I was being shown a world where my appearance could offer me everything, right in the palm of my hand. And I was ready to do whatever it took to jump from the old world to the new."

Although he was not yet aware of it, Keahna had joined one of the largest technological migrations in American history. From 2011 to 2012 alone, according to data from the Pew Research Center, the number of American teenagers with access to a smartphone jumped to 37 percent of the population from 23 percent; by the time Keahna graduated from high school in 2016, he knew hardly anyone without an internet-capable device. "But I would argue that I was unique even among my friends," he told me. "People would joke, 'Wow, you are in an unhealthy, long-term, abusive, romantic love affair with your phone.' And it was true."

He became especially addicted to Instagram, where he would often post upward of 50 "stories" a day. In the artistic and activist circles in which he now moved, trading handles was the equivalent of sending a "social résumé," he said. "Like, 'Oh, you were written up here,' or 'Oh, you made this animation.' It was my portfolio -- a history of where I'd been and who I was."

And yet as he edged further into his 20s and moved to Baltimore to pursue a career in writing and filmmaking, Keahna found himself increasingly uneasy with the outsize role his phone was playing in his life. The moment he felt sad, or scared, or uneasy, or bored, his hand would shoot instinctively, Gollum-like, toward the device. He scrolled while he walked, while he lay in bed; he scrolled while talking with friends. This, he felt, was bad enough, but not nearly as bad as the accompanying guilt. "I remember being sent a photo from a big family vacation to Montana," he said. "I have my little niece on my lap, and there are all these mountains behind us, and it's absolutely gorgeous," he went on, his eyes shiny with tears. "And there's me, slouched over, looking at my smartphone. I couldn't remember being in that moment, because I was transfixed by the screen. I realized that I had given a part of myself away."

In a frantic effort to get it back, he experimented with locking his device in a different room and deleting certain applications. Later he began lurking on a Reddit forum called r/dumbphones, where users post tips and pictures of stripped-down devices capable of sending texts and making calls and little else. "Inevitably," Keahna said, "that triggered the Instagram algorithm to send me videos of influencers saying, like, 'Yeah, it's time to give up your smartphone.'"

Mom

I don't think my messages are going through...

To his astonishment, many of these voices appeared to belong to people close to his own age. In some cases, they were younger still, meaning they were unlikely to be able to remember a time when the smartphone wasn't the primary portal through which their generation experienced life -- equal parts wallet and communication platform, portable encyclopedia and gaming platform. And yet all of them seemed to be awakening to an alarming truth: that however their pocket computer may have benefited them, and however deeply embedded it was in their day-to-day existence, it had also proved to be something of a Pandora's box, unleashing a tide of horrors they desperately wanted to escape.

This year, I set out to better understand what was driving this shift -- what was causing so many young people to feel fed up with their phones. In dozens of interviews, and hours spent on internet message boards like r/dumbphones, where I first met Keahna, I often heard variations on the same metaphors -- a shattering, a wave, an explosion. But the most common refrain involved the language of illness. "My opinion is that the human body, thanks to millions of years of evolution and developing these feedback mechanisms, is good at knowing when it's sick," one 20-something told me recently. "And there are a lot more young people who are suddenly at their wits' end. They say: 'Oh, my god, why am I still interested in this thing? I want to throw it in the river.' They know, their bodies know, that they're burned out, they're gassed -- and that they're ready for something different." Keahna, for his part, was more succinct. "It does feel," he told me, "like a collective fever is breaking."

But as he quickly discovered, it is one thing to be aware of a problem and another to address it. You can be sick and still not be willing to take the cure. No matter how much time he spent on r/dumbphones, no matter how many social media apps he deleted, his phone always ended up back in his hands. "It remains distressing to me how much giving it up was like trying to get off drugs," he said. "It felt close to impossible. And ultimately, the only thing that helped was someone showing me that it wasn't."

One evening, Keahna attended a rock show at an underground venue in Baltimore, where he summoned the courage to introduce himself to Alexandra Zavaglia, a local musician and performer. At 26, Zavaglia was already an established figure in the city's art scene -- under the name Cassiopeia, she fronted a local death-metal band -- and seemed to know everyone worth knowing. "And when I asked her for social info," Keahna said, "she pulled out a business card and a flip phone."

He recognized the technology from his childhood, but it had been years since he'd seen it in the wild, and certainly not in the hands of someone so demonstrably cool. Zavaglia "was my age," Keahna said. "She had an active social life, an active work schedule, a creative career. And she was doing it all while being far more offline than me."

A couple of months later, Keahna signed in to eBay and bought a dumbphone of his own. If in high school he had been part of the great smartphone migration, now, nearly 20 years after the release of the original Apple iPhone, he was joining its inverse: a growing and passionate resistance movement of young users who had decided that they deserved, collectively, to be set free.

The Pew Research Center, which put teenage smartphone access at 37 percent in 2012, had it at 95 percent in 2024

Games

You haven't played in 3 days! We miss you! Come back!

Reminders

Did you take your creatine today?

Find Love

It's not them -- it's you.

A stipulation: The age of the smartphone is not ending, not any time soon, and not least because the multibillion-dollar smartphone industry has a vested interest in ensuring that it continues. The Pew Research Center, which put teenage smartphone access at 37 percent in 2012, had it at 95 percent in 2024, and young adults -- defined as anyone between the ages of 18 and 29 -- consistently rank as the most active of all internet users. As of a few years ago, Gallup found that the average teenager in the United States spent about 4.8 hours a day on social media sites, with much of that screen time occurring, according to other research, during school hours.

And yet it seems simultaneously clear that when it comes to all smartphone users, including members of older generations but particularly those users raised on a smart device, a major reckoning is finally at hand. Since 2023, more than 30 states have instituted partial smartphone restrictions or so-called bell-to-bell bans that forbid the use of smartphones when school is in session. Overseas, Australia's government has gone so far as to ban social media for children under 16. (More than half a dozen countries are considering similar measures.) And in Silicon Valley, tech titans like Meta, Google and Snap are facing a barrage of lawsuits -- thousands in all -- accusing them of deliberately preying upon vulnerable kids. "These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children," Mark Lanier, a plaintiff's attorney, has said in a case against Meta and YouTube. "And they did it on purpose." (A jury found both companies negligent.)

At the same time, what was once a steady drip of academic literature on the dangers of the smartphone has widened into a torrent. In recent years, for example, we have learned that smartphone use can lead to disturbances in "multiple cellular biological processes" in adolescents, while prolonged screen time may negatively affect parts of young brains that govern decision-making and impulse control. We have been told that people who receive a smartphone before age 13 experience higher levels of "detachment from reality" and diminished self-worth, and that heavy use can lead to cognitive impairment, obesity and hand pain.

These effects have inspired books like "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness," by the New York University professor Jonathan Haidt, whose central thesis -- that children have been unwillingly recruited as "test subjects for a radical new way of growing up, far from the real-world interactions of small communities in which humans evolved" -- has been adopted as a rallying cry by parents everywhere.

In 2025, Madeleine George, a public-health expert at RTI International, an independent research group, helped conduct a meta-analysis of 32 studies on the relationship between social media restriction and well-being. The upshot, she told me, was that staying offline yields "small but consistent positive effects." She emphasized that the overall findings "masked a lot of variability" -- many young people are able to enjoy a reasonably healthy relationship with their phone.

Still, many others find that "they feel awful," she said, and may even be influenced by the heightened awareness of the damage smartphones can inflict. "Hearing those sorts of messages, it absolutely seeps in -- it gets absorbed," George told me. "And kids start to say, 'I need to break out of this cage they've put us in.' That's really at the heart of what's going on here, right? They're saying: 'How can I maximize what I want out of this technology and minimize what I don't want? I should get to have a choice in the matter.'"

We've been here before, of course. With few exceptions, every piece of transformative technology has inspired a backlash. It happened with the car, when city dwellers mobilized against what they viewed as a noisy, smelly, dangerous menace. It happened with the television, and the widespread fear that it would damage viewers' brains. And it is happening now, with artificial intelligence. "There's a misconception that technology moves in a straight line -- that it's this big, clean wave, with everything being carried constantly forward," said Thomas Dekeyser, an academic and author of a new book called "Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine." "But when you look more closely, you find it's not true. There has always been contestation. There has always been a point when people stand up and resist."

The difference today, he continued, is the age of those doing the resisting. "Usually it's the older generations who say things like, 'I want the youth I had, and that is no longer there,'" he told me. "Whereas now, with the smartphone and social media, it's the younger generations going: 'Yeah, no thanks. I don't want this in the present -- nor in the future.'"

You can find variations on the sentiment in any venue, digital or not, where teenagers and 20-somethings congregate. On TikTok, clips promoting the "flip-phone lifestyle" have been viewed hundreds of millions of times; on YouTube, an army of young dumbphone evangelists preaches the brain-improving benefits of going analog. There are "Luddite clubs" at high schools around the country, and on college campuses, a phone-free campaign called the Reconnect Movement -- tagline: "We're all craving something real" -- has attracted enthusiastic audiences.

When ThriftBooks commissioned Talker Research to survey 2,000 people on their relationship with their devices, half said they wanted more distance from their screens. But the numbers were skewed by age: The younger the user, the likelier she was to actually carve out blocks of phone-free time on a daily basis. Another poll, funded by a telecommunications firm, yielded similar results -- more than half of Generation Z respondents had experimented with so-called digital detoxing, compared with 20 percent of baby boomers.

"I've noticed that I can't so much as wait for the elevator without scrolling through TikTok," said Ben Lichtenstein, 24, a music manager who has experimented with deleting apps from his phone. "It's the best distraction. It makes the time pass. But more and more, I'm like: Why do we want the time to pass? If I have 15 minutes and I waste it on watching content, and it feels like it went by in 30 seconds, I'm shortening my life. The way I'd put it is: The smartphone has never been more helpful and never more harmful."

Chances are, you know exactly what he is talking about, even if you've long since aged out of your 20s. One consequence of having the world at your fingertips is that you are conversely (and constantly) at the world's fingertips -- always a notification away from being sucked into the endless scroll. Try sitting at a bar and doing nothing but drinking your beer. Try standing in line and staring at the floor. Try sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office and listening to the bland thrum of the music. Can you do it?

Not long ago, Dekeyser held a talk at a university in London. After the event wound down, he was swarmed by young attendees who wanted his advice on quitting their phones. "I said: 'To start with, I want to say how hard it must be,'" he recalled. "'You've grown up with these things.'" Before he started teaching, he worked in digital marketing. He knew "the extent to which devices and apps are designed to make you addicted. And so the other thing I said was: 'It's not your fault if you fail at this. Because it's not limited to what you, as an individual, want. You're trying to push back against forces that want you hooked.'"

Dekeyser said he came away inspired by the "energy and passion" of the young dissenters. He was less sanguine on the question of whether they would be successful. "On my more pessimistic days, I think about how good big tech can be at pretending to address an issue while continuing to push as hard as they can on their central aims," he told me. "But on my optimistic days, I look at the loads of people embracing this attitude, and I feel like this is the moment where things might be galvanizing into a significant social movement."

The average teenager in the United States spent about 4.8 hours a day on social media sites

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In 2018, shortly after graduating from college, Austin Boer moved to the Chinese port city of Fuzhou, where he was joined by a fraternity brother, Brennan Jordan. During the week they taught English, and on weekends and breaks they crisscrossed Asia by train and plane and car. "One thing that kept coming up in our conversations was our desire to distance ourselves from the apps, like Instagram, that we felt were pulling us away from really experiencing these beautiful cultures," Boer told me. "But there was so much we needed from our phones -- we needed to be able to get in touch with our families if there was an emergency." They also needed reliable translation apps, and Google Maps, and access to WeChat Pay, the ubiquitous Chinese payment platform.

Soon the two friends began discussing the possibility of creating a "tweener device" that would retain some of the vital functions of a smartphone while stripping away unnecessary clutter. "For us," Jordan recalled, "it was a matter of taking this thing that started as a tool and became an entertainment device and figuring out a way to turn it back into a tool." A few years later, with the assistance of a cadre of professional programmers, they released the Sleke, a refurbished Google Pixel 7 smartphone running a custom operating system they called OdysseyOS. (The name is a reference to Homer's epic: "Just like Odysseus' crew who bound him to the mast," the description on the Sleke website reads, "we're here to help you resist the Sirens of distraction.") They have since sold hundreds of the gadgets and are considering creating a second phone for elementary school students, as well as one for older users.

The challenge for them, and for the Sleke, is that in the gap between initial epiphany and the release of the device, the market for alternatives to the full-featured smartphone became extremely crowded. Jordan and Boer no longer have the field to themselves. "I've watched it grow into a really diverse spectrum of options," Jordan acknowledged to me.

On one end of that spectrum are the true dumbphones of the sort sold by the Finnish company Human Mobile Devices, the licensee of the Nokia name. On the other are so-called distraction-blocker apps that run on traditional smartphones: Brick, Freedom, AppBlock and Brainrot, which was created by the 27-year-old software engineer Yoni Smolyar and boasts as its most notable feature a cartoon cranium that literally disintegrates the longer the user spends online. And somewhere in the middle are devices like the Light Phone III, a beautifully designed, dumbphone-adjacent matte box equipped with a decent camera, a pared-down mapping application and a rudimentary music player.

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But there are spectra within spectra: Many young users, unable to fully step away from their smartphone, prefer to periodically delete social media software in an attempt at digital detox or leverage an accessibility feature that renders onscreen images in shades of gray -- the idea being that the more boring their device appears, the less they'll be inclined to engage with it. Alternatively, they can alter a dumbphone to run stripped-down versions of certain apps. When I spoke with Jojo Jones, a 27-year-old playwright from Brooklyn, she held up her flip phone, which she bought on eBay for about $60 and modified with help from other users on various dumbphone forums. "You can see I've got a version of Lyft on there, plus Apple Music," she said, rolling her thumb across the arrow keys. "You move around a little cursor to get to the right song." The Lyft app, she admitted, didn't really work.

Jones said she was initially daunted by the learning curve required to get her device up and running: She had to connect the phone to a laptop and download a bewildering variety of software. But she discovered that she enjoyed the process -- in Silicon Valley terms, the friction was a feature, not a bug. She began thinking more deeply about how the rest of the world used phones, and why, and what aspects were truly important to her. Over time, she found that her relationship to technology writ large had been reset. Sometimes she uses her laptop for video chats with her fiancé in London. And her smartphone is still incorporated into her life. "So I might say, 'Oh, I miss taking pictures,'" she said. "Or, 'I want to check Instagram.' I can still do that. But I do just that, and then I'm done with it."

Last year, researchers at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison convened a group of approximately 150 students, a subset of whom expressed interested in ditching their smartphones -- the "dumbphone curious," let's call them -- and a subset who expressed no strong feelings about the technology one way or another. All the members of the first group were asked to trade in their smartphones for Light Phones; roughly half of the second group did the same. (The rest got to hang on to their personal devices.) Over the course of a week, participants filled out regular surveys on their well-being and the volume of their internet use.

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The results, which will be published in a paper next month, were striking: The motivated users, the authors conclude, "showed significant changes in psychological well-being" after adopting the Light Phone. They were less stressed and reported greater levels of "life satisfaction." They weren't on their phones as much; their dependency decreased. But the opposite was true for the randomly recruited subset. That group seemed to glean no upside from switching to a Light Phone. Their stress levels remained static, and their life-satisfaction levels declined.

"The takeaway," said Anja Stevic, an author of the paper, "is that if you have high interest and you know you want to pursue a smartphone alternative, it could work out for you. It could help you. It's almost a logical outcome, I'd say."

This may explain why many young people, upon taking the inherently huge step of buying a dumbphone, seem only rarely to report going back to their smartphones. "For me, at the outset, it was a science experiment almost: How long can I live in a universe of smartphones without depending on a smartphone myself?" Alexandra Zavaglia told me. "Now I'm a few years in, and all of that has faded. It's the reverse: It's tough to imagine life with a smartphone."

But the Stanford paper -- the title is "Going Light" -- is as much a cautionary tale about the potential limits of widespread dumbphone adoption as it is about the phones' amelioratory effects. Many of us, simply put, are resistant to the radicalness of the change and are worried -- rightfully, I'd argue -- about its repercussions in a world that is designed around the smartphone. After all, it's one thing to toss your smartphone in the trash and another to realize that you have to dig it out again if you want to attend a concert for which all the tickets are issued electronically.

Smartphones make it easier for us to get on a train, track our workouts, snap photographs and videos on vacation, pay for a sandwich without carting around a wallet or engage in a group chat. (Several times in my research, I was regaled with tales of missing messages about upcoming gatherings or birthday parties.) And this is to say nothing of mapping software, without which many of us would start to feel quite literally lost, or the demands of the modern workplace, with its unspoken rule that employees should be available around the clock -- on Slack and email.

"I can't tell you how badly I wish I could switch to a dumbphone," said Ben Lichtenstein, the music manager, who recently abandoned yet another experiment with social media app deletion. "But every single time I've made an effort to cut down on smartphone usage, it has come back to bite me. A client has gotten upset that I'm not available, or I've missed out on discovering a new artist on Instagram. I've realized I simply don't have the luxury."

Dumbphone enthusiasts are not blind to this argument, which is why many of them were so careful to stipulate to me that they were able to "go dumb" only because they didn't do much driving, or maintained a flexible work schedule, or had realized they didn't care that much about group texts anyway. "It's not for everyone, and I get that," Zavaglia told me. Still, she said, she suspected that most people were likely to discover that "the societal pressure to be constantly online does fade. Slowly but surely, you learn that you're just fine without your smartphone."

I knew exactly what she meant. Last year, having concluded that staring at my phone before going to sleep was not making me a better or happier person, I started turning on Do Not Disturb around 8:30 p.m.; within a month, I was powering down the device entirely and tucking it into a drawer in my office on the other side of the house. What made the second step possible is what I learned through the first: I wasn't really missing anything. There were no grand emergencies to be reckoned with, no news notifications so important that I couldn't read them in the morning. Contrary to what my lizard brain told me, I didn't need the outside world forever flickering through my eyeballs, and the outside world didn't need me, either.

Many young people, upon taking the inherently huge step of buying a dumbphone, seem only rarely to report going back to their smartphones.

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When Shaawan Francis Keahna was young, he spent a lot of time reading fantasy and sci-fi novels, many of which took place in universes where the entire populace had been pacified by the ruling class. "Everyone was, unwittingly, under a spell," he told me. As a kid, he found the premise implausible. "Now I'll walk around, and everyone is on their smartphones all the time -- when they're driving, when they're with kids," he said. "It's like: Wow. Everybody is so [expletive] up, and they don't know it."

Which is not to say the process of weaning himself off his phone has been without difficulties: It's still a hassle to navigate his way through an unfamiliar city, to fish out a physical subway card when all the other commuters around him were using smartphone apps. And in certain social situations, he sometimes feels barely visible. "I've re-met people from the film industry," he said, "or the literary world, and they're talking to me as if we've just been introduced, as if me having no social media has wiped their memory of me. That can be surreal."

Still, it's a trade-off he is willing to accept. "I've changed as a person," he told me. "I'm more content. I'm much more measured and less reactive. I'm not as plugged in to online hot takes and the dumb brevity that kind of rules our world right now. I think I've gotten far more willing to admit when I'm wrong. I think I'm more willing to just, I don't know, talk to people. I'm less paranoid and less judgmental and no longer overanalyzing every micro-interaction for some sign of why this person did not follow me back on social media."

In recent months, he said, he has been approached by several friends who have reached their own breaking points with their phones. "It's a topic of conversation for every member of my social circles," he told me. "Even the people you wouldn't expect. I have this friend who's incredibly shallow and reactionary and mean -- I love her as a person, but that's just who she is. Even she's saying: 'Oh, yeah, the smartphone is bad. It's bad'" -- here he paused for effect -- "'but I have to use it, because I'm a model.' Everybody has a reason: I need to know what's going on, or I need to find someone, or I need to be found. I need to be found and remembered." His task, as he sees it, is to show them they don't, at least not in the way they've been taught to think.

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Matthew Shaer is a contributing writer for the magazine and the host of the podcast Origin Stories.

Videos: Eza/Adobe Stock; Don Hammond/Getty; blackboxguild/Adobe Stock; AliceCam/Adobe Stock; Pavel Losevsky/Adobe Stock; Andrii Kobryn/Adobe Stock; Oninpunch/Adobe Stock; Frozen Ant Films/Adobe Stock; Lathe Poland/Adobe Stock; Khanoglu/Creatas Video, via Getty images; Neil Bromhall/Oxford Scientific Video, via Getty images.
 
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Tulsa's EmpowerWear Campaign returns April 1 to support Dress for Success


The EmpowerWear Campaign is returning to Tulsa this April, inviting the community to donate clothing and essential items to support women working toward employment and financial independence through Dress for Success Tulsa.

The campaign, led locally by Fox Cleaners, runs from April 1 through April 30 and collects gently used women's professional and casual attire, along with select personal care... items and accessories. Donations can be dropped off at Fox Cleaners, located at 4102 S. Harvard Ave., during business hours or through a 24/7 kiosk. Customers on delivery routes can also leave donations out on their scheduled pickup days.

The effort is part of a nationwide initiative through America's Best Cleaners and marks the second year and third biannual campaign for the Tulsa location. Organizers say the goal is to make donating as easy and accessible as possible while supporting a program that has had a lasting impact in the community.

Dress for Success Tulsa, a nonprofit organization founded locally in 2001, provides women with professional attire, career development tools and a network of support. The organization offers interview suiting at no cost, providing clients with three outfits for job interviews and additional clothing once employment is secured. It also hosts a four-day "Beyond the Suit" program, which includes resume writing, mock interviews, financial education and professional development workshops.

Since opening its doors, Dress for Success Tulsa has served more than 16,000 women. Organizers say the program's impact goes beyond clothing, helping participants build confidence and long-term stability.

"This program holds deep personal meaning for me," said Maggie Fox, owner and CEO of Fox Cleaners. "When women have what they need to walk into an opportunity with confidence, it changes everything -- for them, their families and our whole community."

In addition to clothing, the campaign is seeking specific high-need items, including new black mascara, toothbrushes and toothpaste, bras in size 40 and up, shoes in size 9 and up, black pants in sizes 14 through 3X, and gift cards to retailers such as Staples and Walmart. Monetary donations are also accepted.

All donations are tax-deductible, and organizers encourage individuals and businesses across Tulsa to participate. More information about the campaign and how to contribute will be available through local social media channels and community partners.
 
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