Heena Sharma Blog

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic , this year's International Yoga Day would be celebrated on digital media platforms and there would be no mass gatherings, the government said on Friday. This year's theme will be 'Yoga at Home and Yoga with Family' . People will be able to join Yoga Day celebrations virtually at 7 am on June 21. Indian Missions abroad aretrying to reach out to the people through digital mediaas well through the network of institutions which support yoga, officials said. Read More

The Covid-19 pandemic will have after-effects on the media and entertainment industry, turning out to be disastrous for films, entertainment events and theme parks. It will, however, boost digital media consumption in India. KPMG has released a report titled "Covid-19: The Many Shades Of A Crisis- A Media And Entertainment Sector Perspective", which highlights the impact of Covid-19 in the media and entertainment industry. The report states that the current environment could result in a dip in media consumption in the near term. During the lockdown period, TV, gaming, digital and OTT platforms are seeing consumption growth. On the other hand, outdoor consumption models such as films, events, theme parks, are witnessing a dramatic fall with social distancing norms in place, news agency IANS reported. Read More

Content creators have criticised new Terms of Service from Google-owned YouTube that gives the company power to terminate account access for users if it deems the account is "no longer commercially viable". The video sharing platform started sending out the emails to users last week to notify about the upcoming changes to its terms of service to come into effect from December 10. "YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account's access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable," the new YouTube terms of service read. "We will notify you with the reason for termination or suspension by YouTube," it added. The move hasn't gone well with content creators. The new terms of service have also left users baffled. "Y'all, tell @YouTube this isn't okay. This affects everybody, including you're favorite content cr...

If you often share details of your personal life on social media , include your better half in the post to counter its negative effects on your romantic relationship , a study suggests. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Kansas (KU) in the US also found that sharing information online can do more harm to romantic relationships than good. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is the first of its kind to systematically examine how different circumstances can affect whether a partner perceives their loved one's online disclosure to be positive or negative. "Prior research has shown that self-disclosure positively affects offline relationships," said Juwon Lee, a post-doctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. "We wanted to explore whether that would remain the case in an online context, where users can share detailed information with large audiences -- a phenomenon that typically would not be possible in person,...

Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube has announced that it will no longer recommend videos that "come close to" violating its community guidelines, such as conspiracy or medically inaccurate videos. The video sharing platform will no longer recommend videos "claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11", NBC News reported on Monday. The original blog post from YouTube, published on January 25, said videos the site recommends, usually after a user has viewed one, would no longer lead to similar videos and instead would "pull in recommendations from a wider set of topics". YouTube said in the post that the action is meant to "reduce the spread of content that comes close to - but doesn't quite cross the line of - violating" its community policies. The change will not affect the videos' availability. And if users have subscribed to a channel that, for instance, produces c...

It's February and if you are still single and unhappy with your pictures on social media , there's a new photo application that can help you ease your agony. A Korean app, called SOVS (short for SomeOne Very Special), is the one thing you'll need. You will need to ask strangers to take your pictures and be sure they will be perfect. You hand over your phone to a stranger to take a picture of you and often end up with unflattering pictures. This is where SOVS comes into the picture, literally. The app allows you to choose from a number of poses which are basically white outlines in which all that your stranger has to do is fit you while taking the picture. As The Verge reports, the outlines can either appear in the captured photo or can be used as a guide while capturing. The app is currently only for iOS users. The SOVS app costs 99 cents and is dedicated to solo shots. The SOVS2 is a free version and comes with poses for group photos. Read More Article ...

The growing popularity of social media platforms has seen an upsurge in viral trends -- some fun, but some fatal to human life. Be it the ice bucket challenge or the latest # Birdboxchallenge -- these have swept the Internet as netizens from all around the globe join in to perform certain situations, dances, voices or even speeches for entertainment. IANS gives a lowdown on the popular challenges that have taken over social media over the past few years: * #10yearchallenge: The latest entry to the growing list of viral challenges on social media is the 10-Year Challenge, which has caught the attention of many. In this, a person is required to share his recent image alongside a 10-year-old photograph to see the difference. From Hollywood to Bollywood and the local neighbourhood, everyone took a moment to rewind the clock and compare their looks. * #Birdboxchallenge: This originated from streaming website Netflix's film "Bird Box", starring Sandra Bullock...

Excessive use of social media platforms like Facebook can make its users take decisions as bad as drug addicts tend to do, a new study suggests. "Around one-third of humans on the planet are using social media, and some of these people are displaying maladaptive, excessive use of these sites," said lead author of the study Dar Meshi, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the US. "I believe that social media has tremendous benefits for individuals, but there's also a dark side when people can't pull themselves away. We need to better understand this drive so we can determine if excessive social media use should be considered an addiction," Meshi added. For the study, published in the Journal of Behavior Addictions, the researchers had 71 participants take a survey that measured their psychological dependence on Facebook, similar to addiction. Questions on the survey asked about users' preoccupation with the platform, thei...

In the latest instance of social media wrongly influencing children and teens, the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in Argentina is reportedly being linked to something called as the Momo challenge.Momo is a social media account on WhatsApp, Facebook General News : In the latest instance of social media wrongly influencing children and teens, the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in Argentina is reportedly being linked to something called as the Momo challenge . Momo is a social media account on WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube, which is using the image of a horror artwork called Mother Bird by Link Factory to induce curiosity among children, challenging them to communicate with an unknown number, The Sun reported. The creepy account appears to be connected to three numbers in Japan, Mexico, and Columbia. If a user refuses to follow the game's orders, Momo threatens them with violent images. As per cybercrime experts, Momo challenge is nothing but a hoax which is a...

It goes on to declare that no one at Google reads the emails, except in cases where the user had granted the consent or when it is required as a security measure Technology News : After it was discovered that third-party apps for Gmail were allegedly accessing users' private emails, Google has responded to the backlash. The company has clarified through its blog post that it does not scan emails to target ads, and the third-party apps are mandated to accurately represent themselves to request relevant data, Cnet reported. It goes on to declare that no one at Google reads the emails, except in cases where the user had granted the consent or when it is required as a security measure. Read our full coverage on Google