Emily: Hey guys, it is Wednesday, March 29. I am Emily Reppert. Today, we get social with a look inside your brain, plus one little girl faces off a mighty bull.But first, there are big changes coming to environmental rules in the U.S. President Trump signed them into law yesterday.
With his signature in place and coal miners standing behind him, President Trump showed off his newest executive order, which undoes many of President Obama's environmental rules — something he promised to do on the campaign trail.
The new order will suspend, revise or rescind the Clean Power Plan rule aimed at reducing carbon emissions; ask the Interior Department to lift a moratorium — or a pause — on the sale of new coal leases on federal land; and scrap a limit of greenhouse gas emissions for construction of new power plants.
President Trump says rolling back these rules will help bring back jobs.
President Donald Trump: With today's executive action, I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel job-killing regulations.
Emily: But at a time of low energy prices, some jobs may not return. Environmental groups say Trump’s changes would hurt the fight against climate change, allowing more pollution into the air. And several reports say the U.S. now won't be able to meet the requirements of the Paris climate agreement, which was signed last year by the U.S. and 195 nations.
The agreement requires countries to cut back on their greenhouse gas emissions to stop the Earth from warming.
David Doniger: We are leaving a very bad future for our kids: rising sea levels, terrible storms, scorching droughts, more air pollution. It’s really a bad place; you don't want to go there.
Emily: President Trump's order doesn't say anything about whether he wants the U.S. to stay in or out of the Paris climate agreement, but he did promise to kill it during the campaign.
All right, coming up, how social media may be socially crippling to your brain.
Emily: Oh! Oh my — sorry about that. I was just Snapchatting my cat back.Anyway, I don't have to tell you guys how distracting social media can be. Some people are so glued to their phone they are practically addicted. Arielle Hixson today takes a look at how social media could be rewiring the way we communicate inside your brain.
Tamia Taylor: I always grab it. It's always in my hand.
Arielle: As a freshman in college, my cousin Tamia is a pro at social media.
Tamia: I send out 100 Snapchats, and then I will probably get double that because I don't answer all of them.
Arielle: And she can't fight the urge to check her accounts all day long: waking up, brushing her teeth, playing basketball, on her way to class, during class, at a campus event — just to make plans, she still has to take out her phone, at lunch, in her second class and hanging out with friends, of course. But she is not the only one.
Lauren Sherman: The thing that's new about social media is the way that this social learning happens has changed. One of the reasons is that with mobile social media, teens have access to their peers more than ever. So they’re in that peer context almost constantly.
Arielle: Back in the day, communication was limited. Shy of a letter, phone call or meeting in person, there wasn't this constant social stimulation at your fingertips. So we have gone from speaking face-to-face to connecting screen-to-screen.
Tamia: One of the main reasons for these social platforms is to stay connected with people, get information out there, receive information — basically, be nosy in everyone's lives — and then people can check in on you as well.
Arielle: Today, there is a real concern that teens are not learning how to communicate and are not developing empathy — the ability to understand how someone else is feeling. Lack of empathy can increase bullying, cheating and even have a negative influence on mental health.Communicating online means you don't have to face in-person consequences, so you might be more likely to make mean comments or cyberbully.
Some experts are saying that teens are losing their ability to communicate with others because of technology. What do you think about that?
Tamia: I agree to an extent. I feel like because people are so invested in their phones, their technology, that emojis and acronyms have beensubstituted for expression and communication.
Arielle: And these days, our interactions are numbered — literally.
Sherman: Interactions online are now quantitative, so that means there’s a number associated with them. And that's something that has never really happened before.
Arielle: Lauren Sherman, a postdoctoral researcher at Temple University, examined the way teens perceive information online. She did this bystudying a social media platform many of you use every day: Instagram.
Lauren found that teens were more likely to like a picture that already had a lot of likes.And something else happened when teens liked these pics: There was more activity in the reward circuitry of the brain. So for teens getting a like on social media feels just like winning a prize.
Tamia: I still post to get likes.
Arielle: Researchers also found that the rewards part of the brain really lit up when they saw a lot of likes on their own photos, which mightpersuade them to get on social media more.So you could say social media is affecting the way we adapt to our environment.
Sherman: If I'm a teenager, and I post a picture on Instagram, and it gets a lot of likes, and I post another, similar picture, and it gets a lot of likes, over time I'm probably more likely to post these kinds of pictures.
Arielle: And it can take a lot of planning to post these popular and rewarding pictures.
So you plan your outfit around the post?
Tamia: Yeah, I’ll plan my — like, if it's an event, I'll plan what I'm going to wear and then, like, depending on where the location is, then I'll think of, like, where I want to take the picture, and then, before anything starts, I'll get the picture out of the way.
Arielle: A study last year suggests the more time young people spend on social media, the less happy they are about their lives and that unhappiness hits girls harder than boys.
Sherman: It can be really hard sometimes when you see that your friends look like they are always having fun, and they always look perfect. And then you think about the fact that they've chosen the moments that really make them happy and that they want to remember.
Tamia: There are certain platforms where you seem as though you are the perfect person who always has adventures, but in reality it's a once-in-a-while type thing.
Arielle: The best way to navigate this fast-paced world is to maintain a tech–life balance, if there is such a thing …
Sherman: One thing that is important is for teens to be developing digital literacy skills, skills that allow them to use social media and use other digital media in a way that's responsible and a way that makes them feel comfortable.
Arielle: … one text at a time. Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
Emily: Wow, interesting stuff. But our story isn’t over yet. Today, Tamia is taking over the Channel One Snapchat, so make sure to check it out for a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the social media queen's life.
Okay, after the break, there is a new girl in town, and she is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Emily: Okay, it started with a stare: one girl looking down a ferocious bull. The image — and its call to action — were only supposed to last for a few weeks, but when they tried pushing this girl out of town, she wouldn't budge. Keith Kocinski is on Wall Street in New York City — the center of the financial world — with the story.
Keith: Here on Wall Street, you are probably familiar with the iconic charging bull. Well, there is a new addition to the area, and she is called the “Fearless Girl,” known as a symbol of empowerment.
The “Fearless Girl” began as a temporary installation, an ad campaign for a financial company hoping to highlight how few women are in power positions in business. But after weeks of crowds loving the statue, she now has a new permit to stay through at least February 2018.
Mayor Bill de Blasio: She spoke to the moment, that sense that women were not going to live in fear.
Keith: Artist Kristen Visbal created the statue.
Kristen Visbal: Bottom line is, she says, “Women are strong — women are here.”
Keith: But the “Fearless Girl”'s symbolic stare-down with Wall Street's charging bull has turned into a real-world standoff.
Arturo Piccolo: They are transforming illegally the message of the bull.
Keith: Arturo Piccolo is a spokesperson for Arturo di Modica, the Italian sculptor who made the bull as a symbol of hope.
Piccolo: Now this girl is confronting this supposedly monstrous figure. That's an outrage, to take a great work of art and transform it.
Keith: Back in 1989 the bull was considered the outrage, dropped illegally onto a public street downtown.Piccolo led the campaign to give the statue its current home.
Piccolo: It would serve its purpose like nothing else right in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange represents most of those companies that have a problem with equality.
Representative Carolyn Maloney: She has clearly struck a nerve; she has become an overnight sensation.
Keith: New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and thousands of petitioners online are pushing to make the “Fearless Girl”'s message last forever, possibly in this very location.
Maloney: The world changes, and women are here. We are an integral part of the business community, and we're going to be even more important tomorrow.
Keith: Keith Kocinski, Channel One News.
Emily: So what do you guys think? Should she stay, or should she go? Vote and leave us a comment on ChannelOne.com.
All right, guys, it is time for us to go, but we will be right back here tomorrow.
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