Every year, Bond Capital’s Mary Meeker produces an immense slide deck of internet trends. You can see the whole thing here. I’ve chosen two slides to highlight. First, there’s this one. Before you look, see if you can figure out what I find interesting about it.

Granted, this is only two years of data, but what I found interesting was how static it is. YouTube and Instagram have grown, but the other platforms are all basically flat. There’s nothing new making much of an impact in the social media space, and Facebook, for all the flak it gets, continues to putter along in first place.

Then there’s this, just because:

The worst aspect of social media is that . . . it wrecks your sleep. It’s pretty astonishing that so many people recognize this, but go on being addicted to social media anyway. It’s no wonder so many people complain about sleep these days.

The other thing I find interesting is that, apparently, all of the good and bad averages out almost perfectly to zero. This doesn’t necessarily mean that social media actually has a null effect on your health, since some of these things might count more than others. Still, it’s intriguing to think that the net impact of this enormous industry might be precisely nothing.

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Our news will always be free to read, watch, and listen to online. But what is its value?

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It IS free for you and every reader, viewer, and listener to utilize. But it’s not free for our team to make. So, what’s it worth to you? Let us know by making a donation: Make a one-time donation today to support this work. Or make a monthly sustaining donation to help us plan for the future.

Whatever you choose, know that you’re supporting more independent, investigative journalism in a time when we need it most.

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