New-Years.net

My only actual new year’s resolution for 2022 is to finish a Sunday crossword. But there are plenty of positive 2021 experiences I want to lean into more in the new year: petting my cat, eating takeout, going for runs, rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are also plenty of 2021 feelings I want to avoid, the ones that give me a pang of anxiety or a rush of dopamine — like when I tweet a story I’ve put work into, or how my brain feels when an Instagram photo does well. Being a culture reporter requires me to be on social media apps. But I’m learning that the less I post on my online feeds, the better time I have offline; my expectations for where I might get attention have shifted. I selected Instagram’s new-for-2021 option to hide like counts — both on my own posts, and all the posts I see in my feed. And yet, as Instagram’s own study found, removing likes doesn’t reduce our misery-making need to feel popular. Other elements of quantified popularity, such as comments and follower counts, are baked into the app (and the company is currently testing one more: private likes on stories). The likes aren’t necessarily the point. When we post publicly, we’re often aware of the chance that our post might go viral, whatever that means to each of us. For one user, it might be getting a dozen comments on a photo; for another, a screenshot of their tweet shared on Facebook. But we know it when we feel it. Social media has created a space in which the number of eyeballs on any piece of content can escalate quickly, finding its way to a meme account, a popular subreddit, a trending hashtag. The question is, what does that

Original Source: Mashable >>

TL;DR: The 2022 Premium Interviewing Skills Bundle is just $34.99 at the Mashable Shop as of Jan. 5.The start of a new year is the perfect time to ditch what doesn’t serve you and go after things that do — and that includes your job. 2022 could finally be the year you land your dream job, but first, you need to learn how to ace your interview. This Premium Interviewing Skills Bundle can help.With eight courses and 19 hours of content led by top-rated instructors in various fields, this training package will show you how to supercharge your job search, gain confidence in interviews, and impress your future employer. Instructors include an engineer, sales expert, game developer, project manager, and more. So, whichever field you’re hoping to break into, this training has you covered. You’ll learn the most commonly asked interview questions by the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Spotify, as well as brain teaser questions, behavioral, situational, and technical questions, and even specific questions asked in coding interviews. And of course, you’ll learn the best ways to answer them.If you need a little help in the job hunting process, there’s a course dedicated to LinkedIn and all it has to offer. You’ll learn how to refine your personal brand, build your network, enhance your profile, and optimize your résumé. Plus, you’ll learn how to navigate the tabs on LinkedIn and search for the jobs that suit you.And finally, once you find a job and ace the interview, a masterclass on salary negotiations, getting promoted, and practical social and communication methods will help you maintain and boost your career for years to come.These top-rated courses are valued at $200 a pop, but for a limited time, you can get lifetime access to all eight for only $34.99. That’s just over

Original Source: Mashable >>

Big results don’t always require a big effort. Maintaining your online and offline privacy can seem like a Herculean, or even Sisyphean, task. Never-before-heard-of companies with vaguely menacing names regularly brag about infringing upon it, and each day seems to bring with it new privacy scandals. But here’s the thing: There are small and relatively painless steps you can take, right now, to protect your privacy. As you brace for, then settle into, 2022, take a few moments to spruce up your life with these privacy-focused New Year’s resolutions — no gym membership required. 1. Encrypt your computerYour computer is the keeper of your secrets. Tax documents, bank accounts, and medical records are just a few of the personal files people keep on their laptops and desktops. And, if those computers are ever lost or stolen, those files can easily end up in the wrong hands. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to protect yourself: encrypting your computer. “It’s a really fantastic bit of basic security hygiene, like washing your hands or wearing a mask, that anyone can do that really gets you a lot of benefits,” Cooper Quintin, a security researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explained in August. 2. Adjust your smart TV settings

Watching you, watching it.
Credit: Vicky Leta / Mashable

Watching TV is typically thought of as a passive activity, but that conception fails to take into account all the questionable goings on happening behind the screen. With smart TVs now the default being sold, viewing is

Original Source: Mashable >>