Refresh Computers Tech Talk
Help and advice are given on a range of technical issues from computers to everything internet-related.
Refresh Computers Tech Talk
05-17-26 Social Media Is Engineered To Be Addictive To You and Your Child
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Record profits used to mean stability. Now it can mean something else: a company realizes AI can do more with fewer people, and the layoffs start anyway. We talk through the real-world signals, starting with Cisco cutting thousands of jobs while reporting strong results, plus other examples like GM trimming IT roles. The takeaway isn’t panic, it’s clarity: AI job displacement is already happening, and the smartest move is to understand where the tech is headed before it reshapes your department around you.
We also get practical for anyone shopping this summer. New computer prices are still elevated, so we break down the specs that actually matter for a fast Windows 11 experience in 2026: 16GB RAM as the sweet spot, a solid state drive as non-negotiable, and CPUs new enough to keep up with modern browsers and AI features. We explain why bloatware makes many brand-new PCs feel slower than they should, and why a properly refurbished laptop or desktop can be a better value without the junk.
Then we shift to the redesign of social media itself. Endless scrolling, reels, shorts, and notification loops are engineered to be addictive, and we talk about what that does to attention, sleep, and mental health, especially for kids and teens. The European Union is pushing regulations that target the mechanics of addiction, not just content, and it may set the template for what comes next. We close with a few wild tech stories and a serious security lesson every business needs: revoke access before you terminate someone.
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Welcome And Free Tech Hotline
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop it at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And now for David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.
SPEAKER_00All right. Thanks everybody for listening to this Sunday morning edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I'm David Levitt, the owner and founder of Refresh Computers, a 26-year-plus company, right here in Central Florida, serving Central Floridians with all their computer and laptop needs, repairs, new purchases, businesses all over the place. We're just happy to be here for you. And you know, we have that free tech support hotline I'm going to put up right out there in front of the show. If you have any questions on anything, I don't care if you even visited our store before or bought anything from us or or not. It's there for you. It's there for the local meet or folks to use to for any kind of computer technology questions. That's 407-478-80200. You can call and we'll give you 10 or 15 minutes over the phone. You know, probably can't go much longer than that. So if we get into something too detailed, we'll probably ask you to bring in whatever you're calling us about, right? A lot of times it's how do I connect my printer? You know, I have this issue when Windows did an update. You know, that's a pretty common thing. Do I have a virus on my computer? Because I got this pop-up. So you can call us about any of those kinds of questions and we'll be able to help you out over the phone for free. So, you know, we're happy to have that service. So today we're going to talk about some really cool topics. One of them is AI, you know, reshaping jobs. So it should come to no surprise. That's that's happening. It's happening now. It's happening really quick. We're going to talk about some of the companies that are that are laying off a lot of people, and and they are saying it's because of AI. And these are profitable companies, too. Some of those names might surprise you too. That's right. Very profitable companies. It's not because you know they have to cut costs because, you know, the for the bottom line to to not look bad. The bottom line is still good, but hey, they can do it. They're going to do it, right? So any company would. So we'll talk about those companies and what that means. We're going to talk about you know what jobs are most at risk and the jobs that are actually growing that you might want to pay attention to. And we're also going to talk about, you know, some insider tips, right, for buying tech this summer. So we're going to talk about that a little later. And another thing we're going to talk about is this is going to be a big one too, folks, is social media is being redesigned. As I speak, it is being completely overhauled and redesigned. And a lot of that has to do with the European Union, with their new rules. And these are some of the government interventions that I just happen to agree with this time. Surprise, surprise. So, and a lot of that has to do with what these companies are doing that are addictive. Right. So it's on purpose addictive. It's no accident that what they're doing, what your kids are seeing, and what you're seeing, they're making it addictive. And and that's wrong. They're just doing it. And it's it's a it's a psychological game that they're playing with you. And most of us, and I'm saying yes, me too, most of us are hooked. We we are hooked, we are addicted to some things than social media, and we need to get that addressed. And we're going to talk a lot in detail about that. And then we'll finish the show off with a few wild tech stories going on this week, uh, including uh, you know, a set of twins that got terminated by the government recently and decided they wanted to delete about 96 databases before they left the door.
SPEAKER_01So go out with your hair on fire, right? Right.
SPEAKER_00So let's get into what AI is doing right now about jobs.
Profitable Companies Lay Off For AI
SPEAKER_00And let's just talk about some of the companies, right? Greg, you had mentioned that I didn't have in my show notes, but it just came out, Cisco, right? Laying off what, 4,000 people?
SPEAKER_014,000 people after announcing record profits here this last quarter, 12% increase year over to year, and then fire 4,000 people directly because of AI-related concerns moving forward.
SPEAKER_02Normally when you see profits like that, companies are more inclined, I wouldn't say always going to do it, but they're more inclined to give raises. So getting a getting a layup smacked onto your desk kind of that's a smack in the face, is how I kind of see it.
SPEAKER_00I'm telling you, and you know, and I don't know. Yeah, I mean, one thing, Adam, is I don't think we have to worry about it refresh computers at any of our employees. Right. Being let go because of AI. Those Tesla robots would have to get really good really fast. Right. That's right.
SPEAKER_02There's a lot of work that we do that just I don't see an AI being able to replicate, at least in my lifetime.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, and that's why I'll never use AI to answer my phones at the store. It just won't do it. It's always it's always one of us technicians. Do you want to talk to a human? So we'll you'll always get a human. And that's why we we do our own little psychological evaluation of uh people applying for jobs at refresh computers, and so we kind of test them with their ability to be able to talk to you, to be able to talk to you in your language. And so, which you know, I think most of us are keenly aware of these days that you know, usually the more technical, nerdy folks, they're not the best with the social skills. I mean, I'll give Elon Musk, you know, look at him. That's a good example. That's a good example. It's just not the most, you know, social people, but we we want people to, when they walk in the store, get a very personal experience from a person, right? Right, not a robot.
SPEAKER_02And that's that's that's something that you know is as a big shift is coming, is jobs are being replaced by AI, talking about Cisco laying off people. You know, it sounds like they're trying to save money, shifting to AI. Right. But looking into it, it's gonna cost them probably about a billion dollars in in severance and just related stuff to lay these workers off to replace with AI.
SPEAKER_00Well, and so look at the money they're they're planning on saving then. So it's gonna cost them a billion dollars in severance, you know they're banking on a lot more than that and a return from not needing these people anymore because they're using AI to replace their jobs. General Motors just announced laying off between 500 and 600 IT workers. IT workers. So if you're in the IT business, you know, my suggestion to you is learn AI. Fully embrace it at that point. Embrace it. If you're in anything in in IT, and and I tell Adam, you, I tell everybody that works for me at Refresh Computers, hey, we're a technology company. I want all you guys gotta get into this. Yeah, at least play with it a little bit. Play with it? No, I mean get it into a deeper dive with it. I mean, because it's your future, you know. I hoping everybody's future is with refreshed computers, all these guys that that are working for me, because I have a bunch of just great guys. But you know, if you go out there and you learn these tools, I would say, and I was commenting just to my wife just the other day, I I told her, I said, you know, if I didn't have the computer store and as much and I needed something to do to make money, if I needed a job today, I mean, if something if I starting out fresh with just what I have learned using AI and all the different tools that they that's available to me, and I I've dug pretty deep, I can make a pretty darn good living right now. Yeah. Just by myself. I mean, I could do it, but you know, I not I mean I'm using the AI tools to help our business, right? Right, to help our the the store do better and and things, but you know, there look at things like how many companies you know are out there that still don't have a chat bot. Well, you know what? A company of any size, it's relatively easy in the terms of AI speak to get a chat bot on your website. Yeah. You know, and and if you want to know how to do that, you have a small company, give me a call. Go call the free tech support hotline. Most of the tech there probably aren't going to be able to tell you what tools to use because they haven't gotten that deep into it yet. They haven't gotten as deep as quite frankly. I I hope they get.
SPEAKER_02You've spent you've spent nights awake playing around with AI.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I'm just that that's the thing I'm addicted to right now. And and I'm just learning more and more and more. I will be able to tell you, send send me an email. That's the best thing. Send me an email directly to Dave at refreshcomputers.net, and I will tell you of some simple tools that you can use. And I'm not making a penny off of this. I don't want to. I just want to help you. If you have a small business, you want to get a chat bot on your website, send me an email, Dave at refreshcomputers.net, I'll tell you what you can do, and you can have that chat bot set up in under an hour. It's it's it's just amazing the tools that you that are available out there. And so so back to you know, AI replacing jobs. So, you know, it's you know the big picture, you know, AI and the workforce. So we've been hearing AI will take your job for a few years now, yeah. Right? But it's actually happening, and it's more nuanced than the headlines suggest, right? So all these, like you just said, Adam, a good example with Cisco, the money, the you know, the billion dollars it's gonna cost Cisco to lay off 4,000 people because they're being their jobs are being replaced with AI.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, look at the return they're expecting for that. I mean, I don't know what it is, but it has to be quite a if it's gonna cost them that much money to lay off 4,000 people. And again, GM cutting 500 plus IT workers, GitLab, which is a company that's been around for years that literally makes tools for software developers, that that's been their business, is restructuring around just AI agents. I mean, they they they may lose the vast majority of their workforce.
SPEAKER_01Well, if you listen to the UCF commencement speaker who got booed off the stage, yeah. AI is the industrial revolution, it's the next industrial revolution. She's not wrong.
SPEAKER_00She's not wrong. She's not wrong. It is. And she got booed, and I don't think they were booing her. I think they were booing the idea that AI is becoming the next industrial revolution. And so I don't think, yeah, I really doubt they were booing her directly. Right. Because I think she's very well respected. But I think it more the idea that that's what's happening, and it is happening. It's happening right now as you breathe, as you walk down the street, as you take your dog
AI Agents And The New Jobs
SPEAKER_00for a walk, as you drive to work, it's happening. Or as your car drives you to work. Right, yeah. Coming, coming, I mean very soon. And so, you know, yeah, I mentioned GitLab using AI agents. We talked all about AI agents in a previous previous episode. What an AI agent is and what it can do for you, and what it does for all these companies. And it's basically a an AI tool. And all the popular uh AI chatbots, which you know, Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, they now use AI agents to have discussions with each other. So it's like it's it's basically software tools. And they're talking to each other. Right. And they're bouncing ideas back and forth to give you the results that you're looking for. And where initially with Chat GPT, there were there were these agents weren't involved. It was one agent. It was there was that agent that was that chat bot, and they would, and and that's why initially it would give you a lot of wrong answers. And and then and one of the reasons it's getting better and better and better is because now there's several agents that are invoked when you ask a question and they bounce ideas back and forth. And if you re can read the fast scrolling that's going along when you're when you're asking a question in in AI, that's the agents talking to each other going back and forth. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Verifying which one's hallucinating and which one's not. That's right. If you listen to that show, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00Because uh the AI hallucination was a a major factor and and the responses that it gave back to you is like it's it was hallucinating. But now that's getting less and less and less with these AI agents doing the job. So, you know, AI agents is basically software that can take actions on your behalf. So it's not just answer questions, but actually doing things. So you look at the robots that are out there that are programmed, they're they they use a form of AI agents because they can actually, you know, do not just things you can't see, but things you can see, right? And so it will a robot these robots are programmed to if you know if if they're gonna take a step forward and they s and there's they have to elevate their step, they will check themselves with another agent within that robot software. And so that's the idea. I'm trying to paint this picture of how these agents work, and it'll be like, do I need to raise my foot four inches or five inches? And the agent would reply about you better do six inches just to be sure. You know, something like that. That's kind of how it works with these AI agents, not just with something like physical, like you see, like a robot, but answering questions and doing research on things that you ask Chat GPT or Grok or Claude or any of these tools questions about.
SPEAKER_01Before we wrap up on this segment, there is a flip side to this though. Those jobs are going. Yeah, there are new jobs coming, right?
SPEAKER_00There are. Yeah. Tons and tons and tons. So the jobs that are risk are data entry, basic coding. I think it should should be pretty obvious, right? The jobs that are the ones that rely a lot on data.
SPEAKER_02Basic knowledge that can just be pulled off of the internet and sent.
SPEAKER_00But the jobs that are growing are AI trainers, you know, prompt engineers. So AI trainer, this is where I was getting earlier. If I had to do it all over again, if I was younger and was looking to go get a job and learn something on my own that I can make money off of, I'd be an AI trainer. You're training businesses on AI, how they can use AI for themselves. So, anyhow, I think that's all we have time for this segment. So stay tuned because next up, we're going to talk about some insider tips for buying tech this summer.
SPEAKER_01You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.
Summer Tech Buying Tips That Matter
SPEAKER_01Hey then, welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_00All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refreshed Computers on a Sunday. We have a nice fresh show right here on Sunday. And so if you missed anything in the first segment, we talked a lot about AI replace the types of jobs AI is replacing and Cisco laying off 4,000 people. And so all the other companies that are laying off people because of AI. It's happening real time. And also why maybe you need to learn a little bit about AI because uh you know you're already using it. You may not even know it, but you're using it. Download one of those popular AI tools, Chat GPT, Claude. Claude happens to be my favorite now, but Grok, you know, so one of those and and and start using those. We we we talked oh gosh, maybe a year or so ago now, about when AI was when chat GPT was just becoming popular maybe a couple years ago, and about how well get used to not using Google anymore. Right. Right. And and I took a lot of people by surprise. Like, oh no, Google's Google, they're the king, they'll always be the king. Guess what? Technology always has a way of replacing itself, it just does. And so you can have the greatest thing since a Google search, right? And that Google search tool will be replaced by something else, and it's being replaced by these AI tools right now. So it's pretty interesting. So this show, this segment, we want to you know talk a little bit about some insider tips to buy in tech this summer, right? So one of them is the fact that you know, especially at your favorite computer store, Refresh Computers, we are now offering free shipping on orders that are over $300. So you can have one item or a combination of items on your cart at our website, refreshcomputers.net. And you, when you go to checkout, you don't have to enter any kind of code or anything. There's no coupon code, it's just there for you to use, and you'll get free shipping. So anything, any orders totaling $300 or more now has free shipping at Refresh Computers. And so, and why does Refers make sense right now? Because guess what? New computer prices are still elevated, they've still gone up because of the supply chain issues we talked about before on previous shows with AI chip demand, and you know, the memory prices are getting more expensive, and a lot of manufacturers have switched to shipping out their computers and laptops with less RAM, even because that's how they're able to keep the cost down on them. But you know, at refresh computers, you get a nice, clean, refurbished computer that's every bit as good, if not better, than a brand new one out of the box. You buy one in the box, guess what you have to do? You have to find throw away the box. You don't want any of that. Well, and worse yet, you have a computer that has that has bloatware on it. So things that's installed that's from a on a brand new computer that we don't install at on our computers that slow your computer down. Bloatware is these little pop-ups that come up every once in a while trying to get you to buy something. And that takes up space, it takes up resources, takes up CPU power and all that stuff. It's that basically slows down your computer, which is why when I say buying a refurbished computer, especially from refreshed computers, it runs faster than a brand new computer right out of the box. So, what do you look for? Well, so some of the things to look for is today, 16 gig of RAM is pretty much this the standard, it's a sweet spot, right, for most users in 2026. You can get by with 8 gig, it still works with Windows 11, it works just fine. But with you know, the modern browser, especially now with Google inserting that 4 gig file into your computer to help you with AI tools, you know, it's RAM matters.
SPEAKER_02So it's gonna use more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's gonna use more. Storage, solid state drive is a must. I mean, by now I think most people know solid state drives are much faster than the old school hard drives, but a lot of computers, even Windows 11 computers, still have hard drives. At refresh computers, not one computer comes with a hard drive. They all come with solid state drives, most of them brand new solid state drives installed in there. Processors, eighth generation or newer, or AMD Ryzen 5000 series or newer. Um, anything older might struggle a little bit with today's software.
SPEAKER_01So remember, you can find all of these deals on the website refreshcomputers.net, or don't forget you can stop in at the superstore right there in Longwood. You've been listening to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician at a little field. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment, go and leave an open mic using the WDBO app. You can also check out the website at Refresh Computers.net or stop in at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_00All right. Thanks, Craig, and thanks everybody for listening to this edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. If you missed any of the show, or maybe you came in halfway through a segment, you might want to listen to the show in its entirety by going to refreshcomputers.net and click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner. Better yet, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, any page at refreshcomputers.net. There's a place to just put your email address. That's all we ask for. And then you will get notified via email every time a new segment is ready to be listened to. And also in that email, you'll see bullet points about the topics that we discussed on the show. So you have a good idea before you decide you want to listen, you'll see what we're talking about.
Social Media Addiction By Design
SPEAKER_00So in this segment, we want to talk about social media and how it's getting completely redesigned. And it needs to be completely redesigned because of the addictive tools that every one of them have melted. It into the social media applications. And so in the European Union is fighting back. And you know, you've probably heard me talk about government intervention. You know, it's it's it's bad, it's not good, you know, it slows down innovation, blah, blah, blah. But you know, government is also there to protect us, right? So, and one of the ways I think that would be a good thing, not just for the European Union, which they are doing, is you know, the U.S. needs to catch up on this a little bit, right? And they've already started, you see, lawsuits out there where I think Facebook just lost a lawsuit not too long ago because of the the addictive way that they get people trapped into watching and looking at Facebook. And it's all by design. It's not an accident, it's not just some happy place that you can go and check up on your family and friends, right? There's things that they are doing on purpose, quite frankly, that's very disgusting, that they are doing that is you know, they they are the it's an addictive design. It's designed to be that way. And why does it matter? Well, because uh they're not accidentally addictive. It's not. They're engineered to be. Yeah, they're engineered, every one of these sites are engineered to be addictive. And well, and you might think, well, well, that's so they can get more listeners. That's because they want to, but but the problem with that is the social, you know, and social media is such a good name for it because the social aspect of this is it's it's ruining society. It's just you know, I think there's not very many people that would disagree that although social media has been a great tool in a lot of ways, there's been things things that is the results because of the addictive nature that's built into all of these social media tools, it's you know, it's terrible. I mean, endless scrolling, right?
SPEAKER_02I remember when Facebook was I could go on there, see uh whose birthday is coming up, maybe somebody's posting, you know, something that they're venting about. And I go on there and I could play Farmville, you know, back when Facebook first began. And now you go on Facebook, I'll list a few more actually. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X even, they they have reels, they have their short videos. YouTube Shorts is another one that really is engineered to be addictive.
SPEAKER_00But like TikTok.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 10, 15 second videos that just grabs you. And even an old name that nobody really thinks about anymore, but kind of where I think all this started, Vine. Yep. Vine was one of the very first ones that, you know, that was the the beginning, I think, of all of it. And then short form platform. Exactly. Once you start, once they started seeing how that wheel was rolling, that how traffic Vine got TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, all these social media platforms, they've started, you know, adapting it. And the problem is, is it is addictive. It's very easy to get yourself pulled in and scrolling. And by the time you realize three, four hours have passed. You know, your leg has gone numb because you're sitting there so long, mindlessly scrolling. And I'm what I'm I'm victim to it too. I find myself, I'll get home, sit down, eat dinner, and I'll just start scrolling on my phone and just watching stuff.
SPEAKER_00It just happens.
SPEAKER_02It does. I don't even think about it.
SPEAKER_00It happens to me. Uh I I catch myself doing that. And I just think, what am I doing? Stop. Because it's just so there's it's designed to get you to keep doing that. And so it's terrible. So, you know, the you know, the worst, I think, application of of this is with kids and teens. I mean, the research is really clear now. I mean, extremely clear. Heavy social media use is linked to anxiety, depression, right? Sleep problems in teens, all these things that are going on because of these addictive tools that are built into all of these social media accounts, right?
SPEAKER_02And it's all something different to keep you hooked, too. You scroll one video and you see a funny, just a funny video someone made. And then you go to the next one, and there's something that that gives you a bunch of information. You learn something out of it. You go to the next one, and there's a recipe on how to make the the world's best cheesecake or something like that. And it's it's just information overload, over stimulation as well. And a lot of people now have ADHD. That's just how a lot of people have been developing, and ADHD is one of the easiest things to hook into the algorithm because it's always something you're interested in. And attention span, if you've got a short attention span, that's what it's capitalizing on.
SPEAKER_00It definitely is. And so, I mean, even with like kids and you know, I I think of like like young, young kids, right? Two-year-olds, three-year-olds, four-year-olds, you know, you you probably know if you have kids, or or maybe if you don't have kids, you probably know that there's no time in a human development that has more capability of learning and absorbing data and material than a two-year-old. They're sponges. They're sponges. I mean, they have more capacity, I guess is there more capacity than me, you, any any adult out there. These, you know, young minds have all this capacity. So they're basically their hard drives haven't been overridden yet, right? Yeah. So it's all this stuff. And so you expose your two-year-old or your three-year-old to this kind of addictive behavior. Think of what it's doing to that brain, right? It it is it's harmful, it's very harmful for developing brains. And you know, I'm so proud, I'll give a shout-out to my daughter, Katie. Great mother of twins, they'll be three years old next month. They'll be three years old in June, and they have not seen the face of a smartphone except to do FaceTime with grandpa and grandma. That's it. And no, that they're not allowed. They they they're not even allowed to watch TV. I mean, at that age, which is you know, a lot of parents use TV as a crutch, as like a babysitting tool, basically. But she will not do that as hard as it is sometimes. She will not do that. She'll let them get, well, she will let them get a glimpse of something here and there, but only while she's in the room with them. And only and she'll tell them you get five minutes of this, you know, and you know, and Scott, her husband's fully on board with it. I'm proud of both of them. And like, he's really into football, like me, and baseball, not so much, but but he's into sports. And he's like, geez, I just want them to see like five minutes of a football game, you know, or something. But if whatever they're they're doing, the parents are always there with them, and and and definitely no smartphones. When I go to their house and when we we sit down and eat dinner, the smartphones off the table, dad. You're then she'll she'll give me that look, you know. Right. Your phone's on the table. And and so, yeah, see she's because she just refuses to allow it to shape their minds.
SPEAKER_02And you bring up a very interesting thing I've actually noticed. Back when I was a kid compared to now, television shows I watched back when I was a kid were way less, uh, what's the word for it, mentally stimulating. They weren't loud, they weren't busy, they were just calming. It was it was easy for a kid to watch and not have their entire system overloaded.
SPEAKER_00They were kind of uh dumb, comes to the I mean, not not like ignorant, like you shouldn't watch it, but just that they weren't addicting.
SPEAKER_02They were desensitized, they did not activate that that dopamine part of your brain.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02And now television shows are bright and loud, and it every couple seconds something different is happening and rapid theme changing and things like that.
SPEAKER_01And that's all been shown to, yeah, like you mentioned, it's a part of this addictive behavior in some of those shows. Some of the you you talk about having a couple of t television shows. I do I let my my three-year-old watch a few different shows, but it's nothing that we haven't watched with him before. It's nothing new and things like that. But it's something that we've monitored and that we've approved of him being able to see. And it's all things that are geared more towards like those kinds of things. They're learning programs. They're it's not it's not just to be on for no reason. It's uh that there's a there's a purpose behind why these programs are.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's a smart use. And I've actually tried to get my daughter to, hey, let them watch a little bit more of this baseball game with me. My son has gotten really into basketball with the basketball playoffs going on right now. So that's something dad likes to do that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, really. I mean, uh honestly, I mean, but you just can't let them go with it. You can't just turn on the TV and walk away.
SPEAKER_02And that's my point. That's something I've actually seen. Doom scrolling, that's what I call it on social media. I saw a video of this woman, she was walking around Sam's Club, had an iPad like on a satch on her side, playing a video, and her kid's just walking around like her eyes are glued to it. The mom turns, the kid moves to keep that iPad in vision. This kid probably wasn't, you know, more than like four or five years old. And the whole time the mom's shopping, the kid is just glued to a screen.
SPEAKER_01And that's what, like you've mentioned, these companies are banking on is that they're developing them to be glued to a screen.
Kids, Screens, And EU Pushback
SPEAKER_01And we talked a little bit about last in last week, or it might have been a couple weeks ago, that we talked about the European Union making the big changes with the iPhone.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01So as the European Union goes, a lot of countries will typically follow. We've seen some countries put in some of these restrictions. Australia recently voted through to put in some major social media restrictions. I'm interested to learn more. What is the EU looking to do about some of these different programs right now?
SPEAKER_00Well, they're looking to basically regulate the addictive design features that are inside all of these apps, right? Or all these social media platforms. So how they're going to do that, I'm not sure. I'm sure there are some sociological and and psychological tools that can be used and resources, right, to help them. But you know, basically it's it's fighting off what's being thrown at people, you know, without them realizing that what they're looking at is addicting. I mean, you know, we just you just said earlier, uh Adam, that you know, you're scrolling and and then you realize, oh, wait a minute, you know, and hours. Yeah. And and I and and I'm guilty myself. I look at, oh, I have two notifications from Facebook. Let me look at those. I see them, and the next thing I know, I'm scrolling. Why? Why am I doing that? You know, because it's it's it's become subconsciously addictive.
SPEAKER_02And it's even starting to change physical stuff with us as well. There is a new uh phenomenon going on with you know screen use, doom scrolling for hours at a time. There's a new type of apnea that's being developed where you're sitting in a chair for so long, your head moved like cocked down, just looking at your phone. Most people don't realize it, but you stop breathing sometimes. Oh wow. And I've caught myself scrolling through my phone, and then I I start getting lighted, and I'm like, and I take a deep breath because I realize I caught myself. I'm like, oh my God, I've just I stopped breathing because I've just got so into scrolling on my phone. Well, that's how bad it's gotten.
SPEAKER_00And so some of the other things the European Union is looking at doing is you know, they're not they're not going after like the mechanics of how the apps work. They they they're going way beyond content moderation. So actually they are going after the mechanics of how these apps are working. I got that backwards, sorry. But yeah, so they're actually digging deep into you know what's what these companies are doing to make them addictive. And they're looking at passing some regulations and I'm not sure how they're gonna do it. But in this case, I'm I'm hoping they're successful because especially when it comes to the young, young people, that's where to me it it it does the most damage because like I said earlier, right? The the young mind is is a sponge, right? And it's it's it's just so open to all this data. You know, and if you're a a parent, you know that your two-year-old or three-year-old is seeing or at least hearing and absorbing things behind them, next to them. And then because what happens sometimes, it could be the next day or a week later, you're in a conversation, and it's like, oh, I didn't know my two-year-old saw that. Well, they didn't. They it was on the side, it was and they just happened to pick it up. It was a side conversation. Right. But these things are absorbed in two-year-olds and three-year-olds' minds.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes it's a good thing, like my my my son re yesterday just told us that the uh he was pointing out an orange. He said, That's naranja. We said, When did you learn Spanish? When did you start paying attention to that? He just heard it somewhere. He made that association himself. So but then there's also the bad side of that too.
SPEAKER_00Right. I mean, because that's a that's that's an example of how good you know it it is with with kids being able to learn so so much, and then you don't even realize what they're learning, right? Until they come out with it. But then the same thing goes with the social media stuff, folks. I mean, these two and three-year-old men don't let them just sit there and scroll and get hooked on that stuff. That is really, really bad. So that's all we have time for in this segment. When we come back, we'll be talking about some wild stuff going on in tech wild, wild tech stories, uh, including the twin brothers who just wiped 96 government databases when they got fired.
SPEAKER_01We'll have more on that right here on Tech Talk on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there and welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. And you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Don't forget to check out the website at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.
Wild Tech News And Offboarding Lesson
SPEAKER_00All right. Thanks, folks, for listening to yet another edition, a Sunday edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I'm David Levitt, the owner and founder of Refresh Computers 26 Years Plus, right here in Central Florida, servicing all of your computer and laptop needs and purchases right here. So whether you're an individual or a company. You know, we service a lot of different companies all through Central Florida. They depend on refreshed computers, and for good reason, because you know, we're we've always been just right there, Johnny on the spot, if you will, refresh on the spot for them. So in this segment, we're going to talk about a few crazy tech stories going on right now, including the twin brothers who wiped out 96 government databases after they were being fired. But before we get into that, you know, eBay rejected GameStop's $56 billion offer. That that was just this past week. And yeah, so GameStop, the video game store, right? You know, so they offered to buy eBay for $56 billion, and eBay was like, no.
SPEAKER_01Talk about a flashback of names. Who's talked about eBay and GameStop in any serious manner or something?
SPEAKER_02Last I heard about GameStop was all the uh the stock stuff going on with them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So but you know, GameStop, you know, they've been sitting on this massive cash pile, right?
SPEAKER_01And I guess because of that stock thing, right? Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_00And they're looking for ways to spend it, and you know, and eBay's worth about $30 billion, supposedly. So GameStop's offered nearly doubled that, and it still got rejected by eBay. So you know, I always like to give this story about eBay, you know, missing the boat because who was the king in on online marketplace since it started? I think it was 1999 or 1998, was eBay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you know, and they had, and of course, yeah, it was mostly an auction site, but they let Amazon come in. Amazon came years later and just kind of take over the online. You know, so eBay eBay kind of missed missed the boat on that by letting Amazon take over the online marketplace that it did, but eBay's still significant. A lot of people still use it.
SPEAKER_02So I think eBay underestimated Amazon because when they were first really getting to masses, they were a book company. Yeah. You know, eBay could probably didn't expect Amazon to explode into what it has been built into now.
SPEAKER_00So let's get into Rivion, right? Rivion, right, is the electric car manufacturer. They now have an AI assistant built into your car. So if you're driving a Rivion, yeah, one of your most recent software updates, they onboarded an AI assistant.
SPEAKER_02So I'm excited to see what that's capable of doing because me personally, you know, I've had interactions with Grok in my car in a Tesla. So I'm I'm excited to see what Rivian's gonna do with this.
SPEAKER_00It's becoming a rolling computer. I mean, it helps with navigation, vehicle management, and stuff like that. Amazon's AI shopping assistant, right? They just launched an AI shopping assistant powered by Alexa Plus. It's integrated directly into the search bar now at Amazon. If you haven't noticed that, that's going on on your Amazon uh account. So what happened with these twins, right? These twin brothers, they work for a not-to-be-named government agency.
SPEAKER_01Of course, they don't want anybody to know which one it was.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, and they were both fired. And I don't know why they were fired, but I just know they were fired. But they decided within minutes after being terminated, they would just go in and delete all the databases that they could find that they had access to, which were 96 of them. So that's a lot, that's a lot of data. But but why? Well, because their credentials weren't revoked right away. So, you know, hey, government entities, what's the first thing you do before you fire somebody?
SPEAKER_02That's right. And that's that's a good thing just for any business, really. If you've got a business where you know your employees do have access to sensitive information in your system, it if you are offboarding them, it is a good idea to rescind that first because you don't know what kind of damage they're capable of doing and what you can't undo.
Closing And How To Reach Us
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, it looks folks, it's about all we have time for today. And I appreciate you listening to the Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Don't forget that free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200. And come on out and visit us at the computer store. Visit one of our great techs out there at 820 East State Road 434 in Longwood. Longwood is three and a half miles east of I 4. This is Dave the Levitt sign an offer this week. We'll be talking to you again next week.
