Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. This week it’s me (Moira Wyton) pinch-hitting for Samantha Edwards while she explores warmer pastures. I’m an audience editor based in The Globe’s Vancouver bureau, where life is still miraculously snow-free. As always, if you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send Samantha an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🐢 U.S. Defense Secretary drafts Franklin the Turtle
💼 How AI is leaving recent grads out in the cold
⏱️ Why we should all be ‘mono-tasking’
🏒 The Canadian hockey romance taking the internet by storm
SHELL SHOCK
Hegseth’s ‘violent’ social media post enlists Franklin the Turtle into U.S. war on drugs
An image posted on X by U.S. Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, depicting children’s book character, Franklin, firing on boats with a rocket launcher.Supplied
Franklin the turtle, a beloved Canadian cartoon icon, became an unwilling pawn in the Trump administration’s war on drug traffickers this week. On social media, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a doctored image of the anthropomorphic turtle firing a bazooka into a boat from a helicopter, titling the faux book Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists. Hegseth has insisted the U.S. is engaged in an armed conflict against drug cartels in recent months, with targeted strikes killing at least 80 people in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
While the White House contends these strikes are legal – not the extrajudicial killings, the United Nations is calling them – the post pushed Franklin’s Canadian publisher into the fray. Kids Can Press said they “strongly condemn any violent, denigrating, or unauthorized use” of the character’s name or image. “Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity,” they wrote. The Pentagon fired back: “We doubt Franklin the Turtle wants to be inclusive of drug cartels … or laud the kindness and empathy of narco-terrorists.” Yet another example of the administration’s increasingly unhinged social media strategy? Yes, but certainly not “A Classic Franklin Story,” like Hegseth’s post insists.
LOST CONNECTION
Older men struggle to navigate isolation. ‘Social prescribing’ can help ease its burden
Michael Holtom says meeting with Murshida Samsun regularly has helped burst his loneliness bubble.Chloe Ellingson/The Globe and Mail
Seniors are more online than ever, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re more connected. Loneliness among older men in particular is a major health hazard, and in recent years, there has been a shift by policy-makers, doctors and everyday people to understand and treat it as seriously as any other medical risk factor. Generations reporter Ann Hui looked at one program in Toronto, where weekly social visits with a non-health-care worker are prescribed like a dose of regular medication. The men she spoke to were from a variety of backgrounds and had different approaches to their loneliness, which for some included staying in touch with friends and family online or on the phone. But they all agreed on one thing: there’s no replacement for in-person connection. Getting out from behind the screen? Just what the doctor ordered.
AI ON THE JOB
As AI reshapes hiring, starting pay at Canadian consultancies stagnates
The job market is already tough for young Canadians, and artificial intelligence is making it even harder for many. The country’s biggest consulting firms, including EY and Deloitte, have frozen starting salaries, some for the third straight year, as AI takes on more work traditionally handled by junior staffers. Retirement reporter Meera Raman spoke to experts who say this intensifies the already fierce competition for entry-level roles because firms are hiring fewer people overall. While the profit gains corporations are seeing from AI are not the only reason for salary stagnation – economic uncertainty is also high – it’s raising concerns about graduates’ earning potential and career trajectories if they can’t get the experience they need to advance. And in the federal civil service, a new public registry of where and how AI is being used is supporting Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan for efficiency and job cuts. As worries swirl about how the AI bubble could pop, it’s clear young graduates aren’t the only ones caught on the outside.
DO NOT DISTURB
Multi-tasking is bad for our brains and our work. Some are pushing ‘mono-tasking’ instead
Some experts say we should stop lionizing multi-tasking.Illustration by Jarett Sitter
Ever wished for a 32-hour day? For chronic multi-taskers, it’s already a reality: multi-tasking adds the equivalent mental load of eight extra hours to our brains each day, according to a new analysis. That includes long stretches of tech-on-tech multi-tasking, like scrolling social media while you listen to a podcast, or texting while you watch TV. But attention experts say multi-tasking isn’t actually doing multiple things at once, it’s flipping quickly between tasks and preventing us from focusing fully on any of them, let alone doing them well. Time use reporter Zosia Bielski spoke to Israa Nasir, New York therapist and author of Toxic Productivity, about the negative cognitive and health impacts of this habit and why she’s a proponent of switching to mono-tasking.
What else we’re reading this week:
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon (Wired)
Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends (New York Times)
A weird way to watch TV is bringing people a surprising amount of joy (Washington Post)
Adult money
BOOKS GUIDE
The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes.Amazon/Supplied
The Siren’s Call by Chris Hayes, $42 at Indigo
If you’re also scrambling to find something for your office Secret Santa, The Globe’s gift guide for book lovers is here to save the day. From the extremely online to the know-it-all, these 90 non-fiction book recommendations are all sorted into handy categories to make picking one out a breeze. Those worried about their mindless scrolling (same) might enjoy The Siren’s Call by MSNBC commentator Chris Hayes, which looks at how the monetization of our attention – from outrage on social media to breakneck news cycle – has altered how we engage in current events and politics. I’ve also been meaning to read Jacob Silverman’s Gilded Rage, which looks at how Elon Musk has led the right-wing radicalization of Silicon Valley. No matter who you’re shopping for, our book experts have a recommendation that fits the bill.
Culture Radar
HOME ICE ADVANTAGE
The internet’s new favourite show is a gay Canadian hockey romance
Heated Rivalry's romance between hockey superstars Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) has taken the Internet by storm.Sabrina Lantos/Crave
Several times this week, I’ve been idly scrolling on my phone while on the bus or waiting for a friend, and have had to hurriedly speed past a thirsty edit of Crave’s new series, Heated Rivalry, lest someone was glancing at my screen. Adapted by Canadian director Jacob Tierney (of Letterkenny and Shoresy fame) from Nova Scotian author Rachel Reid’s book, the limited series follows two star players in the fictional Major Hockey League (wink, wink) as they embark on a secret affair that fuels their on-ice rivalry. Since the steamy two-episode premiere last Friday, romance and hockey fans alike have flooded TikTok, X and Instagram with thirsty edits and tongue-in-cheek jokes about never watching hockey the same way again. On the NHL’s official accounts, videos of players fighting or chirping one another have drawn cheeky replies asking “when do they kiss?” or “this is just like Heated Rivalry.”
The fervour around Heated Rivalry has extended beyond Canada’s borders, with HBO releasing the show in the U.S. – a rare simultaneous international rollout for a Canadian production – and the book selling out on Amazon in the States. The show is as serious about hockey as Grey’s Anatomy is about medicine, and is certainly not family viewing. But, like stopping to watch Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s 2018 Olympic Moulin Rouge ice dance performance every time it re-enters my algorithm, fans online have convinced me it’s my patriotic duty to watch.