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RTÉ News
7 days ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Is today's political climate making dating harder for young people?
Analysis: Larger social, economic and political trends can affect the perceived quality and stability of new relationships The last year has highlighted a political divide between young men and women. Data from elections in several countries shows that women aged 18 to 29 are becoming significantly more liberal, while young men are leaning more conservative. A recent 30-country study found Generation Z more divided than other generations on key questions around gender equality. At the same time, there is growing evidence that this cohort is turning away from traditional dating and long-term romantic relationships. According to the National Survey of Family Growth, in the US between 2022 and 2023, 24% of men and 13% of women aged 22-34 reported no sexual activity in the past year. This is a significant increase on previous years. And American teens are less likely to have romantic relationships than teenagers of previous generations. From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, are dating apps losing their spark? Surveys over the past decades reveal a trend in reduced sexual activity, in terms of both frequency and number of partners, among young people. Dating apps are also losing their lustre, with the top platforms seeing significant user declines among heterosexual gen Z users in the last year. Is the gendered political divide making dating harder? As sociologists of intimacy, our work has shown how relationships are affected by larger social, economic and political trends. Our research on enduring gender inequality has shown that it can affect the perceived quality of intimate relationships and relationship stability. For example, heterosexual relationships are often underpinned by unequal divisions of emotional and domestic labour, even among partners with similar incomes. Some commentators and researchers have identified a trend of "heteropessimism" — a disillusionment with heterosexual relationships, often marked by irony, detachment or frustration. Anecdotally, women have widely expressed weariness with the gender inequality that can emerge in relationships with men. But heteropessimism has been identified among men too, and research has found that women are, on average, happier being single than men. From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor Show, 'you have to approach dating like a job interview now' Take domestic labour. Despite progress towards gender equality in many areas, data shows that women in mixed sex relationships still shoulder the majority of housework and care. In the UK, women carry out an average of 60% more unpaid work than men. This gap persists even among couples who both work full-time. In Korea, persistent gender inequality is thought to be behind the 4B movement. Young Korean women, fed up with sexist stereotypes which tie women to traditional roles, have declared their rejection of marriage, childbirth, dating and sex with men. Beyond Korea, young women have declared themselves "boy sober". Harassment, abuse and "toxic behaviour" on dating apps has reportedly driven young women away from wanting to date at all. Others have embraced voluntary celibacy. One reason is that, for some women, the erosion of reproductive rights, such as the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, sharpens the political stakes of intimacy. Political disagreements that may once have been surmountable in a relationship are now deeply personal, affecting womens' bodily autonomy and experiences of misogyny. From RTÉ 2fm's Jennifer Zamparelli Show, where did all the pub men go? Journalist Edaein O'Connell on how daytime walks have replaced a quiet drink or dinner Of course, gender inequality does not just negatively affect women. In education, evidence suggests boys are falling behind girls at every level, though recent research shows this has reversed in maths and science. Men report feeling locked out of opportunities to care for their children through old-fashioned parental leave norms, which offer minimal opportunities for fathers to spend time with their children. Some influencers capitalise on real and perceived losses for men, pushing regressive and sexist views of women and relationships into the social media feeds of millions of boys and young men. Given all of the above, it is not entirely surprising that young men are more likely than young women to report that feminism has done more harm than good. Anxiety and uncertainty But there are wider political and economic issues that affect both young men and women, and how (or whether) they date each other. Gen Z are coming of age in a time of economic depression. Research shows that those experiencing financial stress have difficulties in establishing and maintaining intimate relationships. From RTÉ Radio 1's Brenda n O'Connor Show, 'romantic love is fine but platonic love is so deep" This may partly be because early stages of romance are strongly associated with consumerism, such as dinner out, gifts and so on. But there is also a lack of mental space for dating when people are under pressure to make ends meet. Insecure finances also affect young people's ability to afford their own homes and have access to private spaces with a partner. Additionally, there are growing rates of mental ill health reported by young people worldwide. Anxieties abound around the pandemic, economic recession, the climate and international conflict. These anxieties play out in the dating scene, with some feeling that entering into a romantic relationship is another risk to be avoided. Research with UK-based heterosexual dating app users aged 18-25 found that they often saw dating as a psychological stand-off, where expressing care too soon could result in humiliation or rejection. The result was that neither young men nor women felt safe expressing genuine interest. This left people stuck in the much-lamented "talking stage", where relationships fail to progress. As sociologist Lisa Wade and others have shown, even when casual sex is part of the picture, emotional attachment is often actively resisted. The proliferation of "hook-up culture" – characterised by casual sexual encounters that prioritise physical pleasure over emotional intimacy – may partly be a response to a cultural discomfort with vulnerability. Gen Z's turn away from dating doesn't necessarily reflect a lack of desire for connection, but perhaps a heightened sense of vulnerability related to larger trends in mental ill-health and social, economic and political insecurity. It may not be that young people are rejecting relationships. Rather, they may be struggling to find emotionally safe (and affordable) spaces where intimacy can develop.
Bloomberg
10-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Mensah: Some Absorption of Tariff Costs
CC-Transcript 00:00What is top of mind, first of all, before we get onto tariffs and macro policy? What is top of mind at the breakthrough dialogue at a time when we're looking at in video at a $4 trillion market cap, we're talking about the talent wars around what is top of mind right now when it comes to tech and the kind of conversations that people are having right now. Thanks, Tom, and good to see you again. I would say that we're trying to make sure it's not all about air high, but I'd say top of mind are all the ramifications around a similar thing. When we did our first summit four years ago, we were on 82.0. Often people forget that was in the summer of 2022. In the November we came out with the generalized release, which cheap, which was basically 3.5. So the evolution of air has been huge. We've moved into areas like a gen take, we've moved into, you know, content engineering versus, you know, prompt engineering and think about all this other ramifications. So I think a lot of people are thinking, where is that story? Where's that had one of the pinch points is it computes as a data. What kinds of data? I think beyond that as well, we're trying to see or there's a lot of interest in how is AI morphing into other areas, synthetic biology in the medtech space? What does that mean? You know, in material sciences is a feed feeding back onto itself. And one of the great things we have is we have a mix of people to be able to debate these. And Bank of America and other banks, of course, are leaning into it. Where are you seeing, Bernie, efficiency gains as you implement some of these solutions across the bank? Well, so we've been on the air journey for a while. What a lot of people are talking about right now is generative AI. So in the air space we've been along, then we've been leaning into that. You know, we have Erica, we have 2 to 3 billion, you know, contact points from our 70 million or so domestic clients in the US that are using our in our retail space, on the generative space we've been leaning and trying to really think through our work processes, think through how we use data, trying to get efficiencies around the place. I was talking to us on the West Coast about a month ago now, so it's a very senior tech leader and he was surprised that the small number of people that we use in our contact centers to support our incredible retail space. So we've we've really made a lot of progress there. And as we look at jobs being reshaped and the question mark, the questions as to whether or not jobs get replaced or enhanced, you know, is it at the back office? Is it the customer service where you see job displacement as a result of some of these? I don't not necessarily. I think that was the point I was trying to make, which is that perhaps some in some of the context census and back office, traditional air, if I may call it that, has really had a lot of innovation, like I said it in trade and we had 23 folks, traders, you'd have three or four effect traders not trading ten times the volume. So that has happened. I think the interesting regenerative air is that it's so creative, so transformational that we all need to step back and rethink how we do things. We have to throw the old orthodoxies away. And so that's the process of working through. So I think every firm has a few specific areas, you know, with with junior bankers, with some of our operations areas. Absolutely. But the idea is to retake some of these proof of concepts and see if you can get better compliance, whether you can get better, you know, trading metrics, better analytics to help you. Do you think longer term, though, you will need fewer junior bankers? Unclear, because I think that, you know, when I look at my knowledge, perhaps might be in the trader space, you might need fewer effects spot traders, but you have a few more effects options traders, you have a few more structured fixed traders, you have more time to talk to corporates about their asset liability management as you have some of the macro gains that are taking place. So the junior bankers might not be creating pitch books in the way that they were, but perhaps they might be, you know, analyzing industry trends a lot better, you know, perhaps feeding in other data that hadn't been accessible before and seeing how we can use that to help our corporate clients on the macro front. A reminder this morning in terms of the tariff volatility has threatened 50% on Brazil, 50% on copper. Yet markets, global markets, global stocks are close to record highs. Yeah. Is that rational to you or is that complacency in these markets? I think we thought we say the markets are always rational at some level. At some point in time. I think that the markets are pricing in. There's so much more information now versus early April. And I think what the markets are saying is, look, we have a lot of information that might come in on specific tariffs. You mentioned the ones that came through last night. But looking through that, you know, where do we see value or where do we see opportunity? So in very specific sectoral areas and specific companies, I think people see value there. I think in other areas of value has diminished. Absolutely. So the headline numbers may be where they are, but I think what we need to look through it, say where in tech is doing or where in the supply chain. I think my thanks, I'll be doing So In your conversation with corporate clients, what are they telling you in terms of where the cost of tariffs lands? Is it squeezed margins or they passing the cost on to the consumer? It's interesting because also you're trying to look at an inflation data and saying it's not going to hit. When is it going to hit? Right. So a lot of economists projections on is there a recession? A lot of that has diminished in our fund manager survey. The confidence in terms of I would say the US economy in the broader economy is much better. Two or three months ago, I think from a corporate space they would. But my sense is that there is some absorption of the costs there. Be really interesting to see as we get through Q2 what ending results are like. So there's been some sense that there's some absorption of the cost, but there's also real efficiency gains or some restocking coming up in March. And one or two have sort of said, well, we had a four or five month, maybe three or four month horizon in terms of where terrorists might settle down. Then we know what to do. We're in that zone now with sort of three or four months in. I think if there were further volatility around that time, some things might be back in the troika and as a US bank. But with your global purview, the time you spend internationally, we've heard from some banks. So they're getting they're losing out on bond deals, for example, to domestic banks because those clients don't necessarily want to deal with US banks as much. Are you saying that at all you're losing out on any bond deals a result as a result of that? So I haven't and I have been asked that a couple of times, think there's been nothing that has hit my my radar. We have to be out there all the time. And I think our proposition, which is trying to be close to clients and provide that value remains and I think there's very few of us that are scared that can do that across the globe. So as we are in the as we're in the C-suite, in the Treasury offices, in the fine, in the in the CFOs office, I really haven't seen that before. We let you go on the Fed. I was speaking to the UPS O'Connor CIO yesterday. He said markets are underestimating the risks to Fed independence in 2026. Do you agree? I'm not sure if they're underestimating it. I think that if you look at the forward prices in the markets, there's some the market, surprisingly, they think rates would be next year. I think in that price signal is some sense of what they think the Fed's reaction function will be next year. I think for all of what we hear, the market data will be what it is. You know, I think that ten year rates where they are reflects a reasonable assumption as to what growth rates will be. So independence or not, I think there'll be a range of you know, there'll be a sort of a range of activity or, you know, a range of outcomes that I think the Fed will look to work. 20 minutes. Thank you very much indeed.
1News
04-07-2025
- General
- 1News
How your emoji use reveals your age
Are your smiley faces sarcastic and is your thumbs up signal aggressive? If not you might just be a Boomer. By Brittany Ferdinands. Emojis, as well as memes and other forms of short-form content, have become central to how we express ourselves and connect online. Yet as meanings shift across different contexts, so too does the potential for misunderstanding. A senior colleague of mine recently encountered some commentary about the 'slightly smiling' face emoji: 🙂 They approached me, asking whether it represented joy, as they had assumed, or if it had a more ominous meaning. As a chronically-online millennial, who unironically identifies as a gen Z, I bore the news that I, along with most younger internet users, only ever use it sarcastically. ADVERTISEMENT 'It doesn't actually signify happiness – more so fake happiness, or dry humour,' I explained. I also told them how the thumbs up emoji is often interpreted as passive aggressive, and that the only time I'd use the laughing-crying ('face with tears of joy') emoji is under duress. Teen freaked out by Boomer's attempt at positivity. (Source: Despite seeming like a universal language – and sometimes they do function that way – emojis can be at once more vague, and more specific, than words. That's because you can't separate the meaning of a smiley from the person who sent it, nor from the person receiving it. Markers of age and identity While emojis were originally developed in the late 1990s by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita to add emotional nuance to text-based messaging, their function has since evolved. Today, emojis are not just emotional cues; they also operate as cultural symbols and markers of identity. ADVERTISEMENT Research published last year highlights how these symbols can create subtle communication barriers across age groups. For instance, a study of Chinese-speaking WeChat users found younger and older people differed not only in how frequently they used emojis, but in how they interpreted and aesthetically preferred them. A study of Chinese-speaking WeChat users found younger and older people differed in both emoji use and interpretation. (Source: One emoji that's increasingly becoming a distinct marker of age is the previously mentioned laughing-crying emoji (😂). Despite being named Oxford Dictionary's 2015 word of the year, and frequently topping the most-used emoji charts, this smiley is on the decline among gen Z – who decided in 2020 that it wasn't cool anymore. Instead, they prefer the skull emoji (💀), which is shorthand for the gen Z catch phrase 'I'm dead'. This means something is funny (not that they're literally deceased). Such shifts may understandably be perplexing for older generations who are unfamiliar with evolving norms and slang. A digital body language Emojis can also take on distinct meanings on different platforms. They are embedded within 'platform vernaculars': the ever-evolving styles of communication that are unique to specific digital spaces. ADVERTISEMENT For example, a thumbs up emoji (👍) from your boss at work is seemingly more acceptable, and less anxiety inducing, than from a romantic interest you've just sent a risky text to. A thumbs up? (Source: This dilemma was echoed in a recent viral TikTok by user @kaitlynghull, which prompted thousands to comment about their shared confusion over emoji use in the workplace. This reaction highlights a deeper communication issue. A survey of 10,000 workers across the US, France, Germany, India and Australia, conducted by YouGov and software company Atlassian, found 65% of workers used emojis to convey tone in the workplace. But while 88% of gen Z workers thought emojis were helpful, this dropped to 49% for baby boomers and gen X. The survey concluded some emojis can be interpreted in multiple ways, and these double meanings aren't always safe for work. In with the 'it' crowd ADVERTISEMENT Another example of platform-specific emoji use comes from social media content creators who deploy emojis to curate a certain aesthetic. Under the Tiktok tag #emojicombo, you'll find thousands of videos showcasing emoji combinations that provide aesthetic 'inspo'. These combinations are used to represent different online identities or subcultures, such as 'that girl', 'clean girl' or 'old money'. Users may include the combinations in their captions or videos to signal their personal style, or to express the mood or vibe of their online persona. In this way, the emojis help shape how they present themselves on the platform. This example of emoji use is also a display of symbolic capital. It signals social alignment, in an environment where a user's visibility (and popularity) is determined by their platform fluency. Emojis, then, aren't just tools for expression. They are badges of identity that index where a user stands in the online cultural hierarchy. There's a fragmentation in how we relate A single emoji might communicate irony, sincerity or sarcasm, depending on who is using it, what platform they're using it on, and what generation they belong to. ADVERTISEMENT This gap points to deeper questions around online access and participation, and the systems that shape online cultures. And when the meaning of an emoji is platform-dependent and socially stratified, it can become as much about fitting in with a cultural in-group than conveying emotion. Brittany Ferdinands is a lecturer in Digital Content Creation, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.
Time Out
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Glastonbury 2025 review: popstars ruled the weekend, but special guests have lost their cool
There was a messy run-up to Glastonbury 2025. Firstly, the Neil Young debacle, where the 79-year-old folk singer declared the festival to be under too much 'corporate control' before being officially announced as a headliner the following day, and then the massive u-turn on whether his set would be broadcast or not. Spoiler alert: it was. More recently, pressure mounted for controversial Irish rap group Kneecap to be removed from the billing after front man Mo Chara was charged with a terror offence. But the show went on, and politics felt more present than ever this year. There was a strong-pro Palestine sentiment across the event, with JADE, CMAT, Rizzle Kicks, Joy Crookes, and of course Kneecap all calling for the end of war in Gaza. Meanwhile, The 1975's Matty Healy left the crowd with a confused message, calling for less politics, and more 'love and friendship', which felt more pandering than genuine. Thankfully Rod Stewart got through the performance without bringing up Nigel Farage, but that didn't stop The Libertines and Kneecap from mocking the 80-year-old during their sets. ⭐ Glastonbury 2025 Day 1 review: The 1975, Lewis Capaldi and Gracie Abrams ⭐⭐ Glastonbury 2025 Day 2 review: Neil Young, Pulp and Charli xcx ⭐⭐⭐ Glastonbury 2025 day 3 review: Olivia Rodrigo, Rod Stewart, Wolf Alice and The Libertines Glastonbury seems to have addressed some of the overcrowding issues that marred last year's event: 'a few thousand' less tickets were sold according to Emily Eavis, stage capacities were increased to cater to bigger artists not on the Pyramid (it's estimated at least 60,000 turned out to watch Charli xcx on the Other Stage on Saturday). Although it felt overly cautious at times, with Kneecap's set at West Holts getting closed off an hour before they began, despite there still being ample space for punters. There were plenty of throwback sets, but current pop reigned supreme. On Friday, Lorde's sucker-punch secret show set the bar ridiculously high for the rest of the weekend. However, JADE on Saturday was one to contend with, as the former Little Mix member's sassy set proved her to be comfortably on the path to solo stardom. Also competing for the top popstar spot was CMAT, whose powerhouse vocals, humour and zany dance moves blew us away on Friday. Saturday saw the clash to end all clashes with rap's hottest new star Doechii, Charli xcx and legends the Scissor Sisters all playing at the same time, splintering the festival's millennial and gen Z attendees, while Neil Young's aged crowd at the Pyramid Stage was relatively paltry compared. Was his set what we were craving on a Saturday night? No – spiritually, Liv belonged at the Scissor Sisters. However, long-time fans were granted a packed setlist of hits from his more than 40 studio albums, all delivered with solid vocals and excellent guitar-playing. Special guests were seriously lacking in the headline sets this year, with neither the 1975, Neil Young, nor Charli xcx bringing anyone out. Only Olivia Rodrigo invited The Cure's Robert Smith to the stage, giving the previous day's disappointed Charli xcx fans some relief that they would at least get one surprise artist. But it begs the question – are special guests no longer cool? And while some of the die-hard Charli fans were left wanting more, we were blown away by her sheer star power, and respect anyone who can turn Glasto's second-biggest stage into a pulsing, strobe-lit nightclub. And what is Sunday afternoon at Glasto for if not a mass singalong? Nile Rogers and Chic put on a stomper of a set, rattling through hit after hit and properly getting the crowd moving, while Snow Patrol hosted their very own love-sick karaoke session over on the Other Stage, with people on shoulders and waving hands pretty much from the get-go.
North Wales Chronicle
12-06-2025
- Business
- North Wales Chronicle
Rate of women being hired into top jobs falls for third year running
The professional networking site revealed that women were hired into just more than a third – 36.8% – of leadership positions in the year to March 1, down 2.1% year-on-year. This has left the rate of female hires into senior roles back where it was in 2020, according to the figures. The data also showed that while more UK women are now in top management roles than they were in 2019 – at 30.9% last year versus 27.6% in 2019 – the progress has slowed significantly in the past two years, rising by just 0.3 percentage points. The figures suggest it becomes more difficult for older generations to reach senior management, with 19.4% of so-called baby boomers – those born between 1946 and 1964 – in these roles compared with 28.9% for gen X, 36.7% for millennials and 39.3% for gen Z. The statistics, compiled by analysing the group's 43 million-strong membership base across the UK, also show that, as of March, women made up 45.8% of hires in the UK, down 4.6% year-on-year. Globally, the figures paint a similar picture, revealing that less than a third of senior leadership roles are held by women (30.9%) despite making up almost half (43.2%) of the worldwide workforce. This 'drop to the top' is most pronounced in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) sector, where only around one in eight (12%) of leadership positions are held by women, according to LinkedIn. It is calling for the Government and businesses to promote hiring based on skills rather than qualifications to help ensure women do not get left behind, in particular amid the shift towards artificial intelligence (AI). Janine Chamberlin, head of LinkedIn UK, said: 'Just as AI is reshaping the workplace and demanding more adaptable, collaborative leadership, we're seeing women's progress into senior roles stall for the third year running. 'Women are 20% more likely to have that multi-domain experience, working across different industries and functions, which creates exactly the kind of flexible, agile leaders businesses need for AI transformation. 'Yet we're locking them out of leadership precisely when we need those skills most.' The online giant believes that a skills-based approach to hiring – through prioritising skills over qualifications in recruitment – could broaden the talent pool for women by 6.3 times globally.
