When Technology Stops Serving You and Starts Owning You | 03-20-26

Sam Bushman and Jay Harrison break down the biggest stories in tech — from Meta's massive layoffs and the death of the Metaverse, to a sobering study showing AI is actually increasing workloads instead of freeing up time. Plus, what 6,000 brain scans reveal about gaming addiction, Gen Z's social media pushback, a dangerous Windows Notepad vulnerability, AI watermarking in Microsoft 365, and a $100 credit-card-sized phone shaking up the market. Call to Action: "Subscribe and share TechWatch to stay informed without the hype. Visit npitechguys.com for full episode archives, and check out the Cyber Playbook at networkprovidersinc.com/cyberplaybook to protect your business today." Timestamps: 1:11 Meta Layoffs — 20% workforce cuts to fund AI infrastructure 3:04 Death of the Metaverse — Zuckerberg's VR bet failing 9:32 AI & the Productivity Myth — Does AI actually save time? 11:02 The Study — 443 million hours of tracked work activity 21:48 Gaming & Brain Scans — What 6,000 scans reveal about addiction 29:37 Gen Z Pushback — Reducing social media engagement 37:54 AI Code Quality — Carnegie Mellon study on AI-generated code 42:09 Windows Notepad Vulnerability — CVSS 8.8 security flaw 45:34 Microsoft 365 AI Watermarking & "Proudly Human" Labels 47:41 Nano Pro — $100 Credit Card-Sized Phone