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On January 20, Netflix is bringing back the popular talent competition Star Search, with a twist: For the first time in its history, Netflix will let its audience decide the outcome of a show with live voting. However, unlike how shows have done this in the past, audiences wont have to send text messages or call a special number to make their votes count. Instead, viewers will vote with their TVs remote control, or right within the Netflix app if they watch the show on their phones. Netflix hopes that this level of simplicity will help to make live programs like Star Search a lot more exciting, and offer its audience a chance to experience shared watercooler moments that tend to be missing from todays world of hyper-personalized streaming. You can influence the outcome [together with] everyone at the same time, says Netflix member product VP Elmar Nubbemeyer. Youre part of the Zeitgeist at that moment. To bring real-time voting to Star Search, Netflix relied on work it previously did for interactive narrative shows. It also snuck voting tests into David Changs Netflix show, and showed focus groups segments from two fake shows it cooked up for testing purposes. The company even built internal tools that will help it to repurpose live voting and polling for other live events and shows in the future. We are planning more of these types of moments, says Netflix product designer Navin Iyengar. Star Search is really the big unveiling of it. From ‘Bandersnatch’ to Star Search When Star Search debuts Tuesday evening, viewers will have two distinct opportunities to make their voices heard. Once a singer or comedian is done with their performance, a graphic will pop up on screen, encouraging each viewer to give it a rating ranging from one to five stars. We knew early on that giving a star rating as an interaction was really important, says Iyengar. Its core to the Star Search IP. Later on, theyll also get the chance to choose their personal champion of the night out of four choices presented next to each other on screen. Each voting graphic will remain on screen for about 60 seconds, and the shows hostAnthony Anderson, best known for the ABC sitcom Blackishwill respond to the incoming vote tally in real time. Chrissy Teigen, Jelly Roll, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Anthony Anderson [Photo: Matt Sayles/Netflix 2025] Its the first time Netflix has done real-time voting like this, but the company has been experimenting with getting viewers more actively involved for almost a decade. In 2017, the streaming service released its first interactive TV shows, which prompted viewers to choose their own adventure through branched narratives. In one scene of “Bandersnatch,” an interactive episode of the dystopian sci-fi show Black Mirror, the viewer has to decide whether the main character should take his medication by pressing left or right buttons on their remote control, with different choices leading to vastly varying outcomes. Even in those early days, Netflix engineers and designers already thought about ways to bring the same kind of interactivity to live content. We always felt that interactive experiences should go live, because members could actually interact in the moment and impact the story as it’s happening in real time instead of filming all the different potential outcomes, recalls Iyengar. Netflix eventually discontinued branched narrative shows because they did not take off with consumers, but the company kept pursuing the idea to marry live content with interactivity. And when Star Search came along, it quickly became clear that this was a perfect opportunity to bring back some of that interactive tech first built for titles like Bandersnatch, and use it to improve the way audience participation is usually done. Talent shows like American Idol used to rely heavily on phone calls to register votes, but nowadays use a mix of online and text message voting. Shows often allow participants to vote multiple times, leading to massive vote counts, which often dwarf the number of voters. It’s a surprisingly low share of viewers who actually reach out and vote, Iyengar says, adding that industry estimates put that number somewhere between five and ten percent. Voting has always been difficult for these shows, he adds. Netflix employees believed that the tech first built for Bandersnatch, which allowed viewers to send feedback with their TV remote, would already go a long way towards making it easier to participate. But they quickly realized that great tech alone wasnt enough. Keeping voting fair, even for Star Search Netflix began testing prototypes for live voting with focus groups nearly a year ago. To do so, the company repurposed two existing titlesa dating show and a talent competition. We basically made fake shows, Iyengar says. We edited them down to make them feel live and make it feel like your vote was really important. Then, it put select viewers into a lab designed to look like a living room, with a double-sided mirror to observe how they reacted. We put our prototypes on a TV, Iyengar says. We had a TV remote that could control it. People were sitting on a couch, and we would actually just leave them alone. Netflix researchers just told test participants that they get to take a peek at a prototype, without explaining that the show would allow them to vote. People really got it, Iyengar recalls. Almost everyone, without prompting from us, would pick up the remote in these moments, and interact. In fact, people didnt just get itthey got hooked. We found that they got really invested in the stakes of the show, even though it was fake, Iyengar says. They wanted to know what their vote was going to do. Did the person I voted for win? Show me the math for how you actually calculated the vote. People just took the idea of voting and fairness seriously. Netflix built its voting tech to only allow one vote per Netflix profile. But those early tests showed that fairness was as much about the way different options were presented, and that long held beliefs about UI design could introduce perceived biases. One example: Designers like Iyengar like to direct the eye to simplify smart TV interfaces. When you open up the Netflix app on your TV, youll find that one title is always pre-selected, which helps to understand what to do if you want to navigate to the title right next to it, or perhap one in a row below. On TV, you should always have something in focus, he says. Otherwise people don’t understand where the focus state is. When Iyengars team built the interface people will use to award stars to Star Search performers, they initially followed that same principle, and highlighted the third star to direct the eye. Test audiences immediately pushed back. People did not like that we were filling up the stars for them, he says. They were like: why are you voting for me? Voting on tuna sandwiches and sports competitions? In addition to the interface, Netflix also built a dedicated tool called Pollster that allows producers to integrate voting into their shows, then trigger each round in real time. To test Pollster and the backend tech for voting ahead of this weeks Star Search premiere, the streamer snuck a few test votes into Diner Time Live, a live cooking show hosted by celebrity chef David Chang. Diner Time Live is not a competition, so testing star ratings didnt really make sense. David Changs team nonetheless embraced the idea, and let the shows audience rate different kinds of sandwiches. It wasn’t something high stakes, Iyengar says. Audience participation was nonetheless high. I’m really glad we did it, he says. We learned a lot. The streamer is now ready to put those lessons learned to the test with the premiere of Star Search on Tuesday and already has plans to bring it to additional live entertainment formats in the future. We have many other ideas where we could apply this technology, Nubbemeyer says. One of the things were [considering] is polling. Netflix may, for instance, use its voting tech to ask viewers of a sports event to decide who the most impactful player is. All these things could enrich the entertainment experience by making it more participatory, Nubbemeyer says.
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The average American checks their phone over 140 times a day, clocking an average of 4.5 hours of daily use, with 57% of people admitting theyre addicted to their phone. Tech companies, influencers, and other content creators compete for all that attention, which has incentivized the rise of misinformation. Considering this challenging information landscape, strong critical reading skills are as relevant and necessary as theyve ever been. Unfortunately, literacy continues to be a serious concern. Reading comprehension scores have continued to decline. The majority of Gen Z parents are not reading aloud to their young children because they view it as a chore. Many college students cannot make it through an entire book. With their endless scrolling and easy reposting and sharing of content, social media platforms are designed to encourage passive engagement that people use to relieve boredom and escape stress. As a cognitive scientist and a literacy expert, we research the ways people process information through reading. Based on our work, we believe that deep reading can be an effective way to counter misinformation as well as reduce stress and loneliness. It can be tough to go deeper than a speedy skim, but there are strategies you can use to strengthen important reading skills. Deep reading versus doomscrolling People use smartphones and social media for a variety of reasons, such as to relieve boredom, seek attention, make connections, and share news. The infinite amount of information available at your fingertips can lead to information overload, interfering with how you pay attention and make decisions. Research from cognitive science helps to explain how scrolling trains your brain to think passively. To keep people engaged, social media algorithms feed people content similar to what theyve already engaged with, reinforcing users beliefs with similar posts. Repeated exposure to information increases its believability, especially if different sources repeat the information, an effect known as illusory truth. Deep reading, on the other hand, refers to the intentional process of engaging with information in critical, analytical, and empathetic ways. It involves making inferences, drawing connections, engaging with different perspectives, and questioning possible interpretations. Deep reading does require effort. It can trigger negative feelings like irritation or confusion, and it can very often feel unpleasant. The important question, then: Why would anyone choose the hard work of deep reading when they can just scroll and skim? Motivating mental effort Mindless scrolling may come with unintended consequences. Smartphone and social media use is associated with increased boredom and loneliness. And doomscrolling is related to higher levels of existential anxiety and misanthropy. In contrast, attention and effort, despite being exhausting, can deepen your sense of purpose and strengthen social connection. People also feel motivated to complete tasks that help them pursue personal goals, especially when these tasks are recognized by others. For these reasons, sharing books may be one tool to promote deep reading. One example is a teacher who guides students through longer texts, like novels, paired with active discussions about the books to reinforce comprehension and interpretation. While the debate over the ongoing practice of assigning excerpts over full books in schools continues, evidence does suggest that sustained reading in social settings can promote lifelong enjoyment in reading. With social connection in mind, social media can actually be used as a positive tool. BookTok is a popular online community of people who use TikTok to discuss and recommend books. Fans post in-depth analyses of K-Pop Demon Hunters and other movies or shows, demonstrating that close analysis still has a place in the endless scroll of social media. Slowing yourself down to read deeply There are steps you can take to meaningfully engage with the constant stream of information you encounter. Of course, this process can be taxing, and people only have so much effort and attention to expend. Its important to both recognize your limited cognitive resources and be intentional about how you direct those resources. Simply being aware of how digital reading practices shape your brain can encourage new attitudes and habits toward how you consume information. Just pausing can reduce susceptibility to misinformation. Taking a few extra seconds to consciously judge information can counteract illusory truth, indicating that intentionally slowing down even just a bit can be beneficial. Reading deeply means being able to intentionally choose when to read at different speeds, slowing down as needed to wrestle with difficult passages, savor striking prose, critically evaluate information, and reflect on the meaning of a text. It involves entering into a dialogue with the text rather than gleaning information. Awareness does not mean that you never doomscroll at the end of a long day. But it does mean becoming conscious of the need to also stick with a single text more frequently and to engage with different perspectives. You can start small, perhaps with poem, short stories, or essays, before moving up to longer texts. Partner with a friend or family member and set a goal to read a full-length novel or nonfiction book. Accomplish that goal in small chunks, such as reading one chapter a day and discussing what you read with your reading buddy. Practicing deep reading, such as reading novels, can open you up to new perspectives and ideas that you can explore in conversation with others, in person, or even on TikTok. JT Torres is a director of the Harte Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington and Lee University. Jeff Saerys-Foy is an associate professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The northern lights have been viewable from locations you don’t normally see them on a number of recent occasions, and on the evening of January 20, the same will be true. On Tuesday night, the aurora borealis may be visible in parts of more than half of all U.S. states. That’s a few more than the usual six or so Northern states that are used to seeing the colorful lit-up skies. That’s because solar storms can change visibility, making the spectacle visible to additional locations in times of heightened geomagnetic activity. According to an announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), that’s precisely what’s in the forecast this evening as geomagnetic activity has been strengthening, reaching G4 (severe) levels early this morning at around 3:23 a.m. ET. Essentially, when it comes to hopeful viewers, that could mean some amazing visuals, as the heightened activity will make for a stronger aurora. Just yesterday, the northern lights were visible in more states than usual, too, with the aurora making an appearance in Southern states like Alabama and New Mexico. Tonight, however, far more individuals across the country will be able to catch a glimpse of the event. According to the SWPC’s projected view line, the lights will are predicted to be visible in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, Washington, and Wisconsin. Of course, nothing is set in stone. The view line is just a prediction that could change as the storm shifts, the agency says. When it comes to seeing the northern lights, NOAA says that close to midnight (within an hour or two before or after) is your best shot. “These hours of active aurora expand toward evening and morning as the level of geomagnetic activity increases,” the agency’s web page explains. “There may be aurora in the evening and morning, but it is usually not as active and, therefore, not as visually appealing.” If you’ve been wondering why the northern lights have been visible to more locations more often of late, it’s not all in your head. According to astronomers at BBC Weather, it has to do with the sun, which hit the peak of its 11-year solar cycle in 2025. Still, solar activity will remain high throughout 2026. That means more shots at seeing the northern lights.
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