Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

Last week a woman successfully sued Meta and Google arguing their platforms were addictive. She said she was spending up to 16 hours a day online, starting from just six years old.She's been awarded $US6 million in damages, though the companies are appealing.It raises some big questions, like is social media addiction actually real? Can you walk into a psychologist's office, get diagnosed and be treated for it, or are we using the language of addiction a little too loosely?

If you've ever found yourself re-reading the same sentence over and over again, or opening your phone to check a text and then losing an hour, you're not alone.In the online era of 24-hour access, there are endless distractions and demands stealing our focus.Putting it all to one side and paying attention to your top priority tasks can feel impossible. So what can you do about it?

How likely are you to bail on a boring online admin task when it gets a bit hard?The endless box-ticking, pages to sign and notification approvals create a friction, specifically designed to stop you from achieving your task.Why has this become common place and why isn't the consumer experience as considered as it used to be?

With the calls to limit our fuel purchases to just what we need, is it unethical to stockpile?Is it human nature to protect our own self interest or do we have an ethical responsibility to not buy more than our share?

As petrol prices continue to soar, the only way to reduce your bowser bill is to go electric — or get rid of your car altogether. But could you realistically do that where you live?Australian cities have traditionally sprawled out, and now we're trying to correct that by going up, but the legacy has entrenched a car-centric culture for many of us.A University of Queensland researcher conducted an experiment in Brisbane, asking 10 people to totally ditch their cars for three weeks. It certainly wasn't as easy as it sounds, but plenty of people are doing it.

The friendly jostle to get a spot near the front, the crackle of the speakers as the band takes their place on the stage — attending your first gig is a rite of passage for so many Australians.For some, it plants the seed that inspires an entire career, while for others, it's simply a place to connect with new friends, dance and soak up the atmosphere.But there are major barriers for many young people, whether so a delegation of Australians who are passionate about giving young people a chance to participate in music have just launched their plan to fix it. 

After a friend goes through a break-up, often the real feelings their besties had about their ex come out into the open. But what do you do if they decide to reunite with the person you just declared as public enemy number one? 

There's an longstanding rule that it's not polite to talk about politics at the dinner table. But in times of global turmoil, where freedom of expression is under threat, it can be harder to keep the peace with relatives and friends whose values don't align with your own.For many, the solution may be cutting off those relationships altogether. But is there a way to stay connected to people we love even when we disagree? And what do we stand to lose as a community if we can't hold space for different opinions?

The looming fuel crisis is starting to bite, with service stations running out of petrol and prices soaring past $2.50 per litre. If you're in the middle of planning a trip, whether it's up the coast for Easter or hitting Greek Islands for European summer, the new reality is throwing travel plans into disarray.

What if you could have an AI clone of yourself at work respond to all your emails just like you would?It could reply in your tone, predict solutions for you and anticipate problems that may be coming. This Working Life host Lisa Leong has been investigating Identic AI, chatting with technology researcher Don Tapscott and his own agent, Digital Don, to find out the limits of these AI assistants.