In the era of the influencers, does TikTok become the to-go place for good investment advice? It’s no secret that TikTok has influenced consumer spending habits on a large scale more than once. There is a wealth of knowledge shared on the app, but not all of it can be trusted. But social media naysayers may have to postpone the rant — the numbers check out.

Brokerage aggregator BestBrokers found that the most-watched stock prediction videos in 2023 were accurate 64% of the time. CNBC reports that the finfluencers (finance + influencer) even predicted Nvidia and Qualcomm’s AI boom this year. Only 36% of the stock-picking videos would have resulted in a loss for people who took them to heart.

It’s still a gamble. If a viewer had hedged their money on all the recommended stocks in the most accurate TikTok video analyzed by BestBroker, they would have made gains of USD 4.9k. However, if they had done the same based on what turned out to be the most inaccurate video, they would have seen a loss of USD 1.5k.

Experts still refuse to acknowledge finfluencers as alternatives to traditional stock analysts and stockbrokers, all but calling their accuracy a stroke of luck based on the general positive performance of the US stock market during that short period of time. But the real issue is credibility.

Finfluencers offer their advice without a fee, but that doesn’t mean they’re not making money off of it. There’s nothing stopping TikTokers from recommending companies they have a vested interest in — whether financially or otherwise — or being sponsored to do so without disclosing that to their viewers.

A recent study has uncovered that Ancient Egyptian scribers weren’t just tackling deadlines, but the injuries that came with it, The New York Times reports — much like today’s office workers. Ancient Egyptian scribes are often portrayed as dignified scholars, meticulously recording history with a sense of purpose — but behind that image lies a reality that feels all too familiar: hours of hunched shoulders and curled backs.

A little digging into the past: Researchers examined skeletons of sixty-nine scribes from Ancient Egypt, and found that they often suffered from osteoarthritis — a degenerative joint condition — particularly in their right shoulders, thumbs, and spines.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Instead of reed pens and royal decrees, we’ve got keyboards and emails. And it is still the same sad story: long hours spent in the same position, with little to no movement, leading to a host of aches, pains and long term issues — back pain, carpal tunnel, and neck strains.

The pains of the past don’t have to be the pains of today: Our bodies aren’t made to sit still for hours on end. The way to avoid a scribe-like skeleton is to move more, stretch often, and be mindful of your posture at your desk.

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