Info Tech Inc

Following the pandemic, colleges across the US are experiencing financial strain, enrollment drops, and overall are struggling to stay afloat. Reports show that in the near future, as many as 500 colleges and universities are at risk of closure, and enrollment has seen anywhere between a 6% and 16% decline in recent years. In addition, fewer US adults considered a college degree to be very important, with percentages dropping from 70% to 51% in just six years. As the value of the college degree itself falls in terms of the hiring process, and employees are still being laid off due to financial conundrums, college mergers have become frankly inevitable.
The process of merging two colleges or universities is one that involves the boards of each institution as well as the stakeholders and the alumni or community network. The main types of mergers involve local institutions, cross-country institutions, online institutions, or even international institutions. The schools most at risk are those within the same state with less than 5,000 students, but studies show that public colleges and universities faced the highest enrollment declines. Therefore, any college is at risk for these changes as we continue to navigate this time of financial strain. Loss of identity, voice, support, and increased costs are only a few of the main concerns that many students have about merging institutions, leading many to ask the question: Is my college next?

Self-sovereignty, which is the ability for an individual or business to have sole ownership over their data, is fueling the charge towards the evolution of Web3. Developed from the most primitive versions of Web1 and Web2, Web3 is the current form of a decentralized online space that is essentially owned by everyone. Developers have been working tirelessly recently to solve problems and contribute more to the Web3 movement so that services like crypto and the metaverse can continue to flourish. This current stage of the digital space is only continuing to grow, as the total crypto market cap is worth nearly $880 billion.

Because of these changes, the world of work and employment have changed drastically. Web3 and the future of work are now considered synonymous, as technological careers have seen over a 100% increase in demand in recent years, and studies have found that 2 in 3 people considered quitting their jobs in 2021 due to greater opportunities in a more independent space elsewhere. Employment itself is also being affected, as there is less reliance on the typical 9-5 and 57% of workers reported having flexible schedules in 2019. People are also able to now work from anywhere in the world using Web3 technology, and more than 12 million jobs are expected to be generated by technology by 2025.

Many global leaders praise Web3, saying that it is the best way to work interconnectedly, and can diversify businesses and the skills of their employees. The sovereign worker is rapidly becoming the most common member of the workforce, as the future lies in the hands of those who take advantage of Web3 and its benefits.

Live video has become increasingly effective and popular.  With streaming gaining popularity, consumers want more and more live videos.  Businesses need live video in this digital age, for 75% of CEOs claim that video conference calls will entirely replace audio-only conference calls, and 70 percent of professionals work remotely at least one day a week.  Likewise, 45 percent of teams use video calling tools weekly, and 43 percent of remote and in-house teams use a video conferencing solution.  

As live video impacts multiple industries beyond live meetings, its ability to impart information is invaluable as visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text by the human brain.  However, effective live video poses technological problems, such as bandwidth fluctuations, inconsistent video quality, encoding pitfalls, secure privacy, device incompatibility, and poorly-designed user interfaces.  Low-quality live video means wasted time due to loading before meetings and reliance across multiple platforms.

The future of live video can be seen through the advent of single stream technology that alleviates the headaches hindering the effectiveness of streaming.  This also provides stable meetings with low bandwidth, integrated cloud processing, and is free from tracking and data mining while remaining GDPR compliant.  Solving the challenges of live video makes meetings, live streaming, and more easy to create.

College is one of the greatest determining factors of success in the modern world, yet still, for more and more people every year, it’s just not worth the investment. Undergraduate enrollment fell by over 7% from 2019 to 2021, a historic decrease. What’s causing this dramatic shift in college enrollment?

The answer is naturally complex, but with a focus on two prominent factors. Colleges are costing more and returning less. The cost of a college degree has been rising far beyond the normal scale of inflation, or any other relevant economic variable. This would be fine if the degree was worth as much as its cost, but it’s not. 73% of graduates have a degree unrelated to their major.

This means that less people are going to college, and those that do may not even end up in the field of their choice, let alone making the amount of money they’d like. It’s forces like these that are putting a strain on universities and forcing them to spread finances thinner and take in weaker applicants. Still, there is one exception to almost all of these factors, prestigious schools. Ivy league and comparable universities have all retained the value of their degrees and managed to even up their enrollment rates.

This makes the prestige of the school an even more important factor year over year. This is unfortunate when considering the types of schools on the brink of closing were never even close to Ivy leagues in the first place. While they may be thriving, it’s yet to be seen exactly what will happen to the rest of the world’s colleges as they become less and less appealing year after year.

Historically, gold has been a fantastic investment to protect against economic volatility.  In an age of inflation, gold is a stable choice.  Since the early 1930s, the U.S. dollar has lost 99% of its value against gold.  Amidst the shutdowns due to COVID-19, supply and demand were greatly affected.  Due to this, our economy is experiencing an unconventional recession.  Inflation is having a great effect on the value of the dollar, and it is not expected to slow any time soon.  American investment advisor Harry Browne, claimed, “When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive.” 
Gold is an incredibly smart investment for many key reasons.  As an investment, gold is relatively low risk; there is a 0% counterparty risk, meaning the probability of another party defaulting on their obligations is virtually impossible.  Additionally, during economic recessions, gold has historically increased in value; namely, gold saw over a 100% surge in interest during the 2008-2012 recession.  Unlike traditional savings accounts, gold has a higher yield, and it also has a high investment return rate.  During economic strife, gold is in high demand, making it a good asset to have during periods of economic uncertainty.  To protect your bottom line, go for the gold.

For anyone that’s ever had Jiffy peanut butter, read the Berenstain Bears, or owned a Monopoly box with a monocled Monopoly man on it, well, check again. These are three examples of what has now been deemed the Mandela Effect. Named after the misremembering of Nelson Mandel’s death in 1980.

Jiffy peanut butter is simply Jif, the Berenstein Bears are actually the Berenstain, and the Monopoly man never had a monocle, these are three facts. Although searching around the internet and asking strangers may produce some different answers. How could this possibly be? Not just one or a few but thousands of people misremembering the same things.

This is the power of the Mandela Effect, and why it has been pushed as far as to be a government conspiracy or multiverse theory. Unfortunately the real answer is not nearly that complex, instead, the answer is that human memory is flawed. Not just a little bit flawed either, but massively vulnerable to manipulation and mistakes.

Memory is the brain’s attempt to recreate past realities in one’s mind, but it rarely does a perfect job. This is due to conformity, priming, memory source errors, false memories, and a slew of other psychological effects. These are all exerted on the average person daily, and typically even without any intention of changing someone’s memories. 

This explains why these little mistakes and gaps in memory can emerge. The Mandela Effect is a simple and generally harmless example, but the manipulation of memory can be pushed pretty far. It’s important for every individual to be aware of not only where their memories come from, but how they’ve been influenced. 

The truth is hard to come by, but by no means impossible to find. Fact checking, awareness, and an understanding of one’s personal limitations are essential to having a consistent worldview. The Mandela Effect goes to show what happens when little chips in one’s memory can be found.