Latest news with #digitalwellness
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Brain Song Announces Official Website Update Featuring Natural Daily Supplement for Focus and Cognitive Support
Binaural Technologies Launches Enhanced Platform Featuring 'The Brain Song' and Its New 7-Minute Memory Soundwave Wilmington, June 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brain Song, a digital wellness experience by Binaural Technologies, has updated its official website to showcase a breakthrough audio supplement designed to support clarity, focus, and memory in adults. Now available in the U.S., the newly enhanced platform introduces a 7-minute memory soundwave, offering individuals a natural, non-invasive method to optimize mental performance. According to the official product website ( The Brain Song is a daily-use audio program created to work in sync with the body's neural rhythms—helping listeners reduce mental clutter, improve presence, and feel more cognitively aligned. The new soundwave is positioned as a standalone digital ritual that can be accessed via mobile or desktop, without the need for pills, powders, or physical supplements. 'Our goal is to help people clear their minds and reconnect with focus—without ingesting anything,' said a spokesperson for Binaural Technologies. 'This audio experience reflects our vision for accessible, technology-driven wellness that's rooted in neuroscience and simplicity.' Binaural Technologies affirms that The Brain Song is engineered using advanced sound design principles, including entrainment techniques aligned with memory and concentration patterns. The platform aims to support common wellness goals like cognitive sharpness, calm attention, and improved daily rhythm. As noted on the product website, The Brain Song is backed by a satisfaction guarantee for new users. Full access instructions, FAQs, and purchasing details are now available on the updated site. About Brain Song The Brain Song is a digital wellness innovation from Binaural Technologies, a Delaware-based brand specializing in audio solutions for mental clarity and focus. Designed to support natural brainwave alignment and mindfulness, The Brain Song offers a simple, effective tool for adults seeking cognitive support through sound. Product and Contact Information Brand: Binaural Technologies – The Brain SongWebsite: support@ Address: 2810 North Church Street, Wilmington, DE 19802, USA Disclaimer This release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The statements made about this product have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Individual results may vary. Consumers should consult a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any new health regimen. CONTACT: Email: support@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
17-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Good Night: TikTok Invites Users to Meditate
How do you stop doomscrolling? By setting a time limit? Putting your phone in a different room? Deleting the app altogether? On Thursday, TikTok announced a new option: a nightly in-app guided meditation exercise that is turned on by default for users under 18. At 10 p.m., their For You Page is overtaken by a blue screen and relaxing music, and the user is guided to 'inhale,' 'hold' and 'exhale.' 'The idea being that after that meditation is over, you put down your phone,' said Dr. Willough Jenkins, a child psychiatrist who shares mental-health-related content on the app. TikTok enlisted Dr. Jenkins as a paid partner to help promote the initiative. Users who opt in to the function can dismiss the guided meditation and return to scrolling, but if they are still on the app after an hour, they are shown a second, full-screen prompt that requires them to select an option: keep using the app for 15 more minutes, opt out of any additional notifications for the day, or go to their settings to make changes. Users over 18 can turn on the feature, called 'Meditation in Sleep Hours,' at any time from their settings page. The new feature, which TikTok says is meant to encourage young people to practice healthier digital habits, is being rolled out as the platform faces widespread allegations that it has knowingly harmed users' mental health. This includes a raft of lawsuits filed in October by 13 states and the District of Columbia, accusing TikTok of creating an intentionally addictive app that harmed children and teenagers while making false claims to the public about its commitment to safety. Many of the states' claims center on features that they say keep children using the app deep into the night, when they would otherwise be asleep. 'Meditation in Sleep Hours' seems purpose-built to counter those allegations. 'We know that meditation has so many benefits for youth, and for adults, too, especially around sleep initiation,' said Dr. Jenkins, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. 'Being able to access a guided meditation, to learn some of these skills to transition your brain into sleep mode, is such a key skill.' Sabina Gilyazova, a 15-year-old student from the Rego Park neighborhood of Queens, said she found the feature 'annoying because it just interrupts my precious phone time.' She said that the feature wouldn't work on her because 'I have free will, so I just click off.' Dr. Yann Poncin, a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, probably wouldn't be surprised by Sabina's reaction. 'Teenagers are a lot about control and autonomy,' Dr. Poncin said. 'They're thinking: 'I want to be on TikTok when I want to be on TikTok. I don't need this stupid thing interrupting what I'm doing.'' In March, TikTok announced that it had tested a similar feature for users under 16 who were on the app after 10 p.m. According to the app, 98 percent of users did not manually turn off the feature in their settings. According to Dr. Poncin, the strength of the initiative is in the 'friction' it creates for users to stay on the app. 'So I do think it's helpful for those kids who really know for themselves it's a problem,' he said. Even then, it can be difficult to stop using the app. 'These algorithms are incredibly powerful,' Dr. Poncin said. 'They're incredibly gamified. So it's sort of like, we have fentanyl here for you, but if you want to smell roses over on the left side, we have some roses for you to smell. But we still have this algorithm that's going to suck you in like a drug. It's an asymmetric battle.' Users who have different limits set on apps, including Instagram and TikTok, said that they are easy to ignore. Last year, Chioma Chioma-Ozukwe, a college student in San Diego, tried using a feature on TikTok that would interrupt her after scrolling for an hour. She would then type in a passcode to continue using the app. 'It just infuriated me if I was in the middle of a scroll,' said Ms. Chioma-Ozukwe, 19. She said she felt 'Meditation in Sleep Hours' was a 'performative' initiative from TikTok. Siriveena Nandam, a 26-year-old user-experience designer in Washington, D.C., agreed. 'It's ironic that these apps have built-in features that make it addictive,' she said, 'but then they're trying to go out and create screen-time things when their intent of the app is to keep people on the screen for as long as possible.' Ms. Nandam said she had even bought third-party apps to help her stop doomscrolling because she was committed to lowering her screen time, which she estimated was about eight hours a day. None of them helped her decrease her social media use. 'The only thing that I found worked was physically distancing myself from the phone,' Ms. Nandam said.
Forbes
07-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Exclusive: Ginko Raises $1.5M To Launch The First Doctor-Backed Digital Wellness App For Families
Cofounders of Ginko, Dr. Raghu Appasani and Larissa "Larz" May, Photo Credit: KTSura Photo Credit: KTSura When Larissa May (known to most as Larz) was a college student navigating anxiety and depression, she remembers sitting in a doctor's office and feeling something was missing. The diagnosis was clear. The support? Not so much. No one asked her about her screen time. No one asked about Instagram. 'It was like the elephant in the room,' she says now. That moment planted the seed for what would eventually become Ginko : a digital tool she wishes had existed back then, built now to support families before endless scrolling becomes the symptom. Today, May is no longer just telling her full story — she's building the solution she once needed. Alongside psychiatrist and mental health expert Dr. Raghu Appasani, May cofounded Ginko, a doctor-backed digital wellness app for families. It's designed to guide parents through the tech milestones and screen stage — from the first time a child gets an iPad through college life on an iPhone. The goal? To unlock family trust and digital freedom as parents and kids show progress. It's a tool to help families navigate the ups and downs of the digital world, built with teens, approved by parents, and backed by doctors. Together, the founder duo isn't just creating a product. They're creating a movement — one that reframes digital parenting from panic and surveillance to prevention and connection. 'I feel like the Alex Cooper of digital wellness, without the swear words,' May says with a smirk. 'I'm here to make the hard conversations easier. To talk about the things most parents are too scared or ashamed to say out loud.' After nearly a decade spent working directly with families — one through the lens of digital wellness advocacy as the founder of the movement, #HalfTheStory, the other as a Harvard-trained clinical psychiatrist — May and Dr. Appasani found themselves fielding the same urgent question: How does one parent through this era of screens? The answer became Ginko. Launching publicly this June, Ginko is the first doctor-backed digital parenting app or copilot, designed to help families navigate tech, with empathy, science, and lived experience at its core. At a time when 48% of parents say they feel completely overwhelmed by stress ( U.S. Surgeon General ), and 55% report being extremely concerned about teen mental health ( Pew Research 2025 ), Ginko offers something long overdue: a proactive, preventative solution built with both care and clinical rigor. The company just closed a $1.5M pre-seed round, led by Aliavia Ventures, with participation from Andas, Exceptional Ventures, Swizzle Ventures, Kodori, and Luminary Impact Fund. Angel investors include Evan Sharp (Founder of Pinterest), Lidiane Jones (Former CEO of Slack and Bumble), Lori Evans Bernstein (Caraway Health), Babba Rivera (Ceremonia), and Zem Joaquin (Near Future). Ginko also boasts a clinical advisory board anchored by Dr. Carlene MacMillan, Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Consumer Issues Committee. Unlike conventional parental control tools that create conflict, secrecy and fear, Ginko replaces surveillance with support. The app uses developmentally appropriate guidance, AI-powered insights, and trust-building tools rooted in attachment science and behavioral health. One study found that 77% of parents say their pediatrician has never discussed their child's social media use with them: Ginko makes that conversation both possible and accessible, so that children can 'chase dreams, not screens.' 'You wouldn't hand a kid car keys without teaching them to drive," Dr. Appasani says. "So why are we handing them smartphones without a roadmap?' Ginko's spark moment officially occurred when the cofounders were scouted at Wall Street Journal Tech by their first investor. They began interviewing doctors, parents and kids — and quickly realized there wasn't a comprehensive tool that could grow with families at every screen stage. "We wanted to build a triage center where we could help parents on the darkest nights and reward teens for their progress in the digital world," says May. "That's where Ginko was born. The digital world is like a playground. Sometimes you fall — and you need support when the scrolling gets tough." "This isn't just a parenting tool — it's a new framework for digital preventative care," Dr. Appasani says. "Something healthcare hasn't caught up to yet.' By meeting families where they are and designing tools that evolve with their digital lives, Dr. Appasani and May are reshaping what it means to raise resilient, connected, emotionally healthy kids in a tech-saturated world. It's not about screen time — it's about screen trust. 'You can't stalk your way to healthy screen time,' May adds. 'A lot of these tools are built on fear, but when you apply that kind of monitoring, it backfires. It's the same with tech. Ginko is about trust, not control.' May recounts how they landed on the name: "We were sitting in our backyard and Christian (May's husband) said, 'Ginkgo.' That was it — the most resilient tree that grows all over the world. Digital wellness is just like a tree. It grows with you over time." Let's get real: screens aren't going anywhere. And not all screen time is created equal. Ginko offers a place where kids and parents can come together to negotiate screen use, especially for essential things like school or studying. It's about being realistic about tech, and teaching kids early on how to use it as a tool that supports their growth. As progress builds, kids earn 'Ginkos': gamified rewards that can be redeemed in the real world. And each week, Ginko visualizes what the child did online, how it made them feel, and how the family is tracking toward shared wellness goals. 'Ginko isn't about surveillance," May asserts. "It's not here to stalk your kids — it's a copilot. It helps parents navigate digital milestones, from the first iPad to the first social account, with tools that are age-appropriate and actually rooted in science.' Dr. Appasani adds: 'We combine developmental psychology, AI, and clinical insight to guide families through different stages. For a toddler, that might mean building healthy habits around play and attention. For teens, it's more about emotional regulation and identity online.' Another point to get real about: parents aren't the best role models when it comes to using their devices in front of their children. 'The truth? Parents are the worst at modeling behavior,' May states. "They're on their phones, they're on their laptops. They're doing work — and kids are just trying to get their attention. We want to help change that and suggest unstructured play — not to punish, but to rebuild trust and connection, based on attachment science.' As a soft launch ahead of its June debut, Ginko hosted an IRL activation at Shopify's SoHo space in New York City this past weekend. The pop-up transformed part of the venue into a vibrant, screen-free zone where toddlers through tweens engaged in creative play alongside their parents. The experience brought Ginko's mission to life: showing what digital wellness can look like in the real world. A number of notable mom influencers and parenting community leaders attended, helping spark conversation around tech, trust, and what it means to raise kids with empathy in a screen-saturated world. 'I want to break the clinic walls wide open and meet people where they are,' Dr. Appasani adds. 'That's why we integrate IRL connection too — like our pop-ups where toddlers and tweens connect with their parents, no screens involved.' 'This is just the beginning,' May says. 'Yes, we're a tool. But Ginko could become an umbrella for the whole digital wellness ecosystem. We're imagining future clinics, family retreat centers, maybe even schools. The world is our oyster.' As for the legacy they want to leave? 'I've always looked up to Gloria Steinem. I want to be in the history books as the woman who helped shift our world from digital sickness to digital wellness. And I want to do it with care and clinical grounding,' May shares. 'My dream is for Ginko to be the vehicle that finally brings this into healthcare.' 'I don't need to be remembered by name,' Dr. Appasani says. 'But I want people to feel the impact of what I helped create. Whether as a clinician or a founder, I care about bringing real human connection back. I almost left med school once because I was so disillusioned with the system. I'm glad I stayed. Because now, with Ginko, I can build the healthcare tools I always wished existed.' May adds: 'We need women breaking ceilings and showing that care can scale. We need more women building technology that actually supports families. Period.'
