Social media is a scary place.

Happening in the World: On Monday, Facebook announced that it had paused the development of Instagram Kids—a social media service that it was in the process of designing for children younger than 13. This happened shortly after The Wall Street Journal released a report that proved that the company was aware of the harmful mental health effects that Instagram was having on teenage girls. Facebook’s case for making the app was that young people were using the app despite age requirements and that a better solution would be to develop a version more suited to their needs. Notably, Facebook is also going to face a congressional hearing tomorrow about the impact of its apps on young audiences (NYT).

Happening in the US: The US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen warned lawmakers that the federal government would face default and effectively run out of money by October 18th—unless Congress suspended the limits placed on the government’s borrowing capacity. She described the event as “catastrophic” for the US economy, adding that Social security benefits, child tax credits, and military paychecks would all be under threat if the federal government is unable to borrow more money (NPR).

Happening in NYC: After a federal appeals court lifted an order that blocked New York City from enforcing a vaccine mandate for public school staff, the mandate finally came into effect on Monday night. Mayor de Blasio said that all public school staff must get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 5 PM on Friday and that the mandate would come into effect at the beginning of the workweek on Monday. As of now, officials report that 87% of school employees and 90% of teachers have gotten at least one dose. Over 500 educators who received medical and religious exemptions are being transferred to roles outside school settings, while staff who don’t qualify for these exemptions are being asked to take unpaid leave or resign—several school principals are also anticipating a staffing shortage in the imminent future (Gothamist).

Happening in the Columbia community: On Thursday, the Columbia Maison Française is organizing a talk by Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne about his new memoir, in conversation with Professor Emmanuelle Saada and Professor Pierre-Andrè Chiappori. The event is in-person in East Gallery, Buell Hall—and you can register for it here.

Poem of the week: This is a really special one. Laura Lamb Brown-Lavoie’s ‘On This the 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic We Reconsider the Buoyancy of the Human Heart’ is like that warm cup of coffee that you can always hold onto tightly when in an ache-y place. I love it dearly and really do have the words “There are enough ballrooms in you” scrawled into the corners of countless journal entries.

Ballroom via Pixabay.