IDENTITY AND AUTHENTICITY 

Many older folks seem inclined to offer advice to adolescents and younger adults. Although we might have the best intentions, its effect on their decisions and actions can often seem very limited. I know that I spent a lot of time over decades as a professor in business ethics and organization behavior classes raising social and moral issues, discussing actual cases, and trying to explore potential decision options. I’ll never really know the limited extent to which my efforts had an impact. 

It seems to me that there are tougher threats now for those completing their education and entering public and private sector jobs. Getting a decent job can be one big challenge. Also, many organizations have taxing or toxic work cultures that can overwhelm or frustrate younger employees. Some employees exit these kinds of organizations and jobs soon, or they become what’s been recently called “quiet quitters.”

Young employees often come into these work organizations from supportive family and friendship backgrounds. They can have high expectations for continuing encouragement and accomplishment in their new jobs. However, some new employees will not meet many of their high expectations due to possible personal or organizational factors. This can trigger defensive personal reactions tied to an underlying loss of part of their preferred self-identity and self-worth.

This loss of a preferred identity as a “winner” and feelings of lessened self-worth can have physical, mental and emotional consequences for employees, such as their heightened anxiety or depression. Another defensive response from some employees trying desperately to achieve their hopes or expectations as winners is their acting unethically or illegally to try to get ahead in the eyes of others.  

These potential “snares” for some employees entering work organizations have long existed. What has become more disturbing related to Increasing loss of authentic self-identity is that more adolescents or teenagers are also falling prey. These threats and problems are often linked to heavier than average reliance on various social media channels.     

Social scientists use terms such as self-presentation, impression management, and naïve marketing to describe common human tendencies to create a favorable image of ourselves to others.  We want others to respect us and be disposed to treat us well. So, we try to some extent to manage the impression that others have of us. Being socially accepted and supported by others is particularly important for adolescents who may be stepping away for the first time from their family/friendship cultures.  

Actual physical encounters with others can sometimes be threatening or at least unsettling. We cannot always look good, think fast, and respond accordingly to manage these impressions successfully. Social media can allow us time and opportunity to compose and then distribute our desired impressions.  

Recent research shows a significant shift in how the "social media generation" views itself.  A growing body of evidence, including a major April 2025 Pew Research Center report, highlights a deepening crisis in self-identity and self-worth. ​According to the Pew 2025 report, 48% of teens believe social media has a "mostly negative" impact on people their age, up from 32% in 2022.

Related conclusions come from the Child Mind Institute, an organization dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders. The institution’s research findings concerning social media suggest to me that the more time youth spend "pruning" their online identities to look “good,” the more they struggle with their authentic self-worth. The moods and personal identity of youth can become tethered to "likes," views, and digital feedback rather than more solid accomplishments.

One problem with a lot of social media consumption is the continuing feedback loops affecting self-identity. This can encourage an overly "performance-based" identity where young people feel they are always being watched and judged, making it difficult to develop a more stable, mature sense of self. A few years of aging and then entry into corporate or public sector jobs can sometimes accelerate this tendency for overly appearance-based identity formation.

Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we’re all actors. That’s true to some varying extent for all of us. But can we reach a critical point when so many younger and older folks are “marketing” themselves to others to get favorable responses that we become a world more and more of deceptions, illusions, and uncertainties?

Our occasional escape from the “stage” to the great outdoors can be a purer identity grounding and healing opportunity. Perhaps publications such as PWJ that offer many narratives about personal encounters with our natural environment can be a valuable counterpoint, too. They can remind us from time to time of richer and more authentic personal learning. I just wish that there were fewer slick marketing schemes by manipulative “influencers” and more effective communication channels through which young people could discover more authentic personal identities.

 AI & JOBS: FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY 

Much has happened since I first described early implications from AI development in PWJ. AI's potential and significant risks have been intensely reported. I’ve tried several times since then to describe basic ways that AI will likely affect the timber and forests products industry.

Recent news articles have claimed that AI-related job impacts have so far had much more to do with top management AI capital investments and resulting labor cuts than job losses due to genuine AI productivity gains. Over the longer term, the balance is expected to shift, and productivity improvements will matter more in terms of job reductions.

What will be the short-term AI impact on industry jobs in this region, and what can be expected beyond five years? I turned recently to several different AI chatbots (Google Gemini, Microsoft CoPilot, and Anthropic Claude) and received generally similar responses. Below is an overview of these responses.   

East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi have a higher concentration of sawmills, pulp and paper mills, logging operations, and timber‑dependent rural economies than most of the South. Because of this, AI and automation will have broadly similar effects as elsewhere in the South—just more intense.

AI should have minimal near‑term job impact on forestry and timberland management employment. Managers will adopt better inventory tools, remote sensing, and AI‑enhanced growth models, but these technologies support foresters rather than replace them. Fieldwork, landowner relations, procurement, and environmental compliance remain largely human‑driven. Planning and analysis will become more automated, yet overall forestry employment is expected to remain fairly stable. Human work becomes more data‑rich, not less necessary.

Logging and timber harvesting is already highly mechanized, and AI will accelerate that trend. In the near term, job impacts stem mainly from management decisions to shrink crews and invest in more advanced equipment. Contractors often adopt mechanized harvesters and loaders to reduce labor liability, insurance costs, and hiring challenges.

Longer term, AI‑assisted equipment, semi‑autonomous harvesters, automated load measurement, and eventually driver‑assist technologies for log trucks, are possible. These would increase productivity and reduce the need for equipment operators and truck drivers. Fully autonomous logging equipment faces barriers, though, due to terrain variability, liability, and safety regulations. Semi‑autonomous assistance is far more likely than full autonomy in the next decade. Demand will rise for technicians and equipment specialists. Because this region has a dense logging sector, these impacts will be stronger than in more diversified states.

Southern sawmills and primary wood processing have long been early adopters of automation, and AI will accelerate this shift. In the near term, mills can be expected to reduce labor before AI delivers major productivity gains, through consolidating operator roles, eliminating manual grading, and automating material handling.

Over time, AI will become the dominant driver of change. Automated grading surpasses human accuracy, robotic handling reduces manual labor, predictive maintenance cuts downtime, and centralized control rooms replace multiple operator stations. The result should be a steady decline in manual and semi‑skilled roles, offset by rising demand for automation technicians, electricians, and millwrights.

Pulp and paper mills are the most exposed to automation. Near‑term job losses are largely management‑driven, as executives consolidate operator roles, reduce lab staffing, and automate material handling—often before AI systems fully mature.

Longer term, AI‑driven productivity gains will reshape the workforce even more dramatically. Continuous monitoring replaces manual sampling, automated process control reduces operator staffing, predictive maintenance shrinks mechanical crews, and AI‑optimized chemical dosing reduces lab roles. This sector will see the largest job declines in the region, especially in Louisiana and East Texas, where large integrated mills are concentrated.

The Claude chatbot foresees somewhat more pulp and papermill resilience and less job decline rates due to many Southern pulp mills having already undergone significant automation over the past two decades. Additionally, packaging and specialty products production in some mills could partially offset traditional paper declines.

Maintenance, trades, and technical roles will grow under both near‑term management decisions and long‑term AI adoption. As mills automate, they need more electricians, millwrights, HVAC and cooling technicians, instrumentation specialists, and industrial mechanics. This region’s emergence as a data‑center hub amplifies this demand. Data centers require massive electrical and cooling infrastructure, and the South faces a national shortage of some skilled trades. Workers in mill maintenance and logging equipment repair are well positioned to transition into these roles.

East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi offer three advantages for data‑center developers: abundant and relatively inexpensive power, available land, and expanding transmission infrastructure. As AI drives hyperscale data‑center growth, these states will see above‑average increases in construction and operations jobs—electricians, HVAC technicians, heavy‑equipment operators, and site‑development crews. Many skills overlap with those in mills and logging, though retraining or certification will often be required. Expansion of workforce development programs is needed to ease this transition.

In summary, near‑term job impacts will be driven mostly by management decisions to reduce labor and justify AI investments, thereby hitting sawmills, pulp and paper mills, and logging operations hardest. Beyond five years, the region will likely see significant declines in pulp and paper jobs, moderate declines in sawmill and logging jobs, stable forestry employment, and strong growth in maintenance, trades, and data‑center roles. The net effect will perhaps be more job reshuffling than simple job losses. Declines in some traditional industry jobs will be offset by rising demand for skilled trades and data‑center infrastructure jobs.

Business and government still have some agency over how AI transitions and impacts unfold. Widespread job displacement and economic injury for many regional residents aren’t inevitable. Employers can treat skills training programs as transformative means, not perks. Some community colleges and technical schools in the region have already expanded automation and mechatronics programs to help with this need.

 State governments also have a key role. Reserve funds and incumbent worker training funds under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) can support many workers who are still employed but increasingly vulnerable to AI-driven disruption.Individual companies and states are going to continue to make these important decisions.  

 BULL GANG EXPERIENCES (Part 2)

Last month I briefly described my father’s and my times long ago in bull gangs at the pulp and paper mill in West Monroe. The old Brown Paper Mill of my father’s early employment was called Olinkraft, Plant #31, when I worked there in the late 1960s. There were many smaller Olinkraft operations or plants there as this facility had expanded over time into different and specialized forest products.

The bull gangs in regional paper mills functioned as employment "filters" for those hoping for career advancement in these mills. The work could be particularly intense and physically demanding, particularly during emergencies and plant shutdowns.

I recall a shutdown when I once worked continuously over a regular eight-hour day shift, through that night, and during the next eight-hour day shift. That was a bit of a crisis situation and partially motivated by my interest in getting both overtime pay and more chances for the elevated pay that some gang members got when doing jackhammering or rigging activities. Even as a low-ranking gang member, those duties opened occasionally when the more senior gang members were needed during shutdowns as helpers for welding, pipefitting, and other mill activities.

Most young men in these gangs were high school graduates from the local area. Some were in their late 20s or 30s with previous work experience, but others were younger and had been employed only at the mill. There were usually 20 or so total gang members when I was working there two summers, and more often these men worked within smaller groups of five to eight on assigned tasks. A senior mill employee called the head “pusher” would receive calls for gang assistance, and he would decide which subgroup of the overall gang would get the task.

There was a definite set of social norms established within the paper mill bull gangs. It reflected the typical views and interests of young men from the surrounding area who had been working closely together and didn’t interact that directly with other mill employees. Like many other male groups or gangs, there was somewhat of a bravado and competitive spirit in bull gang interactions.

Senior gang members quickly communicated and enforced norms. Working too hard or quickly on tasks was as bad as working too easily or slowly. Nicknames were occasionally given to certain gang members. One guy in the gang got the label of “Gator,” because he was usually dragging the tail end of his group as they walked to and completed tasks.

Accidents and lost time were a major concern for plant managers, and employee rewards, like holiday turkeys, were given when records were set for extended periods with no major accidents. There were a few gang members, though, who were more risk oriented than others. I recall vividly one gang member who would brag and back up his claims in demonstrating how he could climb almost any obstacle no matter the height or difficulty in placing a chain hoist. He once exhibited his balancing skills to others in the gang by needlessly tight-rope walking a pipe running about 25 feet long and linking two buildings at a height of about 25 feet.

Several times bull gangers bit off more than they could chew. On one occasion, a senior member agreed to grapple out on a steel I-beam overhanging a very high ledge in the mill (perhaps 150-200 feet tall) to position a chain hoist that could raise items from the ground. Climbing atop this I-beam wasn’t difficult, but I doubt few in the gang would have volunteered to hug and inch out on that exposed beam while carrying at least a 15 lb. chain hoist. This time the volunteer froze and would not move himself farther out the beam to complete the task or move backward to safety. It took another person to go out after him on the beam, grab the initial volunteer by the back of his belt, and slowly inch him away from danger.

Bull gangers and maintenance workers were expected now and then to creep down into dark tanks through narrow openings to inspect and clear them. There were times though when individuals would have claustrophobic experiences, become paralyzed, and be unable initially to climb back out of these enclosures. After a while usually, the person would gain the confidence to complete the task or to simply get out of that confinement. If not, it took pleading or special measures (ropes, etc.) to get them extracted.

It took me a week or two both summers that I worked in the bull gang at the paper mill to overcome the stiffness and soreness that came from my work shifts. I thought that I was in good physical shape prior to joining the bull gang, but the subgroup pusher would expect us to do a little more than others to prove ourselves.

Two college students temporarily joining an established bull gang of mostly older guys should have expected some gang member resentment or pushback, but the first weeks were more of a test than anything negative. Could we fit in, communicate, and perform in ways that didn’t alienate the others? The other college student admitted his discomfort in this bull gang role but didn’t quit that summer. He found a different job the next summer though.

I probably learned as much in my summers in the paper mill bull gang as I have in any other job since then. I would have worked a third summer there, but Louisiana Power & Light in 1969 offered me summer work in microwave station maintenance that paid as much or more. I hope that some college students today have opportunities for valuable and different life learning experiences that I had prior to finishing college.

 PAPER MILL BULL GANGS 

Veteran newspaperman Tom Kelly founded this journal about 30 years ago with a unique vision. More than traditional industry publications, the Piney Woods Journal spoke directly to independent loggers, landowners of timber, and many other stakeholders impacted by the industry. Kelly chose a storytelling style that distinctly captured regional culture, history and reader interests. He and his early PWJ contributors often tapped into and preserved the memories of those involved with the timber boom period and the later times of significant industry transition.

Mid-century paper mills particularly transformed the economic landscape of the Gulf South. Unlike many early sawmills that "cut out and got out," pulp and paper operations required massive capital investment. Companies were often committed for decades, creating huge employee payrolls in towns like West Monroe, Bastrop, Springhill, Lufkin, Natchez, and Crossett.

For young men who grew up during the Depression, these mills offered something scarce and valuable: stable employment not that far away from places that they had called home. Many who had worked in CCC camps or struggled to find local work relocated to mill towns seeking more opportunities.

The entry point for this mill employment was often the "bull gang" or a crew handling the most physically demanding and occasionally dangerous mill work. Bull gangs unloaded chemical trucks, rigged hoists for moving heavy equipment, jack-hammered, and responded to mill emergencies. When pipes burst or conveyors failed, the gang responded and cleared debris to keep production running. During annual or periodic shutdowns, they were essential for overall system inspection and then restartlng.

The bull gang was for more than manual labor though. It was a proving ground. Young men who demonstrated ability and accumulated seniority could bid on apprenticeships in welding, pipefitting, electrical, or other trades as these positions opened. Some gang members waited many months, others for years, depending on their desired trade and its available slots at the mill.

My father worked in the West Monroe mill’s bull gang before he served for over four years in World War II as an aircraft mechanic and Army/Air Force sergeant in Puerto Rico. He returned to the mill afterward and eventually became a senior electrician specializing in large engines and turbines. Thirty years later, as an engineering major at Louisiana Tech, I worked two summers in the West Monroe mill bull gang.

Olinkraft, the renamed West Monroe mill for the earlier Brown Paper Company, then offered an appealing employee benefit: summer jobs for sons of established employees. I applied, along with others from the area, for one of these summer jobs in 1967. I remember completing interviews and taking a battery of tests, including one difficult test on mechanical comprehension. Selected as one of two area college students for the mill bull gang that summer, I also worked in the gang the next summer of 1968. Several other sons of employees also got summer jobs at that mill then, but in lower-paying, clean-up crews.

As a college kid and newcomer, the gang members tested us initially by piling on extra work and giving us a lot of ribbing to see how we'd respond. We had to prove ourselves and adapt to the gang's work culture.

When I graduated from Tech in the summer of 1970, a recession had dried up many of the entry-level engineering positions that had been advertised nationally the previous years. The mill generously offered me a temporary role as an apprentice mill engineer, even knowing that I would be seeking permanent work elsewhere. Six months later, I secured a planning engineer position at Western Electric in North Carolina.

Bull gang and paper mill experiences shaped many lives in our country. The mills helped create a large and specialized labor pool across the Gulf South. These welders, pipefitters, and other tradesmen who were trained in the 1950s and 60s later staffed the expanding petrochemical industry along the Gulf Coast and the offshore oil boom of the 1970s.

Yet such opportunities were largely closed to Black workers. In my father's generation and into my own, mill employment for Black workers—when possible—meant lower-paying, largely dead-end positions due to company and union policies.

Changes occurred following the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lawsuits like Moody v. Albemarle Paper Co. challenged these discriminatory structures as violations of federal law. Paper mills slowly began to include Black employees in promotion and seniority systems. These developments often were met with levels of resistance from some coworkers and managers.

The work cultures of mid-20th century pulp and paper mill workers, like the work lives of foresters, loggers, timber haulers/truckers, and lumber yard employees then, will be increasingly lost to personal memory or recall. What is eventually left of these cultures and lives will largely be mere descriptions found in some history books, special museums, and publications like PWJ. Next month I’ll delve deeper into the unique culture of bull gangs in regional pulp and paper mills decades ago. 

 CAREER PATH CHALLENGES

Today's young adults face a very different economic landscape than their grandparents or parents did. Many older Americans, going back at least as far as the G.I. Bill after World War II, had definite incentives for higher education, technical and trade school training, and other forms of career preparation. They benefited from affordable education and accessible housing alternatives. Rising personal debt levels, increasing housing costs, and uncertain job markets recently are creating tougher challenges for life and career planning.

The contrasts can seem stark. Decades ago, summer employment might have covered a year's college expenses. It did for me at Louisiana Tech as an engineering major. Entry-level job income savings and graduate assistantships also provided me and others with most of the funds for graduate education. Nice apartments and starting homes then remained within reach of many younger, middle-income families. Pathways now toward personal and family financial stability are more difficult to pursue.  

As a former strategic management teacher, I occasionally had senior undergraduate students ask me for advice concerning job or career decisions. I’d usually mention that choosing potential jobs that appear more likely to provide moderate to high salary potential, given projections of future labor markets, was worth some consideration. Given the enormous impact of one’s job or career choice on a person’s life, I was sometimes surprised to find that even senior college students had done very little personal research concerning career options.

I certainly couldn’t offer students much guidance without raising questions about their individual personalities, values, perceived abilities, and interests. What kind of work-related activities truly engaged them? Where did their abilities seem to give them a comparative edge over others in potential job markets? The answers to such questions aren’t easy ones given the often unsettled and changing nature of a young person’s self-identity. These questions can demand deep personal exploration – for some individuals well beyond their twenties, thirties, or beyond.

Outside assistance or career guidance can occasionally be useful. Yet some young people don’t take much advantage of counselors and/or lack mentors who might help them. They poorly understand or haven’t really explored their own work-related preferences and abilities, so career decision making can become mere guesswork and result in time-consuming trials and errors.  

Perhaps the most significant barrier for young people is the escalating cost of education. While some students secure scholarships or have full or partial family support, many will need personal or student loans. These loans can lead many to financial stress for decades.

The allure of a "dream school” – whether driven by family legacy, fame of athletic programs, or peer influence—can lead some to crushing debt loads without corresponding career advantages. A practical alternative that I occasionally suggested was completing about two years of general education requirements at a community college before transferring to a dream institution. This approach can save tens of thousands of dollars while easing the sometimes-challenging transition to university cultures. It's important though to ensure that credits transfer properly to intended majors and universities by verifying this in advance with both schools' admissions offices.

The career advice summarized above seems less adequate and helpful in 2026 than it was when I was a university professor over a decade ago. AI and technology development are changing much now. Many AI experts are predicting dramatic shifts ahead, such as shortened work weeks and transformation or elimination of many current job categories. If these predictions materialize fully or partially, personal adaptability and lifelong learning will be even more essential.

The critical question today becomes less "what career should I pursue?" and more "how do I build a life in a society where the relationship between work, income, and identity continue to shift?” Of great concern is that technological capability has been advancing more rapidly that social institutions, political systems, and individuals can adapt. This gap is where both huge crises threaten and where opportunities will lie for the better prepared.

As a society, we must grapple with questions of how we will value and compensate human work and social contribution beyond existing models. More individuals will be confronted with issues of self-worth and purpose as they see their identity being based less on their job or profession.    

My updated advice for young adults today might include the following:

1. More carefully analyze debt-financed educational options since some recently desirable career paths might no longer exist.
2. Expect pursuing deep expertise in narrow work fields to become riskier and less important than adaptation to technological change, general problem-solving skills, and ability to learn rapidly.
3. Develop uniquely human capabilities such as emotional intelligence, creativity, and community networking – things that AI can't easily replicate.
4. Try to understand emerging ownership and equity options (or ways to own and dispose of productive assets) that can suddenly become attractive.
5. Prepare for the need of social/political engagement as some potential work options will likely need negotiation beyond established job descriptions.
6. Build personal resilience since work-related identity will become less stable and relationships, community, and service to others more essential for psychological survival.

I can guarantee one thing. Being too fearful or overly pessimistic for the future will be an obstacle for successful career planning.  

 THE TREND TOWARD FASTING 

Part of the aging process seems to have conversations often with friends that are dominated by comments about illnesses and infirmities. I certainly want to be courteous and sympathetic toward others, but I’m probably less inclined than most people to spend much time on these topics. I’d rather talk about ways that we might reduce the odds of future maladies.    

There appear to be more recent online news items than ever before concerning how to increase human “health span” and longevity. One of the more interesting topics to me has been growing advocacy for intermittent fasting.    

I don’t recall any real coverage of the issue of fasting in my public schooling days, but it was a topic that was raised occasionally in church and Sunday school classes. From the Christian Bible, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, commonly involves forms of fasting or restrictions from eating certain food items. Different Christian denominations often have contrasting notions about fasting. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions also have fasting traditions. Early Egyptians, Babylonians, and indigenous cultures worldwide developed various fasting activities tied to seasonal cycles, coming-of-age ceremonies, or communication with the divine.

My first experience with fasting started in college when I experienced the Freshman 15. Being high strung and involved in many sports activities earlier, I hunkered down in my early engineering school studies and was less physically active. Like many others, I added over 15 pounds of excess weight. It took a year or so afterwards and periodic resort to fasting then to maintain close to what I considered about the right weight for me. Over my college years and for about ten years after, I would occasionally avoid all solid substances for about three to five days when I felt my weight was creeping up. Fasting didn’t seem that difficult for me then and it seemed to work for weight control. I didn’t consider it as having any health benefits though.  

The practice of intermittent fasting (IF) has become more popular in recent decades. Health research has identified some potential health benefits, but the quality of evidence varies, and results don’t appear to be universal for all individuals. Trying to make personal sense of the different types of intermittent fasting and their health implications, I turned first to my current favorite AI chatbot – Claude 4 Sonnet.   

More popular IF methods reported by Claude are the 16/8 method (fasting for 16 hours and eating within an 8-hour window each day), the 5:2 method (eating normally for five days and restricting calories to 500-600 on two non-consecutive days, and alternate-day fasting (fasting for 24 hours every other day). Other IF approaches are the one meal-a-day approach (fasting for 23 hours and eating one large meal within one hour), the eat-stop-eat method (24-hour fasts once or twice per week), and the warrior diet (fasting for 20 hours each day and eating only within a four-hour window). I had read before about the 16/8 method, but knew little about these other IF approaches.

Claude told me that IF had well-supported research results for moderate weight loss, improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control, reduced inflammation, favorable changes in cholesterol levels, and blood pressure improvements. Promising, but less certain, benefits of IF coming from animal studies and limited human research suggest it might also have positive cellular and molecular effects, aid in the cellular cleanup process (autophagy), cognitive function, and longevity.

Human responses to IF can apparently vary considerably. Some people experience significant benefits while others see minimal effects.          or have negative consequences like fatigue and irritability, difficulty concentrating, increased hunger and urges for binge eating, and sleep disturbances. For most healthy adults, IF may offer an alternative to traditional dieting approaches and have noticeable health benefits. Those considering IF, especially those with serious or moderate health concerns, should obviously consult healthcare providers first.

As for me, I decided about two months ago to try the 16/8 alternative – and not for weight control. I was interested, instead, in trying IF for other reasons, particularly improving my digestion and gut health. As a younger adult, I could eat almost anything with few or no digestive side effects. I wanted to reduce the poorer digestion and bloating that I occasionally felt over the last decade or two. Giving the stomach more time for rest and recovery seemed to make some sense to me.

My challenge with the 16/8 approach was the urge to snack at night and other times, especially after exercise or completing a work project. Snacking had long been a type of reward and a relaxing experience for me.

I set 12 noon to 8pm as my personal window for eating and swore off food consumption at other times of the day. Giving up late-night and morning snacks turned out to be easier than I expected once I made a commitment for change. So far, I have seen a modest improvement in my digestion, and I think that I can stick with the 16/8 alternative for the foreseeable future. I imagine that there will be an occasional day when circumstances or family/peer influences will make it difficult to do a faithful 16/8, but even a 90-95% success rate over a year at maintaining scheduled eight-hour eating periods seems a worthwhile health goal for me.

Good luck with your own health goals and commitments.

 DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES  

My Depression-era father instilled a lot of frugality and skepticism in my siblings and me. Skepticism is a healthy process of critical thinking that involves questioning and seeking evidence before accepting something as true.

Although I certainly look for bargains on shopping and convenience goods, I’m skeptical of most “great deals” that are being promoted. If I can be faulted for numerous deficiencies, being proven gullible for deceptive marketing practices has very seldom been the case.

Perhaps like me, though, you’re finding it more difficult to evaluate many claims about consumer products and services. Part of my difficulties here might be aging and less familiarity than younger folks with certain recent media twists and turns. We all know that children and senior citizens have long been special targets for marketing shysters and frauds. Many seniors, though, are not easy victims. Some have the need and more available time than other consumers to do careful shopping and purchasing.

Still, I find that my wife and I are spending an increasing amount of time and hassles trying to resolve what seem to be less than honest consumer marketing practices and unfair financial charges to our credit cards. It can be more than frustrating to spend hours trying to resolve apparent billing mistakes or to have to cancel and reorder credit cards because a business continues to charge us each month. I’ll admit that my wife handles most of these problems, largely because she tends to be more responsive, diplomatic, and patient over the phone.

One role of government is trying to protect consumers from deceptive and fraudulent business practices. The key federal agency for this is the Federal Trade Commission. Established in 1914, the FTC is an independent federal agency that has the authority to investigate and prosecute unfair methods of business competition. Initially, the FTC focused primarily on antitrust issues, but it gradually expanded its attention to deceptive marketing and advertising practices. The commission's authority was strengthened by the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938, which explicitly gave the FTC power to prosecute unfair or deceptive practices harming customers, even when they didn't necessarily harm business competition.

Some questionable business practices have been around for ages, like simple “bait-and-switch” marketing activities. A new FTC rule this year, though, targets hidden and deceptive fees, particularly in the live-event ticketing and short-term lodging industries. This rule requires businesses to disclose the true and total price, including all mandatory fees, upfront.

As AI has become more integral for business operations, the FTC is scrutinizing claims about AI capabilities and effectiveness.  “AI washing” is a deceptive trade practice in which businesses overstate or misrepresent their usage of artificial intelligence to look more sophisticated or capable.

In August 2025, the FTC sued Air AI Technologies for allegedly making deceptive claims. The company was accused of falsely promising consumers that they could achieve significant benefit using its proprietary, AI-powered system for online sales. Also in August, the FTC issued a final order against Workado, LLC. The company was prohibited from making unsubstantiated claims about the accuracy of its AI content-detection product. 

Another recent concern has been AI-generated online reviews or testimonials. An FTC rule against this occurred in 2024 and was to become fully enforceable this year. With the trend toward more people establishing themselves as “social influencers,” there have also been several influencer class-action lawsuits filed this year. These lawsuits claim influencers failed to make proper disclosures and that consumers made purchases or overpaid due to this.

Stephen C. Piepgrass, Daniel Waltz, and Nick Gouverneur on the Regulatory Oversight website describe another emerging deceptive business practice known as “software tethering.” This occurs when “manufacturers use software to control and limit how a device functions after a consumer has purchased it.” Attractive features associated with a online subscription are locked and rendered nonfunctional by software sometime after the purchase of a device. Increasingly, consumers are complaining that their connected products are losing software support or advertised features that may have prompted their original purchase.

The priorities of the FTC under the second Trump administration seem to be varying somewhat from those of the prior administration. Its role related to core consumer protection issues remains largely the same, but it has focused more on identifying and reducing competitive barriers. The size of its workforce has declined slightly, but less so yet than reductions in many government agencies. FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson issued a statement proclaiming July 2025 as "Made in the USA" Month, and false claims related to USA origin of products are being more actively pursued.  

Concerns have been raised by administration critics concerning the independent status of federal agencies such as the FTC. The Supreme Court in 1935 established strong legal protections for the FTC's independence and has had 90 years of legal precedent behind that ruling. Legal challenges to that independence this year have had conflicting rulings. The Supreme Court overruled the verdict of the illegality of early Trump Administration’s FTC firings by a lower court in July 2025, and it cleared the way for these personnel removals in September. Regardless of the degree of FTC independence, the public will continue to suffer from old and new deceptive business practices and will expect the government to respond and protect consumers.