• Billionaire Mark Cuban, who has been an active Bluesky user and supporter for several months now, said this week he thinks the social media platform has gotten “ruder and more hateful.” Its liberal-heavy user base makes it challenging to raise questions or have debates with other users, even if their political ideologies align, he said.

After Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X) in late 2022, the vibes on the platform started changing, and many accounts that were verified lost their status. But the mass exodus from X came in late 2024 following the U.S. presidential election and Musk throwing his support—and millions—behind Donald Trump. 

By December 2024, the platform had lost about 2.7 million active Apple and Android users in just two months, with competitor Bluesky absorbing nearly all of those users. Colloquially, it became somewhat of a safe haven for liberal users who wanted to drown out the noise of President Trump’s reelection. 

“It’s people wanting to just try something new. It’s people finding their community here,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told Vox Media’s Peter Kafta in a June 4 podcast. “I think in general it’s both people looking for something and people looking to get away from something.”

Between November 2024 and this May, Bluesky grew from about 10 million users to 30 million, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Many news influencers—people who regularly post about current events on the platform—lean left politically, according to the analysis. 

One such figure was billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential run in 2024, although he didn’t give her a penny for her campaign, he said. Cuban became a regular Bluesky user, having posted nearly 2,000 times since November 2024. When he first joined the platform, he famously posted: “Hello Less Hateful World.”

But Cuban has changed his tune. In a series of posts this week, Cuban argued Bluesky has become too much of an echo chamber, and is sending more users back to X. 

“Engagement went from great convos on many topics, to agree with me or you are a nazi fascist,” Cuban wrote. “We are forcing posts to X.”

The former Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner also said he thinks Bluesky users have “grown ruder and more hateful.” 

“Even if you agree with 95% of what a person is saying on a topic, if there is one point that you might call out as being more of a grey area, they will call you a fascist etc.,” said Cuban, whose current net worth is about $8.33 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Bluesky did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment. 

Cuban also reposted a Washington Post opinion article published Sunday titled “The Bluesky bubble hurts liberals and their causes.” Author Megan McArdle argued Bluesky’s left-leaning user base segregates it into a political silo. Cuban agreed. 

“The lack of diversity of thought here is really hurting usage,” Cuban wrote in a separate Bluesky update including the Washington Post article. “The moderation and block tools on here are so advanced, if you see someone you don’t want to see on here, just block them.  Don’t attack them.” 

“There used to be great give and take discussions on politics and news. Not so much any more,” Cuban added. “Doesn’t have to be this way.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Gen Zers are having a difficult time buying a house because of the increasing costs of homeownership—and because many are drowning in debt related to student loans, credit cards, and buy-now, pay-later payments. Just 3% of homeowners in the U.S. are Gen Z, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Buying a house has long been the American dream. It’s a sign of financial stability and is often considered one of the ultimate investments one can make. 

But finding that white-picket fence is out of reach for most Gen Zers, who are now saddled with paying off personal debt—and it’s making that generation fall behind in homeownership, according to Realtor.com.

Young people just want to pay off their debt, according to a report by payments-data provider PYMNTS Intelligence. On average, Gen Zers carry more than $94,000 in personal debt, a Newsweek poll shows, which far surpasses millennials with almost $60,000 in debt and Gen X with about $53,000 in debt. Part of the struggle comes in with how much Gen Zers are paying for rent each month, leaving little to save for a down payment. 

About one-third of Gen Zers say they’re financially underwater due to inflation, high interest rates, and stagnant wages, Natalia Brown, chief compliance and consumer affairs officer with National Debt Relief, told Fortune. 

“Many [Gen Zers] are entering adulthood with a heavy financial burden—student loans, credit card debt, and rising costs of living,” Brown said. “Their debt feels heavier because it hits earlier—right as they’re launching their careers.”

“Add in credit cards, medical bills, and buy-now-pay-later services, and the result is a dangerous snowball effect,” she added. 

The real cost of homeownership

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Gen Zers make up just 3% of all homebuyers. That may not be that surprising considering mortgage rates continue to be comparatively high, nearing 7%. 

Meanwhile, U.S. home prices have far outpaced wages, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The current median home price in the U.S. is more than $403,000, NAR data shows, while the Social Security Administration reports the national average wage index is about $66,600. 

Assuming today’s mortgage rate, a 20% down payment, and the national average salary, it would be essentially impossible to purchase a median-priced home without spending more than one-third of your monthly income on housing. 

Nikki Beauchamp, an associate broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in New York City, said high interest rates are a major preventative factor for Gen Zers being able to buy real estate. 

“The cost of homes is substantially higher than it was for previous generations, and you may not see as many starter homes being built or becoming available,” Beauchamp told Fortune. “Add to that the student loan debt, and in general, it has been my observation that as a result they have much higher debt than my generation [Gen X] did at that age.”

Advice for Gen Zers who want to own a home

While mounting debt can feel overwhelming and homeownership out of reach, there are ways to organize how you’re paying off your debt. 

Financial advisors suggest paying off high-interest debt like credit cards first, since many of them carry a rate above 25%, which can make it feel nearly impossible to pay off. It can be easier to budget around other debt like student loans and car payments, Elizabeth Schleifer, a financial advisor with Armstrong, Fleming & Moore, told Fortune, adding a good rule of thumb is that total monthly debt payments should be less than 36% of gross monthly income.

“Look at your existing debt and determine how much room, if any, there is for a mortgage payment,” Schleifer said. “If your debt levels are already too high, your only focus should be paying these down.”

Advisors also recommended that Gen Z avoid buy-now, pay-later services as much as possible because it can lead to a “trap of small, repeated purchases that add up,” Brown said. 

Beauchamp also reminds Gen Zers there are several other ways to break into the housing market aside from traditional ownership. 

“Real estate has many different permutations, including co-ownership, fractional ownership that might be intriguing for those looking to start to get on the ladder of property ownership,” she said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who turns 53 today, recently celebrated two decades with the tech giant. Reflecting on his career, he offered advice to younger workers who want to become leaders someday. He encouraged them to work with others who outshine them.

Today—Tuesday, June 10—one of the world’s most significant leaders in tech turns 53. During Sundar Pichai’s two-decade career with Google, he’s worked on many of the company’s major products including Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, and Chromebook. In 2019, he became CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google. His current net worth is estimated at about $1.1 billion.

As one of the most powerful leaders in tech, Pichai recently reflected on how he got to where he is in his career. On a recent podcast by Podium VC, he said it took “a lot of luck along the way,” but added “it’s important to listen to your heart and see whether you actually enjoy doing it.”

While Pichai sits at the helm of one of the largest tech companies in the world, his path to the top wasn’t a completely smooth ride. His advice to young people who aspire to be in leadership positions like him someday is to surround themselves with people who outshine them.

“At various points in my life, I worked with people who I felt were better than me,” Pichai said. “Get yourself in a position where you’re working with people who you feel are stretching your abilities. [It’s] what helps you grow. [Put] yourself in uncomfortable situations. I think often you’ll surprise yourself.”

How Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google 

Pichai was born and raised in Chennai, India, to a father who was an electrical engineer and a mother who worked as a stenographer. They were considered to be a middle-class family; Pichai told Yahoo Finance he was fortunate to have grown up in a household where education was valued. 

He said he had minimal access to computers growing up—and even recalled being on a waitlist for five years to get a rotary phone. He said experiencing technology for the first time changed his life. 

“It was a vivid moment for me as to how access to technology can make a difference,” Pichai told Yahoo Finance, adding that his limited exposure to computers during childhood is something he’s carried with him throughout his career, serving as inspiration for the rollout of Chromebooks to students in the U.S.

Pichai moved to the U.S. in 1993 to earn his master’s degree in materials science from Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley. He briefly worked for a semiconductor materials company after graduating, but then went back to school to earn his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Pichai had a brief stint at McKinsey & Co. after earning his MBA and landing at Google in 2004. 

“I think it’s tough to find things you love doing, but I think listening to your heart a bit more than your mind [helps] in terms of figuring out what you want to do,” Pichai said during the podcast. 

Reflecting on 20 years at Google in April 2024, Pichai said a lot had changed about the company since he first joined, like the technology, the number of people who use Google products, and his hair. 

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“What hasn’t changed—the thrill I get from working at this amazing company,” Pichai wrote in an Instagram post. “20 years in, I’m still feeling lucky.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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