Tag: social media

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Leaders Push “Kids Online Safety Act”; Critics Fear Censorship

Credit: Thomas Park from Unsplash

Tennessee leaders continue to push legislation they say would protect kids online, but civil rights groups say promotes censorship. 

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a group of 31 attorneys general from red and blue states earlier this week urging Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). The bill is sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee). 

The law would require some mandatory safety protections for minors on social media sites such as TikTok and Facebook. These would be the  strongest settings available up front, said Skrmetti, “rather than burying these features behind opt-in screens.”

The KOSA would also take away what Blackburn called “manipulative design features and algorithmic recommendations that keep children endlessly scrolling.” It would also give parents new tools “to identify harmful behaviors and improved capabilities to report dangerous content,” Blackburn said in a statement. 

In the letter to Congress this week, Skrmetti was joined by AGs from conservative states such as Alabama and Mississippi but also such progressive states as New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

“As the chief legal officers of our states, we’ve seen firsthand how social media companies prioritize profits over our kids’ safety,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “KOSA provides additional tools to protect children’s mental health from the harmful effects of social media.”

Despite bipartisan support, KOSA has drawn criticism from civil rights groups such as the ACLU, which argues the bill could infringe on First Amendment rights. Critics contend that provisions requiring platforms to prevent harm could lead to censorship of legitimate and educational content, particularly around sensitive topics such as sexual health and mental wellness. The group heavily criticized the bill when the Senate passed it in July. 

“KOSA compounds nationwide attacks on young peoples’ right to learn and access information,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “As state legislatures and school boards across the country impose book bans and classroom censorship laws, the last thing students and parents need is another act of government censorship deciding which educational resources are appropriate for their families.”

The ACLU said that the list of design features outlined in the bill are defined so broadly that platforms would likely have to censor any content that was found objectionable by the government. That content could include anything from sexual health resources to information about gender identity, or how to get help for an eating disorder. 

Anjali Verma, a 17-year-old student, also voiced concerns about the legislation’s potential to harm rather than protect youth. “It’s called the Kids Online Safety Act, but they have to consider kids’ voices, and some of us don’t think it will make us safer,” Verma said in a statement. “We live on the internet, and we are afraid that important information we’ve accessed all our lives will no longer be available. We need lawmakers to listen to young people when making decisions that affect us.”

The AGs’ letter says social media platforms target minors, know their products are addictive, but only care about the bottom line. “Many social media platforms target minors, resulting in a national youth mental health catastrophe,” reads the letter. “These platforms make their products addictive to minor users, and then profit from selling minor user data to advertisers. 

“These platforms fail to disclose the addicting nature of their products, nor the harms associated with increased social media use. Instead, minor users receive endless tailored and toxic content. Further, increasing evidence suggests these platforms are aware of the negative mental health effects social media burdens its underage users with, but choose to continue these practices.”

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Both Gray and Bright

The view from my window (Photo: Shara Clark)

I’m writing this on election day. A steady, light rain is trickling down outside my window, the pitter-pattering a calming sound. The sun shines beyond the clouds, but the blue sky is obscured. It’s both gray and bright, with a smattering of yellow and orange leaves in the foreground, ready to shed for the season. 

This morning, many of my Facebook friends are sharing in jest what side dishes they’ll bring to the Civil War. Some are posting the reasons they’re steadfast in their choice of voting for Kamala. On the other side, I’ve seen, “If you were looking for a reason to delete me: TRUMP 2024.” While I have my own thoughts and moral standings regarding this presidential election and its candidates, I won’t shout those out here. Each of us is entitled to an opinion, and there’s not much I can do to shift yours. Between endless news coverage and social media, we’ve already been inundated with political ads and info meant to sway us in one direction or another — or more so, to deepen the divide between this country’s citizens. 

I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, and much of my family still resides there. Many of them are Trump supporters, or at least staunch Republicans. (And I’m the relative that works for “that liberal paper.”) I know this has to do with generational beliefs passed on through the years and from a perspective that may not be the most informed; perhaps just differently informed. Some people aren’t as open to new ideas as others. Some blindly follow. Some believe what they believe and that’s that. And while we may not agree on many things, and the complicated “why” behind their reasoning for backing certain stances may not make sense to me, I will not be “deleting” them. Should I confess this in the Flyer, a progressive publication? Perhaps not. But I hope you all will try to understand my “why.” 

Throughout the past few months, as campaigning reached its peak, I’ve seen more hate spewed — from both sides — than usual. Social media especially can already be a dark and winding environment for those with passionate convictions or high anxiety. It’s easy to get angry, scared, or sad, scrolling through all the muck and misinformation. It’s even easier to argue with those who disagree with your views, to put them down for not sharing your beliefs. It’s often an irrational and brash place. 

I’ve seen this hate coming from people who I know are not hateful at their core — good people who give to charity and volunteer, who rescue animals and deeply care for others, even outside of their families. From empathetic people who push for acceptance and inclusion, for human rights and democracy, but viciously bash those who don’t see things their way. Is hate the appropriate response? Is banishment? I may stand slack-jawed at some of what I’m seeing shared on my social feeds from family, friends, and acquaintances, but my reaction is more one of confusion and compassion. (I’ll admit, though, I’ve made use of Facebook’s “snooze” feature during election season to quiet some of the chaos.) 

We’re all flesh and bone. We all share the ability to feel emotions. And we each have ideals, aspirations, and experiences unique to us. I assume, too, we’ll all be waiting with bated breath as election results slowly roll in.

Whatever news we go to bed to tonight, or wake up to tomorrow, I expect the outcome to be both gray and bright — as life often is. We don’t yet know what the future holds — we never do. Whatever the result, though, we can always ensure we’re doing all we can to keep shining light in the dark and through the clouds, to advocate and educate, to further freedom — to bring together, not divide.

I’ll leave you with this line from poet Mary Oliver, a mantra we all can call to when things feel overwhelming or grim: “It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.” 

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News News Blog News Feature

TN AG Supports Warning Labels on Social Media, But Do Labels Work?

Photo by Josh Withers on Unsplash

The Tennessee Attorney General has joined a bipartisan group last week to urge the U.S. Surgeon General to slap a warning label on social media platforms to protect young people’s mental health. 

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy called for such labels in June with an op-ed piece in The New York Times. In it, Murthy said, ”the mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” Risks of depression and anxiety are nearly doubled for adolescents who spend more than three hours per week on social media, Murthy said. 

Murthy rang the alarm bell on social media use last year in a detailed advisory on youth and social media. Parts of it went broad, what you’d expect in a scientific paper from the government. For example, it reads “scientific evidence suggests that harmful content exposure as well as excessive and problematic social media use are primary areas for concern.” But the report also gets into the nitty-gritty of real harms.   

”Despite social media providing a sense of community for some, a systematic review of more than two dozen studies found that some social media platforms show live depictions of self-harm acts like partial asphyxiation, leading to seizures, and cutting, leading to significant bleeding,” reads the advisory. “Further, these studies found that discussing or showing this content can normalize such behaviors, including through the formation of suicide pacts and posting of self-harm models for others to follow.”

Twenty other studies reviewed by the Surgeon General found social media could “perpetuate body dissatisfaction, disordered eating behaviors, social comparison, and low self-esteem, especially among adolescent girls.” 

Last week, Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti added his voice to this effort. He joined a letter with some unlikely allies — liberal havens like California, Massachusetts, and more. It also had red-state support from typical allies like Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and others.

“Algorithmic social media platforms have had a devastating effect on kids’ mental health,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “The evidence of the damage done by these platforms continues to mount. My office is in litigation against several social media corporations and remains committed to ensuring that this entire industry does right by our kids.”

But do government warning labels work? That is, if these platforms come with a new box on the screen telling kids they are harmful, will they change their behaviors? A couple of historical examples say no, or not really, or it’s hard to say.  

The most-famous warning labels came after a similar Surgeon General’s advisory on cigarettes in 1964. By 1965 cigarette packs carried those warnings that say “smoking may be hazardous to your health.” 

Do they work? One recent study says no. 

“Placing graphic warning labels on U.S. cigarette packs did not have an effect on smoking behavior; however, these findings suggest that they may enhance other tobacco control strategies to reduce cigarette smoking,” reads the summary of a 2021 report in the journal Substance Abuse and Addiction. 

For the study, 357 smokers were given different packs — some with the warning label, the others were blank. After three months, there was no difference in smoking behaviors.  

Another famous government warning label may have induced children to consume even more of the product that label deemed harmful. Any 90s kid is familiar with the black-and-white label on some CDs that read “Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics.” 

The idea for those stickers came not from a doctor nor a child behavioral professional but from a group of four women married to lawmakers. The “Washington Wives” famously included Tipper Gore, married to Al Gore from Tennessee. Together, they convinced Congress the stickers would shield kids from the sexually explicit lines in Prince’s “Darling Nikki” or AC/DC’s “Let me Put My Love Into You.”

Did those stickers work? Hard to say. Just as there was little data to prove the music was actually harmful, little data seems to exist of the sticker’s effect on protecting children. Frank Zappa told a congressional panel that the legislation for the stickers was “an ill-conceived piece of nonsense that fails to deliver any real benefits to children…” 

As for any word from any government agency, a curious (and probably old) memo from the Washington State Attorney General says ”most experts and critics alike, feel the label is too vague and that it doesn’t offer any information at all.” 

”Critics also say that ratings can cause a ’boomerang’ or ’forbidden-fruit effect’ and may actually attract children,” reads the memo.  

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News News Blog News Feature

Memphis at Your Fingertips

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

Thanks to apps such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, the city of Memphis is at our fingertips.

While travel guides have existed prior to the phenomena of social media, things such as reels, carousel posts, and three-minute videos have changed the way that we experience Bluff City. 

Long gone are the days where tourists, and even Memphis natives, would rely on Google searches and Yelp! reviews in hopes of receiving recommendations and honest thoughts on the places that they hoped to try. Instead, a nightly scroll on your “For You Page” can lead you to a brutally honest review of the restaurant behind an aesthetically pleasing (and usually strategically placed) influencer post. Or it can lead you to the perfect hidden gem, making your feed the envy of all your closest friends and followers.

Jazmine Thomas (@keepingupwithjazzz) is a food and review influencer on TikTok. Thomas’ profile is composed of Memphis hidden gems and restaurant reviews. While content like this isn’t anything new on the platform, it can be argued that Thomas’ locally curated content – mixed with a charisma only found in Memphis creators – keeps Memphians and her 20,000 followers coming back for more.

One of Thomas’ viral videos is a review of The Liquor Store, (which Thomas distinguishes as “not your hood liquor store”), located on 2655 Broad Ave. The video has over 292,000 likes, and in 10 seconds, Thomas shares her and her friend Rachel’s experience at the local diner.

“We eating, we getting drunk, getting drunk, getting drunk, getting drunker,” said Thomas. “So I was like, ‘I’m finna do this voiceover and I’m finna just scream throughout this whole thing.’ So we are in the car driving, and I’m just screaming. I didn’t think that post was going to just go crazy, but that’s what happened.”

The comments section of Thomas’ videos are filled with users saying that her fun and authentic reviews have prompted them to try restaurants such as Moondance Grill and Gracie’s Kitchen, and products such as Chef Flavas’ “stuffed shrimp egg rolls.”

While Thomas said that her mini vlogs and reviews fit her personality the best, this content gave her the opportunity to not only earn income, but to shed some positive light on the city.

“Most people think that Memphis is all about crime and there’s nothing to do. It’s always something to do in Memphis, you just have to find and look out,” said Thomas. “It’s certain people you can follow on Instagram or TikTok to find something to do. Memphis is not always negative. Memphis has good-ass food.”

Thomas’ page is not the only social media account that mixes the rawness and authenticity of a Memphis creator, with the intention of exposing people to the many things that Memphis has to offer.

Unapologetically Memphis’ (@unapologeticallymemphis) social media handle speaks for itself. With content ranging from local news, restaurant reviews, events, and viral videos, it seems inevitable that 81.4K followers use this as the premier source for all things Memphis.

Marques Cook initially started the page in 2019 in hopes of shedding a more positive light on the city. He also sought to educate users on Memphis history and things that they may not know about different neighborhoods.

“That’s when it really took off, it kind of went crazy,” Cook said. “I did a couple of news posts, and people would comment on it. Like if you look in the comment section it’s kind of like people get a chance to voice their opinion on what’s going on in the city. Everybody looks for the comment section now.”

With such a large following though, it can be a lot to carry on a content creator’s shoulder to stay true to the brand, even when headlines give reasons not to love Memphis. 

In the aftermath of the Ezekiel Kelly shooting spree, Cook said that he received a message from a user asking if he was still “unapologetically Memphis.”

“It doesn’t make a difference what happens, I’m still going to love Memphis the same,” replied Cook.

Cook is quick to explain that the goal of his page isn’t to show an idealistic view of Memphis, as he shows both good and bad news on his page. However he hopes that Memphians will be prompted to showcase their pride for their city and the neighborhoods that they’re from.

“It ain’t all sweet,” Cook said. “But imma show you it’s a lot of positive things going on as well, to kind of balance the positive and negative.”

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At Large Opinion

My Perfect Night

Bruce Lee (Photo: Wikimedia)

“What have we come to as a society when these innocent kids and teachers are gunned down? These school shootings bring me to my knees. What do we do to stop this?”

It was a sad and sobering Facebook post from a longtime friend, one with whom I don’t have a lot in common politically, but whose intelligence I respect.

I responded: “Every country on the planet has mental health issues, video games, violent movies, etc. but only one country has mass shootings every week. The difference is clear. We’ve made it way too easy to obtain high-powered guns. Do we have the political will to do anything about it? I doubt it. The NRA owns Congress and the Senate and the state legislatures. Until that changes, nothing changes.”

And thus, the pot was stirred.

From somebody named Darlla*: “Well, here we go again, trying to make something political out of tragedy. Sorry, Bruce, gun laws won’t stop evil people. There’s a mental illness in our young people and they will manage to get a gun no matter the law. Those people who are calling for more gun control are the same ones who think abortion is okay. There is a disrespect for life, it’s not a gun problem.”

I responded: “Oh, I guess since laws don’t work you’ll want to stop trying to ban abortions, right? And if the problem is a ‘mental illness in our young people,’ then how do you explain all the non-teenagers who commit the same heinous acts with the same weapons?”

“Hmmm,” she responded. “Interesting questions. I’ll have to think on it.”

Then, Doug, a guy who went to my high school 40 years ago, chimed in: “You’re thinking is the problem, Bruce. More people are killed with knives and cars every year than guns. Why don’t you gripe about them?”

Sigh: “Yes, Doug, because there are so darn many mass knifings and indiscriminate car slaughters. Brilliant analogy. Look, moron, the number of people killed in car accidents and mass murders in elementary schools are not comparable problems. I can’t with your bullshit. Carry on. Also it’s ‘your.’”

“Oh,” he responded. “My bad, sorry. You make some good points. And I’ll be more careful with my grammar.”

A guy I didn’t know chimed in: “If someone is breaking into your home, Bruce, do you call the police with a gun or the fire department with a hose? THAT’S your real test.”

“What?” I said. “Why would I call the fire department, you idiot? If someone was breaking into my house, I’d pull out my Beretta semi-automatic .12 gauge and use it if I had to. And I’d also call the cops.”

“Wait,” he said. “Why would someone like you have a gun?”

“Because,” I said, “you are assuming that owning a gun means being in favor of allowing unrestricted purchases of assault weapons.”

“Oh,” he said. “I get it. Thanks for clearing that up.”

I was starting to feel like Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury, just whaling on these fools coming at me from all directions. Who else wants some of this?

Turns out, Chitty did. “Maybe we should have SUV control, after the Waukesha mow-down,” she said. “And If you are outraged because you think we need more gun laws, you should be just as outraged at the drugs coming across our open borders. There are more than seven times as many drug overdoses a year in the United States than homicides. Maybe we should ban drugs.”

“Um, Chitty,” I said. “Many drugs are banned, and you need a prescription for thousands of other pharmaceuticals. But no one’s attacking elementary school kids and drugging them to death. No one’s driving SUVs into schools, stores, and churches and killing a dozen people at a time every week. Guns are the problem, and how you can ignore that reality astounds me. They say America is the stupidest f**king country in the world. You, my friend, are Exhibit A.”

Chitty didn’t respond. I assume she slipped off into the internet somewhere and changed her identity. Damn, that felt good.

Then I felt a warm wet tongue on my face and smelled Olive’s doggy morning breath. I opened my eyes to see daylight flooding the room. And suddenly I was awake, still in America, still in the stupidest f**king country on the planet.

*Names have been changed to protect the ignorant. And my life.

Categories
At Large Opinion

SHARE

You cannot possibly go through a day on social media in 2022 without seeing posts that feature lines of five little squares stacked in (up to six) rows. Some of the boxes are black, some are yellow, and some are green. The bottom row is almost always filled with green boxes, indicating that the poster has solved the daily Wordle puzzle. If the bottom line is not all green, the poster will write something like, “Dammit! I am not amused!”

Wordle was invented by a software engineer named Josh Wardle as a birthday gift to his partner. It was released to the public in November and originally had around 90 users. But the game was free and weirdly addictive and, er, word soon spread about it. By January, when Wordle was purchased by The New York Times, millions of people were playing it daily. The Times, to its credit, has so far kept things just the way they were: No app, no ads, no payments of any kind. You just google “Wordle,” go to the website, and play. There’s a new word every day, and on most days you can finish the puzzle before your coffee is cold.

Maybe that’s part of Wordle’s charm. It’s not complicated. You have six tries to guess a five-letter word by a process of elimination. It helps to have a decent vocabulary, but you’ll be relatively competent after a few tries. Here’s the best part: There are no experts, no champions, no tournaments. You don’t “win” at Wordle. The object is to avoid losing. Someone who’s played Wordle for a week might solve tomorrow’s puzzle in fewer tries than Einstein, if Einstein wasn’t dead.

There’s a whole subculture built around “starter words,” i.e. which first-guess word will give you the best chance at solving the puzzle. Favorites include ARISE, SHARE, TASER, ADIEU, etc. You get the idea. Don’t pick EPOXY or FUZZY. But honestly, the game just isn’t that difficult. Sometimes, I start with a weird word just for fun. There are 30 possible letter guesses in six lines and only 26 letters in the alphabet, so why not live a little dangerously?

This is not to say Wordle can’t get frustrating. Let’s say on your third guess you’ve got the following four letters in the correct place: SHA_E. That means you’ve got three guesses left and (depending on which letters you may have already picked) up to seven possible options for that fourth letter. SHAME? SHAPE? SHAVE? SHALE? Good luck, Albert.

And, admit it or not, that’s what much of this game is: luck. Whether you get the answer in two (usually big-time luck, based on a good starter-word guess) or six always comes down to a certain element of chance.

Most people don’t lose at Wordle often, but getting the answer in two or three guesses makes you feel like a winner, at least for 24 hours. And that’s where the communal sharing on social media comes in, I suppose — to commiserate over bad days and celebrate the good ones.

To be honest, random Wordle posts used to make me kind of crazy. “Why would anyone think their Wordle score would be interesting to anyone else?” I groused. Then I got called out as a grinch so now I chill and just scroll past.

It helps that there are now Facebook sites where you can go to share your daily scores with other Wordle-Nerdles. In fact, one local site claims to be founded (cough, Kim Gullett) on the basis of my Wordle grumpiness about score-posting. I occasionally visit and know the ropes over there, so if you’re feeling a little nervous, here’s a handy guide to what to say when posting your score:

One guess: “WOW, I need to go play the lottery!!!”

Two guesses: “Got lucky with my starter word today!”

Three guesses: “Got it in three. Not bad!”

Four guesses: “Oh well, another boring four.”

Five guesses: “I was beginning to get nervous!”

Six guesses: “WHEW! So close!!”

If you didn’t get the answer, a good fallback is “Dammit! I am not amused!”

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Cyber Crime and Punishment

Photo: Sooniospro | Dreamstime.com

My Facebook account was hacked last week. Not in some high-stakes, sexy cyber-spy way, as seen in the 1992 film Sneakers. My screen didn’t freeze as green text cascaded down in a digital waterfall. My cursor didn’t suddenly move with a mind of its own.

No, everything went on more or less as normal, except “I” sent a message — “Look who died” — with a link to a nonexistent website out to all 1,389 of my contacts.

I was none the wiser until I started getting Facebook messages, texts, and Slack and Twitter DMs to the effect of “Hey, man, I think you’ve been hacked.”

The Commercial Appeal’s Micaela Watts took a screenshot and posted it on my wall with a cheery note: “You done been hacked.” Another friend messaged me to say that getting one’s account hacked is bound to happen these days, “Just like Omicron, I guess.” That’s bleak.

My dear friend Olivia got thrown in Facebook “jail” for a few days because her (perfectly inoffensive) comment didn’t meet with the site’s Community Standards. The people in charge of flagging these things are, I imagine, bored nearly to death, so I’m not sure they make for the most reliable safety net.

I spent the next half hour or so in a flurry of online activity. I posted about the hack, warning my contacts not to click the bogus link. I notified Facebook’s security and privacy team. I haven’t heard back from them yet. I changed my password to something complicated and hard to remember, and I turned on two-factor authentication, so I have to input a code texted to my phone if I log in from an unfamiliar device. I spent the next two days responding to messages about the fishy message “I” had sent out to people. It was embarrassing and time-consuming, and I don’t recommend it as a pastime.

Before long, I noticed that I was logged in on two devices — and that one of them seemed to have an IP address from somewhere in Kentucky. I kicked the device off (you can do that from the Security and Login page, for future reference) before I remembered that Facebook had asked me earlier that day if I had “liked” a photo from Michael Donahue. I don’t remember seeing anything about a Kentucky-based IP address in that message, and since I do “like” many of Donahue’s photos, I didn’t think much of it. Whoever hacked my account must have looked at my recent activity to make sure their first move was one that wouldn’t arouse my suspicions. What a clever cyber criminal!

After the initial alarm, I realized that the fishy message I’d broadcast to everyone I know online was eerily similar to a message I had received a few days ago.

That’s right. I blundered into this cyber scam. Like the best Greek tragedies, it was all down to my hubris. You see, while I prefer email for work communications, I get messages every way you can imagine — snail mail, Twitter, Facebook. So when I received a message from, well, someone rather older than I am, I assumed a local celebrity had died and someone was sending me a tip. Yes, the method of delivery was tactless, and the grammar wasn’t going to make anyone’s high school English teacher proud, but that’s on par with at least half of the messages I’m sent. Besides, I spent six years as a copy editor, which means that I’m primed to expect most people to write poorly. And as a Millennial, I expect anyone older than Gen X to have trouble with PDFs and digital etiquette, just as I expect anyone in Gen Z to be baffled when expected to use a phone to actually call someone.

You see? Hubris.

In all likelihood, the message was garbled because it was written by either a bot or someone in a troll farm in Russia or North Korea. I wonder if some up-and-coming hacker graduated from digital training wheels to more rewarding, high-stakes cyber crime after they successfully duped me.

So yes, this was my fault, but consider how easy it was for me to fall prey to this scam. All it takes is divided attention. We need to treat cyber malfeasance as a threat to national security. Yes, even on social media. Because, while the democratic premise that everyone is entitled to an opinion is a beautiful thing, it also presents an easy-to-hit target. Our ability to reach a consensus is our most fragile point, and I can’t help but feel that everything from vaccination efforts to political discourse would have been less fraught without the influence of social media. It’s here to stay, though, so we’d best get better about navigating it safely.

In the meantime, though, take it from me and don’t be too proud to ask, “Did someone actually die or is this a spam link?”

Categories
At Large Opinion

Mind Over Meta

Tatine hangs with Al Yankovic. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

Facebook is a daily presence in my life and has been since 2010 when I joined the social medium to post pictures of a trip my wife and I took to the Grammys in Los Angeles. I remember I created an “album” of photos, each carefully captioned: the beach at Malibu; the HOLLYWOOD sign; Tatine meeting Weird Al Yankovic. So exciting!

It was around this time, I suppose, that most of us basically stopped shooting pictures with a camera. You remember that tedious process: You’d take your film to Walgreens, then wait a few days to go pick up your developed pictures (along with the negatives, in case you wanted to go crazy and print another copy). Then you’d sit out in the parking lot, looking through your vacation shots or whatever. No filters, no enhancements. What Walgreens gave you is what you got. How crude.

Now, our phones take care of all of that. Instant sharing! Filters! Video! No more dusty sleeves of old photos stuck in drawers. And Facebook has all our shots organized by date and subject matter and helpfully suggests reposting them as “memories” for us, so we can amuse/bore our friends all over again.

Around the world, three billion people are using Facebook to advertise their lives, faces, interests, writing, families, gardens, pets, food, businesses, music, vacations, politics. And Facebook uses all that free information we provide to make mega-billions of dollars from companies that want to advertise to us. It is a marketing behemoth with algorithms so advanced, you’d swear they’re reading our thoughts. That’s because they are, literally — the ones we write down for them. We are Facebook’s product and they’re getting top dollar for us, but we don’t seem to much care. Check out my new shoes, y’all!

Facebook has made some huge blunders. When the company pushed for a “pivot” to video in 2015, thousands of journalists were laid off, replaced by video “content providers.” Three years later, Facebook had to tell advertisers (and newspapers and media organizations) that video was not working as they’d promised. People actually preferred reading to being spoon-fed videos. Oops, said Mr. Zuckerberg, give us some journalism again, please.

And the company seems a little touchy these days, given all the bad press it’s gotten regarding its failure to remove political disinformation and racist, white-supremacist content from its platform. I have a friend who was reprimanded by the Facebook popo last week for using the word “Chubby” in referencing the Sixties singer, Chubby Checker. Yes, it’s his name, but it breached some sort of algorithmic dog whistle. I’m guessing that typing “Porky Pig” would definitely get you 30 days in the hole.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the daily emails I get from Donald Trump. The Flyer art director illustrated the column with an image of a Trump fundraising ad that had been emailed to me. Normally, when I post my column on Facebook on Wednesday morning, I start getting comments, likes, etc., within minutes, mainly because I’m followed by a few hundred people, so it shows up in their news feed. That week, however, nothing. By mid-morning, I’d had two comments, maybe three or four likes. Facebook was obviously suppressing the distribution of the column.

When I figured it out and changed the art, things got back to normal quickly, but it gave me a real sense of how much Facebook can shape what all of us read in our news feeds — for good or evil.

Here’s hoping they’re as vigilant at stopping nazi memes and hate speech as they are at keeping Donald Trump from getting a free ad — and at protecting Chubby Checker’s feelings.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

What If … Facebook Was Down for Good?

Rokas Tenys | Dreamstime.com

On Monday, October 4th, Facebook — and, with it, Instagram and WhatsApp — went down for a little more than five hours. Though I’ve read a few articles about the crash, I can’t say I completely understand it. The social networking company issued a statement apologizing for the brief lapse in service and explaining that “configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that interrupted this communication.”

In other words, the infrastructure of the internet has been built ad hoc over time, and behemoths of the ’net, themselves used by nearly half the world’s population, rely on seemingly insignificant components to work. If those small components go down, so too do the bigger systems that rely on them. Fair enough.

The outage was short-lived, and I doubt too many users of Facebook or Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, were dramatically impacted. WhatsApp is another story, as it’s used by many Latin American customers as a way to avoid high mobile phone tariffs. But what if Facebook hadn’t booted back up?

First, let’s try a little experiment. Tab over to Google, and type “Facebook admits” in the search bar. What results do you see? I got “Facebook admits Instagram is toxic,” “Facebook admits it messed up again,” “Facebook admits to social experiment,” and “Facebook admits to selling data.” Sure, this is hardly scientific, but what is it people say? “Believe people when they show you who they are.”

Facebook is a business, of course, and not a person, but the point stands. So what would happen if the site — and those it owned — never booted back up? Admittedly, it would be a little more difficult to secure some interviews. Not everyone has their email address listed publicly. In fact, I might have missed out on a column pitch, as someone had sent me a question about a potential column on a Facebook comment thread just hours before the site went down. But let’s look beyond the immediate inconveniences that would be caused.

Vaccination rates would probably skyrocket. It seems to take a steady stream of propaganda to keep people at the requisite anger levels needed to erode critical thinking skills. Because what social networking apps sell is user engagement. They’re geared toward keeping our eyes on the screen, our thumbs continuously caressing our precious fondle slabs. That way we see more advertisements on the sites, and we give them more of our personal data, which in turn allows them to better advertise to us.

At this point I should probably say that, in general, I am a fan of any new technology that makes communication easier. I remember being younger and living 1,400 miles or so away from my dad. We used to buy long distance “minutes” cards because calling long distance on the landline was so expensive. With the advent of the internet, people can talk to each other from opposite sides of the globe, for free, as long as they have access to an internet connection. That’s amazing. Frankly, I don’t think we stop and marvel at it often enough. But we’ve given Facebook free rein to work with little oversight. It’s huge, and remember, Instagram and WhatsApp didn’t get their start as creations of Mark Zuckerberg and co.; they were bought because they threatened to take up a little slice of our attention.

That’s the problem. In order to be successful, Facebook has to take up more and more of our attention. So things that make us angry are prioritized because anger boosts engagement. If psychologists and sociologists and ethicists and legislators sat down with a wide selection of potential users of a new technology and figured out guidelines for safe use, then wrote regulations based on those guidelines, we wouldn’t have a problem. Most of us never would have heard of the anti-vaxx group Global Frontline Nurses. But the automobile is always invented before the traffic light — or the seat belt or airbag or shatter-proof windshields or anti-lock brakes. And those inventions are small potatoes anyway. What about the highway and interstate systems? Or the way that vehicles changed the basic makeup of most American cities? No cars, no suburbs, for example.

Social media is more or less ubiquitous, and it’s relatively new. Maybe the time has come to, if not phase it out altogether, then at least make sure it’s promoting the best interests of the 3.5 billion people who use it.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

I Want to See Your Dog!

CREDIT: Shara Clark

“Y’all still baking bread or are we all just sad now?”

I saw this on a meme recently. It was actually a screenshot of a tweet, but anyhow, the sentiment resonated with me. I spent much of March and April baking — not bread, but cookies, coffee cakes, bundt cakes, brownies, muffins, all from scratch. Food is a major serotonin stimulator for me, and the process of measuring, mixing, following the recipe instructions to a T (should the butter be cold or room-temp?) helped occupy my time and brain space, to quell the ever-present anxiety of current conditions. I guess I got bored with baking. There hasn’t been a homemade cake in my house in months. Now I’ve got a pretty heavy case of the sads. And social media surely doesn’t help.

I get it. Everything is terrible. And I’m constantly reminded every time I log on to Facebook. Coronavirus has gotten out of hand. Our “leaders” can’t get their shit together and lead. Sex trafficking is a very real problem. Pedophilia is absolutely sick. Black lives do matter. The state of our nation is downright embarrassing. I think we can agree on all of this.

Since we’re not baking anymore, can I make a suggestion? Could you post more photos of your dog? Even though I’m not really a cat person, let me see them, too.

Shara Clark

Doogie

Shara Clark

Steve

Shara Clark

Frances

At the end of most work days, I settle in — wrapped in soft blankets like a burrito to soothe me from all the insanity of recent months — and scroll through social media. I totally understand that many of you want to bring awareness to all that’s wrong with the world: bad people, dumb decisions, morons, and injustices. And that is well within your rights. Keep fighting the good fight!

But for the love of 8-pound, 6-ounce, newborn infant Jesus, can I see more photos of your pets? The fuzzy, cuddly puppers. The feisty little kitties. Hell, show me your guinea pig. And, brace yourselves: (I never thought I’d say this, but) what did you eat for dinner? Let me see that fancy plate of grilled salmon and risotto! I’m actually to the point of missing daily “here’s something I ate” pics. Tell me about your meal prepping. Give me the recipe for mawmaw’s chocolate pie, dangit!

Share those funny “everything is cake” videos. Or the ones of parrots dancing to MC Hammer. Don’t we need a small break from all this gloom and serious stuff? Fight the sadness, Artax! Yes, I saw that Poppy doll has a button on her behind. I saw that employees at retail outlets across the nation have been assaulted by anti-maskers. I’ve seen protesters being gassed and arrested. I’ve seen the Epstein flight logs. Things are horrible. It seems we’re in a sinking boat on a raging, endless sea. It’s enough to drive a person mad. Have you all gone mad yet?

I could disconnect from social media to avoid much of this, to be sure. But I do remember a time when my Facebook feed was mostly good news, family portraits, food, and pets — the more social side of social media. The “snooze” option works well to get the constant dose-of-doomed-reality posters off your page for a while (bless them; they’re just standing up for what they believe in), and I’ve taken advantage of that. My newsfeed without that stuff is still sad, though. There’s not enough fluff, literally and metaphorically. And I think we could all use a little more fluff right now.

Start baking bread again. Tell me what you’ve learned. How’s that art project going? Are you making music? Have you had any epiphanies? What are your pets’ names, ages, and favorite toys? Lemme see ’em! Show them to me!

The thing about dogs is, for one, they don’t have social media, and they can’t comprehend pandemics, politics … they just want to be fed and loved. Me too, little buddies, me too. Now if you’d all be so kind, provide a little soul food and love to your Facebook friends or Instagram followers. Share the bright spots in your world — they’re there, even if you don’t see them right away. Look harder.

And you can send your dog pics directly to my email inbox.

Shara Clark is managing editor of the Flyer.