Hello Friends,
It goes without saying that this has been a bad week for Facebook. The focus on whistleblower Frances Haugen’s damning testimony, however, has given ethicists, social media critics, and policy makers a golden opportunity to share their ideas about how to transform (or regulate) the behemoth social media company’s practices or, at the very least, our own relationship to it.
In this issue of The Weekly Sift. Shift. Lift., we take a look at the threats and opportunities posed by social media. As always, we turn to academics, artists, and activists to guide us.
Ready?
Sift.
Sift through research and data to better understand how we got here.
Earlier this week, Tamara Khandaker, a journalist with The Globe & Mail and host of its podcast, The Decibel, interviewed Taylor Owen, associate professor and director of the Centre for Media Technology and Democracy at McGill University. The topic? What levers can governments pull to regulate Facebook and other “big tech” companies.
Do you have 20 minutes? Listen to “How to fix Facebook.”
Shift.
See how visual artists reframe social media.
Social media has given art lovers new ways to experience art, and it has enabled artists to reach broader, more diverse audiences.
In some cases, it also has become a subject to be mined by artists. Acclaim Magazine featured six contemporary artists whose works highlight “the way social media has changed the way we interact with the world without berating it.”
Check out “Six contemporary artists making a statement about social media” to view (and read about) work by Ai Weiwei (with architects Herzog & de Meuron); An Xiao; Audrey Jones; Jiyeon Kim; Hannah Hill (aka Hanecdote); and Nastya Ptichek.
Lift.
Take action and support organizations committed to leveraging social media for good.
There are several organizations working in this space. One that I follow is The Center for Humane Technology. Since 2013, co-founder and president, Tristan Harris (a former Google design ethicist), has been focused on the organization’s mission:
To drive a comprehensive shift toward humane technology that supports our well-being, democracy, and shared information environment.
In 2020, the center supported the development and release of director Jeff Orlowski’s documentary The Social Dilemma, which explores the “existential threats posed by social media.” If you are not one of the estimated one million people who have already watched the film, you can find it on Netflix.
In addition to resources for technologists, policy makers, parents and educators, the Center for Humane Technology’s website recently posted a call to action in response to the testimony from Frances Haugen. Find out about the petition to pressure Facebook to be #OneClickSafer.
Before you go
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Thank you my friends.
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