Showing posts with label Social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social media. Show all posts

Monday, May 30, 2022

Elon Musk's Cyber Stalking AOC

Elon Musk tweeted at AOC for a public comment made by AOC. It was not even directed at anybody. It was a general comment made about social media in general.

You could argue the social media tries too hard through their algorithms to take people away from the first five commandments.

Musk said, don't hit on me, I am shy. AOC deleted her tweet.

Musk is a 300-pound gorilla (literally) who had a chilling effect on the conversation. He made a hugely sexist remark to drive away someone from the conversation. What he said had a silencing effect.

This is wrong. He is trying too hard to be a right wing gadfly.

This is the kind of racism that his car factories are in trouble for.

AOC is the progressive star. She is the next generation of leadership. She is America's own Greta Thunberg, only older.



AOC is a public official. She is a Congresswoman. She is an elected person. She represents We The People. She made a legitimate criticism. An appropriate response would have been a legitimate or a lame defense of social media. But what Elon Musk did was racist and sexist.

Granted Elon Musk is a complex picture. He has taken a heroic stand for Ukraine, and done heroic things for Ukraine, and I admire that.

But he is not a package deal I have to accept. I have and will praise his good work. But I will also criticize his bad behavior. This was bad behavior.

On thate note, how about a wealth tax? I call it forking. Beyong a billion, your net worth forks. You keep the voting power in your company. We The People take the money and solve drinking water and housing. And the planet.



Regret, apologize, and get a fresh start, Elon.

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Thursday, October 01, 2020

The Social Dilemma

‘

The Social Dilemma’ Review: Unplug and Run This documentary from Jeff Orlowski explores how addiction and privacy breaches are features, not bugs, of social media platforms. ......... That social media can be addictive and creepy isn’t a revelation to anyone who uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. But in Jeff Orlowski’s documentary “The Social Dilemma,” conscientious defectors from these companies explain that the perniciousness of social networking platforms is a feature, not a bug. .......... the manipulation of human behavior for profit is coded into these companies with Machiavellian precision: Infinite scrolling and push notifications keep users constantly engaged; personalized recommendations use data not just to predict but also to influence our actions, turning users into easy prey for advertisers and propagandists. ........ men and (a few) women who helped build social media and now fear the effects of their creations on users’ mental health and the foundations of democracy. They deliver their cautionary testimonies with the force of a start-up pitch, employing crisp aphorisms and pithy analogies. ......... Russia didn’t hack Facebook; it simply used the platform. ........ fictional scenes of a suburban family suffering the consequences of social-media addiction. There are silent dinners, a pubescent daughter (Sophia Hammons) with self-image issues and a teenage son (Skyler Gisondo) who’s radicalized by YouTube recommendations promoting a vague ideology. ............ the movie’s interlocutors pin an increase in mental illness on social media usage yet don’t acknowledge factors like a rise in economic insecurity. .......... many suggest that with the right changes, we can salvage the good of social media without the bad ......... two distinct targets of critique: the technology that causes destructive behaviors and the culture of unchecked capitalism that produces it. ......... the incursion of data mining and manipulative technology ....... The movie is streaming on Netflix, where it’ll become another node in the service’s data-based algorithm.



I think there is a solution. And the solution is to treat all data gathered around an individual to be the property of that individual. Companies may monetize that data, but the individual keeps the big chunk of the earning. The establishment of proper property rights might also be the antidote to the culture mindless data collecting. The data can fund the UBI, or Universal Basic Income, I think. 

One step could be the formation of a T100, the top 100 tech companies in the world by market cap. That T100 would voluntarily establish the data rights. It might be a 70-30 split in favor of the individual. 

 ‘The Social Dilemma’ Will Freak You Out—But There’s More to the Story    Dramatic political polarization. Rising anxiety and depression. An uptick in teen suicide rates. Misinformation that spreads like wildfire. The common denominator of all these phenomena is that they’re fueled in part by our seemingly innocuous participation in digital social networking. But how can simple acts like sharing photos and articles, reading the news, and connecting with friends have such destructive consequences? ............... the way social media gets people “hooked” by exploiting the brain’s dopamine response and using machine learning algorithms to serve up the customized content most likely to keep each person scrolling/watching/clicking. ........  “Every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded,” says Jeff Siebert, a former exec at Twitter. The intelligence gleaned from those actions is then used in conjunction with our own psychological weaknesses to get us to watch more videos, share more content, see more ads, and continue driving Big Tech’s money-making engine. .............  For the first few years of social media’s existence, we thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Now it’s on a nosedive to the other end of the spectrum—we’re condemning it and focusing on its ills and unintended consequences. The next phase is to find some kind of balance, most likely through adjustments in design and, possibly, regulation. .......... The issue with social media is that it’s going to be a lot trickier to fix than, say, adding seatbelts and air bags to cars. The sheer size and reach of these tools, and the way in which they overlap with issues of freedom of speech and privacy—not to mention how they’ve changed the way humans interact—means it will likely take a lot of trial and error to come out with tools that feel good for us to use without being addicting, give us only true, unbiased information in a way that’s engaging without preying on our emotions, and allow us to share content and experiences while preventing misinformation and hate speech. ................ “While we’ve all been looking out for the moment when AI would overwhelm human strengths—when would we get the Singularity, when would AI take our jobs, when would it be smarter than humans—we missed this much much earlier point when technology didn’t overwhelm human strengths, but it undermined human weaknesses.”

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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

JFK, Primaries, Social Media, DirectConnect


JFK invented the primary system we know of today. Before him it was the party bosses in smoke-filled rooms who decided on the party nominee. It was party bosses who decided on FDR. It was party bosses who decided on Lincoln.

Barack Obama's massive use of social media took JFK's invention to a whole new level. Take away all that technology and Obama was toast. All prominent blacks in the country were lined up in the opposite camp. Pretty much all elected officials were lined up in the opposite camp. All the labor unions were lined up behind Hillary pretty much. There was no doubting her credentials. And there was something historic about the idea of the first woman president too.

At some level I was torn having had to choose between the idea of the first black president and the first woman president, and I am on record at this blog rooting for an eventual Barack-Hillary ticket. But at the end of the day it was not about the first black president. It really was about Barack Obama the person, it was about this particular individual. It was about moving on past the Clinton generation. It was about Obama's emphasis on getting people to meet in person, it was about his use of the newest in technology.

JFK took a big step in the direction of what I call DirectConnect, the idea that there ought to be nothing and nobody between the candidate and the voter. Barack took another big step in the direction of DirectConnect.

Endorsements and political clubs and the status quo will matter less and less going into the future. 2010 is the year of the insurgency. But it is not an insurgency of throwing one party out for another. The insurgency has been about throwing the bums out in both parties. Suddenly primaries matter like they always needed to. A lot of incumbents across the country are facing real contests. Many have faced them and lost them. More will.

The good news is primaries matter, and DirectConnect is more possible than ever before.
You want people to get engaged and stay engaged. But that is not to say polls have substituted the need for leadership. The need for leadership is acute as ever. If we did not need leaders, we would not need elections. But we do.

We have a president who has been wading FDR waters since the passage of health care reform. The recession is not over yet. It will be over finally when the unemployment is down to five per cent. And there leadership matters big time. The guy at the top has many decisions to make, and I believe he will.


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Friday, July 30, 2010

September 1-14: The Niagara Falls Part



(Internal email)

Digital Dumbo 18: The Dumbo Loft

We have been in the water collecting part since Fall 2009. Those 14 days will be when the surge happens, I think. I am hoping Maloney agrees to at least one debate in August, sooner the better, but I am not counting on it. She can't do zero debates but I think she will do one as late as possible, likely week one in August. And we will have our five minutes at the September NY Tech MeetUp, first Tuesday. That is 800 plus young professionals. That could create a social media frenzy for us. Just what we need.

Those 14 days we are going to have reverse problems/challenges to what we have had so far. What do we do with all this media attention? What do we do with all these new volunteers that keep showing up at the office and getting in our way? What do we do with all this new money people are donating online? We can't save any of it for post September 14. How do we spend fast? Maloney just came out saying she wants a second debate. What now? Nancy Pelosi is on the phone. I can see Barack Obama calling up during the days after September 14, or as early as September 15.

Keeping The House And The Senate
Pelosi Will Continue As Speaker
DNAinfo.com: Reshma Saujani

Pollsters don't talk to the 18-38 crowd. They are the cellphones only crowd. And they do very little voice on those phones anyways. That's our surge crowd. That's women who want to be able to take equality for granted and men who get physically uncomfortable around sexist jokes. It is about The New Woman. It is about a new generation. This generation helped Obama get power. This generation is at some point going to want to get power for itself. And that starts now.

I expect us to ride a steep curve those two weeks. Now is the time to prepare.

Reshma 2010: Firing Up All Cylinders
Reshma's Momentum: Line Graph Or Curve Graph

Short message: stay focused on the fundamentals.

PS. Hoping for my second phone marathon on Sunday, office open to office close. Would that be 1-6? Leaving voice mails each time this time.

400 Phone Calls In 5 Hours For Reshma 2010

(I might blog out this email)


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Monday, July 19, 2010

Reshma 2010: Firing Up All Cylinders

Reshma's Momentum: Line Graph Or Curve Graph
Reshma's Momentum: Line Graph Or Curve Graph
  • Keep bugging Carolyn to engage in weekly debates. Every time she says no, cash that for media attention. In NYC, local and national media are not two things. Make it lose lose for Carolyn.
  • Don't concede Labor to Carolyn. Maloney lives in a mansion, a-l-l labor issues are abstract to her.
    • One politician more than any other in this town is on excellent terms with Labor: John Liu. We need to go talk to John. I will come along if I have to. "John, you are going to be Mayor, sooner than most people realize. Reshma is going to be president. Right now she needs your help. She attended public schools all her life. Labor issues are not abstract to her like they are for Maloney. You were on Wall Street before you were in politics. Help now and we will remember when it is time for you to run for Mayor."
  • Landlines are only one part of the pie. Then there are cellphones, largely out of reach. And there is social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
  • Raise as much money possible from the workers of Wall Street. Workers of Wall Street, unite! Unite behind Reshma. You need someone on the Hill who actually understands how Wall Street works. I happen to think Reshma's leadership - she is the national leader to the tech sector - to the tech sector and her leadership to Wall Street go hand in hand. You are trying to build a meritocracy in both those sectors.
  • Field Work! Face Time! Old Media! New Media!
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