Though not specifically about technology, the book No Logo by Naomi Klein delves into marketing and media influence in a way that is applicable today, as well as helps you understand why data mining is so lucrative for marketing firms.
I posted the link on our MeWe page. If you want to say more about the article, feel free to join and do so, @shiv.
For everyone else, here is an excerpt:
Since most users are always found seated, head bent, over long periods of time, they fail to exercise, not even being able to do the recommended level of activity per day. It was found that kids turned to technology to manage boredom, to feel good and to get away from family conflicts. There are instances where the children have been online for 19 hours at a stretch! But just the time spent online is not so alarming. There is a reason to worry if excessive use is accompanied by loss of control, neglect of other activities, aggressive and violent behaviour on being denied access to gadgets, and an inability to stop despite the physical harm. This addiction impacts all aspects of a youngster’s life including physical, mental, emotional, academic and social. Japan, South Korea, Italy, China, and Australia have officially recognised technology addiction as a disorder.
Children are indeed exposed to new ideas and opportunities, covering many subjects and enjoy access to extensive information online. But their uncontrolled and unsupervised overuse of digital gadgets and social media is resulting in sleep deprivation, poor concentration, memory loss, obesity, bone and joint problems, hearing loss, impaired eyesight, depression, self-injury, suicidal ideation, exposure to unsafe online content at an impressionable age, cyberbullying, online harassment, and compromised privacy and confidentiality.
Tech’s impact on kids is really concerning and the current education system needs an urgent overhaul. I would like to add that parents, parents-to-be and teachers have a huge role to play in guiding the digital natives to use this technology responsibly. The digital immigrants who belong to both the pre-digital (who knew life before the Internet) and the digital era must lead way. We must gather all stakeholders (Government, Lawmakers, Industry, Academia, Health Professionals, General Public, Parents), as “it takes a village to raise a child.”
Two great books have come out in the last few weeks: Roger McNamee, an early mentor of Marc Zuckerberg and investor in FB wrote Zucked - Waking up to the Catastrophe of Facebook and Shoshona Zuboff wrote Surveillance Capitalism - important as they focus on the topic at hand! And here are two interviews that I enjoyed on This Week in Tech where Host Jason Calacanis has 2 hours with the aforementioned Roger McNamee: Interview Part #1 Interview Part #2
Non-Fiction: Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras. He is an addiction therapist, among other things, and has lots of great information on his website https://www.drkardaras.com/
Fiction: Feed by MT Anderson (written in 2002!) Explores how teens would be affected if their Feeds were implanted from a young age.
Yeah, it’s getting very hard to secure a browser (o device) these days even for technical users.
And chrome might remove or weaken the functionalities (webrequest API) used by UBlockOrigin to defend our browsers. I really hope Firefox won’t weaken it too because they try to match chrome with respect to extensions
@aschrijver have you read this article about privacy? Have you heard about the Dutch tech privacy consult big firm called Cookiebot? Humane tech employment for you?
Yes I think I wanted it to say Dutch because you’d be a good fit… consulting firms are great to work for because you have space to pursue your own things’too with project gaps etc…, anyways- off topic now;)
Pulitzer prize winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani’s new book The Death of Truth, is excellent - she addresses the role of social media in a broader cultural, soclal and historical context and manages to raise the deepest concerns with a measured tone. The book’s length is modest and it’s heavily sourced with extensive endnotes. I highly recommend it.
Vance Packard- our privacy crisis predicted in the 1960’s
A 1960’s investigative journalist Vance Packard, predicted our privacy crisis we face now in technology and education…
Just curious whether anyone here has heard of Vance Packard? I haven’t heard him mentioned here yet… he was definitely ahead of his time- Vance was a respected investigative journalist out of Columbia University.
Don’t let the title of this book dissuade from looking at his writing- there is nothing offensive about this content.
