Zeynep Tufekci. “Is The Internet Good or Bad?
This article immediately prompted me to consider the use of media/social media during last spring’s Black Lives Matter movement . This article was written in 2014, so of course the author could not consider this situation, but there are so many parallels to drawn on. Tufekci makes the point that humans are very social creatures and we crave human interaction and connection. We can see this tendency playing out on social media during the ongoing BLM movement. People wanted to connect and stand up for one another in a digital world to assure their voices were heard . The reason why everyone was pulling out their phones during protests was because online, they have an identity . In a crowd on the streets, everyone is a stranger. Social media feeds are personalized and flooded with people who agree with your beliefs: it becomes a safe community to express your emotion and opinion. Social media is also a place where many people learn about current events . Personally, I gathered a lot of information about the killing of George Floyd and the backlash via Instagram stories and posts. Of course, I would follow up with more mature methods of research, but these emotional posts were where I was able to form an initial opinion . It is important to note that often, however, media and surveillance dictates incorrect narratives . Although it is tempting to believe the first thing you read to see, I have learned that often these social media sources share skewed information just to fit the perspective people want to believe.
Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism
This video was enlightening, yet utterly disturbing . Although, I have previously been taught the hazards of technology security, this video opened up a whole new side to the story I did not know existed. For the longest time, I understood that whatever I chose to put onto the internet would no longer be private , but I had no idea these big tech companies had capabilities to gather information about me I didn’t even know was exposed . It makes me uncomfortable that they are taking more data than required to improve products and services because this information can be used for projects that do not align with my morals . It is interesting because most websites now have a pop up that says, “this website uses cookies ”, and you essentially have to accept this before browsing the website itself. If you do not allow the website to use your information, you can disagree with this pop up, but then you are no longer able to browse the site. This loop essentially forces people who want to surf the web to agree to personal information distribution. With this incredible influx of data via face screenings, google searches, voice recognition, etc., big tech companies know us better than we know ourselves. In my opinion, even though the United States is a free country, that does not give companies the moral "green-light" to take advantage of consumer habits. Europe imposes very strict data-privacy regulations that I think the US should follow. The General Data Protection (GDPR) not only gives individuals new protections, but it hinders the ability for big tech companies to take and use all of this personal data. Although many people say generic regulations aren’t the most effective way to counter these tech companies, I believe it would be a good start and make people in the US feel much safer when they are online, and even just inside their own homes. Big tech companies should not have the ability to predict our emotions and dictate how we may me feeling in the future . This is all incredibly unethical , and we need to impose parameters immediately.
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