2.8 Assessment 2

 Assessment 2

Here are a few reminders for today’s test:

• The test is open now and it will close by 5 PM
• Once you begin, you will have 75 minutes to complete it
• You do not have to show up to class unless you want to use the classroom space as a place to take the test. Otherwise you can take it wherever is most convenient for you
• It is open, but be mindful of your time
• Don’t have too much anxiety about it because you can always do a qualitative assessment later.

2.7 Debriefing the Social Dilemma

Mark Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties

Christakis is building on research from Mark Granovetter (1973) that has become one of the most cited sociology research articles ever.  It is called The Strength of Weak Ties.   His research found that an individual's strong ties are usually overlapping and thus redundant, so they do not provide connections as much as weak ties.  Weak ties extend an individual's network opening more connections.   Here is a review of how Granovetter's research applies to today's social media landscape.

...individuals with few weak ties will be deprived of information from distant parts of the social system and will be confined to the provincial news and views of their close friends. This deprivation will not only insulate them from the latest ideas and fashions but may put them in a disadvantaged position...

 

Resources from the Movie:

• My guide to the movie for intro to sociology is here.
• Social Dilemma Documentary website (https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/)
• Full, unedited Social Dilemma Transcript available here.

Articles/Publications by the people in the documentary:

• Our Brains Are No Match for Our Technology by Tristan Harris, New York Times

• The Dark Psychology of Social Networks by Jonathan Haidt, The Atlantic

• Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, Harvard Business Review

• The Truth About Algorithms by Cathy O’Neill, RSA

• Want to Work for Google? You Already Do. by Joe Toscano, TEDx Talks

• Free Speech Is Not The Same As Free Reach by Renée DiResta, Wired

• Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier

• Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil

  
  
  

Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab

Here is the Stanford University Behavior Design Lab featured in the movie.

Stanford U. Persuasion Through Mobile Design Lab is run by BJ Fogg, behavior scientist at Stanford, https://www.bjfogg.com/

In 2006 we created a video to warn the FTC (and others) about problematic areas related to persuasive technology. See the video here: https://vimeo.com/117427520

(BJ’s quick note: This video above has a slow pace, and it’s not my best look, with the shaved head and all. However, do listen to what I was predicting and warning people about. At least go to minute 10 and see what I say about the political use of persuasion profiles. We recorded this video in 2006 to warn policymakers of the impacts persuasive technology could have. Remember, this message was recorded in 2006 not 2016 and the message rings true more and more every day.)

Simone Stolzoff from Wired (2018) explains in The Formula for Phone Addiction Might Double As a Cure,

Ten years ago, a Stanford lab created the formula to make technology addictive. Now, Silicon Valley is dealing with the consequences.

"IN SEPTEMBER 2007, 75 students walked into a classroom at Stanford. Ten weeks later, they had collectively amassed 16 million users, $1 million dollars in advertising revenue, and a formula that would captivate a generation. The class—colloquially known as "The Facebook Class"—and its instructor, BJ Fogg, became Silicon Valley legends."

False News Travels Faster Than True Stories On Twitter

2018 Research from MIT

Research project finds humans, not bots, are primarily responsible for spread of misleading information.

“We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and in many cases by an order of magnitude,” says Sinan Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new paper detailing the findings."

Here is an article from Slate explaining the research.

 

Touchscreen

Watch slam poet Marshall Soulful Jones perform his poem called touchscreen.   Here are the lyrics.

Debrief Questions and ideas for your assessment:

What are your general thoughts about the film?  

What is your biggest takeaway? What do you think the claim/thesis of the film was?   

What action can you take?

From the documentary website: https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/take-action/

Here is a summary of the individual actions you can take today:

• Uninstall apps from my phone that are wasting your time such as social media apps and news apps.
• Turn off notifications. Turning off all notifications. I’m not using Google anymore, I’m using Qwant, which doesn’t store your search history.
• Never accept a video recommended to you on YouTube. Always choose. There are tons of Chrome extensions that remove recommendations. 
• Before you share, fact-check, consider the source, do that extra Google. If it seems like it’s something designed to really push your emotional buttons, like, it probably is. Essentially, you vote with your clicks. If you click on clickbait, you’re creating a financial incentive that perpetuates this existing system. 
• Make sure that you get lots of different kinds of information in your own life. I follow people on Twitter that I disagree with because I want to be exposed to different points of view.

What action above might be beneficial to you the most?

How much do you use social media? Does social media use you?

If you have a cell phone that monitors usage, check your usage - how many hours do you spend on it on average?  What apps do you use the most?  Have you ever tried to take a digital break or a digital detox?  Below are some resources with tips and food for thought:

• From Spike Blog, Take a Break From Tech, the Benefits of a Digital Detox (2021), "the average user touches his phone no less than 2,617 times per day"
• From Lifehacker, How to Take A Digital Break (2021)
• From Berkley's Greater Good Magazine, Five Reasons to Take a Break From Screens (2018),
• From CNN, Treat Your Phone Like a Bad Relationship and Breakup (2023)

Try to take a digital break and take note of how you are affected.  What do you experience while on the break?

Here is a 2021 Study about the use of social media from the PEW

Open this link and think about what is true for you.  Below are some charts from the findings, some things to write about include your thoughts about the findings and in what ways these are either true or different for you:

 

 

Anti-Social Media

Felmlee and Faris published Toxic Ties; Networks of Friendship, Dating and Cyber Victimization in Social Psychology Quarterly (2016) about the ways that social media can strain relationships among friends and dating partners.  LGBTQ teens are most at risk followed by straight cis-females and then lastly, straight cis-males.

 

Social Media Used for "News"
A 2021 PEW study showing social media use and news.  

More Americans get news on social media than from print newspapers. In 2018, one-in-five adults said they often get news on social media. And Facebook continues to dominate as the most common social media site used for news by Americans: About four-in-ten Americans (43%) get news on this site.  

Which of the platforms in the graph above do you often get your news from?

The growing trend of getting news online is particularly concerning because a 2020 study found that:

Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable

Those who rely on social media for news are less likely to get the facts right about the coronavirus and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.

Social media users were the second most likely group to have low political knowledge.

Social media users were more likely to have heard 

conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

Social Media and You 

Have you ever stopped to think about what social media knows about you?  Think about the last time you bought something at a store.  If the salesperson was a stranger, would you tell them everything that your social media knows about you?  Look at this post from Tech News and the chart that they included from clario (below):

Social Media Bingo

https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/start-a-conversation/

Other Resources:

Research and Effects of Digital Devices on Students

Besides being good for society, democracy, and living in a world with a shared reality, there are more personal and practical reasons for being mindful of social media.

See this post for a list of research-based conclusions why digital media is bad for your learning and your grades

One Sec App will help you be mindful of how you use your smart phone.