YEAR ATTENTION FOUND GRATITUDE STAY FRIEND ADDICTIVENESS GOOD WAKING CATASTROPHE REST MONOPOLY ABILITY PUBLIC
Facebook recently reminded ___ that I’ve been on ___ social network for 15 ___. I normally pay little ___ to those anniversary notices, ___ this time I paused ___ think about how much ___ changed since Facebook was ___. Excitement about its promise, ___ for the ease of ___ in touch with old ___, frustration at its approach ___ privacy, apprehension over its ___.
Around the same time ___ I got that notification, ___ was reading Roger McNamee’s ___-written new book, Zucked: ___ up to the Facebook ___. His central argument is ___ Facebook is a threat ___ the economy, public health ___ democracy. The economic critique ___ on the problems of ___ capitalism, for example Facebook’s ___ to buy up rivals ___ Instagram and WhatsApp. The ___ health critique focuses on tactics to get people to use Facebook more, even to the point of addiction. The democracy critique is that democracy cannot survive without debate on shared truths. But we increasingly are denied access to different opinions.
Today, even tech companies have acknowledged that their industry requires regulation. The question for them is what those regulations should look like. Transparency and other changes will not be a sufficient response to the scope of the challenge. The question is whether reformers, regulators, and citizens will have the courage to fight for broader, deeper changes. Because at the end of the day, what’s at stake is far more important than a few Likes. It is the future of our economy, our society, and our democracy.
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Have fun....and take care! 254 SEP-B-2019
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Have fun....and take care! 254 SEP-B-2019
