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From the women’s march to climate change protests, people are taking to the streets in an attempt to get their voices heard. How can they make an impact?

It’s strange to suggest activism has gone mainstream since that is essentially what protest is aiming for: to gain the support of the majority. I guess this Guardian article discusses is how the message itself can lose its impact and how a movement should put strategies in place to keep the message at the forefront of a protest or march.

#global development professionals network #sustainable development goals #protest #activism #slactivism #social media #twitter #women's march

The message from activists is as clear as a Crystal Pepsi.

Has activism gone mainstream? I’m not sure how this cringeworthy ad made it out of the conference boardroom and onto a Hollywood lot.

#pepsi #activism #wtf #jenner

There's not much you can do

Although border agents cannot legally search through your phone without a warrant, if you refuse to allow them access to your social media accounts, they could force you into “secondary inspections” where you are detained for hours. Many fear that our privacy might be infringed upon in this manner more under the Trump administration.

A Ontario woman detained in Turkey has been found guilty of insulting the country's president, but said she has been released from prison as her lawyer pursues an appeal of the case.

Just another increasingly questionable action of repressing any signs of dissent in a seemingly secular and democratic country. This Turkish-Canadian woman was sentenced to jail time for her criticism of the President.

The internet was once a land of promise, with few fears about crime or privacy. Thirty years on, scammers, thieves and spies have created a place of chaos

This article is quite a pessimistic look at the state of the web in 2016. However, it goes into extensive detail on how capital works online. The author, John Naughton, has also written an interesting book called From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet.

#cybercrime #cyberwar #hacking #internet #technology

by John Perry BarlowGovernments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us.

Is this a posthuman declaration? Is your right to access the web also a right to free speech on the internet, and free untracked web surfing capabilities? Individuals rights on the Internet are certainly very fragile. Just recently the Trump administration allowed ISPs to sell web browsing activity to large corporations.

#posthuman #declaration of independence #cyberspace #privacy

Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse.

This is a VERY interesting article by PEW research on the future of the Internet as a space for political discourse. The Internet being policed by AI bots in the future seems quite intriguing. Who will program this technology? How will it maintain bipartisanship?

#ai #safe space #fake news #internet #social media

How Google used artificial intelligence to transform Google Translate, one of its more popular services — and how machine learning is poised to reinvent computing itself.

I’m starting to become fascinated with the current version of the AI craze. This NYT article delves deep into Google’s own very competitive research into AI technology: “Google’s decision to reorganize itself around A.I. was the first major manifestation of what has become an industrywide machine-learning delirium. Over the past four years, six companies in particular — Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and the Chinese firm Baidu — have touched off an arms race for A.I. talent, particularly within universities.”

#nyt #ai #google #google translate

The tech giant introduces another AI chatbot, Zo.ai, but is limiting the topics it's able to address.

I tried interacting with Microsoft’s Chatbot named Zo. Her messages were somewhat uncanny in their attempts to feel real. However, it seems there are still some ways to go with how these chatbots will work in the future.

Thank you, Evan Spiegel.

I really like the way Flynn describes how she interacts with friends on SnapChat: “Snapchat's where my friends are—yes, my real friends. On Facebook and Instagram, I'll add you as a friend, and you can feel free to stalk my high school photos. I don't really care. But when it comes to my life, in real-time, in the moment—what I do every day before work, or after work? That's on Snapchat.”

Yuval Noah Harari challenges the future according to Facebook

This article points out some implications behind Facebook’s manifesto. There are some important thoughts on Facebook as a political ideology rather than a neoliberal corporation.

#manifesto #facebook manifesto #facebook #financial times

Snapchat is built for the "mobile only" generation.

Snapchat is the most popular social media platform among teenagers. This article details some of the reasons. Facebook alternatively will attempt to move in on Snapchat’s ephemerality by creating a function that makes images disposable and more interactive. Snapchat remains serious competition to Facebook’s brand. I’m curious to see how Facebook continues to develop new ways to remain relevant—especially among younger demographics.

#snapchat #teenagers

Three teenage girls explain why they are constantly telling their friends they are beautiful on Instagram.

This episode of This American Life is titled “Status Update.” It begins with an interview detailing the Instagram exploits of three teenage girls. Their interaction with the site is summed up nicely by host Ira Glass: “it’s about girls and friendship. And it’s very repetitive—[regarding their comments on the photos] the same phrases over and over.” What he’s bringing our attention to is the way these teenagers interact online through various media platforms is phatic communication.

Facebook’s manifesto is long and has little to do with your privacy and security online. It also does not express how it will tackle prejudice online.

#facebook manifesto #facebook #privacy #security

With Tinder Select, you're only connected to those in your supposed social strata — or as it was defined in past eras, the confines of your "class" — which only serves to reinforce our worst impulses to divide, discriminate and segregate.

This new option for Tinder opens up the politics of race, class, and gender for online dating. It segregates certain users based on their income and looks. There are many issues with such a change to the platform. What are some of the social implications? How will other dating apps respond?

#tinder #tinder select #onlinedating

"The Strong and the Weak", section three of "Penser Aujourd'hui: Emmanuel Levinas" (1991). Levinas discusses his famous analyses of the face. For Levinas, th...

For Levinas, you cannot escape the historical implications of the space that we all must occupy and how power dynamics have controlled that space through inclusion and exclusion. How can we see this theory playing out when we consider virtual space?

This site shows misogynistic gamers at their worst. Just like the youtube comment section these gamers seem to have permission to harras individuals and express their very sexist, racist and prejudiced world views onto whoever they encounter. How does this online distancing illicit the right for certain individuals to “troll” people online?

#troll #gaming #misogyny #sexism #youtube comments

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