DL 300

A Digital Master Key

Welcome to the 300th issue of Digitally Literate. 🎉 Thank you for being a part of this journey.

I’ll be taking the next two weeks off to recharge and spend time with family. See you on the other side!

🔖 Key Takeaways

📚 This Week’s Highlights

Often when we talk about deepfakes, it often circles back to misinformation and revenge. Thankfully, in this story...we're talking Star Wars.

One artist's rendition of deepfake Luke Skywalker was so good that they were ultimately hired by Industrial Light and Magic, the artists that work on actual Star Wars.

Why this matters: Deepfake technology isn’t just for misuse—it can fuel innovation in art and storytelling.

Last month a U.S. federal judge threw out two antitrust lawsuits made against Facebook. The judge failed to see how Facebook was a monopoly.

Forty state attorney generals disagree and plan on appealing the decision. According to New York attorney general Letitia James: "We can no longer allow Facebook to profit off of exploiting consumer data."

Why this matters: Holding Big Tech accountable for monopolistic practices is crucial for consumer data protection and fair competition.

When you think of facial recognition, you most likely expect it at places like the airport. Do you think it's appropriate when you're spending some time out shopping?

Rebecca Heilweil reports that some of the most popular stores in the U.S. like Albertsons, Macy's and even Apple Stores are using facial recognition on their customers.

On July 14, Fight for the Future helped launch a nationwide campaign to document which of the country’s biggest retailers are deploying facial recognition, and which ones have committed to not use the technology. The campaign, which has the support of more than 35 human rights groups, aims to draw attention to retail stores using facial-scanning algorithms to boost their profits, intensify security systems, and even track their employees.

Why this matters: Widespread use of facial recognition in everyday spaces poses risks to privacy and equity.

4. Amazon’s Key to Apartment Buildings

Amazon is pushing landlords around the country to give its drivers the ability to unlock apartment building front doors whenever they need to leave packages in the lobby instead of the street.

The service, called Amazon Key for Business, allows delivery workers to make their rounds faster since they don’t have to ring doorbells. And fewer stolen packages could give Amazon an edge over other online retailers.

But...is this what we want?

The device is connected to the internet, which could make it vulnerable to hackers. Tenants may not know that Amazon drivers have access to their building’s front doors.

Why this matters: Convenience vs. privacy—are we trading too much for efficiency?

5. The Zeigarnik Effect and Productivity

You want to be productive. Software wants to help. But even with a glut of tools claiming to make us all into taskmasters, we almost never master our tasks.

There is a big disjoint between the tasks people planned to do and the tasks they actually did.

A Soviet psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik, became fascinated by this phenomenon. Zeigarnik found a quirk of the human mind: When a task is unfinished, we can’t seem to stop thinking about it. We perseverate.

Whatever the cause, today this is known as the Zeigarnik effect, and psychologists who study task management say it’s part of why so many of us feel perpetually frazzled by the challenge of organizing work and life.

Why this matters: Understanding this effect can help us design better systems for productivity and peace of mind.

When we cooperate on certain tasks, our brainwaves might synchronize. This finding could upend the current understanding of consciousness.

Some recent research in neuroscience argues that a shift in our understanding of consciousness is warranted. Specifically, we might see an ‘extension of consciousness’.

We know that an individual’s neural activity is embodied in their interactions with the world. Now, we think that other people may play a role.

🛠️ DO: Learn to Breathe Better

Most of us breathe inefficiently. Practice “belly breathing” for improved oxygen intake and relaxation:

  1. Inhale deeply into your belly.
  2. Feel your abdomen expand as your diaphragm pulls air downward.
  3. Exhale fully to release tension.

Learn more here.

🌟 Closing Reflection

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
— George Bernard Shaw

Reflect and Engage

Thank you for reading Digitally Literate. Connect with me at hello@digitallyliterate.net or explore Newsletter Index for all past issues.

Human society is on track for a collapse in the next two decades if there isn't a serious shift in global priorities, according to a new reassessment of a 1970s report.