DL 327

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue #327.

This week was packed with exciting work, including hosting a professional development workshop on poetry and digital spaces. I also shared insights from the WalkMyWorld project.

Highlights from This Week

Developing a community of inquiry focused on poetry and multimodal exploration – A PD workshop with Caroline Graham to discuss how poetry can be used as a bridge to critical thinking and digital exploration.
Use digital spaces and poetry to share a walk in your world – Lessons learned from the WalkMyWorld project and how poetry connects us to our environments.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe and say hello at hello@digitallyliterate.net.

📺 Watch

Data Brokers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

John Oliver dives into the murky world of data brokers—entities that collect and sell your personal information without your knowledge. His latest exposé highlights their alarming reach, including efforts to expose lawmakers’ own data to push for stricter privacy laws.

The question remains: Will Congress take action?

📖 Read

Detecting Bullshit

Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist, compares social media to Coca-Cola for the mind—addictive and potentially harmful. His work emphasizes the importance of understanding how misinformation spreads and equipping society to counteract it.

The popular platforms exploit humanity’s need for social validation and constant chatter, a product of our evolution, he says. He compares it to our craving for sugar, which was beneficial in an environment where sweetness was rare and signaled nutritious food, but can make us sick in a world where sugar is everywhere. Facebook exploits humans’ thirst for contact, in his view, like a Coca-Cola for the mind, allowing people to connect with others in larger numbers during a single day than they might have over a lifetime in humanity’s past.

The social media companies are able to run the largest scale psychological experiments in history by many orders of magnitude, and they’re running them in real time on all of us.

The largest psychological experiments are happening on social media, with users as unwitting participants.

Social media platforms amplify misinformation and distort public perception, eroding trust in institutions. Louis Rosenberg suggests that greater transparency in content targeting is crucial to help individuals construct accurate mental models of society.

Just last year, the Aspen Institute commissioned a six-month study that concluded that the misinformation and disinformation propagated by social media create “a chain reaction of harm,” acting as a “force multiplier for exacerbating our worst problems as a society.”

Students' Career Interests Are Changing. Here Is Why Our Teaching Must Change, Too

Youth are redefining career pathways, rejecting traditional narratives about success and education. Educators must adapt by examining biases and embracing new approaches to teaching and learning.

There is a need for those of us in the field of education to examine our biases around the perceived necessity for traditional instructional approaches.

Why Community Matters So Much—and How to Find Yours

As social creatures, humans need interpersonal contact to survive. Becoming a member of communities helps build social diversity. However, finding community is much different from just making friends.

David McMillan suggests that community is defined by four criteria:

membership: You must feel a sense of belonging.
influence: feel like you make a difference to the group and that the group makes a difference to you.
integration and fulfillment of needs: feel like your needs will be met by other group members
shared emotional connection: feel that you share history, similar experiences, time, and space together

Britney Falls In Love

A really interesting piece about healing from trauma in an age of social media. To follow Britney’s Instagram feels akin to following any other account that trades in affirmation and self-love.

Her presence feels at once guileless, authentic, and erratic. It lacks all the polish and preciousness of her contemporaries. And that jaggedness makes total sense: For the first time in her life, Britney seems to be authoring her own image.

💡 Do

Stop Sabotaging Your Future

Overcome present bias—the tendency to prioritize immediate gratification over long-term goals.

“Present bias, this idea that what happens right now counts fully and what happens in the future counts half, explains this gap between our good intentions and our actions. Because when we look into the future, we say, ‘In the future I'll do the right thing.’ But when we get there, we want to go for immediate gratification.” - Harvard professor David Laibson.

Automate positive behaviors.
Create urgency to align future goals with present actions.
Keep your goals visible.
Reward yourself immediately for progress.
Use accountability measures like a Ulysses Pact.

🌱 Reflect

"The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization."
James Cash Penney

Thank you for reading Digitally Literate. Stay tuned for more insights and discussions. Connect with me at hello@digitallyliterate.net or explore Newsletter Index for all past issues.