DL 260

Blood On My Hands

Published: September 19, 2020 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 260. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Facebook Whistleblower Speaks: Fired data scientist publishes 6,600-word memo detailing 2.5 years of global fake engagement operations across multiple countries
America's Empathy Deficit: We underestimate others' emotional distress—especially when they're different from us
Microaggressions Go Remote: Microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations manifest differently in virtual spaces
BLM Belongs in Classrooms: Open letter responds to anti-racist education critics with clear pedagogical rationale
Ikigai and Social Signals: Japanese concept of "reason for being" guides re-examination of online engagement

Hi all, welcome back to Digitally Literate and issue 260.

This week I worked on the following:

Ikigai - Some thoughts about Ikigai, the Japanese concept around a "reason for being" as I think about my social signals—and life.
Joy, Love, & Aesthetic Fulfillment - When was the last time you honestly felt pure joy? When was the last time you felt fulfilled?
Re-Examining My Social Signals - An update on how I'm thinking about re-engineering, reconnecting, or disconnecting the texts, places, and spaces in which I engage online.
Using Graphic Novels in Your Classroom - Some ideas about how to embed these wonderful texts into your learning spaces.

📺 Watch

The Power of Compassion

If you act on compassion when the moment presents itself, you will have a meaningful life.

Don't be the bystander that stays in the dark. Do as the Good Samaritan and you will move closer to a life of purpose.

📚 Read

After being fired by Facebook this month, a data scientist published a 6,600-word memo to the company's internal communication systems breaking down 2.5 years of her experiences on the "fake engagement team."

Former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang pointed to activity across the world in nations such as Azerbaijan, Honduras, India, Ukraine, Spain, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

The U.S. Has an Empathy Deficit

Here's what we can do about it:

Take the time to ask those you encounter how they are feeling, and really listen. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Remember that we all tend to underestimate other people's emotional distress, and we're most likely to do so when those people are different from us.
Remind yourself that almost everyone is at the end of their rope these days. Many people barely have enough energy to handle their own problems, so they don't have their normal ability to think about yours.
Be aware that what is empathy for one person may not be empathy for another person. Asking your friends, family, and coworkers what empathy is for them might open a new door to understanding.

How Microaggressions Look Different When We're Working Remotely

According to Columbia professor Derald Wing Sue, whose team defined microaggressions as the "new face of racism" in 2007, these actions fit into one of three categories:

Microassault: an explicit racial derogation; verbal/nonverbal. Using racial slurs or refusing to work with someone because of their race.
Microinsult: communication that conveys rudeness and demeans a person's racial heritage; subtle snubs, unknown to the perpetrator.
Microinvalidation: communication that excludes or negates the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person belonging to a particular group.

An Open Letter to a Parent Afraid of Anti-Racist Education

Education Week invited Julie Gunlock, Director of the Independent Women's Forum, to write a blog post that sparked outrage in the comments and on Twitter.

As a response, Christina Torres wrote this open letter suggesting that Black Lives Matter does belong in the classroom.

Bodies of Work: Critical Labour Literacy in the Post-Pandemic University

A great piece by Kate Bowles, Mia Zamora, Autumn Caines, and Maha Bali mapping a possible path to the end of working in the pandemic university.

You should also check out this Google Doc created by teen youth teachers sharing requests for teachers and caring adults as we continue virtually connecting to classrooms.

🔨 Do

Train Your Brain, Change Your Brain

Juggling Improves the Brain's Grey Matter
Never Go to Bed Without Learning One New Thing
Sleeping Poorly Is Linked to Rapid Reductions in Brain Volume
Any Form of Exercise Rewires the Brain: Keep Your Body Active
Mindfulness Is Becoming a Global Phenomenon for a Good Reason

🤔 Consider

Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

RBG's passing this week reminds us that transformation isn't about dramatic gestures—it's about persistent, incremental work. The empathy deficit, the microaggressions, the resistance to anti-racist education—these won't be solved in a single moment. But each step matters.

Previous: DL 259 • Next: DL 261 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

Media Literacy — Facebook whistleblower memo, fake engagement operations globally
Pedagogy — Anti-racist education debate, BLM in classrooms, post-pandemic university
Digital Wellbeing — Empathy deficit, ikigai, re-examining social signals
Civic Engagement — Microaggressions in remote work, compassion in action
Philosophy — RBG legacy, incremental change, reason for being