DL 281

The Long Fuse

Published: March 6, 2021 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 281. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

• Election Misinformation Report: Coalition of research institutions documented "The Long Fuse" of viral misinformation in 2020
• Deepfakes Advance Rapidly: Tom Cruise TikToks show we've reached the point where distinguishing real from AI-generated video is difficult
• Algorithms Recommend Extremism: Whitmer kidnapping plot began when Facebook recommended a group—design decisions have consequences
• Intellectual Humility Persuades: Adam Grant argues listening, asking questions, and appealing to others' values wins people over
• Data Activism: Researchers propose data strikes, poisoning, and conscious contribution as citizen resistance

Holla back y'all. I just realized I've been writing this newsletter since 2015. Yikes.

This week I posted the following:

• Technology, Instruction, Learning in Teaching (TILT) Faculty Survey - Survey designed for instructors in higher education to provide insight into knowledge, skills, and dispositions for integrating instructional technologies.
• Technology, Instruction, Learning in Teaching (TILT) Student Survey - Survey designed for students to provide insight into instructional technologies used in classes.
• Finding Value in Life - Through conditioning of mind and body, we've created narratives we cannot break out of. What we need is a sense of mission.
• Transform a Chore Into a Choice - Motivation becomes easier when we transform a chore into a choice, giving us a sense of control.

📺 Watch

The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election

A conversation on the release of the Election Integrity Partnership's report, "The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election."

This coalition of research institutions worked together to detect and mitigate viral misinformation and support real-time information exchange between researchers, election officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms.

The "long fuse" metaphor captures how misinformation spreads slowly before igniting into crisis.

📚 Read

Deepfake Tom Cruise Videos

We've discussed deepfakes before—they originated as celebrity faces placed on other individuals in porn videos. The technology was troubling but important to track.

The latest buzz comes from a series of videos of Tom Cruise on TikTok under @deeptomcruise.

Chris Ume, the creator, makes it clear this was weeks of work with a Tom Cruise impersonator—not something you can push a button and get a believable result. Yet.

Two years ago it would have been easy to differentiate between real and AI-generated video. But technology is advancing so rapidly that we've reached a point where it's relatively easy to create something that further erodes public trust in a world where media literacy is poor and people already can't agree on what's true.

We need to know how to spot a deepfake without even watching the video.

Whitmer Kidnapping Plot: Confidential FBI Informant Testifies

Incredible story.

Man joins Facebook group recommended by algorithm. Man is invited into encrypted chat. Man learns of plot to kidnap Michigan's Gov Whitmer and harm police. Man becomes FBI informant and testifies against plotters.

This isn't just a story about free speech. It's about the tools that need to be understood. We need to get to the bottom of the "design decisions" that define "the speed of social media."

When an algorithm recommends a group that plans domestic terrorism, the algorithm bears examination.

How to Reach People Who Are Wrong

Nicholas Kristof interviews Adam Grant, organizational psychologist at Wharton and author of Think Again.

They explore what goes wrong when smart people are too righteous, and the need for intellectual humility. Approach every situation as an opportunity to learn something.

"Humility is often a more effective persuasive tool."

What wins over people is listening, asking questions, and appealing to their values—not your own. "Complexify" issues so they become less binary and more nuanced, enabling someone on the other side to acknowledge areas of ambivalence.

Parents Welcome Additional Post-COVID Educational Support

New NPR/Ipsos poll reveals cautious resilience and optimism regarding the current learning environment.

Key findings:

• Half of parents report their child attends school remotely full-time; 17% are in hybrid environments
• Broad support for returning in-person in some capacity
• Parents want additional resources for kids' mental and emotional health

How to Defeat a Boston Dynamics Robot in Mortal Combat

Sharing this just in case you need it.

If you or someone nearby are being brutalized by a Spot robot and can get a hand underneath, grab the battery pack's handle and yank it forward. This releases the battery, instantly disabling the robot. Keep your hands away from joints—Spot WILL crush your fingers.

Consult the video for more guidance.

🔨 Do

Data Activism: Strikes, Poisoning, and Conscious Contribution

Algorithms are meaningless without good data. The public can exploit that to demand change.

In a new paper, Northwestern University researchers propose three ways the public can exploit this:

• Data strikes: Withhold or delete your data so a tech firm cannot use it—leave a platform or install privacy tools
• Data poisoning: Contribute meaningless or harmful data. AdNauseam clicks on every ad served to you, confusing Google's targeting algorithms
• Conscious data contribution: Give meaningful data to competitors of platforms you want to protest

For more on this topic, see this resource on how to shut stalkers out of your tech.

🤔 Consider

Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.

C.S. Lewis

Lewis's observation about experience connects to this issue's threads—deepfakes eroding our ability to trust what we see, algorithms shaping what we encounter, and the choice we have in how we respond to information. What matters is not just what the technology does to us, but what we do with that knowledge.

🔗 Navigation

Previous: DL 280 • Next: DL 282 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

• Media Literacy — Deepfakes, election misinformation, spotting fakes
• Privacy Rights — Data activism, algorithmic resistance, tech safety
• Civic Engagement — Whitmer plot, algorithm accountability, platform design
• Pedagogy — Intellectual humility, persuasion techniques, parent perspectives
• Philosophy — Lewis on experience, truth erosion