DL 294

Falling & Breaking

Published: June 19, 2021 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 294. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

CRT Moral Panic: Critical race theory adopted as catch-all term to demonize anti-racist movements after George Floyd's murder
Big Tech Antitrust Bills: Congress introduces legislation that would effectively end tech giants' ability to make acquisitions
Broadband Access Worse Than Thought: NTIA interactive map shows high-speed internet unaffordable or unavailable for many
Why People Fall for Conspiracy Theories: We all have brains that take shortcuts—the sooner we recognize that, the better
Evolution of Fatherhood: Most male mammals have nothing to do with their kids—why is our species different?

Hey there! Welcome back all.

This week I posted the following:

Memoir and the Creative Process - Follow-up to my post about mental health and depression. We don't always recognize the gifts we're given by suffering through difficult times until long after.
Today Is the Tomorrow We Should Have Prepared for Yesterday - A recent pub in Voices From The Middle on post-COVID education. We must use this crisis to re-center what we know to be most valuable: relationships that underpin learning.
Application for the WIRED Resilience Residency Program - I applied for the WIRED Resilience Residency but didn't make it past the first round. Sharing my application to promote open scholarship.

📺 Watch

My Analog Journal: The Creative Process

I love the My Analog Journal YouTube channel. It's basically like having a DJ show up in your house to play a set on a given theme or genre.

I also love process videos. In this video, they share the whole process of research, finding the records, recording, then finally releasing the video.

📚 Read

Critical Race Theory: Manufacturing a Moral Panic

Critical race theory has been studied for decades but received little attention until the past year, when conservatives adopted it as a catch-all term to demonize and discredit anti-racist movements that sprang up after George Floyd's murder.

Its academic context—chiefly concerned with endemic racism in American institutions and power structures—is being wielded to gin up a moral panic.

This resource from Shawna Coppola is a great primer for discussing these topics with others.

Is This The Big Tech Break-Up We've Been Waiting For?

With an ambitious package of Big Tech antitrust legislation, Congress is trying to restrain Big Tech power and stave off corporate consolidation.

The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act would effectively end tech giants' ability to make acquisitions.

This interview by Kara Swisher provides context on whether such a broad ban could have unintended consequences and lead to less competition, not more.

NTIA's Indicators of Broadband Need

We like to think of the internet as a supremely easy way to connect to people all over the world—and in many regards this is true. For many, though, high-speed broadband is either unaffordable or completely unavailable.

This interactive map from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) shows that the problem is much worse than we initially thought.

Why People Fall For Conspiracy Theories

Every one of us has a brain that takes shortcuts, makes assumptions, and works in irrational ways. The sooner we recognize that—and stop treating loved ones who have adopted conspiratorial beliefs as lost causes—the better we may be at curbing beliefs that threaten our democracy and public health.

We're all human after all.

Evolution of the Dad

Most male mammals have little or nothing to do with their kids. Why is our own species different?

Many mysteries remain about how human fathers evolved their peculiar, highly invested role, including the hormonal changes that accompany fatherhood. A deeper understanding of where dads came from—and why fatherhood matters for both fathers and children—could benefit families of all kinds.

🔨 Do

Remote Work Lessons to Carry Forward

Whatever the future of work holds, use lessons from the past year to get smarter about how you work and manage employees from home:

Get more intentional about the things you do
Hone your relationship-building skills
Show your team you trust them
Make writing skills your new superpower
Find out what individual employees need

🤔 Consider

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Plato

Plato's call for kindness connects to this issue's threads—the brains that fall for conspiracy theories working like all our brains, the moral panic manufactured rather than discovered, and the evolution of fathers who learned to invest in their children. We're all fighting something.

Previous: DL 293 • Next: DL 295 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

Media Literacy — CRT moral panic, conspiracy theory psychology
Pedagogy — Post-COVID education, remote work lessons
Civic Engagement — Big Tech antitrust, broadband access equity
Digital Wellbeing — Intentional work, relationship building
Philosophy — Plato on kindness, evolution of fatherhood