TLDR 123

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 123

Published: 2017-11-11 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 123. Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

Feel free to share with someone that you believe would benefit. If you haven't already, please subscribe to make sure this comes to your inbox each week. You can review archives of the newsletter or on Medium.

This week I posted the following:

Developing Digital and Media Literacies in Children and Adolescents - This piece from Pediatrics finally was published. We wrote this last spring, but the review/editing process took very long. Nevertheless, I think it helps provide a comprehensive, yet concise overview of the complexities in this area. Definitely give it a read.
Understanding key differences between divergent & convergent thinking - This post provides a quick overview of the differences between convergent and divergent thinking. It also contextualizes this in education and creativity.
Control your controllables - This post discusses flow, locus of control, and goal setting behaviors.
Video: Using Screen Captures to Help Communicate Your Message - This video...and the next one on screencasts shares the philosophy behind using these practices to show, as opposed to tell, when communicating online. After these videos, I'll start to dive into the tools to make this happen.
Video: Using Screencasts to Help Communicate Your Message

Feel free to keep in touch by sending me a note at hello@wiobyrne.com or on the socials at wiobyrne.

🔖 Key Takeaways

I Like Clip Embedded: I'm trying to find a full version of this interview. I like the clip embedded above because it goes into more detail about Parker's thinking on the role of these digital texts and tools in society...and our children's minds.
Take Some Time: This story can take a bit of time to fully comprehend. Please take some time to click through the two or three links I shared here to get the full idea of what is happening.
Sadly Video Only Available: Watch the 25 minute video here. Sadly...the video is only available on Facebook.
I'm Wondering How: Given the amount of power that these tech giants have...and the questions about their use of this power...I'm wondering how might this go horribly wrong.
Take Some Time Review: Take some time to review the steps to protect yourself as detailed in the post.
Absolutely Devastating: When students are led to believe they are gifted, or they have a "math brain" or they are "smart" and later struggle, that struggle is absolutely devastating.

📺 Watch

Sean Parker on Facebook: You're Exploiting vulnerability in human psychology

The video of this interview with Sean Parker on Axios made a lot of buzz this past week. The full video has not made it on to YouTube, and the video I embedded above may be taken down at some point from YouTube.

Click here to read some of the transcripts. Click here for the video on Axios.

I'm trying to find a full version of this interview. I like the clip embedded above because it goes into more detail about Parker's thinking on the role of these digital texts and tools in society...and our children's minds.

📚 Read

YouTube accused of "violence" against young children over kids' content

YouTube has been accused of "infrastructural violence" against children due to its role in the creation of vast quantities of low-quality, disturbing content aimed at pre-schoolers.

James Bridle, a campaigning technology-focused artist and writer, documented the way the video platform's algorithmic curation drives enormous amounts of viewers to content made purely to satisfy those algorithms as closely as possible.

This story can take a bit of time to fully comprehend. The basic idea here is that you cannot trust the content and algorithms that are piping video content to our children. Please take some time to click through the two or three links I shared here to get the full idea of what is happening.

As regular readers of TL;DR, you know how much we love YouTube in our house. This string of posts has resulted in major changes in our content consumption.

Al Franken just gave the speech big tech has been dreading

We've slowly been heading to this realization about the role and regulation of tech giants in our society.

Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) delivered some of the sharpest criticism yet about the dangers of tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon during a speech on Wednesday, encouraging regulators, as well as lawmakers in both parties, to better police the market power of dominant online platforms.

The full text of the speech is available here. Watch the 25 minute video here. Sadly...the video is only available on Facebook.

Facebook asks users for nude photos in project to combat revenge porn

As a possible response to tackling the scourge of revenge porn, Facebook is giving people an opportunity to give some power to users that might be vulnerable.

The project is being piloted in Australia now, and has individuals uploading nude photos of themselves to Facebook Messenger. These photos are hashed, which means that Facebook converts the image into a digital fingerprint that can be used to identify and block future attempts to re-upload the same image.

The approach has many similarities with how Silicon Valley companies tackle child abuse material, but with a key difference—there is no already-established database of non-consensual pornography. According to a Facebook spokesperson, Facebook workers will have to review full, uncensored versions of nude images first, volunteered by the user, to determine if malicious posts by other users qualify as revenge porn.

Given the amount of power that these tech giants have...and the questions about their use of this power...I'm wondering how might this go horribly wrong.

So what the hell is doxxing?

We are increasingly seeing online "cyberattacks" against individuals and institutions. As these attacks gain more notoriety, it is important for you to know what they are...and how to protect yourself.

Doxxing is short for "dropping documents" and is an increasingly common form of an online weapon used to attack people. For a better understanding of what one of these attacks might look like, read this post from ProPublica.

Take some time to review the steps to protect yourself as detailed in the post.

Rethinking Giftedness Film

This video is a product of YouCubed, under the direction of Jo Boaler. The film (available here on Vimeo) examines the positive and negative implications of labeling, especially at a young age, in our classrooms.

When students are led to believe they are gifted, or they have a "math brain" or they are "smart" and later struggle, that struggle is absolutely devastating. Students who grow up thinking that they have a special brain often drop out of STEM subjects when they struggle. At that time students start to believe they were not, after all, gifted, or that the gift has "run out" as one of the students in our film reflects.

🔨 Do

I absolutely love the Crafty Text Chrome extension. Thanks to Richard Byrne for sharing this.

There's tons of times that I'm teaching and need to quickly share some text over the display with students. In my videos, I also want a better way to zoom in and show the URL...or a bit of text. This is a tool to quickly do just that.

I'll have a video out soon on this...but wanted to share it with you here first.

🤔 Consider

"There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question." — Carl Sagan

In a week where we confront uncomfortable truths—from Facebook's exploitation of human psychology to YouTube's algorithmic failures harming children—we need more people willing to ask "naive" questions like "Is this okay?" Sagan reminds us that genuine curiosity and the courage to question accepted practices are essential to understanding, and ultimately changing, the systems we've built.

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🌱 Connected Concepts:

Persuasive Design Ethics — Sean Parker's admission that Facebook exploits "vulnerability in human psychology" through dopamine-driven feedback loops reveals founding premise was engagement maximization regardless of wellbeing, raising urgent questions about persuasive design ethics and whether profit-driven platforms can self-regulate addiction mechanics designed into their architectures.
Algorithmic Content Moderation — YouTube accused of "infrastructural violence" as algorithmic curation drives viewers to low-quality disturbing content made purely to satisfy algorithms, with James Bridle documenting how platform optimization for engagement creates perverse incentives generating exploitative children's content that cannot be trusted, prompting major consumption changes even in tech-savvy households.
Platform Antitrust — Senator Al Franken's sharpest criticism yet of Facebook, Google, Amazon urges regulators and lawmakers to police market power of dominant platforms, arguing concentration threatens competition, innovation, privacy, and democratic discourse, with irony that 25-minute speech video only available on Facebook itself.
Non-Consensual Content — Facebook's Australian pilot asking users to upload nude photos for hashing raises questions about trust and power: while content fingerprinting parallels child abuse approaches, requiring Facebook workers to review uncensored images first creates vulnerability, prompting question "how might this go horribly wrong" given platform's track record.
Growth Mindset Education — YouCubed film exposes devastation of giftedness labeling: when students believe they're "gifted" or have "math brain" then struggle, they often drop out of STEM thinking gift "ran out," demonstrating how fixed-mindset labels create fragility while growth-mindset approaches build resilience through embracing challenge and learning from failure.

Part of the 📧 Newsletter archive documenting digital literacy and technology.