TLDR 153

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 153

Published: 2018-06-08 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 153. Deep thoughts about screentime.

This week I posted the following:

Possible cultural & technological futures of digital scholarship - This post is a bit of a deep dive, but it sums up my thinking about the futures of scholarship and publishing, inspired by Indie Web philosophies. Watch the video abstract here.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Digital Scholarship Alternative Futures: Indie Web philosophies inspire rethinking how scholars publish and share work beyond traditional academic gatekeepers—examining possibilities for owning scholarly content on personal domains, publishing outside journal paywalls, connecting directly with audiences, and controlling presentation and distribution of research, challenges conventional academic publishing model where scholars give away copyright and public access gets restricted behind expensive subscriptions, proposing future where scholarly communication becomes more open, accessible, and controlled by creators rather than intermediaries extracting value from free academic labor.
Teen Social Media Platform Shift: 2018 Pew Research report shows YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat now dominate teen social media landscape with Facebook no longer the platform of choice—95 percent of teens have smartphone access and 45 percent describe being online "almost constantly," demonstrating fundamental shift in how young people connect and consume content with video and visual platforms eclipsing text-based social networking, raising questions about attention, mental health, privacy, and what near-constant connectivity means for development and well-being of generation that's never known life without smartphones.
Tech Manifesto for Data Rights: Baratunde Thurston articulates six citizen demands to Big Tech including real transparency around data collection and usage, changing defaults from open to closed, respecting right to own data, diversifying who's at decision-making tables, implementing new laws and rules, and enabling users to collect and analyze own data—manifesto represents growing recognition that current data practices serve corporate interests over user welfare, calling for fundamental restructuring of relationship between people and platforms where individuals regain control over personal information rather than serving as raw material for surveillance capitalism.
Higher Education Structural Challenges: Bryan Alexander analyzes ailing state of higher education without sensationalizing decline—examining enrollment pressures, financial constraints, demographic shifts, political attacks, technological disruptions, and changing workforce demands that threaten traditional institutional models, provides nuanced assessment of real challenges facing colleges and universities rather than simplistic "higher ed is dying" narratives, recognizing both serious problems requiring adaptive responses and continued value and resilience of educational institutions serving essential social functions even as they must evolve to remain viable and relevant.
Device Addiction as Design Feature: Apple's WWDC 2018 screentime monitoring features represent tacit admission that devices are intentionally designed to be addictive—notification systems, infinite scroll, variable rewards, and emotional manipulation techniques keep users engaged beyond their intentions or welfare, tech companies now offering tools to mitigate addiction they deliberately engineered raises questions about responsibility and whether incremental controls address fundamental business model built on capturing and monetizing attention, connecting to larger concerns about screentime, mental health, depression, and what constant digital connectivity does to human flourishing and social connection.
OER as Learning Not Teaching Resources: Stephen Downes reframes open educational resources debate by arguing OER should be thought of as learning resources not teaching resources—rather than expecting instructors to adopt OER materials in same way they use textbooks, better approach encourages students to find, share, and create open resources themselves, shifts focus from top-down adoption to bottom-up engagement recognizing students as active knowledge creators not just consumers, challenges conventional thinking about why OER hasn't achieved wider uptake by questioning assumptions about how open resources should function in educational contexts.

📺 Watch

What do programmers actually do? (9:19)

A great overview of the work of a programmer from the Physics Girl YouTube channel. This video does an excellent job explaining what programming involves beyond stereotypes of typing code in dark rooms—discussing problem-solving, collaboration, debugging, learning new tools, and the creative aspects of software development.

I'll use this in my classes to help explain to students what is involved in programming, demystifying the field and making it more accessible to those who might think coding isn't for them. The video is particularly strong in its intentionality about gender, race, and identity in tech, showing diverse programmers and challenging assumptions about who belongs in computing fields.

This kind of representation matters for expanding participation in technology careers and helping students from underrepresented groups see themselves as potential programmers.

📚 Read

Key findings from Pew Center's survey of U.S. teens conducted March 7 – April 10, 2018 (throughout the report, "teens" refers to those ages 13 to 17):

YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online "almost constantly"
Facebook is no longer the dominant online platform among teens, representing significant shift from just a few years ago when Facebook was the default social network
Teens have mixed views on the impact of social media on their lives, recognizing both benefits for connection and concerns about drama, pressure, and mental health
Vast majority of teens have access to a home computer or smartphone, with digital divide more about quality of access than basic availability
A growing share of teens describe their internet use as near-constant, with nearly half reporting they're online almost all the time
A majority of both boys and girls play video games, but gaming is nearly universal for boys at much higher rates than girls

Read the full report here. The topline notes are here.

A new tech manifesto

Six demands from citizen Baratunde Thurston to Big Tech:

Offer Real Transparency Around Data Collection and Usage - Users deserve to know exactly what data is collected, how it's used, and who has access
Change Data Defaults from Open to Closed - Privacy should be the default setting, not something users must seek out
Respect Our Right to Our Own Data - People should own and control their personal information, not surrender it as condition of participation
Diversify Who's At the Table - Decision-making about technology must include voices beyond homogeneous tech executives
Implement New Laws and New Rules - Self-regulation has failed; meaningful legal frameworks are needed
Enable Users to Collect and Analyze Our Own Data - Give people tools to understand and benefit from data about themselves

Want to expand on this draft manifesto? Contribute to this open source Google Doc with additional principles, demands, resources, and examples of progress being made.

Higher education is ailing. It hasn't been destroyed - yet.

Early in the week, I shared a post with the salacious title "Here's how higher education dies" from The Atlantic. The post resonated with many colleagues, but I'd much rather you read the link above from Bryan Alexander.

Alexander is cited in the Atlantic piece, but in his blog post he drills down into all the details that paint this sobering picture. Rather than sensationalizing decline, he provides nuanced analysis of real structural challenges: declining enrollment in some regions, financial pressures from decreased public funding, demographic shifts affecting traditional student populations, political attacks on academic institutions, technological disruptions to traditional delivery models, and changing workforce demands.

His analysis recognizes both serious problems requiring adaptive responses and the continued value of educational institutions serving essential functions. This balanced view is more useful than simplistic narratives about higher education's demise.

Apple's new product features are an admission of guilt

This week Apple held WWDC 2018, their yearly developer conference. Among the announcements, Apple spent significant time discussing annoyance and addiction mitigating features for its devices—screentime monitoring, notification controls, and tools to help users manage their device usage.

As the article notes: "It's not the first company to do so, either. The tyranny of devices has been covered before: notifications have become so addictive and apps so good at emotionally grabbing everyone by the balls that any time we are so fortunate as to emerge from the vortex for a second, the despair about being trapped in it the only way to solve it is to dive back in or run screaming into the night."

The irony of tech companies offering tools to mitigate problems they deliberately engineered through attention-capturing design raises fundamental questions about responsibility and whether incremental controls address underlying business models built on capturing and monetizing attention.

I've been thinking and writing quite a bit lately about screentime, addiction, and depression as it may be related to our digital connections. I should have a big research project coming out soon to dig in more. Stay tuned.

The uncertain future of OER

This post from Tom Berger in Edutopia questions why open educational resources (OER) have not caught on. In a world with budgetary constraints in our educational systems, you'd think that (mostly) free online resources would be enthusiastically adopted.

Stephen Downes's response is spot on: "My thinking here is that so long as you think of OERs as teaching resources, they're never going to work. They should be thought of as learning resources. Encourage students to find them, share them, and make them."

This reframing shifts focus from top-down adoption by instructors to bottom-up engagement by students. Rather than replacing textbooks with free alternatives using the same pedagogical model, reconceptualizing OER as learning resources recognizes students as active knowledge creators who can discover, curate, share, and even produce open educational content.

This led to a great discussion on Twitter as a group of us started thinking about this post and wondering why OER adoption and digital literacy is not more widespread. More to come on that topic.

🔨 Do

Hoaxy - Visualize the spread of claims and fact checking

I've been digging in more into data science recently. One suite of tools that has been fun to play with is the web-based tools called the Observatory on Social Media, or "OSoMe" (pronounced "awesome"). This is a joint project between the Indiana University Network Science Institute (IUNI) and the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (CNetS).

One of my favorite tools is Hoaxy. When we're all talking about FAKE NEWS, it can be helpful to search online and see where claims have been made and whether they've been fact-checked.

Hoaxy allows you to visualize how information spreads across social media, showing both the propagation of claims and the diffusion of fact-checking responses. You can see which accounts are sharing questionable information, how it spreads through networks, and whether corrective information reaches the same audiences.

This kind of data visualization makes visible the invisible dynamics of information spread, helping develop more sophisticated understanding of how misinformation circulates and how (or whether) corrections can effectively counter false claims once they've gained traction.

🤔 Consider

"Maybe that's enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go." — Anthony Bourdain

I've been thinking a lot about screentime, connection, balance, and depression as of late. This morning I saw a link from the CDC showing that suicides are on the rise in the U.S. Then I received news from my wife about one of my favorites in the world of food, education, and culture—Anthony Bourdain's death.

Bourdain's reflection on wisdom as the recognition of how much we don't know, how far we have to go, captures something essential about human vulnerability and the ongoing work of living thoughtfully. His insight resonates painfully with this issue's focus on screentime and mental health—in an era promising constant connectivity and instant answers, we're simultaneously more isolated and uncertain than ever. The devices that were supposed to bring us together may be driving us apart. The platforms designed to connect us might be exacerbating loneliness and depression. The always-on culture creates exhaustion masquerading as engagement.

There are no final answers here, no moment of smug clarity about technology's role in rising suicide rates or declining mental health. But perhaps wisdom begins with acknowledging the questions, sitting with the discomfort, recognizing that we're all small and uncertain and far from understanding how to live well with the tools we've created. Bourdain's life and death remind us that success, creativity, and connection don't inoculate against suffering—and that we need continued conversation about how to support each other through the journey rather than pretending we've arrived at enlightenment.

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🌱 Connected Concepts:

Digital Scholarship Futures — Indie Web philosophies inspire rethinking how scholars publish and share work beyond traditional academic gatekeepers—examining possibilities for owning scholarly content on personal domains, publishing outside journal paywalls, connecting directly with audiences, and controlling presentation and distribution of research, challenges conventional academic publishing model where scholars give away copyright and public access gets restricted behind expensive subscriptions while publishers profit from free academic labor, proposing future where scholarly communication becomes more open, accessible, and controlled by creators rather than intermediaries.
Teen Social Media Pew — 2018 Pew Research report shows YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat now dominate teen social media with Facebook no longer platform of choice—95 percent of teens have smartphone access and 45 percent describe being online almost constantly, demonstrating fundamental shift in how young people connect and consume content with video and visual platforms eclipsing text-based social networking, raising urgent questions about attention, mental health, privacy, digital citizenship, and what near-constant connectivity means for cognitive development and emotional well-being of generation never knowing life without smartphones.
Tech Manifesto Data Rights — Baratunde Thurston articulates six citizen demands to Big Tech including real transparency around data collection, changing defaults from open to closed, respecting right to own data, diversifying decision-makers, implementing new laws, and enabling users to collect and analyze own data—manifesto represents growing recognition that current practices serve corporate interests over user welfare, calling for fundamental restructuring where individuals regain control over personal information rather than serving as raw material for surveillance capitalism, open source document inviting community contribution to expand principles and track progress.
Higher Education Crisis — Bryan Alexander analyzes ailing state of higher education examining enrollment pressures, financial constraints from decreased public funding, demographic shifts affecting traditional student populations, political attacks on academic institutions, technological disruptions to delivery models, and changing workforce demands—provides nuanced assessment of real structural challenges rather than sensationalistic decline narratives, recognizing both serious problems requiring adaptive institutional responses and continued value of educational institutions serving essential social functions even as they must evolve to remain viable and relevant in rapidly changing environment.
Screentime Mental Health — Apple's WWDC 2018 screentime monitoring features represent tacit admission that devices are intentionally designed to be addictive—notification systems, infinite scroll, variable rewards, and emotional manipulation techniques keep users engaged beyond intentions or welfare, tech companies now offering tools to mitigate addiction they deliberately engineered raises questions about responsibility and whether incremental controls address fundamental business model built on capturing and monetizing attention, connecting to larger concerns about depression, rising suicide rates, and what constant digital connectivity does to human flourishing.
OER Learning Resources — Stephen Downes reframes open educational resources debate arguing OER should be thought of as learning resources not teaching resources—rather than expecting instructors to adopt OER materials same way they use textbooks, better approach encourages students to find, share, and create open resources themselves, shifts focus from top-down adoption to bottom-up engagement recognizing students as active knowledge creators not just consumers, challenges assumptions about why OER hasn't achieved wider uptake by questioning how open resources should function in educational contexts emphasizing learner agency.
Hoaxy Misinformation Tracking — Data visualization tool from Indiana University allowing users to see how claims and fact-checks spread across social media—visualizes both propagation of potentially false information and diffusion of corrective responses, showing which accounts share questionable content, how it spreads through networks, and whether fact-checking reaches same audiences, makes invisible dynamics of information spread visible helping develop sophisticated understanding of how misinformation circulates and whether corrections effectively counter false claims once they gain traction in networked information environment.

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