Posts Tagged ‘danah boyd’

18
Jul
2020

social media harms democracy

categories: social media

Pew research: Tech experts believe social media is harming democracy from r/technology

Many Tech Experts Say Digital Disruption Will Hurt Democracy

The years of almost unfettered enthusiasm about the benefits of the internet have been followed by a period of techlash as users worry about the actors who exploit the speed, reach and complexity of the internet for harmful purposes. Over the past four years – a time of the Brexit decision in the United Kingdom, the American presidential election and a variety of other elections – the digital disruption of democracy has been a leading concern.

Some think the information and trust environment will worsen by 2030 thanks to the rise of video deepfakes, cheapfakes and other misinformation tactics.

Power Imbalance: Democracy is at risk because those with power will seek to maintain it by building systems that serve them not the masses. Too few in the general public possess enough knowledge to resist this assertion of power.

EXPLOITING DIGITAL ILLITERACY

danah boyd, principal researcher at Microsoft Research and founder of Data & Society, wrote, “The problem is that technology mirrors and magnifies the good, bad AND ugly in everyday life. And right now, we do not have the safeguards, security or policies in place to prevent manipulators from doing significant harm with the technologies designed to connect people and help spread information.”

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more on social media in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=social+media

20
Apr
2016

social media in academia

categories: Bring Your Own Device BYOD, Digital literacy, educational technology, iPhone, mobile devices, mobile learning

Research: Social media has negative impact on academic performance

By Denny Carter, Managing Editor
April 17th, 2013
http://www.ecampusnews.com/uncategorized/research-social-media-has-negative-impact-on-academic-performance/
study released by researchers at The Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine shows a link between social media use and poor academic performance
My note: weak arguments by the managing editor
  • first: link to the Hospital Center, but not to the study; difficult to check the facts, which are discussed in the editorial.
  • title talks about “social media,” but it is not about social media, it is about texting. danah boyd and Eszter Hargittai are apparently not household names in the house of the managing editor
  • then the author jumps from one issue to another: mindfulness or contemplative computing, but h/she has no clue about these issues also.
    the research, which claims that social media (which is not social media, but more like BYOD + texting) has a negative impact on academic performance is no different the research that shows very positive impact of learning with social media. It is NOT about social media, it is about how it is used (methodology).
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More on contemplative computing in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=contemplative+computing

Also on the connection of mobile devices and sleep:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/04/09/sleep/