Looking Deeply at a Social Problem
media & tech
Getting at the Roots of Cyberbullying
By Alexandra Muñiz
I remember not wanting to attend school and having anxiety attacks as I arrived to campus each day. I remember having stomach aches at lunch time and wanting to shrink down so that I wouldn’t be judged. Eventually I mustered up the courage to talk to the principal about the issue and they very quickly brought in the girl and we discussed it with our school’s mental health advisor. I was honestly very impressed with how swiftly the issue was dealt with. California has laws set to combat cyberbullying but oftentimes the issues are left on the back burner because they do not see it as a pressing issue. Luckily for me, my high school resolved the issue quickly and quietly, unfortunately the same cannot be said for Mallory Grossman.
Many Eyes Watching Me
By Jiaming Zheng
A real, creepy experience happened to me recently. As usual, I got together with my buddies. We talked about everything, about our lives. The evening at the party was as pleasant as ever. When I got home and turned on my phone, my quick swiping hands stopped when I saw the ads that my browser had pushed so closely to tonight's topic: The shoes I want to buy, the gift I'm picking out for my girlfriend's Valentine's Day, and the hotel advertisement for my friend's trip to Macau. I nervously looked back at the room where I knew there was no living thing, but I could feel many weird eyes watching me. I suddenly realized how funny I was. I was like a naked man lying in a confined space full of cameras. It scares me a lot.
The Story of Their Liking
By Anonymous
After my interactions (liking and commenting) with many posts; my feed drastically shaped according to my political stance and views. It kept showing me what I wanted to see and listen to. I realized that this was the constant satisfaction social media users were receiving by viewing feed that represented one side of the story; the story of their liking.
A Breach in Our Trust
By Ankush Vangari
Data is more powerful than people think and companies like Cambridge Analytica have the power to sway the presidential election since there are no laws enforced against it. The power they hold is immensely danger because they are using our data for their private gain rather than common good.
The Virus of Misinformation
By Sean Tran
I kept a keen eye on the news that happened after that day and noticed that acts of violence and harassment began emerging from all sorts of areas and communities. This observation of a greater surge in discriminatory attacks targeting Asians, not only in America, but throughout the world, transformed my fear into anger at the system that has the potential to sway the opinions of many with misinformation. These sentiments are derived from where? The media. The issue that lies here is that the public relies on the media to learn about the situations around the world, to further their knowledge with current events. This gives a lot of power to the media and their word can irreparably solidify one’s opinion on a certain topic. What does this mean.
In the Dead Center, Looking Around
By Justin Mulligan
“I'm not on the outside looking in. I'm not on the inside looking out. I'm in the dead fucking center, looking around” (Lamar, 2011). My generation is unique. We were born just in time to witness the early stages of a new defining era in human history - the information age. The coming of new technology would allow virtually anyone to be connected to each other at all times, no matter where you were. For the generations that came shortly before us, this idea was both exciting and frightening. We’ve seen the effects of rapid information spread and the paradigm shifts they’ve caused before, whether it be the creation of the printing press, the establishment of the United States Postal Service, or the boom of radio and television. All examples echo a truth that we as a species have come to realize: information is power. That raises the question: if the internet spreads information and information is power, who gets to control it? What are the pitfalls that we have to look out for, given this huge responsibility? What will happen to future generations if we ignore these pitfalls.
Surveillance Capitalism
By Anonymous
Most of today’s data scientists work for the leading surveillance capitalists – who will inevitably feed further into this hegemonic system, rather than applying the power of data science to solve the problems that it can. They feed the ‘second gilded age’, not one of industrial capitalists, fed by cheap labor, but one of surveillance capitalists, fed by cheap data. By “owning” the data of their consumers, they force the rest of back into a “dark age” of knowledge, where the only source of insight and analytics are the surveillance capitalists, who use this power to only further their own position.
In an Effort to Code for Good
By Anonymous
As much as this has been a critique on the industry and those who benefit from it, it is also a critique on myself, as someone who has learned to navigate and succeed within it. The exploration of these ideas have prompted me to ask several questions - whether or not this is a future I want, whether or not it’s possible to make a change in a machine as large and overwhelming as Silicon Valley. I don’t have a clear answer, but one truth that I have converged on is that as long as I am able to hold onto these ideas, there is still hope that change is possible. It’s not obvious what the most effective way forward is, but there will always be people out there that will support efforts to code for good.
A Profit-Oriented Media System
By Anonymous
By focusing on maximizing profits our media system has turned into a business. If we look at the common goals of businesses from different industries, we see that profits are always put first, before anything else including ethics and public good. In the media, specifically the news media, ethics and the public good need to be a priority for biases and narratives to be minimized. If we continue to allow for our media system to be run like a business, we risk conforming to the biases and narratives that corporations want to push onto us.
See Through the Noise
By Brendan Chou
The contemporary American lifestyle involves a frequent overload of information that burdens the senses, affecting both body and mind in a way that holds serious implications on quality of life.
Socio-Pathological Beauty Standards
By Coco Liao
Social media such as YouTube and Instagram are also aggressively promoting this abnormal beauty standard to girls. They play the role of an accomplice that brainwashes people’s minds. There are a large number of YouTubers who have hundreds of subscriptions and thousands of playbacks. For example, Pony is one of the most popular bloggers in South Korea. She has 5.37 million subscribers on YouTube and 6.8 million followers on her Instagram. She provides fancy tutorials on how to apply makeup. On the Instagram, before posting a selfie, girls need to wear makeup, to find the angles for better photos. After shooting the picture, they use photoshop to make them more perfect. They barely upload the “unprocessed” photos. Girls are bombarded with these kinds of information all day long. Under the influence of beauty standards, it causes social inequality.