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Month: January 2018

Does social media play a role in "wealth culture"?

Does social media play a role in "wealth culture"?

This problem pre-dates social media but it is likely that social media has amplified some of its effects: “We’ve gone from a culture that prized hard work, frugality and discretion as the central tenets of the American Dream to a culture that prized celebrity, bling and narcissism.” Source: Sundance film documents ‘wealth culture’ addiction spiralling out of control – MarketWatch Television has played a big role in promoting celebrities.  Social media, especially Instagram but also Facebook, creates an environment for…

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In spite of the propaganda spin, it really does take 60 votes, not 51, to approve the Federal budget

In spite of the propaganda spin, it really does take 60 votes, not 51, to approve the Federal budget

Online, social media-based, for profit, fake news publisher Occupy Democrats sent out another false meme for viral distribution on social media. This item was shared into my Facebook news feed. The Republicans have a 52 seat majority in the Senate, with one absent for medical treatment, giving them a 51 seat majority. The problem with this propaganda is that due to Senate rules and how the political parties work in real life, it takes 60 votes, not 51. CSPAN understood…

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Facebooks fosters “me versus you” interaction

Facebooks fosters “me versus you” interaction

Interesting essay. The most subtle and interesting conflict of interest at the heart of Facebook is user vs user. The promise of the net was originally positive network effects — the more people on a network, the better off each would be, not additively, but multiplicatively. Think Wikipedia in its early days, maybe. Only today, we’re finding out that didn’t turn out to be true. On Facebook, especially, heavy users face significant forms of mental and emotional harm: they end up sadder,…

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Facebooks fosters "me versus you" interaction

Facebooks fosters "me versus you" interaction

Interesting essay. The most subtle and interesting conflict of interest at the heart of Facebook is user vs user. The promise of the net was originally positive network effects — the more people on a network, the better off each would be, not additively, but multiplicatively. Think Wikipedia in its early days, maybe. Only today, we’re finding out that didn’t turn out to be true. On Facebook, especially, heavy users face significant forms of mental and emotional harm: they end up sadder,…

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Net neutrality died, but not for the reasons people were protesting

Net neutrality died, but not for the reasons people were protesting

Net neutrality is gone and had nothing to do with FCC rules on net neutraliy. Google has or is in process of modifying their search systems so that web sites that do not support https secure access are moved down the list of search results. Further, Google has announced that the speed of the web site access will now become a factor in search results. These changes add costs to low end publishers or individuals wishing to run web sites…

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