The Curmudgeon Speaks

I spend a lot of my time reading and writing about the applications of technology. My primary focus is on education, but it is impossible to separate what tools such as online social media can do in the classroom from the more general impact these tools can have in society. Many of the tools or at least the humans developing these tools have motives that result in some negative consequences for users. I have been reading a lot recently about serveiliance capitalism. This is the collection of personal data that is the by product of the use of social media services and the use of these data for financial gain. The topics we write about. The things we “like”, comment on, or share and so forth provide information useful to others. These signals allow others to understand our interests and values and to use this information to manipulate us. To do this effectively, the collection of more data is always better. Social platforms are built to encourage more and more use to make this collection possible. We are easily encouraged by the same signals that offer information to companies. We like to get “likes”. We like to have online friends. We adapt our own online behavior accordingly. There is a cycle of interaction here between online profits and our increasing commitment to online activity.

One consequence of efforts to increase attention to our presence is the perception others might get that we are more interesting, exciting, or successful than they are. This encourages others to up their online game perpetuating this cycle, but also establishes impossible standards for personal accomplishments. This type of social comparison is inevitable, but can be damaging. Online presence tends to exaggerate real life. We seldom write about the mundane things that actually comprise most of our daily realities. Maybe we should. You may remember when the invitation for a Tweet was “what are you doing” and people who respond with what they were having for breakfast. We got away for such descriptions, but at least they were realistic.

I started to think about this while writing my travel blog. I enjoy sharing my life because I am fascinated by what I inexperience and I enjoy writing. I am at a time in life when I can do these things. Being this old is not a reflection of superiority, but a matter of good luck and good genes. I believe we all have interesting life experiences and should appreciate these personal experiences and I also wish others an appreciation for what they experience. If I am different than you, it is likely that I write about some of the things that happen to me as a hobby and you probably don’t. We process of our lives in different ways.

I had two slices of toast with Hawaiian honey for breakfast. What about you?

Use use the photos I take in several ways. I upload and organize some into sets in Flickr. These would be the best photos saved from individual trips or events. I pay $50 a year for this service.  I back up most of the photos I take to Google Photos. The free Google account does not save camera photos in full resolution but is unlimited and free. There is a paid service if you want to save full resolution images, but I don’t really need two such accounts. I constantly move photos and videos off my phone to keep space available. Both Flickr and Google Photos offer ways to share photos with friends and family or the public.

I store some images on my computers. My desktop computer has a large screen and this screen is perfect for showing off some of my best pictures. I will often leave my computer on when we have guests so they can view these images as they are randomly displayed. The technique I used was designed as a screen saver, but offers a great way to display your photos. The newest Macintosh operating system some very interesting options for screen savers. The photos they offer are spectacular, but I prefer to use my own. I like to use the option displayed below. This option displays a random set of photos from a set you designate and then brings one of these to full size.

This images is displayed for a length of time you set and then moves to another photo.

Some of the photos I select for my computer background images are probably not the type of photos many people take. I am looking for images that are interesting and what I consider artistic. These are not typically pictures of people. These photos either have a lot of blank space or a pattern that I think is interesting. This is what I want as a background while I work.

Here is a sample of images from this trip I think make good background material.

You can set a Mac to use different collections of photos for screen savers and backgrounds so this opportunity is great for the two purposes I address.

I have been reading Soshana Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism. This is a deep and challenging look at the collection of personal information by online and offline services and how it is being used. I recommend it or for those unwilling to invest the time to look for interviews with Zuboff.

Zuboff explains that radical behaviorism (e.g., Skinner) is a core component of the means by which surveillance capitalists, perhaps even without their understanding, seek to influence users and develop a business model. In thinking about how this works, I see a mix of what I recognize as learning models. Behaviorists manipulate behavior through consequences. The rewards that users experience are due to content which feeds their cognitive disposition to confirmation bias. Receiving content that fits your existing way of thinking is rewarding.

The Europeans have been much more aggressive objecting to online privacy violations and targeted “fake news”. This report was just released from Great Britain who has a specific interest in online meddling related to Brexit, but also interested in such topics as the political activities of Cambridge Analytica. The report provides details on the activities of Facebook and offers specific examples of how Facebook users were purposefully misled as to how data collected from their activities would be used.

I find the practice of “data reciprocity” as most concerning. Users should not assume that the information derived from their use of Facebook is used solely to target “more useful” ads within Facebook.

The analyses is this report is very current even covering the Apple/Facebook spat over the “research app” Facebook has released through Apple in January of 2019.

Spotify has announced that it intends to become a blog aggregator. So, instead of using RSS to identify the podcasts you want to follow, you may have to go through Spotify to listen/watch some podcasts.

This arrangement could offer financial incentives to both content creators and the music streaming service. In the future, some of the more popular podcasts may require that you be a Spotify subscriber to listen. In other cases, Spotify could add ads to other podcasts that it makes available to those who listen for free. Both the ads and the subscriber fees could provide a source of revenue for the content creators. If what is known about the compensation for musicians, the pay for play may not be substantial, but some may receive special incentives and all might receive something.

Buzzfeed is one of the more popular online “news” services. Despite reported revenue of $300 million in 2018. it has had to lay off 220 people. It is feared that the layoffs will harm the news gathering and investigative personnel investments made by the company. This has often been the trend in online “news” services causing them to resort to more opinion than news.

We already have too much opinion and too often this opinion is accepted as news. The free/ad-supported model of the Internet moving in this direction will leave us all less informed and probably more misinformed. This is what you get for free.

I maintain a separate travel blog. We are presently spending time in Hawaii. You might find it interesting.

These are a treat we discovered last year when visiting Honolulu. They are called Malasada and are fried dough of some type with various toppings and fillings. We took an Uber to find this shop that was supposedly the best in Honolulu and bought a dozen. I would rate the food truck (Manuela’s Malasada) we discovered here even better. I think this was because the ones we sampled here were served hot after just being made so this probably has something to do with how good they tasted. The fruit fillings made with fruits from the island are most popular, but I had Bavarian Creme. The two Malasada at the top of the photo were mine. Reviews I read afterwards online also singled out the Bavarian Creme as a particular favorite.

It seems to me many cultures have a variation of some type of fried dough. Native American fry bread with powdered sugar seems very similar. Natasha, one of our Russian friends now living in the U.S., saw my photo and said that something like this is made in Russia and is called a “ponchike”. She and her husband are coming to visit us here and she said she will make some for us. Having sampled her creations on multiple occasions, I can say she is a creative and gifted cook and baker so we will certainly enjoy her creations when she visits.

The Brave browser is unknown to most but it offers some very interesting features. First, it blocks ads and scripts that are a challenge to privacy.  As a general practice, I am not a fan of blocking ads because this behavior subverts the desires of authors who provide content with the assumption readers/viewers will be exposed to ads. Brave addresses this problem, but providing a mechanism by which users can compensate content providers. Brave users decide on a monthly contribution and this contribution is divided among content producers weighted by the time the viewer spends on a given site.

Idealistic? I suppose, but something is going to have to give in our present situation. We should not expect something for nothing and we should not have to trade personal information to pay for the content we view. Micropayments seem a reasonable solution.

To receive payments from Brave, you have to register your site. As a user, I am informed which sites are registered and which are not. I was surprised to learn that the NYTimes is not registered.

I don’t pay for the Times, but I do have an online subscription to my local paper (Star Tribune). The Times allows 10 article views per month for free. The combination of 10 Times article and full access to a local quality paper works for me.

Why not also cash in and support the model Brave is developing? Major publishers are caught. They need funds to maintain quality and any news is good enough for many. I understand the Times probably does not want to expand the 10 free article limit as it probably cannot trust consumers to micro pay. I wish they would at least verify the Brave option as an endorsement of this model.