Uncommon Sense: the This is True Podcast

Uncommon Sense: the This is True Podcast


018: Big Brother and the “Online Challenge”

January 17, 2019

Special Note: This episode is running out of order since it’s very timely, and becoming a news story. It was recorded yesterday, after Episode 17 was recorded (as promised, that one is about how to develop Uncommon Sense). So I’m swapping the order, putting #18 out not only before #17, but on Thursday instead of next Monday. Episode 17 will come out at the “regular time” on January 28.
In This Episode: The “challenges” we see on Facebook: just a bit of fun? A way to share of yourself to your friends? But when you “challenge” the challenge by applying some Uncommon Sense, you might not want to play along.

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Show Notes

* The New York Times on the 2011 Facebook/FTC settlement.
* Tech Republic outlines various Facebook privacy scandals.
* Kate O’Neill’s Wired article, Facebook’s ‘10 Year Challenge’ Is Just a Harmless Meme — Right?
* O’Neill’s book, Tech Humanist: How you can make technology better for business and better for humans.
* Update: on January 18, the Washington Post reported that the Federal Trade Commission is “discussing” imposing a “record-setting fine” on Facebook. The previous record was a paltry $22.5 million against another Big Brother — the one I talked about at the end: Google, in 2012.

Transcript
The “challenges” we see on Facebook: just a bit of fun? A way to share of yourself to your friends? As I record this, the latest “challenge” on Facebook is sweeping the social platform: post your photo from 10 years ago next to one from now to show how you’ve changed in a decade. Sounds like fun: “everybody” is doing it! But when you “challenge” the challenge by applying some Uncommon Sense, you might not want to play along.
Welcome to Uncommon Sense, I’m Randy Cassingham.
We never know where these things start: someone gets an idea, posts it, and it resonates with their friends: they post it too, and — with the “seven degrees of separation” concept fully engaged — before long “everyone” sees it. At least, everyone on that particular social platform. Although, such challenges can spread between platforms too: this one seems to be running on Instagram too, which is a subsidiary of Facebook, and Twitter, which isn’t a subsidiary of Facebook …yet.
No, I’m not talking about the incredibly obliviotic “Bird Box Challenge” that’s also been going on lately: that’s based on the horror film Bird Box, a “Netflix Original” released in December about people driven to suicide by seeing …something!, so the characters blindfold themselves as they move around — a cinematic exploration of the blind leading the blind. Great: in our “monkey see, monkey do” culture?!
Indeed: the bird-brained online “challenge” is to do it in rea...