Lack of Privacy, Fake News, and Customization in the Age of Information: What to Know When Engaging with the Digital
By Karina Rodriguez March 15, 2021
In an interview conducted via FaceTime, *EMILY VASQUEZ, a third grader residing in Redwood City, CA, said that when she is not learning online, she spends her time playing.
“I play hide and seek with friends in the backyard, or I go on Tik Tok with my little brother, or my cousins... and sometimes even by myself,” said Vasquez.
When asked why she had not set her Tik Tok account to private, Vasquez responded that it was because “nobody can see your videos.”
However, various experts within the realm of digital media explain how the 9 year old’s justification, while understandable, is simply untrue.
The misinformation and societal fears associated with social media and technology more generally, is a complex set of issues that can be traced back to the dawn of time. Nowadays, people are concerned with the ways new media threatens the privacy of individuals, protects anonymity, and restricts equal access to accurate information.
When asked about her social media usage more specifically, Vasquez listed having accounts for various platforms including but not limited to Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Roblox. She admitted to having more applications downloaded on other devices, but could not remember the names of them.
DR. STEPHEN BARLEY, an Organizational Theorist teaching in the Technology Management Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, does not have any social media.
“Do you count email and text,” asked Barley in a Zoom interview.
When questioned about his abstention from social media, Barley said he has “never had the need.” In a world where Google exists, and as an academic figure, Barley makes himself accessible to anyone who “goes through the trouble to find” him.
So then who goes through the trouble of finding us, and how do they do it?
According to ANDREW SALZMAN, an investor andgrowth-strategy advisorfor tech-based companies around the globe, the answer could be startup businesses looking to “cross the chasm,” – a common phrase used among marketing specialists to describe the transition from selling to early adopters to mainstream consumers.
Graphic related to organizational theorist, Geoffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to the mainstream.
The financially successful companies that Salzman has advised over the years (i.e Google, LinkedIn, Nest, Mitsubishi Electric, etc.) all shared the “ability to anticipate behavior” through a process commonly referred to as data mining.
Personalized data sharing settings and disclaimers from Tik Tok (left) and Instagram (right) applications.
The act of data mining is “essentially the holy grail in the currency from which great insights spring forth,” said Salzman. In other words, companies successful in crossing the chasm have “massive amounts of information, ask the right queries, and use the right algorithms in order to extract nuggets from the noise,” said Salzman.
The results of this data mining and algorithm programming can be seen in everyday experiences. Salzman gave the example of a pregnant woman receiving ads from Target for diapers 6 months prior to her due date, based on her digital traces.
Twitter meme depicting tech companies eavesdropping..
Barley, however, described more troubling applications, which are “most clear in Artificial Intelligence systems built to help police.” These systems, such asfacial recognition camerasor judicial systems that predict the likeliness of a criminal’s re-offense, have been found to disproportionately affect people of color.
Beyond AI, “there is a huge social issue with how new media is evolving,” said Salzman. With a degree in psychology, Salzman then went on to describe the “dark side” of media wherein data mining is “manipulating behavior and manipulating attitudes.”
The issue lies within a “tightly coupled system” within the current digital infrastructure, said Barley. In this system, a handful of vertically integrated media conglomerates maintain control over consumers and the information with which they are presented.
The shift towards customization and automation fuels this system, Salzman explained, “feeding people more of what they want,” and perhaps more accurately, “what they pay for.”
“Top Picks” category on Netflix recommending shows based watch history.
Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” playlist based on listening history.
Despite the increase in customization, the data bodies built from our clicks and searches are “not a full picture of who you are,” said DR. ALENDA CHANG, an interdisciplinary scholar and professor of Digital Theory at UCSB.
However, there is still little-to-no control when it comes to how our data is used by media and technology companies once we give it to them. Additionally, “most people don’t have the financial or legal resources to wage those wars,” said Chang.
To this lack of control, Barley said that while he “can’t stop them,” he can certainly “make it harder for them.” He does so by using a variety of technological strategies, such as only accessing the internet using a virtual private network or utilizing password managers.
“I say it [social media] is good in the sense that it’s a distraction,” said SHESELL RENTERIA, a recently graduated UCSB alumna living in Ventura, CA with her boyfriend and four-year-old son.
Renteria graduated in Winter of 2020, just before the California lockdown. Originally a pre- biology major, she switched to Sociology after getting pregnant the summer going into her sophom*ore year. The switch towards a career in social work came from not being able to keep up with the labs due to ultrasound appointments, as well as the desire to spend time with her child in place of daycare.
“It was the worst time to graduate,” said Renteria. At first, she acquired a job at HomeGoods, but the lockdown left her jobless not long after starting.
Then Renteria came across a job posting on Facebook.
Eexamples of job postings within the UCSB“Free & For Sale”group page.
She began working for the Santa Barbara School District as a temporary assistant. During the hot summer months, Renteria worked assembling hot spots, configuring iPads, and assisting bilingual families over the phone with thetransition to remote learning.
Boxes of iPads waiting to be configured and distributed at the Santa Barbara School District, summer 2020.
“They felt really lost,” said Renteria. Families, primarily from minority groups, struggled with turning on updates from the school, logging into Gmail accounts, and their students being marked absent when Zoom would “randomly kick them out of class,” explained Renteria.
Meanwhile SARAH LOPEZ, an anonymous Facebook employee, said her work transition “was literally overnight.”
Lopez grew up in a blue-collar family of immigrants on the bay area peninsula. Being the youngest of 5, she was always “taught to work hard,” and spent most of her time focusing on academics. After attending small private schools all her life, Lopez felt a massiveculture shockonce she got to Stanford University.
“It was the first time I felt my ethnicity,” said Lopez.
With a degree in Sociology, Lopez first worked for startups as the tech boom expanded the Silicon Valley around 1998. Lopez then spent a few years working for nonprofits in the city of Menlo Park before eventually landing a spot on a “misinformation team” with Facebook.
As a people manager, Lopez then switched to working in the “trust and safety space” for Facebook. The switch was a personal choice. The new position was more aligned with Lopez’s operational skillset and frankly, “not as heavy on the world,” said Lopez.
Facebook billboard right outside of headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.
Lopez has two children, both currently enrolled in private schools.
The youngest does not have social media, but even in videogames, Lopez said she is “so particular about them being on private for everything.”
Reason being that the accessibility offered by the internet just makes it easier for “people to not have to mind their manners and hide behind a screen,” said Lopez. She also said that more and more apps are promoting secrecy, which enables this kind of behavior further because kids are unwilling to talk about online social interactions with their parents.
Besides these worries, the bulk of Lopez’s concerns are mainly associated with her parents – who often use social media “incorrectly,” said Lopez, making them more vulnerable to scammers, hackers, and mistaking false information as true.
“People today are bombarded with a constant stream of information,” said Barley. This makes it difficult to process the constant stream and distinguish fact from hearsay.
PAYTON SMALLS, a graduate student studying social psychology, connected the phenomena to the ideas behind Cultivation Theory. This theory describes how consistent messaging creates a “normative experience” among individuals, essentially standardizing which messages should be taken as fact and further, which kinds of behaviors are deemed acceptable within a technological space.
Barley made reference to the recent attacks at the capital, exclaiming that the overwhelming amount of photo and video evidence across the media made it “hard to say that the capital wasnotstormed,” yet there were still many Americans attempting to dispute this undisputable fact.
Americansstorming the United States capitol, January 6, 2021.
Journalists attempt to cultivate truth in the same manner of gathering corroborating evidence, while also maintaining objectivity through transparency. Barley, however, is concerned with the ways in which this coupled system has clouded transparency over the years.
“We need to teach how to vet sources, but also how to find them,” said Chang.
Chang also emphasized the need for rewarding investigative work and those who “speak the language that can raise the right questions.”
By this, Chang is referring to the digital divide between communities based on socio economic differences such as the ones Renteria’s experience at the school district exhibit.
With a Doctorate in Rhetoric and a background in teaching English, Chang said there is often a “simplistic approach” when it comes to media literacy, education, and attempting to close the technological gap.
“We can’t just magically whisk people into equalitywith a devicebecause they still need the social and economic uplift to go with it,” said Chang.
However, Chang also emphasized the need to “avoid making value judgements” about new media, for the dichotomy of good versus bad alone can lead to devastating polarization.
“There has never been a more important time to connect,” exclaimed Smalls.
When commenting on technology’s ability to offer connection, Lopez mentioned how despite not being able to hug her mom in over a year, social media has allowed them to video chat almost everyday.
Renteria also uses Facebook as a means to connect with family that still live in Mexico.
Chang talks to her father in Taiwan using a South Korean platform called Line, and occasionally WhatsApp.
“It’s all a balance,” said Lopez.
With parents, students, and teachers all transitioning to remote lifestyles during the COVID-19 pandemic, access to the internet and digital media has become the glue keeping individuals across the globe connected during a state of quarantine and isolation, but social media as a “vector for misinformation” might be causing more harm than help, said Smalls.
“I try to make my media diet pretty slim,” said Chang, but as “someone who is never desensitized to media content,” she still encourages her own son to interact with new media in order to promote creativity and critical thinking.
The deepest concerns mainly come from the anonymity of the digital, according to Chang, but still she emphasized the importance of keeping open communication when it comes to social media, and playingwithyour children, both in digital and analog forms.
“You have to see what it is that they’re doing before you make a judgement,” said Chang.
Chang hosting a Twitch livestream as she plays Among Us with her students in real-time.
Renteria allows her child to use an iPad to watch Kids YouTube, where she has enabled parental locks, but limits his screen time and takes the device away at night.
“If you are addicted to it, I feel like it ruins relationships,” said Renteria.
When asked to describe her various uses for the media she interacts with, a joyful smile quickly emerged on Vasquez’s face. She could hardly sit still while listing all the ways she used the technology that is available to her.
These uses varied from “seeing family pics” during remote-schooling time designated for recess, to “watching Burrito-Blanket girl” and learning funny dances while bonding with her father, who shares equal custody with Vasquez’s mother. Ureña also enjoys playing Just Dance with her mom and younger brother, following science experiment videos while on FaceTime with her aunt, and creating YouTube videos about her daily adventures.
References
Infographic courtesy of Researcher Sonja Utz’sslideshare.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Alfrey, Lauren, and France Winddance Twine. “Gender-Fluid Geek Girls: Negotiating Inequality Regimes in the Tech Industry.” Gender & Society, vol. 31, no. 1, Feb. 2017, pp. 28–50, doi:10.1177/0891243216680590.
Betul Keles , Niall McCrae & Annmarie Grealish (2020) A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25:1, 79-93, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851
Nee, Rebecca C, and Robert E Gutsche. "Youthquakes in a Post-Truth Era: Exploring Social Media News Use and Information Verification Actions Among Global Teens and Young Adults."Journalism & Mass Communication Educator74.2 (2019): 171-84. Web.
Şişman, Başak, and Özge Uluğ Yurttaş. “An Empirical Study on Media Literacy from the Viewpoint of Media.”Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 174, 2015, pp. 798–804., doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.662.
Sood S. Psychological effects of the Coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. RHiME. 2020;7:23-6.
INTERNET NEWS ARITCLES
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/06/alexa-has-been-eavesdropping-you- this-whole-time/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-13/online-learning-fails-low-income-students- covid-19-left-behind-project
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2020/06/26/there-isnt-enough-privacy-on-social-media- and-that-is-a-real-problem/?sh=714b8a9e44f1
HYPER-LINKED WEBSITES
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_school_district_ipads_students_techequity_pr ogram
https://www.slideshare.net/ACSMVU/context-collapse-on-social-media-implications-for- interpersonal-and-marketing-communication
https://www.philanthropydaily.com/the-spectacular-failure-of-one-laptop-per-child/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55575260
https://www.irisadvisors.co/author/andrew/
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/7/18/20698307/facial-recognition-technology-us- government-fight-for-the-future
https://news.stanford.edu/pr/94/940920Arc4131.html
INTERVIEWEES (in order of appearance)
*names have been changed to ensure confidentiality Emily Vasquez*, 9 year old student from Redwood City CA
Alenda Chang, Rhetoric, Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, UCSB Professor Shesell Renteria, Sociology, B.A., UCSB alumna
Sarah Lopez*, Facebook Employee, Redwood City CA
Payton Smalls, Social Psychology, B.S., UCSB Graduate Student
Stephen Barley, Organization Studies, Ph.D. from Michigan Institute of Technology, UCSB professor
Andrew Salzman, Business investor and growth strategy specialist, Iris Advisors
