Today, we all swim in murky waters in which we’re constantly tracked, analyzed, and scored, without knowing what information is being collected about us, how it’s being weighted, or why it matters-much of it as irrelevant and inaccurate as the hearsay assembled during the early days of consumer reporting.Ĭredit Scores, Life Chances, and Algorithms It is the iron cage in binary code. How Companies Turn Your Facebook Activity Into a Credit Score Thousands of data brokers keep tabs on everything from social-media profiles and online searches to public records and retail loyalty cards they likely know things including (but not limited to) your age, race, gender, and income who your friends are whether you’re ill, looking for a job, getting married, having a baby, or trying to buy a home. Our supposedly algorithmic culture is not a material phenomenon so much as a devotional one, a supplication made to the computers people have allowed to replace gods in their minds, even as they simultaneously claim that science has made us impervious to religion. With 150 “Likes,” it could outsmart people’s families, and with 300 “Likes,” it could best a person’s spouse.ĭata Firm Says ‘Secret Sauce’ Aided Trump Many ScoffĪlgorithms – The Cathedral of Computation Here’s an exercise: The next time you hear someone talking about algorithms, replace the term with “God” and ask yourself if the meaning changes. How Facebook Knows You Better Than Your Friends Do In the end, the researchers found that with information on just ten Facebook “Likes,” the algorithm was more accurate than the average person’s colleague. (The imminent criminal indictment of Hillary Clinton was a popular theme another was the pope’s approval of Trump.) The sites’ ample traffic was rewarded handsomely by automated advertising engines, like Google’s AdSense.īlue Feed, Red Feed - Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side The Macedonian Teens Who Mastered Fake News the Macedonian town of 55,000 was the registered home of at least 100 pro-Trump websites, many of them filled with sensationalist, utterly fake news. Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Integrates legally-informed ratings with a browser extension. We are learning to be mindful of our Digital Tattoo, learning bits of " catfish literacy". The online world has always had its creepy elements. Then, join with another pair, and explain your partner's example to the group. Each take 2-3 minutes to ask the other partner about their example.
After a minute, you will be paired with a classmate. It could be a news story, or an experience you have had.
Excerpt from Hypernormalisation ( review)ĭo you feel we can know reality today? Why or why not? Take a minute to think of one or two examples that seem somehow representative of our sense of reality. Living in an Unreal World A Film By Adam Curtis.