Category: social media

Youngsters outsourcing their mental effort to technology…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI, Change, Education, Human Resources, Information Technology, Risk, social media, Wellbeing

Live Aid happened on Saturday 13th July 1985. If you were a young adult then, do you remember what you were doing when the concert happened? Were you there? Did you watch it live on television? The Badger had his hands full that day doing some home renovations while having a one-year-old baby in the house. He thus only saw snippets of the televised live concert. Last weekend, however, he made up for it by watching the highlights broadcast to celebrate the concert’s 40th anniversary.

Watching the highlights brought home why the music at the concert has stood the passage of time. It was delivered by talented people with great skill and showmanship without today’s cosseting production techniques and tech wizardry. What struck a chord most, however, was the enthusiasm of the Wembley Stadium crowd, the vast majority of whom are now grandparents in, or facing, retirement! People in that crowd had none of the internet access, smartphones, or online services we take for granted today. In 1985 the UK’s first cellular telephone services were only just being introduced by Cellnet and Vodafone, and ‘home computing’ meant the likes of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the BBC Micro. A far cry from today! Furthermore, those in that crowd represent a generation that thought for themselves and didn’t have their minds dulled by reliance on digital technology and internet-based online services. Their grandchildren, on the other hand, only know life based around the internet, and they often seem oblivious to the likelihood that their reliance on online things like social media might be dulling their minds, nudging them towards a passivity of thought, and perhaps ultimately causing atrophy of their brain.  

Concern about technology dulling human minds isn’t new. In 370 BC, for example, Socrates worried that writing would erode a person’s memory!  With AI endlessly expanding, however, the potential for today’s youngsters to completely outsource mental effort to technology seems very real. More and more  scientific evidence shows  that while the human brain is highly adaptable, digital immersion changes attentiveness, the way we process information, and decision-making. Some brain functions weaken due to digital immersion, others evolve, but the Badger thinks that when our digital world provides instant answers, the joy and effort of discovery through independent thought is dwindling. Always available digital content at our fingertips means fragmented attention spans and contemplation and reflection taking a back seat,  especially for youngsters with no life-experience without today’s online world.

Watching the 40th anniversary highlights thus did more than provide a reminder of the great music of that day. It brought home the fact that today’s  grandparents have something precious – a lived experience of independent thought and contemplation without an overreliance on our digital world. It feels, however, that their grandchildren are progressively outsourcing their mental effort to ever more advanced digital technology which, this grandfather senses, doesn’t augur well for the human race…

A career as a TikTok/Instagram influencer?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Education, Information Technology, Learning, social media

If a student says they intend to develop a career as a social media influencer on TikTok, Instagram (and other platforms), and they ask your opinion on their intent, what would you say? The Badger was put on the spot and asked this question during a discussion with a sizeable group of University students midway through their degree courses. Most in the group were studying various flavours of science, engineering, computing, or IT-based subjects. So, what did the Badger answer?

Well, to create a little time to marshal his thoughts, the Badger asked the group to raise a hand if they thought being a TikTok or Instagram influencer was a career path that needed a degree-level education? Only two students put a hand up. A couple commented dryly that most social media platform influencers had little underlying talent or expertise and were focused on their egos and gaining celebrity, notoriety, and money rather than something beneficial for today’s world. That’s harsh, but it’s an understandable perspective. Whether we like it or not, however, becoming a social media influencer is the aspiration of many young digital natives because it’s seen as an easy and convenient way to generate an income.

So, is being a social media influencer a real career path? Many believe so, ostensibly because some with that label make considerable sums of money through brand partnerships, sponsorships, advertising, and selling merchandise. They also perceive that influencers don’t need high educational qualifications although they must be adaptable and adept at analysing trends and staying relevant as audience preferences change. There’s no doubt that some influencers have skills in content creation, marketing, and audience engagement, and a natural charisma, and flair for storytelling, but the reality is that only a small percentage succeed in making a reasonable living from their efforts. Like in any career, success as an influencer on the likes of TikTok and Instagram requires some competence and skill, and so it would be foolish to suggest that being a social media influencer is not a legitimate career path in today’s world.

The Badger was thus careful when answering the student’s question. He simply communicated the advice given by his father when the Badger was first deciding to further his own education at University, namely ‘Get the best education you can in a subject you enjoy and are good at. Don’t pre-suppose how you’ll use that in the future because life has a habit of taking you in unexpected directions’. The students thought this was wise counsel because none of them thought they would secure jobs directly relevant to their degree subject. That’s a shame, but ever that’s been the case. They unanimously concluded that if you intend to have a career as a social media influencer, then it’s prudent to get the best education you can first.

Security: People are always the weakest link…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Education, Information Technology, Privacy and Surveillance, Public safety, Security, social media

The Badger tried to suppress a giggle when the accidental inclusion of a journalist in the US administration’s Signal group chat hit the media. He failed. On watching the US President on television call the journalist in question a ‘sleazebag’, the Badger laughed aloud as the proverbial idiom ‘pot calling the kettle black’ came to mind. The administration’s subsequent bluster about the journalist’s inclusion and the group’s messages has not been its finest hour. Asserting that the military attack information shared was unclassified is, for most independent observers, just ludicrous. Indeed, the whole episode raises many questions, not least being whether the administration’s senior echelons actually respect and adhere to standard security policies and protocols.

Signature of the UK Official Secrets Act and being thoroughly vetted for a high level of security clearance were pre-requisites for the Badger’s first IT projects. Security has thus been an embedded ethos throughout his working life. Sometimes the constraints imposed by security policy and associated processes were frustrating, but the Badger has learned that a cavalier approach to compliance is never a good idea. Rightly, clients and his employer had zero-tolerance for any kind of security misdemeanour. Indeed, on the rare occasions over the years when a security mishap occurred, the situation was quickly rectified and the culprit dealt with swiftly and definitively. Something similar may be happening behind the scenes following the Signal incident, but the US administration’s public messaging doesn’t imply this to be the case.

Later in his career, the Badger was asked to oversee the operations of his employer’s security department. The head of the department expanded the Badger’s appreciation of security matters pertinent to premises, personal safety, vetting, and cyber threats. The department head emphasised the need to keep in mind just one phrase, namely ‘people are always the weakest link‘, when it came to security doctrine. This has proved to be wise advice over the years, and the recent Signal incident simply reinforces the point.

Today, the use of Signal, WhatsApp, X, and social media platforms is rife in the general public and in political and governmental circles. The Signal incident is a reminder for us all that it takes just one participant to leak the substance of a group chat for there to be a problem, and that there’s a greater chance that someone will spill the beans beyond the group when it has a large number of participants. The incident is also a reminder to think carefully about what you write in a group chat. If you don’t then you only have yourself to blame if something you have written comes back to bite you in the future. Think before you write, always, but most of all remember that technology is not normally the weakest link, people are. That’s right…you and me!

‘Free speech’ and Social Media…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Information Technology, Life, social media, Tech for social good

Social media started 2025 with a bang! Mr Musk expressed opinions on X about various UK politicians and UK issues, and Mr Zuckerberg announced the end of Meta’s fact-checking programme and changes to its content moderation policy. These two events produced lots of commentary about social media platforms and ‘free speech’ in the traditional media and in political circles. The Badger sighed on reading much of the discourse because ‘free speech’ has existed long before the existence of social media platforms. There are a wide variety of views about the importance of social media for ‘free speech’, but the Badger’s view is simple. Society as a whole, through its institutions, laws, and cultural norms, is the bastion of ‘free speech’, not Mr Musk, Mr Zuckerberg, or anyone else who owns a social media platform which, let’s not forget, is a business striving to maximise profit from its users.

Musing on some of the media discourse over a coffee on returning from a walk through a snowy park, the Badger’s thoughts converged on three points. The first was that social media is here to stay and cannot be ignored. With ‘free speech’, however, comes responsibility, and this seems to be in relatively short supply in the social media domain. The second was that social media platforms are businesses, and those that own or run them have a vested interest, an inevitable focus on making money, and an aversion to regulation. Messrs Musk, Zuckerberg, and indeed other leaders of massive corporations, will always have ‘an agenda’, and what they say and how they act will always be determined by that agenda and their vested interest. The relationship between  social media and ‘free speech’ must be considered with this in mind.

The third point was more holistic. It embraced more of our  current world’s dynamics. Technology,  ‘free speech’, and social media may be components of world dynamics, but the recent discourse illustrates something about the wielding of power in today’s world. That something is captured by John Lennon’s words uttered a quarter of a century ago. He said ‘Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends, and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it’. He has a point. ’Free speech’ existed when he said those words, and social media didn’t.

As the Badger finished his coffee, he decided that the key take-away from his musing was simply this, not to let tech and social media dominate one’s life. After all, life will go on if social media didn’t exist. Outsourcing one’s life to social media and being a slave to its content is a risky thing to do, but if you do, then keep John Lennon’s words in mind and don’t be naïve about the veracity of the content you consume…

Banning social media for the under-16s…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Education, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, social media, Tech for social good, Wellbeing

Richard Holway,  a well-known, respected, and influential analyst in the UK software and IT services markets, penned an item last week for TechMarketView entitled ‘What have we done?’. The item relates to the harm that social media and smartphones are doing to children. As a grandparent with a background in software and IT services, and having a grandchild who’s just started school, it struck a chord and reinforced the Badger’s own opinion that they have indeed caused great harm for children under 16. Holding this view doesn’t make the Badger, or anyone else with the same opinion come to that, an anti-tech dinosaur, just a human being who is pro technology that has safety, security, privacy, and human well-being as its paramount priorities. When it comes to ensuring the best for children in their formative years, it seems to be mainly the unprincipled and unscrupulous who argue about having these as dominant priorities.

History is littered with ‘products’ of one kind or another that were widely popular but were ultimately recognised over time as being a danger to human well-being. Plastics, DDT, cigarettes, fossil fuels, asbestos, paint with lead in it, illustrate the point. Did you know that a century ago cigarettes were advertised as being beneficial for asthma and anxiety? Also, incredibly popular patent medicines in the 19th and early 20th centuries  had no restrictions on what they contained. Many contained cocaine, morphine, and heroin. A very popular cough mixture for children did, indeed, include  heroin! Things, of course, changed once society eventually realised the scale of addiction and early deaths that occurred. It has long seemed to the Badger that aspects of our rampant tech-dominated world, especially with regard to social media, are following this same historical template, especially when it comes to use by children.

In little more than two decades, social media has evolved from being a novel way of staying connected to family and friends, into a powerful global force that shapes many dimensions of daily life. Evidence that social media has harmful effects on children is growing all the time. Science shows that social media causes the release of large amounts of dopamine into the human brain just like addictive drugs such as heroin, and even alcohol. No wonder it’s easy to get hooked!

Like Mr Holway, the Badger fully supports the ban on smartphones and social media apps for children under the age of 16. As you can see here, the legal age in the UK is 18 to buy alcohol, tobacco products, knives, and certain types of DVDs and games. The legal age is 16 to buy pets and animals, petrol, matches, and to be in fulltime employment. Why, therefore, shouldn’t smartphones and social media apps be banned for children under the age of 16? As Mr Spock from Star Wars would say, ‘Isn’t it illogical, Jim, to do otherwise?’

The price for being a Digital Citizen…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, Risk, Security, social media, Tech for social good

The vast majority of people are now ‘digital citizens’. There are many definitions of what being a digital citizen means, but the Badger thinks the term simply describes anyone who regularly uses the internet, online services, and IT to engage with social society, business, work, politics, and government. Becoming a digital citizen, in the Badger’s view, starts when any individual acquires an email address and then shares information online, uses e-commerce to buy merchandise, uses any other online service, or simply browses the internet. Everyone reading this is a digital citizen.

The Badger’s been a digital citizen for more years than he cares to admit to, but over the last decade he’s become circumspect and increasingly alarmed by the deterioration in responsible use of online technology and the internet by individuals and organisations. Yesterday the Badger helped an elderly neighbour carry their shopping bags the last few metres to their doorstep and was invited in for a quick cup of tea as a thank you. During the ensuing conversation, the Badger’s neighbour, a sharp 85-year-old ex-civil servant, mentioned they were a digital agnostic who strongly believed that the digital world has produced a surveillance society. They have a point, especially when you consider the following.

Supermarkets know what we purchase and when from our online transactions and use of debit and loyalty cards. They use this data for their business and to market products to us via, for example, voucher and loyalty point schemes. They don’t sell the data to others, but its theft by bad actors via security breaches can never be ruled out. The same is true for other retail companies. And then there’s the online giants like Amazon, Google, and Meta et al who capture so much data about our interests, behaviours, and habits that they often know more about a person than the person knows about themselves. All of this coupled with the fact that energy, transport, banking, central and local government functions are now also ‘online first’,  just reinforces the fact that the data describing our personal lives is in the digital ether and can be used for purposes which are invisible to most people.

Putting this together holistically with the fact that the UK has one of the highest densities of CCTV cameras amongst Western countries, with approximately 1 camera for every 13 people, it’s difficult to deny that the digital world has produced a surveillance society in barely 25 years. The price for being a digital citizen is thus personal acceptance of more and more surveillance. But here’s an interesting thought to end this musing with. Digital citizens are not just victims of surveillance, they are perpetrators too! Anyone who has checked out others using social media or internet searches has essentially engaged in surveillance. The digital world has thus made us all spies…

The Law of Unintended Consequences…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, social media, Technology

If you’ve a couple of minutes spare then read the item here. It was published in 2013 and what’s striking is that the exact same words could be used if it had been written today! A 2010 item, ‘Technology: The law of unintended consequences’, by the same author also stands the test of time. Reading both has caused the Badger to muse on unintended consequences, especially those that have emerged from the digital and online world over the last few decades.

The ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ is real and is, in essence, quite simple. It declares that every action by a person, company, or government can have positive or negative consequences that are unforeseen. An amusing manifestation of the law in action happened in 2016 when a UK Government agency conducted an online poll for the public to name the agency’s latest polar research ship. The public’s choice, Boaty McBoatface, wasn’t the kind of name the agency anticipated!

One characteristic of unintended consequences is that they tend to emerge over a long period. The internet and social media illustrate this neatly. Both have changed the behaviour of people (especially the young), companies, and governments, and both have challenged safety, security, and privacy like never before. Indeed, the Australian government’s recent decision to ban those under 16 years old from social media demonstrates just how long it’s taken to address some of social media’s unintended consequences since its advent a couple of decades ago.

During his IT career, the Badger participated in delivering the many benefits of digital and online technology to society, but now, more mindful of unintended consequences, he wonders if a future dominated by virtuality, AI, and colossal tech corporations is a good thing for his grandson’s generation. After all, the online and digital world is not where real, biological, life takes place, and there’s more to life than being a slave to our devices.

The ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ can never be ignored. Although a professional and disciplined approach to progress always reduces the scope for unintended consequences, the fact is these will happen. This means, for example, that there’ll be unintended consequences from the likes of AI, driverless vehicles, and robots at home, and that, in practice, it will take years for these unintended consequences to emerge properly. But emerge they will!

Looking back over recent decades, it’s clear that digital and online technology has delivered benefits. It’s also clear that it’s brought complication, downsides, and unintended consequences to the lives of people in all age groups. The Badger’s concluded that we need a law that captures the relationship between progress, unintended consequences, and real life. So, here’s Badger’s Law: ‘Progress always produces unintended consequences that complicate and compromise the real life of people’. Gosh, it’s astonishing where articles penned over a decade ago can take your thoughts…

Social media – in the doghouse again…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Online Safety, Public safety, social media, Tech for social good, Wellbeing

Social media platforms are in the doghouse again due to the spread of misinformation, falsehoods, incitement, and hate as a result of the horrendous attack on innocent children in Southport. Media and political rhetoric about the role of social media in the violence and criminality that followed this incident has been predictable. It can be of no surprise that social media was a factor because it’s part of the very fabric of modern life. It’s used by 82.8% of the UK population. Most individuals, businesses, and media, community, and political organisations have a presence on, and actively use, at least one social media platform. Most normal, law-abiding, social media users and organisations will thus have been exposed at some stage to the vitriol, falsehoods, and distorted content that is becoming more and more commonplace on these platforms.

Elon Musk’s war of words with the UK’s Prime Minister, a government minister’s thoughts on X, and a debate about whether we should say goodbye to Mr Musk’s platform,  simply illustrate, the Badger feels, that social media has become more divisive and polarizing than a force for convergence and solutions.  It has disrupted society in just a couple of decades, and it will continue to do so because the platforms are commercial enterprises whose business models and legal status are centred on profiting, without editorial responsibility, from the content their users post. The platforms have become too powerful, and politicians have been like plodding donkeys in dealing with their impact on society.

Social media isn’t all bad and it isn’t going away anytime soon. Handwringing about its role in free speech, something that platforms assert as a defence against regulation, is futile. What’s needed is a lucid articulation of free speech like that given by Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) some years ago, followed by aligned, rapid, regulation that a) society’s law-abiding majority can relate to and understand, and b) holds the platforms and their users to account fairly. At the very least, users of a platform must take responsibility for the content they post, and platforms cannot shirk accountability for distributing and making money from content that damages society. Perhaps things will change with the UK’s Online Safety Law now coming into effect? Time, as they say, will tell.

The Badger’s agnostic about social media. He’s never felt that it’s really a good use of his time, but the chances of everyone significantly reducing their addiction to it in today’s world are negligible. But what if they did? The power of platforms would dissipate as their revenues and profits decline, and people would realise they can actually cope and adapt quickly to life without them. Perhaps the riot aftermath of Southport would not have happened? Perhaps it’s time to fight against being addicted slaves? Oops, just remember this is a musing, not an incitement to riot…

Is social media the new tobacco?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Health & Social Care, Learning, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Opinion, social media, Wellbeing

The UK’s in the throes of a General Election and, whether we like it or not, social media is an important part of campaigning for politicians, political parties, and any person or organisation wanting to influence the outcome. Social media is the modern billboard. The Badger’s always been cautious about social media, and he engages with it in moderation. Why? Because his IT career spanned the time from its origin through to its evolution into being dominated by the global, revenue and profit dominated goliaths we have today.  He’s learned that it’s a minefield for the unwary, and perilous for those vulnerable to the tsunami of memes, misinformation, disinformation, sales and marketing spin, scams and bile that is regularly delivered. Social media is, of course, here to stay. The Badger, however, overcame any fear of missing out (FOMO) regarding its content many years ago. He thus ignores any content that is election related.

Aside from the UK election, something relevant to social media caught the Badger’s attention this week. It was the USA’s Surgeon General’s call for  tobacco-style warnings on the hazards of using social media. This struck a chord because the Badger’s quietly thought for some time that social media is the new tobacco! The Badger hasn’t lost his mind because, as they say, ‘there’s method to the madness’.

Tobacco’s been with us for centuries, see here.  Cigarettes evolved in the 1830s, and smoking was a norm for adults across UK society in the 1920s, driven ostensibly by cigarettes being included in First World War military rations and heavy advertising by tobacco companies. Smoking continued to grow, with the highest level for men recorded as 82% in1948. Tobacco companies, of course, grew fast, and became extremely rich and powerful. The health issues associated with tobacco were known long before the 1950s when the evidence of the impact of smoking on public health became incontrovertible. Since then, steps have been taken to eliminate smoking. The tobacco companies have fought to protect their revenues, and tobacco-related legislation only really started changing significantly in the early 2000s.

Doesn’t this progression of a product, mass marketing, widespread public adoption as a norm, the growth of wealthy and powerful companies protecting their product at all costs, eventual public realisation of the product’s damage to society and individual health, followed by long overdue corrective action resonate with what’s happening with social media? The Badger thinks it does. For tobacco, the progression has taken a century or more, but for social media it’s happening over just a few decades. The Badger senses that the Surgeon General’s call for tobacco style warnings has its place, but more needs to be done faster or society and individual health will be in an even bigger pickle at the end of this decade. Just a thought…

History suggests that a future generation will face a ‘Digital Crisis’…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Automation, Digital Transformation, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Internet, Life, Online Services, Risk, social media, Transformation

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, and Karl Marx remarked that ‘History repeats itself first as a tragedy, and then as a farce’. These came to mind while quietly musing on a future which is in the hands of younger generations who’ve grown up with global communication, the internet, social media, and online services as a norm. It’s sobering to be reminded that in just a few decades, digital technology and IT has transformed life faster than at any time in human history. AI adds to the unabated momentum of tech-driven change. But here’s the thing. History shows that many things that have a transformational impact on society have serious consequences that only become fully apparent decades later, creating a crisis for society that a future generation is forced to address. History thus implies that a future generation will have to deal with a crisis caused by the digital revolution.

Bold thinking? Maybe, but consider this. History shows that motor vehicles revolutionised transportation. It’s only in recent decades, however, that society has realised, and started addressing, the true impact of motor vehicles on public health and the planet. History also shows that the use of fossil fuels (particularly coal) during the Industrial Revolution transformed the world. Our dependence on them since, however, has impacted the climate and sustainability of life forcing society into corrective action, but only in recent decades. Similarly, plastic – a material that’s made the modern world possible – has gone from being a wonder substance a century ago to being reviled as an environmental scourge today. It therefore seems perfectly feasible that history will repeat itself with regard to the digital revolution we are living through.

Falling happiness in younger generations (see here, for example) and a tense interview with Elon Musk , who remarked that ‘moderation is a propaganda word for censorship’, illustrate that history may well repeat itself regarding social media. Social media platforms have revolutionised information sharing over two decades, but amplifying misinformation, disinformation, bullying, mental health issues, and eroding personal privacy in the process. They are commercial enterprises bound by the law, but they set their own rules and guidelines for content and its moderation. When a US Surgeon General says allowing young people to use social media is like giving them medicine not proven to be safe, and that it’s insane that governments have failed to adequately regulate them, then society has a problem regardless of Mr Musk’s dislike of challenging scrutiny. History means that society today is having to face up to a ‘Climate Crisis’. Taking note of history is always wise, which is why it’s not outlandish to think that a future generation will face and need to address some kind of existential ‘Digital Crisis’ …