Thoughts from John Karahalis
Not long ago, an acquaintance had their identity stolen. The case was rather serious, with the perpetrators draining thousands of dollars from the victim’s bank accounts.
At that time, I began to refine a list of ten common-sense security guidelines that the victim could observe to avoid a repeat of the ordeal. I came to think of the list as The Ten Commandments of Computer Security for Mere Mortals. They are provided below:
In 2008, Michael Pollan coined the following phrase as a simple summary of his nutritional advice:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Maybe we need equally simple advice for this new, “social” (actually, profoudnly antisocial) world we live in. Maybe it should be something like:
Use the web. Not too much. Mostly learn from experts.
The foundational medical advice of the future may sound something like this: eat well, stay physically active, don't smoke, and avoid social media.
I don't want this blog to come off as holier-than-thou. I am guilty or have been guilty of many of the things I criticize, especially when it comes to social media. I also know that I have blind spots. I just hope that my blind spots are different than the blind spots of others. I want to share my perspective and learn from the perspectives of others.
This recipe is adapted from a recipe on the blog Merry Merzville , which is in turn adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. My modifications are pretty minor. This recipe would not exist without theirs.
Beyond that, let’s not bury the lede. The story behind these muffins isn’t that interesting. I know what you’re here for.
Social media is a confirmation bias machine. Facebook, for instance, is a great place to hear what we already believe. It's a terrible place to learn from the other and confront the weaknesses of our own arguments.
Is it any surprise, then, that political extremism, conspiracy theories, and pseudoscience are flourishing?
I find it strange that we rarely hear the term “publicity stunt” anymore, when they seem more common than ever.
BeReal is interesting. A newly-popular social network, it allows users to photograph and share one moment per day during a randomly-determined, two-minute window. The thinking is that this will discourage curation. Users will see their friends as they really are, not as they pretend to be.
I'm not convinced. BeReal might limit fakery, but I think pretension will evolve rather than perish in this new environment.
Regardless, BeReal doesn't address the vast majority of problems with social media. I predict that users will still suffer from confirmation bias, addiction, misinformation, targeted advertising, privacy degradation, and the myriad other harms caused by social media.
I support Signal's decision to drop support for SMS and MMS. Software maintenance can be incredibly challenging and time-consuming. This decision will likely free up time for more important work.
John Carmack is rumored to have said, “Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do.” I'm not sure if the attribution is correct, but it doesn't matter. It's a good point.
Contrary to the opinions shared on Hacker News, the world is not going to end. (Hacker News readers often forget that they are not the target market.) If anything, it might be easier to convince others to use Signal now. “Use this app to have private conversations with other people who use the app. It doesn't change how anything else on your phone works.” In a world that remembers rouge software crashing computers, that fact is more important than it might seem.
Besides, abbreviations rarely correlate with usability. Signal needs to reach normal people. Let's keep it simple.