As discussed previously, on Fridays, I present my weekly social media roundups. Note that toots of articles generally include header images from the articles, which I don’t include here unless their creators happen to have released them for use under a free license, and I notice. Most have not, or I don’t notice. But I now add my commentary here, where I don’t feel restricted by message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

Also, I don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:04 – Mon 28 August 2023

Image Not Shown: The back of a woman's head as she looks at a social media page on a laptop

Social media algorithms warp how people learn from each other, research shows from The Conversation

The interaction of human psychology and algorithm amplification leads to dysfunction because social learning supports cooperation and problem-solving, but social media algorithms are designed to increase engagement.

Hashtags: #SocialMedia #Algorithms

I assume that most of us probably figured this out already—I certainly talk about it enough—but as always, I have no objection to having quantitative data to back it.

12:02 – Mon 28 August 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial; but generally speaking, it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber: it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of. There is so little real friendship in the world! and unfortunately, there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.

Jane Austen

Hashtags: #Quotes

9:02 – Tue 29 August 2023

A hand holds (with something like chopsticks) a ball with text inside it
A hand holds (with something like chopsticks) a ball with text inside it
Image credit: by Arzu Geybullayeva

How Turkey’s opposition elite enabled Erdoğan and misled voters from Global Voices

What is troubling is that, while the predictions of journalists, pollsters, and analysts can be wrong, it was the marginalizing tone and the refusal to take critical analyses that presented credible alternative scenarios to the public into account.

Hashtags: #Turkiye #Media

Honestly, I don’t know if I buy this. It sounds like the same scrambling after Trump’s 2016 election here, trying to deflect blame from the many people who insisted that everybody should support those (like themselves) who planned to vote third-party or not vote at all. After the election, they all came back out of the woodwork assuring us that they definitely voted the right way, and needed to place the blame on “party messaging” failing to get some ill-defined other group of voters from the polls, completely unrelated to their campaign to disrupt the election.

That said, I also haven’t seen much information coming out of TĂŒrkiye since the election.

12:06 – Tue 29 August 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

When you are in any contest you should work as if there were — to the very last minute — a chance to lose it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Hashtags: #Quotes

9:05 – Wed 30 August 2023

Content Warning: US Politics

Image Not Shown: Christian singer Michael W. Smith waves an American flag while singing patriotic songs during a religious event led by ultra-conservative pastor Billy Graham on 8 May 2003 in San Diego, California

US Christians need to stop being so precious about their religion from openDemocracy

He concludes that Christian nationalism is “the greatest threat to Christianity in the US”.

Hashtags: #USPol #ChristianNationalists

I don’t really think that I can add anything to the quote, let alone the whole article.

12:03 – Wed 30 August 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hashtags: #Quotes

9:03 – Thu 31 August 2023

Image Not Shown: A person with a prosthetic leg shows a tablet computer to a colleague

A Crossroads for Workers with Disabilities from OtherWords

Despite some protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which just turned 33, disabled workers still face stigma when it comes to hiring, employment, and navigating workplace environments that require accommodations.

Hashtags: #DisabilityRights #ADA #Work

Since people began taking remote work seriously, I’ve noticed “job requirements” that seem to only exist to discriminate, like requiring the ability to lift ten pounds or the like. I don’t know how a company gets away with that, let alone so many.

12:01 – Thu 31 August 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

If thou desirest that the pure in heart should praise thee, lay aside anger; be not a man of many words; and parade not thy virtues in the face of others.

Firdausī

Hashtags: #Quotes

9:06 – Fri 01 September 2023

Image Not Shown: The logo for OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, appears on a mobile phone, in New York, Jan. 31, 2023

AI Firms Under Fire for Allegedly Infringing on Copyrights from Voice of America

The development of generative AI tools is testing the limits of “fair use,” pitting content creators against technology companies, with the outcome of the dispute promising wide-ranging implications for innovation and society at large.

Hashtags: #AI #Copyright

I hope that this case puts an end to the constant stream of whiners online wondering why Creative Commons or the Free Software Foundation (et al.) hasn’t written yet another license—incompatible with all other licenses, I guess—that refuses permission for training neural networks. The fact that this idea would fail to distinguish between a multinational corporation and a student, or that not providing attribution already puts these companies in violation of the license, seems entirely lost on them.

12:04 – Fri 01 September 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

The guilty man may escape, but he cannot be sure of doing so.

Epicurus

Hashtags: #Quotes

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, I drop any additional articles that didn’t fit into the one-article-per-day week, but too weird or important to not mention, here.

A chalk rainbow on pavement, with the phrase "do infinite good" written beneath it, found in Brighton during the COVID-19 pandemic
A chalk rainbow on pavement, with the phrase "do infinite good" written beneath it, found in Brighton during the COVID-19 pandemic
Image credit: by Nick Fewings, available under the Unsplash license

Org mission statements send moral (and political) signals from Futurity

In accordance with previous findings, for example, conservative-led nonprofits were more likely to reference words linked to the foundation of sanctity, while liberal-led organizations more frequently alluded to fairness.

I don’t find this particularly important, but as more people need to get involved with messaging, we should understand how people read and associate those messages.

India Becomes Fourth Country to Land Spacecraft on Moon from Voice of America

The “world’s largest democracy” has joined an exclusive club, and I can only imagine the amount of work it took to get there. 🇼🇳

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Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.