3 Terms Every Social Media User Needs To Know

Surveillance Capitalism

I don’t remember where I originally heard this term. It must have been an article about Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.

“How global tech companies such as Google and Facebook persuaded us to give up our privacy for the sake of convenience; how personal information (“data”) gathered by these companies has been used by others not only to predict our behaviour but also to influence and modify it; and how this has had disastrous consequences for democracy and freedom.” – The Guardian

Surveillance Capitalism: “claims private human experience for the market dynamic as a free source of raw material that is transformed into behavioral data.” Our behavioral data is then paired with algorithmic computations that are monetized.

This first started with Google’s ad based search engine.

Examples of Surveillance Capitalism

Social media
Ad based search engines like Google and Bing
Smart Displays like the Google Nest Hub, Facebook Portal, and Amazon Echo Show
Smart Speakers like Amazon Alexa and Google Home

Indie Web

The IndieWeb is a people-focused alternative to the “corporate web”.
indieweb.org

Cal Newport (author of digital minimalism) wrote in the New Yorker, ” The Internet may work better when it’s spread out, as originally designed.”

Can you be a Tech Enthusiast and be skeptical of social media? Cal Newport thinks so. “As a technology enthusiast, I’m a believer in the IndieWeb movement and think it will play an important role in the future of the Internet.”

Types of IndieWebs

Big Tech doesn’t want you to use the Indie Web

What really grinds my gears is that Big Tech companies (looking at you Facebook and Google) give these fake messages of concern. Facebook claimed a link to Minds.com (a competitor social network) was malicious and wouldn’t let you share to Minds on Facebook.

Note, Chrome did not like the Dissenter extension

Above, Google Chrome says we should disable Dissenter to “stay safe”. When I got this message, Developer Mode was turned off in Chrome. These misleading messages bug me because they stifle competition through fear and lies. Sound like Big Brother yet?

Digital Minimalism

Digital Minimalism: the art of knowing how much is just enough when it comes to our technology.

I’ve written before on digital minimalism. Since then I’ve read more and more posts from people who put caps on the time spent on their smart phones, tracking their usage, and removing social media apps from their phones altogether.

What do you think of these new terms? Are there more every social media user should know? Let me know in the comments below!

Lily Snyder