Do you think Elon Musk has put Twitter in a chaos?

Posted on November 6, 2022 by rpu5040

After the twitter was acquired by Elon Musk many weird and unexpected consequences led the company to fall into a chaos is what I believe. Firing the CEO, removing 3700 employees over a week to cut down in costs and pushing the current employees to work overtime seems to be putting twitter in an truly uncomfortable situation. Elon musk has been an active user on twitter even long before this acquisition and he knows well how things work. He recently launched a new feature regarding the blue ticks that users have to pay $8 a month to get a blue tick by their account name. He is even planning to materialize many other plans he has envisioned thus he is making sure he has the money and force to do so. Now the manangement is trying to bring back some of their potential employees who have been fired and laid off claiming that they progress in the company was not properly updated thus they needed them to return back. This clearly reflects how unorganized the firm is functioning at this particular point in time.

I respect Elon Musk as a person and I have a huge admiration to his visions. However, I believe it is ethically wrong on his side considering the way the employees of twitter as being treated now. That most sickening part is that the employees who are still in the company are sometimes sleeping at their work place to meet the deadlines. And some who are working beyond their limits are in the fear of being removed one day merciless due to the company’s lack of funds and the idea of cutting on costs. To make things come into reality, all the members involved must be happy and kept happy. A company represents people and it is the responsibility of the CEO (or the owner) to make sure the people associated are doing well and all the things involving them are done the right way no matter how worse the situation is. Only then the plans will materialize and become potentially world changing products. What do you think about this? Do you even think Elon Musk should change his treatment of employees? Comment down your ideas below.

Reference:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-06/twitter-now-asks-some-fired-workers-to-please-come-back?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Personal Brand: Cancel Culture

Posted on September 23, 2021 by ezl5320

During our most recent homeworks and classes, we discussed our personal brand. What we want others to see about us and how we are perceived. During the assignments, we had to clean up our social media. We also had to look up our names and see what information came up. This made me think about how if we didn’t clean up our presence, then maybe one day we may be “canceled” for an old tweet or post.

Cancel culture has really picked up over the past 6 years and only seems to be getting worse.

Cancel culture or call-out culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. … The expression “cancel culture” has mostly negative connotations and is commonly used in debates on free speech and censorship.

It is the removal of support for individuals and their work due to an opinion or action on their part deemed objectionable to the parties “calling” them out.

There are many pros and cons for this. Is cancel culture good/ beneficial for society? Does cancel culture silence different opinions or allow more opinions to be heard?

Pros

allows marginalized people to seek accountability where the justice system fails.
gives a voice to disenfranchised or less powerful people.
is simply a new form of boycott, a cherished tactic in the civil rights movement, to bring about social change.

Cons

online bullying and can incite violence and threats even worse than the original offense being called out.
not productive and does not bring about social change.
a slippery slope and leads to intolerance in democratic societies as people systematically exclude anyone who disagrees with their views.

Sources:

https://www.google.com/search?q=cancel+culture&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS864US864&oq=cancel+c&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i131i433i512l2j0i433i512j0i131i433i512j0i512l5.2192j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.britannica.com/story/pro-and-con-is-cancel-culture-good-for-society

https://www.procon.org/headlines/is-cancel-culture-or-callout-culture-good-for-society/

The Rise of TikTok

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ezl5320

Before TikTok was TikTok, it was known as Musical.ly. Musical.ly originated in China and was created to incorporate video and music in a social network. American teenagers enjoyed making videos of themselves lip-synching music. By July 2015, Musical.ly had built a substantial following and surpassed Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram in the iOS popularity list.

In 2017 another Chinese company bought Musical.ly at an estimated billion dollars. After that, they combined TikTok and Musical.ly into one app. With the merge, people uploaded a wider variety of videos to TikTok than they did to Musical.ly. It now contains diverse content like dancing, cooking, education, activism, humor, magic tricks, pets, comedy skits, etc.

TikTok continues to expand. It was the most downloaded free app in the Apple App Store in the US in September 2018. It also ranked first on Google Play in October. Counting both Apple App Store and Google Play download stats, TikTok ranked third in the world in November 2018. TikTok was downloaded more than 104 million times on Apple’s App store during the entire first half of 2018 and has since reached 2 billion worldwide. As of January 2021, the platform has 689 million monthly active users worldwide. That makes TikTok the seventh-largest platform in terms of users, ahead of Snapchat, Pinterest, and Twitter, who have been around much longer.

TikTok’s primary audience is the youth, as 62% of its users in the US are between 10 and 29. In comparison, just 7.1 percent of them are over the age of 50. With their target audience specified from the start, they studied their habits and preferences, which helped them create a social media app that gives them precisely what they’re looking for. TikTok allows its users to express themselves creatively.

In my opinion, TikTok will only continue to grow, and I’m looking forward to it.

Sources:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-stats/

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics

https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-growth/

Instagram’s Improved Way of Sharing for those with Substantial Followings

Posted on August 27, 2021 by lmc6522

Instagram launched an exclusive swipe-up method with links on stories a few years back for certain users. Although Instagram hasn’t announced who is able to share links on their stories, it is estimated that users with over 10,000 followers are granted access to this feature. Users who fit the requirements have an option to embed links that share articles, promote companies, and even ask for donations to charities.

It was recently announced that Instagram will be rolling out a new method for sharing links on stories– stickers. They are ditching the old swipe-up method and adding to the collection of stickers alongside features like polls and questions. While this appears to be a simple interface change, it allows users to customize their links to grab the viewer’s attention even more. Instead of the link being at the bottom of a story, users will be able to place it anywhere to maximize engagement. In addition, their followers can now respond to these stories. The old feature only let users swipe-up to view the links, which is the same way followers reply to stories without links. This conflicting display will be changed to offer more opportunities to increase engagement.

Although Instagram is changing its appearance for links on stories, they are not changing the follower prerequisite to participate in this feature. Smaller users will still not have access to adding links currently, but Instagram is working on allowing everyone to be able to do so in the future. This new link sticker feature rolls out on August 30th, 2021 and will provide users with new ways to interact with their followers and following.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/23/instagram-is-ditching-swipe-up-links-in-favor-of-stickers/

The Avenger on Planet Earth Mission

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Aryan Roy

While Elon Musk is for sure in the limelight for spreading joy in the stock market and buzzing all over the news, Robert Downey Jr., who’s fictional counterpart, Iron Man, is often compared to him, is not far behind. It seems like RDJ has something to say too other than just showing his dancing moves on Coming Soon by Queen (I know right……. like just when you thought he couldn’t be more awesome that this).

As seen from the recent posts and interactions on social media platforms, the actor is working hard on his initiative towards Sustainable Energy and the Green Earth Movement. The actor originally had plans to work on A.I. and Robotics, a more relatable prospect based on his widely known persona of Iron Man however during the unfortunate incident of “wildfires in Malibu in 2018”, he realized that the threat of Global Warming and its effects are something that needs everyone’s attention now, more than ever. Thus “leading the Footprint Coalition”, Downey aims to make a big step towards Climate Change.

This is not the first time that some one who is an inspiration to millions of people has made an attempt towards protecting the Earth. Leonardo DiCaprio took the opportunity of his Oscar winning acceptance speech to draw everyone’s attention towards climate change and recently showed his support to climate change activist Greta Thungberg. The Shawn Mendes Foundation actively participates in raising awareness about Sustainability, and similarly many have stepped forward towards making a positive change.

While it is often controversial as to what’s really going on behind the curtain, some might say it’s a method to launder money, some say it’s to increase their influence over people, while others truly believe it’s a pure gesture of having the availability to the resources to make that change happen, I personally believe as long as the job’s getting done, I am fine with it. Not only celebrities but I also believe that major manufacturing companies too should initiate green projects. While some are entitled to by the law, others should make initiatives on their own for they have the resources to make it happen. Adidas had recently started making shows out of plastic waste, Reebok started recycling their old products, while on the other hand, H&M, Zara and Marks and Spencer are in violation of polluting lakes in Asia. So somehow the positive change often gets cancelled by the negative one which they often get away with by paying just a mere fine. What could be the possible solution here? Should the laws concerning Global Warming and its effects be enforced on companies with heavier repercussions if they are in violation? Or do you believe they are already on thin ice with the existing model and are finding it difficult to cope with their business model?

While the practicality of the debate can switch to either side, there is one thing for sure, we must encourage such interactions on social media. Celebrities or activist might initiate the debate, but as responsible citizens of earth we must ensure that we carry forward the discussion and not leave their voices unheard. Every initiative counts. Think of it as an exercise, similar to the planting tree one, for every unrealistic thing you tweet or post about, (we all do it at times…..there’s no shame in it), make sure you make another one about climate change. Well, @realDonaldTrump if you are reading this, you know the no. of posts you owe…so get those fingers moving.

Sources:

Tech Tent: Iron Man’s climate change mission – BBC News

6 Celebrities Championing Climate Change (rte.ie)

H&M, Zara and Marks & Spencer linked to polluting viscose factories in Asia | Guardian sustainable business | The Guardian

Bernie Sanders, the Internet Meme

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Krista

On January 20th, 2021, Inauguration Day, all eyes were on Washington D.C. Understandably so — an official ceremony for the hand-off of the highest office in the United States is big news.

However, hours after the event, the internet was buzzing about a particular person who attended; not the new President, Vice President, or any of their families. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont had taken center stage on social media platforms of all kinds. From Reddit discussions to Twitter jokes and Instagram photoshops, Sanders “the meme” became even bigger news than the President himself.

Photos of the Senator and presidential candidate comfortably wrapped up in his signature brown jacket (as seen below) with chunky hand-knitted mittens amidst the formal black suits and extravagant garb that other government officials donned went viral, prompting thousands to repost photoshops.

Fig 1: Sanders at the Inauguration. Fig 2: Twist on Sanders campaign video.

These types of occurrences bring some questions to mind — are viral memes and photos helping or hurting the news media in our age? While I believe that they provide a bit of humor and lightheartedness to formal events such as the Inauguration, I also wonder if they put emphasis on the wrong things. For example, I personally couldn’t tell you what Biden said in his speech, but I can tell you how Bernie looked sitting in the audience and Lady Gaga’s interesting choice of fashion.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/politics/bernie-sanders-meme.html?campaign_id=158&emc=edit_ot_20210121&instance_id=26249&nl=on-tech-with-shira-ovide&regi_id=158496683&segment_id=49915&te=1&user_id=a2a59c743edfb7f0546e647dc329fe2d

The New Third Wheel: Internet Advertisers

Posted on September 28, 2017 by Justin David Novitski

In today’s world of ever-growing connectivity, social media has become an integral part of our lives. Massive amounts of posts are written and liked by internet users every day, but the majority of people rarely ever think about how this data may be used behind their back. One of the top uses of this information is for targeted internet advertising, and while some users are starting to expect this sort of behavior from sites like Google and Facebook, there is one that might not cross their minds: Tinder.

Tinder, along with other dating websites, naturally needs to collect a wide variety of information about you for their matching algorithms to function properly. This data includes your interests, hobbies, and personality traits, all of which each of the 50 million Tinder users voluntarily provide without the fear (other than that of…well…rejection) of unwanted sources obtaining it. But truth be told, this is not the case and it is worse than you think. According to The Guardian reporter Judith Duportail’s study of her own Tinder data, she states “the dating app has 800 pages of information on me” including and not limited to “my Facebook “likes”, my photos from Instagram (even after I deleted the associated account), my education, the age-rank of men I was interested in, how many times I connected, when and where every online conversation with every single one of my matches happened” (Duportail). She goes on further to show that “Tinder’s privacy policy clearly states your data may be used to deliver ‘targeted advertising’,” so there is no doubt about it that if you use Tinder, any of your information and interactions on the app can be collected and used by advertisers (Duportail).

With the unwanted dealing of your private information and the always prevalent threat of a cyber security breach, do you still feel comfortable using Tinder? Leave a comment below.

Duportail, Judith. “I Asked Tinder for My Data. It Sent Me 800 Pages of My Deepest, Darkest Secrets.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 Sept. 2017, www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/26/tinder-personal-data-dating-app-messages-hacked-sold

Image: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/21/11/3A9BEBE100000578-3956628-image-a-1_1479726284520.jpg

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