Peoples & Things Podcast – Nirit Weiss-Blatt on The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication

Moments before my response to Haidt was out - Don’t Be So Certain Social media is Undermining Democracy - Lee Vinsel and I covered a lot of ground:

Filter bubbles, echo chambers, rabbit holes, polarization, the shift to Techlash, Donald Trump, tech companies’ crisis responses and whether they were effective (spoiler alert: NO), Google/YouTube vs. Facebook, confirmation bias in media consumption, tech regulation, and the Web3/Crypto hype.

 

Give it a listen:

Peoples & Things: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Castbox | Listen Notes | PlayerFM | Amazon Music | YouTube

 

AI algorithms creating rabbit holes 

as interpreted by OpenAI’s DALL-E (left), MidJourney (middle), and Stable Diffusion DreamStudio (right)

 

Let’s End “The END of __” Headlines

 

My new article demonstrates numerous times headlines claimed "The End of Facebook/ Google/ Twitter/ etc" and were miserably wrong.

We still have those stupid headlines due to both panic and wishful thinking (wanting Facebook to die, for example). 

But wishful thinking doesn't make the END of something a fact.

On the other side of the equation, we have tech leaders with a totally different narrative:
1. There's a lot to Build. We are the Builders.
2. Progress. We're moving forward because, by definition, progress is for good.

This combination can explain why those things (that were declared "Dead") are pretty much alive and kicking.
 

Check out the full piece:
Bombastic eulogies: Let's put an end to cynical "The End of" headlines

 

“The Tech PR Template for Attacking Whistleblowers”

 

I compared Twitter’s response to its whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, with Facebook/Meta’s response to Frances Haugen (in 2021). 

It created this Attack the Whistleblower 101.

 

 

Then, I turned it into a more detailed article. 

You’re invited to check it out:

The Emerging Tech PR Template for Attacking Whistleblowers

 

Illustration: Twitter follows Facebook’s template

(as interpreted by OpenAI’s DALL-E).

 

“Don’t Be So Certain Social Media Is Undermining Democracy”

 

The sweeping generalization of social media harms.

 

Prof. Jonathan Haidt, author of Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid (his answer: social media), published a sequel, Yes, Social Media Really Is Undermining Democracy.

 

These claims are not empirically grounded. Many popular narratives are overstated.

Correlation does not imply causation, and we have contradictory findings.

 

Here’s my detailed response:

Don’t Be So Certain Social Media Is Undermining Democracy

Illustration: Jonathan Haidt on Vacation

(I asked OpenAI’s DallE for “a man shouting at a leaning tower of Pisa, digital art.” It came out too good. 

But you need to read Haidt’s Babel metaphor first).

Why do people LOVE Google & love to HATE Facebook?

 

In the 2022 Israel Brands Index, Google ranks first.
Far behind, at #123 (!): Facebook.

WHY?

 

An interview with Globes:

Google good, Facebook bad?

In English / In Hebrew / Twitter thread