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Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
“TikTok Is the Most Popular News Source for 12 to 15-Year-Olds, Says Ofcom” presents some interesting data. First, however, let’s answer the question, “What’s an Ofcom?” It is a UK government agency regulates communication in the UK. From mobile to mail, Ofcom is there. Like most government entities, it does surveys.
Now what did the Ofcom research discover? Here are three items:
![7 20 confused student 7 20 confused student](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-20-confused-student_thumb-1.png)
“You mean people used to hold this grimy paper thing and actually look at it to get information?” asks one young person. The other says, “Yes, I think it is called a maga-bean or maga-zeen or maga-been, something like that.” Thanks for this wonderful depiction of bafflement, MidJourney.
- In the UK, those 12 to 15 get their news from TikTok.
- The second most popular source of news is the Zuckbook’s Instagram.
- Those aged from 16 to 24 are mired in the past, relying on social media and mobile phones.
Interesting, but I was surprised that a traditional printed newspaper did not offer more information about the impact of this potentially significant trend on newspapers, printed books, and printed magazines.
Assuming the data are correct, as those 12 to 15 age, their behavior patterns may suggest that today’s dark days for traditional media were a bright, sunny afternoon.
Stephen E Arnold, July 28, 2023
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Social Media, Video | Comments Off on Young People Are Getting News from Sources I Do Not Find Helpful. Sigh.
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Is this headline sad? “Threads Usage Drops By Half From Initial Surge” reports that the alleged cage fighters’ social messaging systems are in flux.
![7 18 looks dead to me 7 18 looks dead to me](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-18-looks-dead-to-me_thumb.png)
“That old machine sure looks dead to me,” observes the car owner to his associates. One asks, “Can it be fixed?” The owner replies, “I hope not.” MidJourney deserves a pat on its digital head for this art work, doesn’t it.
This week it is the Zuckbook in decline. The cited article reports:
On its best day, July 7, Threads had more than 49 million daily active users on Android, worldwide, according to Similarweb estimates. That’s about 45% of the usage of Twitter, which had more than 109 million active Android users that day. By Friday, July 14, Threads was down to 23.6 million active users, or about 22% of Twitter’s audience.
The message is, “Threads briefly captured a big chunk of Twitter’s market.”
The cited article adds some sugar to the spoiled cake:
If Threads succeeds vs Twitter, the Instagram edge will be a big reason.
Two outstanding services. Two outstanding leaders. Can the social messaging sector pick a winner? Does anyone wonder how much information influence the winner will have?
I do. Particularly when the two horses in the race Musk from Beyond and Zuck the Muscular.
Stephen E Arnold, July 20, 2023
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Social Media | Comments Off on Threads: Maybe Bad Fuel?
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
My great grandmother, bless her, used to draw flowers in pots. She used Crayola crayons. Her “style” reminded me of a ball of tangled threat. Examples of her work are lost to time. But MidJourney produced this image which is somewhat similar to how she depicted blooms:
![7 15 thread ball 7 15 thread ball](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-15-thread-ball_thumb.jpg)
This is a rather uninspiring ball of thread generated by the once-creative MidJourney. Perhaps the system is getting tired?
Keep in mind I am recounting what I recall when I was in grade school in the early 1950s. I thought of these tangled images when I read “Engagement on Instagram’s Threads Has Cratered.” The article suggests that users are losing interest in the Zuck’s ball of thread. I noted this statement:
Time spent on the app dropped over 50% from 20 minutes to 8 minutes, analysts found.
I have spent some time with analysts in my career. I know that data can be as malleable as another toy in a child’s box of playthings; specifically, the delightfully named and presumably non-toxic Play-Doh.
The article offers this information too:
Threads was unveiled as Meta’s Twitter killer and became available for download in the U.S. on July 5, and since then, the platform has garnered well over 100 million users, who are able to access it directly from Instagram. The app has not come without its fair share of issues, however.
Threads — particularly when tangled up — can be a mess. But the Zuckbook has billions of users of its properties. A new service taps an installed base and has a trampoline effect. When I was young, trampolines were interesting for a short period of time. The article is not exactly gleeful, but I detected some negativity toward the Zuck’s most recent innovation in me-too technology.
Now back to my great-grandmother (bless her, of course). She took the notion of tangled thread and converted them into flower blossoms. My opinion is that Threads will become another service used by actors less benign that my great-grandmother (bless her again). The ability to generate weaponized information, link to those little packets of badness, and augment other content is going to be of interest to some entities.
A free social media service can deliver considerable value to a certain segment of online users. The Silicon Valley “real” news folks may be writing about threads to say, “The Zuck’s Thread service is a tangled mess.” The more important angle, in my opinion, is that it provides another, possibly quite useful service to those who seek to cause effects not nearly as much fun as saying, “Zuck’s folly flops.” It may, but in the meantime, Threads warrants close observation, not Play-Doh data. Perhaps those wrestling with VPN bans will explore technical options for bypassing packet inspection, IP blocks, port blocks, Fiverr gig workers, or colleagues in the US?
Stephen E Arnold, July 20, 2023
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Social Media | Comments Off on Grasping at Threads and Missing Its Potential for Weaponized Information Delivery
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Twitter helped make some people famous. No big name publisher needed. Just an algorithm and a flow of snappy comments. Fame. Money. A platformer, sorry, I meant platform.
![7 18 playground argument 7 18 playground argument](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-18-playground-argument_thumb.jpg)
Is informed, objective analysis of Facebook and Twitter needed? Sure, but the approach taken by some is more like an argument at a school picnic over the tug –of – war teams. Which team will end up with grass stains? Which will get the ribbon with the check mark? MidJourney developed this original art object.
Now that Twitter has gone Musky, those who may perceive themselves as entitled to a blue check, algorithmic love, and a big, free megaphone are annoyed. At least that’s how I understand “Five Reasons Threads Could Still Go the Distance.” This essay is about the great social media dust up between those who love Teslas and those who can find some grace in the Zuck.
Wait, wasn’t the Zuck the subject of some criticism? Cambridge Analytic-type activities and possibly some fancy dancing with the name of the company, the future of the metaverse, and expanding land holdings in Hawaii? Forget that.
I learned in the article, which is flavored with some business consulting advice from a famous social media personality:
It’s always a fool’s errand to judge the prospects of a new social network a couple weeks into its history.
So what is the essay about? Exactly.
I learned from the cited essay:
Twitter’s deterioration continues to accelerate. Ad revenue is down by 50 percent, according to Musk, and — despite the company choosing not to pay many of its bills — the company is losing money. Rate limits continue to make the site unusable to many free users, and even some paid ones. Spam is overwhelming users’ direct messages so much that the company disabled open DMs to free users. The company has lately been reduced to issuing bribe-like payouts to a handful of hand-picked creators, many of whom are aligned with right-wing politics. If that’s not a death spiral, what is?
Wow, a death spiral at the same time Threads may be falling in love with “rate limits.”
Can the Zuck can kill off Twitter. Here’s hoping. But there is only one trivial task to complete, according to the cited article:
To Zuckerberg, the concept has been proved out. The rest is simply an execution problem. [Emphasis added]
As that lovable influencer, social media maven, and management expert Peter Drucker observed:
What gets measured, gets managed.
Isn’t it early days for measurement? Instagram was a trampoline for Threads. The Musk managment modifications seem to be working exactly as the rocket scientist planned them to function. What’s billions in losses mean to a person whose rockets don’t blow up too often.
Several observations:
- Analyzing Threads and Twitter is a bit like a school yard argument, particularly when the respective big dogs want to fight in a cage in Las Vegas
- The possible annoyance or mild outrage from those who loved the good old free Twitter is palpable
- Social media remains an interesting manifestation of human behavior.
Net net: I find social media a troubling innovation. But it does create news which some find as vital as oxygen, water, and clicks. Yes, clicks. The objective I believe.
Stephen E Arnold, July 18, 2023
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Publishing, Social Media | Comments Off on Threads and Twitter: A Playground Battle for the Ages
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
“Reddit Removed Your Chat History from before 2023” stated:
… legacy chats were being migrated to the new chat platform and that only 2023 data is being brought over, adding that they “hope” a data export will help the user get back the older chats. The admin told another user asking whether there was an option to stay on the legacy chat that no, there isn’t, and Reddit is “working on making new chats better.”
![7 17 bugin amber 7 17 bugin amber](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-17-bugin-amber_thumb.png)
A young attorney studies ancient Reddit data from 2023. That’s when information began because the a great cataclysm destroyed any previous, possibly useful data for a legal matter. But what about the Library of Congress? But what about the Internet Archive? But what about back up tapes at assorted archives? Yeah, right. Thanks for the data in amber MidJourney.
The cited article does not raise the following obviously irrelevant questions:
- Are there backups which can be consulted?
- Are their copies of the Reddit data chat data?
- Was the action taken to reduce costs or legal liability?
I am not a Reddit user, nor do I affix site:reddit or append the word “reddit” to my queries. Some may find the service useful, but I am a dinobaby and hopeless out of touch with where the knowledge action is.
As an outsider, my initial reaction is that dumping data has two immediate paybacks: Reduce storage and the likelihood that a group of affable lawyers will ask for historic data about a Reddit user’s activity. My hunch is that users of a free service cannot fathom why a commercial enterprise would downgrade or eliminate a free service. Gee, why?
I think I would answer the question with one word, “Adulting.”
Stephen E Arnold, July 17, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
The high school science club managers are engaged in a somewhat amusing dust up. First, there was a challenge to a physical fight, a modern joust in which two wizards would ride their egos into glory in Las Vegas, a physical metaphor for modern America. Then the two captains of industry would battle in court because … you know… you cannot hire people another company fired. Yesterday, real journalists crowed from many low rise apartment roof tops that a new social media service was growing allegedly at the expense of another social media company. The numbers prove that one company is better at providing a platform to erode cultural values than another. Victory!
![7 11 truck scene 7 11 truck scene](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-11-truck-scene_thumb.png)
Twitter… endorsed by those who know. Thanks, MidJourney, you output an image in spite of your inappropriate content filter. Good work.
Now I learn that one social media outfit is the bestie of an interesting organization. I think that organization has been known to cast aspersions on the United States. The phrase “the great Satan” sticks in my mind, but I am easily confused. I want to turn to a real news outfit which itself is the subject of some financial minds — Vice Motherboard.
The article title makes the point: “Taliban Endorses Twitter over Threads.” Now that is quite an accolade. The Facebook Zucker service, according to the article, is “intolerant.” Okay. Is the Taliban associated with lenient and tolerant behavior? I don’t know but I recall some anecdotes about being careful about what to wear when pow-wowing with the Taliban. Maybe that’s incorrect.
The write up adds:
Anas Haqqani, a Taliban thought-leader with family connections to leadership, has officially endorsed Twitter over Facebook-owned competitor Threads. “Twitter has two important advantages over other social media platforms,” Haqqani said in an English post on Twitter. “The first privilege is the freedom of speech. The second privilege is the public nature & credibility of Twitter. Twitter doesn’t have an intolerant policy like Meta. Other platforms cannot replace it.”
What group will endorse Threads directly and the Zuck implicitly? No, I don’t have any suggestions to offer. Why? This adolescent behavior can manifest itself in quite dramatic ways. As a dinobaby, I am not into drama. I am definitely interested in how those in adult bodies act out their adolescent thought processes. Thumbs up for Mr. Musk. Rocket thrusters, Teslas, and the Taliban. That’s the guts of an impressive LinkedIn résumé.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
“Zuck Is a Cuck: Elon Musk Ramps Up His Attacks on Mark Zuckerberg With Shocking Tweet” provides an example of mature decision making, eloquent rhetoric, and the thrill of the high school insult. Maybe, it is a grade-school thrill, similar to someone pointing at overweight me with thick glasses and a book to read just for fun. I can hear the echoes of these memorable words, “Look at smarty pants. Yah yah yah.” I loved every minute of these insults.
![7 10 teens fight 7 10 teens fight](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-10-teens-fight_thumb.png)
“What did you call me? You keep your mouth shut or my friends and I will post on both Threads and Twitter that you do drugs and steal to buy junk.” Yes, the intellectual discourse of those in the prime of adolescence. And what’s the rejoinder, “Yeah, well, I will post those pix you sent me and email them to your loser mom. What do you think about that, you, you [censored]?”
The cited article from Mediaite (which I don’t know how to pronounce) reports:
Threads drew tens of millions of users since its launch three days ago, so the competition between Musk and Zuckerberg is being waged on social, legal, and perhaps even physical fronts with talk of a cage match fight between the two. Despite the numerous setbacks Twitter has seen since Musk took it over, he has spent the weekend hyping up improvements to the platform while taking shots at Zuckerberg.
What business school teaching moment is this? [a] Civil discourse triumphs, [b] Friendly competition is a net positive, [c] Ad hominem arguments are an exceptional argumentative tool, [d] Emotional intelligence is a powerful opportunity magnet.
What? Why no [e] All of the above?
Note for those who don’t like my characterization of Silicon Valley luminaries’ manifestation of “the high school science club management method. Isn’t it time to accept HS-SC-MM as the one “true way” to riches, respect, and power?
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
My newsfeed of headlines produced a three-year young essay titled “How to Learn Better in the Digital Age.” The date on the document is November 2020. (Have you noticed how rare a specific date on a document appears?)
![7 4 student doing homework 7 4 student doing homework](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-4-student-doing-homework_thumb.png)
MidJourney provided this illustration of me doing math homework with both hands in 1952. I was fatter and definitely uglier than the representation in the picture. I want to point out: [a] no mobile phone, [b] no calculator, [c] no radio or TV, [d] no computer, and [e] no mathy father breathing down my neck. (He was busy handling the finances of a weapons manufacturer which dabbled in metal coat hangers.) Was homework hard? Nope, just part of the routine in Campinas, Brazil, and the thrilling Calvert Course.
The write up contains a simile which does not speak to me; namely, the functioning of the human brain is emulated to some degree in smart software. I am not in that dog fight. I don’t care because I am a dinobaby.
For me the important statement in the essay, in my opinion, is this one:
… we need to engage with what we encounter if we wish to absorb it long term. In a smartphone-driven society, real engagement, beyond the share or like or retweet, got fundamentally difficult – or, put another way, not engaging got fundamentally easier. Passive browsing is addictive: the whole information supply chain is optimized for time spent in-app, not for retention and proactivity.
I marvel at the examples of a failure to learn. United Airlines strands people. The CEO has a fix: Take a private jet. Clerks in convenience stores cannot make change even when the cash register displays the amount to return to the customer. Yeah, figuring out pennies, dimes, and quarters is a tough one. New and expensive autos near where I live sit on the side of the road awaiting a tow truck from the Land Rover- or Maserati-type dealer. The local hospital has been unable to verify appointments and allegedly find some X-ray images eight weeks after a cyber attack on an insecure system. Hip, HIPPA hooray, Hip HIPPA hooray. I have a basket of other examples, and I would wager $1.00US you may have one or two to contribute. But why? The impact of poor thinking, reading, math, and writing skills are abundant.
Observations:
- AI will take over routine functions because humans are less intelligent and diligent than when I was a fat, slow learning student. AI is fast and good enough.
- People today will not be able to identify or find information to validate or invalidate an output from a smart system; therefore, those who are intellectually elite will have their hands on machines that direct behavior, money, and power.
- Institutions — staffed by employees who look forward to a coffee break more than working hard — will gladly license smart workflow revolution.
Exciting times coming. I am delighted I a dinobaby and not a third-grade student juggling a mobile, an Xbox, an iPad, and a new M2 Air. I was okay with a paper and pencil. I just wanted to finish my homework and get the best grade I could.
Stephen E Arnold, July
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Social Media, Technology, Video | Comments Off on Learning Means Effort, Attention, and Discipline. No, We Have AI, or AI Has Us
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
With regulators beginning to wake up to the threats, risks, and effects of online information, I enjoyed reading “Fake Zero-Day PoC Exploits on GitHub Push Windows, Linux Malware.” The write up points out:
Hackers are impersonating cybersecurity researchers on Twitter and GitHub to publish fake proof-of-concept exploits for zero-day vulnerabilities that infect Windows and Linux with malware. These malicious exploits are promoted by alleged researchers at a fake cybersecurity company named ‘High Sierra Cyber Security,’ who promote the GitHub repositories on Twitter, likely to target cybersecurity researchers and firms involved in vulnerability research.
![image image](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image_thumb-2.png)
The tweeter thing is visualized by that nifty art generator Dezgo. I think the smart software captures the essence of the tweeter’s essence.
I noted that the target appears to be cyber security “experts”. Does this raise questions in your mind about the acuity of some of those who fell for the threat intelligence? I have to admit. I was not surprised. Not in the least.
The article includes illustrations of the “Python downloader.”
I want to mention that this is just one type of OSINT blindspot causing some “experts” to find themselves on the wrong end of a Tesla-like or Waymo-type self-driving vehicle. I know I would not stand in front of one. Similarly, I would not read about an “exploit” on Twitter, click on links, or download code.
But that’s just me, a 78 year old dinobaby. But a 30 something cyber whiz? That’s something that makes news.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2023
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under cybercrime, News, Social Media | Comments Off on One More Reason to Love Twitter: Fake People and Malware Injection.
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
For some reason, I remember my freshman year in high school. My family had returned from Brazil, and the US secondary school adventure was new. The first class of the day in 1958 parked me in front of Miss Dalton, the English teacher. She explained that we had to use the library to write a short essay about foreign country. Brazil did not interest me, so with the wisdom of a freshman in high school, I chose Japan. My topic? Seppuku or hara-kiri. Yep, belly cutting.
The idea that caught my teen attention was the idea that a warrior who was shamed, a loser in battle, or fighter wanting to make a point would stab himself with his sword. (Females slit their throats.) The point of the exercise was to make clear, this warrior had moxie, commitment, and maybe a bit of psychological baggage. An inner wiring (maybe guilt) would motivate you to kill oneself in a hard-to-ignore way. Wild stuff for a 13 year old.
![6 20 hara kiri with a laptop 6 20 hara kiri with a laptop](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/6-20-hara-kiri-with-a-laptop_thumb.png)
A digital samurai preparing to commit hara-kiri with a brand new really sharp MacBook Air M2. Believe it or not, MidJourney objected to an instruction to depict a Japanese warrior committing seppuku with a laptop. Change the instruction and the system happily depicts a digital warrior initiating the Reddit- and Twitter-type processes. Thanks, MidJourney for the censorship.
I have watched a highly regarded innovator chop away at his innards with the management “enhancements” implemented at Twitter. I am not a Twitter user, but I think that an unarticulated motive is causing the service to be “improved.” “Twitter: Five Ways Elon Musk Has Changed the Platform for Users” summarizes a few of the most newsworthy modifications. For example, the rocket and EV wizard quickly reduced staff, modified access to third-party applications, and fooled around with check marks. The impact has been intriguing. Billions in value have been disappeared. Some who rose to fame by using Tweets as a personal promotional engine have amped up their efforts to be short text influencers. The overall effect has been to reduce scrutiny because the impactful wounds are messy. Once concerned regulators apparently have shifted their focus. Messy stuff.
Now a social media service called Reddit is taking some cues from the Musk Manual of Management. The gold standard in management excellence — that would be CNN, of course — documented some Reddit’s actions in “Reddit’s Fight with Its Most Powerful Users Enters New Phase As Blackout Continues.” The esteemed news service stated:
The company also appears to be laying the groundwork for ejecting forum moderators committed to continuing the protests, a move that could force open some communities that currently remain closed to the public. In response, some moderators have vowed to put pressure on Reddit’s advertisers and investors.
Without users and moderators will Reddit thrive? If the information in a recent Wired article is correct, the answer is, “Maybe not.” (See “The Reddit Blackout Is Breaking Reddit.”)
Why are two large US social media companies taking steps that will either impair their ability to perform technically and financially or worse, chopping away at themselves?
My thought is that the management of both firms know that regulators and stakeholders are closing in. Both companies want people who die for the firm. The companies are at war with idea, their users, and their supporters. But what’s the motivation?
Let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine that the senior managers at both companies know that they have lost the battle for the hearts and minds of regulators, some users, third-party developers, and those who would spend money to advertise. But like a person promoted to a senior position, the pressure of the promotion causes the individuals to doubt themselves. These people are the Peter Principle personified. Unconsciously they want to avail to avoid their inner demons and possibly some financial stakeholders.
The senior managers are taking what they perceive as a strong way out — digital hara-kiri. Of course, it is messy. But the pain, the ugliness, and the courage are notable. Those who are not caught in the sticky Web of social media ignore the horrors. For Silicon Valley “real” news professionals, many users dependent on the two platforms, and those who have surfed on the firms’ content have to watch.
Are the managers honorable? Do some respect their tough decisions? Are the senior managers’ inner demons and their sense of shame assuaged? I don’t know. But the action is messy on the path of honor via self-disembowelment.
For a different angle on what’s happened at Facebook and Google, take a look at “The Rot Economy.”
Stephen E Arnold, June 19, 2023
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Management, News, Social Media | Comments Off on Digital Belly Cutting: Reddit and Twitter on the Path of Silicon Honor?
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