Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes an intriguing article about why social media appears to have gone tribal, influencing the rest of society.  Surprisingly, our perception may not be the case.  After all, social networks are designed to give us what we want. Is it possible we want tribalism?

My New Years’ resolution for 2020 will be to reduce the number of my Facebook friends. Unlike the woman from Kenya who had 5000, I can’t manage 400. Some friends I doubt are real.  They never comment on the news feed. Once a year I send them my annual birthday greeting to whi

Not long ago, I grew weary of seeing my news feed treated like a public kiosk. I love promoting my friends’ achievements when they publish a book or have an art show, but commercials are fair game for exploitation. One day, for example, I attached an announcement for Just Read It, m

Living in the real world and the virtual one may be more than my simple mind can handle.  My fear gets worse when I realize the virtual world is  split in two — between the worldwide web and the dark web. Add to that bifurcation, my need to  remember there are two kinds of mo

I am  sick of Facebook.  I’m tired of its cutesy messages.  I don’t want to celebrate the fact that Rudolf Valentino and I have been friends for 3 days. Nor do I want reports on the number of “likes” my comments receive in a week. Frankly, Facebook, I don’t give a damn. 

  We’ve come a long way from the Arab Spring when Facebook’s technology and that of other social media platforms stirred and facilitated freedom lovers.  Those who supported democratic movements thought they were witnessing technology’s miracle: the ability for ordinar

I recently read about an actor, Aziz Ansari, who has unplugged from the internet and rejoices in the freedom it’s given him, not only in time, but in his choice of activities.  “I’m reading like three books right now.” (“People,” The Week, Sept. 2017, pg. 10.)  Of course

I saw several references to PewDiePie on Facebook, recently, and also in the gossip area of my Yahoo page.  Whether the name belonged to a person or a dessert, I didn’t know and didn’t much care.  But the buzz grew until it piqued my curiosity.  For my readers, many of whom are

Recently, a woman on Facebook admitted she received most of her news from social media.  If true, she is making a couple of mistakes.  First, she is  foreclosing on ideas outside her narrow group of like-minded friends.  Second, she’s vulnerable to fake news, much of it propagan

A blog reader wrote to thank me for sharing the latest PEW Research Center’s survey about Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations. In the main, the attitudes expressed there were similar to those found in the PEN survey I discussed earlier. (Bog 12/2/13)  Snowden’s revelations about t