When Social Media Is Weaponized Against Us and Wielded Illegally and Unconstitutionally What Is The Role Of Social Media Professors And Higher Education?
* YouTube taking down videos of doctors sharing factual data
* Facebook politically biased fact checkers flagging truthful content they disagree with as false
* Twitter blocking people asking difficult but critical questions in challenging times
* Google preventing content from appearing in search results or burying facts so deeply they are all but impossible to find
* Citizens exercising constitutional and legal rights to peacefully assemble being spied on when they protest against Governors acting unilaterally, illegally and unconstitutionally
I was an unabashed advocate and cheerleader for the importance of social media in education beginning in 2008 and have helped pioneer partnerships with the social media industry and higher education since 2012. In recent years, Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been caught over and over violating their own user and privacy agreements. These same company founders and CEOs have been highly deceitful and caught in multiple lies and their companies have been convicted in courts for illegal practices.
For the past few years I have been struggling with a crisis of conscience in my role as an educator and have been rethinking and retooling how I teach digital and social media in a much more limited, balanced and cautionary way to help inform students of these realities and dangers while still trying to equp them with necessary skills for their careers.
Currently, social media is being weaponized against users and being wielded in unconstitutional and illegal ways. Secret and flawed algorithms and Artificial Intelligence - A.I. increasingly make decisions and filter what is truthful, who gets to have a public voice and what facts we get to see with our Search Engines and Social Media.
When just asking these questions and presenting the above information could get someone blocked on Social Media or prevent their content from showing up in Search results is it time to rethink our roles as educators in this?
What do you think the role of Social Media Professors and Higher Education going forward should be? Will you teach Digital and Social Media differently?
I look 4Ward to your feedback.
