Media Sampler 6 - Social media and ultra-processed content
“Media Sampler” is a series of posts, where I make a selection of articles, videos and podcasts that I recently came across in the Internets and found interesting!
Articles
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Communication Really Happens in the Carpool… by David Epstein
This article highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and spontaneous interactions in fostering innovation. With remote work, creating intentional opportunities for idea exchange is crucial. Examples include NASA’s “Monday Notes” and proactive information sharing among hospital interns. Encouraging diverse reading and idea cross-pollination can also enhance creativity and innovation.
“And most people say, ‘Well, I don’t have time to read outside my field.’ I say, ‘No, you do have time, it’s far more important.’ Your world becomes a bigger world, and maybe there’s a moment in which you make connections.”
-Arturo Casadevall
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On The Degrading Effects of Life Online by Jon Haidt and Freya India
An article about how social media makes us worse people. There is some discussion regarding efforts in the UK to limit children’s smartphone use, highlighting initiatives by individuals like Daisy Greenwell and Clare Reynolds, and the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code. It examines the negative impact of social media on children’s mental health and development, sharing disturbing testimonies from teens. Good read to understand the issue with social media use and young people.
Every social media app is toxic. There are a lot of nasty people on there — and nasty stuff. The TikTok For You page and Instagram Reels are the worst for showing really gruesome videos, like people getting seriously hurt or their arm being cut off.
-Charley, age 17
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Quantum dialectics by Nigel Warburton
This article discusses how Soviet Marxist philosophy influenced postwar quantum theory, particularly through the work of physicist David Bohm. It explores how Soviet ideology shaped scientific discourse and contributed to the development of Bohm’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, which emphasized a deterministic universe in contrast to the prevailing Copenhagen interpretation.
It was not enough just to interpret the world, Marx claimed. Philosophers must also seek to change it