Digital Dilemma, Social Media

Hooked on Tech

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After I wrote last week’s blog on “Social Media Addiction,” I started to pay more attention to devices more. This included my own tech habits as well as those around me. Everywhere I looked, people were constantly on their devices. This included three teenagers taking a break from work. I was sitting somewhere and noticed three teens all in the same uniform. Instead of chatting with each other, as I likely would have done on my work breaks at that age, each one remained firmly glued to their devices. I’m surprised I even noticed because I too, was also glued to my device.

This, alas, is what children and teenagers see. While it’s easy to point the finger at social media companies, that’s only part of the problem. Smartphones, by design, are meant to be addictive. Each app, or service on them, are all vying for our attention. Even more than that, the design of many apps and services will only work specifically with smartphones. Sometimes they will only work with smartphones. I recall this to be the case the other week when I had to verify my identity for the IRS refund. Even starting the interaction on a laptop, I had to switch to the smartphone to upload the IDs. This was by design.

Over the weekend I went to an Augmented Reality (AR) exhibit at the Royal Botanical Garden (RBG). Last time I went to an AR exhibit at RBG I brought my iPad to enjoy the AR on a bigger screen. This time, however, the QR codes would only work on a smartphone. Some of the exhibit pieces had QR codes to scan for an audio clip explaining something about the work. The AR pieces only had a sign with a QR code and instructions. But alas, I couldn’t get them to work on the iPad forcing me to squint and pinch at the tiny smartphone screen to get the AR effects.

Though the proposals from Meta are a start, albeit suggested from the source of the problem itself, there are other measures to take. Children learn from the world around them. Even though social media guardrails sound good in theory, the problem is more pervasive. It would also require adults adhere to some self-imposed restrictions and put down the devices once in a while. Are we going full circle?

Digital Dilemma, Social Media

Social Media Addiction

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Last week Meta settled a course case against it. Normally in these types of cases against social media companies, they rely on Section 230. Essentially, this is a US Federal Law that prevents social media companies being held liable for content. Or social media companies hide behind free speech. However, this case was different. Rather than going after content, this case focused on the platform itself, making claims about the addictive qualities of the underlying technology.

I don’t think it’s any big secret that social media companies prey on keeping our attention. It’s not uncommon to hear smartphones, and social media, compared to gambling. In fact, there are many similarities. They capture our attention and then keep it, by design. They lure us in to keep playing, doom scrolling, viewing, clicking, and giving up hours of our attention. This is all baked in as part of the design.

The settlement of the recent case with Meta, focused on a younger audience. Rather than fight the case, again citing Section 230 and free speech, Meta agreed to settle. They also agreed to implement a number of guard rails and controls to prevent teens and younger kids from getting sucked in. Some of the proposed controls include time limits, notifications shut off during school hours and between midnight to 6am, ending continuous scrolling and autoplays, and options to opt out of algorithmic-tailored feeds.

While this all sounds like a good start, in theory, Meta proposed all of the measures. Based on what I understand, there are no studies or evidence to support that these controls are the most effective, even if they sound convincing. Maybe we’re overlooking something even more beneficial behind Meta’s shield of benevolence. It would be a good idea to have some independent third-parties make recommendations about the controls.

I would also like to point out that limiting kids on devices is only part of the solution. The other part would be to provide them with some non-social media and non-personal device options. For example, when I was growing up, we had landlines, pay phones, and at some point, pagers. All of which provided us with ways to communicate with friends, family, and relatives. Without personal devices, how would today’s youth be able to communicate with others, unless they start borrowing somebody else’s.

Productivity, True Confessions

The Art of Planning

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When I feel overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time, I always revert to lists. There’s something magical about writing everything down. Writing it down is even better when I can start grouping things, assessing priorities, and breaking things down into manageable chunks. Somehow the act of writing everything, brings me clarity. Otherwise I find myself kind of floating around trying to remember everything, deciding where to start, and not feeling super overloaded.

Part of the relief, I think, comes from part of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” method. He asserts that writing things down is a way to capture it somewhere. This in turn frees up mental space to concentrate or focus on something else. In theory, this is because your brain is no longer burdened to remember things such as groceries to grab on the way home.

At work I use a “to do” app that captures everything. Flagged emails end up in the app. Tasks delegated to me by others end up in the app. Plus I can add things whenever I want to the growing list. Some things in the list have a date assigned to them. Other added tasks remain “captured” but undated. This is simply because I needed a place to note tasks that have lower priorities or less urgent time lines. However, they remain on the radar because they’re always available for me to scan and review. This helps me figure out when to plan them in.

I shared this method with one of my students once. While I felt calm and focused with my aggregated list of tasks, he had the opposite reaction. He remarked he felt stressed out looking at this enormous list, even with some things undated. I suppose seeing the scope of everything that needs doing can also make someone feel overwhelmed. But from my perspective, if I can’t assess the extent of the work, that makes me feel worse. Writing everything down also provides me with a way to start planning out how to get everything done. Sometimes this also means throwing a few things off the list, too. After all, we’re only human.

Digital Dilemma, Productivity

Hybrid Process Snags

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During tax season, my accountant erroneously estimated what I would owe to the US Government for filing. I ended up overpaying based on the estimate. Once filed, I owed nothing and was getting a refund. In previous years when this has happened, the IRS mails me a check for the overpaid amount. This year, however, they have a new process in place. I suppose it’s to help prevent fraud because most of it is about identify verification. While some parts of the process felt somewhat adapted for a digital environment, other parts felt really disjointed and unnecessarily clunky.

The process, as near as I can determine, went something like this.

  1. I received a letter in the mail (i.e., snail mail).
  2. The letter instructed me to log in to the IRS portal to verify my identify and refund amount.
  3. For communicating online, I needed the 2024 and 2025 filings, along with the letter.
  4. When I tried logging in, it redirected me to a different service called ID Me. I had to create a new login.
  5. This login allowed me to somehow access both the ID ME service and the IRS. It seems ID Me is a 3rd party service to verify identities on behalf of the IRS.
  6. I logged into ID ME to submit photos of documents to verify identify, all different from the ones indicated on the IRS letter. I needed government-issue photo ID, secondary ID to confirm my address (e.g., utility or phone bill), and my social security card. For any non-Americans reading this, my original social insurance card is a card-sized rectangle of thick paper.
  7. I logged in with my laptop. ID Me seamlessly sent a prompt to my phone to photo documents and upload them.
  8. Once uploaded, ID Me routed me back to my laptop to complete the verification process, i.e., waiting for a video call with an agent to physically view my ids.
  9. After verifying with the agent via video call, I then had to log back into IRS. Again through the ID Me login.
  10. Then I had to select some options to allow information sharing between IRS and ID Me.

Hopefully I did all that correctly. I won’t know right away because it will take several weeks to receive the refund check via snail mail. And yes, it was as confusing to navigate as it sounds.

Productivity

Eating Efficiencies

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Those of you who follow my blog might remember that I love cooking and hate washing dishes. Some time ago I discovered a rather effective hack. It’s inelegant, but cuts down on dishes and clean-up time. Basically, I serve food in the containers I’ll pack it away in after. Most of the time, this is a wide-mouthed mason jar or one of my lidded pyrex dishes. It doesn’t always look the best and sometimes it won’t even fit all of the food. However, I find clean up is much easier.

All food served in mason jars is easy to clear. I screw on a lid and place it in the fridge. The mason jars take up very little space as well in the fridge and on the dining table. They are also light weight. As well, glass is non-porous so I never have to worry about harmful chemicals or old food smells. The wide mouth makes most things easy to serve or pour onto a plate for eating. Things can get a bit messy with some grains, such as rice or couscous, which are more difficult to spoon out from a jar

The best is when I can find stove-to-table cookware. I recently purchased a set of six glass storage containers that are also microwave, freezer, and oven safe. Unlike my beloved old-school pyrex, these containers have plastic storage lids. It means the lids fit better and tighter. They’re also easier to stack in the fridge. But on the flip side, I lose the ability to use a glass cover for baking things in the oven.

At the end of the meal, I’ve fully eliminated washing all the serving dishes. Although I can serve the food directly from the pan or dish it’s been cooked in, I find this doesn’t work well. First of all, the pans and dishes are often hot. This means I need to find something to put the pan or dish on. They also take up a lot of space making the table top crowded. Consequently, this can make it riskier to reach for things without accidentally brushing a hot pan and getting burned. This is likely the main reason why people transfer hot, cooked food into serving dishes.

In my mind, serving food in storage containers is great. It provides a faster clean-up time and less dishes to wash. A win all around.

Digital Dilemma, Productivity

The Big Data Dangers

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Everywhere, any time, data about us is being tracked. Some tracking happens without our consent. For example, our browsing and searching habits or things we are looking at to purchase. While we can opt out of some options, it can be necessary for us to participate in a digital world. Other tracking is for things that we willingly consent to. In some cases, we even volunteer or seek out opportunities to collect even more data about ourselves.

Over the years, I’ve seen a large number of devices and apps come into the market all focused on our bodies. Some of the apps aim to track our sleeping habits. Others aim to monitor our well-being, reminding us when we might need to stand up and walk around or stop and take a deep, calming breath. Fitness apps are also very popular. These apps track aspects of our movement and workouts. They will track things such as heart rate, distances traveled, and number of steps taken each day. Since I don’t actually use any of these apps, I’m sure even more things are tracked.

While I’m sure on some level it’s useful to have all these things tracked, on another it can be detrimental. I’ve recently seen many articles discussing the negative side of too much tracking. Is there such a thing as too much data? Apparently there is. It happens when recording too much data obscures the main purpose. Essentially, too many variables are present. This can make it difficult to figure out the most critical and consequential data. This can cause distractions from what the real issues are.

I’ve also heard accounts from people that they become too obsessed with the tracking. Consequently, the goals they are using the data to achieve becomes secondary to the goals of continually tracking the data. In some cases, this can cause them to miss vital information about what’s actually happening. For example, my swim goggles only record limited information about my strokes, mainly freestyle. However, they aren’t great at noticing some of the biggest trends with my swimming, such as my evening swims also score lower.

All of this data can be useful, but also distracting from what’s really going on. I suppose this would be an example of too many “red herrings” driving us further from answers instead of revealing what we need to know.