Author: Sarah Schmerler (Page 3 of 5)

Hi Class, as you saw from your recent Weekly Assignment Folder, one of your things to watch and respond to was The Social Dilemma movie. People who don’t have Netflix have asked for an alternative to that part of the assignment, so here it is:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/23/opinion/data-privacy-jaron-lanier.html

^^This, link above, is a New York Times Opinion Interactive piece with one of the people featured in the The Social Dilemma film, Jaron Lanier. You can watch that instead of the movie. Lanier is actually quite fascinating, and I encourage you to go to Wikipedia and read about him and learn more about him. There are numerous video clips out there as well, that will explain his background and philosophy.

Your written response: you should watch the above and tell me about Data Dignity and the advertising business model (you need to watch to know what I mean) and whether or not you think it is being used ethically. Tell me if you agree with Lanier. Tell me a bit about how/how much/why you use social media (what types) and what you think of its effect on your life.

Listen up — grammar/spelling correction time: I maintain that subway trains have “cars” not “carts.” Since you are writing a lot on the subway train, I thought I might step in here and note this common error that I encounter in many a student’s work.

Want proof? Check out the work of photographer Stephen Mallon who documented the MTA’s project to use old subway cars to create coral reefs.

You can read about the MTA’s reefing project.

This is the artist’s website.

And in case you haven’t had enough “car” trouble from me, here is a thing about trains in general: