What you see isn't always the truth

Society puts so much faith in technology, and it’s easy to understand why. We want to work smarter, not harder. When it comes to problem-solving, we want to produce the most efficient solution that requires the least amount of extra work on our part- one that minimizes or eliminates human error. Without much scrutiny, it often seems like technology provides the solution we want. I can always trust that my scientific calculator will compute an equation faster and more correctly than I can on my own. I think we tend to think of all technologies with the same reverence as a calculator- as innovative devices that somehow transcend human errors and fault.

In actuality, my calculator isn’t perfect. It will only compute correct answers if, on my end, I give it the correct information to solve a problem with accuracy. If I slip up and provide the wrong value, or use an incorrect function, the calculator will give me an incorrect answer.  Just because technology has the capacity to operate without influence from human error does not negate its susceptibility to human error. A technological advancement put forth by a society plagued by prominent discrimination towards minority groups is inevitably going to reflect those biases.

It is very important not to assume that technology produces and presents bias-free data, because that is simply untrue.  Especially as technological advancements progress in the future, people need to be mindful of the fact that no device or software can truly supersede the flaws of the people who create it. 

How Much Does Buzzfeed Know About Your Life?

It’s really easy to get sucked into Buzzfeed quizzes. As a whole, they’re pretty lighthearted and topically relevant to whatever is in the news or pop culture on the day they’re posted. It’s fun to compare your results to your friends, especially when your friend ends up with the less favorable result. It’s fleeting amusement at its finest.

Am I surprised to read how much data Buzzfeed collects while I’m taking a “What % Wednesday Addams are You?” quiz? Hardly. But I was shocked when I realized the implications of some of the data they’ve obtained from quizzes with more serious questions, such as the “How Privileged Are You?” quiz mentioned in the article, which I definitely remember taking. It’s kind of chilling to know that millions of people have taken this quiz in earnest, and in doing so disclosed information about their mental health and life story to a disembodied digital entity. In addition to asking participants about sexual assault, this specific quiz asks them to specify their sexuality and gender identity. It makes me sad to think about how many people have taken this quiz and given honest answers to these questions, but may not be in a place where they can comfortably disclose this information to people in their own lives.

I hope that Buzzfeed uses the information with a good purpose. Maybe they can use the data to create sharable statistics, or influence social change. It would be foolish for anyone to look at Buzzfeed as not having weight, and it would be foolish for Buzzfeed to collect personal details idly. 

Millennials and Privacy Rights

The studies elaborated by this Medium article seem to confirm that Millennials see online privacy as an individualistic responsibility, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. We’ve clicked “Agree” in response to so many different (and yet, almost identical in wording) terms of service that the whole process seems like a mindless transaction. It’s not like you can really refute any of the terms listed, so it’s much easier to click “Yes” and accept the responsibility of making sure that your information is secure on your own.

I think as Millennials, we’re more conscious about our privacy because a lot of our online presence is centered on marketing our content and posts. Whether we share content on public or private accounts, we post with the purpose of establishing and elaborating our own online brand. We want as much control over our information and who has access to it as possible, while also maintaining a realistic view that there is some data that will be collected about us whether we like it or not. The information we elect to share is mostly rooted in our branding and what we want to convey to a vaguely-defined audience.

I thought it was interesting that Medium brought up the way Millennials selectively utilize location services online, because I feel like they accurately relayed my own opinions towards it. When I’m at home, I go out of my way to restrict my location information to a broader “Dallas” if anything at all. The only times I will disclose the suburb I live in is when Snapchat releases a new geotag for it (and in that instance, only a handful of friends who already know where I live will see it), or for political campaigns. However, most of the content I share to social media is related to travel plans, concerts, and shows with specific locations. In those instances, I strangely have no qualms in directly naming a venue or city that I’m in- even when I’m still technically in Dallas.

 From my own experience, I think the perception of online privacy is very much a grey area of thought, and can be easily influenced by how we think certain details from our lives can be used tactfully to serve our online brand.

The Kids Are Alright (Albeit well-documented)

It’s really easy to make fun of people who overshare on social media. I’ll be the first to admit that I follow some people online purely because I know that the content they share will either irritate me or make me laugh (which is a terrible reason to follow ANYONE on social media, but I know I’m not the only person who does it). I, too, find myself rolling my eyes when the people I follow spam my newsfeed with pictures of their weddings or children, even though I post the same way with pictures from concerts and of my cat.

While it is an undeniable condition of the present day and how we use the internet, I think it’s worth at least contemplating what effects our current oversharing may bring in the future. My generation is the first to have had their adolescence documented digitally, and I personally can’t wait for the first presidential election that features a millennial candidate just to see the media dig up online receipts from their old Myspace page. Millennials are lucky. Sure, our angst-ridden teenage posts are still floating around on the internet, but because the first half of our lives took place before the advent of the digital camera, a good chunk of our lives and our childhood can remain private. No one can see my poor fashion choices at the turn of the century unless I personally scan and post the photos. Today’s kids do not have that luxury. Their entire lives have been thoroughly documented online. It’s a condition that hasn’t appeared before now, and so we have no idea how it will affect these kids as they grow into adults.

As far as the concept of overfollowing on social media, I’ve noticed that younger users on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram have started to employ a regulatory filtering method to their following lists. While they continuously follow new accounts, these users are perpetually unfollowing others at the same time. They aim to keep their account at a set following number, usually somewhere around 100-200. While this action seems to be purely taken for the aesthetic of that even following number, I can’t help but wonder if this could be adapted for other users, particularly those who are tired of having a flooded timeline.

Millennials have different job expectations, and that's okay.

Millennials receive a lot of criticism from older generations for being the “entitled” generation. Especially as our generation has entered the workforce, we are cyclically condemned for having high expectations in most facets of our lives, especially pertaining to our careers. In truth, I do believe that millennials have an undeniably different work ethic than our predecessors.  But I don’t understand why we receive a noticeable amount of ridicule and disdain from our elders because of this.

I feel like this article, which focused on a study that showed millennials to prioritize quality of work life over pay, attempted frame these results to be somewhat shocking. I wasn’t surprised by this revelation, but I also spent the first half of my college career studying to be a professional actor with a bunch of millennials. In fact, as I’ve become an adult, I’ve watched many of my peers sustain jobs in their desired fields, and they’re thriving. It’s not difficult to see that their success and happiness can largely be attributed to their passion for what they do and the environment that they work in.

My biggest peeve with criticism of the millennial work ethic, or simple criticism of the generation as a whole, is that the characteristics and ideas we are criticized for were not originated by us. From an early age, we were taught to pursue work that we’re passionate about, that we shouldn’t work just for the money, that we could be whatever makes us happy. Now as adults, the people who told us to set high expectations are the same people who condemn us for doing just that. It’s a frustrating double-standard.