I am working on morphing that project and my “Smart Cities” topic from this semester (which I quickly renamed/pivoted to Smart Citizens) into a semester long topics course for August-December. I plan to do this in my normal connected course mode and hope that others can play along.

Link: http://kenscourses.com/iTec/

And yet… facebook is still a place where our democracy is being shaped. Leaving facebook doesn’t solve that problem…

We are 2 weeks away from the ‘teen years’ in our house. That certainly is part of the reflection for us as well.

Nope. No start over with the thoughtful people we know. I want the not-thoughtful people we don’t know. I want to convince them that being nice to people is worthwhile. That science is a real thing. etc…

Please do. Lemme know when you post it and I’ll edit the post to include the link.

I try to take an optimistic view of the world. It’s a choice that I make every day. What we do need is critical thinking. It’s critical thinking that I’m choosing to pursue when I consume content online, but my response (which is fully my own choice to make) is optimism. I believe in humans. I believe humans can make good choices and build a pro-social internet. Will that include all humans? Maybe not. Nobody can control the actions of others. I can only control my own actions. So it’s up to every individual to make their own choices. There’s never going to be a perfect world, but I believe in progress and working toward something better. If someone chooses to think this is naive, let them, that’s their choice. I can only do what I can do.

Knowing this, we all have the capacity to build a pro-social internet and that personal capacity can’t be taken away. If we use this personal capacity for good, for living our values and for teaching others about thinking critically, it’s the best we can do.

As a parent to two young daughters, I feel it is my responsibility to teach them critical thinking when it comes to using the internet. As generations now have no choice but to live alongside and with the internet, it becomes the duty of parents, educators and society to help our kids figure this landscape out (even if we are still figuring it out ourselves).

When we reach the teen years in our household, I’ll continue to evaluate this thinking. The internet will be continuously evolving to that point and we need to continuously evolve with it.

That being said. I’m still suspect against some of the platforms being engineered to draw our attention or shape what we see, contribute, and say on the Internet… but I guess that means not giving up or making spaces that mean something (if possible).

If only we could start over… somewhere else… with the thoughtful and introspective people we know. #UtopiaWeb, where for art thou? Thanks for your post, Dave. It comes at a time when I have been thinking more about our networked practices and experiences.

But it goes beyond just posting well and participating. No amount of human posting will be sufficient to counter bot-driven (or mechanical-turk-driven) counter-content. No amount of careful contributions will turn off the surveillance and targeted advertising. And it is these that are in large part the cause of the problems.

That’s why I’m not on Facebook. Not simply because it’s a cesspool (though it is) but because my posts can’t make an impact against the barrage of paid messaging and bots. I can’t beat the Facebook algorithm. When I have a thousand followers and only 22 of them see a post (actual numbers) I know my time on Facebook is up.