Hello, Friends. Happy March! How are you doing? And how was your week? You may or may not have noticed I was not around much this week. Which was not my intention — and possibly surprised me as much as it surprised you.
The reason I’ve been so absentee is Alt Summit. The event is so much bigger this year — with moving parts multiplied by four — and I am downright overwhelmed. Yes, I have a ton of help (and I’m so grateful for it!), so you would think I’d feel more on top of things. But because there’s so much that is new this year, issues keep cropping up that catch me off guard and eat up my time.
The conference is March 24th to 29th, and I admit, seeing the calendar turn today sent me into a bit of a panic. It’s coming so fast! And my list of things I need to do is so long! This is my tenth year balancing Design Mom and Alt Summit, and mostly I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of it. That is, until this week hit. I mean, I couldn’t even fake it. I thank you in advance for your patience. : )
But enough about Alt Summit. Other things on my mind right now: 1) Today is Day Seven of the Oakland Teacher’s strike. 2) I’m seeing hints of Spring which is making me happy. (Related: the citrus trees are heavy with fruit and I want to make this lemon pudding.) 3) The flooding in Northern California. And 4) I have a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:
– She enabled a bunch of privacy settings and still felt like her Facebook/Insta ads were a little too relevant. So she faked a pregnancy by downloading the What to Expect app to see how long it would take for FB to show her a maternity ad. The answer? 11 hours.
– According to a new study, there is a temperature-specific sweet spot that can predict whether or not a person will grow up to be an introvert or an extrovert.
– Segregation in our schools is still happening and still has harmful effects. A new report found that school districts that are predominantly white receive $23 billion more than districts that serve mostly students of color.
– Emma Thompson released a blunt letter about why she won’t work with ex-Pixar chief John Lasseter. (WP)
– I saw a book referenced this week that I’m curious about. It’s called Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, and it’s written by the late 19th century/early 20th century orator Grenville Kleiser. Apparently, it’s exactly what it sounds like: an alphabetical list of 15,000 phrases.
– Did you hear Old Navy is breaking away from Gap?
– What it’s like to be a content moderator for Facebook at its site in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s a job that pays just $28,800 a year — but can have lasting mental health consequences for those who do it.
– Ikea unveils a new river-cleaning vessel.
– When it comes to sexual consent, despite the new standards that have been put in place and despite all the editorials and news articles and calls for change, we are still not doing what needs to be done. (NYT)
– What if you’re okay with mediocre?
– I really enjoyed this new ad by Nike, narrated by Serena Williams.
– A thread about ADHD and how it is misunderstood.
– Dammit. ICE has illegally detained a Muslim man who has a valid work permit. Knowing he’s Muslim, ICE served him only pork sandwiches for 6 days.
– A group of young teens rescued a kid who was dangling from a chairlift. Fast thinking!
I hope you have such a great weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
Yvonne
March 1, 2019 at 7:59 pmHappy weekend Gabby – now that I’m intrigued, sad to say the facebook editor story has no link :-(
Design Mom
March 2, 2019 at 12:33 pmSorry about that! Link restored.
Jody
March 2, 2019 at 2:24 pmYes! Definitely missed the DM posts this week. Would love to hear more about Alt Summit – it’s been a dream of mine to attend!
Lindsay
March 2, 2019 at 3:36 pmThe content moderation article is fascinating and heartbreaking. On one hand, I am thankful for those who are trying to keep violence out of my social media feeds. I am someone who can fixate on the negative things in the world and sometimes find it hard to climb out of the hole to try to make things better. On the other hand, is this sugar coating of the world doing me good?
One of the comments that struck me was that of one of the doctors who argued that the employees might actually come out stronger for seeing these traumatic things and used Malala as an example. I’m having trouble finding the exact words to describe how that made me feel. The best I can come up with is that it made me feel gross and angry. If Facebook and these companies truly believed that, wouldn’t it be better if we all saw these things? Wouldn’t we be a stronger society if we could grow from witnessing all the trauma?
I’m left with a lot of conflicting thoughts. I think that the only things I can agree with myself on is that I hope the content moderators can find peace someday and also that I couldn’t stop thinking about Lois Lowry’s The Giver.
Ashley
March 4, 2019 at 9:38 amI thought the same thing about The Giver! The moderators are essentially bearing the burden of all the traumatic things the rest of us don’t want to see. That article broke my heart. Another reason to step back from Facebook.
Maddy
March 2, 2019 at 9:01 pmThe article about facebook content moderators, makes me feel way less inclined to use facebook and instagram. and my inclination and actual use has been steadily going down these last few years.
Heather
March 2, 2019 at 9:36 pmWow, I can’t believe I’ve never given much thought to the people who moderate content on social media platforms. The only time it’s really risen to my awareness is when I’ve seen (1) parents frustrated that Instagram took down a photo of their child doing something that they found cute and innocent (perhaps swimming without a shirt on), or (2) Twitter users frustrated that Twitter has declined to remove a post that seemed to clearly violate their Terms of Service, like hate speech. So basically I’ve seen people complaining about moderators doing a bad job.
I’ve never considered how grateful I should be for the work they do of sifting through and removing potentially traumatizing content from social media platforms so that I don’t have to see it. And now I understand why things sometimes slip through the filters – the moderators are overworked and underpaid and unsupported and dealing with enormous time pressure. What an important–and utterly miserable–job. And how sad, but understandable, that they wind up being influenced by the conspiracy theories and hate speech that they’re steeped in all day.
Rachel
March 3, 2019 at 10:46 amI loved the link on ADHD. It is frustrating and hard to explain to people. It is always a huge relief when someone can put it into words. XO
Rosie B
March 3, 2019 at 12:13 pmDamn. Emma Thompson is a hero. Her choice to pose her protest in questions is profoundly powerful. Thanks for sharing this.
JF
March 4, 2019 at 8:22 amKnowing (belatedly) that Alt Summit stands for Altitude Summit, how is “Alt” pronounced? I always said Ahlt to myself (like alternative, which I guess I assumed it stood for). Having learned about the Altitude part of the name, now I’m not sure. Is it pronounced like the first syllable in altitude, or the first syllable in alternate?