Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Generation Y is the more accurate name, but you probably know them as Millennials. I, along with the rest of media, have been writing about them for more than ten years — too often disparagingly — and far too simplistically.

They didn’t deserve it.

So this week we’ll take another look at that much maligned generation.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Ryan Healy starts his post by saying, “There’s no doubt that Generation Y will fundamentally change corporate America.”

It’s an interesting post, filled with the brashness, dreams and optimism I’ve come to expect as each new generation enters adulthood—whether I read about or lived through them.

Still more interesting are the comments, whether they agree or not.

I can’t help siding with Carlos who says, “Every generation thinks that their generation is unique. The truly gifted on each generation is and will affect change, but this notion that today’s 20-somethings are any more intelligent or capable than those from 10-40 years ago is naive,” although I would change his 40 years to 4000.

Each generation, going back to Year One BC, sets out to change its world and in doing so lays the groundwork for the next generation to change it and the process repeats itself throughout all history.

Some of the changes are good and some not; some seek to address errors previously made, while some target good changes gone bad as a result of social or technical progress.

Changes can be revolutionary or evolutionary; they fuel both society’s progression — and its regression.

Image credit: PorcelainB

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Your life as lived in the real world with real people and real relationships.

As Arianna Huffington said,

What we’ve discovered is that technology might be great at delivering what we want in the moment, but it’s less great at giving us what we need over the long term.

The biggest step forward in the world of technology in 2018 was the realisation that we have to set boundaries in our relationship with technology to protect our humanity. (…) It was the year we realised that the consequences of allowing technology into every aspect of our lives aren’t all positive.

If, after all Zuckerberg’s lies and shenanigans you actually decide to delete Facebook from your life, you need to remember that it owns Instagram and WhatsApp, so they would need to go, too. If that works for you, here are two explanations of what to do. The first explains how to delete all three, the second focuses on Facebook.

You can take a less drastic approach than full deletion, yet give yourself far more control, by leaving the apps on your laptop, but deleting them from your phone (except for some Samsung models). They’ll still be there, but you’ll need to make a conscious choice to check them instead of responding like Pavlov’s dog to the notifications.

If even that is too much, start by turning off notifications.

You will be surprised at the difference it makes.

Don’t ignore the fact that tech is addictive and can take over your life in the same way as alcohol or drugs. And just like alcohol and drugs there are support groups and rehab centers for tech addiction. Even if you don’t believe you are actually addicted, check it out; it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

If instead you just want to take much more control, here are some links that can help you make conscious choices.

Use Location History Visualizer to gain a better understanding of what Google’s location tracking means to you. And understand that Apple isn’t immune.

One humongous thing you can do to shrink your online footprint is to switch from Google to Startpage.com. The lack of ads makes a huge difference in the quality of your browsing.

And take a close look at this infographic on how to make yourself invisible on the net.

Invest in a VPN; I have Avast’s, since I also use their virus software and consider the small annual charge to be one of the best investments I’ve made.

Here’s one on stopping robocalls on both iPhone and Android.

You don’t have to do it all at once, but you do need to think through tech’s effects on your life and your relationships and then go from there.

PS This just in. Amazon’s Ring, along with dozens of other IoT devices are famous for their laz security.

Beginning in 2016, according to one source, Ring provided its Ukraine-based research and development team virtually unfettered access to a folder on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service that contained every video created by every Ring camera around the world. (…)  The Information, which has aggressively covered Ring’s security lapses, reported on these practices last month.

So before you buy one stop and think, “would I want whatever this device learns about me and my family shared across the strangers and media?” If the answer is “no” then you should probably skip it.

Nefarious encompasses much of what’s wrong with the prime goal of social media companies — hook users.

I love the word ‘nefarious’; in case you aren’t familiar with it synonyms include, evil, wicked, rotten, treacherous, villainous, and many more.

Hook them and sell them.

Users bear some of the responsibility, but it’s difficult to say no to something that’s not just socially acceptable, but necessary, in spite of it having the addictive power of heroin.

Sure, social media companies need to police their platforms much better, but users need to use their brains when sourcing services.

Assuming information offered by service providers, such as plastic surgeons, on sites like Snapchat and Instagram is truthful, reliable and vetted is just plain stupid.

“I’ve had my before and after photos stolen—used by other doctors as if they’re their own work. I’ve had my own video content—even sometimes with me in it—used by other people,” said Dr. Devgan.
In fact, a 2017 study found that when searching one day’s worth of Instagram posts using popular hashtags—only 18% of top posts were authored by board-certified surgeons, and medical doctors who are not board certified made up another 26%.

Then there are phones — and third party apps.

A friend and I were sitting at a bar, iPhones in pockets, discussing our recent trips in Japan (…) The very next day, we both received pop-up ads on Facebook about cheap return flights to Tokyo.

(…) data you provide is only processed within your own phone. This might not seem a cause for alarm, but any third party applications you have on your phone—like Facebook for example—still have access to this “non-triggered” data. And whether or not they use this data is really up to them.

Google freely admits it reads your Gmail and Android constantly harvests data; all in the name of providing a “more relevant marketing experience.”

Amazon’s Alexa keeps having security problems that are shrugged off as minor ‘oops’, but they aren’t minor when they happen to you.

Google suffers from similar problems, as does every smart product you add to your home.

There’s a lot more, but you can find it faster than I can add it to this post.

The lesson to learn is that privacy and security start with you, because believing that the companies supplying the product/service give a damn flies in the face of the daily increase of evidence to the contrary.

If someone claimed they were your friend, but constantly lied to you, used you, stole from you, and vouched for con artists would you still trust them?

Would you invite them into your home and introduce them to your friends?

You probably already have.

The ‘someone’ is Facebook in all its forms, subsidiaries and partners.

In truth, parent Facebook lies constantly.

It lies about who/how they share you.

Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages. (…) The social network permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends, and it let Yahoo view streams of friends’ posts as recently as this summer, despite public statements that it had stopped that type of sharing years earlier.

It lies about stalking you for targeted ads.

“There is no way for people to opt out of using location for ads entirely,” the Facebook spokesperson said told Gizmodo.

It lies about its true purpose — and always has.

It should not come as a surprise that Facebook — a giant, for-profit company whose early employees reportedly ended staff meetings by chanting “domination!” — would act in its own interests.

It lies about its efforts to stop fake news.

Current and former fact-checkers for Facebook have slammed the company in interviews with The Guardian, saying it cared more about “crisis PR” than actually combatting the spread of fake news.

Do you think Sheryl Sandberg’s a role model? If so, think again.

A report from The New York Times shows that, while Sandberg was building her global brand, she was using aggressive and underhanded tactics at Facebook. As the company faced increasing criticism and pressure (…) she embraced a strategy to suppress information about Facebook’s problems, discredit its critics, and deflect blame onto its competitors.

What about companies owned by Facebook?

WhatsApp is a major child pornography platform.WhatsApp has become a platform for users to “openly” share pictures and videos of child pornography, the Financial Times reports. (…) WhatsApp only has 300 employees to monitor its 1.5 billion users globally.

Then there’s Instagram.

Instagram was of even more help to Russian interests in 2016 than Facebook.

“Instagram was a significant front in the IRA’s [Russian Internet Research Agency] influence operation, something that Facebook executives appear to have avoided mentioning in Congressional testimony …”

It has far more harassment and bullying, than Facebook — in spite of its so-called “kindness” initiative” Read the stories, they are a real eye-opener.

As is the recently released Senate report on Russian disinformation in which Instagram is a star.

Zukerberg not only lies, he is expert at turning a blind eye on the headline-generating happenings and focusing on all the marvelous accomplishments in 2017.

In his annual year-end letter, which he published on his Facebook page on Friday, (…) boasting of all that the company had accomplished this year and all the great things it does for its users. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made.”

Join me tomorrow for a look at the nefarious doing of others and Friday for what you can do to fight back.

Image credit: Marco Paköeningrat

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Lying isn’t new, but it is certainly in the ascendancy. It doesn’t matter what media you follow, not a day goes by without a story about someone in a position of trust lying — whether politician, corporate chief, religious leader, friend, relative, or someone else. It is important to remember that few, if any, see their actions as problematic.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Lying and cheating are common occurrences and recent research shows that, contrary to popular wisdom (wishful thinking?), they do not make people feel badly.

In an interview, Dan Ariely, a leading behavioral economist at Duke and author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves, made two comments that especially caught my eye for both their perception and accuracy.

“I have had lots of discussions with big cheaters — insider trading, accounting fraud, people who have sold games in the NBA, doping in sports. With one exception, all of them were stories of slippery slopes.”

“When you are in the midst of it, you are in a very, very different mindset…. You are not a psychopath, and you are not cheating. You are doing what everybody else is doing.”

Slippery slopes, indeed.

KG’s comment after reading the interview brings forth another salient point.

It is my belief no person ever quite understands their own artful dodges used to escape from the often grim shadow of self-knowledge.

Long before lying became the issue it is today, Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) had a great response.

The question is not how to get cured, but how to live.

The problem with this solution is that it requires self-awareness, personal effort, determination and grit.

All of which, if there is no financial reward, are in short supply these days.

Flickr image credit: Sean MacEntee

Did you miss Ryan in December? Blame it on me; I made it sound as if we were taking off all of December (I wish).

OK. It’s no longer December, so where’s Ryan?

Trying to balance twin three year-olds, one 18-month-old, a new one due in three weeks, and a demanding day sales job.

He’ll be back as soon he gets things under control — or what passes for control in a situation like this.

PS My platform was upgraded when I wasn’t looking and I don’t know how to use it, so I’m skipping Friday (in preference to pulling out the rest of my hair) and (hopefully) everything will be back to normal by Monday.

It is the beginning of the year and beginnings are when people tend to reflect and choose.

And maybe change direction.

Not just at the beginning of a new year, but any beginning — new month, new home, new relationship, new pet, new job, new boss, new colleague(s), new outfit, new [you name it].

I’m as prone to this as anyone, although my internal editor, who provides constant commentary — mostly irreverent, rarely complimentary — on my actions, ideas and thoughts, thinks requiring a beginning to start something is pretty silly.

When we start something has little to do with whether we finish it, let alone if it’s a success.

We all know that starting is easy, especially in comparison to sustaining the effort.

Instead of spending all your energy on the planning, save a good deal for sustaining what you started and staying flexible, so you can address challenges quickly.

Image credit Marco Verch