Things I’ve Learned from Lately #151
“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.
The Collapse of Reality - What can we really trust online? The answer to that question is getting scarier by the day. This piece from Vox looks at the proliferation of deep fake video technology that does more than mislead us. It has the potential to create false memories in our brains.
From Fake Post to Real Violence - Coming down on Facebook has become fashionable as of late, but despite Facebook’s prose, it wields serious power that can lead to serious consequences. That’s what happened in Sri Lanka when a false post turned into violence.
Google in the Classroom - Google is incredibly present in our lives as adults, but it may be even more pervasive in the lives of kids. It goes beyond YouTube Kids to nearly every aspect of many classrooms from how students schedule their time and do their homework. The stats speak for themselves. "25 million students worldwide use Chromebooks at school, which are generally more affordable alternatives to fully-fledged PCs or Macs. More than 80 million people use G Suite for Education, with 30 million teachers and students using Google Classroom, a management app that allows teachers to push out assignments and materials and collect student work.”
Make Google Do It - Speaking of Google… it’s getting smart. It’s getting so smart in fact that it’s launched a new “Make Google Do It” campaign, but what does offloading that much work to technology really mean? "Offloading human tasks to a computer feels empowering. It may well increase productivity and give us more time to do the things we love. But it requires sacrificing control of the many little things that make up our daily lives — our schedules, how we write our emails, which app to use next, and even when to call Mom. It’s hiding in plain sight, right there in the ad copy."