It’s become commonplace to frequently be confronted with a flurry of angry (and frequently ungrammatical) posts filled with buzzwords every time Trump posts something stupid (so, fairly often). In fact, it’s become so accepted that people appear to view posts on social media as a legitimate alternative to tangible contributions to the community, such as … Continue reading “Slacktivists:” a Critique of Social Media Activism
Category: politics
Technology’s Role in Democratization
Recently, the largest ever election in global history occurred in India, with 600 million voters casting ballots all over the nation. In light of the rise of authoritarian right-wing governments in the past year, India’s election is a refreshing reminder that democracy is very much alive. In fact, democracy has never been as vibrant as … Continue reading Technology’s Role in Democratization
The Dichotomy of Development
Developed or developing? It’s very tempting to utilise this simplistic dichotomy as a worldview and as a means of analysing social and geopolitical issues. I’m certainly guilty of using these labels myself. However, the truth is that the world doesn’t fit neatly into these two boxes of progress and that to use these labels may hinder our ability to solve global issues.
Vaccination in the Western World
In the year 2010, the deadliest American outbreak of whooping cough in fifty years occurred in California. Ten infants lost their lives as a result of this horrifying incident, and many more contracted the disease and suffered serious symptoms. When we picture low vaccination rates, we form a visual picture of some far-off developing country that lacks resources and education, but we don’t consider that often this is a reality in places much closer to home.
The Game of Life: China’s Social Credit System
In the popular television series The Good Place, Eleanor Shellstrop goes to heaven, aka the Good Place. She enters her utopic house, and finds a machine which has recorded every single action in her entire life, and assigned it positive or negative points. The total point value, she is told, has determined whether or not she ended up in heaven. It was 2014 when the People’s Republic of China first announced that they would be implementing a novel type of class system: the social credit system.
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