Even with all the recent concerns about the obscene amount of influence tech giants like Facebook and Twitter hold over the sociopolitical climate of the world, it is really hard for people to pull themselves out of the social media drain and examine the ways these companies interact with their individual rights and liberties. When I downloaded my data as a part of my assignment, I had an opportunity to discover the sheer expanse of the wide-ranging knowledge that the social media giant had gathered as a result of my almost a decade worth of religious usage. The first thing that truly shocked me was that Facebook was in possession of years worth of messages sent and received through its Messenger application; I always assumed that these messages were encrypted and there was no storage of the exact messages on the Facebook servers. I guess this would explain the sudden emergence of elaborate Barneys’ advertisements on my timeline everytime I would barely utter the words “Chanel earrings” to my sister over Messenger in lieu of my mother’s birthday.

It was also thoroughly interesting to see how social media and advertisers are so tangled in the ways the extract and use a person’s information in order to sell their individual commodities—they might seem like separate entities functioning together out of fiscal necessity, however, their relationship is indeed symbiotic behind the scenes. By digging a little into the data, I found out that there was a shocking overlap between my “Ad Interests” as recorded by Facebook and the corresponding list of companies who chose to advertise their products and services to me. For example, the clothing brand Patagonia was a major company whose advertisements I repeatedly clicked on and somehow it also seemed to find a mention in my Ad interests (which I believe led to Patagonia choosing to specifically ply me with the advertisements that they did).

Another discovery which was equally shocking was the fact that Facebook was in possession of a detailed contact list which included everyone’s phone numbers and email addresses. One would think that being a social media platform that exists in its own separate realm, Facebook would not be storing information that falls out of its scope. However, in this age of continuous corporate mergers and information transcending borders of specific platforms and applications, the lines of privacy and the question of access to data keep getting merged, and often diluted. Facebook’s access to phone numbers allowed it to sync up all my contacts in my phone and provide me with an extensive list of all the people also using the application. However, the motives of Facebook having access to the exact date and time each individual phone number was feeded into the phone is strange if not questionable. Lastly, it was horrifying to see my years worth of search history which I repeatedly happen to delete. Yet again, Facebook was clearly adding to its pile of my interests file by recording my entire search history (even the parts which I deleted) to provide the advertisers thoroughly researched and accurate data.

Featured Image via Pxyl.com

1)​ ​According to my Screen Time (or similar) app, I have been spending approximately nine hours a day on my phone lately. This is more than normal times.

2)​ ​The social media platforms I use most are:

#1 Instagram. Time spent per recent day: 2 hours

#2 Twitter. Time spent per recent day: 90 minutes

3)​ ​This is how I get most of my news (going through social media/going straight to a news app, radio, etc.):

• Up First Podcast by NPR
• Hourly Updates by journalists on their Twitter handles
• YouTube uploads by News Networks

While the internet seems to be inundated with the content related to the novel coronavirus and its wider socio-economic impact, there isn’t really a lot being said about the different ways this entire situation has completely uprooted higher education and the daily lives of millions of college students across the country. In situations like these when there is a pressing need to have serious adult conversation, there is very little room in public discourse for emotional talk, which is especially deemed even more trivial when coming from young adults and teenagers. As residence halls emptied out and campus became eerily quiet, I stayed put for the longest time and witnessed the deconstruction of a community that I had fostered around me. Amidst all the scary statistics and the press commentary, I came across an article written by a college professor for the New Yorker that detailed all that was being lost as education was being virtually translated to students instead of physical transmission in a lecture hall. As a freshman who relied on campus for both physical and emotional needs, the article struck a chord with me as it was truly empathetic in its tone and made sure to sketch out the nuances of students’ varying conditions. I really liked the way the author did justice to the insignificant yet vital in-person experiences that form the crux of a true learning experience. It helped that the source of the article was someone who has been, for years, an integral part of the college narratives as an educator and can provide an insight into the implications of the abruptness of the situation. 

Previously, I used to filter my news consumption by regulating my media diet—I used to start my diet with NPR podcasts, skimmed through the New York Times website between classes, and ended the day with some comfort opinion talk show on CNN/MSNBC. However, in this highly volatile situation which has deeply impacted my life and continues to hold my family hostage in a house thousands of miles away from me, I have given into the urge to consume information as it trickles in, despite the source. It has led to a lot of junk consumption of Twitter news that provides any sort of development on the ever-emerging situation—from unverified citizen reports to simple rumours floating on the net. It is a scramble to latch onto as much of the information as humanly possible. Instagram, however, eats up a majority of my time as it is the place I chose to go to reminisce campus life when all the news gets really overwhelming and I am craving a little positivity. Considering it has not been long since everything transpired, there is a lot of lingering nostalgia about college life and it is reflected in people’s posts on Instagram. Since I am trying to hold onto the memories of my freshmen year that will never return, I flock to Instagram as it is my only virtual connection to college friends and the year that was.

Featured Image via The New Yorker

In the New York Times article, “Still Standing, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Step Back in the Spotlight”, Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman detail the clandestine yet significant role of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in the Trump Administration and the underlying Republican party. Maggie Haberman is a seasoned Pulitzer prize-winning political journalist with over 24 years of reporting experience and a unique insight into Trump’s brand of politics (she’s been branded as Trump’s snake charmer by Slate). Katie Rogers is the White House correspondent for the Times with a strong foothold in the intersection of Washington politics and popular culture. The writers of the aforementioned article do have credible experience and knowledge regarding the topic at hand, but their article does waver when put through the SMELL test.

While the co-authors pen down a detailed account of the couple’s tumultuous and ever-evolving journey since the inception of Donald Trump’s political existence, the article’s deeper purpose is to draw a definition of the often cloudy nature of the couple’s role in the administration for the sake of public clarity. In their desperate efforts to pull the curtains on the details of Javanka’s glamorous and very obscured life, they actively peddle a readymade, store-bought story with a message set in stone, while acknowledging their lack of direct access to the focal figures of the profile-esque piece. The irony is apparent. The sourcing of the several claims about Trump’s general outlook towards the couple and the many details shared about their daily life is either through members of Trump’s cabinet (who couldn’t be farther from the couple’s household life and their familial relationship with the President) or simply omitted. While the quotes from Steve Mnuchin to Sarah Sanders echo a company line tailored by a PR team, other claims seem to stem from “her (Ivanka) supporters” or anonymous spokespersons. Whether it is the omission of hyperlinks and sourcing information from “someone familiar with her (Ivanka) thinking” during the discussion about the closure of Ivanka’s fashion brand or making speculative claims about Jared Kushner’s plans for the “lingering resistance” in the GOP without backing them up with any sources, the writers don’t prioritize the need to provide their readers with independent and informational sources. The foundation for the article seems to solely be laid on a mélange of chatter, whispers, and rumors garnered through sources shrouded in secrecy by the Gossip Girl of the West Wing.

The sheer lack of hyperlinks along with excessive reliance on writers’ personal brands to establish trust demonstrates the writers’ assumption of political jargon as universal knowledge and a failure to solidify the article’s argument in the readers’ minds. Due to the passivity of the article when dealing with secondary sources, it is to be assumed that much of the information is sourced from the writers’ personal knowledge. While Haberman clearly has proximity to the action due to her role as a White House correspondent and Rogers is an enigma in the world of journalism, the article even shies away from directly crediting its own writers for inside scoops, thus leaving a void of an evidentiary chassis for the article’s thesis.

When it comes to motivation, Haberman has been a balanced reporter and has suffered attacks from both sides of the political aisle: from the left for normalizing the President and from the right for her critical coverage of the Trump campaign. However, Haberman’s connections to the Trumps cannot be ignored. Haberman’s mother, Nancy Haberman, is the Executive Vice President of Rubenstein — an NYC based PR firm that has been continuously linked to the Trumps and the Kushners (Jared Kushner is an active client and Nancy Haberman handled Donald Trump’s public relations during one of his divorces). Due to the lack of clear sourcing for the multiple insider scoops, many have often questioned Haberman’s sourcing methods and their ethicalities in the wider context of her connection to the Trump household.

As said before, the article’s line of logic tries to continuously moderate between the image that it paints the power couple in — the tokenistic representation of America’s nepotism problem starting catty battles with the real adults vs. the real ringmasters running the show in D.C. from the sidelines. While the deck of the article marks the couple’s resilience to criticism as they take the wheel on potential policy projects, the concluding portion of the piece makes Jared and Ivanka as mere vestigial ornaments in the grand scheme of national politics, serving as nothing but direct channels of communication to the center of the real power i.e. the oval office. This back and forth between viewpoints is visible throughout, switching between statements from the couple’s allies and their detractors. The balanced coverage of the conflicting points of view functions to rein in the skeptics from both sides as it gives them coverage to ruminate on. One of the major lackings of the article is the accounts from former aides who, the article speculates, the couple had undercut/pushed out. Having a perspective of someone who bore the brunt of the Javanka influence in the White House could have provided the reader a better insight into the extent of the couple’s influence over what goes on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Featured Image via The Atlantic

Like any other smartphone bearing person, I begin my days snoozing the alarms and falling prey to attention-grabbing Twitter notifications. In order to avoid anymore tabloid-y, halfcooked news, I avoid social media for a bit and tune into two of my regular NPR podcasts. They provide with a synthesis of facts and relevant commentary on the happenings around the world and the daily dosage of the American political brouhaha. Post that, I get my pop culture fix from Instagram (which is often inundated with directly forwarded memes from my best friend), like a true Gen-Zer attending college. Irrespective of the purpose (academic or leisure), my love for books has stood the test of time and they still form a focal part of my daily information bundle.

While I try to tackle implicit bias ingrained in social media’s infamous algorithms that expose people to selective news by going on a plethora of media websites, I also rely heavily on The View to provide me with varying perspectives on current hot topics. The Co-hosts’ differing perspectives often trigger in-depth searches for other forms of media on Google and YouTube. Eventhough I often end my days with a book tucked in the bed with me, I make it a point to check in on major headlines back home in India throughout tuning in on live broadcasting of morning news through Youtube livestreams.

In terms of interactions, I barely leave comments or virtually interact with media. Instead, I prefer paraphrasing information from pieces to people in person and having group discussions about the concerned topics over meals. I am also a firm believer in force-feeding people information that I feel is vital for them by sitting them down and reading an entire article out loud to them. For me, the priority is to educate and have a conversation with the community of people that directly surround me.

As a student of Journalism, I have always made an active effort to make my media diet as wholesome and holistic as humanly possible. In this age of implicit media biases and the blurring of boundaries between opinion and news, anyone who wishes to be rightly infomed has to be very conscious of the media they come into contact with. Throughout the years, as every traditionalist teenager succumbed to the pressures of social media and online media, I refused to budge from my fortress of print and TV broadcasts. However, moving to America has drastically changed the way I engage with and receive my news. Due to the limited time availability and the inaccessibility of print media, I have made a shift towards digital platforms that are freely available on the internet and can compress a bunch of information into a format that makes it digestible into my limited breaks between classes. Since this change, I have tried to preserve at some minimal amount of consumption of filtered and authentic sources of media (like print, traditonal broadcast). Currently, my media diet is wide ranging, highly nebulous and cuts across multiple modes of communication, where I am trying to figure out the mediums that suite my appetite and best fulfil my academic and personal needs.

Featured Image via Tehran Times