Digital Literacy

Words of the year#

Oxford University Press picked brain rot as its Word of the Year for 2024, and rage bait for 2025.

Whiteboards

With your group, define each word in your own words.

Check your screen time#

Open Screen Time (iPhone) or Digital Wellbeing (Android) in Settings. Without putting your name on it, write down:

Your daily average screen time
How many times a day you pick up your phone
Your most used app
Your longest “streak” in an app, if you have one

Before we tally the class, guess: what will the class average be?

Why are we all addicted to our smartphones?#

Watch: Why you’re addicted to your smartphone (CBC Marketplace, 22 min)

The tools they use on you#

Variable rewards: Likes, comments and new posts don’t show up every time you check. From the video: “You’re never sure what you’ll get and that’s what makes it so compulsive.”
Personalized rewards: Dopamine Labs uses AI to work out which reward works best on each person: “the extra 10 points, the good job, the high five, the congrats.”
Infinite scroll: A feed with no bottom. There is never a natural place to stop.
Streaks and Loss aversion: A count of the days in a row you’ve messaged someone, creates a feeling of duty or compulsion to visit once a day. People hate losing something more than they enjoy gaining it. The video describes a streak as “something that started as a pleasure, is now a prison.”
FOMO: Fear of missing out. Emily’s friend: “if you don’t do it then you’re different from everyone else.”
Dopamine: A chemical messenger in your brain linked to reward and feeling good. Dopamine Labs named itself after it. It comes up again in Class 2.

Do the math#

At the end of the video, the Moment app projects how many years each person will spend on their phone. Work out your own using the number you wrote down.

Percent of your waking day. Daily hours ÷ 16 × 100. (Emily’s was 30%.)
Years of your life. Daily hours × (80 − your age) ÷ 24.

Example: 4 hours a day from age 14 to 80 is 4 × 66 ÷ 24 = 11 years.

The video ends with Ramsay Brown asking: “Now that this technology exists, what do we want out of it? What do we want out of ourselves? … Who do we want to be?”

Talk about it

Lisa Pont compares giving kids unlimited technology to giving them “a buffet of candy”, and says young people need guidance because they don’t yet have fully developed impulse control. Do you agree? Who should set the limits for someone your age?
The video points out that the two biggest creators of this technology didn’t let their own kids use it. What does that tell you?
Facebook, Instagram, Musical.ly and Snapchat all declined to be interviewed. Why might that be?
Emily says: “If I don’t have it, I feel like I’m not myself.” Do you relate?
In 2024, four Ontario school boards sued the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, saying the apps are designed for compulsive use and disrupt learning. Ontario also banned phones during class. Has that changed anything for you?

Why anger wins#

Watch: Can You Watch This Without Getting Angry? (CGP Grey)

From the video: “be cautious of thoughts that have passed through a lot of other brains and that poke you where you are weakest.”

Why your brain believes it#

Watch: Why do our brains love fake news? (Above the Noise, 5 min)

The video opens with two fake stories that spread widely in 2016. A Buzzfeed analysis found the top 20 fake news articles on Facebook got more clicks than the top 20 real articles from every major publication combined.

Cognitive bias: “A limitation in our thinking that can cause flaws in our judgment.”
Confirmation bias: Seeking out information we already believe, and ignoring or minimizing facts that threaten it.
Identity protective cognition: Protecting your place in your group can matter more to your brain than getting the facts right. The video’s example: commentator Tomi Lahren shared one view her group disagreed with, and they turned on her.

Rage bait#

Watch: How to rage bait Americans (Christophe, 21 min)

Journalist Christophe traces a viral AI-generated street interview about UK immigration back to where it was made, and follows the money.

Page transparency: A tab on every Facebook page that shows which country the people running it are in. Click the page name, then Page transparency.
CPM: Cost per thousand impressions: what advertisers pay to show an ad to a thousand viewers. It depends on where the viewer lives.
RPM: Revenue per thousand impressions: what the creator earns.
Content monetization: Since 2024, Facebook pays creators a share of ad revenue for videos, photos and text posts. More engagement means more money. Almost 18 million accounts are in the program.

Talk about it

Christophe says: “I don’t see bad actors. I see hustlers … responding to the incentives that a platform has created for them.” Who is responsible: the creators, Meta, advertisers, or the people who engage?
One researcher in the video says: “It’s not that they’re trying to mislead or lie to people, it’s just that they don’t care about the truth.” Is that better or worse than lying on purpose?
Grey’s thought germs change by accident as they’re shared. The pages in this video A/B test on purpose to find “what upsets people in rich English-speaking countries the most.” What’s the difference?
Look back at the Zuck curve. What happens when you comment on a post to say how wrong it is?
“Every time they make money, Meta does too.” Does that explain why the problem isn’t going away?

Taking Care of Your Brain#

Watch: Tired of Doomscrolling? (Kurzgesagt, 11 min)

Where do you stand?#

Where do you stand?

Snapchat should get rid of streaks.
Apps that use variable rewards should have rules, like gambling does.
People my age need adults to set limits on phone use.
Stopping paid rage bait is Meta’s job, not the creators’.
Canada should ban social media accounts for under-16s.
I can usually tell when something online is fake or AI-generated.
The world is getting better.

Journal prompt

Complete the Digital Literacy journal entry once your design experiment is finished.