4,515 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2016
    1. First, according to Trumbull, Olson underestimates diffuse groups’ ability to develop compelling narratives about how they serve the public interest. In fact, weak, diffuse groups have a paradoxical political advantage: precisely because they are weak and diffuse, the public sees them as less self-interested and thus comparatively trustworthy. Second, Olson also underestimates the power of ideological motivation, rather than just money and concentration, to spur activism. Third, “diffuse interests can be represented without mobilization,” thanks to activism by politicians and government officials who take up their cause. (FDR started a federal pension program at a time when “retirees,” as a self-identified social class, did not yet exist. The program created the constituency, rather than the other way around.) Fourth, weak or diffuse interests can link up with concentrated groups to amplify their effectiveness, as when consumers align with exporters to oppose trade protections or when free-speech advocates join with political parties to oppose campaign-finance limits.
    1. the micro- sociological view is that citations do not exist in uacuo, and that a proper comprehension of the citation phenom- enon and its surface manifestations will only be achieved by moving the critical gaze from the formal communi- cation mechanisms (the superstructure) to the social reality (the infrastructure) which supports the primary communications system.

      Social context of citations. Need to understand the social system

    2. More specifically, Lcopold ( 1973) identified tlw ‘Citation Index game’ as onc of thc stratagems employcd by scientists to incrcasc thcir visibility among thcir pccrs. The ‘Game’ metaphor has usually been invoked to counter the ‘storybook’ idca of science as an idealised, dispassionate and selfless quest after truth and know- ledge, in which personal feelings and motivations are held in check by institutional imperatives.

      Citation "game" as contrasted with "storybook"

  2. Aug 2016
    1. Stephen Downes on why he's quitting Facebook.

      Facebook has me going both ways. They make me pay money in order to allow people to read my content, and then they throw advertising at the people who are trying to read that content. And now they're tightening the screws.

      And even as it clamps down on content, Facebook favours the wrong people, siding once again with the bottom-dwellers of the internet.

    1. From his interviews with former trolls employed by Russia, Chen gathered that the point of their jobs "was to weave propaganda seamlessly into what appeared to be the nonpolitical musings of an everyday person."

      "Russia's information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history," Chen wrote. "And its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space."

  3. Jul 2016
    1. Here’s a presentation at the 2013 Personal Democracy Forum that provides a little more context for our project.

      Where is the Facebook shareable link for this video? I would like to hit share, for it to look pretty and for you -hypothes.is- to earn and retain new subscribers?

      (If I share this via youtube, the funnel flows to youtube. Do you have a dedicated "landing page" with simply this vid? I'll reply here if I find a "pretty" way.. Thanks Guys!)

  4. Jun 2016

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. p. 75

      Why my badges may be a bad idea:

      "These results suggest that teachers may discourage avoidance behaviour among their students when they encourage students to focus on mastering the material, improvement, and understanding the relevance of classroom work in their lives. Although it makes sense that students should be less concerned with protecting their image in classrooms that emphasize understanding the material and personal, individual standards of achievement, our results suggest that de-emphasizing performance goals may be more important than increasing the emphasis on mastery goals.... Even in classrooms that contain some of the curricular elements of a mastery goal structure, such as the constructivist principle of assigning open-ended, inquiry-based projects and tasks, students may avoid novelty and challenge if they believe that, ultimately, what matters is how their performance compares to their peers."

    2. p. 71

      Gheen and Midgely 1999 examined "how teachers' reports of social comparison practices related to avoiding novelty and chellenge. They found that teachers' reports of informative social comparison practices related to slightly higher levels of avoidance. However, these practices weakened the association between self-efficacy and avoiding novelty and challenge. In classrooms where teachers were high in their use of interstudent discussion about how to improve one's own work, low- and high-efficacy students were on a more equal footing when it came to avoiding novelty challenge. However, in classrooms where teachers reported using high levels of relative ability social comparison practices, low self-efficacy students' avoidance was higher than that of high self-efficacy students'"

    1. If you want people to find and read your research, build up a digital presence in your discipline, and use it to promote your work when you have something interesting to share. It’s pretty darn obvious, really: If (social media interaction is often) then (Open access + social media = increased downloads).
  5. May 2016
    1. Harvard researchers estimate the Chinese government fabricates 488 million social media posts each year. This is only about 1 in 178 posts, but they are made in strategic bursts, with the intent to distract. The posts are made by government employees as an additional job duty.

      It's the same propaganda we get in the West.

  6. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. Old Allen is as rich as a Jew — is not he?

      This expression became common in the Middle Ages during a time where majority of the merchant class was Jewish, making the Jews among the most wealthy of the time (Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: R, 1894).

    2. Nobody can fasten themselves on the notice of one, without injuring the rights of the other. I consider a country–dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of both; and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves, have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours.”

      I feel as though this quote says a lot about the how relationships were built in that time period but also in this story. Not only that but how the roles were set for men and woman. The man is so be the leader and the woman fallows. I do find it an interesting comparison with marriage being seen as dancing. In this example would you say Catherine and Mr. Tilney are dancing around each other?

    3. “Do not be frightened, my dear Catherine,” whispered Isabella, “but I am really going to dance with your brother again. I declare positively it is quite shocking.

      "A young woman did not dance more than two pairs of dances with the same man or her reputation would be at risk. Even two dances signaled to observers that the gentleman in question had a particular interest in her" (Maria Grace,“The High Stakes of Etiquette for Young Ladies in the Regency” ).

    4. Captain

      "Originally Captain-Lieutenant, becoming Captain in 1772. Lat. capitaneus "chieftain", from Lat. caput "head". Chieftain or head of a unit. As armies evolved his post came to be at the head of a company, which by the Sixteenth Century was usually 100 to 200 men. That seemed to be the number one man could manage in battle" (Harding, British Army Ranks).

    5. uncoquettish

      "Coquette: a woman (more or less young), who uses arts to gain the admiration and affection of men, merely for the gratification of vanity or from a desire of conquest, and without any intention of responding to the feelings aroused; a woman who habitually trifles with the affections of men; a flirt" (OED).

    6. “Rest! He has only come three and twenty miles today; all nonsense; nothing ruins horses so much as rest; nothing knocks them up so soon. No, no; I shall exercise mine at the average of four hours every day while I am here.”

      "The life of a stage coach horse during the Regency era was not easy. Roads, though much improved over previous centuries, could be filled with mud and ruts that impeded progress. Generally one horse could pull a wheeled vehicle six times its own weight. Therefore, a carriage horse weighing from 1200 lbs to 2300 lbs is able to pull from 7200 lbs to 13,800 lbs. Multiply this number by four or six, and you have team that can pull a substantially sized vehicle. However, tired horses had to be replaced about every ten miles or so, and “the average life of a horse pulling a coach at about eight mile per hour was six years; at ten miles per hour or over, possible on good roads, a horse lasted three years" (The Prince of Pleasure, J.B. Priestley, 151-152).

    7. Did not we agree together to take a drive this morning?

      “Do not accept an invitation to visit any place of public amusement, with a gentleman with whom you are but slightly acquainted, unless there is another lady also invited. You may, as a young lady, go with a relative or your fiancée, without a chaperon, but not otherwise” (Florence Hartley, The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness, 173).

  7. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. the lady had asked whether any message had been left for her; and on his saying no, had felt for a card, but said she had none about her, and went away

      Here, the narration refers to a “card”, which is more properly known as a calling card. A calling card -- or visiting card-- is defined as “a card bearing a person’s name and address, sent or left in lieu of a formal social or business visit; a visiting card” (OED). Originally a Parisian trend, these cards were either sent or left at a person’s place of residence to denote that acquaintance had formally visited while they were away or later intended to visit them (Robert Chambers, The Book of Days, np).

    2. It was too dirty for Mrs. Allen to accompany her husband to the pump–room

      The pump room -- better known as The Grand Pump Room -- was a building used for upper-class social gatherings and parties in Bath. It was especially popular during Jane Austen’s lifetime (Michael Forsyth, Bath, 68) (Mabel Van Niekerk, The Ancient Roman Cities of Bath and York, 24).

    3. They must think it so strange, so rude of me! To go by them, too, without saying a word!

      At this point in the novel, Catherine is practically coerced into accompanying John Thorpe, Isabella, and her brother James in travelling to Bristol, taking John’s word of having already seen the Tilney’s leaving town earlier that morning. As they’re leaving, they spot the Tilney’s on their way to their planned engagement with Catherine. Catherine pleads for John to turn back and he ignores her, in which she replies to him with this quote. Pertaining to the social customs of the time, “A lady should never "cut" someone, that is to say, fail to acknowledge their presence after encountering them socially, unless it is absolutely necessary (Daniel Pool, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, 55). At face value, it appears that Catherine has slighted her dear acquaintances by ignoring them.

    4. greatcoat

      Greatcoats were a type of caped trench coat/ over coat that first came into use by the military in the 17th century, then evolved into casual wear for the upper class. They were made of thick wool and thus expensive for average people to own. However, by the time of the Industrial Revolution and Jane Austen's death, they were becoming more and more available to the middle and lower classes as well (ODP).

    5. sprigged muslin

      "Any of various lightweight cotton fabrics in plain weave. Also: a piece of such fabric; a dress or other article of clothing made of muslin" (OED).

      From the 17th century to the late 18th century, muslin fabric was mostly imported from places like India. The fabric was used for dresses and curtains and was notably well liked for its simplicity; its ability to drape beautifully; and for the fabric's ability to take paint, dyes, and embroidery very well. Muslins were mostly worn by gentility in the color white. The color white was used to signify the gentility's wealthy lifestyle because white garments were harder to keep clean and were very expensive to constantly have laundered to maintain the pure white color. (Jane Austen’s World)

      Here is an example of a sprigged muslin which is named for the muslin's unique design which resembles sprigs of leaves or flowers all over the dress:

    1. according to Peggy Orenstein who noticed these, and a lot of other troubling trends when she interviewed 70 college-age girls about their personal lives. She wrote a book about it called "Girls & Sex," and talked to us this week about some of the things she learned.

      This book is on my list. It seems to echo the thoughts in American Girls.

  8. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. It was all pride, pride, insufferable haughtiness and pride!

      In The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility from 1857, "Pride" is listed as one of the most hateful dispositions and the reserve that Eleanor and Henry Tilney display in the company of their father is explained by the Guide's author as the means to many a misunderstanding and accidental affronts. (Thornwell, Emily. The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility, 1957.)

    2. a traveling–chaise and four

      A traveling chaise was a mode of quick transportation used by rich people, in the eighteenth century. This type of chaise was a closed carriage, which was equipped with four horses. The equipage, which was expensive, was generally composed of two men driving the two horses at the front and sometimes one postilion seated at the back ("Legacy Owensboro").

    3. new straw bonnet

      Most likely in reference to one of the top ones; because it is worn by Catherine, which is indicative of youth. Whereas someone older like Mrs. Thorpe, or Mrs. Allen, would be seen wearing one of the bonnets towards the bottom, befitting their maturity.

    1. When students see adults actually listening to them with respect, that is when they begin to realize they have a voice and can make a difference in their world.

      I hope this is true. And I love the idea that adults are that important to students. Still I wonder how this fits with the connected-learning notion that youth want to be heard and recognized by their peers. I suppose it isn't an either/or: some youth seek peer approval, others want to be heard by adults. When you post on an open social network, you never know who will respond.

  9. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. Catherine then ran directly upstairs, and watched Miss Thorpe’s progress down the street from the drawing–room window; admired the graceful spirit of her walk, the fashionable air of her figure and dress; and felt grateful, as well she might, for the chance which had procured her such a friend.

      Here Austen is having Catherine admiring Isabella because of her charm that she possesses to her move up in society. She can see here how Isabella uses her appearance to win over people not to mention her manners. It brings up the thought of why there were so many balls during this time period. What was expected of women? The balls that Austen describes seem to be more like debutante ball. A Debutante ball is when younger women are brought into society so they can meet eligible men to marry but also be seen as ladies.

    2. She liked him the better for being a clergyman, “for she must confess herself very partial to the profession”; and something like a sigh escaped her as she said it.

      What is a clergyman? Jane Austen draws from her personal life in her novels pulling in her father’s job position. Clergyman in her novels a lot because it draws from her childhood of her father being one. Not only in Northanger Abby but also in Mansfield park its mentioned men to become clergymen. What is so significant to become of this position? According to Merriam-Webster a clergyman is defined as “a man who is a member of the clergy especially in a Christian church”. Breaking this down even more what does the word clergy mean? It means to be ordained in the church. The clergyman seems to be appear to be a minster who is a socialite among the wealthy. They would perform religious ceremonies in the Christian Church only but also were invited to socialize with the upper class at times.

      Work Cited Miriam Webster.Com

    3. The master of the ceremonies introduced to her a very gentlemanlike young man as a partner

      The master of ceremonies was an official position in fashionable towns like Bath. Their job was to oversee the balls and parties. Their duties spanned from enforcing the rules and keeping the peace to making sure everybody was dressed correctly. As we see in this line, one of their most important jobs was to introduce young men and women (Austenonly, "The Master of Ceremonies: The Georgian Assembly Room, Part Four", https://austenonly.com/2013/02/28/the-master-of-ceremonies-the-georgian-assembly-room-part-four/ ).

    4. There goes a strange–looking woman! What an odd gown she has got on! How old–fashioned it is! Look at the back.”

      In response to the French Revolution, by the late 18th century, constricting, formal styles of dress, reminiscent of French aristocracy went out of fashion. Instead, looser styles of dress, inspired by classical Greek and Roman fashions, rose in popularity. Lightweight, sheerer materials, such as muslin were popular, as was an empire style waistline ("Lord Scott", An Introduction to Ladies' Fashions of the Regency Era, http://www.wemakehistory.com/Fashion/Regency/RegencyLadies/RegencyLadies.htm ).

  10. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. a large Newfoundland puppy and two or three terriers

      According to the American Kennel Club, The Newfoundland is a massive breed of English working dog, used for pulling nets, carts, and carrying loads. Newfoundlands also make excellent guard dogs. Henry's puppy would look something like this,

      but would grow to be a very large dog.

      Terrier is a group of breeds, originally bred to hunt vermin. Some examples include the West Highland White Terrier, Cairn Terrier, and Norfolk Terrier.

      These dogs were kept not only as companions, but as useful parts of the household: the Terriers to control rats and other vermin, and the Newfoundland (when grown) for protection and labor. Even so, the Newfoundland’s sweet disposition would make for an ideal companion (American Kennel Club).

    2. rubbed her temples with lavender–water

      Lavender was used as an essential oil at the time (and even today) that would help to calm one's anxieties, whether through ingestion or scent. When rubbed on the temples, a person could better smell the oils to calm themselves (Lavender, Maria Lis-Balchin, 156).

  11. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. all the dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of female hands at the utmost

      Catherine says in the novels only two women do the work, but in abbeys and castles of the period, there were about eighteen or more servants, ranging from cooks to laundry maids (countryhousereader, "The Servant Hierarchy", 2013).

    2. The very curtains of her bed

      In this time, curtains would be hung around four-poster beds in order to help prevent drafts and keep occupants warm (Jane Austen's World, Vic, "Ways to Keep Warm in the Regency Era, Part 2").

    3. habit

      "Bodily apparel or attire; clothing, raiment, dress" (OED). Here, it most likely refers to a riding habit, which was worn by women when riding a horse. The riding habit had also become fashionable to wear while traveling (Jane Austen's World, Vic, "Women’s Riding Outfits in the Early 18th Century").

    4. a bilious fever

      When referring to disease, bilious is an overproduction of bile. Drawn from Hippocrates's now obsolete Theory of Four Humors, bile was also connected to a bitter and choleric personality (U.S. National Library of Medicine, The World of Shakespeare's Humors).

    5. To poultice chestnut mare” — a farrier’s bill!

      A remedy for cuts, swelling, and infection, specifically common for treatment of hoof abscesses. The herb poultice would be applied by the farrier (horseshoer), who in regency times often doubled as a general veterinarian and animal dentist (BookDoors).

  12. Apr 2016
    1. Jon Udell on productive social discourse.

      changeable minds<br> What’s something you believed deeply, for a long time, and then changed your mind about?

      David Gray's Liminal Thinking points out that we all have beliefs that are built on hidden foundations. We need to carefully examine our own beliefs and their origins. And we need to avoid judgment as we consider the beliefs of others and their origins.

      Wael Ghonim asks us to design social media that encourages civility, thoughtfulness, and open minds rather than self-promotion, click-bait, and echo chambers.

    1. Reasons Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have dominated the Web over blogs and independent sites:

      • People prefer a single interface that makes it easy to flip or scroll through the new stuff. They don't like visiting a dozen different sites with different interfaces.
      • Most people don't want to deal with site structure or complex editors, let alone markup languages or servers.
      • Facebook quickly became a friends-and-family network, which pulled in more of the same.
      • Following and unfollowing should only require a single click.
      • Retweets and mentions introduce new people to follow, even if you aren't looking for them.
      • Reposting should be easy, include obvious attribution, and comments should be attached.
      • RSS readers had the potential to offer these things, but standard ways of using it were not widely adopted. Then Google Reader pushed out other readers, but was nevertheless shut down.

      Let go of the idea of people reading your stuff on your site, and develop or support interfaces that put your readers in control of how they view the web instead of giving the control to the people with the servers.

    1. McGill’s Dr. Sterne calls it “the gamification of research,”

      Most research is too expensive to really gamify. Many researchers are publishing to either get or keep their jobs. The institutionalization of "publish or perish" if anything has already accomplished the "gamification", Academia.edu is just helping to increase the reach of the publication. Given that research shows that most published research isn't even read, much less cited, how bad can Academia.edu really be?

    2. the platform essentially bans access for academics who, for whatever reason, don’t have an Academia.edu account. It also shuts out non-academics.

      They must have changed this, as pretty much anyone with an email address (including non-academics) can create a free account and use the system.

  13. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
  14. annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
    1. They called each other by their Christian name

      This refers to their name given at birth, so Catherine and Isabel. Referring to someone by their Christian name portrayed extreme comfortability and familiarity. The prefix Mr., Mrs., and Miss were examples of comfortable terms of address when speaking of or with someone, and only selective characters throughout Jane Austen's novels are seen breaking this acceptable social norm (Susannah Fullerton, "What's in a Name?")

    1. I watch as their networks expand, and as followers find one another as they voice ever more extreme opinions.

      This is the first time in a long time (maybe ever) that I've felt sympathy for the downfall of traditional journalism. Social media as a kind of echo chamber is really scary and almost sounds like a science fiction story.

  15. Mar 2016
    1. Credentalism is economic discrimination disguised as opportunity. Over the past 40 years, professions that never required a college degree began demanding it. "The United States has become the most rigidly credentialised society in the world," write James Engell and Anthony Dangerfield in their 2005 book Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money. "A BA is required for jobs that by no stretch of imagination need two years of full-time training, let alone four."
  16. Feb 2016
    1. At some dark day in the future, when considered versus the Google Caliphate, the NSA may even come to be seen by some as the “public option.” “At least it is accountable in principle to some parliamentary limits,” they will say, “rather than merely stockholder avarice and flimsy user agreements.”

      In the last few years I've come to understand that my tolerance for most forms of surveillance should be considered in terms of my confidence in the judiciary.

  17. Jan 2016
    1. In this regard, it’s interesting to note that the viewing of TV programs at the time of their broadcast went up 20% with the advent of Twitter, indicating a desire to consume collaboratively. My ten year experience with social reading suggests that we might see a similar increase if long-form texts began appearing in platforms enabling people to gather in the margins with trusted friends and colleagues.
    1. convention collective nationale Judicial branch: Supreme Court of Appeals or Cour de Cassation, judges are appointed by the president from nominations of the High Council of the Judiciary; Constitutional Council or Conseil Constitutionnel, three members appointed by the president, three members appointed by the president of the National Assembly, and three appointed by the president of the Senate; Council of State or Conseil d'Etat.

    1. Alice Maz on communication failures due to different cultures of conversation and values.

      Most people value feelings, shared perspectives, and social status. They see correction as an attempt to knock them down a peg. Nerds value facts, logic, and the sharing of information. A genuine nerd shares information with no intention of knocking anyone down, and prefers being corrected to remaining misinformed.

    1. Twitter is rumored to be planning to increase maximum tweet length to 10,000 characters. They want to attract people who don't already use Twitter, and they want to keep users on Twitter for longer periods of time.

      If these extended tweets are hidden until clicked, this doesn't bother me. But other recent changes are obnoxious and insulting. Much more of this will make Twitter useless.

      • filtering your timeline
      • displaying tweets out of order
      • making a chain of replies hard to find
    1. Meanwhile, in almost exactly the same decades that the Internet arose and eventually evolved social computing, literary scholarship followed similar principles of decentralization to evolve cultural criticism.7

      Wow. This is the most interesting statement that I've read in a while. Wish I could pin an annotation...

      Really helps me justify my career arc, turning from literary criticism as a career to software "development."

    1. Apps like Instagram are blind, or almost blind. Their gaze goes inwards, reluctant to transfer any of their vast powers to others, leading them into quiet deaths.

      There might be a better term than 'blind' for this. It seems like the content itself, and the users using it, are the things that are blinded. To be blind is to be disabled -- and Instagram and other corporate services are far from that.

      These corporate platforms are like walled gardens, or cult leaders, creating propaganda and structures that blind and bind behind closed doors. They are the oppressor, the users the oppressed. And all at the demise of the health of the Internet. By blocking external hyperlinks, they are actually committing a crime against the rest of the Internet, cutting off the very thing that makes the Internet powerful. Let's start calling it what it truly is, an externality, a cost on people who did not choose incur that cost.

  18. Dec 2015
    1. Hypothesis might make a fine alternative to Twitter.

      • Is anyone using hypothesis in this way yet?
      • What would be a good tag to distinguish "tweet" Notes?<br> (I guess it would be cute to use "tweet" as the tag.)
      • When there's not a specific webpage involved, what would be the best URLs on which to attach such a Note?<br> (I suppose any page of your own on a social media site or blog would do. I also see that we can annotate pages on local servers.)
    1. If you've ever felt bad about working a very low-status job, or looked down on someone else for it, this might change your attitude.

      • It's ironic that many low-wage jobs are jobs that many people couldn't tolerate.
      • These days, one should be embarrassed to admit working for Wall Street, the NSA, or Congress.
      • Our government is full of people who should be mopping floors and wiping tables instead.
      • The military shouldn't be the only obvious opportunity for working-class kids.
    1. Huge follower counts on YouTube and social media DO NOT easily translate to income. And those followers expect you to be "real" -- so they are hostile to advertising and sponsored content.

      Do you own a business? It might pay to offer a salary to the producers of a YouTube channel that reaches your target audience -- in exchange for low-profile "brought to you by" links and mentions that won't offend that audience.

      https://twitter.com/JBUshow<br> https://twitter.com/gabydunn

    1. My solution to the problem posed by the incompatibility of depression and social media didn’t aim to change anyone’s life but my own. Yet maybe it was no less radical: Ruthlessly dispose of all fake intimacy and superficial interactions and focus what little energy I had on real connection. Take my feeble attention span and put it into the equivalent of an incubator. Learn to consider myself a worthy human being without the positive reinforcement of Twitter favs.
    2. Professor Heuser thought for a moment. “That’s only indirectly related to social media,” she finally said. “People suffering from depression are incredibly creative at convincing themselves they are losers. But we live in a world that’s hyper-communicative — not really communicative, but narcissistic. Everybody is always ‘sharing’ something, only that it isn’t really sharing, it’s posting something to a wall in the hope that as many people as possible will come past and ‘like’ it. The purpose is to feed our narcissism. It is a many-voiced monologue, a cacophony. Everybody is posting something, but we aren’t talking to each other.”

      During depression, you are likely to find your own past happiness hard to tolerate. It may be worse if that "happiness" was a put-on.

    3. However, the positive feeling that usually follows — your organism can’t mount that response anymore. That’s a classic symptom of depression. You can’t feel joy or connection to others anymore.” And because my brain knows what joy used to feel like, she explained, its absence, that emptiness, is experienced subconsciously as painful. The fact that I found it so hard to resist the lure of said dopamine release was also easy to explain, she said: “Will has to do with energy. And depression is characterised precisely by a lack of energy.”

      Social media may or may not be a contributing cause of depression. But it is generally not good for someone who is already depressed.

    1. Specifically, the study’s authors found two types of information skills that correlated with maximum ideation power: idea scouting and idea connecting. Idea scouts are good at identifying external ideas from diverse experts and resources on Twitter, and they convert weak ties to strong ties, including in offline face to face conversations. Idea connectors are good at identifying business opportunities from the Twitter ideas they discover; they curate and direct those ideas to the best business stakeholders across their organizations.
    1. Hiding the names of universities during the hiring process is just part of a larger strategy by Deloitte to seek a more diverse workforce. They have teamed up with the UK-based consulting company Rare to incorporate a new screening process called “contextualisation” that seeks to judge an applicant’s performance in the context in which they achieved it.
    2. One of Britain’s largest companies no longer wants its recruiters and hiring managers to know where its applicants went to college, school or university. “We are calling it school and university-blind interviewing,” Deloitte’s Head of UK Resourcing Victoria Lawes, said in an interview with LinkedIn. “What we really want to do is ensure that, whoever is recruiting isn’t consciously or unconsciously favoring a person who attended a certain school or university.”
  19. Nov 2015
    1. In one version of this experiment, if we gave participants synthetic oxytocin (in the nose, that will reach the brain in an hour), they donated to 57 percent more of the featured charities and donated 56 percent more money than participants given a placebo. Those who received oxytocin also reported more emotional transportation into the world depicted in the ad. Most importantly, these people said they were less likely to engage in the dangerous behaviors shown in the ads. So, go see a movie and laugh and cry. It’s good for your brain, and just might motivate you to make positive changes in your life and in others’ lives as well.
    2. Finally children do as we do, not as we say. That gives us incentive to bring play back into our adult lives. We can shut off the TVs and take our children with us on outdoor adventures. We should get less exercise in the gym and more on hiking trails and basketball courts. We can also make work more playful: Businesses that do this are among the most successful. Seattle’s Pike Fish Market is a case in point. Workers throw fish to one another, engage the customers in repartee, and appear to have a grand time. Some companies, such as Google, have made play an important part of their corporate culture. Study after study has shown that when workers enjoy what they do and are well-rewarded and recognized for their contributions, they like and respect their employers and produce higher quality work. For example, when the Rohm and Hass Chemical company in Kentucky reorganized its workplace into self- regulating and self-rewarding teams, one study found that worker grievances and turnover declined, while plant safety and productivity improved.
    3. it’s not hard to understand how, in any highly social species, natural selection might favor those who laugh. Laughter may help some animals avert an attack, and according to Panksepp, animals may be attracted to others who laugh, seeing their laughter as a sign that they have a positive temperament and can get along well with others—and some of those positive interactions could lead to reproduction. “Laughter indicates emotional health, just as a peacock’s tail indicates physical health,” he says. Indeed, just as humans like to spend time with their funny friends, Panksepp has found that rats gravitate towards those who “chirp” the most.
    1. Emmons proposes a series of questions to help people recover from difficult experiences, which I’ve adapted for the workplace: What lessons did the experience teach us? Can we find ways to be thankful for what happened to us now, even though we were not at the time it happened? What ability did the experience draw out of us that surprised us? Are there ways we have become a better workplace because of it? Has the experience removed an obstacle that previously prevented us from feeling grateful?
    2. Research points to the notion that gratitude might have positive effects on transforming conflicts, which can benefit the organization and working relationships. How do you do that? It starts with the one charged with mediating the conflict: For example, a supervisor with two bickering employees might open a meeting by expressing sincere appreciation of both parties. Throughout the process, that person should never miss an opportunity to say “thank you.” The research says this attitude of gratitude will have a positive feedback effect, even if results aren’t obvious right away.
    3. Giving creates gratitude, but giving can also be a good way to express gratitude, especially if the person in question is shy. You can say “thanks” by taking on scut work, lending a parking space, or giving a day off. These kinds of non-monetary gifts can lead to more trust in working relationships, if it’s reciprocal, sincere, and altruistically motivated.
    4. The benefits of gratitude go beyond a sense of self-worth, self-efficacy, and trust between employees. When Greater Good Science Center Science Director Emiliana Simon-Thomas analyzed data from our interactive gratitude journal Thnx4.org, she found the greater the number of gratitude experiences people had on a given day, the better they felt. People who kept at it for at least two weeks showed significantly increased happiness, greater satisfaction with life, and higher resilience to stress; this group even reported fewer headaches and illnesses.

      analysis link

    5. Gratitude is a non-monetary way to support those non-monetary motivations. “Thank you” doesn’t cost a dime, and it has measurably beneficial effects. In a series of four experiments, psychologists Adam Grant and Francesca Gino found that “thank you” from a supervisor gave people a strong sense of both self-worth and self-efficacy. The Grant and Gino study also reveals that the expression of gratitude has a spillover effect: Individuals become more trusting with each other, and more likely to help each other out.
    1. In Jakarta, for example, largechunks of the urban core were cleared of itspoorer residents, replaced with new commer-cial and residential buildings that now, after adecade or so, are being deemed obsolete orstructurally deficient even when they wereimplanted as an instrument of completionor permanence.

      Trends? Realization of how they got rid of the poorer residents?

    2. Normative understandings of infra-structure usually are organized around theways in which materiality is a platformupon which social differences are created,recognized and sustained

      Materiality causes differentiation in social classes.. the want of materialistic objects and those who have the ability (money) to get them will be higher. Can money buy happiness?

    1. 1. Gratitude leads to complacency I’ve often heard the claim that if you’re grateful, you’re not going to be motivated to challenge the status quo or improve your lot in life. You’ll just be satisfied, complacent, lazy and lethargic, perhaps passively resigned to an injustice or bad situation. You’ll give up trying to change something. In fact, studies suggest that the opposite is true: Gratitude not only doesn’t lead to complacency, it drives a sense of purpose and a desire to do more.

      Gratitude myth, debunked:

      ...Yet they don’t report feeling more satisfied with their progress toward their goals than other people do. They don’t become complacent or satisfied to the point that they stop making an effort.

    1. Those in the gratitude condition showed avery strong preference for working with a partner, whereas those who were in the controlcondition actually preferred to work alone. So, one of the things we see about the socialbenefits of gratitude is that it enhances our desire to affiliate with others. Gratitudealso enhances our communal orientation toward others
    1. If this were true for modern society, it has multiplied in ourage of social media, in which control and value are indissolubly linked to the machine ensemblesthat comprise contemporary digital infrastructures.

      I have studied in my International Marketing course here how social media is a cultural institution in society and has an extremely powerful influence on societal structures regarding preferences, levels of acceptance of products/technology, and how consumers are influenced to use them.

    1. people who practice gratitude consistently report a host of benefits: Psychological Higher levels of positive emotions More alert, alive, and awake More joy and pleasure More optimism and happiness Physical Stronger immune systems Less bothered by aches and pains Lower blood pressure Exercise more and take better care of their health Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking Social More helpful, generous, and compassionate More forgiving More outgoing Feel less lonely and isolated.
  20. Oct 2015
    1. other scientists are finding when you really sortof focus our attention on these sort of intrinsic goals like being connected to others as opposedto making more money as you might imagine, those lead to more boosts in happiness andthen this other focus on making money and achieving fame really doesn't sort of boosthappiness in the same fashion.
    2. when we set goals that are reallynon-zero that have to do with not only honoring our own interests, but also advancing thewelfare and interests of others, friends, family members, and social groups, that kindof a goal, that non-zero goal that really incorporates others interests with the greatergood is associated with greater success, career, and happiness.
    1. "self-compassion (unlike self-esteem) helps buffer against anxiety" when confronted with threats to one's self-image; it also found that increases in self-compassion are associated with increased feelings of social connectedness and decreased depression, among other indicators of psychological well-being.

      I wonder if the ability to laugh at oneself is subsumed by self-compassion; at least, they seem related.

    1. and disaster flooding in from the media that have generated a pervasive fear of catastrophe but also a more deep-seated sense of misanthropy which urban commentators have been loath to acknow- ledge, a sense of misanthropy too often treated as though it were a dirty secre

      Interesting thesis.. Media is known as one of the most influential institutions in society today... is he blaming media?

    1. In 1930 its population was 112,000. Today it is 36,000. The halcyon talk of “interracial living” is dead. The neighborhood is 92 percent black. Its homicide rate is 45 per 100,000—triple the rate of the city as a whole. The infant-mortality rate is 14 per 1,000—more than twice the national average.

      These are some intense statistics.. It'd be interesting to compare them to other cities in the area..

    1. Although in this case Sally worked on her own, she and others often collabo-rated on short- and long-term projects or simply consulted with peers for explicithelp. For instance, people often knew the experienced members of the commu-nity, and they might have requested their assistance when they stumbled upon anydifficulties. In addition, because individuals had scopes of different magnification,practitioners often knew whose scope was capable of resolving object featuresthat others’ might not have. So participants often traded viewpoints on theirobservations.

      This is a nice example of multiple resources. The CoP was available when Sally needed help and she had access but could engage with them or work alone when she wanted. The group shared material resources as well as ideas about their observations. There was support for learning but Sally was able to choose when and how she wanted that support.

    1. The easiest way—by far—to demonstrate interest in others is to ask questions. The most socially successful people ask not just factual questions (“What do you do for work?”) but questions that are a little more personal (“How do you like what you do?”). These two types of questions, used in conjunction, accelerate feelings of connectedness.
    2. Introverts may have a hard time feeling as socially connected as extroverts. But the most extroverted person in the room may not be the most socially connected. They may receive attention, but if an extrovert does not learn a bit about those around them—by quietly listening to them—those other people will hardly feel closer to them. Listening to others makes people want to be around you, and wanting to be around each other is the essence of feeling connected.
    1. a web so conceptually consistent, socially relevant and technically expandable

      We've done relatively well with the first two. "Technically expandable" is the one in danger.

      If we continue to build "social networks" as singular dead end cul-de-sacs, we leave no exit available to those who follow.

      The Web we want is expandable beyond the reaches of what we currently know, the economies we operate within, and the future we can currently conceive.

    1. Over time, they have created massive communi-ties with millions of inhabitants, complex lifeworlds, economic arrange-ments, cultural practices and life-styles

      The people will find a way to survive.. they always do.. but we should be able to find easier ways to make that happen that will provide better situations for them.

    1. This research shows there are low- and high-trust regions of the United States. Nevada is a very low-trust region. (Nobody seems to be very surprised by that.) Minnesota is a very high-trust region. The Deep South is a very low-trust region. We see similar disparities internationally. In Brazil, two percent of people say they trust other people. In Norway, 65 percent say they trust other people. So what are the characteristics of low-trust regions? Few people vote, parents and schools are less active. There’s less philanthropy in low-trust regions, greater crime of all kinds, lower longevity, worse health, lower academic achievement in schools.
    2. Interestingly, the investors’ expectations about the back-transfer from the trustee did not differ between the oxytocin and placebo recipients. Oxytocin increased the participants’ willingness to trust others, but it did not make them more optimistic about another person’s trustworthiness.

      The Trust Game; however, there was no difference in groups when the trustee was a computer, showing oxytocin affects social connections but not risk-behavior itself.

    1. we’ll see higher rates of forgiveness under those conditions that made forgiving adaptive in our ancestral environments. This means we’ll see more forgiveness in places where people are highly dependent on complex networks of cooperative relationships, policing is reliable, the system of justice is efficient and trustworthy, and social institutions are up to the task of helping truly contrite offenders make amends with the people they’ve harmed.
    2. Why might evolution have outfitted us with such an ability? Biologists have offered several hypotheses. I’m especially fond of the “valuable relationship” hypothesis, espoused by de Waal and many other primatologists. It goes like this: Animals reconcile because it repairs important relationships that have been damaged by aggression. By forgiving and repairing relationships, our ancestors were in a better position to glean the benefits of cooperation between group members—which, in turn, increased their evolutionary fitness.
    1. This view might make sense for solitary species, like the golden hamster, which flees upon being attacked, or territorial species, like many birds, that rely upon territorial arrangements to avoid deadly conflicts. But many mammals, and in particular primates, need each other to survive. Ostracism and marginalization are tickets to shortened lives. Among humans, individuals who have fewer and less healthy social bonds have been shown to live shorter lives, have compromised immune function, and be more vulnerable to disease. Our sociality, and that of many nonhuman primates, requires a mechanism that brings individuals together in the midst of conflict and aggression.
    2. This offers us insight into the true nature of embarrassment: I have discovered that this subtle display—the averted gaze, the pressed lips—is a sign of our respect for others, our appreciation of their view of things, and our commitment to the moral and social order. Far from reflecting confusion, it turns out that embarrassment can be a peacemaking force that brings people together—both during conflict and after breeches of the social contract, when there’s otherwise great potential for violence and disorder. I’ve even found evidence that facial displays of embarrassment have deep evolutionary roots, and that this seemingly inconsequential emotion provides us with a window into the ethical brain.
    1. The democratization of that right, and the construction of a broad social movement to enforce its will is imperative if the dispossessed are to take back the control which they have for so long been denied, and if they are to institute new modes of urbanization.

      Is this just becoming more of a competition between who ends up with control? I thought we were working towards beneficial social and urban reform here..

  21. Sep 2015
    1. The first half of the twentieth century was drenched in the blood spilled by German and Japanese aggression, yet only a few decades later it is hard to think of two countries more pacific. Sweden spent the 17th century rampaging through Europe, yet it is now an icon of nurturing tranquility. Humans have invented the small nomadic band and the continental megastate, and have demonstrated a flexibility whereby uprooted descendants of the former can function effectively in the latter. We lack the type of physiology or anatomy that in other mammals determine their mating system, and have come up with societies based on monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry. And we have fashioned some religions in which violent acts are the entrée to paradise and other religions in which the same acts consign one to hell. Is a world of peacefully coexisting human Forest Troops possible? Anyone who says, “No, it is beyond our nature,” knows too little about primates, including ourselves.
    1. Narratives of the lives of Jesus, Buddha, Mother Teresa, and other inspiring figures are full of stories of people who, upon meeting the saintly figure, dropped their former materialistic pursuits and devoted themselves to advancing the mission of the one who elevated them. Indeed, a hallmark of elevation is that, like disgust, it is contagious.