"I feel tremendous guilt," said Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, in a public talk in November. "I think we all knew in the back of our minds… something bad could happen

Last year, ex-employees of Google, Apple and Facebook, including former top executives, began raising the alarm about smartphones and social media apps, warning especially of their effects on children.

Today, thanks to him, we can sit in parks and not only receive amatory messages and racing results, but summon all the world's knowledge with a few taps of our thumbs, listen to virtually every song ever recorded and communicate instantaneously with everyone we know.

n the winter of 1906, the year San Francisco was destroyed by an earthquake and SOS became the international distress signal

A decade ago, smart devices promised to change the way we think and interact, and they have – but not by making us smarter.

We will be watching and discussing episodes of Do Not Track and students are expected to have watched episode 1 before we talk to Brett.

His 2008 feature documentary Rip! A Remix Manifesto is an official honoree of the Webby Awards, was the recipient of Audience Choice prizes at festivals from Amsterdam to South Africa, was broadcast in 20 countries, and seen by millions of people worldwide..

a digital activist

t’s not all evil; the internet would be a much less convenient experience without some bits of shared data. But this convenience bears a cost.