NetLingo 2021 Word of the Year: NFT

People ask me all the time, WTF is an NFT? NFT stands for Non Fungible Token which is an individual, unique digital asset held on the blockchain to convey ownership of a property.  Non-Fungible Tokens are easily exchangeable and include multiple digital formats. 

An NFT property could be a digital asset, for example virtual real estate in an online community, a costume in a video game, an artistic image, digital content. The property could also be something in real life, for example actual real estate, an actual painting, a seat at a live concert, the first edition of a book. The property could also be a hybrid, such as who can rent a room in a cooperative working space or time share. The digital tokens, or certificates of ownership, live on the blockchain and can be bought and sold. NFTs are changing how we think about digital information, art, and ownership. 

“Non fungible” means something is unique and can’t be replaced with something else (for example if I gave you a signed George Brett baseball card and you gave me a signed Rolling Stones poster, we wouldn’t have the same thing), whereas “fungible” is something you can trade for something else and have the exact same thing (such as money and bitcoins because if you gave me $20 and I gave you $20 we would have the same thing). 

The "token" is the digital nature of the asset that lives on the blockchain. Think of blocks as individual transactions or records that are strung together on a single list called a chain or ledger. Blockchain can store anything digital, including signatures and intellectual property as well as cryptocurrency. 

To "mint" an NFT means to generate it, for example: “It was a hard mint, meaning the token cannot be changed, as opposed to a soft mint, meaning the token is changeable.” Once created, then you sell it. 

Cryptocurrency companies that enable NFT transactions are the payment platforms and the platforms that generate and maintain the NFT. NFT platforms include Rarible, OpenSea, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Foundation, VIV3, BakerySwap, Axie Marketplace and NFT ShowRoom. NFT payment platforms include MetaMask, Torus, Portis, WalletConnect, Coinbase, MyEtherWallet and Fortmatic.

The first-known NFT is considered to be Kevin McCoy’s 2014 image “Quantum” and the first projects began appearing on the Ethereum Blockchain in the ERC20 standard. The technology didn’t start hitting mainstream attention until in 2021 when people were buying and selling an estimated 85,787 NFTs —at a total value of $5.8 million— a day, according to DappRadar. On March 11, 2021, a blockchain-based digital artwork sold at Christie’s for a history-making $69 million, putting Beeple, its creator, among the top three most valuable living artists. If you fancy yourself an early adopter, it sounds like it's time to mint your own blonde babies, or at least check out some bored apes. 


Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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NetLingo 2020 Word of the Year: Zoom

Zoom video conferencing software usage exploded in 2020, also known as the "year of the Covid-19 pandemic." It was many people's lifeline to work and friends because it combined video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration and let people WFH. Like many pervasive Internet products, Zoom eventually became a verb, for example "Let's Zoom this afternoon so I can see exactly what you're talking about" and of course it spawned it's own jargon with the advent of Zoombombing, or disrupting video calls with violent, pornographic or offensive content. 

There's clearly no competition for the NetLingo 2020 word of the year as Zoom surpassed 300 million daily Zoom meeting participants in 2020, a 50% increase from a month prior (200 million). For comparison, in December 2019, Zoom reported 10 million meeting participants. 

Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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NetLingo 2019 Word of the Year: woke

It's always interesting to view history in retrospect. The year of 2019 brought about massive changes and in the minds of many people, you were considered either "woke" or not. 
If you're "woke" you know this word was having a major mainstream moment in 2018, but it wasn't until 2019 that woke penetrated politics, media, technology and entertainment. Also known as "left wokeness" because the ultra-liberal movement of people who live and die by politics started using it to describe a person's awareness of a particular topic, current affairs or social issues. According to them, the more woke one is, the more knowledgeable and empathetic one is about a person or issue. It was seen in social media posts and tweets characterized by snowflake behavior. But groupthink ran rampant and suddenly, everything was getting criticized. 

The term comes from something suddenly springing to life, either out of alarm or determination, as in "You’re woke, so now things are, you know, real." It's also known as an alert to racial prejudice and discrimination that originated in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). Apparently since the Blacks and the libs started to own it (again), American conservatives started using woke primarily as an insult. It's deemed the NetLingo word of the year this year because almost everyone is using it online. 

Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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About Time... Merriam-Webster adds "Brand-New" Words in 2019

Brand new? I think not... I'm surprised the following terms were just added in 2019 to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary!

According to Molly Pennington, Merriam-Webster added over 600 new words to the dictionary in 2019, and as is always the case with language, there are old words with new meanings on their list too, check out the full list here.

Snowflake - On a molecular level, snowflakes are all basically the same, even though you may think they’re each unique and special. Snowflake also has a few definitions beyond, “a flake or crystal of snow.” The term has become disparaging slang for both someone treated as precious and special or one who thinks they should be treated as such. Yes, snowflake is a grand insult. If you are called this term, the user thinks you’re too sensitive or that you find yourself precious. It works the other way around, too—get a look at these 11 words and phrases that used to be insults but are now compliments.

Page view - Gotta get those clicks! A page view is a compound term of the Internet age. Page view is an example of “lexicalization,” because it’s a phrase that now expresses a concept: “an instance of a user viewing an individual page or website.” Page views are crucial because they insinuate engagement with info that’s on a web page or site.

Gig economy - The gig economy means that work comes from freelance, part-time, or contract jobs or gigs. While a gig economy offers lots of flexibility for workers, it does not provide the stability and assured growth that secure, full-time positions used to do. Coined in 2019, Merriam-Webster offers that the gig economy uses temps or freelancers, “primarily in the service sector.” However, over 70 percent of academic teaching positions are now part-time, temporary, or adjunct, and the gig economy affects many other sectors as well.

Swole - Do you work out? If so, you probably look swole. The term basically derives from swelling or swollen, but it’s a positive adjective used to describe top-notch or particularly aesthetic musculature. As in, Robert Pattinson as the new Batman is looking swole.

EGOT - Very few people have achieved peak EGOT—the ultimate threshold for performance accomplishment. Only 15 performers have reached it so far, and that list includes Audrey Hepburn, Rita Moreno, Whoopi Goldberg, and Mel Brooks. However, there are 40 performers on deck to become EGOT with just one more win. The term is an acronym using the first letters of the awards Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Once you win one of each, you’ve got an EGOT.

Stan - Stans have been around as long as celebrities, but this term for an obsessive and over-the-top groupie just made it into the dictionary. Way back in 2000, Eminem (of rap fame) had a song about an extremely devoted fan, “Stan.” And the term was born. Merriam-Webster notes that it’s often used in a “disparaging” way, but that’s usually in the form of self-awareness about a star or franchise’s epic greatness and the known insanity (instanity?!) of adoring it. Consider the way Game of Thrones stans still obsess over various dragon minutiae even though the series has ended.

And so on... these words have been in NetLingo for years! C'mon Merriam-Webster, time to subscribe to my NetLingo blog :)

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com

Big Box Stores = America's New Oligopoly

And like most things that end in "opoly" it's the consumers, who pay the price. What is an oligopoly you ask? It refers to a state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers, and according to David Leonhardt in The New York Times, a  new era of oligopoly might be costing you more than $5,000 a year.

In industry after industry, a few companies have grown so large that they have the power to keep prices high and wages low. The outsize growth of GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) is only one example. Most Americans also have a choice between only two internet providers or four major airlines, while Home Depot and Lowe’s have displaced local hardware stores and regional pharmacies have been swallowed by national giants. There's even a NetLingo word for it: big box store.


This isn’t some natural result of globalization and technological innovation, said Thomas Philippon, an economics professor at New York University. Europe has been far better at containing the growth of these few companies, because it has been implementing market-based ideas that Americans helped pioneer. The European Union created an impressively independent competition agency that’s willing to block mergers. 

Meanwhile, U.S. regulators—pushed by lobbyists—keep finding ways to justify mergers with dubious theories about money-saving efficiencies. Broadband service in the U.S. now costs $67.69 per month, far more than in France ($31.14) or England ($39.58). The typical cellphone bill is $61.85 for 5GB of data, versus just $14.95 in France or $18.30 in Sweden. Meanwhile, capital investment stagnates. Meanwhile, the demise of the sole proprietorship was in part due to being Amazonned, yet a few years ago, Google opened it's first brick-and-mortar store in London. All this should inspire action, but clearly we have a long way to go.

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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Antitrust: DOJ review targets Big Tech

Well they're finally asking the question: Does Big Tech abuse its power? The federal government has unleashed its full investigative powers on the world’s biggest tech firms, according to The New York Times. The Justice Department announced an antitrust review of the dominant players in tech—Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon - known collectively as GAFA.

The DOJ joins the Federal Trade Commission and Congress in examining how these tech firms accumulated market power and whether they acted to reduce competition. The agency has already begun meeting industry experts to learn the kinds of harm the companies have caused, the clearest sign yet that the longtime arguments that helped shield the tech giants from antitrust scrutiny are eroding.

The big question about the tech giants, according to Bloomberg, is whether these companies have used their success to cheat their way into more success. The answer is a resounding YES. Take Google for instance, with the development of their Answer boxes, they've funneled web traffic and ad revenue away from websites because now users can view the content directly on Google.

The giants will protest, as they always do, that they offer free services to consumers, and competition could make them die at any moment. They’ll wave the flag and say their success is a credit to the best of America. But the antitrust cops don’t care about these kinds of displays. Yes, Google, Apple,  Facebook, and Amazon have built worthy businesses, but they still have a responsibility to play fair with their power and keep the competition fair for the good of consumers.

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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Our Language Is Evolving, 'Because Internet'

What a fantastic book review, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, as seen on NPR.com! I am super impressed with linguist Gretchen McCulloch's insights and how they relate to all of the potential for miscommunication online - which is what I've been preaching as well. If you are one among us who has wondered whether a message in ALL CAPS meant it was urgent, or furious, or enthusiastic, then my website NetLingo.com and her book can help you!

Below is Gretchen's interview where she says the "new" rules, are "emergent..." so, for example, "The old rules are these top-down, 'here's how you use an apostrophe,' 'here's how you use a semicolon' type of thing." "The new rules are about: How are other people going to interpret your tone of voice? ... The old rules are about using language to demonstrate intellectual superiority, and the new rules are about using language to create connection between people."

Gretchen says a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that people read Internet writing differently, depending on when they first went online. Here are a few excellent examples, enjoy!

On the changing use of LOL

There's a difference between how these different groups use "LOL" ... the acronym which initially stood for "laughing out loud." And if you talk to people in some of these older generations who are, you know, have been using the Internet for 20 years but came online in a less social space, they see it: OK, here's an acronym; they're told it is an acronym; it must mean "laughing out loud." And so they still use it as actual laughter. Whereas when you talk to the youngest groups, LOL may have meant laughter for a very short period of time, but that laughter quickly became aspirational — you know, "Oh, that is kind of funny." And then it became not even real laughter at all. It became more a marker of irony or softening or "I'm not angry at you," "I'm not feeling hostile" — you know, these additional subtle social meanings.

And for the youngest group of people, there's no literal meaning left to LOL at all. ... It's a filler that specifically indicates that there's some sort of double meaning to be found. ... If I say something that could be interpreted as rude or hostile like, "Oh, I hate you" — if I say "I hate you LOL," now I'm joking, so it's fine. I'm not laughing out loud while I hate you, like in a malicious sort of way; I'm undermining my message and saying "I hate you LOL [but I'm not serious about it]." But in the inverse, if you say "I love you LOL," that doesn't soften the message any more. Now that means "Oh no, I fake-love you," like I'm being quite mean about that. So it's not always a softener — it just hints toward some sort of double meaning, which could be good or bad.

On the passive-aggressive period

The period is such an interesting new battleground for Internet language because there's definitely a traditional use which is still found in formal writing. You know, the book contains many periods, and they're not passive-aggressive because it's a formal context. But in an informal context, you don't need the period anymore to distinguish between one sentence or one phrase and the next because you're just going to hit "send" in a chat context. You can just send the message. ... And that makes your messages easier to read than this massive wall of text, particularly on a tiny screen.
And yet that means that the period is now open and available for taking on other sorts of meanings and other connotations. And one of those is that very sense of formality — and you know when you read a formal sentence ... and making your voice deeper at the end of the sentence, like you conventionally do with a period in formal writing, adds a note of solemnity or finality or seriousness to what you're saying. ... But the problem is if you say "OK, sounds good." — and you add that note of seriousness — now you've got positive words and serious punctuation, and the clash between them is what creates that sense of passive aggression.

On the construction "because [noun]," which gives the book its title (Because Internet)

One of the things I really love about Internet language these days is what I call stylistic verbal incoherence mirroring emotional incoherence. So when you're feeling upset or excited or angry or any of these extreme emotions or overwhelmed by how cute something is when you're feeling any of these extreme emotions you make your language get artfully disordered to express that. And so for the title of the book Because Internet, saying: OK, I'm going to truncate this. Instead of "because of the Internet," I'm going to make the shorter version "because Internet" — or "because homework" or "because weather" or any of these types of things, I'm going to make the shorter version because the answer is so self-evident that I can reduce it into this less coherent form. And you'll understand that I'm nodding at this bigger phenomenon that we can share.

On keysmash (i.e. "asdf;lkjasdlf" or similar to represent frustration)

For the youngest group of people, there's no literal meaning left to LOL at all. One new trend that I've seen that I really wish I had been able to spend more space on in the book is the continued evolution of keysmash. So, keysmash is when you mash your fingers against a keyboard to, you know, convey this incoherent emotion. And what I noted in Because Internet is that people have specific stylistic ways of keysmashing. He will write ASDF, etc. and they smash on the home row of keys. And I did a survey, and I asked people: Do you ever adjust or retype your keysmash if it doesn't quite look right to you? And most people said yes. Even though this is random, they still retype it because they want it to look like the right kind of social randomness.


But what I was just noticing as I was writing the book, and didn't quite have enough data to include, is that keysmashing has also been changing as we use mobile phones more. Because when you keysmash on a full mechanical keyboard you do have your fingers on the home row with ASDF and so on. But when you keysmash on a smartphone keyboard, you have your thumbs over like GHSDSK something like that so instead of going ASDF from left or right you might end up with like SKSKSK or GHGHGH, something going back and forth between your thumbs near the center of the keyboard. And so, the way we keysmash has been changing partly in response to the social pressure, partly in response to the devices we're using. And it's such an interesting example for me because it looks like we're just being monkeys typing randomly on a keyboard producing something totally incoherent, and yet there are social patterns to it. There are real linguistic trends to keysmash — even something that looks so random.

On how to avoid misunderstandings

We talk to each other. You can ask people what they mean. ... I mean, you don't have to talk to people by picking up the phone — you can talk to people by saying, "What did you mean by that?" or "Are you actually mad at me?" in the text message. ... Sometimes I say this is associated with older people, and people take that as a criticism. But I think it's just as incumbent on younger people to say: Maybe I shouldn't be overinterpreting hostility or passive-aggression ... maybe I should just be interpreting this with the context of "I know this person is older and so they're not actually being passive-aggressive at me." I think the increased understanding can go both ways.

It's OK to be a bit older. I've accepted I'm not a teenager anymore. ... It doesn't mean that just because this is what the kids are doing means we all have to talk like that. But having increased understanding across different generations can help people avoid miscommunications in their text messaging — which is really what I'm trying to do with Because Internet.  Special thanks to Mallory Yu and Emily Kopp who produced and edited the broadcast version of this interview and Patrick Jarenwattananon and Beth Novey who adapted it for the Web.

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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Good for France for Approving Tax On Big Tech

The recent headline "France Approves Tax On Big Tech, And U.S. Threatens To Retaliate" generated  mixed emotions until I drilled down to really understand what's going on. It was recently announced that France will levy a 3% tax on digital companies that make large profits in the country, specifically the U.S. tech behemoths known in France as "Les GAFA" — Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.

They're doing this because French officials have been frustrated that digital companies are able to avoid taxes by establishing their European headquarters in countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands, which offer corporations low tax rates, and France says it will roll back its tax if an EU levy takes effect. The European Commission calculates that digital businesses pay an effective tax rate of 9.5%, compared with 23.2% paid by traditional companies.

So the point is that France isn't exactly targeting the U.S., it's trying to establish norms in the EU. So if Arkansas and North Dakota want to give GAFA bigger tax breaks on "Federal" laws, (not just their state) it would be illegal in the U.S.  States cannot exempt Federal, so what this means is that the EU is still working out their "Union" and this is one of the areas.

Apparently the United States is very concerned that the digital services tax unfairly targets American companies, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. How is the U.S. threatening to retaliate? Last Wednesday, President Trump ordered a probe of the French tax. It's a sign that another trade war (like the one between the U.S. and China) could be stirring – except that it's with one of America's allies, and in this case, it's U.S. companies that are seen as the tax dodges. There's a NetLingo word for that Mr. POTUS: boil the ocean.

I think the EU has every right to do this and it's the OECD that is helping move the world to understanding the necessity of International Tax Laws.  The U.S. or China or whomever, is making profits off of French citizens and should be taxed and vice versa... the question is, at what rate?

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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From Airplane Mode to Zombieing - The New Top 50 Online Dating Terms


Lately I've received a huge influx of online dating jargon so I just had to compile this crazy new Top 50 List of Online Dating Terms! Back in the day, online dating was the largest segment of paid content on the Web (other than you guessed it, online porn). As Executive Editor of NetLingo, I knew the online dating jargon was proliferating but I had no idea how funny, yet super insensitive, it's become... check it out! How many of these things have happened to you?


1.     airplane mode - when someone cuts themselves off from the world by not checking their smartphone or social media.
2.     bae - An acronym that means Before Anyone Else... there’s also beob (babe) and baesbo (so back off).
3.     baeless -  One who is single, usually refers to a millennial.
4.     banksying - It's when you're going to break-up with someone and decide to plan an elaborate act far in advance.
5.     benching - Someone who is kept on the sides just in case it doesn't work out with the person you’re already dating.
6.     bird boxed - From the Netflix movie, it’s when someone you’re dating treats you badly and you’re blind to it.
7.     bonk - It used to mean to have sex or hook up in generation x lingo, but in generation y lingo it means you’re too tired!
8.     breadcrumbing - Giving a person just enough attention so they’ll keep interest, but you don't have to invest in a relationship.
9.     buzzerflies - The feeling you get when your phone buzzes, and it is potentially the special someone you want to hear from.
10.  caking - When you’re extra sweet to someone you’re really interested in; flirting, either on the phone or in person.
11.  career-zoned - When someone rejects you romantically but wants to connect professionally.
12.  caspering - A variation of ghosting but doing it nicely by letting people down gently before you ghost them.
13.  catfish - Slang for making romantic online overtures using a fake identity.
14.  cohabidating - When two people are newly dating and move in together for financial reasons.
15.  cushioning - It's when you're in a relationship with someone, but you still chat and flirt with other people on the side.
16.  draculaing - It's when people only hear from the people they are dating at night.
17.  DTR – It means Define The Relationship, that big awkward chat where people discuss "where things are going."
18.  exaggerdate - A portmanteau to describe the act of embellishing a date so as to suggest it went way better than it did.
19.  faux beau - A guy who acts like a boyfriend, but just as a ruse to continue his string of hookups.
20.  feels - Millingo for feelings. Sample this, "OMG! I’m starting to have the feels for my umfriend."
21.  force quit - In online dating it's slang for breaking up, as in "They force quit that relationship last week, about time.”
22.  gaslighting - Slang for when an abuser manipulates in such a way as to make a victim question his or her sanity.
23.  going down in the DMs - When two people begin flirting through direct messages on a social media platform.
24.  grandeing - When a person is grateful for their past lovers and the things they taught them, inspired by Thank U, Next.
25.  haunting - When they aren’t in your life anymore but linger on with their digital presence on your social media.
26.  heart bargain - An intellectual who tries to reason their way into or out of an emotional decision.
27.  HSAY - As in How Single Are You? Many will say they’re single but there is often someone texting them good morning...
28.  instabait - Uploading Instagram stories to prod a FOMO-prone crush to get in touch.
29.  instagator - Using Instagram to make a relationship public or to push it along further.
30.  instagrandstanding – Posting photos and videos to your Instagram story tailored to appeal to a specific person.
31.  iPhony - Online jargon that describes when someone constantly tells you they will text you but you never hear from them.
32.  kittenfish - Less drastic than catfish, it’s when someone uses steps to make someone else like them better.
33.  on ice - When you decide to pause the pace of a relationship and chill out for minute, you're putting it “on ice.”
34.  on the team - A dating candidate squad, singles should have three in rotation until you decide to come off the market.
35.  popsicle - It's when your instinct is to play it the opposite of cool, but you try too hard to play hard to get.
36.  romanceting - It involves texting words or images, but instead of demanding sex, you express appreciation and admiration.
37.  scrooging - When you break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend just before the holidays so you don’t have to buy a gift.
38.  situationship - It's when you're not in a committed relationship but you can’t exactly say you’re single either.
39.  slow fade - When you decide you don't want to continue dating someone, and you slowly start becoming less available.
40.  snack - Slang for a very attractive person, usually a female.
41.  Snap trap - If you’ve sent texts but bae doesn’t reply, you then Snapchat them and if your SO opens it, they’re trapped.
42.  SO stalemate - In a relationship, it's when neither party will start the DTR (define-the-relationship) conversation.
43.  social squatter - Someone who breaks up with you but wants to keep seeing your friends platonically (!)
44.  soul-mining - When someone tries to cram three months of emotional intimacy into your first three hours together.
45.  stashing - Stashing means to date someone, while not telling anyone about them. It's like having a guilty secret.
46.  textual chemistry - When your text connection is hot off-the-charts but in person, your chemistry barely registers.
47.  three-dot disappearing act - ...The act of starting to type a text message on your smartphone and then stopping...
48.  throning - When a person dates someone to elevate his or her own social status, wealth or reputation.
49.  you-turn - Slang for someone who goes from one extreme relationship to the next in the blink of an eye.
50.  zombieing - Similar to ghosting, but the dater reappears in your life and acts as nothing happened after a period of time.

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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Big Tech: It's Time to Break Up Facebook

Every now and then an article in The Week comes along that feeds my passion for Internet history and ultimately shakes me to the core. And as always, the articles in The Week include a lively debate from all viewpoints. This time they're reporting about the co-founder of Facebook saying it's time to break it up and I must say, I agree. But even better, it's time to simply walk away.

“It’s time to break up Facebook,” said Chris Hughes in The New York Times. “It’s been 15 years since I co-founded Facebook at Harvard” with Mark Zuckerberg, and a decade since I left the company. In that time, Mark’s power has become “unprecedented and un-American” and his company a “leviathan that crowds out entrepreneurship and restricts consumer choice.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren has advocated for policies that would bust up Big Tech, and I’m joining the growing chorus calling for the government to step in. Mark’s “focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks.” Most worrisome is the control he exerts over the algorithms that determine what gets displayed on the news feed: “There is no precedent for his ability to monitor, organize, and even censor the conversations of 2 billion people.” The government needs to unwind the mergers of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp before they become too intertwined.

Rooting for Facebook is like rooting for the New England Patriots, said Shira Ovide in Bloomberg.com. “But I worry that ‘Break up Facebook’ has become a catchall.” We need to better understand the root problems and prescribe appropriate fixes “before we all back a Standard Oil–style dismantlement” of the tech giants. The argument that Facebook, for instance, can squash all rivals doesn’t really hold true: Facebook missed the popularity of Snapchat and TikTok, while Apple and Google “remain the front doors to smartphones.” Breaking up Facebook would just create “fiercer wars for our attention and data,” said Ezra Klein in Vox.com. The problem is not that “Facebook is blocking competition in its sector.” It’s that the social networks compete to capture our attention and data with addictive algorithms and toxic content. (Right! There's a NetLingo word for that: brain hacking.) Breaking up Facebook doesn’t solve the real issue: The “incentives that shaped Facebook—and Instagram, and Twitter, and Snapchat, and YouTube—lead to dangerous products.”

Sure, everyone is disappointed with Facebook, said Nick Gillespie in Reason.com. That’s how things go with new technologies. First, the utopian stage, “when we’re all jazzed up about the possibilities of a new innovation.” Next, the dystopian period, “when we attribute all our ills to the new thing—TV, or the web, or social media.” Last comes the stage “when we put the technology in its proper place.” With social media, “we’re clearly in the second phase and almost certainly heading to the third.” We’re all growing tired of how much these sites demand our attention. But the idea that government will do a better job of fixing what’s wrong with them is “risible.” Many of Facebook’s users have already found a way to battle all-powerful Zuckerberg and his “unstoppable” Death Star: They’re “simply walking away.”

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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YouTube's Porn & Conspiracy Problems: Fix Your Recommendation Engine

YouTube was under fire again in early March, when a video blogger named Matt Watson detailed how pedophiles can enter a “wormhole” of YouTube videos to see “footage of children in sexually suggestive positions” according to CNET.com. They can then jump from video to video, helped by YouTube’s recommendation engine, and fill them with lewd comments. Oh yeah, there's an old NetLingo word for that: flame bait.

In response, brands such as Disney, AT&T, and Epic Games pulled their ads from YouTube, and the company responded by banning more than 400 accounts. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time that Google-owned YouTube has had this kind of child-safety flare-up. In 2017 alone, disturbing knockoffs appeared on the YouTube Kids platform that depicted Disney and Marvel characters in troubling ways; then sexually explicit comments appeared under videos of kids’ gymnastics. “In response to those scandals, CEO Susan Wojcicki overhauled YouTube’s safety guidelines.” Yet two years later, the same problems keep cropping up.

It’s not just the comments that are problematic for YouTube, said The New York Times. The platform has been reckoning with the vast troves of disinformation and extreme content it harbors, such as conspiracy videos and hoaxes that are popular with millions of viewers. Here, again, the recommendation engine is part of the problem: It sends viewers of misinformation to similar videos with more misinformation.

Conspiracy theories and viral hoaxes top the list” of recommendations for viewers of many popular channels. Young people repeatedly battered by these recommendations often start to reject mainstream sources. To fix this, YouTube needs to recognize how deep these problems run and realize that any successful effort may look less like a simple algorithm tweak, and more like deprogramming a generation.

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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Big Tech Scruples: Why Did Facebook Executives have to be so Ruthless?

Facebook has weathered its share of scandals lately but this item didn't get much coverage and it really got my goat. At the end of 2018, some 250 pages of internal Facebook emails were released by British lawmakers revealing that executives were "ruthless and unsparing" in their ambition to collect more data from users according to The New York Times. The emails, which spanned 2012 to 2015, a time of tremendous expansion for Facebook, show executives including Mark Zuckerberg, discussing ways to undermine their competitors, obscure their collection of user data, and above all, ensure that their products kept growing.

Most of that sounds well and good (not the obscuring of data part) as our current definition of what a business should do, there's even a NetLingo word for it: moneytizing eyeballs.

Until you get to the part that Facebook engineered a way to collect Android users' data without having to alert them, and Zuckerberg personally approved cutting off a video-sharing app's access to Facebook because it was a competitor to Instagram (which they own). The app, called Vine and loved by many, was eventually forced to shut down. C'mon executives of Big Tech, speak out! Especially you spiritual ones... there's more than enough to go around.

- Erin Jansen, Internet Specialist, Social Psychologist, Founder of NetLingo.com
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