The goal of this newsletter is to keep the aggregate information health of my readers as high as possible and keep you aware of how to read smarter. Also to just let me rant a bit.
Facebook must keep lying
Much like a certain slippery President who’s power seems to be having so many concurrent scandals that a single one cannot stick, Facebook just keeps Facebooking us all. Last month we all heard about a shady program where they paid people, including teenagers, under the guise of market research project, to install software on their phone which tracked everything the user did.
Slimy? Yup. But the extra slimy part was they targeted teenagers. Like they actually had Instagram ads (imagine heavily discounted) targeting teens to make a quick $20 by installing this innocent software. Gross, right?
But here’s the reminder that they just can’t help themselves. When the story broke they minimized things by saying less than 5% of the people targeted were teens. Of course, this week, documents leaked that the number of 13-18 year olds targeted was between 18-22%.
We need to all get to a point where targeted any children with an underhanded data grab is just not okay. This is a company pushing ads like above of money raining down to target a child to download an app that will track everything they do. We’re not even sure of the absolute number when they speak in percentages, but even 1 kid is not okay.
And then to lie. Why do they have to just keep outright lying?
Maybe it’s because they know the next scandalous behavior will be surfaced, and much like a certain president, we become so overwhelmed with misbehavior that we are unable to act in a coherent manner.
Of course, here is today’s story, and it’s a doozy:
#MOMOChallenge
From what I understand, people are freaking out about a new viral hoax called the “Momo Challenge”, where this weird Tim Burton sex symbol thing supposedly tells kids to kill themselves, turn on the stove while parents are asleep, or a host of other bad things. Kim Kardashian even posted on Instagram about how the Momo Challenge had infiltrated Peppa Pig 😡😡😡.
Naturally it’s fake, but what’s more interesting is how the story is spreading. This one really found traction from police warnings to schools and on local news stations. This was one of the best points I saw on how this spread:
I get it. I’m telling you to be suspicious of social media platforms, and of local news reports, and maybe even of police reports to schools, where does this end?
All I’m saying is, if a news item gets your lizard brain sparked into hyperdrive, take a deep breath and question is that specific source an expert in the topic - in this case, police probably aren’t the most knowledgable on Reddit memes.
P.S. We’re not in the clear. There are still suicide tips hidden in kids YouTube videos.
P.P.S. Were Rainbow Parties ever real?
It’s not all doom and gloom. For each newsletter I like to present you with one product I love and one video I’m enjoying.
A Product
I recently switched back to a Macbook Air, and was elated to find out there are now battery packs that could charge your laptop for multiple cycles. I bought this Wirecutter-recommended USB-C battery pack and cannot recommend it enough to Mac users. It’s been referred to as the “fucking beast battery” and it seriously charges my iPhone so fast I feel the thing might explode from so much juice.
..and yes, it’s already a bit banged up.
A Video
Happy Friday y’all - #WeekendGoals