Catherine Kim wrote a fascinating account in Politico of the Russian program to sow division in the United States and to influence the 2024 elections. Kim interviews a Finnish scholar of disinformation who says that Finnish children are taught media literacy in school to help them spot propaganda. His final advice: Turn off the computer; take a walk; play; live your life.
She writes:
A DOJ indictment on Wednesday alleged that content created and distributed by a conservative social media company called Tenet Media was actually funded by Russia. Two Russian government employees funneled nearly $10 million to Tenet Media, which hired high-profile conservative influencers such as Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin to produce videos and other content that stoked political divisions. The indictment alleges that the influencers — who say they were unaware of Tenet’s ties to Russia — were paid upward of $400,000 a month.
These “conservative influencers” were chosen because they have large and devoted fans who believe whatever content they create. They apparently didn’t know who was footing the bill, but were no doubt thrilled to be paid $100,000 for each video they produced, up to four per month. Why ask questions when the pay is so good?
Now that they know who their sugar daddy was, will they rethink any of their views?
Should we think about teaching our children to be discerning consumers of social media so they are not taken in by propaganda?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Social media is an utterly corrupting force. It takes things that are unusual in the world and puts them front and center where they stream nonstop in people’s eyes for several hours every day. It turns everything inside out. And it locks people into algorithmic silos that are very difficult to escape. I think social media is one of the significant factors exacerbating the polarization in this country.
LikeLike
A couple years ago, I used a Russian word in a Facebook post. For a year after that, I was bombarded with posts for caviar, vodka, and expensive sports cars and solicitations from bikini-clad women.
But this is not the most chilling thing. Our telephones are now listening to our conversations, if they are on and near us, and delivering ads based on what we have said. So, for example, I was telling a friend that I plan to buy a bicycle from Amsterdam, and I was the very next day bombarded with bicycle ads. I spoke to a friend who is a marketing exec and she confirmed that that is now happening. Our phones are listening in on our private conversations, and that info is being sold to advertisers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I also think it’s really overdue that schools ban cell phones. NYC purported to be doing that this year but naturally the administrative Leviathan that is the NYC DOE couldn’t get it done and it’s now been pushed to next year.
LikeLike
I understand why you would see things that way, but a similar policy might be for an employer to outlaw cell phone use on the job. Phones are like poison, you hate that until it kills the pest you hate.
All tools have uses, and there is not a tool more ubiquitous in intellectual life than the phone/computer. We must teach children to use these tools. They will use them for bad or good the rest of their lives. Education is supposed to direct children toward the good.
LikeLike
That might have flown 10 years ago but in the surveys I’ve seen, teachers overwhelmingly prefer a ban. It makes sense to me why they would. My son’s school, which for full disclosure is a very expensive private boarding school, bans them during school hours and study hours, because the school wants students to be focused in class, free of distractions, and looking teachers and classmates in the eye rather than reflexively hunching over and poking at a phone. The first time I went on campus I was stunned. On a weekend—when the ban was not even in effect—I saw no students even glancing at a phone. I, with my own cell phone habit, felt like an addict visiting a N.A. meeting.
LikeLike
FLERP! I agree. And the cell phone ban at my son’s private HS was the best part about the whole experience. Boys actually talking to each other at lunch and during free periods. Boys having conversations with teachers and administrators.
LikeLike
I am seeing some of the youngest generation going back to flip phones!
In my opinion, switching to flip phones are much better than “bans”.
I also support having phone be kept in a backpack and not out during the school day. But some kids have to travel 90 minutes via subway and bus to get to their schools. It is totally unreasonable to expect them to be able to afford paying some van driver $1 per day to hold onto phones that the school forbids to have on the property.
10 or 15 years ago, when phones were “banned” in NYC public schools, affluent students were allowed to keep their phones in backpacks, while the poorest students had to pay someone to keep them during the school days. We should NOT go back to those days.
LikeLike
It can easily be done with yonder pouches or something similar.
LikeLike
^^^Are the parents opposed to phones in schools buying their kids smart phones with unlimited data?
If you don’t want your kid looking at their phone as much when they are out of the house, don’t buy them a smart phone. Get them a flip phone.
LikeLike
That’s fine advice for parents but it’s not a school policy.
LikeLike
Social Media has become very powerful so it’s only natural that powerful governments will use it to spread their propaganda.
But there is a good side to social media and this blog is an example of the good that social media can do. This blog came into existence because all the corporate news outlets were putting out negative misinformation regarding the teacher’s union and public education. Social Media allowed you to create this blog and push back against false corporate media narratives and create a power non-corporate education movement.
I do agree that educating students on how social media and mass media can be used as propaganda is a great idea.
LikeLike
That’s true. I started the blog because the mainstream media was completely devoted to telling lies about teachers, public schools, and unions. I wish I had the reach of any one of them.
LikeLike
xoxoxo
LikeLike
“Turn off the computer; take a walk; play; live your life.”
Sage advice.
LikeLike
And yet I am answering you. As we speak. It gives me pleasure and coincides with the pleasure I get from having my dog next to me.
LikeLike
Donald Trump has been a Russian asset for a long, long time. The failure to arrest him for treason has had horrific consequences. An entire political party in the U.S. is now supportive of dictators around the world and of killing Democracy here at home and now worships Tsar Vladimir the Short and Defenestrating. Republicans of the Eisenhower Era would not recognize this party. It’s unhinged and un-American, on the model of Trump.
LikeLike
So, the Russians have gotten what they wanted. Their investment in Don the Con paid off handsomely. Half the country has been duped and is ready to go to war with the other half of the country.
LikeLike
The pre-Trump GOP was wary of Putin. In 2012, Mitt Romney was the Republican candidate and he said that Russia was our most significant adversary. You won’t hear that from Trump, who gets star-struck in Putin’s presence.
LikeLike
One of the most astounding transformations in the American society in my lifetime is the switch from those who would see a Russian plot in almost any issue to the same people feeling good about Putin but distrustful of their American political opponents.
LikeLike
Now that they know who their sugar daddy was, will they rethink any of their views?
I doubt it. Most ears and eyes that are linked to a ditto brain programed for years to distrust all but one voice, are not going to start thinking on their own and fact checking. Traitor Trump, no matter what happens to him, a convicted rapist, fraud and felon who cheats everyone and anything, a serial liar, a malignant narcissist, a control freak, doesn’t seem to lose any hardcore MAGA votes. But undecided, that another thing. Many of them are undecided because they are probably individual thinkers who might fact check in some way.
Should we think about teaching our children to be discerning consumers of social media so they are not taken in by propaganda?
Yes, a million times yes. Stop rank and file tests, get rid of vouchers, close all of the charter schools, and start teaching this kind of critical thinking and problem solving skills K through 12.
LikeLike