ReThink Podcast

SWITCH is a short story written by Kirk Grech as part of TEXT's Eternal Pyre Writing Competition. The short story was also printed in Issue 36 of THINK Magazine. Narrated by Ian Farrugia

Notes: Episode contains mild profanity, local politics and frank opinions. For our final episode, Nika and I decided to sit back and reflect over the last season of ReTHINK. What starts off as an exercise in nostalgia quickly develops into a lively discussion about our sense of self and identity, Stoicism and Buddhism and politics. 99.9% of humans’ DNA is the same. http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/whats_a_genome/Chp4_1.shtml   Skinner’s pigeon experiment in which subjects are rewarded with food and as a result, keep getting the dopamine hit https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bf-skinner-the-man-who-taught-pigeons-to-play-ping-pong-and-rats-to-pull-levers-5363946/ Coercive Design and Social Media https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Characteristics-of-Coercive-and-Enabling-Process-Design_tbl1_261457845 How much of the population is addicted to social media? https://www.statista.com/statistics/1081292/social-media-addiction-by-age-usa/ Why does being wrong feel like an attack https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/28/why-being-wrong-really-hurts https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/28/14088992/brain-study-change-minds  Stoicism and Buddhism https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-buddhism/

The internet and social media are a hallmark of modern society. A plethora of tools exists to help us consume, create, edit and curate the swathes of data available at our fingertips. But how has this renaissance of information affected younger generations? Are children more adept at navigating cyberspace? Or are we the ones who need to reTHINK cyberculture? We discuss with Dr Velislava Hillman who, throughout her research, she has reinforced the need to voice children’s and young people’s perspectives and experiences. Further Reading Jean Twenge - Generation Me and The Narcissism Epidemic https://www.bookdepository.com/Narcissism-Epidemic-W-Keith-Campbell/9781416575993 http://www.jeantwenge.com/the-narcissism-epidemic-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/ Shoshana Zuboff - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism https://www.bookdepository.com/Age-Surveillance-Capitalism-Professor-Shoshana-Zuboff/9781781256855 https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/03/harvard-professor-says-surveillance-capitalism-is-undermining-democracy/ Commonsense Media - https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Facebook Likes can predict personality traits https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235906499_Private_traits_and_attributes_are_predictable_from_digital_records_of_human_behavior Sonia Livingstone - Global Kids Online http://globalkidsonline.net/about/members/sonia-livingstone/ Digital Futures Commission https://digitalfuturescommission.org.uk/ How China is using A.I. in the Classroom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLsHI8aV0g

In this episode, we meet up with Gareth Mitchell from the BBC's Digital Planet Podcast. We discuss the impact the Internet Shutdowns in Kashmir have had on democracy, what the internet actually is and who owns it, we also touch upon the Splinternet and how related it is to the global political theatre.  Gareth Mitchell hosts the BBC’s Digital Planet Podcast. He lectures in broadcast and written journalism at Imperial College London. Before his interest in technology, Gareth used to participate in bellringing. He is also a pilot and is a licensed amateur radio operator. Resources; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50819905 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51620158 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/22/what-is-the-internet-13-key-questions-answered https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinternet https://www.economist.com/briefing/2010/09/02/a-virtual-counter-revolution https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-us-china-internet-trump-pompeo-firewall-2020-8  

If you want to share your passion with the world, your first step should be understanding your audience. This is where human-centred design comes in - its about understanding the context of your work and figuring out people's needs. Daniela Quacinella joins us for this weeks ReTHINK podcast to tell us more!