Traditional search favored common keywords, while LLMs favor (extremely) long tail search terms because of the idiosyncratic and conversational way people write to chatbots. Suggesting that a small group of writers on the open web could move the corpus on any coordinated subject in no time at all.
In honor of Gloria Steinem’s passing (rest in power), an article on the business and activist tensions present in, and the long-tail value of, feminist publishing efforts. And a 2019 dissertation on organized literacy education as a civil rights effort. A trip to the bookstore is in order.
This first-person essay from The Baffler is circulating in writerly crowds this week. It’s a ripper and a must-read, enough to convert me to a print subscriber.
For reasons, I was reminded of the list of Geek Social Fallacies that first circulated on Plausibly Deniable, then took root as an entire body of advice at Captain Awkward.
A composition teacher friend shared this paper on social media: Lester Faigley’s “Literacy after the Revolution”, the essay version of his 1996 CCCC Chair’s address. In it, the author argues that the economic impacts of the digital revolution had begun to undo an older commitment, formed in the Civil Rights era, to teaching literacy as a path toward equality. He further argues that writing instruction was being reorganized around tools owned by a few firms (then: Netscape, Microsoft) at a moment when wealth was concentrating upward. Faigley left us with the question of whether educators can hold onto literacy-for-equality while the tides run against it.
Thirty years later, the worry has a new face: AI will do young people’s writing for them and their thinking with it. Ultimately, Faigley believed the need for the skills that composition teaches will keep growing, not despite, but because of our need to convey information in and around that technology and the humanity it serves in a complex society. Does that suspicion hold water today?
In honor of Dolly (rest in power), some links:
I found out about a hyperlocal newsletter in my neighborhood and had to share. The Monroe Street Tattler offers print delivery and email distribution, and reports only on the hard local news, such as dog walk water bowl locations and the best fries in the neighborhood, among other ephemera.
“Students who spoke to ESPN said that betting is an accepted part of day-to-day life and that they learned about their school’s gambling culture immediately after arriving on campus. A 2023 NCAA survey of 18- to 22-year-olds found that 51% of the women and two-thirds of the men have bet on sports.”
Guerrilla marketing: When someone built a fake deodorant company with a lightweight marketing plan to capture long-tail search results, she found her way into AI recommendation results, showing how brands can gain visibility in emerging discovery systems.
Grose covers how Scandinavians approach AI and ed tech by emphasizing peer review and removing the profit motive.
Reading about yesterday’s Meta settlement, the global movement to get kids off tech, “chopped uncs,” and thinking about the dance between students and our local school system’s IT department during the COVID-19 shutdown, when my then-elementary schooler was unwittingly participating in a digital cold war:
In our community, the kids were in remote learning for a full year and a half, and the IT department chased them around their approved digital tools like a game of whack a mole, shutting down access to chat and collaboration. In the meantime, almost no socialization happened between students that wasn’t directly observed by teachers. By 2021, the kids were engaged in secret, digital note-passing, chatting within Google docs and PPT slide decks and Pinterest DMs to avoid teacher surveillance on their approved tools. Where there is a will to socialize, there is a way.
Business Insider provides an update on how teen social media bans are going in Australia, and it’s not great! After a few months, kids steadily got back online, nearing or matching pre-ban levels.
“We all know that you can get lied to online at any point. If you don’t get that this is an obvious lie, then you’re washed and you’re unc and you’re chopped.”
Reading over the $18b Meta settlement over social media harms to children, and while it’s not perfect, it’s something. I’m a fan of default time limits, night and school-time blocks, and other limits baked into the software. It’s not fair to ask every parent to become an IT governance expert.
Finished reading: Famesick by Lena Dunham 📚
To read: this report from Common Sense Media, “Talk, Trust and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions.” About a third of teens have turned to an AI for serious conversations about their own mental health and relationships, showing these tools are already embedded in teen social life.
I listened to two great podcasts this week exploring the tangle of human/AI relationships. In “Computer Love,” the guests explore whether these relationships are good for us, and in “Your AI Companion Doesn’t Love You,” they explore the technical and business implications of these relationships. Both of these feature podcaster and writer Bridget Todd, who is promoting her new book “Love at First Prompt.” As of today, about 1 in 5 young people in the U.S. have asked a chatbot for mental health advice, and 1 in 5 high schoolers have had a romantic AI relationship.
Note: Todd’s (excellent) podcast title is a reference to Rule 30 of the internet.
Micro.bloggers: I’m interested in turning the link log into a micro.blog plug-in, but I don’t have the skill or the will to make it happen. Where should I begin?
When accidental engagement counts the same as intentional engagement.
Deep dive: What are platforms, and why do they have so much power?