LibGuides: COM Reading Bank: Media & Technology

Public Cellphone Use Does Not Activate Negative Responses in Others… Unless They Hate Cellphones by Amy L. Gonzales and Yijie Wu (2016)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Ostracism dramatically reduces psychosocial well-being. Many studies have examined ostracism within digital environments, but to our knowledge no one has examined ostracism as manifested through public cellphone use. Experimental data revealed that public texting or reading on a cellphone was less ostracizing to copresent others than face-to-face ostracism but more ostracizing than face-to-face inclusion. Though cellphone use was somewhat ostracizing it did not prompt negative psychological effects, supporting the notion of cellphone taken-for-grantedness. Exceptions were found for those reporting phone technostress; these individuals were negatively affected by exposure to someone reading on a cellphone. Findings extend the ostracism paradigm to a new context and support research on the importance of attitudes and norms in shaping the effects of public cellphone use.

Keywords: Media, Technology
Format: Journal Article
Source: Library Database
Notes: Long. Useful for comparison of core concepts with other genres on same theme and for practice in skimming, scanning
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI by Lorena O'Neil (2023)
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Although the source (Rolling Stone) isn't associated with academic writing, this article relies extensively on research studies and can be used to show the application of academic research in a non-academic source
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Keywords: Science & Ethics, Communication, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: Rolling Stone
Why students persist in studying English lit in a tech world by Maggie Kilgour (2019)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
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Keywords: Society and Culture; Media and Technology; Education
Format: Article
Source: Montreal Gazette
Why universities should return to oral exams in the AI and ChatGPT era by Stephen Dobson (2023)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Recent; easy for students to respond to
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Keywords: Education, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Why we remember more by reading – especially print – than from audio or video by Naomi S. Baron (2021)
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Education; Communication; Media and Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation

Square Eyes by Anna Mill & Luke Jones (2010)
Comic
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Excerpt / Summary:
Square Eyes, by Anna Mill and Luke Jones, is the runner-up in this year's Observer/Cape graphic short story prize. It's a mysterious tale about holograms…

Keywords: Fantasy
Format: Graphic Short Story
Source: The Guardian
Systems by Charles Yu (2020)
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Pandemic fiction
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Keywords: Communication; Identity; Media & tech; Science & ethics; Society & culture
Format: Short story
Source: The New York Times Magazine

AI, Ain't I A Woman? by Joy Buolamwini (2018)
Recommended for COM111
Video
Teaching note: Video comes with a full transcript and pairs well with any Indigenous content article as it can give a personal context to historical facts.
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Keywords: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
Beware Online "Filter Bubbles" by Eli Pariser (2011)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.

Keywords: Social media
Format: Video
Source: TED Talk
Challenge Ahead: Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and 3D Printing Technologies by Senate of Canada, Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
examines and reports on the role of automation in the healthcare system, with a particular focus on robotics, artificial intelligence and 3D printing.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Report
Source: Senate of Canada
Connected, But Alone? by Sherry Turkle (2012)
Recommended for summary
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication -- and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have.

Keywords: Social Media
Format: Video
Source: TED Talk
The ethical dilemma of designer babies by Paul Knoepfler (2015)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
Creating genetically modified people is no longer a science fiction fantasy; it's a likely future scenario. Biologist Paul Knoepfler estimates that within fifteen years, scientists could use the gene editing technology CRISPR to make certain "upgrades" to human embryos -- from altering physical appearances to eliminating the risk of auto-immune diseases. In this thought-provoking talk, Knoepfler readies us for the coming designer baby revolution and its very personal, and unforeseeable, consequences.

Keywords: Technology, Ethics
Format: Video
Source: TED Talk
How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds everyday by Tristan Harris (2017)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
A handful of people working at a handful of tech companies steer the thoughts of billions of people every day, says design thinker Tristan Harris. From Facebook notifications to Snapstreaks to YouTube autoplays, they're all competing for one thing: your attention. Harris shares how these companies prey on our psychology for their own profit and calls for a design renaissance in which our tech instead encourages us to live out the timeline we want.

Keywords: Social media, Psychology
Format: Video
Source: TED Talk
How I'm fighting bias in algorithms by Joy Buolamwini (2017)
Recommended for COM111
Video
Teaching note: Video comes with a full transcript and pairs well with any Indigenous content article as it can give a personal context to historical facts.
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Keywords: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics
Format: Video
Source: TED
How to (tactfully) discourage spread of misinformation about COVID-19 by Anand Ram (2020)
Recommended for COM111
Video
Note: Good for teaching CRAAP analysis
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Keywords: Communication; Media & technology; Society & culture
Format: Article and videos
Source: CBC
How to Read a Scientific Paper by Kyle Hill (2021r)
Video
Teaching Notes: On how to read a scientific paper and "do your own research" in the face of conspiracy theories and "fake news"
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Keywords: Media and Technology
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
How We'll Become Cyborgs and Extend Human Potential by Hugh Herr (2018)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
Humans will soon have new bodies that forever blur the line between the natural and synthetic worlds, says bionics designer Hugh Herr. In an unforgettable talk, he details "NeuroEmbodied Design," a methodology for creating cyborg function that he's developing at MIT, and shows us a future where we've augmented our bodies in a way that will redefine human potential -- and, maybe, turn us into superheroes. "During the twilight years of this century, I believe humans will be unrecognizable in morphology and dynamics from what we are today," Herr says. "Humanity will take flight and soar."

Keywords: Technology
Format: Video
Source: TED Talk
Internet Argument by Randall Munroe
Comic
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Excerpt / Summary:
"Since the first time the internet made possible to have sustained conversations with people in remote locations, it was found that most people tend to use harsh language in these conversations much more often than they would with regular spoken face-to-face conversations." (Explain xkcd)

Keywords: Technology
Format: Comic
Source: XKCD blog
Copyright Note: Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 2.5 License
Is Big Tech the New Empire? by Al Jazeera English 8 (2020)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Video
Teaching Note: Filipino journalist Maria Ressa interviews Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie on weaponisation of information and how social media threatens democracy around the world. Video is 48 minutes: would benefit from chunking when posted (i.e. 2:35 - discussion of democracy; 10:51 - discussion of media ownership)
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Keywords: Media and Technology;
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
The Nostalgist by Daniel Wilson (2009)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
In the futuristic city of Vanille, with properly tuned ImmerSyst Eyes & Ears the world can look and sound like a paradise. But the life of a father and his young son threatens to disintegrate when the father's device begins to fail. Desperate to avoid facing his traumatic reality, the man must venture outside to find a replacement, into a city where violence and danger lurk beneath a beautiful but fragile veneer…

Keywords: Dystopia
Format: Short Film
Source: YouTube
Sheeple by Randall Munroe
Comic
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Excerpt / Summary:
"In this comic, each person on the train considers themselves to be the only individual mind and everyone around them as "sheep". Ironically, the reader can see that although each of them thinks about how individual they are, they are all collectively thinking exactly the same thing, meaning that they are all sheeple." (Explain xkcd)

Keywords: Technology
Format: Comic
Source: XKCD blog
Copyright Note: Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 2.5 License
The Terminator and the Washing Machine by Retro Report (2016)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
What the legendary match between a supercomputer and a chess grandmaster reveals about today's Artificial Intelligence panic.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Video
Source: Retro Report

B Stands for Blog not Beaver by Josh Wingrove (2008)
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Excerpt / Summary:
It all might seem a losing battle. But Mr. Bateman was nevertheless on his soapbox this week after revelations that the Oxford Junior Dictionary has replaced "beaver" - and friends such as the "heron," "porcupine," and "kingfisher" - in its pages with new, plugged-in alternatives.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail
Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled by Kevin Roose (2023)
Teaching note: A fascinating piece for those interested in tech
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Keyword: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics
Format: Article
Source: The New York Times
Experts warn Europe: Don't grant robots rights by Ivana Kottasova (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Europe is thinking about giving advanced robots rights and responsibilities. Many experts say that's a terrible idea.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: CNN
How I accidentally started a Wikipedia hoax about Amelia Bedelia by EJ Dickson (2021)
Teaching Note: Can be used to discuss importance of vetting sources / CRAAP analysis
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Keyword: Media and Technology
Format: Article
Source: Daily Dot
Is Canada's democracy ready for a dire new age of weaponized news? by Murray Brewster (2018)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
Experts say Canada may be taking steps to protect its elections from foreign interference, but it may not be prepared for the effect of weaponized 'fake news'.

Keywords: Media, Democracy
Format: Article
Source: CBC News
Copyright Note: CBC Content - linking allowed, reusing/distributing content requires permission
I unintentionally created a biased AI algorithm 25 years ago – tech companies are still making the same mistake by John MacCormick (2023)
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Pairs well with Joy Boulaumwini
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Keywords: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
The Kids Who Use Tech Seem to be All Right by Lydia Denworth (2019)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords:
Format: Article
Source: Scientific American
Lifelike 'Sophia' Robot Granted Citizenship to Saudi Arabia by Mindy Weisberger (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
A robot with an uncannily human-like appearance recently advanced one step closer to human status, when it was granted citizenship to Saudi Arabia at the tech summit Future Investment Initiative (FII).

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Live Science
Logged off: Meet the Teens who Refuse to Use Social Media by Sirin Kale (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Generation Z has grown up online – so why are a surprising number suddenly turning their backs on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat?

Keywords: Social media
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
Our minds can be hijacked by Paul Lewis (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Google, Twitter and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive are disconnecting themselves from the internet. Paul Lewis reports on the Silicon Valley refuseniks alarmed by a race for human attention

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI by Lorena O'Neil (2023)
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Although the source (Rolling Stone) isn't associated with academic writing, this article relies extensively on research studies and can be used to show the application of academic research in a non-academic source
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Keywords: Science & Ethics, Communication, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: Rolling Stone
This new surgical procedure could lead to lifelike prosthetic limbs by Matthew Hutson (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Better robotic limbs are available, but engineers are still figuring out how to attach them to people and give users fine motor control. Now, a team of researchers and clinicians has developed a simple surgical technique that could lead to prosthetics that are almost as responsive as real limbs.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Science
Why Saudi Arabia Giving a Robot Citizenship Is Firing People Up by Brigit Katz (2017)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
Saudi Arabia’s newest citizen is a robot named Sophia and she already has more rights than human women who live in the country

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Smithsonian magazine
Yes, there is a cure for bullshit by Brian Gallagher (2023)
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Keywords: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics, Society & Culture
Format: Article
Source: Big Think
Young people need more support coping with online sexual harms by Estefania Reyes et al. (2023)
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Canadian Content, Health & Wellness, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation

Artificial Intelligence is the Future - But it's Not Immune to Human Bias by Kathryn Hume (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
As AI becomes more commonplace in our lives, what can be done to remove the bias that can sneak into those data-driven algorithms?

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Maclean's
Be a Gamer, Save the World by Jane McGonigal (2011)
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Excerpt / Summary:
We often think of immersive computer and videogames--like "FarmVille," "Guitar Hero" and "World of Warcraft"--as "escapist," a kind of passive retreat from reality. Many critics consider such games a mind-numbing waste of time, if not a corrupting influence. But the truth about games is very nearly the opposite. In today's society, they consistently fulfill genuine human needs that the real world fails to satisfy. More than that, they may prove to be a key resource for solving some of our most pressing real-world problems.

Keywords: Technology, Video games
Format: Article
Source: Wall Street Journal
Can AI solve the internet's fake news problem? A fact-checker investigates by Brooke Borel (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
As partisans, pundits, and even governments weaponize information to exploit our regional, gender, and ethnic differences, big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter are under pressure to push back. Startups and large firms have launched attempts to deploy algorithms and artificial intelligence to fact-check digital news. Build smart software, the thinking goes, and truth has a shot. “In the old days, there was a news media that filtered out the inaccurate and crazy stuff,” says Bill Adair, a journalism professor at Duke University who directs one such effort, the Duke Tech & Check Cooperative. “But now there is no filter. Consumers need new tools to be able to figure out what’s accurate and what’s not.”

Keywords: Social media
Format: Article
Source: Popular Science
Facebook in a Crowd by Hal Niedzviecki (2008)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
"One day this past summer, I logged on to Facebook and realized that I was very close to having 700 online ''friends.'' Not bad, I thought to myself, absurdly proud of how many cyberpals, connections, acquaintances and even strangers I'd managed to sign up.

But the number made me uneasy as well. I had just fallen out with a friend I'd spent a lot of time with. I'd disconnected with a few other ones for the usual reasons -- jobs in other cities, family life limiting social time. I was as much to blame as they were. I had a 2-year-old kid of my own at home. Add to that my workaholic irritability, my love of being left alone and my lack of an office environment or mysterious association with the Masons from which to derive an instant network of cronies. I had fewer friends to hang out with than I'd ever had before."

Keywords: Social media
Format: Essay
Source: The New York Times
Facebook is a harmful presence in our lives. It’s not too late to pull the plug on it by Jathan Sadowski (2021)
Recommended for summary
Teaching Note: Might be better for COM 101 than COM 111
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Keywords: Media and Technology;Society and Culture
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
Failure to regulate artificial intelligence will entrench Big Tech’s power over us by Kean Birch (2023)
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Could work for 111 and 101; can be summarized
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Keywords: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail
Google Never Forgets: A Cautionary Tale by Max Fawcett (2011)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Employers now routinely Google prospective hires, and one ill-considered comment on a weblog five years ago can mean the difference between making the final round of interviews and being passed over in favour of someone without an objectionable Google shadow. A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 23 percent of adult internet users in the United States had searched online for information about their clients, customers, workers and potential employees.

Keywords: Careers, Privacy
Format: Article
Source: This
How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse by Douglas Rushkoff (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Silicon Valley’s elite are hatching plans to escape disaster – and when it comes, they’ll leave the rest of us behind

Keywords: Technology, Ethics
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
If we’re serious about ending violence against women, we need to talk about culture by Fiona Vera-Gray (2021)
Recommended for summary
Teaching Note: ITrigger warning (article discusses sexual violence)
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Keywords: Media and Technology;Society and Culture
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
I got a camera to spy on my cat - and it made me question everything about myself by Haley Nahman (2021)
Recommended for COM111
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Media and Technology; Society and Culture; Identity
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
Is Google Making us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr (2008)
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Excerpt / Summary:
"For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. “The perfect recall of silicon memory,” Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. "

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Atlantic
The Last Jedi is the Most Populist Star Wars Movie Yet by Abraham Riesman (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
The Star Wars franchise has long been identified as populist art in the sense of its appeal to audiences: It’s what the industry refers to as a “four-quadrant” endeavor, targeted at anyone and everyone, and diametrically opposed to the gatekeeping snobbery of the art house. But for 30 years, we’ve loved a mythology that lionized troublingly elitist characters, organizations, and themes. Not so with The Last Jedi, which is the first politically populist film in the saga. It’s a Star Wars for the 99 percent.

Keywords: Popular culture
Format: Article
Source: Vulture
Letter to a Young Indigenous Journalist by Waubgeshig Rice (2020)
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Keywords: Indigenous Topics; Canadian Content; Media
Format: Article
Source: The Walrus
Self-Driving Cars by Gwynne Dyer (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
"The widespread use of self-driving vehicles will almost certainly bring down the death rates sharply everywhere, because even if computers can be as stupid as human drivers, they cannot be as impatient or angry or drunk. What the robo-cars, trucks and buses are going to kill in very large numbers is not human beings but jobs."

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Author's blog
Selfies Are Good for Girls by Rachel Simmons (2013)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
These days, the selfie and its main outlet, Instagram, generally come in for much adult loathing. But consider this: The selfie is a tiny pulse of girl pride—a shout-out to the self. Earlier this week, the first three women to complete Marine infantry combat training, along with a fourth who completed most of the hurdles but was injured before her final physical fitness test, posted a jubilant selfie.* (Nancy Pelosi tweeted it as “selfie of the year.”) If you write off the endless stream of posts as image-conscious narcissism, you’ll miss the chance to watch girls practice promoting themselves—a skill that boys are otherwise given more permission to develop, and which serves them later on when they negotiate for raises and promotions.

Keywords: Social media
Format: Article
Source: Slate
Silicon Valley is Turning into its Own Worst Fear by Ted Chiang (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
We asked a group of writers to consider the forces that have shaped our lives in 2017. Here, science fiction writer Ted Chiang looks at capitalism, Silicon Valley, and its fear of superintelligent AI.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Buzzfeed News
Smartphones and our memories: Don't take a picture. It'll last longer by Brandon Ambrosino (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
By trying to capture every moment on camera, we've removed the moment itself. There is no memory left to document

Keywords: Technology, Memory
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail
STEAM not STEM: Why scientists need arts training by Richard Lachman (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
From biotech to climate change, advances in technology raise significant moral questions. To engage responsibly, our next generation of scientists need training in the arts and ethics.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Copyright Note: Creative Commons license
Stop freaking out about Cambridge Analytica. Targeted ads are great by Sonny Bunch (2018)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Important to include articles that students might plausibly want to argue *against*; the vast majority of existing articles in the reading bank represent viewpoints that most students likely agree with, making it hard for them to think of ways to engage in debate with them
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Keywords: Media and Technology; Society and Culture
Format: Article
Source: The Washington Post
We Don’t Need Threads. We Need a Break by Angela Misri (2023)
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Keywords: Society & Culture, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: Walrus
What you need to know about your browser's digital fingerprints by Rob Verger (2018)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
Your browser has a fingerprint. It’s not as obvious as the real ones on your fingertips, but it exists nonetheless. And advertising networks can use it to track your browsing.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Popular Science
Why Humankind Isn't Ready for the Bionic Revolution by Michael Bess (2016)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Bioenhancing. In the coming decades — probably sooner than most people realize — the next great wave of technological change will hit us. Its impact will be similar in scope to the advent of computers, cell phones and the internet. But it won’t be our gadgets being transformed; it will be our bodies and minds.

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: OZY
Why Smart Phones in the Classroom Equals Smarter Kids by Jesse Brown (2011)
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Excerpt / Summary:
The real concerns parents have about bringing cellphones into class are somewhat less lurid. Kids—boys in particular—are thought to be less literate today than they were in the past. The statistics don’t back this up. The last major study conducted in Canada showed that 88 per cent of 13-year-olds were reading at or above their expected levels. Still, the general perception is that technology is the enemy of literacy. What teacher in their right mind would welcome it into their classroom?

Keywords: Technology
Format: Article
Source: Toronto Life
Copyright Note: Safe to link to article. Reproduction requires permission.
Why universities should return to oral exams in the AI and ChatGPT era by Stephen Dobson (2023)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Recent; easy for students to respond to
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Keywords: Education, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Why we remember more by reading – especially print – than from audio or video by Naomi S. Baron (2021)
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Education; Communication; Media and Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Yes, there is a cure for bullshit by Brian Gallagher (2023)
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Keywords: Media & Technology, Science & Ethics, Society & Culture
Format: Article
Source: Big Think
Young People are Going to Save Us All from Office Life by Claire Cain Miller and Sanam Yar (2019)
Recommended for COM111
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Excerpt / Summary:
Gen Z-ers and millennials have been called lazy and entitled. Could they, instead, be among the first to understand the proper role of work in life?

Keywords:
Format: Article
Source: The New York Times
Young people need more support coping with online sexual harms by Estefania Reyes et al. (2023)
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Canadian Content, Health & Wellness, Media & Technology
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation