Play Book Tag discussion

60 minutes is airing a strong segment on Facebook and the promotion of violence and hate. It's on right now.

We are promoting violence? Hope you are watching carefully and can give us an accurate synopsis when it is finished. I will go turn on the tv - but expect to miss it. Please tell us what they are saying. peace, janz

I'm recording it to watch later, so I'll make some notes tomorrow.

Promotion might be a strong word, but Facebook repeatedly failed to stop it. It might be online or on demand later too.

NY Times has an article on the whistleblower on its website tonight, release clearly timed to coincide.

Once again, a woman is the whistleblower.

Thanks Theresa, I was hoping that it would be heavily publicized. I couldn't watch tonight (migraine again) but I knew enough of the story to know it was important. This story has been building for some time.

If anyone could share any article titles (in lieu of a link) that would be really helpful.

I really want to comment first about what you said about female whistleblowers. I was thinking the same thing. I think I first noticed it with Karen Silkwood decades ago. Enron was another major example, and I think there were three female whistleblowers on the cover of Time that year.

I recall some of my older Organizational Behavior textbooks discussed it, along with research showing that young women were more ethical (on average) than young men. Though it evened out as they aged. Men got more ethical and women less, as they were influenced (for good or bad) by economic pressures and group or cultural ethical norms. I didn't see anything about it the last few years I taught though, so the difference might have diminished, or it just made authors uncomfortable to make the claim.

There was a lot more focus in recent years on dangerous traits such as narcissism in leaders, and how ethical norms are strengthened or weakened by leader statements and behaviors. For instance if a leader makes a frequent claim that the other side is cheating, it signals to his followers that they should do the same to protect their own party. It inspires followers to do the same without having to make it explicit. The "everybody does it, so we're stupid if we don't" excuse is one of the most common triggers for unethical and destructive behavior. (Theresa, I know you understand how a series of cues like this can escalate to extreme behaviors such as those on Jan 6.)

Sorry I got sidetracked there. If anyone happens to have a link - or a good search term that will lead to a great article about the Facebook situation, I'd appreciate it.

I'll be looking for books that update the story. I first started reading about one aspect of the story in Targeted: My Inside Story of Cambridge Analytica and How Trump and Facebook Broke Democracy and Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America.

Actually I have long thought about the fact that most whistleblowers in corporate America appear to be women - you mentioned Enron but also Worldcom and many others. I don't believe it is so much that women are more ethical, but that it has a lot to do with the 'boy's club' mentality and culture of these male dominated, male controlled entities. Women are on the outside, there is a glass ceiling, and what is at stake if you don't play along is different for women. Even for tbe women who appear to be on the inside and in upper management.

Just as men in power can't keep it zipped.

I feel surrounded by it at the moment as I just read and reviewed Startup - fiction set in male dominated NYC tech startups, and have been listening to TCM podcast about the making of the film (which was a disaster) adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities which skewered tbe 80s and Wall Street. There is also the brilliant documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

Remember Erin Brocavich?

Here is a link to info on legal protections now in effect for whistleblowers: https://www.whistleblowers.org/know-y...

A 2019 Forbes article: https://fortune.com/2019/09/27/what-i...

From Bloomberg in January 2021:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...

Thanks Theresa. Sorry, I started this topic, but had no energy to see it through. I'm having the same problem with my reading.

I didn't see the segment, but have read some of the claims the whistleblower made - is it related to Facebook pushing hateful content to users because it gets more engagement?

No wonder we are all so angry and fighting all the time!
I quit Facebook back in 2013 or 2014.
I am on instagram but there is less political / social soapboxing ... it exists, but not as much the accounts I follow which are related to photos of planners, horror movie content, and dogs. And some friends.

It's too easy to share articles and content on Facebook without even looking at it. Like my gma sharing articles that when I dig into them it is total clickbate with zero factual basis. 🤦‍♀️ She just gets triggered by the headline, does no research and shares.

I quit Facebook, too, when so many people started sniping at each other. Plus, there seems to be no checks on spreading nonsense and misinformation.

Facebook has been a huge disappointment. Once upon a time it was a fun way to connect with or reconnect with friends and family scattered around the continent and the globe. Now I have a long list of beefs, so I only go on it once in a while for certain things. The last time I went on it was to give condolences to cousins I don't really keep in touch with after their mother died, and I was able to have a conversation that way with one of them. They grew up far away and are closer to my younger brothers' ages.

Karin wrote: "Facebook has been a huge disappointment. Once upon a time it was a fun way to connect with or reconnect with friends and family scattered around the continent and the globe. Now I have a long list ..."

Yeah, isn't that wild! It creates these rifts with people that I feel like wouldn't have existed before. It's a terrible app, but like you said it was fun at one time and a great way to be connected to people.

I agree it was fun at first, back when people used it mostly for keeping in touch. Now it just creates more stress and strife in the world.

hey, I only got on for the first time like four years ago, but I actually love it! I am the kind of person who cares about where you go on vacation, chickens in the backyard, first teeth coming out, anniversaries, and honoring losses. I like beautiful sunsets, and sometimes the jokes make me laugh. I want to know what your kids are for Halloween, and I care to see parents aging, and new kids born, as well as grown and flown. I really don't have complaints about Facebook. I mean its a time suck. But honestly, once I joined Goodreads, that was my social media outlet, and it was sort of the same. Two places now to check in and waste time, but also to lovingly connect.

I still like facebook. I have been on it a long time, as well, but I love being able to stay in touch with so many people at the same time. Yeah, there's way more advertising and posts from groups and pages, but I still like the one-stop "shop" for staying in touch with so many people.