Freedom to and freedom from

This week in class we had an awesome lecture from Dr. Kyu Youm, the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair at the University of Oregon, discussing the first amendment and social media. While the whole conversation was hilarious and interesting, one thing he said in particular struck me.

As Americans, freedom is one of the most important facets of our identities. We LOVE to talk about how free we are and how we are spreading freedom like it is some sort of venereal disease all over the planet and the world will be a better place because of it. Sure. We talk about how free we are to be ourselves and say whatever we want and wear what we want unless you are not wearing shoes or shirt and you need to run into Costco real quick or have something to say about corporate greed and abuse. Anyway, what we (I) don't think about often is freedom FROM certain things and in this context, ( i.e. social media) this is the freedom from the vast amounts of bullshit out there on social media sites.

Under this "protection" we have the right to FREE speech. Not fair speech or true speech...FREE. When we are talking about social media and our freedoms that means that other people have the same right and can basically announce whatever they want about you or your company or a business deal you are working on or or or...or can they? Where is the line exactly when something turns from free speech into defamation? Through scholarly research (Wikipedia) I have this definition and explanation to offer you:

"Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, or traducement—is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation. Most jurisdictions allow legal action to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism.
Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.
Similar to defamation is public disclosure of private facts, which arises where one person reveals information that is not of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. Unlike with libel, truth is not a defense for invasion of privacy. False light laws protect against statements which are not technically false but misleading (Wikipedia-Defamation)."

Firstly, I would like to say that PLENTY of people have defamed me over the years (oh come on, if nobody has nothing bad to say about you I assume you aren't trying hard enough) and not one of them has even gotten into social trouble for doing so, let alone legal. What about if the information is true though?

Full disclosure: I am a vegan animal right activist. There, I said it and now you all know. Out of the cow hugging closet I come. So these sort of laws personally scare me, as well as the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Laws like this gag activists from gathering and dispensing any information that damages or impedes upon the operations of animal enterprises. So you know all those undercover videos on factory farms floating around? Yeah, they want to try the people filming them as terrorists for exposing these abuses. Um...

Yall may be thinking, "well that doesn't make any sense, why wouldn't the corporations who are committing the crimes be punished instead of the activists?" Yeah...*crickets... This doesn't sound like free speech to me? How is it that these corporations with all their gazillions of dollars are being considered "people" and swaying government to pass laws to put peace loving, bunny hugging, hippie activists behind bars and what can we do to stop it?

Well, as smart as I am I do not have these answers. In this case I will refer yall to some people who might be able to help in case you are ever chained to a truck tire in protest and suddenly find yourself standing in front of a judge.

Below is a list of links to various informational websites or organizations who can help.

National
First Amendment Center

In Eugene
Civil Liberties Defense Center

Online activism
Meta-Activism

I would love to hear of other great organizations working on changing the status quo. Please comment and tell me about your favorite activist groups/networks!

UPDATE: I am sorry to say that this week I have nothing especially funny to tell. I am deep in the throws of Winter term and about to be getting my ass handed to me with projects and due dates. Hopefully next week something tragic and hilarious will happen and I will live to tell about it. Until then, please enjoy this photo of my wife and I holding my newborn niece over the Summer when we visited Ohio. My sister kept calling us lesbian baby snatchers but lord knows I wasn't trying to keep the baby.

Mindfully minding my mindless technology with mindful tools.

In this week's installment of the Amanda show I want to share with you a lecture series I attended concerning "digital distractions." In this panel discussion was Alex Pang, author of The Distraction Addiction, Neema Moraveji, from Stanford University and the Director of the Stanford Calming Technology Lab, and Lisa Freinkel, an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon whose current work explores the connections between the digital age, the human body, and Zen.

Firstly, let me say how West coast/new agey/hippie/kumbaya/let's all hold hands and chant it out this panel was. Not that I didn't fully appreciate everything they had to say and thought their work was exceptional on myriad levels, but as a former Midwest/kinda East coaster, I must maintain some sort of cynicism or I lose all my street cred, ya dig?

To begin, Lisa led us through a breakdown of what exactly this buzzword "mindful" means. We hear it everywhere and even this morning as I was thinking about putting this post together, in my little burnt out hole of a hometown Youngstown, Ohio, TEDxYoungstown had our beloved Congressman Tim Ryan discussing teaching mindfulness in schools. BUT WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS MEAN?! Well, Lisa goes on to explain that it isn't YOLO (whatever the fuck that is) or the "be here now" idea of some long ago decade of acid induced transcendental experiences. Mindfulness is actually a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.

You man be thinking, "what the hell does this have to do with technology?" Well, as Alex Pang discussed in his presentation about our increasingly tech-dependent society and escalated distractibility, that we must and can be more mindful about how we engage with ourselves and our communities even with all this technology. I haven't read his book (yet) but it will definitely be on my reading list as I am wildly interested in increased real engagement through technology.

Finally, Neema Moraveji presented his research concerning stress, breathing, and technology. There is no doubt that technology stresses us out in many ways, either through the bazillion emails we each receive and have to deal with, to the panic that sets in when Facebook takes too long to load (don't judge me, you know you get agro too). Apparently, he and a team of other nerdy researcher types have been up in the lab creating apps to help people better connect...some of them were really cool, some were sort of creepy. At the Stanford University Calming Technology Lab  you can read about new tools to positively reinforce your email dealings as well as daily Mad-lib type prompts that help set your intention for the day.

If you would like to learn more about everyday mindfulness practices the internet is a smorgasbord of resources. Some tips I found were:

•  Practicing mindfulness during everyday activities that you would normally do on autopilot. (brushing teeth, showering...etc.)
• Practice right when you wake up because it sets the "tone" for your entire day.
• Keep it short as our brains respond better to bursts of mindfulness rather than lengthy sessions. About 20 minutes at a time should do ya right.
• Practice while you wait. This is where the tech part comes in....while waiting for something to download or before writing that next email...take a few minutes that are only for you.

I also found this list of articles about technology and mindfulness on The Huffington Post. Oh how they make my life easier and less stressful...

AND NOW FOR YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED TMI UPDATE: You will find that moving forward, many of these will surround the topic of cats, my cats in particular. I am a graduate student and don't have much of a life so mostly I just contemplate the lives of my cats and worry about their mental health. One of my many cat obsessions is catching them in the litter box. I find it hilarious because they always seems so embarrassed and stop whatever they are doing. I like to laugh and point and judge them...I'm lucky they still use the damn thing. I also enjoy this so much because I get no private bathroom time which is demonstrated in this photo:

 

This is a photo of one of my three, Orangello McFluffbutt, mid private time. What sweet sweet revenge!

 



Analyze this!

In the nonprofit (and business) world there is all this chatter about real time data and data analysis. Monitoring your traffic is supposed to give you some magical insight and facilitate more insightful marketing/fundraising strategy.  Word.

We as professionals are trying to create client/consumer/donor engagement through these social media tools and this is no easy task. We have to be genuine and engaging and listen and and and...there are SO MANY tools now. I guess this is also where I am at with all the social media BS. There is so much information and so many moving parts that most people (including myself) are just at a loss. Luckily, there are some really smart people out there creating some very useful information and "how to's."

I recently stumbled across this little gem of a TED talk from Melinda Gates explaining What Nonprofits can Learn from Coca-Cola. She discusses the corporation's globally networked marketing, their use of regional, culturally geared advertising, and real time data analysis to ensure every tiny village across the world wants, and can get a Coca-Cola.  I recognize that some major ideas surrounding nonprofit's and the dreaded overhead myth need to change and were not addressed in her talk, but perhaps while you are in the TedTalk spiral you can add this one to your playlist, The way we think about charity is dead wrong. Dan Pallotta is much more eloquent than I could be concerning the topic.

Above, I also mentioned all the moving parts and how it can be difficult keeping up with all of them. Check out these sweet manuals that provide some best practices for nonprofits concerning social media, developing strategy, and measuring success Council of Nonprofits Colorado Nonprofit Association.

I know this is just a jumping off point, but through this blog I would like to research, learn, and hopefully disseminate some useful information I happen upon. If you have any ideas or tips please share them with us and we can discuss!

STORY TIME: Today I really just want to go on and on about my roller derby team. These women are the most inspiring, strong, HILARIOUS broads I have ever known (I have some civilian friends that also fall into this category but I had practice last night and am still giddy). I am just coming off of essentially a six month off season (injury) and was seriously considering retiring my skates. I was really enjoying having all the free time and being able to do whatever I wanted but last night reminded me exactly why I came back. From coaches to fans to the actual players...Flat Track Furies have my heart. Thanks for helping me be my best me and learn in a safe space.

This photo is from when we won the season championship in 2013.

Check Yo Privilege!

What I really want to tell you today is that I am two thirds of the way through my graduate degree program and this week was the first time that privilege was mentioned in a class (other than courses that were specifically constructed around discussions of privilege). The class in mention is social media strategy and the discussion that privilege is not a center piece in every classroom from preschool to Ph.D will be left for a later post. Today, I am interested in the role of social media in social and political movements and want to look at what it is capable of as well as where it is failing.

There is no doubt that information sharing between those with access to social media tools is at an all-time high. I can cite various examples of how social media is being used to sway politics, social justice movements, and change hearts and minds over divisive issues through compassionate campaigns. This time four years ago, the Red Cross crushed all other text to donate campaigns by bringing in $112 million in 48 hours for relief in Haiti, even surpassing their previous campaigns for Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami disasters. But is social media the be all end all of communication? There are some that will say yes and that there is no more powerful tool to disseminate information to mass audiences. On the other hand, as a nonprofit professional I know that  human connection is the most powerful tool to create social change and that it is hard to do through a computer screen.

Ryan Holiday, published author  and media strategist, recently wrote an article articulating (better than I) the disparities and privilege that exist in social media. Ryan writes that it is not just access to social media tools that separates, rather "digital literacy." There are those of us that have the privilege of free time to maintain a constant presence online as well as some ability to navigate the constant barrage of bullshit "news" thrown at us. There are others that live very far outside of this though and receive  information from other less worthy news sources via Facebook or Twitter. This type of misinformation is bound to have some harrowing effects concerning public opinion and ideals if it is viewed as legitimate.

I love what the internet has to offer by way of entertainment, mass communication, and its ability to answer every one of my stupid questions (seriously, you should see my google search history). I enjoy it so much, but that is because I am a fairly literate internet user. I am able decipher the good, the bad, and the total bullshit (mostly) and I can see how being digitally less literate could skew my perception and ideas.

SUBJECT CHANGE: I tend to be a bit heavy handed and discuss "hard" stuff that most people don't want to hear/think/speak about. It's cool...I understand. It is not easy or comfortable to constantly think about our privileges or the ills of society. This is why I will end each of my blog posts with a humorous antidote from my everyday life and probably an adorable photo of my kittens.

 Last night I had derby practice and I had already worked out once before during the day. When I got home I ate and decided it best to just sleep on the couch because I was far too lazy to shower and my wife gets angry with me when I come to bed smelly. I knew that this blog needed to be done today so it still took me until the middle of the day to shower. Moral of this story? I am a hot mess most of the time.

This is mostly what my life looks like...cuddling my sweet wife and covered in cats.