The effects of social media on youth today
By Wei Seng
Are we overwhelmed by social media?
It's been a while since there has been any coverage or review of articles published in the newspapers recently, and I apologise for that. It really takes someone who has left school and joined the working world (albeit briefly) to understand what life at work is really all about and how suddenly time magically disappears when you want to work on your pet projects. Kevin, in all his hustle and bustle as a budding undergraduate at LSE, has taken plenty of time out to maintain this place and keep it alive and I shall try my best to contribute whenever I can.
I just returned from a 3-week holiday in Toronto which was refreshing and eye-opening yet isolationist - I had no access to my usual The Straits Times or The Economist in hard copy, so I had to rely on surfing news websites online, which I did not quite like as I am the traditional kind of reader that prefers to be able to hold on to what I was reading.
A source of news which was unexpected and unprecedented for me was Facebook, which thankfully I had access to while in Canada. Being overseas while a general election was ongoing, I relied heavily on my friend's postings of newsworthy articles on Facebook to keep me updated on news that slipped under my radar while I skimmed through the headlines of The Straits Times Online.
With this experience in mind, it was interesting to read in yesterday's Review in The Straits Times an article by Susan Moeller about youth today are "hooked on social media and one-sentence news stories".
Based on a recent study conducted on youths aged 18 to 25, it seems like social platforms and networks are now the place to go to for news - and the only place youths go to for news. A "paradox" his arisen - when the Internet first emerged people were worried about being flooded and overwhelmed with too much information, but instead people read only what they were interested in and what reinforced their beliefs, leading to their acquisition of lesser information than ever. This paradox has apparently only deepened with the popularity of social networks - instead of being active in their search for news and knowledge, people on Facebook and Twitter can now just sit there and wait for news to be delivered onto their Facebook Wall or Tweet page.
People today are still being overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of news and information online, which has led to this natural mechanism to shut off all the news and take in only short headlines of most news that comes in, content that this is "sufficiently informative" for them and reading further only where a piece of news is of deep personal interest. Social platforms and networks reinforce this further. Twitter in particular, with its 140 character limit on each tweet, means that whatever that needs to be communicated must be summarised.
Going back to the study, those in the study had to "give up all media for 24 hours" - in other words, be offline and disconnected from the world for 24 hours. Some of the observations made from the study (read the article for more details) include how students missed their Facebook and Tweeter but not traditional news outlets, and how these social networks have become so part of their lives that students feel empty and "lost" without access to it.
However, there is also a positive spin to these observations. It is noted that youth today actually care more about news and what is happening around them, and that they, through their huge number of friends on Facebook or following many Tweeters, would be exposed to a wider variety of news. This indicates that they are not necessarily apathetic to what happens around them, just that convenience has caused youth to lose initiative in finding news of interest to them.
So can anything actually be done? Any comments from our readers, whom I presume are also quite connected individuals and would understand this phenomenon well?
Mathematics of Warfare
By Kevin
ERPZ have always been rather social science oriented, doing analysis mostly on social/economic/political matters and lots of writing in just plain language (ie. no greek symbols or mathematical operators). Nevertheless, economics is fundamentally somewhat about logic and it attempts to connect the maths and science of our society with reality. Sean Gourley, a physicist is doing the same sort of analysis in his research on the mathematics of war, which he presented on TED.com.
Gourley's Equation
The most interesting idea presented in the talk is that even within the chaos of conflict, there are universal principles and relationships between the myriad of different variables in the field (in this case, fatality and frequency of attacks). More importantly, the use of alpha as a measure of fragmentation of insurgency is an interesting result and hopefully can be exploited as a means to achieve peace more quickly during a conflict.
This research paper that eventually resulted from his collaboration with the various experts of different fields was recently published on Nature magazine. TED Blogs features a Q&A with Gourley about the research. It's great that scientists and mathematicians are using their tools to learn more about complex reality and uncover patterns previously hidden from us; the applications of these mathematics, however, remains to be discovered. As science is often the neutral party, it is important to note also that the same tools can be used by the opposing parties. Strategic thinking, remains an important means of conducting these affairs.
Deflation!
By Kevin
No more air...
The recent entries seem pretty obsessed with money markets and the more talked-about economies. I'm keeping up with my readings of The Economist and that probably explains. Following the article I previously mentioned about Japan's looming deflation. They probed further and devoted a recent article in the leader section to the issue.
The Economist followed up with an article highlighting the problems associated with the return of deflation. Japan is encouraged to loosen their monetary policy, worry less about inflation and more about deflation. Interestingly, they even tried to draw parallels between Japan and some other developed economies' experience today.
Rising Yuan, But not now
By Kevin
Give Me a minute, will rise soon...
In one of the economics essay I've written for A Levels Practice, I argued that the appreciation of Yuan is unlikely to solve the trade surplus problem that they have and thus reality will not play out as the Americans choose to believe - trade imbalance will continue to mount and China may risk deflation, following the fate of Japan in the past. I was very lucky because during A Levels a somewhat similar question came out and I made the same sort of argument with points already in my mind.
Most journals and publications I read insist on the need for Yuan to be revalued, giving little credit for the fact that China already allowed it to appreciate against the dollar substantially compared to the past. Without the unpegging of Yuan to the Dollar in 2005, trade imbalance could have been worst. That doesn't mean that it was the appreciation of Yuan that naturally lend its hand at achieving balance; it was mainly the gradual appreciation and the timing it was allowed to appreciate. The Economist analysed China's side of the Yuan policy. It gives a balanced account of how political forces and potential economic problems makes China hesitant about revaluing its Yuan.
It is unfair that America always seem to put China into bad light by hinting that China could make a difference (since its central government wield a whole lot of power) but don't want to. The fact is that there are way too many instances where Americans had the power too, but then they'd exclaim that all sorts of lobbying and market forces are in the way. If China were to give in to this sort of pressure, it would make them way too weak. Besides, America isn't always right (in fact, most of the time it isn't); China has done too well in their transition from central planning to market economy so far and will continue to create their own path.
The Becker-Posner Blog also features Becker and Posner's individual views on the need for China to revalue the Yuan and when so.
Soar or Rise
By Kevin
Slowing down at the station
Perhaps like what is mentioned in the page on FEER.com to introduce their publication says:
We seek the most incisive and provocative commentary from Asia's thought leaders of every ideological stripe, background and profession.
On the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China, they posted Daniel Lynch's rather negative commentary of the Chinese economy. Lynch implied that Beijing officials inflated statistics of China's GDP growth, hinting that China's stated 7.1% growth in the first half of 2009 might have been manipulated to mask the true (worst off) state of their economy. Fair enough, China might not always be entirely honest with figures as a recent Economic Focus article in The Economist attempts to show. However, Lynch discuss the over-reaction of Chinese government to the slowdown in the economy and claims that the general strategy of the government resides on falling back on their export strength.
The Communist Party hopes to keep the economy afloat by injecting huge amounts of money and credit into the economy while waiting for things to “get back to normal” in the United States and other export markets.
That is perhaps a statement made based on a severe lack of confidence in the Chinese economy. The stimulus package that Chinese government is implementing is simply planned expenditure brought forward; a majority is devoted to improving the infrastructure, which is still lacking in many parts of the country. As the Fortune Magazine article on Beijing's railway project shows, the government expenditure into the economy is generally fueling real growth. More importantly, the government do understand the importance of their domestic consumption and is trying hard to raise it.
Lynch seems to have the perception that all countries' fiscal policies share the nature of those practiced in United States - mere spending that tends to generate illusionary growth, temporary employment surges and unsustainable rises in consumption. That is untrue in a country like China where there's a long tradition of high savings, an emerging middle and wealthy class. Besides, in terms of infrastructure, technology and capital investment, China is way behind the United States and thus investments in these areas should reap and higher return and generate more substantial potential growth.
In general, compared to the bleak state of US economy painted out by Lynch, the Chinese economy offers way more opportunities and will figure out a long term strategy to achieve the dreams of their people.
Luxing away the Recession
By Kevin
Selling the same
Now that the recession has supposedly hit bottom, we look back at the period of decline to find great companies or business that survived or even thrived through the period and consider their strategies to move on in this snail-pace recovery. The Economist recently reported on the strength of the Louis Vuitton in their briefing, the substance of style. The article highlighted their strengths in branding, the placement of stores in malls and their discipline when it comes to selling their leather goods, refusing to ever put them on sale at a discount and choosing to destroy inventory.
In contrast, François-Henri Pinault is being tested in this recession to diversify his family's PPR Group. Fortune reported on how Pinault's timely acquistition of Puma has helped balance off the effects of the recession on their luxury brands, including Gucci and Printemps.
In any case, LVMH will have to learn to duplicate Louis Vuitton's success across their brands and Pinault might benefit learning a thing or two from LV as well.
Weather, People & Taxes
By Kevin
Come, rain, come!
The breadth of the subject of Geography, at least at 'A' Levels means that I can pass most issues I write about on Economics and General Paper as Geography. That is perhaps one of the reason I took up the subject in the first place. I thought it'll be interesting to introduce a set of readings under the subject in an entry especially dedicated to Geography.
The 12 September issue of The Economist briefing covered a 'water crisis' in India resulting from a combination of poor distribution of rainfall in the region, disastrous water management policies, lousy infrastructure for water management and just plainly-speaking, the weather.
On the issue of migration, Singapore wants to maintain the 'tone' of the society by managing its influx of migrants. It is rare that the government compromises on a cultural issue that infringes the economic needs of a nation (the migrants are supposedly here to help improve our economy, so says the government); I guess the social instability that might emerge is significant enough for the government to do something about it. Nevertheless, the economic argument holds true and we should learn from America as Farhad Manjoo at Slate.com urged 'America can't be the world's tech leader without immigration reform'. For a nation struggling to groom entrepreneurs, acting on America's lesson might be a good thing.
For those who follows America's environmental policies closely, you might like to check out the difficult cap-and-trade bill in the Congress.
Tech Reads
By Kevin
Different Colors Available
My favourite feature in The Economist is its 'Technology Quarterly' that shows up 4 times a year. The latest one came in the previous week's issue, featuring another series of interesting technologies. I was particularly intrigued by the article on 3D printers titled 'A factory on your desk'. I've never heard of this technology of additive manufacturing that produces things in the same way the inkjet printer produce print-outs. The machine basically applies thin layers of materials successively to build up an entire product. More importantly, the article suggests that printers for individual use might be emerging as companies such as Z Corporation. These machines are mainly used for rapid prototyping but nowadays companies are trying to use them for direct manufacturing.
'Only humans allowed' discusses the developments in CAPTCHAs technology - the weird stuff that Google makes you read and type in a form box when they think you're a bot trying to use its server to execute a query.
The typical feature of Tech Quarterly is articles on energy and for this issue, The Economist went on with updating readers on Wind turbine technology. Finally, those interested in life sciences might like to note that biology seem to have taken a turn towards methods of 'engineering'.
Life By Numbers
By Kevin
Nike+iPod Set
In this Wired article about The Nike Experiment, the power of living by numbers is demonstrated by the tracking device, Nike+ that is designed to provide runners with information (actually only speed and distance) of their runs.
Thanks to the article, I also got to learn about the Hawthorne Effect, which suggest that studying subjects would cause them to improve their behaviours as a result of their awareness of being observed even if they are not told what they are being studied on. Intuitively, it kind of makes sense and at a personal level when you are able to track data about yourself and monitor the figures, you'll tend to behave 'properly' so to speak. That goes to show that more often than not, discipline can be improved through feedback. Of course, for one to act upon the feedback, one must also trust it and people normally have no feud against raw numbers. That is what makes Nike+ such a success.
Necessity of Inventions
By Kevin
I remember there's this Secondary School Geography staple topic that involves pitting Ester Boserup against Thomas Malthus. They were talking about population growth and food supply but the ideas have been applied to other fields, especially that of resource usage. One widely quoted line from Ester Boserup's paper is probably 'Necessity is the Mother of Inventions' used to support the idea that technological advancement will help us overcome limitations as they emerge.
Smart Grid Cartoon
Unfortunately, the real world is not as simple as what the theories of our scholars states. Even if an invention is out of necessity, what about its adoption? Would people adopt it only when it is finally inevitable? And how about those inventions that requires a critical mass of users before it can function well like that of telephones (if no one around you has one, what is the point of owning one since you'll not have anyone to call and talk)? Economics of inventions plays a big part too; whether the cost of production can be minimized to manufacture for the mass market, whether the distribution cost is high and how about maintenance of the infrastructure that supports the innovation? The smart grid exemplifies such problems with typical large scale inventions. In any case, there is necessity, and the invention is already out but it is not exactly widely used yet because of other obstacles. In many sense, the same can be said for Nuclear energy, which seem to face another sort of hurdle when it comes to being widely adopted. While smart grids involves a coordination problem that involves various stakeholders in the economy to collaborate and provide the energy/capacity saving technology a chance to carry out its work, Nuclear energy is itself another sort of coordination problem where countries must signal their will not to abuse the technology and that they would uphold the safety protocols in order not to be the next case study used by anti-nuclear lobby groups.
Fortunately, there are other inventions that don't quite suffer from coordination problems like the parking aid system that would really cheer up those rich spoil kids who drive huge cars but didn't bother to perfect their parking skills; there's also upcoming 'vehicular internet' sort of thing emerging from communication modules to be installed on private cars to aid drivers with other matters such as navigation, better knowledge of road conditions in the route they are planning to advance on and such. Great inventions? Yes, pretty much. Necessary? Perhaps, though the economics don't usually work out that well...
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