Tuesday, December 30, 2014

2014 was a year of perfectly adequate things. Isn't that outrageous?!

As you can’t fail to have noticed, 2014 was a year of intense and largely negative emotions: from horror at the relentless awfulness of the news headlines to anger at the state of society. And then – as Slate reminded us in a special edition this week – there was outrage: wave after wave of outrage, sometimes justified, often not.

But there were other stories, too – and I’m not talking about the occasional overwhelmingly joyful tales that reaffirmed one’s faith in humanity. A lot of things happened in 2014 that belonged to a third category: they were fairly engaging, slightly thought-provoking, a little annoying or pretty good ... in a generally adequate sort of way.

The click-hungry internet rarely celebrates these middling emotions anymore, but they’re as crucial a part of our emotional repertoire as any other, and we shouldn’t forget them. Let’s take a moment, then, to remember some of the most mildly interesting developments of 2014.

True Detective

True Detective was pretty good. It was no Breaking Bad orTop of the Lake: it was gorgeously produced, and well-written, but unlike those shows – which revealed depths you’d never have guessed at the outset – Nic Pizzolatto’s series kept hinting that it might become more than another serial-killer whodunit, yet never did. There was a half-hearted debate about its portrayal of women – was it problematic, or intentional? – and Pizzolatto responded rather obnoxiously. Oh, and there was some kind ofconfusing plagiarism accusation that never really went anywhere. Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad I watched it. But put it like this: if the pasta sauce I was making needed my attention mid-episode, it wasn’t a press-pause situation. It was more of a keep-watching-from-over-the-kitchen-island kind of scenario.

The abdication of King Juan Carlos I of Spain

In a year marked by horrifying terror attacks, missing airliners, police brutality, and the threat of a new world war between either Russia or North Korea and the west, the abdication in June of Spain’s King Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Maria de Borbon y Borbon-Dos Sicilias in favor of his son Felipe barely raised international eyebrows, to be honest. The then-president of the European Commission paid tribute to him as a “believer in Europeanism”, and Barack Obama thanked him for his “steadfast promotion of democracy”, so that was nice. And this was all a big deal within Spain, obviously. But what with everything kicking off in Ukraine, and Obama’s deployment of military advisers to Iraq, it was a busy time; the world’s attention proved limited. I doubt I’m alone in saying I hadn’t thought of Juan Carlos at all between the week I heard he was calling it quits and today.

Munchkin, the Shih Tzu dressed as a teddy bear

munchkin the shih tzu

Buzzfeed tried hard to make Munchkin happen. And it’s difficult to deny that the micro-sized dog with her face stuck through the head of a teddy bear broke new ground, in terms of the effort invested in creating an online cuteness sensation. (The bear’s face had been removed beforehand, in a manner reminiscent of the 1997 action thriller Face/Off, starring John Travolta and Nic Cage.) But I can’t say I experienced “cute overload” as a result of watching her antics. Shih Tzus strike me as being a bit try-hard in the cuteness stakes to begin with, and the addition of the “faceless bear” element was as creepy as it was adorable. In the final analysis, these things canceled each other out, so that the main feeling evoked was one of middling amusement tinged with the tiniest suggestion of nausea.

The ice bucket challenge

Great, yes, well done everybody.

Honduras versus France in the 2014 Fifa World Cup

Not a really, really boring match – like, say, the Netherlands versus Argentina in the semi-finals, which seems to have won the internet’s vote as the dullest game of the competition. After all, extreme boredom is a form of intense emotion, so that wouldn’t belong here. Instead, France’s 3-0 victory over Honduras was a good example of a game that filled me with a profound feeling of having no particular feelings about it either way, except perhaps making me question the wisdom of having abandoned a lifelong lack of interest in soccer in order to follow the World Cup. People who care about the sport more than me say this match was important because it was the first time goal-line technology was relied upon in a World Cup confrontation. Fair enough.

Conscious uncoupling

The world seemed determined to deride Gwyneth Paltrow’s description of the manner of her separation from Chris Martin. (Martin is, incidentally, perhaps the most talented creator of somewhat-but-not-especially moving ballads in the history of popular music. If this article had a soundtrack, it would be by Coldplay.) But there was a discernible lack of fit between the levels of scorn and the offence. Paltrow says a lot of things that are worthy of this degree of ridicule, so people were primed and ready to mock: she seems to believe, for example, that negative thoughts can change the structure of water. Conscious uncoupling, on the other hand, is just a slightly pretentious phrase for a pretty good idea. It’s not really so ridiculous to want to use the occasion of a separation as an opportunity for self-understanding and growth, is it? It’s sensible.

The Apple watch

tim cook apple watch — Wait til next year. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

There was much excited hype in advance of the official launch of the Apple watch in early September, including a set of images implying it might be an incredibly beautiful smooth glass bracelet with integrated curved screen. (That was just a mock-up by a product designer who didn’t work for Apple, it turned out.) In reality it’s just a screen with a wristband attached. It doesn’t look bad; it does a bunch of stuff; I can certainly see why you’d want one, if you like that sort of thing. Heck, I might even buy one, once it’s released next year. If I do, I have little doubt that it will be perfectly adequate for my needs – and, like so many things in the world, generally just totally OK.

Monday, December 29, 2014

2014 was the year youth protesters found their voice and hacking became an everday fear

This year we introduced SafeMode, which looks at how young people around the world are taking on the threats of the future. As the year comes to a close, we’ve noticed some common themes emerge. So what were the top international security stories of 2014?

2014 was…

….the year hacking became a legitimate fear

Whether you’re a Home Depot customer, a Sony executive or a selfie-taking celebrity, this was the year you came to realize how easily your digital footprint can be tracked — and how destructive that information can be.

© Provided by PRI Nir Gaist is just 25, but he’s been exploring the ins and outs of cyber security for more than half his life. When he was 10, Israel’s largest banks hired him to hack into their systems — to learn how to prevent malicious hackers…

2014 was also the year we realized cyber attacks weren’t limited to stealing credit card numbers and medical records. Sophisticated cyber criminals can access just about anything, even critical infrastructure like power grids.

“We can control traffic. We can control nuclear facilities. I can tell you that we can control water. We can control food. We can control almost everything by using cyber infrastructure,” said 25-year-old Israeli Nir Gaist, who we interviewed in March. Gaist helps protect banks by identifying systemic weaknesses prone to cyber attacks.

Both the US government and private citizens have realized that sophisticated cyber criminals can wield enormous power, and have taken the steps to protect their data. Tech giants like Google and Apple are bolstering their security, and products are being developed to encrypt and protect data for consumers.

… the year we witnessed the rise of digital propaganda

In 2014, the average American spent more than an hour a day on social media, and more than five hours and 45 minutes on digital devices. Our interconnectedness with the rest of the world has opened doors for fringe groups to have a disproportionate voice.

No organization understood the impact of digital propaganda better than ISIS. Through slickly produced videos and social media carpet bombing, ISIS was able to make radicalization the hip thing for wayward youths to do.

The success ISIS has found in digital recruiting has taught other extremist groups a valuable lesson; groups like Boko Haram, al-Qaeda and Hamas have followed ISIS' lead.

In November, we spoke to Abubaker Deghayes, a British citizen of Libyan descent, whose 20-year-old son Amer traveled to Syria to fight with Jabhat al-Nusra. Deghayes believes that Western governments have a responsibility to bring back young men who have joined extremists’ ranks. “We have to see these boys as one of us, who went astray and made a misjudgment,” he says.

The mass broadcasting of information wasn't the only digital battle being waged this year. After ISIS threatened to kill captive American journalist Steven Sotloff, the reporter’s friends worked to clean the Internet of any mention of his Jewish identity. We also heard the story of Alanah Pearce, the Australian video game journalist who contacted the mothers of young boys who sent her sexually explicit threats online.

…the year youth found a new way to get their voices heard

From Ferguson to Hong Kong to Kiev, it was a year full of protests. Yet today’s youth activists understand that their cause lives and dies not only in physical protests, but through social media and attention from the press.

More support urgently needed in Mong Kok! Bring helmets, googles, shields, umbrellas, towels and be careful! #umbrellamovement #ocupyhk

— 學聯 HKFS (@HKFS1958) November 25, 2014

Today’s protests work through a combination of social media activism and physical protests, and are marked by a curious lack of leadership. Zeynep Tufekci, a professor at the University of North Carolina, says this trend marks an evolution of the notion of leadership that suits today’s hyper-connected youth.

Despite examples of successful grassroots activism through social media, all this online outrage can amount to a lot of noise. Meryem, a digital activist in Turkey, has found it difficult to keep up with the stream of activism since the days of Gezi Park. But she still believes digital activism can make a difference, forcing mainstream media outlets to pay attention and connecting activists at a local level.

Some causes have been more successful than others. Protests in Ferguson, Missouri, have led to a nationwide self-examination of our country’s progress on race relations. Yet the disappearance of 43 students from Iguala, Mexico, after a protest of government corruption has not only failed to locate the missing; reform of the government or its approach to organized crime looks unlikely.

… the year we were both inspired and frustrated by hashtag activism

The outrage fueled by the social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls has been matched only by the #Kony2012 movement. Yet both campaigns have failed to achieve their aims, leading to widespread criticism of “slacktivism.”

Yet hashtag campaigns have become a democratic way to raise awareness and increase media coverage of certain injustices. The hashtag #JusticeforAyotzinapa caught fire to hold the Mexican government accountable for its 43 missing students, and hashtags like #ArabSpring continue to be utilized by activists in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

But we also learned how hashtag campaigns can be misconstrued and misused. Many criticized the #BringBackOurGirls movement as an oversimplification of a complicated issue and a failure to introduce or advance a solution. Others argue that hashtag activism reinforces a sense of complacency and deters from real action.

…the year diplomats took digital activism seriously

It was the year John Kerry and Philip Hammond joined Twitter, and world leaders from Narendra Modi to Queen Elizabeth used social media to make their voices heard. Social media became an important platform in itself, as we saw when Spanish King Juan Carlos announce his abdication on Twitter.

We learned how social media can put diplomatic relations between two countries on display for the world after a fiery exchange between official Canadian and Russian Twitter accounts. But behind the elevated dialogue, we saw diplomats doing serious work online and on social media. Diplomats lobbied hard to get Kosovo officially recognized as a country by Facebook, a detail that seems trivial but has larger economic and symbolic repercussions.

Food is to be enjoyed, not Instagrammed

A man takes a picture with his mobile of food on his plate.

The Russian restaurant-owning oligarch hit London in 2014 and turned eating out into very conspicuous consumption. But being seen by other people in the restaurant was not enough. It became essential to Instagram pictures of your meal to all your friends, too. Food turned into a kind of deviant beauty contest, decoupled from most of the things that food used to be associated with – such as keeping you alive and healthy. Instead, it became another measure by which a judgment could be made. Taking pictures of what you are about to eat is like entering a very particular kind of competition. Please stop it.

For a start, good pictures of food are very hard to take. Usually the amateur version looks flaccid and congealed. This is because food needs careful lighting, rather than the blinding flash most phones come equipped with. Or no lighting at all, which probably means a tripod. The food itself needs to be a bit minimalist. Some photographers spray water over the plate for that just-out-of-the-oven glisten. And then it needs accessorising. OK, maybe not. But my point is that for food to look good in pictures it needs extreme care, time and imagination, not a mobile phone.

Anyway, a picture of the plate that’s just been put down in front of you cannot begin to convey the actual experience of being there and seeing it, let alone eating it. First, you’ve ordered it, chosen this dish over its rivals. You’ve got an idea about how it will look, and smell, and most of all how it will taste. You’re excited about it, and even if you’ve spent the 20 minutes between ordering and arrival listening to your companion’s problems with computer coding, or wondering if, sitting three tables away, that is the one person you would cross a continent to avoid rather than encounter in a restaurant, you will still have an element of anticipation when the food arrives.

And when the shimmying waiter delivers the perfect plate, getting hung up on its beauty is a kind of betrayal of what cooking’s about. Good food should appeal to all the senses, except maybe hearing, though there are probably exceptions even to that. A picture can only reproduce rather inadequately one facet of the experience.

Of course, looks do matter, because they influence the experience that comes next. They narrow expectations. It’s important that things taste, and smell, and feel on the tongue at least as good as they look. But no one would ever eat say, fish pie, let alone turkey and brussels sprouts, if it were only about looks. In fact if you only ate food that looked beautiful you’d be more or less stuck with fresh fruit, raw vegetables and very expensive restaurants. Taking pictures of food is really just one more way of bragging.

And you know what? That “you are what you eat” thing? It’s not meant to be taken literally. And since the rouble is in freefall, maybe the oligarchs will just have to clear the plates and go home.

Young people of the internet: can you not (write properly)?

We are breeding a generation having overblown emotional responses to commonplace events, while also being utterly unable to express appropriate and coherent emotions.’ Photograph: Alamy

Once you start, it’s hard to stop thinking of things you’d love to see the back of in 2015. Men wearing buns, the Cereal Cafe, Russell Brand, people’s opinions of Russell Brand ... I could go on, but I realise that there is something I hate much more, all over the internet: words. Not just any words, but the language young people use in tweets, Instagram posts, Snapchats and whatever else the kids do online these days.

Words like “bae”, which I discover to my horror has been added to the Oxford Dictionary this year. This stands for “before anyone else”, and thus is used to describe your significant other, or perhaps, if you are single, your pet, or even a bottle of cranberry juice as I noted yesterday. I really cannot refresh Twitter fast enough to keep up with all the baes flying around cyberspace.

Of course, language evolves, and as a word-lover I’m all for that, but it seems to be evolving in the wrong direction. Now, when people write online they use a horrible pseudo-emotional language instead of expressing themselves coherently. As someone who meticulously spells out every word of a text or tweet (although I do allow myself an ironic “lolz” occasionally) I am aware that I may sound like an ancient stick-in-the-mud. But because I write for a living, I hate to see language butchered like this.

Take for instance “I can’t even”. It’s basically someone saying they can’t comprehend something and thus cannot express themselves. Perhaps someone got their coffee order wrong. Or they saw a hilarious Ryan Gosling Vine. But it makes me want to shout “You can’t even WHAT???”

And then there’s the utterly loathsome “all the feels”. This is used to signify that the user is having a strong emotion, or perhaps several emotions at once. Maybe they accidentally swiped left on Tinder, or they’ve seen a picture of a dog wearing a hat, or bae hasn’t texted them back. This is troubling, because if you are feeling emotional, the internet really isn’t the place for you. Go and talk to a real person about how that hat-wearing dog makes you feel, for goodness sake.

This mode of expression is breeding a generation that is doing two problematic things simultaneously: having overblown emotional responses to commonplace events, while also being utterly unable to express appropriate and coherent emotions.

So, young people of the internet, what I have to say to you in 2015 is: can you not?

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