Welcome to the latest installation of Status Update, a roundup of the last two weeks in tech and social media, AKA the filtered lens through which we see the entire world and relate to one another.
We’re about to leave the weirdest year in tech behind. From Trump threatening war on a platform we use to send each other memes, to the socioeconomic impacts — or lack thereof — of social media influencers, the 2017 tech scene experienced as much growth as it did growing pains. Here, a look back at how much our favorite tech brands have grown pinches cheeks like you're a long-lost aunt.
CEO Jack Dorsey’s bid to promote free speech benefited a few bad eggs (literally, like those creepy profile display pictures). In the wake of Harvey Weinstein-gate, the platform is "taking a more aggressive stance" in targeting accounts that display sexual violence and harassment, non-consensual sexual advances, unsolicited nude photos, and hate symbols.
To take it a step further, they’re no longer giving credence to accounts that stand for harmful beliefs. After receiving a wave of backlash for verifying the account of Jason Kessler, the white supremacist behind the Charlottesville rally, they dethroned cyber-violent accounts and stopped verifying any altogether.
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The thing about Twitter is that you're either a self-professed amateur/hate-spewing bigot, or a trailblazer in your field whose thoughts deserve a bigger stage. The latter group has certainly benefited from the widely rolled out 280-character limit and new, more elegant way to create threads. The others who haven't quite mastered the delicate science and art of a tweet? Well, there's always Instagram.
Back in 2011, Instagram was a place to upload photos on a user-friendly interface. Now, virtually every post you upload is necessarily a #TBT because you’ve spent four days deciding whether you should post a Story, broadcast live or upload the photo to your timeline. Or should it be a video? Or a Boomerang? Or a Hyperlapse? Or a slideshow? Quick! Poll your followers on an Instagram Story and ask them what you should do! Can't decide? You can now save live videos, rendering them not live at all.
Snapchat
Sometimes I glance at the proverbially dusty ghost on my home screen and send a friend a quick Snap just to give the app the traffic. Though a company representative describes the new Snapchat as a way to clearly distinguish between “social” and “media” (think: one part passing notes in class, one part newspaper), it kept the camera that appears right when you open the app. Because fleeting moments like cats doing dog-like tricks will not wait for you to stumble your way to the camera.
It’s not that Snapchat has become futile like an appendix or a spleen, but when storage and data are currency in these parts, at least one app’s got to get voted off the island. Which leads me to...
Islands
If you don’t know, now you know. When you’re stranded on the deserted island that is the library without a charger, Islands is your rescue team. Think of it as a more immediate and less creepy Craigslist for campuses, in that users are vetted through their Facebook accounts. Picking up where Yik Yak left off, founder and CEO Greg Isenberg's goal was to create an informal and safe platform for students to help each other navigate the often-daunting college experience. For instance, Greg said a #MeToo Island is among the first to be created on each campus. But with the platform operating at six colleges and rising to over 75 next fall, filtering hate speech has become a growing priority. While moderators vet comments on each Island, the company will no longer launch the service without a community manager actively scouring for hate speech across the campus. "A little bit of poison poisons the well," Greg tells Teen Vogue.
The dads are taking over. The aunts are selling pottery. What was once our one-stop-shop to make plans and document the minutia of our lives has now become a place of nostalgia and reflection. Sign in, and you’re blindsided by memories “On This Day” of people who broke your heart or moments you’d rather forget. But we have Facebook to thank for the turnout of half a million at the Women’s March on DC, one of the most significant political rallies of the decade, a company representative tells Teen Vogue. It was through Facebook’s Crisis Response feature that over 3,300 users offered support and financial aid to victims of the Las Vegas shooting. Hurricane Harvey prompted the launch of the Charitable Giving tools, raising over $20 million. See? Facebook isn't all triggering haircuts and bad breakups.
The internet
Where would we be without the nebulous force that powers every website, app and service we use? Probably feeding the birds in an abandoned parking lot, TBH. With the Federal Communication Commission’s recent vote to repeal net neutrality, the right to a free and open web might soon be a distant memory, fondly living on in our hearts alongside Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen VHS tapes. If the repeal sounds too terrible to be true, well, I don't make the rules, I just report them. As democratic member of the FCC Jessica Rosenworcel told me earlier this month, putting a padlock on the web discourages entrepreneurialship, can eventually spike the price of goods and services, and diminishes democratic communication. It sounds like the Middle Ages, and we are not here for it.
Apple
“An Apple a day keeps customers pouring out money they don’t have” was clearly something that was said in jest at a board meeting that has now gone too far. In releasing three iPhones, an Apple watch, a range of desktops, laptops, tablets and numerous bells and whistles this year alone, the tech giant has singlehandedly monopolized our brains and our wallets. We welcomed certain new updates with open arms, like enhanced camera quality and facial recognition, while others, like the absence of a headphone jack meant having to invest in new audio gear and update our chargers. If there’s anything 2017 taught us, it’s to be ready for anything. Maybe the next iPhone will finally be able to make my bed.
Related: Twitter Adds New Thread Feature
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