Humane web technology

Introducing: "Regenerative Social Media".

Inspired by my parallel interest in regenerative agriculture, whose mission can perhaps be said to be carbon-sequestration (from the atmosphere back into the ground) and the regeneration of healthy soils and healthy people, and fuelled and informed by all the conversations and interactions I had on the topic of "humane-technology", I believe I've coined the term "Regenerative Social Media" (will withdraw that claim if I learn of its earlier use).

Regenerative Social Media's mission, as I see it, would be a proliferation of social apps and websites which promote the positive, the factual, the educational, the intelligent, promotes the value of critical-thinking, which attracts millions of people into discussions and debates, raises the collective appreciation of healthy and sustainable social, industrial and commercial solutions, and which reduces the dismayingly widespread tendency towards the egotistical, the narcissistic, the dismissive, the combative and the downright ignorant.

Happily, there's already a growing global community of techies, educators, sociologists, and many many bright minds working on all of this under the banner "Humane Technology", but I'm finding that term a little bit geeky. Great work is being done in this field, and I'm proudly and passionately involved, and I want to refer to it as Regenerative Social Media - let's talk more about what improvements can be made, and less about the damage that's already been done!

https://coms.online launches Open Discussion Rooms, a video conferencing forum where Coms members choose a topic to discuss and host open meetings which anyone can join.

This is a further push in our quest to provide humane-ethical, socially-valuable web technologies to improve the nature of social media.

Through open face-to-face discussions among disparate people we hope to foster greater understanding through familiarity and build bridges across social and cultural divides.

As with our flagship coms.global, coms.online features no advertising, no data-collection and no algorithmic influence. #socialmedia

I was both inspired and encouraged by Romy Nehme of New_Public at yesterday's Center for Humane Technology meet. Couldn't get to Romy's table for chat after her presentation, but have joined the https://newpublic.org community and look forward to learning much and helping as best I can.

Truly fine people are doing exciting things, like re-imagining the social internet as a bright space filled with positive energies, and working hard to make it so!

A bit dated, but a strong look into the impact ad-supported social media has on democracy.

This Friday morning (Pacific), Meghan Welsch from Exposure Labs and David Jay from Center for Humane Technology, will focus on how the team behind The Social Dilemma is helping educators and students explore the impacts of social media. Join the Factr team and myself for this significant conversation about our children's future health.

Register at the link below …

Excited to be introduced to the Civilization Research Institute [ CRI ] - https://www.civilizationresearchinstitute.org - during a stimulating Center for Humane Technology [ CHT ] discussion yesterday with bright people from all over the planet. CRI's opening statement reads: "We believe that improving collective sensemaking — our ability to make sense of and understand the world — is a prerequisite for solving the urgent problems facing humanity." The CRI website presents three core focus points: Enhancing collective intelligence, Risk analysis and mitigation, Advancing Civilizational Design, and the film "War on Sensemaking" by CRI founder ​Daniel Schmachtenberger.

I participated in another fruitful online meeting last night with members of the Center for Humane Technology [ CHT ] community where we talked about misinformation and hateful speech on social media, the banning of Trump-style people and takedown of Parler.

It struck me that the more resistance offenders are met with, the more defensive they get about their positions and the deeper they dig in.

So I Googled: "How to overcome aggressive Behaviour?", and got this:

Preventing aggression -

1: Set out clear expectations.

2: Build rapport and be understanding.

3: Show cultural sensitivity.

4: Avoid negative talk.

5: Don't assume or make judgments.

6: Be encouraging.​

7: Avoid power struggles.

8: Manage problems.

As I suspected, confrontation is unlikely to bring any reparations, I think we need to adopt a more pedantic approach.

Really like the efforts the Prosocial Design Network to create a shared resource of design ideas that can make social networks interactions more civil. Are there any mindful designs that stand out to you?

… a slight digression from the theme - 10 minutes of Fox News is all I can take, but I do tune in every couple of days to "fair and balanced" my views. OMG!!! So I'm reminded that it's not only on social media that hate and misinformation is disseminated. Fox's rating have plummeted recently so they're making a hard right and flooring the pedal, hoping to get their lost fans back.

I just finished listening to Yuval Noah Harari explain how technology and democracy have evolved together over the course of human history on CHT's podcast "Your Undivided Attention". Absolutely required insight!

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast

Hello World! This is my welcome message.

In this stream I want to discuss humane web technology - the concept of creating internet platforms and pages which actually help people to relax, thrive and grow, rather than marketing goods and services.

As a member of the Center for Humane Technology [ CHT ] community, I am well aware of the harms caused by social media platforms whose purpose is to sell advertising space, doing everything and anything they can to maximize their grab on people's attention, regardless of the damage done to people's mental well-being.

Everyone on Factr - this is an open forum: Please feel free to chip in your 10 cents worth and pose those 64,000 dollar questions. The more we discuss and brainstorm these issues, the deeper our insights and greater our understanding will be, and the more positive influence we can exert on the future of the internet.