For the makers and creators out there. It's impossible to know the impact of what you make. Zuckerberg's picture this summer is a sober reminder of that fact as he shielded his daughters' faces from his own creation.
Frankenstein's Monster
This summer, a picture of Mark Zuckerberg got press because he covered his daughters’ faces with emojis. (Note that he didn't cover the infant's face in the picture.)
This hit home for me as a new father. If the owner of Instagram isn't putting his kid's pictures on his own product, should I? (And the reaction to this picture went beyond paparazzi protection, this felt more like parents protecting their kids from AI, Social Media, and other tech in the wild.)
Facebook, Instagram, and social media as a whole is designed to encourage people to share their lives with others, to connect with each other, to strive for an ideal that no person is alone and you can find a community, group, tribe, etc. that shares your values.
Social media has actually achieved many parts of this goal. But it also amplified more negative social areas like jealousy, comparison, and paradoxically hiding your real self behind digital masks.
In addition, in the pursuit of clicks and advertisement dollars, social media companies have made it easier to connect by leveraging both the positive and negative traits of its products to get more users. I can't count how many times I've been shamed by people because I don't use Facebook regularly. (These days, I only get scolded by my older aunts and uncles who want to see baby pictures.)
Building a Better Future
I mention this because not to bash Meta or social media, but to draw attention to the things we make. I want to make things that help people, leave a positive impact in my community, and that my family will be proud of and inspire future generations to do the same.
Cybersecurity tends to be a technical field filled with stories of spam, ransomware, stolen data and at times some humorous misconfiguration of an app. Cyber Wellness is a more holistic view focusing on the human side of Cybersecurity and other digital ills. Professionally, I focus on Cybersecurity for small businesses. But the more I interact with customers, the more I discover underlying trends in tech that makes small businesses more vulnerable. That's because those same trends make individuals more vulnerable.
The relationship between Cybersecurity and Cyber Wellness is similar to the relationship between medicine and wellness in the healthcare industry. One aims to treat a specific issue or symptom while the other helps address the underlying condition.
This publication focuses on Cyber Wellness stories that gets to underlying issues and help us discover ways we can improve our use of technology. Ultimately helping us to build healthy habits in our lives.
This Week’s Challenge
For my digital creators out there, take time this week to reflect on the things you make from a legacy POV. Not everything we make has to be “for the good of mankind” but at least think about where it falls in the spectrum.
(Bonus: If you don’t like your answer, make something that will fit the bill.)
