The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best premium stories of 2020. Today we look at Your Digital Life, a Herald investigation into the world's biggest social media platforms and how we use them.
Part one: Big Brother is watching you
For most of us, checking our social feeds is the first thing we do when we wake, and the last thing we do before sleeping. And in between those social media bookends to our day, we spend a staggering six hours online each day on average. But how much do you really know about those social media platforms and what data they are collecting about you?
Think about everything you've googled. Your secrets, your health concerns, your symptoms, your hopes, insecurities – everything punched into an algorithm and stored out of view until it later becomes relevant. How much is all this information worth? And how powerful is it?
Part two: Fake news - a threat to democracy?
Internationally we've seen sophisticated deep-fake videos of actors occupying the likeness of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and having them say whatever they please.
While a terrifying hint at what the future holds, these examples do not quite give a glimpse at what an average layman, sitting in front of laptop, chugging a few beers can do right now. Much like the threat of 3D-printed guns, the most sophisticated deep-fake videos show what's possible with decent tech and lots of technical nous.
In May last year, a video circulated around Facebook claimed to show Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intoxicated while speaking during an event. In reality, an existing video of the event had simply been slowed down through a simple editing process to make it seem that Pelosi's speech was inhibited.
By the time anyone bothered to check, this video and the misleading story attached to it had already become a smoking gun passed between friends, family and co-workers as evidence that the outspoken Trump critic simply couldn't be trusted.
So how do you spot misinformation?
Part three: Kids and social media
In February this year, an 11-year-old New Zealand girl received a message from a stranger through a social media site.
Within a day, she had sent the stranger, who was believed to be overseas, a sexualised image of herself.
She was then asked for more images, and was threatened when she didn't comply.
Her parents went to police, who referred it to the Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand (Oceanz) unit in Wellington.
"Unfortunately it's not that uncommon," said Detective Senior Sergeant John Michael, who heads the six-person team in Wellington. They deal with two or three similar cases a week.
The anonymity of social media platforms and the absence of verification requirements means they are a haven for predators, and easy for vulnerable young people to sign up.
While child exploitation is at the extreme end of the risks created by social media, the case highlights how the online world can feel like a minefield for parents.
The British Government is requiring tech companies to protect children. Will NZ follow suit?
Part four: How to beat smartphone addiction
Social media has become so enslaving that some of the people who had a hand in its creation have gone public with their regrets about what it's become.
Early Facebook investor Sean Parker said in 2017 that the company deliberately made Facebook as addictive as possible by exploiting human vulnerabilities through a validation feedback loop.
"God only knows what it is doing to our children's brains."
In New Zealand, we spend an average of five hours and 55 minutes on the internet, including one hour and 43 minutes on social media, according to a 2018 GlobalWebIndex survey.
And 81 per cent of the population has a smartphone.
Local research about how social media and heavy smartphone use affects adults is scarce but numerous international studies point to it having a negative impact on our wellbeing.
Screen time has taken over but can you kick the habit?
