Thank you so much for sharing, this is a really insightful article!
By the way, a friend of mine is doing a Master's thesis in work psychology at the University of Turin on this subject.
I am a bit ignorant about this topic since I have a business background + work in tech-startups. But I am genuinely passionate about this kind of thing.
The gist of the thesis is that all these dynamic and interdependent aspects (e.g. lack of sleep, stress, social pressures, even for athletes before, after and during a race, even if we think about the influence on self-perception in relation to other people and related expectations on personal performance) can lead to somatization which can come in the form of concussion, but also to burnout or multiple injuries (as my friend is researching on the thesis) and as it happened to me too, in my life.
Practicing yoga or simply going for a walk daily, helped me a lot along that path... and helped many friends of mine as well. But some people can argue that it is the natural outcome of a "placebo effect".
All of these are very interesting talking points and the inherent dynamics behind vicious cycles (echoing @raghuveerdotnet's comment) is still not crystal clear and needs further research and experimentation.
First of all, thanks for sharing because it's such an insightful paper!
Some thoughts/doubts on it:
1. It's unbelievable that in a world where we promote privacy and freedom of individuals such cross-country trackers exist. It seems more an Orwellian story rather than reality.
2. I'm a bit ignorant on this theme on a technical level (I have a business background, even if working at a tech startup focused on security). There is a growing concern globally over an increasing sensitisation over privacy and over the importance of security. Even Google has promised to remove third party cookies within 2 years, and there is going to be a migration from Whatsapp to Signal (even if Whatsapp clarified a bit on that). Do you think that such fresh tools like these "favicons" or simple tracking will remain long term?
It's really curious on how the web browser that guarantees the highest privacy are the ones associated with piracy and crimes (i.e. Tor).
At the same time the mainstream ones are the web browsers we shouldn't rely on at all!
The same it's happening nowadays with various kind of solutions like p2p, associated in the 00s with copyrighted mp3 downloads through eMule-project. Nowadays instead innovative realities in tech are leveraging on p2p to guarantee 100% privacy combined with zero knowledge encryption and end-to-end.
I think a huge work on sensitisation should me made in order to cross the chasm of sterotype. This was my thought, and thanks for sharing this!
Thank you for the sharing, it's a really nice article on how tech competitive landscape is evolving.
On this I have some thoughts, especially about two points: Regulation and Climate work.
In fact, even if there is an actual disruption on these two kind of themes: the first in terms of raising user awareness on privacy (especially when we talk about GDPR after all the leaks of data that happened in these years), the second in terms of what is currently happening nowadays in the world we live (from Greta Thunberg, to the arise of pandemic).
But there is a HUGE challenge out there: is this going to look like a facade still, so that there is a changing in communication to these trends or the firms, brands and all the big players that impact the world are going to commit themselves for real?
A professor of mine at Lund University wrote a nice paper on that, from the IKEA scandal of erasing women in Arab Countries to the monetisation of the "sustainability campaign" made by Adidas. It was a really "mind opening" one and I share with you if you think that can be relevant. http://www.ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/cont...
Even if I am moving my first steps into the industry (I'm a simple trainee at a Tech-StartUp and MSc student) I've already experienced many times the first point. I think trying to keep your feet (and mind) on the ground, even when you have a huge expertise is fundamental in communication, teamwork and goals' chasing.
For example a friend of mine, graduated in one of the top programs in europe at Rotterdham Business School, has a huge expertise in the R language, he is able to manage data promptly at work, efficiently delivering in 2 hours what his colleagues do on Excel in the whole day. However he has big problems in communication here in Italy, he is not able to understand what other people with different background/expertise are asking to him precisely and this is becoming a huge issue in terms of career development.
There was the same debate over Whatsapp vs Telegram clash.
The fact here is that network effects play a big role in these kind of business models.
Moreover think about the fact that whatsapp was one of the first entrants, and was bought by Mark Zuckerberg. Brand is another big player when we consider and analyse that competitive landscape...
Security is one of the most important factors nowadays, especially if we consider the data breaches number, that is increasing dramatically (600% since covid-19 outbreak). But are like p2p models, if there aren't many people to create traffic, it isn't worth it (for the moment at least). And in case of messaging apps these people must be your friends! (Word-of-mouth)
Do not misunderstand me, I am 100% for security and privacy, but here users are driven by other factors unfortunately.
The article says that the "majority of app were payment platforms".
I would interpret it with the quote of Trump: "by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information."
I think with the idea of "camera scanning" they will require authorization and they will capture sensible informations of US citizens. I think that's the idea behind this kind of ban...
La Molisana is an historical brand of Italian Pasta, one of the best exporters in Italy. Me myself I found it everywhere in the world.
They decided to go for a historical storytelling: in the '30s "Abissinia" was among Italian colonies. And many famous literary men talked about it in a gentle way (i.e. the roman Trilussa among all).
But nowadays we have to be really careful on the weight of our words, and instead of communicating historical authenticity, La Molisana, a firm that was renowned for being antifascist, they had to do their public apologies.
So here we are: many are the brands that envoys human beliefs. Brands full of meaning that are also really fragile in this hyperconnected world, where "cyberbullism is under the corner" as also Enrico Mentana (a famous italian journalist) commented on this fact.
What's your opinion about that? Did they make a huge fail or were they victim of this trend?
Here some sources (only in italian unfortunately, it's really last minute news, hope you can manage to translate):
What are the advantages in doing so? I’m confused