How to save our social media by treating it like a city

El Paso was "drought-proof." Climate change is pushing its limits. 

Sponsored by Insight & HP The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Fixing social media 12.20.21 Good morning! Today: what social media companies can learn from city planning to detoxify their platforms, and how "drought-proof" El Paso is succumbing to climate change. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. How to save our social media by treating it like a city   A grim outlook: Social media can sometimes feel like living in the greatest global city in the world. But it’s also rotten. Raw sewage runs in the streets. Every once in a while, a mass frenzy takes hold. To fix that, social media companies need to prioritize integrity design over content moderation. What’s that? Integrity workers try to think like urban planners, defending a system from attackers who have found and learned to abuse bugs or loopholes in its rules or design. Their job is to systematically stop the online harms that users inflict on each other. They don’t (often) get into the muck of trying to make decisions about any specific post or person. Instead, they think about incentives, information ecosystems, and systems in general.  How? That might include bringing back real-world friction, like limiting group size, or making it harder to post spam or create fake accounts, What’s needed: Integrity design is already happening at some companies, but it needs support. Too often, companies block these teams from doing their work to its fullest when it conflicts with other company priorities, such as boosting engagement. Read the full story. By Sahar Massachi, cofounder and executive director of the Integrity Institute, and a former civic integrity engineer at Facebook. El Paso was “drought-proof.” Climate change is pushing its limits.   ​​About 20 miles outside El Paso, Texas, on a warm afternoon just before the fall harvest, Ramon Tirres Jr. turns his truck between two fields covered in nothing but dirt. Both should be lush with cotton by now, but these 70 acres are bare. All told, about two-thirds of his cotton fields lie empty.  Tirres has been farming here for 47 years. His pecan trees love the heat, and the soil in the valley where he farms is fertile. But without water, everything falls apart. And the past few years have been especially dry. Farmers like Tirres have been among those hit hardest by water shortages affecting the region. Their predicament may not seem surprising given where they are: El Paso juts into the Chihuahuan Desert from the western tip of Texas. While annual rainfall across the US averages about 30 inches, El Paso gets under nine. But El Paso has long been a model for water conservation. It’s done all the right things—it’s launched programs to persuade residents to use less water and deployed technological systems, including desalination and wastewater recycling, to add to its water resources. Now, though, even El Paso’s careful plans are being challenged by newly intense droughts. As the pressure ratchets up, El Paso, and places like it, force us to ask just how far adaptation can go. Read the full story. —Casey Crownhart This subscriber-only story is from the upcoming water-themed issue of MIT Technology Review, set to go live this week. If you want to read the whole thing you can subscribe for as little as $50 a year. We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Buttered toast is one of life’s true delights.   + What the Beatles can teach you about productivity.    + If you’re near Washington Square Park in New York, why not go for a sing-along around a majestic tree on Christmas Eve?    + If you need to pretend to be busy, this simulator has you covered.   + Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss actually jumped off a skyscraper (many times!) for Matrix Resurrections (which comes out in theaters on Wednesday, by the way.)    + The first true millipede was discovered in Western Australia.    + Three chefs take on lasagna.   + This photo of Gambian football fans is so cheering. Are you intellectually curious? Tech-obsessed? We are too.   Get an insightful look into the technology of the future without getting bogged down by the jargon. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today (subscriptions start at just $50 per year). Sponsor Message The workforce has rapidly evolved Millions of employees are permanently working from home or transitioning to a hybrid setting. Unfortunately for cybersecurity, hackers aren’t confined by office walls. With HP Wolf Security™, you’ll discover advanced endpoint protection that’s built into the hardware itself, providing a secure and resilient foundation. Topics include: The evolving security needs of remote workers The many benefits of hardware-enforced security A deeper dive into the HP® Wolf Security stack of hardware-enforced features A breakdown of the security levels that may be right for you Learn more The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 What omicron means for the world Even with boosters, hospitals will be strained. (The Economist $)   + It feels like everyone in New York has omicron. (The Atlantic $)   + The Netherlands has gone into lockdown as nations across Europe reimpose restrictions. (The Guardian)   + The UK is weighing up a lockdown as cases explode. (NYT $)   + Omicron has raised fresh questions about the UK’s use of rapid tests. (FT $)   + They’re better than nothing though—and worth doing if you plan to see family for Christmas. (Wired $)   + Plans are getting cancelled across the US. (Axios)   + Most of the world’s vaccines won’t stop you from getting infected with omicron (though they seem to prevent severe illness.) (NYT $)   + Israel issued a sweeping travel ban that includes the US. (AP)  2 Joe Manchin may have killed off Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill He’s sticking to his demands for a smaller package, infuriating many in the process. (AP)   + What the bill could mean for climate change. (Nature)  3 The huge human cost of America’s air strikes It’s time to put the myth of precision targeting and limited casualties to bed. (NYT $)   + After 20 years of drone strikes, it’s time to admit they’ve failed. (TR)  4 Chinese Wikipedia is at war Despite being banned inside the country, content on the site remains hotly contested, with fights breaking out into real life. (Fast Company)   5 How TikTok inundates teens with eating disorder videos Cases like this show how “more of the same” can become a very dangerous algorithmic formula. (WSJ $)   + The TikTok school shooting hoax remains a mystery. (The Verge)   6 Another game developer had to cancel plans to sell NFTs Clearly, gamers really do not like NFTs. (Ars Technica)   + Crypto exchanges keep getting hacked. (NBC)   + This was the year that cryptocurrencies went totally off the rails. (New Scientist $)  7 What will robot nannies mean for kids? 🤖 You could argue a lot of childcare has already been automated—with screens. Maybe this is the next logical step. (Wired $)   8 Even Russia is having to admit its space program is in trouble A recent article in a state-aligned paper laid bare the full extent of the problems. (Ars Technica)   + The James Webb Telescope is gearing up for a December 24 launch. (BBC)  9 A woman gave birth in a Tesla while it was driving on autopilot 🚗👶 Amazing. (The Guardian)   10 Anti-5G necklaces turned out to be radioactive Substituting non-existent harms for real ones, then. (BBC) Quote of the day “If you decided to come back, that choice is yours. But I can tell you it won’t be viewed as for your own safety. The safest practice is to stay exactly where you are. If you decide to return with your packages, it will be viewed as you refusing your route, which will ultimately end with you not having a job come tomorrow morning. The sirens are just a warning.” —A text from an Amazon manager to a delivery driver after the driver suggested she return to base for her own safety as a tornado ripped through the area, Bloomberg reports.  Top image credit: ANDREA DAQUINO Second image credit: JUSTIN HAMEL Please send buttered toast to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Becoming an AI-Driven Business Join us | March 29–30, 2022 For a limited time, get early bird savings when you register by December 31 Register now Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list.  Subscription Information This message was sent to  Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally    Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142