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How tech baffled an elderly Congress

digitaledition.baltimoresun.com

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Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#11

Post by whatshisface »

lkbm wrote: post #8

> We don’t yet have comprehensive age data for the next Congress Am I understanding this correctly? As of January 2[0], the day before the new session began, no one had yet compiled a full list of the ages of all members of Congress? That's baffling to me. Have an intern go look through the Wikipedia articles for each one of them. [0] There's no mention of the in the Baltimore Sun article, but https://www.washingtonp…

An age-based criterion for computer knowledge would write off Donald Knuth, while counting a tween that only knew snapchat as an expert. To be honest I'm not sure how useful the list of ages would be.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#12

Post by adventured »

rabidrat wrote: post #7

> Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., attempted to ask Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg a question about data privacy, and revealed a conception of social media resembling a wad of tangled Christmas lights: “Do you track devices that an individual who uses Facebook has that is connected to the device that they use for their Facebook connection, but not necessarily connected to Facebook?” This seems like a very legitimate…

It's an entirely legitimate question given the connected nature of our devices and is embarrassing for the Baltimore Sun as they attempt to mock Congress for supposedly being baffled. Given the last decade of their abusive behavior I'm more inclined to believe that Facebook's own conception of social media is in fact a lot more fucked up than a tangled wad of Christmas lights.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#13

Post by nradov »

kappi wrote: post #5

Putting term limits for Senators is a good way to get rid of this old club and bring new blood. Some senators are there for their life.

It's not clear whether that would produce better outcomes. Some policy areas like healthcare, transportation, and the military are tremendously complex. It takes legislators years just to get up to speed on the issues. Inexperienced legislators have to rely on their staffs and lobbyists for guidance, so if we term out the experienced legislators then in effect we're handing more power to un-elected staffers and lobbyists.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#14

Post by sulam »

rabidrat wrote: post #7

> Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., attempted to ask Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg a question about data privacy, and revealed a conception of social media resembling a wad of tangled Christmas lights: “Do you track devices that an individual who uses Facebook has that is connected to the device that they use for their Facebook connection, but not necessarily connected to Facebook?” This seems like a very legitimate…

If you connect your Fitbit account to Facebook for the purpose of friend-finding, Facebook may keep track of your being a Fitbit user. However, Fitbit does not connect your device to Facebook. The possible exception to this is if you have a smart watch from Fitbit and a third party app establishes such a connection. Fitbit does not act as an intermediary here and so cannot keep your information private.

(Disclosure — I am a Fitbit engineer.)

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#15

Post by djur »

livueta wrote: post #2

Since this is apparently a verbatim repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18813468 , I'm going to repost my (lightly edited) comment from that empty thread since I think it's a crap article with some serious flaws. --- This is a really disappointing article. I'd like to agree with the premise, but some of the specific examples they chose to use seem a more than a little unfair. > There were the agonizing vid…

Other than the use of the word 'apparatus', those quotes don't strike me as "old out-of-touch person who doesn't understand technology" but rather "normal non-technical person who isn't familiar with the jargon". Either of those questions could have easily been asked by the average 30-year-old.

The problem here isn't that members of Congress are old or unfamiliar with technology. It's that these public inquisitions of industry leaders are pretty much entirely a production for the media. The way congressional hearings are run is designed to ensure that every member gets camera time, not to uncover truths.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#16

Post by kvakil »

whatshisface wrote: post #11
lkbm wrote: post #8

> We don’t yet have comprehensive age data for the next Congress Am I understanding this correctly? As of January 2[0], the day before the new session began, no one had yet compiled a full list of the ages of all members of Congress? That's baffling to me. Have an intern go look through the Wikipedia articles for each one of them. [0] There's no mention of the in the Baltimore Sun article, but https://www.washingtonp…

An age-based criterion for computer knowledge would write off Donald Knuth, while counting a tween that only knew snapchat as an expert. To be honest I'm not sure how useful the list of ages would be.

I think that an age-based criterion would reflect that younger people (on average) have greater tech literacy. But I don't think Congresspeople reflect the general population, so I agree that using age is probably not the best idea.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#17

Post by djur »

ghaff wrote: post #10
livueta wrote: post #2

Since this is apparently a verbatim repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18813468 , I'm going to repost my (lightly edited) comment from that empty thread since I think it's a crap article with some serious flaws. --- This is a really disappointing article. I'd like to agree with the premise, but some of the specific examples they chose to use seem a more than a little unfair. > There were the agonizing vid…

Yes, I actually don't see anything in that article that makes me come close to doing a facepalm. Some of the questions aren't the most elegantly worded but I'd be a lot more concerned if someone expressed surprise that users were tracked or data kept or some other naive lack of understanding of how social media and ad networks operate. >revealed a conception of social media resembling a wad of tangled Christmas light…

The "Internet is a series of tubes" meme from years back was an earlier example of this. The senator was trying to explain the concept of network congestion. Now, his actual argument was garbage (it was an anti-net neutrality argument), and there were things he said that were very funny (like referring to an email as "an Internet"), but the "series of tubes" language was a perfectly reasonable analogy.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#18

Post by FiveSquared25 »

sulam wrote: post #14
rabidrat wrote: post #7

> Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., attempted to ask Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg a question about data privacy, and revealed a conception of social media resembling a wad of tangled Christmas lights: “Do you track devices that an individual who uses Facebook has that is connected to the device that they use for their Facebook connection, but not necessarily connected to Facebook?” This seems like a very legitimate…

If you connect your Fitbit account to Facebook for the purpose of friend-finding, Facebook may keep track of your being a Fitbit user. However, Fitbit does not connect your device to Facebook. The possible exception to this is if you have a smart watch from Fitbit and a third party app establishes such a connection. Fitbit does not act as an intermediary here and so cannot keep your information private. (Disclosure —…

Excuse me for this curt reply, but do you have plans to support apps in the Fibit Blaze? Thanks!

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#19

Post by ghaff »

djur wrote: post #17
ghaff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I actually don't see anything in that article that makes me come close to doing a facepalm. Some of the questions aren't the most elegantly worded but I'd be a lot more concerned if someone expressed surprise that users were tracked or data kept or some other naive lack of understanding of how social media and ad networks operate. >revealed a conception of social media resembling a wad of tangled Christmas light…

The "Internet is a series of tubes" meme from years back was an earlier example of this. The senator was trying to explain the concept of network congestion. Now, his actual argument was garbage (it was an anti-net neutrality argument), and there were things he said that were very funny (like referring to an email as "an Internet"), but the "series of tubes" language was a perfectly reasonable analogy.

People who are deep in a particular area are often very dismissive of metaphors and other simplifications or attempt to explain for a broader audience because they're not "right." But that's often fine if you're trying to get a concept across rather than writing technical documentation.

Re: How tech baffled an elderly Congress

#20

Post by lizknope »

Senators don't have to know everything just as a CEO does not know everything. But they do have to be capable of hiring competent STAFF to help them!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_staff

In 2000, every Representative hired 14 staff members, while the average Senator hired 34.

In 2000, House committees had an average of 68 staff and Senate committees an average of 46.

Business CEOs don't know everything but they help hire the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Technology Officer, legal counsel, etc.

If senators can't get a few tech people to advise the senators and committee chairpersons then they deserve to look like fools and be laughed at. It is their job to hire people to help educate and advise them.

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