Tag Archives: social_media

The Translator Echo Chamber: The Effect of Social Media

Posted on January 14, 2018 by William Lise

As I wrote in a recent article, it appears that translators of a feather flock together in social media groups, and that the grouping is generally in line with their position on the continuum between the bottom of the bulk market and the top of the premium market. Having come together in this manner, it appears that a group mentality is formed, with translators reinforcing each other’s views of what is common and expected in translation and resisting opposing views. If a newcomer to translation wanders into a group populated mostly by translators near the bottom of the continuum, the takeaway is likely to be that normal and expected characteristics of … Continue reading →

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Meet Me Under a Bridge for Some Exciting News

Posted on January 1, 2018 by William Lise

Executive summary: Anonymity in cyberspace should be eliminated. There has been lots of talk lately about the responsibility of social media companies for removing content that promotes terrorism. I agree that they should do that. But complaints about terrorist hatred and recruiting people to implement their ideas completely ignore the root problem, which is that social media companies (and the internet in general) virtually assure their customers that they can remain anonymous, even to the social media companies themselves. It becomes easier to be irresponsible or criminal if you are assured of your anonymity. For example, you can establish any number of fake accounts and anonymous pages on Facebook without … Continue reading →

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The Dumbing Down of America: Someone Got it Right

Posted on December 23, 2017 by William Lise

In 1996, concerned about Americans losing the ability to understand, think, and question, someone wrote: I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time–when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical facilities in decline, unable to distinguish what … Continue reading →

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A Plea for Responsible Engagement in the Lawless Land of Facebook

Posted on December 21, 2017 by William Lise

I wonder whether people stop to think before they knee-jerk share or like.  Think about what? Well, for starters: Most Facebook pages (not user accounts, although tens of millions of those are also faked) are anonymous and therefore not credible. And many Facebook pages list a URL, but that is almost never any help in discovering who is posting their content and operating the Facebook page and website, because they are masked. How in the world can such a masked website purporting to operate a Facebook page have (1) a privacy policy and (2) a terms of service page if they hide the identity of the owner of the website … Continue reading →

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