Brave New Meta World

Amina Qureshi Dona Varghese

Description

Brave New Meta World reviews the explosive growth of social media platforms and addresses the issues of fake news, polarization, teen depression, addiction and abuse of personal data. It offers a unique global perspective on the advertising industry through the lens of two South Asian women who have lived in over 12 countries. This book helps develop the skills and knowledge to coexist against increasingly complex technologies and algorithms. 

Sujets

• Engineering
• Technology
• Gestion et management
• Project Management

Informations

• Publié par: Markosia Enterprises Ltd
• Date de parution: 16 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781915387554
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

BRAVE NEW META WORLD

Amina Qureshi
Dona Varghese
Brave New Meta World TM & © 2022 Amina Qureshi-Mattern, Dona Varghese & Markosia Enterprises, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Published by Markosia Enterprises, PO BOX 3477, Barnet, Hertfordshire, EN5 9HN.
FIRST PRINTING, December 2022.
Harry Markos, Director.
Paperback: ISBN 978-1-915387-54- 7
eBook: ISBN 978-1-915387-55- 4
Book design by: Ian Sharman
Cover design by: Tanya Khosla
www.markosia.com
First Edition
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said “an author” - even when I was too small to understand what that meant, or the amount of energy and creative prowess it would require to publish a book. But most importantly, I never appreciated the amount of people who would inspire and push me to publish Brave New Meta World .
To Dona Varghese , an old-time colleague, friend, and co-author. Writing this with you has shown me how friendship can make a complex and stressful process like writing a book fun and fulfilling. You were one of the first to teach me the fundamentals of media, to accelerate my thinking by layering in academia and you consistently continue to challenge my thinking. For this, I am indebted to you.
To Andrew Mattern and Harris Mattern , thanks for giving me the space to embark on this creative journey. You provide me so much joy and fulfilment in my life, you are the fuel behind the energy that I bring into every single day. Your love and warmth and support are the bedrocks of my success, both personally and professionally.
To my colleagues , past and present, you have inspired me to think about the advertising space differently. First you taught me the basics of our industry, then you taught me to critique it, and finally - you taught me to embrace and love it. I am only this passionate because I’ve been privileged enough to work with you.
To the significant thought leaders in this space: Scott Galloway, Kara Swisher, Tristan Harris, Chamath Palihapitiya, Tim Wu, Charles Warner, David Carroll, David Lieberman, Rory Sutherland, Frances Haugen. Your commitment to bringing transparency and accountability into this space is commendable.
To my Mother , Father & Brother : I would never have been challenged to think the way that I do without the experiences of living across so many cultures. You taught me to take all the bits that are interesting and string them together to make sense of this world. To my extended family : you instilled in me a deep love and appreciation for family.
To my friends : in many ways, you’ve assumed the role of my family. Living in different corners of the world with you - whether in Paris, London, Kuala Lumpur, Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto - has been the experience of a lifetime.
— Amina Qureshi
Winston Churchill once said, “Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”
Brave New Meta World is a collaborative piece that has been in the making for close to a decade. It took us seventeen months to put it down on paper, but we started this journey much before that. This book is an average of countless hours of talking about our work, living in and studying the industry we are part of and pondering over how to live in this fast- paced tech world. It is impossible to thank individually the huge number of people who have contributed to the creation of Brave New Meta World. All I can do here is signal a few who have been particularly helpful.
To Amina Qureshi , my co-author, who encouraged me to come out of my shell. You are all the good things in this world. You taught me that being worldly is a niche. Writing this book with you was such a pleasure, it felt like we were on a 17-months’ vacation! Your unique and bold perspective on life is what this world needs more of. It’s been a privilege and thank you for being a constant inspiration.
To Navroop K Chari & Swathi Eapen , my soul sisters. Thank you for accepting me – all of me. Your patience and unconditional love have nurtured my growth in more ways than you know.
To my Friends, who I met in Dubai, Kochi, Pune, Bombay, Pretoria, and New York, are an extension of my best self. Thank you for all the laughter we have shared over the years, across different time zones. I would like to give a special shout out to Paulina Kay , Janaa Murad & Jos Dirkx for the support you provided, without any hesitance.
To Daniel Vaczi , Mehdy Mamode & Mayank Garg , my peer friends. Thank you for giving me all the opportunities and believing in my potential before I did. I love what I do because of you.
To my Collaborators at DV Media Co. Thank you for believing in my vision. Thank you for helping me implement my vision. Thank you for supporting me through this journey of writing Brave New Meta World. I would like to give a special shout out to Tanya Khosla & Rose Davis for the indescribable support you provided.
To the Varghese Family , my lifeline. Thank you for constantly reminding me I am so much more than I give myself credit for.
— Dona Varghese
CONTENTS Prologue: Why it Matters Now Culture Crisis Pulling the Strings Back to the Future The Evolution of Agencies Too Many Problems Creating a Monster The Fall of Sense Unified Connectivity Epilogue: Is this the End, Beautiful Friend?
Prologue: Why it Matters Now
Amina Qureshi
Dona Varghese
“If a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.”
- Tim Cook
If you take away anything from this book, let it be how to become a better, more discerning thinker.
Throughout this book, we will uncover some truths about the advertising industry and its evolution, the important role that brands and agencies play in shaping the future of this industry and what power – us as, end consumers – can exercise to ensure we leave our society in a better, more educated, and more informed place. At a time when we are at a crossroads in marketing, at the intersection of data, technology, and privacy – we must collectively decide to steer the $500 Billion-dollar advertising behemoth in the right direction. Why does it matter now? Marketing has existed for decades and has never had to rely on hundreds of data points stitched across various platforms to succeed.
But now, increasingly, there is a moment of pause where we must think of the implications of conducting a Google Search or scrolling endlessly through Instagram. It’s a moment to contemplate whether the immediacy of social media will have long-standing effects on the way our brains function and operate. Surely comparing ourselves to the best, most unrealistic versions of celebrities or even our own peer groups can’t be healthy. If there are studies to suggest that there are harmful secondary effects of a platform like Instagram, shouldn’t more people care about it?
It turns out, the answer isn’t so simple. When we set out to write this book, our ideas around how the ad world operated, or what made certain platforms more questionable than others – were born out of casual social conversations we would have during the pandemic. Both being passionate proponents of the advertising industry, we came to know and love an industry that had somehow changed over the years. The promise of digital advertising had evolved into a constant stream of headlines in the news. Headlines around data, privacy, and consumer mistrust. And at the forefront of these headlines, was always Facebook. I felt this constant tension: on one hand, I was an avid Instagram user myself and on the other, I helped brands to successfully navigate and advertise on it. I felt uneasy over Facebook’s practices from the beginning but speaking to Dona Varghese reaffirmed the notion that perhaps there was far more to Facebook’s impact socially, politically, and culturally than we had realized.
In an early 2021 speech to commemorate International Data Privacy Day, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook took to the stage to publicly address Facebook’s questionable use of its user data. During his speech, Cook says, “we’ve arrived at a nexus in time where we must acknowledge that the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom. If a business is built on misleading users with data exploitation, on choices that are not choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.”
The incidents that preceded or followed Facebook’s use of its first party data were increasingly global in nature. News feeds in markets like the Philippines were being filled with fake news, swaying public perception, and fuelling modern ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. At times, it felt like these incidents couldn’t possibly be real. Perhaps some evil dictator had managed to hack the system and got away with it, but Facebook couldn’t willingly be involved at a more systemic level by turning a blind eye to known events. But time and time again, news would break around Facebook’s continued involvement in data leaks and privacy breaches.
In late 2020, the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma broke, and ex- Google ethicist Tristan Harris was gaining increased notoriety for his work around marketing and ethics. He referred extensively to the work of Tim Wu and specifically to his book, The Attention Merchants which speaks at length about our attention as being the last frontier to be hija