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Not-So-Social Media | City Conversations

2018, Series City Conversations, Cities, Media + Information

Our brains are being hijhacked. No, that’s not a misspelling, but a word we invented to describe both how social media hijacks your most personal information, then sells it to advertisers in ways you probably aren’t aware you agreed to; and how social media hacks your brain—pushing your hot buttons of annoyance, anger and outrage to keep your eyeballs on their sites, targeting you with ads and gathering more information about you than you might realize.

Facebook, Google and Twitter may be central to how we communicate with others, but these powerful tools come with an expensive but hidden cost. The more time you spend on the platform, the more money they make; Facebook made US$40 billion in advertising revenue from its users last year alone. So, how do they keep your eyeballs glued to the screen? And how is this affecting our culture?

If you think social impacts of social media are only affecting that big nation to Canada’s south, think again. To explain how social media really works, and what other countries are doing about it, we welcome Drew McArthur, former acting information and privacy commissioner for British Columbia, Sarah Ganter, assistant professor of communications at SFU, and others. Then it will be your turn to make observations, express opinions and ask questions. Please join us, and don’t forget to bring your lunch!

This SFU City Conversation is a presentation of SFU Public Square, sponsored by SFU Vancouver and SFU's City Program.

Thu, 19 Jul 2018

12:30 p.m. (PT)

SFU Vancouver at Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Room 7000

We respectfully acknowledge that this event takes place on the unceded, traditional, ancestral Territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm First Nations.

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