Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC
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0:15 - 0:17Hello, everyone.
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0:17 - 0:19My name is indeed Zeynep Tufekci,
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0:19 - 0:22and it was pronounced correctly
for which I'm very grateful. -
0:22 - 0:24It happens about
one out of 100 times or so. -
0:24 - 0:25(Laughter)
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0:25 - 0:29I am originally from Turkey,
and I want to talk about these talks. -
0:29 - 0:33I want to talk about
how ideas take flight in this world, -
0:33 - 0:34and I want to talk about
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0:34 - 0:37how to think about things,
and how to question things, -
0:37 - 0:41and how to use all these ways
of information that we have -
0:41 - 0:43to go deeper.
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0:43 - 0:45I want to start
by talking about Kony 2012. -
0:45 - 0:48I can't see you,
so if this were a classroom, I'd say, -
0:48 - 0:50"How many of you heard of it?"
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0:50 - 0:54and everybody'd raise their hands almost
because almost everybody had heard of it. -
0:54 - 0:57This happened two years ago when a video,
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0:57 - 1:01- as you can see
about a 100 million views already, -
1:01 - 1:03many of which were racked up
in the first few weeks. -
1:03 - 1:06It was a video about Joseph Kony -
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1:06 - 1:08and indicted war criminal
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1:08 - 1:10who was in Uganda,
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1:10 - 1:14and it was this very moving,
compelling 30-minute video -
1:14 - 1:17that told a story of good and bad
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1:17 - 1:20in very stark, moving terms.
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1:20 - 1:22In fact, many of us watched it,
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1:22 - 1:24people were moved by it,
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1:24 - 1:25celebrities tweeted abut it.
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1:25 - 1:27It just went crazy viral.
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1:27 - 1:30It seemed like
such an obvious, simple story. -
1:30 - 1:34It was told by these people
talking about it. -
1:34 - 1:35In this chart, you can see
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1:35 - 1:40that tens of millions of people
were talking about Joseph Kony, -
1:40 - 1:41and "Let's stop it,"
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1:41 - 1:46all these resources
should go into this problem. -
1:46 - 1:52This is Jason Russell who is the person
through whom we hear this story. -
1:52 - 1:54That's Gavin.
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1:54 - 1:55He's telling the story to his son.
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1:55 - 1:57It's very easy for us to identify:
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1:57 - 2:00Jason looks like just a regular guy,
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2:00 - 2:02and his son is very cute.
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2:02 - 2:07They obviously - if you're wondering
who the good guys are in this movie -
2:07 - 2:09- it's like a movie -
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2:09 - 2:10likely candidates.
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2:10 - 2:12Who are the bad guys? There you go.
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2:12 - 2:14Joseph Kony, in case you missed the point,
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2:14 - 2:16Hitler's right there.
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2:16 - 2:17It's the most evil guy ever;
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2:17 - 2:20probably it was the sense of the video.
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2:20 - 2:23Now, it's true:
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2:23 - 2:25Joseph Kony is an indicted war criminal.
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2:25 - 2:27And it is a problem.
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2:27 - 2:30There is nothing
to belittle the real issue -
2:30 - 2:32and the real problems in Uganda
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2:32 - 2:35that came from that civil war
in that conflict. -
2:35 - 2:39So there are
very many problems and issues, -
2:39 - 2:42but the story that was told to us
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2:42 - 2:46in such a slick moving,
pull-out-our-heart string way -
2:46 - 2:47was too simple.
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2:47 - 2:49It wasn't even fully true.
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2:49 - 2:55It was too simplified and made
into this digestible saccharine for us. -
2:55 - 2:58In fact, if you went on YouTube,
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2:58 - 2:59and just started looking,
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2:59 - 3:02if you went on Twitter,
if you went on social media, -
3:02 - 3:04you would find Rosebell Kagumire
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3:04 - 3:07who is a Ugandan journalist and blogger.
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3:07 - 3:09And it's really an amazing world,
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3:09 - 3:12because all she did
was she opened her laptop, -
3:12 - 3:14she used her webcam,
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3:14 - 3:16there is no slick production [values.]
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3:16 - 3:19"Stop Kony," the original video,
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3:19 - 3:22was 30 minutes of great production
and great narrative; -
3:22 - 3:26this is bad lighting
- look at the background - -
3:26 - 3:31she's just in her office or study,
and she's just talking. -
3:31 - 3:33But if you listen to her
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3:33 - 3:36- and I encourage you
to go follow her on Twitter, -
3:36 - 3:37she's awesome -
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3:37 - 3:40She tells a complex story of conflict
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3:40 - 3:43that was caused by resources
and lack of resources, -
3:43 - 3:45and marginalization of people,
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3:45 - 3:48and how the Kony story
is six, seven years out of date, -
3:48 - 3:51and it's not the problem
facing Uganda right now, -
3:51 - 3:54and while, of course,
if that man was caught, -
3:54 - 3:57it wouldn't really be on top
of anybody's list on Uganda -
3:57 - 3:59to send all their resources
to catch this man, -
3:59 - 4:03and the complexities of moving
in a post-conflict world, -
4:03 - 4:08and how do you make peace
and how do you... I'm stopping there. -
4:08 - 4:13The point is it wasn't the simple story
that you would've thought -
4:13 - 4:16if you were one of the 100 million people
who watched the video. -
4:16 - 4:19If you were one of the 600,000 people
who watched Rosebell, -
4:19 - 4:23then you were digging deeper,
and you could go one more step. -
4:23 - 4:26That really was
a very interesting moment for me, -
4:26 - 4:28because, you see, I grew up in Turkey.
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4:28 - 4:30I grew up without speaking English.
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4:30 - 4:34So I didn't have this,
which is Turkish Wikipedia. -
4:34 - 4:36I thought you guys
should learn some Turkish. -
4:36 - 4:39It's a good thing to do, very useful.
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4:39 - 4:43It actually is a complicated language,
but it's nothing like English. -
4:43 - 4:44But "Vikipedi."
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4:44 - 4:46There you go.
You now know a Turkish word. -
4:46 - 4:47(Laughter)
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4:47 - 4:48We didn't have it.
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4:48 - 4:52Is a professor telling us
to use Wikipedia? -
4:52 - 4:54Well, yes, "Don't cite it,"
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4:54 - 4:56It's a great place to start.
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4:56 - 4:57You can quote me on that.
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4:57 - 4:59We've all been there, right?
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4:59 - 5:00Wiki-drift; you start some place,
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5:00 - 5:02and then, three hours later,
you're reading. -
5:02 - 5:05"Why am I reading about slugs
and their digestive system?" -
5:05 - 5:06(Laughter)
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5:06 - 5:07So I love it.
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5:07 - 5:08But I didn't have it!
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5:08 - 5:11I did not have Wikipedia, but I had this.
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5:11 - 5:14That is my 92-year-old grandma.
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5:14 - 5:19If 3D printers are finally invented
and they can print grandmothers, -
5:19 - 5:21this is probably what they'll print.
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5:21 - 5:22She is like prototype grandma.
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5:22 - 5:23(Laughter)
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5:23 - 5:24She's perfect.
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5:24 - 5:27She had grown up in Turkey
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5:27 - 5:30under conditions
when girls did not go to school. -
5:30 - 5:33She was 12 when she was
pulled from school, -
5:33 - 5:35and was told, "That's it.
That's enough for you. -
5:35 - 5:37You're now about to get married."
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5:37 - 5:40A miracle happened:
the teacher intervened, -
5:40 - 5:44and said, "There's an exam
for scholarships for girls. -
5:44 - 5:47So they can go
to the top high school in Turkey." -
5:47 - 5:50And the teacher, secretly from the family,
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5:50 - 5:52entered her and my grandmother won.
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5:52 - 5:53And there was a lot of conflict,
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5:53 - 5:56but stuff came together,
and a miracle happened, -
5:56 - 5:58and she was allowed to go Istanbul,
to this big, new city -
5:58 - 6:01and in a boarding school
this elite top boarding school. -
6:01 - 6:04And that thing she's holding
is a trophy they gave her -
6:04 - 6:07at the 75th anniversary of her graduation.
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6:07 - 6:09She graduated
from high school, then college, -
6:09 - 6:12probably the first person in her town,
let alone her family. -
6:12 - 6:14And she became a teacher.
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6:14 - 6:17And because she had grown up
wanting to go to school and pulled, -
6:17 - 6:21and just by some miracle, managed to go,
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6:21 - 6:24she appreciated the opportunity
books and education gave. -
6:24 - 6:28So when ever somebody came
to the school she worked at, -
6:28 - 6:31which I also attended
as an elementary school student, -
6:31 - 6:35when somebody came to sell encyclopedias
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6:36 - 6:38- Do you know those things? No. -
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6:38 - 6:39(Laughter)
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6:39 - 6:40Those book things?
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6:40 - 6:44Well, there used to be people
who went around selling them door-to-door; -
6:44 - 6:45we had them in Turkey, too.
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6:45 - 6:48And they all had my name
in their phone book -
6:48 - 6:50- which, of course, wasn't digital then -
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6:50 - 6:53"Buy Zeynep, sucker grandma"
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6:53 - 6:57which meant if I took them to my grandma,
she would buy whatever they were selling. -
6:57 - 7:00I loved reading,
and I loved encyclopedias. -
7:00 - 7:03So when the encyclopedia sales person
would come and say, -
7:03 - 7:06"We heard there's
a Zeynep in this school," -
7:06 - 7:09I would pipe up and they would say,
"Take us to your grandma." -
7:09 - 7:12and my grandma would buy me
whatever I could buy: -
7:12 - 7:16every single Turkish
children's encyclopedia I had. -
7:16 - 7:17(Laughter)
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7:17 - 7:18It was awesome.
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7:18 - 7:19And I would just read them.
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7:19 - 7:21Do you read books?
Comic books or other books? -
7:21 - 7:23I would read them like that.
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7:23 - 7:25I would say, "I'm going
to read the Ps today." -
7:25 - 7:26I would just read the Ps.
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7:26 - 7:29Or some of the encyclopedias
were thematic, and I would say, -
7:29 - 7:31"I'm going to read transportation today."
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7:31 - 7:35I read them cover to cover.
I knew what was in every one of them. -
7:35 - 7:38Remember, Turkish, so it's not
an unlimited collection, either. -
7:38 - 7:43And I would end up
having questions; that I hit limits. -
7:43 - 7:46They weren't in any of my encyclopedias.
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7:46 - 7:48I knew I just couldn't get at them.
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7:48 - 7:51Now you don't live in that world anymore.
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7:51 - 7:53You can go deeper and deeper and deeper.
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7:53 - 7:56You can look, and ask, and question,
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7:56 - 7:58and I don't live in that world anymore.
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7:58 - 8:00Everyday, I pull out
my phone, and I'm always, -
8:00 - 8:01"I can look up anything I want."
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8:01 - 8:05and if there's some public record of it,
I'll probably find it. -
8:05 - 8:06Or I can ask people, experts.
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8:06 - 8:09When I have a question that puzzles me,
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8:09 - 8:11I can look up someone, I can email them.
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8:11 - 8:13This is just amazing.
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8:13 - 8:15And what I want to say is
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8:15 - 8:16when you hear a talk like this,
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8:16 - 8:17there is Bill Gates';
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8:17 - 8:20you know, a very successful TED talk.
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8:20 - 8:22When you hear his talk,
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8:22 - 8:25the thing to probably take away from it
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8:25 - 8:28is not what he said in his talk,
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8:28 - 8:33but to look at a world
in which what made him successful, -
8:33 - 8:35how much of it was him,
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8:35 - 8:38what was the structure,
what were the opportunities he had, -
8:38 - 8:41where were some of the stumbling blocks?
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8:41 - 8:43He, for example, had many opportunities,
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8:43 - 8:45because his family was well off,
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8:45 - 8:48so he went to a private school
which had computers -
8:48 - 8:49when even colleges didn't have one,
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8:49 - 8:51so he became a programmer early,
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8:51 - 8:54and he was programming
and doing things very early on -
8:54 - 8:57which gave him
the opportunity to be first -
8:57 - 9:00when software was being commercialized;
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9:00 - 9:01complicated story.
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9:01 - 9:04My point isn't one thing.
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9:04 - 9:08My point is look at these talks
as a question mark. -
9:08 - 9:13It's not a world
where you can just lean back -
9:14 - 9:16and be one of the people
who does something. -
9:16 - 9:21In software, in gadgets,
people who design them have a word: -
9:21 - 9:23lean forward gadgets
and lean back gadgets. -
9:23 - 9:25Lean back gadgets are the ones
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9:25 - 9:29that allow you to lean back
and not participate much, -
9:29 - 9:31whereas the lean forward ones
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9:31 - 9:34are the ones where you're doing stuff
and participating. -
9:34 - 9:36And these talks, while they can be great,
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9:36 - 9:38if you don't look at them
as a question mark, -
9:38 - 9:42they can seem like lean-back talks.
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9:42 - 9:45They can seem like, "Oh, great story,"
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9:45 - 9:48because they're simplified
in 12 minutes, in 15 minutes. -
9:48 - 9:49We're going to simplify something.
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9:49 - 9:52So when you hear something,
pull out your phone. -
9:52 - 9:54Is there an alternative explanation
to the extinction? -
9:54 - 9:56Is there more to the story?
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9:56 - 9:58What else could the CIA have done?
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9:58 - 10:00What is the NSA doing?
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10:00 - 10:03What's the best balance
between security and surveillance? -
10:03 - 10:05What are other questions we can ask?
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10:05 - 10:07Very good questions.
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10:07 - 10:12Do not just listen to us,
because it's always complicated. -
10:12 - 10:13(Laughter)
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10:13 - 10:15It's always complicated.
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10:15 - 10:19Any question worth solving,
any problem worth tackling, -
10:19 - 10:22will be complicated by human factors,
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10:22 - 10:24social factors, political factors.
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10:24 - 10:28And it's those people who don't just
watch the hundred million viewed video, -
10:28 - 10:31but then go watch Rosebell, the 600, 000;
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10:31 - 10:34and some of those people
who will then go read, -
10:34 - 10:37and some of those people
will maybe become activists for life, -
10:37 - 10:39maybe some of them
will become policy makers, -
10:39 - 10:42maybe some of them will become
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10:42 - 10:48the people who then run for office,
run an organization, who knows? -
10:48 - 10:52It's not a world
in which you can just watch from afar -
10:52 - 10:57and have these nicely-packaged talks
do the work for you. -
10:57 - 10:59If there's a problem you want to solve,
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10:59 - 11:02if there's a mark
you want to leave in this world, -
11:02 - 11:06just don't just look at it as a period,
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11:06 - 11:08look at it as a question mark; always.
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11:08 - 11:11But don't take my word for it.
Dig deep, dig deep. -
11:11 - 11:12Thank you.
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11:12 - 11:14(Applause)
- Title:
- Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC
- Description:
-
Zeynep Tufekci, techno-sociologist and Associate Professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina talks about "Going Deep in a Viral World." She gives the example of KONY 2012, the viral YouTube video calling for the capture of Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony. She asserts how the story was too simple to be true and how numerous response videos juxtaposed Kony's message. Tufekci makes a call to action in watching these videos, like TED Talks, to not "lean back," but lean forward in active participation and understanding.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 11:17
Denise RQ approved English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ accepted English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Going deep in a viral world | Zeynep Tufekci | TEDxUNC |