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Lesson of the Day: ‘The Facebook Whistle-Blower Testifies’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘The Facebook Whistle-Blower Testifies’

Featured Podcast: “The Daily” episode “The Facebook Whistle-Blower Testifies” hosted by Astead W. Herndon with special guest Sheera Frenkel

The recent congressional testimony of Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, reveals the ways that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, negatively affects teenagers’ mental health and how hate speech has spread on the company’s platforms. The hearing could be a turning point for the social media giant.

In this lesson, you will learn about Ms. Haugen’s testimony and about some of Facebook’s most problematic practices. Then we invite you to discuss with your classmates how the company should be held accountable and what change should look like.

Part I. Temperature check

Read the statements below related to the way people use Facebook and Instagram. Then, rank each one on a scale of 1 (never) to 10 (always).

  • I see harmful content related to disordered eating, suicide or violence on social media.

  • I see inflammatory content shared by family and friends before I see reputable news sources.

  • I pause to read an article, or do additional research, before sharing something to my social media accounts.

  • Instagram and Facebook have a negative impact on my mental health.

Pause to reflect: What do your responses say about the way these social media apps work?

Part II. Watch a video

Watch a two-minute excerpt from the congressional testimony of Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, below. Then answer the following questions:

  • What kind of expertise does Ms. Haugen have to talk about the inner workings of Facebook?

  • What is the main idea of her testimony?

  • The New York Times calls Ms. Haugen a “whistle-blower,” or an informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it. What evidence from her testimony shows that she is a whistle-blower?

Listen to the first 28 minutes of the episode below. Then answer the questions that follow:

1. What was unique about Tuesday’s congressional hearing, compared with previous ones on Facebook and other large tech companies?

2. How does Ms. Haugen describe Facebook’s relationship with profit and its users?

3. Ms. Haugen uses two terms, “engagement-based ranking” and “amplification of interest,” to explain why harmful content — such as that on disordered eating, suicide or violence — is pushed to young people. In your own words, describe what these two terms mean and how they relate to the spread of negative content. Have you, or have any of your friends, experienced this?

4. What are “meaningful social interactions,” or M.S.I., in the world of Facebook? How has this practice become effective in spreading misinformation and keeping people attached to Facebook? Have you noticed M.S.I. affecting what you see on Facebook or Instagram?

5. Ms. Haugen talked about two things that would make using Facebook and Instagram less harmful: creating more friction and re-implementing a chronological newsfeed. Explain the purpose of each of these. Do you agree with her recommendations? Why or why not?

6. What does Sheera Frenkel, a technology reporter for The Times, say are the ways that Facebook can be held accountable? How do people within Facebook feel about these various methods of accountability?

7. Why don’t Ms. Haugen and other Facebook insiders want Facebook to be broken up or totally taken down? Do you agree with this perspective? Or would you rather see Facebook taken offline entirely? Why?

In your journal, respond to the following questions: What is your reaction to Frances Haugen’s testimony? What surprised you in what she revealed about the inner workings of Facebook? What frustrated or angered you? What, if anything, gives you hope about the future of the company or social media in general?

Now, discuss the following questions with your classmates:

  • What do you think should happen next to Facebook? What should accountability look like?

  • Ms. Haugen suggests that Facebook should “declare moral bankruptcy.” What do you think this would look like and what might the outcomes or consequences be?

  • What role do you think the government should play in investigating or regulating social media?

  • The podcast references Renée DiResta, an academic and misinformation expert at Stanford University, who differentiates between “freedom of speech” and “freedom of reach.” Do you think it is possible for the government to control the spread of misinformation without infringing on the right to free speech? Why or why not?

Additional Teaching and Learning Opportunities

  • Read a guest essay. You can read a former data scientist’s recommendations on how to regulate algorithms, Kara Swisher’s interview with the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and a former head of security at Facebook, or an essay that asks if Facebook should “go away forever.” What points do you agree and disagree with? How do these pieces change or reinforce your opinion of Facebook?

  • Write a letter to your senator. Explain what you should think should happen next with Facebook. You can share your own experiences with Facebook and Instagram — what you find fulfilling about the sites and what you find concerning. (If you don’t know where to start, read what other teens have said about their relationship to social media and mental health and react to their comments.) Then, provide two or three recommendations for how you think Congress should handle Facebook. Finally, find out how to send your letter.

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

Film Club: ‘Dancing Like a ’50s Greaser, in Leather and Denim’

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Film Club: ‘Dancing Like a ’50s Greaser, in Leather and Denim’

“Dancing Like a ’50s Greaser, in Leather and Denim” is a four-minute film that touches on themes of self-expression, dance and community. It profiles “The Strangers,” who for over 30 years have been dressing like 1950s American greasers and dancing to rockabilly in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park.

“Indescribably refreshing” is how Kazuyo Inui, the current leader of the group, describes dancing outdoors. But the thing that brings her the most joy is “sharing it with my friends.”

What special interests and passions do you share with others?

Students

1. Watch the short film above. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.

2. After watching, think about these questions:

  • What questions do you still have?

  • What connections can you make between this film and your own life or experience? Why? Does this film remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen? If so, how and why?

3. An additional challenge | Respond to the essential question at the top of this post: Do you have people in your life who share your same passions?

4. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Want more student-friendly videos? Visit our Film Club column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

What Students Are Saying About Space Travel, Texting Etiquette and Unplugging

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What Students Are Saying About Space Travel, Texting Etiquette and Unplugging

Most people tend to text others in the same way that you verbally speak to them, with the incorporation of slang. The majority of text messages don’t end with periods, since when someone is speaking verbally, their sentences don’t necessarily end in abrupt stops. Instead, they trail off and allow other people to add their own opinions to the discussion. Therefore, when you end your sentences with periods while texting digitally, it feels passive aggressive because it feels as if they’re ending the conversation and not allowing the other person to add on.

— Emily, New York

Personally, I prefer full sentences, grammar, and sensible punctuation. To me, a poorly worded message riddled with spelling errors comes across as lazy/rushed, not friendly or humorous. With close friends, punctuation shouldn’t change the status of your friendship, and if you’re texting a stranger, it’s better to be formal anyway! Now, granted, everyone has different texting preferences, which is exactly why I think it’s nonsense to say that the whole generation finds the use of periods to be rude. It’s hardly new news that it can be difficult to tell the tone of a text message. Most everyone is going to understand that there are different preferences in texting, and that’s okay.

— Sophie, Bentonville West High School

The people who feel uneasy or even angry when you type like a normal person are overthinking the situation way too much. Why should anyone purposefully make their grammar worse? If it’s a casual setting, I should be able to speak freely, and if I want to end my sentence with a period like I’ve been taught to do since first grade, then why not? If you are the type of person who is so deep within the degeneracy of the internet that ending a sentence with a period is alien to you, then please take a moment to remember that not everyone communicates in abbreviations, memes, and inside jokes. I don’t always use perfect grammar when I text, but never do I actively try and make it worse. If your friend group uses grammar that is far from perfect when texting, that’s perfectly fine; I’m not trying to control how you speak. However, don’t act like someone is in the wrong for using the most basic form of punctuation in the correct way.

— Aiden, J.R. Masterman in Philadelphia PA

I agree that using periods in sentences can come across as cold and distant. Regular phrases that we say out loud come across very distant when they’re texted with a period. For example, when saying “I’m fine.” over text, it usually means that you’re upset about something, while saying “I’m fine” in most situations means that you’re okay.

— Evan, Valley Stream North High School

The way I see it, texting is an informal method of communication. Therefore, I text how I speak. When I text my friends, I don’t think about grammar or even making sense. I will even type out my laughter or frustration, like UGH, or HAHAHAHAH. I often use specific capitalization or punctuation to represent the inflection or tone of my voice, rather than to be grammatically correct… Personally I feel immediately more comfortable when texting with a new friend if they text super casually.

— Megan, Hoggard High School

Texting culture, a whole new dialect with a different set of unwritten rules. Texting is incredibly diverse, meaning, everyone has their own style, and way of interpreting tonality. I think most of us — teenagers — can agree that punctuation and grammar is the last thing we care about when texting each other. There are other generations who religiously use periods at the end of each text — yes, I’m talking to you boomer. Personally, I think that as long as the other person understands your thoughts, your texting style is valid. If my grandma sends me a hilarious video and I respond with “AHIEURIFHVJHCBKDWIJEH 💀” or “I’M LEVITATING”, confusion would govern her head; therefore, I must have a pre-defined texting style based on who I’m texting. On the other hand, if I repply to one of my friends with “😂” they would think that I’m being kept captive. That’s the versatility of texting and the reason why it is so fun, popular, and funny.

— Ulices, Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School

When I text, I code switch. Depending on who I’m texting at the time. My Grandmother would get “ Hey Grandma, I was wondering can you take me to the store” verses my brother, He’ll get “ Ayo come take me to the store rq”. I’ll start off all of my messages with a capitalized letter but grammar wise I tend to let loose. Your , You’re , they’re , there , their are usually looked at as the same word when texting.

— JM, WI

Word of the Day: echelon

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Word of the Day: echelon

1. position in a social hierarchy

2. a body of troops arranged in a line

3. a diffraction grating consisting of a pile of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset

_________

The word echelon has appeared in 54 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 31 in “A Brief History of Summer Reading” by Jennifer Harlan:

The American summer novel, which began popping up in the 1860s, was easily identifiable by a few key characteristics — many of which may sound familiar to today’s readers. It took place over the course of a summer, at a resort or grand hotel. Its plot was “devoted to lovers … their thrills, their perturbations, their mishaps, and their triumphs,” as the Book Review wrote in the introduction to its 1898 summer reading issue. And it ended with an engagement or marriage, as the characters prepared to return to society.

… These books didn’t just offer a vicarious adventure for those who longed to spend their summer caught up in a whirlwind seashore romance. They also acted as a kind of how-to guide for middle-class Americans who were traveling in the summers for the first time, and who were eager to prove they belonged in this vacationing echelon by mastering the etiquette of resort life.

Can you correctly use the word echelon in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how echelon can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

Should Parents Weigh in on Their Kids’ Dating Lives?

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Should Parents Weigh in on Their Kids’ Dating Lives?

Do you talk about dating with your parents? Are any of the adults in your life a valuable source of romantic wisdom — or do you wish they’d just stay out of it?

It’s no secret that online dating can be a stultifying, painful and sometimes traumatizing experience.

But add to the general discomfort of small talk with a stranger or the fear of being stood up, the possibility of catching a virus mid-pandemic, and the pressures of finding “bashert” — a Hebrew term for one’s predestined partner, or soul mate — can seem existentially terrifying.

Even now, with the vaccine rollout continuing across the country, the emotional exhaustion of being alone with our apps for over a year of lockdown still remains for many.

Jessie Sweeney, 23, a student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, was single when she moved to Baltimore, Md., at the height of the pandemic. At first, she used a few different dating apps, like Hinge, to get to know people in the area, and made sure to keep her mother in the loop. “My mother, as Jewish mothers go, is very involved in my life,” Ms. Sweeney said.

Then, in July, Ms. Sweeney’s mother suggested she check out JustKibbitz, a new dating site intended to help the overswiped, overworked Jewish single find love in a post-pandemic world.

Unlike standard dating websites where members communicate directly with their prospective matches, JustKibbitz turns the process over to the parents, who make accounts showcasing their adult children, then arrange and, through digital gift cards for businesses like Starbucks, AMC and Chili’s, even pay for their dates.

Ms. Sweeney’s mother offered a proposal: she could create her daughter’s profile with photos from her camera roll and help her find “a nice Jewish boy you should go on a date with,” while Ms. Sweeney focused her energy on work and the law.

Ms. Sweeney was shocked by the idea, but amused. She said she trusted her mother’s judgment enough to agree: “I just laughed it off and let her do her thing.”

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Teenagers in The Times: September 2021

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Teenagers in The Times: September 2021

With the start of a new school year, September is always a busy month for our Teenagers in The Times roundup. Every month, on the first Thursday, we publish this list of the news and feature stories about young people that have recently appeared across sections of NYTimes.com.

For ideas about how to use Teenagers in The Times with your students, please see our lesson plan and special activity sheet, both of which can be used with this or any other edition.

_________

Education

Top SQL Interview Questions to Practice

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Top SQL Interview Questions to Practice

With an average pay of around $100,000 and a healthy job outlook, database positions, particularly those involving SQL skills, are a hot commodity. But, with high competition comes high pressure to ace the interview. Responding to questions with tangible examples  and showing the best of your SQL abilities can give you a leg up on the competition.

A little prep can go a long way towards giving you the confidence you need to make the best possible impression during the interview process. Keep reading to learn the kinds of questions to expect during a SQL interview, how to answer them, and how our courses can help you prepare.

Behavioral SQL job interview questions

During the interview process, you’ll likely have two different interviews — a technical interview and a behavioral interview. For the behavioral interview, sometimes called “situational,” you’ll be asked questions that evaluate your soft skills, not your technical ones. Here are common behavioral interview questions to prepare for.

Adaptability and ability to learn

Questions related to adaptability and learning give you a chance to show your interviewer that you can adjust to difficult situations and grasp new skills and concepts. You can go into  as much detail as you’d like while answering these questions, but also keep in mind that direct, tangible examples from your past experience will help draw your audience in.

Describe a time when you had to learn a new programming language.

As you answer this question, try to showcase your ability to learn under pressure. If you’re new to coding, no problem. Discuss the reasons that drove you to learn and how you made sure you gained a working knowledge of the language.

Talk about a time when you had to incorporate feedback.

Being able to accept feedback while on a development team is sometimes more important than your coding knowledge. Before going into the interview, try to have at least one example in mind where you had to change what you did or alter your approach to a problem based on someone else’s ideas.

Communication skills

Have you ever had to incorporate input from upper management? These scenarios come up more often than you might think, and how you communicate and work with the management team to figure out a new solution is a great story to talk about during an interview.

This is your chance to show your interviewer that you know how to:

  • Listen carefully
  • Keep your eye on high-level objectives
  • Incorporate abstract ideas or desires into your coding
  • Produce products that serve the needs of both customers and the higher-ups

If you’re short on experiences like this, don’t worry. Even if all you had to do was speed up your process to meet a deadline, you can still share your experience, the challenges involved, and how you overcame them.

Describe a time when you disagreed with a team member.

Whether it was a difference of opinion regarding the business logic of code or how to present your final product, interactions like these can be powerful examples during your interview.

Not only can you use scenarios like these to explain how much you learned from a teammate, but you can also highlight how you communicated your opinions and advice during the situation as well. As you answer, be sure to acknowledge:

  • Something you learned from your team member
  • Something you learned from the experience, in general
  • A way in which your thinking shifted based on what you learned from the interaction

These details show you’re introspective and humble when interacting with team members.

Technical SQL interview questions

Once you complete the behavioral interview, you’ll move on to the technical interview. In some cases, you may get a heads up about what questions to expect during the technical interview and the project you’ll be asked to complete. But, not always.

Here are some of the kinds of questions you should get comfortable answering before the interview.

Explain some of the different kinds of SQL indexes.

To answer this question, you’ll want to specifically outline indexes such as:

  • Clustered index, which contains groups of data stored in the same area of a table so they can be retrieved together
  • Non-clustered index, which is used when you need key-based queries, instead of ranges, which work better with clustered indices

Keep in mind that the majority of SQL databases will make the best index decision for you — based on your use case. It may be helpful to mention this as well.

What’s the difference between a cross join and a natural join?

A cross join will result in the Cartesian product between a set of two tables. You use it when you’re trying to make a combination using all of the rows from two different tables.

A natural join produces a table that combines columns of the same type and name. The shared columns between two tables will be eligible for this kind of join.

Describe a situation where you would decide to use a blank space or a zero instead of a NULL value within a row.

This question tests your knowledge of the difference between NULL, blank, and zero, which all output “nothing” for the end-user. Here’s a way to answer it.

When someone is filling out a form, for instance, NULL can indicate that someone may be able to provide an answer in a field but they choose not to. Zero, on the other hand, means there was no answer to be given, so the user had no choice but to enter “nothing.”

How to practice for the technical interview

To prepare for an SQL job or any database-related interview, you can rely on our Skill Paths:

We also offer technical interview practice for:

So, whether you’ve just begun thinking about a career in SQL programming or already have the basic knowledge you need, you can use the tips above to impress whoever’s on the other side of the table. The courses, Career Paths, and Skill Paths we offer can put you in a position to confidently enter an interview ready to leave a great impression.

Remember to prepare ahead of time, throw in some fun practice sessions, and always use tangible examples to back up any claims you make about your skills or experience. To get you started on a new SQL journey, you can use Analyze Data with SQL, Analyze Business Data with SQL, Learn SQL, and How to Transform Tables with SQL.

SQL Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

SQL is the standard relational data management language. We live in a data-driven world, and there are many businesses that store their information inside large, relational databases. This makes SQL a great skill not only for data scientists and engineers, but for anyone wanting to be data-literate.

Butterflies

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Butterflies

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration — or, tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.

Don’t forget that you can use the image not just literally (that is, you don’t have to write about hands or butterflies), but as a metaphor. What does it say to you?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn how The Times used the image.

Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: allay

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Word of the Day: allay

1. lessen the intensity of or calm

2. satisfy (thirst)

_________

The word allay has appeared in 63 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Sept. 10 in “Mattel dusts off He-Man, with a nod to diversity.” by Gregory Schmidt:

Adults who grew up with the original He-Man and kept the brand alive on fan websites and conventions like Power-Con, which starts Saturday in Anaheim, Calif., are excited about his comeback, but wary of overkill at mainstream retailers.

“I’m worried about there being too much and crowding the market,” said Danny Eardley, the lead author of “The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” “Poor performance could signal to Mattel that there is not enough interest.”

But Mr. Dickson wants to allay those fears. “It’s obvious that we let the property go dormant over time,” he said. But “we are strategic about every toy that we put out.”

Can you correctly use the word allay in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how allay can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

What’s Going On in This Graph? | Oct. 13, 2021

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What’s Going On in This Graph? | Oct. 13, 2021

3. Below the response box, there is an option to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to your response which you can share with your teacher.

4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.

On Wednesday, Oct. 13, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

5. By Friday morning, Oct. 15, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.

We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!

More?

• See all graphs in this series or collections of 60 of our favorite graphs, 28 graphs that teach about inequality and 24 graphs about climate change.

• View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.

• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.

• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.

• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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