[Music]hello everyone and on behalf of http iwant to take a moment and say thank youto all of our speakers and partners whoare making this event possible withoutyou we wouldn’t be here today havingthis amazing time and opportunity myname is dr chris wilke and i serve asthe ceo of shep the society of hispanicprofessional engineerschef is a non-profit professionalassociation that serves more thanthirteen thousand hispanics and stillnationwide and we’re growing each yearour main focus is to support hispanicstem students in completing theirdegrees and launching their careers inindustry or academiawe know that a strong stem identity isat the core of every successful stemprofessional and because the internet isboth an avenue of information transferbut in this case more importantly aplatform for seeing diverse role modelsand promoting positive stem identitiesthe importance of high-speed internetaccess cannot be over emphasized in itsimpact on fostering inclusivity in stemwe highly value our partnership withhttp and the prioritization of access tonot only relevant technology but alsohigh-speed internet for alli am so honored to be here with you andhave the opportunity to introduce ourlast panel of the day which will bemoderated by zakiybarzinjihe is a director program director ofaspen digitaland zaki will be speaking with a groupofgen z entrepreneurs and digitalconsultants on how tech helpsand harms the gen z communityso with that let’s welcome zaki and ourpanelhello everyonewelcome to the final session of the daythat we’re calling how tech helps andharms gen z communitiesmy name is zeki barzinji and i’m adirector at aspen digitalwhich is a program of the aspa institutethat addresses the intersection oftechnology policy media and societymy own work at aspen digital tends tofocus on the intersection of tech andunderrepresented communitiesand it’s in that spirit that we’re veryhonored and excitedto host this session as part of http’sdigital inclusion summit um gen z andtechthe topic so often talked about bypolicymakers big companies the mediaconcerned parents and pearl clutcherseverywherethe questions are often the same youknow how do we protect kids onlinehow do we sell to kidswill their future be brighter or darkerwhy is tick-tock evil but also how can igo viral on itwhat’s often missing from theseconversations of course are the verypeople that are being talked aboutbecause the truth is um emergingtechnology ismore than just a mixed bag for therising generation there are plenty ofways in which tech helps uplift andamplify young folks like never beforeparticularly those from communities thatare traditionally marginalizedat the same time there are also so manyways in which tech is actively harmingthe younger generationsand that harm is magnified a thousandtimes more for those from marginalizedcommunitiesso to unpack these questions andhighlight the lived experiences of thoseright at the centeraspen digital is partnering with juveconsulting which is one of the onlyentirely gen z run consulting firmstoday to bring you this sessionand i’m joined by four phenomenal youngleaders with incredible backgrounds i’llintroduce all of them to you and we willhave a discussion um first up ziad ahmedziad is the founder and ceo of juveconsulting he’s from princeton newjersey and is a recent graduate of yaleuniversitywhere he studied social media’s impacton politics in 2013 he founded redefia non-profit focused on creatingresources to make schools more inclusiveziad has advised numerous organizationspoliticians and campaigns served onnon-profit boards and organized manydifferent groups he was given four tedtedx talks written for teen vogue andspent too much time on tick tock it wasnamed to forbes 30 under 30 at 19 and hehad spoken everywhere from americanexpressthe council on foreign relations touniversity dining hallsgabe garcia is the 23 year young seniordirector of people inclusion andaccounts at juvethey are a graduate of northeasternuniversity and hailing from long beachcalifornia they previously worked atboston consulting group on the northamerica diversity and inclusion teamhelping drive their inclusion equity andbelonging agenda among amongst staffprior gabe was a millennium fellowwhere they worked with the unitednations in academic impact to advancelgbtq plus health outcomes promoting andcentering queer wellness and inclusivecarein their free time gabe is a writer ofmostly poetry and a washed-up dancer whooccasionally can still do the splitswhich we may or may not have time to askthem aboutuhclaire fennell claire is 19 years oldand an english and creative writingmajor at new york university outside ofher work at juve she is president of thenyu debate team and a literary event amarketing intern at the center forfiction in brooklyn she’s passionateabout ice coffee aldi’s music the needfor more women in stand upuh why we should all simple for the newyork times and why portland isn’tactually all that wokeshe’s also passionate about queer mediatheory and in her bio asks the questiondid you know that vampires are oftenused to code for queer love inliterature and moviesthat’s a good questionand finally faith andrews o’neil isdirector of the live at juveshe’s 19 years old born and raised inkansas city missouri and a student atcolumbia university she’s a staff writerfor columbia’s newspaper the spectatorwhere she covers city news she’s beenrecognized for her work in journalism inboth high school and college and lovesto use the methods learned in journalismand to advocate for a communityas a dancer with kansas city friends ofalvin ailey she was featured onnetflix’s queer eye and started a finearts day camp for girls entering gradesfiveto nine in kansas cityshe’s also an avid embroidererand that’s our wonderful panels yeahgabe clear faith thank you all so muchfor joining me for this conversationlet’s just get the elephant out of theroom i am indeed an ancientcreaky old millennialand i feel like it was literally justyesterday that i was hearing all abouthowmy generation was the me me megeneration where the kids hopelesslylost their phones and devices etc etcand i feel like i have both equal partsrelief and sympathyfor the fact that gen z has now movedunder the microscope and now everyone istrying to dissect and explain you asthough your wild lab experimentsso let me just start with like the mostbasic question in one wordhow does it feel to be a gen xer rightnowi would i would start by saying anxietyinducing um i think you you nailed it onthe head when you said there are a lotof people trying to like poke and prodand understand us and that’s kind ofwhere jew’s ethos comes from in a senselike a lot of those people arenot genziers themselves and so ourfundamental and core belief here is ifyou want to understand and reach youngpeople you actually have to talk to themand give thema seat at the table um and so i wouldsay anxiety inducing becauseyou know we’re still really pushing toto get those seats at the table or flipthe table as we also say hereyeah kind of in a similar vein to gabe ithink i would say overwhelmingkind of beyond just like the purelyanxiety-inducing like there’s so muchgoing on in the world there’s also ahuge sort of onus on gen z to do just amillion and one things all the time bothto like advocate for the causes thatwe’re passionate about like in ourday-to-day lives to you know enter theprofessional world as we’re kind of inour like coming of age eras and i thinkall of these sorts of pressures andexpectations kind of get romanticizedright like we’re the generation thatfights for change but like that’s alsoexhausting so i think that there’s justthis liketotal culture of feeling overwhelmedthat’s within our generation um that ithink kind of generates the anxiety thatgabe is talking about um and yeah i ithink they’re right on the nose yeah ithinkspeaking to claire’s point about thepressure i think the first word thatcame to mind for mewas informative like i thinkwe have so much access through socialmedia and being like the digitalgenerationto so much information and it can beincredibly overwhelming at times we areconstantly inundated with like everyglobal and domestic and local crisisthat is happening at any given time butin that i thinkalso being in a position of privilege tobe able to attend an institution such ascolombia i’m also able to like use sortof all of that information and engage indiscourse with my peers and then go homeand tell my grandma like that saysabc.co.not.com like don’t click on thatwebsite that’s not real newsso it’s obviously overwhelming to beable to take in all that information butalso kind of having the opportunity todisseminate that information has beensomething that i thinkis really cool about jinzy in particularmy word is blenderit’s not an adjective it’s a noun andthe reason it’s blender is i oftenvisualize myself as being in a blenderwithout the cap onat full speed and that’s how i feellike what synthesizes the gen zexperience in some ways for me at leastit’s this idea of constantly beingwhirled around i think there’s a lot ofwhiplash in regards to trends in regardstoyou know what we feel like we havepermission to do or to say or to beumbut also that there’s sort of no ceilingright to and on one hand like that’s anenormous opportunity and like is itdeeply empowering the other hand it’slike a damn mess right and like quiteliterally means that like we’resplashingeverywhere constantly sort of withoutanyend in sight right um and so i certainlyresonate with this idea of us being thisanxious overwhelmed generation that isalso using information umas a source of power right um but withany power comesrisk right umand i think that we are living you knowin breathing that day in and day outthose are all excellent questions andyou know even more profound than i washoping with uh such a simple prompt umso let’s drill in a little bit i meanyou all have have all identified kind ofjust somewhat of a dichotomy binaryalthough you knowit’s not really a binary it’s justnon-binary uh in terms of in terms ofissues uh which is that there’s both theyeah there’s both the um you know thethe opportunity that’s presented morethan ever by especially by technologyand there’s also more risks than everbefore let’s start with opportunity imean what is making youummost hopeful uh most excited about theboth the present and the future when youthink abouttechnology in your generation um whatare some big examples that make youhopeful and excited um and you knowwhen it comes to you know especiallylet’s just say that i think all of youcome fromeither come from or identify withcommunities that could be consideredmarginalized or at the margins in someway or another um specifically for thecommunities that maybe you identify withor that you come fromwhat’s making you hopeful about yourgeneration and technology i thinkfor me as um a blackfemmelike i’m cis and like justthe existence of black women whetherthat is like black trans womenblack femmes black cisgendered womenhaving the opportunity tokind of congregatevery deliberately is something that ithink throughout history has been like astrength of that community but i thinkdigitallyseeing black women on the forefront ofso many digital movements to kind ofwork against the algorithm that activelysuppresses our voice has been somethingthat’s really inspiring for me to seelike knowing thatdespite the fact that like large mediacorporations don’t necessarily want tosee people that look like me on theforefront of their platforms there arewomen and femmes doing the work everyday to ensure that that’s not the caseso from growing up in middle school andlike the blackout movement on tumblrwhich was just like every black personpost a selfie today and that was allthat it was and just being able to seejust like black faces throughout my feedin sixth grade like scrolling on myschool given ipadto now seeing the same thing on ticktock when everyone you know was changingtheir profile pictures to the blacklives matter fest and we were told likeespecially on my feed there was like oneday and it was like on this day likeonly like and engaged with black women’scontent just to see like it’s like whatthe algorithm will do and then for likethe next two days which doesn’t seemlike a long time but on tick tock islike 10 years basically my feed was justsoflush with black women and femmes andblack queer voices and it was just veryinspiring to see the ways in which wehave been able to kind of adapt tomodern times whether that’s likefinding community and quarantine ordealing with like all these new socialmedia platforms that are coming up everysingle day and still finding ways tolike buck against the norm and take upspace and kind of find each other andfind solace and like safety within eachother’s voices and presence for likeregardless of where we are in america orin the world at largei love thatyeah i think kind of speaking to asimilar point of visibility so for me iidentify as queer and non-binary and ithink that there are two really hugesort ofchanges that technology has allowed forthat are super super significant forthese communities and i think the firstis the idea of visibility butspecifically because ofinvisibility as sort of a huge roadblockfor the queer community historicallyright like the whole sort of story ofqueer struggle especiallyin the united states but also globallyhas been one of invisibility right likelaws that were designed to oppress uswere made about alcohol so that theywouldn’t actually know that they wereoppressing queer people like littlequeer kids are like wondering if they’reactually people that think and feel theway they think and feel because maybethey’re in like rural communities wherethey don’t have that representation likeme i grew up in western pennsylvania andlike a very sort of christian andsomewhat conservative environment andthe first time that i read a book thathad like two girls kissing in it i waslike wait like that’s that’s allowedlike sign me up bro but i think likesocial media and technology hasobviously allowed us to see these thingsin a totally differentlight wherequeer youth aren’t sort of subject tothat total sense of invisibility rightlike they’re able to find thosecommunities online even if they can’t beout safely to their families and i thinkthat that allows for like a huge sort ofshift in the way that queer peoplediscover their identities that makes mevery hopeful the kind of seconddimension of thatdealing more with like the non-binaryside of things i think is that on likebeing online and existing in a virtualspace has really transformed i think theconversation around pronouns because idon’t like walk down the street with asign that says that i use she theypronouns and that means that like whenpeople encounter me they’re going torely on their base assumptions and theshift in the digital landscape toincluding your pronouns like in yourbios to including your pronouns when youenter a space has changed the way wethink about those conversations when werun into people on the street all of asudden it’s hey you know if i had thisperson’s instagram i would see theirpronouns and maybethe questions are then being asked wherewhen you meet someone it’s not based onyour physical assumptions about themit’s based on hey i know this is nowinformation to consciously look for andi think that that shift couldn’t havehappened unless we started having theseversions of ourselves that could carryaround signs with those sorts ofidentifiers and like could carry withthem on a very intrinsic level that sortof signification so i think i feelreally hopeful also fora sort of shift in the way we thinkabout gender predicated by just thatbeing a visible marker in the digitalspaceum that also makes me super optimisticawesomeyeah i can certainly talk forever onthis question right in regards to how ithinksocial media has empowered anddisempowered our generation andempowered and disempowered me rightpersonally in the communities that iidentify withright uhi was as zak you might remember right uhthisyou know precocious presumptuousright young american muslim kid whouhgot on the internet and got on stagesanddecided that my voice decided you knowdemanded to be heard right and i found alot of empowerment in community throughsocial media and through the digitalsphere and i built a non-profitprimarily through social media right andbuilt a lot of my identity myself thepeople that i you know the communitiesthat i surrounded myself with throughthe digital sphere and i used to believei canwith such an intensity that social mediawould make the world better right likethroughright expanding our horizons and more ofus connecting with more diverse storiesand voices and umyou know through the power of connectionand information the world would lookbetter and brighter and i used to dreamat one day working on twitterright and iand i really really thoughtthat social media was a force for goodum i regret to inform right that sort ofa decade later having studied socialmedia’s impact on policy in collegehaving started a company now often timesleaning into social media having spent alot more time in digital spaces uh asthey’ve evolved and as they diversifiedand as they’ve complicated like i nolonger share that conviction righti’m not optimistic about the future ofour digital spaces and i say thatunderstanding that it’s it’s it’scomplex right and it’s not one or theother right it’s not like social mediadidn’t make the world better it alsomade the world worse in a lot of waysright it is both of these things at thesame time it is a double-edged swordandon one hand i lookand i’m so proud right and gratefulthatrick through the power of social mediaright is really exactly how you know whoi am right likeyour colleague at the white house rightwho was bangladeshi an american muslimsaw my story about me that mtv newswrote and published on social media andthat went really viral within muslim andbangladeshi communities and then i goton your radar and you were graciousenough to host me at the white house onmore than one occasion so that my voiceas a young person could be included inhigh-level policy-making conversationsaround how my community and thecommunities that i care about areimpacted right by policy and by politicsand by government and i’m grateful forthathoweverright i’m really concerned right aboutthe fact that simultaneously socialmedia propagated misinformation to theextentthat it is in my view a principalcause of what is happening in myanmarright now in terms of right the genocidethat’s happening against the rohingyapeople in the rakhine state right in sofar as the misinformation that’s beingspread about people on social media isactively inciting people to violenceright and so we look at how ourcommunity has been simultaneouslyempowered and harmedi don’t know exactly where i net out buti know that i met out in a way thatisn’t optimistic insofar as i think thatwhen social media was first created itdid make the world better and so far asit expanded access to information itexpanded access to community if you werethe only person who looks like you wholoved like you prayed like you in yourcommunity you could find someonethousands of miles away and buildcommunity and solidarity together andthat was a beautiful thingright but every day since then thealgorithms have gotten more perverse toprioritize advertiser over consumerright and to prioritize engagementclicks over discourse right that we areactually seeing us continually beingempowered by new technologies where theadvent of it made it work better we’veseen basically like diminishing marginalreturns since then if that might makesense right and so i’m not optimistic inso far as i’m really concerned about howpeople are not using anonymized identityto empower and embolden their their theworst parts about society right abouthowpolarized a lot of spaces and places aresuch that there’s no opportunity to evenbuild empathy and compassion becausewe’re operating from different factsbecause of how entrenched misinformationis in digital ecosystems and how hard itis to undoright andon one hand i love seeing on my feedthat miss marvel is coming out and neverdid i think in my lifetime that i wouldsee a hijabi muslim congresswoman apalestinian congresswoman sittingspeaking their truth in congress on mytimeline and never did i think i see amuslim superhero from new jersey whomaybe look like they give me my sisterand i am damn proud to see thatsimultaneously we see the most heinoushate speech right in the most heinousmisinformation that makes us moredangerous and soi feel complicated and i’m trying topiece through itbut i’m not optimisticyesgreat thanks for taking us on thatroller coaster with you i think thatthat’s sorryno noand it’s a good transition i mean that’syou know obviously the next question iswhat’s the flip side of emergingtechnology and innovation i mean i thinkjen’s ears are known as beingthe first sort of likelike totally digital natives as theysometimes say about the millennials buti don’t really agree with that umso you’re you all are meant to be theearly adopters the ones who you knowunderstand intrinsically how technologyworks we’ve also seen the many harmsthat ziad has already started outliningespecially when it comes again todifferent marginalized communitieshow do you all feel about that what issort of what are the greatest threatsthat you’re most worried about umwhether it’s your own communities orother communities that you’ve observedwhat’s uh what’s what’s out there on thethreat uh horizonyeah i i think i’m i’m certainly worriedabout my community um i have a littlebit more optimism than i think ziad hasum in terms of social media and onconnecting online because i think youknow it’s it’s not going anywhere and sowe have to find a way to be hopeful andi’m someone who deeply believes in thatum but in terms of you know beingworried for my community i highly claraidentify as um non-binary andtransgender and what we’ve seen right isis kind of like ziad said thisdouble-edged sword we’re having a lotmore visibility foryou know trans women trans women ofcolor and that’s amazing but with thatvisibility becomes you knowcomes consequences right when whenpeople whohate that person see them beingemboldened they you know turn to thepeople in their community and harm youknow a trans person who has absolutelynothing to do with laverne cox starringin orange is the new black but they’reso upset that you know this person isallowed to live in their full truth andthey aren’t that they’re then takingthat violence out on on their localcommunities and in the trans communitywhere they are umi thinkyou knowwhat makes me feel hopeful even thoughobviously these horrible things arehappening i also know there’s severeupticks in violence specifically towardsasian american women and asian women umi think is the fact that for for youknowthe first time in a long time we’rehaving really open conversations notonly in our personal lives but also atwork about these issues about diversityequity inclusion and belonging and ithink as right an emerging youngprofessional in this field like thereare a lot of companies that for thefirst time are saying like oh crap weneed a diversity and inclusiondepartment we need to make sure thatpeople can bring their full selves towork and so i think that i think thesociety is going to catch up i thinkthat it’s going to take a little bit umbut i think that you know again i’mcautiously optimistic because i see theyoung people like the young people i seeright on this call who bring me so muchhope for that future because i know thatthat we’re all fighting for the samethingyeah i kind of want to build on gabewith like this double-edged sword ofvisibility because i think that it’ssomething that really speaks toespecially like the queer experience butalso the experience of any gen zero thatis very behind a cause that i mean maybeshouldn’t be political i mean a lot ofthese are like very personal i know welike to say like the personal ispolitical now but that being said ithinkthe concern that i feel is it used to bethat when you were queer like you wouldmanage who knew that and you had verymuch so total control over thatvisibility there was one closet and youwere in it or you were out of it and nowthere are like400 closets in 50 different houses in 30different states and this feeling ithink is really challenging because itleaves queer people to do thisexhausting calculus all the time whereyou know i’m out at work i use mypreferred pronouns at work but i’m notout to my family who does have access tothe internet and can find my bio for thecompany and i thinkthis sort of calculus and the sort ofconsequences of this visibility meanthat even asgen zeroes get to live more authentictruths and get to be their full selvesin a way that is broadly more acceptingthey’re also putting themselves at ahuge risk and i don’t think that thedigital community has solved this yetlike i think you should be able to haveyour pronouns display differently fordifferent groups of people on socialmedia platforms i think that this sortof like there should be more controlover your ability to express yourselfsafely online and you should have thesame amount of control that you have ithink something that’s reallychallenging about online is where youcan code switch in real life you haveone online persona and managing that ina way that feels authentic to yourselfwithout putting yourself in danger is ahuge challenge that i think is reallyaching for someone to solve like i idon’t know that anyone has figured outhow to fix that yet but i know it’ssomething that really worries me forpeople that are expressing theirpolitical opinions expressing theiridentities um in a way that might not bepalatable to employers might not bepalatable to their families and how dowe let people use those platforms whilekeeping them safe i i don’t really knowi’m hopeful someone will figure it outbut that’s where my concern liesyeah um oh sorry sake if i was if i cutyou off uh i’m just gonna call on youactually okayyeah i think just to shift slightly ithinka major problem that i’ve seen and i wasspeaking with my friend um who’s doingher sociology project about likequeerness and tick-tockand we kind of found ourselves in thediscussionabout the commodification ofmarginalized cultures on these platformsand that has been such a major issue forme as a black woman a black queer womanwhoin many ways exists at likethe forefront of so many differentcultures as far as like our creation andcontribution to those cultures to thensee them taken to a platform andminimalized and turned intotrends and thentrying to engage in conversations aboutthose trends and stating like yo youneed to you need to credit dancecreators you need tolike look at the slang that you’re usingand recognize that it comes from blacktrans women or just african-americanvernacular english and having thoseconversations and seeing people say nothat’s tick tock slang that’s twitterslang no this is just a tick tock trendit’s okay that i’m posting a video of medancing to a lauren hill song with likea tattoo on my arm of lauren hill on mywhite body because likewe’re all online and we’re all engagingin culture and like the beautiful partsabout being on social media is like thisdissemination of culture and to anextent i think that is the truth howeverunderstanding the differences betweencultural exchange and culturalappropriation lie almost entirely inrespect for these cultures ofsignificance and understanding likethe long temporality of all these thingsand knowing that like tick tock is notlike the beginning and end of blackculture or queer culture what it meansto be a trans person a non-binary personin this country it is likebe like current dot on a very very longtimelineand that has been kind of the largestissue for me is seeing the ways in whichthe like ways that i have particularlyin culture throughout my life and beenlike mocked or demeaned for thatparticipation and then seeing peoplebeing celebrated on these platformswhile also simultaneously notacknowledging the roots of these thingsor seeing the ways in which you knowespecially like white cis men can kindof liketake aspects of like queer aesthetic andwear them and profit from them and thenturn around and kind of likeoff-handedly say that they were inspiredby marsha p johnson and like not reallyreceive any pushback against thatbecausenow in a way like tic toc is seen as asort of like cultural basty and when inreality likeit did not like none of this is new andlike none of these dances are even newthey come from like triller andpredominantly black platformsand like people like on the grounddancing and like finding community andcomfort within each other and creatingculture because of that as opposed tokind of like a creation for an app whichis what it has been today and i think ina way a lot of young people especiallypeople that are younger than me like 1415 year olds coming into contact withthis contact or like my sister that’s 11are kind of remiss and not understandingkind of the background and history ofthe like content and the cultures thatthey’re engaging with on the platformand that does make me a little bitworried for like if this is where we arenow what will this look like in 10 yearsfrom now like how minimalized will thesecultural practices beyeahumso we have a little bit of time left andthis is a fascinating conversation ijust i wanted to um maybe close withmaybe a slightly more practical questionwhich is you know we’re here this wholeinclusion summit isyou know focused on driving change anddriving change especially i think whenit comes to the tech industry when itcomes to policy making and things likethat um i know that all of you do workwith uhtech industry with media companies andyou know you are called upon regularlyand perhaps sometimes exploited for youruh perspective on your generationumlet’s i guess my question is what issort of the number one thing that youthink let’s say the tech industryspecificallyneeds to do or change when it comes toengagement or the centering of gen zeusthe one thing that the needs to do yeahgo ahead yeah so i’m you know i’m notconcise so i apologize in advance but umyou know one thing i would say isit’s not one thing right like it’s it’snot one thing because this is such acomplex problem that it affects so manymarginalized and vulnerable communitiesright and i thinkboth government and the tech communityand i think individuals on theseplatforms all have things all have arole to play and hopefully building abetter digital ecosystem for all of usrightand i think that what i would say isthat i think it starts with but ifyou’re wanting to center diverse youngvoices on the platform like listen tothem as a decision makers right like weshould have vice presidents who looklike the communities that are trying tobe served in real time at thesecompanies if we want to serve thesecommunities right and that’s like whydrew consulting exists and why we do thework that we do but i think beyond thatfrom a more functional you know uhlandscape like the biggest problem thati have with the tech industry withsilicon valley right now is theconflation of innovation and progressbut it’s this idea that just becausesomething is new and interesting thatmeans it makes the world better writteni think it gets us into a lot of trapsit means that the technology that we arebuilding does not actually serve usbecause of a presumption that it willinherently serve us right and so rightnow we are in a critical moment rightwhere tech companies are making a bigpivot towards web 3.right and on one hand web briefrepresents wonderful opportunities ofattribution right to faith’s pointaround the fact that so much of culturehas been co-opted has been stolen hasbeen exploited through blockchaintechnology and through attribution wecan perhaps protect that more so oh thepeople can own the trend that theycreated and profit off of that inperpetuity as they should right forbeing the cultural originator ofsomething digitally right on the otherhand web 3 creates a lot of reallyperverse realities of the winners of web3 and cryptocurrency are alreadypredecided by those who had the liquidcapital right and the risk appetite toalready invest at a very early timewhich entrenches systemic inequalitybecause it wasn’t marginalizedcommunities who investedright it wasn’t those right who couldn’tafford to take that risk to invest itright and so that is incrediblyinherently already createdimbalance and who is creating thesetechnologies because not looking likethe communities who need to be servedright and those who are profiting off ofit are not looking at communities needto be served right and then on top ofthat we think about the metaphors whenwe think about these technologies theyallow for even more perverse forms ofanonymized identity right where you cancosplay and costumize as whatever youwant to be and we are just now gettingto a point in society where i could showup as an american muslim and all of uscan show up here as our full selvesright with whatever identities we mightshare and claim our stories ouridentities our baggage with prideonly to create digital humans anddigital stories that are completelyfabricated when we’re not stilllistening to the real people who matterlike i don’t need in my view a digitalavatar to tell me about their traumawhen we still have real people thatwe’re not listening to when it comes totheir trauma right and i don’t need aninfinite time square where people canmarket to me in a digital landscape wheni’m really already trying to get limitson my phone so i’m on it less so are wecreating technologies that peopleactually wantand are the people creating them thepeople that we’re actually trying toserveright and i think we’re in a criticalmoment where we ought to be asking thatquestion by having voices like these inthe roomright by empowering themand by willing to take risks right thatmight not always be good for businessbut there’s a lot bigger things at stakethan business when we look at the mentalhealth crisis that’s happening amongyoung people in this world when we lookat climate change like i think the airthat we breathe right and the heartsthat we have matter a lot more to methan whether a business thrives and weought to be having that conversation inreal time i don’t think those in siliconvalley areyeah i think i kind of want to likeexpand on something the odds said andthen also a little bit disagree withpart of it um i think so i am now anenglish major but i used to be astatistics major so i’m going to try tospeak to that and it might be a littleimperfectum but there is a phenomenal book calledrace after technology by ruja benjaminand what this book talks about is theidea of algorithms and how they’reharmful to marginalized communities oneof the really big examples that shedraws upon is broken windows policingand the idea that our current policealgorithms are based on patterns ofpolice data that were created whenpolice officers who had their personalbiases were creating the data sets thatwould later be used to inform so-calledlike objective algorithmsand i think that although the impact ofthat is a little bit morestraightforward and we can understandwhy that would beracist and harmful i don’t think thatwe’re applying those same lenses to thealgorithms that govern our social mediaplatforms i think that there’s thismisconception that when we automatethings and make them more objective onpaper that means they’re actually moreobjective and actually serve allcommunities equally but the reality isif the data is made by people withbiases then the algorithms themselvesare going to be biased so i thinkbringing humans back into the processnot over automating not saying hey it’san algorithm so it has to be moreobjective is the only thing we can do tofight back against the idea that thedata sets we have are informed bysystemic injustice that defines ourworld and i think that when we start toevaluate that when we start to put likehuman beings back in the decision-makingprocess and specifically human beingswho are representative of thecommunities we’re trying to work forback into the process of evaluating whatcontent we center that’s how we sort offight back so i think if there’s onething that tech companies can do it’sunderstand that like making it objectivemaking it math doesn’t mean it’s notracist doesn’t mean it’s not homophobicdoesn’t mean it’s not sexist in fact itcould be worse because all of a suddenwe’re just calling those things numbersand we don’t have the association thatwe have with those words that gives ussort of the impetus to actually fightback against those issuesit’s clear i could not agree more icould not agree moreexcellentumfaith or gabe would one of you like totake us outyeah i i sure can um i think rightwhat what one thing there’s a lot ofthings that that tech company should doum i’m sure we’ve all seen the socialdilemma right like we knowhow tech companies work we know that youknow they have so much data andinformation on us and i think that thereare a few different things they could doum one interesting idea that that’s beenposed i think by a lot of differentfolks at this point is giving usownership of the information thatcompanies have on us i think that likewe we look at information as an assetbut not an asset online if that makessense it’s never we have never hadaccess to own our information online andso i think if we really want you know ifa company wants to know about me likei’m totally willing to sell you myinformation but there has to be somesort of more exchange than clickingaccept all cookies right when i when igo on a website um i also think rightsocial media knows that it’s bad forpeople literally instagram has internalreports saying thatyou know instagram is bad for teenagegirls because it promotes anxiety bodyimage issues all these other issuesbecause at the end of the day likesocial media is performance and i thinkthat you know obviously it’s a greatconnector and and you know techcompanies have given usso much um in terms of ways for us tolike zion said right connect with peopleall around the world but at the end ofthe day like what what they need to dois is i think specifically protectprotect kids and our communities we wetalked right in the session about shadowbanning um and and that sort of thingand i think likewe needstronger kind ofprotection around you know kids and theway that their information is is soldandstored onlineand also like claire talked about ithink there needs to be a really goodlook at you know what algorithms arekind of leading the charge andyou knowtry and avoid the spoiling people andall their complexity and diversity downto a set of numbers or datathank you so much uh faith actuallyany final thoughts on your end toolet me make sure everyoneyeah i mean i thinkeveryone has really done a good job ofcovering so many different viewpointsi think the largest thing is justfinding better ways of likekind of uniformlyattributing content to the people thatit came fromi thinkthere is an issue with so much of justlike i spoke about like thecommodification of culture but on like avery small level like on tiktok thereare so many opportunities for like youngblack creatives to have much largerplatforms than they have and you justsee so many people talking about likenot getting an artist tag on the songsthat they’ve released or likedance trends that go so viral that likecharlie demilio’s invited to go on jimmyfallon and do a dance that was createdby like a 12 year old black girl andhaving to like push and push and push tohave her like recognized for somethingthat brought like so many people to thatplatform i think it’s something that ijust i just would like to see more ofjust seeing likethe people that are kind of acting asthe foundation for so much content onthis platform being like formallyrecognized and having like a throughprocess for having the opportunity tolike profit from and like live off oftheir creativity which is something sooften only afforded to certaindemographics of peoplethank you so much faith well ziad gabeclaire faith thank you all so much forthis conversation this is honestly suchan important conversation and you knowif there’s one thing we could take awayit’s thatthe communities that decisions are beingmade about should be included in everyconversation that’s about them whetherit’s tech companies whether it’s policymakersum whether it’s you know all the leadinstitutions like the aspen institutewe need to all be taking better steps toincludingyou know these perspectives in thesevoices thank you all so much reallyappreciate it thank you to hcg thank youfor having usthanks for having us thanks guysthanks so much thank you all so much andthank you http for having us uh we hopeyou all enjoyed this session and therest of the summit and we’ll see youlater bye-byewow what a day it has been such an honorto be here with you todayand to have these important andnecessary conversations thank you somuch for joining us and thesediscussions about accountability as wellas what strategies are working incommunities from the historicalobstacles facing accessing reliableinternet and getting those digital toolsto the language we use around discussingbroadband and internet access i’m sohonored to be a part and support theseconversations we have learned so muchand also discovered how far we need togo to form a more equitable and digitalworld for all of usthank you again for tuning in i want tosend my appreciation to the communityadvocates our policymakers and electedofficials and all our speakers forgiving their time today a very specialthank you to our http latino influencerslive team who have been live tweetingand live instagramming today’s eventthank you to our http ceo roundtablemembers and especially this year’sunderwriting partnersto learn more about our work at httpplease visit www.httppolicy.organd as always make sure to connect withus on social media by following at httpunderscore policy see you next time[Music]you
A conversation at the Digital Inclusion Summit led by Aspen Digital with diverse Gen-Z leaders on what they see as both the threats and opportunities provided by emerging technologies and platforms, particularly as they affect marginalized communities.
Gabe Garcia, Senior Director of People, Inclusion, & Accounts
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