Editorials - Feb. 2, 2024

Music fans have been given another reason to tune into the Grammy awards scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 4. Canadian music legend Joni Mitchell will be making her long-awaited debut at the tender age of 80. 

 

While no stranger to the Grammys, with nine wins, including a lifetime achievement award in 2002, and 18 previous nominations, the icon had, surprisingly, never performed at the awards ceremony.

 

A brain aneurysm in 2015 raised concerns that she would never perform again, but an emotional return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival, where she recorded her latest album, has led to yet another nomination.

 

She has appeared only a couple of times in the last year, and doesn’t seem to have any future concerts scheduled, so Mitchell’s legions of fans are grateful to get this bonus opportunity to appreciate the octogenarian. – DS

Technology has always moved too fast to be enforced properly. The early days of the internet, the Wild West of social media before the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk cleaned it up -  alright, not that one, but you get the point - they have all moved at a pace with which the lawmakers and do-gooders could not keep up. And now we have deepfakes and images created by artificial intelligence, the latest and most high-profile victim of which is the one and only Taylor Swift.

 

To what end, you may ask? You know that quote from broadcaster Don Ohlmeyer: “The answer to all your questions is money”? When it comes to this stuff, the answer to all your questions, invariably, is pornography.

 

Yes, someone - alleged to be from Scarborough, Ontario - churned out some sexually-explicit images of Taylor Swift and she’s going to try and take him down (in the most legal of ways - indeed, through the legal system). While it’s horrible to see Swift victimized in this way, as one of the most powerful and visible women in the world, perhaps she will be able to affect change and bring real-life effort to stopping this sick behaviour before it really gets off the ground (the White House is talking about it, which is part of the power of Swift).

 

Today it’s Taylor Swift, but tomorrow it could be your daughter or son, grandchildren or siblings at the hands of a tech-savvy classmate, a bully with an iPad or a jilted ex-lover with revenge on his mind. Rules in place could help them as a result of action being taken right now. 

 

Swift and the police, lawyers, politicians, etc. who come to her aid in this case have an opportunity to kill a lot of ugliness on the vine. If there’s someone with the power to move the needle, it’s Swift. While it may be unfortunate that she has been targeted in this manner, there may be a silver lining that could help others from being victimized down the road. Getting ahead of this, if possible, would be wise. – SL 

The pocket-sized power tools used every day for modern communication go by many names: portable mobile devices, smartphones, cellular demons. Whatever the name, one cannot deny the enormous impact that these devices have had on reshaping the way we interact with each other in 2024, for better and for worse.

 

The B.C. government is taking steps to restrict student cell phone usage in public schools. The aim is to reduce some of the threats imposed in the virtual world while on school grounds. Sexual predators, bullies and misinformation are all obvious problems for those tasked with the responsibility of protecting children - a paramount concern for any civilized society. B.C.’s approach should be emulated elsewhere.

 

Documenting changes and challenges arriving with the application of newer technologies isn’t novel territory for The Citizen. In the early 1990s, founder/columnist/visionary/dramatist/all-around-great-guy and legend, Keith Roulston, criticized the Cable News Network’s (CNN) Gulf War coverage, expressing skepticism at the purported value of footage featuring tanks and explosions that were being beamed onto television sets across the planet. Roulston suggested radio and newspapers as more suitable media alternatives for in-depth and factual coverage of the emergent situation in the Middle East.

 

In the late 1980s, The Citizen printed a local story detailing the debate on smoking cigarettes in public schools. That subject is no longer up for debate - secondhand smoke has been established as disruptive to cognitive development. How will the debate on mobile devices in schools be viewed in the future?

 

Huron County’s electronic portal to local newspaper archives is an incredible resource for anyone wanting to have a glimpse at how things have changed over the years, and also how they haven’t changed.

 

Children left to their own devices are not equipped to navigate the complex challenges posed by modern technology. Let’s help them. – SBS