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From the editor's desk: Interesting times

Andrew Seldon, Editor

We certainly live in interesting times. From delaying the budget speech because the ANC doesn’t see any reason why VAT shouldn’t be increased by 2%, to crime fighters being set up and prosecuted in the media because they won’t submit to criminal syndicates (what kind of politician stands their ground these days? Unthinkable!). Then there is the water crisis, the electricity crisis, the roads crisis, the crime crisis, and so on – and on and on.

And then, of course, there’s Trump, who has thrown the cat among the pigeons in South Africa (and basically everywhere) with blunt speech that avoids the usual platitudes to the ethically challenged and aims directly at the untouchables. While it certainly is refreshing to see a politician taking a stand and doing something, the impact of America’s new administration is cause for concern for everyday South Africans.

Politicians and their chums will still have well-stocked couches, but the rest of us don’t have such luxuries. Even if the American administration only cuts specific funding, everyone in the country will feel the knock-on effect, especially the poor. As EU citizens have learned the hard way, while there may be a good reason to throw rocks at the bear and think you are too far away for it to do anything, the good feelings that self-righteous posturing invokes don’t really compensate for increased energy, food and everything else prices.

The worst outcome of the Trump decisions and the ANC’s reactions will be increased civil disorder and dissatisfaction. The reactions on X are alarming. One has to wonder if any intelligent life is left on social media (or if any is left because of social media).

There is a great article online about how social media and AI have been perverted from their incredible potential to serve the needs of some. You can find the LinkedIn article at https://tinyurl.com/377vn79b. The key standout sentence for me is: “It turns out when an app company doesn’t care about content and asks an AI to maximize usage the result is a service that incentivizes content that maximizes addictiveness”.

Is there still a place for media that is not tailored to SNARF? (The article explains that SNARF stands for Stakes, Novelty, Anger, Retention, and Fear.) Has social media and media that ‘tailors’ its content to the left or right in pursuit of clicks destroyed the traditional value of journalism? I no longer like using the word ‘journalism’; it’s been ‘snarfed’. I think journalists need to revert to being reporters, reporting on what is happening, irrespective of whether they like it or not or whether their social media gods approve.

Apart from that rant, I hope you enjoy Issue 1 of SMART Security Solutions for 2025. We have some interesting trends and cybersecurity articles. Please don’t hesitate to send your non-snarfed feedback to [email protected].

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