Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Apple computer co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history. In an email to USA
Today, Wozniak says Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He says the “profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back.” Wozniak says he’d rather pay for Facebook. He says “Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify on Capitol Hill this week about the company’s ongoing data-privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service. Facebook has also announced technical changes intended to address privacy issues.
■ Tina Fey says she had no idea Mean Girls would be timelier today than it was 14 years ago, and that makes her a little uneasy. “It’s just sort of unfortunate that it does,” the Emmy-winning actress and writer said Sunday at the opening night party for her Broadway adaptation of the 2004 film Mean Girls. Fey wrote the story for the show with her husband, Jeff Richmond, who composed the music. They were asked about the difference between the stage and film versions. Like the film, the musical tells the story of a teenage girl who grew up in Africa and ends up in a suburban U.S. high school. There she quickly learns the cruel nature of being popular. Though it’s a comedy, it depicts clique mentalities and the negative effect that has on self-esteem. “When the movie was written, it was about relational aggression among girls. And now, everyone does that. The government does it. People are unkind. They don’t respect each other’s basic human dignity, and so social media is such a disease, right?” Fey said. “So it feels like it’s an even more-timely reminder now that we all need to just kind of take a breath before we hurt each other.”
■ A 7-year-old in Ada, Okla., is excited she has a textbook that was once used by country singer Blake Shelton, but her mom is embarrassed the book is nearly 40 years old. Marley Parker saw that The Voice star had written his name in Look Away (Keys to Reading) in 1982. However, her mother did not share her daughter’s enthusiasm. Shelly Bryan Parker wrote on Facebook that she was embarrassed.
The former teacher was critical that the textbook was still in use and she voiced support for teachers who are in their second week of demonstrations for more funding for Oklahoma schools. Leaders of Oklahoma’s largest teacher’s union said protests would continue unless lawmakers and the governor act.