Social media can be a place where ‘basic rules are suspended’
By Alex Webb | Bloomberg
pple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook warned Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates that technology — and social media in particular — can divide society even as it’s intended to bring people together. “The internet has enabled so much and empowered so many,” Cook said Friday in an address at MIT’s graduation ceremonies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “But it can also be a place where basic rules of decency are suspended and pettiness and negativity thrive.”
Apple, which makes most of its money from selling hardware such as the iPhone, has taken only tentative steps into social media products. In 2010, it introduced a service called Ping, which was tied to iTunes, where it sells music, films and TV shows. Ping let users share their music preferences with contacts, but was shuttered in 2012.
