Then I charted differences over time for some countries (Because I couldn’t fit them all in). As you can see, all featured countries have seen peaks which later declined. For Australia and Finland the decline seems to be ongoing, while Greece, Israel and Chile have seen a modest uptick, and the US pretty much flatlined.

Last, I wanted to see if I could find some interesting relationship between women inventors and other indices. Was there a correlation between the percentage of women inventors in a country, and the percentage of women who received tertiary education in that country?

Yes, there does seem to be a strong correlation between the two. A more educated women populace would mean more women inventors.

What about women entrepreneurs – was there a possible correlation there?

There does seem to be a modest correlation between the two.

But I was most surprised when I tried to correlate gender wage gap – often used to describe the level of gender parity in a country – with women inventors. I had expected for the connection to be inverse: the lower the wage gap, the higher the opportunities a woman has to become an inventor. But it was the other way around, at least in the countries I checked: Denmark had a low wage gap – and a low rate of women inventors, while Chile displayed the opposite connection. Whether this is the result of a cultural difference of something else  – or maybe my chart didn’t portray the situation entirely accurately – I don’t know. But it leaves some interesting questions to investigate.

But over the past 2-3 years, it has evolved into an addiction. Clicking on Facebook and scrolling down my feed became something I either do all the time, or want to do all the time, like the smoker who starts craving a cigarette even as she’s still smoking one. It’s not that my feed is so interesting: more often it’s either boring or depressing (Unlike other people who get depressed by seeing other people’s photogenic lives, my depression derives mainly from having so many lefty Israeli friends who are disgruntled about the way things are in Israel). Furthermore, I don’t trust Facebook. I know they’re selling me to advertisers, that they are a useful tracking and monitoring tool for governments, and that Facebook keeps me from reading and writing stuff I really want to read and write, from really being with my kids, even when I’m physically there and that it turns me into a “like” junkie.

So why do I keep at it? I think that it’s the useful distraction from anxiety, combined with a slight ADHD. And, it’s so easy. Facebook is always there. It has gotten so bad, that when I have something important to do – an assignment or just an afternoon with my children – I have taken to deleting the Facebook app from my phone. The problem is, I always re-download it.

Examining the battery percentage report on my phone revealed that my suspicions were founded: On a daily basis and also on a weekly basis, I was spending around 50% of my battery (i.e. of my time) on Facebook.

Some insights about my usage of Facebook:

Another interesting insight is that I now consume most of my media through Facebook. I rarely go to the New York Times website anymore – I just “like” them, get updates and read what I want to read through Instant Articles. It’s the same with Haaretz, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, but also silly quiz websites and slideshows. 

The defining feature of my consumption is that it is seemingly random: I don’t start out saying, “I’d like to see a slideshow about the longest-lasting celebrity marriages! where can I find that?” I am distracted into clicking on the link when it appears on my feed. Of course, there is really nothing random about it, because it is all dictated by the Facebook algorithm in ways that I will never understand. But the point is that it is not dictated by me. I’m no longer in charge of my media consumption: Mark Zuckerberg is.

This is important for two reasons: first, freedom of press has been deteriorating around the world for the past 10 years (according to the freedom of press report) and so tool that enables anyone to report more safely is essential. And as we’ve seen in the last year in the US, documentation of violence – mainly by police and military – is sometimes the only way to prove that problems like police targeting black men, really exists. The tools I mention are not perfect, but they are a start.

I’m a 2015-6 Nieman fellow.
Before coming here I worked as a magazine reporter at Haaretz newspaper in Israel.
I reported mostly long-form pieces but also news and Op Eds.
Before that I was an art director in advertising agencies in New York and Tel Aviv.
I’m deeply interested in gender and childhood.
I would like us journalists to stop chasing the latest social media platforms, and take control of our storytelling.
I’m particularly interested in two questions:
1. How can technology be used to assist reporting and writing, make them more accessible and interactive, without sacrificing depth and craft?
2. How can technology make journalists more independent of organizations and free in creating the right platform for their content?
I’m excited about this class and the chance for collaboration!