###### tags: `CDA` # Reading Responses (Set 1) <!-- Set 1 --> * Checklist for a good reading response of 250-350 words - [ ] Begin with a punchy start. - [ ] Mention specific ideas, details, and examples from the text and earlier classes. - [ ] Offer something novel that you can offer towards class participation. - [ ] Check for writing for clarity, concision, cohesion, and coherence. - [ ] Send to professor with “hackmd” in the subject, with URL of this page and markdown of today’s response. * Checklist for potential reading responses - [x] Jan 14 Tue - Attention - [x] Jan 17 Fri - How the Web works - [x] Jan 24 Fri - Fake News - [ ] Jan 28 Tue - Learning - [x] Feb 04 Tue - Cooperation - [ ] Feb 07 Fri - Social Networks - [x] Feb 11 Tue - Student Nominated Topic - [ ] Feb 14 Fri - Exam Review ## Reading responses 5 out of 5 ### Jan 14 Mon - Superconnected More Benefits and Hazards of 24/7 Superconnectedness The era of technological advancements has connected people together mentally and emotionally through media platforms. The social networks allows a "continuous superconnectedness" (p.178) that make people constantly involved in social media online rather than physical interaction. This has both positive and negative results. Specifically. Living in a tech-intensive societies makes people rely heavily on the Internet, and it will increase negative impact on human performance, like lateness; and more being controlled by technology. Besides, digital media creates a playful environment for users to enhance connection and involvement to their cultural interests. Yet gaming culture sometimes represent harassment toward females. Social media also makes people process information slower and given parcial attentions when scanning massive media platforms, and it usually results in attention distraction. Additionally, being too addicted to digital tools might result in stress and information overload. Yet many people view social media in a positive way in times of emergency, and it can decrease depression for people, including elderly as well. The function of iPhone notification usually distracts my concentration. I realized when I was focusing on reading, and touch my phone unintentionally, my phone would automatically flips on the display screen. At that time I would look at my phone and start reading the notification, or unlock my phone to check social media like Instagram, Wechat, YouTube, etc. without conscious. After a short while I would finally realized that I was distracted and went back to the reading. However, although I knew that I was being distracted by my phone, it constantly keeps happening to me to look at the phone while doing other things without notices. ### Jan 17 Fri - How the Web works Mozilla Developer Network describes the relationship between computers and the web as “client” and “server”. Clients are internet-connected devices such as computers and phones, or web-accessing software like Safari or Chrome. Servers are computers that store web pages or apps. On the other hand, Hartley Brody points out that HTTPS, which is a protocol, protects user’s data security. Secure connections are important because once a website destination is requested from the computer, the request would pass through multiple locations such as local networks, routers, ISP and other web organizations. Thus, theft or trading of personal information would potentially happen, and our private information such as credit card, social security, and financial account numbers, along with passwords might be exposed. Therefore, Transport Layer Security (TLS) is used to transform messages online that are hard to decipher in order to protect data security and personal information privacy. My credit card was being hacked before, and someone used my bank account to buy shoes on Zappos. I called Bank of America and the staff told me that he would do “investigation”. Although I am not sure how the process went, after a short while,he replied that the money would be refunded to my account, and BOA would mail me a new credit card. At this point, I was curious if Bank of America was able to track down the IP address of who hacked my account. However, if it does, what further step will Bank of America take? Or is it legal for Bank of American to track IP addresses? ### Jan 24 Fri - Fake News Fake news has been a serious issue that impacts the U.S society, especially the U.S presidential campaign. Craig Silverman criticized that Facebook generated high-viewing fake news about the presidential election and it caused high engagement for the fake content that surpassed the real news. Accordingly, there are nineteen mainstream media posted top-performing fake election content on Facebook, such as Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN, and etc. However, the contents posted by these mainstream media on Facebook, are inaccurate and bias-driven to the candidates, especially Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Not only that false information is lack of fact-checking, but also the public’s opinions of the candidate is misled, and further impact on the vote. According to Adam Mosseri, Facebook had taken actions to regulate fake content; including reporting features, fact-checking by third-parties, informed sharing, and disrupting spammers. Further, Blogger Danah Boyd elicits the importance of media literacy that internet users should have the capability to criticize and select credible information. However, people trust their own beliefs rather than being informed about new information that contradicts their knowledge. It is everyone’s responsibility to question and to be critical when confronted with so much information. I think some organizations or media regarded fake news as their weapon to attract attention and mislead people for political purposes. I have been reading many news or rumors about the protests in Hong Kong, and it is not surprising that the information is always polarized. I followed one of the protesters on Instagram, and every day she will retweet news from other Instagram account which post anti-government news. Those posts are very biased and aggressive, and always demonize the government including that the police murder or rape students. However, those posts are words only with no evidence. And it is upseting to see so many people follow her and her fake news. ### Feb 04 Tue - Cooperation "Survival of the fittest" and "law of the jungle" are the phrases that Chinese people often adopt to describe the winner of games, and the two phrases are usually applied in the rules of society and the workplace. Both have the metaphor of competition between living things to survive. However, after reading the article “Why We Help”, I think there might be the third possibility as "survival of the luckiest". In Martin’s argument, cooperation is the key to success, meaning that helping each other is vital to survival. He also found that collectives will repeat the cycle between cooperation and conflict during the mechanism for evolution. There are many kinds of direct reciprocity. According to Nowak, the initial tit-for-tat strategy explains players might still cooperate with players who betray them or make mistakes. Vampire bats will share blood meal to other vampire bats which cannot find food, and those bats will remember which bast helped them and would help them back in return. In addition, collective activity such as living in a neighborhood is the outcome of individuals to form clusters, while the competition and cooperation are usually found among employees who seek promotion. On the other hand, indirect reciprocity indicates whether the person will help another depend on the needy individual’s reputation, and this scenario is the cause of cultural society. According to the experiment of Prisoner's Dilemma, it is most likely that two of the individuals will choose defection. But there is still the possibility that only one of them remains silent, and the other one takes a risk to defect. Instead, the incriminator gets one year of jail time only. In other words, the risk-taker knows how to play the game well and how to survive in the end, and he or she is the "survival of the luckiest". ### Feb 11 Tue - The Dark Web A 22-year-old girl who lived alone in Cardiff Street, Brisbane, disappeared as someone turned off the light under the surveillance camera. A witness saw the victim in northern New South Wales where is hundreds of miles away from Brisbane. Soon the police found the girl and arrest the 50-year-old kidnapper. When the police further learned the truth about the disappearance of the victim, it gave people the creeps. The kidnapper intended to sell the girl as a sex slave through darknet with the starting price 100,000 Australian dollars. What made the police even more frightened was that there were already three buyers who had bid before the kidnapper was arrested. Darknet is an online space that enables Internet users to remain virtually anonymous and allows websites to mask the servers’ locations. It was originally used for security that protects government employees to share information without revealing their identities, and it also protects people who are insecure under political persecution. At the same time, Tor (the Darknet) is a cove for criminals enterprise that allowing criminals to deal with drugs, weapons, sex-trafficking, etc. Many people take advantage of the Darknet for illegal purposes and have made the government concerned, yet there are still many authorities support keeping the Darknet. It is insecure to type our personal information online because someone might keep the data and sell it for purposes. The kidnapper in Australia used the rental website to identify who was single as people posted information on the rental website. So hackers knew if the person is single or not. I am afraid and dislike the Darknet, and after searching for more information about the Darknet, I am wondering if I can track who hacked my information before, or how can I prevent hackers who try to hack my information?