# Phylicia's Reading Responses (Set 1)

- Checklist for a [good reading response](https://reagle.org/joseph/zwiki/Teaching/Best_Practices/Learning/Writing_Responses.html) 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.

## Reading responses 5 out of 5

### Sep 19 Tue - How the Web works

If you had asked me what the web was a few hours ago, I would have said a bunch of confusing code that helps consumers take in online stimulation. According to MDN (2016), it’s a platform where you search for your goods and services, and once approved you can receive them. In reality we are the client and the software that contains code is our server. You could also say we as users are commissioning the web to offer us an explanation or solution to a question. Understanding how the web works today is crucial for being a productive member of society, but I would like to learn about the history of programming languages. Web developing is a simple concept of “shopping and receiving”, but how did this design turn into the Internet? The Web is accessible to all “clients” accessing a “server” but where’s the overlap between two platforms we know but use interchangeably: the Internet vs. the web?

Last night, I had access to the web, but the school’s Internet was not accessible; so why do the two get compared so quickly when in reality they are two varying pieces of software? In an attempt to grasp the difference without research I think the Internet is a subgroup of the web, the Internet is a connectional software with a smaller reach/scope when compared to the web as well. They are both developed using Hyper Text Markup Language and protected by HTTPS for safe online use. The funny thing is that with one click of my search engine, all these underground processes using HTML, IP addresses, DNS, and countless lines of JavaScript to find the answer to my question.

### Oct 03 Tue - Cooperation

As a young adult when I hear the term “cooperation” I immediately think of obeying a higher being or conforming in order to satisfy social norms to live a life without subjugation. Yet in Martin Nowak and Roger Highfield’s book about this exact term a newly realized definition unfolds. We cooperate in the hopes of receiving a reward in return for either past, present, or indirect reciprocity. Cooperation is a human instinct, as usual, from our evolving ancestors in order to survive and take care of one another. Cooperation derives from the need to be in social groups “bound by the way that an individual makes sacrifices to help his brethren (Nowak & Highfield, 2011, p. 47). The book did highlight how, “Punishment could indeed force cooperation…but at a cost that was so high that it destroyed the advantages of cooperation” (Nowak & Highfield, 2011, p. 33). Failure to cooperate stems from temptations for self interest, a lack of necessity, and enforced punishment mechanisms. Human greed, human fear, and human lust consume charitable natures. Online communities are much larger than the so-called Dunbar’s number limit for relationships; which is 150 people, so the bigger the community the less quality for meaningful interactions (Joseph Reagle, 2015). Some cooperation online may also trigger a false sense of charitable acts, solely for the “clout” and appearance of “altruism”. The #BlackoutTuesday movement, for example, was hurting the people who were posting educational and provocative content versus the hashtag being flooded by cooperatives offering nothing genuine to the movement. Cooperation between larger groups is tricky due to the fact that these unrealistic sizes make it rather difficult to build honest relationships over technology.

### Oct 06 Fri - Social Networks
Everything has a shape to it: bodies, food, molecules, objects, and as described in Howard Rheingold’s journal, chapter five expressed the structural and adaptable form of social networks. Everything that holds a social experience has a body to it, whether it’s a distribution curve, rugged edges, sudden swerves, or even a simple circle. Condensing our societal experiences in forms can vary from the bell-shaped curve displaying the average grades for an AP Computer Science course to the networking of maintaining a simple human conversation. The shape of communication is transforming with the power of emerging technology, in reference to cell phones transforming “communication from house-to-house to person-to-person” (Rheingold, 2012, p. 210). With the concept of Dunbar’s number of 150 manageable relationships, this number has transitioned not only from physical interactions but to online interactions through email, social media, or direct messages. Although online interactions have become more prevalent, suggesting we are losing real connection with humans, Rheingold (2012) indicates that face-to-face interactions aren’t required; it’s “how much of your yourself you can put into [relationships]” (p. 214) that defines the strength it holds. The efforts you put into social networks have shown the importance of “social capital” in not only face-to-face interactions but digital ones. Reciprocity is reflected in the capitalization of the social network as a way to benefit both parties; whether the short or long-term in varying forms of reward. The online platforms we utilize are not considered out-of-this-world phenomena anymore; they are part of our daily lives now. So, what’s the key to gaining independence in a networking circle that prompts collectivist thinking with an outward appearance of individualism?

### Oct 13 Fri - The Dark Net
If you want to use the web with anonymity without oversight look no further than the darknet. The Darknet is an online region within the Deep Web in which any person can appear anonymous; which to no surprise was financed by the federal government and fruitlessly regulated. The Tor browser is a “software that masks your location and activity”, meaning it enables the Darknet to have criminals flourish while simultaneously helping citizens hide from online stalkers (Kushner, 2015). Like Shrek once said, “Onions have layers. Ogres have layers,” and like onions and ogres the Deep Web can be accessed through a multi-layer system, encryption, starting with the Tor software using Onion Routing that can “wrap traffic in encrypted layers (like onions) in order to protect the contents of the data as well as the anonymity of the sender and receiver” (Wright, 2015). Now the unclaimed, authorless creation of digital currency that the darknet depends upon is Bitcoin. It’s a public ledger making it a crypto currency record keeping system that the Darknet uses to make transactions under pseudonyms. It’s crucial to the Dark Web because it verifies a metaphoric “digital apple certifiably left my possession and is now completely yours” without worry of it being stolen, copied, or lost in travel (Custodio, 2013). Our public web is only the “so-called Surface Web above the water” (Kushner, 2015). Picture an iceberg: the public web seemingly only takes up the tip of the iceberg while below the surface lies the dark unknowns controlled by the anonymous; both concealing good and evil online. Makes you wonder how much of your personal information is swimming around the bottom of the ice berg and being monopolized...

### Oct 24 Tues - Shaped
No matter how humble I try to come off, I love a good compliment; it’s human nature to enjoy the outward expression someone has for something within yourself. Whether it’s an in-person or digitally made comment, as a digital native especially, I feel consumed by this “fandom” consumption. Digital communication can be an incredible and eye-opening tool when used in moderation and appropriately. As Joseph Reagle (2015) stated in his book Reading Comments, “I sometimes disable my connection to the Web when I need to focus.” If you are mindful, you discipline your behaviors. Our ability to be mindful of others is altered through digital communication due to the fact that interactions are online instead of in person, so we often dehumanize the being behind the screen or depersonalize ourselves. Digital communication also affects our self-esteem; science typically discusses the negative attributes of using social media, but it can also be a self-enhancing experience. On applications like Facebook, you have “the ability to control self-presentation,” making your self-esteem enhanced due to the fact that you aren’t surprised by what others are exposed to about yourself. I think digital communication has loosely made society more narcissistic, but not in the psychological sense that means you put yourself entirely above others. The phrase “narcissistic paradox,” presented by psychologists Carolyn Morf and Frederick Rhodewalt, goes to show that digital participants “yearn and reach for self-affirmation in ways that destroy the very relationships on which they are dependent” (Reagle, 2015). The relationship between narcissism and self-esteem can be a strong one. Personally, when I post on social media, I have an inherent expectation of who is going to like, comment, and share my content. When someone out of the ordinary fails to do so, I feel somewhat disrespected. Where I think mindfulness comes in is when I become self-aware of my narcissism and feel embarrassed by my thoughts.

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