---
# System prepended metadata

title: Reading Responses (Set 1)
tags: [CDA]

---

###### tags: `CDA`
# Reading Responses (Set 1)



## Reading response 1

### Feb 5 Fri - [Fake News](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#feb-05-fri---fake-news)
[Breaking News - Biden is getting impeached!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus). How many of you believed that and clicked the link? Media Literacy can be very confusing and often misleading. In today’s date, people do not want to see news for what it is but rather for gossip, or hearsay. You, me, and everyone are obsessed with juicy content instead of seeing harsh realities, wanting some spice to life instead of the boring reporting style.

The fourth article in the list, about [Media Manipulation]( https://mediamanipulation.org/case-studies/recontextualized-media-biden-voter-fraud-organization) shows how someone with one half decent computer and a subscription to premiere pro, anyone can [become a media manipulator](https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/10/18659432/deepfake-ai-fakes-tech-edit-video-by-typing-new-words) ; a source for hot fake news and “evidence” backed videos. Retweets, Likes, Shares and Comments usually enhance this hoax distribution. We often even believe it. 

This trendy way of spreading Scoop News has mitigated to memes, videos, tweets, and virtually all social media platforms you have seen. The graph midway through [this article](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook) also shows how unreliable tittle-tattle has taken over genuine evidence backed information. I mean [Hilary selling weapons to the ISIS](https://thepoliticalinsider.com/wikileaks-confirms-hillary-sold-weapons-isis-drops-another-bombshell-breaking-news/) is definitely eye catchier than [Myanmar coup: Teachers join growing protests against military](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55944482). 

However, despite all the information we have on the internet, not all are credible. We often just google something we are curious about and usually get the information we need without opening the link, through the preview feature; how many of us have gone into the link and seen what the sources of the link is? Memes have often made it seem like [anti-vaxxers](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/anti-vaxxer#what-do-anti-vaxxers-believe) are ignorant parents who are brainwashed by the right wing media who do not want to be protected against diseases; it is on the contrary, a choice they are making to evaluate the risks and understand the biology behind the vaccine, instead of trusting it blindly. This is how media might literacy maybe [backfiring](https://points.datasociety.net/did-media-literacy-backfire-7418c084d88d#.d46kox6e1) on us.

Instead of verifying something you believe, concepts of [Falsification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability) should be followed, it aims to prove your information wrong. Is it very easy to verify fake gossip; but it is very tough to falsify real news. We have to make a change that people check their sources and aim toward not believing in things that are handed to us by unreliable websites/agencies. Question your sources, but then not so much that you start a whole new trend of skepticism. Be aware of the knowledge you consume.

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## Reading response 2

### Feb 16 - [Cooperation](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#feb-16-tue---cooperation)

Humans came together for becoming allies, so why do we often find ourselves competing against each other? As Mr. Nowak had suggested, many other species have always been social beings to fight for a common agenda and often help each other; be it ants, bees, monkeys or even bats – my question being, why cannot humans do the same? Have we really become that selfish that we need a personal motive for everything? Our cells itself know better, “Cells within an organism coordinate to keep their division in check and avoid causing cancer”, so why don’t we?

Normally influenced by five mechanisms, such as direct reciprocity, special selection, kin selection, indirect reciprocity, and lastly group selection – we influence our corporation decisions and behavior. Each restricted by a certain motive, incentive, or greed, we often see the trend of us not generally going toward something that does not benefit us… which simply becomes something we do not care about. As said by Professor Reagle in this Gossip Comment section, “human brains are about nine times larger, relative to body size, than brains of other animals”. If we really do want to flaunt on us having a large brain, why should not we utilize it for a common good. In my opinion, we are just too caught up in the short term to see what benefits us today, or in a maximum of one year; we do not care about what the indirect consequences are going to be for the longer time. If we are being able to fulfil that personal agenda without sharing responsibilities, why cooperate – why be altruistic? Facebook is one platform which glorifies the same and fuels our ego boosting and gossiping.

Coming back to the text by Prof. Reagle, another possible reason could be that we have bound ourselves into a smaller community because our brains cannot handle it, the number 150, is an important one as that is how many relations we can have with other people. Often enclosed by gossip, fun and grooming, larger concepts are not enough reward for us to wrap our heads around. 

The collective action Wikipedia page is one with interesting theories on why we do not cooperate: The Game Theory’s Prisoner Dilemma being the most convincing one amongst them. A general trade off shows not cooperating is the best for them, so why even bother with risking for cooperation. This same dilemma was also reflected in Mr. Nowak’s article. We often try to take advantage of other’s efforts (Free Rider Problem), but do not want to contribute to it. All these point to the selfish gene theory, and my opinion of us thinking short term, only for ourselves. CSR existed not to care for the community, but to increase the portfolio of the company. No one is Mahatma Gandhi, and we cannot expect them to be, but at least we can help by doing small things, even if it is trying to reduce our electricity bill, so that we do not fall into the Social Trap and regret later – co-operate with the environment for the future.

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## Reading response 3

### Feb 23 - [The Dark Web](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#feb-25-tue---the-dark-web-student-nominated)

Imagine if you were being stalked by a creepy Russian guy who you think is there to kidnap you or steal your data, you would try to hide or try to get some privacy right? Now Imagine that your right to feel secure and hide is taken away; does seem unfair right? Taking away your right to privacy by unmasking your identity through TOR is something similar, if you do need to do something privately online without other people being able to track you, you should be able to correct? 

The simple explanation of how tor works by Jordan Wright shows how your identity can be masked using several layering mechanisms and encryptions to your data, and in my opinion, just how Nick Mathewson feels, it should be an integral part of the current website we surf, and we should not have to open tor every time. At one end we try to question companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google of using our data against us, and to the other end we are trying to remove our freedom to browse with security and privacy.

Although there are many “illegal” activities happening in the darknet, by US Standards, such as selling drugs; there is a lot of good happening in it too, such as throwing off oppressive regimes and having unaltered data for our access. It might be a tad bit disturbing if we include the beheading of the Brazilian Bloggers, or Bangladeshi Machete killings– but that is the harsh reality, and we should accept it. Tor gives them a chance to report actual events without bias, and without fear. If the department of defense is funding it, there might be some reason why they are.

How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) is a German TV show in Netflix, which shows how a kid with a laptop can sell drugs online, but it also shows how easily we can have our privacy. Imagine the darknet to be like a knife, it can be used for stabbings and killings, but it can also be used to cut vegetables to make wonderfully delicious food. Banning knifes is not a viable option, we just must encourage people for using the same in the onion router wisely and responsibly. Because there is a lot of good coming out of knifes too.

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## Reading response 4

### Feb 26 - [Exam Review](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#feb-26-fri---exam-review)

The first two questions are MCQ and the latter two are short answer questions.

1.	Which one of the following are NOT a technique to help find out if a news is fake?
a.	Triangulation of the sources
b.	Falsification
c.	Check if source is credible.
d.	See if the website is SSL Certified

2.	Which one of these extensions in a domain are not found on the surface web?
a.	.biz
b.	.net
c.	.io
d.	.onion

3.	What is the difference between Filter Bubble, Echo Chamber and Reputation Silo?
a.	Filter Bubble is what we usually see due to algorithm constraints, and our own choices; echo chamber is essentially a filter bubble which leads more extremism of your choices; and lastly, reputation silo is a filter bubble that is controlled by commercial interests(which at the end gives us the scarily targeted ads; you think it and amazon has got a notification for it).
b.	A mnemonic that works for me is that the filter bubble is like a bubble you are trapped in with your own thoughts and ideas, the echo chamber is where the system is feeding the information back to you(like an echo) and reputation silo is your reputation in the data industry to what ads/feedback the system provides(like a credit rating but for your data).

4.	How can you protect your computer from malware and viruses?
a.	You can install anti-virus systems and update it automatically, be careful of what you open/download online and what you transfer from other local storage devices, and finally take your computer for a check-up if it acts erratically or does things its not normally supposed to.
b.	A mnemonic is just thinking of computers as a human body and what we do to prevent diseases. Anti-virus could be the vaccines and flu-shots we take, Being careful of what we download can be us being careful of what we eat/drink (hygiene in consumption) and finally taking your computer for a check can be like going to the doctor if you feel unwell or different.

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## Reading response 5

### March 9 - [Manipulated](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#mar-09-tue---manipulated)


“Reviews are worth their weight in gold” and manipulators are there to shake things down. It has become a general rule for all ecommerce and media websites to have a customer review section down below; this in turn provides some trust and realization for the new customers to buy the products they are looking for. Due to our basic sense of cooperation and social hive nature, we often trust things the most when people recommend it to us, or we have a good sense of word of mouth. 

Online reviews, ratings, rankings, and comments are usually manipulated in many ways; but there are two motives that rule this hierarchy of manipulation – in my opinion. Firstly, I think it is the agenda of profit and goodwill to be increased by a company towards their website, or their products. In a place where only 3 people have reviewed the product, if you make it look like 300 people have, people usually follow the herd and want to make a purchase there. This in turn boosts sales and goodwill for the company. Secondly, I think it is just the purpose of sadism and gaining a sense of advantage over your opponent. Mostly its just the competitors fueling bad reviews and comments to make it look like the competitor is the obvious choice; or maybe a large group of people just wanting to change the system a bit. Justin Bieber’s “Baby” was one of the most disliked videos in YouTube for a very long time; and it was mostly because people saw that “Oh! There are so many people disliking this, I should too”, even though they had very little to no base for doing what they did.

This usually happens by forms of using bots or forming a community within people with a mutual agenda. Instagram Pods are a good example for the latter and using bots to uprate an app in the play store is for the other. The GameStop stock market surge could also be taken as a form of online manipulation. Many people in reddit did not have any idea what shorting a stock even means, but they invested anyway just to teach a lesson to the rich pricks in their sofas.

I do not think there is much that you can use to differentiate between the several types of manipulation, but the best thing you could do is trust your gut and not go behind the herd. There are several blocks in place nowadays such as captchas, pay per review, spam filters, etc. but none are as impenetrable as we think it is. To conclude, in the new era of digitization, people will take illicit advantage of it; but we should stay aware of what we read, and not go buy a product off amazon just because 327 people rated it as 4/5 stars.

