###### tags: `CDA` # Reading Responses (Set 2) ## Reading response 1 ### March 23 Tuesday - [Finding someone and living alone](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#mar-23-tue---finding-someone-living-alone) Judging what someone else looks like is not an attribute of technology, it is how we look at people. Even when we physically attend outings or are in a church, we are making judgements and evaluations as that is how the human brain functions. For better an individual can be more selective because you have a bigger group to select from. You know more about people before a first date and are not limited to your neighborhood or limited people your family, friends and you know. A lot of information gathering can be done by the extensive communication before the first date which is extremely important. Sometimes meeting people multiple times does not fetch you as much data as you can through the power of constant texting and digital communication. Digital communication is creating a new reality in which people are actively avoiding real life interactions. Once you are in a relationship with somebody it does not really matter how you met that person whether it was through an online medium or you met them in person as the goal then is how you mold your life. Age of marriage in the United States has gone above 20s to 40s now and even the ones who are in 40s are not deciding to settle down. Its more about choices and personal life goals in today’s era. Esther Rantzen in her article mentions how she absolutely loves and would want to live like how people in Nepal live in longhouses with multiple generations living with each other happily. Colm Toibin in the other hand loves to stay alone and wakes up with a clear head, ready for more. It is all about personal choices and technology does not play a major role when it is about how you want to live your life. But technology helps you gather information for sure, which leads to a more educated guess to what you’re going into. ## Reading Response 2 ### March 30 Tuesday - [Shaped](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#mar-30-tue---shaped) “Am I Ugly?”, these three words have probably run across the mind of every teenager going through their social media; looking at all the models and posts with unreal beauty standards. These expectations, as said by Reagle, is not a simple idea and it can contribute to both the insecure and the narcissists. Another known fact is that cosmetic surgery and augmentation has become an increasingly popular activity amongst the young and old; which might be due to digital media and insecurities, as confessed by many patients who have undergone chin, eyelid, lips, nose, etc. surgery. They say that the people they see in their phones have that kind of an appearance, which compels them to feel bad and do it themselves. Increasing hate comments and judging people has become easier than ever. All you need is a smartphone and a working Wi-Fi. With that, you have the tool to throw several kids into depression; and worse leading them to kill themselves. Cyber bullying has negatively shaped the several advantages of social media and digital communication, but the cold hard reality of the ongoing abuse cannot be ignored either. It is easy to tell people to ignore those comments; but its hard to accept it when you are the one facing it. From personal experience, being 90+ kgs as a Grade 9 kid was not easy for me when we all were getting smartphones and making Facebook accounts. There were jokes passed around and comments were made. My parents told me to ignore it; but it was not easy. I had the motivation and resources to start working out and getting fit, but not every kid can do that, and getting out of the loop of getting bullied might seem like a dream. There are people who have become mindful regarding what to internalize and what to ignore in social media, but the way it has shaped the new generation – is amongst a big ditch of insecurities, self-doubt, FOMO, and narcissism for some. “It triggers upward social comparison and invidious emotions”, as exclaimed by Reagle, is something to think about; and trying to figure out how we can take away the negatives without taking away the freedom of kids. Unconsciously and unknowingly, many get hurt, specially because they can revisit the bad comments every hour, instead of getting to brush it off like in a real-life conversation. ## Reading Response 3 ### April 6, Tuesday - [Algorithmic Discrimination](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#apr-06-tue---algorithmic-discrimination) Buy Box algorithm, which Amazon works on, reflects how third party sellers pit against Amazon itself. We are surrounded by algorithm heavily in today’s era. May it be surge in Uber prices, Crime prediction by policing algorithms or Credit scoring systems that determine eligibility for loans and credit cards. In a lot of cases algorithms are useful as well as harmful. Users location is tracked by search engines, which are useful as well as harmful. Internet users observe racial bias in Google’s image search feature, as when they type black people is the top three suggestion are crazy, monkeys and rude which is totally unacceptable. The same search for “white people are” reflects better responses. A similar example on hairstyle that comments negatively on women with curly hair as unkempt and unprofessional. Price discrimination is observed in Cheaptickets and Orbitz where prices of some products are altered for members and non-members actively. Rental cars reflect such practices as well. Intentional bias is observed and there are codes to prove them as well. Code process is as follows: • Run python run_stores.py to start collecting data. • Run python compare_*.py [company] [results HTML 1] [results HTML 2] to compare two pages of results. • Run python analyze_*.py to go through html files and extract the prices on the pages and get metrics about them. • Run gnuplot.py to collect all of the analysis output and generate plots. • bucket_table.py and clear_cookies.py are scripts related to identifying A/B test buckets for Expedia and Hotels.com. ## Reading Response 4 ### April 14, Tuesday - [Gendered Work](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#apr-13-tue---gendered-work) Aspiring Instagram influencers are flooding the network with fake sponsored content. The posts look remarkably like paid-for ads. They praise products and include branded hashtags and wording designed to mimic real sponsored content. Young Instagram users know influences receive healthy incomes as well as free products. But becoming a bona fide influencer is challenging. Besides thousands of followers and appealing content, brands want to see evidence of their previous sponsored campaigns. Landing the first job is typically the hardest. The solution for would-be online influencers: fake sponsored posts(Lorenz 2018). Along with all this running in the internet, a concept called “Instagram Husbands” exist, where husbands or the significant others take a picture of their wives or girlfriends. There are stories of mid-shoot fighting. Some would-be Instagram Husbands are hopelessly incapable of taking a workable photo. And even for the most dedicated, there are limits (Cave 2016). Despite little experience behind a camera, Instagram Husbands have continued to hone their craft and have come to take pride in their work, so much so that, when they recently heard about a photography course being held in the Seaport, they signed up, hoping to expand his skill set. However, there are times they are reluctant. All of this has tied up to the harsh reality of there being gendered work. As pointed out by Duffy and Pruchniewska (2017), Gender Politics in online entrepreneurship is in an all time high. People expect more off girls but give vague feedbacks in performance reviews where they must assume additional risk compared to others. ## Reading Response 5 ### April 14, Tuesday - [Bemused](https://reagle.org/joseph/2021/cda/cda-syllabus-SP.html#apr-16-fri---bemused) As discussed in the chapter “Bemused: WTF!” by Joseph Reagle (2019), the internet has collapsed a lot of the context for subjective materials on the internet. Usually found on the bottom half of the web, comments are reactive, short, and asynchronous, and can range all the way from providing feedback to asserting negativity and hate. Sites that “treat their users as community members tend to have better comments”, however, after a network of people becomes popular, people want to bring their friends. As for conduct that is not always embarrassing, however simply odd, I assume numerous human beings have, generally, simply stopped seeking to make experience of it altogether. The barrier between your laptop and the vast universe of the internet, often makes you do things that you normally would not in real life. It is just the general sense of security you have under a false account or just that people will not judge you as much if you did a funny dance for a boomerang as compared to doing it in real life. Another reason might be that the embarrassing stuff you see online from others is because the people on the other side know you cannot do much to call them about, except comment (which they can just ignore) which increases their confidence to do what they want and express themselves. (We all are just a bit guilty of doing stuff online which we would not do physically, I think it’s just human behavior). If we could make sense of everything that humans would do, we would not be much different than robots anyway.
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Privacy Footprint

Go to Main Page It is hard to truly anonymize data (Kernighan 2017), and keeping your data open to the network available for large corporations and agencies seems a bit too invasive. We might try to cover our tracks by using incognito, blocking our cookies, or even using a VPN, but our data is collected from multiple sources then stitched together to paint a detailed picture of aspects of our life. The cost to give us better targeted advertisements has become very expensive. All the millions of dollars that go along with data provision and web searches must be paid somehow, usually by advertising revenue. A quick google search just gave my LinkedIn profile and my family business’ website that I made, these were some things I do not mind having pop up in my feed, but it does show how it was able to tag particulars about me throughout the web. Giving actual data was due to me not having a very common name. And a search in Spokeo luckily gave the results as below, giving me a sigh of relief. Data is the backbone of the digital economy, and it is impossible to escape sensors that will scour you for data and retain your privacy. As said by Kernighan, it is wise to be wary. A WebKay search gave me information that I did not even know was publicly accessible by other websites, such as the social media I am logged into. If they can access those cookies, what is to prevent my password being leaked around the internet.

4/4/2021
Rakshit's Home Page

Required assignments Wiki tutorial Web search and evaluation Filter and label your email Adblocking Privacy footprint Reading responses

4/4/2021
Ad-Blocking

Go to Main Page CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR IPHONE ACCESSORIES IN THE BEST VALUE POSSIBLE! All caps and all annoyance; ads take the fun out of websites. I am someone who avidly supports using adblockers and I do it myself too. I use this chrome plugin called AdBlock and it seems to work pretty well for me. Gadgetbyte, a popular tech related media organisation here in Nepal; is one of the websites I check on almost everyday and I've grown used to the clean interface that it has; and it's easy to follow. This was until this assignment came up and I saw the reality of the ads in the website. Below images show the before and after images of the Website when I turned on and off my ad-blocker. I did not know adding just two ads would make my feed so messy and intolerable. It was confusing. With growing tensions with malware ads, it's now not even about just the ads being annoying, its risky. By means of phishing and false clickbait, you might get attracted to the ads and even click it. But once you do you might even be locked out of your own laptop. This means that you have to stay aware of every link and image you click. I mean I go to the internet to relax and have some passtime; I don't want to be on my guard all the time.

3/19/2021
Reading Responses (Set 1)

Reading response 1 Feb 5 Fri - Fake News Breaking News - Biden is getting impeached!. 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 shows how someone with one half decent computer and a subscription to premiere pro, anyone can become a media manipulator ; 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 also shows how unreliable tittle-tattle has taken over genuine evidence backed information. I mean Hilary selling weapons to the ISIS is definitely eye catchier than Myanmar coup: Teachers join growing protests against military. 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 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 on us.

3/9/2021
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