# Reading Responses (Set 2)

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## Reading Responses 5 out of 5

### Oct 28 Fri - TikTok, fakes, and appropriation
Social media has this intriguing aspect where you can log on and be essentially anybody. This factor is what encourages users to sign up. While your own life might be lacking in terms of your social life, you can create an account and virtually become any version of yourself. While this might draw in users who want to find online communities, it can also lead individuals to take advantage of this feature. Rebecca Jennings’ Article [“TikTok’s catfish problem is worse than you think”](https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/7/6/22561197/coconutkitty-diana-deets-itsnotdatsrs-asianfishing-deepfake-catfish) goes into the dangers of pretending to be someone you are not on social media. Specifically, in terms of people altering aspects of their identity to fit a persona that they are trying to present to the world. “Diana Deets” is one example of a social media influencer who used the art of catfishing to her advantage. She knew that typically younger girls can be fetishized, thus she began to dress and do her make up in a way to appear younger. Not only does this act demonstrate the extent that one would go to in order to become popular on social media, but it also depicts the image obsessed environment that dominates social media.


In Leo Kim’s article [“On Techno-Orientalism”](https://reallifemag.com/on-techno-orientalism/), he dove into how aspects of his Asian culture were exploited for the gain of mostly white Americans. This phenomenon is not limited to this one culture. According to Maha Ikram Cherid in [“'Ain’t Got Enough Money to Pay Me Respect’: Blackfishing, Cultural Appropriation, and the Commodification of Blackness”](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15327086211029357), this type of behavior is not found on a small scale. Music creator Ariana Grande got into hot water when their music video “7 Rings” was accused of black fishing. Grande is a white artist with an Italian background who played on aspects of Black culture that allowed her to capitalize on it. The relationship between identity, authenticity, and appropriation is greatly represented through social media platforms. It is within these contexts that users can adopt a false identity. While this can be relatively harmless in some cases, unfortunately it is mostly used by individuals to gain money, power, and exposure through exploiting marginalized communities.

### Nov 04 Fri - Ads & social graph background
You find yourself desperately needing a new pair of sneakers, and accordingly begin online shopping throughout different websites. You then buy sneakers and plan to move on with your web searches. However, after scrolling across different websites, all of your advertisements are sneakers. This phenomenon explains the inescapable power of cookies and their relationship with advertisements. While it might seem helpful that your advertisements are geared towards you and your search history, to what extent does it become an invasion of privacy? In a video by Vox titled [“How ads follow you around the internet”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFyaW50GFOs), it goes into how third-party domains are able to host websites in which they can save their own cookies on individual’s browsers. Every site that uses those third-party elements can also access the data your browser shares. This demonstrates the nature of tracking and how digital marketing is dependent on it.


Advertisers want to use their marketing power to get their advertisements to an audience with the most amount of potential customers. According to Robe Stokes in Chapter 11 of his eMarketing textbook, online advertising is mainly made up of website adverts, search engine adverts, and email/social media adverts. All of these are used by advertisers to increase their brand awareness and ultimately improve their sales. The modern digital landscape has enabled advertisers to employ third-party elements and track data. However, the main concern with this is that people’s privacy is being invaded. Recently, users of Facebook have raised concerns over how the company collects data and distributes it to advertisers. How Facebook operates represents how individuals are constantly being monitored as they move throughout the internet. This becomes especially problematic when it can lead to issues like filter bubbles and algorithmic discrimination. Whether you like it or not, the websites you visit are keeping track of your activity. While advertisers are benefitting from this influx of data, consumers are left wondering if it is worth it.

### Nov 08 Tue - Manipulated
Within the realm of social media, an individual is able to create a profile and essentially become any person they want. The technologies and creative nature of social media platforms allow for users to create their profiles to be as realistic or as far from their actual persona as possible. However, the line between harmlessly assuming another personality and fully taking on a different identity is becoming increasingly more thin, as social media becomes more integrated in our society. The social media influencer profession demonstrates the importance of these digitally curated profiles. Logging onto an account on a platform such as Instagram could begin as an innocent way to connect with those in our social circles. However, like and follower counts have become a way to reflect a higher social status and standing within a social media platform. This is what paved the way for influencers to create content, gain followers, then get paid. Caroline Forsey’s article [“Everything you need to know about Instagram pods, the new way Influencers are gaming the algorithm”](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-pods) explores how Instagram pods have created a mutually beneficial environment for people who want their posts to be engaged with. These Instagram pods, where a direct message group is created with different rules to support each other’s content, represent how social media has evolved from a chance to genuinely connect with others to only valuing engagement metrics.


When influencers must rely on likes and comments for their profits, the extent to which they will go to in order to receive those is tested. Social media fakeness has led to an understanding that online reviews, ratings, ranking, and comments are for the most part manipulated. In Chapter 3 of Joseph Reagle’s [“Reading the Comments”](https://readingthecomments.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/1cubrkat/release/2), he dives into how users' comments for product reviews can be untrustworthy. For example, a term called a “sock puppet” is used to describe accounts that are created so they can pretend to be other people. Thus, a “sock puppet” would be an account that is made by one person to support their own posts without it being obvious. Both “sock puppets” and Instagram pods depict what social media has come to. It no longer is a place for genuine interactions but has become an environment manifested in manipulation and deceptiveness for personal gain.

### Nov 29 Tue - Collapsed context
How can authenticity exist on social platforms that seemingly support inauthentic activities? While social media is said to promote the connection of individuals to each other, it also places numerical value into likes, follows, and retweets. It is these factors that can persuade individuals into shifting away from their authentic self online. Social media influencers are the perfect example of inauthentic behavior. If they have an Instagram account that gets paid sponsorships, they are more likely to post pictures and create content that caters to advertisers as opposed to making posts that most align to their authentic persona. In fact, most influencers have a separate account where they can “be themselves” on social media which is detached from their influencer identity. In Alice Marwicks’ [“I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context, collapse, and the imagined audience”](https://tiara.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Marwick_boyd_TweetHonestly.pdf), she dives into the balance that users have between trying to build an audience online while also maintaining personal authenticity. Context collapse, where many users and audiences occupy the same space so the lack of context can lead to confusion, is what makes it harder for users to be authentic on social media. This is especially the case on Twitter, where individuals feel that they can not reveal too much about themselves in fear of alienating their followers and possibly losing members of their audience.


If social media promotes inauthenticity by incentivizing creators into curating the most profitable persona, can there be a true authentic social media app? This is where BeReal’s mission of being “anti-instagram” comes in. In Brooke Duffy and Ysabel Gerrad’s article [“BeReal and the doomed quest for online authenticity”](https://www.wired.com/story/bereal-doomed-online-authenticity/) they explore how BeReal’s attempts to create an authentic and “real” social media platform are futile. The app centers around having users only having two minutes, randomly selected each day, to share a front and back camera picture. Users are able to post late, but it is seen as not being “real”. This app also only allows users to be friends with each other and does not host advertisements. However, BeReal does not prevent the performative nature of individuals when it comes to social media. While it might give users a better opportunity to be “real”, it still does not take away from the fact that people want the best version of themselves to be perceived. Thus, they are still presenting a persona of themselves that might not accurately represent who they are. This leaves the question of whether or not a purely authentic social media platform can be attained, or if we have surpassed authentic posting as a society.

### Dec 02 Fri - Authenticity, work, & influence
Humans, by nature, have many different versions of themselves. This is not to say that each version isn’t an authentic reflection of who someone is, just that there are certain contexts where each persona is required. For example, you might act differently around your mother than your friends. You have a different way of behaving in a social setting than in a professional one. However, social media is a unique place where professional and social settings can blend together. Specifically focusing on social media influencers, their entire platform is based on their brand and persona. Their business revolves around them as a person, thus how they interact with their followers can be seen as “friendly”, yet it is purely professional. Essentially, they are trying to market themselves. This begs the question of what extent they will go to in order to push out the best version of themselves online. In Taylor Lorenz’s article [“Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content”](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/influencers-are-faking-brand-deals/578401/), she dives into how some influencers are posting content that makes users believe it’s part of a sponsorship, however, it is not. Brian Phanthao, a 19-year-old lifestyle influencer claims that “the more sponsors you have, the more credibility you have”, which is exactly why influencers would want to partake in this behavior. Although not “authentic”, this is almost to be expected from influencers since they are posting fabricated versions of their life to try and reach a wider audience, and ultimately expand their brand.


This inauthentic behavior becomes problematic when social concerns arise that force influencers to respond as a person and not a business. For example, with the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020, influencers could not go about business as normal. In Rachel Lerman’s article [“Social media influencers are balancing ‘authentic’ messaging during protests and the pandemic”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/12/influencers-social-media-pandemic/), she explores how many influencers used their platform to advocate for change. It brings into the question that if your life is your brand, how are you expected not to comment on social forces that are actively impacting your life or others’. In terms of how influencers try to stay authentic on these platforms, Sarah Adler, founder of the Simply Real Health website, believed that it was wrong to try and go on as if nothing had happened. However, what might prevent influencers and individuals on social media from speaking out or being authentic online, is the fear of getting “canceled”. This phenomenon directly relates to the expression “that the internet never forgets”, in which if a mistake, lack of character, or morally wrong action committed by an influencer is discovered, it can lead to them being “canceled”. In Brooke Duffy, Kate Miltner, and Amanda Wahlstedt’s work [“Policing “Fake” Femininity: Authenticity, Accountability, and Influencer Antifandom”](https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.neu.edu/doi/epub/10.1177/14614448221099234), they delve into how the public scrutiny influencers face led to them not truly being their actual selves on their platforms. Influencer “hateblogs” and other anti-fandom behavior can be glossed over and simply labeled as gossip. However, there are real people behind these accounts. This is why separating themselves from their business brand could help influencers deal with any hate they may receive. The main reason that people tend to hate on influencers is because of their out of touch portrayals of what “having it all looks like”. This can lead people to believe that their content is inauthentic and thus not relate to it. However, influencers’ jobs are to best present themselves to a greater audience, so whether or not you like their level of authenticity, they will still try and succeed.