# Reading Response (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.
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## Sep 21 Tue - How the web works

My CS major friend told me that CS is not stand for Computer Science but Can't Study. It is obvious to see the complex of this field, but we can know some basics through MDN Web Docs and Brody's articles. Clients and servers interact or communicate with each other when users access and view webpages in web browsers. However, clients and servers are not the only elements that make the internet work because internet connection, TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, code files, and assets also play significant roles in internet functionality. The MDN Web Docs article highlights and explains the functioning of the internet and essential elements that enable users to access web pages (MDN Web Docs, 2021). Internet connections are vital for accessing the internet, and the TCP/IP regulates communication over the internet. The DNS address books or reference points for websites that enable browsers to search according to users’ requests. HTTP comprises the language or syntax and format for communication or interaction between clients and servers. HTTPS is a safer or more secure form of HTTP highlighted in the second article. Different web requests are sent over a regular protocol that is HTTP. In this format the request of the client and the server response are sent as plain text. However, certain reasons are present that would explain that why HTTP does not use a secure encryption. This would include security requires more bandwidth, break caching, and it also requires more computation power (Brody, 2013).

There is a core connection between both the articles includes the notion of HTTP that is explained as a protocol for interaction between clients and servers. Similarly, both the articles highlight the perspective that HTTPS is a more secure option because the communication is encrypted, and the protocol for this is called TLS. As we have stepped into the digital age, companies use big data to recommend ads that best suit users. For example, when I Google some commodities, and if I open my Amazon, there will some related items recommended. My doubt is if Amazon’s recommendation is because of the unsecure of Google’s HTTP?
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## Sep 28 Tue - Fake News
Do you remember Trump's meme that says Wrong! That's Fake News.

We can now talk about how fake news shook America's democracies. The four articles are primarily concerned with fake news in the media. A study compared the finest fake stories concerning the elections to the related news from main attractions on Facebook. The exceptionally highly false campaign newspaper headlined on Facebook produced more significant interaction than major newspapers like New York Times articles during the last three months before elections (Silverman, 2016). Dreyfuss (2020) listed an example of how affiliate marketers and media celebrities amplified and promoted Joe Biden's misinterpreted film in the 2020 presidential race. It created doubt about electoral integrity in support of the voter suppression claim that President Trump and his associates had already been sowing in the electorate for over a year. In addition, Dreyfuss’s article followed the stages of media manipulation casebook that provides a standard paradigm for reporters, scholars, innovators, and community representatives to comprehend the sources and consequences of misinformation. Also, the casebook proposes a methodology for analyzing socio-technological networks and associated risks by learning the genesis and planning a manipulative strategy (Media Manipulation Casebook, n.d).

Regarding the spread of fake news on social media, numerous socialists advocate for full engagement in digital literacy initiatives to avoid the widespread utilization and distribution of misinformation and propaganda during elections. These techniques are destined for failure because they ignore the broader differences of online browsing, which have been built over a long time (Boyd, 2017). In light of the four articles, I am concerned about if Facebook would slow down the removal of fake news because they bring the company traffic?

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## Oct 01 Fri - Learning
I found the reason why I cannot learn mathematics well is that I cannot have real-life practice to consolidate my knowledge. For example, I cannot use trigonometric functions when buying food.

In the article “Make it Stick,” substantial study findings support strategies for efficiently consolidating and retrieving memories. It has different angles, apiece of which piles together individual anecdotes that exemplify the concept being given as well as straightforward descriptions of the research such as Matt’s practice experience, chair-9 experiment, and flashcards experiment. The final result of these experiments is about active retrieval practice, which is to exactly recalls knowledge from your memory and do not be fooled by the illusion that you think you know (McDaniel et al., 2014). The author also mentioned different forms of retrieval practice that includes:

1. Low-stakes quizzing: take a quiz to consolidate your knowledge which benefits the long-term memory
2. Self-testing: take self-quizzing regularly to recalibrate your understanding of what you do and do not know
3. Spacing out practice: take periodic practices to avoid forgetting
4. Interleaving the practice of different: leave some time between multiple pieces of training, and alternate exercises on two or more different topics.
5. Try to solve the problem before being taught the solution: Use existing knowledge to explore for yourself how to solve problems, do not be afraid of errors you make in the attempt (McDaniel et al., 2014).

Consequently, such an article provides an overview of how to anchor knowledge more firmly in memory and remember it more confidently. However, it does not include all that has to be said about education and learning. For instance, it says nothing about engagement, timekeeping, or how students and teachers make the most of their first exposure to new knowledge, and this is my doubt.
***
## Oct 12 Tue - Social Networks
In the TOEFL writing part a few years ago, I often used make friends as a reason to answer questions about whether students should participate in clubs. Today’s reading will explain how "make friends" develops on the Internet.

As social media have emerged as a widespread platform for human interaction, Rheingold (2012) explained that networks have shapes from the perspective of sociology. The formation of this shape is due to reciprocity. Specifically, people need to discover and interact with those who can provide resources. The most important criteria for getting help is helping somebody else. After long-term development, people with the same knowledge will bond and form a network. However, some interactions also occur between networks. The author referred to the person who initiates this interaction as a ‘bridge’, and he advocated the existence of bridge because "Bridge people can benefit from their position, and depending on the bridge person’s social skills, so can both networks" (Rheingold, 2012).

Social capital and individualism are also mentioned. First, computer networks provide the opportunity to connect to the long-distance community, and effectively enhance the social capital. But due to the development of cellphone and social media, social networks shift from group-to-group to person-to-person (Rheingold, 2012). The meaning is that individuals can more effectively find different resources in different situations. Another reason for this shift is because when an individual is only in his original and fixed network, what he knows is also fixed because only people with shared interests and knowledge will be in the same network. However, people need to develop and find some heterogeneous ties outside their original network to meet the needs that the original network can’t provide (Rheingold, 2012). This view is similar to the author of a post at FS blog (2017) put forward. He pointed out the filter bubbles will create echo chambers which is an enclosed space full of what we are interested in and what we agree with, and they will isolate people from outside views.

Overall, This reading explains how social networks have evolved. However, I have a question about what the author said: "part of your happiness might depend on people you never met" (Rheingold, 2012). If I have never met this person, how do I know his emotions and how can he pass on his emotions to me?
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## Oct 15 Fri - Haters
Rappers use swear words in their songs to express some opinions about people they hate. Such behavior is defined as "real". So if the term "real" is a positive word in internet?

Social media give us great power to make “free speech” really come true because, behind the screen, you can be whoever you want (real and true to yourself) and say whatever you want behind the screen since, under the protection of a username, no one knows who you are. Such a phenomenon is called disinhibition (Reagle, 2015). In addition, Reagle (2015) mentioned, in recent years ，strange people often appear on the Internet, and say something upset and belittle others through "expressing extreme hostility and attacking any aspect of a person such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and appearance" (Reagle, 2015). The author also categorized the behavior of three haters on the Internet which are

1. Flame wars: when different users engage in provocative responses to an original post.
3. Trolling: users who leave messages that appear outwardly sincere on the internet in order to get attention, cause trouble or upset someone.
4. Bully-battles: the targets of abuse engage with the haters through the exchange of accusations and recrimination. Another new form of Bully-battles is called Bashtags (Common in Twitter), which is to change aggressive hashtags to another newly aggressive hashtags and use one to attack and resist verbally between groups.

Overall, people who are attacked on the Internet usually respond by pull back, move on or disappear. Also, they will all be harmed to varying degrees because of these bad remarks (Reagle, 2015).

As Wellemeyer mentioned, in order to achieve a civilized network environment, some policies have begun to appear on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. For example, users can report and block harmful comments; When the system detects sensitive words, it asks the users if they really want to post. Also, Facebook deleted nearly 2.2 billion threatening accounts; Twitter removed millions of suspicious accounts; Instagram removes fake accounts regularly. However, this is indeed an effective way to create a better network environment, but its possible drawback is that advertisers may stop advertising on these social media as they see the decline in the number of users. The consequence of this is that these social media platforms lose a large amount of money from Advertising revenue (Wellemeyer, 2019).

In response to two articles, my question is: Does the phenomenon of haters show that they have transferred the negative emotions in their real life to the Internet for venting? So if we want to solve the problem fundamentally, do we need to reflect on the different levels of pressure this society brings to people?