###### tags: `CDA`
# Reading Responses (Set 2)

- 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

### Mar 01 Fri - Collapsed Context

It's nearly impossible to engage in communication without some sort of audience being witness to it, and, consciously or not, we almost always factor this into how we present ourselves. On social media sites though, it's hard to accurately predict whether this imagined audience will actually align with what the real audience ends up being. With Twitter, for example, the nature of tweets makes it extremely challenging to anticipate even a potential audience. Social media also makes it challenging for us to decide how to present ourselves, as it "flattens multiple audiences into one" (Marwick & boyd, 2010). This is why we end up with things like multiple accounts, "finstas," and pseudonyms -- we don't want to show one version of ourselves to everyone in our possible audience. This specific curation of content begs a question of authenticity, and maintaining a balance between everything can be difficult. The app BeReal was a supposed subversion of online self-presentation with its time-sensitive dual image format, and it took off with Gen Z in part because of its supposed "authenticity." Still, users find ways to selectively post despite the app's prompts and just use it to curate a different version of themselves than on Instagram or Twitter.

I used to be that kid who begged their parents for Snapchat and Instagram and had 300+ day Snap streaks. I'd post on Instagram for my small amount of followers and rant or share random things on my Snapchat story. I still use social media often, but mostly to see other people's content. In fact, similar to the point the Wired article made, I never got much into BeReal because it did just end up feeling like a different way to post a certain side of myself for other people. Instagram has remained my most-used social media app, but I don't go out of my way to get followers, I've archived most of my posts and haven't posted anything new in probably two years, and I'll occasionally share a cute picture to my story. Marwick and boyd's statement that "...there is no such thing as universal authenticity...," made me realize that even this is purposeful image-creation. I use my private story on Instagram often, especially since deleting Snapchat, because it gives me a way to post more "authentically" to certain friends. Every time I think of posting to my main page I decide against it, so I just update my profile picture every so often to match my current hair color instead.

### Mar 15 Fri - Finding someone & living alone

I don't think I'd be able to count the number of times that I've heard someone say that they deleted or re-downloaded a dating app for the nth time. While online dating offers a lot of freedoms and opportunities that weren't easy before, but it quickly gets tiring and burdensome. Friends and family aren't crucial paths to finding a partner now, which puts everything on the individual to swipe through what feels like hundreds of photos and go through countless bad dates. In searching for someone, we also end up feeling more isolated and lonely. Part of this problem is the fine line between the "best" version of ourselves that we present on these apps, and someone who really isn't us. All of the dating app frustration hasn't gotten better over the years, and people have once again started seeking out different ways to meet people. On the flip side, there are many Americans who have decided that they're actually content with living alone.

Like the Guardian article mentioned, I think there's definitely a sort of "magic" in interacting with people in real life that you just can't replicate as well online. I'm an introvert, but when people start talking to me I usually end up easily falling into conversation with them. This is a lot harder online, because a lot of the personality that flows through face-to-face interactions feels like it gets lost. I even feel this with people close to me, especially since constantly typing back and forth also feels like a chore. I also don't think there's any point to exaggerating certain things about yourself on a dating app, since the other person is bound to figure it out at some point. That is, if they didn't immediately see you were a different height the first time you met. Something else that was relatable to me was the OkCupid article's statement that "The better the picture, the more likely it is to be out-of-date." I'm not big on taking photos of myself, so I often end up scrolling pretty far back to find more than one that I think is even somewhat decent (I'm less likely to get away with using one of them though given how often I change my hair). Oftentimes this just ends up with me not posting or changing anything.

### Mar 22 Fri - Manipulated

"Buy this product on TikTok Shop! I'm definitely just gushing over how good it is because I genuinely believe it and not because I get money when you use my link!" Users' ratings and reviews are helpful in addressing the information asymmetry in the marketplace because they offer second opinions. The problem is, reviews are faked and manipulated all over the Internet. Some are obvious, like spam or other bot accounts, but many ratings and comments that seem real have been at least manipulated in some way. Individuals and companies can even pay real people to write these false reviews to boost engagement and sales, and even securities like CAPTCHAs aren't foolproof against fakes. Well-intending users may also be pretty much extorted to upvote fake reviews and prevent them from posting anything contrary. The FTC has recently proposed rules that will fine businesses for having fake reviews, but there are still limitations to these.

As a chronic online shopper who's mildly socially anxious, I'm always checking online reviews. While I'm by no means an expert, I think I've gotten good at sifting through reviews and websites to try to build a picture of an item or site that's at least somewhat reliable. I'll cross-reference sites like Google and Yelp for restaurants, compare reviews for similar places if it's a service like hairdressing, and even go on sites like Reddit to see if I can find anything. Of course this is a lot of effort and I can't say I love doing it, but I feel like I can never be certain that everything I'm seeing is true. This applies most to when I'm shopping, especially as a college student who tends to go for cheaper product options. I do my best to buy secondhand on sites like Ebay so I can be a bit sustainable and also save money, but I'm always more wary when I'm buying. This does work to my advantage in a few ways though. *Reading the Comments* asserts that "It would be ideal if people could avoid making poor purchases in the first place," which can be difficult in an era where two-day shipping and free returns dominate the market. A secondhand site that I often buy on is Depop, partially because sellers don't often accept returns. I know if I don't like something I'll be stuck with it, so I take more care in deciding what to buy.

### Apr 02 Tue - Artificial intelligence

Gone are the days of AI writing really weird [Hallmark movie scripts](https://x.com/KeatonPatti/status/1072877290902745089?s=20). Generative AI has become widely mainstream and accessible, and while it certainly isn't perfect yet it's come a long way in a short time. Machine learning techniques "train" AI through exposure to loads of data, and users of said AI contribute even further to this data collection and learning process. Where the AI sources data from can cause problems, such as learning from artwork. Artists have specific styles and works, and many view AI using their art as influence for image generation as stealing. Some AI generators, like Stable Diffusion, have been updated to cut down on art referencing and using people's likeness for things like non-consensual pornography, but there isn't much legal regulation yet. AI-generated can get pretty weird still, even when developed by big companies like Microsoft. Their Bing chatbot, for example, would start producing hostile responses or saying other unpredictable things due to all of the content it was able to pull from on the Internet. Tyler Gold implores a government crackdown on AI regulation, but that's probably easier said than done.

I was on co-op when Adobe's generative AI got released for commercial Photoshop use, which was interesting since I was working a graphic design position. We did a lot of image editing, and often had to work with manually extending image backgrounds, editing props out, or cropping images weirdly to fit the company's brand identity. Photoshop's generative AI was extremely helpful in achieving these things, cutting our working time down a lot and also producing better results than we would have most of the time. The AI has options for users to give feedback on what it's generated, since the images would get pretty wonky sometimes. I haven't used it as much since I've been off co-op, but I recently realized that it's gotten much better at making more realistic-looking human images in just the few months that it's been around. We still had to do extra editing even when using the AI, but this rapid improvement makes me wonder how long it will be before that won't be needed. As Heilweil writes, it's still too difficult to predict what jobs AI will be able to take over for in the future but even now it's still having significant impacts on many.

### Apr 12 Fri - Digital language and generations

The Internet takes up a good chunk of our lives, both online and offline. Just like any language the Internet also has its own dialects. The time period in which people started using the Internet is the biggest factor in how they speak online. First were the "Old Internet People," as McCulloch calls them. They were online before it was a big thing, and were some of the first to start using acronyms in slang. "Full Internet People" joined as the Internet was becoming more social with things like instant messaging, and were the first users of Facebook. "Semi Internet People" came about at the same time, but they were online for more practical things. The Internet wasn't integrated into their social lives, so it took them effort to learn the jargon. "Pre Internet People" were around when the Internet began, but didn't make their way online until much later. This is the oldest demographic of Internet People and they don't use much Internet slang, if they even know any. Lastly, "Post Internet People" grew up in an Internet-centric landscape. They don't even need to be very active online to know the language.

McCulloch's analysis of the usage and evolution of "lol" is consistent with my experiences almost to the T. I use lol as filler in my texts pretty often, but I do actually use LOL to indicate real laughter sometimes (a few extra Ls if something is really funny, but it's less laughter than LMAO). For me though, "lol" seems to have died and come back. There was a good chunk of time where barely anyone I knew was using it, and then all of a sudden in the last few years we all were again. This is the only time that McCulloch addresses use of lowercase instead of capital letters, but I think the comparison is significant. I've been texting in all lowercase since middle school, and it was conscious choice to do that since I had to manually turn off auto-capitalization. This goes hand-in-hand with how we punctuate and break up messages. Older people are more likely to send long texts with proper punctuation and capitalization, while Post Internet People will send a series of short messages. For me this also changes depending on who I'm talking to. I'll make an effort to send more "proper" messages to a grandparent than I would my friends, for example.