# Reading Response 3/5 (Set 1)
#### Tessa Baum

### Jan. 26 -- Chayko, 2017, *Superconnected*, “More benefits and hazards of 24/7 superconnectedness”

With the internet as our new “village green” (p. 178), our communication, time, and attention are more flexible than ever. Direct access to loved ones, entertainment, and work has its clear benefits. However, Chayko explains that the ease with which we use technology to coordinate our lives has loosened our outlook on time and our expectations of others’ attention. Chayko’s specific analysis of how technology impacts efficiency interested me the most. She states that our dependency on technology has made us more susceptible to mistakes and inefficiencies: "the irrationality of rationality" (p. 179). Similar to how digital-natives are not more tech-savvy than non-natives, digital-natives that multitask are neither better at it, nor more efficient. Data has even shown lower grades and productivity associated with multitasking.

So, with such powerful technological tools at our disposal, why do we continue to land in a grey area in terms of positive and negative outcomes? Is the issue the user, and if so, how can we be better? Chayko quotes Jamais Cascio, “But the problem isn’t having ‘too much information at our fingertips’ [...] ‘but that our tools for managing it are still in their infancy’” (p. 188). These growing pains that arise in our efforts to navigate technology are natural. I agree that average users of technology would greatly benefit from more efficient tools in utilizing what the internet has to offer. Platforms like Notion, a multifarious digital organizational tool, is one example of what I imagine our future looks like (using a platform to consolidate both personal and work-related tasks and information). But it makes me wonder, how are we expected to keep up with *all* of these changes? With the ever-changing digital landscape, digital management tools must also change, and a cycle emerges; we start with learning how to use the organizational tool, and suddenly there is a newer, more efficient one to learn. This chapter has only created questions regarding how I can better use technology; I feel as though I have more of an incentive to find and use other tools to help me in this journey.

### Jan. 28

Like an iceberg, the web goes even deeper than most, including me, expect. Both readings touch on a wide array of protocols and systems that provide users with their online shopping fix, entertainment, information, and much more. The more technical parts of the web, like establishing secure connections, and using public and private keys to encrypt and decrypt plaintext, are interesting. However, and my inexperience with the internet shows, the ‘behind the scenes’ layout of searching for a website felt more...helpful; I know that I do not have the skills or drive to go into cybersecurity, where the information on HTTPS would be most useful. Learning how domain name servers are "like an address book for websites [to locate your searched] website's real address" not only makes the web feel more digestible but also applies to my daily life.

The reality is most of my life is on or facilitated by the web. I cannot merely state that secure connections that protect against prying eyes do not apply to my life. More so, as an average user of the web, I am more interested in how I can use these systems to protect myself rather than how they are coded. I am starting to see that being 'superconnected' comes with a risk. Not only in terms of one's mental health and work efficiency but with one's identity and information. I fear that I am just packets of data waiting to be taken and sold. That was a very dramatic, with the possibly incorrect use of “packet”, way to say I’d like to learn more about safety practices that students like my peers and me can adopt. More questions arise like, what could happen to my data if I communicate sensitive information on HTTP instead of HTTPS? How do I check for this? Can I check if my private information was leaked before something bad happens? How can I remedy the damages?

### Feb. 4

Manipulation is slowly becoming the word I think about when the internet comes up into conversation. With so many good people out there trying to spread even better things, it is a shame that often we come across fake, malicious news. According to Craig Silverman of Buzzfeed News, fake, hyper-partisan news stories generated more engagement than news from real and reputable sources. The Media Manipulation Lifecycle, outlined in mediamanipulation.org, gives us more insight into how this occurrence has become so frequent. Using the example of the 2020 election, we see how what starts as a long video clip can be skewed into inflammatory content that, with exponential growth in shares and engagement, turns into headlines.

Danah Boyd also talks about how web users’ lenses can deeply affect how they search and use the web. What interested me the most was her comment on how the US is getting closer and closer to tribalism. Our tunneled view, even with such extensive tools at our disposal, stops us from critically thinking and having deliberative interactions on the internet. Whether that be questioning the sources on a site, triple-checking information by using triangulation, or talking to others online, we have limited ourselves with our own views. It feels tiresome to have to question all that I come across on the web. When I go onto Instagram or Tiktok I do not want to feel pressure and be on alert for false information. However, it is becoming a necessary way to live. I feel that a mixture of this awareness and platforms doing their job in dispelling false information will allow for a safer and more truthful experience. Now, it is only a matter of who decided what is false/misleading and not.