###### tags: `CDA`
# Reading Responses (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.

## Reading responses 5 out of 5

### Jan 26 Fri - Learning
"Learning that's easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow." (p. 3) With this quote, Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel emphasize the importance of learning meaningfully to retain knowledge long and achieve mastery. Contrary to what most students believe, the traditional ways of learning we've been taught since childhood are outdated, counterintuitive, and lack data evidence to prove their efficiency. Rereading, memorization, and repetition might seem like the easiest studying methods. Still, the chapter aims to make readers understand that when learning is more complex, it is more effective and long-lasting. Rereading, for example, takes up too much time and results in little retention, while repetition confuses "feelings of familiarity with mastery of the material." (p. 4)

More efficient ways of studying include retrieval practice, elaboration, and testing yourself. While these seem to require more effort and time, they are the key to reaching mastery quickly. Retrieval practice deals with recalling facts or concepts from memory. I saw a great example of this on TikTok, where a student read their notes once all the way through, wrote down all the things they remembered, and then went back to see what they had missed, focusing on studying those topics. Testing and quizzing yourself is also a great way to study, revealing how well you mastered the material and helping you review what you didn't know.

Frequent testing is a crucial learning tool that allows your brain to engage in active recalling, deepen memorization, and make knowledge "stick." This chapter made me reflect on learning techniques, allowing me to examine and evaluate my own. What made me question learning, however, was the following quote: "… a reaction to standardized testing, fearing that this kind of testing leads to an emphasis on memorization at the expense of the high-level skills." It made me think about how students in the US are affected by standardized testing's inability to adapt to modern learning techniques. How could these tests be adapted and updated according to the science of learning? A possible solution could be having yearly standardized tests be divided into smaller, cumulative tests every few months in the four years of high school. This way, the system could enjoy the advantages of frequent testing as a tool to more accurately measure students' ability to learn, retain information, and master topics.

### Feb 6 Tue - Social Networks
“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” This quote by Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, encapsulates the importance of technology and the digital age in creating modern social networks. Rheingold explains that as humans evolve, so does how we cultivate relationships and structure. In our primal state, we created networks through speech meant to create expectations on how we should behave. However, these networks were minimal due to location, culture, and language barriers. Today, technology-networked communication allows us to create virtual networks with people worldwide who come from different cultures and even speak other languages (with the help of translators). Networks are essential to humans because when working collectively, we unlock capabilities and have properties that are impossible to have as individuals, making the whole “greater than the sum of its parts.”

How can we create networks with people with whom we don’t know or have “distance”? In 1967, a psychologist named Milgram aimed to study the interpersonal “distance” and answer this question. His findings led to the “6 degrees of separation,” or the development of the “paths” in how we know others. Milgram discovered that the average length of a path is six people and catapulted the idea of the “small world phenomenon” and “small world networks.” Decades later, this fact still proves true, and technological inventions facilitate the creation of networks, which we see in experiments with a 98% network success rate. While I had always heard people saying, “What a small world!” I had never experienced the 6 degrees of separation as clearly as when I came to college. Last semester, I met one of my best friends, Lucia, a girl from Spain. In GW University, my friends from home became close friends with a Spanish girl named Clara. Last week, Clara saw me tagged in Lucia’s Instagram story, and upon clicking on my profile, she quickly discovered all of her new college friends followed me. After asking around, she found that her friends’ friend from home (me) was best friends with her friend from home (Lucia). This came as a shock to us, and after reading the text, I realized it is a clear example of the 6 degrees of separation and how technology facilitates the creation of networks.

Networks are essential for human development, but it is possible to be ineffective in how we create our networks. According to Rheingold, to be effective networked individuals, we have at least one or two connections that come from distant and different networks. This is because our closest connections, or neighbors, most likely share our beliefs, opinions, and standings on specific topics. Connections from different networks not only expand our geographic range of connections but can bring changes in perspective, make us more educated, and open more opportunities. Having distant connections makes the complete difference between having a clustered network or the desired small-world network. The idea of distant connections reminded me of our class discussion on media literacy and the importance of educating ourselves on all sides of one story. By keeping these connections, we can challenge our beliefs, remove biases, escape information disorders, and avoid getting stuck in information echo chambers. Next, the text expands on items like the power of law curve, the difference in nodes between the head and “long tail” of the curve, super nodes, and Social Network Analysis. The latter, SNA, is important because it calls for network awareness. Because Social Network Analysis implies how friends of your friends affect and influence you, it is crucial that we pay close attention to whom we make close connections with and whether the relationships are positive or negative. SNA says that even if you don’t know them personally, your friend’s friends can have “1/3 as much influence as the people you know directly” (p. 198). This makes me wonder in what specific ways we are affected by their behaviors and attitudes. I am also curious to see if the people who come up in the “6 degrees of separation path” could also transmit the ideas to us.

Going into this reading, I thought networking was a term that only applied to business. To me, clear examples of networking included talking to professionals to sell your product, to sell yourself, or even to create a team for future projects. After reading the chapter, however, I realize that networking is in almost every aspect of our lives and can be a handy tool, not just in business. While apps like Instagram and TikTok did not make me feel as if I was networking, like LinkedIn did, now that I am aware of the importance and constant presence of networking, I will be more mindful of my actions and keep an eye out for possible connections in these digital spaces.

### Feb 9 Fri - Catfishing and Scams
In 2022, 70,000 Americans fell victim to online romance scams, collectively losing around $1.3 billion (Fletcher, p.1). These shocking numbers represent the magnitude of the situation at hand: the rise of online scammers. While social media and online dating platforms have done lots of good and been the catapult of many successful love stories, they have opened a door for romance scams and catfishing. In other words, they increase “the risk of abuse, harassment, and manipulation” in our society, as says Evita March. Catfishing is the act of creating or stealing an identity to mislead and capitalize off others (p. 2). Evita March, Monica Whitty, and Emma Fletcher all create a well-rounded explanation of what catfishing is by discussing “what people catfish,” “who is most likely to get catfished,” and “the tell-tale signs you’re getting catfished.” While reading these, I couldn’t help but think of Sarah, the woman who became a victim of catfishing in the video “My wife sent $250,000 to a Romance Scammer,” and how knowing this information could’ve saved her much trouble.

The kind of people that catfish commonly show psychological signs of sadism, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. This means scammers enjoy seeing others suffer, feel entitled, have low empathy, and are cunning and calculating. When asked their reasons, many catfishers said they did this due to “loneliness, dissatisfaction with physical appearance, and escapism.” The fact that many catfishers want to escape their reality makes me curious to see if their underlying motive is to create a connection they don’t feel their authentic selves could make alone; hence, why they use fake pictures and identities (trying to better themselves). Whitty states that victims of romance scams are greedy, susceptible to flattery, generous, trusting easily, and saying yes to everything. Most of these people are middle-aged, educated adults, especially women. This made me wonder: Are women the most common romance scam victims because they are more gullible and tend to trust more or because more men participate as romance scammers? Out of all the traits presented in victims, the one that surprised me the most was greed, as I had never thought of victims this way. Scammers promise victims wealth and luxury to manipulate them, just like what happened to Sarah in the video when John promised to “provide for her” when they met. Whitty and Fletcher make lists of “red flags” in online dating that point to a romance scam. Compared to Sarah’s experience, most align closely, if not perfectly. For example, John and most scammers say they are deployed military at war, in the hospital and in need of money, or actively “love-bombing” the victim using excessive compliments, flattery, and terms of endearment. Knowing the signs and science behind romance scams can help you identify who is a scammer and who is a victim. With online apps growing daily, it is crucial to spread this information and create awareness before more people get hurt.

### Feb 20 Tue - Exam Review
#### According to Lauder and March's Catfishing Questionnaire, which of the "dark tetrad" components was found to be an UNLIKELY personality predictor of catfishing?
**A.** Psychopathy
**B.** Sadism
**C.** Machiavellianism
**D.** Narcissism

**Answer:** Machiavellianism; while all options are components of the dark tetrad, this characteristic can be ruled out because the questionnaire results did not indicate the "acts were performed for personal gain."

#### What are some (at least 3) of the features associated with victims in the tables of "Do you love me?"
**Possible Answer:** Urgency, Sensation seeking, Addiction (disposition)
**Mnemonic** (easy way to remember this part of the list!): U.S.A

#### How does the Bitcoin ledger contrast with accounting ledgers? In other words, what makes the Bitcoin ledge different or more special than others?
**Answer:** Unlike bank ledgers, the Bitcoin ledger is maintained by people all over the world, and it is a collaborative project that secures the security and integrity of the platform.

#### Which of the following types of misinformation refers to content that "is used to frame an issue or individual?"
**A.** Manipulated content
**B.** Misleading content
**C.** Imposter content
**D.** Fabricated content

**Answer:** Misleading content. While manipulated, imposter, and fabricated content are all pieces of information created with the purpose of spreading misinformation, manipulated content is content that already exists but is used to misinform.

### Feb 27 Tue - Shaped
"Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology." This quote by Brian Solis, a digital anthropologist and researcher, makes a claim that highlights the degree to which social media has altered how people react, think, and structure our society and reality. The use of social media affects how we see and judge ourselves, others, and the world, causing a change in how we present ourselves and interact with others in the last two decades. The title of chapter 6 in Reading the Comments by Joseph Reagle, "Aw Shit, I Have to Update My Twitter," is a phrase I often find myself and the people around me saying. While I might not be Twitter specifically, sometimes I catch myself saying variations of the words, like "I need to update my dump." While I use the excuse, "I want to have these random memories posted to look back on," and I tell myself that I post on that Instagram dump "solely for me," the truth is that I do feel some pressure to post what is going on my day-to-day so that friends I don't talk to daily see how I am doing. Why do so many people feel the need to share parts of our lives to generate reactions from those we know? According to Reagle, we depend on online comments (e.g., post likes, story likes, comments, reposts) to influence how we see ourselves and to receive validation from others.

When people post, whether they mean to or not, they "create a sense of themselves that is subject to the comment and approval of others" (p. 3). The feedback received can either establish, confirm, or degrade parts of a person's self-esteem. This concept is the evaluation you give to your worth and is one of the factors that makes up the self-concept, or the total idea of one's self (p. 5). Sociologist Eric Goffman explained in his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, that people are like actors on a stage with their self-presentation. People can either present themselves on the "back stage," where there are no opinions or expectations besides their own, or the "front stage," where they interact and engage with others' opinions and impressions (p. 5). The ability to control self-presentation, our identities, and "who we are" has only gotten stronger since the rise of different social media platforms and, in turn, created an obsession with crafting a personal image. A direct result is people untagging themselves from their friends' posts, deleting the tagged section of their profile entirely, or even cringing at other's pictures of them where they don't look "perfect" (p. 6). For example, it's an ongoing joke between my siblings that my mom cannot tag us in pictures as she has a talent for taking the worst photos of her kids in all of existence.

While self-esteem is how we see ourselves, sometimes it is also defined as the ability to receive and use feedback, whether good or bad (p. 9). It is considered a positive self-regard and a crucial skill to teach people of all ages to navigate. In parents and children, for example, there is an emphasis on giving kids the correct type of praise (e.g., praise for hard work vs praise for intelligence) to nurture values of persistence and honesty (p. 8). While thinking about comments and feedback, I wondered: Are other people's posts, stories, and updates behaving as unintentional feedback to others? In my opinion, the content other people post can quickly become feedback to others because it generates social comparison. Users see what their mutuals are up to, and most of the time, feel disappointed they are not doing the same or better things. Envy, dissatisfaction, and unrealistic standards thrive in "media-saturated environments" where "people find it difficult not to compare themselves to others" (p. 10). In this situation, ignorance truly is bliss, and as users, we need to be aware of the dangers and harm of overexposure and comparison through qualification, numbers, and rankings. Most importantly, as social media platforms keep growing and arising, society must keep emphasizing that only some things we see online are authentic and teaching people how to navigate the tremulous world of comments, feedback, comparison, and attention in social networks.