# Wiki tutorial What is at risk is the potential fragmentation of society as result of manipulative seeding of doubt and ignorance when we embrace the internet and similarly new technologies, or so suggests danah boyd. Robert Proctor and Iain Boal created the term “agnotology” to describe the strategic manufacturing of ignorance as “a tool of oppression by the powerful.” Agnotology threatens knowledge itself, its production, our selection of it, and our access to it. With young people using the internet, specifically social and news media, as the primary source of information, propagandists and fake news leaders can cause them to be unable to detect fact from lies. Conspiratorial and manipulative content is pushed to the top of search results, data voids are filled with doubtful information, and terms are created or co-opted to fragment knowledge and structure. Agnotology’s power was especially prevalent in 2020, and is projected to also be this year, with the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers of coronavirus. For example, [93% of BLM protests being peaceful,](https://time.com/5886348/report-peaceful-protests/) many people continue to believe that they are largely violent and destructive as a result of biased, disproportionate media coverage. Even as someone knowledgeable about the BLM movement, I initially questioned if protests were primarily peaceful or violent simply due to the vast amounts of violent videos I’ve seen. White supremacists gaslight and hide black individuals’ experiences to further their oppression. On a different note, when any government official posts about coronavirus prevention on social media, the comments are flooded by anti-maskers with misleading links invalidating the science of masks’ effectiveness. The bias that results from these two examples are detrimental to our pursuit for truth. My concern is, if danah boyd claims that the internet, social media, and news media are vehicles for agnotology and epistemological fragmentation, how can we combat the spread of misinformation? Social media platforms try to moderate content but it is so easy to evade them, as the terrorist of Christchurch did. ![blm protestors protect police officer](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/06/05/PLOU/5fbd6051-bbcc-4ceb-a3b3-c6cb00c31acb-RiotMSC40.jpg) [![blm video](http://img.youtube.com/vi/BF9qi-FTTz4/0.jpg)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF9qi-FTTz4 "blm video") ![anti-maskers](https://i.imgur.com/E0HpHxs.jpg)
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Reading Responses (Set 2)

Reading responses 5 out of 5 Tuesday, March 23 - Finding someone & living alone A man claiming to be six feet tall in his profile when he is actually two inches shorter is not the only misconception of online dating. The skepticism and paranoia surrounding online data are often unfounded, as online dating sites not only reproduce the offline dating world but also surpass it in many ways. Internet dating expands the pool of potential partners to include individuals you otherwise would not have come across, and it encourages quicker marriage timelines through more calculated selection. Those skeptical about online dating may argue that dating sites make people more superficial and overwhelmed by choice, but this takes place in the offline dating world too. In a similar vein, fallacies also surround solo dwellers, with many portraying such individuals as fragmented from society and isolated. This viewpoint does consider the various factors that have led to a spike in people living alone, such as increase in wealth, cultural pressure to prioritize one’s well-being, superconnectedness, and longer life expectancy. Because quality supersedes quantity of social interaction, there is little evidence that living alone equates to feeling lonely. Furthermore, young adults increasingly view living alone as a symbol of success and freedom, using the experience to invest in themselves personally and professionally. The incorrect beliefs associated with online dating and living alone remind us again that correlation is not causation. For example, Rosenfeld states that while there are online sites that foster hook-up culture, there are also platforms that cater to people looking for long-term relationships, and people who meet their partners online can actually be more committed to their relationship. I am curious as to how the algorithms of dating sites determine what is a good match. Although the dating pool is expanded with online dating, the one you encounter is not necessarily more diverse. The online world should not have the same constraints of racial segregation that the offline world has, but personal demographics are used by sites to get the fit just right. Just as how privacy is sacrificed for advertising revenue, it is again sacrificed to find the perfect match. Does this type of filtering prevent you from finding your true soulmate? Could this be considered racist?

4/12/2021
Privacy footprint

If engaging in self-stalking was not a mandatory assignment, I would never have thought to discover what was being revealed about my identity, activity, and preferences on various platforms. I am relatively cautious with what I post on the Internet, and I assumed this would be reflected in my self-stalking. Kernighan (2017) describes the sources of personal data as being two-fold: people directly give away personal information for entertainment and convenience, but they also may not realize the other ways their information is being gathered. Forget the third-party cookies that people rarely consider, I did not even realize what information I had “voluntarily” given Facebook and Google. Haridy (2019) recognizes this common oversight by individuals, arguing that Facebook does not need to scheme and perform sneaky acts in order to collect your information because you have already freely provided them with it. The idiom, “like taking candy from a baby” certainly describes my naivety well. For example, I had also unknowingly enabled Google to recognize my age range, gender, primary language, and interests in financial software, athletic apparel, and HelloFresh. The age range and gender assumption stick out to me the most, as Google likely concluded this based on trends in big data (Kernighan, 2017). Perhaps Google tracked my search history, finding that I was searching for traditionally feminine products, to conclude this. Luckily, there is an abundance of much more talented Justine Chens out there, including a world-famous composer and violinist. The information of said musician has flooded my results for sites, images, and videos associated with my name. But, my identity remains easily accessible. I had allowed Facebook to distribute my birthday and friends list to the public. My LinkedIn profile picture is among one of the first results that pop up on Google, as is an article that I wrote for my high school newspaper. Spokeo revealed that I am from San Jose and my phone carrier. The combination of the information just listed would enable a stranger to easily connect the dots and learn who I am as a person.

4/1/2021
Justine's Home Page

Required assignments Wiki tutorial Web search and evaluation Filter and label your email Adblocking Privacy footprint Reading responses

4/1/2021
Ad blocking

"Follow the money." The catchphrase popularized by All the President's Men and the Watergate scandal is just as applicable in today’s market of information asymmetry, particularly referring to how honest buyers and sellers can find each other in a sea of deception. Despite licenses, guarantees, and trademarks intended to establish trust between buyers and sellers, it is surprising that any business gets done at all; manipulative sellers learn new tricks faster and better. Instead, the key signaling tool is advertiser spending. Take Vitaminwater, for example. Vitaminwater claims that its drinks are “nutritious” and “healthy” because they contain the recommended daily allowance of vitamins, despite being chock-full of sugar and colorful additives. Before the lawsuit settlement, many individuals believed that Vitaminwater was a “healthy drink,” not only because of its misleading and unsubstantiated claims, but also its widespread advertising. I hate to admit that I was one of these individuals. If Vitaminwater was willing to plaster its claims all over the Internet, on the side of buses, and in magazines, I thought the product must have been that good. It is not so much the claims made by advertisers that are helpful, but the fact that they are willing to spend extravagant amounts of money on a product that is informative High levels of advertising spending indicate seller confidence to consumers, weeding out the low quality sellers who cannot afford such a screening mechanism. Perceived expense is not directly correlated with purchase patterns, but it is tied with brand quality which is. However, this does not mean that billions of dollars spent on advertising guarantees a product’s success, as signaling breaks down when sellers attempt to target specific users and when there is too much noise. When retargeting is obvious, users are easily turned off. They do not want marketers to have so much information about them. Sellers must find that perfect point between having an advantage over other sellers without violating buyer privacy.

3/19/2021
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