# Reading Responses (Set 2)

## First Reading Response (Nov 8)
People will go to extreme measures to get the attention they feel they deserve on social media. When people my age were in middle school, even before the Instagram algorithm changed, there was a large wave of downloading apps where you would like other people's posts and they would like yours. These were complete strangers who would just want the like count on their post to go up. Yet, it was a very hidden thing that was not talked about. People wanted to be popular, or seem so at least, and would do behind the scenes things to make it happen. Now, with the algorithm based on engagement around your account and your post, it makes it even that much harder for influencers or people that want their content displayed to have a chance to do so. Yet, the amount of like for like exchanges are going down. I think that even with the concept of "pods" being born, the influencers have realized that the engagement has to be genuine or else they will not grow to where they want to be. As Forsey said, "Your engagement metrics will also be skewed, and you'll no longer be able to tell if your content is resonating with your potential customers." I think the fact that Instagram has also changed their settings to allow for likes to be hidden encourages and promotes more authenticity. On a personal level, since Instagram has given us the ability to take away the comment section and hide the like count, it has created a much less stressful environment to feel free to post whatever you want.

## Second Reading Response (Nov 18)
As most computer scientists know, it is really hard to not make mistakes. When making any code, any software, or any visualizations, it is impossible to get it right on the first try and probably even the second. Producing code, and algorithms especially, comes from a lot of trial and error. In my classes we talk about the ethical importance behind what we are doing. Last week, we were making a recommender system for Boston housing, and we had to take into account that Boston has a really awful history of redlining districts - segregating based on race and income levels. At the end of the day, behind these algorithms are humans who are making them. I think that it would be hard to find someone who was making an algorithm for big companies that has malintent. The intent is never to have only white people show up on google searches, or for the unprofessional hairstyles show women with natural hair. Yet, it does happen. I think that in the conception of the internet and these big companies especially, it was a lot of white men making these algorithms and with that, came their inherent biases towards their life experiences. Algorithms are especially tricky in this endeavor. In the Buzzfeed article it mentioned the "project is not intended to illustrate racism on Google’s part, but to highlight wider societal biases that are brought into relief by the algorithm"(Rutherford, White). The algorithm is just accentuating what society has already searched and looked at. Algoirthms are fast and smart things that pick up on patterns with the information they are given. Therefore, it is most important that the makers behind them make them ethically and with all these factors in mind.

## Third Reading Response (Nov 29)
It is really hard to be authentic online when you know most people are not doing the same. A lot of influencers have come to a realization that in their history of being in the public eye, they have not been themselves. There was a group of “lifestyle” influencers in the 2014-2017 years who were always perfect in keeping up their aesthetic on YouTube. All of them were basically the same person but in a different “font”. They all did morning routines, night routines, DIYs, back to school videos, and more videos like that for years on end. That is what the audience wanted and is what got them their following, and frankly, what kept it. Yet, as they matured, they realized slowly that those videos were not them; in fact, they were basically playing characters of being perfect girly girls who had no qualms in life, which lead to extreme burnout. They always had to be happy and chirpy and at the end of the day - inauthentic. So, they started to stray from that and have found themselves in the past couple years. People can still say that social media and the online world is a “highlight reel,” which I do agree with, but I think that more and more the past couple years people have been more so pushed to be more real. Which, in turn, gave rise for apps like BeReal to thrive. People were tired of the filters, the stories, the perfection. As Duffy says, “BeReal represents the latest iteration in the cycle of social media sites that spring from the push-and-pull tension of authenticity and performance.” Yet, Duffy makes another point about the uncertainty of the longevity of the app. In my opinion, BeReal was destined to be a fad. It was meant to be a break from normal social media and people were bound to fall in love with it, get excited with the time sensitive notifications, and have a break from regularly scheduled social media. Yet, as much as people hate the angle of perfection on social media, people love to seem perfect. This perpetuates a cycle on social media which will inevitably make BeReal fail unless they have something new and shiny for us again.

### Fourth Reading Response (Dec 2)
The majority of hate online, to influencers especially, is directed to women. I think that more women are willing to put themselves out there and go through the awkward stages of the microinfluencing than men, so that leads to more female influencers in the internet space. But, even due to the fact that there are more women than men influencing, women are much more critiqued and hated on compared to male influencers. As was said in the article, *Policing “fake” femininity: Authenticity, accountability, and influencer antifandom,* "In other words, the targeted influencers serve as individual scapegoats for the hatebloggers’ ire at the existence and reproduction of problematic, narrowly defined ideals of femininity, domestic life, and the possibility of 'having it all.'" Things are taken out on society on the women influencers in the public eye. It is easy to have someone to place some blame on when there is no one else clearly there to place it on. In addition to women already being the most hated-on group, the addition of "Cancel Culture" makes it hard to not walk on eggshells. Everyone is always offended by something and being watched from thousands to millions of people accentuates even the small comments or actions one makes. It is really tough to be in the online world these days but even more so as an influencer or anyone with a following. It leads to being more fake, less yourself, and doing whatever you can to survive the algorithms of the online platforms to try and prove to everyone, and yourself, that you are worth paying attention to.

### Fifth Reading Response
Comment sections were made so that people could share their thoughts and connect with others. But, now people are opting out of using them, ignoring others, and turning the option of comments off on their posts. Has the comment section gone full circle? As Mark Frauenfelder was quoted in Chapter 8 of *Reading the Comments*, "I stopped participating in the comments section of *Boing Boing* a couple of months ago. I feel better because of it." This makes me think of when we learned about how people were only supposed to have a close circle of people around them - their social network. I do not think people were supposed to be contacted by thousands or millions of people at a time; it is too much for one brain to handle. Our brain reacts more strongly to stimuli it sees as negative, so our attitudes are much more effected by negativite comments than positive comments. In addition, the context and who said these comments, change the meaning of the comment. In the days where we had tribes and smaller social networks and someone made a comment it would likely be peceived as genuine because they knew you. Yet, if Kim Kardashian was reading her comments and tried to take every single one to heart, not only would it not be possible but she would quickly learn that most of them are not genuine at all. People have taken the comment section full circle. It started as a place to make the internet more of a community and has now torn people down and ruined lives. It is rare to have a very beneficial comment section. Many celebrities have even taken to turning off comment options on their Instagram posts. Are the days of comment sections over?