# Reading Response Set 2

### November 2 - Manipulated
Personally, I always read reviews before buying something online or read the reviews before going to restaurants. I used to think ratings are there for a reason, but I've realized that most of these are skewed as I've gotten older. I was not aware that Yelp rounded their rating to the nearest half star, which can really easily distort the rating because obviously, a 3.26 is not the same as a 3.5. It is also hard to distinguish if reviews are accurate or not because they usually follow "J-shape" distribution because people are most likely to participate when they have a strong positive or negative experience" (Reagle, 2019). This is true for most cases because when one usually reads reviews online, they either find ones that praise a product or are extremely bash on it, and both are suspicious as it is. It is challenging to decide which reviews are reliable because around 10 to 30 percent of online reviews are fake (Reagle, 2019), so one doesn't really know which ones are being truthful and which ones are spam. Just like almost anything found on the internet, one can never trust reviews/ratings 100% because they may be fake or exaggerated. It is no secret that sometimes companies will write reviews about their own products in other to boost ratings. It is upsetting knowing that there are so many ways to distort ratings and that they go as far as hiring someone to write fake reviews.

The second reading talks about how Instagram changed its algorithm to include more popular posts first. When this first happened, I didn't see an issue, but as time passed, I realized that it was not very helpful because I would miss posts from certain accounts because they were not deemed "popular." But of course, people found a way to work around this algorithm and started to "cheat it" by partaking in Instagram pods. This relates to how online networks are manipulated because people are basically trying to go their way to have more engaging posts.

### November 5 - Tik Tok, Fakes and Appropriation
Getting catfished online is something that has happened to most people. Almost every person I know has gotten an email from a Nigerian prince telling them they will receive millions of dollars. But nowadays, catfishing is more common in the form of appropriation, meaning people have a different physical appearance or imitate a different culture. The use of filters on apps such as Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Instagram allows these practices to be more common because virtually anyone can hit a button, and the filters will give the user physical features from different cultures. This is a severe issuer because, as Rebecca Jennings wrote for Vox, "dozens of white women have been called out for capitalizing on harmful stereotypes by cosplaying Asiannes influencers on social media." It is absurd that by just clicking a filter, one can start to look years younger or look like a completely different race.

Some of the most common practices currently are blackfishing, cultural appropriation, and asianfishing. These practices are not only deceptive in the online world, but they are just morally wrong. No one should pretend to be someone they are not online, and if they do, they should most definitely not do so by imitating other cultures. And by partaking in these forms of catfishing, people are causing harm to communities that already face so much backlash as it is. Appropriation "causes devastating and clearly wrongful harm to members of the culture" (Young and Brunk, 2019), and by having it in an online setting, it makes it worse because they will keep on spreading and more people will probably copy them.

### November 15- Finding Someone and Living Alone
It is pretty surprising knowing that at least one-fourth of couples meet on dating apps. The phenomenon of dating apps such as Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble have changed the way people engage and go about in relationships, and although some might think this is a bad thing, it is not. Online dating apps have revolutionized the way people form relationships. With online dating, people have "access to more potential partners than they could meet at work or in the neighborhood" (Ferdman 2016), something that would usually not happen in the more traditional dating setting. Having these apps allows people to meet a wide variety of people, allowing them to choose from different options. Usually, people who are on dating apps know what they want, so that's why they tend to get married faster than people who meet in real life.

Some people don't really agree with the idea of online dating because one is literally rating people by swiping on them, but it is also kind of like that in real life. Before this reading, I had various misconceptions about online dating, and I used to believe that it didn't really work. But as Ferdman says, people who meet online are perfect strangers because the odds of meeting in real life are probably low. Online networks already make our lives a lot easier daily, and allowing people to find love in them is a great benefit.

Although online dating is great for the most part, users have to be careful when engaging with these apps. It is easy to encounter fake profiles or catfishes on these apps. It is also common to find people who lie about who they are or about their interests so they can manipulate their image and make them seem like they are more connected to you. People often also have old pictures and lie about their height when making their profiles so one must use their best judgment when trying to find someone online.

### November 23
It is extremely common to act differently according to the setting. One would usually not behave the same way they do at a party versus an interview for an important job. The same goes with acting a certain way online versus in person. An issue that arises when communicating online is that one does not always know who their audience is. In Boyd's and Marwkick's article, they call this phenomenon "imagined audience" because the people posting online must infer who their audience is to communicate appropriately. In specific settings online like dating sites, Ellison found that users were "hyper-aware self-conscious" about how they wrote or if they made any typos because that would push away potential matches. While users use these sites, they might communicate differently to appear more desirable than they do in person.

The concept of not knowing who one's audience is online is very prominent on the app twitter. On Twitter, when one tweets, if your account is public, that tweet is visible to your followers, the followers of the people who retreat it, or literally anyone who searches up your Twitter account. It is very possible that someone who you never expected could potentially read your tweet. Due to this "is virtually impossible for Twitter users to account for their potential audience" (Marwick and Boyd, 2013).

The study Marwick and Boyd conducted on Twitter found that people on Twitter consider their audience their friends and themselves. Participants said that they mostly tweet to themselves or for their close friends to see. However, the word friends is used lightly in social media because some people consider all their followers' friends while others only consider their real friends as friends on social media. In this case, it's hard to know how to actually categorize the users' audience.

### December 3- Authencity, Work and Influence
Who would have guessed that thousands of people make a living by posting pictures on social media? Social media influencers are people" who promote products or sell their own online to followers" (Lerman,2020). Influencers make their living by building a brand for themselves and obtaining sponsorships and brand deals. Usually, the more sponsorships an influencer has, the more successful an audience perceives them because this shows that brands trust this person to promote their product. However, amateur influencers will sometimes fake that they received brand deals using the strategy of "fake it until you make it" (Lorenz, 2018). This should not be normalized because influencers deceive their followers by going through with fake advertisement posts. Consequently, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that influencers must disclose when they participate in paid advertisements. So it might be confusing for followers to know what is paid advertisements and what is not.

Moving along from that, more recently, amidst the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, some influencers and companies have pushed away from their standard post and started using their platforms to advocate and educate their followers on these issues. With all the events that happened last year, many influencers realized that to maintain their following, they can just post about brand deals, but they must also be authentic and not be afraid to venture into political activism. Britney Turner, a social media adviser, said that "If [influencers are] not speaking up, it's making it easier for me to unfollow." This is true with many social media users because followers want to follow people who share the same views on political issues.

And influencers are not just meant to "influence" their followers to buy certain products or try specific brands. Influencers have large platforms that allow them to advocate for important issues, and they should use that for their benefit. Influencers must realize their privilege of having such a large platform, and they should use them for good.