# Reading Responses 5 out of 5
## Janurary 20th - How the web works

I would like to learn more about Javascript and the work that is needed to be put in to create a website and how the internet is able to process as quickly as it does. I would also like to have more of an understanding on how websites secure our personal information through HTTPS. I understood some of the mathematical concepts but was still a little puzzled. Even with security is there still a possibility that someone could obtain sensitive information? I also want to learn more about packets. How is it possible that the data is sent in smaller chunks if it's part of a whole website? I understand the reason so that multiple clients can access what they need at the same time but how is it done?
## Janurary 24th - Crap Detection
We are privileged to have the freedom of press in this article Joyce Valenza talks about how the viewer/reader is the deciding factor it is up to them to decide the credibility and reliability of a source. Our world is completely subjected to news at all moments. What's true and not true depends on the person themselves. Journalists always face challenges because their ethical and moral reasoning can often conflict with the way information is received or the way a source is vetted. Valenza touches on the topic of news literacy which is the ability to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports, whether they come via print, television or the Internet. Valenza believes that we should teach young people the everyday civics of consuming and production landscapes in other terms teach them about critical thinking ect. In a study done by Stanford's Graduate school of education on high school and college students and they were asking to verify certain posts across different platforms such as facebook and figure out what they believe to be a trustworthy website or article online and the results to the researchers was stunning that the students didn’t dig as deep as they should in order to grasp the entire picture and because of all the information we have access to it should have been possible. She also touches upon fake news and its many different varieties. Both readings touch upon how to properly verify credibility and credentials, such as who is the author, why was the source created? Where was it published? Interrogate URL’s, verify their sources ect.

There have been many instances where I have encountered fake news but it was primarily during the 2020 presidential election. I remember having to decipher and do extra research on whatever was being said because it was becoming very common for fake news to appear during the election. I wanted to stay updated with the accurate facts now reading these articles. I didn't know of all the different ways you could verify the credibility of websites, authors, sources ect. Why does fake news continue happening when there are so many resources and ways to tell it’s fake?
## January 27th - Learning
Learning is a large aspect of life. It is what pushes us as people to progressively evolve and mature. The author Brown begins by talking about three aspects in learning that can be agreed upon. First is that memory must be present in order for learning to be even possible. The second is we need to continuously learn and remember all our lives otherwise it defeats the purpose of learning because you would have to relearn again. The last aspect is that learning isn't given it's acquired. Brown talks about different learning skills such as repetition, beforehand problem solving, Spacing out a task. Brown also touches on preferred styles of learning and how it isn't widespread enough and doesn't allow you to grow. All new learning needs to be preceded by prior knowledge. If you continue repeating your brain can essentially reach a max capacity for what you can remember about the certain topic, but rather suggests to use elaboration as a tool to connect what you learn to different aspects of your life. Testing is also a big part of our learning. Brown says that every time you learn something your brain changes. The authors then begin to discuss about learning theories. People think that constant exposure helps to learn but it really doesn't the authors believe that harder learning is better than easier learning. The belief that exposure promotes learning is heavy and the authors begin by giving examples of others like Mike Brown, and research like the one done by a psychologist at the University of toronto. Which received poor results on constant exposure that led them to research rereading texts which is basically according to the authors as "time consuming". Yet students and teachers continue to prefer this way of learning. The authors then want to analyze why this is the preferred method. The authors then state that this then leads to illusionary learning and that you may learn hoe to recite things from a text but do you really know the meaning of what it is saying? Are you reading for memorization of the text or the ideas behind it. The authors then say that retrieving learning from memory has two benefits which tells you what you know and don't know, and it forces your brain to "reconsolidate that memory". Learning isn't just as simple as we think but it entails so much more as I believe the author pushes this message throughout the reading.
## Feburary 3rd - Cooperation
Nowak begins by explaining what a dilemma is and what it entails he begins by using a prisoner example in other words a snitch example. Whether two people cooperate with each other and remain silent about what happened the investigators don't have a case because there is insufficient evidence, whereas if one cooperates with the investigators or both cooperate with them then either or both of them could go to jail for a longer amount of time. He begins by telling the reader that no matter what your partner might do in the situation the best thing for you to do would be to defect. Nowak states cooperation in an evolutionary context and that natural selection actually opposes and undermines our ability for cooperation. "If I help you then I lower my fitness and increase your fitness" Nowak states that natural selection actually destroys what is good for us and the world we live in, it "undermines the greater good". Nowak states that evolution is necessary and in order for evolution to exist it needs to be in a reproducing society. Darwin then begins to speak about the passing down of traits and genes from generation to generation. Nowak states that natural selection is "all about competition, dog-eat-dog and winner takes all" Nowak states that by understanding how competition brings cooperation we can explain why people are the way they are, why they act the way they do, and how they have evolved."Cooperation is the architect of living complexity". Nowak begins to talk about Milinski's game that is similar to the Prisoner's Dilemma but with more people called the "Public Goods Game". Nowak states that there is a way to solve this through the mechanism of reciprocity. The author continues to talk about the public goods game he also talked about the essence of dilemmas and its relevance to climate change. Nowak then goes into talking about retribution and payback and the interaction between one person and the person they are punishing. He also talks about this idea of costly and or harsh punishments and how they can be used to promote cooperation and how it was experimented on to find out if this was possible, they performed about 10 experiments. Nowak proposes that "natural cooperation" be added to Darwin's "mutation" and "natural selection" principles.
## Feburary 7th - Social Networks
Rheingold begins by emphasizing that we live in a world that is encapsulated with networks, 'From or brain cells to social ties.'He states that "Networks have structures, and structures influences the way individuals and networks behave." Rheingold begins by talking about John Guare's six degrees of separation that basically states that every person on the planet is separated by only six people and he then begins talking about the inception of this idea in 1967 where social psychologist Milgram and his student Jeffery Traves discovered this through a research study of about three hundred people. The author also talks about small world networks and how a sociology professor from Columbia University Duncan Watts and a mathematician from Cornell University's Steven Strogatz published a paper on the nature of this. In 2001 Rheingold states that Watts tried recreating Milgram's experiment through email and that Watts and Strogatz demonstrated how a large network can become a small one. They then talk about nodes and how they connect to one another immensely. Rheingold begins talking about different kinds of curves such as the bell-shaped curve, and the power law curve. I think an important study that Rheingold gives is the study done by James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis which they discovered a person's individual happiness is influenced by how happy their neighbors, co-workers, and friends are, in a sense part of your happiness might depend on someone else whom you have never met before. Group forming networks and they used ebay as an example and how it brought consumers and sellers who are willing to buy or sell the same product. "Reeds law links computer networks with social networks, which are all about group formation and intergroup communication." Rheingold states that through these scaling laws it pushed the internet's growth in social networks and collaboration. He explains that many sources compete for users through the content that is being published. Metcalf's law dominates in a transactional way through things such as email. Rheingold then talks about Castelle's seven ways on how technologically mediated social networks are transforming. Rheingold then touches more upon social network analysis and how these social networks have created new tools in order to make connections between the user and what they see and the connections they make through these social networks. He compares SNA to a network diagram, the ties between people and the relationships they have with others. Rheingold then teaches the reader how to create their own personal social network. Rheingold then turns to Mark Granovetter work to understand how SNA applies to network literacies. Granovetter basically describes ties as "combinations of the amount of time of the emotional intensity, the intimacy, and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie.” He then speaks about professor Wellman and how he has done extensive research on life online. Everyone holds in common the commitment to examine and re-examine whether people are fooling themselves or losing something important in the way we use media. Rheingold then touches upon Networked individualism, it is about the connectivity to the person. Rheingold expresses that communities and societies have shifted to a networked society. Rheingold provides resources on how people can gain from networked individualism in different situations in terms of the way people use their media. He then summarizes by talking about social capitals, and how it works he does this by giving an example in his personal life.
## Feburary 10th - Haters
In the article it begins by talking about the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, has released data showing the frequency of bullying and harassing posts on its platforms. Facebook users saw bullying or harassment 14 to 15 times out of every 10,000 views between July and September, while Instagram users viewed such content 5 to 6 times out of every 10,000 in the same period. The company took down 9.2 million pieces of bullying and harassment content on Facebook and 7.8 million on Instagram during the same period. The metric does not include posts that are reported by users, which means the numbers released likely undercount the amount of bullying and harassment people see. Meta faces a public relations crisis after former employee Frances Haugen shared internal reports and documents with federal regulators and lawmakers, which showed the company's struggles in policing hate speech and calls for violence. The article then begins stating that the company has updated its AI systems to detect different types of violations, including hate speech, bullying and harassment, and violence. These companies are trying to find different innovative solutions to eliminate this but people continuously find ways around it like the way misleading information is formatted in a way that AI software can't detect its false information. Reading the comments of a publication, video, news source is so important as emphasized by Professor Reagle in his book. There is so much hate, misleading, and just flat out wrong information and it is up to the people who are reading and or watching the incoming information pays close attention to others who have viewed the same thing in order to get accuracy in what you are reading.

As for why digital communication gives rise to toxic behavior, it may be due to the anonymity and distance provided by online communication, which can embolden people to engage in negative behavior they may not engage in face-to-face. Additionally, the fast pace and large reach of online communication can amplify negative behavior and make it more prevalent.
## Feburary 17th - Exam Review
### Two Multiple Choice Questions:
1. Which of the following is not true about Bitcoin
A. Bitcoin is scarce
B. It is global, easy to send to others
C. Expensive to use
D. Bitcoin is fast, transactions are fast

The answer to this question is C because Bitcoin is fairly cheap to use because of the fact that it is a cryptocurrency

2. What is the difference between fixed and growth mindsets
A. Fixed mindset avoids challenges and gives up easily, while a Growth mindset embraces challenges and doesn't give up
B. Growth mindset avoids challenges and gives up easily, while a Fixed mindset embraces challenges and doesn't give up
C. Fixed mindset learns from criticism, while growth mindset ignores useful criticism
D. Growth and fixed mindsets are the same thing

The answer is A because fixed mindsets don't see themselves progressing and development and are often stagnant while growth mindsets long for a better understanding of life itself and how they can become better themselves
### Two Short Questions:
1. Define Networked Individualism

Networked individualism is a term used to describe the way in which individuals use technology and digital networks to connect with others, relationships can be both long and local distance, and form new types of communities, while maintaining a high degree of individual autonomy and control over their own online interactions. Networked individualism is characterized by the ability of individuals to maintain and manage multiple, overlapping social networks that extend beyond traditional geographic or institutional boundaries, relationships can easily be formed and disbanded and is used to tailor their online interactions to suit their particular needs and interests.

2. What are three disengagement tactics?

Ways in which people withdraw from certain activities, tasks, situations, or groups. One disengagement tactic that we talked about is reconstruction conduct which involves euphemistic language a lot, Advantageous comparison, and overall this has a moral justfication, another tactic would be displace responsibilities, which entails things like you dividing the work to others in a group, you may not want to be held individually responsible for a decision ect. The last disengagement tactic would be dehumanizing another person so to make them feel like they are less than based on different physical and overall appearance.