###### 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

### Sep 18 Tue - How the Web works

Everytime you get in your car to buy food from the store, you can think about how you're doing something similar when searching a website online. According to MDN, the general process of searching for a webpage can be compared to going to the store to buy groceries where the client, which could be a phone or laptop, is your house, the web is the road, and the server, which is the webpage or app you are looking to get to, is the store. The user interface you end up with on your screen is the "groceries" in this metaphor. To get to the "groceries", you need a car, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol which is sets of rules that allow data to find where it needs to go. The Domain Name System is like a GPS so your browser can find the right IP address and send HTTP messages to the correct place.

Data "travels" extensively in order to accomplish the goal of sending the correct information, or packets, back to the user's client, so there is the initial question of how can user data be protected when using the web? Hartley Brody's explains how HTTPs secures connections by using cryptography like public key encryption and many others. One thought that came to my mind when reading Brody's explanations was how he does not mention faults of using HTTPS for web security, because it is very clear, being an internet user, that data leaks have been prevalent. Brody wrote this article in 2013 when the technology for data security was still developing, so another question I had was how the protocols/standards for HTTPS have evolved since this article has been published?

One data leak I saw from a platform that uses HTTPS:

### [Sep 21 Fri - Crap detection](https://hackmd.io/@sherylcheung/BJf7Fdv16)

### Sep 26 Tue - Learning

Racing against time, I recall the countless times I stood outside of a testing room cramming as much information as I could with minutes until my exam. This was one of my first thoughts while reading Brown's points on inefficient learning. Brown states how we are learning in the "wrong" ways which leads to unproductive strategies, but this can be fixed using better learning strategies. He says, "exposing yourself to something over and over again is something that much of us learned to do to learned through school, or even personal experiences, but this is not effective." (p.9) He makes the claim that when learning is effortful, it is more "durable".

Thinking back to a specific time, I remember a difficult night in high school when I had to cram for a final exam. I was trying to memorize all these concepts as quick as possible and this took hours. I got a decent grade, but the information I had thought I learned was gone within days.Brown's use of the metaphor of "writing in sand" (p.3) successfully demonstrates the experience that I went through. I have had many experiences similar to this one which aligns with Brown's arguments. He recommends different strategies of learning including effortful retrieval using mental models and repeated retrieval. Cramming information is also a strategy that many use, but is not effective as concepts will be better learned through things such as practice tests or flashcards used over time.


Some questions that came to my mind include how Brown mentions much of these "wrong" strategies of learning are taught through school, are there any barriers stopping educational institutions, especially for younger children, from truly implementing more effective learning strategies? How can students, and even educators, overcome opposition to using these alternative learning approaches, when traditional approaches like cramming have become inherent in educational culture?

### [Oct 02 Tue - Filtering](https://hackmd.io/@sherylcheung/ByZ73qlgT)

### Oct 03 Tue - Cooperation

"Even monkeys can scheme and are sensitive to threats from their peers," as Joseph Reagle's article reveals. This insight gives a basis for exploring the topics of human behavior, trust, and communication raised by Reagle and Martin Nowak.

In "Super Coordinators: Evolution, Altruism, and Human Behavior," Martin Nowak explores the interactions between cooperation and the Prisoner's Dilemma. He says, "If only you had trusted each other, by cooperating, you would both be better off than if you had both acted selfishly" (Nowak, p. 14, 2011) where he describes the relationship between cooperation, trust, and relationships. He looks at the idea of costly punishment and its use in encouraging or bettering cooperation between people. He points to an experiment where the participants were punished but this actually ended with increased cooperation. But he does state that this tactic may not be suitable for every situation. Nowak explains how rewarding collaboration and may be more effective in bettering relationships than punishing disobedience.

Using the theories of Robin Dunbar, Reagle investigates human conversation in the age of the internet. He emphasizes the function of gossip in social relationships by defining it as "evaluative social chat" (Reagle, 2019). He offers the idea of "Dunbar’s number of 150 is, roughly, the cognitive limit of how many relationships humans can maintain given their complexity" (Reagle, 2019). Reagle talks about how going over this cap can change how online communities function. He also emphasizes the need for gossip, which calls for the theory of mind, a complex sort of social cognition.

I thought of how Nowak's observations relates to the piece on gossip as intimacy is built on trust, and trust can be damaged by rumors or misinformation, making the information on gossip important to relationships and cooperating with one another. I think this information is relevant because Dunbar's Number which limits the depth of human relationships in big groups, has an effect on online communities such as the ones present on the internet today. I have noticed with many people that even though people have many "relationships" on social media where people like and comment on each others pictures, they only have a small number of close friends in real life; they may even gossip about these so-called "friends" on the internet. A question that came to mind from these readings include, how can media platforms integrate Nowak's findings to foster more positive interactions and communication/collaboration?

### Oct 06 Fri - Social networks

"Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet" (Rheingold, 2012), says Rheingold as he explains the concept of "small world phenomena". He highlights how every person is apart of this massive social network, even if we don't all directly know each other. Especially now with social media, its easy to form relationships online and stay connected. Rheingold describes how before the internet, people were mostly connected locally whereas now, people can be connected globally with ease. He also touches on the concept of "networked individualism" where people aren't really stuck in one specific network.

Rheingold's ideas about maintaining relationships and networks in this digital age relate to me where I think back on the times I've personally experienced the small world phenomena. Last summer, I went back to my hometown in New Jersey where I met up with my childhood friends, and as I was speaking with them I realized that they know many of the people that I met in Boston either through other mutual friends, or through social media. Something interesting that I noticed during that interaction was how the significance of the relationships formed via the internet vs in person are different. Most of my friends who connected with people online did so through Instagram because they "looked pretty/nice" or "liked their style", while they thought that the people they met in person were nice and had good personalities. They all spoke to each other differently.

*An example of a first message online, that probably would not be the first thing said if in-person:*

A question that I thought of was since so many connections are now formed online, are people's relationships in the digital age less authentic/personal?

### Oct 10 Tue - Haters

"Facebook users saw bullying or harassment 14 to 15 times out of every 10,000 views of content on the app between July and September" (Bond, 2021), says Shannon Bond as she introduces the newfound "bullying" on social media that has become prevalent as of recent years. Bond gives an overview of the bullying and hate speech that has become a serious concern in recent years. She explains how Meta has been updating policies and taking down posts in order to try to limit the harassment on the platform.

Chapter 5 of "Reading the Comments" by Joseph Reagle goes more in depth about the idea of bullies on the internet, how they act, and how to have evolved on different platforms like Goodreads, a book reviewing platform where the bullies are preventing authors from getting good reviews to sell their books. These bullies are affecting important parts of people's lives. "Trolls" were one of the first bullies discussed who were similar to online pranksters who baited people for laughs. Some can argue that these bullies are "good people acting up" (Reagle, 2015). Reagle explain the evolution of such bullies and how it is no longer sufficient to just ignore them because nowadays with technology evolving, they can target people through their friends or even close family. Actions such as doxing which is revealing a person's location has also become prevalent. Reagle also explains the term trollplex as "an attack by people who come from varied backgrounds, exhibit varied behavior, but share a target, a culture, and venues." (Reagle, 2015) which is something that has been seen recently. There is also the issue of gender where it seems to be mostly men doing the online bullying.

I personally use the platform Goodreads to find new books, and I have seen this problem of harassment towards authors in the reviews. One of the reasons that I use this platform less is because its difficult for me to differentiate users who are just being "dramatic" to hate on the author and genuine reviews. I have switched to finding books on platforms such as Reddit because I feel that even though a lot of communities on Reddit experience mass amounts of harassment and bullying, certain book subreddits are milder due to the [moderators](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/moderation/), and people tend to share honest and in depth reviews. I have seen "haters" on the book communities on Reddit but I feel like I can easily spot the "real" reviews because of my algorithm showing me the most liked posts which are usually truthful, and the "haters" are quite often banned very quickly. People also very openly point out when a user's post is irrelevant or dishonest because of the discussion threads, whereas Goodreads people do argue against the "trolls", but not much happens. Even though many platforms have adopted moderators such a Reddit, Twitch, and Youtube, is there really a way to truly ban harassment? I have noticed many people get upset when moderators are too strict and people cannot voice their opinions.