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title: Reading Response Set 2

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# Reading Response Set 2
### Reading Response #1 (4/3/2020)
The first question that came to mind after reading Duffy’s insights into self-enterprise was about the concept of authenticity amongst a social society that’s forcing their tastemakers to fit a mold.  Female influencers have grown exponentially with the rise of social media, and the potential to monetize off of it.  However, it would be a disservice to ignore the deep underbelly of the influencer world, and how that defines internet authenticity, or a lack thereof.  “Women are positioned in deficit unless they acknowledge and subscribe to masculine discourse [of entrepreneurship],” (p 856).  This is perhaps the most telling sentence of the entire article. Women must forgo parts of themselves in order to appease the male rhetoric that internet entrepreneurship enforces.  And yet, here we are, as the young adults that ignorantly stand by and follow them anyway.

The term of “Instagram Husband” is an example of the language utilized in this community.  It’s the expectation that an influencer’s significant other is able to photograph them consistently and well. So why is it Instagram Husband if it applies to significant others of all genders and gender-identities? Because the concept emerged from a female stereotype.  The social media world has an expectation of females, although at times it remains unsaid. If you’re a female on Instagram or Youtube trying to find fame, the expectation is that you look good.  The right clothing, the best skin, these are all factors that women find themselves searching for while choosing a perfect “Instagram.”  Our definition of these photos as “perfect” come from the assumption that perfection and male-standarized beauty are synonymous. 

What makes this all truly inauthentic is the monetizing aspect.  The fact that, in order to make money from influencer-like activities, you have to fit the mold.  It makes me wonder how many of the people we see at the “top” of the social media hierarchy actually believe in the content they put out there.  This social media driven “inauthenticity” is not only a consequence for the influencer community, but also those exposed to their lifestyles.  Pre-teens and children watch the people that we see on our own computers, utilizing these “influencers” to make a roadmap of what they’re life is supposed to be like, what they’re supposed to look like, and even what vernacular is deemed socially acceptable (the increased use of the word “like” for example).  The influencer stratosphere of “fame” and “money” are detrimental to the concept of authenticity, because real authenticity has become incredibly hard to determine.

### Reading Response #2 (4/7/20)

The hardest lesson to learn in the age of media and digital communication is that of subjectivity.  Your beliefs will very rarely be in alignment with your entire audience, whether that be a class, a club, or an office.  The same applies to the web, except that audience can be expanded to millions of people. So subjectivity- how does it pertain to the somewhat “odd” things we witness online?  Well, primarily, what we define as strange or outlandish may be deemed completely normal by someone else’s standards.  The key is to be assertive, but not aggressive.  If you have a point to make on the internet, you have to be able to dictate it in such a way that it doesn’t directly offend anyone else.   These socially defined “rules” aren’t consistently followed by any means, but they do tend to ensure that the average user doesn’t get culturally “cancelled.” 

The term “cancelled” is one I thought of frequently while reading the chapter. “Cancelled” pertains to a larger cultural movement, in which large groups of people deem a celebrity or public figure as cancelled due to a controversial act they potentially partook in. Cancelled culture is most popular on Twitter, where groups of people can congregate digitally and reply to one another (therefore building off each other’s points). It relates very closely to what occurred with Anthony Weiner and his inability to work the media platform correctly.  The direct responses and replies on Twitter are what gave his mistake the publicity it has, eventually forcing him to resign and admit to marital indiscretions.  This event happened before the term “cancelled” had truly become ingrained into culture, so while the terminology may be different, the outcome is very similar.

There is no way to create an understanding of the communication methods of those we don’t know.  Being in the digital age, we are exposed to an incredible amount of strangers, and with them, their opinions.  Some will be favorable to your specific beliefs, and others, completely contradictory, however, that is an underlying positive of the Internet as well. We are able to expose ourselves to a variation of things. Yes, there is implicit bias in most of what is shown to us, but we have the ability to look outside of that bubble.  To truly make sense of the oddities we interact with on the internet, you have to realize it’s probably not that odd to someone else. 

### Reading Response #3 (4/10/20):
With an influx of information as well as interaction (digitally, of course), it is hard to distinguish satirical commentary from comments that are genuinely hurtful.  Cyberbullying, the act of bullying someone online, has also become more and more prevalent as our world becomes more reliant on digital communities. The internet has no age restriction, and not all children will have the self control to pull themselves away from a screen when they feel uncomfortable. So how do we monitor the potential detrimental consequences of this cyber-era?

We learn about the idea of “pushback” in Gomez’s article.  “Pushback” refers to the “reaction against the overload of information and changing relationships brought about by communication technologies” (Gomez p. 2). But what brings about these reactions can show us why the internet is so scary. A motivation mentioned is “emotional dissatisfaction,” which means the internet user is somehow dissatisfied with the messages they’re witnessing online.  This encompasses the fear of cyberbullying, or even the reality of it. When people are given the opportunity to hide behind a screen, their rudest thoughts can become real words on a screen, with potentially harmful consequences to the insulted. 

In your chapter, Commenterrible, we see these potential detriments come to life. Like many other websites and platforms today, Twitter has become home to thousands of instances of cyberbullying.  Public figure, Caroline Criado-Perez, received death threats, rape threats, and an influx of other graphic messages, as a result of her fighting for more female inclusion in the UK. While not every internet user is incompetent or rude, it is likely that every internet user will be forced to interact with someone of that description.  This makes it extra important for users to be aware of the drawbacks of the internet, and emotionally prepare themselves for the hate they could witness.  It’s sad but it’s true; we must condition the population to be strong enough to deal with the fallout of the internet.  There is no way to slow down or halt the progress the Internet has made. What’s most important isn’t doing the impossible, but rather making sure that those who are vulnerable to hatred learn how to devalue it.
				
			
		



