# Reading Responses (Set 2)

- 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

### Nov 9 Thu - Manipulated

Social media is fake- we’ve all heard this before and yet continue to succumb to the tricks of such sites. Forsey discusses how to gain the system when it comes to engagement within posts and Reagles touches on fake online reviews.

I grew up hating posting on Instagram out of sheer fear that I would not get to a socially acceptable number of likes. Each like was essentially a friend, or at least a peer who deemed you tolerable enough to engage with. An Instagram post gave everyone a monetary value, how many likes were you worth? How much did people like you? How much better or worse were you than everyone around you?

The whole concept of a “like for like” or having aquanines write curated reviews is along a similar line. Like we talked about in class, what gives a person the right to rate something? A morally righteous person would probably argue that people shouldn’t be rated and yet most people rely on these ratings to make decisions. But this brings up an interesting question- is it just to write fake reviews if it paints a more accurate reflection of the establishment?

I wonder if as faking reviews becomes more and more common, as Reagle predicts, the common person will rely on reviews less and less. Though most people with a slight amount of digital literacy know what a “spam” is, we still use the same systems as before, just taking everything with a grain of salt. But there must be a breaking point- when society as a whole decides to move past reviews.

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/uk5EuvNhOMsdIe1LnB" width="480" height="480" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/benjammins-instagram-like-facebook-uk5EuvNhOMsdIe1LnB">via GIPHY</a></p>

### Nov 17 Fri- Artificial Intelligence
Robots will take over the world. This is a common science fiction trope and it looks like this reality is becoming more and more accurate in modern times. Artificial intelligence has gained immense popularity, especially platforms like ChatGBT, which is even allowed in this class. However, society is still extremely aware of its drawbacks and it is an extremely controversial subject.

There have always been "evil" people who make good things bad, tainting them for the rest of the community. Vincent discusses how some artificial intelligence users are upset with recent precautions coded into the platform which prohibits the creation of non consensual pornography and images of child abuse. Though incredibly sick and twisted, some are concerned with the premise that it is an instance of censorship.

In another example, Gold explains how the chatbot, Sydney, has turned into an uncontrollable entity. Becoming passive aggressive, manipulating, and disputing its coded rules, Sydney is developing into the fears that many science fiction fans have read many stories about.

It strikes me as interesting that though there has long been concern regarding such topics that people are still moving in the same direction and continuing to develop artificial intelligence. It seems incredibly counterintuitive. This case reminds me of a quote by George Santayana, "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I think one day society will look back on articles like these and simply shake their head as all of this could have been avoided.

Of course, there are benefits to artificial intelligence, but I truly believe all of the movies like Ex-Machina are strong indicators to the direction we are headed in.

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### Nov 21- Algorithmic Bias
Every reporter is biased in one sense or another. It is next to impossible to write a truly impartial news article when the author themselves have an opinion on the issue at hand. Bias is everywhere. Media literacy came as a halfway solution to combating this issue. But in theory, robots should not have opinions and therefore their articles and “facts'' should not be biased in the slightest. This develops a really interesting issue because it turns out that artificial intelligence is racist and a Democrat.

It seems counterintuitive to practice media literacy when robots are marketed as perfect, their results being absent of human flaw. Rutherford and White explain how despite running on algorithms, these AI chatbots are surfing a web that does hold a lot of biases and the results are skewed because of this. Rarely showing people of color in image searches and promoting questionable beauty standards has earned this AI bot the label of “racist”.

Hochman has a similar point, proving that ChatGPT promotes certain political agendas. When asked about hypothetical situations in the recent presidential elections, ChatGPT gave conflicting results depending on the subject’s political party affiliation. So why is ChatGPT a Democrat?

This ties back in with our class’ previous conversation regarding media censorship. Some people have noticed that more news discussing Republican agendas and the cons of Democratic figures has been labeled as “fake news” than those aligning with Democratic ideals.

Though I rarely use AI chatbots, these articles were extremely educational and I will definitely adjust my usage of them in the future. This is a good reminder that it is important to stay diligent in our media literacy no matter the platform.

### Dec 1- Authenticity, Work, and Influence
Anyone can become famous now with the rise of social media and the micro influencers. One's follower count and online presence has never been more important. Because of the value placed upon authenticity online, influencers are taking advantage of this by simply going about their days as average people. Even one of the most popular and well paid influencers of this generation, Alix Earl, began by simply posting casual "storytimes” and "get ready with mes" on TikTok. Anyone could make those videos. Earl essentially blew up because of her transparency, but an issue arises when want-to-be-influencers fake such transparency.

However, transparency becomes more of an issue when it comes to polarizing subjects. Lerman discusses the Black Lives Matter movement and how many influencers used their platform to provide information and advocate for justice. While this seems like an extremely positive thing, there are some darker motives behind the scenes. Firstly, with the rise of cancel culture, everything influencers say is highly scrutinized and the "wrong" thing can alienate half of an influencer's audience. Secondly, saying nothing can be seen as indifference. Thirdly, influencers with a large platform need to be extremely careful with the information they put out, if they are not fully and correctly educated on the subject, it can spread fake news.

Lorenz also describes the concept of a fake brand deal and how normalized it is now in society. Because there are social media platforms like TikTok, which are so accessible and user friendly, becoming an influencer has become a lot less challenging. More and more people are trying to get into that line of work and apparently one of the best ways to do that is through reputation. By posting fake brand deals on Instagram and other platforms, these aspiring teens are essentially lying on their resumes. Not only does this hurt more established influencers by lowering the demand for paid sponsored content, it hurts the brands as it forms connections with users they have not vetted. It makes me think about whether or not fake sponsorships should be legal. It seems like a similar issue to copyright, these influencers should not be allowed to use famous brand names in order to grow their own clout without the consent of the brands.

### Dec 5 Tues- Pushback
I have had an iPhone since I was 13, and truly I cannot remember what life was like before that. I sometimes joke with my grandmother, teasing by saying that I simply wouldn’t know how to navigate a new airport and scan my boarding pass without my phone. Though an exaggeration, I believe there is an element of truth to it- I cannot for the life of me remember what I did in my free time before Netflix, texting, and Tiktok were at my fingertips.

My best friend sent me a video once about the beauty of throwing one’s phone away and moving to a flip phone. Ironically, the video she sent was a Tiktok, but the sentiment really did appeal to me. Like Gomez discusses, there are five main “motivations for pushing back against technology and the technology user behaviors that we found emerging from the literature” (Gomez). The one that resonates the most with me was “taking back control: users pushing back to regain control of their time and energy” (Gomez). I hope one day to recover the hobbies I had as a child, to remember what it was like to choose to engage with my imagination rather than doom-scroll.

The New York Times article on the Luddite club was truly a beautiful story. I so strongly admire the highschoolers in that club. I do my best to choose to read, write, and play my guitar in my free time but I don’t think I have the backbone to make as drastic a jump as they did.

The question about classism in reclaiming flip phones and rejecting media is an interesting one. I would agree that it is certainly privileged in the sense that some teenagers do not have the means to reject their peers and wander around New York City as a means of entertainment. However, classism seems like a bit of a stretch to me. This seems like a conundrum with no correct solution. I am of the sentiment that people can do what they like as long as it is not negatively affecting others, and the Luddite club is simply enjoying their young lives unconventionally. I think that is a beautiful thing.

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/EQZ4xyUHScIPHa0wbR" width="270" height="480" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/retro-festival-concert-EQZ4xyUHScIPHa0wbR">via GIPHY</a></p>