# Reading Response 1

Gossiping is something that large groups in society use to bond over, whether the gossip is good or bad. It is an evaluative and honestly often critical way of discussing someone else. It just so happens that word gets passed around very quickly. Similarly rumors travel in the same way, and as a result, within Dunbar's approximation of 150 individual connections, there could be a lot of information that is false about someone else. In the digital world, it is far easier to gossip about one another, as group chat records exist, giving fuel to the fire. Not to mention, in the digital world, anonymity gives people confidence to gossip and spread information regardless of how true it is. Most of the time, online gossip lacks the consequences that regular in-person gossip has.

Personally, I lack a large friend group that Dunbar has mentioned, and thus there isn't much gossip around me, as far as I'm concerned. Generally, I believe gossip is an "evaluative social chat" among larger groups as information takes longer to pass around, and in terms of interpersonal relationships people in a larger group will be closer with some and drift away from others. Since I have a small group of friends, information is pretty public and criticism is very direct, rather than told to another person.

# Reading Response 2

I've always been very curious on how people could possibly fall for catfishing. Personally, I don't think I'd believe someone with a random profile picture and an entire follower list of obvious bot accounts. Yet some people really are desperate enough for a relationship, even if it, like most online scams, are too good to be true. Interestingly, people who tend to catfish are narcissistic, which is odd as they paint a false image of themselves, so they praise or attention ends up going to this false identity rather than the catfisher. Something that really stood out to me were some traits specific to victims of romance scams and catfishing. Buchanan and Whitty found that people who idealized romantic partners were more likely to fall for this. This makes a lot of sense, because catfishers can adjust to their ideal and give them the "locus of control."

I generally feel like a lot of catfishing scams are blatantly obvious, which somehow works in a sense, as the least aware, most desperate people will actually fall for these, while it weeds out others that are more aware of the power of anonymity online. I've never used a dating app before, so I'm not 100% sure what everything looks like, but I think it's always a good rule of thumb to make sure things aren't too good to be true online, even outside of catfishing scams.

# Reading Response 3

Hating is an unavoidable part of being online. People have things they like, things they don't like, things that they stand by, and things that they will shun anyone for. Twitter, or rather, "X", has quite a reputation for people like this. I will continue to refer to it as Twitter, as that is what I'm used to. Unlike reddit, which is full of typically moderated subreddits, twitter has basically no moderation. People can post just about anything, say anything, and do anything just for the sake of engagement. Just as Williams has pointed out, what used to be an icon of trust, the blue checkmark, can now be bought. This allows haters to be able to spread the hate very easily, while getting paid for doing so.

I think hate isn't just limited to Twitter, but to every social media. I'm not very active on any social media platforms, which means I probably see a lot less than the average social media active person. When reading Professor Reagle's article, I noticed that anonymity was brought up again, something I have mentioned in every reading response thus far. People tend to behave differently when anonymous, as they believe there is no consequence, believing they are just a line of text and maybe a little icon with a picture that may or may not represent them. "But what happens if visibility is completely removed?" Well, now we know.

# Reading Response 4

Tor and onion browsers have always intrigiued me ever since watching that Youtube documentary on "Cicada 3301." Tor is made to help with anonymity and privacy of users online, as when using a traditional browser and even incognito mode, information is never truly private and secret. The problem with so much anonymity and privacy is the amount of illegal things that happen there, as it is pretty much unmoderated. The most obvious instance was Silk Road, a darknet marketplace that often sold illegal items, particularly drugs. Since credit and debit card transactions can easily be traced back to the buyer, early bitcoin was used in place.

Tor, onion browsers, cryptocurrency are all made to help with online anonymity, but it can be argued that all of these things end up facilitating crime. Anonymity may not always be a good thing clearly, as people tend to take advantage of this. As discussed in class and honestly every single one of my discussion posts, anonymity brings out a feeling of "lack of consequence," which in turn brings out the worst in people, going from hating, to death threats, to scamming, and now illegal activity.

# Reading Response 5

There is a rising trend where social media sets an entirely unrealistic beauty standard. People post pictures of what seems like perfect bodies, perfect faces, expensive vehicles and jewelry. Behind the scenes is a ton of dieting, genetics, hard work, makeup, very fancy lighting, and honestly a lot of editing. However, a lot of people don't know that, hence the problem of modern beauty standards. As written in Shaped, "*self-esteem* is understood as the self-evaluation of one's worth," and people's evaluating criteria unfortunately is based off of social media influencers and social media models.

It is also written that "many people have cringed at seeing unflattering pictures of themselves in someone else's album." This is quite relatable for me, as not only am I camera shy, but I also do not look great in pictures. And given my friends' natures, they will look for opportunities to take the most awful and hilarious bad pictures. Although I can't control my presentation in an album, I am able to get a laugh out of it. Are social media beauty standards causing people to feel worse about themselves? Were teenagers and young adults happier about themselves before social media became such a dominant presence in our lives?