# Reading Responses (Set 2)

## Reading responses 5 out of 5

### November 1- Finding Someone and Living Alone

Dating has morphed from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Once a practice that involved being set up with someone your friend or family member introduces you to, into having a vast selection of available singles at the tip of your fingertips. While these apps make a much larger and more accessible dating pool, it also breeds a judgmental and harsh environment where people are largely evaluated on appearance and surface-level traits (Thompson 2019). The adoption of online dating was embraced most quickly by the LGBTQ+ community thought the 90’s into the 2000s (Thompson 2019). This is because of the internet’s ability to connect people of minorities into a smaller online community (Thompson 2019). People have increasingly started using dating apps and they have been increasingly living alone (Chamie 2021). Living alone can make people become more lonely, depressed, and self-isolated from society (Chamie 2021). This is all to say, people who live alone and may feel self-isolated may turn to the use of dating sites to meet more people of similar interests.

The dark side of online dating comes from people’s ability to fabricate the truth. A study from OkCupid finds that men universally lie about their height on dating sites with the trend of men adding two inches to their height (Rudder 2010). In addition, people try to manipulate their profiles to be as appealing to the general public as possible. Many people upload pictures that are at least two years old (Rudder 2010). While meeting new people of similar interest aspect of online dating can be beneficial, the potential for catfishing and misleading those online could be rather dangerous. So maybe dating has not morphed into a butterfly, but rather changed to a new creature entirely with a completely new landscape of “feeling lonely,” people, insecurities, and dangers.

### November 8- Manipulated

The best advice is the advice you get from a friend, or maybe from someone on the Internet. We have all taken to the internet to seek advice for a new purchase, which restaurant to try, and where to spend our time and money on a vacation. In Reagle’s paper, he argues that there has been a “loss of innocence” in the world of leaving reviews and taking a friend’s word on the internet for products. He then goes on to argue that because of algorithms and because we live in such a for-profit society, there is no way to receive authentic opinions from the internet. I agree with Reagle’s opinion, and while this paper may be slightly outdated, and some of the statistics have definitely changed, he is absolutely correct in his observation.

Reagle’s sources state that 10-30% of reviews are fake, which has only increased from the point of this statistic. The fakers, takers, and makers of this world will always prey on the vulnerability of consumers and sellers in order to advance themselves forward. There are so many opportunities online to make money off of writing reviews. As someone who takes reviews into account when making online purchases, the news of fake and prompted reviews can be quite alarming, especially when these reviews are catered around what I enjoy specifically. It is an important reminder to not take everything for truth, especially in review sections, and to ensure you can return a product in case it is flawed.

### November 18- Algorithmic Discrimination

Last week, my boss explained to me that Northeastern University used to be a commuter blue-collar school. After working for the university for years, he has seen a drastic change in prestige at Northeastern. It now makes sense as to how and why Northeastern has changed in this way. O’Neil describes the U.S. News ranking systems that judge universities on a variety of different factors including acceptance rate, SAT scores, post-grad employment, etc. The system that ranks colleges has led universities to advance their amenities to attract the “best” students. By advancing the school’s amenities, the school has to make up more debt, so they charge more for school and accept students that can afford to pay full price. This is why we’ve seen exponential growth in higher education prices- a phenomenon I had not fully understood until today. This is all to be applied to algorithms and to explain their shortcomings. Universities have strategically played into establishing higher status within the U.S. News ranking, and this process has not necessarily improved education even as it appears that way.

Algorithms do not always work. However, they do provide individuals with catered searches that are extremely beneficial for internet users. A good analogy provided by O’Neil explains that a single diet served to the whole country will not satisfy everyone’s dietary needs. An algorithm can filter out search results that may not be of interest to the user. Algorithms can easily play into echo chambers, as they feed users information that is agreeable to their opinions. This gives the internet a chance to provide bias and in some cases, racial bias, in favor of white people. Algorithms are unfair and often they cover up human bias to create technology bias. The best way to prevent algorithms from confirming our biases is to be aware of algorithms and how they may impact your search results and rankings online.

### November 29- Collapsed Context

Imagine a world where we behave as a character all day and you can only break character and be yourself for two minutes when told it is okay. It would be exhausting to behave like someone else or a polished version of yourself all day, so why do we do it online?

When putting oneself online there is a constant sense of being perceived. How do your family, friends, future employers, or peers feel about a certain action, behavior, or post made online? On what media do you disclose what information? How do you disclose enough information to be perceived as authentic without appearing immature or as a chronic over-sharer? These are all the questions that may run through a person’s head when making posts online and building an online persona.

Social media allows for a strange combination of elements of broadcast media and in-person communication, which no other entity currently allows. Social media allows a message to reach anyone on the web but is often used to correspond with friends and family rather than a large number of strangers on the internet. Considering that messages on social media can reach such a vast audience there is an ability to create a digital persona of the ideal way you would like to be perceived, and oftentimes, people value the idea of being perceived as an "authentic" person. However, authenticity includes displaying portions of yourself that may not be desirable to others, so many people try to cover parts of themselves online, but still attempt to remain authentic.

People also have different levels of self-censorship based on the digital media they are taking part in. For example, subjects within the Marwick 2010 study claim that their use of Twitter is considered more professional than their use of Facebook, and that they may disclose more on their Facebook. Since the study has been published, this narrative has changed slightly, but the overall point remains true. I keep my LinkedIn account extremely professional and polished to appeal to future employers, meanwhile, my Facebook is geared towards appeasing my family and keeping them updated on my life in a very PG setting, my Instagram is geared towards my peers and appeasing them, and my Tik Tok and Twitter are solely for self-entertainment and I express myself most freely on these accounts. Each social media has a different level of authenticity to me in my head, but none of which really do show what I am like in real life. I, like Duffy explained, am a member of Generation Z, and I have lived in a world of digital media performance and that's what I'm used to.

Authenticity online can vary from platform to platform and people can perform as many different people online. Unfortunately, this cycle will never end, even as we see apps emerge that attempt to promote authenticity such as BeReal. We have all become accustomed to self-censorship in order to put our best face forward to a particular audience. In many ways, we have done this for years. You speak and act differently to teachers, employers, friends, and family in real life, and have done so for years. The behavior exemplified online in regard to self-presentation and authenticity is simply just human nature behaviors that are amplified with the ability to tune in and out when it is well-suited for the creator.

### December 2- Authenticity, work, and influence

How many faces on your social media timeline end up being someone you know in person? Most people end up having at least one influencer in their feed. An influencer is a group of "cultural take makers who generate profit by integrating sponsored products and services into mediated depictions of their aspirational, albeit 'real lives'- have emerged as especially prominent targets of gendered authenticity policing," (Duffy 2022).

In recent years of social media, there has been a rise in the number of social media influencers, and even some people pretend to be social media influencers. There have been various "want to be" influencers who have promoted companies' products without a brand deal or concept to "appear sponsored" Many companies like the free press unless the free postings do not align with the company's brand and are done to a high quality. Influencers work with various brands to promote products, though this work was altered severely in 2020.

In the year 2020, many influencers faced harsh criticism for their behaviors if they did not disrupt their content to address the global pandemic and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd. Many of these influencers are being judged heavily on their ability to be authentic online, even though no matter how big or small a following the influencer may have, will face scrutiny. There are large online groups, such as GOMI, that work tirelessly as internet trolls for multiple types of influencers. Many of their grievances relate back to the influencer being inauthentic. Which brings us back to the question of- what does it really mean to be authentic? Can one ever be truly authentic online? Plus, many influencers build their following off their content that would relate to later ad deals to create more content, so trolls may dislike inauthenticity, but they followed this influencer for the content created off of ad money. Is there even a way for influencers to ever be authentic if their social media presence is inauthentic already? Influencing is a fascinating study of authenticity, and as it rises to popularity, I think we will hear the definition and understanding of authenticity change.