# Reading Response (Set 2)

### Nov 03 Fri - Finding someone & living alone

An interesting and possibly unrelated paradox is that as dating apps exploded into popularity, the number of people living alone in the United States increased tremendously. There are many factors contributing to the rise in single person households such as the shift from rural to urban, the age of marriage increasing, and location (Chamie, 2021). One would assume that people would increase their use of dating apps to hopefully find a match, but the opposite is happening.

In 2021, Tinder saw a five percent drop in users (Vinter, 2023). Similar sites like bumble and match group experienced the same decline. This sudden move away from dating app usage is coming from a frustration felt among users. Even though there is such a large pool to pick from, many people are experiencing matches not working. A user said the “apps feel like work and there is a genuine sense of burnout as people struggle to commit to what is essentially hours of admin” meaning that it has become much more than just swiping left or right (Vinter, 2023). It has also been found that many people, while in search of real connections, boost their profile with lies. Many of the hot photos people use are a year old or more and their income and height is also shifted to favor what they think will get matches (OkCupid, 2010).

In a time before dating apps, people experienced mediated relationships, where they would meet someone through a mutual friend or family member. Dating apps brought a change to something that had been consistent since the beginning of time. This change also comes in a time where people are no longer inheriting their life plans, occupations, religions, etc from their parents (Thompson, 2019). This is a time of “DIY” where young people are carving their own path through life. The interesting part of this shift out of mediated relationships is that it has really benefitted the LGBTQ community. Even if parents were supportive of their gay child, they most likely did not know anyone the could’ve set them up with . Apps like Grindr that are specifically made for gay men have opened up a larger number of choices.

### Nov 10 Fri - Manipulated

In what ways are online reviews, ratings, rankings, and comments manipulated? What can you trust and how would you know?
In today's society, it is very common for people to perform research before buying a product or service. Joseph Reagle stated in Reading the Comments that the use of reviews by consumers affects a merchants bottom line ( Reagle, Chapter 3). Due to the online review process, anyone can rate and make any comments. Certain algorithms on social media platforms are also affecting the way products and services are ranked. It is hard to get a grasp of the real value or quality of a product.

Instagram used to feature a feed where posts were shown chronologically. In 2016, this was changed to a feed where only posts with high activity are shown at the top (Forsey, 2019). Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, as users would be more interested in seeing posts their friends were highly engaged with. People have created ways to get around this new algorithm, by means of bots, buying followers, and a new feature called Instagram Pods (Forsey, 2019). This is a mini chat group where you can assure that people will engage with your post to get it to the top of the feed. This is helpful for small businesses who are trying to market their brand. Pods can turn bad when groups trade likes for likes or bargaining for more people to join a pod to create more engagement for themselves. Pods can get discriminatory where any user not in a group has no chance of getting engagement, therefore manipulating what people can and can’t see.

Researchers found that better reviews equates to better sales. This obviously makes sense, as people only want to spend money on something good. The problem with this comes when people abuse the rating and commenting process. As rating platforms like TripAdvisor grow in popularity, so does the manipulation within posts. People can write glowing reviews for their own benefit as well as sabotaging their competitors. This happened to a hotel chain executive, who was writing fake reviews for his competition. He got caught because his real name, photo, and location were exposed by using TripAdvisors Facebook app (Reagle, Chapter 3).

It is really difficult to decipher what reviews can be trusted or not, so the only way to avoid this is to read a variety of reviews on a variety of rating platforms. The only true way to find out if a product or service is worth it is to either buy the product or try a friend’s. This is where online reviews make it very difficult to truly know the value and quality of items.

### Nov 21 Tue - Algorithmic Bias

The new rise of technology that can create nearly perfect images and prose has come with a lot of celebration, but also massive amounts of concern. Currently, access to platforms such as ChatGPT or DALL-E are free or come at a small subscription cost. The soon to be very profitable industry expects to receive $1 billion in revenue by 2024 (Heilwell, 2023).

The whole process is somewhat simple when you remove the technical jargon out of it. Artificial intelligence is trained by exposure to massive amounts of data that it eventually learns to mimic. This technique is called machine learning and it allows the AI to mimic human conversation, create an illustration, or write an essay (Heilwell, 2023). The danger of this comes from the large amounts of data the AI is mimicking. The chance that there is skewed, or purposefully tainted data is very high. This could be used in a malicious way or just simply expose a cheating student.

ChatGPT is the newest fear of teachers all over the United States. Platforms like turnit-in used to be the way to expose work by pulling out the copied information. This platform cannot keep up with the rapidly evolving AI. This begs the question on whether curriculums are even helpful at this point. If a student can ChatGPT a high school English essay without evening opening a book, what is the point. All writing assignments are obsolete, even art classes could fall victim to the AI generated illustration.

There is also the question of the legalities of the use of machine learning and the creation of work already created by artists. In The Verge, it was stated that if the AI is trained on copyrighted data, there is no question of legality, but that is always case-by-case (Vincent, 2022). Ai technology can recreate paintings such as Greg Rutkowski, without their consent. If an artist were to challenge that in court, there really would be no precedence that could come even close to resembling AI.

### Dec 01 Fri - Authenticity, work, & influence

The rise of social media also brought forth a new type of celebrities. Influencers use their social media platforms to put out their values, ideas, and lifestyle. Influencers are similar to celebrities in that they can reach a large audience who “listen” to what they have to say. The difference is that celebrities are hired and paid versus an influencer who is within the community and sharing their ideas genuinely. There has been a shift in this “genuine” influencing. Many people have begun to post content as if a specific brand has sponsored them to do so. This “sponcon” is a way for many influencers to start off their influencing career. The question of whether this fake sponsored content helps brands or makes it seem not [relatable or authentic](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/influencers-are-faking-brand-deals/578401/). Can people really be influenced if the brand does not actually have a partnership with the influencer?

The pandemic changed the life of all global citizens, but especially made influencers reevaluate the content they were posting and their process in general. Many brands had to completely scrap already produced advertisements and quickly create more relatable and “covid-friendly” [material](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/12/influencers-social-media-pandemic/). They also had to ensure that the influencers partnered with this reflected those changes. An example of this is the slipper brand Birdies, who originally were going to be advertised as an indoor-outdoor shoe. Once the pandemic started they had to spin that it was a way to make yourself feel presentable while remaining in the house. One of the influencers posted about how the slippers made for a perfect indoor shoe especially with the [7 layers of cushioning](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/12/influencers-social-media-pandemic/).

With the pandemic also came large social movements like Black Lives Matter. Many influencers began disassociating and calling out accounts that were not doing enough to show their support during the movement. Nastia Liukin, former USA women’s gymnastics star, has begun to use her platform to showcase black-owned business and influencers. While it seems that adjusting to the social climate would be the appropriate thing to do for influencers and brands, a lot of posts were met with criticism. It’s a lose-lose situation where influencers have to either follow what they believe in or figure out the status quo.

### Dec 05 Tue - Pushback

Despite the favorite stereotype the older generation likes to put on teenagers, a group of New York City highschoolers have gone against the grain and the phone. [The Luddite club](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/style/teens-social-media.html) have given up the phones for a life of disconnection. After realizing how much social media and smart phones ran their lives, these highschoolers compromised with modern society and currently use flip phones. While not all twenty-five members are completely disconnected, it gives everyone the chance to stay off technology for the hour-long meeting. Lola Shub, a member of the club even stated that when she stopped using her phone her brain immediately started working in ways that it hadn’t before.

The question that needs to asked is are we progressing too rapidly in the technology aspect? There are three mentalities when it came to technology users, and they all have an opinion on how technology affects our lives. Never- betters praise the positive contributions that technology has brought to our lives. Knowledge is a click away and so is a chat with a friend who lives in a different state. Next come the Ever-wasers who see innovation as nothing new and not having any drastic effects on our lives. The luddite club fits into the third category of [Better-nevers](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4902). This group sees the negative impact of technology and long for the ways of the past before the internet was created.

There is an overload of information and with all the innovation the sense of constant availability has turned many off. This new attitude towards technology, is being referred to as “pushback”. Much like the Luddites, people are taking a step back from phones and the internet to search for a sense of the world without all of the devices.