34 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2024
    1. As a social media user, we hope you are informed about things like: how social media works, how they influence your emotions and mental state, how your data gets used or abused, strategies in how people use social media, and how harassment and spam bots operate.

      Social media can significantly affect our emotions and mental state, often through mechanisms like social comparison or the dopamine-driven feedback loops associated with likes and shares. Awareness of how your data is collected, used, and potentially sold is important. Privacy settings and terms of service should be understood to protect your data from misuse.

    1. Inventors ignoring the ethical consequences of their creations is nothing new as well, and gets critiqued regularly:

      This critique regularly surfaces in discussions about technology and innovation. It's a reminder that the process of creation carries with it a responsibility to foresee and mitigate negative consequences. As inventors and developers, it's important to engage with ethical considerations proactively and integrate them into the design and deployment of new technologies.

    1. The reason few non-English programming languages exist is due to the network effect, which we mentioned last chapter. Once English became the standard language for programming, people who learn programming learn English (or enough to program with it). Attempts to create a non-English programming language face an uphill battle, since even those that know that language would still have to re-learn all their programming terms in the non-English language.

      In my opinion, English is often the language of international business, and as software development is a global industry, English serves as a common ground for collaboration. English technical terms are widely adopted even in non-English speaking countries, so even non-native English speakers are familiar with the necessary technical English to code.

    1. The European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law, which forces companies to protect user information in certain ways and give users a “right to be forgotten” online.

      I think the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. The GDPR aims primarily to give individuals individuals control over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.

  2. Feb 2024
    1. While the example from The Onion above focuses on celebrity, in the time since it was written, social media has taken a larger role in society and democratized celebrity. As comedian Bo Burnham puts it: “[This] celebrity pressure I had experienced on stage has now been democratized and given to everybody [through social media]. And everyone is feeling this pressure of having an audience, of having to perform, of having a sort of, like, proper noun version of your own name and then the self in your heart.” (NPR Fresh Air Interview)

      The pressure to maintain this curated persona can have profound effects on individuals' mental health and well-being. The constant need for validation, measured through likes, shares, and comments, can lead to a sense of perpetual inadequacy and anxiety. Furthermore, this dynamic can exacerbate feelings of isolation and disconnection from one's authentic self, as the line between public persona and private identity becomes increasingly blurred.

    2. Jennifer Jacquet argues that shame can be morally good as a tool the weak can use against the strong: The real power of shame is it can scale. It can work against entire countries and can be used by the weak against the strong. Guilt, on the other hand, because it operates entirely within individual psychology, doesn’t scale.

      Jacquet's perspective suggests that shame can be an effective mechanism for social change, particularly when traditional power structures fail to address injustices or unethical behavior. By publicly calling out harmful actions or policies, the weak can leverage public opinion to pressure the strong into change. This public exposure and the subsequent desire to avoid societal disapproval can motivate powerful individuals or entities to alter their behaviors or policies.

    1. “The majority of the hate and misinformation about [Meghan Markle and Prince Henry] originated from a small group of accounts whose primary, if not sole, purpose appears to be to tweet negatively about them. […] 83 accounts are responsible for 70% of the negative hate content targeting the couple on Twitter.”

      This situation underscores the challenges social media platforms face in moderating content and the complex nature of online discourse. It also points to the tactics used by certain groups or individuals who seek to manipulate public opinion by targeting high-profile figures with negative content.

    1. Individual harassment (one individual harassing another individual) has always been part of human cultures, bur social media provides new methods of doing so. There are many methods by which through social media. This can be done privately through things like: Bullying: like sending mean messages through DMs Cyberstalking: Continually finding the account of someone, and creating new accounts to continue following them. Or possibly researching the person’s physical location. Hacking: Hacking into an account or device to discover secrets, or make threats. Tracking: An abuser might track the social media use of their partner or child to prevent them from making outside friends. They may even install spy software on their victim’s phone. Death threats / rape threats Etc.

      Social media, while fostering global connections, also enables new forms of harassment, amplifying traditional bullying into cyber realms where anonymity emboldens malicious behavior. Methods exploit digital platforms to intimidate and control victims, infringing on their privacy and safety. This digital harassment necessitates robust responses from both social media platforms and legal systems to protect individuals and maintain the integrity of online spaces.

    1. Social media crowdsoucing can also be used for harassment,

      I have often heard about cyberbullying. It involves organized efforts by groups to target individuals with a barrage of negative, often abusive messages. This can be particularly damaging when it involves sensitive personal information or threats.

    2. Crowds on social media can also share rumors, and can be an essential (if unreliable) way of spreading information during a crises.

      In my opinion, during natural disasters or emergencies, social media platforms can be used to communicate safety instructions, updates on the situation, and locations of shelters or resources. This immediacy and reach are unparalleled compared to traditional media.

    1. Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms had an exception to their normal moderation policies for political leaders, where they wouldn’t ban them even if they violated site policies (most notably applied to Donald Trump). After the January 6th insurrection at the US Capital, Donald Trump was banned first from Twitter, then from Facebook, and Facebook announced an end to special treatment for politicians.

      platforms like Twitter and Facebook had policies that granted certain exemptions to political leaders from their standard content moderation rules. The rationale behind this approach was the belief that speech from political figures is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest, even if it violates the platforms' rules that would typically result in content removal or account suspension for ordinary users.

    2. Facebook uses hired moderators to handle content moderation on the platform at large (though Facebook groups are moderated by users). When users (or computer programs) flag content, the hired moderators will look at it and decide what to do.

      Facebook uses advanced AI and machine learning algorithms to automatically detect and sometimes remove content that violates its policies. This technology is particularly useful for identifying and acting on certain types of violations at scale, such as spam, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, and more, before they are widely seen or reported by users.

    1. My sort of impulse is like when the 13 year olds of today grow up to be social scientists, I’ll be very curious to hear what they have to say about it. But until then, it just feels like we just need to gather the data.”

      Emphasizing data gathering suggests a scientific approach to understanding social media's impacts. Longitudinal studies, in particular, would be invaluable in tracking the long-term effects on mental health, social skills, identity formation, and worldviews. This data can guide more informed policies and interventions.

    2. “If [social media] was just bad, I’d just tell all the kids to throw their phone in the ocean, and it’d be really easy. The problem is it - we are hyper-connected, and we’re lonely. We’re overstimulated, and we’re numb. We’re expressing our self, and we’re objectifying ourselves. So I think it just sort of widens and deepens the experiences of what kids are going through.

      The constant barrage of notifications, messages, and updates can lead to overstimulation, where our brains are continuously bombarded with information. This overstimulation can paradoxically lead to numbness, as we become desensitized to the content we consume, struggling to find genuine excitement or interest.

    1. Natural Selection Some characteristics make it more or less likely for an organism to compete for resources, survive, and make copies of itself

      This is one of the most mysterious and scientific parts of a gene's origin. We can see the traces of natural selection in our own bodies and lives, like sleeping at night or eating ripe food. By selecting the best way to live over millions of years, we come up with the modern living style.

    2. Replication (with Inheritance) An organism can make a new copy of itself, which inherits its characteristics

      This is one of the most important parts of the origin of our genes. We basically create our bodies, determine our behaviors, and also choose the best way to live based on this part of our genes. That's why we have some similarities with our parents.

    1. What experiences do you have of social media sites making particularly bad recommendations for you?

      I notice that, excluding information that fits my personal tastes, I will receive some random heated discussions or breaking news that will be sent to every user by the social media sites. But the fact is that I don't normally care about this stuff. It's suspicious for these sites that they want to create public opinion for political ends, which definitely brings bad user experiences and negative social impacts to the social community online.

    2. They don’t want malicious users to see the algorithm and figure out how to best make their content go viral

      I never think about this aspect. I can imagine what evil things will happen after malicious users figure out how to control the stream of network flow. They will take all chances, creating heated and inflammatory discussions, waving the bloody shirts.

    1. In this way of managing disabilities, the burden is put on the computer programmers and designers to detect and adapt to the disabled person.

      I remember those blind people saying that the iPhone was the most convenient phone for them. The apps for blind people are the most well-designed in IOS systems.

    1. controlling our focus, sometimes being hyperfocused and sometimes being highly distracted and also have difficulties with executive dysfunction.

      I used to think that ADHD was a kind of happy disease because people often had things to do and fun to enjoy. And I have seen many YouTubers say that they have ADHD, and this disease causes disorders in their lives and seriously influences their lives. At that time, I realized that even ADHD would seriously impact people's lives and accessibilities.

    1. We might want to avoid the consequences of something we’ve done (whether ethically good or bad), so we keep the action or our identity private

      Sometimes bad things happen, not because we meant to do them. But we can't predict everything bad that will happen around us, especially when we deal with tons of unknown stuff on the internet.

    2. We might want to avoid physical danger from a stalker, so we might keep our location private

      Privacy is important for most of our daily social media posts and information exchanges. Neglecting privacy protections may lead to many unexpected problems. The location is one of the most essential pieces of information. If we let thousands of strangers know about our address, our private properties and our body safeties will be seriously threatened.

  3. Jan 2024
    1. Punish or stop: Some trolling is in service of some view of justice, where a person, group or organization is viewed as doing something “bad” or “deserving” of punishment, and trolling is a way of fighting back.

      Although this reason seems fair, it will lead to internet bullying easily. People who saw the trolling posts and have no critical thinking will be incited to cyber-violate someone without questioning the authenticity of the posts or the real purpose for the author to post.

    2. Feeling Smart: Going with the gatekeeping role above, trolling can make a troll or observer feel smarter than others, since they are able to see that it is trolling while others don’t realize it.

      This reason can explain many instances of trolling. Many people spread inauthentic information and create heated discussions to attract attention, which they don't achieve in the real world. It's similar to the case where babies cry to attract their parents' attention.

    1. Anonymity can encourage inauthentic behavior because, with no way of tracing anything back to you1, you can get away with pretending you are someone you are not, or behaving in ways that would get your true self in trouble.

      It's true that anonymity encourages inauthentic behavior. If someone want to gain attentions from other because in real life this individual lives in a normal and boring life, this individual can just start up a social account and copy-paste the real rich people's sharing. People who don't know the truth will think that this man is the real rich people and then follow the account under a totally fake name. In fact, all the things this individual showed are fake or copied from others.

    1. Parasocial relationships are when a viewer or follower of a public figure (that is, a celebrity) feel like they know the public figure, and may even feel a sort of friendship with them, but the public figure doesn’t know the viewer at all.

      This is a new term for me. But this term reminds me of a short period of me being a big fan of black pink. I love this band so much that I watch their posts and videos whatever I do. I even have a feeling that I am a good friend of Lisa because I knew her so well and she was such a essential part of my life. However, this feeling ends when I really saw them in real world. I was reminded that we were just strangers.

    1. Around the same time, phone texting capabilities (SMS) started becoming popular as another way to send messages to your friends, family and acquaintances.

      I thought that texting is an ancient way to send messages. I didn't expect that there were so many other methods to send messages before SMS. In nowadays people prefer social media messages to chat with friends and their text messages boxes were full of advertisement and meaningless notifications. This transformation makes me curious about when the next big change happen in sending messages leading the current social media to be outdated.

    1. Before this centralization of media in the 1900s, newspapers and pamphlets were full of rumors and conspiracy theories. And now as the internet and social media have taken off in the early 2000s, we are again in a world full of rumors and conspiracy theories.

      This is such a repeated history happen in human information journey. Since the internet and online social media becomes common and popular after primary school, whenever I hear about some incredible information, I will question about the authentication of the information because there are so many rumors going virus on internet.

    1. How many words are in this chapter? Different programs use different rules for what counts as a “word” E.g., this page has “2 + 2 = 4”, which Microsoft Word counts as 5 words, and Google Docs counts as 3 words.

      This is my first time to know that different systems might count the same sentence with different numbers. The simplifying question improve efficiency for understanding and statistics, but the losing part may contain essential meanings as well.

    2. Data points often give the appearance of being concrete and reliable, especially if they are numerical.

      This is an interesting and common phenomenon. If a random sentence includes precise data and numerical description, it's easier for people to trust than other normal sentences. But the fact is that number can be fabricated and Digital information has nothing to do with authenticity.

    1. “I’ve gotten a rush of tweets – coordinated tweets. Like, somewhere else on the internet there’s like a group on the internet saying, ‘Okay, everyone tweet Rian Johnson.’ All from Russian accounts, and all begging me not to kill Admiral Hux in this movie.”

      This happens often in our life. We are often trapped in information cocoons. When we see some inflammatory comments and one-sided comments, we think that there are many people who support our opinions, which makes us more blindly cling to the ideas in our hearts. But in fact this is a kind of rhetoric and means, real life is not as we think.

    1. In this example

      I think it's a very funny and ironic story. I think this is a performance art that satirizes the dual nature of people daring to express themselves and fearing authority in protest. It also means that systems of government and security can be broken by witty ideas.

    1. Natural Rights#

      I think this is a frame that often mentions in nowadays. The natural rights is the basic right for every human. And the establishment of natural rights might lead to the liberation of slaves and women rights.

    2. Taoism#

      Taoism is widely used in nowadays when we are eager to reach a goal. I prefer Taoism than Confucianism because Taoism is for one's own good but Confucianism is for governors or empires' good.