The article explores whether AI systems are becoming the new McKinsey, which is a company of management consultants who make recommendations about corporate profits and shareholder value over worker well-being, sometimes leading to mass layoffs and increased wealth inequality. Like management consulting firms, AI is currently used by companies to automate tasks and reduce labor costs.

If I could change anything about how people behave on social media I would change how callous people are when it comes to what they publish online. Many people don't think twice before posting something ignorant, mean, pervasive, etc. I would ask people to think twice about their own digital footprint before making a choice that could impact the rest of their, and others' lives.

The Investopedia source explains that to "corner a market" means to acquire enough shares of a security or a significant position in a commodity to manipulate its price, effectively limiting the ability of other buyers and sellers to operate freely. This can be done legally by large institutions gaining market dominance, but is often associated with illegal activities, such as hoarding assets to artificially inflate prices.

The game was semi-realistic. I thought some of the questions and issues raised were accurate to real world problems. But, there are some aspects that obviously oversimplify issues for the sake of the game.

This article examines the cultural and ethical implications of Jimmy Kimmel’s recurring Halloween segment, where parents tell their children they ate all their Halloween candy and film the children’s reactions for public entertainment. The source questions why such pranks, especially those involving children, are considered humorous and widely shared. It delves into the potential harm of publicly embarrassing children for laughs, considering the broader context of children’s rights and the long-term impact on their emotional well-being. It also reflects on how digital culture enables and encourages the sharing of these moments, often without the child’s consent, and how society’s norms around parenting and entertainment are changing as a result.

With a lack of proper context for someone's situation, mistake, lapse in judgement or knowledge around a sensitive subject, or even the amount of remorse/regret they feel over it and the real accountability they tale, public shaming and many instances of cancel culture can lead to extremely disproportionate consequences compared to the initial damage. Holding individuals accountable is important, and there are many people who shouldn't have the platform that they were so fortunately given, but as users of the internet, we also need to act with empathy and self-reflect because, personally, I KNOW that most of us have made stupid mistakes that the internet would ruthlessly bash us for if we had some sort of celebrity persona too. I'm not excusing people who do genuinely horrible things without any consideration for the people they hurt. But, there are so many acts of public shaming that happen to people who said something ignorant as a 13 year old and have since significantly changed as people. We can't all be perfect as human beings. I don't even remember what I was talking about or posting or interested in when I was that age and to be relentlessly bullied online for something that could've happened 10 years ago is not proportionate to the actual mistake.

This source discusses how 4chan boards have become a hub for the alt-right and white nationalist movements, playing a significant role in spreading hate and organizing harassment campaigns across the internet. One thing the study found was statistically significant evidence that /pol/ users attack YouTube videos by flooding them with hateful comments shortly after being linked on 4chan.

Harassing and bullying on social media is very common. Whenever there is a new upcoming influencer getting hype around them, there is always a anti-fan base that creates reasons to hate them and finds ways to bring them down. One example I can think of is the movement around Indian hate on social media and the harassment that lots of Indian content-creators face when they post online. Usually the hate is based in racism toward the Indian community, calling them smelly scammers and telling them to get off the internet. There are even influencers who's entire page is dedicated to visiting India and harassing innocenet street vendors, recording it, and posting it for viewers' amusement.

This Wikepedia source describes the timeline and history of crowdsourcing along with how its evolved over time. It also explains how crowdsourcing has impacted each area of scholarship through time.

I have participated in crowdsourcing is on a platform like Yelp. I have left reviews for restaurants and other stores that I receive service from to contribute to public opinion of these places (good and bad). Another way is through amazon reviews, when I really like or dislike a product I will comment on the quality and service I received when purchasing it.

This article examines how Facebook’s artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, originally designed to maximize user engagement, inadvertently fueled the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and political polarization. Despite public commitments to address these issues, internal efforts-such as the creation of the Responsible AI team-were largely focused on mitigating algorithmic bias (like discrimination in ad targeting), rather than tackling the broader problems of misinformation and extremism.

The article reveals that Facebook leadership repeatedly deprioritized or halted initiatives aimed at curbing harmful content because such measures threatened engagement and growth, which were the company’s overriding priorities. AI models that increased engagement often did so by promoting inflammatory or divisive content, and attempts to use AI for content moderation struggled to keep up with the evolving tactics of those spreading misinformation. As a result, the fundamental structure of Facebook’s algorithms continues to reward sensational and polarizing content, leaving the platform vulnerable to manipulation and societal harm.

Rich white men tend to be in charge of social media platforms. Mark Zuckerberg is in charge of Facebook, Threads, and Instagram, while Elon Musk handles twitter. This makes complete sense according to the operation and maintenance of these social medias. These platforms are strengthened through addicting algorithms that keep users scrolling for hours and therefore increase profits for their CEOs. But, more than that, Instagram is an extremely toxic app in many ways that can promote pornography, and unhealthy body images. Furthermore, the reels on Instagram can be considered a lot more offensive than say a platform like Tik Tok. Reels can be extremely cruel and sometimes even gruesome and the comments are even worse, with Instagram doing nothing to hide this content. Facebook is the number one app for misinformation, flooded with false political propaganda and chain/spam posts and 0 regulation on the content. Twitter speaks for itself, but the fact that Kanye West can get away with posting a song called Hel Htler on his account for millions of people (including his own young fans) to see and reshare, is frankly ridiculous. Of course, no one expects Elon Musk to challenge the existence of these highly offensive posts. The rules that are made surrounding the usage of social media are very skewed in favor of people with privilege that may not feel any dismay to the targetting of minorities online. White rich men have never had to deal with entire threads dedicated to putting the existence of their race and identity down.

This research article discusses how many people disassociate on social media. It basically explains the mental state one can enter when they get sucked into their phone or in this case doomscrolling on social media. This article makes it easier to rationalize the de-stigmatization of the shame surrounding the use of social media.

I never really thought about it this way - I think there is a huge stigma surrounding the concept of making connections with people in online forums. But, even on micro scales it is nice to find people that relate to your opinions or experiences online regardless of if you connect with them personally or not. I personally love seeing basketball content and specifically Warriors community-shared content on my social media platforms and it is quite exciting to see other people's takes in contrast to my own.

This source contains a list of chain letters that were used in a study. These chain letters were used in pyramid schemes to generate an exponential increase in wealth for senders by unethical means. Chain messages such as this still exist in todays world except they are transmitted now through social media platforms like facebook, snapchat, and whatsapp.

It is interesting to understand the psychology behind how people contribute to social media. Whether they use their platform to publish content they found funny, or something they feel is useful and important for society to know, people feel the need to post their opinions and make their personalities known on a public scale. Most of the time I scroll through people's social media's learning intricate details about people I'd consider strangers in real life and it's interesting to know that in a way we all connect through digital methods regardless of our connection in real life settings. In my opinion, it comes from humans' need to feel belonging and community and social media gives us a very accessible means to do that.

This article discusses how Twitter is a mean and angry place where someone can just get dragged through the mud, but Twitter's CEO wanted to reinvent the metrics of Twitter to make it a more civil place. Basically by making recommended content different on the app, the app could be more safe to scroll through. The app would fight unproductive bots and accounts that add to the negative social scheme of Twitter.

I have definitely experienced good and bad recommendations. In regards to the advertisements I am shown, sometimes they are something I didn't even know about but am very attracted to purchase or look at. For regular content, my social media platforms regularly show me basketball content which I always engage and interact with since I love basketball. They also show me videos I find funny and sometimes they'll show me videos about the show I'm currently watching (which is crazy because I have no idea how they know). But this content always keeps me engaged and coming back to the various sites that show it to me.

This article discusses a woman who has a rare sight condition called tetrachromacy which allows her to see colors in objects that the average person cannot see. This condition is exclusive to women due to their genetic buildup. Individuals with tetrochromacy have varying symptoms. Some can see bright or shiny colors from long distances, others can see certain colors brighter in dim light.

Some assumptions made about users of Instagram are that they can see the posts on their feed, they can listen to the reels, or read the captions, and that they are well-verse in technology enough to navigate the platform on their own.

This article discusses how hackers hacked Facebooks database and posted 530 million users' information including their names and phone numbers on a public server. Facebook responded by stating that they had no intention to let users know individually that their data was breached, and instead made a blog post discussing the hack. This is an example of a social media company using unethical means to retain users that they know they would lose had they notified them.

Social media companies' incentives to protect user privacy include user satisfaction and security. By ensuring users' data is safe and sound, more people are likely to store their information on that social media platform by using it more often, posting to it more often, and saving things on it more often. Social media companies also have incentives to violate privacy; for example, if social media companies have access to users likes, dislikes, interests, etc, then they can advertise products or show content that to that user that is catered specifically to their interests. This increases user engagement on that platform.

This article reveals that scientific studies and reports are difficult to perform accurately. It explains that despite doing experiments or studies as you are supposed to, data can be misleading with many confounding variables to consider. This article also mentions the misuse of p-values and other statistics reporting methods. The main point is that although science is messy and can be a little clouded in some areas, it is ever expanding and growing , making it more human than it seems.

This reminds me of the insane occurrence when you're talking about a product or brand with your friend that you've never heard of, looked up, or engaged with before and then later that day you'll see an ad for that exact product/brand on snapchat or instagram and wonder if social media is listening to you. I'd really like to understand how and why this happens. Are they really recording our conversations? Are there certain buzzwords that you can say to trigger this instance? Is it just a big coincidence and a case of confirmation bias?

This source is very telling of the state the president is in when he is sharing messages to the entire world. The source describes the difference of tone in Trump tweets and claims that the angrier ones are when Trump is tweeting himself while the calmer and more rational ones are written and released by his staff.

This makes me wonder what one has to do to be the most beloved figure possible. If people love authenticity but struggle to accept it when it is finally recognized, can one truly come to be loved just by being themselves? Or is it best to create a persona of a balancing act between being authentic and yet private. Zendaya is a good example I can think of as she is someone who is extremely private and hides a lot of her personal life or inner thoughts but she also comes across as extremely down to Earth and authentic in interviews, fan interactions, and blooper reels. I can imagine that it must be difficult to keep up this balance.

This article is a hilarious satirical piece that mocks many individuals who go on mission trips to countries they believe are third world to help under privileged children. This article makes fun of the fact that these individuals often snap pictures with these kids and post it on their social medias to gain clout and praise from others, without asking or caring for the consent of the kids that are in the photos - in turn indirectly stating that their feelings don't matter in the face of her own image.

It's surprising to me that companies would be so incoherent when it comes to NECESSARY forms that one must fill out to use their services. It would honestly be better PR for them to just put male and female rather than additional options that are completely irrelevant or insensitive, such as "unknown" or "tax entity". I wonder how their websites sort this data and how this information better helps them assist users (in my head it likely changes nothing besides serving as a general demographic poll).

This source is a twitter bot account that posts frequent updates on the percentage of people that have received the covid-19 vaccine. It is interesting to see how bots can be used to report quantitative data that updates the general public on issues like public health. It is also interesting how quickly the numbers increase per post, which I didn't expect.

People's expectations vary from those of a bot because a person has consciousness, decision making capabilities, and experiences empathy and foresight. Bots, on the other hand, run on a program created by people who allowed it the operations it holds. A normal user is assumed to have responsibility over what is posted to their page, as well as ownership of the content associated with their name. Bots are created with the intention of a person but that person is unknown in most cases and doesn't visibly have ownership of the content one views.

I think it's important to include variations of Aztec Virtue ethics and other fundamentals such as Hindu and Buddhist ethics which are individually more distinct than Confucianism, Taoism, and Aztec Virtue ethics and also date back to more ancient times than most of these ideologies. Hindu Ethics includes the belief of dharma which is the duty to fulfill your role on this Earth and achieve your fullest potential as that role. Certain stories in the Bhagavad Gita such as the Mahabharata are extremely thought provoking ethical dilemmas based off this belief. Buddhist Ethics mainly cover Ahisma which is the belief in no violence under any circumstances. Both of these ethical philosophies discuss the concept of Karma with an emphasis on the intentions behind each individual action rather than the action itself. (i.e. Is a good deed truly good if it is done for self pleasure? Is a bad deed truly bad if it is done for a greater good/ to fulfill one's dharma?)

There is definitely a heavy responsibility for tech developers to protect users from rapidly developing tech. Consumers don't understand the full depth of the technology they are using and without proper guidelines and parameters, they could put their safety at risk as the consequences of ill-used tech are severe. Experts who are in charge of these safety parameters know much better what the extents of technology's capability should be.