The source on the Luddites gave me a different perspective on a term that is often used negatively today. Before reading about them, I mostly associated "Luddite" with people who resist new technology. In reality, many of the workers were protesting because new machines were being used in ways that threatened their jobs and livelihoods. That context makes their actions seem much more understandable.

I don't think the main problem is that technology keeps advancing. People have been worried about new technologies for thousands of years, from writing to factory machines to social media. Some of those fears turned out to be exaggerated, while others were justified. The bigger issue seems to be that technology often develops much faster than our ability to think through its social consequences. Companies are rewarded for building things that are new, profitable, and engaging, but there is often much less incentive to consider long term effects.

One detail that stood out was how a relatively small group of Spanish conquistadors was able to take control of the Inca Empire through a combination of military force, political manipulation, and the extraction of resources. While the forms of power are different today, the chapter argues that similar patterns can still exist when wealthier countries or companies benefit from resources and labor in other parts of the world while making most of the decisions themselves.

The One Laptop Per Child example shows how easy it is for people to confuse helping others with deciding what is best for them. One thing I found frustrating was that the project seemed to assume children around the world all had the same needs and would benefit from the same solution. Instead of asking local communities, teachers, and students what would actually help them, the project was designed from the top down.

The idea of “face” was interesting to me because it shows how shame can work differently across cultures. In many cultures, protecting someone’s social reputation and dignity is extremely important, so criticism is not just personal but can also affect family and community relationships. The source also helped explain why public criticism can feel so intense for some people. Losing respect in front of others can create feelings of humiliation and isolation, even when the original mistake may have been small.

The distinction between shame and guilt in this chapter felt really important to me. Shame focuses on making someone feel like they are a bad person, while guilt focuses on the action itself. I feel like this matters a lot in childhood because the way adults respond to mistakes can affect how children see themselves as they grow up. It also connects strongly to social media today. Public shaming online often feels more focused on humiliating people rather than helping them learn or take accountability.

The WIRED video was interesting because it showed how people often change their behavior around robots, even when the robot is not very advanced. I thought it was funny but also realistic how people felt awkward or embarrassed interacting with machines in public spaces. I think it connects to topics from this course about how technology shapes human behavior and social interactions. As robots and AI become more common in workplaces and daily life, I think people will slowly start treating them more naturally, similar to how people learn to become comfortable with technological advancements over time.

I thought the section about power users and lurkers was interesting because it shows how much online spaces are shaped by a very small group of people. Even though social media feels like everyone is contributing equally, most users are actually just watching rather than posting. I also think this helps explain why certain opinions or trends online can feel much bigger than they actually are in real life. Sometimes the loudest voices online are just the most active users, not necessarily the majority.

The source on chain letters explains how chain messages have existed for a long time, even before the internet, often spreading through physical mail and later through email and social media. Many chain letters relied on emotional pressure by promising rewards for forwarding the message or threatening bad luck if the chain was broken. Reading about this made me realize how similar modern internet culture still is. Even though chain letters sound outdated, social media trends today often use the same idea of encouraging participation and rapid sharing. One detail I found memorable was how chain letters became especially widespread through email in the early internet era because forwarding messages suddenly became instant and effortless.

I realized how social media has slowly changed creativity from being individual into something almost communal. A lot of the funniest or most memorable content online now is not made by one person alone, but by dozens of strangers building on top of each other’s ideas. The grocery store musical example reminded me of how internet culture can feel chaotic, but also strangely collaborative at the same time. Someone makes a random joke, another person adds onto it, and suddenly people across the world are participating in the same “inside joke” without ever meeting each other. I also think this changes the way people seek attention online. Instead of always trying to create something completely original, many users now try to become part of an existing trend because that gives them a higher chance of being seen by the algorithm. In a way, creativity online has become less about ownership and more about timing, participation, and adaptation. Sometimes the person who improves or remixes the original idea even becomes more popular than the person who started it. I honestly think that says a lot about internet culture today. People value interaction and relatability more than polished originality.

This article raises a clear concern about user privacy and control. It explains that Facebook allowed users to be searched by their phone numbers, even when those numbers were originally provided for security purposes like two-factor authentication. The fact that users could not fully opt out of this feature shows a gap between what platforms claim to offer and what they actually allow. It also suggests that personal data can be repurposed without clear consent, which feels misleading. This connects to broader ethical issues around transparency and user autonomy, since platforms should give people more control over how their information is used rather than limiting their choices.

Instead of just posting what they genuinely want to share, creators start thinking strategically about what will perform well, even if it means using clickbait or provoking people. I’ve noticed this a lot on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where content sometimes feels more about grabbing attention. It makes me curious about how authentic social media really is if so much of it is shaped by trying to “game” the system. At the same time, I understand why people do it, especially if their income depends on visibility. So. it creates this tension where creators are stuck between being genuine and staying relevant. I also wonder whether platforms are partly responsible for this behavior, since their algorithms reward engagement no matter how it’s generated.

The Wikipedia source on color blindness was interesting because it showed how common it actually is and how it affects everyday things like reading charts, maps, or even choosing clothes. I didn’t realize that many designs, especially online, still rely heavily on color to communicate information, which can make things confusing or inaccessible for people with color vision differences. I’ve definitely seen graphs or websites where colors were hard to tell apart, and I never really questioned it before. Compared to women, men have a higher chance of being color blind, and most of the time, they're not fully aware of it. Although there are certain ways of accommodating to these, such as signs, glasses, and others, I'm curious to see what other alternatives are available, especially when it comes to information displayed online.

I believe this part emphasizes how much pressure is placed on those with disabilities to adapt to circumstances that don't match their needs, instead of letting the system adapt to people's needs. The idea of "masking" is unique here because, at the end of the day, we never really know what is truly happening inside someone compared to how they choose to portray themselves on the outside.

This source sort of reminded me of how I forget how normal it has become for apps and websites to know so much about us. Reading it made me think about how often we trade privacy for convenience without noticing. It also reminded me that privacy has always mattered in different forms. In a medieval sense, people wanted privacy in their homes, while many of us today want privacy in our digital lives.

Many people assume that if someone wants privacy, they must be doing something suspicious, but this chapter shows that privacy is often about dignity, safety, and control over personal information. For example, people may want private conversations to avoid embarrassment, protect themselves from harassment, or separate different parts of their lives. I think this is especially relevant today because social media often pressures people to share everything publicly. Sometimes choosing privacy is actually a healthy boundary.

I found this source especially interesting because it shows that privacy is not only about what you personally share online. The article explains that data from your friends’ networks and connections can be used to predict personal traits like sexual orientation. That means even if someone is careful with their own information, other people’s data can still reveal things about them. I believe it shows how privacy on social media is often collective and not just individual.

I realized how much data people give away without noticing while reading this part. Most people know platforms collect names or emails, but many do not think about how clicks, pause time, location, and interactions are also tracked. I think what is most concerning is that users often trade privacy for convenience without fully understanding the cost. So I'm also curiois if people would use social media differently if data collection was explained more clearly and was much more transparent.

I looked into the FBI–King suicide letter source, and it was disturbing to learn that the FBI anonymously sent Martin Luther King Jr. a threatening letter encouraging him to end his life. I believe it shows how communication tools can be used by powerful institutions for harassment, intimidation, and psychological pressure, not just by random individuals online. I think this source shows that trolling and manipulation have existed long before social media, but technology can amplify them.

This section made me think that trolling is often less about the topic itself and more about getting attention, power, or reactions from others. I’ve seen people post obviously provocative things just to make others angry. It also seems like social media rewards trolling because outrage often gets the most engagement.

This article shows that data analysis can reveal patterns in behavior that aren’t obvious at first. One interesting detail is how the tweets from Android were more aggressive compared to those from iPhone, suggesting they were written by different people. It made me think about how much we can learn from metadata, not just what is said but how and where it is posted.

The lonelygirl15 example shows how people can feel genuinely betrayed even if the content itself is entertaining. I think this is because people aren’t just consuming content, they’re building trust with the person behind it. When that trust is broken, it feels more personal. It also made me think about influencers today, where it’s sometimes unclear what is real and what is staged. Even if the content is enjoyable, knowing it’s not authentic changes how I feel about it.

The Web 2.0 article explains how the internet shifted from mostly static pages in Web 1.0 to more interactive platforms where users create and share content. What stood out to me is how this change is what influenced and made modern social media possible. Platforms like X (Twitter) or Instagram depend on user participation, not just information being posted by a few sources. I believe it shows why social media today is faster-moving and more dynamic compared to other forms of media.

I think this part shows that social media behavior hasn't really changed, only the speed and scale have. People were already sharing rumors and sharing updates before the internet, just through either pamphlets or graffiti. But today, we often blame social media for misinformation, but these patterns have always existed, just in a different form. I think the main difference is that it can spread much faster and reach a wider audience.

Zero-based numbering was interesting because it feels confusing at first to start counting from 0 instead of 1 . But it actually makes sense in programming since it matches how computers organize data. It made me realize that systems are often designed for how computers work, not how people naturally think, which can make things harder to understand.

As I read through this part, I learned how metadata can be just as important as the actual content. For example, the number of likes or who posted something can completely change how people interpret a post. I’ve noticed that I’m more likely to trust or engage with posts that already have high engagement, even if the content itself isn’t that meaningful.

The Business Insider article about click farms was interesting because it showed how manipulation on social media doesn’t always come from bots, but from coordinated human labor. What stood out to me is how scalable this is. Because in the photo, one person managing dozens of devices can artificially boost engagement and rankings. It made me think about how hard it is to distinguish “real” popularity online, since both bots and human-run systems can create the same effect.

I find it interesting how the definition of a "bot" depends on whether the actions are automated by code or done by humans following instructions. In addition to that, the idea that click farms are like human computers blurs the line between automation and human behavior for me. For example, if both bots and click farms can manipulate engagement or spread information, should we treat them differently just because one uses code and the other uses people?

I realized that computing has always been about communication, rather than just calculation. Even before machines, people had to give clear instructions to human computers, which is similar to how we write code today. What specifically stood out to me was how this work was often done by women, but their contributions are rarely recognized in discussions about technology.

Although deontology focuses on morals here, the one thing I find limiting about it is that it focuses heavily on rules without always considering real-world consequences. For example, during the lecture we had on Apr 1st, in situations like the Alzheimer's case we discussed, strictly following a rule like respecting autonomy might actually put someone in danger. So while deontology provides clear guidance, it can sometimes feel too rigid when situations are complex.