mroldvine-blog

[mroldvine-blog]

Blog 10

1. Does the Patriot Act really help the public?

Yes and no,the  "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001" was quickly passed with a 357- after the 9/11 attacks, It allowed the use of the four main tools of surveillance: wiretaps, subpoenas, search warrants and pen/trap orders. This overall allowed the government to collect any information on anyone they suspect of terrorism. They constant surveillance of everyone allows the government to find and end any terrorism, but everyone does not need to be watched. You can’t even tweet at the President without being put on a watch list and potentially being investigated. which if you they find you guilty are there throw in federal prison. 

2. How are the younger generations affected?

It seems that the younger generations either don’t know or don’t care that they are under complete surveillance. Most don’t understand how they are being surveilled, while others know and think that if they behave they are all good. It seems that they don’t question anything around it and trust that the government is doing the right thing.

3. Why did TIPS fail?

With TIPS or , it was meant for the public to be he;ping the United States of America by reporting any suspicious terrorist activity in the area around the community. It allowed for anyone to report any information they see that may be suspicious. Now this naturally put everyone against each other. It went wrong because it allowed people to act on their stereotypes of other people.

4. What changes could help social media?

Fuchs talks about opt-in advertising policies and alternative internet platforms. Both are great changes that could bring about a lot of good if done correctly.  Opt-in advertising policies should be passed. This would decrease the amount of surveillance and commodified user data. It would be better for the users, allowing them to have more privacy. More alternative internet platforms that are non-commercial  and non-profit will better the social media landscape. The alternative sites would be user run and would introduce more web 3.0 platforms.

Parenti, C. 2003. Fear as institution:9/11 and surveillance triumphant. Soft Cage. New York: Basic Books.

Fuchs, Christian. 2017. Social Media: A Critical Introduction, 2nd Ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

[mroldvine-blog]

Blog 7

Is Wikipedia a good database?

Wikipedia's information is all contributed from users. The users will submit the information. The a higher level user will check the information will choose to accept or decline it. The information is checked and edited form time to time. Becoming a user is as easy as creating an account. A user can rise in level by editing other articles and waiting a certain amount of days. Eventually they can become an administrator or bureaucrat. As the levels increase the amount of access to actions increases. Wikipedia's information can be trusted mostly now.

Is Wikipedia web 3.0?

Wikipedia is a community run site that provides information that has been contributed by users on any topic. Information can be changed by a user, but has to be checked and verified by a higher ranking user. There is no corporation control and is run only by the users.

What makes Wikipedia different?

What makes Wikipedia different is that it is all user run and non-profit. A information database that is run by users that contribute information to the internet. What also makes Wikipedia different from other media sites is that there is no capitalist gain for Wikipedia. Wikipedia functions off of donations from the community.

Wikileaks good or bad?

Wikileaks releases information about actions and events that are happening behind closed doors. Wikileaks releases information that the public should know about. The public should know about events that their government or large corporations are doing behind closed doors. Wikileaks is good, because it allows the public to hold large officials accountable for actions with evidence. It allows the public to confront large officials that were previously unreachable and being more even with them.

[mroldvine-blog]

Blog 6

What will posts by users be like?

The algorithm will show the newest posts at the the top with the older posts down near the bottom. Posts will show up like Tumblr and Twitter. The algorithm will not shift posts around. It will have equal representation of all users posts. The posts would have the options for liking, commentating, sharing and blocking.

What will the algorithm measure?

The algorithm will measure how long the user spends time looking at certain categories. It will also look at how often you look at the certain category. This information will then be used to give recommendations in a different section not affecting posting.

What Biases will the algorithm have?

The only bias that the algorithm will have is people who are blocked by the user will not show up on the user’s feed. The algorithm will not show posts or messages from the blocked user. If the user is unblocked then the information will be presented equally with all of the other users.

How will the algorithm learn and adapt?

The algorithm will learn from the user on what it likes. There would be a section called “trending” that would have categories. In the categories users could see posts that the algorithm has chosen based off of number of likes, number of comments, how often the user has searched that category and how much time the user spends on categories.

How will the algorithm live out (un)ethical practices we have discussed?

I think that the blocking feature will be the biggest factor in this. Blocking a user will make them invisible to you and will allow people to avoid people and will allow for more positivity on the platform. The algorithm will also track how many people have blocked you and will alert the people running the platform if a user is blocked very frequently. The people running the platform will them investigate and see if the user needs to be removed.

[mroldvine-blog]

Blog Post 5

1. What does my Avatar/Profile picture say about yourself?

For my profile picture I put up a photo of myself and my girlfriend. I chose it because I think I look good in it, too bad she had to be in it. I also chose it because it wanted it to show who I am as a person. I have a BitMoji as well, he is made to look just like me. He wears what i wear for the majority of the year shorts, joggers, and sweatshirts. Again I wanted him to portray what I look like everyday.

2.  Is racism different on different forms of media?

Yes, I think you can see differences in online racism in different types of media. If you look at twitter and instagram you can see they have different guidelines. The racism will happen different as well because the platforms use different methods of communicating. On Instagram for example a picture could be posted to be racist but on twitter you would see more tweets used for racism. Even then if you look at another form of media like gaming and racism can happen in many different ways. In gaming you can talk to random people from around the world that you have never met before. What they say to other people won’t matter for them.

3.  Is there class in technology?

Yes, Look at Iphones for an example. Every model gets more expensive. Each model adds new features that most won’t be able to interact with the older models. With this people want to get the new models to be in with everyone else. The people who don't upgrade won’t be able to fully interact with everyone anymore. Now if you have an android then that just brings in racism. Iphone people despise Androids.

4. Why does racism occur in online gaming?

It occurs because in online gaming you can say anything to anyone with barely to no repercussions. You may get reported, but the companies don’t do much about it. The companies get many a day. They don’t have the time to going through all of them. This allows with a vast majority of gamers to say what they want. It will happen just because they can do it. Most of the players have stereotypes with other nationalities. Most of the time it is Foreign languages mean a bad teammate. No one wants a bad teammate.

[mroldvine-blog]

Blog post 3

Is social media participatory culture?

To me it is yes and no at the same time. In the book Jenkins describes participatory

culture as having relatively low barriers to artistic expression. Social media allows this, but it depends on the platform being used. Each platform has different sets of guidelines that everyone must follow. There is also the side of social media where people do not support your views and will argue your ideas are wrong. Some groups on social media don’t even allow for outside interpretation. So this brings up if it really is open for everyone to express ideas.

Is social media open for everyone to share their own views?

No Not really, on social media you can say whatever you want. if someone doesn't like what you said you could be targeted by them. They can argue with you, they can report you and they can even mute you. I agree with how social media is meant for everyone to be heard but you can mute people and basically make it so they do not exist in your eyes. You can get people banned if they say certain things that do not follow the guideline. This is great for people you do not agree with, but does it allow social media to be for everyone to share their own views?

Should digital labour be paid?

Ideally yes all labour should be paid. It would be extremely hard to give everyone credit and to pay everyone that contributed to the work. I do think that there should be some guideline with digital labour. If companies want to use digital labour for their work they should hire them and have documents showing that they were using someone's work and that the person was paid for his/her work.

[mroldvine-blog]

Week 2 Blog Post

Should big companies be allowed to advertise to you?

I feel as tho they shouldn't be able to advertise to you. I remember the day when I would go on twitter, instagram, facebook, etc. and there would just be posts by people. Now i go on these platforms and there are more advertisements for thing than actual posts. I feel as a solution the number of advertisements should be cut to keep a good undisrupted experience for the user.

Will there be more products of web 3.0?

I believe that people who use social media more than other will soon look for new platforms to use. I feel as tho users of platforms that have regulation by big companies or use advertisements will start to move to other platforms. I think they will move because they will see more freedom in newer platforms. On page 46 it stats that web 3.0 is a computer-based networked system of human cooperation. The human cooperation is what makes it different form web 2.0. This human cooperation will be another reason people will move to web 3.0 platforms.

Will more web 3.0 platforms allow for new movements and advances in society?

Stated on page 46, web 3.0 is more about human cooperation. This brings up interesting ideas of new ways for people to cooperate on projects. This would allow for quicker information exchange. Human cooperation through social media can benefit in many ways but can also bring about conflicts. This would also bring up new rules and regulations. With more human cooperation would it result in going back to web 2.0 with more regulation and less freedom?

[mroldvine-blog]

First Blog!

From the first chapter I learned that. Social media is very complex and allows many people to do extraordinary things. Some things can be good and bring upon change and others can be used against the consumer. It all depends on how  the user wants to use the information rich platform of communication.

For my first question, How powerful is social media?

I Believe that social media is very powerful. Social media can even give people power. For example in the the textbook Social Media: A Critical Introduction, Jeremy Corbyn was given power by his followers. It allowed him to to post and create uproars in media. This gave him power to post what he wanted. People can block him but it doesn't do anything to him.

For my second question,How safe is social media?

if we look to the otherside of social media it can be used for collecting data. Big companies use social media to advertise to you on things you like. What you follow, like, retweet, share, etc can all be used to target advertisements against you. I feel like that is exploiting us for their benefit.

For my third question, what would a world be without social media?

Christian Fuchs argues that even using a computer to type your essay for a class is considered communication. Humans got the materials to make it and then someone assembled it. Now you have it and now you use it to communicate. The same thing applies for social media. What would happen if it never existed. I think that things would be a lot more hidden to people. If something is big it will blow up on social media and then everyone sees it. without social media changes would come slower and communication would be harder.