This link introduces chain letters, which are messages that ask whoever receive them to pass to others. It talks about how chain letters spread through paper mail before becoming common in email, social media posts, and so on. Some even use scary stories to share them.

This actually minds me of the recommendation algorithms discussed in the previous chapter. If a lot of people reply angry faces and platforms count that, they would let this post to reach more people. Some of them might also dislike that post and reply an angry face, which keeps the post spreading.

This article is introducing the idea of systemic bias, which happens when certain groups of people face unfair treatment comparing to others. This type of bias can exist in many places, such as workplaces, education, and so on. This article discusses some examples such as racisms, unfair hiring, and workplace discrimination.

I can really connect to this. This is the first thing that comes into my mind when I think of recommendation algorithms. When I scroll over Chinese tiktok, sometimes I would click into the user profile page of a video that I really like. After that movement tiktok would just keeps giving me videos with similar contents. I remembered the craziest time when I scroll over ten videos and they all have similar contents.

This source explains how disability is not determined only by a person's physical or mental condition, but also by the society's expectation. How society consider something as being disabled really shows that understanding of disability is influenced by social norms. It is interesting to see that Olympics and Paralympics receive very different live television coverage, showing how society assign unequal value to athletes with disabilities.

I don't really agree with the idea that assistive technology is meant to make disabled person become normal. For example, I wear glasses doesn't mean that I am not normal, or I do not consider myself a normal person. I am only slightly nearsighted, with about -1.00 diopters. I do not really need these glasses to live like everyone else. I am wearing them simply to make my life easier. I think it is more important to focus on whether people can choose what helps them, instead of what makes them normal.

This page explains private message, including its development, from early email system, to modern platforms such as instagram and facebook, and some of the concerns people may have. This article highlights the concerns regarding privacy and security, including how companies may potentially have access to private conversations and collecting personal data. Scammers could also use fake messages to steal information. I feel like private chat is definitely convenient and useful, but it does not gurantee complete privacy and security.

I can really relate to this statement. Even when we set out accounts to private, social media can still have access to some of our information. They could see our interests, our watching trends and personal preferences. They might also have access to our IP address. For example, even if I set my tiktok account into private, tiktok could still track my activities and give me personal perference videos. This could raise my experiment using the app, but I am also concerned of how my data is being used and who have access to it.

This article explains how websites track users' activities through cookies, IP addresses, and so on. It talks about how companies use these data to understand users' behavior and personalize services. It also talks about how users can protect their privacies from online tracking.

I can really connect to this part. I realize that these social media platforms can figure out so much of myself from my online activities. For example, I was scrolling through tiktok the other day and there was a video which was about a Japanese anime I found really interesting with, so I clicked into the profile page of that author and wanted to see if there were more videos of that anime. After that click, I began to see more related contents of that anime I clicked into. It is so interesting and lowkey kind of scary to see how fast social media can get our informations and accurately prefict our interest.

The source is about a comedian named Jaboukie Young-White who changed his profile to look like the official FBI account and made a controversial trolling about MLK. However, I do think that this kind of trolling is not so appropriate, as such political statement might make some people mistake the joke for real informtion sent by the FBI officials.

I can really connect with this point as this is like the first thing that come into my mind when I think of trolling. I've seen a lot of people on Chinese tiktok and rednote where they would be trolling there, and some elders would then take them seriously. Instead of explaining to them what the post really is about, lots of people would just be commenting beneath these elders to simply make fun of them, which I think is something that people should definitely stop doing.

This source is talking about a popular youtube video series about a teenage girl who people thought was just sharing her daily life, but eventually found out that is was carefully scripted and played. This really makes people think of the line between fiction and reality. To me it was kind of scary to think of. I started to wonder how many of these famous people's posted videos on social media are simply scripted and played.

I can really relate to this because I often change the way I speak in front of different people. For example, when I talk to my professor I speak politely and formally. However when I speak to my friends, I feel much more comfortable. My way of speaking is very different even in front of different friends that are very close to me. I would have different attitude and jokes in front of different people. I think this is just the way human beings are. People naturally behave differently in front of different people and situations. This is just a way of authenticity. It reflects our real personalities.

The article basically explains the history of test messaging. From the first SMS test message sent in 1992, testing has become increasingly popular and convenient over time. It evolves from simple texts to include pictures, emojis, and so on. The article also discusses some of the concerns that test messaging has, such as privacy and spam.

I realize just how important this transition is. It is so much easier to meet new people and get to know other people's ideas through different social medias. I live my entire life in the Web 2.0 era, and I find myself being just so lucky. I literally cannot imagine the life without these interactive social platforms.

It is very interesting to see computers counting from 0 to 1, which is very nonintuitive and different from how we count everyday. I was reminded of me first learning python, when the teacher told that computers count 0 and 1, which I cannot understand.

It reminds me of my experience using Chinese tiktok. Chinese tiktok is famous for its security system and real-name registration system, and yet I realize how many spam bots there are. Almost half of the views of my stories that I posted are from spam bots, which really affects my experience of using it. Also, this same phenomena happens elsewhere like threads and instagram. I was wondering if the social media companies can't deal with this or they just don't want to.

This "Dead internet theory" is so interesting. I have actually not thought about it before, but I do realize that some of the people I interact with online are pretty weird (don't look like real people). I feel like not all of the theory is true, but it does make me think of how much we can trust on social media.

This is so interesting and I literally just realize this. It is sometimes really hard to distinguish between bots and real person on social media right now. With AI developing this fast, I was wondering if it would be hard to distinguish between AI and real person as well.

Being a student who grew up in China, I have heard a lot of confucianism. While this summary includes many the essence of it, I would like to add a little more. From what I saw in traditional Chinese families and what I was taught, Confucianism also emphasizes education and self-cultivation. People are expected to continuously learn and improve through their life time. Also, another important aspect of Confucianism is family continuity. People are expected to pass down family traditions and responsibilities from generations to generations.

The case of Justine Sacco's racist joke tweet, as well as these reflection questions, really reminds me of a girl who became famous couple months ago for bullying her friends. After she went viral, many of her information and photos were exposed online. People found out what school she goes to and where she is at. There were lots of secretly recorded videos of her on tiktok. i realize some of the connections between these two different cases. First of all, tiktok and twitter have the same motivation. More clicks and views mean more profit, so they are willing to let these events happen. Also, people are just boring. These controversial things really motivate people into putting time and energy. Also, tiktok also have lots of features and twitter has, such as geographical information. It is really easy for people to track her online.