23 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2024
    1. We hope that by the end of this course, you have a familiarity of what programming is and some of what you can do with it. We particularly hope you have a familiarity with basic Python programming concepts, and an ability to interact with Reddit using computer programs.

      I particularly enjoyed how we went over different concepts in regards to social media and learning how to do basic coding with Python. Overall very insightful.

    1. Trauma and Shame.

      The article talks about how shame is a part of development and growing up. It can be used in both a good and bad way depending on the trauma that people face and how they deal with trauma differently.

    1. Doxing

      Doxing is a form of harassment where people’s personal information is made public so that they can receive further harassment from anyone to sees this information. It’s usually done on social media to those who have said or done something that has enraged the public which still doesn’t make it okay.

    1. Cyberstalking

      Social media has made it easier for individual harassment to be done. For example, the suggested people to follow section. It suggests people that you may know or have any connection to. This makes harassment easier because if someone creates a new account, it could get suggested to them even if they have blocked them before.

    1. GoFundMe

      GoFundMe is the perfect example of crowdsourcing. This platform allows users to tell their stories about their hardships in order to receive donations from others. I do wonder what percentage the site gets from everything that is donated.

    1. What social media (and other internet systems) have done is expand the options for how people can collaborate on tasks.

      Although I do understand the importance of crowdsourcing and how it can be used for different viewpoints, I think it could get biased depending on who is involved which i think would make the piece less trustworthy

    1. Spamming. December 2023. Page Version ID: 1187995774. URL:

      Spamming can to used to grab someone’s attention for something that you want to get across. In that aspect it’s very useful but it can also be used to harm people if what’s being spammed is unsolicited.

    1. Anya Kamenetz. Selfies, Filters, and Snapchat Dysmorphia

      I found it interesting how people used to go to the cosmic surgeon with photos of celebrities and other people with features that they wanted for themselves. Now people come in showing edited photos with filters so that they can achieve that “perfect” look at all times.

    1. cosmetic surgeons have seen how photo manipulation on social media has influenced people’s views of their appearance

      With the rise of social media, filters, “influencers” and now AI, people’s views on appearance are heavily dependent on what they see on social media. People that are self conscious and do not understand the importance of differentiating real life and life online will have a hard time finding themselves and what’s most important to them.

    1. Meme. December 2023. Page Version ID: 1187840093. URL:

      If you ask me to describe a meme using this definition I would be completely lost. I’d describe a meme as a relatable post that can be funny and sometimes dark. But generally people seem to enjoy them.

    1. In this view, any piece of human culture can be considered a meme that is spreading (or failing to spread) according to evolutionary forces. So we can use an evolutionary perspective to consider the spread of:

      Using the ideas about evolution to compare a meme to genes is not something that I expected. I will say that they’re comparable because memes are part of modern culture especially with the internet making it easier to share.

  2. Apr 2024
    1. Elon Musk [@elonmusk]

      Elon’s tweet pretty much puts in simple terms how the algorithm works. The more you interact with a specific type or content, the more that type of content will keep showing up on your feed or timeline.

    1. The method of determining what is shown to users is called a recommendation algorithm, which is an algorithm (a series of steps or rules, such as in a computer program) that recommends posts for users to see, people for users to follow, ads for users to view, or reminders for users.

      Does this work the same way as Cookies? Or are they only for targeted ads specifically?

    1. Ash. Autism is NOT A Disability.

      From what we see on the internet of parents posting their children with autism having meltdowns, these videos create false narratives of what it means to have autism. The article talks about how autism isn’t actually a disability itself but can cause disability in certain aspects. This is a good way of explaining what autism is like and how all the meltdown videos misguide us.

    1. If the immediate goal of the action of trolling is to cause disruption or provoke emotional reactions, what is it that makes people want to do this

      Trolling is one of those things that I’ve always wondered about. I’ve always seen it as pointless and a waste of time but I guess there are people who do have that time to waste.

    1. Jessica McBride. Sciencing_bi & BethAnn McLaughlin Twitter Accounts Suspended in Bizarre Tale.

      This article brought into light how everything that we see on the internet isn’t exactly authentic. Though in this extreme case where a whole persona was created for a fake agenda that essentially harmed people isn’t how most things are, it’s still important to pay attention to what we are consuming and how we are letting it affect us.

    1. Though, even after users discovered it was fictional, the channel continued to grow in popularity.

      This particular part stuck out to me because it’s important that we are able to differentiate real life and life over the internet. It’s important to note that whatever is portrayed is what the person wants you to see. So, even though the content was deemed unauthentic, people still watched because they understood that it’s just pure entertainment and not something that should be taken seriously.

    1. In this period of time, these sources were roughly in agreement and broadcast news out to the country, making a more unified, consistent news environment (though, of course, we can point out how they were biased in ways like being almost exclusively white men).

      This is really interesting to think about as we know today, there are so many sources out there that we have to check to see if they are reliable. I could even say that because of this more unified agreement about what is being put out, it leaves many people not trusting sources that are consider to be reliable. We also know that these sources (even today) can be very biased depending on the demographic that these sources want to reach.

    1. W3Schools. Python Sets. URL:

      I think it’s interesting how python equates True and 1 and also False and 0. Latter it was mentioned it actually makes sense to mme that they would be sets.

    1. then additional information such as the user, time, and responses would be considered metadata.

      From my understanding, metadata is the information that is about the user that’s making the post. Since that’s the case, wouldn’t it be important to implement a way to protect the user since the metadata can be used to for harm against the user? I know the sharing of the location of where the tweet has been made has been disabled but what about the other information?

    1. Steven Tweedie. This disturbing image of a Chinese worker with close to 100 iPhones reveals how App Store rankings can be manipulated.

      After reading through the article, I find it interesting that this method of installing and uninstalling apps actually has an effect on the rankings. It’s strange to think that after all this time, there has not been some sort of resolution to this issue since the article indicated that Apple is still struggling with this. Also, i’m sure people have found a quicker way to do this without a “human bot”.

    1. Various groups want to gather data from social media, such as advertisers and scientists.

      When we accept cookies on a website, are we tracked by these same bots so that we receive targeted ads no matter where or what we’re searching for?

  3. Mar 2024
    1. Why do you think the people who Kumail talked with didn’t have answers to his questions?

      I think the people Kumail talked to didn’t have answers to his questions because in a sense they didn’t feel responsible for the misuse of technology. In other words, they’re there to create these technologies but claim to have no way of making it so that they don’t become dangerous. I think this happens because the misuse of technology often financially benefits its creators.