1st Blog Post

In class discussion this week we covered the concept of filter bubbles. Filter bubbles are an algorithm used by many search engines and social media sites that are designed to show the viewer what they want to see. Using programming software, the algorithm is able to monitor what you have previously looked at, searched, liked, favorited, purchased, commented on, etc., to figure out how to best cater to you. This means that the links and articles that show up on Facebook or google searches are catered to your preference. Don’t believe me? Have you and your friends all search the same thing on google and see if you all get the same links to show up. I am not sure when this feat of computer engineering was accomplished, but I would like to imagine it had good intentions. Its sounds like a great idea to have all of your news and information catered to your liking so that it is exactly what you are looking for. However, there can be serious consequences to a design that only shows you ...

     In class discussion this week we talked about fake and sloppy news. With the ease of sharing articles on social media with the click of a button, it is easy for false information to spread quickly. Also, people on social media generally have the mindset of quickly skimming information to catch the highlights instead of deeply reading the information. This absence of critical thinking and checking the validity of a document accelerates the mass distribution of false information. A relatively benign example of this, that I have come across, is people sharing a weather forecast for a big snow that is supposed to hit in the next couple of days. When I clicked on the article to read about this snow I saw that it was dated several years ago. Most people just read the catchy headline “Possible Foot of Snow to Impact the Area Friday” and don’t click on the site to verify that it is accurate and up to date information. But what happens when the misinformation spread is not a...

Last week I had posted an article on Facebook in my “Psychology of Social Media” group page that talked about how social media and news could warp people’s memories. There was a specific focus on false information that was spread through social media among friends. I will repeat a portion of my post to lay a framework for further elaboration on the article: “The article detailed a phenomenon known as memory convergence. In short, this is the process by which a group of people come to agree on what happened. Social media allows for people to share ideas that are often reinforced by people with a similar viewpoint. The danger in this is that false information can quickly become circulated in these groups at large and distort the memories that people have of these events. This idea ties into the phenomenon of group think, which can be dangerous in regards to false information being accepted and stored into memories as vetted facts.” People’s thought processes and memories of events c...

What impact have cameras had on society outside of the movie industry? With the advent of cellphones having the capability to record and capture, the camera has become ubiquitous. When many people think of a camera they immediately picture a beautiful sunset, a city’s skyline, or a special occasion with family or friends. Outside of capturing the aesthetics and cherished experiences, how have cameras been implemented to change our lives? The beauty of cameras and technology as a whole, is that they are objective. The absence of a tainted viewpoint rooted in subjectivity and fallible memory allows for cameras to capture raw, actual events. Accordingly, cameras have been employed largely in the judicial sphere as concrete evidence of a technological eye witness account. For this reason, cameras can be credited with capturing many criminals and seeing that they pay the price for their unlawful actions. Many people will now just post a noticeable sign in their home window or at their ...