Blog posting #12 Due FRIDAY 5/4, 11:59 P.M. (NO COMMENT required for this one--but welcome to offer some): Final reflection/discussion

This last post is really open...and meant as a kind of final reflection/discussion. We'd like you to do the following:

  1) Choose one thing from this class (a text, an issue, an image, a concept, an object, a theme, a case study, etc.) that you are taking away with you from this class — something that still excites you, or bothers you, or intrigues you. Ideally, something that has changed, even in some small way, the way that you see and act in the world. Maybe go back and look at some early blogs, or review the Keywords. If all else fails, use a Poster Presentation.Examples? All our issues around WHY we should bother (or not) with critical studies of science — and how to do it right (or wrong). What's it help us to know about Earl Butz' shifts in agricultural support? Or that 'GMO free' is largely a marketing tool? Or that money, more than anything, determined some drug development? Or that regulations can be monetized? Or that we've forgotten about how many scientists really believed in spontaneous generation? 

2)  Describe it, briefly: what it is, and why it excites/bothers/intrigues you.

March for Science in Washington, DC

3) Reflect on what about it you are taking away from this class, and how it has (in whatever way) altered your thoughts about and actions in the world. If possible / appropriate, make reference to how the issue played out in class discussion, in the context of other topics / issues / themes / texts / concepts / cases we have been dealing with. And put some people in, if you can! Think about our colleagues--who said what, who takes a particular kind of position, who gave you a different view of things, and see if you can get their voices and presence into what you bring us. You know: Ashley's kids loving the bot-generated vids, or those 'paleo' cookies with turquoise sugar on them (eat your hearts out cavemen), or Svetlana telling us that American food is just too sweet for Chechnyans (so are we all 'sugar addicts'?). Or the nurses loving the fad diets.







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Blog #10 - Syeda

Imagine this: you pick up a piece of cheese at home and mention a small fact to your roommate off-hand--”hey, you know it takes 10 pounds of milk to make each pound of cheese?”  But she retorts, “no it doesn’t. It takes 8.79 pounds, I learned this in my Analysis of Cheese and other Dairy-Based Products course, duh.”  So naturally, your obvious approach is to pull out your handy-dandy smartphone and whip up a quick Google search.  Your first search “how much milk for cheese” gives you results on the perfect ratio of milk to cheese for that perfect mac and cheese recipe, so you revise: “how much milk does it take to make a pound of cheese.”  There are a few random sites, but you come across the website for the International Dairy Foods Association (yes, it’s a real thing) which says that cheese requires nearly 10x its volume in milk to be produced. Aha, you’re right.

Now, the above situation might seem exceedingly trivial, but it almost is completely miraculous once you think about it.  Not to muse excessively, but if you think back to our parents’ time in college, say the late 1980s, finding the answer to such an insignificant question would require that they find some obscure textbook, or wander over to CFANS in St. Paul.  Now, we can pull out our phones and find an answer in the matter of seconds. Finding accurate information might be a bit difficult, but with enough searching and sifting through material, everything is there. Granted, finding accurate data and valid sources takes a little bit of practice, but it isn’t something that can’t be learned.  We’re all taught to find credible sources throughout high school and college anyway, aren’t we? This alone makes the internet a wonderful thing, even despite its faults or misinformation. We literally have the world’s information at our fingertips and it most definitely has changed the way we collectively think. Sure, we look for immediate gratification and answers, but on the other hand, we have so much information available to us that ignorance can essentially be a choice.  We can call each other out on our bullsh*t when we say dumb things and learn things that were originally obscure and reserved for library shelves--but come to think of it, when’s the last time you saw anyone sifting through BioMed’s bookshelves? Almost never. We can learn about social issues, little random facts about cheese, how to fix our cars, really anything, all from the comfort of our beds--or toilets.

Blog #10 - Kelli Grimm

The internet has completely changed the way we as humans acquire knowledge. As the users of internet grow, the span of information available to those users grows as well. We are in a time when the answer is at your fingertips or provided by our new best friends Siri and Alexa. Instead of making a trip to the local library to find out about the history of the United States, enter on a search engine and thousands of articles are available in seconds. Wanting to impress your S.O? No need to go out and buy a cookbook, enter the world of online food bloggers. And even doctors… do we really need them anymore with WebMD? (kidding, I need a job one day and you should probably stop feeding into your hypochondria) While not all information provided on the internet is legitimate, the internet has increased the efficiency of acquiring knowledge and how increased the populations who could be exposed to that information. This is beneficial to us as our potential for acquiring knowledge is unlimited, we are becoming far more advanced as a generation because we have and use the resources available to us. As far as illegitimate information, it is important to be aware of where the information is coming from and to use sources based on research and facts.

Blog #10 - Brittney McLaughlin

There are good aspects of the internet, and there are awful aspects of the internet. It has undoubtedly led to an increase of bad things happening in our world, but I think one could argue that an equal amount of good comes from the internet. An example of both in accessibility to research articles - it's much easier for us to access them now, as we can type in a few words and receive thousands of results, but also absolutely terrible, because now professors expect us to find and cite 10x as many.

I think it's fairly easy to really go in and attack the internet, name all of the awful things are caused ALL BECAUSE OF THE INTERNET!!! The 3rd letter in "internet" is "t". Unironically, the 3rd letter of "Satan"...ALSO "T". But I'll put up a fight for the good in the internet. And, naturally, I'm super selfish, so - how has the internet bettered me, specifically?

I'm a type 1 diabetic, and this can be really difficult at times. I don't know any other diabetics here at the U - I'm sure there's hundreds, but it's not something that's super easy to identify. So, being far from home and diabetic-friendless, I can feel really alone sometimes. The internet has served as a really great reminder that I'm not alone as a diabetic, that there are tons of people dealing with this disease as well. Even when I'm not specifically looking for this, I can be watching a random YouTube video and someone will pass by in the background with an insulin pump clipped to their hip and I'll get really excited. It may sound silly, but these are things I'm not used to seeing in my everyday life, and the internet has made it much easier for me to do so. A much larger way that the internet has benefited me and my diabetes, though, is simply by giving me access to education on my disease. My insulin pump requires me to insert a small tube into my body via a needle every few days, and my doctor told me that I needed to start doing this on the back of my arm, rather than just my stomach and thighs. She gave me a demonstration, but I was so scared of the pain that I couldn't really pay attention. YouTube and Google not only provided me with information on exactly where and how to do this, but many stories with happy endings to help ease my anxiety. Without the internet, my life would be harder in this situation. It has truly helped me to handle not only my diabetes, but my anxiety, better than any one person or medical textbook could.

Blog #10 - Being a Youtube Sensation

Okay don't get me wrong - I think that YouTube is a great website. It allows many to express creativity and individualism. Many use it for entertainment, others for DIY/tutorials, and some for teaching me how to do anti-differentiation in calculus (which I am quite grateful for, might I add). This is a huge interface. There are so many people that follow these channels on YouTube and there are so many different types of content. I am guilty of following accounts for entertainment and makeup applications. But, with these accounts comes the responsibility of being respectful to all viewers and putting out appropriate content. This does not always happen.
Does anyone remember Logan Paul? He is a twenty-something boy who creates (what some may find) funny content on YouTube. He has made a fortune from posting bi-weekly and sometimes three times a week and has over 17 million people following his channel. Being 22, you would think that you would have a good understanding of responsibilities and sensitivities of some, but he clearly didn't. At the beginning of this year, Logan visited Japan and imitated the culture of the people in the cities. That, in it self, is a huge problem and shows that he is super insensitive towards people of other cultures. The main reason how he got into a significant amount of trouble is that he decided to visit a forest in Japan that many call the "suicide forest." There have been many that commit suicide in this forest and there is a sign before entering that encourages people to not take their life and that there are so many good things out there. Logan and some of his friends, did what typical YouTubers would do, and video their adventures. They were walking through the forest when they encountered a Japanese man who had committed suicide by hanging in the forest and showed it on camera. Logan insensitively laughed at the situation and had the nerve to post this video on his YouTube channel for his (then more than 20 million) followers to see. This created an uproar - a cry for help where many petitioned that Logan Paul no longer be able to post on YouTube or get paid for his views. He took a long leave of absence from the site, then decided to use his situation to promote mental illness awareness and suicide prevention.
What he did was insensitive, cruel, and alarming especially for someone at his age. Being such an infamous YouTuber at the time, it seems as though he was consistently under the pressure to make new and better videos each upcoming video. Making new content definitely helps to keep a following, but that kind of content is completely unacceptable. It is important that we all understand that the internet can be entertaining, helpful and creative; but that it can also harm people and make for unfortunately situations.
All in all, don't post shit like that on the internet. It is ugly, bad taste, and disrespectful. Instead, why don't you teach me about alkenes in organic chemistry? Or continue to help me with my calculus homework? Putting out quality and appropriate content bi-weekly is more important than posting inappropriate or violent content out more than once a week.

Internet Activism

Internet activism has absolutely taken off in the last few years, with more and more content about political correctness and social justice ever present on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. My Facebook feed primarily consists of articles and statuses about current events and discussions related to racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, global politics, among other things (like memes!). I learn a lot about the world and how I can personally be better because of what my friends post. The accessible nature of short articles and statuses makes it easier to absorb information rapidly and informally, rather than sitting down to read some dense theory or a peer-reviewed journal article. 

I despise the term "social justice warrior" because I think it is usually misapplied. The SJW stereotype references ultra righteous activist types who make others feel guilty about being wrong or not PC-enough. However, here's a huge difference between people who share articles and opinions about social causes and people who put others down for being naive or uneducated. We should all steer clear of being condescending assholes on the internet and instead strive to make others and ourselves more aware of interesting topics, enlightening discussions, and social/political/economic ills that need to be dealt with. The term "social justice warrior" is really dismissive and often lumps well-meaning people together with the holier-than-thou activists, which is so unfair to those trying to respectfully raise awareness, start conversations, or just make people think. 

Overall, I think that internet activism breeds some negative consequences, primarily performative activism and righteousness/condescension. If you can say you're attending a protest/action online, people will think you went, and if you don't go you will still seem cool and engaged. Furthermore, you can simply share an article about racism or something without actually actively incorporating anti-racist values into your life. Call out culture on social media allows someone to perform their "goodness" regardless of how they act offline. People can also seem to get off on correcting others that know less than them, and can go about it in really rude ways that do nothing to start dialogue. 

However, I think internet activism overall is positive, benefits our society, and has contributed to a positive shift in our current episteme. The speed with which information can circulate on social media is astounding, so we absorb way more information and have the capacity to learn so much, so fast! Knowledge, political correctness, and progressive values can be picked up really quickly and passively. For example, words related to sexuality (queer/trans/femme/etc) or race (POC/WOC/latino/etc) and other identities and descriptors come pretty naturally to me at least partially because of the articles and news stories that show up on my feed and I read on a daily basis. On the contrary, my parents who are not only of an older generation than me, but also never use social media, and have to constantly learn what the current politically correct language is. This process does not come easily to them, even though they want to say and do the most respectful and considerate things. 

I think social media activism is really valuable and has the power to change our minds and our world. It also has the power to fall flat and not escape the confines of the Facebook timeline. It has the power to call out others, put them down, and make activism into a performance that solely yields shallow social capital. But as long as we're patient, respectful, and don't take ourselves too seriously we can and should use Facebook statuses, social justice clickbait, and other forms of online activism to make the world mildly better. What we call people matters, how we understand our economy matters, cultural appropriation matters, and how we frame and understand issues matters a whole lot. Accessibly written articles that circulate Facebook and Twitter should be taken seriously and analyzed in relation to our current discourse on social issues. The internet has caused an entire epistemological shift and yielded both beneficial and insidious outcomes. Demonizing social media is at once understandable, yet lazy. Despite all of the bad that can be found, social media allows us to sustain more inclusive and progressive discourse in a simple and accessible manner. In the words of Donna Harraway, "taking responsibility for the social relations of science and technology means refusing an anti-science metaphysics, a demonology of technology, and so means embracing the skillful task of reconstructing the boundaries of daily life … It is not just that science and technology are possible means of great human satisfaction, as well as a matrix of complex dominations…It means both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships…" 

(Haraway, A Manifesto for Cyborgs, 1985, Socialist Review)

Blog Post #10; Caitlin Barth

The Power in our Addiciton

Since social media is an integral part of our social function, it is important to focus on its impacts on a personal level. More specifically, how it affects our mental health and how we can balance our social media usage as well as our mental stability. Many of us know that most social media realms are avenues for “self-promotion.”

Most of the time you log on and see the battle for “the best life,” however that is different for all demographics. For college students, you typically find those that are most traveled or most actively participating in college gatherings (from frat parties to tabling for your student group) are living their “best life” (on social media, that is). On the other hand, for young adults with established jobs, they may be self-promoting themselves through activities such as getting married, having kids, or living a calm, structured lifestyle. Whatever the case may be, you will find that our lives are enhanced and glorified on social media.

Still, how might that negatively impact our mental health? Yes – social media allows the release of dopamine (the reward hormone), which is why we keep finding ourselves itching to log back on every five minutes. But in the long run, we still receive a feeling of loneliness through the detached interactions social media facilitates. Only more recently people have become more vulnerable on social media by posting about their weaknesses or tragedies in their lives. This allows others to know they aren’t alone in different circumstances they might be facing, but still why is it that we find solace or reassurance from other people who we don’t even know? I might be going off on a tangent here, but why have we become so dependent on social media to provide positive reinforcement in our lives? It’s no wonder we feel more lonely because rely on a person that probably would never say hi in person to say “you look cute here” on a photo we recently posted.

Though an important take away here is to remember that we have the power to curate the environment of our social media. Instead of following thousands of people that don’t actually matter to you, follow people that are important to you or that make you feel better about yourself. Finding, friending, and interacting with those who support you has the potential to aid your self-esteem. Find what makes you happy about logging on to social media sites and keep those people or things close, while also recognizing what depresses you and be sure to detach yourself, or rather “unfollow”, those people or companies or whatever it may be. Although we may be addicted to social media, we still have the ability to structure it to our needs.

Blog #10 - Mohamed

Although there may be many negative sides to the internet, I believe that overall the benefits truly do outweigh any disadvantages. For one, the internet has helped us stay in touch with those closest to us, both domestically and internationally. I have an 8 year old sister and she Facetimes me every night. Being on the phone with her is one thing, but through the internet we are able to actually see each other and it makes all the difference. But this can also be done with family internationally, and this has helped many immigrants keep in contact with their family members. Between school, work, and other responsibilities, it is difficult to keep in touch with all of your friends and family members. But through social media you can quickly let them know that you're thinking about them by commenting on their picture or post, or even just tagging them in something.

The internet has also saved us a lot of time. This applies to pretty much every aspect of life. If you're shopping for something, literally anything, you can always use the internet to do your research. It doesn't matter if it's looking for a new car, a home, a new phone, or even just something simple like clothes. You can find everything you need to know about that object from a website. You don't need to get out of your home and drive for miles and listen to a salesperson. Some people would say that this makes us lazy, but I don't necessarily think that is true. In a way, it makes us clever. Instead of going out and listening to someone explain something to you, you're doing the research yourself. I used to work for Bestbuy and we would always have customers who came in saying "I read online that..." which means they can't be tricked. They know the price and they know enough about the product before they even come in to pick it up.

When the internet is used for all the right reasons, then there really are no disadvantages. For example, Twitter can cause a lot of unnecessary arguments. But this is only done by certain people. Others, like myself, use Twitter just to laugh! Everyone knows that those with the greatest sense of humor are always on Twitter. It's always my go to when I'm stressing out about anything. The same goes for Facebook. When it is used for its original purpose, to connect with family and friends, then there really is nothing to be worried about. The internet serves to make our lives easier, but we are the problem.

Blog 10

I think that most of my posts during this semester were quite negative towards the internet (at least the social media aspect). So now I want to find something positive in this global network.

I'm a bookworm. I can easily read a book a day. Or two books if I have no deadlines. So during a single year the total number of books grow enormously. It  is expensive to buy every time the hard copy. And quite often the book is not so good that you don't want to keep it anymore, so the hard copy becomes the useless placeholder on the shelf. And here comes the online world.

Thanks to the Internet I can get a new book in several clicks, for less money than the hard copy or even for free. I can take it from the library without leaving my apartment. And if I don't want to keep it anymore I just delete it, or on other hand, if I want to have it with me, I just save it somewhere in cloud, and I have this book anywhere at any time.  In the Internet you can get reviews on the books you're thinking about, you can get personal recommendations based on the books you've read, so you can always fins a book you'll probably like. 

Some negative things I've heard about reading e-books. Firstly, it can diminish the chance of the surprise new opening with a book you've never heard about (it happens when you come to the physical bookstore and just grab randomly), but nobody stops you from checking a link on a random book online, and perhaps you'l like it more than the random hard copy book because of reviews. Secondly, you don't have the physical contact with a book, you don't feel the pages, you don't smell it (I know people like to smell books). But as a student I value the convenience more than the comfort. I would rather take any number of books I need on my Kindle that doesn't take nearly any space in my bag than I would take just one book that makes my bag to heavy to carry around campus.

And just one life example about why I love e-books. Everybody knows the Harry Potter books. When I first read them I was 7, and I had to wait for 2 years until the last book was published and then several more months for the translation. The translation was really good (later, when I became better in English, I compared the original version and the translation). But after some time publishers decided to republish the whole series of the Harry Potter books with the new translation. And it is awful, you can barely read it if you know how it can be and how it should be. Fans were in despair, they begged to republish the old translation, but the answer was no. So now it is nearly impossible to buy the hard copy books with the old translation, people who have them prefer to keep them for themselves, or they are really expensive. But you can definitely find the e-book with the old translation. I have all 7 of them on my computer, and I'm happy that I can keep the part of my childhood with me. And my children will be able to read the "right" version of Harry Potter (or they can learn English and read the original version, but it is another story).

#10 (Andrew Krump)

I remember seeing a Vice News piece on a study that MIT did examining the connections and discussion habits of Clinton and Trump supporters on Twitter (article is at https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/d3xamx/journalists-and-trump-voters-live-in-separate-online-bubbles-mit-analysis-shows). The researchers assembled a series of diagrams showing the Twitter universe and how groups are connected. The results are pretty amazing and point very clearly to the "echo chamber" nature of social media users.

The researchers found that Trump supporters (just follow Trump) associated very little with Clinton supporters (just follow Clinton) or those who follow both Clinton and Trump. They found that following only one candidate predicted actual political support very well.

On issues like gun control, those who actively discuss the issue tend to fall solidly into either Clinton or Trump's camp and don't interact much. This is pretty scary to me considering that we always hear about how social media and the internet can help expose people to other viewpoints. I see this research as a strong indication that there is a tendency (at least at the political extremes) to reinforce existing beliefs, not facilitate meaningful dialogue.



As for fake news, the picture is even more disturbing. The researchers found that almost no verified journalists on Twitter reached Trump supporters. If we take the view that journalists are generally trustworthy, I find it scary to think that social media (or Twitter at least) seems to be utterly failing at creating a universal set of facts. Quite literally, Twitter seems to be allowing people to live in different worlds.



My takeaway of this is that people use social media as a form of entertainment primarily, NOT to inform themselves. Entertainment is supposed to feel good, and confronting cognitive dissonance/different opinions is rarely comfortable, let alone good feeling. Before the internet, the nightly news was how people learned about issues (a fairly consistent set of facts). Discussions took place in real life, where it's difficult to dismiss someone as "bad" because their humanity is clear. In person conversations require that both parties at least give the impression that they are considering the others viewpoint. The same is clearly not true online. The end result seems to be a technologically enhanced ideological polarization (which I would guess plays out like a negative feedback loop). Yikes.

Blog #10 - Kayla Snell - #fitspiration

I'm realizing that many of my blog posts feature something health and fitness related. I don't know if it's a little overboard or not, but if it is at least I can say that good health is something worth spending time and energy on. Today's episode  of health and wellness features Instagram and #fitspiration. To be clear, Instagram is one of my favorite digital media platforms. It allows for creativity for photographers and any old smartphone user to be shared with friends, family, or anyone really. There's a lot of quite beautiful photographs, and I enjoy the minute long cooking videos and other so-called food porn. Plus, I personally really enjoy having a platform where I can share the coolest photos a photography noob such as myself can take.

However, it is also another platform for the continuing discussion on unrealistic standards. The photographs with the most likes are absolutely always digitally edited. This is also hugely important for people looking to better their health. Something we are always told to do is visualize our goals, find role models, and use that to inspire and motivate us. So when we're looking for these role models to inspire us with the ideal body, we look to Instagram's hashtags #fitspiration and/or #bodygoals. The problem is that these goals are so unrealistic. These are people who spend multiple hours every day in the gym, who haven't so much had a slice of birthday cake or a sip of alcohol in years, have given up the right to be spontaneous, and keep track of their calories so closely that they have to measure out their spinach every meal, and more. They're the body builders who've almost hit essential body fat, ( ~4% for men, ~6% for women), people who work in the gym for a living, models who have to remain strictly on diets to remain thin, the genetically gifted, or the ones who bypass all this by taking steroids. None of which they'll admit.

All this changes our society's ideal of the perfect body, and changes our perception of what is attainable. When the people in the #bodygoals photographs start pushing supplements or workout programs insisting that anyone can do it too, regardless of job or family situation, they're not being honest. Suddenly, everybody wants a 6-pack without quite understanding how much work goes into it, how much they will have to give up, or how dangerously low our body fat percentage needs to be in order to achieve it. Before digital media such as Instagram came into people's hands, the only other time I saw anyone with the equivalent to those #bodygoals people were in advertisements in magazines. Those I brushed off because I knew it wasn't authentic, it was touched up, and magazines were more money than I thought they were worth anyway. I only ever picked one up while waiting in the dentist's office. People have been discussing unrealistic standards in beauty for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until Instagram before I truly saw unrealistic standards and more portrayed as being attainable.

As for what we can do, I think we shouldn't compare ourselves to what we find on the internet so often. I've learned it's much better to compare myself today to myself yesterday. Seeing progress with myself is usually way more motivating than trying to reach the standard of someone who's been doing this 10 more years than I have. Additionally, the online fitness community can do more to be open and honest about the amount of work it actually takes to get somewhere. A couple of such people I follow do, which is a good start.

Hiding behind the screen

The first thing I thought of when thinking of how the internet changes people, is how people interact with and without the internet.  I remember a scene from Big Bang Theory when two people are on a date but both have trouble talking in person.  The solution was to be on a date and text.  The point is, people are more confident on the internet.  Any kind of forum on the internet will no doubt be filled threats, name calling and things of that nature.  People seem to find it easy to say things, they would otherwise never say, on the internet because there are no direct consequences.  The comment section on a post on facebook is the same way.  Everyone has become an expert with a simple google search and cannot wait to rub it into someones face on the internet.  I believe this change is horrible.  People become less adequate in normal human conversations and have to rely on the internet to communicate.  Worse yet, I think this behavior is extremely contagious.  One person insults another and it starts a never ending stream of insults thrown at people.  It is like one person sees this behavior and believes the only way to 'fight' back is to do the same.  Or even they feel like it is okay because everyone does it.  As a person, I find this behavior repulsive and do not understand it.  I think the solution to this problem is to ignore people.  Because I think many of these trolls do it just to get a rise out of people, so by fighting with insults people just fuel the fire.  I think as a society we should condemn this sort of behavior.

#10

One way I've seen the internet create change recently has been the #MeToo movement. This one is tough because it has been used in both good and bad (to me) ways, both of which I will talk about here. The movement was really simple; people would post on social media with the hashtag #metoo as a way of identifying themselves as victims of sexual assault, abuse, or harassment. The movement intended to show the world, men in particular, that nearly every woman has experienced these in some way. It was a powerful image, and it lead to powerful solidarity. Women in Hollywood began fighting against and exposing the harassment and unequal treatment of their workplaces, and the conversation has been generally brought out into the open.

I can see the #MeToo movement working similarly to Elliot's ideas about apotemnophilia. This movement did not create more survivors of various crimes, instead, it created a space and, more importantly, language to allow women and others to categorize those experiences. Women who might previously lacked the words to describe their experiences heard similar stories and were finally able to put a name to it. It allowed them to feel validated in their emotions about these events because they were acknowledged and named as bad rather than ignored and lumped into normal life. For many women, the movement has helped them to name their experiences and find solidarity in their feelings, which can be extremely healing for many.

The #MeToo movement has also worked in the opposite way that Elliot proposed as a possibility-- that the naming and popularizing of a term or idea might make people decide to identify with it where they wouldn't have done so previously. The other side of all these women coming forward are the people, often men, who have hurt them. At some point, some men decided that the #MeToo movement was full of women overreacting, and rather than work on respecting women more, they expressed fear of having women around them at all. A few people set forth the idea that these woman might be overreacting to simple, everyday business and personal relationships. Many more men, especially in business, then jumped onboard with this idea, identifying any contact with women as the dangerous to them personally and therefore further excluding women from fields where they are trying to gain more access. In this case, once the idea that "men being around women in a professional setting is dangerous to the men" was spread on the internet, more and more men began fitting their previous experiences into this model and reacting accordingly. The presence of this new idea let them ignore the potential truth--that they might have treated women poorly--and focus on the new problem with which they newly identified themselves.

This movement has sparked both positive and negative reactions, and it shows nicely how identifying an issue on the internet can quickly lead others to follow, for better or for worse.

Blog 10: Still Working

There are many reasons to complain against the internet. Cyberbullying, online stalking,  cat fishing, etc. are just some of the few to mention. However the internet is a tool, and like all tools, it can be used for good and bad. Unlike the one ring to rule them all (that's right, I went there), the internet does not turn all of its users into desperate, obsessive shells of their former selves. Some people might refer to it on occasion as "their precious" but as long as they don't hide in a cave and attack anyone who tries to steal their internet I think they're ok.  Honestly, I think it has made us more self reliant. There's so much information out there that we can learn to do a whole bunch of stuff on my own. For example, last week, the toilet in my apartment was constantly running water. No one knew what to do, so I looked it up on my own, followed the instructions that I found on a website, and was able to fix the problem. Easy peasy. Nowadays, we can solve any home or apartment issue just with a few clicks without calling for professionals. Although, this situation isn't just limited to home improvements. You want to learn how to moonwalk? Youtube it. You want to solve the Legendre equation? Look up a video on Kahn Academy. How bout you're in the mood to make a creme brûlée? Try some tasty Tasty Videos. See, the internet is full of so many tutorials that we can learn anything we want, from the obscure and esoteric to the trendy and essential.

Blog Post #10: Dating Apps Suck

When I think about examples of digital media that have changed us, I immediately think of dating apps. Dating apps suck. Even besides the significant fact that women often face harassment (despite attempted remedies like Bumble), dating apps have mechanized the way that people who’re looking to date meet, making a very personal process impersonal and standardized, and reducing it all to a numbers game. I sound like an old, cynical person – I know – but it seems that people really don’t talk to each other when they have the option to effortlessly swipe. And I don’t want the first thing a potential partner knows about me to be my stance on pineapple pizza, or whether water is wet; but it’s weird that that’s in fact what’s typically included in a Tinder bio.

Dating apps are also usually “freemium”. Like Clash of Clans or Candy Crush, it’s technically free – but if you want to be successful at it, your chances are better if you give up some money for premium access. In dating apps, these premium advantages take the form of unlimited swipes, more “super likes”, and even the ability to see who’s swiped right on you before they show up in your “stack”. But this is absurd – as one pays money not to date, but for the opportunity to meet someone to date. You can meet people in real life, for free.

Additionally, transforming dating into a numbers game is, I think, the result of the capitalist necessity for increased efficiency. To someone in a late-capitalist economy (us, very arguably), time is money. One is thought to be: 1) wasting time by waiting to bump into an actual person who reciprocates interest; and 2) probably too tired from working long hours to put in the time and effort not to resort to dating manifested as swiping left and right. The alienation of work begets an alienated form of dating. And maybe this would be fine if reducing dating to a numbers game weren’t awful, but it’s awful. No one is special or even human: dating as a numbers game reduces dating-app users to their existence within the context of the dating app (and more so than dating in real life reduces people to a dating-specific context) – no one is seen as a person, with the dynamic and interesting qualities that characterize people, but instead only as a “dateable”, with an opinion on pineapple pizza.

Furthermore, in multiple ways, dating apps are making us lazier. According to journalist Cady Drell, dating apps disincentivize those in relationships from really giving it their all. In her words, “If dating is like fishing off the side of a ship, then mobile dating is like fishing from a glass-bottomed boat. Since you’re now keenly aware of how many fish are swimming around at a given time… You’re less likely to invest the energy working through problems when there are all those other, ahem, fish in the sea.” Beyond this, it can be seen that dating apps have made us lazier by the phenomenon of “ghosting”. Making dating impersonal provides a sense of anonymity for both parties that makes simply cutting off contact without explanation – something that was previously unthinkable – not uncommon. In the context of Benjamin’s theory of aura, dating apps have irreparably destroyed the “aura” of our romantic relationships – since it’s not really special if it’s easily reproducible, is it? He or she isn’t as “one of a kind” as their partner would’ve perceived them to be 30 years ago. But what’s worse is that, due to the mechanization of dating apps, people and relationships are losing their unique aura – not just pieces of art.

I think that we may be getting better at dating, but we’re certainly getting worse at relationships. This isn’t to say dating apps are 100% bad all the time – I know plenty of people in happy relationships who met on dating apps. But as a system and as a whole, they’re changing the way that we date, and probably for the worse, making dating more superficial, and making us lazier and less considerate (while simultaneously taking our money).

Source: https://www.glamour.com/story/what-have-dating-apps-really-done-for-us