last post

We started this week by coming up three different descriptions for our generation from both positive and negative. One of the negative comments for describing our generation is not being unsecured. I agree with it since I am the person who is having this insecurity that I will care about what people comment on me especially on social media. Our generation is also sensitive. I am susceptible to the reactions of others, and receiving too much information leads me to overthink. In this case, I tend to fall into the anxiety that “others are laughing at me.” Everyone posts their best version on social media. It creates a little competition that goes beyond your friends. So if you can’t show or post something “normal” like a secure person, then you feel that you only need to publish something as extraordinary as most “insecure” people.

In our last week of reading, we read the article” why the kids are not all right.” It mainly talked about how social media impact on kids from our generation. From the perspective of the times, they grew up in an era of economic and national insecurity. They never knew that terrorism and school shootings were not the norms. From the perspective of social factors, young people have to experience many significant choices and transitions in life, such as the senior high school entrance examination, college entrance examination, and work, many social, emotional fluctuations caused by changes in life, but also face the inadequacy of the new environment, are more likely to induce depression. Most importantly, they enter adolescence when technology and social media are changing society.

We also read “Addicted to Distraction” by Tony Schwartz in class this week. It mainly talked about we do not concentrate as we use to be. The challenge for modern electronic devices is that, due to the notification function of mobile phones, we are not autonomous to give us the power of many of our installed mobile phone applications. When you try to learn, it is tough to resist the opening of the notice that just appeared and looks at the temptation of that inspiring message. We will think that watching news online for a minute or two will not affect our study, but we rarely only have a one or two-minute network. After reading a report, we will watch a related video, and then another story. Repeatedly. Finally, when we start learning again, it is difficult for us to turn our attention to the teaching materials. A 10-minute intensive study is better than an hour of distraction. While I have much work due the next day, however, I don’t feel rush of it. Instead, I pay more attention and energy on social media just like during the weekend. I got distracted easily. Every notification on my phone can draw my attention instead of work. I don’t even feel the shame of it; I will think that it will take a long time to read another news. I will concentrate on my homework soon.

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Weekly news report:

‘Avengers: Endgame’ may mean the end (or resurrection) for some Marvel characters

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/05/entertainment/avengers-endgame-deaths/index.html

post #11

We started the week by watching a Ted talk “Meme & Teme.” The meme and emoji have become an essential part of our daily communication as well as a part of media content through culture. Especially for teenagers, meme and emoji are almost everywhere in social media. I use a lot of emojis in my daily life during chatting and posting. I believe sometimes language is not qualified to express our feeling, which meme and emoji have these abilities to satisfied us to convey information.

This week we also read the article “Breaking up isn’t as hard as it used to be.” I feel break up with someone face to face is always the hardest since you have to face your partner’s reaction and your reaction is full expose in front of him. Breaking up with someone is still hard for both two. Once you think about it, you will never see each other again. The goodness of the ex will come to your attention and will shake your determination to break up

Many people use communication tools to break up, but they are afraid of touching the scene. He is worried to see the cry of a former lover and can’t make up his mind. I prefer to break up with someone in social media. In the communication tools, you can’t see the pain of the ex, and it will make your heart feels better as well as give yourself greater determination. Some people have an extreme personality. If someone wants to break up with him, he may do something uncontrollable to hurt the other such as splashing sulfuric acid, knives on his face, or crying on the road which makes people stunned.

   We also watched the black mirror episode “White Christmas” I believe there must be a lot of people in your life who hate to see it anymore, but if people like black mirrors can be shielded, the problem is not solved, but a bigger tragedy occurs. The actor was blocked after learning that his girlfriend was pregnant and could not communicate with her at all which is a terrible sense of loneliness. It is very dull to cook breakfast every day to buy food and cook. Please personally help you not necessarily understand your needs. If you extract your copy of consciousness like a black mirror, train it and let it serve you, then it is good. However, how painful the duplicate should be. It talks about how to train a copy to work for you, that is, set the time, let it do nothing for six months, five years, and it will pray for the operator to make it work. If one day, the copy is out of control, kill the real person, is it a suicide or a murder?  People who are not good at communication always want someone to be crazy to give guidance to themselves. If you realize the eye link like a black mirror, there is a super social person behind you who see what you see and guide you to speak. Whether you have become a puppet, and finally you can’t control the direction of things. A person who needs someone to guide his actions must be lonely for too long.

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Weekly news:

Notre-Dame fire: Temporary wooden cathedral proposed

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47980815?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c302m85qenyt/france&link_location=live-reporting-story

post #10

The week, we mainly talked about the relationship between Facebook and privacy. The emergence of Facebook satisfies people’s most basic ideas so that everyone is not isolated on the Internet, but a connected whole. Facebook and other social networks collect vast amounts of highly sensitive information and spread faster and broader than companies that traditionally collect user information. It can help you find old classmates, or push ads for the products you want to buy. However, no one knows how much of your information collected and How is it used. US Internet privacy laws are weaker than in Europe and other countries, so there is a minimal legal right to ask for and control personal information about the information you collect on social networks. With more and more people use social networks, social networks represented by Facebook have become an essential place for governments, marketers and other third parties to obtain user privacy information. The more information you share, the more Facebook knows about you, the more powerful your ads become. Facebook has become a favorite source of information for advertisers because of its massive user base, and its revenue is mainly supported by advertising. Facebook’s privacy policy clearly states. However, we will allow advertisers to use the characteristics of users to display their ads. We will use the information we share with our users to serve advertisers. Facebook takes steps to ensure that third parties use user information in a way that is consistent with your privacy settings.

   The fourth group had their presentation on a book called “The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s.”The book tells the story of the telegraph from its rise to decline and also makes us understand the importance of communication. The prototype of the telegraph network was initially designed to address the timeliness of information transmission. Subsequently, the United States and the United Kingdom began to introduce electronic technology. With the development of physics research, the Telegraph has penetrated various fields and brought convenience to people’s lives. From the wire connection of several cities to the whole world. The most influential in the military, especially communication and cryptography. Alternatively, the development of technology, due to the birth of the telephone, the popularity of fax, the telegraph network began to decline. The rapidly developing Internet has become the terminator of the telegraph. The development of technology will inevitably change life. The development of the telegraph is so, then the Internet? Perhaps we can see the future of the Internet from the development of the telegraph.

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Weekly news:

Louisiana churches relieved after arrest of suspect in fires. ‘Now we can start healing,’ pastor says.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/13/us/louisiana-church-fires-saturday/index.html

post #9

We watched a Ted Talk called “Beware of the Filter Bubble” by Eli Pariser. Today, with a highly developed network, everyone is in a filter bubble that filters information for you which will bring a few problems. First, when you search Google and Amazon, what you see is the result of careful adjustment based on your personal preferences, input, and click habits. You are concerned with a personalized world, not a generalized world. Second, you only choose the people, groups, and groups you are interested in. Similar people and groups come together, and ‘dissident’ has nowhere to go. At first you ignore them, and in the end, they don’t exist at all. Third, the search engine collects and analyzes your information and generates algorithms. Your privacy is exposed or exploited, and you know nothing about it. Fourth, we are no longer seeking knowledge, thinking, and innovation when we are satisfied with the convenience, richness, and comfort that the network brings us. Filter bubbles are ubiquitous; it separates everyone and does not give people the right to choose. He called on Google and Facebook to carefully consider algorithms and publicly filter information so that every Internet citizen knows what is going on around him and gives them the right to know what they have missed, rather than being stuck in this unbroken bubble forever.

This Wednesday, we have watched The social network. In the film, Facebook made its debut for the first time. Zuckerberg uploaded the pictures of the girls in the school to let everyone (mainly boys) score. After a night, the website got many clicks and even blocked the campus network. It made Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg see the dominant driving force of “sex.” Facebook made the Otaku’s dream of getting laid at your fingertips, and the desire became naked and transparent, while at the same time being safe and without responsibility.

The key to Facebook’s success is to focus on people’s communication. The first generation of Internet sites, which build a platform, then provide information, services or goods on it. Now the most successful sites almost all set up a platform for netizens to play by themselves- the so-called WEB2.0. From the interaction of WEB1.0. The communication between people and the network now is achieving between people. However, ironically, behind the WEB2.0, there are some Geek Otakus who are not good at communicating with people. “The Social Network” is a movie about communication, and it is also a movie about geek Otaku. A geek like Zuckerberg is passionate about computers, networks. They have high intelligence, but emotional intelligence may be low. They prefer to communicate with machines, worship technology, and are not willing to bother with others. Zuckerberg always beats the keyboard quickly in the film. He still insists on his way. No one understands what he is thinking, and he doesn’t care about the feelings of others – but is it true? Then why did he want to add his girlfriend as a friend on Facebook and then refresh the page over and over again?

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Weekly news:

Scientists have found a ‘fossil graveyard’ linked to the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/americas/asteroid-dinosaurs-graveyard-scn-scli/index.html

post #8

(Posted late and with permission, due to tech difficulties)

This week, group 3 had their presentation on Danah Boyd’s book called “The Social Life of Networked Teens.” It basically states about how the Internet affect this generation of young people as well as how teenager associate with social media these days. From my own experience, It’s forbidden to use any forms of communication device in my school, in China, since the most of school have strict rule in order to prevent students pay more attention on cell phone instead of school work. I obtained my first technology device when I came to the States for high school, I indeed addicted to social network and spent most of my time on running my personal page.

We also mentioned about fake news this week. I think that this may be related to the psychology of the audience. Only a small proportion of people want to get the latest news. Most of the audience are watching entertainment gossip, star scandals, revealing the truth behind the leader, exposing the education system, social system defects, or all kinds of ridiculous things to distract yourself. A cynical person will naturally click on the negative message headlines, seek some psychological relief, vent their dissatisfaction. It usually helped the media people who need the click rate, thus causing this situation. However, it is worth mentioning that the value of this kind of web news output is terrible. Most of the news is a false and exaggerated illusion. People without judgment are likely to believe it, subconsciously imitate, and then bring this kind of value. Entering life, performing a scene of sensationalism, is like being infected with a virus. For example, celebrity derailment is being promoted and vilified, and pessimistic people may see that this news will feel that all men in the world are all the same, they will derail eventually, thus adding trouble and insecurity, and finally lead to the same thing happen. So what we can do is to have critical thinking, don’t bring in other people’s dramas, and live your life.

We watched John Oliver episode that with the development of the Internet, the newspaper industry has been cut, which has led to the departure of many people, which led to a reduction in news reports. Many journalists use newspaper articles as their news release.

On Friday, we watched the first season first episode of Newsroom. I lamented that China has such a TV series with such a sharp point of view that touches such sensitive political topics. Which Chinese director dare to shoot? In the newsroom, the journalist’s persistence and persistence in the truth is more touching than the exciting news. However, in real life, sometimes making money and the fact is indeed contradictory. The social responsibility of socially responsible media people is the law of survival of the media. The media must “promote the true, accurate, comprehensive and objective dissemination of news information.” I also believe that more and more media people have done this according to this standard. However, the current news industry is a much worse era than the media that was once only dominated by the elite. Malicious people first concealed the truth, and later it was overwhelmed by the noise and the hustle and bustle. Newsmakers have first-hand news, and in most cases will exaggerate the reality of the facts to capture the eyes of others. For most ordinary people, the media people are the only way for them to get information. The public understands the ins and outs of the stories through the stories compiled by the news people, so people will believe the information they convey. However, I think we know that the dissemination of all information is not objective, has a particular purpose, can not be avoided with the influence of the media maker. They have their interpretation, experience, opinion. There is never a media that represent Gap always exists between the information and representation. No information can show the facts. Many of the things we touch are just a word from the mouth of someone else instead of facts. Many “facts” are just things that everyone generally agrees. Moreover, under different information receiving contexts, people get different information.

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Weekly news：

Vatican tightens laws on sexual abuses of minors.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/29/europe/vatican-sexual-abuse-minors-new-laws-intl/index.html

post #5

This week in class, we watched the movie, Snowden. It mainly talks about a staff member of the US CIA and is also responsible for a secret project of the US National Security Agency. This project is about the United States is not only monitoring its citizens, including all daily communications, but also observing all Internet access, and even the couple has sex in bed. This secret plan involves a lot of large companies in the United States, such as Apple, Google, and Yahoo Facebook, which we all know, are included in this surveillance program. Now Snowden, as the technical leader of the project, took the initiative to expose the top-secret plan to the media, that is, to present the most secret things of the US government, and then Snowden now ran to Hong Kong for temporary refuge. After arriving in Hong Kong, Snowden revealed many secrets to the media, saying that the US government has been attacking networks of other countries for several years, and also invaded China’s system to steal all kinds of intelligence. The United States is preparing to extradite Snowden to the United States for trial through an extradition treaty, but Hong Kong is still taking legal proceedings. It is not known whether it will be extradited, because there are still many uncertainties.  I believe it’s like every coin has two sides. From the government side, Snowden has the responsibility to keep the secret and prevent the leak of priority privacy of government. On the one hand, Snowden’s disclosure is for the justice of human rights. He is a national hero. However, there is an angle that cannot be ignored. Politics should never be tied to morality. Politics itself is a struggle for power, and power has nothing to do with morality. The government will not think about this issue from the perspective of everyone. It will only proceed from the national interest. There is a technology that doesn’t use it to prevent problems; it gives up these “terrible possibilities” from the perspective of moral human rights, or under the temptation of other countries involved in state secrets. How useful is it. These technologies are unrealistic from a government or country perspective. I’m not saying everyone shouldn’t have human rights (including privacy), or it’s not the world that Snowden wants. However, under the balance of national interests and personal interests, the government will choose national interests.

Personally, Westerners pay more attention to human rights than Chinese, because Western culture respects individuals, everyone is a right person, and groups can be good people; while China focuses on collectivism, and personal interests are unconditionally subordinate to collective interests. I prefer to respect individuals, but as a government, a state agency, and the morality of working between people is not a norm of behavior. If the implementation of any national policy is based on morality, if everyone can be selfless (and then the country as a whole is altruistic), then there can be no division or war. Then the world is full of love and peace. Then there is a Utopian world.

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Weekly news:

Only six countries have equal rights for men and women, World Bank finds.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/02/europe/world-bank-gender-equality-report-intl/index.html

post #4

Previously this week, we watched “The Outrage Machine” which states how people express their outrage from the early 90’s show to present. “Jerry Springer” was one of the early American TV show that brings violence, nastiness, moral issues on the stage. The audience can highly participate and judge the right and wrong by their voice. It lasts 27 years in the history of television. What a horrible show that draws the brutal dark side of human being to the public. How can it last so long? People watch it because it satisfies their feeling. It offers everyone a chance to stand in the highest point of morality to judge someone without any consequence.

The woman named Jennifer Connell was tied with the label”The worst aunt ever” since she sues her nephew for broken her wrist. Based on that accident, people from the Internet starts to bully her for her “inappropriate” action. It turns out the reason behind it is just for a standard insurance claim. People easily quote out the context from the big picture and make a quick judgment for something they do not even know it is cause and effect. In this case, the enormous comments and harass made her lose everything. The fact is that it is impossible to have everything back. Especially her reputation, she will live with that old history for a lifetime.

In the article “THE ‘SPIRAL OF SILENCE” states we are afraid of isolation after speaking out the real thoughts. We are eager to gain approval from majorities by hiding our true feelings. The Internet offers everyone a mask that not only can we hide our true identities but we can say something that we will not say in reality. Why are people easily get so angry in the world we live?

We watched The Black Mirror episode “Hated in the nation.” This episode states the “Game of Consequence” in reality that language can be a weapon, which is strong enough to kill someone. I tried to understand the people who post hatred speech. Maybe they were mad at work during the day, or they were in a bad mood, only to vent on the Internet. Alternatively, it was a dull day, and there was nothing to do but to say a few words of fun. Perhaps because everyone is discussing and are insulting, it seems out of date if you are not going to do this. Perhaps this person’s speech or practice has caused discomfort, only say wild words can vent your anger. The reasons are diverse when I think this may have a commonality, that is, most of the times people feel hopeless that they cannot change anything in reality. Also, they need to question themselves if they judge something from a moral point of view or they need to vent their feeling, just like the kindergarten teacher in this episode. The patient and gentle teacher can find someone to make a cake with swear words; The policeman suppose to be the embodiment of justice, instead, he harsh tags the tough criminal just like the 380,000 people who lost their lives in this episode. They tag the people they hated the most. The power of speech has always been enormous, but the convenience of the network seems to make us forget this power.

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News post:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/21/politics/separations-status-report/index.html

At least 245 children separated from families since Trump admin said it would stop doing so.

blog post #3

I never heard of Reddit until the professor mentioned in class. For me, Reddit is a combination of “Zhihu” and “Tianya.” Tianya is the earliest Chinese forum started in 1999. Everyone can participate and discuss everything in that forum. There is no standard to define which is the right and which is true. Instead, the measure can be determined by everyone. I remember when I was in middle school, I would read the horror story on Tianya even I know many of these are fake stories. Even though, many people will still leave comments on their real spiritual experiences under the post. It’s always interesting to read the comments.  The other forum called “Zhihu” was initially designed for young people as a question and answer website. It founded in 2010. Zhihu allows us to create a topic to let others know where you are experienced or interested in what field. Having these has improved the professionalism of people. Many respondents are professionals (Many doctors). The professionalism is far stronger than Tianya. I’m majoring in ceramic, which I will find many ceramic making methods and ways of dealing with cracking as well as knowing people who are also doing ceramic. It’s difficult to find a group or a community you belong within reality. Instead, it’s easy to see online. The forum offers us an opportunity to get to know people who are in common by sharing ideas. Professional answers can obtain many likes as well as the topic will automatically be pushed to the ranking list, which will draw more attention from people.

We end up this week by watching The Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back.” This episode talks about human science and technology have progressed to make “people.” The technology can copy very similar artificial individuals for the person who you had lost. The new technology can analyze the chatting records of the people who had passed, to predict the personal characteristics of the person. A perfect machine can’t replace a real person with flaws. I feel sad for Robert Ash, “he” is designed to help Martha move on from Ash’s death. However, the “Robert” can not replace the real fresh human being. He tried his best to be as close as Ash. Eventually, he cannot make pleasant Martha and ends up as another machine. Let’s take a bond guess, what if the Ash is a new human being, would she still treat him in the same way? In the last scene, Martha abandoned the robot Ash in the attic, just like other relics. Even for Martha’s daughter, she would take visiting Ash as an excuse, just for having another piece of cake. However, Robert Ash still treats them in the same attitude with no complaining. How sad. The machine Ash will only increase the thoughts to the man she misses. Technology seems to solve everything for us, but to the ethical level, the engine is still unable to restore the emotional dependence between people. I’m afraid the big data cannot copy the unspoken consensus and feeling between two people.

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News report: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47258754

President Trump promised to build a wall between Mexico and the United States during the election. Recently, the president said the emergency would allow him to get almost $8bn for the wall. The money is expected to be diverted from military construction projects and efforts to fight the drugs trade. This is still considerably short of the estimated $23bn cost of the wall along almost 2,000 miles (3,200km) of border.

post #2

In this week we started three bored and brilliant challenges. The first day of the trial begins to disconnect from your phone. It asks us to keep our phone in a pocket when we are walking. I’m not a walking and texting person; I always have my phone in my bag unless I heard the sounds. The second day’s challenge is not using the screen for taking photos for a day. I failed immediately after class. I’m a new driver; I’m not clear of judging distance. When I slowly back my car into a narrow driveway, unfortunately, I scratched my car. I pulled out my phone and took a phone to see how bad is it, then I sent it to my boyfriend and told him what happened. I went to the studio at night to work on my sculpture. My mom called me, so I took another photo of my statue and shared with her. I’m not a photo person, but I will record everything with my phone when I’m traveling. The third day’s challenge is about observing a person or an interesting thing you have missed. I went to a Chinese Buffet tonight; I noticed an old couple is sitting next to us, they started to chat about their daughter. They seem to worry about her family.
This week, we also watched the black mirror episode “15 million merits”. The story happened in the future that people live in an all-electronic world. In this world, the interactive screen wall is everywhere. Lower class earn merits for living by riding bikes. The only entertaining way is based on media. Everyone has a legendary figure on the screen. I remembered when Bing gives a speech to accuse the truth with a chunk glass on stage, the judges of the Hot Shot said that was a wonderful performance. There were bursts of applause and cheers on the virtual auditorium. When you say the truth about this society and want to awaken those who are still in ignorance, they think it is just another new performance. This scene reminds me of the book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman. It says “ The problem is not that TV presents the masses with the entertaining subject matter, but that television presents all subject matter as entertaining.” It’s an unexpected result. One of the judges offered him a position to let him run his TV station to perform a talk show in his performance. Bing accepted it even without drinking Cuppliance. It’s such an ironic story.

News report :
A Colorado trail runner was running by himself this Monday at the in the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. When he heard something and turned around, an 80 pounds mountain lion attacked him. He choked the mountain lion to death to survive. The runner got severe injuries and still in the hospital. https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/us/colorado-runner-chokes-mountain-lion/index.html

News post #1

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/29/689821599/fbi-finds-no-motive-in-las-vegas-shooting-closes-investigation

FBI closed the investigation for Las Vegas mass shooting happened in Oct.1 2017. The policeman states the killer were not driven by any religious or social reasons. He acted alone. He has mental and physical issues and he might influenced by his father, who is a bank robber.