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1. How am I doing?

I am doing good I am trying to balance my work life and school life. I genuinely am focused on finals at the moment because I am trying to get my studying down for all my classes. I am so thankful that I got to get this classes final done and it being a collaborative final was so fun. It helped me find new connections and make new friends. I have been struggling with my first semester at a University but I hope to get the hang of it and just keep trying to get better for my future semesters. I think part of getting better is adjusting to a new routine because I genuinely got a whole different routine here and I am not used to it. Once I get my routine down I will be able to get a better understanding of how to work with a new schedule for next semester.

2. How is my first semester at CSUF?

I have been needing to get used to it because honestly it’s a long drive and to not have many friends I feel like it’s been hard. I enjoy most of my classes but some are challenging and it’s hard to balance school and work life. I know this is how most college students feel because it can get overwhelming with the stress and work loads. I think the other thing that really struck out to me was the parking here it’s actually ridiculous. You genuinely have to get here early if not you are not making it to class because you aren’t finding a parking spot. One of my professors told us that he had to park so far because there was never parking in the professor parking lot. I felt so bad because he’s older and has to walk to far just to get to class and his car.

3. How are my classes progressing?

I honestly feel like for the most part they are doing good, it’s just this class I am struggling with. I just had my information mixed up so all my blog post have been late but it’s because I thought late work was accepted. My other classes have been good the professors are super understanding and work with my schedule for work and school they understand that it’s hard to adjust and driving a long time is mentally draining. I honestly feel like this semester has shown me a lot, I’ve noticed how different professor’s are and how the each class has different expectations. I hope to pass all my classes after finals and get better at managing my time and build a better routine.

4. What am I going to take into next semester?

1. How do social media platforms help marginalized people feel seen and heard?

- Social media platforms help marginalized people feel seen and heard by creating communities and events. Social media brings together not only marginalized people but everyone especially during times and situations where people may feel very alone. It almost creates like a bond between the communities by having relatable topics, discussions, post, and stories. And as people bond over similar situations, it begins to grow the platforms which then catch attention from new sources and other social media platforms. I think that having someone who’s been in your shoes is a way of feeling seen and heard when you feel like your whole world around you may not see you.

2. How can social media be unsafe or harmful for marginalized communities?

- Social media can be unsafe and harmful for marginalized communities because although it brings a lot of people together that are in similar situations, there are always outsiders. These people may be insensitive and non-caring about any situations that don’t involve them or situations that they have never had to go through. Especially when it comes to online people feel like they control hate and make offensive comments because it’s not like they are dealing with the physical repercussions of making these statements. And some people take it as far as threatening others and exposing people that can lead to really harmful things happening to individuals. I know a lot of cases where people have gotten their address leaked and where they work at leaked online and it leads to a lot of threats and harassment. Overall, as much as social media can bring together marginalized communities there’s always going to be the people who have never had to live or go through similar situations try to deteriorate the community that they have built.

3. What features or communities on social platforms make individuals feel like “safe spaces”?

- I think social media platforms have a lot of different features that make marginalized individuals feel safe. Social media platforms have features where you can share, like, comment, and repost which creates a stronger community by allowing these individuals to show who they are and what they’re fighting for. There are many different communities that support a lot of different groups of people. I know that one that really helps me personally is the one that post about ICE because it helps me spread information to my followers and my friends about any checkpoints or officers near or around my area and other areas. There are so many communities and so many features on social media that are so helpful for all individuals because it brings together a lot of people when we are able to bond and really and even laugh about certain things. People comment all the time people share like and repost, and it grows the community and when people feel relatable and feel a part of a community online, it even allows them to feel like they have someone out there that understands who they are.

4. How do online harassment or algorithms limit how safe these platforms actually are?

1. How does social media make it easier for people to organize real-life actions or protests?

- Social media brings together communities and organizations which can help create real life actions and protest come to life. Social media allows campaigns come to life because people are able to make accounts and gain followers, share posts/events, and create an online community. It’s really easy to grow a community online because a lot of people share and repost information and events that are in certain areas. Once the information is out and online then everyone goes and supports, especially when it comes to protest and actions against issues. Social media can brings people together as much as it can tear them apart.

2. What are the strengths of using hashtags to raise awareness about social issues?

- Hashtags help unit communities together by creating a unison phrase that can be used by anyone in the community. They bring together the individuals that are apart spreading awareness of the issue. When we use hashtags it is a way to not only have the main account of the issue post your content but for it to be shared with others. It is easier to use when you want to advocate for issues and have a catchy phrase because then more people will pay attention and it will get bigger and once it is on social media it will continue to grow. Hashtags don’t only have to be for social issues they can be used for any issue to spread support for anything and anyone. People create hashtags for individual’s who have been through traumatic experiences and they also make them for positive situations, but overall they are an easy way to spread awareness and show how a community comes together.

3. What challenges or limitations are there with activism on social media?

- I feel like the problems surrounding activism on social media are based on individuals opinions. Personally I always advocate for activism but there are a lot of people who don’t take the social media movements serious because they probably believe that it can’t do much. But in reality you can do a lot on social media because you can reach people all around the world and if the activism is big enough you can reach news sources and make a really big difference. I also believe that certain people just don’t engage in activism because they simply don’t agree or understand what the issue around the activism is. There are limitations to activism online because there may not be people who engage or people who agree and go against you; these can also go along with the challenges. Activism online can be a challenge because it’s hard to gain traction with certain issues and getting big enough to actually make a difference. It is really hard but it’s not impossible so it’s easy to get discouraged to share your activism online but if you can inspire at least one other person and it goes on it becomes a trampling effect and that’s how the activism begins.

4. What online movement have I ever participated in and what impact did it have on my community?

- The online movements that I have participated in have been the pretty known ones like BLM and ICE protection. I also like to repost certain post about children like Gabriel Hernandez or baby’s that have been mistreated. I don’t know if what I did exactly made a huge difference but I do feel like just spreading my awareness to the people I know can help because I am informing them on important topics. I feel like that’s how most people feel; they probably think like reposting things can only help so much but it truly does help a lot because we share and show people the issues/spread awareness. Even though we aren’t doing anything hands on we can still make a difference with just educating people. I also feel like the topics that are really popular are really concerning because people loose their lives and loose their families but this isn’t meant in a way where other movements aren’t meant to be popular. I mean it in a way where really awful, heartbreaking things have had to happen and the product of these things come out to some of the most popular movements.

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1.How do “trending” topics on social media influence what political issues people pay attention to?

- Trending topics on social media are in constant rotation because things are blowing up overnight and new content is being put out. When it comes to political issues on social media, I believe that the information gets filtered. This leads to disinformation and misinformation because social media filters the political information that we consume. Individuals will get one sided views and even get AI created information and begin to repost and spread this information which leads to people being dis informed. I believe that social media highlights what you already believe since we have algorithms that are collecting data based on previous post, likes, and shares. When we get on our algorithms we see posts that we are most likely going to like so when political issues occur they collect the data they have about us and move the information that we believe will resonate with us the most. One example I have is when Charlie Kirk died; my algorithm’s were spreading my beliefs on the situation compared to friends where their algorithms were sharing their opinions and beliefs. I believe that trending topics influence what people pay attention to because we are constantly in a chase of what is new and what is trending. Another example is the government shut down and it was trending for a few days and then just died out of no where so no one kept up with the information unless you genuinely cared. The algorithms know you will pay attention to based off the data and what others are also paying attention to. Once the awareness is no longer present then it gets moved on to the next.

2.How does content moderation on platforms shape which political voices are heard and which are limited?

- Content moderation on platforms shape which political voices are heard because of w\the data that is collected. Platforms collect so much data on everyone because they want to know exactly how to raise awareness, or sell products to us, and even show us places to go. Since we are constantly being watched on our platforms we are being monitored and are pretty much under surveillance. A personal example of mine is when I am specifically on tik tok, I don’t ever see any actual videos about president Trump only from news sources or other accounts that post updates. I also will get many videos that align with my beliefs which leads into the belief that our social media only highlights the ideas we believe in. My social media limits Trump and his supporters due to the data that has been collected on me from previous likes, post, and shares. But then there’s the opposite where democrats are heard through my social media and I see so much about the issues they face with republicans. I know this is because of our cyber surveillance and I know that I am not the only one who goes through this. This leads to disinformation and misinformation being shared through our social media. I will admit I have spread misinformation because I didn’t know it wasn’t true before but since learning about credible sources I have learned who you can trust and can’t. The only political voices you are going to hear on your social media are the ones you align with in your algorithms because that’s just how our social media works therefore it leads to other voices being limited. If you engage in other voices that are limited on your social media then more of those voices will start appearing on your algorithm.

3.Have I ever noticed political information online that seemed misleading or manipulated? How did I recognize it?

- I always see political information online that is misleading, manipulated, or deceptive. Especially now with AI it is everywhere, an example is the one we seen in class where there was a video of president Barack Obama. The video we seen in class was clearly taken and made into a completely different context. I also have seen videos on Trump and other famous people being manipulated by AI. The way I recognize whether it is real or not is by looking it up on trusted websites. I usually like to go to specific news websites because I know even some news sources are corrupted by certain sources. I feel like even our algorithms are misleading and are definitely manipulated because they go based off of the collected data. I feel like more people should be aware of resources that are credible because AI is expanding its capabilities which can affect the older generations and the younger ones as well.

4.In what ways does social media platforms affect people’s political opinions or voting decisions?

1. What is my current profile photo or avatar say about me, and why did I choose it?

- I currently don’t have social media like instagram or twitter, the only thing I have is tik tok and on that app I don’t have a profile picture. I feel like usually people use profile pictures to just show who’s behind the account. Just like user names they may have a bigger impact because sometimes people have usernames that can be offensive to others. There are also cases where profile pictures are offensive too and even the post that are on those pages. For me personally I choose to not upload anything, I used to but I know that whatever you put out on the internet/cyberspace it will stay there forever. You can’t get away from it and it genuinely made me realize I shouldn’t upload anything that I don’t want to be in the world forever. I just choose to go by user with random numbers or I will use my name in different pronunciation,like how I have it on this app.

2. Does having different usernames or handles on different platforms reflect the identity we try to represent?

- I think having different usernames shows us who we want to be seen as on each platform. I have different names on my tik tok and my tumblr because here I want to make sure I am known for my name and on tik tok I have a user with numbers because I rather not have anyone know who I am. I think this reflects who I am trying to be on each platform and an example I can think of is having a company platform and a personal platform. You would want your company platform to be more professional compared to your personal platform. I see this on tik tok all the time; when brands make tik tok’s for their brand and then they have a personal page that is just about their personal life. This is the way we change our identity online to others by manipulating what we want them to see.

3. Is there a difference in the way individuals present themselves on gaming or dating platforms compared to everyday online interactions?

- I feel like when individuals join online dating or gaming they are showing a different identity compared to their personal identity. Realistically I would think when you join a dating platform, you would want your identity to be seen as the best version of yourself. Compared to when on a gaming platform I would think you would just want to be seen as open and fun. These types of interactions are different compared to everyday life because although you are still interacting with strangers online; in person you have to be your authentic self you can’t hide the bad and you can’t always show the open and fun side how you would in these platforms. When it comes to every day online interactions, it’s easy to just hide behind the screen and act like the person you want to portray to others online. Overall, the difference is being/showing your authentic self, which can be easier in gaming platforms compared to dating platforms.

4. How do I make my digital identity authentic, and in what ways is it curated or different from my offline self?

- I think people can make their digital identity authentic by what they decide to post. I know for me personally I don’t really post anything because of what I mentioned earlier everything you put out online stays online. But when I do post I just post whatever I want; or what I think is aesthetic or interesting. I know the difference between my digital identity and my offline self because I know media consumes a lot of our identities. I feel like some individuals post a lot of their lives online like certain influencers and have a hard time identifying who they are offline. When it comes to people that don’t post as much it’s easier to identify the difference because their identity on platforms are minimal or as a “no one” in a way and then they have a whole personality and are authentic in person. Influencers and famous people probably struggle finding who they are off-line compared to who they are online. This is because they post a lot of their personal lives online which destroys the boundary between the online self and their digital identity.

1. why are individuals more likely to make racial comments about others online than in person?

- Individuals who make racial comments are already bold because they make statements that are offensive to others and are uncalled for. When these comments come into our cyberspaces they harm people’s lives because they don’t realize the weight their comments carry. People online are more bold compared to in person but there are a lot of people who are also bold in person too. These people online come in very harsh and offensive because they know that they will not get any in-person backlash. Online communities are very strong, they fight back in posts, comments, and spreading awareness. A lot of influencers get cancelled because of what they say online or do online that’s offensive to others. People feel more comfortable online to make remarks because it’s a different type of content and the repercussions of saying these things in person are worse than saying them online. In the Ted Talk by Dr. Lisa Nakamura she talks about how this African American individual was being targeted in a gaming room because he was African American and he was known for being a really amazing fighter in the real world. A good point that they made in the video is; if these individuals were making racist comments towards him but were to be sitting right next to him like they would play video games in the old days then they wouldn’t say anything along those lines. They mention this because individuals online like to act like they are a “tough guy” but in reality if someone were to say these things in person then they would have to deal with the repercussions in person. You can ignore people online and block them so it’s easier to run away from your mess online than it is in person. That’s why online racism is very popular due to the fact that people feel like their behavior won’t be perceived as being racist and probably believe that others agree with them; which can be true but then there’s the other half that doesn’t agree with them and fights back. Online racism is not going anywhere if anything it is only growing with the way our society is going, it will continue to grow and the only way we can fight back is by coming together as minorities with our communities and letting them know we can stand up for ourselves with posting, sharing, and supporting our communities.

2. Why has our society regulated having unmonitored behavior on our cyberspaces ?

- I remember when I was a kid and would be on certain platforms like youtube there would be some type of monitoring system that would allow me to only access certain videos. In this weeks video the Ted Talk by Dr. Lisa Nakamura plays a disturbing video of how a gamer changed his visible name to other gamers as something along the lines of “GayBoy” and he was being treated so badly by other individuals because they all “hated gay people.” And she mentioned a good point as to why we don’t have any type of system in our platforms that monitor these conversations. This goes for our platforms like instagram and facebook and twitter too because on these platforms they are allowed to say whatever it is they’d like. She also mentions how when she was younger they would have an individual who would listen in on the conversations and would remove anyone who made these comments for a day. And when I was a kid I remember this happening when I would play too because then people would not come back, but as a society we stemmed away from this. And now to think we have younger generations playing games and being on these platforms with no regulations or monitoring systems it becomes a bigger concern. We are exposing younger kids to these problems and they can easily get influenced by the way others talk about individuals and take it to school with them and say it at home. We should have these systems in place so we don’t create more online racism and bullying because we see it over and over again even in our older generations with certain platforms being racist and discriminating against others. If we were to have some type of system in place that regulates the behavior online we could move away from the racisms slowly obviously not fully but make a little difference if we can.

3. How does digital labor blur the line between hard work and work through social media platforms and gig apps?

- Influencers are working online all day and they might not realize it because they are genuinely filming their lives or hobbies. I know on TikTok when I come across influencers they started off by just posting things they love and enjoy or their daily lives and they end up getting more and more followers which then creates what they were doing as a hobby into a job. And gig apps like DoorDash and Uber relies on digital monitoring this relates to what we talked about in class the concerning issue where a doordasher (I believe) was delivering food and was met with a full grown man naked at the front door. So the problem is digital labor blurs the line between personal and professional lifestyles. Both influencers and gig workers are stuck to their phones working when in reality influencers started off their careers by just doing what they love and their hobbies and gig workers get put into positions like the one we mentioned and don’t know how to go about their job. Being put into these positions can be difficult because these individuals are expected to always be available and perform and be on their phones to make sure they are getting orders or engagement. It is hard for them to separate their work life from their personal life and this makes technology turn normal everyday things like posting, driving, and sharing into labor that benefits large companies.

4. How has technology changed what we consider a “real job”?

- Personally I have been affected by this mindset because I feel like in my generation, I am seeing so many influencers and individuals becoming known for so many things. And growing up I was always told that you have to go to college, you have to get a degree in order to be successful in life and make a good job that pays you well. And being on different platforms like Instagram and TikTok seeing so many individuals just become famous overnight really disrupts your mindset on the way you think things should go at least for me personally. I think seeing so many individuals just doing hobbies online and getting known and famous overnight shows how much technology affects us. I feel like for younger generations. They are going to assume that going to school isn’t really necessary which it’s not but are going to just rely on technology to get them where they wanna be. I think for the most part technology and social media can be very unreliable because influencers get canceled every day for things they’ve done years ago or for stuff they’ve said online that can be very offensive. And I think a society seeing social media grow bigger and bigger every day it pushes us away from all the hard work that our past generations have done to get their education and to put us in positions to be able to get an education. Overall, society has been affected by what we consider a real job in today’s world because of the access we have with technology.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT-G0FlOo7g

1. How does gender discrimination play a role in social media?

- Gender discrimination is very common in social media. I have seen first hand multiple instances where people have been discriminated against because of their gender. I think there is a lot of discrimination against people who identify in the LGBQT+ community in social media and people who identify as nonbinary or trans as well. As much as social media helps communities come together there are people who are so bothered by others gender identity. I notice influencers on social media who identify themselves with LGBQT+ and have comments full of hate because of who they identify themselves as. I think same goes for women in “men’s” fields like gaming,skating, or blue collar jobs are known for being dominated by men. I’ve seen influencers that are women who are apart of these fields that post their life and get so much backlash because they are women in these fields.

2. Why is there a stigma for men to work in field work and women to work in office jobs?

- There is a stigma that men should work in certain industries and women in others and it’s been like that for decades. This ideas is rooted in years of gender discrimination, personally I have experienced this with my latino family. I come from a latino background and since I was a kid I remember my grandmother always being at home taking care of me and my cousins, while my grandfather was out working. My grandmother would tell me stories about how her mother would always be home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of her and her siblings and her father being on the field taking care of the animals. It’s through generations that this stigma has just been ongoing, but honestly through social media I have seen a lot of female influencers that are the breadwinners in their relationship so I think slowly but surely our generations are becoming more open minded to women being able to be breadwinners and be in men’s field. Personally, I think their will always be a stigma that men should be in the fields and hands on jobs while women have a office job or are stay at home moms because that’s what is built into our society.

3. Is framing the same or similar to discrimination?

- I think framing and discrimination can be considered similar due to the judgment that are biased. Framing is basically highlighting information that is one sided and can be downplaying one perspective. And discrimination is acting on biased views that treat people unfairly; both of these views treat people differently based on their biased beliefs. They shape social perception because when someone is being framed those biased thoughts can reinforce stereotypes which then lead to discrimination because people will internalize these stereotypes as the truth. They both can be subtle and systemic; we see framing in our media, languages, and cultures and discrimination is built into our systems and policies that are considered “normal” but really are targeting certain groups. They both can operate beneath our own awareness and have very powerful effects.

4. Why are stories about women of colored that are racially discriminated against never any amount of media attention?

- Personally the stories mentioned in the Ted Talk this week were so heartbreaking. They left me feeling so saddened because of all the lives lost due to police brutality against women and women of color. Kimberlé Crenshaw mentions how these black women were shot and killed and abused by police officers and none of their stores were aired for the world to hear about. I personally think the way our media covers so many stories up is so disgusting, they seen what happened when the police officer abused his power and killed George Floyd. I think they cover up these serious stories because of the way our community reacts and fights for justice. They hate to see a community stick up to protect and fight for justice. Especially with women, I think that media chooses to ignore issues that revolve around women being victims of abuse and in general women. These women were killed by police officers and no one talks about it and no one puts this information out there this is the first time I’ve heard of these stories and it’s so heartbreaking. Social media chooses what they want the world to see because they know how our community will react from past experiences.

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1. How do algorithms target people of color and cause racial injustice?

- Algorithms are on almost every platform and are collecting data/information on us daily. Personally, I notice my algorithms keeping tabs on what I am interested in and wondering. So it leads me to think how biased it could be due to my personal interests in certain topics. In this weeks video, “Race and Technology” by Nicole Brown, she talks about a research case where people found out that our personal algorithms are used in our healthcare systems. She talks about a Washington Post that proves our algorithms are targeting people of color in our healthcare, the post is, “ Racial bias on medical algorithm favors white patients over sicker black patients “ and it goes into detail about the way they used algorithms to determine that white people are higher healthcare consumers. Which means they would need more assistance in their health, therefore is targeting people of color because it is already predetermining that white people need more healthcare than anyone else. This is racial injustice because the system is already going against people of color and this is just technology not actual humans collecting data from algorithms. To add on I can only imagine what the results would be if it were humans collecting data from the algorithms of individuals to determine who needs healthcare. Creating this indifference between the white people and people of color creates a hierarchy of who is more deserving of healthcare and who can afford it based off the collection of personal algorithms.

2. How has surveillance over marginalized communities impacted individuals ability to protect and defend themselves from discrimination?

- Surveillance over marginalized communities has been around for years and has only gotten worse. Personally I think about the way out government has set us up to keep the rich, rich and the poor, poor when I think of marginalized communities being watched. They target marginalized groups because they think they have supremacy over these communities due to the way our society and government operates. In the same video, “Race and Technology’ by Nicole Brown, she talks about an example of how Chicago PD had a “heat list” which basically targeted Chicago residents that would “most likely be involved in violent crime” and they showed up to these people’s houses to warn them that the PD was watching them. She also mentioned that some of the people that were on the list were kids, this is targeting kids that can’t defend themselves. It’s systems like this that create discrimination in our communities and cause harm to innocent individuals. This was generated by information collected online, this wasn’t an isolated incident they purposely went to these people’s houses to make them feel threatened and lower because of their identity. I can only imagine how down casted these individuals felt after seeing their PD show up to their house to threaten them and their families and friends. This creates a hierarchy to those individuals that are being targeted compared to the rest of the population that wasn’t included in this index of Chicago’s PD “heat list.”

3. How has technology oppressed people of color and how will it continue to affect their future?

- There has been countless times where individuals have been mistaken for being a threat to society. A topic mentioned in Nicole Brown’s video is how nowadays we have doorbells with cameras like Ring and people have biased opinions on who they see in their cameras. The cameras record and are the home owner that someone is around and she mentions how people who are colored are perceived as a threat. Another point that Nicole Brown mentions is how hard it is to identify women of color in facial recognition. She claims how technology is gender and skin color biased which is already targeting to people of color. I have experienced this personally with my family; some of my family members have darker skin tone and when they go to unlock their phone it takes longer than when I have to unlock my phone.And I think this is apart of what Nicole mentions in her video about how hard it is to identify darker skin tones in facial recognition. I think both of these concepts tie into each other because when you are being identified as a threat through a doorbell camera and facial recognition not being able to identify darker skin toned people we are already training our technology to use these concepts to target our people. This affects our future because as technology progresses who knows how much more biased it will become with people of color and how much of our rights will be oppressed through this system.

4. How do algorithms keep the hierarchy between people of color and other individuals growing with distance?

- Personally I have seen on my algorithms that it will only show me certain topics that I align with and I see that on my friends and families algorithms. I feel like the more popular/likes an individual has it creates a sort of bubble around their algorithm. When I come along a more famous creator I have never seen before I look at their following and their engagement they get from others and 9 times out of 10 it is people that look like that creator or live a similar life style as them. Then there is other’s algorithm that have lower following creators that are more frequently presented that will stay in that algorithm because there is a distinction between the different hierarchies. Referencing what I said before is it feels like they keep the rich in alignment with one another and the poor as well. It stems from our government and our society norms but overall we won’t be able to change this ideology and these hierarchies because of technology and individuals being pushed to believe one way through these influences.

#GSSKittens

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