Week Two

This week’s ‘My Internet Mea Culpa’ article was an interesting read for me. I hadn’t really ever thought about the older generations’ expectations for the Internet and how different the Internet has become. Like people predicted and wanted, there is an endless sea of information out there, but the Internet has also turned into a platform for people to spread misinformation, create chaos, and say things they’d never say to someone’s face. That being said, there is still so much that is filtered out and kept from the Internet, whether that be accidentally or on purpose, like when Rick Webb talks about how organizations like Google Books, a project that is supposed to move more information online, have “floundered due to institutional obstruction or a change of priorities in those undertaking them.” There are simply other priorities nowadays.

The Weapons of Math Destruction introduction was a little more relevant for me because it related to what we’re talking about in my Digital Inclusion class. We’ve been talking about how certain groups are disadvantaged when it comes to accessing the Internet and other media outlets that are so important these days. Cathy O’Neil also points out how there are so many problems with algorithms and systems that dictate the lives of people. O’Neil points out how the ‘WMDs’ “tend to punish the poor.” WMDs have such appeal because they “specialize in bulk, and they’re cheap.” She explains that wealthy and privileged people have more stake in recommendations and interviews in person and stuff like that. I really like her quote, “The privileged […] are processed more by people, the masses by machines.”