Author: paras

Before taking this class, I never gave much thought to how digital media interacted with social divisions or cultures. I used Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but never paid attention to how they were used for activism and social justice. The title of the course, Gender, Race and Labor in the Digital World interested me, but I was not sure what it would entail. I can definitely say that my mind has been opened to a wide range of new ideas because of this course.

Unit One, Play, Power, and Privilege, was one where I had no previous knowledge of the content we learned. Video games were never really of any interest to me, so learning more about how they affected society was eye opening. My favorite part was learning about the damsel in distress trope. I always knew that females were the ones being saved on video games, but I never knew that there was a community of women trying to get that to change. Women were being portrayed as weak, and video games should not be doing that. I enjoyed talking about how video games are evolving and how women are a bigger part of that change. It was a new experience, learning about Gamer Gate and the stereotypes that surround that environment.

Unit Two, Social Media and Social Justice, was one of my favorite units because of my own personal experience with it. I am a fairly active user of Twitter and Facebook, so talking about them in depth and what social environments they create were really enjoyable. My favorite article was on the filter bubble. I always noticed that Facebook gave me advertisements of things I had recently bought, and I never knew why. Hearing everyone’s experiences was great and I never thought how these filters could compromise creativity and restrict your mind to a limited amount of viewpoints. Now I can be aware of this and use different search engines that do not filter information. Then again, the filter can also be a good thing because the Internet is so vast. So it was interesting to debate on if the filter was helpful or not.

Unit Three, Digital Activism, was mainly about Twitter and how it allowed people to become activists and speak their minds. I never thought about activism on Twitter before, so I loved the conversations we had about different hash tags that people used to get their opinions across. I enjoyed being able to pick my own hash tag to analyze and pick apart. I really like Suey Park’s lecture as well. It was cool to be able to be “face to face” with a real Twitter activist and hear about what she did to make a difference.

Unit Four, Imagining Transformations, was definitely the unit where I had to use the most creativity in coming up with a new invention in terms of its effects on society. Compared to some other people, I actually enjoyed watching Sleep Dealer and analyzing the characters and what everything meant in terms of society. I also think the Feminist Phone Intervention was a crucial part of this unit because it helped show other ways in which activism works.

This class helped me see the world in a whole new light. I never realized how important the digital world was in making changes that impact everyone. I am now convinced that even I can contribute to something I believe in with just one tweet. I know now more about how the vast Internet works, from learning about the filter bubble, and how hash tag activism works as well. I truly enjoyed participating in class discussions and being able to voice my opinion without judgment. As I move forward, I want to be able to do more things in my classes in terms of the digital world and coming up with new ways to impact social change. From the beginning of the class to the end, I learned more and more about what you can do with the Internet and how it impacts race, labor, and gender.

This semester, I attended the design camp on Raspberry Pi. Essentially, it is a single board computer, or a mini computer that allows you to program a motion sensor camera. It plugs into your TV and a keyboard. The original intent was to be used by kids to learn how to program. What we did during the camp was set up the device by plugging it into the computer and connecting all the right wires. Then we had to use code to program the camera on the device. Once all the coding was finished we were able to take pictures with the mini camera that showed up on the TV screen every time we moved. It was a fairly short design camp, but I still think it was interesting because I had no idea what Raspberry Pi was when I first stepped into the room. At first, I had no idea how this device could be useful, but when I realized that it could do basically anything that a regular computer can do, the projects are endless.

Honestly, I don’t think I will every use Raspberry Pi again because I am not into coding or programming, but I think I could use the idea of the technology to come up with new ways that it could be used in the world. Motion sensor cameras are definitely useful and it would be cool to think of ways that it could help society. Also, as a computer, program it as a wearable computer (a really cool idea that was mentioned). The things I learned about Raspberry Pi were a little confusing because I do not know much about coding, but I think it was a new idea that makes me a little more knowledgeable about what technology we have in this world that I was completely unaware of.

This technology can is a little hard to relate to what we learned in class in terms of readings and discussions. However, I can relate it to what we talked about concerning new technologies and the last project we did that can influence change in race, labor, gender, etc. The motion sensor camera can be used to protect people from intruders. It could set an alarm off if someone is breaking into your house. For security reasons, I think that the camera could maybe help with the riots going on by detecting people and getting them on camera. In terms of a wearable computer, I think that could help with safety as well. You could search criminals, which reminds me of the invention I came up with (the sexual assault keychain). You could easily find help and identify people, as well as take pictures of them. As such a small computer, it is something you could even send into space. Raspberry Pi also reminds me a little of the movie Sleep Dealer, just because of the technological aspect of it and how such a small thing can actually be a computer with vast possibilities. The things you can do with Raspberry Pi are really interesting to come up with and I can definitely see how it can relate to some projects we did in class, especially the invention one. I think that Raspberry Pi could really help in terms of surveillance and safety of the society.

Sexual assault is a huge issue in today’s world. There needs to be a tool invented that will allow women and men to protect themselves against sexual assault. This invention is a keychain that essentially acts as a radar and remote. The radar can sense any potential predators from a high tech database. It can be males that are registered sex offenders, someone with sexual assault charges, or any charges against them in general. There is a locator inside of it that acts as a GPS and can tell where you are in relation to any potential predators. The radar will come up with dots of people around you and if one is dangerous, the “indicator of danger” button will begin to flash. In addition to this, there is built in pepper spray and a whistle button that will help if you are caught in a dangerous situation. Another gadget on the keychain is the facial ID screen. You can check the profile of any potentially dangerous person that is registered in the database. It will show their picture, physical information, and the charges that have been against them. So if you ever come across the person, you will know how they look and know to be very cautious. When the situation because unsafe, there is a help number button that you can press. This will link you straight to 911 if that is what you like, or to the special community that should be created especially for sexual assault problems. For those who want to help, they can become operators for the phone line that will be able to send certified people to help. Sometimes the police will not help in certain situations if nothing happened yet, so if anyone ever feels threatened, this phone line will link you to someone that understands and is ready to help you. The people they send over will be certified to assist you in getting to a safe zone if you are unable to.

With the work of GPS, computer technology experts, and a community of people fighting against sexual assault, this keychain will be designed to combat sexual assault problems around the community, and eventually the world. Everyone will use this device differently, but I think the message that the creators are trying to get across will not get lost. It might cause paranoia among people because they will constantly be checking the radar, but it can also give a feeling of safety because you are aware of your surroundings. I think the way creators wanted it to be used may become lost in translation in the midst of arguments over if the device should be legal or if people on the list are not sexual predators and they are depicted as so. Instead of being a device to combat sexual harassment, the message gets transformed into whether it should be allowed because of other issues. Some people on the list may not be sexual offenders, but have been charged with some crime, but that is just to make people aware of who is around them and if they should take caution. The flashing danger light will only flash when a person who is on the database for a sex offence is near you.

Despite the great cause that this keychain is fighting for, there are some problems that it brings up. Often times, people can be sexually assaulted by someone who has never been caught or someone they are close to, so they would not be on the database. Also, there could be a lot of false alarms from paranoid people. Even though it never hurts to be cautious, this device could be abused and the community of people helping would be wasting their time and effort. Another problem that arises is the question of privacy. Some people may believe that this keychain is an invasion of that. But we have so many devices that are able to track people, such as GPS on phones, that this is similar to it. Except, this is for the benefit of people and their safety.

This invention can be used to reinforce existing structures of race, gender, politics, class, and other social divisions in various ways. In terms of gender, mainly women would be using this because many men feel as if they are safe from sexual assault, even though that is not true. In terms of race, it could cause issues among class because it could stereotype all criminals as sex offenders. In terms of politics, it could cause problems with the police because it gives off the idea that people don’t trust the police to do their job to protect against sexual assault. Also, this could put pressure on the government to do something about this issue. Some people may think this helps society, and others may think it will make people more anxious of their surroundings. It definitely challenges structures of gender because women have often felt powerless against sexual assault, and now they have a tool to fight back. In terms of race, it may paint some races in a negative light if they are a large part of the database, but I think this keychain mainly challenges structures of gender, politics, and class. This invention will definitely cause a lot of controversial arguments concerning its use. Socially, it could change the world by helping to combat sexual assault, but also open the difficult question of what is the right way to handle the issue. Despite this, I think this invention could help create a community of people wanting to band together against sexual assault, and if the keychain does not end up working in the way the creators planned, then the community can still work together to try and stop sexual assault as much as possible.

dcc project 4

This article centers on the creation and outcome of the Feminist Phone Intervention. The creator and her friend set this up in June 2014. It is a phone number that you can give to someone that asks for your number so that you don’t need to give them your real one. When that person calls the number, they will get a response quotation from feminist write bell hooks. The creator hoped that this technology would allow women to block harassment from strangers. Because women are still threatened when they reject advances, this allows them to satisfy the harasser without giving out their real phone number. And the men are educated by the different quotations.

The audience that this piece is trying to reach is mainly for women of all ages and races. They are trying to raise awareness for this technology and how it can help them in an uncomfortable situation that they might not have known how to handle. It mainly tries to show how the Feminist Phone Intervention has helped women face harassment and how it contributed to feminism.

The main idea is that harassment and sexism are real issues and by creating this technology for women, it could save lives and raise awareness. This phone line will help women being harassed and educate men on feminism. By bringing all women together on this, it will create comradeship among them, which has been the goal all along.

I think the goal the creator was trying to achieve by this was to educate women on how they can better protect themselves and to let the world know that solidarity can be achieved. Also to achieve a sense of solidarity among all women, especially because of problems of race within feminism. By mentioning Hollaback’s video and how harassment is radicalized, it reinforces how women need to come together despite race issues for a common goal. Race influences harassment, but it is important to note that harassment does occur in many forms, and it needs to be noticed.

I really enjoyed this piece. As a woman, it is reassuring to know that there is such a technology out there to help protect us. I had no idea of this before, and it is definitely something I will use if I am ever put into that type of situation. I appreciated how the author wanted to get the technology out there to different countries and how it had to be adaptable to their cultures. I have been in a situation similar before, but luckily I made up an excuse and walked away quickly. If I was ever asked for my number, I would be afraid of the repercussions for not giving it away. This technology is definitely useful and brings to light all of the issues that our society has largely put under wraps. It is also interesting how she stays anonymous as a feminist tactic to make sure the problem as a whole is being addressed. This was a great article and I learned a lot from it.

The only question I would have for the creator is if she thinks that men will actually listen to the quotes, or just be more angered by them. Yes, the technology does great things in terms of feminism and combating harassment, but will it actually bring about change in men?

In the article, Hashtag Feminism #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen and the Other #FemFuture, Susana Loza writes about how these hashtags brought to light, the arguments over feminism and how it has largely been a terrain for white women. This article was published after Mikki Kendall’s #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag broke out during Hugo Schwyzer’s scandal  in which he confessed putting down women of color and defending white feminism. The audience of this article can range from any proponents of feminism to those interested in twitter activism and race issues. I would say it is mainly directed toward feminists because Loza is trying to bring the issue that women of color are largely ignored when it comes to feminism and social media has allowed them to speak out and to each other. There are serious problems, and if we continue to stay divided, they will never truly be solved.

The main idea of the text is that women of color feel left out of feminism and now they have a platform to express their views and concerns, but that places a division between white and colored feminists. It amplifies how colored feminists have challenged white feminists and that has caused a lot of controversy and backlash. For example, white women can be portrayed as racist, which causes more arguments. The hashtags do allow us to see what is largely ignored and that feminism needs to become unified in order to work.

Susana Loza’s goal was to inform us of the problems of this Twitter activism and how it affects us. She wants us to see how colored women and also women of other races feel in terms of feminism. White people may not have noticed the issue, but colored women feel underrepresented and want a voice. But is their activism on twitter, where they state that white feminists ignore them, right? Loza shows us that it places more of a divide in feminism because colored feminists have their own community via Twitter. She wants to inform us that feminism has many sides to it and it needs to be addressed. Feminism cannot truly be successful if feminists are divided based on race, that just allows patriarchy to win. She hopes to achieve a sense of understanding in the world of feminism.

I thought that this article was articulated very well in its detailed accounts of these hashtags. I enjoyed that she mentioned other hashtags as well, such as #NotYourAsianSidekick to show that the issue is not merely about colored feminists. I think it was important to note that many races feel divided when it comes to feminism, and that is what needs to change. This connects to my own experience because a lot of the celebrities I follow are feminists, but the ones I hear about on the news, such as Taylor Swift and Emma Watson, are white. Feminism is a movement to end patriarchy and I learned that many voices are left out in this fight. A question I would ask is how would we go about unifying everyone into one feminist movement when race is such a touchy subject? Mikki Kendall has gotten a lot of backlash, as well as Suey Park. After colored women use twitter and this hashtag to show that they matter in feminism, will they ever truly be unified with white feminists? Because of the way the world works, people will alway see the differences they have between one another, whether that be race or not. If we continue to allow issues of race to interfere with the real goal of feminism, how will it ever be successful?

This news article, published in The Guardian in 2013, was written by Aditya Chakrabortty. She writes about the incident concerning Tian Yu, a Foxconn employee, throwing herself out of her factory dormitory in southern China. For about a month, Yu has worked on parts for Apple iPhones and iPads. These products end up in British and American homes. The audience that this article is trying to reach is anyone in Britain or America that owns an iPhone or an iPad. Chakrabortty wants to show us Apple users how the product is really made and how the people that make the product are treated. That year (2010), 18 other workers younger than 25, attempted suicide. Reporters tried to find out what was going on in Apple’s supply chain. They found out how bad the conditions were, but nothing was ever done to really make a change. Foxconn workers rarely spoke out. Yu was interviewed and it showed us how these companies rely on “a human battery farming system” that employs young, poor migrants from China. They crowd them into terrible working conditions, force them to work long hours and kick out the ones who can’t keep up. Yu jumped out of the window when her bosses didn’t pay her months labor wages.

This article highlights how badly workers are treated by Foxconn just to make the products that us Americans and Britain use. It also shows us how not much is being done to change this. Apple CEO Tim Cook called on Foxconn to improve their working conditions, but no records show him providing monetary assistance. Yu received a “humanitarian payment” but just like her father said, they were basically buying and selling a thing to make the situation go away. We need to be aware that the products we are using everyday are made by innocent and mistreated people that are so young in age, and no one is actively doing anything about it.

The goal of this article is to raise American and British awareness of the Foxconn mistreatment of its workers. Since Apple is such a huge company, this article applies to millions of people. It definitely tries to pull at the emotions of its audience because we are holding these products everyday that were made by depressed and hopeless workers. Imagine holding your iPad that was made by someone who committed suicide after Foxconn pushed them towards desperation. It’s definitely not a good feeling to have, which is why this article is trying to get people to realize that Apple needs to change how Foxconn is treating their workers, and we need to initiate that change.

I thought that this piece was very eye opening. I never knew how badly the conditions were and how many young workers committed suicide because of it. Tian Yu opening up about her experience was definitely shocking to read and the fact that Apple has not been actively trying to change things shows me that all they care about is pumping out as many products as possible each day. I appreciated how Chakrabortty incorporated a real story about Yu into the article. It made it more emotional and really hit home how the products your holding may be amazing, but the way they are made is not. This connects to my own experience because I have an iPhone and an iPad and just thinking about who made my product back in China is scary. There needs to be something done about this because no worker should have to go through what these young Chinese migrants are going through. A question I would like to ask would be, how would we go about making this change, especially when Apple refuses to answer questions regarding this? It’s a tough situation and I think in order to make a change happen, we need as many people involved as possible, which this article is getting at.

Eli Praiser gave a Ted Talk about “filter bubbles” and how they are negatively impacting our lives online. He found this shifting of how information flowed over the internet when he noticed that his conservative friends’  links disappeared from his Facebook. He realized he had been clicking on the liberal links more, and without consulting him about it, Facebook edited out his conservative friend’s links. This is true for other sites as well, including Google, who uses 57 different signals to personalize your query results. Your filter bubble is all of your personalized filters put together, to create your own “personal, unique universe of information that you live in online.” Essentially, our searches are loaded with information junk food because we usually click on what interests us first, not the “vegetables” that give us a balanced information diet. What you click on first becomes your bubble and blocks out everything else.

Praiser is trying to educate internet users about how these “filter bubbles” are not as great as some may initially think. His Ted Talk and book were filmed and published in 2011 (New York) and are still relevant now. All internet users should be aware of the filter bubbles so they know that they may not be getting the whole search. The main idea is that we need the web leaders to make sure that we get a say in what gets filtered so that we can be introduced to new ideas and different perspectives, rather than be isolated in our own information junk food. Praiser’s goal was to inform us about filter bubbles, because many do not know about them. It’s important to know how the internet shields you from valuable information just based on what you previously clicked on. The filter bubble takes away the opportunity for chance encounters that bring insight and learning. He wants people to understand the issue and pass it on, to hopefully start some kind of change.

I thought this Ted Talk, along with the introduction from his book were really eye-opening. I knew that sites tailored certain things based on your interests because I always see ads on Facebook from stores that I bought things from online. I never knew that everyone’s search on Google was different or that so many companies tailor their search to your previous clicks. I thought that everyone had the same page if they searched the same word on Google, so it was crazy and interesting to learn about this topic. I appreciated that Praiser realized how the filter bubbles aren’t a positive thing and informed us about the negative aspect of it. I also liked how he compared our searches to desserts and vegetables because that definitely helped me understand the concept better. Even though this was back in 2011, I can see that it is definitely still relevant now because of my experiences with internet ads. I agree that the filter bubble isn’t a good thing and that we should be cautious of it if we want to keep the internet’s role in our lives a positive one. I would ask Praiser who the new gatekeepers should be that take responsibility for the codes/algorithms and how we should go about avoiding the filter bubble as much as possible at the time being. I think it will take a while for any real change to happen, so I think we should all find a way to truly beware of our filter bubbles.