#godbot

[picpuke]

[rhmsdm-blog]

Went to read a yahoo article today and this popped up. I am assuming that this is in response to Facebook/ users being concerned about how their data is being used. It did provide a key points section to (supposedly) provide users with a quick understanding of the updates.

[rhmsdm-blog]

when searching for content on YouTube I often come by videos that won’t play due to copyright issues. To get around this, some uploaders/remixers will change the pitch to the audio, or add a large section of blank screen in order to pass by copyright infringements.

[rhmsdm-blog]

The law needs to change, but so do we. We need to find ways to chill control-obsessed individuals and corporations that believe the single objective of copyright law is to control use, rather than thinking about the objective of copyright law as to create incentives for creation. We need to practice respect for this new generation of creators.

Lessig, Lawrence. "Remix: How Creativity Is Strangled by the Law." In: The Social Media Reader:165-166

[rhmsdm-blog]

There are also a ton of youtube videos about how to take the best selfie, secret tips for selfies, and what apps to use. This shows just how important selfies are to our society. Again, interesting to note that the clipart is all women. I think there’s a connection between women and selfies that men don’t have- often we are called vein or conceited for taking selfies. And to some degree there is also internalized patriarchy wherein women feel we have to prove our worth through our beauty, and fear of being judged by our peers (thus why we watch tutorials on how to take selfies)

[rhmsdm-blog]

When one searches ‘selfie’ on youtube, compilation videos of “the worst selfies of all time” come up- most of these include in the clip image partially clothed women. I think this touches on Rachel Syms ( SELFIE: The revolutionary potential of your own face, in seven chapters) who questions the motives of those who shame selfie takers for narcissism, self-indulgence, and in the specific case of women, as less valuable people. The people who makes these videos are so uncomfortable/insecure with technology/women/attention they feel the need to find selfies and shit talk them on the internet???

[rhmsdm-blog]

A visual example of what Noble refers to when she says the content of internet searches is intended for the male gaze.

“Women are depicted in a quite different way from men— not because the feminine is different from the masculine— but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him. The previous articulations of the male gaze continue to apply to other forms of advertising and media— particularly on the Internet— and the pornification of women on the web is an expression of racist and sexist hierarchies”- Noble, Safiya Umoja in Algorithms of Oppression : How Search Engines Reinforce Racism

[rhmsdm-blog]

Personalization is, to some degree, giving people the results they want on the basis of what Google knows about its users, but it is also generating results for viewers to see what Google Search thinks might be good for advertisers by means of compromises to the basic algorithm. This new wave of interactivity, without a doubt, is on the minds of both users and search engine optimizing companies and agencies. Google applications such as Gmail or Google Docs and social media sites such as Facebook track identity and previous searches in order to surface targeted ads for users by analyzing users’ web traces.

Noble, Safiya Umoja in Algorithms of Oppression : How Search Engines Reinforce Racism