R01306920 - 30 min Essays - Alphabet Inc., World Wide Web, Computing

R01306920 - 30 min Robert Phelan Orientation Group 4 6/30/2017 11:30 am In today's rapid fast world of information and sharing, it can be hard to determine what is correct, what is wrong, what is biased, and what is not. And to solve this vexing problem, search engines such as Google came into existence to help ease and categorize the vast wealth of knowledge on the internet and make it more readily available to others. On paper this idea sounds great, but when put into action, problems can arise involving biases and discrimination. This is what Carole Cadwalladr set out to expose, and to call on a change with our search engines and their algorithmic biases. As she states in her article, and which can even be done by going on the phone in your pocket, Google search has been tainted with all kinds of slanderous and offensive websites making such statements as "Hitler was a good guy" and "women are evil". And as Cadwalladr points out as well, these websites being so open on search engine sites is just allowing the spread of such heinous ideologies and havi ng an impact on such worldly events as the Brexit Vote and Trump being elected. But how true is this statement? Not very. Cadwalladr brings up some very valid points in which she calls on Google to rectify their maligned search results and wishes they could provide sources on education rather than hatred to the masses of people that use their website every day. And while this is certainly a goal we should all strive for with our international online community, it can only be attained by the people who use the internet. Cadwalladr repeatedly blames Google for all of these hateful search results and tries to tie in other political factors such as Trump and "Right Wing Ideology", when in reality the people who control what Google displays online or in their search bar is simply: People. Google uses all their search data and bases what you and others might search based off of the people looking things up in the geographical range around you. So when Cadwalladr tries to fabricate that there is some kind of ensuing "information War" between the bad right and the good left, there really is not much consistency there. Even in page 5 of the Article she clearly states: "Did such micro-targeted propaganda - currently legal - swing the Brexit vote? We have no way of knowing." And goes on to even say: "Did the same methods used by Cabridge Analytica help Trump to victory? Again, we have no way of knowing." After reading this, it was quite apparent that while Carole Cadwalladr meant for a positive change and spreading awareness of internet biases, she was really trying to undermine conflicting political interests with her own. Rather than trying to create a firm academic paper based around the dangers that this careless searching could provide, Cadwalladr simply tried to throw her own political beliefs and fears to her audience of readers.

Socialization Paper

Socialization Paper Socialization Paper Socialization Paper Sarri Lajas PSY/211 June 23, 2015 Dr. Petteway Socialization Paper Attitudes can be shapes by culture, experience, situations, and even pressure from others or the need to be consistent (Carter & Seifert, 2013). It involves our emotions, our actions, and our thoughts. These are also called the ABC’s: Affects, Behaviors, and Cognitions. When these three aspects are in harmony, then it is easy to determine a person’s motivation. A conflict arises, however, when there is an inconsistency in any of these areas. This is why people will work diligently to try and make their actions and attitudes match. Social pressures will create some of the tension that must be mitigated to successfully fit in the various social settings we find ourselves in. Prejudice, aggression, and attraction help us posture ourselves properly among our peers and allow us to function within the social structures in which we interact. Because of the social nature of human beings, we have a high need to be accepted. That need for acceptance often serves as motivation for our behavior in group settings. Conformity and obedience are two phenomenon that have produced some disturbing results in various social experiments that have been conducted over the years. Some experiments have shown how people will often change their responses, even when they believe they are correct, simply because the majority of people in the experiment gave a different answer. Whether it was out of fear of being ridiculed if they were indeed incorrect, or because they preferred being non-confrontational, the scenario still resulted in the subjects often conforming to those around him or her. Other experiments showed how people who perceived to be instructed by person’s of authority in certain settings would move ahead with mmorally questionable actions despite their own discomfort in order