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Social & Psychological Effects of Communication Technology

COMM 298 / 398 Fall 2021

Author: mgf222

Max Fern – Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence (11/23)

November 23, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence: A Survey of Expert Opinion,” Vincent Müller and Nick Bostrom explain concerns around high-level machine learning, including the risks, real and perceived, that humanity faces as a result of[…]

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Max Fern – The Facebook Papers: Politico (11/18)

November 18, 2021November 18, 2021 mgf222Entries

Politico has an entire section on their website for coverage related to The Facebook Papers, including twelve articles produced over one week from October 25th to November 2nd. The first few reports delve into the[…]

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Max Fern – The Personalization of Politics (11/16)

November 15, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “The Personalization of Politics: Political Identity, Social Media, and Changing Patterns of Participation,” W. Lance Bennett proposes a framework for understanding the large-scale collective action that, typically, is coordinated through social media. He argues[…]

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Max Fern – Social Distancing and School Closures: Documenting Disparity in Internet Access among School Children (11/11)

November 11, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Social Distancing and School Closures: Documenting Disparity in Internet Access among School Children,” Ananya Sen and Catherine Tucker argue that school closures resultant from the covid-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted poorer, non-white children, who have[…]

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Max Fern – How I’m fighting bias in algorithms (11/9)

November 8, 2021November 8, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “How I’m fighting bias in algorithms,” MIT grad student Joy Boulamwini discusses the implicit bias of the code that facilitates our interactions with modern technology and her mission to fight it before it’s ingrained[…]

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Max Fern – Next steps in health & medicine — where can technology take us? (11/4)

November 4, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Next steps in health & medicine — where can technology take us?” physician Daniel Kraft discusses the modern healthcare system and the emphasis on “sick care”, as opposed to “health care”, which focuses on[…]

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Max Fern – Facebook went offline this week. Experts say we should log out, too (10/28)

October 27, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Facebook went offline this week. Experts say we should log out, too,” CNN reporter Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman discusses Facebook’s brief outage and the psychological effects of social media on digital habits and our ability to[…]

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Max Fern – “Navigating a social world with robot partners: A quantitative cartography of the Uncanny Valley” (10/21)

October 20, 2021October 20, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Navigating a social world with robot partners: A quantitative cartography of the Uncanny Valley”, Mather and Reichling argue that there is a hypothetical uncanny valley (UV) in which imperfect human-likeness evokes feelings of dislike[…]

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Max Fern – Sherry Turkle: “Connected, but alone” (10/19)

October 18, 2021October 18, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Connected, but alone?”, Dr. Turkle, a renowned psychologist, argues that technology allows us to connect more easily with one another, but that it takes away from the authentic conversation that leads to meaningful relationships.[…]

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Max Fern – GroupMe: Building Better Groups (Abstract)

October 13, 2021 mgf222Entries

GroupMe: Building Better Groups Max Fern, Lehigh University   Abstract   This study investigates GroupMe’s existing features, potential alternatives, and ways the communication technology can improve. Three Lehigh undergraduate students were interviewed independently and then[…]

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Max Fern – Black Mirror: Nosedive (10/07)

October 7, 2021October 7, 2021 mgf222Entries

In “Black Mirror: Nosedive”, the show manufactures a world where social media is so pervasive that people’s account scores become part of their identities. In this alternate reality, individuals are beholden to impress others and[…]

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Max Fern – The Social Network (10/05)

October 2, 2021October 2, 2021 mgf222Entries

In The Social Network, the producers discuss the formulation of Facebook through short vignettes and legal testimony from two lawsuits against Mark Zuckerberg by the Winklevoss twins and Eduardo Saverin for their respective roles in[…]

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Max Fern – Esports: Explained (09/28)

September 25, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Netflix’s Esports: Explained, the creators argue that esports are not only sports but that they have certain characteristics, which have allowed them to rise rapidly in popularity relative to traditional sports over the last[…]

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Max Fern – Organizing collective action: Does information and communication technology matter? (09/23)

September 23, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Organizing collective action: Does information and communication technology matter?, Cardoso, Boudreau, and Carvalho argue that the use of information communication technologies empowers and constrains the abilities of collective action organizers and that their success is dependent[…]

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Max Fern – Are You Going to Delete Me? (09/21)

September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Are You Going to Delete Me? Latent Profiles of Post-Relationship Breakup Social Media Use and Emotional Distress, McDaniel, Drouin, Dibble, Galovan, and Merritt argue that people’s post-breakup behavior on social media is correlated directly with[…]

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Max Fern – Affective responses to system messages in human–computer-interaction: Effects of modality and message type (09/16)

September 17, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Affective responses to system messages in human-computer-interaction: Effects of modality and message type, professors Pfister, Wollstädter, and Peter argue that affective responses vary based on the type of message and that spoken messages tend to[…]

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Max Fern – How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution (09/14)

September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 mgf222Entries

In How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution, former Chairman and CEO of CNN Walter Isaacson argues that modern technology is a direct result of the innovation in technology design that took place[…]

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Max Fern – Will We Stop Speaking and Just Text?, Harbeck (09/09)

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Will We Stop Speaking and Just Text?, James Harbeck discusses the modern English language and how our spoken word is affected by the evolution of texting and other forms of shorthand, such as emojis. In[…]

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Max Fern – Human-Computer Interaction, Dix (09/07)

September 6, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Human-Computer Interaction, Dix, Finlay, Abowd, and Beale argue that, to maximize interactivity, software designers should create interfaces that are as intuitive as possible and also minimize opportunities for careless mistakes. The introduction serves to[…]

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Max Fern – Interactivity: A Concept Explication, Kousis (09/02)

September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 mgf222Entries

In Interactivity: A Concept Explication, public relations and political communication professor Spiro Kousis argues that the interactivity of communication technologies over time has increased the number of channels through which people communicate using technology. By surveying relevant[…]

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Max Fern – The Medium is the Message, McLuhan (08/31)

August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 mgf222Entries

In The Medium is the Message, philosopher of communication Marshall McLuhan argues that the content of communication is actually less important than the form through which it is communicated. By choosing to focus on the medium, McLuhan[…]

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    • Week 08 – Midterm
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    • Week 15 – Final

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