One thing I sometimes enjoy more than just mindlessly scrolling through social media is reading the comment sections – overly dramatic, funny, intelligent, sad, the comments are essential for my media consumption. Yesterday, while again going through a random comment section I got a pop up message and was presented a different interface, pictured below. I was encouraged not to simply like the comments, but also appreciate whether they were civil and relevant. Upon additional research, it seems that the option has been available in certain markets since as early as April this year.
Given the network’s tumultuous past, including it being accused of unrest in Myanmar and inability to stop hate speech fast enough, it looks like this might be an attempt to crowdsource what the platform is still unable to do. However, if this function will ever become an actual option on the platform it is likely that the input from the millions of people, provided that it is of good quality, will be used for machine learning, so that in the future “uncivil” and “irrelevant” content can be automatically blocked as early as possible. Naturally, Facebook is not the only company exploring the ideas of automation and machine learning. It is inevitable that machine learning and automation will be huge parts of our lives in the future. How and when is less clear. What I suggest will happen is that couple of years from now machines will accumulate so much data that they will be effectively better at social interactions than most humans. I can imagine the future motivational speakers at self-growth conferences just providing big data analysis to all the attendants’ questions. Naturally, this will cause a guerrilla response – the poor management of the new technology will drive thousands underground in an attempt to sabotage machine learning. Young and old will mark millions of relevant comments as uncivil, civil comments as irrelevant, adding heart and angry emojis here and there. Big companies will respond to this by democratizing the online space. No moderation. No curation. No sanitation. This is where the actual machine learning will begin. The essential argument here being that the trade-off of our privacy for comfort is being a less tolerable option, and the extent to which the companies will go to collect information will surpass many expectations as more people grow aware.
Over the weekend, NYUAD’s ResEd provided the student body with the opportunity to visit the Warner Bros. World at a discounted price. Exciting, but safe, rides, a meal, and free transportation were more than enough to convince me to join. Super excited on the day of the trip, I saw myself annoyed in the first hour, when as a part of a ride a picture of me was taken. I am sure that by buying the ticket I consented to this. Nevertheless, It annoyed me, not only because it was unflattering, but also because during a trip that was meant to be immersive into the Flintstones, Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo’s worlds I was put back into a reality obsessed with data collection. This sort of inspired my “rewire” experience, so to complete this assignment I decided to limit to the maximum both the data I share voluntarily and the observable data, and focus instead on browsing the stack exchange, especially since I had an R assignment.
To limit the data I share and observe, I decided to delete the Facebook and Instagram apps from my phone. A while back I noticed that I only use Facebook on my laptop when needed, avoiding unnecessary scrolling, on my phone, on the other hand, I access it constantly, without a specific need. To go more “off the grid” I also changed all my privacy settings, unsubscribed from all the mailing lists, reviewed what apps I granted access to my personal data and cut the access, as well as turned off the location on my phone.
The overall experience felt nice, while some times I was tempted to reinstall Facebook or Instagram apps, I did not do so for 24 hours and as a result accessed Facebook only once that day. Using the stack overflow’s statistic communities to understand and finish my assignment made me feel like I was not wasting, but investing time in the internet. The combination of increased privacy and the use of specialised content, made me feel like I was finally using the internet as my mum wanted me to – for responsible knowledge gaining.
Woodworking is not something I am primarily interested in, but getting to know the community that is passionate about it has been intense. 3 badges and 74 reaches later, I have questions that woodworkers won’t answer.
I asked two questions, firstly how do I get started and what tools should I consider. Neither of the questions was met with particular enthusiasm. The people in the community were very particular about the questions asked and more than happy to engage in lengthy debates about whether the question belongs to this stack exchange or no. I suppose it is not a bad practice as most of the posts end up being largely useful to the people inside and outside of the community. Especially seeing that many posts had thousands of views, and only 5 comments, it can be assumed that this stack exchange serves more people from outside “Woodworking”. I appreciated the promptness of replies, often within minutes, and the dedication of the users willing to reply at all times. While unfamiliar with woodworking and uncertain as whether all the advice has been actually useful, I suppose that, for instance, the recommendation to join a woodworking class at a community college near me, something I got as a comment on my post, is a good piece of advice for the beginners.
When I asked the community: what tools should I use, my post has been edited and changed to meet the community standards. I am still confused as whether I am absolutely annoyed or grateful for this. However, in the light of this event, I am just happy I did not get banned.
In my short time as a member of woodworking I noticed a special category of users – the ones obsessed with getting reputation points. Someone called “Nate”, a new user, commented multiple times on all my posts as well as on all the new posts that went online over the weekend. Why was he doing this? I will probably never know, but it is refreshing to know that, like me, he was also disliked by the Woodworking community.
Woodworking, I won’t be back, but I will go back to Stack Exchange.
Welcome to Dinosaur Broadcasting Company’s 10:46 o’ clock show. I’m Laurenyx, your host for today and we have three guests joining us inside the cave. Cristinasaurus, Keithasaurex and Raitisaraptor, coming from all over Pangia to witness the Full Sun, a spectacle that only occurs every 2000 years.
*side note*
Raitis: My geography is off, can you remind me what’s that?
Keith: that’s the only continent; we’re on it.
Raitis: Got it.
Lauren: Hello gentle-reptilians, pleasure having you here. Can all of you introduce yourself really quickly?
Cristina: Roar, hi I’m Cristinasauraus and I’m known for having the world’s tiniest claws and I am one of the guests from the Eastern European Plateau.
Raitis: I’m Raitisaraptor. Not to brag but my hobby and primary talent is eating greenery, i am a very versatile being, i can eat it from high above and far below. To see more videos of me eating grass, please follow me on instaROCK.
Keith: Roar there, I’m from the great land of Indoplateau, and you’ll know me from the great rock sculptures all throughout Pangia.
Lauren: Awesome, welcome everyone. Can one of you tell me what it is that we are witnessing here today?
Keith: Honestly, nothing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. It’s amazing, such a beautiful sight out there. In fact, I think this is a great omen for something remarkable that is going to happen in Pangia. But who knows? I remember the olden days when my own Grandmasauras used to say, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get”
Cristina: Babasaurus says that this flying thing is nothing but an overgrown potato, really, or maybe a pokemon. Either way it is meant to bring wealth and growth and maybe better rocks.
Raitis: Just perhaps, this is a falling meteor that will kill us all and our remains will contribute to the formation of oil, and some years later a country named UAE will discover it and become super rich, then the rulers of the country will decide to open a University in the middle of an island, and the next form of life will come from all around the world to study there? *Pause* but this is of course non-sense.
Cristina: next time keep your wisdom in your 3-metre long neck, Raitisaraptor.
Lauren: things are getting heated up, Let’s be civil and stop acting like some prehistoric creatures. Let me just remind the audience, that we accept live messages! Dont shy away from the opportunity to ask questions, confess love for our guests, or shout out for your favourite habibi -saurus. On that note, the temperature does seem to have gone up around the world and it does seem to be a lot brighter these days. And um uh, excuse me, let me just wipe my tail. Oof! It’s getting hot in here, isn’t it?
Cristina: Yeah… my claws don’t usually get this sweaty. Maybe it’s the adrenaline, haha.
Lauren: More about what is happening with the Full Sun later, but now let’s take a moment to give some love for our sponsors.
Ad sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5F0Lq03spM&list=PLnnxRSLejUndkH0rWzc2_qVlQTLxPv_0O
(Raitis) AD: are you tired of not being remembered after your extinction? Fear no more! Find a pile of mud, step in it and leave your footmarks for the future generations to notice. Similarly, when your days come to an end, lay meaningfully in an exposed way – learn how to make the best fossils! Enroll now and invest in your future by taking the Protzsaurus’ IM Class – Communication and technology, only offered on the 4th moon of 10 000 Before Christ (jingle (all of us): because we know when the Christ will be born)
Lauren: Thank you for staying with us, everyone. And we are back live in the cave. Our next question is: how long do you think the full sun will last? What’s your forecast?
Raitis: Definitely two moons, or at least two moons, but i hope not longer, because the greeneries are dying, it really looks to me like a global crisis is coming.
Cristina: Speaking of greeneries, Laurenyx, are we still getting the free food? I only signed up for the free food.
Keith: Me too! I want some free food.
Lauren: You are a tough crowd, let’s see what our listeners have to say!
White noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnCMHNyny8
Raitis: in spite of the recent tragic events, the assignment for Protzsaurus’ IM Class still exists. Please upload your homework written on clay pieaces. ROAR out.
All the effort we put in was mainly to achieve one thing: Craig referencing us in his future classes, while introducing the 5th/6th/7th, etc. Annual Semaphore Competition. This, however, by no means implies our unwillingness to accept material prizes if we will be amongst the winners.
When first approaching the Semaphore challenge, we were keen to seek out a solution that was either bewildering in every means possible, or acted as a loophole around the problem (i.e. getting the message to the other person with a moving object or specimen).
By loophole, we spent the earlier days discussing the ideas of getting an object to cross the distance of the Arts Center, seeking out everything from frisbees to bow and arrows, and at one point, creating the world’s best paper airplane. With all of these methods, the risk to damage the light fixture on the ceiling was too high, or the ceiling itself was too low to allow for an object to be thrown upwards with enough room to fall back down to the partner. There were further seldom objects outside of expensive bow and arrows that could cover the distance.
(The subject of animals was thoroughly studied, however the central issue of bringing a live animal into the arts center seemed a bit too extreme, especially in being mindful of people’s allergies.
The campus cats also just didn’t comply to our training methods. Unfortunately).
They can’t be tamed. 🙁
Our next game plan was to create a semaphore system so bewildering and seemingly sporadic that encryption was virtually impossible. The objective was to maintain visual and audio elements so that if either vision or hearing was compromised in a situation, there was a means to still transmit the message.
We spent a few hours sifting through materials in the fabrics room, the EDS lab, and the IM lab, eventually gathering a box of objects (known as the Super Secret Box) that either produced noise or could be thrown off of a balcony without causing casualties. Once we had achieved a list of the most random possible visual and audio things we could incorporate, we looked to defining the semaphore transmission. All the objects thrown were a part of our design meant to distract and confuse potential observers, that would be uncertain what is and what is not part of our code.
Photo: Craig Protzel
The initial idea was to divide the alphabet into a number of categories. We thought that drum beats would indicate the category, and then a series of identical movements would signifie the letter’s position in the said category, i.e. every letter in the first position, irrespective of the category would be a clap. So one drum beat, and a clap would indicate the first letter from the first category (1.1). Two drum beats and a clap would call for the letter from the second category in the first position (2.1). Eventually we settled for 4 categories, each invoked by throwing an object into a specific direction. Throwing an object up = 1st category, throwing the object down = second category, throwing the object towards majilis = 3rd category, and throwing the object toward the window = 4th category. The position of the letter in each category would be indicated by the number of drumbeats.
Initial codeUpdated code
We used the English alphabetical order to place letters into category, in groups of first 6s and then the last category in a group of 8 letters, as we assumed that “X”, “Y”, “Z” were least used. However, we changed this as we thought that this would be easy to decode, so instead we opted for a system that placed some of the most commonly used letters of the English Alphabet in the first places of each category. This helped us make sure that it is the easier to decipher for the receiver and code for the sender.
To denote the space, we again opted for something random – brushing teeth. Having no connection whatsoever with anything else, we thought this to be the perfect indicator. For numbers, we used the whistling balloon, its sound introduced a number. To represent the number itself we used the Roman numerals up to IX. While we tried to think through most things, our matching outfits were not a part of our encoding, but rather a happy coincidence.
We also put in a place a system for checking the message in case something went wrong. We indicated the beginning and the ending of our communication through a musical sequence played on the drum sticks. If any of the words at the end were to not make sense, the receiver would not play the musical sequence, but rather use drum beats to indicate what word was not caught properly. In case the last word was missing, the receiver would beat once, if the second to last, then twice, etc. Catching this, the sender would replay the miscommunicated word.
Rehearsing
Rehearsing was soooo exciting. We used our newly created system to communicate loudly inappropriate messages in public places. Provided that we have not been expelled, so far, we believe that it can be concluded that our encoding is pretty safe.
Photo: Craig Protzel
Final Execution
Not practicing throwing objects over the balcony proved to be the greatest risk going into the Tuesday competition. Though we were able to transmit messages to each other in record times of 4:30 in rehearsal, actually throwing objects ended up taking the full 6 minutes in the final competition. Even picking up the toothbrush after every word took up precious seconds versus just the act of brushing teeth. I was further aware of the reaction being distracting when I was throwing random objects off of the ledge, but it still ended up catching me off guard and I was much less smooth in identifying a letter.
The stress of the competition and knowing what was at stake – being in the Semaphore Hall of Fame – made it definitely harder to decode. Hani and Raitis set the bar pretty high and it was nerve-wracking to go after them. We also wanted to make the most out of it, as we knew how much effort we put into preparing for this day. By the end of the time, I realised that not everything was making sense, so I tried to use the above mentioned system to check the 1st word, RABZ, unfortunately we did not have enough time to do that.
Reflections
From watching the other groups, I noted that it was far more convenient for the transmitter to have a more memorizable system so that there was no hesitation to transmit multiple letters after one another from the signal of the receiver. Choosing the bewildering method meant having an extensive sequence for transmitting a single letter: checking the category, throwing an object in the appropriate direction, checking the letter for its count, and knocking the appropriate number of times.
On the receiving side, a few times I was not sure whether the object was thrown upwards or not, I believe that this is something that can be fixed with more practice and does not represent a huge design problem. During our “performance, however, I noticed another limitation – objects falling on the floor produced a sound. As I was only watching the sender while they were throwing objects, this lead to me not being always sure how many drum beats were actually played and whether the sound produced by the falling object was just a noise or something I should consider while decoding.
Our plans to confuse the troll and use dramatic visual and audible effects for the semaphore to work in longer distances were ultimately successful. Our shortcomings in transmitting the message quickly and without any error proved to be the sacrifices when using the irregular method. It is worth saying that throwing KitKats was probably one of the better ideas, because it was the most efficient way to distract people from actually paying attention to the code.
If the procedure were to be modified, I would consider adding more categories so that the alphabet could be broken down into categories of 4-5 letters, therefore would be easier to memorize without having to continually refer to the sheet. The new categories could include dropping from both hands, throwing an object backwards, or simply raising an object over one’s head.
It is commonly agreed that Romanian is a Roman language and throughout the history it made sense that its written form has to be based on the Latin alphabet. It is pretty easy to argue that in Moldova we speak Romanian, due to the shared history, and the fact that in the XIXth century this was the official narrative. However when in 1940, Moldova became a part of the Soviet Union the officials tried to change this narrative to impact ideas of identity in the country. Instead of Romanian in Latin script, Moldovan in Cyrillic became the official language for administrative communication and education. While the two languages are virtually the same, in Moldova we just pronounce everything softer, the idea promoted by the politician in Moscow was that the Romanian for Moldova is nothing but an imposed imperialistic language. Proof for that, many argued, was the fact that Cyrillic alphabet better mirrored the sounds of the spoken language. Spoiler alert: it did not.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have reverted to the Latin based alphabet. However, pro-Russian politicians still try to promote the narrative of a non-existing Moldovan language in Cyrillic script.
Marshrutkas are privately /publicly owned buses that travel between cities. While we did not invent inter-urban transportation, we are extensively using it as a mean of communication that long ago expanded beyond Moldovan borders. It all started in the XXth century, when we actually got a system of inter-urban transportation, with open borders within the Soviet Union, many choose to study/work in the countries or bigger cities. This meant that at age 17 many young people left their villages to pursue degrees in different locations. Many of the students were not working and bank transfers were not yet available. To cheat the system and help their kids, parents often reached out to the drivers of this buses. For a small fee, they were happy to transport: money, food, clothing that was to be collected by the receiver at a designated bus station.
Today, bank transfers are commonly used, but this system did not become obsolete, rather expanded in magnitude. Moldovans living abroad often use this to send parcels to their loved ones for lower prices (around 1-2 USD for 1 kg).
I am originally from Glodeni, a pretty small town in the North of Moldova, currently its population is about 5000 people, maybe less. Because I only spent there full 6 years, in this assignment I will focus on Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, where I have been living for the past 16 years. Chisinau is a pretty small capital with its population under 1 million and it is the only relatively big city in the country. My assumption is that none of you will travel to Chișinău in the near future. BUT IF YOU WERE TO TRAVEL TO Chișinău IN THE NEAR FUTURE, below are three emojis that will help you learn a think or two about Chișinău prior to your potential visit.
What do my emojis mean and why are they related to Chisinau
Babushka
In Russian, babushka means grandma. While there are already emojis depicting older women, supposedly grandmas, there are no babushkas and I would argue that the two are different. A babushka, in a colloquial sense, is not only defined as an older woman that has children whose children have children. In a broader sense, it depicts a woman – born and educated during the soviet times, that found new meanings in Orthodoxy following the collapse of the USSR. Babushkas are lovely and sweet and their scarfs represent their humbleness. Among other responsibilities and skills, babushkas are able to cook 7 meals with only two potatoes, are really unhappy with the ways in which teens behave, have strong political opinions, and are involved in the formation of the all encompassing babushka-public-opinion. Everyone knows about babushkas and has babushka related stories. I, myself, had many babushkas shouting at me in public places in Chisinau. This is why, in my opinion, having a babushka emoji is a must. They don’t only embody the idea of communication, they also, due to the massive migration, found themselves obliged to become proficient Skype users, which places them as the pioneers of both communication and technology.
Chirtoacă
I am not entirely sure how I produced the third emoji. It was at a moment of despair (1AM) when I downloaded this caricature and uploaded it to the illustrator. The said caricature is of our ex mayor that I believe is currently under home arrest. He is important for Chisinau, firstly because he lead it for years, and secondly because he did that in a notoriously inefficient way. He has been “memefied” years ago, however not for his actions. He became a meme because the opposition always tried to blame everything on him. An itemised list of things he has been accused of includes – the fact that we did not have a president for over 1000 days, high prices, low salaries, global warming, collapse of USSR, communism, etc. As a result, in popular culture, whenever someone asks who is guilty/to blame? People in Chisinau answer – “Chirtoacă îi di jină”, which is the phonetic version of a sentence that translates as “it is Chirtoacă’s fault/Chirtoaca is guilty”.
I believe that making a real person an emoji is problematic. I decided to nevertheless still keep this due to the fact that what has been memefied is not his persona, but mainly the opposition’s attitude towards his actions.
USD1 billion emoji
In 2015 it became clear that Moldova suffered a massive bank fraud. One billion dollars, or ⅛ of our GDP, has vanished from the banks. Ever since then, everyone is asking the same question: “Unde-i miliardul” or “where is the billion”. This is the the only explanation for the emoji.
The money is still lost, but we are looking for it. The emoji can not bring the money back, but it can make us feel slightly better about it (?).
My friend’s response:
I sent the initial version to my brother, who currently resides in Romania, and one of my closest friends, who currently lives in the Netherlands. Their feedback to the initial emojis, portrayed below, was as follows:
Babushka – her scarf has to be more colourful, to better depict the look.
Chirtoaca – adding some colour, maybe blue, the colour of his party, could make it more interesting.
USD1 billion emoji – make it in Romanian and present it in the form of the question.
The second wave of feedback
I showed the emojis to other two friends, studying in France and the UK. They told me that my emojis made them homesick.
I wanted to learn ages ago how to use Illustrator so I decided to try to learn it for this assignment. It is worth saying that I underestimated how time consuming this would be but I now know a few commands (and even shortcuts).
Overall, this assignment made me think a lot about my home and things I appreciate and dislike about it.
I am not sure how to treat this experience. On the one hand, it was kind of cool and almost hipsterish, the kind of experience you would snapchat or post an Instagram story about. Except, it was not an option. On the other hand, it was genuinely hard to control the urge to casually check my screen. Unlocking my phone has become such a routine in my daily life and during these 8 hours I realised how mindlessly I have been using it throughout the day. As an individual with a short attention span – activities that are not super entertaining and require patience, i.e. standing in a line, were a burden without my phone. What made it even harder was the context of the campus. Everyone is so close physically to each other and this facilitates 24/7 communication cycles, both online and offline. Seeing people interact in different spaces often communicates messages, because spaces here often have intrinsic meaning. Being in a different city would have probably been easier. Due to physical proximity we experience on campus, in the past years I have grown accustomed to last minute planning, so for the detox day I did not have specific plans, which looking back seems like a bad idea. As back home, my friends do not leave 3 minutes away from me, so I do not expect to have an easy access to face-to-face communication, as it requires more time and commitment. On campus I have the expectation of seeing people often, however, without my phone, how do I know if someone is in the library, capstone corner, dining hall, or lounge? How do I know if they are free or busy? It seems socially unacceptable to just stalk people and demand their attention.
In spite of my overall frustration with the experience, a few useful things were achieved during the day: I have, finally, redecorated and cleaned up my room. I changed the location of the furniture in my room, I hang out more with my roommates, cleaned up the common area, almost did my laundry, and did readings that were not assigned for any of my classes.
Sherry Turkle points out, that checking the phone gives people the option of knowing who is interested in them, who gets out of their way to reach out to them. Not knowing this for 8 hours was a discomfort and I experienced a relief when I finally checked my phone and knew who messaged me and what has happened in my communities during the day. In the end, I was disappointed to learn that the world did not collapse without my online presence.
* the 8 hours do not include the time I spent napping.
For me communication is strongly related to language and culture and I mainly used communication as a medium for cultural integration. Being bilingual, in a largely bilingual country, implied a number of challenges: learning Romanian and Russian and how to navigate daily life based on the language I am expected/required to speak in different environments. In college yet again, at the beginning knowing only classroom English, with very limited understanding of cultural aspects, posed initial barriers. To improve my communication, I had to work on my knowledge of the language. However, as I switched more into a predominantly English milieu I lost my initial cultural and linguistic fluency in Russian.
With the advancement of technology it became imperative to build a vocabulary around the newly available devices and processes. The concept build, thereafter, around programming and coding strongly conveys that the new technologies are, in fact, tools of communication. It almost seems as if the advancement of technology mirrored the advancement of communication. For instance, the appearing of programing languages can be viewed as a parallel to the appearing of the writing. It helped establish logic and build a form of consciousness. While I am not certain whether extensive research has been conducted, I am almost certain that if the way of thinking of someone who is “literate” in programing languages will be compared against the thinking of someone who is ”illiterate”, but surrounded by “literate” individuals, and then against someone who is “illiterate” in an “illiterate” society the results will be fairly distinctive. On a personal level, I have noticed this with my parents. Growing up in an environment in which coding was present and studying bits of it in school, shaped my thinking and understanding of the world, in ways in which my parents were not impacted. For instance, it is really easy for me to comprehend new technologies that appear on a daily basis, while for them it is always more of a science-fiction-y experience.
The connection between culture and communication has build norms and legal requirements that vary across the world. In some cultures swearing, for instance, is more normalised than in others. While in some countries verbal abuse is treated and punished as a crime, in others it is still viewed as rather abstract to be followed up on. At this point, it can be claimed that there is also a culture of communication online, that is sometimes defined by the interests of users or by their cultural belonging. For instance, more often than not Eastern Europeans tend to simplify the smiley emoticon from this “:)” to this ”)” . Why? Not really sure. Governments around the world are also more involved today in the regulation of the online space, so cyberbullying or improper data collection can cause trouble to those using technology improperly while communicating.
Communication and technology to me are deeply embedded in the idea of culture. However, remembering that a few months ago, based on my activity, Facebook placed me in the “parents with adult child” category for advertisement, implies that often our online activities are simple data points in the bigger scheme of things.
