https://blogs.ubc.ca/richard540/2021/10/17/task-6-emoji-story/

I chose to do my linking assignment on a post from Richard Wong’s Emoji Story. I applaud his patience to give a detail plot of the movie using emojis. I guessed it was a movie about girls but I would not have guessed “Mean Girls”. Like Richard, I completed my Emoji story based on ideas and not specific syllables or words. I figure that it would be even more time consuming to search for emojis based on words. I was surprised that he re-watched the movie in order to cover the plot accurately. I thought he did not have to represent all the characters in his emoji story. It would be effective enough to include only the main characters and the main plot.

Richard also mentioned he had chosen to do the movie, “Shang-Chi” previously but he found it difficult to translate the title into emojis. How would I translate “Shang-Chi”? Emojis simply do not allow users to translate words directly from the letter sounds. In this case, I would translate “Shang-Chi” using characters and main plot. For instance, the movie emoji and karate guy emoji. One of the things that drew me to Richard’s post was that he mentioned the difficulty of portraying the characters’ emotions using emojis. When we use emojis, emotions are simplified and reduced into the handful of emotions shown by emojis. Often times, it is easy to misinterpret emojis as everyone has different interpretations.

I thought that this activity was interesting yet difficult as we are used to using emojis to express our emotions on our devices and we hardly use emojis to tell a narrative. In other words, we do not view or use emojis as texts like we would with texts in books or magazines or billboards. For many of us, emojis are at most symbols that point to an idea or another symbol. We have been trained to communicate and interact with all forms of texts (ie. symbols, words, photos, sounds). This task has allowed me stop and think about the meaning and significance of this form of text (emojis).

Task 8: Golden Record Curating

I chose to do my linking assignment on a post from Victoria Cameron. She wrote about how she curated her list by writing down phrases, sounds and description to guide her choice. When I compared my list with Victoria’s, I realized that we have several common tracks such as Track 2: Kinds of Flowers, Track 3: Percussion and Track 4: Pygmy Girls’ Initiation Song. Like Victoria, I also chose the tracks based on various genres and cultures. I appreciate how she also curated her list by writing down phrases like “sounds familiar but different” and “magically beautiful”. This was something I haven’t thought of doing. It appears that Victoria curated her list based on tracks that reflected “beauty” , “fun” and “positivity”. She also mentions how curators used mathematics to help inform their choices. This reminds me that it is impossible to curate a list that objectively and inclusively represents Earth. There are many marginalized groups that are not represented in the tracks. Perhaps the purpose is not to come up with a list of perfect tracks that embody our planet but to celebrate the accomplishments and history that we have achieved so far.

Mode Bending

I chose to do my linking assignment on a post from Rika. I appreciate how she integrates different forms of texts such as still images, audio and written texts (English and Chinese) to explain how she interacts with texts daily through things in her bag. When I see the Chinese characters and hear the Chinese language in her video, I am able to better conceptualize and make meaning of not just her outward but also her inward cultural identity. The fact that she is able to engage in mode-changing in English demonstrates that English shapes the way she thinks and that Chinese becomes a secondary mode of thinking. Despite my fluency in English and my ability to engage in mode-bending in English, there are somethings that my mind processes better in Chinese. For example, I always read/count in Chinese, say/memorize phone numbers in Chinese and recite the multiplication table in Chinese. In fact, I understand things more clearly when I learn a new task in Chinese. It is not that I do not understand instructions in English but my mind becomes more alert and connected when I hear Chinese. This is largely due to my experience living and working in Asia and growing up in Asia. I am reminded that the way we experience and interact with texts is heavily influence by our cultural and social identity. I count it a privilege to engage in mode-bending in English and Chinese everyday.

I also find it interesting that, unlike Rika, I never write long sentences on my phone. The way that I interact with texts on my phone is always quick and short. The only time I use full sentences is when I am working on my computer. For me, my phone embodies convenience (to connect with friends and family and look up information in a flash) and entertainment.

Task 11: Detain / Release experience and reflection

I chose to do my linking assignment on a post from Delian. She wrote about how she was frustrated with not wanting to be swayed by the algorithm in the simulation. Dalian also wrote about her decision process for each defendant. If the prosecution, the crime and the likelihood to commit all indicated a possibility that the defendant would do something violent while on bail, then she would detain the defendant. For me, I based my decision to detain mostly on the defendant’s level of violence and the likelihood that he/she would commit a crime while on bail.  One thing that Delian noticed that I found interesting was that the algorithm signaled the player to release the 23 year-old white male and detain the 23 year-old African male, both were arrested for drug trafficking. I realized that my decision to detain or release a defendant was controlled and manipulated by the signals that the algorithm gave me. The algorithm was making predictions by profiling the defendants based on their race, background, and perhaps simply by random selections. This made me think about how corporate companies create algorithms and market their software. How does a company collect data to make predictions? How do they determine which geographic area to focus on? This reminds me of Cathy’s O’Neil’s “pernicious feedback loop”, in which the data collected does not reflect an accurate picture of all crimes within a city. One of the failures of using algorithms to make predictions is that the system never finds out when they get things wrong. The system only receives feedback on its successes.

Task 10 – Attention Economy

I chose to do my linking assignment on a post from Jacob. He wrote about his frustration with the GUI game. I connected with many of his points about playing the game. For example, I was also very annoyed by the “How can we help?” box that crawled painfully slowly down out of sight. Like him, I also googled how to type Cyrillic characters and copied and pasted the result into the password box.  The experience of the game felt like I was being “played” and “tricked”. I tried playing the game more than five times before realizing that the game was full of user interface tricks and dark patterns. The difference between Jacob’s experience and mine was that he actually finished the game and I gave up after ten unsuccessful attempts. I felt that I was less analytical and patient than Jacob about the game’s dull nature and confusing interface design. For me, the game lost my attention after my first failed attempt as I realized that all the buttons, timer, check boxes, fonts and icons were all meaningless. It was as if the game did not want its players to progress. It made me realize that, in a way, the game is a reflection of 21st Century users being trapped in a cycle of giving out private information online without giving a second thought. We have been trained by corporate companies how to behave online by clicking certain buttons, creating passwords, checking boxes and so on. This game, as Jacob, said is a cautionary tale on dark patterns.

Task 12: Speculative Futures

I chose to do my linking assignment on a post from Mike McDowall. He wrote one of his speculative stories on emojis being the global language in the year 2050. I appreciate his post as I thought it was a bold idea to imagine emojis being the only language in the world 30 years from now. He even introduced the idea of having slangs and different usages for emojis. In my own personal use of emojis, the most I would use is the “ok” sign or “thumbs up” sign. I think I would be one of the first groups of people to protest against UN converting all languages to emojis. So I was relieved when Mike wrote that UN had voted to revert back to using languages of the world. I like how Mike integrated photos, symbols (ie. emojis), texts and audio in his two stories.  In my own post about speculative narratives, I also included emojis for the titles and photos to capture the main idea in my stories. I did not use the emojis as extensive as Mike as I am not familiar with the tool. I was hesitant to add more emojis in my post because I was unsure whether readers would understand my thought.

PDF: iPadsOnline Tools and Mathematics

Title:

Education not for all

Narrative 1: In the year 2068, Earth’s resources have reached its maximum potential. Every country now has a shortage of supplies. The same goes for the education and health sectors. Now not every child has the right for education. Education is now only in the private sector. Every parent must pay for education if a child is accepted at school.  The government has decided that only certain groups of children will be put through the education system starting Kindergarten. Online forms are no longer used across all sectors. The reason is because forms (online or paper) are deemed not user friendly and time consuming. Applications for most services are done through retina or wrist scans. In order to apply for school, parents must take their children to an authorized health lab for a genetic test. Authorities will use the data on the genetic test and put it into an algorithm to determine if the child is suitable to be enrolled in school. The algorithm is created to calculate the child’s likelihood of success, intelligence and developmental capacity in the years to come. The government puts great faith in this selection process. One of the reasons is because results are ready within minutes of testing. Children are required to retest every two year before the school year begins. This selection process continues through to the high school years. As the crisis of overpopulation worsens every year, authorities are beginning to significantly reduce the number of spots for schools. Authorities are only interested in cultivating and investing in children of high potential and intelligence. 

Tessa, a single mother, has been trying to get her daughter into the school system since Kindergarten but every year her daughter is not selected. Her daughter, Rachel, is now supposed to be in Grade 2. The authorities have sent her letters saying that her daughter just did not make the cut. “What does that mean?”, Tessa angrily said to an officer. Every time no one is able to give her an answer. She and a group of parents who are in a similar situation have created a group to rise against this selection process. Tessa remembers her grandparents telling her that education used to be for all children. What has the world become?

Title:

Text no More 

Narrative 2: In the year 2068, keyboards have become historical tools for inputting data. Engineers have perfected a speech recognition algorithm that enables 100% accuracy for every language and accent and command. This voice recognition is embedded into every electronic device such as television, smartphone, computers, cars, ATMs, public transport, and traffic lights. Tessa, a university student, “takes the car” to school every morning. Like all the other drivers, once the car scans her retina and wrist, she commands “open door” and her car door opens. Then she tells her car system the destination she wants and it takes her there correctly, safely and in a timely manner. She does not need to touch the steering wheel or the pedal. The car drives itself once it receives a destination command. In her car, Tessa can connect and “text” her friend by using voice recognition without errors. She can even order meals to be delivered to her house while in her car by saying, “order…at…” and her car would immediately connect her to the restaurant and submit her order.  The word “text” is now a synonym to speech recognition. This was all that Tessa knew. She had heard about how her grandparents did not have this luxury. They had to use the keyboards on their phone to connect with their friends and families. More than 30 years ago, her grandparents certainly would not be able to control the car with their voice the way Tessa and other modern drivers could now. Lately, there have been some concerns about security issues with the speech recognition. Some people have been able to counterfeit the voice of car owners and other electronic devices to gain access. Despite the convenience and efficiency, Tessa sometimes wonders where all her data is stored and if it is safe from hackers.

I think this Detain/Release simulation was a meaningful activity. The lack of information on the crimes and defendants made it difficult for me to make a fair decision. Who was the defendant? What was his/her family background? Was this his/her first offense? The reasons that the prosecutor and defendants gave were the same in several cases. For example, several defendants repeated, “I’m very ill. If I’m jailed, my illness might get worse” or “The state’s case is weak, and they know it. I want to fight these charges…”. In the process of making my decision, I started to put less weight on the reasons that both parties gave and put more focus on the defendant’s level of violence, likelihood to miss the trial and commit a crime again. This was an easier marker to determine whether the defendant should be released or detained. I also detained the defendants that were marked with high levels of violence and committing a crime. This made me think about the role that risk assessment has on aiding the judge’s decision making process. For me, I did not question the accuracy of the risk assessment because it was the only reliable marker that I had to make a decision on. I had to make a decision for each case and the risk assessment was my “counsel”. 

Upon reflection, this makes me question the level of power we have given to AI and algorithms. Most of us fail to question the accuracy and authenticity of the software used in the government and legal institutions. We transfer power to these algorithms and software and allow these tools to affect our biases and decision making. I think that these algorithmic risk assessments offer institutions a standardized and “fair” counsel that is “objective”, time efficient and convenient. In this case, these software allows the judge and the judicial system to process more cases in a time-efficient and “objective” manner.

Porcaro, K. (2019, January 8th). Detain/Release: simulating algorithmic risk assessments at pretrial. Berkman Klein Centre. https://medium.com/berkman-klein-center/detain-release-simulating-algorithmic-risk-assessments-at-pretrial-375270657819

I attempted the game more than ten times but the timer kept “locking” and “unlocking” the screen. I became frustrated very quickly after several tries.  In the end, I was not able to finish the game. 

When I first opened the game, the round animated green “No” button captured my attention so I immediately hovered my cursor over the word, which changed the cursor into a pointer. I thought that was where the game would start. To my surprise, the “no” button was just a distraction. I did not even read the instructions in green. Then it said, “please click here”. I expected the cursor to change to a pointer finger when I hovered over the word “click”. I quickly realized that the “start” button was actually the word “here”. On the next page, the green numbers one to four kept flashing continuously and it gave me even more pressure to fill the form. The form itself was confusing because I was not sure which part I had to put “gibberish” and which part I had to put real information. The wording on the form did not reflect the intended meaning. For example, I immediately clicked on “I do not accept the terms and conditions” when the instruction was to please accept the terms and conditions. As well, it was the “cancel” button that was colored, bolded and had a pointer icon. My brain is so accustomed to filling out forms and the layout of forms that I did not even read the words on the page. This exercise reminds me of my experience looking for a teaching position several years ago. I remember filling out more than twenty application forms for teaching positions. I spent my days filling out form after form. Most schools require applicants to fill out a long application form even after submitting the resume and cover letter. I was so tempted to simply scan the forms as my mind was in a state of information overload. 

Most consumers today, including myself, only read the first part of a piece of text. This is called the inverted pyramid (Brignull, 2011). When I was attempting to complete the “User Inyerface” game, I only scanned the texts and read the top part of the page and the colored and bolded sections. The deception was very subtle. The designers use bright colors, bold and underline texts to capture the user’s attention and take advantage of the user’s laziness.

Over the past few months of completing the tasks for this course, there were several instances where I almost fell into the “forced continuity” (Brignull, 2011). Vimeo and other educational technology platforms require users to enter their credit card information first before beginning a month of free trial. I think it is important for more consumers to be aware of dark patterns in user interfaces. These patterns will evolve continuously as consumers’ behaviours change.  

Reference

Brignull, H. (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Interaction Design, Usability, 338.