UW Madison is on Spring Break from 16th until March 24th. During this period, we have no assignments due for this class. This means that we are not currently learning course content, so there is not any for me to itemize, and to provide detailed reflections about.

As a result, I have not made any posts the last few days, and I will not be making any blog posts over the next few days. This is a daily blog, however, if there is nothing to blog about, there is no point of making a post.

I discussed this with Professor Gernsbacher, and she understands this. I do have access to high speed internet every day of the course, which is required. However, since there is not a unit assigned this week, it is essentially a break from the course. This is much appreciated, and will allow me to spend time with friends and family, and to catch up on work from other courses.

This assignment started out by reading all the other students’ discussion board posts from unit 8 assignment 1. Following this, we had to remind ourselves of the best ways to respond to the posts of other students, by reviewing the course syllabus. Finally, we had to respond to 2 other students’ discussion board posts, including one student who had a similar solution to mine, and one student that had a very different solution than mine.

The first student I responded to was a girl named Subin, because I thought her proposed solution was the most similar to mine. She proposed pop quizzes in the middle of classes, so students would be less bored, and professors would get more responses. I proposed asking questions about course material but also asking questions about pop culture or other interesting topics, in which students can answer through a clicker or mobile phone. Both of our answers revolved around asking questions to students in the middle of the class, in order to engage students and satisfy teachers.

I discussed how I liked how her choice of quiz time, during the middle of the lecture, rather than at the beginning or end. In the middle, you do not know when it is going to happen, so the students would have to stay engaged. If it was at the beginning, students could take it, and then zone out, and if it was at the end, students could zone out for most of the class period.

I agreed that her proposed method would lead students to concentrate on classes more. When grades come into play, students take things more seriously, so having graded pop quizzes in class will lead students to be much more focused in class.

My one hesitation with her idea was that I wondered how this method would affect how students enjoy a class. For example, if a student is always worrying about grades and pop quizzes, they may be anxious in the class and may have associated that class with negative feelings.

The second student I responded to was a girl named Erin, because I thought her proposed solution was the least similar to mine. Her proposed solution was to shorten lectures to less than 40 minutes to ensure that no one gets too bored. My solution was to ask questions about course material and also ask questions about pop culture or other interesting topics, in which students can answer through a clicker or mobile phone.

Even though her answer is very different than mine, I agree that it would succeed in ensuring that no one gets too bored. I have also thought about that, because most of my lectures are 75 minutes long, and I have a hard time staying engaged for the complete duration of the class.

I liked that she also included that professors should be more interactive with the class, and limit the number of words they include on a slide. Being interactive is a great idea, as asking them questions or giving them time to discuss things with a peer can allow students to relieve boredom. Additionally, limiting the number of words is beneficial because it can allow students to understand concepts better, and in turn enjoy the lecture more.

I wonder why Universities have not at least attempted this solution she proposed, and I wonder when Universities will start trying since they have not really attempted it yet. If it could yield positive benefits of keeping students motivated and allowing the professors to be listened to, I think it is worthwhile to try!

Reflecting on this assignment, I thought it was a good idea to read through the posts of all the other students in the section. Not only did this remind me of the course material we were learning about a couple days prior, but it also allowed me to get to know the beliefs of different students a bit better. Without reading through other posts, often times I would not have had the opportunity to interact with some students. So, this allows me to make sure I get to know everyone at least in a minor way.

Additionally, I thought it was great to reply to one student with a similar solution and one student with a different solution. This type of assignment has been done in previous units, but I wanted to reiterate why I think this is a good idea. Replying to someone with similar beliefs allows you to build community and know that you are not the only one who thinks like you do. Replying to someone with different beliefs allows you to imagine things you may not have thought of before, and broaden your horizons.

This is another example of an assignment that is fairly simple, but still impactful. Allowing us to review recent material and also interact with others is a great combination, and made my time more enjoyable. I always like these type of assignments and look forward to experiencing more of them in the future!

This assignment was short and sweet, and only consisted of a couple of steps. We had to watch a Buzzfeed video about what it is like to binge watch a show, then watch professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video describing why we binge watch shows. Following this, we had to make a discussion board post, describing one of the reasons for binge watching mentioned in the lecture video, and describing if this reason has ever motivated me to binge watch.

The Buzzfeed video was short and more comical, rather than informative. On the other hand, Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture was more informative, describing 12 reasons that people binge watch shows. These 12 reasons are that it’s fun, it’s available, it allows developing deeper connections with the characters, it’s already paid for, it’s usually commercial free, it’s what many young people did as children, because it’s what everyone else is doing, it provides a community, it enables a shared culture, it’s becoming culturally acceptable, it keeps people from being left out, and to find out what happens next.

In my discussion board post, the motivation I talked about was to not be left out. Another way to describe this is FOMO or the “Fear of Missing Out”. Honestly, this goes way beyond TV shows and can apply to books, movies, and much more.

For example, if there is a TV show that becomes super popular, people begin to talk about it all the time, and sometimes it seems like everybody except you has watched it, and knows what happened. So, people often times make the choice to start binge-watching a TV show so they are not left out. They expect that once they finish the series, they can join in on the conversations about it, and feel as if they are more connected to the other people who have watched it. 

I will admit it, the motivation to not be left out has motivated me before to binge-watch a TV show, and my example is with the comedic TV show called “The Office”. Going into my freshman year of college, I heard so many people talking about it and saw many memes about it, that I decided I wanted to watch it in order to not be left out. So, freshman year, in a span of a couple of weeks, I watched all 9 seasons of the show, which included 201 episodes! This motivation has impacted me and many others I know in my age group. 

Reflecting on this assignment, I thought the topic choice was fantastic. Binge watching TV shows is not only prevalent in general right now, but it is so prominent among college students! Many people I know are always binge watching something, so it was a great topic to build an assignment around.

Additionally, it was great to start with that Buzzfeed video, because it was funny and eased the students into the assignments. It gave us an outside view of what it looks like when someone is absorbed so much with a show that they can’t really do anything else!

The lecture video was also very interesting. Many people today know about binge watching, but they don’t usually think about the reasons why people choose to do it. Listing the 12 different reasons was cool because even though most of them were simple, some are things I would not have thought of, and I can relate many of them to my own experiences.

This assignment was pretty simple and also entertaining, so I would say it was valuable. With some assignments being very long and containing many steps, it is key to have some assignments like this so the students remain engaged and interested. I hope that in future units there continue to be assignments like this, at least every once in awhile!

This assignment started off by preparing for unit 8 assignment 4, by reading up about the 7 sources of motivation and reading the instructions for the internet motivation diary. Following this, we focused on the current assignment, by reading 2 articles about student disruptions in  lecture classrooms prior to the popularity of the Internet, and 2 articles about student boredom in lecture classrooms prior to the popularity of the Internet. After this, we had to read a study summary about professors and student laptop use, and a meta-analysis on laptop use in college classrooms.

Finally, we had to make a discussion board post describing the history of student disruption in lecture classrooms, the history of student boredom in lecture classrooms, students’ motivations for using laptops for note-taking, students’ motivations for going off task with their laptops, students’ motivations for not wanting to sit in a far away or separate location, professors’ motivations for not wanting to see students with their heads in their laptops and proposing a creative solution that satisfies these competing motivations.

The discussion board post I made essentially describes everything I learned from the articles and the studies. I explained that before the internet was commonly used, there was a history of student disruption in lecture classrooms. According to the De Lucia and Iasenza article from 1995, students disrupted the lecture classroom by arriving late, leaving early, taking frequent bathroom trips, and talking while the professor is talking. According to the Carbone article from 1999, walking in late and leaving early were also referenced, along with reading the newspaper, chatting with friends, napping, talking on cell phones, watching portable televisions, sitting through the lecture with headphones on, having pizza delivered during class, fraternity pledges’ pretending to have breakdowns during exams, and making out in the classroom.

There is also a history of student boredom in lecture classrooms. According to the Fisher article from 1987, one cause of boredom is “being constrained to a low stimulation setting with limited opportunities to relieve boredom”, which a lecture class is an example of. Additionally, according to the Aldridge and Delucia abstract, academic boredom is related to factors such as a conflict between expectations and reality, and an unmet student need for a high degree of classroom stimulation. Also, the De Lucia and Iasenza article touches on how students were highly distractible and easily bored, and this was before the widespread use of smartphones or the internet. 

Students’ motivations for using laptops for note-taking often times are centered around the fact that they can type faster than they can write, so they are more confident that they will not miss anything. Students’ motivation for going off task with their laptops is due to what we have been discussing, their boredom. For example, the review paper describes that people get off topic on their computers when the professor is just speaking to one student, when their voice is monotone, or when it hits the 40-minute mark, in which it can be hard to stay attentive. Students’ motivation for not wanting to sit in a far away or separate location could be based on how they want to sit wherever they are most comfortable or sit by friends that are not using laptops.

Professors certainly have motivations for not wanting to see students with their heads in their laptops. The most basic reason is that they want their students to be interested in the material they are teaching, and want them to learn it. Additionally, a few of the articles describe that behaviors such as this seem like they cause distractions to others, even though the review paper counteracts this idea. 

A creative solution that can satisfy these competing motivations could be to create lectures that require students to be engaged, by asking questions about course material, but also asking questions about pop culture or other interesting topics, in which students can answer through a clicker or mobile phone. First, this could keep the student interested and attentive to the lecture, because they know they will be a part of it through the questions they answer. Also, including questions about pop culture can lead them to not just be engaged, but to enjoy the activity, and therefore pay more attention to the rest of the lecture.  Second, this could satisfy the teachers, since their students would likely listen more and have to pay attention, and they would not engage in so many distracting behaviors. This could satisfy the needs of both parties!

Reflecting on this assignment, I thought it was a great idea to include so much information on the history of student distraction before the internet and student boredom before the internet. All of us in this course are from an age where the internet has always been present, so we do not really know what it was like before the internet became popular. So, learning about it is informative, and it is also interesting in the context of a lecture classroom, because that is a setting that we are used to. So, it is cool to compare and contrast what this setting was like before to what it is now, and that is an opportunity that this assignment provides.

Additionally, even though I liked that they included information from the past, it was also very helpful to learn about the meta-analysis that discussed modern day laptop use in college classrooms. It also challenged some of the things I had previously heard. For example, the study described that students who take notes on laptops do not do any worse overall, they do not impede the performance of others. It was interesting to learn about things such as this because they contradict things that professors had told me.

Also, it was a good idea to make us come up with a creative solution that can satisfy these competing motivations of students and professors in the classroom. This forced me to synthesize the information from the articles about the past and the present, and combine viewpoints from two different sides. It made me think critically and be creative, which are both things that are improved in this course through exercises such as this. This assignment showed how different skills can be developed through course assignments, which is great!

As always, assignment 6 started out by filling out the Unit review sheet. After this, I had to finish mastering my presentation medium, take a screenshot that demonstrates this, and continue my work on the term project. Finally, I had to create a document describing the work I have done so far on the term project, and upload this with my review sheet to the assignment link.

As always, the review sheet is cumulative, so I had to start out by filling out the unit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 page before I could work on this unit’s page. Once I got to the current unit, it first asked to explain what emotional contagion is and how emotional contagion might spread through the Internet.

I explained that emotional contagion essentially is the spreading of similar emotions from one person to another. This can happen with positive or negative emotions, and in a pair or in a crowd.

I talked about how the Kramer study manipulated people’s Facebook feeds to make them slightly more positive or negative and then measured the number of positive posts and negative posts that people produced for a certain period of time afterward. They found that when timelines included less positive posts, people produced less positive posts. Similarly, when timelines included less negative posts, people produced less negative posts. This essentially is backing up the claim that emotional contagion can be present online too, not just in-person.

I said that this study exemplifies that when people see positive things on the internet, they will experience more positive feelings, and when they see more negative things, they will experience more negative feelings. This is how emotional contagion spreads through the internet. Based on the content people are exposed to, it can change how they feel.

After this, it asked to identify four reasons why there are so many photos, gifs, and videos of cats on the Internet and why Internet-users get so much emotional pleasure from watching and sharing photos, gifs, and videos of cats.

My first reason was that cats are weird, and society has been obsessed recently with things that are out of the ordinary. So, it only makes sense that people are currently so obsessed with cats when it comes to the internet. My second reason was that cats are easy to personify. They can express many emotions, and they enjoy adventures. So, they can be fun to observe, take pictures of, or post on the internet about.

My third reason was that cats are cute. They can make facial expressions that warm your heart. They can be therapeutic to look at. This is a simple explanation of why cats are so prevalent in the online world. My fourth reason was that cats are jerks. They can ignore us, demand things from us, and vomit in our houses. Sharing a bunch of material about them can be one form of getting revenge on the cat species.

Moving on to the term project document, I started out by discussing my project an my medium again. For those who have forgotten, I am doing a daily blog in which I itemize the content I learn along with my detailed reflections. Following this, I talked about how I have put a ton of work into the project, more than the recommended time. I discussed that I was a little bit behind the current unit, but that this was not a bad thing, because it ensures that I will always have at least one assignment to make a blog post about.

Reflecting on this assignment, once again, it was the standard way to end a unit. As always, filling out the cumulative review sheet is valuable, as it gives me continued exposure to the material we have learned thus far in the course. Repeated exposure leads to better mastery, through distributed learning.

The term project document was also very standard. It is always good to reflect on all the hard work I have done on the project, and it gives me some pride in my work ethic. It also motivates me to keep working hard, and to catch up to the current day in blogs sooner than later.

There was one different aspect to this assignment, which was the screenshot we had to take. I think this was a good idea, and forced us to show professor Gernsbacher that we are on the right track for our projects! She cares about all of her students’ success, and this was an example of this care in action.

This assignment started off by watching two TED talks about the science behind happiness, including true happiness versus fabricated happiness. Following this, to get ready for our chat, each chat group member had to prepare two YouTubes or websites that have brought them happiness or joy, two reasons they’re grateful to be in this class, two reasons they’re grateful to be in this Chat Group, and two positive things that have happened to them in the past 24 hours. After this, we had to chat with our chat group, and discuss all of these things we prepared. Following the chat, as usual, we had to post a summary, a transcript, and details about the chat, in the discussion board.

The first TED talk talked about how we can synthesize happiness. After discussing multiple experiments, he explains that synthesized happiness is not inferior to natural happiness, and that it is valuable for us to experience in life. The second TED talk discusses positive psychology, and how changing our lens can change our happiness and our productivity.

Moving on to the chat, we began by me talking about two YouTubes or websites that have brought us happiness or joy. For me, my 2 were both from YouTube. They were a Green Bay Packers “Run the Table” football highlight video, and America’s Got Talent audition video of last year’s winner, Shin Lim. Weiyan’s first was a Facebook page called “UW Memes for Milk-Chugging Teens”, and her second was an Instagram account that posts pictures of a cute pig named Hank.

We then moved on to talk about two reasons we are grateful to be in this class. I said that this class allows me to work on my time management skills, and it also gives a lot of flexibility. Weiyan said that she likes how she doesn’t have to attend lectures so she can do her work in her cozy room and that there are no exams.

Next, we discussed two reasons we are grateful to be in this Chat Group. I listed that Weiyan is a very nice person and is flexible with my schedule and that the chat room involves discussing course content, which facilitates my understanding of the material. Weiyan said she was thankful that I am a supportive group mate and that we only have 2 people so we can be flexible on time.

Finally, we talked about two positive things that have happened to us in the past 24 hours. I described that I got to see 3 of my best friends from home and that I was on a retreat that I really enjoyed. Weiyan said that she got 8 hours of sleep and that her work yesterday was enjoyable. 

Reflecting on this assignment, the TED talks were super interesting, and I learned a lot. I think the topic of happiness is already very fascinating, and this taught me many things I did not previously know. I did not know much about synthetic happiness, or about how much of happiness is controlled by internal versus external factors, but now I know! I will definitely use what I know in a positive way moving forward.

Additionally, sharing all of this information with one another allowed us to spread positive emotional contagion! Hearing so many positive things from myself and from Weiyan allowed me to experience positive emotions. This was enjoyable, and made the chat more fun and worthwhile, in my opinion.

While I enjoyed that chat, and the topic was happy, it was kind of sad because it was our final chat with our old chat groups. All of my previous chats with Weiyan had gone well, and she was very kind to me throughout all these weeks. It will be weird to move on to a new chat group, but I am thankful for the time I had with my old chat group.

This assignment was also cool because it required us to address personal information, rather than just referencing information from articles. Discussing things that make us happy or thankful was awesome, as it allowed me to get to know my chat group on a more personal level than I was able to before. It was still related to the main topic of emotional contagion, but gave us the freedom to talk about ourselves. I look forward to seeing who is in my next group, and getting to know them throughout the rest of the semester!

This assignment started out by having me read all of the other posts on the Unit 7 Assignment 2 discussion board from my section. Following this, I had to respond to 2 different posts, including one person who read the same article as I did, and one person who read a different article than I did.

As a reminder, these posts required us to discuss what the researchers studied, why they studied this, what they found, and what this means. The first student I responded to was a girl named Stella, who read the same article that I did. In my response to her, I told her how I could tell she read the article thoroughly, and that she truly understands what it is about.

I agreed with her point that connecting with people online can make it easier to find those who understand what you are going through, compared to offline relationships. For example, even though friends and family of an obese person can provide support, it is possible that none of them have struggled with weight loss, so they may not truly understand what it is like. On the contrary, online, you can find people all across the world and can choose to connect with people experiencing similar issues.

I liked how she referenced that connecting online can provide a sense of anonymity and reduce embarrassment, along with how it allows you to stop interacting with those who do not influence you positively. In my post, I also referenced anonymity and embarrassment, but I forgot about cutting people out, and I think it is a very important point.

I discussed how I wonder what direction that this study will lead to for future research. This was focused on weight loss, but it would be interesting to test the effects of offline versus online connections in a different context.

The second person I responded to was a girl named Holly, who read a different article than I did, about internet support groups for patients. In my reply, I first explained how in the past, I had heard about Internet Support Groups for other types of patients, but that I did not know much about their effectiveness. She cleared up that they generally improve patient outcomes, which was good to hear!

I referenced how I liked that her paragraphs were short and right to the point. It led to very smooth transitioning between ideas, and also helped to facilitate my understanding of the study.

I agreed with her thoughts on the findings, that ISG’s may be safe for use on depression. Even though there was only a limited impact, this is still significant, because it still helps, and can at the very least prevent people from getting even more depressed. I lost a friend recently to suicide, so it reminds me of the importance of trying to help those facing mental illness, in any way possible.

I discussed how I wonder what these people with depression think about these ISG’s compared to in-person groups. Perhaps they can help because they seem more anonymous, and they are less embarrassed to share their feelings. This was the case in the article I read about those trying to lose weight, that they had more positive outcomes from their online relationships.

Reflecting on this assignment, I think it is always great to respond to the posts of others. This makes sure that we are reading through everyone else’s posts, and learning their different input on various topics. It allows me to learn more about how different people think, including making connections and seeing things from differing points of view.

Not only this, but we were required to respond to one person who read the same article, and one person who read a different article. I think this is a great setup for an assignment, as reading a post from a different article allows you to learn completely new information, and reading a post from the same article allows you to master what you already knew and had read about. It also allowed us the choice to respond to who we want within those boundaries, which is always nice when they give us opportunities to make our own decisions.

This is a relatively quick assignment, as most of the work went into constructing these posts in assignment 2. However, these posts centered around responding allow us to connect with others and reflect, which is inherently valuable. It brings a variety and allows us to do things rather than just making our own long posts, which I appreciate.

This assignment was very different from anything we had done before, because it focused on cats! It started out by learning about the pre-Internet history of the public’s use of cats for emotional engagement by reading a couple articles showcasing Kittens and Cats: A First Reader (1911), as well as the “Hang in There, Baby” cat posters. After this, we learned about some famous internet cat personalities by watching Keyboard Cat and Grumpy Cat videos, browsing through the LOL Cats website, and looking at the “I Can Has Cheezburger” photo.

After this, we had to read a handful of articles that describe theories of why there are so many photos, gifs, and videos of cats on the Internet – and why Internet-users get so much emotional pleasure from watching and sharing photos, gifs, and videos of cats. Finally, we had to create a discussion board post, identifying and describing one of the hypotheses, state if we agree with it, and state if it is scientifically testable.

For my hypothesis, I found one from Elizabeth Fish article, who identified 4 potential hypotheses in the article “Why Does The Internet Love Cats?”. The one hypothesis that stuck out to me was fairly simple, that “Cats Outnumber Dogs”. This is pretty straightforward, it means that more cats are owned as pets than dogs are.

I do agree with this hypothesis. Fish references the results of a 2011-2012 survey that indicated that there are 86.4 million cats kept as pets in the US, whereas there are only 78.2 million dogs kept as pets. This is pretty easy to agree with because it is a fact, as people completed the surveys themselves.

I know that is has been 7 or 8 years since this survey, so the results could have changed by now. Additionally, self-report measures aren’t always perfectly accurate. However, even though these 2 things can challenge the finding, it is still likely to be pretty accurate and representative of the truth.

The hypothesis that there are more cats than dogs is certainly testable, all that this would require is to send out another mass survey throughout the country to see if the results still apply today. After everyone filled out the survey, the total number of cats as pets can be compared to the total number of dogs as pets.  However, if the question is “Cats outnumber dogs, is this the reason why they are so popular on the internet?”, there is no way that I can think of to scientifically test that as being the main reason why.

Reflecting on this assignment, I thought it was awesome, primarily because it was based on a fun, lighthearted topic. Cats are cute and funny, and also very prevalent on the internet, so it was great to complete an assignment that revolved around them. Assignments that are both fun and applicable are rare in my opinion, so it was great to experience it with this one!

Additionally, even though I already knew a lot about cats on the internet in the modern day, I did not previously know about cats before the internet. I did not know about public’s use of cats for emotional engagement before the internet, but the first couple of articles touched on that, so I learned something new.

Also, it was funny to look through all the different theories and hypotheses about why cats are so popular on the internet. There were some that were very obvious, but some I really was not expecting, and that made me chuckle a little bit. It gave me an insight into how different people think about the topic, which was cool because I really do not think about this topic that often!

Overall, I am very thankful for this assignment. The choice to include this allowed the students to have some fun and take a bit of a break from serious subjects, but still learn and work on different skills. I wonder if there will be any other assignments like this throughout the course, and if so, I am looking forward to completing them!

This assignment started off by reading a Tumblr post discussing the perceived benefits of online versus in-person emotional support. It suggested 3 reasons, starting with that it was good because it allows you to be alone but also get support. Second, it explained that you can tell people awful things that just happened even if no one is around. Finally, it claimed that you can tell people your feelings without them having to see you cry.

Next, out of a list of 16, we had to choose one research article to read, each of which describes an investigation of online emotional support. Following this, we had to make a discussion board post explaining what the researchers studied, why they studied this, what they found, and what the findings mean.

The article I read was Pagoto et al.’s (2014) article called “Tweeting it off: characteristics of adults who tweet about a weight loss attempt”. In my discussion board post, I explained that the researchers studied adults who use twitter while attempting to lose weight and comparing the good and bad social influences from their online friends, offline friends, and members of their immediate family.

They wanted to study this because obesity is a common occurrence in today’s society, but obese people often receive little social support when it comes to losing weight. It is possible that increasing social support will help lead to more permanent weight loss. Additionally, they may be too embarrassed to ask friends or family, so finding support online may be a successful way for them to be encouraged to lose weight, without being stigmatized. 

In this study, the results supported this idea. Their connections on Twitter were much greater sources for positive social influence for weight loss and many fewer sources for negative social influence than their offline friends and family, as well as Facebook friends. Greater positive social influence from Twitter and Facebook was correlated with more weight loss on the person’s last attempt. 

Specifically to this study, these findings mean that online social networks can be used to help heavier people who don’t have social support to lose weight connect. However, more broadly, these findings mean that online connections can be a key to overcoming different obstacles. Since online interactions can be relatively more convenient and anonymous, they may be more advantageous that interacting with friends or family in person, in some cases. 

Reflecting on this assignment, it was nice to start by reading the Tumblr post. It was much quicker, more lighthearted, and introduced the subject. It allowed me to ease into the topic in an easy way, which I enjoyed, rather than starting with a complex research article.

Moving on to the research articles, I thought it was fantastic that we were provided with 16 different choices to read from. They were all on the same general topic, but each article definitely varied in how they studied it and what issue they were approaching. Giving us the choice allowed me to be more excited about the assignment, because I had more of a say in what I was learning about. This lead me to enjoy reading and writing about the article more.

Also, breaking the discussion board post into what the researchers studied, why they studied it, what they found, and what the findings mean was a great idea. This method forced us to truly understand the study, the reasons behind it, and what ended up happening. This made me read the article more carefully, and I ended up learning more about it, because I was focused on picking these points out of the article.

This assignment was good because it brought simplicity by only requiring me to do a few steps, it brought choice by allowing me to pick which article I wanted to read, and it brought me mastery by requiring me to go back and pick out specific points from the article. This was very well designed, and was not a pain to complete. I hope there are more assignments like this moving forward the rest of the semester!

First, the assignment started out by reading a definition of emotional contagion, and watching a TED talk on the influence of social networks. After this, we had to read 2 articles and a cartoon about a Facebook study where they took advantage of emotional contagion by manipulating people’s feeds. After this, we had to post on the discussion board, including a definition of emotional contagion, an example of emotional contagion from non-internet social networks, describe the Kramer study and what it found, if we thought the study was ethical, and speculate about whether we’ve ever consciously felt emotional contagion on the Internet.

In my discussion board post, I described emotional contagion as the spreading of similar emotions from one person to another. It can happen with positive or negative emotions, and in a pair or in a crowd.

My example of emotional contagion from non-internet social networks was if a friend of yours is happy and positive and is smiling at you, when spending time with him you may become happy too. Or, if a few of your friends are very mad about something that happened recently, and you are with them, you may become mad, even though you weren’t involved in whatever happened.

The articles and cartoon described that the Kramer study manipulated people’s Facebook feeds to make them slightly more positive or negative and then measured the number of positive posts and negative posts that people produced for a certain period of time afterward. They found that when timelines included less positive posts, people produced less positive posts. Similarly, when timelines included less negative posts, people produced less negative posts. This essentially is backing up the claim that emotional contagion can be present online too, not just in-person.

In my evaluation, I do think Kramer’s study was ethical. As on of the articles described, Facebook users have already agreed to the terms of service, so there was no reason to ask for consent. Additionally, no user data containing personal information was viewed by the researchers.

I wrote about how I do think I have consciously felt emotional contagion on the Internet before. On Facebook, sometimes I read through people’s comments about politics or sports. Generally, some of the top comments are expressing similar emotions to one another, usually of anger or disgust. After reading a handful of the comments, I sometimes find myself feeling the same emotions that the comments are expressing! This doesn’t always happen to me, but it definitely has happened to me before.

Reflecting on this assignment, I liked starting out with the basic task of looking at a dictionary definition of a term that the assignment is revolving around. It gives me a baseline understanding of the subject, and allows me to compare what I imagined the term to mean previously to what it truly is. While simple, this task was still valuable.

Additionally, I enjoyed watching the TED talk on social networks. The speaker introduced the idea of social networks by touching on the obesity epidemic, and how obese people are likely to be socially connected with other obese people. He then transitioned to emotions and also touched on the topic of emotional contagion. Listening to the talk was not only interesting and informative, but related the topic to other examples we would not have talked about otherwise.

It was also interesting to learn about the Kramer Facebook study. I do think it is ethical, but I had no idea that Facebook was allowed to do things like manipulate their feed in a way like that! It was cool to see and a great example of how emotional contagion is present online too, and not just in person.

It was valuable to end everything by writing a discussion board post touching on all of the key aspects of the assignment. This required me to go back through the materials, use critical thinking skills, and piece everything I learned back together. Ending assignments like this is a common practice in this class, and it is for good reason. It allows me to maximize my learning for the assignment, and ensure I remember that information for longer!