Homework:

• Read the Week 7 Background for the information necessary to complete this homework sheet
• Read the article The Enemy in Our Feeds
• When completing this sheet, please write your answers in the boxes that follow each question.

1. Please supply at least one website you frequently visit for news, or to engage with people socially (URL or screenshot is ok).

1. Do they appear to engage in the types of tactics that Rose-Stockwell describes in this article? Give some examples. If it doesn't, then how does this site capture people's attention to promote engagement?

1. What are the benefits that come with the model of prioritizing information described in Rose-Stockwell's article?

1. What are the challenges that come with this model of prioritizing the information that people see?

1. From a psychological point of view, what would be required for us to consume information more intentionally, or thoughtfully? Based on what you have learned in this course so far (consider the elephant and the rider), are these things feasible? Why or why not?

Here, you can think both in terms of what might be required on the side of the web-based businesses (ie., how would businesses have to change to make us more thoughtful consumers of information?), as well as what might be required of us personally.

1. Some countries are moving in the direction of putting more restrictions on social media websites, which will afford them some control over the information that can be shared with their citizens. Is this a good idea? What government regulations would be helpful? Do your suggestions create a problem for free speech?

Here, you can think in terms of whether it would be a good idea to regulate who has access to the sites, what content gets shared, how algorithms work to distribute content, and how people share content through 'likes' and 'retweets' (since these methods allow any type of content to go viral very quickly).