#1

j('h2').append('ICTED to jQuery');
j('p:contains("existing")').prepend('If you really feel like it, you can do this project. Start by finding that super long jQuery code on my page. You should know where this is already. ');
j('p:contains("meaning")').append(' Try to find a meaning beyond "I just thought it would be fun".');
j('p:contains("permanent")').append("<br><br>You've got this.");

Click here to visit the page and try it yourself!

#2

j('li:contains("stress")').append(' with contracted murder.');
j('li:contains("more")').append(' with kidnapping.');
j('li:contains("relationships")').append(' with your slaves.');
j('li:contains("marriage")').append(' with yourself.');
j('li:contains("happy")').append(' when they hate you.');
j('li:contains("better")').append(' brainwashing skills.');
j('li:contains("communication")').append(' during intercourse.');
j('li:contains("Dianetics")').append(' while aboard Freewinds.');
j('li:contains("Spiritual")').append(' without technology.');
j('li:contains("Program")').append(" (what we don't want you to know).");

Click here to visit the page and try it yourself!

You’ll need to click the “FIND OUT” button first.

#3

j("p").prepend("As the prophecy foretold! ");
j("p").append("!!");
j("b").append("izzle4Rizzle");
j("p:contains('@')").append(" But the real tragedy is the poor widdle babies who cry in their mama's wap. Boo hoo. Suck it up and grow a pair.");

Click here to visit the page and try it yourself!

#4

j("a:contains('Aaron'), a:contains('Joseph')").prepend("Chief ");
j("a:contains('Aaron'), a:contains('Joseph')").append("wek");
j("a:contains('News')").prepend("Fake ");
j("a:contains('Top')").append(" According to Us");
j("a:contains('Showcase')").prepend("Slut ");
j("a:contains('Orange')").prepend("Fail ");
j("p:contains('By')").prepend("These Stories Were Made Up ");21

Click here to visit the page and try it yourself!

For project 1, I decided to analyze what type of information social media applications ask you when you first sign up for an account; I wanted to see how little information I could give them, how much incorrect information I could get away with giving them, and what steps the applications took to try to get me to give them more information that desired. Each day I analyzed a different application’s sign up process, and discovered that while some of the applications have age requirements, others do not, but they ask for more access to functions on your phone instead. To begin this process, on the first day I logged out and had all the applications “forget” my accounts, and then I deleted the application off of my phone. I only re-downloaded them when it was the individual applications turn to be analyzed.

Day 1: Facebook                    

For the first day, I analyzed facebook, so I didn’t go any time without having access to the application like I did for the other two applications. To sign up, it asked me for my mobile phone or email address, and I opted to use my email because it is less personal. When entering my name, I tried to only put a first name, but it required me to have one, so I made Smith my last name. It then asked for my gender, and because I couldn’t get around it, I complied and gave them the information, although there was only a male and female option, which in this point in time in history I feel is a bit unfair. When it asked for my birthday, I tried to see if there was an age limit to sign up, and you the earliest birthday I could put was February 6th, 2013. Once I clicked continue, Facebook told me they were “unable to process my request at this time”; I think it was because i gave them false information, which I find very interesting because I don’t know how it would know the information was fake.

Day 2:  Instagram

For the second day, I re-downloaded instagram and analyzed the application and the information required to create an account. I found that after hardly 24 hours of not interacting on Instagram, I felt a bit withdrawn and out of touch. I think that not only speaks to my social media habits and constant need for entertainment, but also to my desire to see what other people are doing.

It asked for most of the same information as Facebook: phone number or email, full name and password. When it asked for me to pick a username, I chose one that reflected nothing of my name or personality – user1234567891. What I found most interesting in my analysis of Instagram was that while it didn’t ask for too much personal information, it asked me multiple times during account creation to connect to my Facebook account and to sync my phone contacts with the application to “find friends”. It also asked me twice if I wanted to save my login info for quicker login in the future – I said no, both times. This speaks to Instagram’s attempt to not only have consistent users, but to gain more information on their consumers by offering to connect all social media accounts together for an easier user experience when sharing posts. It also pushes users to engage with others and “find friends”, as if they were implying that most of your friends already have Instagram. One aspect of Instagram that I found very irritating is that there is no easy way to delete your account if you want to; it’s not in the account settings, and frankly, after looking for a good 15 minutes, I don’t know if there’s a way you can delete it.

Day 3: Snapchat

Not having snapchat for almost three days was strange at first, but actually made me feel better in the end. After I got over the initial feeling of missing out, it was actually relieving not to have a way to constantly check people’s snapchat stories, which are probably most active during the weekend. After going through the same routine that I did with Facebook and Instagram (phone number/email, name, gender, and birthday), I found that I was able to sign up with no last name, and with a birthday in the year 2016. What I found interesting about snapchat is that after entering my information, they had me do one of those picture tests to prove I wasn’t a robot; I wonder why snapchat of all applications asked for this, while Facebook and Instagram did not. Similarly to Instagram, Snapchat also asked me to have access to my camera roll; however, when I tried to say not, an “Oops!” message popped up, as if I had accidentally clicked no instead of yes. The message said “Snapchat is a camera app! To continue, you’ll need to allow camera access in settings”. Not only did they encourage me to turn on access for my camera roll, but they did it for the microphone as well. I found that almost all social media applications, including the three that I analyzed, require some form of access to a function on your phone in order for it to be used properly.

j('a').prepend('Allegedly, ');

j('span').append(' According to Buzzfeed');
j('h2').append(' According To Buzzfeed');

j('a').append(' Up My Ass');

What am I doing? I am an adult!

This week I thought I’d focus on the snapchat update. The new update is absolutely horrifying; in the old version, the snapchats you received and snapchat stories were in separate windows, making it very easy to avoid watching snap stories if you didn’t care about what others were doing. Now, the snapchat stories are on the same page as the snapchats you receive, essentially promoting stories and trying to get you to engage with the application more. It is more confusing, and a less attractive set up. It makes me not want to open snapchats because then I feel almost compelled to watch stories, especially when the feature is on the same screen. And it’s not just me that hates this update; people all over twitter and facebook are freaking out about how terrible it is and how everyone wants the old version back.

Option 1: Sephora. How dare you. You think this is a game? My wallet is not a fan of this. I became a Sephora member recently and this has been on the emails and in the app I downloaded. I started treating this like a game unintentionally, like I want more points, gotta get more points. I want a better status. Are there even better statuses? I thought about this for days, when I get my next pay check, what I want to buy, how many points those items are worth, it’s just like a mobile game but with real money and a lot of real money because nothing is cheap there. Well played, Sephora, well played. The points do mean something, they get you items, generally trial sized stuff to get you to buy more. However, to get points, I don’t get to play a game for free, I have to pay with my hard earned money. I may be more likely to buy things I don’t need to get more points. I feel more attached and I’m more likely to go to Sephora for my beauty needs rather than any other story because I don’t want to miss out on points. A lot of stores do this now but I only really noticed it here. With something like Walgreens, I don’t care about it as much. I need to go there for medication and such, CVS is dead to me now, why go anywhere else? Sephora… I just have feelings. I avoided it, it’s useful, and the sales associates are very, very good at their job. I should be more careful.

As I was scrolling through Facebook on my desktop this very subtle, unassuming post showed up between the normal posts on my feed. At first I skimmed right over it, but then I went back to take a closer look. Introducing new features over a colorless post on my feed vs. though an email or through the brightly colored pinned feature posts at the very top of my feed seems like an odd way for Facebook to showcase this kind of information. It made me think that Facebook is required to update me on changes to their service but they’re almost hoping for me to miss it.  Their language seems intentionally worded to scare me or guilt me into not turning off this feature. “Oh don’t worry, you are totally in control of everything on this website — at Facebook, we put the user in control….buuuuuut…….here’s why you should still do what we want anyway: if you turn this off people will steal your identity, you’ll be hurting disabled people, and what if you miss out on the next cool feature??” The Learn More page gives no more information about features using facial recognition (it’s the same message but with pretty illustrations of happy people) except it includes detailed steps on how to turn it off (and makes it seem a lot more complicated then it is).

It made me start thinking about how much Facebook knows what I look like. What “features” are they using this data for that they aren’t telling me about? Who else has access to this kind of information? Why do they want to be able to identify my face so badly? I decided to turn off the facial recognition feature, and I’m interested to see if it impacts my experience using Facebook in any way.

I think it’s interesting that you can choose to see fewer informational posts from Facebook or report their own post back to them.

Three posts later this article showed up on my feed…coincidence??