Chapter 8

"Inside" barely covers computer reliability. Only one aspect of computer reliability is discussed in the movie: algorithmic bias. During the song, "Welcome to the Internet" Bo Burnham sings about the internet and how people can see all sorts of things [1]. Even things that people do not want to see, which could be classified as an error with the algorithm used for predicting people's interests. For example, Burnham sings: 

Here's a tip for straining pasta. Here's a nine-year-old who died [2]

This quote says how unpredictable algorithms can be sometimes. Social media companies have struggled with producing algorithms that are always able to appeal to their audience. Twitter had 1698 complaints about scary content, abusive content, and adult content [3]. This shows the inaccuracy of social media algorithms and how people do not like being suggested bad content. 

However, not discussed directly in the movie, the idea of people's trust in information online and the internet's reliability is in the background. When surveying people, the average trust in the internet is a 6 out of 10 [4]. This means that people understand that there can be valuable information, but that not all information found online is to be trusted. Only three percent of people had full trust in the internet and what they might run into there [4]. Many people had skepticism regarding who they might talk to and what they might see on the internet [4]. 

During Inside, Bo Burnham consistently brings up COVID-19. COVID-19 impacted people's confidence in online news outlets. People were more likely to trust the government than news outlets regarding COVID-19 information [5]. This significant difference is due to people's uncertainty regarding information about COVID-19 [5]. Not only was information reliability impacted by COVID-19, but also the reliability of the internet. During COVID-19, there was a 30% spike in internet usage [6]. Before COVID-19, we had the infrastructure for millions of livestreaming devices and could handle the increase in the downstream [6]. However, because of COVID-19, there was suddenly a need for people to be in video calls, which had upstream quantities that were not supported [6]. Upstream data rates would fall one third during the day because of this lack of support and internet speed complaints increased by 176% [6]. Overall, COVID-19 impacted people's trust in information and caused frustration when the internet failed to do tasks it had not needed to do before. 

Notes

Computer Reliability: 

Algorithmic Bias: (is face scanning, face ID referenced at all) 

• Talk about how algorithms are biased and they help shape our perceptions and behaviors

System failures: Information being unreliable

Data-Entry or Data-Retrieval Errors:

None seem present

Software and Billing Errors:

None seem present

Notable Software System Failures:

None seem present

Sources

[1] "Inside" by Bo Burnham (56:30)

[2] "Inside" by Bo Burnham (57:30)

[3] Gongane V. et al., Detection and moderation of detrimental content on social media platforms: current status and future directions, (Springer Link, Sept. 5th 2022),

 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13278-022-00951-3 (09/22/2024)

[4] Dutton W. et Shepherd A., Trust in the Internet as an Experience Technology (Nov. 20th 2006),  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691180600858606?scroll=top&needAccess=true#d1e437 (09/30/2024)

[5] Buturoiu R. et al., Trust in Information Sources During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Romanian Case Study, (Degruyter, Sept. 10th 2022), https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/commun-2020-0052/html (09/30/2024)

[6]  Dahiya S. et al., Lessons from Internet Use and Performance During Covid-19, (Scholarly Publishing Collective, Dec. 1st 2021), https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/information-policy/article/doi/10.5325/jinfopoli.11.2021.0202/292023/Lessons-from-Internet-Use-and-Performance-During (09/30/2024)