Humanities

During class, we were tasked with reading various sources regarding different philosophies for education, then we were tasked with writing an opinionated essay on one topic we found relevant. My essay presents a defense for standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. Though there are many reasons to hate these tests, treating them as if they are inaccurate or as if they surpress certain populations would be contradictory to data collected on this topic. I have written my essay using various sources cited on the final page.

It is easy to understand why people hate the SAT – it's a standardized test that has racist origins and stresses students. However, findings from various publications indicate that the SAT, though imperfect, is a more impartial measure than most other college admissions metrics, and that it shows less of a bias to high-income students than various other admissions metrics do. Arguments to ban these tests are usually in good faith; however, these attempts may cause more harm than good for the people they are trying to help.

This project is a satire that we have made in order to explain dark patterns in websites. Dark patterns are when websites make it hard for the user to exercise their rights. The example we chose to focus on is the example of sites making online privacy very difficult. We made a satirical game where the goal is to disable cookies on a website, which you can play in the frame.

Privacy isn't the only place dark patterns show up – advertisements often put fake X buttons, subscription services often take many clicks to cancel, and delivery apps often share deals at the very end of your purchase to encourage more spending. Though there are legal requirements for online services in order to ideally prevent these dark patterns, regulations are often avoided by technicalities and tricks. Make sure to be aware of such patterns next time you're browsing.