The Diary of Kristina’s Two Brain Cells

Learning about the Salem Witch Hysteria was interesting. The fact that this happened in the early modern era shows how this was going on even as we moved to a more logical and scientific world. It also baffled me how they were accusing people based off of literally nothing. You were likely to be accused if you were financially unstable or too financially independent, or if you were too young or too old, which includes literally everyone. The justice system has made a lot of progress since these times, and that is definitely a relief.  One thing that truly surprised me was the idea of ergotism and how the fungus, ergot, could have actually had effects on individuals, causing "witch-like behavior," like delusions, muscle spasms, and hysteria. I also believe it was a way for people to find something to blame for the issues and social tensions going on at the time. It's a lot easier for people to cope or accept hardships when they have someone or something to blame.  It was a...

Today's class was a blast. Our assignment to create a social engineering scam was fun because it gave us the opportunity to be on the other side of phishing attempts for once. Our group created the QR code to RSVP for the Chainsmokers concert, and I'm confident that this social engineering attempt would work if we put those posters up around campus. It looks real because of the TCU logo, the Crew logo, and it would be on campus so there's no reason for someone to immediately question it. We also added the urgency effect by offering a chance to win a meet and greet if you filled out the GoogleForm within the next hour.  It was hilarious when Dr. Williams revealed that he appointed a person in each group to try and steal personal information from the other group members. This worked excellently because each of us were busy/distracted working on the assignment and trying to make it convincing, while also conversing with each other about various other topics. When Grace asked t...

This journal entry is regarding the phishing topic from 9/10 (I just got the time to write this entry). I truly enjoyed the presentation by Mia and Olivia. They were comfortable in front of the class, and the class was engaging a fair amount as well. I also enjoyed their use of videos in their presentation which made it more interesting. Anyways, I learned a few things too.  I learned that people often use your emotions against you by using things like trust, fear, curiosity, and most prominently, a sense of urgency to get you to bypass any critical thinking and be deceived or successfully phished (probably not an actual term). Again, it's a reminder to pause in everyday life and to be skeptical when things seem a little too good, just like we learned from Dr. Rich Enos and his discussion over propaganda and perception vs reality. For example, someone brought up how a girl tried befriending her but instead was trying to do some fishy (get it?) things on her phone. This was slightly...

Yesterday in class, Dr. Rich Enos came and discussed perception and persuasion. I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Enos and the way he was able to keep us engaged in what he was talking about. The card trick in the beginning really tricked me at first, and then I was able to figure out what happened once he started talking again. This reinforces the idea that we need to pause and reflect in order to sort out the fallacies from what is actually truth.  His demonstration of Mia (the baby) and Fang (the diamondback) was a wonderful way to help us experience the difference between perception and reality. Not only does it educate us on perception, it allows us to understand other people during times where we have different realities. For example, if there's a misunderstanding between me and another person, it's most likely just a difference in perception and what we think is true. Learning that time is a factor in persuasion is also applicable to real life because oftentimes, we need to just ...

Today in class, we watched Paper Moon , and I genuinely thought it was a charming and entertaining movie. I enjoyed the relationship between Moses and Addie and how it developed throughout the movie. In the beginning, Moses seems concerned only with himself and making money. Addie, on the other hand, showed to be street-smart, which is unexpected from a 9 year old girl. I liked how Addie stood up for herself and even helped others out in the movie. It showed her compassion, and it compliments Moses because they balanced each other out and challenge each other. Having Addie around seemed to make him care about someone other than himself, which Moses probably needed in his life. Their relationship made me think about how sometimes the people we meet can influence us and bring out parts of our personality that we might not normally show, and how others can bring out the best in you and help you develop. The movie also connected to what we have been learning about confirmation bias, propag...