Final blog post- technology

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 Technology has become one of the biggest achievements of mankind and seems to keep expanding in ways we have never even thought possible. My relationship with technology isn't the best at all, I’m not afraid to admit that. I used to think technology was the best, and as I have matured and grown over the past few years, I can’t stand to be on my phone much anymore. Now don’t get me wrong, technology saves me in times of need. I don't know the answer to something? Google it. I want to talk to a long-distance friend face to face? Facetime or video call her. Do I need an uber or groceries dropped off? Just place an order. There are beautiful, exciting, and amazing things that technology can supply us within society to make our everyday needs so much easier to leave more time for fun, adventure, and hard work. Except there is one issue, we don't go on more adventures or work harder, we just turn to technology to supply it which is where I find an issue with it. As a society, we are under the assumption that technology is so great because we can make our lives easier and save time for work and other fun activities, except we are lying to ourselves. The other “fun activities” and “hard work” are just us using our phones to entertain or distract ourselves from the world around us. What really changed my personal relationship with technology was actually a video I saw on Twitter funny enough. The video said that we only live on our phones and devices because we are trying to constantly distract ourselves from dealing with real-life issues. When we have a bad day we don't try to sit in our thoughts and figure out why it was bad, we just turn on a Youtube video or play an online game or go scrolling through our social media feeds for hours to distract ourselves from feeling those emotions. In my opinion, technology has created a society so out of touch with themselves and so involved in judging and watching others' lives that they often forget to live their own. Since seeing this video I feel like I've become so much more hesitant at trying to let technology take over my day and I try to come to terms with my emotions, what I’m feeling, and how to make myself truly happy. Truth is, If we ignore our emotions and suppress them by trying to distract ourselves with technology, we will never find true happiness. 

    When it comes to information, I feel as if technology has provided me with some amazing information keeping me up to date with what’s going on, but also provides very misleading information that many believe. In terms of politics, nobody knows what is true anymore and what isn't. You have one side saying their new sources are all facts and the other side saying their news sources are true. Even fact-checker websites have become opinionated and skewed to one side or the other. I know I’m still young, only being 21, but I still feel as if this is the worst I’ve ever seen fake news platforms be present with fake news in every direction and stories twisted and messed with to fit certain agendas. With all of this fake news rhetoric going on, I do often find myself worried not so much for myself but for others. I feel as if I'm at a point in my life where I really do research into news stories, not just looking at one media site but seeing both sides to an issue or story and formulating an opinion. However, people who don't care or know enough about fake news sources may look at a story, believe it, and share it with others creating false news narratives and creating more fake news bias. 

    When it comes to friends and family I feel as if technology has the same mixed emotions as it does for me. So many times I'll be with friends and they seem not present mentally in our conversations and are distracted by something on their devices. My family seems to struggle with technology as it seems like we never really have true real family conversations anymore and even when we have dinner everyone is glued to their phones not actually knowing our everyday life updates but getting that information from each other's online presence. I have to say, technology has strengthened my long-distance relationships with family and friends that I'll forever be thankful for it. Starting off, I’m at college in North Carolina but my family is back home on Long Island, New York. If I'm ever lonely or missing them and want to check in, I don't need to mail them a letter and wait for days to receive one back, I can just call them or text them or check-in and see how they are. My best friends growing up both moved away and I've been long-distance and because of technology, I can video call them and get in contact with them. 

    When it comes to my digital online footprint, it doesn't tell much about the real me at all. My Instagram is simply just pictures of me where I feel I “look best” but it doesn't represent how I look most days when I'm in comfy loungewear. I am not too active on Facebook but on Twitter, I can see an employer getting upset. My Twitter is full of me retweeting and liking other people's tweets regarding some controversial political issues. If an employer wanted to do a deep search to find my Twitter and see what I like and respond to and the company doesn't agree with it, I can see them not hiring me which is a negative aspect I want to try to avoid. I feel like it’s just challenging in today's world because with everyone living in this virtual world, we naturally want to express our feelings, emotions, and opinions no matter what the issue is. However, we have to face consequences because whatever is posted online can be viewed by anyone and shared around. When I did a quick Google search of myself, I noticed that only one picture of me comes up and that is to my LinkedIn account which I am proud of and want employers to see and research. Overall, in general, I feel like so many people are starting to wake up and want to quit social media. The issue isn't quitting, it’s the fear of missing out. I’ve tried to quit social media several times and it’s great the first few days until you rely on everyone else who is still on there. Everyone is communicating there, everyone is making plans there, everyone is using it for school and work-related things, etc. People here and there quitting isn't enough to change society. Society has undergone way too many technological advances to go back. I also feel there is a sense of privacy violation where your family or friends can post you or your life updates without permission. After reading about this 14 year olds social media issue, I felt for her. I also feel as if I'm constantly telling my mom “don't post that on Facebook of me” and her giving me the, “why? You look fine!” Genuinely it can be a lack of trust, respect, and privacy having pictures, moments, and videos shared of you that you don't want the world to see.  The first video from an older time period showing the positive effects of social media was fascinating to me because it’s similar to how we look at technology today. Even though we now have all these amazing advancements with all their pros and cons, it’s interesting to me to see how we always look for the next best thing. We view the idea of new 4d technology and virtual reality as mesmerizing and amazing but we don't consider the negative effects even seeing the ones it has with our already existing technology. I just hope to limit my exposure and use technology for the positives and not look too far into all the negatives. 

Blog #9- Diffusion Theory

    The diffusion theory focuses on how fast, how, and why new technology and ideas spread. While looking at this theory, we must consider five important factors regarding how the diffusion theory properly works. A professor of communication, Everett Rogers, states the five factors are the innovation itself, communication channels, time, a proper social system and adopters of the idea or invention as a whole. The pager is an invention that has rapid growth throughout the years but also grew in popularity and usage. The pager caught on so quickly in society due to its efficiency and a way to make things easier. The pager allowed for messages to be conveyed in a much more convenient way than before. When it comes to new technical inventions, people can adopt the invention into their lives at different speeds or paces with some being early adopters and some being later on. Two important characteristics to docs on when it comes to adopting a new invention are motivation and ability. Figuring out why people need this item and how it will benefit their family life to make it easier can determine how quickly and efficiently your product is going to be. When it comes to the pager, people could communicate with each other without the need to be face to face with them.

    People who adopted pagers early on were most likely looking for easier, more convenient ways to communicate and were willing and able to learn how to use the new product and the good that comes out of it. People may have become late adopters because they may have not known how to use the pager or felt that it had no usage for them personally. Depending on what generation you were a part of, people in society may have adopted quicker than others how to use it and how it will benefit them in their life. When we compare Pagers to the technology we have today, we can see the negatives such as the fact they only connect to one channel at a time. However, at the time the pager was a highly successful and useful way to connect to people. I also see the age being a gateway towards the new addictive technology we have today. Quick forms of communication such as telephones and cell phones were established as a form of communicating digitally at a faster pace than original inventions created before it. The pager allowed us to advance our communication technology which as a whole has had a substantial impact on our society both positive and negative.

    Overall, I’d say that the pager was a positive addition to society because it was one of the first times people could communicate through a channel without needing to be in person. It was also great for police stations when it was first invented which gave communication for keeping communities safe more effective. Although pagers have over time faded out from being a popular new invention, they still can be used when communicating especially seen in hospitals and health care settings, and this invention allowed society to have an easier and technology-based way to communicate. This invention also led to more inventions that make our society the way it is today. Through the lens of the diffusion theory, we can see and study the way people picked up on this invention and how it forever changed and shaped their life in different ways. 

Blog #8 EOTO #2- Alternative Media

    Alternative Media are news sources or media outlets that aren’t considered “mainstream” and tend to be left or right-biased leaning sources. When you think of big mainstream media sources, they are all large corporations and many are owned by the same big corporation skewing what each news source covers and the narrative they are trying to convey. Mainstream media has such a large diverse audience that they are able to often or what people see, hear, and overall believe based on what they report. Alternative media are great for conveying new and different recipes to people rather than just mainstream media. Alternative news is not corporate-based and is non-profit meaning that they aren't in it for the money but rather to teach and inform people of current issues and topics. Many of these alternative media sites provide facts, news stories, and more informative information you don't hear about much on the mainstream news. Examples of some keywords for news sources that are considered alternative would be “radical”, “independent”, “progressive”, and “activist.”

    My personal favorite alternative media site is https://patriotpost.us/. This source is a right learning pro-freedom site that left-leaning individuals may consider “radical.” I personally find mainstream media nowadays to focus on specific left-leaning narratives and try to cover up any mistakes our current administration makes. No administration or government is perfect, but by not acknowledging mistakes or issues, we can't fix them as a nation and grow. Alternative sites like this will address issues that are occurring with reliable solutions that the mainstream media will not cover. A current example is President Biden is only considering a black woman for the new upcoming supreme court vacancy. The mainstream media is praising this decision saying how great it is to promote diversity but this blog site talks about how it shouldn't matter the gender or color of an individual, but their knowledge and attitude they will bring to the table. Instead of focusing on the color or gender of someone, we should focus on who they are inside.

    Alternative media can be great for our future generations as it can provide people with more outlooks to get their news. We as a society have become so lazy that we love to just turn on a news channel and watch any popularly known news sources and trust that everything being said is correct. However, since a lot of what is being reported is all owned by the same company, who is to say all their information is correct? It’s essential that we explore other alternative media sites to learn and also enhance our thoughts on an issue/topic. When looking at different age groups, I think older people would have a high probability of finding an alternative source since they are more aware of them and how to not always trust the mainstream media. Younger people such as kids, teenagers, and young adults tend to believe what they hear on tv since we grew up in an age where television has been our main source of entertainment. Overall, alternative media is a great option to explore topics in news rather than just trusting everything you hear or see on mainstream sources. 

Blog #7- Privacy issues online

      Privacy and surveillance issues across the internet are not only scary but dangerous. It’s extremely uncomfortable to think about all these different people who can be spying on us. The government, criminals, hackers, international spy services, etc. I feel as if our new society run by cell phones and technology is so hesitant to believe this formation. They never think anything bad will happen to them and are so addicted and caught up in the everyday flow of technology that they don't realize the dangers that can come with it. Dariath’s story really touched me with her nude photos hitting the internet. He was not just some random hacker or person, but someone who she personally knew who stalked her to the point of obsession and went to bend her back to post them on the internet. These issues can affect anyone from me to my friends and family. I was passionate about this issue and decided to ask my friends what they thought about these privacy issues and out of all 13 of the people I asked, they all said they already know that the government, as well as other people, are looking at their data and online presence. Somehow, it didn’t bother them because they said that they don't think anything bad could happen from it. It’s “normal” to them. However, this issue isn’t something we should just sit back and watch happen but we should try to stop and make the most change we can.

   The government should definitely be looking into these issues, especially with potential foreign companies stealing our data and tracking us. However, there is a huge part of me that believes that our own U.S government tracks our information and spies on us through our phones. The government needs to pass harder laws restricting the use of hacking and most important stealing data and information. Dariath went into detail during her speech about how hard, expensive, and confusing it was to make small minimal efforts of deleting the pictures off of the website. Our government needs to create more awareness and a more stable plan and what to do if that happens and harder and more strict punishments for those who do break the law by exposing people or violating their perusal online information. We can protect ourselves by not looking anything up or flashing our camera anywhere you wouldn't be comfortable showing the world. We often feel like our phone is a mini bubble but sadly that just isn't true. We as a society need to remember that someone may always be watching so don't take explicit pics, don't look up stuff that you wouldn't be comfortable sharing with others, and make sure your phone camera isn't violating yourself. Overall, I really hope we can come together as a society to slowly bring more awareness to privacy issues on the internet and proper and easy solutions to solve them in a timely manner.

Blog #6- EOTO new information

                            

                                                  Blog 6- EOTO new information

      During the EOTO presentations, I learned some very interesting information about inventions we all love and know today. I thought everyone presented the history very well and I found myself most focused on the impact of these inventions because that is important for shaping our future. After hearing all of them I’d have to say the most interesting history of an invention was the pager and the carrier pigeon.

    

The pager began in 1921 and started out as a way for cops to communicate which I found to be a very interesting fact I never knew. My dad is an officer back home in New York and after telling him this information he found that his work headquarters actually had some old original pagers from the time cops were using them which was very interesting to me considering how long it's been since they came out. Pagers were developed in the late ’90s into two-way pagers where people could reply directly from their devices. Some pros of the pager would be that they can be used in dead zones which I think is the most impact factor to consider. We as a society have so heavily relied on service and data and wifi and with the pager even in an area with no reception, they can still be used to communicate or get a message across. Another great pro is that they are inexpensive and typically have a long battery life making them easy to access and can last for long periods of time if needed. One of the most crucial cons to focusing on is the fact that they can only really connect to one network at a time which makes it hard for fast efficient communication as we know it today. When the pager first came out, It was an incredible invention that really made an impact on communication. However, if we still today tried to go back to using the original pagers we would get frustrated as we are so used to having everything move at lightning speed at the tips of our fingers with our phones, new pagers, and other forms of digital communication. I also found the carrier pigeons to be very different from other presentations because it involves live animals and it’s not how we transport any mail today. Carrier pigeons were great for sending mail when needed back in the day, especially during war times when people had to get their messages across as quickly and conveniently as they could, which at the time, was using birds. Now we have people to deliver mail as well as most mail being virtual. For that slim period of time, we had one of the coolest ways of transporting mail to others and for this reason, I was highly entertained during this presentation hearing about an invention that died off but the legacy of it lives on forever.




Overall, all of the EOTO presentations were interesting because we don't typically look into the history of any inventions we have today, we just live our lives without even thinking of it. With that being said, the pager and carrier pigeon were the most interesting to me and I will definitely be doing more research on the history and impact of these inventions.

Blog #5 - Anti War

 

                                                        Antiwar Blog Post 

       After exploring ANTIWAR.COM and American Conservative, I found intriguing information on a stance that is typically not seen in the mainstream media. It’s no secret that in today's current world most of our mainstream media seems to be very pro-government and always comes up with an excuse as to why they do what they do. Having some of the biggest sources people get their news from is biased and aims towards one side of news and back the government silences strong conservative sites like these. The main reason for this is that websites like these don’t fit the typical mainstream media narrative. War provides the news with a good dreadful story and coverage with a story to attract viewers and have people trust them to report the news. I never really truly paid attention to this phenomenon until Covid-19 hit the world. I started to notice that no matter what was happening in the world, it was the only topic the news would cover, making me believe the media loves reporting the native aspects of life. If mainstream media and big government want the country to be run a certain way, they are going to try to push the narrative online by hiding big conservative sites like this and promoting their agenda to get more people to follow along and agree. It’s a fact that it’s much harder to find strong conservative articles or websites from a google search than strong left-leaning views websites.

I personally love seeing different viewpoints all across the web even though I am confident in where I stand in terms of media sources I trust and my own personal beliefs. I think we should be able to search for controversial topics and have pro-war and antiwar websites come up in order to give us a variety. This issue seems to be an issue of silenced vs unsilenced voices through the internet and media. The unsilenced feel that that war would be good for the economy and production of goods and the silenced believe the war would be awful for us to engage in.

 Overall, strong anti-war and conservative websites struggle to get proper recognition and media spotlight the same way pro-war viewpoints do. It’s important to always hear both sides to an issue and present the public with both viewpoints for people to understand and have the choice to easily read and make their own decision about where they stand and what they believe.

Blog #4- The discovery of Netlifx

                                                         

                                                                   History 

     Netflix has become a platform truly like no other where people can stream all their favorite shows, documentaries, and movies. However, the Netflix we know today didn't always start out this way. Back in 1997, Netflix was first founded by Reed Hastings and co-founder Marc Randolph. According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/Netflix-Inc the platform first started out as an idea with DVD rentals being involved. At this time, DVDs were first being invented and Netflix was able to provide a perfect way for DVD companies to earn recognition and also get their new DVD rental service business. In 199 the official subscription service began where people could rent DVDs and they would be sent to their house along with a return DVD envelope so they could return the DVD when they were done. At the time, the use of having a subscription service for these DVDs was an amazing discovery and one that really shaped the future of Netflix as a whole. Netflix has always been very good at adapting to the new technology in society by improving its streaming service over the years. In 2007, Netflix provided subscription users with the option to watch all their favorite tv shows and movies on the internet in their own homes by going to Netflix.com and getting to rent movies through the internet. In 2010, Netflix started to develop into the Netflix we know and love today by introducing their first unlimited streaming plan where people could subscribe to the platform and in return receive unlimited streaming of anything of their choice. Today, Netflix is still an unlimited streaming platform with many tv show series and movies of their own that have become very popular throughout the years. Netflix is constantly uploading what is on and off the app in terms of old throwbacks and new things to watch. Platforms like Netflix Party have also emerged where we are seeing a multiple-person platform where several people are able to watch a Netflix tv show or movie at the same time. The main goal Netflix started out trying to attempt was to provide a fun DVD rental service where people could easily access their favorite tv shows and movies and from there with the ongoing technological advancements, they were able to expand on their company and invent it into the service we love today, unlimited streaming straight from our bedroom! 

 

    

                                                           Impact

Netflix has had a very interesting impact on our everyday lives as it has become the most popular streaming service in the world. A very interesting impact Netflix has is the ability for people in countries all over the world to use their platforms. The service provides captions in many different languages as well as international movies ranging from voice-overdubs to captions and even remakes in different languages. Netflix is allowing many people to not only just watch and be entertained, but the opportunity to learn from other cultures. A good example is squid game, one of the most popular Netflix shows of all time that recently came to Netflix. The show originated in Korea and was originally filmed in Korean with hired voice actors to re-record the audio in english. I personally learned so much from just this show such as the way people typically live in Korea, the economic system there, the markets there, and just the overall way of life. I was able to gain helpful insight into another country whale still getting entertained by a fictional show. Netflix has opened a whole new window for adapting people to new cultures and helping all around the world understand each other. One of the biggest benefits overall is to provide entertainment for people to escape their everyday life. Netflix has become a social gathering platform where people or couples will come together to watch something on the platform promoting social interaction yet entertaining with technology. With that being said, there are still negatives. One of the biggest is that it distracts you from daily life too much. One feature the streaming platform has recently developed is when you binge-watch a show, it will automatically play the next episode within 5 seconds before you can even click play or stop it from continuing. According to https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/heres-how-to-turn-off-netflixs-pesky-autoplay-trailers/ people can go into posting and turn this feature off, but it does initially come with the program itself which is a very distorting feature. Overall Netflix improved on entertainment through technology to a great extent. People can now come together to watch all of their favorite movies and shows and stream from the comfort of their own homes.