Technology and its Relationship With Us (Final Post)

For as long as I can remember my life has revolved around all sorts of technology. A vivid memory is when I was around 4 years old and I would constantly beg my Dad to bring me to preschool early in the morning so I could be the first to play on the computer to ensure I would get my turn for the day. This shows that even from a young age I have felt attached to technology; the same goes for today as it has truly turned into our whole world. 

Technology can easily be identified as one of the world's best inventions as it has evolved greatly within the past century. I mean it all started with the radio and now we practically have tiny computers that we carry in our pockets. There are so many technology benefits, especially our phones, as they create an easier lifestyle for us to do many things like staying connected with loved ones, looking up how many calories are in a banana, calculating how much you should tip on a $53 bill, and much so much more you could write a novel on how much our phones do. Although technology can be extremely beneficial to all of us, it can also have many negative aspects on everybody, especially my generation. Many people argue that people's relationships with technology can be healthy or unhealthy, but when it comes to me and our generation I feel that most people did have healthy relationships but evolved into unhealthy ones as time goes on.

Most people my age were so excited to get iPod touches and iPads in middle school because we saw our parents with cell phones so we felt just like them with the next best thing that Apple had released at the time. At this time we were using these devices to play games like Temple Run, make funny videos on VideoStar, and take fun selfies with cool effects. Technology at this time was all fun and games until we discovered the fun of social media.

In 2010 many social media platforms were released and became popular instantly once they hit the appstore. Instagram was the first one that people my age downloaded first and people would just post selfies and pictures of what they did daily.  Snapchat, released in 2011, was also the next big platform for us to be on. We would use funny filters, start streaks (a streak of the number of days you Snapchat with each other), and just like Instagram we would post lots of timestamps throughout our day for our friends to see. Instagram and Snapchat went from a fun and welcoming platform at this time but the more it gained in popularity the more Instagram became less of a "game" where you would post every uplifting moment of your day to a place where you post once in a blue moon and feel insecure. 

In 2015 suicide rates, specifically in women, had been the highest it had been in decades and is sought out to be linked the social media. Many people on these platforms began to spread hateful words, also known as cyberbullying, toward people and it would tear down girls' self-esteem. Since these comments were behind a screen, many of these children's parents were not aware that these comments were being made and there was no disciplinary action behind their actions. These comments were mostly about girls' looks and how they were not good enough looking, needed to lose weight and so much worse that I will not disclose as I will get emotional. The worst part about all this was the fact that many people who were friends with the people who would make these comments would agree to be "cool" which spread the wrong message on these platforms. Receiving these comments is horrible, as I experienced it first hand when I was younger, and it really makes you feel awful about your appearance so you start to compare yourself to others. 

As time went on the comments became way less of an issue when it came to insecurities, the true issue now was just comparing yourself to what you saw online about other people's looks. More and more people have begun to post themselves and their lives online and there are now "influencers," who are people who have a decent following and post relatable content for the public to see. These influencers always perceive themselves online to have a perfect life; going to these amazing places, being beautiful people, and usually they are making a living off of it. Since we look up to these people because of their beauty and lifestyles when they express to their followers that they use certain products or participate in certain activities, we instantly feel the need to go out and buy these products or go and participate in those activities.  But some of the time what these influencers are displayed as online are not who they truly are off of the screen.

 Many people like to use Photoshop, Facetune, or a crazy amount of filters to make themselves look perfect to the public. Studies have shown that over 71% of people use some sort of face tuning on their photos before they upload them to social media. Social media platforms practically encourage people to use these "beauty filters" and Facetune as Snapchat and TikTok have them built into their camera features so you can butcher yourself to look however you feel most confident. The more people use these types of features the more people feel like they need to look a certain way, and this causes people our age to have such an unhealthy relationship with social media. When watching the "Mad World Remix of Moby" video created by Julian West, if you play the clip from the video that goes from 1:20 to 1:24 it shows a perfect example of how many people feel behind the screen and on the screen. As someone who does feel this unhealthy connection with social media and the looks aspect of it being the major reason behind that, this clip is a great example of how to really feels. We make ourselves feel like we must be exactly like the person next to us and the concept of social media does not help that feeling lessen. 

Although the perception of people on social media is a huge part of the unhealthy relationship with technology, the amount of time spent on technology is also a major factor in technology being unhealthy for us teenagers and young adults. For me personally, my screentime average most of the time ranges from 7 to 10 hours a day, with most of my time being on these social media platforms taking up the majority of the time used. So even though many of us who use these platforms feel insecure and feel we must follow a certain lifestyle to live up societies standards, we still continue to use these platforms because watching these influencers is addicting. This indicates that my relationship with technology is super unhealthy; one because I constantly feel I need to follow certain standards and look a certain way, but two I spend most of my time out of my day on some sort of technology. When I am off my phone I am most likely watching TV or using my laptop for school work, which makes it so I am constantly in front of a screen. 

Overall, technology has so many features and devices linked to it that help us through each day of our lives greatly and we couldn't picture our lives without our technology. However, there are many negative aspects and addictions to technology that create this unhealthy relationship when it comes to us and our connection with it. I can easily admit that I have an unhealthy relationship with technology for many reasons, but overall the main reason would have to be the way social media makes me feel daily because that feeling follows you to reality off of the screen. I hope to one day have a healthier relationship with social media but I must take it one step at a time to make it there.

The Age of AI (Blog #11)

Our lives evolve daily with the ample technology we have invented over the past several decades. One form of technology that has significantly developed in our lifetimes is Artificial Intelligence, also known to us as AI. Even though AI can be helpful throughout our busy days, it can also be harmful in scary the deeper you look into it. When I went through and watched  "The Age of AI" Frontline episode released by PBS, it gave many reasons why AI can be useful but also the other side of things that can be harmful or terrifying when you think too deeply about what AI truly is.

AI does have a positive reflection when it comes to our everyday lives and can make them drastically
easier with all the robotic machines that are used by many different companies. Many companies have robots fulfilling orders in warehouses because the technology moves at a rate that humans cannot possibly stay at consistently, which allows the companies to fulfill way more orders throughout the day compared to when humans would fulfill them. As this can technically be seen as damaging due to human jobs being replaced by these machines, which is true, it opens up other job opportunities to other positions that need to be filled. For example, at some Amazon warehouses, they have robotic equipment packing orders or sorting what needs to be packaged by human associates. This creates a faster rate of orders being ready to be shipped which means they would need to hire more truck drivers since there would now be many more trucks filled. So in reality yes people are losing their jobs but these jobs being lost gain room for more job openings in other areas of the company.

Continuing with the topic of Amazon and AI, Amazon has its whole line of "Echo" products that are constructed by AI. This technology allows you to use a keyword to activate the listening feature of the device and then after you speak it proceeds to give you an answer. These devices are useful in our lives as they answer questions so you don't have to go looking for them, help manage other electronic features in your house, and also help people communicate with one another. These great products are useful, but also no one ever thinks about the data they begin to collect from everything you demand the product do. Over time they begin to grasp an understanding of the things we like and what we do daily, and they use this information to promote specific features, websites, companies, and more to you as you scroll through your devices. Just think about it, if a company can take your data and use it don't you think other people around the world can too, this is where it becomes scary.

Everywhere you go nowadays there tends to be a camera in every corner you look in and these cameras can gain a lot more information than you think. When watching the video they discussed a company called "Megvii" which is known for its advanced surveillance systems that are seen out in public areas. Supposedly these cameras can detect people, but not just by the look of their faces. These cameras help identify people by the way they walk, where they are seen going, and even by their license plates which are tracked place by place until you reach the driveway of your home. These companies can know more about you than what you believe you know about yourself, which means that the government could know more about you than what you know about yourself. Security can be important when incidents occur and to stop any harm before it is done, but security like this is just ludicrous and an invasion of privacy. It's also funny to me that if you try to open "Megvii's" website it says "cannot be loaded," something about that doesn't feel right.

Backtracking to AI being a problem when it comes to jobs as it advances, ChatGPT is one of those aspects that can easily ruin our future generations. ChatGPT allows people to look up questions they may have or create certain documents that are requested by these people using the platform. Although this may be super helpful in some cases this platform has grown in users within the past year due to students who do not want to do their homework or write essays. These students are using this tool to cheat on assignments, which isn't even the worst part. because it also means these students are not maintaining any of the information that they are expected to learn. This means that people are gaining these degrees and do not have the proper knowledge that they are expected to know because of the title of the degree they have received. This can cause many issues and have people out of jobs because they do not qualify for them because they never retained knowledge. 

Overall AI is an invention that can perceived as a good thing while it has so many benefits and creates an easier lifestyle for all of us but also has its quirks as it isn't always the safest invention for us when it comes to our personal privacy of just simply living our lives. We must be careful when we continue to live our lives each day as technology could catch up to us at any moment and swipe away the true society we have taken much time to build.

Antiwar Voices Are Not Allowed to be Heard (Blog #9)

 

Freedom of speech is something that all United States Citizens have as it falls under the First Amendment and it is expected to be obeyed every day unless the speech is felt to be incitement, a threat, defamation, or insurrection. Although everyone is allowed to have their opinions with this free speech, a group of people that seem to be punished for free speech they have as citizens are people who believe in antiwar. Honestly, I do not blame this group of people for staying silent about their opinions most of the time because many events occurring in the past and just recently have made people feel isolated with their expression; all of my personal opinions aside. 

If we backtrack all the way back to the Progressive Era, many people were antiwar since World War I was currently in action during this era. From 1914 to 1918 many groups of people flooded the streets expressing their opinions on why the United States should not be at war and how they strongly believed they should just end it right then and there. Even though all these protesters were using their free speech which is protected by The First Amendment, hundreds of people were thrown in jail for voicing their opinions on what they thought was best for the country. Protesting is protected under free speech but in their circumstances, it was like the amendment was no longer implemented.

If we fast-forward to 1989, there was an extremely massive Supreme Court case at the time. A man from Texas named Gregory Lee Johnson is known to be an American Political Activist for his action of burning an American flag outside of a convention center in Texas, as he was trying to voice how he felt about President Ronald Regan being in office in 1984. This sparked controversy because many people believed that this could fall under the First Amendment while others believed that it was a stab in the back to America. After many years of an extremely tough court case, it was finalized that burning an American Flag is seen as an expressive action and voice that was now protected under the First Amendment. It is interesting to see that burning a flag is protected yet people who were expressing free speech about how they observed the war were throwing people in jail.  

Recently reported, there have been many college students at Yale and New York University who are part of antiwar groups who have been arrested for voicing how they feel about the current wars that are taking place around the world. When you see this in the news as someone who believes in antiwar it doesn't make you want to voice your opinions, so I truly do not blame antiwar believers to keep hush most of the time. Free speech is something that everyone has no matter what opinions they believe in, but the United States likes to hide these voiced opinions of antiwar supporters and their solution is to bring people to jail to lessen these voices being brought to the public eye. They want people to believe in the United States' decisions and not believing in the war makes it seem you do not support the country you live in. As Americans, we encourage people to believe in our country and what our country is currently doing when taking action. Are all these antiwar protests that are happening around America with people thinking they have so much power over everybody the "right thing to do" to people and the "right way" to voice their opinion on war? Absolutely not. Do these people have a right to do so? According to the First Amendment, Yes.

Citizens need to be able to trust that the amendments that our country emphasizes we have when comes to our freedom, and that starts with not caring how our country is perceived elsewhere in the world but with the government letting people voice what they believe in if it's causing no harm even if they do not agree with what these antiwar groups have to say. Personal opinions need to stay aside, even though it can be hard in a matter like this when you see the free speech they are given going too far. Think about it if it were reversed, would you want to be thrown in jail for voicing your opinion of pro-war? People would easily argue the fact that it is going against your freedom of speech, but when it goes back to antiwar people they aren't allowed to argue that.  The whole point of politics is to hear the other side and the government and mainstream media disallow this to happen, all because they want our country to be seen as perfect by others in the world.

What I learned about Influencers (Blog #10)

 

Mostly all of us are aware of social media and the addiction it has on many around the world. This leads us to catch ourselves scrolling for numerous hours at a time, especially on TikTok, due to the fact that we are entertained by what continuously pops up in our feeds. We do see our friends post quite frequently on our social media platforms, but what we really see more than our friends are influencers.

Influencers are people who influence or inspire others, even though you could consider your mother an influence because she taught you much throughout your life the main thought that comes to people's minds when they hear this definition is the influencers on social media. These influencers typically have a bigger following on social media platforms because the more and more they post relatable videos, the more views they receive from shares by their audience. 

Influencers usually start their journey by posting relatable content and these videos are typically "Get Ready with Me" videos, "Day in the Life" videos, makeup tutorials, cooking tutorials, people who post funny content, and so much more depending on what your feed finds your interest as. These people have become our whole reality, apart from celebrities, and since they have become our generation's reality companies rely heavily on these influencers.

Many brands now collaborate with influencers if they seem to relate to a certain group of products. These brands send out "PR Packages," which are public relations packages that are meant to be opened on camera. These packages are usually put together tremendously well when trying to promote new products that the brand will be launching. These companies will add these influencers to a paid promotion for the brand just to open these boxes on videos and give a review on what they think. This benefits both the influencer and the influencer, as it influences the influencer's viewers to want to buy these products because they see someone they trust using them while also putting money into the company's pocket from these new buyers. 

Although this works most of the time, it can often cause backlash for fans if they splurge on the product and it does not do what the influencer advertised it does. These moments are usually considered " influencer scandals." This can cause the influencers to lose the trust of their followers, which looks bad on not just the influencer but also on the company who paid them to review the product because it is common for these PR package videos to have a disclaimer that says "paid promotion," whether it is in a hashtag or as a label on the videos. 

Overall, influencers have become normalized in society and companies are very much reliant on influencers as they promote many products that create sales. Even if an influencer is simply promoting a product or business without being paid to promote to still benefits the company in sales while also gaining even more trust in the influencers knowing that they are not being paid to say anything specific. 

Overton Window (Blog #8)

Theories are a system of ideas that we all put together to support true facts and evidence and as our society evolves each and every day so does the number of theories brought to the public eye. One theory that our society has recognized more and more each year is the theory of the Overton Window, which was inspired by American policy analyst Joseph Overton in the 1990's.

A simple definition of the Overton Window is that there are a range of politically acceptable and safe policies that can be used in politics. These policies are influenced by society and society's ideas change around us over time. As the Overton Window is the window of acceptable ideas, some policies lie outside this window which can be seen as radical to the public. This window of ideas can expand from more freedom and less freedom as our society and social standards evolve, and politicians tend to know where this window lies when trying to gain the majority vote.

When politics occur, their goal is to stay inside of this window of acceptable ideas and opinions. If it so happens that their ideas fall outside of this window or the public finds reasons for the idea to fall outside of the window can risk defeat when it comes to the majority vote on who to pick.

Examples of how the Overton Window has shifted over time:

• Until 1920 when the 19th Amendment had been added women were not allowed to vote in elections and had little to no rights. Now in our day in age, it is common sense for everyone that women now have these rights.
• Same-sex marriage was not legalized until June 26th, 2015 by the Supreme Court. Although many people still don't necessarily agree with this, it is now a standard in society which shows how this window of the view of same-sex marriage has shifted from unthinkable and unacceptable to popular policy over time. 
• Before 1865, slavery was something that was common and justified as a society. After the 13th Amendment had passed the Overton Window of viewing slavery shifted from popular and acceptable to unthinkable. 

When I began to read more about what the Overton Window was I began to think of the 2020 election, which was Joe Biden vs. Donald J Trump. As we know 2020 was a very interesting year for there to be an election since this was the year the COVID-19 pandemic had progressed significantly. Voting for the 46th United States president was in November of 2020, and at this point, we were not seeing any big difference in how we were dealing with this pandemic. So as someone who wanted to gain a majority vote at the time, Joe Biden stated "When I am elected your president, I'm going to act, and I'm going to act on day one. Folks, we are going to act to get this COVID-19 under control...I'm never going to raise the white flag and surrender. We are going to beat this virus. We are going to get it under control, I promise you." Biden knew that saying this at a time when everyone was fed up and ready to go back to reality would be beneficial to him getting the majority vote, so he continued to promise that the pandemic would begin to settle down. 

Although Biden was then elected after this statement, he didn't quite live up to this expectation that he had set for everyone who had voted for him. So everyone just assumed that since Biden was running for a high-powered position in our country, he would be able to figure it out. So, the Overton Window was based on what he had said in this situation since no factual evidence or science could back up his claim and he knew that he was saying something that the public wanted to hear. 

Once he was in office he did begin to try and put a stop to the pandemic, but he just told everyone to continue wearing masks while we waited for a vaccine that would help. After the vaccine was made he recommended people get it if eligible, but to this day the vaccine is not proven to stop you from ingesting the virus. I remember having to wear a mask in school until March of 2022, and some places around me required us to have a vaccine to even enter the premises. To this day there is still no cure for the virus, and even though we do not follow the rules as we did in 2020, the same amount of people still test positive for this virus if not even more than they did back when the pandemic was at its peak. Although it is a tricky situation since there was no data on this virus, Biden still made a promise to the public and still has not fulfilled it. The claims that Biden had made in his time before and during his time in office show how he used the Overton Window to his advantage to gain this majority vote back in 2020. Now that COVID-19 is not a huge deal like it was back then, anything regarding having to follow protocols about this virus shifted more to unthinkable rather than popular and acceptable. The public and lawmakers believe that the window has sifted was too far right when comparing what he expressed he would complete for the country.

As we continue to evolve as a society the Overton Window should be something that more people should have a better understanding of when they pay attention to. Although I gave a broader example of something related to the Overton Window, many other political aspects that are talked about could be influenced by it, and when looking into more serious governmental aspects we want to be sure we make the best decisions for our public and continue to understand the true meaning of this theory.

Diffusion of Innovations (Blog #7)

Since I did Amazon for my EOTO timeline project, and have a better baseline of knowledge of its evolution, I decided to use this knowledge to my advantage for my discussion on the Diffusion of Innovations. When we hear the word "Amazon," our head goes to many different places; Amazon shopping, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Amazon "Alexa" products, Kindles, and older generations may simply just think of the Amazon Rainforest. Although today my primary focus will be the shopping aspect of Amazon, the example I gave clearly shows how effective Everett Rogers's Diffusion of Innovation theory can be as we continue to evolve our technology.

Rogers's Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that was published in 1962, that expresses how and why technology and people's technological ideas spread at the rate they do.  This theory consists of five main factors that conduct the research for this theory; Social System, Communication Channels, Time, Adoption, and of course Innovation. Social capital plays a massive role in this theory of Rogers, which basically gives us the understanding that the people who use certain technology have their social reasons to be using said technology compared to the people who choose not to.

When it comes to Amazon's online shopping, we see a trend in who uses this platform the most in today's society. Studies conducted from surveys show evidence that people in Generation X and lower are far more likely to online shop compared to senior citizens. The reasoning behind this can be as simple as the fact that older people did not grow up in an environment where they needed to order anything online. They went into this constant groove of going out to the store when they needed or wanted something, and once you are so used to doing something you just continue to roll with it. 

For younger generations, we have grown up in the period in which our parents began to discover the perks of online shopping since they were young enough to like to conquer new things in technology, which then began to rub off on us. Since that is the way we learned to buy things for certain reasons, we picked up a bit of ordering things online rather than in-store. Another huge factor of this was also the 2020 pandemic, since we were glued to our technology and told we could not leave the house. Ordering products online has become a norm for millennials and younger adults. Although Amazon online shopping was still popular before the pandemic, the pandemic allowed us to adopt this invention to our everyday lives. 

Bouncing off the Idea of the pandemic influencing online shopping, particularly for Amazon since it had the fastest and cheapest delivery options, this is easily a negative aspect that online shopping holds on us as a society. Since so many people order everything online now many in-person stores are beginning to close or go bankrupt since you can just order it on Amazon. This is unbeneficial to the business itself and for those older people who have not learned or had an interest in online shopping. 

This brings us to the idea of early adopters vs late adopters of online shopping. Late adopters of online shopping tend to be those who have no choice but to start ordering online, also usually known as older people. Early adopters of online shopping tend to be people under 20 because younger people tend to repeat what they see their parents do around them. Also, younger people keep up with trends more easily than middle-aged to senior-aged people do, and Amazon is one place that is advertised all over social media platforms daily. 

Privacy(Blog #4)

I knew that the world we live in could be a scary place sometimes, but after watching these TED talks about our privacy being invaded each day I feel frightened. It is absolutely horrifying knowing that every little move that I make throughout my day could easily be used against me, even if I simply just drove to the grocery store to buy a snack. This matter is something that should be talked about more and should have many more consequences than it does to our government today.

Personally, I am not the type of person to be known to have things on my phone that I shouldn't, and most things I tell to people I would be easily comfortable sharing with a crowd of people. I can admit there are some things that I say over text or phone calls that I would not want anyone else to know about, but that is the whole point of being able to speak with someone one-on-one digitally. The whole point of these one-on-one conversations is that you want only the person on the other end to know about what information you choose to give to them. If I am choosing to tell Sally that I plan to go to the mall tomorrow afternoon, why is it that the government needs to know this? Why does it concern them so much where I am? As someone who pays money out of their own pocket to have a cell phone, data signal, and wifi there should be no reason why people should be able to take my information and use it against me. 

    Not even just with phones, but also the whole deal with license plate scanners being every square inch away from me no matter where I am. Catherine Crump's TED Talk video caught my attention severely when she shared how easily our cars get tracked several times a day without us even knowing. The fact that police stations have records of random civilian cars in their own driveways, their own private property, is a complete invasion of privacy. It is funny how this information, again from someone who has done no harm or has no reason to be tracked, can be owned by the government even though the property they live on is privately owned and not owned by the government at all. It is not okay that for no reason whatsoever we are all being tracked for our every move. 

    

The government should not have this type of control over us and they should be worrying about bigger issues in our country. I mean aren't we getting involved in several attacks around the world right now, and they are worried about what phone call I am giving to my mother about getting an A on a quiz? Stuff like this really gets me thinking about all the things I can do to try and protect my privacy as much as I can. One thing that I have heard to be useful to add to your everyday life to try and prevent your information from being the property of the government all of a sudden is a good VPN. Using a VPN allows you to use your own private network when connected to other networks surrounding you. Many people I know use these when they are connected to public wifi and it restricts your access to certain websites and applications. Although this does help, these VPNs can help ensure a hacker cannot have access to what you are doing, because when you use these public networks everything you do underneath that network can be information to them. 

The world of technology can be a scary place so try and think before you send that text that could get you caught up in some sort of trouble. Although it is not right in any way, shape, or form for our private information and conversations to be owned by several networks, people, and the government, we must all either come together with our senses and create some sort of stop to it all, or all do our own part to the best of our ability to keep our information only our information. Simply researching ways to lessen the chance and excessive amounts of your information being taken from you can go a long way in the long term.