BLOG #5: THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

 I think one of the main reasons that we have to seek out articles that have an antiwar perspective is because we are a nation where we value security and think that having
a strong armed forces presence in other parts of the world is something that is beneficial to this ideal. Often times in the US media, we only hear about the successes of our armed force and rarely hear about our failures. Antiwar news is not published in the United States because we live under a veil of ignorance of what our armed forces presence does to citizens of other countries. 

Additionally, American news outlets would receive backlash for posting antiwar articles as it would be seen as anti-American. While this logic is flawed, the lack of antiwar news is something that stems from deep routed American culture as opposed to fact. Another main reason for while we may not have antiwar media is the fact that all of our media is somehow tied back to politics. There are news sources that rely on political professions to speak out on their channels. If we had antiwar media, those outlets would most likely loose the support of very influential people which could lead to a loss of viewers and therefore a loss of profit. While it is easy for us to justify why we don't have antiwar media, it is important to become educated on all sides of an argument making antiwar media a vital part of a well rounded perspective. 

FINAL BLOG POST

Growing up, I was taught to build healthy relationships with my family and friends, but since advancing technologies, the relationships I made with people have been significantly impacted by technology. My relationship with technology has affected the way I live my life, in negative and positive ways. Technology has been a big part in my life since I was a kid.  When my parents were my age, they didn’t have access to advance technology and their way of life was much different than how mine is today. Modern technology such has cellphones and tablets had made it easier to communicate, but ironically, has allowed people to have an option to ignore those who are closest to them. Technology has become one of our main sources of communication whether it’s through text, call, video chat and has made our lives more convenient, but is it for our better good?

 A question that I always ask myself is that I wonder what life would be like if I didn’t always have my cellphone on me, or if I didn’t have my computer to help me complete certain tasks. Without this technology, the simplest tasks would be much more difficult. It has helped us with work, communicating with our close ones and has been a huge impact on the COVID-19 pandemic when we were all in a lockdown. Instead of going to the movie theater, we have access to those movies on the internet or instead of going to the mall, we have the option to browse through stores online. We can’t predict what technology will continue to do in our futures, but many changes are expected to come has it keeps evolving.

Technology has made humans individually smarter and individually dumber; but more collectively smarter. Technology allows us to be able to do more, while understanding less about what we are doing and becoming more dependent on others. The world-wide web has an abundance of information that we rely on and take the knowledge that we have from. 

 After reading an article about a 14-year old who quit technology, it makes me question if it was necessary for me to have access to social media at a young age. “Teens get a lot of warnings that we aren’t mature enough to understand that everything we post online is permanent”.

Parents don't realize that if they post their children on social media it could potentially impact their lives as they become young adults. Our digital footprint could be impacted from not only what you post on social media, but what someone else posts on the internet. A digital footprint is "a trail of 'electronic bread crumbs' you leave behind when you use the internet." When posting your information on the internet, it can lead to many risks which is a reason that technology can be unhealthy and toxic to someones well being. It can lead to bullying, blackmail and can harm one's reputation depending what is posted on the internet. Technology can lead to losing reality of the real world and can harm our mental health drastically.  Currently, my digital footprint is my LinkedIn, Instagram and other social media I have thats under my name. Searching my name also results in information about my family members and people who have the same name as me.

BLOG #8: EOTO #2

Echo Chamber

An echo chamber is an environment where a person only encounters information that reflect their own opinions. The idea of an "echo chamber" has caused many issues throughout the media because it spreads a lot of misinformation. From what is shown throughout the news media, an echo chamber has had an overall negative affect on society as a whole. Confirmation bias is brought into this idea because it makes consumers of the media ask the question, "Is this real or fake news?". Many news sources that we use today likes to share information that will gain them publicity even when it isn't the truth. When we become inclined to a certain news source, we start to trust the news source with the information it shares with the public. Wikipedia is an example of a source in which we think is trust worthy because its the first website that comes up after one searches something on the internet. Since Wikipedia is one of the top pages on Google, we automatically choose the website to receive information since it is a popular source that others use. Most people are oblivious that Wikipedia gets their information from sources that are most likely unreliable.

Affect on Society

Echo chambers can affect all generations because it leads us to believe information and cause chaos. In order to avoid this, we need to make a habit of checking multiple news sources to ensure we are getting the correct information. In our generation, we are drawn to certain news sources but we need to understand which news sources are ones to trust. If I were to share information with my parents that I thought was true, my parents would deny it because they are familiar with more reliable news sources. Echo chambers can also cause us to distort our perspectives so we have difficulty considering opposing viewpoints and discussing complicated topics. The idea of shared misinformation can make it difficult to understand our own views because certain sources share information that isn't true. As individuals, we need to learn that "Just because something you want to be true, does not mean that it is a fact". 

BLOG #6: WHAT I LEARNED FROM EOTO #1

After listening to my peers present different types of technology, I realized that I didn't know as much as I thought. My peers presented technology from the viking ages to present day so I was able to learn about how technology has evolved through many decades. A technology that I found interesting is the printing press. The printing press is the first generation of what we call today "a printer". The printer has evolved throughout many years, but it started out as something more complicated than just hitting a button on my computer that says "Print".

According to my classmate, "a printing press is a device that allows for a mass production of a uniformed printed matter". Johannes Gutenberg started experimenting with the printing press in 1440 and ten years later it was finally perfected and could print 3,600 work pages per day. The way the printing press worked was much faster than many types of technology during that time. Because of the printing press, books were produced quicker and cheaper and it allowed authors to make it easier to produce their writings into a book. The printing press also made sharing large amounts of information and educating others a lot more simple. The printing press started out as a complicated, heavy piece of equipment and had evolved to an electronic printer which has many features that changed our lives and how we become educated.

BLOG #7: PRIVACY, ONLINE & OFF

"Electronic Tattoo"

Your online life is like a tattoo: its permanent and can tell a lot about someones whole life story. Thanks to modern technology, the government knows way too much about what happen's in people's life. In todays world, there is technology everywhere and sometimes we don't even notice it. According to Catherine Crumps Ted Talk, "the government can gain a detailed portrait about how citizens interact". Doesn't that scare you? It scares me because it makes me wonder if the government has information about me that I don't even know exists anywhere. This could include how fast i'm driving to school, or a doctors appointment I could've gone to years ago.

Privacy is an issue in today's modern world that is almost impossible to avoid. My family purchases technology such as iPhone's, computers, Amazon Alexa's, with the idea of knowing those types of technology stores all of our information. Everything that I ask Alexa to do, the government could have that stored for years to come. Or if I share my location with my family and friends, the government probably has my location as well. The issue of privacy is something that we can't control unless we don't interact with modern technology.

The government's purpose is to protect their country and the citizens in it. Technology has been helpful to the government in this way because it discloses information that could be useful if an issue arises. If the government loses access to others technology, then they would have no purpose for their job. As a citizen of the United States, I feel safer knowing that the government has certain types of information such as my location and my whereabouts just in case something bad were to happen to me. To protect ourselves from invasions of our privacy is to disaffiliate ourselves with modern technology and to be careful what we post on the internet. This can also be avoided by being aware of our surroundings and knowing that technology is present anywhere at anytime.

BLOG #4: TECHNOLOGY

History of Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that uses radio frequency to share data over a short distance. This technology was developed by Ericcson in 1994 and was named after the 10th century danish King Harold "Bluetooth" Gormmson. In 1994, the first bluetooth device was created and was a handsfree mobile headset called the Ericcson T36. After this device was created, a few years later there were thousands of devices that started using Bluetooth which influenced the innovation of wireless technology. When the first mobile bluetooth cellphone came out in 2001, thats when big companies started creating technology that utilized the bluetooth feature and has become very popular throughout the years.

How Bluetooth Changed the World

Bluetooth has had many impacts on society and has changed the world in many ways. From surround speakers at home to projectors at school it is unbelievable how Bluetooth has changed technology throughout many years. Bluetooth made it so we don't have to use long cords and can connect with others where ever you want, unlike an old phone that used a cord. Bluetooth has been used with big technology companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung and it has become more innovative with every new product the companies release to the public. Bluetooth has also made it safer to communicate with others when you are driving and doing other activities simultaneously because it creates a handsfree option. This technology has made more positive impacts to our society than negative since it has innovated many of the devices we use today.

Negative Impact on Society

Personally, I believe that Bluetooth has had little negative impacts on society. The majority of people think that bluetooth has made our society more innovative and has been part of the evolving of technology throughout many generations. A minor negative impact would be that Bluetooth drains battery, but this isn't the biggest issue.However, a big negative impact that Bluetooth does have is safety and security. Bluetooth operates on radio frequency and information can be shared with anyone around your bluetooth device. Using bluetooth should not be used with business or sharing personal information with others. For example, Bluetooth should not be used when working with government information since it could be shared with the wrong person and cause social issues. Besides the fact that Bluetooth has made technology easier in many ways, its definitely important to consider how you use this technology because it could occasionally be dangerous and tideous.

BLOG POST #9: THE DIFFUSION THEORY

  The Diffusion Theory originated in communication to explain how overtime an idea or product gains momentum and spreads through a specific population. The end result of the "diffusion" is when someone starts using an idea or product they start becoming obsessed with it and their behavior encourages them to keep using the idea or product. 

In class, we learned about Diffusion of Innovations and the different steps of the process to be fully "adopted" to the product. As learned in class, Adoption means that someone does something differently then they had done previously, like purchasing a new product. When products become universally popular, everyone seems to follow the trend and purchase the product just like other people. For example, when I received my first Apple product, the iPod shuffle, when I was 9 or 10 years old I have continued to use their products 11 years later because the product has been innovated from each updated product. I would consider myself an early adopter because I started using Apple products many years ago and I have owned almost every one of their products. If I started out using Samsung products as a kid, I am positive that I would continue using their products because I would have been used to that technology.

Those who are "late adopters" are skeptical of change. They will choose to adopt, or start using a product once it has been tried by the majority. People of this population will only be convinced to start using a product if the majority says that they have tried the innovation and it has been successful. The ones who are not adopters at all are called "Laggards." This group is very skeptical of change and the most difficult to bring on board to a new product. Laggards will take a while to adopt onto a new product because they are used to tradition and dislike change in their use of products. I feel that being a Laggard can have negative consequences because they don't know the product or idea unless they try it out. They have become accustomed to a certain idea or product that they are unwilling to change their usual tradition by not using it.

I believe that those who don't use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. have become accustomed to it. Since these platforms have been popular for such a long period of time they believe that there is no point on using it now since they have been perfectly fine without it. There is nothing wrong with not using these social media platforms because its a certain way of life that takes a while to become accustomed to and can become addicting. If I didn't own an iPhone or if I wasn't on any social media at this point I feel I would have no point on having it because it wouldn't have any purpose. Since my generation is accustomed to social media and new technology, I have become used to it and have continued to use it.