Relationship w/ Technology

I overall believe that my relationship with technology is not the healthiest. Most of the things I do rely on some type of technology whether it be programming a game, sending a text message, or even writing this blog post. 

Let's talk about my day for this semester only, more specifically my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule. I start at 7:00 AM waking up and doing my daily routine. Around 7:30 AM, I am checking emails and text messages I might have received when I was asleep. 7:50 AM - 3:10 PM I am mainly on the computer doing some type of work for each of my classes. From 3:30 PM to about 9:00 PM, I do any work that I could not get done in between my classes. From there I am either on my phone or watching tv until I fall asleep, ranging from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM. It is very noticeable that my usual day relies heavily on technology. 

You could say based on a sample of my schedule that my relationship is probably the most unhealthiest thing ever. However, this is because most of the classes I take rely heavily on technology. As mentioned in my About Me section I am a game design major. Since most games in today's society are video games, they rely on some type of technology and since it relies on technology it forces me to use it a lot more.

I kinda don't really think about how reliant I am on technology. I feel as if it is society's norm that everyone is excessively on technology in some way, shape, or form. It sometimes worries me when I am using technology for extracurricular activities such as entertainment purposes but any other time it slips my mind. 

I have mixed feelings about the information that can be found on the internet. I sometimes believe that some sites can be trusted but at the same time, I believe that other sites are not to be trusted like sites that are able to be changed by anyone (ie Wikipedia). When it comes to news or doing research, I try to use sites that end in .gov(government), .org(nonprofit), or .edu(educational). Even so at times when I do look at research or news I look at multiple sites to see if everything lines up. 

As for my digital footprint, when it comes to actual photos of me there is not a lot to be seen. Any pictures that show up that are actual pictures of me are action pictures of me playing basketball from high school. So there really is no ill digital footprint of me from any social media, but there may be a much bigger digital footprint from online shopping. 

I have not really done online shopping until recently. I kinda did not like the idea of the fact that my bank can see what I purchase where I made a purchase and when I purchased it. I never really had a credit card until I got into college. Since I do not have a car, I tend to order things like food and clothes to solve those problems.

To me, at least my relationship with technology is not as bad as the video, "Are You Lost In The World Like Me". 

I believe that my relationship with technology is unhealthy but there is really nothing I can truly avoid being on technology for very long. I mean this in a way that I can not succeed in my career path if I limit my technology use. 

Policy

    One of the groups talked about different policies. The five that were mentioned were the Antitrust Laws, News Desert, Cord Cutting, Media Consolidation, and Net Neutrality. 

    The Antitrust Laws were created in Congress in 1890, the reason being to prohibit any type of monopolization in terms of business. There are three main laws under the Antitrust Laws. One that was passed automatically was the Sherman Act. Following that legislation passed two other acts: the Clayton Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

    News Deserts were the next things talked about. A news desert is a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive information that feeds democracy at the grassroots. There is a rapid decline in local news coverage in many areas of the United States. The challenge of the news desert is that it causes a lack of information in communities and democracy. A lack of access to reliable local news can cause residents to be uninformed about critical issues going on locally and nationally.

    The term cord-cutting refers to the practice of canceling cable or satellite TV subscriptions in factor of streaming services or other forms of contract. Some of the pros of cord-cutting are that there are no long-term contracts, it is flexible, it saves money, and has access to a wider range of content. The cons are that people will have to depend on internet access, the content is fragmented, there will be limited access to live programming, and there will be a lack of local programming.

    Media consolidation is the ownership of the mass media by fewer individuals. The effect of this is the way that people receive and perceive information. 

    Network neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers(ISP) should treat all data that travels over their network fairly, without improper discrimination in favor of particular apps, sites, or services. This affects the way we use and access the internet. Without network neutrality, the ISP can control what we see online.

    Listening to what this group said really opened my eyes to things behind the scenes.

Echo Chambers

    Echo chambers affect us in everyday life and play a major role in social media platforms. The definition of an echo chamber is an environment where a person only receives information or opinions that reflect their own.

    This can cause major misinformation as well as make it more difficult for another person to see another perspective. When someone comes to you with a different opinion on a matter, it tends to be an argument. As humans, we have a tendency to not admit when we are wrong. When people disagree there are usually three different stages of assumptions. There is the ignorance assumption, the idiocy assumption, and the evil assumption. These are just ways for people to overall not open their minds to other people's opinions and stay in their little bubbles of information.

    Let's use a very easy example to get a better understanding of what exactly is being talked about. If one person only got their news from FOX and another only got their news from CNN and the topic at hand was gun violence, both people would get different types of information on the topic and would not know each other's perspective.
 

    It could affect society in a very negative way, more than positive to me at least. Echo Chambers can lead to people having a closed mind about society. What this could lead to is that people will stop thinking for themselves. Another thing is that this can limit the ability to solve problems. This outcome is never good because this will force people to rely on other people's opinions. This would probably be by people who hold government power or any type of power of some sort.

    I mean I guess you can say that a positive is that they are getting SOME type of information about the situation at hand. Another positive thing is that it could boost people's confidence levels. Most of the time people have a constant fear of being judged by someone who does not have the same opinion as them. Using echo chambers the people you share your opinions too will most likely have the same opinion and agree with you. In this case, you are less likely to be judged for sharing your opinion with everyone.

    The example used earlier would probably be targeted toward an older population, but what about younger people? You might think that this really would not affect young people due to them not really watching the news but it still does. There is a type of echo chamber called a filter bubble. A filter bubble is an algorithmic bias that limits the information an individual user sees on the internet. Many different social media platforms use algorithms in order to dictate what you see such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
 

    Echo chambers are best to be avoided at all costs. They are a way to limit people to think and receive information. A simple way to avoid echo chambers is to be open-minded and look at more than one media source.

Diffusion Theory

    Many different ideas have gone through the process of Diffusion Theory. Diffusion Theory explains how an idea will gain momentum and spread through a specific population.  

    There are five major established adopted categories within this theory. They are the Pioneers, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Adopters, and Laggards. However, because this diagram can not hit zero, there is one more category called Long Tail. An example of this would be YouTube. 

    YouTube was an idea created by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley in 2005. During this time YouTube had just gotten registration for its trademark, logo, and domain. At this point, only a certain number of people could see the site. Later on in that same year, more people were able to access it through its beta state. Once it was launched out of the beta stage more people were able to access it however you can not access something that you do not exist. The next year,  YouTube would be acquired by Google. This would give YouTube a much bigger platform to be on and would be much easier to find. 

    I would say that YouTube had a rather quick incline when it came to population. However, something that is not on the chart above is the popularity over time. As of right now(2023), about 52% of people worldwide access YouTube at least once a month. For a platform staying relevant is very important because when you become irrelevant it becomes a major issue for your income. Many inventions and social media platforms tend to either die out or not make it past the early majority stage. The fact that YouTube has managed to be here for almost twenty years and is still commonly used today is impressive.

    Even though YouTube has been around for so long it does not mean that it is perfect. There are some negatives to YouTube being the powerful site it is. YouTube can have misleading information as well as the ability to stop productivity. 

    Since YouTube is accessible to everyone and everyone can post whatever they like under the guidelines, it is easy to see and put up fake information to manipulate others. YouTube also uses an algorithm that keeps up with your interest and the videos you watch/like. This will suck you in, making you watch more leading to you not doing anything else. 

    Overall, many different types of ideas and inventions go through the Diffusion Theory of Innovation. YouTube happens to be one of the more successful ones in this scenario. 

AI

    After watching the documentary on Artificial Intelligence[or AI], it has taught me some interesting things that could affect the livelihoods of everyone.

    AI has gone through a process and now has a program called Deep Learning. This is when the programming can mimic the networks of the human brain. Using this program, AI can think and do tasks like a human if not better, but is that a good thing? This could lead to a lot of job losses. Something that is not talked about is the fact that women disproportionately hold the jobs that today are at the highest risk of automation. This could lead to a future where almost 300 million jobs are affected by Artificial Intelligence.

    However, when it comes to the use of AI, it can morph into a tool of power. Since AI is just a tool, it is mostly there to serve the people who control the algorithm. So AI can become a more corrupt tool than what is being shown. 

    Using the power of AI, things like social media platforms can easily collect data on you and send it to someone else. This horrible invasion of privacy can be used for something much worse. They can collect pictures of you and use them however they please. If certain things get into the hands of the wrong people things can be much worse. AI has gotten to the point where it can imitate a voice as long as it has a small clip of your voice. This has been used by scammers in order to trick family members into sending money to them.

    This can also cause what is known as the bandwagon effect. A study was shown that people are more willing to do things such as vote when they know other people are doing it, more specifically when they know the people. They are able to the admitting things to a social media platform and manipulate the things that you see in order to influence you.

    While this type of technology would make a lot of things very easy, it can be easily manipulated into something terrible. Such a powerful tool should be used to better the world, however, the people in this world are too corrupt and will most likely use it for their own selfish needs. 

Different Technologies

    We talked about many different types of technology from Petroglyph to Instagram. One of the technologies that I learned is the printing press. 

    The first form of the printing press in China was in 800. During this time it was known as block printing. The way block printing worked is that each block would have different words carved into it. This would be dipped into ink and then put onto a piece of paper. This would be used for images and texts. This would be known as the easiest at the time, but this would be the slowest method of all time. 600 years later, Johannes revolutionize block printing into something more efficient and less time-consuming.

   

    One of the positives of the printing press is that they could mass produce books and text. Since this helped out with mass production, this can increase literacy rates and create better communications. However, there is a dangerous negative to this. The ink produced to use the printing press was extremely deadly to humans.

    Another piece of technology that I learned about during these presentations is the typewriter. 

    This technology was invented in the early 1800s. Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule began working on a machine that could print paper while typing. This device would revolutionize the way people write and communicate with one another. However, the first typewriter was not as simple and easy to use but caught the attention of businesses and writers due to the invention's popularity. This became very useful for creating multiple copies of documents. 

        This technology had many different impacts on society. One of the impacts is that it increases efficiency and accessibility. This made it very easy for people to create a lot of copies on flyers, and books to the point where anyone could have access to it.  

    The reason why I actually wrote about these two specific technologies is that one is the evolution of the other. The printing press was thrown out because of the typewriter. The typewriter was a smaller, more affordable version of the printing press. Both these technologies are the reason why the invention of the computer was invented in a way. 

The Silence Anti-War Voices

    The first amendment involves "Freedom of Speech". What exactly does free speech protect? Does it really protect people's opinions? Since the First War, many people have biased views on whether or not we should engage in a war. After looking at different websites like an anti-war site and a conservative site, you realize that these sites are never heard of and have extremely strong opinions. Since the first major war, the government has silenced or tried to silence people who have spoken up about issues they feel strongly against.

    People should have access to whatever they truly want as long as it is legal. The reason why we do not see any of these kinds of sites is that the government controls the type of sites that appear on the internet. As much as the government tries to hide these specific things some questions start to appear. Why are they hiding these sites? Why are they trying to silence their voices?

    One thing that I learned within society is that everyone has different intentions and does not exclude the government at all. The government to me at least is very underhanded and does things in order for you to be distracted from something else. So the fact that the government limits access and the number of people that see these kinds of sites is not really surprising to me, to say the least. 

    The government never really likes when people who are below it, start to speak up against it and it has always been like that At one point, it became a law that made it a crime to criticize the government. So to say the least the easiest way to make sure that their voices are not heard is to make sure that what they say can not reach the public. 

    I feel like it is this way also with social media platforms and news sources. The government only wants you to see and hear what they want you to hear. An example of this would be the Nashville School Shooting a few weeks ago. During a news siting of this, a parent decided to speak up about this and was expressing her feeling about this. However, during this instance, her speech was censored and not completely heard. 

Another instance of the control of the government is that for the first couple of days, the fact that the shooter identified as transgender. This was something that I heard multiple times throughout the news over and over again. This would spark arguments between people but at the end of the day, I feel like this was a ploy to distract people from the bigger issue that gun violence is a thing that we still have not solved. 

    The government has control of the things we see on the internet reminds me of a book I have read in the past. The book, "1984" by George Orwell has a very similar theme to what is happening in society today but on a much larger scale. The book talks about how the people of that society can not think against the government or anything that was deemed as such. So in a way, the government had total control over what people see and think. I just thought overall this is a funny, ironic comparison because both the book and what is happening in today's society involve the government trying to control the people. 

    For America at least this would be a breach of the first amendment forcing the people to think the way they want people to think.