Final Blog Post

     My relationship with technology in my opinion is extremely unhealthy. When I compare myself to my family and friends and their relationship with technology I see a very big difference in how much technology I use compared to everyone else. I think that I let technology consume most of my day when I could be outside doing things. What I have noticed though most things in my daily life require me to to use technology. I think that it is unhealthy that in today's society we have to use technology for school along with entertainment because I feel that is a main reason why my relationship with technology is so unhealthy. 

 

    I think technology is making me smarter yet also in ways giving me misleading information. Certain social media platforms like Tik Tok  will tend to put out false or misleading information making me confused about what I can and cannot believe. One way that technology has made me smarter though is that I am able to watch the news everyday on television while also being able to use the news apps that I have on my phone which will give me accurate information. Along with that certain social media apps like Instagram allow for news organizations to have their own social media platforms, which then makes it easier for teenagers like me to get our information sooner and more often. 

    Overall I think that our society has learned to accept the amount of time we spend using technology and the amount of misleading information we receive from finding information when using technology. I have noticed that as time has gone on older generations have stopped caring so much about the amount of technology we use and they have also started to adopt the use of more and more technology. Along with that I have learned to trust everything you hear and see on the internet and that it is best to look on other websites to see if they are giving out similar information or complete opposite. This is also a good way to test which new sites are trustworthy and which ones have certain political views that others may not have.

    When I see how my family is affected by technology I think it has made a big impact on the amount of time everyone spends together. I have noticed that normally everyone spends their time using different types of technology and it has prevented us from spending as much time together and has made an extremely large negative impact on our relationships with each other. I think that partially the fact that now we use technology so much in school and in work that we are obligated to use so much technology and have it consume our daily lives. Along with that my family and friends use technology in order to communicate with each other therefore we feel the need to constantly have some sort of technology on us at all times. 

    I do not personally have a very large online footprint as I try to stay off of many social media websites and when I do use social media I do not post very much and I am very careful about what I choose to post. When searching my name on the internet the only thing that comes up that is about me is one picture of me from middle school when I was down the shore. Everything else that came up was about different people with the same name and there were also no social media accounts that came up that were mine. Along with that there was nothing bad that came up and when looking at my social media accounts everything that I have posted up to now in my opinion would be appropriate for others to see.

    Some social media websites that people can find me linked to are Instagram, Tik Tok, and Snapchat. From looking at my accounts here people would think I am a very reserved person and don't tend to share a whole lot about myself on the internet. The only kind of personal information that I share on these are my other social media accounts that I have. Other than that I tend to only give my email or phone number when signing up for a membership or account with a clothing or makeup store in order to receive discounts. I never feel the need to share my personal information with others on social media because with today's technology you have no idea what they are able to do with that kind of information.

Blog Post #11- What I learned from EOTO 2

     One topic that stood out to me from the presentations was the social credit score. This stood out to me because this is not something we have in the U.S. and now we are seeing how it is being used and it made me wonder about if we try to use some kind of system like that here what would happen. The social credit score system is meant to keep track of a person's trustworthiness or even a companies or corporations. This could help benefit us because then we would be able to have a general idea of who someone or how trustworthy a company or corporation is before even meeting them. Although with how good that sounds we did also learn about a few problems that the social credit score system could cause. 

    Some problems that we could experience if we implemented the social credit system  are we would have more privacy issues than we already have and there would also be more government control. This is not something that after learning more about that I think people would for the U.S to adopt. As we already have more than enough privacy issues we do not want to make more when it would be unnecessary. The government would also have more control over you in determing where you can live, what services you can access, what jobs you would be able to get and so much more. This is concerning because it would be almost like the government is making your decisions for you on what you can and cannot do. 

    The goal of this system is so that businesses can make well informed decisions about people and know as much information about someone as they can before they make a decision about them. This is a great idea in that sense so that businesses are more aware of who they are hiring and or working with. This will be done so by creating black lists and red lists that they will put people and companies on so that others will be able to make well informed decisions about those people and so that the government can decide what you can and cannot do.

    One big problem that the social credit system could cause is people may feel discriminated against  because of what others may be allowed or not allowed to do. For example certain groups may feel they are being discriminated against because they are not allowed to live somewhere while another group of people are and they may feel that is not fair. One way that this could affect us is it would cause a big uproar in society and they would say that the government has too much power and we are being discriminated against. 

Blog Post #10- The Diffusion of Innovation

     One piece of technology that I think is interesting to look at through the diffusion of innovation is the iPhone. This piece of technology has greatly evolved through the years and has had multiple different upgrades causing different generations to adopt this new piece of technology at different times. I think some people caught on to the purchasing of iPhones because they saw other people purchasing them and wanted to feel like they were included in the group of people who had the newest phone. I also think people may have been curious about the new piece of technology and wanted to see how it works and if it is convenient for them to use in their daily lives. People may have also wanted to see how this kind of phone compares to phones that other companies have made and which one is the better phone.

    I think that some people bought these phones more early on because they may have been younger generations who were more intrigued by the new technology. I also think that the younger generations want whatever is the newest and in that case most of the time there is a new iPhone coming out each year and they want whatever is the newest looking product. 

    On the contrary, I think that older generations are less likely to adopt this new piece of technology because they don't like the change of their technology to a newer technology. Along with that they may be against having to learn how a whole new phone works and would rather just stick with what they know works for them. Some people have still chosen not to adopt the use of the iPhone at all, I have my own family members who still will not get an Iphone because they don't want to learn how to work a whole new phone and would rather stick to the use of a flip phone. This is also the case with many other people because they are reluctant to have to learn how to use an iPhone.

    One downside to the iPhone is that it has greatly decreased the amount of privacy that society has. Along with that people now spend a great deal of their time on their phone because the iPhone has so many possibilities as to what you can do on it. For example kids will spend time watching TikTok or scrolling through the social media platforms when they could be outside or spending time with family.

    I chose to adopt the idea of the use of the iPhone relatively quickly compared to everyone else in my family. I saw all the benefits that it could give me and I decided that it outweighed the negatives as long as you use it the correct way. Although others in my family have chosen to not adopt the use of the iPhone at all. They believe that there are more negatives that come with the use of an iPhone and that they can function in their daily life the same and if not better without the use of an iPhone. While I also have family members who are late adopters and after they saw how much it benefitted my life they also decided that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Blog Post #9- EOTO #2

 One very important theory that most people don't think about is The Overton Window. This theory is something that is very important for politicians to keep in mind or else they most likely will not be successful. The Overton Window is the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that time. The idea of The Overton Window came from an analyst named Joseph Overton.  The Overton Window is something that is constantly changing everyday and it is growing and shrinking in size depending on what ideas that politicians can and cannot support and how much they can support them.

    This can affect our society because politicians may not share their whole opinion on ideas and situations because they want to make sure that a majority of the people will agree with or else they may not get voted for and people will begin to dislike them. Along with that they may support something that they don't necessarily believe in, in order to get more votes from the majority of the population. Some good things about having The Overton Window is that it can help make everyone think that they are on the same side and have the same beliefs so then no one thinks that they are in the wrong and that they don't belong. Another benefit of it is that it helps politicians get a great political advantage because they will just follow it and then cater to what the people want.

    Some negatives to The Overton Window are that it can vastly change from day to day depending on what is going on in the world and the information we are given. Along with that some politicians also have the ability to change The Overton window, although it is hard to do it is possible and this can and will change the peoples opinion on ideas and situations. Another negative of it is people may feel inclined to have the same opinions as others because that is what The Overton Window says is politically correct.

    One way that The Overton Window may affect different groups of people is that certain groups may have completely different opinions than the majority of people and their opinions may be different than what The Overton Window says most people think. One current example of this would be sports and whether or not people who are transgender should be able to participate . The Overton Window may say one thing is what most people think is the correct answer to this situation therefore politicians will say they agree with that while there will still be small groups of people who think differently. 

    Another example of how The Overton Window affects different groups of people is the current backlash that Bud Light is receiving after having a transgender influencer sponsor their brand. In this case we could see that through The Overton Window people were against it as Bud Light is losing millions of dollars as celebrities like Riley Green, Brantley Gilbert, Kid Rock and many more are sending their messages in different ways that they disagree with what Bud Light did. This is a great example of how people are going to continue to side with boycotting Bud Light because that is what The Overton Window is saying what is politically correct.    

    The Overton window affects me because I am normally inclined to agree with what a majority of people think and what the politicians think. Therefore whatever it says that most people are agreeing with is what I would agree with. Along with that The Overton Window can change which then also in turn changes my opinions on the idea or the situation going on.

    

    

Blog Post #8- What I learned from EOTO #1

     One piece of technology that I was taught about while watching presentations was about the television. I was able to learn about the history of the television, how it affects the world, and how it works. One important thing I learned was that the first television was demonstrated in San Francisco by a 21 year old inventor named Philo Taylor Farnsworth. This is very important because he showed people how much it can do and the entertainment it could bring into each household. Although there was someone else who found a way to put images on screen before him, he found a way to make the images more clear for people to see.

    This changed how people got their entertainment and what people spent their time doing. By 20 years after the demonstration there were televisions in hundreds and thousands of peoples homes. Along with that by the late 90's around 98 percent  of people had a television in their home. This was able to provide people with entertainment along with bringing them stations to provide local and nationwide news. This greatly changed our society because it brought a new way of getting information to people quickly. It also provided a new way for advertising and for people to sell the products. This is important because it helped to shape the way we now advertise products to people and it greatly changed the number of sales companies were getting because now more people are being made aware of their products.

    Eventually people were able to give ratings of the programs to the government which allowed for them to make age suggestions for each program. This allowed for people to know what age group they think each program is appropriate for. It also allowed for people to watch stuff that they would most likely find interesting rather than having someone watch something that they would not understand or that is too childish for them. This was a great way for more jobs to be provided to others from actors to tv hosts and news casters. 

    The invention of the television also led to the invention of multiple other pieces of technology. One invention included the phone, which then allowed for people to communicate with others easier and get communication to others faster. This then led to the evolution of phones and where we are now with the technology that we have. Overall the television has greatly impacted our society as a whole and has led to new innovations that have changed how we communicate with others, provide entertainment to everyone, and share information with others.

Blog Post #7- The Age of AI

     Artificial intelligence is something that is relatively new to most people and something that scares a lot of people including me. One thing in this documentary that really stood out to me is the self-driving cars that they invented. This is a big innovation that if it was implemented in the U.S. it would change our Society greatly. One negative to this is thousands of people would lose their jobs as the self-driving vehicles wouldn't require people to have to work anymore. This would cause a large uproar in our economy and is one reason why this artificial intelligence is frightening because of how many people would end up losing their jobs. Along with that there are some safety concerns that people may have and is why people may be so against this kind of artificial intelligence.

    Another form of artificial intelligence that we are already seeing being used in China is that people are able to pay just by having their face scanned at the register. I think that this can be very concerning because then they are able to track where you are at and exactly what you are buying. This can also be concerning because the people can begin to wonder who that information is being shared with and what they are doing with that information. This then also makes it so that we don't need cashiers and therefore more people begin to lose their jobs. This will eventually lead to there not being enough jobs so unless you have a high up level job you may end up losing your job or not being able to find one.

    Robots are a big part of artificial intelligence and when I hear someone talk about robots I immediately think that they are humans, just more technological and I begin to wonder if they will eventually take over everything. They are already causing more people to lose their jobs and eventually we will find a way for robots to be able to do every job that we have. Robots will also have the ability to find out more information about us which then also makes people worry about whether or not we will have more and more privacy issues.

    Overall artificial intelligence is something that is scary and I think everyone should be frightened about and should be learning more about. This will cause for multiple people to lose their jobs and eventually lead to a crash and then we will have to find a way to come back from it even though we already will have all the technology at that point.

Blog Post #6- Anti war Voices

     In order to hear about any anti war voices we have to search the internet and click on random websites that we have never even heard of before. Many of us wonder why they make it so hard to hear about and why it is not just published on the local news or newspapers. The reason I think this is, is because it is going against the government's decisions and what they believe are good decisions. I think they want everyone to believe that everyone is okay with all of the war we are involved with throughout the world. The government wants to silence all the people who go against them and believe that what they are doing is wrong because they don't want others to join them. I think they also don't want people to think that they are abusing their power and going to war for unnecessary reasons.

    The people who write on these websites have very strong opinions and feelings and continue to make valid points that are just continuing to be silenced. I also think that news organizations may be nervous to speak about anything anti war or anything that goes against the government's beliefs. This could be because they are scared of what the government could potentially do to them and their organization. On The American Conservative  we see news stories that we never even knew were going on because they are not being brought up on national and local news services. This is just one example of many websites that offer these sorts of stories that the government is trying to hide from us.

    The government silencing all these people is a clear violation to our first amendment right which is freedom of speech. They make it difficult to find these anti war websites and do not let people express their thoughts on new stations or social media. We even experienced government officials deleting texts over an app called WhatsApp . This shows us that the government is reading into what we have to say and deciding whether or not it is okay for us to say what we want to, which is a clear violation to our first amendment right. This is something that the government is not allowed to do although continues to because people are not even being made aware that it is happening.