Final Blog Post: My Relationship With Technology

    Technology is something I rely on greatly in my day to day life. It's become an integral part of each day to me through the use of my phone, laptop, television, and various other devices. I would say in terms of good or bad, my relationship with technology is quite mixed. 

     

    One of the primary uses I have for technology during the school year is the use of my laptop to do my homework, access a sizable amount of my textbooks, doing my tests, and constructing projects for various classes. Most of this is done on websites like blackboard (https://highpoint.blackboard.com/ultra/course)

    In this case, my relationship with technology is quite healthy, as I use it in this way to be productive and focus on my schoolwork and my future. 

    Another use of technology that dominates my daily life is that of social media. I use social media everyday, varying from using it in healthy doses and in very unhealthy amounts. 

    My screen time is fairly high, which is something that I am not heavily surprised by as I know my habits when it comes to screen time. There are times where I will be in a public place with friends or family and I will be scrolling on my phone instead of engaging with the world around me. The biggest reason I am usually mindlessly scrolling is due to social media. 

Social medias I use include:

    YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/) YouTube is a social media site that I mindlessly use, most likely the one I use the most. Some of it's uses can be important, like getting news and information, but a majority of time that is not the case. 

    It's to the point where I have trouble eating alone without having a YouTube video playing on either my phone, laptop, or television. 

    Given the fact that most videos on YouTube are longer in length than posts on TikTok or Instagram, I find myself spending far more time on it. Granted, I'm usually engaged on whatever I'm watching but a solid majority of the time it's not something very useful to me, or even something that really pertains to me.

    Snapchat: (https://www.snapchat.com/) Snapchat is an app that I originally didn't care for or use much, but has become my main source of communication for a lot of people in my life. In all honesty, it's my main form of communication for all people outside of my immediate family. 

    This makes it difficult for me to gauge how healthy/unhealthy my use of snapchat is. On the one hand, I use to it to communicate with people and set up plans for later on in my day that don't involve technology and in some cases to find out about information that could help me in the future. 

    On the other hand, mindlessly responding with snaps to people can be something I do far too often, even when I'm out with friends. Sometimes I even feel the need to check it in class, more than any other social media due to the fact that I rely on it as a primary source of communication. 

    Overall, my relationship with snapchat has some healthy components to it, but it does have to be regulated more to become something that is consistently healthy for me. 

    

    TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com) TikTok has become the new standard for mindless scrolling in my experience. Unfortunately, TikTok is an app in which my relationship with it is pretty much entirely unhealthy.

    Most of the videos on the app are very short, so you'd think it would be hard to waste so much time on it, but you'd be wrong. Somehow, just a few videos on a 5 minute break could turn into multiple hours of content you've just consumed, with a majority of it being content that won't matter to you, even if you remember it.

    TikTok has also been an app that has made my attention span dwindle, which is something I'm sure isn't a symptom unique to me. The short videos in constant succession of each other make every user long for the next video while they're in the middle of a one already. This lowers people's attention spans a crazy amount, including myself. 

    My digital footprint is something I've had to increasingly worry about as I've gotten older. In middle school, I could post any random things I wanted without thinking much for consequences because I was little and didn't know any better.

    However, starting with high school I had to become much more self aware of what I posted. Inappropriate posts could get students expelled. Especially now that I am in college and I have to focus on my career and future, the pressure to keep my digital footprint and presence clean is at an all time high.

    

    I believe most people's relationship with technology is pretty unhealthy. The ways it can be unhealthy vary depending on the person, as it clearly does with me as well, but there is always a large amount of ways it can be detrimental to a person, whether it be socially or mentally.

    It is actually quite ironic that social media actually makes us much less social in public areas. It can drag us out of social situations and suck us into our devices while we miss the moments that are passing us in the present moment. 

    Mentally, much of technology can bring us down or up, depending on what is being shown to us. Either way, we rely way too much on technology to deliver happiness to us and it has a large and unprecedented hold on us and our emotions.

    Overall, technology is a wonderful thing that continues to innovate and excite in the world, but a majority of people's relationship with technology, including myself, can be quite unhealthy. 

    

    

Blog Post #11: EOTO Other Group Presentation, Awareness

     Group 1's presentation focused on Awareness and how a lot of our perceived awareness of things can be very different from what is actually reality. A lot of their topics focused on some forms of misinformation, which I found interesting.

    To begin, they spoke about propaganda. Propaganda is information given out that is usually of a biased nature, or even one that is purposely misleading to the audience it is trying to reach. There are countless examples of propaganda being used, mostly in war. It's most famous usage is definitely it's various uses in World War II, particularly by the Axis Powers.

    Propaganda can also be used to spread disinformation, a concept in itself entirely. It is entirely false information that is used to mislead people and, in some ways, "brainwash" them into believing what they are told despite the fact it may not be true.

        The final show of misinformation presented by the group was that of false flags. False flags are used as a way to hide responsibility for actions and or to make people believe an action should be taken when in reality that reason has been exaggerated or blatantly fabricated. 

    An example of false flags are those that were presented by Russia that were used as incentive for the people to want to invade Ukraine. On a frequent basis, Russia would use their false flags as a way to justify their eventual invasion of Ukraine.

Blog Post #10: The Age of AI

     We are currently living in a world that has a large amount of A.I. in it, even more than most people would assume, and it is only continuing to dominate the world and become a larger part of our lives whether we want it to or not.

    

    In FRONTLINE PBS'S documentary "In the Age of AI", it is very clear to see the fact that artificial intelligence is becoming a much more prominent component of everyday life. 

    For example, sites like Facebook take every post that is posted by anyone and takes it as data it can use and keep. They keep track of details like what your interests are, who your friends are, how often you post, and many other smaller examples like how you specifically respond to certain things. One example listed in the documentary is if you list things off in a rambling and unorganized way or if you list them off neatly with bullet points.

    This shows that no matter how big or small the data being gathered is, it is taken and used to craft predictions for it's own site later - an example of AI. An AI would be used to curate specific ads and other posts for people to see based on the data collected on them.

    It is to the point where because of AI, websites and corporations can use a combination of data and an AI using said data to change real world behavior while bypassing people's knowledge of it actually happening, as stated in the documentary.

    In an article about AI by the financial times (https://www.ft.com/content/5aa09af9-cd6c-46b6-a1be-e37ad1e33758), AI is compared to the atomic bomb. The bomb itself was a weapon that, before being used, was seen as a significant weapon that would have a large impact in the future. After is was used though, humanity as a whole were scared of the implications of the bomb, thinking the world was moving in a dark direction.

    In the article's words, the age of AI and AI itself seems to be on an equally consequential path as said atomic bomb. AI, however, is far more unpredictable in the uses it has and the functions it can carry out. For example, while it is used frequently in social medias like Facebook, it is also seeming like it could be a large military asset. 

    Overall, AI is becoming a much more prominent part of humanity as a whole, and it doesn't seem like it is going to let up anytime soon, if ever. AI is a concept that is scary when there is time to think of all the implications it has and all of the possibilities it can bring.

Blog Post #9: EOTO 2, Machine Learning

     In this Age of A.I., the ability for machines and A.I. to learn in ways similar to humans has become something that has accelerated greatly in recent times. 

    Machine Learning is a branch of both computer science and A.I. that focuses on data and the use of algorithm to imitate learning like a human. The actual term was coined by American computer scientist Arthur Samuel. 

(Photo of Arthur Samuel and the IBM 7094)

        Samuels originally based it off of the game Checkers. The master of Checkers at the time, a man named Robert Nealy, played against the IBM 7094 computer in a game of Checkers and lost the match.

 (https://www.ibm.com/topics/machine-learning)

    Machine Learning is an important part of data science that uses statistical methods to create algorithms to make predictions, classifications, and uncover insights in data mining projects. These discoveries help make decisions concerning applications and businesses. The market for machine learning will expand over time as big data continues to expand. 

    

    Machine learning works in 3 steps:

    

    1. Decision Process: Machine Learning uses algorithms to make classifications and predictions. Based on some input data, the algorithm will predict a pattern.

    2. Error Function: It evaluates the prediction of the model. If there are already known examples, it can use those to assess the accuracy of the model. 

    3. Model Optimization Process: If the model can have a better fit for the data points, the model will repeat the "optimize and evaluate" process until the threshold of accuracy for the model is met. 

    Machine Learning has become incredibly popular as of late due to the popularity of A.I. in certain forms, with chatGPT being an example. Machine Learning is crucial component to any A.I., as an A.I. is supposed to learn though the 3 step process showcased in machine learning.

    

    

Blog Post #8: Diffusion of Innovation and the Printing Press

 

    Rogers' Theory of Diffusion (pictured above) is used to show and explain how a product gains momentum and spreads throughout a specific population or social system. (https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories4.html#:~:text=Diffusion%20of%20Innovation%20%28DOI%29%20Theory%2C%20developed%20by%20E.M.,spreads%29%20through%20a%20specific%20population%20or%20social%20system.)

    The Printing Press and it's growth replicate this theory very closely. 

    

    Innovators/Pioneers: The Printing Press was created by Johannes Gutenberg in 1436. The invention itself was seen as a great way to produce printed goods, but he found distribution to be a large challenge. He ended up dying penniless without figuring out how to distribute his printed material out to a larger populous. 

    Early Adopters: Distribution began being figured out soon enough. People travelling or going on voyages would take printed material with them to distribute around. Slowly, a global market was beginning.

    Early Majority: The Market has now expanded quite bit, with the literacy rate slowly increasing as well as the number of books and other printed goods being produced. Religious, informative, and scientific texts were being produced and distributed at a rate never before seen in the world. The market was greatly expanding.

    Late Majority: The Italian Renaissance began entering it's full swing because of the invention of the printing press. Printed goods became cheaper to produce and procure, so it wasn't just limited to the upper class. This allowed for more fringe voiced to be heard instead of just those in the upper class. It also disallowed for as much censorship as the upper class didn't have the same amount of control that they did when printed goods weren't as easy to make or get. 

    Laggards: There's not much to say here besides the fact that some people who were extremely poor did not have access to the printing press until later on when it became cheap enough to warrant it. 

https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance

Blog Post #7: Invention of Paper

     Before paper was invented, it was incredibly hard to store and share information in general, much less on a global or even countrywide scale. Le-Yang and Cai Lun (particularly the latter) are credited as the inventers of progenitors of paper.

    Paper has very obviously become a massive market. With the mass production of paper, printed material became way more accessible and affordable. It was the most important method of communication for centuries, only recently becoming slowly overtaken by the internet. 

    Though this is no way to say paper will be going out of fashion anytime soon. It is still a resource that is incredibly useful and still in circulation everywhere. The paper market isn't dying any time soon, both as a material and as a communication technology.

(Plus, without paper we wouldn't have the office)

Blog Post #6: Anti-War and Other Fringe Voices

     For as long as news has been around, there have been viewpoints that are clearly favored in the eyes of the public and the government. This makes the more radical voices who oppose the mainstream have an extremely difficult time being heard, much less listened to. A majority of the time, these opposing views are even censored.

    A very good example is Twitter. Twitter often shuts down accounts that spread opinions that aren't held by a majority of the public, or that isn't the opinion that is shown positively in the news. If the accounts themselves aren't shut down, they may be shadow-banned (their tweets are prevented from circulating around), have their account suspended, or have the specific tweets removed.

    

    A very solid website/news source for anti-war opinions is, naturally, anti-war.com (https://www.antiwar.com/) is the way to go. I think it's safe to say that most people don't desire war or violence, but the government often attempts to silence that. The government, no matter who is in the presidency, relies on war a bit and censors those who loudly fight against it so the anti-war opinions can become too powerful for the government to fight back against it.

    Antiwar.com has tons of articles that showcase the horrors and tragedies that happen due to war. These stories and viewpoints are quite depressing to read due to the horrors of war itself, and would surely make a lot of people speak up more in an anti-war campaign, which is not something the government wants. Hence, Antiwar.com is a relatively small website/news source despite the legitimacy and informative nature of the pieces on their site. 

    The American Conservative (https://www.theamericanconservative.com/) is another website kept on the fringe. Obviously a right wing news source, and a radical one at that. Radical right wing news sources are often the most censored or pushed back against of any other viewpoint. 

    Even I as someone who is not personally right wing, much less radical, notice that those who are often don't get as much of an equal chance to speak their mind. They are pretty much immediately pushed back against most of the time. Even if I personally don't agree with a good amount of the articles I read, I still believe that the writers and voices on the site deserve just as much of a chance to give their opinion and have people read it without bias, and be heard out and not simply dismissed.

    Overall, most radical voices are often ignored, pushed against, or censored because they don't "fit" with the mainstream or what the government want you to believe, which just isn't fair and hides potentially important ideas and problems that could completely change people's perspectives or at least give them a different perspective.