Technology: My Friend and My Worst Enemy (Final Post)

Introduction

    Cell phones. Televisions. Internet. These are just a couple of the many critical technological devices and inventions that we use in our daily lives. They have made life easier and to an extent more enjoyable, but they along with other technological inventions can have detrimental side effects. 

Technological Confusion

    The benefits of technological innovation are plentiful, which is exemplified by the Futurama ride in the 1960s, as it can help human life in numerous ways such as increasing productivity, increasing communication ability, making a more educated workforce, and helping with medical advances. These advances have made it easier to do basic duties that help humans survive and thrive. As shown in the Age of AI video, the human race has made incredible strides like never seen before since the Industrial Revolution because of technological inventions making us more ingenious than ever before.

    While the benefits are great, so are the risks. Some of the possible risks for people using technology, especially children, include increased obesity, a decline in social skills, shorter attention span, and addiction to technology. On top of all the negative side effects, a decline in mental health is also a valid concern as many people become reliant on social media and technology to keep them happy and entertained. This reliance can lead to more behavior/ethical issues and less of an ability to self regulate themselves. Additionally, this technological increase especially with big tech companies has led to breaches in privacy as the big corporations allow people to use their resources for free, but in fact they actually monitor and collect data by the users for their benefit.

    Moving forward, where will technology take us? The future appears to be in Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the ability for machines and computers to learn and perform tasks usually only associated with intelligent beings after exposure to relevant information. This is already starting to take shape as was shown in the video as self driving trucks are becoming a reality in America, sweeping facial recognition systems in China, and increased investment in America and China to improve AI to increase productivity. As was explained with this uptick in AI usage, there will be a decrease in jobs available for the average person which would be an indirect negative affect of technology and its advancements.

Looking Inward

    As for myself, I believe I have an above average healthy relationship with technology. A lot of the right ways to use technology healthily, involve being a good digital citizen which includes following the laws, using correct online etiquette, communicating effectively, understanding the security and health risks of technology, and much more. From my perspective, I am knowledgeable in these areas as I am careful what I say and do while using technological devices. 

    When it comes to screen time, it is usually understood that there is not necessarily a set maximum amount of time people should be using technology every day. To an extent, time using devices must be monitored, but the concern is really about what people are doing with the technology (educational use, occupational use, recreational use, etc.). During the week I am writing this post, I am averaging 3 hours and 26 minutes on my phone every day. That may sound like a lot, but if I had to guess this number is probably less than most people my age. That time includes some entertainment, but also reading all of the news for the day and watching informative videos online. 

    When looking at my online footprint, I would say it is actually pretty small compared to others. When looking up only "Alex Powell" I am nowhere to be found, but if you look up "Alex Powell Roanoke, VA" then a few things of mine turn up. First is my LinkedIn account, then there is my name on Hudl from when I played high school soccer, and if you go to the second page of results you can find my name on scouting organization's website. Also, if you look at images you can find a link that involves me from when I was nominated for a prestigious area wide award my senior year of high school and when I won honorable mention in a nationwide video contest.

Conclusion

    In conclusion, technology has become instrumental in our daily lives and routines for even basic functions from waking on time up in the morning to being able to see what we are doing with electricity to being able to communicate with our loved ones through messaging and social media. But while these different technological inventions and systems can be beneficial, they can negative side effects when used in excess or in the wrong way. This improper and excessive use could lead to physical harm, mental harm, or both which is why we must be careful and mindful of our actions and intentions while using technology at all times.

Final PowerPoint Presentation

Hey Siri

    When scrolling through social media, have you ever noticed how your interests are always the first things to show up? Well, this is because of machine learning which I learned about in EOTO 2. Machine learning is when a computer focuses on the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way that humans learn leading computers to become more accurate over time. Some examples of this machine learning is Siri for Apple, Cortana for Microsoft, and the For You Page on TikTok. 

    Machine learning is a part of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that continues to help propel computer progress forward. This innovation has increased productivity and success of certain companies and people as these algorithms will promote the things that interest people which can help produce more consumption of products. Also, machine learning can become beneficial as it will learn the ways humans interact and can help to predict what humans want in the future. Machine learning will also help medical industry procedures and improve methods of operation for certain government agencies. 

    While machine learning can be beneficial, it can also be detrimental. This is because when the system reads data by people it also collects that personal information which invades people's privacy. Computers can even tell people's age, gender, religion, and political beliefs just by monitoring your online actions which continues to be a violation of privacy as those categories of information are protected and private. Lastly, machine learning is bad because as machines learn more information, it becomes more independent as it becomes less reliant on humans to control it and keep it online therefore possibly making the computer more powerful than humans.

Email? You Use Email?

  

    As previously explained in detail in the blog, email has changed the game in terms of social and work communication. In saying this, there were many doubters and nonbelievers in the viability of the technology in the beginning. In order to observe how email caught on, we will use the theory called Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation (or Ideas).

  

    In the beginning and as part of the experimental phase, the pioneers of the email were inventors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who were the first to envision the idea and conceptualize the first version of email. Following the inventors at MIT, is the ARPANET system which helped enable email.

    In the following years, email caught on and involved the early adopters which were the people who continued to grow the use of ARPANET. This is influenced by more use in email systems, even Queen Elizabeth II in the 1970s. 

    Then, as a part of the uptake phase the early majority started to catch on to using email. This is exemplified by big companies in the 1990s beginning to produce their own email networks such as Lotus Notes. This was followed by AOL who continued to propel email forward as more people started getting interested.

    In the maturation phase were the late adopters in the late 1990s and 2000s as Microsoft, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail all started their email services which continued to spread the use of email to more people.

    As a part of the saturation phase, there are the laggerds. The laggerds are the small number of people who still refuse to use email. This number has continued to get smaller due to the increased ability to use email from the Blackberry and iPhone. I personally find it hard to believe that there are people who still adamantly refuse to use email, but I guess there must be a few people who do not use email. After analyzation, it is safe to say that email has caught on to the masses as a successful form of communication. 

Big Media (EOTO 2)

Introduction

    When watching the local news, you might notice that the local news stations are not actually locally owned. Most local news stations are actually owned by bigger, nationwide companies. For example, in my hometown WDBJ7 which is a CBS affiliated news station is owned by Gray Television which owns 36% of U.S. television households and then WSLS which is a NBC affiliated news station is owned by Graham Media Group which owns 7 stations in large markets around the nation. These larger companies are becoming more common as the smaller stations are being bought out by larger stations and companies in order to increase their profits. This sounds like the board game of monopoly where large companies gobble up as much as they can get their hands on, and the FCC should be holding these large corporations accountable, but that does not appear to be happening. 

What is Media Consolidation?

Gray Television Stations

    Media Consolidation is when ownership of local news sources become more concentrated which puts the power of news into fewer and fewer hands. The goal of this media consolidation is for the bigger companies to gain more profit and sometimes to set a certain agenda that they want to promote. This consolidation into bigger companies has led to less decision making at the top of companies which leads to more bias spreading to a wider audience. Also, this consolidation has reportedly made the country more polarized politically because many of these bigger ownership groups have some sort of political agenda that they subtly try to promote. While there are many negative results that come from media consolidation, typically media consolidation can lead to better quality news telling as there are more resources available to put on a good news cast. 

So What?

    Media consolidation affects everyone who watches local television stations. First off it is a big issue because everyone is exposed to this consolidation as literally anyone who has a television has access to the local stations without a cable paywall. The consolidation of networks is important to be knowledgeable of because they may not promote the FCC's goal of reducing viewpoint diversity because the large companies will promote their agenda instead of necessarily always promoting the minority or opposing view to an issue. Also, the local television stations are the current way many people prefer and are able to to get local news since the presence of the newspaper has declined. With the presence of these larger corporations owning the local news stations, they typically focus on more national or larger regional based news and not the local news that many people want to hear about.

Why is Media Consolidation Still Present?

    It is very difficult to enforce media consolidation as there is very little evidence to prove how it is detrimental to society which is why the FCC has trouble enforcing it. Mainly what makes it so difficult to enforce is that the FCC tries to enforce media consolidation for the good of "public interest" which is hard to define and the focus is on diversity which is also hard to prove that consolidation hurts diversity. Some argue that when media consolidation occurs, there is more diversity because the smaller network/company does not disappear it just merges with the bigger network/company so its ideas and beliefs become part of a larger movement. In reality, I personally seriously doubt this sentiment is true as do many scholars. 

Conclusion

    In conclusion, while the focus of this media consolidation discussion may have been on news, media consolidation can have other focuses such as streaming services and movies. An example of this is Disney which owns ESPN, ABC, Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, Hulu, FX, and the National Geographic channel. While not all of this is necessarily news, it shows that a single brand and company can easily affect a lot of what you watch and pay attention to which can then affect the way that you see and interpret things which then can affect your belief system. 

    

They Know Your Personal Information

   

    Have you ever agreed to terms and conditions for something online without actually reading the conditions? Almost everyone does this on a regular basis without thinking twice because they believe nothing bad could possibly come of it. In reality, reading the terms and conditions for something online is critical to protecting your personal information. Using sites that have terms and conditions, usually leads to some sort of data collection. This is an issue we face in our daily lives as 6 out of 10 Americans believe they cannot go through their daily lives without having their data collected

    When online websites especially social media sites use our personal information it affects every person who uses those sites. This is an example of an adhesion contract which is where one party holds all of the negotiating power because when we use online sites we must abide by their rules without any say in the matter. This tracking of personal information is important to know because evidence of our actions online (like a digital footprint) stick around a long time (maybe forever) like a tattoo on our bodies. This evidence left behind can indicate some of our personal information and tendencies which invades each individual's right to privacy.

    The government currently monitors a lot of this personal information and data whether through outside sources such as social media sites or through their own methods such as highway monitoring and cell phone monitoring. This is the opposite of what the government should be doing because each person should have the right to privacy. The government should only data monitor when its time and scope are limited. With this idea, the only time the government should invade a person's privacy by monitoring their personal information should be in times where it is clear and obvious that it is to protect people from danger. Also, certain types of information should be off limits from the government no matter what such as medical and biometric information. And even after any information is used and observed, it should be permanently deleted.

    After knowing that our privacy is being invaded, we can come up with various ways to protect ourselves. First off, you can check all of the terms and conditions before signing up for a product or program to ensure everything follows your expectations. Second, you can make sure your communication methods are encrypted which most smart phones are nowadays, especially Apple products. Another useful method to protect your personal information is to use a fake email to receive spam messages and to sign up for various online programs. This makes sure your legitimate email stays safe from privacy concerns. Speaking of your email, you should sign out of your email when you are not using it to protect your personal information. Lastly, you always have the option to go in and change your privacy settings.

Listening to FM in the AM

 

    Before the invention of the television, the radio was the best way to be entertained and informed. In 1894, Guglielmo Marconi created the first radio, he began with short distance broadcasts. Radio became more widespread as the technology continued to improve and more knowledge became available on electromagnetic waves. In 1906, Reginald Fessenden broadcast sent the first long distance transmission of human voice. The first commercial radio station, KDKA, opened and began operating in 1920 in Pennsylvania. This began the radio's golden age. From the 1920s through the 1950s, radio was the main source for entertainment as there was music, dramas, comedies, and sports broadcast over the radio. Radio was also the source of the most immediate and recent news as it was on air all day while the only other source of news was the newspaper that came once a day. In the 1950s, television became popular and decreased the amount of constant listeners to the radio. In saying this, the radio is still prominent as it is the best source of information while in the car or in a location without internet or cell phone coverage. 

    As mentioned earlier, the radio was beneficial to society as it was constantly on air and could report the most recent information when it comes to news. Especially in those times, it was critical for updates in war efforts and in speeches from political leaders such as the fireside chats that FDR gave during the Great Depression. Also, the radio allowed people to be entertained in new ways while being able to spend time with family while crowded around a radio in the living room together. This entertainment factor set up the groundwork for what television would look like in the future.

 

    In the beginning, radio was difficult to hear which hurt its viability as a productive tool. Later, they invented loud speakers which helped with broadcasting. Another issue and concern was the increasing commercial usage. People were concerned for their entertainment as there were increasing commercials and breaks in shows, but people eventually got used to it and today we have constant commercials on the radio and television. Nowadays, a negative aspect of radio is that it can make people distracted, which can be a safety hazard for drivers, which is when most people currently use the radio.  

    The radio is not the most prominent form of communication used today, but it was instrumental in the evolution of our current forms of communication. 

Antiwar Movement: The Great Silent Majority

 Introduction

    In our current age, there are not many outspoken and well-known antiwar voices. Why is this? There could be multiple explanations to why the antiwar movement is significantly quieter, but first let's first look at some history.

In the Past...

    The Antiwar Movement originated a long time ago, and can even be traced back to groups of people with these sentiments during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, but it really took off around World War I. This can be attributed to Woodrow Wilson promising to keep America out of the war, yet later involving the U.S. in the conflict. The antiwar opinions continued to spread and become more popular which caused Wilson to pass two laws called the Espionage Act (1917) and Sedition Act (1918) which silenced government officials and private citizens respectively of criticizing the government's actions. This led to the arrest of some prominent individuals such as Eugene Debs, a presidential candidate and leader of the socialist party, for speaking out against the U.S. going to war. Four similar court cases (including one involving Debs) caused Supreme Court Justice Holmes to relay the importance of the Marketplace of Ideas (1919) which emphasizes that all ideas must be heard in order to figure out which ideas are "good" and correct. This began to open the door to more discourse on subjects such as the antiwar opinion. Later in 1921, William Howard Taft became the Chief Justice and engineered in the following years more protections for citizens through the first amendment and free speech. This is evident through Antiwar sentiments during the Vietnam War where people were able to have their voices heard about their disdain for the U.S.'s involvement. 

What About Now?

    Where have the antiwar voices gone? These opinions can be found on relatively unknown websites such as ANTIWAR.COM and American Conservative. Both of these sites contain articles addressing military topics and addressing the the importance of avoiding conflict. For example, many of the current stories address the Russia situation in Ukraine as it discusses what went wrong that led to this point and then what must be done in the future to avoid an armed conflict. Some of this lack of exposure may be from cancel culture, which tends to quiet people and ideas that do not agree with the "expectations" of society. While many people may not want war, many people still do not want to "rock the boat" and force change so they do not want to promote any "radical" ideas. Some people do not see any strong antiwar movements and rhetoric needed because they see elections as the way to promote their beliefs on war and armed conflicts. Then, other people suggest that a strong antiwar movement is irrelevant right now because there is a consensus that there is a distinction between current enemies and past enemies, and there is no draft in affect so it is an all volunteer military.

Conclusion

    In the United States, there has been a constant history of war and this has inevitably led to people opposing those wars. These voices used to be prominent, even considered as the great silent majority by Richard Nixon in 1968. But nowadays we have heard about less opposition to war because of many possible reasons including but not limited to election results, an all volunteer military, and the nature of our current enemies. While all of these might be valid reasons for a less prominent antiwar movement, it really boils down to the sentiments of the antiwar movement not aligning with the goals of the federal government and how we are viewed around the world. We consider ourselves to be the police force around the world to keep everything in order, which leads to more conflict and so when there are disagreements, those arguments that do not align (in this instance the antiwar opinion) they will be discredited and inevitably become silenced and unpopular. 

You've Got Mail! (EOTO 1)

 Introduction

    "You've Got Mail." That is what AOL users used to hear when they received an email. Nowadays, you might get a notification on your mobile phone or have to just check your email manually. This shows just one of the many changes in email over the last 50 years of its existence. With these changes come many benefits and increased connectivity, but there can be also detrimental side effects.

The History

    Email or electronic mail has become a regular and constant tool for our daily lives as a way to connect with friends, family, and colleagues. The first version of email was used in 1965 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where they were testing one of their systems that allowed users to share information through one system and the use of multiple terminals. In 1969, for the first time multiple computers were interconnected, and so the Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET) was started as the first real email system and it was overseen by the U.S. Defense Department. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson who worked at MIT started the use of the "@" symbol which separated the username and machine. In 1976, Queen Elizabeth II became the first monarch and head of state to send an email. In 1989, Lotus Notes (later IBM notes) was launched which allowed more widespread use of email as now everyone could have a free personalized email. Before, it was mostly used by students and employees. Beginning in 1992, you were able to now add attachments that were not text to emails. Also, in 1992, another large email company went public: AOL. In 1996, Microsoft released the first version of Outlook which was called Internet Mail and News 1.0 which continued to increase the use and availability of email. In 1996 and 1997 respectively, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail launch which continues to increase the popularity of email. In 2002, the Blackberry cellphone was released which for the first time enabled emails to be sent from mobile cellphones. In 2004, Gmail was launched by Google which continued to spread the use of email and is now one of the most popular email companies. The last major development for email was in 2007 when Apple came out with the iPhone which supplied more of an ability by the ordinary consumer to have access to mobile email.

Email is Great for Connectivity

    Prior to email, it was difficult to send a message to a large group of people and to send a message to someone a long distance away. With the addition of email, those people could almost instantaneously receive and communicate with each other. Email makes it easier to communicate in a flexible and asynchronous way which can help increase production in the workplace and improve communication for people across different places and times. In addition to messaging, email has helped people to connect through other ways such as Onedrive and other cloud based services where the same project can be worked on at the same time by multiple people in different locations. 

Email has no Flaws, right? Not so fast...  

    While email can have benefits, there can be detrimental side effects. Email can lead to a decrease in human communication, especially in the workplace. This lack of in person human communication can lead to quicker conflict escalation and issues between people. Also, in emails it is hard to convey emotion which can lead people to misinterpret the sender and cause the receiver to have the wrong behavioral response. Another issue with email is spam email, otherwise known as unsolicited bulk email, where people receive an email message that is sent to many random people and those people did not sign up for it. This fills up the inbox and space of people's emails and computers which can be frustrating and make it difficult to communicate. Lastly, as with everything online you can have personal information stolen by hackers. This can be avoided, but sometimes if a person accidentally clicks on the wrong thing or if there is a security breach of a company with your password information, then you could possibly have your email hacked and personal information stolen.

Conclusion

    In the current age, email has become one of the most prominent tools of communication in the professional and personal environment. This has allowed us to continue to move forward as a society by increasing production and staying connected with family and friends. While there are benefits, we must be mindful to weigh the negative aspects as what we write can be easily misinterpreted and can affect our psyche as human beings. In conclusion, the invention of the email has drastically improved our way of communication when used properly and can continue to drive society forward in many capacities.