Relationship to Technology

Technology has become an integral part of our daily lives. We often take it for granted and don’t realize how reliant we are. Our digital footprints were being created for us long before we ever understood the implications. Watching the Mad World Remix of Moby Video (Are You Lost In The World Like Me) shows the scary implication technology, more specifically our phones and social media has on us. The video shows very real elements of the addiction, social image issues, and mental health toll that these elements take on our society. While I think these elements are more real than many of us realize, I think it takes education to combat these issues. If we are giving our children and students access to these devices, we also need to be teaching more awareness and safety measures going forward

   

   I was lucky enough to grow up in a time when technology was truly evolving. Unlike today, owning a phone or iPad was not a common thing. Being able to look back on my life and the part it has played showed me how much of a learning curve and lifestyle change came with it. My first piece of technology was a Hannah Montana iPod that could only play 10 songs. I wasn’t allowed a phone till the end of middle school. If I was spending time online, I was playing games like Webkinz, Poptropica, or on the Wii. This time online was in douses though. We had a family computer that my brothers would use for school or my parents for work.

The moment my middle school switched to giving students iPads in class was groundbreaking. It completely changed the environments within classrooms. All children were given this tool to help improve their learning capabilities. Once I got to 8th grade and into high school a Chromebook was given instead of an iPad. There are still photos of my friends in 2015 on Facebook picking their computers up at the start of the school year. The capability of this change and its use in the classroom only expanded. This felt like such a privilege, and looking back, I don’t think I fully understood the impact that moment had. We were the first students to be given this opportunity, and my school district was beyond fortunate to have this chance. I remember there being a learning curve for our teaching staff, and the school, and finding ways to make sure all students had internet at home if they were assigned out-of-classroom work. For the students that didn’t have access to the internet, our school found a way to bring it to them or allow them to go somewhere with access.

Looking back google made a phenomenal business decision moving into schools. They started a trial program in 2010 and have since grown to a 40 million dollar project. The company has seamlessly entered our lives at a young age making a profound impact as we were academically developing. We grew up and became familiar with iPads and Apple as well as Google with Chromebooks. Having students at that age learn to use their specific form of technology only helps them to form a connection with a younger audience and build them into future customers. To fulfill all needs of this market google invented Google Classroom for teachers to communicate and manage their classes. Our digital footprints were being created for us long before we ever understood the implications.

    The reliance on technology only grew when we were quarantined for Covid. For me to finish my senior year of high school, I had to transition to online classes and take AP tests online, and I even said goodbye to high school teachers and friends on Zoom. Now for college, I use my computer each day to complete my school work, continue my internship, and start figuring out my future. I spend a large portion of my time on social media, listening to music, and talking to friends. I understand my relationship and reliance on technology, so I try to find outlets in my life where I actually step away and give myself that separation. 

I feel that as a communications major, I would be doing a disservice to dismiss the sheer benefits it has shown me in my life. It is because of services like LinkedIn and the shift to businesses using social media, that I have been able to have two successful internships that have taught me a lot of real job experience. It is because of a service called Letterloop and Whatsapp that I can keep in touch with friends I have met studying abroad. It is because of Social media platforms that allow me to educate people about the incredible nonprofit organization I work for, in hopes of gaining more support. So it is important we acknowledge the implications that the devices in our lives have on us and the people around us, it is important we educate the people in our lives and it is important to be proactive in teaching our future generation how to combat the negative sides to technology.

Blog #11- EOTO Reaction 2

    

 Let's take a minute to be real… we have all been in a situation where we may have said something different than what the group might wanted and felt a little awkward, over something small like where to go for dinner. However, what if the stakes were upped and we were talking about gun laws or privacy laws, how would that change our behavior? Some may believe they would speak out against the group because nothing could change their beliefs. Well, taking into consideration the concept of the spiral of silence we are more likely to go along with the group in order to not be considered an outsider.

    In simple terms, the theory suggests that as humans we fear self-isolation leading us to not want to be emotionally vulnerable in a setting where we don’t conform with the greater majority of the group out of fear of further consequences. The more we believe we are not in the majority, as expressed by the masses, the more we conceal our true feelings. This theory was first created by ​​Elisabeth Noelle Neumann, a German political scientist, who proposed this theory during the 1970s in relation to the Holocaust. She argued that the spiraling happens when we get further and further into our fears, to the point the minority opinion is never heard. 

    After hearing my classmate's presentation on this topic, I was faced with the contradiction this plays in social media today. We often view social media as a place where we are free to share our ideas and perspectives. However, as our social media has continued to advance these roots in discussion forms online have grown less diverse as our technology has advanced to promote more material that conforms with our ideas or beliefs, whether they are true or not. So if you had asked me a few years ago if I thought that social media worked to counter the spiral of silence, I might agree with you, however, now I feel we aren’t appreciating and respecting minorities or even different opinions. 

Blog #10 Living in the Age of AI

 

    To say our future in technology all came down to a Chinese board game, Go, seems a little far-fetched, however, this is what changed our perspectives on the applicability of AI. Watching the film IN THE AGE OF AI  gave me a whole new perspective on the extent of what AI is capable of. The computer playing the game of GO completely changed the top players' whole concept of what was possible in the game, all in one move. This life-altering technology is so profound, it is even helping to improve the health research in our nation. Scientists are able to predict and catch stages of Breast cancer earlier now with an added consistency. It is allowing scientists to use a form of AI technology in breast screenings to provide quick and more accurate results for those at risk. 

    As we see in this film, there is often this conception that the lack of job is due to outsources, but in reality, it is only affecting 20% of the job market, it is AI and automation that is really causing a shift in AI. So many companies are increasing their automation because there is a serious increase in production and no increase in wages. What truly surprised me, was how it is taking away jobs that women typically hold. One study from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School suggests that almost eight out of every ten women workers could be affected. Our economy is going to be seriously affected if we can’t recuperate from these shifts in jobs. 

    At the forefront of all of these advances in technology and AI, 4 major companies are leading. These companies hold the majority of our popular technology products, and in turn the majority of our data. As we move forward with the advancement in AI, the need for our protection against companies taking advantage becomes more pressing. The film comes to an important point that we have the right to know, the right to say no, and the right to have a 3rd party opt-out, with 80% of the population in agreement with this need for privacy law. 

Blog #9 Data Privacy

Being naive can be blissful… the more you learn about your data and the information being collected on you the more you wish you didn’t know. Our rights to privacy are shrinking every minute you are online, or even just near technology. As a kid, I always thought my dad was being dramatic when he was telling me I couldn’t have social media like all the other middle schoolers, and when I finally did he was always so cautious about what I was doing and what I was posting. I get it now, he was not naive to the dangers and the information being collected on us. 

Our society's technology has only gotten more advanced and weaved into our lives than ever before. We leave a footprint everywhere we go, and companies and the government are taking advantage of that. A few years ago the State of South Carolina got into trouble for selling driver's licenses and driving history records of South Carolinians. The DMV made over 42 million dollars off of our information. Like Catherine Crump’s Ted Talk mentions the government takes photos of license plates, tracking everywhere you go. 

Tech companies have been working to encrypt their technologies to protect consumers, yet as Christopher mentioned in the TED talk he gave, the Chinese government hacked into those surveillance measures that were made available to our government in order to track which government agents they were tapping. Governments foreign and domestic have an interest in our data. 

So what is being done to protect our data? This is the question we all have to educate ourselves on in order to follow the best practices for protecting our data. Recently, I have done extensive research on the need for a comprehensive federal data protection law, currently, there are only a few states that have enacted this, but it should be a national standard to protect our right to privacy online. While this does not account for the countless other measures being done to track us it takes a step in the right direction. 

Blog #8- Mis/Dis/Mal-Information

    Did you hear that Disney was lowering the drinking age to 18? How exciting for our Disney “adults” right? Well according to Mouse Trap News and a viral tiktok, Disney is currently petitioning the Florida state government to allow them to do this!  Now if you are a real fact check you know this isn’t true, just some bad information that has been spread around by some eager-to-believe social media followers and a professional-looking satirical blog. Its titles like this grab readers' and viewers' attention, pulling them into the media source.  This goes to show how quickly misinformation can spread. The true definition of misinformation is information that is false, but the person who is disseminating it believes that it is true… so there is no malicious intent just a lack of education. Whereas Disinformation is information that is false, the person sharing knows it’s false, and has a malicious intent to harm. On the other hand, Mal-information is when information is spread that comes from the truth but is stretched or exaggerated, and the person sharing knows this. 

                                                                                                    The increased use of AI technology

has enabled so much mis, dis, and mal information to be spread, because of how real it seems with deep fakes and manipulated media sources. This spreading of false or exaggerated information leads to, discrimination, stigmas, and false concepts or theories.  

    Misinformation is not an easy task to prevent, but how it happens is a little easier to narrow down. In a report done by UNESCO, they identify three causes enabling the spread of misinformation, first the Collapsing traditional business models. What this means is due to a decrease in advertiser budgets, there is less quality control, and an increased push for “click bate” journalism leads to more cases of information. Next is the digital transformation of newsrooms and storytelling. We are advancing in our technology each day, and so our news has shifted to this digital platform, which is much easier to spread, with even less control. Lastly the creation of new news ecosystems. These are the user-generated news systems and content streams. Most platforms will show you what you find interesting furthering the drive for clickbait leads, and more so an echo chamber of potentially false information. The American Psychological Association connects our willingness to believe in fake news to our cognitive processes being more willing to accept information that conforms to our worldview biases.   

    Even if you didn’t believe the influence this has had in our society, the debates on COVID-19 sure did bring to light the need for stronger fact-checking processes. The National Library of Medicine referenced the period of time when people believed getting the vaccine would affect fertility in women, and potentially alter the genetic makeup of individuals. The information that usurped this rumor led to a decrease in people getting vaccines. Whereas information spread did have other influences on people's behavior patterns of social distancing, handwashing, and mask-wearing. 

    Now how can we as a society work to help prevent the spread of false information with malicious intent or not? We can take more time to stop and think, and fact-check sources. There are so many resources out there online that can educate individuals on how to tell whether a source is true or not, we just have to take the next step. 

Blog #7 Diffusion of Innovation

    People naturally seek human connection, it's a basic human need. We look to connect to people in many ways, and now we have so much access to technology that allows us to communicate and share in just seconds, we now almost need a break from the constant attachment.  The cornerstone of this new access to instant connection is social media. While there were many early forms of social media like Six Degrees, it was Facebook that took it to a whole new level. 

Famously Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes created Facebook in 2004 as students at Harvard. The platform took off and was originally supposed to be only for Harvard students to have information on classmates. However, History Channel reports that it had over a million users by the end of the year with a $500,000 investment. 

Now considering, the Diffusion of innovation, which explains how and why ideas spread, Facebook flew through the process. The innovators are students like Mark, Eduardo, Dustin, and Chris who built the platform and had their friends try it to see if it worked before launching it. The early adopters came from the original Harvard and Ivy League students who were joining the platform and creating portfolios. College kids were eager to be early adopters because they are in a stage of life that revolves around being social. The Early Majority came as it started to spread outside of college students and into the surrounding communities. By 2009, 350 million people were active members of Facebook. Currently, if you are just joining Facebook you are considered a laggard.

This platform put the diffusion of innovation on an expedited timeline, considering the first year one million people had already joined. This was so successful and had such an impact because it was a completely new way to connect with people and see their information and profiles online. In today's world, it's completely common, you have multiple social media platforms. However groundbreaking this innovation is, it still has its downfalls. This platform is a fully integrated part of our social media world, but it has the harmful effect of spreading fake news, hurtful speech, and other socially questionable information. It is the prime hot spot for mis, dis and mal-information. Yet, it sticks around with us because the positives and the connection are greater and more addictive than the harmful effects appear to be. 

Blogg #6 Anti-War Voices

Ukraine, Iraq, Syria... all countries of war currently, and yet why are involved? That is what the Antiwar and The American Conservative websites are asking. Each of these blogs is of a strong Anti-war voice. The AntiWar blog was developed to promote the idea of non-interventionism. The page's initial goal was to fight against intervention in the Balkans, and they have continued that same ideology into more current issues of war. The American Conservatives was founded in 2002 to discuss what they believe to be the best quality of America. They are promoting a "main street" movement to educate modern political and cultural leaders. These current advocates are not shown much or promoted in mainstream media. 

War is a hot topic in the media these days, and the sensalization of news has only made this an even bigger case. News sources want to get people's attention, they need viewers, what more jarring cause than war? Once they get your attention many sources will keep working to get viewers' attention. As we talked about in class with the collection of data it is easy to track who is looking at what and continuously promoting related content. This can cause echo chambers on social media, and from other news sources as well. One study found that 17% of Americans get their news only from one political-leaning TV source. 

When people only get their news sources from one point of view, their opinions and beliefs are skewed to one side of an issue. However, this isn't the only reason we may not be hearing these issues. When I tried to find other sources or research done on why these anti-war sites are not as prominent in mainstream media, no sources were to be found. This leads me to believe this is because the issues haven't reached and gained enough support from the population, or this idea is being suppressed in order to not give people another perspective.