Final Blog Post

Over the semester in Media, Law, and Literacy, we have been talking about our personal relationships with technology as well as society as a whole. The advancement of technology has been beneficial in many ways but also comes with some negatives. Technology can advance our knowledge for the good or mislead us with false information. 

In an article from Columbia University, experts weigh in on the harm of technology, specifically social media. I was shocked to read that an investigation by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook was aware of the mental health risks linked to the use of their Instagram app but kept those findings secret. Internal research shows that teen users on Instagram have worsened body image, and usage of the app is linked to anxiety and depression. It is alarming that teens are being influenced and affected by technology at such a young age. This makes me wonder how much other social media platforms are aware of and don't share. How scary is it that a social media app, a form of technology, has power over us to perceive ourselves differently and affect our mental health?

Middle school and high school are especially hard years to have technology in our hands with all the cyberbullying that takes place. Cyberbullying has made it difficult to track, respond to, and combat incidents of bullying. Cyberbullying has a link to depression, social anxiety, reduced self-esteem, and poor academic performance. Bullies can spread messages anonymously to large audiences quickly. Cyberbullying can occur 24/7, it is not limited to school hours. 

Space Technology Predicted in the Futurama Display

The video about the famous Futurama display at the World's Fair in New York was fascinating, especially seeing how much of the future it predicted is accurate. It's remarkable how ideas from 1964 have come to life today! This display made predictions about a man going to the moon, weather technology, electric cars, underwater hotels, and technology advances as a whole. 

Picture from the remix by Moby

The remix by Moby video shows how people in our society are glued to their phones and disconnected from reality. There is a scene where someone is being bullied and hit. Bystanders record the event instead of stepping in to help the situation. This helps to show the relationship our society has with technology. In the scene where a young girl appears to be happy, wearing makeup and presenting herself carefully. On the other hand, when the phone shifts to real life without social media, she is dull, sad, and looks withdrawn. This shows that what you see online is not always how it is in real life. Social media can pressure people into a false truth, which can mask our struggles.  

With the creation of Artificial Intelligence, technology has transformed. AI is specifically being used in the workplace. This concept brings up fear in the future of the job industry. AI has brought the creation of recruiting tools and robotic assistants. Recruiting tools help employers go through cover letters and resumes. This makes me wonder if people's jobs are going to start being stripped away since AI systems allow for improved efficiency and productivity. 

As I have mentioned above, technology has an impact on our society. I decided to dive deeper and found an article about the ways it is affecting our society. Technology is a major concern for future generations but also has many benefits. People today in our society are using technology so much, which reduces their physical activity and affects their health. If this is how our generation is living, it worries me how technology will affect future generations. 

Positives of Technology include improved communication, easy-to-access information, and improved education. Negatives include increases in unemployment, an increase in health and mental concerns, and an increase in pollution. Technology seems like a give-and-take it has its positives but also its negatives. It is all about using the technology in the proper way that does not harm yourself or others. 

Overall, technology has been part of my life since middle school and will be for the foreseeable future. I would like to say my relationship with technology is perfect, but it is far from it. I strive to put my phone down more to be more present in the moment. 

EOTO Mediasphere

I learned a lot of valuable information from Group Two and their presentation about the Mediasphere. The mediasphere is defined as "The collective ecology of the world's media, including newspapers, journals, television, radio, books, novels, advertising, press releases, publicity, and the blogosphere; any and all media both broadcast and published."

Echo Chambers

An echo chamber is an environment or ecosystem where people encounter beliefs that amplify or reinforce their preexisting beliefs. Echo Chambers cause increased polarization, the spread of misinformation, and social cohesion. Echo Chambers can happen anywhere information is exchanged.

Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers promote transparency by promoting wrongdoing. They provide the right information to the right person. Whistleblowers find themselves in difficult situations where they report misconduct. This is a brave act to speak out and report something that is wrong. 

An example of a whistleblower case took place in 1971. Daniel Ellsberg published the Pentagon Papers and was a history-making whistleblower. This paper revealed that the United States had expanded war with the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks. None of this was reported by the American Media. 

Online Influencers 

The origin of influencers was in the mid-2000s, with platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Influencer speech is protected under the First Amendment. Influencers often post about personal opinions, whether that is politics or their favorite clothing brand. 

Citizen Journalism

Example of Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is when citizens report the news before a news outlet can get to the scene. It is accessible, speedy, and diverse, and allows for community engagement. Real-time updates especially for breaking news. The problem is the lack of factual content that can be done by anyone. 

Alternative Media

Alternative Media is less external interest. More integrity, unbiased news, and specialized. Alternative Media gets their funding through non-profit since they are independently owned. With the rise in social media blogs and podcasts have become more popular and easily accessible. 

Mainstream Media 

Mainstream media channels reach a wide audience. Examples of these channels include CNN, BBC, and The New York Times. Mainstream media is at the top and very powerful. They are in the loop constantly about what is going on in the news. 

Media Bias is a negative of mainstream media. The news channels control what is said and what is being seen by the public eye. No news outlet is always neutral. Often times people listen to only one news outlet, which is negative because they are only getting the opinion from the mainstream news outlet they watch. 

The Progressive Era

Dissent means to publicly disagree with an official opinion, decision, or set of beliefs. Dissenting opinions play a role in our constitutional democracy, offering different viewpoints from the majority. Dissent is also key to the First Amendment, as it protects unpopular opinions and perspectives. 

Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v. Board

An example of a case that had a dissenting opinion is Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. This case created the "separate but equal" doctrine. This decision effectively legalized segregation for over half a century. Justice John Marshall Harlan had a dissenting opinion and argued against the majority's decision. 

Justice John Marshall believed that the Constitution was color-blind and the United States had no class system. He argued that all citizens, regardless of race, should be treated equally under the law. Justice John Marshall's dissent in this case became an argument in later civil rights movements. Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned by Brown v. Board in 1954. 

The U.S. government is waging war all around the globe. After exploring ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative, I noticed the strong anti-war voices that were being used, but I had never heard or read anti-war pieces on mainstream media. 

One possibility that we are not being exposed to anti-war voices is that the government is censoring what is shared on mainstream media. The media does not have an interest in promoting anti-war. Journalists get some of their news information from the government, so if they criticize military actions too strongly, that could affect their relationship. 

News and media that involve conflict and war also tend to be more desirable for viewers. This is because people want to know what conflicts are going on in the world. Mainstream media is driven by profits, so they aren't going to share anti-war voices that may not bring in the same profit. Wars bring alot of profit and are surrounded by the idea of money so promoting anti-war voices would put the U.S. in jeopardy of the profit that wars bring.  

Overall discovering ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservation was insightful. I was able to see how anti-war voices are being used but just not being shown on mass media. 

EOTO: Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation

Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation are prevalent in our society, so it is important to know the differences and be educated on the topic. Foreign actors use misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation campaigns to cause chaos, confusion, and division. These actors are seeking to interfere with and undermine our democratic institution and national cohesiveness. 

The spread of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation has affected our ability to improve public health, address climate change, and maintain a stable democracy. Overall, the unchecked spread of false or harmful information threatens social stability, governance, and collective well-being. 

Disinformation:

Disinformation is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country. 

Disinformation is not a new problem, but it has become more prominent with the speed and reach of social media platforms. Disinformation can be spread through word of mouth, memes, speeches, group text messages, news and opinion programming, and nearly any other form of material can be used to spread disinformation. For example, deepfake technology uses AI to create convincing fake images and videos. This technology will bring up challenges in determining the origin and truthfulness of videos which shows how growing technology is making it easier for disinformation to appear as legitimate. 

Misinformation:

Misinformation is false but not created or shared to cause harm. Someone can spread misinformation innocently by saying or writing things that are untrue while believing them to be true. For example, a person shares a news report on social media that turns out to be an unreliable news source, and the information is incorrect. This person who shared it believed the information to be true. This is a perfect example, the person thought the information was true and shared it, but turns out it is false. The information was not shared with the intent to cause harm. 

Malinformation:

Malinformation is based on fact but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate. It is often private information spread from corporate or personal interest, such as when someone posts intimate photos of an ex-partner online. Another example is selectively sharing true but incomplete information about a political candidate to distort their image and mislead voters. While based on fact, malinformation is weaponized to harm individuals, groups, or institutions, causing reputational, emotional, or social damage.

With the amount of news and information shared daily, we need to be continually asking ourselves, "Why am I believing this? and Does this make sense?" Having various sources where you receive local, state, and national news is another way to be sure the information you are receiving is all true. Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation can affect our society as a whole because we are sometimes given information that we believe to be true, but it was twisted in a way to make it untrue, harmful, or misleading. 

The spread of inaccurate or manipulated information can lead people to believe falsehoods, which in turn harms public trust, divides communities, and weakens the democratic processes.

The spread of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation will have varied impacts across different areas of society. Combating these issues requires a collective effort, including education and better tools for being able to figure out what is true and what is false. We need the cooperation of governments and tech platforms to uphold the integrity of information and ensure platforms contain true information. I hope next time you are reading a news source or hear of information you take a second and ask yourself "Why am I believing this? and Does this make sense?" 

Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. This theory was made popular by Everett Rogers. He wrote a book called Diffusion of Innovations that was published in 1962. Rogers believes that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among participants in a social system. 

The diffusion of innovations according to Rogers 

Now that you have a basic understanding and visual of the theory I am going to apply the diffusion of innovations theory to the creation of email. The first email was sent in 1971. Email was invented by Raymond Tomlinson. He developed a system that allowed people to send simple messages to each other over the ARPANET network. 

The pioneers of the first email include the creator of email Raymond Tomlinson and his coworkers at Raytheon BBN Technologies. Tomlinson invented it and therefore his coworkers were definitely a part of the pioneer stage. 

The early adopters included the government and large corporations. Email allowed for quick communication, so places of work and businesses would be some of the first to adopt this new technology. It allows for communication to be almost instant and for companies to be more efficient. 

The early Majority would include people who had personal computers at home. These were the first people who could send emails from a personal setting. Personal computers became popular and more widespread in the 1980s. 

The late Majority are people who heard about the buzz of email and then had the resources to use email whether that be at home for personal use or adapt it into the daily practice of life. 

Laggards include people who don't care to be up to date on the latest and greatest technology. But eventually, they become forced into using the technology. For example, it is nearly impossible to avoid getting an email account. You will need an account for work, to make purchases online, and to communicate with others. 

Overall, the spread of email was naturally going to happen. It was an invention that changed our world and the way we communicate. I don't see any downsides with the creation of email because it is such an efficient way to communicate. Email is different from a social media account, you aren't posting to a feed for all your followers to see. Email is more specific and each email you send has an intentional purpose. It is an invention that changed our world for the better!

Living in the age of AI

Watching In the Age of AI, really opened my eyes to the impacts and helped me learn more about how AI is affecting our world. 

Supermarket Robots

The world is being reimagined with AI. The future of AI can be scary to think about! Robots are not in supermarkets being guided by AI. The robots can pack everything from soup containers to fruit for online consumers. These machines can pick up groceries, read reports, learn routines, and comprehend are now reaching factories, stores, and offices. 

It is really scary to think about how AI robots are taking over! A person who used to fulfill grocery orders in a supermarket is now replaced by an AI robot. This is also taking jobs away from people, which can cause a huge loss of income for people. 

Molly Kinder shared an interesting fact that stood out to me. She said that being a cashier is the number one occupation for the greater region of DC, and it is many people's first job while in High School. Now, with the use of AI, these jobs are gonna be taken over by machines. Molly also shared that being in the workforce will start to require different skills, and gaining them will depend on who can afford them. The issue is people can't afford to take time off work to take a course to develop their skill sets further. 

New machines that utilize AI will affect every industry. From insurance companies to human resources, law firms, and the trading floors of Wall Street. But at the same time, the use of AI is allowing for more efficiency and companies to compete more with fewer workers. 

Google and AI

AI also relates to the digital traces of our behavior that we leave behind after making a Google search. Google was in trouble as a company and realized how valuable this data left behind from searches could be by applying machine learning algorithms to predict users' interests. 

Google would use what the machine algorithm found to find out what ad a user would most likely click on. Revenue then started to pile up at Google and they realized they had to keep this idea secret. It is scary because users had no idea this data from their searches was just put out there and being used to predict their future. Google's business model migrated to other companies, such as Facebook. 

This documentary went into great detail about AI and really helped me learn how it applies to my life beyond robots in a factory. I never knew the concept behind Google and its use of AI to utilize information about users. I really enjoyed this documentary!

 

EOTO Technology Presentations

The History of Internet Search

During the EOTO presentations, I learned more about internet search and the creation of Google. Internet Search started very basic and many search engines were created before Google. First was Archie in 1990, then Yahoo! in 1994, BackRub in 1996, and then Google in 1998. Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed the search algorithm first in 1996, it was known as "BackRub." Larry and Sergey were students at Samford University in California. "BackRub" was later called Google in 1998. 

Google is worth 1.84 trillion dollars today and is the world's fifth most valuable company. Google attracted a huge loyal following through its simple design. Internet search engines are used worldwide by people of all ages. Internet searches have impacted our society in education, businesses, and daily life. Google allows people to type in a topic and have information in seconds. 

Netflix 

We have all heard of Netflix, but it was intersting to hear more of the backstory and evolution of the company. Netflix was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Netflix was launched in 1997 as a DVD rental service through the mail. The company was started after Hastings received a late fee for a movie rental from Blockbuster. In 2007 Netflix introduced streaming services where subscribers could access the streaming service through the internet. 

In May 2011 Netflix became the largest internet streaming service. DVD rental services completely diminished with the creation of streaming services. The movie theater industry declined greatly due to Netflix. This was because people could now stream movies in the comfort of their own homes and save money. Netflix competes with other streaming services such as Hulu and Apple TV. Netflix is constantly evolving and adapting to stay ahead of the curve and remain dominant in the industry. 

I really enjoyed the EOTO presentations and learning more about the way technology has evolved! It was also fun to learn more about the history of Netflix since it is my most used streaming service.