Final Post: Technology and Societies Involvement

 With digital technology advancing more rapidly than any invention in history, it had reached over 50% of the world's population in just over two decades. Due to the never ending advancements that it has experienced, technology possesses many multitudes. Not only can it be beneficial, but it can also be incredibly damaging.

When technology was first invented, nobody knew what would become of it, or how it would impact almost all of society. The use of technology has woven its way into so many people's day-to-day lives. Whether it's through work, school, or personal enjoyment, technology has infiltrated people's routines and free time.

Mental Health Impacts

Multiple studies show how technology use and its complications have affected people's mental health. While this can be both positive and negative, the negatives tend to occur more often. Topics such as cyberbullying, revenge porn, ghosting, and body shaming can all lead to mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders.

Firstly, the definition of cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices and can include sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, or false claims about somebody else. Cyberbullying can occur on many different platforms, the most notable being social media, online forums, and online gaming systems.

Secondly, revenge porn is stated to be the non-consensual sharing of nude or sexually explicit images or videos. This can also include deepfake or AI generated videos of people as well. There are many laws that say that not only is revenge porn illegal, but it can result in jail time, a prison sentence, and fines.

As for ghosting, the literal definition states that this is the act of cutting off contact with somebody extremely suddenly with no explanation. This is most often done to past romantic partners, but is not limited to that. In this day and age, people do it to their friends, family members, and romantic partners.

Lastly, body shaming has become a big situation mostly for young or teenage girls. Body shaming is when somebody subjects somebody else to criticism or mockery for body faults or imperfections. Oftentimes on social media- especially on TikTok- women make videos regarding how they are "too fat" or "need to lose weight" and they have negative impacts on other women.

All of these parts of social media, and technology in general, can have very negative effects and can result in anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. Many people who experience anxiety around technology, can experience negative emotions from texts, emails, and social media posts. This is also referred to as digital anxiety. As for depression, many people who experience cyberbullying, the effects of revenge porn, ghosting, and body shaming can experience depression. Not only does it affect teenagers, but studies show that children have twice the ris of negative mental health outcomes (anxiety and depression) if they use social media for over 3 hours a day. Lastly, it is stated that people who use technology within an hour of bedtime are often impacted by sleep disruptions or sleep disorders. 

Digital Footprint

A digital footprint is the recorded and traceable data trail a person has on the internet. Things such as what websites a person visits, what they post on social media, the shops a person buy from, and more. There are many different types of digital footprints, but they all store similar data that aligns with the things a person does. The different types are active digital footprint, passive digital footprint, private digital footprint, and commercial digital footprint.

First, an active digital footprint is data that a person creates intentionally, like social media posts. A passive digital footprint is data that is created without a person's direct involvement, such as data a person's phone generates while they are using it. Private digital footprint is data that is only available to a certain group of people, such as group chat messages. Lastly, a commercial digital footprint is data that is collected by business for their own purposes, such as the products a person buys online.

Digital footprints are extremely important because not only do they hold everything a person has done online, but nothing a person does ever fully goes away. It can also determine a person's reputation with their friends, family, and even future employers. 

Many people do not know the impacts of what they can have online. Not only will potential employers and universities look at a person's digital footprint, but the government can look at it before granting visas or citizenships. 

With social media growing in popularity, people need to become more aware that what they are posting can have an impact on big events
in their future. Many young children and teenagers think that what they share online does not matter, but they are not informed that their digital footprint can be accessed by many important people in their futures.

Personally, I learned about how my digital footprint can affect my life at a very young age. When I first gained access to my own social media, my parents had to see what I was going to post before I did anything. Due to this, I was able to learn what was appropriate and what was not. Many children do not have this in place for them, and they will experience first hand how it can negatively impact their futures.

EOTO Two Review

Before seeing these presentations, I had thought I understood what post of these topics were and they could be applied to real life situations. After watching and learning from my fellow classmates I realized that I did not know that much about some of the topics. Specifically, the ones that I learned the most from were from the second group- or the Mediasphere. The two topics that I will be addressing are Citizen Journalism and Alternative Media.

Citizen Journalism

One of the biggest things that I learned from this presentation was that citizen journalism helps community engagement and consists of pamphlets, radio, blogs, and social media. By definitions, citizen journalism is journalism that is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but use tools to spread information. Some of the other notable things that I learned from Olivia's presentation are the fact that this form of journalism continues to grow and the evolution of this form.

One of the reasons that this type of journalism is continuously growing is due to the fact that social media is growing both in users and in the services they provide. As for the evolution, before phones and social media, citizen journalism was primarily used via pamphlets and radios. After this, the next form was usually online blogs and forums. Throughout the past 20 years, social media has been one of the biggest forms of citizen journalism.

Alternative Media

The biggest thing that I learned from McConnico's presentation is that while this form of media is a step up from citizen journalism, it is still a step below mainstream media. I also learned that this normally consists of nonprofits, they are normally independently owned, and they are normally more specialized. 

By definition, alternative media are sources whose content differs from mainstream media and mass media in terms of content and distribution. Alternative media normally does not make any profit or have any sponsors, so they are not discouraged from writing about difficult topics or topics that would typically not be covered by mainstream media. 

Confirmation Bias

By definition, confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories. It is a biased approach to decision making that is often times unintentional. When people go to look for new information or information regarding a specific topic, they often only go to sources that are known to be similar to their beliefs. Once people have formed an opinion about an issue or topic, they have more difficulty processing new information in an unbiased manner.

Confirmation bias often times occurs when there is an issue that is either highly important to a person or if the issue is self-relevant for them. This is because if it is that important to a person, they are highly likely to only process information that supports their own beliefs. On the opposite end, if a person is emotionally distant from an issue, they are more likely to rationally process the information without a bias.

When people participate in confirmation bias, they often ignore information that does not align perfectly with their beliefs. This is because it is an adaptive behavior that all humans take part in. As humans, it is traditionally known that people do not want to admit that they were wrong. This is extremely prevalent if there is a topic or issue that they relate to often times people will disregard any information that proves them wrong, and they will stick to just the information that supports their ideals. 

There are many negatives to confirmation bias. The biggest one is that it can lead to people holding extremely strongly to half beliefs due to only knowing one side of a story. Another one that is extremely dangerous is making risky decisions due to the fact that overlooking crucial details and information that can contradict one's beliefs can result in high risk implications. Lastly, another negative is that people often overlook important information. Overlooking information can be detrimental in many different environments and can lead to bad things happening to people, and the world around them.

As for how confirmation bias applies to people's personal lives, there are many different ways.

The first way is through people's jobs or careers. First, when doctors have a hunch on what a patient's diagnosis will be when they first examine them, it can be hard for doctors to admit that they were wrong in order to correctly diagnose the patient. Secondly, in the context of the law, Judges and jurors tend to develop an opinion on the defendant before all of the information is known. This interferes with their ability to process new information that can emerge in a trial and can lead to unjust verdicts.

As for how this can apply to all people: the news. With the news, people tend to rely solely on specific platforms for all of their news because they know that it aligns with their views and outlooks on politics and other issues. An example of this is often seen with Fox News and CNN.

Anti War

Often times, anti war propaganda and news are not shown in mainstream media. There are many different reasons for this, but the most apparent is the media bias. Many news outlets and programs are either directly tied to politics or economics and do not show certain topics of media. 

Personally, I had never hear of the Antiwar website or The American Conservative website. I think that the main reason behind this is because antiwar and opinions that are different than the vast majority are often pushed into the background of news and media, or even never shown at all. Specifically on the Antiwar website, there are multiple articles regarding the United State's involvement in the Israel and Ukraine conflict. As well as on The American Conservative website, there are articles about leaders being killed by Israeli strikes and missiles headed for Israel. Both of these websites clearly show news that is not on regular media or information that is not often publicized to the public.

This can also apply in specific situations in which the owner's of media censor everything under them. This is extremely apparent when you look at companies like Disney. Since Disney is known for advertising it's media towards kids, most of the media, even if they are news or sports channels, do not mention anything too graphic or too unpopular. Specifically, when talking about news and media coverage, these programs are aligned with pro-military and pro-war news. This is apparent in a lot of forms of news media, whether it is considered left-leaning or right-leaning.

This specific instance is extremely apparent if you look closely at news channels such as CNN and Fox News. With these two you can clearly see that while their stances on certain topics can be differing, they often avoid the same topics, or address the same ones.

Diffusion Through TikTok

When talking about Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations theory, it is important to understand that this theory is used to explain how, why, and the rate of the spread of new idea, technology, and inventions. Rogers states that the Diffusion process is the process in which an innovation is communicated through channels over a period of time, as well as with the participants in a society. 

Everett Rogers

More information about this theory is that there are five main elements that can change the spread of an idea: the idea itself, adopters, communication channel, time, and the social system. 

In this theory, there are six different stages. The first being Pioneers, then Early Adopters, then Early Majority, then Late Majority, then Laggards, and finally the Long Tail. While the long tail might not be considered an official stage, it is still extremely important for the Diffusion theory.

To address the stages I will be discussing a new innovation. The innovation that I will be discussing is TikTok. I will be doing this because not only do my friend and family use this app, I do as well. When talking about TikTok, it is important to understand how quickly it became popular.

TikTok was officially released in 2016. During this time only a select group of people were consistently using the app. This is what is known as the first stage of the Diffusion theory- the Pioneers. These are the first people who partake in an idea- in this case a social media platform. Only people who were already using the app Musical.ly were the most prominent in TikTok.

In the years following this, most likely 2017- early 2019, people were starting to join the app. Most of the people who joined during this time were intrigued by the apps idea. The fact that people could make short videos and potentially go viral intrigued a lot of Generation Z (Gen Z). This group of people would be a part of the second stage- the Early Adopters.

As for the third stage- Early Majority- most people became active on the app late 2019 or early 2020 when Covid-19 was shutting down schools and businesses. This is when college aged people, younger Gen Z, and even middle and elementary aged kids were choosing to use the app. This is the early majority because this is the time that the app gained most of it's popularity as well as when the most people joined.

As for the Late Majority, this would have occurred 2021 to 2022. This would be more people from the Millennial generation, Gen Z, as well as Generation Alpha. The late majority are people who joined on right after what is called the "tipping point." These are people who join right after the cusp of popularity.

The people who joined from 2023 to now, would be considered the Laggards. Laggards are people who join way after something if popular. Specifically, many of the people who joined during this time are often Generation X. This generation mostly consists of Millennials, Gen Z's, and Gen Alpha's parents. While the app was gaining popularity with their children, they were skeptical of the app, but, after some time they became intrigued and decided to join themselves.

While not every idea or invention will likely follow this exact formula, it is often extremely accurate for the most popular apps and inventions- especially witht he younger generations- tend to follow this theory.

EOTO One Review

In this day and time, people use the internet every single day. Not only do they use it every day, but most of people's lives are spent online. 

As a person who does the majority of my school work online- while also being online outside of school- I learned many valuable things from this presentation.

Communication Technology 

Invention of the Internet

Learning about how the internet came to be was extremely enlightening. I learned that it was initially launched in the '60s to help computer systems communicate with each other. This was because of fear and threat of war. These early computer could not hold a lot of informations, which was one of their biggest flaws.

Google

Firstly, I learned that there were many different search engines that were popular before Google. Now, most people I know use Google as their main search engine, and even use Google as their source of photos, emails, and use it for school work. Some of the search engines that came before were Archie, Yahoo!, BackRub, and then Google! 

Information that I learned about Google include how much it is worth- 1.84 trillion dollars- as well as how so many people worldwide use it as their search engine. Since Google has such a sleek design, so many people- regardless of age or background- are able to use it.

Netflix

As a person who uses Netflix nearly every day, I did not realize how little I actually knew about the background of the streaming service. 

As for the background that I learned: I did not know the service was inspired by DVD rental programs such as Blockbuster and Redbox. The creators- Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings- did not like the negatives of these programs so they decided to create Netflix. 

The first version of Netflix was incredibly different than the one we use today. The original one had so that people could order a movie, it would be delivered in the mail, and when they were done with it, they could send it back. This was extremely popular at the time.

The online version that we know of was created in 2007 and has been growing in popularity throughout the years. This platform is one of the most popular ones for streaming television and movies.

AI: Good or Bad? Or Both?

Many people call this decade "The Age of AI," however many people only point out the bad or the good. Very rarely do people ever address both sides. 

Having watched the first half of this documentary, I saw examples of both the good and the bad. Having already known information about both sides of the argument on if it is good or bad, being able to learn new information, especially about information that applies directly to me, was incredible. 

This video showcased and addressed the good when it mentioned how AI is helping to detect for breast cancer. Breast cancer is a very aggressive form of cancer and has caused many people and their families a lot of harm. Having a direct relation to this topic, I was more inclined to learn more about how it helps and how it can change the lives of people who were and will be affected. This video states that complete artificial intelligence can detect the cancer better than the human eye can. It mentions how the human eye can be prone to mistakes, whether it be by missing the cancer or thinking that something is cancer when it is not.

Something else that is pointed out is that the earlier cancer is spotted, the easier it is to be defeated. Knowing how aggressive different types of cancer can be, and learning how it can help detect breast cancer from this video leads me to think that it could be incredibly beneficial to detect and defeat other types of cancer within a range of ages. 

The bad side that is mentioned in the video is that the government is able to track humans. This topic is incredibly similar- if not the same- as the topic in my previous post about privacy. Government officials from both our country and others can take pictures of people's faces, cars, license plates, and personal houses to use in future situations if they need to know any information about you. Often times, this is without consent which means that it should not be allowed.

This can become a matter of national security because it shows that other country's governments can get information about us and use it against us. They can get pictures of us and our permanent addresses and use that to spy on us, or even use it in a data breach.

By AI being used to get photos and other information about people, this can lead to both identity theft and an invasion of people's online security. It can hack into people's social media profiles and impersonate them, and it can even find people's social security numbers and IP addresses and use them to participate in illegal activities.