My Thoughts & Relationship with Technology

Having a relationship with technology is a necessity in this day in age. It seems that it is the only way to stay connected in all aspects of life. I personally have a connection with technology because I have had to but there are sometimes I wish I did not have to use it. 

From age 7-12 I remember the feeling of my mom taking me to PartyCity so that I could pick out invitations to my birthday party. I would pick out my very favorite and start writing. After they were completed we would use the phone book and my schools directory to addresses the letters. After that I would wait for the invitations to come back with my friends RSVP. Weeks later the party would happen and I would then send out my thank you letters to my friends, thanking them for the gift they got me. 

Then the next year I was ready to get some cool teenager invites at PartyCity. When I asked my mom to go she told me we should do e-vites. Since 2012 I most likely have not sent much of anything by mail except clothing returns. The world of email and e-vites had taken over. We used the e-vites because that way you could receive an instant response instead of waiting for postal time. The internet has been a very useful tool when it comes to staying in touch and being time efficient but it has taken away basic skills. I am sure today many children growing up do not know how to address a letter. 

I like my personal relationship with technology when it comes to school. Although I did like writing letters, I would hate if I had to wait for my professor to write me back if I had a question about the assignment. With email my professors can get in touch with me within minutes. 

Technology is completely informative, I am able to check homework online, turn in assignments, read the news watch videos and so much more because it is so instant. Although, not all of its information is properly informative. Cites like Wikipedia are mostly great and educational but did you know that ANYONE can publish on Wikipedia. That means right now I can post an article on how to write a novel and people would probably believe it. The bad part is, I do not know how to write a novel. We have to be careful using cites and outlets to make sure our quick information is actually information and not ideas. 

Moving into social technology, that is a scary world and a great world. I love Facebook because my extended family is all across the country and world. My cousins in Germany like and comment on my post all the time, they are always telling to keep posting pictures because it keeps them informed on what I am up to. That also goes for my Grandma, my aunts, uncles and close friends. That part of social media is so awesome because I am also able to do the same thing with their lives. 

Heres where the beauty turns to ugly. Online bullying is out of control and completely disgusting. I study showed that 87% of young internet users have experience cyber-bullying, and 95% of teenage have social media. That means that kids are getting bullied every single day. The suicide rate of teens was not rising until social media. In the time of 2000-2007 the rate of suicides among 10 to 24 year old was around 6.8%. From just 2017-present day those rates have change, today. The United States faces a 10.6% suicide rate in ages 10 to 24. That number is a 56 % increase in 10 years. To me it does not seem like a coincidence that around the time of the rise of social media there was also a rise in suicide rates.

I have a cousin who is 13 and she was allowed to get social media this year. She was so happy and couldn't wait to start posting. I began to notice she seemed to only be following models. Models are career driven individuals and I think they are respectable but they are hard to look at, especially all day long. I started to see that my cousins posts had changed from smiling and acting goofy to hot poses, to much make up and revealing clothing. I was shocked, then it hit me I remember seeing Kendall Jenner who is a very successful model post a rather similar revealing photo.  Kendall had hundreds of thousands of likes and the same amount in comments. I wanted to guide my cousin and hold and open conversation about her pictures and she was honest. She told me that is the only way to get lots of likes. She also said that boys only comment on pictures like that, not the ones that are goofy. That broke my heart, hearing that my cousin is growing up in a world dominated by looks, likes and comments was sickening. The worst part was that was not even her fault. Her world has become all about the very things that are not actually important. This has caused an increase in eating disorders in the United States. 3.8% of females ages 13-18 have eating disorders, males ages 13-18 are at a 1.5%. Statistics also show that over 12,000 of teens 15 to 18 are a 4th under weight.

Technology is full of pros and cons. We have used it to go on the moon, makes cars, and heat up our food but it had also been used to hurt others. I think the post important thing in this age is to monitor is your a parent and educate. Educate early, before these kids are getting social media.Teach them that one opinion is not all and that life is to precious to loose. Technology has connected me to High Point, family, traveling and so much more good things. I hope that technology can improve on having more pros and less cons. Over all I think that we should all learned to practice safe use, and enjoy it. It is not going anywhere anytime soon so we should use it the correct way, use its powers for good and not even. 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s

https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/cyber-bullying-statistics

EOTO 2: Covid-19 Adaptations

When the virus break out of China in early January, we had no idea how much our lives would change. Covid-19 took the world my storm and has effected 212 countries. The United States recently took the lead as the country with the most cases of Covid-19. As our lives changed, we learned to adapt. Restaurants, businesses, schools churches and many more have learned how to keep going.


Shortly after the mandatory stay at home order many of businesses made adjustments fast. We can order on the phone and have curb-side pick up with minimal contact. We can still go through drive-thrus where the employees have on their gloves and masks on. We can now have more foods delivered to our door that did not deliver before. Restaurant have also started taking payments and tips online so if its for delivery, they can ring the doorbell and walk away so there is no contact at all. The restaurant businesses are struggling but adapting better everyday to insure there success and safety along with ours.

Churches have adapted to the virus as well. Services have it the online world, where anyone can log on and worship. Churches have live services and masses, so that you can watch right then and there or they have recorded services and can post them to their websites so that people can also watch it on their own time as well. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church said "creativity of love can overcome isolation."

Schools had to cancel while they approached the very end of the year. Teachers had to learn how to move all their students, lesson plans and whole teaching style online in a short amount of time. The students had to learn how to adjust as well. Students now have to take tests, do homework and learn how to balance their time. It had been a struggle on both side but eventually school got acclimated and are getting through it. Graduations have adapted to online ceremonies, proms have been rescheduled to summer proms. Schools have learned how to adjust to get the year over and give students the best end of year and education they could.

Birthdays have also adjusted, although you can not be with your friends and family during this time doesn't mean you can't see them! People have organized ride throughs where they are driving past the the birthday boy or girls home with signs, balloons, cheers and honks to show their love. Ride throughs have also been beneficial to students, some schools have had teachers ride through there students neighborhoods to cheer them on and show there support for the students doing school online.

Things have greatly changed in our world but we are learning that we can survive and adapt to just about anything. It has been a hard adjustment but we are all in this together. So stay home, stay healthy and stay positive!

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-francis-holy-week-2020-message-coronavirus.html

Propaganda

What is propaganda? Propaganda is information that is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis. Propaganda was invented in 1622 that first referred as a commonly used word in Europe. It was first used when Pope Gregory XV created the Congregation for the Proganation of the Catholic Church and faith. Moving into the 20th century the term propaganda started receive a negative connotation. 

Society can be effected/persuaded by propaganda. Wartime propaganda was a huge hit and a great influence. In World War 2 propaganda showed pictures of the Jappease culture, and painted ALL Jappease people were bad. Although we were fighting Japan that does not mean that the entire culture is the enemy. The result though indeed created a strong hatred for the culture. Another part of Wartime propaganda was the hate on the Jews. Posters and radio commercials comparing Jews to rats and useless things and items or even referred to as devils.  

 When impressionable people and mind see this propaganda everywhere they look they start to believe it. Wartime propaganda was also used to promote things and idea that are not negative. For example propaganda could say "support the troops" or the famous "We need you". This type of propaganda provided no hate, it was used to get donations during the war, support and excitement. 

Propaganda can effect anyone and any demographic. There is propaganda that includes the LGBTQ community and there is propaganda that is anti-LGBTQ. Vote Trump 2020 propaganda vs. Do Not Vote Trump 2020 propaganda. A lot of propaganda is most political these days bur can also be used in religious ways and advertising. Propaganda is a powerful tool that can is not seen more negatively than positive. 

I believe propaganda can effect my generation greatly, and actually is. I have found myself fall into propaganda and not even realize it. I have noticed that I would start to dislike certain things just because others did, just because it was posted all the time. When in reality I had never studied up or learned knowledge on the issue, I would just follow the crowed. My generation is Z and it seems that we have grown up in the age of technologic advances and that makes propaganda even more assessable. My parents generation is less likely to experience this because of there lack of ethnologic advancement when they were growing up and being to form their own opinions. 

Propaganda is a popular and effective tool that is still used today. There are many types of propaganda that is used today. Some types are 

• Card-Stacking Propaganda. Probably the most common type of propaganda in advertising today is card-stacking propaganda. ... 
• Name-Calling Propaganda. ... 
• Bandwagon Propaganda. ... 
• Testimonial Propaganda. ... 
• Transfer Propaganda. ... 
• Glittering Generalities Propaganda

All these types of propaganda are used very single day and we do not even see it or realize it sometimes. Although propaganda is seen negative it can have positive and negative effects on a community or country. 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/273852

TED Talks

I think these TED Talks were eye opening. I really liked the metaphor that was, explaining how our lives on social media can be like a tattoo, but a digital one. What it means is that a tattoo has a story behind it mostly, it tells something about you and your life. Same with your electrical tattoo, the more information you tell about yourself on social media is adding to your story. I thought that was almost scary because if you really keep track of everything that you post and share and talk about I don't know about you but my body would be COVERED in tattoos, which is scary. It all adds up and you don't realize it, It seems constant that I talk about going a vacation to Florida and immediately after in my Facebook page there will be a advertisement on house to stay at in Florida. Thats some creepy stuff, but we do nothing about it. Instead of protecting ourselves we continue to add to the tattoo. 

The TED Talk about police surveillance explained how just by simply tracking our vehicle so show where we go can tell the police so much about you. They can know where you got to church, if you have been to drug or alcohol counseling, where your kids go to daycare. This information use to be private and now police departments can make their own assumptions about you without even knowing you. We also face license plate readers, this helps the police collect mass qualities of data of where Americans are going. Date, time and location  are just some things they can collect, along with photos of who the driver is with as well. All this information is pulling into a large data base with hundreds of millions hits about where Americans go. 

Moving onto wire tapping. Computing has changed everything, our phones and networks where used as a type of surveillance before they were used for everyday life. This means anytime we speak, someone would listen, it could be out government, other governments, or even stalkers that have hacked into our personal conversations. Government Officials are becoming anger because tech companies are working on incriptions to keep others out. We all use the same communications outlets, so if agents can hack into the "drug dealers" phone, they can hack into yours. It can be a scary thought, anyone at anytime can be listening. The problems with most communication technologies is the back doors they have made for themselves that can also be easily hacked. Back doors allow bad guys to have the same access as the good guys. Thats a big risk we take because we allow tapping and back doors within our communication devices. So they whole message in the talk was that we should be using devices with encrypting tools, because they are secure. 

The last talk was about privacy. The speaker Darieth speaks about how naked photos of her had leaked and surfaced the internet. She was in total shock. A man created a website, in her name and posted photos, videos and personal informations that was inappropriate and explict  She learned that 1 in 10 women will experience revenge porn. Revenge porn is when a ex lover can not physically harm the women, so they hurt the victim digitally. The suicide rate is climbing because women are loosing jobs because of revenge porn, women are depressed because they is no laws to protect them from revenge porn. It took Darieth months to get her content removed due to third party internet companies. Stalking and harassment from other countries does not protect us in the United State. It was not until Darieth handed over everything she had to Homeland Security, exposing and humiliating herself to receive justice. There should be laws, many laws protect human from revenge porn, because 1 in 10 women will face it.

Online Presence

What is online presence? Online presence is any existence of an individual or business that can be found via an online search. An example of an individual who is not active on the Internet but who has a online presence is one who is a member of an association that has a member directory listing online.

I recently read the article "I am 14 and Quit Social Media" the article was very interesting. It made me think of my digital footprint much like she did. The girl became aware of the dangers of social media and they effect it can play on your life, if you are not mindful. I started to digest my own signal footprint and ask myself some hard questions. 

How large an online footprint do you have? If were being very honest I would say my signal footprint is large. I love social media, I like to post to keep up with celebrities and also my friends. I also need some dignal aspects, a far as Instagram, SnapChat and Twitter I do not need but I use several other outlets for school. I spend a lot of time on my computer whether it is backboard or watching videos so an assignment, I can not live in college without my computer. I do not have a personal website but I several forms of social media via apps.

Which social media sites do you use?I use Instagram the most, I love seeing what others are up to. I also have SnapChat, Twitter, Facebook and my newest addiction TikTok. I can accidentally spend an hour on TikTok and not even realize it, which defiantly contributes to my digital footprint the most. I most post about what I am up to as well, often photos that I think I look good in. I am not someone that obsess over likes, so that is something that decreases my footprint. I do not feel the constant need to check on likes. What information about you could a visitor glean about you, even indirectly, by visiting your pages on social media? My followers can see what city I live, what college I attend and how old I am, that is all information that is typed out. Information they can gather from my social media is that I run Track and Field and HPU, I am in a relationship, who my friends are and sometimes I will tag the location I was at. I have never given out my phone number, email and address so that makes me feel a bit safer while using social media. 

Some people say that social media can isolate you or even depress a person. For me personally I love social media, I think it is fun and entertaining. I love staying in touch with long distant family and friends through social media. I believe that any form of social media is good thing and a bad thing. I think it can be dangerous for our younger generation. I did not get social media until age 14 and I think that was an appropriate age, there are some children on social media at age 10 and I believe they are not at the maturity level get to handle have social media. 

Social media can give a false image, that can effect younger and more influenced user. I will admit I try my hardest to look beautiful on my forms of social media but I do not get discourage when I see someone prettier or skinner on social media. But some people are deeply effected by images, they think the only way to get likes is to dress in a bathing suit or to be 90lbs. with lots of make-up on. This can defiantly isolate and depress people and also give a since of false advertisement. Social media is full of photo shop and enhancement and it hard to spot what real and what not.

I think that the 14 year old girl was smart to get rid of her social media, this way she won't have as large of an opportunity to struggle with self image and originality. I wish that I had been more aware when I started out on social media. I feel I am slightly addicted and I am working on that in the future, because like I states social media can be a very good and bad thing for our society.

Diffusion of Innovations: TikTok

Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. Everett Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines. So a innovation I found that is new to our world is the app TikTok.

TikTok is a free app that was created by a Chinese company called Douyin which is a video sharing networking service owned by ByteDance. The company launched in September 2016. The app was not well known at the time until merging with another app named Musically. Musically was a  platform where users could create and share short lip-sync videos their choice and post for their friends to see. After the merge TikTok became an app where people could post funny videos, tutorials, dances and many other forms o expression. The app allow there to be a friends page and a public page. If the user only want their friends to see it they can post it to just friends but if they want the video to be public they have a public page where other users can engage in the post and like it. The merge happened in 2018 and was available in 40 different languages.

The catch and spreader seemed from entertainment. The app is fun and diverse but has also developed into an influencer app. TikTok had deemed users that receive lots of likes "popular creatures." These popular creatures have developed a branded following and have created a fan base on TikTok. These popular creatures became stars overnight. 

TikTok's current most popular creator Charli D'amelio. She has 49.1 million followers 

People in fact in adopt this app early because by February of 2019 nearly a year after merging TikTok had 1 billion global downloads. TikTok became the 7th most downloaded app go the decade of 2010-2019. In one years time the app was able to become a top ten downloaded app.

In 2018 the app extended itself again to 150 markets and added 35 additional languages to the app. Adopters are minimal units od analysis. In most studies, adopters are individuals  but can be groups as well. The app currently has 800 million active users. In the United States, 52% of TikTok users are iPhone users. 44% of TikTok users are female while 56% are male. TikTok has proven to attract the younger generation, as 41% of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24. Among these TikTok users, 90% say they use the app on a daily basis. 

Some negatives to TikTok have been  reported that the app is very addictive and can take up hours of the users day. The apps videos are mostly for fun and have yes actual added value to a user except entertainment. 

The 8 Values of Free Expression

Free speech and expression is what is called a lifeblood of democracy. It contains things like facilitating open debate, the proper consideration of diverse interests and perspectives, and the negotiation and compromise necessary for consensual policy decisions. The Supreme Court has written that this freedom is "the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom." Without it, other fundamental rights, like the right to vote, would wither and die. (FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION). With this there can always be problems, with peace and stability and sometimes unseen problems that can occur.

With this being said I personally felt that the most important of the 8 freedoms of expression is innovation. Innovation is a community in which free speech is valued and protected is likely to be a more energized, creative, interesting society as its citizens actively fulfill themselves in many diverse and interesting ways and also requires experimentation, and implementation. I believe a big part of innovation is being authentic and original, which is derived from creativity. Creativity is defined as the use of the imagination or original ideas. If you take an original idea or a creative thought it can turn into a creation, a creation is change, or an addition.

What goes hand and hand best with this idea that innovation is creative, is creation. To be innovative you must be different, bring something to the table. With is freedom to do so has allowed us to grow so high from the original start line of the world. To innovate you have to be allowed to create. No one should ever stop you from creating, in which is why we are protected by freedom of expression in 8 different categories.

An example of this freedom is the article Facebook warns of risks to innovation, freedom of expression ahead of EU rules. The article talks about how Facebook warned of threats and freedom of expression on the release of a raft of rules set to them by the EU (European Union) in regard to rein in the US and Chineses companies. The complaints are that Facebook allows hate speech and other illegal speech to be posted on their platform. The EU is trying to hold the internet companies responsible for these posts. "Such liability would stifle innovation as well as individuals' freedom of expression," said Zuckerberg in his white paper response to the issue.

So in this right to expression there is always issues and problem but I felt it is a very important right that we should all be aware of. Innovation is the key to creation.