BLOG #12: Final Post

It's a Love/Hate Relationship...

The word relationship is defined as a specific instance or type of kinship. When we hear this word, we often think of our relationship with family members, significant others, friends, coworkers, classmates, peers, and so on. When thinking about relationships, we usually associate the term with people. Although we have many unique relationships with a variety of different people, we have more relationships with inanimate objects than with living aspects of life.... we just often don't realize it. For example, I have a love/hate relationship with warm weather, I have a good relationship with sweet treats and a bad relationship with vegetables, and I have a fantastic relationship with literature and a dreadful relationship with mathematics. In all of these instances, my relationship is with something inanimate, yet each relationship is a big part of what makes me, me. One of the biggest relationships I have with an inanimate object is technology. I have the biggest love for technology because it helps me in so many ways. I also have the biggest hatred for technology because it constantly makes my mental health spiral and controls my entire life. Technology as a whole has a HUGE relationship on our entire world. 

The Love

Although I have had many negative remarks about technology, I also think it is the greatest thing that has come into presence in our world. Technology is what makes our world go round and round and without it, we would not be where we are today. Technology has had a significant impact on communication, transportation, music, education, business, medicine, so on and so forth. Although people may say technology kills, it also saves. I think it saves way more people than if we decided to get rid of it for one reason or another. Technology gives everyone the ability to advance in life and truly live life to the fullest. I love this article by neurotracker that talks about the six positive effects of technology. This includes security and organization, safer management of money, fast and easy data retrieval, effective advertising, easier access to education, and simplifying daily life. These six positive effects are just a few of the dozens of advantages that technology brings to the table. For example, when Covid-19 struck, our world would have been completely shut down if it wasn't for technology. Technology gave us the ability to do classes online, work from home, have entertainment during quarantine, hear updates about the virus, communicate with family members we were unable to see in person, and find a "vaccine" for the virus. None of that would have been possible without the use of technology. 

The Hate

Straight off the bat, I can say that my relationship with technology is not healthy at all. I have been a user of technology since a very young age, and personally, social media has corrupted my confidence. Social media constantly makes me question myself, it makes me compare myself to others, and it makes me portray someone who I am not... just for my followers. This is not healthy and this should not be an outcome of technology, yet it is what millions and millions of users deal with each and every day. Suicide rates of young adults have skyrocketed over the past ten years. Research shows that this is mainly due to social media. A few years ago I read a book by Katherine Ormerod titled "Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life" for a project in high school. I constantly think about this book every single day. The book addresses the extra stress social media & technology as a whole puts on a person, and how it is corrupting not only your self-image, but your entire mind from politics, economics, and relationships all the way to clothing style, attitude, and way of thinking. 

In addition to the false representation of myself and others portrayed on social media, technology misinformed and mislead me about a multitude of things. To be honest, as a young conservative college student, I often find myself looking at FOX , The American Conservative, or The Federalist. I just take what I see on these sites and then use that as my factual knowledge. I have been doing this for years and quite honestly, it is something I need to stop doing. I need to start broadening where I get my news from. I am so one sided that I don't look to see what the other side is saying or what other sources are saying. I think technology tends to do this to a lot of us. Technology makes it so easy to be blinded by one side, not only in politics, but in any sort of debate or controversy. For example, if I google a certain subject or current event, only one side usually gets brought up. I then begin to receive pop up ads or side stories of the event that I originally googled, without ever getting the bigger picture of the other side of the story. I think this is extremely problematic because technology forces our society to become more divided than it already is. Fake news, propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation are constantly expressed in many forms of technology, and literally brainwash people into thinking and reading a certain subject. It is scary to see how easily people nowadays become brainwashed by the use of technology. Even children five years old are seeing things because of technology, and believing it. It has become such a normal part of society that people do not even recognize it anymore. It is a serious problem and if not stopped soon, our whole world is going to be corrupted by what technology wants us to believe. 

Another disadvantage I find with technology are the footprints left behind from EVERYTHING that I do. For example, if I google my own name, my Instagram comes up, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tik Tok, School Dean's List, High School Articles, soccer highlight reels and even my hometown come up. If I click on Google Images, pictures of me come up. Some of them are profile pictures I had on my Instagram when I was 13 that have been deleted... yet how are they still online if they are trashed? The truth is nothing gets deleted and that is the scariest part of the internet. Everything is in one big cloud and can be retreived one way or another. People have been losing jobs because of this idea of not truly "deleting" something. For example, we can take a look at Jon Gruden a former NFL coach who was recently fired for racial slur emails found all the way back from 2011. Another great example is Hillary Clinton and her email scandal back in 2016.

Mixed Feelings

Technology has its positives and negatives, its goods and bads, and its pretties and uglies. Although we may hate it, we also could not do life without it. Personally, I think it is important to stay educated upon the topics revolving around technology in order to see both the good and the bad sides. I know that I need to spend less time on social media, I also know that I need to find more reliable news sources, and I also know that I need to take a break from technology as a whole a few times a day. That being said, I would be able to get to and from work without technology, I wouldn't be able to write this article, and I wouldn't be able to call my roommate and ask her what is for dinner without the use of technology. Technology is something that is staying in our lives, but it is important to not let it take over. We all must have a healthy "breakup" with technology, taking time away from it but being extremely cautious when we are near it. 

BLOG #10: EOTO 2 What I Learned

Throughout the Each One Teach One projects, I learned a ton of new information. Not only did I learn information about my topic, False Flags, but I learned information about many of the other students' topics. A few that stood out to me were Disinformation vs Misinformation and Gatekeeping.

Misinformation 

To begin, misinformation is defined as incorrect or misleading information. When talking about the topic of misinformation, I learned that it is basically false rumors spread either for an intent or not for an intent. It is just a bunch of lies that are spread, and people think that it is true. A technology develops over the years, it is extrmely easy for misinformation to spread. People often believe this information without a reliable source or even factual information to back up the rumor or news. Throuought the EOTO presentations, my classmate gave a great example to explain misinformation using rumor of DiCaprio donating millions of dollars to Ukraine. This was completely false information that was spread throughout the world. DiCaprio even put down the rumor by saying it was not true.

Disinformation

In contrast to misinformation, disinformation is defined as false information deliberately spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. Disinformation is often edited in order to look like something it is not. People use this tool to make others believe something that is not true, yet back it up with content such as the edited photo so people genuinely think it is real. This happens a lot in our world today, especially on Twitter. I constantly come across posts that I know are disinformation because I have seen the real photo versus the edited one. If I was someone who never saw the real photo, I too would probably believe the disinformation and partake in spreading false information. 

Above is an example my classmate used to demonstrate disinformation. You can see that the photo on the left was edited from the photo on the right. Many people believed that Stacy Abrams sided with communists because of this very post, when indeed it was taken completely out of context from the photo on the right. 

Gatekeeping

Gatekeeping is defined as someone who takes it upon themselves to decide who does or who does not have access to certain information. When my classmate was speaking about gatekeeping, he mainly focused on the news and media. The news often decides what they want to realease to the public. They also often choose when or when not to address where they got the information from. In today's society, gatekeeping has become a more widely used term especially on social media, such as Tik Tok. For example when an influencer posts a picture in a dress and people are asking where she bought if from but she wont tell them, that is an example of gatekeeping. Another example would be a video editor posting a video that goes famous and people asking him what platform he used to create it, but he will not tell anyone. Basically, the old term and the new term of gatekeeping mean the same thing (withholding information), yet the definition has definitely shifted gears for the younger generation. 

BLOG #8: EOTO 2 Awareness

The Importance of Awarness

 Awareness is defined as the "knowledge or perception of a situation or fact." In today's society, it is extremely important to have a high awarness of everything in the world around us. As the world becomes more corrupt and misleading, it is important to have a high sense of knowledge about the aspects of life that surround us. When it comes to media, awareness is definitely one of the most important traits to contain. Without this high sense of awarness, one could become brainwashed and misleaded by false knowledge and interpretation. 

The History of False Flags

Throughout history, we have come across many uses for awarness. One topic we have seen over the years is the idea of a "false flag." A false flag is defined as  a hostile or harmful action (such as an attack) that is designed to look like it was perpetrated by someone other than the person or group responsible for it. The name origionally derived from the pirates. Prirates would fly a different countries flag on their ship, then attavk their enemy. The enemy would then think a different country attacked them then the one that actually did. This tactic often led to more wars and attacks, especially unnecessary ones. The concept of the False Flag began to transition to different countries and military forces. Throughout history we have seen many examples of a False Flag being used. Some of the most famouse wars incidents consist of the Mukden Incident, Gleiwitz Incident, Manila Incident, and Tonkin Incident. 

The Mudken Incident 

The Mudken Incident was one of the first operations to successfully use the concept of the False Flag. In 1931, Japan was was in need of finding a way to attack China in order to protect their South Manchuria Railway. They set off explosives on the railway, and blamed it on China. They then used this act as a excuse to start war with China. The countries were in war for months, and Japan came out on top, gaining full occupation of the entire railway. 

The Gleiwitz Incident 

Germany wanted to take over more polish land, so they devised a plan using the False Flag tactic. In 1939, Germany had a famous news network named the Gleiwitz Radio Station. The Germans decided to use this radio station as part of their plan. On August 31st 1939, seven German soilders dressed in Polish uniforms and stormed the transmitter station. They then went on to use the station's microphone to announce to eveyone in polish "Attention! This is Gliwice. The broadcasting station is in Polish hands." This incident made sparked an aggressive attack on Poland, and World Word II started to begin. 

The Shelling of Mainila Incident

During the Winter War, the Soviet Union had signed three treaties agreeing to no longer invade Finland. Despite the treaties, Stalin invaded Finland using the False Flag tactic. On November 26, 1939, The Soviet  Union shelled their own village, Mainila. Despite the Finish trying to compromise with them, the Russians spread rumors and propaganda about Finland shelling them. They then went to war with Finland for five months. 

The Golf of Tonkin Incident 

This incident occured between the United States and North Vietnam. The two ships fired missels at one another. The reason this is considered a False Flag is because nobody truly kows what happened. Each side how their own story and spread propaganda about the incident. Both presidents exaggerated the attacks and word spread througout the world. 

False Flags Today

In today's world, Flase Flags are hard to execute. With live video, satellite photos, social media, news networks and so much more, it is extremely hard to get away with such a tactic. Although difficult to execute as well as the older times, False Flags still remain today. Recently we have seen false flags with the Russian and Ukraine war. Russia was trying to state that Ukraine began the war and thats why they attacked "back." Many False Flag conspiracy theories also are brought up in our generation. This includes the Theory that Bush conducted 9/11 in order to have reason to invaid Iraq. Another consists of leftists planning the Parkland School Shooting in order to ban the second amendment. 

False Flags are all around us in the world today. Throughout the years, the definition and tactics of False Flags have changed, but they still hold the same use. False Flags have to do with awareness and the perception that people receive because of them. It is extremely important to pay attention and get the full story, before believing something. 

BLOG #7: Privacy Online and Off

 In today's world, I can google a person's name and find pretty much anything about them. This ranges from their social media handles, phone number, email, school, job, hometown all the way to the price they bought the house that they are living in. With today's technology, almost anyhting is possible to find. Although this may seem helpful, it is extrmely scary. Nothing is private anymore. All of our information is online, and that is due to us basically handing it out to everyone. Every time we sign up for a website, create an email, or enter our credit card number when buying something online, we are releasing our information. Even offline, we are constantly being monitored and watched without even knowing.

   After watching the six Ted Talks about privacy on and offline, I am even more skeptical about giving my information to anyone and anything. These talks reminded me of a book I read in high school titled 1984 by George Orwell. The book spoke about how the govenment was in control and watching everything that you do. They watched you when you were outside your home and insdie your home. You could not do anything without the government knowing. I remember reading this book in high school and thinking "this is absolutely crazy." Little did I know that about four years later, I was basically living the book. As technology increases and devlops we are going to continue being monitored even more and more, just like in the book 1984. 

Being constantly watched by the government bothers me, because I should be able to have privacy in my life. It is my right and freedom to live life how I want to live it, without being monitored and watched. Although I wish the goverment could help this issue, they are the ones behind it all. The government is one of the biggest hypocrites when it comes to privacy. They say they want to help, but a lot of the time, they are the ones gathering and releasing our information to others. In order to protect ourselves from the invasion of our own privacy, I think it is import to stay aware and stay smart. Read guidlines and contracts before clicking yes, use different usernames and passwords for everything, don't post all of your personal information on social media and so on. As technology develops, we are going to have to find more savy ways to protect of information as much as possible. 

BLOG #5: The Progressive Era

In the news today, all we hear about is war. The news loves to cover stories on the war because it makes an easy story and entertains viewers. People love to feel involved and up-to-date on problems such as war, even if they are not accurately informed or brainwashed by the media. It is sad to think that the media would rather promote a war than counter argue the issue and talk about anti-war percausions. 

When looking at Antiwar.com I was very intrigued by the inital home page. Throughout this page, I could clearly see different headlines of stories that contradicted headlines I see in common news channels such as MSNBC, FOX, and CNN. The one headline that particularly stood out to me was "Russia Says They Have Taken Significant Losses in Ukraine War." This caught my attention because you hear absolutely nothing like this on our "normal" news sites. For example, we are always hearing about how Ukriane has no hope, how Russia is dominating the war, and how the war is basically over at this point. It is ridiculous to me that the media wouldn't mention that Ukraine has made a very big impact on the Russian army. It is just easy for the news to cover say what people want to hear and to entertain their audience even if the information is inaccurate. 

When looking at The American Conservative,  I realized that it also had a very strong anti-war opinion, which I absolutely loved. I wish the mainstream news would offer stories and coverage like this website does. There are a lot of Americans who think this way, yet are shut out because it is not "normal." I believe if our news covered stories in this type of way, people would have very different opinions and wake up and see that they are becoming more and more brainwashed day by day. 

The mainstream news does not want us to be on websites like these or hear journalists voices such as like on these websites, because the mainstream news wants to be in control. They love how they have the power to manipulate anyone and anything. They have been doing this for years and have been abusing their power to the extreme. They are able to shut out voices that disagree with theirs or go against their ideas because they have been on top for so long. It is truly a disgrace to our 1st Amendment rights and the American people are completely blind. 

BLOG #9: Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of Innovations is a neat concept that explains many different situations and scenarios. With this concept, we are able to to break down and see the timeline of what really led to the idea that we have today. I have decided to break down the social media platform, Snapchat.

The photo above demonstrates the Diffusion of Innovation Model. Starting from left to right we have the Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards. 

The Innovators are defined as the people who want to be the first to try the innovation. When talking about Snapchat, we can say that the Innovators are Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. All three men were former students at Stanford trying to find a way to communicate via picture without words or text. 

The Early Adopters are defined as the people who are aware that they need this innovation and want to join. They share their opinions and make it known to others that they are on the side of this new product. For Snapchat, the early adopters consist of  brands and people that jumped on board very quicky. Companies like Taco Bell and Audi who teamed up with Snapchat quickly to promote their brand while also releasing the new innovation to the public. 

The Early Majority of Snapchat is definitely the millenials. Millenials at the time were downloading the app left and right. They loved the concept of communicating in a fast and easy way without the use of words. 

The Late Majority of Snapchat users were those who were skeptical about the product and change but eventually decided to cave. They needed to see that the innovation was popular and worked before they decided to download the app. These consisted mainly of younger kids and additional businesses. They saw that many older teens and adults were using the product, so they wanted to join in and not be left out. Comanies saw that the platform was working well for advertising other companies, so they decided to join. 

Lastly, the Laggards are defined as the people who do not accept change and long for tradition. They do not like the concept of a new innovation and want things to stay how they once were. The Laggards of Snapchat were definitely the older generation. This consisted of grandparents and older people who were just not in favor or technology as a whole. They like face-to-face communication and find the concept of snapchat to be quite silly. 

Snapchat has come a long was since it was developed back in 2011. Throughout its coming of age, Snapchat had to cross a lot of barriers to get to where it is today. From the Innovators all the way to the Laggards, Snapchat has definitely grown in its own unique way. 

 

BLOG #6: What I Learned from EOTO

During the Each One Teach One presentations on Monday, I learned many new aspects about communication and technology that I previously did not know. I absolutely love learning about topics like this because I feel like it is very important to know, especially in today's age, where the entire world communicated through technology. 

The fist thing I learned that I believed was very interesting was about YouTube. Since I was young, YouTube has been a vital part of my communication and technology. I love to watch shows, movies, tutorials, reviews, and so much more on YouTube. I had absolutely no clue that the platform was origionally created to share family home videos with one another. I think this is such a cool concept and it is crazy to see how far YouTube has come since then. 

Another thing that stood out to me during the presentations was the history of the typewriter. I love how it has such an extensive history and really tells a story. One thing the presenter pointed out was that the typewriter opened a lot of jobs for women after World War I. Women were finally getting paid to be typist and I think this is just really ironic that the sterotype of women being "secretaries" stemmed from this form of communication. I also found it interesting how we still use basic concepts of the typewriter today, such as the keyboard. Computers may look extremely different, but they were derived from the concept of the typewriter.

The last thing that I learned during these presentations was about the World Wide Web. I always thought the World Wide Web was the internet, but I have now learned that it is not. I also loved learning about the backstory behind it, such as the first online purchase (Pizza Hut), phone (Nokia), and dating website (Match.com).