Blog 11: Relationship with Technology

 Relationships With Technology

      Have you ever questioned your relationship with technology? Or wondered what life would be like without technology? Well I know I have. Currently being in the 21st century I have practically grown up with the use of technology. If it was not for technology today a lot would not be the same. I use my phone and laptop daily, for school and personal use whether that is writing a paper or using social media. The technology products I use are being used at least 6/24 hours a day. Technology is continuously growing which causes us to constantly be engaged in it especially since it has become a huge part of people's daily routines. Our relationship with technology is rapidly growing and I am here to tell you about my personal relationship with technology and the pros and cons technology has on our lives.

    The rapid increase in technology, I can say, has caused me to be more connected to technology than ever before. An example is, before getting an iPhone I would use a handheld calculator and now instead of carrying that around I can just pull up a calculator on my phone. Until high school, I did not use a laptop to write papers. It had to be handwritten and now all essays and most assignments and even tests are all done by using technology. With that being said here are some areas where the internet and computers have changed our lives: communication, finance, medicine and health, energy and power, oil and gas and manufacturing. For detailed information on each topic check out "See How Technology is Taking Over Our Lifes."

    The pros of technology are that it is a way to save paper and creates a better environment. The use of technology in ways has helped people such as per say a hospital instead of having the patient's documents all on paper files it can now be stored on a computer which creates easier access. Technology has also helped people in ways that we communicate and go about everyday life. Communication has become much simpler with the variety of apps people use to interact with each other. On top of that, technology has helped businesses in ways they are able to advertise and sell their products. 

    Cons of technology are the way it causes mental health issues. It is not just the use of social media that causes some to have negative outcomes but it is the whole aspect of technology itself. Before the internet was created some words and actions that people deal with today may have never been thought of if it was not because of the use of technology. It can also be viewed as negative as it leads to less privacy and is not a cheap resource. Technology is a continuous avenue for needing to upgrade which becomes extremely expensive and is seen as a negative.

    Technology is one of those things in life that is continuously growing. Its uses have grown from simple handheld devices to self-driving cars. As seen in the video there are self-driving semis that are in the works and will soon be made public. A positive to trucks being self-driving is that they will not have to stop to rest and can drive straight to the destination. On the other hand, having a self-driving semi could cause bigger mechanical issues that will cost more than a normal maintenance issue. With the improvement of technology, it will soon lead to the cause of job loss causing issues for people who are trying to support their families. 

    Overall relationships with technology are neither just a positive nor negative situation, it will always be both. I could go on and on about how technology has affected me and the world but for now, that is all.

final presentation

Blog 10: EOTO part 2 response

Online Influencers

    What are online influencers you might be wondering? Well, I am sure you have heard a lot about them, especially in today's day in age. Online Influencers are people with a following that post content that inspires, entertains, informs, and connects with their following. These influencers can range from someone who just does social media to a celebrity that partakes in creating content for a certain audience.  When becoming an influencer people try to gauge their area of interest in order to create content they will enjoy creating which will later make their viewers more engaged. For example, if you have someone making cooking content and they label themselves as fashion industry their viewers will not be as engaged as if someone who is in the cooking industry is in the cooking category. Youtube and Instagram I would say are the two major platforms influencers use to share their information.  

    

    What people can not really see about being an influencer is that it is essentially a full-time job and takes just as much work as anything else. These people devote their time and energy to making posts that their related audience will enjoy and on top of that they have advertisements they can participate in. The downside to viewing influencers is you could really love someone, then they get told to do an advertisement, and a majority of the time they will never say no to it even if they do not enjoy the product because they will be getting paid for creating content of that product.

Blog 9: Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion Theory

    To give a little background, Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory is a strong theory that helps describe why certain technologies are adopted and why some are not. Within this theory, there are pioneers, early adopters, early majority, late adopters, and laggards. As many of us know, iPhones are one of the most commonly used smartphones of today's time. With the iPhones continuously upgrading each year, there are some people who want to stay on top and keep getting the newest available product. 

    When it comes to the iPhone, the pioneers of this technology would be those who are into getting the latest and greatest technology right away. The early adopters would be around the ages of 25-40 because of the timing and the cost of the iPhone, especially since it leaned towards people who were on the high side of incomes. The early majority would be those who wanted to grab the product immediately and could not wait for a lower price or better model. Late adopters would be those who do not want to make the switch quite yet and are waiting to see what those who have it, have to
say about it. Finally, the laggards which would consist of those who are old school and are not into getting the touch screen, they would prefer their flip phone. 

Blog 8: EOTO Terms & Concpets

 Gatekeeping

    Are you wondering what gatekeeping is? How is it affecting our world? Well, I am here to tell you, gatekeeping is "when an individual or group controls access to goods and services but particularly to information and people with power." So, if something were to occur, there would need to be someone who passes along the information to another individual. I personally have heard of this word but genuinely never knew the context behind it and what it truly meant. However, within this blog, I will discuss more about the concept of gatekeeping. 

    A little history on gatekeeping. According to this article, gatekeeping was one of many theories applied to the new doctoral-level academic field of communications, mass communication, and journalism in the 1950s and 1960s. Found within the article it tells us the father of gatekeeping is a psychologist, Kurt Lewin. Lewin introduces the gatekeeping theory as "a way to conceptualize the food consumption practices of post-World War II households." He also makes us aware that gatekeeping can not only be used for consumption but can be applied to media and news as well. 

    The person who developed the word gatekeeping is Kurt Zadek Lewin. He was born in Germany and was a psychologist and pioneer in social psychology. You'll see in the article on the gatekeeping theory that Lewin developed the concept in the field of psychology called psychological "field" and "life space" in order to understand human behavior and its important consideration of total space. Lewin describes to us his definition of gatekeeping which is "It's nothing but to block unwanted or useless things by using a gate." The person who will make the decisions is known to be the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is in charge of preventing something from reaching the wrong individual and deciding what gets published and what does not. 

    To provide, here is an example of the gatekeeping theory in use from businesstopia, "Ice skating is not popular in countries with a tropical climate. If the media of those countries show those issues, people will not have any interest and might totally skip the page or change channels in television. The topic is not appropriate for the area but can be a very famous topic for countries like South Korea or Finland. The editor must try to replace the story with something else." Gatekeeping is programmed to be able to tell the difference between real and fake news. When it comes to individuals who want to post their own media they are responsible for being their own gatekeeper.   

    Nowadays gatekeeping is used towards filtering information to the public through the media. Gatekeeping in the media world is controlled by editors, producers, reporters, and many others who will prevent consumers from seeing certain things. Overall, this theory is used as a process of selecting and filtering items for media and editing them. These decisions for what happens for gatekeeping are occurring every day to be able to sort out the appropriate items that audiences will be seeing. Gatekeeping is now one of the essential and foundational theories in communication studies according to mass comm theory.

Blog 7: TED Talk

Privacy, Online & Off

    Have you ever noticed your privacy being leaked on the internet? Well maybe you have, try looking up your name and see what appears, I'm sure for some of you there is more out there than you expected. What we also may not realize is what we share online really never ever goes away whatever is on our phone, laptop, or social media accounts are most likely all being kept by the government. 

    While watching all of these TED talk videos I noticed they all made points on privacy. Starting with Juan Enriquez he mentioned how tattoos are in relation to social media and your online life being our tracker meaning that what we have online sticks with us forever just as a tattoo does. Next up was Catherine Crump, who brings up what most of us may not have noticed while driving our cars. What you may not see but does occur is police are tracking your license plate almost every second having cameras for this purpose all over. So, next time you are out and about whether you are in your own car or someone else's take a look around you and see if you can find these license plate cameras. The third is Christopher Soghoian and he brings to my attention that all of our texts and phone calls are being documented and we need to do what we can to avoid that. Finally is Darieth Chisolm tells her story on how her life flashed before her eyes and she was being cyber harassed with zero control of the situation.

    With the technology constantly improving over the years there is no way to really avoid all of these situations of our privacy being invaded. The government should find better ways where people do not feel the need to step away from their phones because they are afraid the government may hear. If it is even a possibility what the government should do is not listen or document what is on our phones unless certain words are being used that way it is still preventing the bad but not invading the innocent. In order to protect ourselves from feeling invaded, we could go back to times before phones and talk to someone in person and not share every second of our lives on our social media accounts.

    

Blog 6: EOTO response

 Netflix

    While listening to the class present their EOTO, Netflix is one of the ones that stood out to me, and in fact, I take part in using Netflix myself. Netflix is an American Streming source that allows access to many different TV series and movies. The founders of Netflix are Reed Hastings and co-founder Marc Randolph who founded Netflix in 1997.

    

    Here is some information that I learned about Netflix while listening to group 4's presentation. Netflix started by shipping out DVDs to their customers through the mail and then mailing those DVDs with a prepaid package. They paid a monthly fee and could rent as many movies as they wanted as long as they sent them back after a certain time period. In 2000 Hastings approached blockbuster in hopes they could be in partnership together but the CEO of blockbuster declined the offer. It then later in 2007 opened up to subscribers being able to stream right from your home. In 190 countries are subscribers to Netflix but not in China. Netflix can be used on an online browser using your laptop or there is a downloadable option for your mobile device

    The invention of Netflix has opened up ways for us to be able to watch tons of movies and shows of all different genres from anywhere and at any time especially with the newest addition of the downloads option. The downfall to having Netflix is it could lead to binge-watching which could then lead to health issues. Overall Netflix has been a major addition to our world today and many people use it.

Blog 5: The Progressive Era

 Anti-war and American Conservative

    Have you ever noticed in the mainstream news that you don't hear about anti-war? You might be wondering why that is, well let me tell you.  If you are seeking to find more information on anti-war you may need to dive deeper into Google and find sources that you may not use in your day-to-day life. It is always important to look for multiple sources since you might not be aware of which one is telling you the truth and which is not. I know for me I have never seen, nor heard of the anti-war website so for me to read what I did was quite interesting in my opinion. As you may see and hear today, most information spread in all mainstream and the voices of some are not heard because if someone does not like one person's opinion, then they do not wanna hear more of it. If you see any mainstream news platforms promoting anti-war, then they will probably be told that they can no longer publish information of that sort. 

    The mainstream news is not really sharing what is important. They are dramatizing it making it so everyone will believe what they say, but the truth is they are not actually sharing the truth about our world with you. For example, say two countries are just having a disagreement going back and forth with each other. Our news might say these two countries are in a war which leads people to either panic or think that a war will solve all the problems between them. 

    Found within the website the American Conservative you see an article called "Mr. President, Stay Out of Ukraine" which states that "Instead of flirting with a proxy war strategy to torment Russia, the United States should be making a concerted effort to repair bilateral relations." You will notice while reading this article or maybe even by the title alone that you do not hear about this information from our mainstream news sources. The article goes into detail on how a war between NATO and Russia would be too much and could lead to it being a nuclear war so the administration decides to find a middle ground where a war could be avoided. In comparison to a mainstream article, you would probably notice that they would not give you all the details and just explain how a war would be a high possibility. That is why both the anti-war and the american conservative are extremely important websites to look back on because within them you will be able to find the information you do not typically see throughout your day.