Final Blog Post

 Technology has always been a part of my life. When I was growing up we had an office in my house that my siblings and I called, “The computer room” All we noticed on the desk was a big desktop mac book that we would play with constantly growing up. I got my technology at a very young age. I specifically remember getting an iPad for my 11th birthday. My school also required every student to have their own laptop starting in the summer before the start of 6th grade, the first year of middle school for me. Sure, I had parental controls and whatnot but by the time I was in Middle school I had my own iPhone and my own computer, which is rare for most people and I am very thankful to be fortunate enough to experience that. I think that technology has caused many more positives than negatives in my life. I learned how to use all of the important platforms when I was very young as well as learning how to effectively type and learn how a computer works, which has been very helpful for me along the way in my education. However, I think that technology leaves a negative impression on a lot of people growing up, kids keep getting more and more advanced technology at a younger and younger age every year. I think growing up technology can be very useful but one of the things I am against for children is social media.

    I am lucky enough to have never experienced this but I think that social media gives a negative representation of what you should look like and what your body should look like. Social media is one of the main causes of depression and anxiety in teenagers and below. They see models all over Instagram and TikTok and expect that's what they are supposed to look like which I completely disagree with. I will say however, social media is a very helpful tool for people when they get to the age of how to do it. I myself, and a social media and digital communication major so that is all I study and all that I use. Marketing is headed in that direction and it wouldn't have gotten to that point without technology in the first place and where it has taken us.  

    Technology has always been useful for me and a good way to get quick and easy news and updates on all things current events, However, sometimes what you see is not always true. I have had to learn this a few times by believing fake news stories I see on social media Mitch is dangerous for young people to have access to. If fake news gets in front of the wrong audience then it can have a negative spiral effect on generations that will not be good for our community. There are many ways to get around these problems. You just have to be careful with what you believe when you read it online. 

I believe that all my peers spend roughly the same amount of time on their phones and computers looking at social media, some more than others. I am guilty of spending a ridiculous amount of time on social media on my time off. While I know I can use my time in a much better manner I have a bad habit of aimlessly scrolling through my phone for hours on end in between classes. I know this is something that I have to fix and it really is an addiction that I need to work hard to break. 

I looked myself up on Google and the only things that come up are some of my high school athletic achievements and my LinkedIn. I consider this to be a good thing for me. While I do not have that good of an online presence I know that people can find me for what I want them to rather than see some stuff that I wouldn't want out in public. I have a very good look I think to future employers in an online sense and I consider that a real strength of mine. While I use social media a lot I do not tend to post much on any platform,  I rarely even post on Instagram. I am more focused on the outdoors. 

I believe there are lots of positives of technology that have advanced our society in a very positive way even with the downsides that it shows. It has increased our ability for us to communicate at a faster rate than ever human thought possible. It is advanced enough that I can send one post out and reach the whole world if needed. Texting and calling is no longer a thing of the past but now it is viewed as how this will change in the future. Technology has advanced so quickly that it is almost scary. Who knows what will be invented in the future. With the upsides and downsides of technology, I believe it is our friend and we should use it to its fullest. 

Post #11 - EOTO What I learned

When listening to my peers' presentations, transhumanism is one of the topics that stuck out to me the most. I had heard of it in the past but did not really comprehend what it was until then and I found it fascinating. Transhumanism is a type of study that attempts to enhance human capabilities through the use of technology. This study is constantly trying to push the boundaries of human potential and doing research on how to morph technology into our bodies. I find this particularly interesting because it is promoting a big step in human evolution, which is meant to happen naturally. 

    

    One of the more interesting traits and studies of transhumanism is the potential to better human health and longevity. Advances in gene replication and regenerative technologies would be extremely interesting to test on victims of accidents to see what happens to them. Another cool application for this technology is the ability to cure diseases. It would be able to cure severe diseases like diabetes or maybe even cancer one day which would be a massive step forward in human evolution. 

I have always found transhumanism interesting but now that I know the limitless applications for it I am excited to see it put to use one day for a positive reason. Whether that be making someone faster or stronger, or curing cancer. I would love to see the abilities of this technology and can't wait to see the limitations and heights that we can go to with this revolutionary technology. 

Advances in biotechnology, such as gene editing and regenerative medicine, offer the possibility of curing diseases and even extending human life spans. The use of technology to enhance human cognition and memory is also a promising area of research that could improve our ability to learn and solve problems.

Post #10 - Age of AI

 After watching the video, In the Age of AI (full documentary) | FRONTLINE. I learned that AI is a lot more advanced than I thought. They are working on AI that is a lot more human-like than most people would want. It is getting so advanced that it is getting to the point of job losses and a lack of human intellect and creativity in our world. AI is capable of almost anything. There is an AI that performs in the 99th percentile on the BAR exam which is frightening to me. 

I thought some important takeaways from this video is to be careful about AI and how you use it and you never know what it is going to do. There is rarely AI error which is scary to me because it is going to take a lot of jobs away in the future, people are going to stop using accountants and secretaries,
and architects. This is nerve-racking because it means we are going to move into a world where a computer is something that you trust and personally I would want to stay far away from that. Another thing that frightens me is how they are trying to make AI more human-like. Hopefully, I will never see the day but if there is ever a question about if you are talking to a human or a robot then I think we have taken it too far. 

Security and privacy are also a concern for me because AI could very easily hack into someone's account and either steal money or identity much easier than a human can. This scares me because there is not yet a way that has been invented to prevent these measures from happening in the future. Our world is sadly heading in a direction toward AI and I think the best thing to do for us is to just keep it within regulation and do not overuse it and let it take away from who we are and what our voice is.

Post #9 EOTO 2 KEY POST

 In my EOTO presentation number two, I researched and discussed something called The Overton window. This is a theory that talks about what kinds of ideas and policies are okay for people to talk about in politics. Basically, the theory says that what people think is okay to talk about in politics can change over time. For example, the window often has a few categories within it, it allows politicians to know what is appropriate to talk about publicly and assess the climate of the media at the time and on the specific topic. This can happen because of different things like how society thinks about things, what the media says, or what people in general believe. Sometimes views and ideas that are not accepted in the past can change and be accepted in the present, that would be an example of a window shift.  

The concept of the Overton window has been intensely discussed in political science and journalism about politics and public speaking in front of the media.  The Overton window takes a lot of influence over popular politicians and popular media personnel that help it shift in the direction they want it to go. It has also been used to shift the view in public opinion on issues such as same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, transgender rights, COVID, etc. The Overton Window can be considered a dangerous tool for politicians and media to use because it changes the opinions of the public in favor of the people controlling it. They use it to make it okay to talk about certain things in the public eye and help campaigns but it can also have a negative impact on you if you are not careful.  

In my presentation, I give examples of what the Overton Window is as well as how it is used in modern-day politics. The window is different on every different media channel you will come across as well as different politician figures. However, the opening of the window is big enough for all of them to know what to and what not to talk about to the public. A strong example of this is Donald Trump, he constantly pushed the boundaries of the window and it got him into some pretty controversial situations. He was never fully conscious of the window and wanted to say whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. There are a lot of people that respect this because it allowed for bigger and better conversations about sensitive topics. There were a few times however that he crossed the line but overall he expanded the opening in a good way and allowed a lot more controversial topics to enter into the discussion. 

    Overall, the Overton Window is a very important thing in todays political climate as well as in the media. It keeps everyone in line when speaking about sensitive topics and is a very good way to proctor a political debate in front of the public, while the boundaries do get pushed and it can be controversial sometimes, the fact that it is ever-shifting is a good thing for our government and our community. 

Post #8 Technology

 

As I talked about in my presentation, I dove deep into the history and modern applications of the touchscreen in technology and how it has changed our modern world. The diffusion theory of technology is as follows, “The diffusion of innovations theory describes the pattern and speed at which new ideas, practices, or products spread through a population. The main players in the theory are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.” When the touchscreen was created in the 1900s it quickly became adopted and implemented in a ton of different things. 

In the past, the touchscreen was originally used for education purposes and was first used at the University of Toronto. It was used steadily as such until Apple came along in 2007 and used touchscreen technology in the very first iPhone. This was a major jump in the technology industry and revolutionized technology and the applications it has today. 

Lots of people were late adopters when talking about the touchscreen because it was such a new concept and had not been tested. Apple was the first company to nationally distribute a touchscreen-only device, which is why more companies started using the technology after them because they knew how valuable it was. As many positives there are about touchscreens there are many downsides as well. They can be glitchy and they completely changed the world's attention span in a negative way. Screen time is at an all-time high and it keeps growing each day. This is dangerous for us as a society because eventually there will be a time when no one ever looks up from a screen, it is making people lazier and we are losing our artistic side of humanity. Eventually, it will be all AI and technology that does work for everyone. However, the positives outway the negatives of touchscreen tenfold. There are limitless applications with touchscreens and they keep getting more advanced year after year. 

Post# 7 What I learned

I learned a lot about the history of radio and how it evolved into what it is today in our presentation by Alayna Yelverton. She gave a presentation about the invention of the radio and followed the timeline of it all the way from the beginning to the present. Some of the facts in her presentation included, Who invented the radio, how it got its traction, the invention of stations, and how it evolved. 

The radio has been a big part of my life because I have always done a lot of driving ever since I was young the radio is all that I listened to in the car from music, to sports, to the news. Something was always on, nowadays, people have switched over to playing music on their phones mostly. However, for everything I drive with my mother, the radio is always on, she uses it for news and to catch up on all the new music being released. 

“The radio was first invented and developed by Guglielmo Marconi an Italian inventor. The Invention came to be in the early 1850s, In September 1899, he made his first radio debut using electromagnetic waves to present to the world, telegraphing the results of the America's Cup yacht races from a ship at sea to a land-based station in New York. By the end of 1901, he founded his own commercial wireless company and broadcast the first transatlantic signal.” This was some of the information on the first slide of Alayna’s presentation. I thought this was all very interesting and really brought into perspective to me how far it has really come from the beginning. It is crazy to me how fast technology is growing and I'm intrigued to see where we get in the future. With the age of AI and all the innovations being made today who knows what we are capital of in the next 50 years. 

Post #6 Anitwar

 

I think that it is hard to find strong anti-war arguments on the internet because the government wants the rest of the country to think that war is a positive thing when it really only benefits them. This leads to the theory that the government is controlling us and only feeding us information that they want us to know. This is getting increasingly relevant in recent times because of the rise of the media, social media, and increased screen time among civilians. There is also the rise of AI and fake news that you have to watch out

for when doing research or reading of your own, do

not always believe what you read or see. 

War in this country brings involvement and money from the civilians of this country. They take our money and pump it into unnecessary things. WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - “President Joe Biden's biggest peacetime U.S. defense budget request of $886 billion includes a 5.2% pay raise for troops and the largest allocation on record for research and development, with Russia's war on Ukraine spurring demand for more spending on munitions.” This is not even our war yet we are spending almost a trillion dollars of taxpayers' money to pay rais troops. 

Even Forbs has an article titled, Why War Is Good. This is not a good representation of our country and its government. I think it is hard to find these anti-war voices because they are silenced by the platforms they are using. Google has its own algorithm that lets you see exactly what they want you to see. We need to be more conscientious about this and make sure we are not always believing what we read. We need to stay educated on the issues at hand and teach the ones around us these same important matters.