Post #12 - Final post Relationship With Tech

Technology runs our lives. Whether we want to admit it or not we are glued to our phones and computers. Whether it is my choice or forced because of work we are constantly interacting with technology. 

I was the last person in my friend group to get social media. I thought that if they wanted to tell me something they would text me or tell me at school. All the time news outlets share how social media is harmful to mental health, especially for teen girls. Having mental health issues myself I thought social media would just make them worse. 

When I left for college I caved and created an Instagram account. This way I could share my college adventures with my friends back home. So far my experience with social media has been positive. I rarely post and mostly use it to keep up with my friends both in college and back in my hometown. 

I am very conscious of my digital footprint. That is one of the reasons that I didn’t want to have social media even though I knew what to and what not to post I was scared
that I would do something to ruin my reputation. I have heard too many people that posted one wrong thing and they lost their dream job or their scholarships. I didn’t want all of my hard work to go down the drain because of one mistake online. 

Another reason that I wanted to stay away from social media is I didn’t want random people to know about my life. My friends and I would meet new people and find them online. We could find out everything about them in seconds from where they go to school to their mom’s workplace. I didn’t want that information for just anyone to see. 

The funny part about this is I never thought about what other people posted about me online, i was so worried about what I would post that I didn’t think of other people. My friends posted me on their Instagrams and my mom has been documenting my life on Facebook for the last 11 years.  

For this post, I google my name. Most of the results are not of me. The ones that are from my local newspaper The Robesonian. I was on it for painting a mural for my local Church and Community. Another time my senior year of high school I wrote an open letter talking about the positive impact the young development group 4-H had on my life. This piece was also posted on the Robesonian website. So far my footprint is positive and I will be careful to keep it that way. 

I think that I have a healthy relationship with social media. I understand that people post only the best parts of their lives and that I should compare myself to them. I know that I spend too much time on electrical devices as you are recommended to only spend two hours a day looking at screens.  I found that the average time on social media is over four hours a day. Most days I spend less time than that on social media but a lot more of that just on the computer.

Post #11 - Living in the Age of Ai

In my lifetime, I have seen AI grow from something that was only a fantasy to using myself for basic tasks. When I was a kid I thought AI was a lost cause that we couldn’t make conventing AI projects. Now I have to check every image I see to see if it is AI-generated.

In this video, I learned about all the jobs that will be lost if AI continues on the path that it is on. One of the jobs that I didn’t think about losing is truck drivers. If there are safe self-driving cars, when there will not be a need for drivers. There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States alone. 

I am less worried about the jobs that will be lost, but the security of the growth of AI. People can make deep fakes of people and recreate voices. Now it is so easy to tell what is AI-generated, but it will not be long before it will be almost impossible to tell what is reality and what is fiction. 

As of right now, 25 states have artificial intelligence bills and 18 states are enacting legislation on the topic. The number of AI-based bills is growing as it is becoming more of a threat. In 2022, 37 countries created bills with the words “artificial intelligence” compared with the 127 countries today. Though the number of bills around the topic is increasing they will be a learning curve as governments learn how to deal with these issues. 

I saw someone ask why are we teaching AI to create images and write. They said that they would like AI to do work so humans would have the time to be creative. I think this idea. As a creative person, it would be better to make AI to aid us in our work so we have free time for artistic things. 

AI should be a tool to help humans not replace them.

Post #10 - EOTO Learning with Others 2

 There were many different projects. The one that stood out to me was the one about online influencers. 

Like how Erica explained when we think about influencers I think of TikTok stars and people with an abundant amount of followers on Instagram. She pointed out that many other people are just as influential as social media stars. 

This got me thinking about who are the most influential people. I looked at Time’s top influential people of 2024. On the list were actors, musicians, and political leaders. People from musical artist Dua Lipa to Kenyan President William Ruto.  

How it is hard to see an ad without someone famous in it. Most celebrities have brand deals. They did this to help products find their target audience. If you like Serena Williams and tennis, you are more likely to need Nike products. Some other brand deals are just for using someone else’s platform to promote their product. For example, how Ice Spice works with Starry. Ice Spice’s career is not linked to sodas, so Starry is just paying her to appeal to her audience to get them to buy Starry and other Pesi products.

Another thing that Erica pointed out was we are influencers. The way that we spend our time and money influences the companies. If someone or a company does something the consumers dislike they can take their business elsewhere. 

Boycotting is a great way to show companies the changes people want. Right now many companies are under fire for supporting Israel. Unsafe shady business practices and human rights violations are other reasons people boycott. Without the support of the people companies have to change to fit our needs or they will go out of business. 

Influencers are not just people with millions of followers on social media. Political leaders and CEOs influence us as well. The strongest force is when large groups of people come together for a common goal. 

Post #9 - The Progressive ERA

 I was looking at the websites ANTIWAR.COM and  The American Conservative.  I have never heard of either of them before this assignment. 

I think that we answered the question of why we don’t hear these voices in the mainstream news in class. Too many people profit off the war. America promotes itself as a peaceful and helpful nation, but money has always been to make a profit. 

In class, we learned about the illusory truth effect. This states that the more you hear something the more likely you are to think that it is true. News stations do this all the time to push their bias onto their viewer. The more they promote pro-war the more people will support the war which is what the government wants.  

The statistics show that the nation is divided about their feelings on the war in Gaza. Most people want to help people but they don’t know if force is the best way to help them. These charts show the thoughts of the people. If the larger media outlets continue to use the illusory truth effect these numbers may start to move more the the pro-war side.

On the other hand, when I am on Tik Tok with independent creatures I hear a lot more peace talk. They are not backed by or paid by many people who want to create a pro-war view. Smaller sites like this and people on social media can talk about anti-war as they are not controlled or affected by large companies. 

I read that “Israeli-founded businesses have generated about 9,000 jobs in Massachusetts alone”. This shows that not only the defense industry is profiting off this conflict. Jobs creation is imporent and if that many jobs were created in just one state imagine all the other jobs and positive effects are coming from this war. 

People see what they want to see. If you are pro-war you will find news and statistics to support a war. If you are anti-war you will find data and facts to prove that war is not the answer. Today it is so hard to find news that is not biased. It is important to look at different news outlets and do research into imporent topics. 

Post #8 - EOTO Confirmation Bias

  Have you looked at your friend group and seen that all of your friends had the same belief system as you? Do the news stories on your feed always fit your values? This is probably because of confirmation bias.

    The American Psychological Association defines confirmation bias as “the tendency to gather evidence that confirms preexisting expectations, typically by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence.”. More simply this means that we are more willing to accept information that validates our ideas while dismissing information that goes against it. 

    Confirmation bias leads people to surround themselves with things that support their ideas. From the news they read to the people they hang out with. This means that people are not aware of all the information on a topic so they can’t make well-informed decisions. This also reinforces their attitudes making it harder for them to change their minds. 

 

   Confirmation bias incorporates multiple biases. Bias attention is when you only pay attention to things that support your ideas while ignoring information that goes against you. Bias interpretation is when you interpret data in ways to validate your feelings. Bias memory says that you are more likely to remember things that reinforce your beliefs and forget things that undermine those beliefs.

    This bias is caused as there is too much information for our brains to process. This causes our brains to use a small amount of data to make these decisions. This helps us make decisions faster while also boosting our confidence. 

A side effect of confirmation bias is groupthink. Groupthink is when individuals tend to accept ideas based on the ideas of the group they are in. This is something that can be positive or negative. It can lead to finishing tasks and projects quickly or it can lead to the groups having too much confidence leading to poor choices. 

    News apps can curate articles from several sources in one place. This sounds like a good thing as you can see pieces from numerous places but this site uses cookies and algorithms to show you what you want to see. These sites want you to continue to use their site so they want to make a feed that you will enjoy even if that means that they only show you stories that validate your views. It is not just the news sites that use your data to promote things you will like. Social media networks and marketing sites will provide stories or products based on the things that you like. This will trap people into only seeing the content they desire.  It also makes it easier for people to belive in fake news. It is important to look at all points of view but just the ones that websites promote for you. 

One way this bias affects our society through our elections. Then looking at the candidates, voters may look for news articles that put their favorites in a good light. People will not read articles that slander their party or the policies they agree with. This will lead them to make uneducated choices. On the other hand, if they took the time to look into the other side of the argument they may have recognized that another politician was a better fit.

   Confirmation bias is something that affects everyone. It is just a part of our brain so there is no way to avoid its effects completely.  

 When reflecting on a decision look at the signs of confirmation bias: Looking for only information that proves your point and overlooking the disprove it, relying on personal bias and stereotypes, and having strong emotional reactions to the information you find.

    We can combat bias with a few tricks. We should ask more neutral questions. For example instead of asking "Why should I vote for candidate A?", ask "What are candidate A's policies?". Explain your ways of thinking and listen to others' reasoning for their thinking.

  

     We all want to be right, but this is not an excuse to be uneducated. Confirmation bias affects all of us but we should work on fighting it so we can make informed decisions. 

Post #7 - Privacy, Online and Off

    Everywhere you go you are being watched. Whether you are in the physical world or online you are being observed. That is scary but the worst part is you have no idea who has access to all of this data. 

    This is an issue that affects everyone that is on the internet. Everything you say or post online is collected and sold to third parties. This information is used from marking to stalking. This collection of data is only for large companies to make more money off their users.  Your data is worth over $600 to companies like Facebook and Google. 

    I was taught there are things to don’t talk about online, so I assumed I was safe from data theft. After watching these videos I learned that people are interested in more than just your address or credit card number. All they need is an image to collect details about you. 

    I rarely post on social media, but my mom posts a lot. These videos showed me that you don't have just worry about what you post about yourself but what others say about you as well. 

    The thing that I was thinking about while watching these videos was the time they were made. Most of the videos are over five years old. Technology changes and advances quickly. The issues are worse than when these videos were posted.

    As of right now, there is no law managing online privacy. The government needs to protect the data of citizens from not just other countries but companies as well. There should be limits on the collected information and the people who can access that information. Governments around the world need to come together to protect everyone's privacy. 

    Finn Myrstad pointed out that people don’t read the terms and conditions when creating accounts. If they did read the terms they probably didn’t understand as they are filled with jargon. The government should make still important contracts easier to understand so people know what they are signing up for.   

    When doing the research for this post every website asked me to accept cookies. My Google searches for this information were tracked and recorded. The amount of information that we collect for this one assignment is alarming. This is an issue that needs to be solved quickly before it is too late. 

Post #6 Diffusion of Innovations

   Diffusion of Innovation is a theory that shows how businesses grow. The graph shows the stages of development. This theory can be used to explain the success of many corporations including Netflix.

 The innovators of Netflix were the co-funders, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. They were the
first investors in the company as they invested 2.5 million dollars to start the DVD renting service. 

     One of the reasons that Netflix was so successful was because of its new model of video renting. People like the idea of having videos mailed to them and no late fees. This means that people don't have to leave their homes and have access to all the movies available. Those who joined at this time were the early adopters. 

    The thing that brought the most growth was the subscription model for their business model they added in 1999. As users had to pay for a subscription they were more likely to return to get another movie. This got people excited to be able to watch as many movies as they could in a month. They felt they were saving money as they were not paying for each movie individually. 

    Later Netflix would become one of the first streaming services. Now people can play movies immediately on their devices. This would get more people excited about the service as they no longer had to wait for the movie to be delivered. This pushed Netflix into the early majority phase. 

    Netflix worked slowly to add to its online library. In 2008 Netflix made a deal with Starz to add content to the platform. 2011, the first Netflix original show, House of Cards, was released. The success of this show would lead to only shows such as Orange in the New Black and Stranger Things Creating content that was only available through Netflix made it stand out making others want to join the service. Those are the people that were late adopters. 

    Some people don’t have Netflix and that never will. Factors like income and the amount of free time affect this service's usefulness. People may not have access to the internet or a device to use the service. With all the new streaming platforms Netflix is no longer the only option. One of the biggest reasons that people don’t like streaming services is that they don’t get to own the media that they watch. These platforms can remove items without warning, which is why some people want to buy hard copies so they will always have access to their favorite movies and shows.  
    Netflix has flourished as they have changed how we consume media and it is still growing. The Americans who are now joining the service are in the lagging part of the diffusion of innovations theory. Most people in America have watched Netflix or have an account. These numbers are growing as Netflix tries to expand worldwide.

 Diffusion of Innovation is a theory that shows how businesses grow. The graph shows the stages of development. This theory can be used to explain the success of many corporations including Netflix.