The All Seeing Eye of Technology (Final Blog Post #11)

One Last Time

 

    If you were to ask me a few years ago, what my digital footprint was, I would honestly barely have an answer for you. I didn’t have any type of social media account. I didn’t have a computer. Heck, I didn’t even have a phone. Technology was never an important aspect to me or my family. The closest thing I had to a social media account was my Miiverse account on the Nintendo Wii. Which at the time, was pretty ground breaking for me. 

 

         

 

    So going from no footprint whatsoever, to having a phone and a computer and all these online accounts was very scary too me. I felt like I was immediately plunging into the deep end of the pool without knowing how deep it was. But due to me being born in this technological era I needed to learn how to swim fast. In this new digital age of social media and the internet, society has begun to truly depend and rely on technology to a point where it has begun dictating many of our livelihoods. 

 

 

 

    From checking our emails for work to sitting down on the couch watching tiktok, technology has very much taken a presence in our day to day lives. I always knew this about technology, but it wasn’t until I partook in the class “Media Law and Literacy”, where I realized the true effect of technology on everyone. I earned myself a more complex understanding of technology through this class. It has provided me with a lot of insightful information such as how sites such as YouTube or Instagram monitor what you search, according to Wired “Instagram…uses your personal information to show you ads that it believes you’ll be mostly likely to click on. This information comes from what you do within the app and Facebook, your phone, and your behavior as you move around parts of the web that Facebook doesn’t own.” Absolutely everything you do on these websites is tracked and monitored to make your time on that site as “enjoyable” and “relaxing” as possible. 

 

While in very few cases this can be beneficial because it can expedite the process of finding an item that the user is looking for, but in most cases the tracking of your data can be stored and safely kept on unknown databases. To a much scarier extent things like your computer and or phones technical configurations, addresses of previous sites you’ve visited, and even the location of the phone via GPS. Really think about this. Absolutely everything you do on the internet is recorded and stored for later. It can be a very scary place that is open to all individuals. 

 

Moving away from this aspect of the internet and onward towards a more positive outlook. Technology has also given this generation and the one before it a way to connect everyone across the planet. It is crazy to think that when I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan I could message and even face time friends in the United States. To view it in a more recent perspective, when Covid-19 hit we were all stuck in our homes unable to leave them, jobs, social relationships, and simply our livelihoods suffered because of it. But technology kept us standing. It provided us with the possibility to work from the safety of our homes, to keep up with what was happening via the news, and it provided us the ability to call with anyone in the world. Really it was all we needed to keep us sane through these difficult times. But because of this internet connection, it has come with a negative effect. The ability to communicate in person. 

 

 

    Sending texts and emails is a very different interaction compared to walking up to a person and introducing themselves. I didn’t believe it until I came to college. I would do my best to walk up to someone and introduce myself and they acted as if it was a completely random gesture, and I should have just given them my number and walked away. It brought up a concept that was mentioned in class. Virtual distance. 

 

 

    According to brainspire, virtual distance is the phenomenon where people are physically together but detached from each other due to being completely absorbed with their technological device. One day after class I decided to sit outside and mark down how many people I saw on their phones. Out of 45 people I noted 32 of them walking with their phones out. This was interesting to me, because I would have expected that it would have been less due to how beautiful this campus is and how nice of weather it was outside. While I wanted to act all proper in the sense that I don’t look at my phone while walking outside, I too fall into this trap of being absorbed into my phone while walking around. This realization made me force myself to leave my phone in my backpack or in a place not so easily accessible so I can enjoy the surroundings I am currently in rather than just be glued to my phone. 

    Technology has both positive and negative aspects to it. There is no denying the importance that it has on our society and no denying how vital it is. A hope that I have for the future is that they dial back on technology at least in terms of using it. While I know that this will not happen, I wish kids were not open to technology and all of its baggage at such a young age. I believe a few restrictions should be placed in order to protect our future generation from losing their connection to others in a social aspect. 

 

    Media Law and Literacy has completely redefined the way I view technology. There is a balance of dangers and benefits in the use of technology. I have certainly been more causes when using the internet and will always make sure to check what I am searching, have many different passwords and I have even begun to create different email accounts that I can avoid spam mail with. Funnily enough I even bought a book that I wrote down all my passwords and usernames with so I don’t get confused and forget, which is something that often happens. 

 

 

 

    With this being my last blog post I wanted to say a few last things before signing off for good. It has been such an interesting experience creating and posting my thoughts on the internet for others to see. I have never been a part of such an interesting activity before and it always excited me to write my next blog post. To feel like my voice is heard despite my age and in-experience in certain areas is an amazing feeling to have. I hope others allow their voices to be heard on the internet and hopefully it is those people that will work on creating a balance between technology and their social life. Avoiding the addiction that comes with social media and overall protecting themselves digitally. 

 

 

So, this is Me, Barrett Odom. Signing off! Thank you for hearing what I had to say. 

 

Allons-y!

PP Slide Show

It's Alive! It's Alive (Blog Post #10 EOTO)

 

Hey Siri!

    Technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. We utilize it from calculating quick math to looking up information about a certain object. Our phones, computers, apple watches, have become one with us. So it would make sense that technology would become more advanced over time. However, they have reached a point where it slowly becomes movie esc. We have all seen or read about the robot uprising, where the AI becomes so smart and no longer needs us humans to thrive so they begin to take over causing an all out war with humans. While I do not believe this will happen (at least not in my lifetime), there is no doubt that machines will become smarter and more efficient via Machine Learning. 

Boston Dynamic Warned Us

 

    Machine learning is a subset in AI programming and is essential to how the AI takes in information and learns from it. Through this observation of “Big Data”, which is like the name suggests data that contains a wide variety of information utilized by the AI to develop itself in a certain manner of speaking. To view this action in modern day, let me ask you a question. Do you ever get the feeling that your phone is listening to your conversation? You are talking about toilet paper and when you go on your phone and look at YouTube, the advertisements you receive are about a brand of toilet paper. This right here is machine learning. Instagram and TikTok utilize an incredibly well developed machine learning AI programming that can gather a lot of data more personal to us. 

 

Live, Learn, Adapt, Repeat

 

    Let’s dive a bit deeper and review the TikTok algorithm. This highly advanced programming can tell how long it takes you to get bored while on the site, thus it begins to throw at you certain products that can be viewed quickly, thus keeping you constantly interested in what the site has to offer. The algorithm can also tell you what gender you are, your rough age, political viewpoint, and remembers it all, creating a digital profile of you called  the “For You Page”. One of the craziest things about this advanced learning is that it needs no human input to gather the data, it works all on its own. It can read and collect data faster than any human can thus working at a much higher speed collecting data and evolving its AI to a high state of artificial intelligence. 

“Hasta La Vista Baby”

 

   Furthermore, computers are becoming so advanced that they are beginning to inform humans how to perform certain actions and have even replaced many people in their jobs. In specific terms of healthcare AI can make more precise incisions on a patient and can even give exact diagnoses much faster than some of the most experienced doctors. They have even been proven to find certain dangers hidden in the body such as cancer that is normally overlooked by some doctors. It is increasingly scary to think that one day many jobs will become less human and man made and more AI focused and robot made. The more this machine learns and advances itself the less jobs people will have. The machine can do the job more efficiently and effectively (One does not need to pay a robot as well so it's an investment that will be cheaper in the long run). 

    It may be a bit of stretch…or its the simple fact that I have seen way too many Sci-fi movies, but we should keep a close eye on this ever advancing AI. If it becomes far more advanced than we were prepared for it might screw us all over in the end. We must also not completely rely on these machines and keep human power in the workforce (while not as efficient, they can work in even the harshest conditions unlike most machines). So I recommend you log out of all your personal profiles and have Siri on mute because the machines are learning and listening every moment we open ourselves to them…even when we are unaware of them. This blog is even learning and adapting to what you like to read…I am kidding of course, but that would be funny if it was real. 

 

The Rise and Fall and eventual Rise of MySpace (Blog Post #9)

 

Diffusing MySpace  

Hey, get away from…MySpace. I cannot explain how long it took me to come up with that joke. But on a more serious note, MySpace was a popular free social networking site created by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe. They created the site to be a social networking site specifically for aspiring musicians to be able to share the work they have created to others. At the time it was a really ingenious platform. The platform launched in 2004 and exploded. The best way to show the rise and fall of mySpace is to view it through the Lens of the Diffusion Theory. This theory was popularized by Everett Rogers, a communications professor. There are five sections to the theory. Pioneers, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards are the categories provided by the model. 

 

The pioneers were Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, they both worked for an internet market and media company called eUniverse. For a time the company was doing well, but eventually faced bankruptcy. Luckily, the two pioneers had a plan and thus conceived MySpace. Their goal was to be a direct competitor to Friendster.com, which many people were hesitant at first because there was already a popular social platform. However, the duo had a strategy to be different enough to gain attention. This leads us into the early adopters. Many people at eUniverse were the early adopters to this platform because it was their last option to save the company. The goal of the platform was too allow artists to reach out and prompt themselves. This leads us into the early majority of people populating the site. Because the site's goal was to jump start music careers, it definitely caught the attention of the younger audience. In just 1 years the platform reached a total of 27 million users.

 

The popularity of the platform was skyrocketing at an exponential rate, however there was an issue that not only parents had, but the government well: users looking to abuse the platform for their own desire (aka sexual predators). So the team behind MySpace took action they partnered with Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp and developed the worlds first national database of convicted sex offenders. In addition to an improved security MySpace began adding new features and assets to their platform to gain more attention and by 2006 they peaked at 100 million users. It became more popular than Google and Yahoo and was valued at $18 billion.

 

    Alas with the popularity reaching its peak, eventually the fall of the platform would be on the horizon. Unfortunately only just two years later the popularity of the site began to decline rapidly.The main cause of this was the rising popularity of Facebook (which funny enough is face this exact same change of power in 2022). Facebook was becoming too popular for MySpace to keep up and eventually MySpace was left behind. Furthermore to add to the loss it was revealed in 2019 that in 2015, MySpace had lost all of its user content that was public since 2012.

 

    While the company was on a downward slope they refused to die out. There was still a small community that supported them (the laggards) and MySpace was eventually bought out and changed to Myspace (it took me a while to notice it as well…but the s is no longer capital…I would have made a bigger change). With a little rebranding Myspace is no longer focused on the social media aspect and has shifted to be more on the entertainment side of the spectrum. And according to Lifewire in 2019 they received 7 million monthly visits. So the platform is far from dead, but it is also a mere shadow of what it once was.

 

    So in a way the platform completed the Diffusion Theory model, but the laggards still holding onto the model brings it back up from the near death of a platform to a weak yet stable platform that has remade itself into something new. It sort of goes through the model a second time, but not to the same extent as it once did. 

 

 

The Truth is Out There (Blog Post #8)

 

These are Not the Answers You're Looking For

    The earth is flat. Search it! There are websites all over the internet proving that the earth is flare, there are even assemblies where members discuss the facts and prove the earth is flat. This is a primary example of the Illusory Truth Effect. The illusory Truth effect otherwise known as the illusion of truth and it is when“we hear the same false information repeated again and again, we often come to believe it is true”.

 

 One of The Man Lies of our Country's Past 

This idea that if the false information is repeated it can become the truth is incredibly scary. When I begin to think about the implications of its effect on a population I begin to think about the Salem Witch Trials. During the time of 1692 towns were mainly ruled by religious priests/higher ups. When in-explainable actions happened the towns folk looked to the leaders for answers. This is when priests claimed the devil was at hand and how certain town folks were being taunted to head to the devils wishes, the people took hold of the only answer they received and they began to spread the word. This false truth was spread around so much, leaders of towns eventually succumbed to this “truth” and thus the witch trials began. (I highly recommend a read through of “The Crucible”) When putting this theory and viewing the actions in 1692, there is a direct correlation between the two. However, in today’s day and age with the internet the illusion of truth wouldn’t be as strong because unlike back then we have access to all sorts of data and the quote on quote truth. Thus we couldn’t fall victim to the theory. Right?

 

NASA is Lying to Us 

 While the internet has blessed us with a library of information, it has also opened up the public to create and develop whatever they want. While my example earlier about how the flat earth theory is true was meant as just a joke, in actuality due to the internet many have begun to believe that the earth is actually flat. Despite all of the proof of a spherical earth, the repetition of the flat earth in the farthest corners of the internet had managed to change a few minds that began to change other minds, which started the domino effect. It may be silly, but once the effect begins it is normally increasingly hard to halt the spread of this false information.  

Who is Right and Who is Wrong? 

 

To be more recent, take the government’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign. While I will not share my own thoughts on the vaccine, this is a primary example of saying something over and over again until eventually people begin to believe the wonders and effects of this vaccine. While the government and scientists don’t necessarily know the long term effects of receiving the vaccine the push it to the public informing the public that the vaccine can prepare and protect their immune system from the COVID-19 virus and all of its variants. While this may be true, it becomes more and more suspicious when cases are still rising and they are still pushing the vaccine to the public saying it works. On the other hand, there are many people who are saying that the vaccine can only cause trouble and are not good for the people to take as it won’t really combat COVID-19. This has caused a divide of people, those who believe in one side and those who believe in the other. This to me is a true showcase of the Illusory Truth Effect. It can unite people together under one “truth”, while it can also divide a group of people under two truths both spread on their respective sides without any real proof being able to shut down one side or the other.

 

 An Unknowing Presence

This theory has even affected many of us without us even being aware. To bring up an example from my own life. I have been taught by my family that my religion is the truth. I have been raised in a community, where they have all said my religion is the truth and those who disagree are wrong. So of course I believe that my religion is the truth and everyone else who disagrees is wrong (it is almost a bit cultish if you truly think about it). While I am no longer in this environment and think in this way, it was difficult for me to understand any other side of the argument because of that. The Illusory Truth Effect is used everyday and whether you are aware of its presence or not, it can completely disrupt one's belief system and make it hard for their mind to ever be changed. Additionally if the “truth” is a dangerous one it can even get people hurt.  

I personally think that because of all of this information available to us we need to be careful with what we read and do our best to double check the sources and information given from not just places we are familiar with but even sites and or libraries that we are not so familiar thus expanding our own perspective outside our comfort zone that already might be influenced with the wrong “truth”. 

 

 

The Unseen Eye (Blog Post #7)

 

 Digitally Exposed

They are watching…they are learning…they are collecting. Everything you thought was safe and private is not as private as you once thought it was. Technology has truly advanced our society from being able to crunch thousands of differing data to connecting people from across the world. We have quite literally put our lives into our technology very much relying on them on a day-to-day basis. However, while the majority of the users have good intentions when utilizing technology, there are several websites/companies that may not have those same intentions.  Furthermore, we leave digital footprints on the internet from recent actions on the internet that we may not understand are there.

 The first video explains how everything we interact with on the internet is saved and traceable. He compares this to tattoos and how once we interact with the internet it is forever on our digital bodies. Every Facebook post, every personal/private message, every site visited is saved and can be seen by others. Digital Places like the Dark-Web uses this information to sell to other users and sites. Astonishingly, much of the revenue made from social media sites are from the selling of illegal information such as this. What you post and interact with on the internet is permanent and needs to be watched with a more careful eye otherwise, your digital footprint can be traced back to you and be used against you. Tracing can even be done outside of the internet. 

 

            In the second video it is brought up that the government can gain detailed portrait of how private citizens interact in there alone time. Through certain technologies the government can capture a single image of your car’s license plate to run against a list of other license plate to see if it is a criminal car. Even scarier, the government collects and stores these photos to gather a library of data. This surveillance gear takes advantage of our unawareness. While it is fantastic that the government is tracking down criminals, they take it a bit too far taking data from even innocent people. The technology should only be used for criminals. I understand that is it difficult to separate innocent from the guilty when it comes to surveilling areas. However, they take it too far by collecting a database of information for even the innocent. 

 

 

    The main issue with this is that if the government has access to this database, so does certain people looking to do harm. The third video focused on this exact topic. As technology has evolved. Many companies such as apple, have created a wall for this surveillance making it nearly impossible for hackers or the government to tap into the phone and see the texts and or data in your phone.  One would think that everyone would be happy about this because it stops people from spying in on others, however the government is against this wall to stop encryption. There reason is sensible because they want to be able to get a jump on certain threats to the country and to do that, they need to see the message and information on the phones. However, like the previous video they take it too far by collecting every innocent person’s data as well. Additionally, the data the government collects and when phones do not have these encryption walls other countries and people can hack into a person’s technology. No one should have to worry about every single text or call they make is being overwatched by a third party.  

 

I have very mixed feelings on the subject matter. Due to the fact both of my parents are in the military, I have seen the tip of the iceberg to the advanced technology our government has. It is honestly scary to think about the fact that every traffic light you have passed, every time you have sent a text or made a call, the government is watching you or at least trying too. I understand the perspective of the government wanting to stop a crime before it happens by tapping into the devices of the people, however it is when innocents are brought into the mess where I slowly begin to turn my head away from the idea. Furthermore, when the government collects a library of data for every single person in the government’s vicinity (All of the USA), I personally think that is a overstep of power and border line abuse of it, especially when those people are unaware of the government’s actions.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you think the unseen eye of the government should be shut for good or simply restrained? If so how?

 

I’ll Only Watch One More… (Blog Post #6)

 

Are You Still Watching?

 

 

            We have all had that moment of weakness, where we are intensely watching a show late at night and there are only a few episodes left so we say just one more episode…then five hours and a bag of chips later we are still watching that very same show. It is exciting to start a new show and watch it all the way through. With streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, we have at the tip of our fingers a library full of TV shows and movies from all sorts of genres.  But we never stop our tv show to think about just how incredibly these streaming services are or how they came to be. Which is why I am going to ask you to politely pause your tv show episode and read about a brief history of the creation of Netflix. 

 

            The two creators of Netflix are Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, in 1997 they realized just how many people may not live by video rental stores and are missing out on all the great cinema at the time. So, they thought of an idea, where a person could rent a DVD and have it sent straight to them. This brought up many fearful factors such as how to ship the DVD and how would they order the item. So they went through many test phases until that following year was the website titled “Netflix”launched. Netflix was a absolute hit. So much so that the two developed a subscription service in 1999. Netflix went through several iterations constantly utilizing the profit to personalize and advance their brand.

 

            As technology improved and the more subscribers to the service, they developed another idea to allow movies and tv shows to be streamed directly on the site. Which is exactly what they did in 2007. At this point in time Netflix is looking a little more similar to what it is today.  The brand eventually began being placed on everything: blue ray players to TV remotes, Netflix became the most popular streaming service in the world.

 

            Today is February 8, 2022 and Netflix has surpasses 200 million subscription services. It is truly incredible what two men accomplished in such as short amount of time. It is not something we think about all too often while watching our tv shows or movies on the platform.

 

            Now get back to your show! I know you are eager to see what happens next.