Final Blog Post, Our Relationship With Technology

When it comes to technology, I am not terribly absorbed in my phone, laptop, or other forms of social media. Here you can see my screen time on my iPhone. Three hours and 50 minutes as a daily average is 

not horrible. The average person spends six hours and 58 minutes on their phone. Based on data I am spending less time on technology than the normal person.

                    

There is a decent amount of valuable information on all forms of technology, but there is also a lot of useless information. People use technology as a destresser and learn useless information, that will fill up their brain. There is good and bad to it. Social media is a major contributor to all the useless information. TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter ("X"), Instagram, Facebook, ect. all are forms of mind-numbing outlets. Technology will never be removed from our lives, it is something people either love or hate. It is a great way to learn information, but also mislead you. 

When it comes to my friends and family technology plays both positive and negative roles. On the positive it allows us all to learn, talk to each other, distract ourselves, and many other things. Technology is also negative, for example, it holds everything you have ever said and done. I know many of my peers have been caught up in scandals, because of their online footprint. This is unfortunate, but people need to be more conscious of what they do and say on social media.   

In my life, technology is a positive aspect. It allows for me to talk to friends and family while I am at school, do school work, apply for jobs, talk to family overseas, and many other important things. 

Luckily, I have a good online footprint. My mom, dad, and sister all informed me to never put anything I do not want to get back to me on social media. My father owns a company, and me mentioned to me that he has an employee whose job is to run background checks on possible new employees. Their social media presence, legal cases, and many other things. If there is something that he does not like that they posted, they are out of the running. I have been raised to think about my future before posting or saying something stupid, that will come back and bite me. I have been applying for summer internships, and before applying anywhere I asked my dad's employee to run a social media background check on me, and luckily nothing came up that would ruin my chances for a job. I try to have very little online presence. If someone wants to know something about me, they can reach out to me and ask me personally. When you search for my name, the first thing that comes up is my LinkedIn. The rest of the results for "Vincenzo Iacono" are not related to me at all.  I have a clean online presence.

Blog #10: Age of AI

In this video, the article is about how AI is more and more relevant in our day-to-day lives. They can perform tasks better than some humans, scarily enough. In the video, researchers developed a specific AI to learn to master a very difficult game. If you really think about that, it is insane. Not too sure what is more incredible, that we created that or that it can master so many things. Imagine what would happen if they had free reign.

A major takeaway is that AI can replace 65% of today's jobs. For example, the hotel Henn Na in Tokyo, Japan is a fully robot-run hotel. If you think about that, it is crazy. The AI robots for this hotel have taken about 10-15 jobs from people who need them. This is becoming very popular because it is saving many companies money in perspective. Hire men and women who require breaks and pay, or buy robots that will do it remote controlled. Are the companies really saving money though, that is what I have been thinking. How much does a robot cost, what if it breaks, does it need to be charged, what if something breaks or goes wrong? How much will that really cost the company? 

I wouldn’t say that AI is good or bad. There are positives and negatives. They are ultimately controlled by humans and can master many tasks. There is also another form of AI, like ChatGPT. During my internship last summer, I was granted and encouraged to use ChatGPT to help build databases and spreadsheets, and even just ask it questions. It is very popular in the professional world. Once I was accepted into the position my manager told me that everything he had asked me for the interview was written by ChatGPT. One of the negatives is that it is always evolving therefore older information could have been wrong. Overall I think that AI is here to stay for the better of the world. 

Blog #7: New Innovation Though Lens of the Diffusion Theory

 The Diffusion Theory is:

"A theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. The theory was popularized by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations, first published in 1962.^[1] Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines." (Wikipedia).

The product that I am going to choose is:

The social media platform TikTok.  

Why did they catch on and spread? 

TikTok is a social media platform similar to the old platform, Vine. Vine was a social media platform where users could post 6-second long clips. TikTok is similar because users can post either short or long (3 minutes) clips for others to see. I believe that is spreading so fast because people in today's world want to be famous. This platform is very easy to go viral on. People are also addicted to social media, so any new form will draw people's attention.

Why did so many people become early adopters? Why are some people late adopters? Or not adopters at all?

The concept of a new social media, similar to one that people used to love drew people in. It is very easy to get sucked in and stuck on the app, on average people spend 95 minutes a day on the app. Others joined the cult-like following later. Some due to the fact that they are trying to go viral and make a career off of it. Others like to follow the latest trends and "hacks" and TikTok is full of those. There are a few reasons that some people did not get the app. The first reason is, that the app is owned by a Chinese company and many people think that their information will get taken by their government. Another possible reason is that people are trying to limit their social media and phone usage. 

What about the downsides — do you see any negative consequences in the technology? 

There are always downsides to social media. On TikTok, there is a mass amount of negativity. Social media in general tears down people self self-confidence. 

Would the positive outweigh to negative? 

When it comes to TikTok, it could go either way. You could make a video that does great and you become a sensation overnight. Right there, you created a career for yourself. That career could take some twists and turns and make you make or break. You could also post a video and get made fun of and shoot down your confidence. 

Blog #8: Social Media Footprint

How do these issues affect you? You friends and family?

Luckily I do not have any issues with my online footprint. I was raised to never post anything that could receive any form of backlash. Nothing that could jeopardize my career in the future. My family and friends are very similar. I do know people, that have not been so lucky though. Inappropriate images, hurtful words, or just embarrassing photos have been shared around and have ruined their image and likeness. 

What should the government be doing about these issues?

The government does not have to do anything about these issues. If you got yourself into that situation, why should you get a second chance and maybe do the same thing again? People need to be more forward-thinking and conscious about how they portray themselves.    

What can we do to protect ourselves from invasions of our privacy?

Once you are on social media, you kind of set yourself up for invasion of privacy. You have given them your name, picture, email, password, and other private information. If you stay away from social media then you are more protected, but you are never fully protected. Everything about you is in a database somewhere. For example, the DMV, insurance company, doctor's office, and your workplace has all of the valuable information about you. 

 

Blog #6: Antiwar in the News

Why is antiwar never talked about in the news?

I wonder why that is, don't you?

Antiwar is most likely not talked about in mainstream news often because it will receive both negative and positive feedback from the viewers. This will lead to a decline in viewership for the news source which is not good for business. Most of the time the news source also does not have all of the correct information and do not want to make themselves seem less credible. There is also the possibility of them jeopardizing their connection to the government speakers.  

You've probably never even heard of these websites. I wonder why that is? 

After my first glance at these websites, I would never use antiwar.com due to their website format. I felt like my computer was going to get hacked after looking at their poor format and the very bold and big letters used by them. The second website,  theamericanconservative.com seemed much nicer. It is still all over the place from football news to their own book promotion. Most people are also very skeptical about where they get their news from.  

This is not appealing in any way:

 

Why do you think you have to seek out obscure websites in order to hear strong antiwar voices?

Yes, I do think so. It is a very niche group of people interested in this type of news. CNN and Fox would never partake in something like this because of the controversy. Some people will love that type of news and others will not. As I said previously; there is a lack of information, jeopardizes their connection to the government, and is controversial. 

Blog #9: EOTO, Echo Chamber

What is an Echo Chamber:

A situation in which people only hear of one type or opinion that are similar to their own.

What are some examples of Echo Chambers:

News platforms and social media are excellent examples of an echo chamber. Like Fox News, everything that they speak about is republican based. When it comes to social media (TikTok, Twitter, Facebook) your feed is an echo chamber. It pushes you information that you have previously liked and enjoyed.

More examples of Echo Chambers:

A non-social media echo chamber is the group of people you surround yourself with. Echo Chamber are one of the main reasons people love social media, you get to see what you want to see.

Why are Echo Chambers Dangerous:

In today's society, 61% of millenials get their news from social media. Social media is full of false news and propaganda. Another reason echo chambers are dangerous is because they promote unhealthy habits for people, and create negative mental health in people. “One of the biggest dangers and most calamitous aspect of echo chambers is that they tend to lead to a lack of original thoughts, dissenting opinions, and challenging ideas.”

Why do people like Echo Chambers:

Like I said previously, why do people like Fox News and CNN? They tell you what you want to hear based off of their followings. Another reason is because they shelter people from the real world, and let people live in their own little fairy tale. When you are trapped in an echo chamber everything is exactly how you want it to be. You are also surrounded by like-minded individuals.

Blog #5: The Emoji

How Emoji’s and Emoticons Have Changed our Daily Lives 

We learned about several different aspects of technology, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the emoji and emoticon. These are used in everyday conversation but I never really thought much of it. Like who created emoji’s and why were they created. Now after learning about them I can answer these questions. The emoticon was crated by Scott Fahlman the Carnegie Mellon professor in 1982. They thought that he could spice up his emails and the use of a smiley face would be a good “joke marker”.  This was the first emoji every created and it looked like this; :-) . In 1997 emoji’s were added to Japanese phones. In 1999 Marco Hüsges created the emoji brand we all know and use. Since then they have been everywhere. In 2010 major phone companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Android have all added them into their data base. All phone now come with pre downloaded emoji’s.  Merriam-Webster even added emoji to the dictionary; “any of various small images, symbols, or icons used in text fields in electronic communication (as in text messages, email, and social media) to express the emotional attitude of the writer, convey information succinctly, communicate a message playfully without using words, etc.”. The emoji made such a big ripple effect on the world that they event created a movie in 2017. Emoji’s are a great way of communicating without using words. They also allow for people to portray emotion in messages, because they couldn’t before. There are 3,000 + emoji’s in the world, with endless combinations.