Technology: Healthy or Unhealthy?

 In class we watched a video. It was a remix by Moby of a song originally by the pop group Tears For Fears. I believe it truly shows how we view technology these days. In today's day and age we are always on our phones. The video shows everyone on their phones not paying attention to anything around them and shows how we are consumed by a little rectangle. Technology is addicting and one image that stood out to me in this video was people in jail cells but the cell was a phone. This image truly shows how technology controls our lives.

Now saying that technology is completely terrible would be a lie. Technology has many positives and negatives to it, but so does everything else in the world.  

Some of the positives of technology are being able to connect with friends and family. For instance, being away from college I am able to still text and call my friends from back home and my family members. Another great thing about technology is the internet. Everyday people look up new things. Whether that's the latest news, seeing if something is sold at a certain store, the definition of a certain word and so many other things. The next positive is entertainment through technology. There are many apps like Netflix, Hulu and Youtube that are available on any type of technology. Another good aspect is that technology is used in our everyday lives, for work, school even the appliances in our homes are on technology.

As much as technology is great and used in our everyday lives it has many negatives. The first one being online bullying. Bullying is a common occurrence that takes place and technology makes it very easy for someone to get bullied. Whether that's through snapchat, comments on instagram pictures or even Youtube videos. Another negative that goes along with bullying is that technology can be very unhealthy. For example, bulling, staying up late on your phone and digital eye strain. I know after being on my phone or laptop too long I start to get headaches or my vision becomes affected. Another big negative about technology is that it is taking over jobs. People are becoming unemployed, and not being able to provide the necessities for their families. The last negative thing about technology is that kids at a very young age start to use i pads or computers to play games or go online. When kids play games ads begin to pop up and some of them are not kid friendly, meaning illegal websites with explicit images. These are things that should not even be allowed on technology.

After looking at positives and negatives I believe that technology is not healthy. It controls our lives too much. I will admit I use it way more than I should be and for school is one thing but I always catch myself on Tik Tok and Instagram for too long or constantly checking to see who has texted me. It's a terrible habit to get into and that's why I believe although there are some benefits to technology, there are many negatives in our society today that make technology unhealthy.

Blog #11: Alternative Media

There were many great presentations but one that stood out to me was Alternative Media. Alternative Media is any type of media that is not under control of business opportunity or government agency. Traditional media is in newspapers and magazines or on the radio, and TV. Alternative media is more technology based with news outlets like websites, ebooks and streamed audio.

Alternative Media is described as small-scale politically radical media, using a wide spectrum of communication technologies and formats. The main function of alternative media is to provide non-bias and different perspectives of media. On mainstream media the topics are often one sided because they are owned by corporations or the government. Whereas, alternative media shows many different viewpoints. Being owned by corporations or the government allows the story to be more known to people and they mainly share what they know will interest more people. Alternative media outlets tend to have smaller viewings that seek the unique viewpoint. 

At one time, alternative media was also known as counter-cultural or underground media, terms which helped to identify the media outlets that provided opportunities for dissenting points of view and ideas to be shared outside the established media. This was necessary when other media alternatives were not able or hesitant to to offer these other opinions equal time with the more widely spread views. 

In recent years one of the main functions of alternative media is the internet. Today we can find just about any topic, concept or opinion we want with the help of the internet. Alternative Media can give people information that is unbiased and it can allow you to explore different understanding of topics that aren’t on mainstream media.

Blog #10: In the Age of AI

After watching the video “In the Age of AI” I noticed that AI is not just a website on a computer, it is used for so much more. It stands for artificial intelligence and has been progressively popular within a short amount of time. 

One thing that stuck out to me was that robots guided by AI are picking out groceries. This includes anything from food items to soap products for online consumers. One example of this is Instacart. You order everything that you need through an app and people who work for the brand will go and get it. It doesn’t just stop there. AI can also be seen in fast food places. When you do self ordering you don’t see this as AI but it is. This idea takes away jobs for cashiers. 

With anything there are pros and cons. I wanted to further my research and really look into them. 

Positives:

• Can make everyday life more convenient.

• Why sit in traffic when you can just open your navigation apps and there will be different and faster routes. Why scroll through many options of TV shows and movies when we have streaming apps that know exactly what we like to watch. 

Negatives:

• A major negative impact is that AI has taken over the work of many people. Causing people to be out of income and affecting our societies lives. As AI has taken over many workers are laid off or given a less skilled job with less pay. 

• Dangerous privacy risks.

• Facial recognition on a phone can be used for passive, warrantless surveillance without knowledge of the person being watched. 

• The Ring doorbell has been very popular. It is partnered with over four hundred police departments. Sounds safe? These police departments are allowed to request footage from these doorbell cameras. You can say no but privacy experts fear that because of the relationship between Ring and the police it could be overruled, causing customer privacy to be gone. 

AI is a very contradicting topic. I do see the benefits but I also see the major downsides. I often think to myself that it is terrifying how much these robots can do. AI has access to a lot of information and I feel we have to really be cautious of that moving forward in our world. 

Blog #9: The Whsitleblower

What is a Whistleblower? A whistleblower is a government employee who reveals wrong doing. They report waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety to someone who is in the position of rectifying wrongdoing. 

Thousands of people blow the whistle around the world each year on everything from bad accounting to tax fraud to pollution to illegal wildlife trade. These crimes can have a significant financial impact on the government, company shareholders, and taxpayers. Without a whistleblower it would be extremely difficult for law enforcement to discover these problems on their own. Whistleblowing is one of the most successful ways to detect and prevent corruption.

There are many Laws that go into being a whistleblower. The first one is the False Claims Act. This act is one of the strongest whistleblower protection laws in the United States. Under this law we have Qui tam cases. This allows persons and entities with evidence or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf  of the United States government. The next act is the Dodd-Frank Act. This act is used to promote financial stability by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system. The last one I am going to talk about is the Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects “any disclosure of information” by the federal government.

While looking at the history of whistleblowing I found some famous Whistleblowers. The first one is Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the classified “Pentagon Papers” in 1971. Next was Mark Felt who helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon for illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering. The third whistleblower is Coleen Rowley who warned FBI Director Robert Mueller about the Bush Administration's deceptive plan to launch a war on Iraq. Lastly, was A. Ernest Fitzgerald. He overlooked the Pentagon and testified over 50 times on Capitol Hill fraud. 

There are always positives and negatives with any job and when becoming a whistleblower it is a good idea to take these seriously. 

Some positives of being a whistleblower are:

1. Legal protection

2. Satisfaction of doing what's right 

3. Deterring future fraud

Some negatives of being a whistleblower:

1. delays - some qui tam lawsuits can take up to 3-5 years before a final answer

2. Lack of understanding- whistleblowers can face criticism or cold shoulders while the process unfolds

Many people think of the term leaking when thinking of whistleblowing but leaking involves the unauthorized release of sensitive material, some of it being valuable to the public. If a whistleblower gives out valuable material they could be faced with prison. A big story in whistleblowing was the story of Edward Snowden. In 2013 he revealed the existence of previously classified mass intelligence-gathering surveillance programs run by the United States National Security Agency and the United Kingdom's intelligence organization, Government Communications Headquarters. Once this happened Snowden was charged with espionage by the United States government. After that he fled the country.  

Believe it or not, whistleblowing affects our society. They affect our society in a good way by keeping our society safe. Our society has to step up and expose problems because many problems could be prevented if we voice our concerns. 

Blog #8: Privacy With Technology... NOPE

While watching the Ted Talks there were many things that stood out to me. I find Ted Talks to be very informative because I constantly learn new things and it opens my eyes to the bigger picture. There were two talks that really caught my eye; Juan Enriquez, Your online life, permanent as a tattoo and Christopher Soghoian, How to avoid surveillance… with the phone in your pocket.

    The first Ted Talk was about electronic tattoos. Juan Enriquez talks about social media platforms as well as other apps and technology can be a form of electronic tattoos. For example, facebook, twitter, cell phones, security cameras, etc. I never looked at it this way but after hearing this I 100% agree.  Our world today is always using technology and I feel it affects us in a negative way. First off it’s an invasion of privacy. We post things whether it’s good or bad but that is looked upon as who we are therefore it is an electronic tattoo. It also shows who follows you, who comments on your post and what you do to yourself. Our footprint is left on everything that we do.

 

      

    The next Ted Talk was about cell phone surveillance. Christopher Soghoian explains that our telephone companies and the networks that carry our calls wired surveillance into our phones. He brings up how someone whether that is our own government,  a foreign government or a hacker that breaks into your telephone company could be listening in while on phone calls to any person. He brings up how nowadays encryption on certain electronics is making it hard for governments or hackers to wiretap phones. He brings up a great point of building a back door because with a back door you do not know who goes in and out, good guys or bad guys. I agree with him when he says we should make it more secure. If we don’t we are living in a world where hackers, the government, stalkers have access to you more than you would even know.

    

    These two issues affect us 24/7 and we don’t even know it. It is an invasion of privacy to me, you, your friends and family members but I also see the government's side for safety reasons. I believe the government and the private sector should come up with an agreement but what that is I’m not quite sure because I do see both sides.

Blog#7: Diffusion of Innovation

The Diffusion of Innovation is the theory that seeks to explain how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. In class we made this image pictured here. It shows how innovation develops.    The first phase is the innovators or pioneers, which is the launching phase and the start of the innovation. The second phase is early adopters which means the uptake, the innovation is  starting to incline and reach more people. The next two phases are the early majority which is the tipping point and have opinion leadership in a system. Following that is the late majority, this starts maturation which is when people are adapting to the innovation later than the early majority and lastly, we have the laggards. This is the saturation phase where they are the last to adopt the innovation. 

    The innovation that fascinates me is the mobile phone. For the longest time people had landlines that were only usable in homes. But in 1973 that changed when the first mobile phone was made, allowing you to use it on the go. This first ever mobile phone was huge, it had a tiny screen and buttons that took over the majority of it, not your average size phone you see today. As time went on they got smaller and then turned into a flip phone which then turned into one big screen that we now have. This is the start of the diffusion of this innovation.

    Why was the mobile phone created you ask? The creator Martin Cooper understood that it was a hassle only being able to talk on a landline whether that was from your office job or from home. He wanted to make a phone that was usable on the go. Martin Cooper said in an interview with CNN that “People were absolutely amazed by the fact that you could hold the phone up to your ear, walk around and make a phone call”. This is where you begin to see early adopters and early majority take place. 

    Even though the mobile phone was made in 1973 it wasn’t until 1990 when the invention of the phone took off. So as you see many people did not adapt to the mobile phone till years later causing them to be the late majority and laggards. 

    Although the mobile phone was a great invention and people were amazed, in 1983 the cost of the phone was $3,900 which caused many people not to get it. The majority of people buying the mobile phone at the time were people who truly needed it like doctors or real estate agents. One negative effect Cooper saw was the advancements phones are starting to get. He said in an interview “Phones have gotten so complicated, so hard to use, that you wonder if this is designed for real people or for engineers”. I understand what Cooper is saying but I believe the constant updates with phones is only making the phone better and more accessible. 

Blog #6: Anti War

While looking at the websites ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative I learned about speaking out against war but I realized it is very rare to hear news, whether that be on TV, the radio or articles against war. These two sites really show what we never hear about, well at least what I have never heard about. 

Now one story that stood out to me while on ANTIWAR.COM was The Real History of the War in Ukraine.Have we all heard about the Ukraine war, yes, but do we know the whole story or one side of the story? In this article it states that Biden has “relentlessly promoted NATO enlargement and supported America’s deeply destabilizing wars of choice in Afghanistan, Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine”. Now why don’t we hear or see that on our daily news? Well to put it simply, they don’t want us to. They only want us to hear and see all he good that we are doing when in reality that is not the case. Our media is censored. We don’t hear the whole truth and it is truly sad.                 

These are anti-war voices that need to be heard. News outlets like NBC News, Fox News, CNN and many others  only show you what the government would be okay with. Therefore, anti-war is not top on their list when it should be. Our world today listens to the news for what is going on and or News sources aren’t going to share these stories that are on these two websites when they should.

I feel they don’t share these stories because our world isn’t fully anti-war. So these stories on these two websites wouldn’t get good views on news outlets. The news leans towards what gets them the most views and shows what the people like to hear because they know that will keep the audience more intrigued.