My relationship with technology

   

The Impact on My Life

     The presence of technology in my life has been very beneficial in many ways. I see technology being used in my life every day. Whether that be throguh school or recreaction. There are both pros and cons to this massive presence in my life. 

Pros   

     The convenience that technology supplies are the most important argument for why technology is used so often today. With technology, communication is the easiest it has ever been. We can communicate across the world instantly, buy and shop from around the world as well, and stay up to date on current events at a speed that wasn’t seen one hundred years ago.

Cons

    With the many pros, there also has to be a negative side. The most important negatives are threats to our safety caused by security risks such as theft. We also see a negative impact on social development for some people.

My relationship

    I am very active on the internet, but I am not very involved with social media.  I do not post everything that goes on in my life. My digital footprint is pretty moderate but I still see that as something I need to keep an eye on. 

Final Post videos

    I think both of the videos bring up very valid points of view on our relationship with technology. There is certainly a balance between good and bad when it comes to technology. This topic is a grey area that cannot be so easily defined.

    As people, we require a lot of interpersonal communication. We seek this out on the internet in many situations. This can be a tricky spot, because we are able to communicate with other but run the risk of things like cyberbullying, and other things that damage mental health. We need to be building relationships with people face to face as well. Online friends are not bad but it is not healthy to have your social life exclusively online.

    To find that balance you can try seeking friends in your area online and then transition that relationship to an in-person friendships. You can also set boundaries for yourself and not allow yourself to become overly involved online. The key to everything with technology is moderation and discipline. If you can keep those in mind you have the tools to stay healthy.

Class issues

    We discussed many different problems during class. Many of which will keep developing. I don't think there will be a fall in Chinese social credit. This system is still being actively used and is one of the Chinese government's most effective tools to control their citizens. 

    The topic of privacy and safety should be alarming to many people. For the most part, a lot of people do not hold themselves accountable for their security online. To be safe the user needs to take responsibility and their own precautions. 

    Online censorship is something that cannot be controlled for the most part but should be kept in mind. If we were to forget that the companies in charge did not have their own agendas we would fall into the trap of believing biased narratives. There are many places where free speech is being restricted heavily. These places are either going to make their governments cave or they will be restrained by the government and regulated even further. 

    The topic of artificial intelligence is quite interesting. It is a scary thought for some people. AI needs to be developed there are so many positive potential uses for this tool. The only real problem happens when we go too far and let AI impact our lives too make and make us as people useless. There is certainly a difference between AI being useful and being a replacement. 

Final Blog Post

     The presence of technology in our society today has had many unforeseen effects. While technology was intended to be a safe place there have been many dangers that have been encountered especially in recent years. There are many groups trying to counteract the dangers we as consumers face when online. The fact of the matter is that the internet is somethng that we are required to use and cannot avoid. Therefore it is our own responsibility to ensure our safety and keep an eye out for the threats that we know are out there.

    This link  is a great resource that lists out various different threats to our online safety. There are many different ways that theft can be done through technology. Methods such as phishing and malware can be used to steal information from users. There are many variations to the tools used to steal information from onlne users.

    These are all different forms of a computer virus called malware. With these different variations you get different situations. Like the image says ransomware blackmails you and almost hold your information ransom. You have to pay to get it back and if you dont you may never get your data back or it may be used in worse ways. Spyware simply steals data for someone elses purposes. 

    Despite many times thinking that a threat online is a stranger there are many times when the threat is a company we give our info to. 

    Despite the massive risk caused by high internet traffic, the internet has clearly shown so many benefits. With communications being a vital part of human life we canot ignore the fact that because of technology we are able to learn and communicate in ways we never thought possible. Along with personal communications, businesses and governments are able to dispense informations with lightning speed. 

    This article has some great explanations of how our data is used.

    The information that compaines collect helps a site or company cater to the needs of their users. It is quite interesting how this is such a double edge sword. The fact that so many companies are privy to our private information means that they are both able to help us specifically, whle also posing the threat of spying and stealing from us. When these companies such as twitter, instagram, google, and other incredibly popular websites and social media platforms have so much access to our information it is important to take our security seriously. It can be a great blessing to be involved with the internet, but if security is disregarded then we can find ourselves being victims of alot of different threats.

    From these examples of both threats and conveniences we can see that there are defenitley alot of benefits as long as we take security seriously. When we put ourselves at risk of things like cyberbulllying, or other unintended consiquences, we need to understand that the internet is such a broad spectrum of people and programs that there is always a threat that we havent thought about. We have to stay vigilant and involved in our own safety and security. We cannot just rely on a company to protect us while we dont pay attention to the situations we put ourselves into. If we can do that then we can stay safe while preventing many new possible threats.

Vertical Integration

     Vertical integration seems like it is a very wise, and effective business strategy. I think it sounds like a logical path for a company to take. I know that it brings up the threat of monopolies, but looking at it from the point of view of a company it would be a very smart move. Now obviously I am not in support of companies forming monopolies, but you have to admit that if you were the owner of a company using suppliers and transporters, you would want to save as much money as possible. The goal of a company is not always to be fair to the competition, the goal is to make the most profit for the people above and below you in your own company. You cannot always take into account the feelings and situations of those outside of your group. I understand that monopolies only do good for the group that is in control, but if you put yourself in the company's shoes you would want to do whatever you can to gain the most control. The basics of vertical integration as well as a very knowledgable definition can be found in this link.

Social Credit System

    The idea of social credit is being used today in different communities across the world. Social credit is a system that is meant to keep tabs on a population. It can currently be seen in China. The way China uses this system is that they have technology survelling its citizens and companies. With this survellance they use the actions done by people to determine their social credit score. When your social credit score drops then you have certain privileges taken away, and restraints set upon you. It can measure from slower internet speeds to less freedom on the internet, to even getting put on no-fly lists. 

    This system when talked about hypothetically sounds like it promotes national well-being and a high moral standard. When you actually apply and use this system you get quite a different result. In most cases we see the government overstep and become far too involved in the personal lives of its citizens. We see the Chinese government use this tool to restrict free thought and individualism. They say that they are promoting good morals for its citizens but they have no right to dictate and control what little freedom the Chinese people already have. We have confirmed mild punishments for the people who lose social credit but what about the people we do not hear about? Would it be too strange to think that the government uses social credit as a way to find threats to their totalitarian regime? Maybe they are using it to find the people they need to silence. With nobody keeping this system in check the people controlling the system are unstoppable from inside China. They can do whatever they want with no repercussions because anybody that speaks up against the abuse they experience will lose their precious social credit and potentially be silenced one way or another by the people in charge of the system. 

    Another example of social credit being used today is in Canada. With the truck protests being shut down, Canada is showing quite a tyrannical side. These protests have been, for the vast majority, peaceful. You would not think of any physical, or financial punishment for a peaceful, non-violent series of protests. However, the Canadian government has been quite aggressive with its handling of the situation. We have seen videos of people getting trampled by horses, and police using unnecessary force on non-violent protestors. Where we see the use of social credit come in is with financial punishments. Canada is in the process of punishing peaceful protestors by freezing and limiting their personal financial accounts. They have been finding the names and faces of the protestors in order to stop them from being able to access their own personal accounts. This is a more publicized version of what China has been doing. They are threatening their citizens with punishments for simply trying to be free thinkers and voice their opinions. This is the use that social credit has ad throughout history. It has been manipulated by corrupt officials in order to silence and locate people who are expressing ideas they do not agree with.

The basics on Chinese social credit

Pros and cons of Chinese social credit

Diffusion Theory: Telegram

     The telegram had many pioneers. The tool was first used by regional telegram companies. They were run through smaller areas and were not connected nationwide. The telegram was still used less than the postal system because they needed to send messages to places used by other telegram companies so they wouldn't be able to use a telegram. When the telegram companies were bought out nationwide by the Western Union Telegram company, it became much more popular. This is where you see the critical mass takes its role. It becomes popularized and gained impact across the nation. We reach the point of maturation around World War One and Two. We see the telegram used by the military and the government because of its convenience and ease. It reaches its saturation point when phone lines became easy to use and install, and by the time computers came around, it was experiencing its long tail phase. Telegram was discontinued as a communication tool and transitioned to a finance company. It went full circle to another completely different industry.

privacy

    This topic seems like a very valid thing to talk about in our day and age. We have so many groups, companies, and people watching us without our knowledge on the daily. I really liked the analogy of a virtual tattoo. It seems like a perfect way, to sum up how the internet is used to keep track of people. Information that is put out there about you never goes away fully. You may be able to delete things but the virtual tattoo is there forever. It is a great reminder that you need to understand how you access the internet and how you permit companies to use your information. 

    

    There is also a great concern of having private images and information leaked or even sold. There have been many cases of private images and information being used for purposes never intended by the makers. Our private information must be secured through our own processes we cannot just trust tech companies themselves.

EOTO New Technology

     The most interesting piece of technology to learn about for me was definitely the pager. I had always known about pagers but I did not know about the mechanics of a pager, nor did I have a reason to. I found it very interesting to learn about one of the most useful forms, of communicating and receiving messages, that has ever been developed. It was very interesting to hear that pagers can be used in dead zones. This makes total sense why they were implemented in hospitals since the situations hospital workers face can be life or death. The concept of in-sync messaging sounds like such a simple thing in our day and age, but being able to accomplish this in 1921 sounds like a major milestone for electronic communication in our world. The lives changed by this form of communication must be significant. The pager had such a valuable use and served that well for years and years.

Antiwar Media

     This article was very interesting to me because I had never seen these websites before. I find it very interesting that antiwar media is being suppressed so efficiently. It makes sense that media against war would not be promoted as well as other types. To think that the government has a vice grip on the information being publicized and promoted in our country, in particular, makes the thought of suppressing information that goes against an agenda seem much more understandable. The process of war always has a purpose behind it. Whether that purpose is justice, freedom, money, or tyranny there is always a purpose. However the government is honestly just a business and sometimes war and conflict are good for business, regardless of the aftermath. Governments are just huge war machines, they are only used to help people when we have good people in political offices. It only benefits people who are benefiting from nepotism when there are unworthy people in office.

 

    This picture is a great example of how anti-war propaganda works. When people want to protest conflict it is very normal for them to shed light on the type of people who make a profit off of these conflicts. They are able to show how drastically different the situations are for different demographics. 

This link has many great examples of other anti-war propaganda posters through out the years.

History of the Telegram

     The telegram cross-country telegram was brought together by the Western Union telegram. The company developed the telegram in April of 1856. The company has officially been converted to a finance company since 2006. The telegram was active for 150 years and saw many phases of history. Telegram Passes into History is a great article by Wired Magazine that talks about the past 150 years of use that the telegram has had, and how it has affected the world.

    The telegram relaced the Pony Express mail system and became a much more effective use of communication. It was proven faster and safer over a long distance. When the Pony Express was actively used there were many robberies and complications due to the rough environments the stagecoaches, trains, and riders were forced to take. The telegram was a drastic step towards modernizing the west. Nobody before had supplied such an easy and effective form of long-distance information.

    When the telegram was first set up it became a great asset for the government. It became used for banking across the nation, military communications, as well as law enforcement. The Western Union telegram was a company that was made up of multiple smaller telegram companies, in order to provide one line of communication through the nation. Western Union used the different companies to cover parts of the country and bought them all out so they were all part of the same company. This made a universal form of communication across the country. 

    In the 1920's and 1930' the telegraph was at its peak popularity. It was the cheapest form of corss country messaging and it was very safe and affective. Long distance telephones were available to the public at this point in time, however it was very expensive. It also did not make the most sense logistically since there were already telegram lines set up across the country so why would you want to pay so much extra when a system that works well is already avaliable. The telegram proves usefull for the military. Since it was developed in 1856 it was avaliable for use in the Civil War. This system of communication made it possible for military intelligence to travel at a lightning pace compared to foot couriers or horse back messangers. The only con was that it was not very difficult for the enemy to sabatoge telegraph lines, and make them inopperable. The lines also did not always extend to places outside of towns. So it was difficult to access these messages sometimes without some use of human messanger. In some cases if people had the proper equipment, they could wire into the poles and send messages without having to go to telegram offices. This was also a way to recieve messages so the information you were sending was not always secure. If you were sending military intelligence it owuld be difficult to ensure that your enemy wasnt able to receive those messages, unless you were sure that no hostiles were nearby. 

    In the end the telegraph died out like everything does. No technology will be eternal, there will always be something newer, better, or more popular. Althought the telegram is no longer being used and is being forgotten by the current generation it will always be a major part of the development of this country, as well as the world.

The Eight Values of Free Expression.

     Free expression is a very important right in our world today. With the politics in place today many people feel their opinions, rights, and feelings are being suppressed. There are many situations in our society that do not support people's rights and liberties. Reading about the eight values of free expression made me understand what our rights and obligations entail in a better way. They are very interesting to me because they are explained so well. 

    In today's society, there is a lot of suppression being forced upon many groups of people from all over the political spectrum. I personally support almost everyone's form of self-expression as long as they are not bringing harm to another person or suppressing another person. We as people do not have the right to tell other people to lock their feelings away if we do not agree with them. The only case this would be allowed is if they are physically harming another person. We cannot justify violence as self-expression but many people want to limit expression in the form of words. This was shown very well in the cases of the Black Lives Matter protests. There were so many cases of peaceful and meaningful protests that kept everyone safe, showed motivated and emotional people wanting to make a difference. The peaceful protests were a great example of personal self-expression. Many people were upset about these protests but they are not able to legally do anything because people have the right to peaceful assembly. 

    The problem with some of these protests was when they took a dangerous turn. Some of the protests turned away from their peaceful intentions and became violent causing destruction of property and physical harm to people. This is a form of expression that cannot be allowed. It is when people try to use violence to spread their ideals and message that they have to be stopped not when they are going about it peacefully.

    The eight values of self-expression are a marketplace of ideas. This means we should be open to hearing other opinions and ideas besides our own. People today should open up to ideas that they do not agree with, it doesn't mean they have to live by these ideas they are just open to letting people live their own lives, not the lives society has deemed appropriate. One of my favorite values is participation in self-government. I really agree with the fact that everyday people need to be actively keeping the government in check. 

    There are many people who do not think of the government as being run by the people. The only way a government is effective and just is when it is held accountable by the people they are supposed to be helping. We see many cases of the government being too controlling or not following the will of the people. The vaccine and mask mandates are signs of abuse of power by the government. The government should not be allowed to make blanket medical decisions for an entire country and that is exactly what they are trying to do. The American people have more influence than they think.

Supreme Court

     I found this article very interesting. I have always known what the job and title of the Supreme Court were, but there were many details that I did not know. One small interesting fact I learned was that the Supreme Court went by the acronym SCOTUS. I had no idea they went by this acronym. It does make sense I was just unaware of them being called this name. The Supreme Court has a website that is very informative about the people involved with the Supreme Ciurt include a list of current justices.

    I know understand the Supreme Courts' role and impact on our country. They are meant to keep the other two branches of government in check. They are the only branch that can stop the agendas of the other two. This is my most important takeaway. I was always confused about how the branches of government were kept in check. It reassures me that the Supreme Court is a major part of the checks and balances system. 

    My most surprising takeaway was that the Supreme Court was almost inactive its first term. This makes sense if you think about it since the country was so young and not very orderly yet. I enjoyed this article because it helped me gain such a deeper understanding of the Supreme Court. I am also able to understand how the Supreme Court has changed over time. I read about many cases where the Supreme Court upheld and stopped unfair, or racist laws from being undone. However, they have done a good job in the case of separating church and state. In Engel v. Vitale, the rules that prayer forced by a public school is a violation of the First Amendment. Many people disagree with the separation of church and state, but I agree with the idea that it makes America more inclusive and free. Nobody should have religion forced upon them against their will. This is a great example of how the Supreme court is used in the United States.

 

Top 5 sources of news and information

     My news sources are very important to me. I very much value the fact that I do not only consume mainstream media. I do not only want to only listen read or watch news that is only reporting one side of a topic and is very politically swayed. I see Instagram as one of those sources where you are able to pick and choose who you absorb information from. while the platform itself can be very biased, you can have an easier time picking who to listen to.

    Youtube is my second pick because of how much I use it. I find myself scrolling through and finding news sections and reading or listening to them. I see youtube as another source similar to Instagram. I am able to pick and choose who I listen to very well. 

    Fox is one of the few mainstream media sources I find myself using. I don't use it often but I do use it occasionally. I would align myself with Foxe's conservative mindset but they can be very harsh in many situations. i do not like news sources that are obviously one-sided, from a political and ideological standpoint. I find myself simply picking and choosing what I want to listen to from this network.

    CNN is very similar to Fox in many ways. CNN is almost a mirrored copy of Fox but from the other side of the sprectrum. They are similar to Fox in that they only report what fits their political narrative. I don't fully trust either source so I hear both and piece the truth together.

    Tiktok is my second most used source of news. I like it because it can be very personalized and between Instagram and TikTok, I am able to verify what I hear. I never fully trust a single news source i always want to hear the other side and look for context that may have been ignored.