Blog #12 - Final Post

 Our Relationship With Technology

    Technology is an ever-present force in our lives, shaping how we connect, learn, and grow. It’s impossible to ignore its transformative impact on society both good and bad. While I marvel at its potential to educate, inspire, and unite, I also recognize its darker side, the unintended consequences that affect us as individuals and as a society.

    Technology is one of the most polarizing things in the modern times, if not the most. Looking at it from the lens of everything, but the internet. Life for me has been impacted more than most due to the help of technology. In 2023, I had a very scary moment where I had to have an emergency surgery while I was overseas that left me hospitalized for weeks and needing to re-learn a lot of things that had been natural to me. I had experienced an infection in my lung that had caused me to nearly lose my life, and without modern science and technological tools I surely would have. This can be taken into the broader perspective of the world that we live in as well. I like to think of the new technology in ambulances and how with the research and advancements in other fields we are closer and closer to having ambulances be portable ER rooms. 

     With some of these advancements, there come negatives as well. With the increase of technological intelligence, it allows people to use more and more energy and electricity which is good on one hand and bad on the other. It allows us as a society to have a much simpler ease of life from things like your GPS in your car, to the camera in your phone. However, the amount of fuel that it takes to make this happen is ruining our planet and we may just run out of that fuel sooner than we think.

    When I consider my relationship with the internet though, things become seen in a different perspective. I’m torn between admiration and apprehension. On one hand, my smartphone acts as an extension of myself, connecting me to a world of information, entertainment, and relationships. I can access the world news, find out information about sports, learn a new skill, or video call a loved one across the globe over in Europe. Yet, there are times when I feel like technology consumes me more than I consume it. Hours slip away mindlessly scrolling through social media, leaving me to wonder if I’m in control of my habits or if they’re controlling me. 

This isn’t just my struggle. In my social circle, technology is both a bridge and a barrier. While it keeps us connected, it often replaces genuine interaction with surface-level communication. We’ve all been guilty of texting instead of calling or staring at our phones during meals. The irony is palpable: we use technology to stay in touch, yet we can feel more isolated than ever.

From a societal perspective, the stakes are even higher. Youth suicide rates in the U.S. have risen, correlating with the rise of social media use. According to a report from PBS NewsHour, the constant comparison and cyberbullying prevalent on these platforms contribute to declining mental health among teens. As a society, we need to address these issues by fostering healthy digital habits and prioritizing mental health.

Another concern is the vast amount of data we leave behind. My online footprint reflects my identity, but not always the version I want to present. A quick Google search can reveal more than I’m comfortable with — old photos, outdated opinions, and traces of my digital life I’d rather forget. This makes me think: should we all perform a digital audit to curate how we’re perceived?

Still, it’s not all bad. Technology gives a voice to the voiceless. For instance, Khaby Lame, a tiktoker who was able to spread his humor after being laid off as a factory worker and became the most followed person on the whole app. 

It allows people to share stories, advocate for change, and organize movements. The Internet democratizes information, offering opportunities to learn and grow that were once inaccessible. Innovations like telemedicine and online education have transformed healthcare and learning, making them more equitable.

Ultimately, our relationship with technology is what we make of it. We must strike a balance by using it to enhance our lives without letting it dominate them. As individuals, this means being mindful of how and why we engage with technology. As a society, it requires acknowledging unintended consequences and addressing them head-on. Technology holds immense power, but how we wield it determines whether it’s our savior or our downfall. Our society will only progress into a world of more technology, meaning there's no telling where we will be in a year, five years, ten years, and beyond. Technology is inevitable, so it's us to learn how we can make our future bright in a world of endless possibilities.

Blog #8 - Diffusion

 Social Media & The Diffusion Theory

    I think when talking about Everett Rodger's, Diffusion Theory, social media should be the main thing referenced in today's world. We're already looking back in the years of our own century and realizing how insane the growth has been and how much it has and will change the world that we live in. I think that from it's conception, it would be clear that social media would be life changing and people would be using it all around the world. This comes about because of so many different reasons.

    I think that there are definitely many negatives that come along with social media. There will always be people that will take all things positive and turn them into negative things. That is life. However, I feel as though staying off of social media leaves people more disconnected from reality. For someone like myself, social media is my life. By that, I mean that I am going into media production and in my life connections are the biggest thing that will get me to where I want to be in life. I am a firm believer that in most jobs the connection that gets you there is the biggest part of it. 

    So many people I know have applied to hundreds of jobs on LinkedIn just to get nothing in return, and I think that's why social media plays such a big part. On applications they even ask if you have any people that recommended you the spot. Even outside of jobs, just having a space to talk about interests, learn from others, have somewhere to connect with people across the world. Social media may have a part in breaking up our world, but in the bigger picture it connects the whole world together. I think that unless someone has basically the exact life they could ask for, there's really no benefits of staying off of social media.

 

Blog #10 EOTO2 Post

 Media Consolidation: Implications and Effects on Society

What is Media Consolidation?

Media consolidation refers to the process where a few large corporations acquire smaller media outlets, concentrating media control in the hands of a limited number of companies. This includes television, radio, newspapers, and digital platforms. Recently, consolidation has accelerated, with powerful media companies like Disney, Comcast, and AT&T owning a significant portion of the landscape we know.

Implications of Media Consolidation

While media consolidation may inherently seem bad, there is a positive side, it allows companies to achieve economies of scale, invest in higher-quality content, and reach larger audiences. These increased budgets and audiences allow for not only the technology used to get better, but it also allows for the smaller companies to be able to have better "above the line" workers. This allows consolidated companies to put more money into their investigative journalism, rather than all the top talent be spread out too much. 

However, consolidation comes with significant drawbacks. One of the biggest issues is the decreasing number of different opinions in media. As you can see in the image, companies dominate the media, they control much of the public narrative, limiting the variety of perspectives available to audiences. This is particularly harmful in democratic societies where a free press is vital for holding power accountable. Consolidation can also lead to homogenized content, silencing minority voices and smaller, local media outlets.

Positive and Negative Aspects of Media Consolidation

On the positive side, large media corporations have greater resources, allowing them to deliver comprehensive coverage during crises or disasters. They can invest in innovations that benefit the public and provide more polished content.

The negatives, however, are substantial. Consolidation often leads to bias in reporting when media outlets serve the interests of their corporate owners. Smaller outlets may be driven out of business, creating "news deserts" in communities that lose access to local reporting. This can especially hurt smaller towns and rural areas that rely on community-based information.

Effects on Society

The societal effects of media consolidation are profound, particularly in shaping public opinion and cultural narratives. A consolidated media landscape tends to prioritize stories aligned with corporate interests, potentially ignoring critical issues. Stanford University even writes that if a conglomerate is invested in certain industries, it may downplay environmental or ethical concerns related to those sectors.

This lack of diversity in viewpoints can contribute to polarization. When media content reinforces specific narratives or ideologies, it creates echo chambers where people are exposed only to opinions they already agree with. Additionally, a profit-driven model in media often prioritizes sensationalism over investigative reporting, undermining the role of the press in democratic society. 

Differential Impact on Society Segments

Media consolidation affects different groups in varied ways. Wealthier individuals may have access to premium content, while lower-income groups rely on free or ad-supported media dominated by conglomerates. This can create disparities in the quality and type of information people consume.

Since younger generations usually sway towards getting their information from social media they tend to have much narrower views on politics and the world, while older generations may still rely on traditional media outlets, which are increasingly controlled by a few corporations, limiting the diversity of perspectives they receive. Additionally, gender, sexual orientation, and racial identity play a role in how media consolidation impacts individuals. This leaves a lot of the minority groups who are underrepresented in the large media conglomerates to have to cling to opinions that may not be of their best interest.

Impact on You, Your Family, and Your Generation

For individuals and families, media consolidation shapes worldviews and access to information. With fewer independent sources, people may have to seek alternative outlets to get a fuller understanding of issues. This touches back to the fact that poorer people or people in more rural areas are somewhat forced into a narrow view on media because they don't have the access to as much information.

Younger generations, in particular, face a media environment that is nurtured to their shortening attention spans and narrowing worldviews. This deadly duo can decrease their exposure to meaningful, diverse perspectives. As someone who gets their news from social media and word of mouth, this has made me realize I need to take a step away from social media news and actually start reading information rather than it being fed to me.

In one's personal life, media consolidation can limit access to local news. For instance, when local outlets are bought by large corporations, the focus often shifts to national or sensational stories, leaving communities with less relevant information on issues that directly impact them. Especially since the news nowadays is somewhat of a negativity leech. 

What I mean by that, is that the news prays on bad news. Especially political news outlets. If you look at any news outlet it's mostly information, but the information that you get from it is typically super negative. I stopped watching the news on TV because of multiple reasons, but one of the main reasons was because every time I turned it on it was someone dying, or war, or a politician or entertainer doing something wrong. You don't hear about much good anymore, and the media companies are doing this on purpose because they then go into their opinions and drive the information they give you into your head. 

 Privacy.

Online privacy is a pressing matter in today's world, and a matter that is more important than a lot of people will give it credit for. Unfortunately, our privacy today can be accessed much easier than it should be, whether that be by hackers, by companies, by our government, or by general information that's online whether told by you or not. It's something that 80% of people are concerned about, and almost 70% are saying they're more concerned than ever. It is something that will affect every person.

    

    In my life, it is something that does not affect me too much for the time being, however, with the professional path I am planning on taking it will be part of my everyday life. I have actually already been hacked before. My instagram account was hacked in 2022, which didn't bother me too much cause I have nothing online to hide, but could be detrimental later on. I plan on going into entertainment and more specifically the movie industry. It's a cutthroat industry that holds privacy to a level of privilege. With your face in the public eye, there is nothing that can be hidden. Especially with the level of growth that we've seen in social media and political correctness, there are people getting canceled left and right for old posts. Which is why people like Juan Enriquez emphasized

your online life is as permanent as a tattoo. 

Being born in the age of the internet means that I have been online for more than half of my life. I have spent my childhood learning and adapting to the internet along with my peers. It's something that we couldn't conceptualize would be the corner stone to the rest of our lives. Children being allowed on social media without realizing how many bad people are truly out there and just trying to find out information about anyone. 

As soon as you get online you will be subject to protecting your own privacy, which a lot of people do not think should be the case. In some cases, people think that the government should be protecting the children from social media at too young of an age. 

I would be someone who would agree with that because there are current restrictions that are for under 13 years old, but I still think that that may be too young. I think the children that are around that age right now are still not as understanding of how much power the internet holds. 

While many wish that the government would take the steps in protecting us, others validly argue about their liberties. While we live in this standstill we can still do things to protect ourselves including limiting data sharing, using encryption tools, and staying informed about what new technologies could be used against us, not only by hackers, but by our own governments and the apps we use.

Eight Values of Free Expression

 Eight Values of Free Expression

1. Individual Self Fulfillment

The search for one's identity is crucial in the world we live in today. All the time people hear the word "sheep" or "drone", referring to people that hear what other's have to say and don't take the time to form their own opinion. This is how we have become so divided as a nation because the general public flows into "Option A" or "Option B" without truly figuring out their own stance on ALL of the facts. Unfortunately, people seem to be perfectly fine with living that way of life. It is our right as human-beings and Americans to be able to form out own opinions and not just sit back and agree with the first thing that we hear.

2. Participation of Self Government

If I understand this point correctly, I feel as though it is vital that people can understand and easily access candidates policies. People, especially in this upcoming election, are talking about voting for the person over the policies. In a certain regard, that can be a good thing. However, when one of the candidates has not put up any policies and is working off of a "trust me" policy, this is detrimental to the public well-being. 

3. Promote Innovation

The ability to create a safe space for speech and creativity is what made America what it is today. We were forged as a nation to respect and understand every individual's creative endeavors to ensure that everyone can be who they are freely.  America is a country full of every walk of life and we will never be able to fully appreciate that unless we give people the safety to speak their mind.

Blog #7 - EOTO Technology

 The First Ever Email

A lot of people gave presentations, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the first-ever email was

sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. Tomlinson, an engineer and computer scientist, worked at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN), a company contracted by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop ARPANET, a precursor to the modern internet. Tomlinson’s breakthrough came as part of his involvement in this early networking project, which was designed to allow multiple computers to share information over long distances. He would be and continues to be recognized as the father of the email.

In a world where communication had been done over giant computers with heavy limitations on what you could actually do, until Tomlinson's discoveries. Before Tomlinson's innovation, users could only send messages on the same computer, so the challenge was connecting users from different computers with ARPANET. At that time, Tomlinson was working on two separate programs, called CYPNET, which enabled file transfers between computers, and SNDMSG. He thought to combine the two after realizing this could make the messages transferable just as files. He modified the SNDMSG program to send messages from one computer to another using ARPANET. This is where the well-known @ symbol which separated the user from the device and came about since his system required a way to identify a specific user and/or computer combination.  This simple but effective solution allowed messages to be routed to the correct recipient on a different machine.

According to Tomlinson, it was a string of random characters, such as “QWERTY” or something similar, sent between two machines sitting next to each other. This would be the first ever email and although a bit dull it would mark the birth of a new form of communication that would revolutionize how people interact globally. 

Although people weren't too keen on his innovation at the time, it would be a game changer for all of history. The newfound ability to be able to communicate with people live, all while from the comfort of your own computers. He may not have realized what the long-term impact of his invention would be at the time, but his contribution would become one of the most important milestones in the development of the internet.

Supreme Court

 The Supreme Court

    In my recent extension of knowledge of the Supreme Court's abilities and history, I was tasked with watching this video and following it up with it's second part. This in depth, yet casual video allowed insight to the world of few, which is the supreme court justices. Coming from a school that had a very big standing in American history, I felt like I had a very solid understanding of the US Supreme Court system. However, those videos have definitely changed a few perspectives that I had in the past in regard to the highest level of court in the country. 

Supreme Court Individuality

    Something that was just taught to me that I could have definitely made the conclusion of in the past is that every single time a new supreme court justice gets appointed they take a new picture with everyone in it. A huge thing that I learned is that every single appeal gets treated with the same amount of weight and seriousness. Whether it be from Donald Trump, okay maybe NOT him, but under the guidelines, everyone is said to be treated equal. That means anyone from CEOs to people making their appeal while they sit in jail for life. Another thing that I learned from the video that, I think, is the most important take away is that everyone in the Supreme Court, at least back when they made that video, walks into a meeting with not only something to say, but everyone gets off only a single thing until everyone has gotten off their something. Justice Clarence Thomas was cited as saying, "Everyone gets to say something once before any one gets to speak twice" during the video which I thought was a very respectable way of going about things, however I feel like that's not the case anymore.

Newest Supreme Court Justice 
Ketanji Brown Jackson

Surprising Perspective Change

One very surprising thing that I had come to find out is that the active Supreme Court Justices usually speak of a three to five month rule. This basically means that for the new justices it will feel like at least three to five months before they come full circle, and they realize that this is their job and can start performing it the right way. This made me really change the way I thought about the Supreme Court because it made me realize that they really do work together as a team. The way that they would talk about each other was really standing out to me because I felt as though there should me a divide between them because of the discrepancy in the political parties. This gave me a new found respect for the Supreme Court Justices.

Blog #6 - The Story & Impact of Facebook

 FaceBook

    Facebook, now Meta, was invented by Mark Zuckerberg, along with his college roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, while they were students at Harvard University. The social media platform was created in February 2004 in Zuckerberg’s dorm room. Initially, it was called "The Facebook" and was intended to be an exclusive online social network for Harvard students. It quickly expanded to other Ivy League universities and eventually opened to anyone with a valid email address.

Mark Zuckerburg

Eduardo Saverin

Dustin Moskovitz

Andrew McCollum

Chris Hughes

    As previously stated, the goal of "The Facebook" was initially to connect college student in an easier and more efficient way than email. At the time, there was no central social platform where college students could interact in real time, so Facebook was seen as the true benchmark of social networking. Facebook was designed to solve the problem of social isolation and disconnectedness by offering an organized, virtual space where users could communicate, share interests, and build a personal online presence. As we all know, Facebook ended up expanding much further past what it was originally. As more of a haven for the Ivy League students, it now allows families and friends from all across the world to be able to communicate with over 3 billion users.

Problems Facebook Saw and Solved

• Connection and Networking: Facebook solved the issue of physical distance by allowing people to maintain connections with friends, family, and colleagues no matter where they were in the world.
• Social Sharing: It made it easier for people to share personal updates, photos, videos, and interests, facilitating more meaningful virtual relationships.
• Business Promotion: For companies around the world, Facebook became a powerful marketing tool, allowing businesses to reach their target audiences with ads, build brand communities, and interact with customers directly.

Impacts on Communication

• Real-Time Communication: Facebook changed communication by introducing instant messaging features, such as Facebook Chat (later evolved into Messenger), which made it easy for people to communicate in real time.
• Public and Private Spaces: It blended public broadcasting (posts, status updates) with private communication (messages, groups) in a single platform.
• Social Media Culture: Facebook introduced the concept of the "News Feed," which fostered a constant stream of updates from friends and pages, significantly changing how people consume and react to information.

Issues of Note

• Privacy Concerns: Facebook has faced criticism for mishandling user data and privacy. Issues like the Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed how data could be exploited for political or commercial gain.

Mark Zuckerburg Standing Trial

• Mental Health Impact: Studies have linked extensive use of Facebook to negative impacts on mental health, including feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, and depression due to social comparison.
• Misinformation and Polarization: The platform has been accused of enabling the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, contributing to political polarization and social unrest.
• Addiction and Time Drain: The addictive nature of Facebook has also been criticized, with users often spending excessive amounts of time on the platform, sometimes to the detriment of face-to-face relationships and productivity.

While Facebook has connected billions of people and transformed digital communication, it has also introduced significant challenges related to privacy, mental health, and social dynamics. This has left people around the world, including myself, in a difficult and somewhat hypocritical situation: struggling to justify our everyday use of social media while knowing the mental health and community issues it causes.

My Five Sources of News and Information

TikTok

I use TikTok much more than any other social media app on my phone, so most of the news that I find out about comes from it. I mostly keep up with sports news, but world news tends to find a way onto my For You Page from time to time. I tend to try to remove myself from American news sources because they tend to have skewed and bias views in order to gain revenue and viewership. That led me to Dylan Page, an Australian TikToker who has gained fame through charismatic and truthful reporting. He keeps his opinions out of stories and tells everything how it is. 

X

I have only recently started using X, formerly known as Twitter, in recent months. However, in my time using it I have found that the notifications that it sends to my phone have been very informative. Instead of going and trying to find information about what's going on in the world, it just pops up. I still don't go on X a whole lot because of the keyboard warriors, but it is nice to get that information then find more details out on my own. This leads me into my next three.

ChatGPT

As the world has been introduced to ChatGPT, and it has responded by taking over a lot of parts of life. For me, that has meant that I don't use Google as much as I used to. Google is flooded with opinions and hundreds of thousands of articles that all say different things about the same topic. Similar to why I watch Dylan Page videos, I want to form my own opinion and not hear what people have to say if I'm being honest. I want the facts and not have someone trying to sway my opinion while telling me the info. I'd like to think of myself as a people person, who can also fairly quickly get sick of people. I really only talk about politics with my best friends because I politics as a whole bother me, and all it does is lead to arguing for most people. I have lived a much more peaceful life that way.

Word of Mouth

With all that's been said, I clearly do not keep up with the news very much. So, a lot of news I will get from people asking me if I've heard about this or that. Most of the time that will go one way or another. The first way is someone asks me if I've heard of something going on, then they usually know more about it than I do, and I listen to what they have to say. The other option is if I saw something on X or TikTok then I'll ask them if they heard about it, and just like before, they probably know more about it than me, and I just listen to what they say. 

YouTube

YouTube has always been a decent size part of my life. I've been watching different channels on YouTube for over a decade now, so it would be impossible for it to not be a part of my "Top 5". Full length, and YouTube reels both add so much knowledge into my personal database. Most of the time, I just stick with my suggested videos which are a whole combination of different topics and themes. Whether I want to learn about the newest headline in the news or find out how to make birria tacos, I can rely on YouTube to grant me that knowledge.