Final Blog Post: The Dark Side of Modern Technology and Social Media

Technology has had the biggest impact in my life, as well as the world. While I believe technology has had a greater positive than negative effect in my life I do recognize the negative effect it has and can have on society. For me, technologies such as my phone have helped me communicate with friends and family, especially being a freshman in college. 

The video about the dark side of technology that we watched in class while depicted technology in a overdramatic way made me reflect on my usage of technology and how it affects my relationships with people. The video showcased how the advancement in technology and social media has isolated us as a society. This take made me reflect on my overconsumption of social media and how it has taken a toll on my relationships with people and and the way I communicate. The thing that stuck out most to me in the video was the way the video portrays us as mindless zombies who blindly live life through their phone, which I think highlights the unhealthy obsession we do have with our technology. Theres a point in the video where the main character is jumping up on tables and pulling on peoples clothes, trying everything to get the attention of anyone that budges but every single person is too consumed on their phone. Personally, I don't think I could live without a phone or a laptop. My overconsumption fully relates to my phone being my main source of communication and access, with social media and messaging apps making it easier for me to connect with any one at any time with the click of a couple buttons while apps such a safari and google allow me to obtain and keep track of all my information. 

The convenience of having everything I need in the same place makes it so addicting. In a study about smartphone addiction, it was found that more than half of the students that participated in the study showed some type of smartphone addiction, whether small or severe. When searching up my screen time, I was shocked to see how much time I do spend on my phone, with the average American spending around 4-5 hours a day  I found I averaged around 9/10 hours a day. 

Specifically social media has caused a breakage in our emotional connection with each other. The video does a really good job at depicting this idea, specifically in the part of the video where a huge group of people is laughing and humiliating a girl to the point where she jumps of a building and everyone around her is recording her death and then just go on with their lives as if it never happened. In 2012, a video was posted to YouTube titled "My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm". This video details 15 year old Amanda Todd telling her story about being blackmailed with revenge porn and the mental health struggles she faced due to bullying on and offline by peers, a month later Todd would take her own life. While posting this video in hoping of some sort of support she lacked before ,she was mocked and bullied horrendously in the comments which ultimately led to her taking her own life. Cyberbullying and the negative effects of social media are some of the leading causes of suicide in young adults.  Social sites have allowed for people to say anything anonymously such has mean or rude posts and comments. Many unhealthy habits in young adults such as mental disorders and eating disorders can stem from the content consumed online. There are a few scenes in the video that portray this, one being where a girl is going in and out of a selfie appearing as two different people. I took this scene two ways, the first being the appearance we put online vs. in real life. 

In society, it's so easy to glamorize our lives and people spend hours editing and depicting what social media will see. The second way was how social media has changed the way we perceive ourselves on and offline. Celebrities and Influencers have set a standard of behavior and beauty, that is mentally unachievable. Apps such as FaceTune, FaceApp and Retouch all include beauty filters allowing you to edit and touch up any picture and hide any imperfections. Another scene that reenforces this is where people are bowing down and worshipping a women that we see is surrounded by plastic surgery. With young girls being consistently shown many types of unrealistic body and appearance types it is destroying the authenticity of individuality. 

As we learned in class, the idea of being media literate is being able to analyze and recognize media consumed and determine its accuracy. Preparing and educating early on about how to be media literate not just though things such as news but also social media can combat these unhealthy obsessions and unrealistic standards we see today. Being a young adult who consumes this media daily, I struggle to determine what is real and what is fake all the time. Being media literate in todays world of social media can help society navigate fact from fiction and return it to the fun and engaging platform to share your authenticity. 

 

Age of AI #9

The documentary though very thought provoking, made me very nervous for the future. While AI has such a transformative power that can solve complex problems, the dark-side of this technology is a little frightening. 

AI powered technology can help us advance in our future and reshape the way we live.  One of the biggest things I found when further researching, is the use of AI in the advancement in medical assistant. AI has already helped doctors identify many health risk to early on patients and developed personal treatment plans for them. Another thing AI has been widely used for is developing assistance in new innovations and ideas. The tool of AI provides a greater insight to new ideas and different perspectives . We see the widespread of sites such as ChatGPT, built to motivate thinking and discussion. In education, ChatGPT has been used as a personalization "tutoring system"  that can help students in any subject. Just by typing in simple words "Write me a 300 word paper about the importance of vitamin C" ChatGPT can write you that paper, they can also dissect articles and other pieces of work. The idea of this technology is a true advancement and sounds good on paper, specifically in education, but can lead to laziness and less working opportunities for humans as AI can take over basic jobs and tasks the humans might not preform as perfect as them. 

When I think of the the frightening future of AI, I think of many movies its been portrayed such as I Robot  and Megan, however I think the bigger concerns of privacy and data security top the silly movie portrayals. Like any new technology, data protection and security is a widespread concern for many users. Users essentially have the access to manipulate data within AI software and access personal information that this technology as obtained. Recently at a conference in Las Vegas the AI pictured named Ameca was debuted in front of an audience. Many chilling videos on Tik Tok appeared of Ameca, showcasing her responding to questions about the future of AI. While the AI, presents it has no feelings, many of the questions were answered in a sassy or emotive tone.  AI presenting emotions can lead to a broader range of task that can could lead to the "need of no humans" 

Blog Post #6

 Nowadays media outlets seem to have two fairly different opinions with no in-between. The media focuses directly in on these two ideas leaving out the middle ground and all other ideas. Mainstream media is going to focus on what news and ideas is going to make them the most money and viewership. Mainstream media leans into what their audience knows and loves for example, Fox News is graciously known for being a big news supporter of former president Trump and has been known to censor certain stories around him, CNN is also known for doing similar censorships of media relating to Trump and instances involving him. Censorship is a big part on why alternative media isn't as popular as mainstream media outlets. The focus alternative media has on community and social justice is perceived as too extreme for mainstream media. In recent years alternative media has arose on social media platforms as ideas are independently spread throughout and exposed to more people than news outlets. Anti- war voices have always been seen as Anti American due to Americas strong associations with being a huge military force in the world. This can be traced back to WWl and WWll as propaganda posters were hung up to enforce  and encourage people to enlist. With the formation of NATO and alliances, joining wars have become more prevalent in our society, even if not deemed necessary by the public. However, people are known to condone to government beliefs in fear of being seen as against them, therefore the anti-war movement and its ideas are viewed by most as "wrong". 

EOTO Reaction Post

 Propaganda is when information is misleading or biased to promote a particular side of the government. We've witnessed many signs of propaganda throughout history including political, war, etc. Covid 19 propaganda was promoted in the beginning of the pandemic, propaganda was released pushing people to stay indoors and later in the pandemic we can see it lean more manipulating people to stay indoors.  Abortion propaganda can appear misleading as it's a very controversial topic.  Trump propaganda can be seen both ways. In anti-trump propaganda we can see trump with  the clown nose essentially calling him a joke. Propaganda is always one sided and attempting to manipulate people into believing that one side.Propagandas effect on society is that it can spread opinions really quickly that are not based on facts but on opinions. They create debate and disagreement. They targets our emotions to make us feel some type of way.

Alternative Media. can be seen  all around us. It's identified as non mainstream source of information that offerers everything outside mainstream concepts and ideas.

Alternative media focuses on community empowerment and social justice. The independence of alternative media allows neglected ideas in mainstream media to be highlighted. Things such as podcast, social media app, graffiti are also considered alternative media. It gives less powerful people a voice and strength our nation. The ALS challenge is a huge example of this and the impact of it spreading raised 240 million for the ALS foundation. 

Influencers are typically found on social media platforms and create content aimed to impact people worldwide and create communities for all activities. They often "influence" their  followers to use product they use hence gaining the name influencers however they often influence ideas as well due to being  perceived as trustworthy and personable.Influencers produce engaging material that allow brands to reach all over the world innovativly and creativity through trends. Overall the commercialization of products and  ethical concerns that could lead to loopholes in product review causes a debate on how well we can view the judgement of influencers. Also the deeming fact that nowadays "anyone can be an influencer" has causes a reliance on social media platforms however has strengthened of connection with people all of the world . 

EOTO Terms and Concepts: Agenda Setting

Agenda Setting is a mass communication theory that asserts news media and outlets influence the public regarding issues deemed important. In a study found during the 1968 presidential election Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw concluded that media coverage held a strong factor in the opinions of the voters in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They also had similar findings in media coverage of the OJ Simpson trail and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. 

There are two levels to Agenda Setting presented in the media.

The first level is the idea of how different media outlets use content to influence their audiences. Certain news establishments shape how people view current issues. For example, if a person receives news from more liberal media outlets such as CNN it can potentially influence what issues they receive compared to someone who receives the news from more conservative news outlets such as Fox News or unbiased news sites such as NPR. 

The second level of this theory involves the study of how the media presents issues. This analyzes the ways in which various media outlets such as CNN or Fox communicate the stories they share. An example of this is pulling up an article surrounding the issue of overturning Roe v. Wade. A more liberal channel would focus on the negative impacts regarding the effects of overturning Roe v Wade however, a more conservative outlet might focus on the positive idea of regarding returning more rights to the states with both sides tuning the other out. This allows for outlets to appeal to their audience more instead of focusing on delivering unbiased information. It creates a one-sided idea of heavily debated political issues. 

Within agenda setting there are different variations or types. These include Public, Media and Policy. 

Public agenda setting is the instance of the public determining the influence of a particular story. In society today, we can heavily see this on Tik Tok as the Israel/Palestine conflict continues to arise. Creators who have no influence in politics can be seen being speaking and debating on the topic, some even being pressured by people online to discuss their opinion on the topic. Platforms like this has become a growing battlefield for large issues to be widely spread quickly, even topics or events that large news outlets could potentially censor. 

Media agenda setting is the idea that the media determines the importance of stories. Over the past couple of years we've seen news outlets from both parties censor stories that they believe to not align with the agenda they set for their viewers.In this NBC article discussing Fox News during the January 6th riots  and the agenda set versus the agenda believed. While post hosts were over discussing Trump and the "Stop the Steal" narrative, they continued to amplify it up to the riots. While behind the scenes bashing Trump, they were on air singing him praises due to knowing the precedent they've built for their audience of the type of news they cover.  

Policy Agenda setting is when the public and the media influence the agenda of the policy makers. While not a set of political demands, they decision to include the agenda of the majority can make or break a politician's campaign.  While the policy will most likely interact with the what the candidate or policy makers believe, the level of importance raises depending of the agenda of the public and medias influence. 

Diffusion of Innovations

 When reading the theory of Diffusion of Innovations ,which is the idea that reflects on the pattern and speed at which innovations spread, I thought about the Vision Pro software that was recently released by Apple.

On February 2nd, 2024 consumers were able to snag the new Vision Pro goggles which they have classified as their first 3D camera.  This headset combines your digital content and apps you see on your phone and allows you to control it from any physical space through the movement of your eyes, hands and voice. 

Apple has been patiently working on this project for around 16 years and this long awaited technology took quite a while to develop due to most of the technology needing to invent itself. With the rise of VR and wireless thinking, Apple wanted to expand on it, in a way no one else would ever imagine. Over the last decade apple has been growing their fanbase with their groundbreaking technology. With over 2 billion users  apple has commanded and perfected the technology industry. Therefore it's no surprise many people were intrigued by this new concept. The Wall Street journal reported that Apple sold around 160,000 to 180,000 units within the first day with early adapters jumping to get their hands on the newest technology advancement. 

While the concept of the vision pro is quite spectacular, many late or non-adaptors might find this item impractical and too expensive. Currently a singular vision pro will run you $3500 and while this advance technology is cool many can feel it's just not worth your money. The idea of being able to 3D anything and everything at anytime however, many could argue your phone can perform the same concept minus the 3D. In the future, if Apple figures out to cross connect these devices I could see how late adaptors might find this more appealing. However, I think this might be a skip for most folk. 

Personally, while I believe this a cool advancement in technology I don't think it has any value being included in day to day yet. With most of the technology, being a gentrified combination of an iPhone and a Mac I can see why most people are aren't scrummaging to get their hands on this. 

Reacts of EMTO Projects

Over the course of presentations three really stood out to me. All three of these topics I'm very familiar with however I barley knew the history behind them. It was very interesting 

Video games: Tennis for two was the first video game released in 1958 and it was made by William Higinbotham , an American physicist.  Magnavox odyssey became the first commercial at home game console in 1972. In 1983 the Atari 2800  was released and popularized arcade games. The Japanese company Nintendo Entertainment System launched in 1985 quickly becoming the highest grossing video game console of its time. However in 1995 Sony rivaled Nintendo with their console  PlayStation and outsold them creating the infamous "Console Wars".  In 2001 Microsoft  decided to rival both companies and create the Xbox.Since then these  three companies have been battling for top dog in industry. The video game industry is  larger than Hollywood, video games produce around 400 m a year while Hollywood grosses around 50 m a year.  Video games have opened up a new type of technology to the world however they have also participated in mental and physical health problems. 

Online Shopping/ Amazon: In 1994 Jeff Bezos came up with the idea for amazon in his garage.  He published the site in 1995 and the company started out as a network for people to purchase books cheaper and faster.  Amazon became barnes and nobles main competitor in 2 months of business. They added cd's and dvd's in 1998 to expand purchasing as the company was growing. In 2005 amazon prime was released and this process guaranteed two-day free shipping fee of $79 a year across 48 states. Amazon received double the customers due to prime. In 2020 the pandemic helped grow the company 38%. Amazon  caused a lot of companies to go out of business due to their wide variety of items and their fast shipping. 

Smartphones: Apple smartphone was the first of its kinda launching on June 28th, 2007. It featured the same functions as computer, gps, telephone and iPod  combined into one mobile device. The T-moblie G1 was the first android and was released in October 22, 2008.Apple v Samsung is the rivalry between the iPhone and the most popular Android.  Samsung took the top spot many times and is apples biggest competitor when it comes to sales. The release of smartphones has increased popularity of social media and message apps. They have also allowed easier access to anyone in the world. Unless someone doesn't have a smartphone, they are easily accessible to anyone allowing the world to be more connected.