Final Post Launch

Relationship with Technology

My relationship with technology has always been a positive experience. From a young age, I always found myself technologically savvy and able to understand the foundation of this new creation. Technology is a massive piece of my life, in that it is where I am able to connect with my peers, complete my school work assignment, and keep up with the current news. Although this new innovation has brought me a plethora of advantages of being fully connected to the world at all times, there have been pitfalls that I have experienced. One of them is that I cannot go for more than 30 minutes to an hour, without it. Technology has fully absorbed my undivided attention during my teen, to adult years, and I only see it getting far worse as time goes on. In addition, my nighttime routine consists of at least a large of technology, and blue light. I have created a consistent habit of spending almost half an hour on social media platforms on my device, which have to lead me to sleep deprivation and not performing well my next day at school. The world that we live in today is heavily operated by technology, and if you are not that is not following the trend that everybody is following, then will be left behind. This is the life that we all live today, and we must accept, and adapt to the technological change. 

The media plays a huge role in my life, especially with social media. Different media that is presented to me, informs me of what is going on in various parts of the world. It allows me to keep up with the public awareness, and public opinion. I enjoy the bits and pieces that the media provides me with, such as the giving me the opportunity to keep in touch with reality, and at any given moment, whether its facebook, Instagra, Snapchat, or Twitter, ill be able to find out the most recent news that has been released. It has fully eliminated traditional news, by having news that is mainly media based, that offers the same, if not more, information on what is going on in the world right now

The Digital Footprint 

The digital footprint,anything you share or do online, from visiting a website to interacting on social media, contributes to your own digital footprint. Everything you post, like, comment, and even repost, all gets traced, and put into a data vault. I find myself guilt with this, I always take the action of sharing content, or others influencers content, knowing the harm that is being done, creating my digital footprint. It is inevitable if you think about it, almost all functions that are done on social media that allows you interact with others will be tracked. 

On a more important note, it is important to monitor what you put out on the media, because it could always get traced back to you. Unlike traditional media, non-traditional media can capture what you put out there, forever. Anything you do in life, whether applying to college, applying for that internship, or even pursuing a full-time job post grad, that digital footprint can either harm you, or help you. I have always kept my online reputation spotless, knowing the repurcussions that could follow when you decide not to. Whever I have the free time to google myself, I never find any shocking content, it is mainly my LinkedIn resume and my football highlight reel, this paints the image that I have a well-kept online footprint Thankfully, in my time within this course, I have learned how important it is to keep a clean and professional digital footprint, becoming aware that the digital footprint can always be traced back to you, and bite you later in your life at any given moment. 

Wonders of Technology/Dark Side Videos

I truly found the videos of the Wonders of Technolgy and the Dark Side Videos very informative and educational. The one that I found myself resonating with the most, and was most accurate was the video on the dark side. Where I feel the relateabillity lies is the fact that everyone is absorbed in their own cellular devices, instead of taking in the gift of life. The sad part is that people are missing out on the joy and perks of life, but instead, we tend to be too involved within our technology leading to form these comparisons to other individuals that look all beautiful on our Instagram feed, that make us feel inferior. Throughout the video their is a scene, where the girl goes in front of the camera and looks beautiful, but then pulls out the view of the phone and clearly looks depressed. This has lead to many people committing suicide, and forming mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, in that social media and technology can promote negative experiences such as: Inadequacy about your life or appearance. As humans of the modern technology world, we are locked into our phones and are unaware of the real life that is infront of us. A very harsh reality. 

Artifical Intelligence and Online Privacy 

In regard to the A.I. documentary we were exposed to, along with online privacy videos, I was introduced to a lot more information than I thought I did. Artifical intelligence is advantageous factor in our lives, but yet is a disvantageous factor in other ways. It benefits us in that it presents us with faster-made decisions, along with actions that are far faster than human, while providing us with "human tasks, like language learning and customer service. On the downside, it puts us at risk for losing our jobs. Why pay employers to do a task, when a quick and adaptive machine or computer do it? This transformation is slowly becoming as smart, or if not smarter than human intelligence. As it frees up the human workforce to do work that they are better equipped for. 

The privacy video was another piece of information that I was not aware of. We have no idea how much of our own personal data that we think is safe, but isn't. Whether its the emails that we send on the daily to our boss, our resume that we put on our Linkedin, and or the messages we send to our friends and family, it is someone else's hands. Their are preventative measures that must be take by the user, and or the government to prevent our own personal private data from being leaked. This idea fereightens me in that their is an immense amount of information about myself that I do not want out in the open. Everyday, we must be careful with how we display, and or send or information.

Friends and Family

On a more personal note, my friends and family are very tied into the technological world. My parents both work corporate jobs from home, that presents them the opportunity to dedicate an immense amount fo time online. Growing up, the were exposed to traditional media like the journalists, and the newspaper; but now that you can obtain your news through the click of a button with your iPhone, mac, or your iPad, it has made it always too accessible. In addition to that, my parents have Zoom and Webex meetings daily, so their life is fully absorbed in the online world. 

The communication that is done with my friends, and my family is overall very connected, and positive. I enjoy the idea of being able to always be in contact with my peers and my core family at any given moment, especially at school. On the other hand, it has limited my privacy and my alone time. I constantly find my friends and family always knowing what I am doing, on any part of the day. It is too easy to track what people do these days, even with your family. Although technology has made my relationship with my friends and my family stronger than it is ever was, it has lead to a life to no privacy, and an open lens into my own personal life.

EOTO Pt. 2, Reaction, Net Neutrality

    My second reaction to an EOTO that I found intriguing, and that I wanted to dedicate my reactive post to was Net Neutrality. Net neutrality in a sense is an Internet Service Provider must provide access to all sites, content, and application at the same speed that are under the same conditions without blocking or giving preference to any content. This EOTO was important to learn about considering it is the core principle that Internet service providers must treat all Internet communications equally. After learning about the Net Neutrality information, the main argument that has been formed in regard to it is that net neutrality regulations are deemed unnecessary because the internet developed amazingly well in their absence. In the presence of Net Neutrality, burdensome and overreaching regulations to govern the internet. 

    In relation to how net neutrality is vital in the business and educational field. It is important in the field of education because it ensures an online environment that is better suited for innovation, competition, and economic growth, there are troublesome implications for students and teachers in our country -- from preschool all the way through to higher education. Net Neutrality is one of the most important aspects of technology in education especially because it levels the playing field of opportunity for students. Moving more toward the way that Net Neutrality has been effective in that they are able to ensure that businesses are able to compete freely on the internet without having to pay gatekeeper rolls. Without Net Neutrality being present in business, consumers would look more like advertising segmented than an open marketplace. In addition, Net Neutrality ensures that you, not from a corporate monopoly standpoint, but from a user standpoint it allows the user to choose how you can access and use the internet in a protective matter.

    All in all, Net Neutrality was my favorite EOTO PT. 2 presentation from class, in the fact that I was able to learn an abundance of information about its importance in the school system, along with the business field. The importance of Net Neutrality is huge and allows the internet that we use every day to day open, and free. The presenter also did an excellent job of presenting and explaining the information to the audience, along with providing compelling images that relate to the importance that Net Neutrality has had in the world.

EOTO Reaction Pt.1, Facebook

    After being presented multiple presentations in class last week, one presentation that stood out to me the most out of all of them was, facebook. This reaction may be biased considering I was in the same group as him, but the information that was present about the company was very informative and intriguing. The pieces that stood out to me the most were the fact that "thefacebook.com", which was the original name for the website, contained over 250,000 students at 34 different universities that came together and had an online community of over 1 million users at the end of 2004. Watching how the platform had exponential growth within only a single year baffles me. It is incredible to view how a singular platform held that much potential in 365 days.

    In addition to the profound history that Facebook platformed for itself, there is a multitude of impacts that the company has given to all of us. One of the being that is it is free to access and use, that has implemented a News Feed and status board the second that you open the application. Along with that, the platform has provided its users with the vital opportunity to connect and connect with any of their peers at any given moment. One can like, comment, and share their own content or other content that is displayed on their feed. Facebook enables global economic activity by helping to unlock new opportunities by connecting people and businesses, lowering its barriers to marketing, and stimulating growth and innovation.

    The presenter for this topic of the presentation was, Tommy Canby. His ability to deliver a mass amount of information about Facebook, starting with the history of the platform and then moving toward its impact was impressive. He did a phenomenal job with presenting the immense amount of information and conveying to the audience the importance that Facebook has, and will have, in the world. 

    

EOTO Pt. 2, Terms & Concepts

    For my EOTO Pt. 2, I was responsible for researching and presenting to the class information on machine learning and artificial intelligence. A.I. and machine learning have led to computers being able to perform tasks and think like a human. Machine learning is the platform for how a computer system gains its knowledge.

    Beyond the simple definition of machine learning, there is a multitude of gains that are resulted from this type of technology. The implications of machine learning are that it is beginning to transform all segments including healthcare services, education, transport, food, entertainment, different assembly line, and many more. This new machine learning will impact lives in almost every aspect, including housing, cars, shopping, food ordering and etc. The good about machine learning is that it allows the user to feed a computer algorithm an immense amount of data and have the computer analyze it and make data-driven recommendations. With there being an upside to machine learning, there also happens to be a downside. Machine learning happens to not work well with bad data. On top of that, you could have problems interpreting the result that the machine outputs, which could cause major problems for your work in implementing your model. there could also be a financial burden with paying to hire people to comprehend the data that resulted from the data since it is something that takes an individual that is expertise within it. 

    Machine learning may affect society as a whole by creating artificial intelligence games, games such as Google DeepMind's AlphaGo, Go is an ancient Chinese game, going to builds machine learning for these types of games, leading to more intellectual gaming applications for the user to experience. Along with that, machine learning is beginning to form fully automated transportation self-driving cars. These A.I.-powered vehicles have surpassed human driving mobilize in protection, which is primarily based on the exact equal fundamentals of gadgets. Environmental protection is also societal aid that could be aided by machine learning, in which machines can save and get the right of entry to more meaningful information. 

Certain segments of society can be affected by machine learning. men who mostly work hands-on, blue-collar jobs, that do not have all the financial wealth compared to others, may be at risk of losing their job. Machine learning and AI are beginning to think more like humans, and will soon be able to think even further than human intelligence. The ones that work often with machinery, and the demographic that operates with technology, may have to swing in another direction for their occupation because a machine or a computer can take their job. Putting most America, that work jobs that operate a hands-on gig, or a technological operation, at risk for a major job loss. With the many good things that machine learning brings to the world, there is a significant downfall that tends to be overlooked. 

    

    Machine Learning can harm or alter the way I consume social media in that ML can alter the feeds that I see on my timeline, to notifications that I tend to receive from social media apps, everything can start to be curated to my liking, stemming from Machine Learning. In relation to my family being affected, my uncle works a blue-collar job, that could be affected by Machine Learning. It worries me because there is a multitude of employees on his job site that have been placed on my machinery, leading them to lose their jobs. My uncle lives in a town where taxes are raising, and the living expense is only rising, and he needs his job to get those things paid for. With that being said, even by ML offers us a multitude of positives, a negative could be directed toward the ones that need it the most. Along with my generation, everything is technology and digital based, which frightens me as I do my job search, and begin my life after college. I have worked my entire life to land a job post-graduation, and to find out that I am in competition with a machine for my job, makes me anxious for my future job. In the event there is completion with ML, I have to learn how to adapt to this new implementation and figure out how I can embrace this profound change, and alter my route of how I go my future career in digital marketing. A lot of great things are considered with ML and AI, but, also many dark sides that must be considered. 

Privacy, Online and Off

    The world that we live in today is heavily operated by technology and is a very prevalent effect on our lives. Technology has brought a lot of good things to society and has been our world faster and has made everything more accessible. On the other hand, technology has led to an abundance of issues regarding privacy. After viewing several Ted Talk videos regarding privacy online, and how our lives are not protected online. How our digital footprint last forever, and how we have lost control over our data and privacy. 

    In the Ted Talk video featuring, Andy Yen, he speaks on information regarding the process of your email being sent to another user, and how you are sending essentially a "postcard", and that "postcard" in the process of it being sent to that person, can read the entire content of your letter. Therefore limiting the privacy of our communication, through the use of technology. As an avid technology user in today's society, this frightens me. I am a college student, on the way to graduation, who is pursuing jobs, sending out a multitude of information regarding my past, my present, and my future, that I want to be disclosed. To know that what personal information I'm sending out, could be traced and helped by a third party, scares me, and makes me rethink the "privacy that I have online. 

    The government should start to take control of this issue, and implement stronger privacy practices and safeguards. In the event the government was able to enforce stronger protective guardrails, this will lead to technology users not having to constantly worry about who is going to receive the information that they are sending out, who it will be tracked, and what type of information that they should be thinking of disclosing within the content of their message. Initially, this change may not instantly lead to a change

in privacy online, but it will be a step in the right to lead users to have ultimate privacy online. With the government laying a foundation with privacy practices, it will lead to future enforcement within privacy policy implementation. 

    From the standpoint of the user, we can also take safer steps to protect our information online. To start, change your passwords regularly, and enable our accounts to be private. With these starting steps, we protect our information, by keeping our information to ourselves, under our own control. Private accounts are a safe option to have, in that you as a user, have total control over who is able to view your profile and take note of your personal information. 

    

    Another step that could be taken, could be using antiwar virus software on your computer.  Software along the lines of, Windows Defender, could offer plenty of security for the user, in that it could limit ad pop-ups that lead to information being recorded by hackers, which could lead to having your personal data stored away forever. Even the strategy of rejecting the cookies when entering a website is a minuscule action that can be done to lead to websites not tracking the information you have had on your time browsing. There is a multitude of steps that could be taken to prevent our information from being leaked and stored away. We must be careful with the information that we put out in the world of technology because you never know who may grab it. The world is only getting faster and more equipt with data collection, so preventative measures need to be taken. 

The Age of A.I.

    The world that is operated through technology on a daily basis is constantly going through rapid changed. From day to day, there are more achievements that technology is making to become even more powerful than what it was yesterday. Although this innovation has generally brought us many good things to our lives, it has also posed a threat to society in ways that no one can imagine. The birth of Artificial Intelligence is starting to become a threat to human intelligence. In the documentary, "In the Age of AI (full documentary) | FRONTLINE", there is a clear demonstration that AI is "changing life as we know it--from jobs to privacy to a growing rivalry between the U.S. and China."

    There is an immense amount of information to take away from the documentary, to start, what stood out to me was the "Sputnik Moment". "The Sputnik Moment", was the wake-up call that the government got that A.I. is a critical thing for the future and that the U.S. needed to catch up and can't let another foreign country, "beat us at our own game".  China was and is approaching at a fast pace with artificial intelligence, and will look to catch up to the U.S. AI by 2025 and take over by 2030. This was surprising information that instantly caught my eye as to how much China has worked with the game of "Go", and how fast they are accelerating. The reason why this was surprising to me was that you always see the U.S. at the top of its game with technology, so to see another country operating at a faster pace, was eye-catching to me, and I'm sure with other viewers of the documentary. Interesting to watch what techniques and strategies this country, China, is working with to bring their Artificial Intelligence to the next level. 

On the other hand, it happens to be a bit frightening knowing that Artificial Intelligence is slowly taking over the world at a fast pace. Will AI be my competition when I enter the workforce? There are cases that are out there, that human intelligence will beat Artificial Intelligence, yet, this is still an intimidating threat that all employers must take into account, for their future. From what I was able to gather from the documentary, and outside research, was that Artificial Intelligence will begin to change the workplace and the work that humans jobs at their workplace. This innovation soon will be the takeover of humans jobs. What we can do to combat this change that is approaching, is to embrace it. Humans across the world are put at a threat with their jobs that will soon be taken over by technology, what can be done is that humans must find new activities that will provide them with the social and mental benefits of the job that they previously had. Companies going forward are going to have to change the way the job is operated by the employee, to prevent them from losing their job. Whether it's removing the mass amount of technology that is utilized, or conducting work that does not rely heavily on media work, precautions must be taken for these employers that have their jobs at stake. A.I. is taking over, and we need to find a way to adjust, adapt, and change.

Instagram through Diffusion of Innovations Theory

    For this blog post, I wanted to select a profound social media platform, and analyze it through the Diffusion of Innovations Theory. The platform that I have selected was Instagram, the reason why I have selected Instagram is that it is such a popular and mainstream platform, and I was curious as to how they built it up to how big it is today.  To dive a little bit into the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, this theory seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. The theory was invented by Everett Rodgers, Rodgers argued with this innovation, that innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. With that being said, I will begin my exploration on Instagram, among the Diffusion of Innovations Theory. 

    When Instagram made its first entry into the social media world, in October of 2010, the application was a simple usage. Users were able to post pictures, like, comment, and follow other users. The app begins to fall into the innovation stage in April 2012, when Instagram made the biggest change for their platform. Instagram was brought to the Android operating system. This paved the way for a whole new market, which brought about Instagram’s next milestone within that month: 50 million users on the platform. With this, Instagram proved that it was here to stay. This was just the beginning for this social media platform, from this point on, Instagram only got bigger and bigger, pulling in immense amounts of users over the following years. 

    Instagram began to boom. Just the idea for users across the world to be able to share their daily lives through photo and video sharing, made it an irresistible app! Along with posting your own content, you are able to visualize and be other users' shoes. With Instagram, people were able to travel the world and were able to get exposed to a different social world, all in the palm of their hand. This was where everyone was at, Instagra usage spread like wildfire, if you were not on Instagram when its launching began, where were you then? 

    

    Although Instagram is a superb app to use that allows you to connect with friends on the daily and show off your everyday activities, there happens to be a bit of a downfall with that. With people becoming more familiar with the photo sharing ability, and knowing how to operate the camera more, people have started to take it to a new extreme. Lighting, photo effects, fake followers, and buying likes, have all been new implementations that users have been making to bring their account to the next level. People are starting o take pictures of themselves that almost makes them look too good. This has lead to many people comparing themselves to those users. Feeling like they're almost not good enough, constantly putting people down. This downfall has led a lot of mental health issues, with over 1,500 teens and adults having high levels of anxiety, depression, bullying, and FOMO.

    Instagram offers something different with their platform, compared to the other ones out there. The content that is put out on Instagram is more engaging than other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The visual content is the best way to connect with your followers, and Instagram focuses solely on a high-end visual experience. Giving the user the ability to build their brand image through photos and videos, which is far more effective Facebook or Twitter or any other social media website.With having millions on millions of users that use their app everyday, Instagram continues to dominate the social media world by engaging a variety of audiences. Presenting them the opportunity for being one of, or the, best social media platform in the world. 

    In the case that Instagram has made for themselves, I believe the positives strongly outweigh the negatives. Although the photo sharing has been taken to a new level, where people are constantly comparing themselves to other famous celebrities where they have top of the line effects and lighting, the user is able to see beyond that. Instagram presents the consumer to share their lives in pictures, with high definition exposure. Along with that, you are able to sell yourself to others, and meet other people too. If you are able to see beyond that the people trying to pose their best selves, where in reality, they don't look like that, take Instagram for the great pros that it has to offer, and make something out of it.