Blog 15 - Technology: My Best Friend and My Worst Enemy

Walking around campus or even just sitting down anywhere and looking around, you will see almost all students using technology whether it's a phone, computer, or tablet of somesort. The world is becoming more and more centered around technology due to the extremely fast rate at which modern technology is evolving. Media has become our main source of news, communication, and meeting people. This has it's pros and cons in society, but I feel that the negative aspects are beginning to outweigh the positives. 

We watched two vastly different videos in class both portraying technology from different sides of the spectrum. The first one is more optimistic as it explores the predicted wonders of technology, but it is important to acknowledge the fact the video is from the 1960's, so it portrays a somewhat distorted utopia. The video simply shows a prediction of what technology would become. No one wants to think about or predict that something will be negative, we want to predict the best case scenario, but unfortunately that optimistic outlook is somewhat naive. 

While the second video can seem somewhat brutal, especially compared to the first one, unfortunately I think it accurately represents our reality. The video is somewhat dramatized, and can even be unsettling to watch, making it even more powerful. We don't want to accept what we are allowing technology to do to our lives, specifically our emotions and mental health. In many ways I believe that technology does help us get smarter. I learn about current events and news all over the country and the world from technology, but there is always the flipside where technology can be filled with misinformation and disinformation. I think that what you learn from technology is in the hands of the user. The invention of technology itself is very impressive and it assists us in everyday tasks, making life easier in some aspects, but at what cost?

Is my relationship with technology healthy? It's a great question that I have been thinking about a lot lately. The simple answer is no. If I am being completely honest I believe that over half of those my age have an unhealthy relationship with technology. This unhealthy relationship stems from an addiction or reliance on social media. I find myself on my phone, checking notifications, or just mindlessly scrolling for hours a day. It has completely sucked me in. I used to get my happiness from how many snapchats, likes, or followers I had. We could all use some time away from social media, the only problem is since it is the main form of communication for people my age, you can feel even more lonely and isolated when you disconnect from the technology world. 

I have friends that have tried deleting social media, but soon find themselves back to their old ways once they experience the lack of communication and isolation from friends. I think this grip technology has on us applies more to those of my generation, but it can even stretch to those that are my parents' age. My parents often make comments about how much I use technology, but they need it about as much as I do. My dad is constantly on the phone or computer for work and my mom has a recent obsession with Facebook. Society has created a lose-lose situation when it comes to technology. It is used in everyday life, we really can't get away from it. We use it for school work, jobs, and just basic communication with others. When we try to get away from it or take a break because of mental health issues and stress, we lose our main form of communication with others, which can lead to even greater depression or anxiety. I have spent so many days telling myself I am not gonna go on my phone for the day, but then I will need it for a project or some sort of school work or someone is trying to contact me, so I will end up right back staring at the screen for extended amounts of time. 

My relationship with technology grows even more complicated as it allows me to get away from stress, anxiety or even depression, even though it can be the cause of these feelings as well. When watching TikToks, netflix, or just scrolling from my Instagram feed, I am allowed to be distracted from my feelings that can be overwhelming. As a freshman in college, my entire world has changed in the past few months. I am away from my friends and family, I went from being in a high school class of 30 students to being one of 1,500. Technology feels like the only thing I can turn to so I can get away from thinking about the fear and loneliness of college or even the world. I do sometimes worry about these unhealthy aspects of my relationship with technology, but it is how the world works right now. I am hoping as I get older and mature more, I will not rely on social media and technology as much.

When it comes to my digital footprint, there isn't a whole lot there other than my social media profiles. When I googled my name it was interesting because a few pictures popped up that I didn't remember posting, but then I realized that they were old profile pictures from some public accounts from when I was younger like Pinterest and VSCO. I didn't realize that these pictures would show up when my name was put into Google. This is not a really bad thing because it's just a normal picture of me, it was just unsettling to see as I had not given any site permission to put those pictures on the world wide web. When thinking about it, I have given technology a lot of my personal information, but this is just an accepted part of society. We give our fingerprints or face prints willingly as a password for our phones. We give credit and debit card information to buy things from complete strangers. It's something to truly think about as we have the choice to make small changes in our lives to begin to get away from this reliance on technology we have formed.

Blog 14- Minority Report: The Dystopia Created by Technology

I had to watch the 2002 film Minority Report my sophomore year of high school for a science fiction film analysis elective. After rewatching the movie recently I noticed many aspects that I had missed the first time. The Steven Spielberg film stars a young Tom Cruise as John Anderton, the captain of Washington D.C.'s PreCrime unit in the year 2054. PrimeCrime actually predicts murders before they happen. The technology works due to the visions of PreCogs, which are three genetically mutated humans that see snippets of the future (but only murders). The (future) criminal is arrested moments before they are about to commit murder and put into a small capsule where they live the rest of their lives basically as a vegetable. 

The entire justice system falls apart as the captain John Anderton is shown as a future murderer in one of the visions. As he tries to prove that he is innocent and will not commit murder he finds out that the three sibling PreCogs do not always see the same vision and there is (rarely) and alternate future called a minority report that is immediately deleted. While this film is a science fiction dramatization of how technology creates a dystopia, there is somewhat of an eerie reality today in some of the aspects predicted in 2002 when the film was released. 

One of the most interesting scenes from the movie is Anderton trying to escape the very officers he used to lead. He goes on an epic journey jumping on top of and through the self-driving cars that occupy the mega highways of the future. Today in 2021, many self-driving cars are successfully underway. After a little research I even found out that Spielberg worked with Lexus to create what cars could possibly look like in 2054 (pictured above). Lexus now claims that this car and others like it could be out as soon as 2027. 

The next prediction turned into a reality is the method of identification they use in the movie. Everyone is identified by eye scans. Cities are filled with thousands if not millions of machines that scan citizen's irises when they enter any building or even public transportation so the government can track them at all times. Anderton actually undergoes an eye transplant so he cannot be easily tracked and arrested. While we are not at this extreme level, all of us with iPhones have given Apple our fingerprint and even faceprint for identification purposes. Is that much different? 

In one scene, Anderton goes into a department store/mall and once his eyes are scanned all of these advertisements begin to pop up holographically tailored to him and his interests. They even say his name in them. As I was writing this blog post, an ad popped up on the side of my screen showing articles of clothing I had looked at a few days ago. I personally don't see much of a difference between the ads in the dystopian film and the ads today, except maybe that ours don't physically pop up in front of us when we enter stores. 

Although this movie is quite bizarre, I definitely recommend watching it. It can put our reliance on technology into perspective. While it can uncover the scary idea that we are drawing closer to this horrific dystopia becoming our reality, it can also help us realize some of the problems of society. We could possibly do our part as individuals to make small differences in our lives so we do not fall victim to the dangers of living in a completely technological and government run world. 

Blog 13- The Power of Influencers

What are influencers? How does one become an influencer? Most of the influencers we see today aren't very good role models, but don't we as a society give them their power and status? These are all questions I have thought about as a child of the twenty first century. We have been raised in a world overflowing with influencers telling us what to buy, what to wear, and even what to eat. The word influencer is defined as one who exerts influence, a person who inspires or guides the actions of others or a person who is able to generate an interest in something (such as a consumer product) by posting about it on social media. It makes sense that singers and movie stars would be influencers on social media, but what I find interesting are the influencers that gain their popularity from the social media platforms themselves. 

Charli (pictured on the left) and her sister Dixie (pictured on the right) D'Amelio gained their popularity solely from the platform of TikTok. The two girls have an estimated net worth of 4 million and 3 million dollars respectively. It all started in 2019 when Charli posted a video of her dancing that then went viral. She then got sponsorships, acting roles, and has even been on talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The world was soon introduced to her entire family as they now have their own TV show and her sister has released a few popular songs. Of course there is nothing wrong with gaining fame and they are certainly not the only ones that have done it, but how did we as a society give so much power to a pretty normal family from Connecticut for example?

About 10 to 15 years ago, the term "social media influencer" wasn't even around. As we as a society have grown more dependent or, some could argue, even addicted to technology, we have grown more fixated on these people always popping up within the platforms. They have made social media their personal brand. It can be somewhat worrying that we allow influencers to gain so much status and power in such little time. It is mainly psychological as studies have shown that the "credibility of a peer endorser depends on the factors of trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, and similarity." I have nothing against influencers, but I feel as though sometimes my generation and even those younger than us loses sight of the fact that these influencers are like everyone else: just people. 

Blog 12- Trespassing Across America

I am someone who would not survive in the wilderness by myself for very long, so I was very impressed by learning about the journey of Ken Ilgunas from the man himself. Hearing Ken Ilgunas talk about hiking the length of the Keystone XL pipeline, made something that seems impossible into a reality. I honestly had not thought of all the preparation that would be required for his trip, especially since he would be going alone, but this trip was so much more than just a "hike across the heartland." His journey was about climate change and acknowledging our role as humans in the big problem we can't really change as singular individuals, but what we can do to start making differences in our everyday lives. 

Although I have only been in college a few short months, I have already learned so much. My mindset has completely changed. One of the most valuable pieces of advice I have gotten is to meet and converse with as many people as you can and try to learn something new from everyone you meet. In the past I have made the mistake of only really interacting with those who share my beliefs which is sometimes understandable because since we have so much in common it makes sense that we would be friends, but I often avoided those with differing opinions. I now look for people with different opinions just so I can learn about the other sides. 

I learned even more about this mindset from Ken Ilgunas as he met and talked to so many different people along his four and a half month journey. I never would have thought that he would have got to spend time with so many people on his solo journey, and even have a man he met travel with him for part of the way. Ken Ilgunas showed me how important our environment is and how much we should care about it as he knowingly put himself in danger to take this journey. He faced grazing cows and taking cover from gunfire so he could embrace the belief that "a life lived not half wild is a life only half lived." 

Blog 11: Presentation Impacts 2.0: What I Learned

I have always been passionate about the arts in all forms. I have always been fascinated by street art, although I have known little about it. Caroline's presentation on alternative media was extremely interesting to me. I was not aware that alternative media encompasses so many different forms of expression. I have seen Banksy's girl with a balloon piece (pictured above) many times, but it was interesting to learn more about it and the meaning behind it. Street art is an amazing way of expression that can be controversial, but allows the artists to project their message to a large audience. I really enjoyed how Caroline made her presentation personal to her as she is an artist herself. She even talked about a street artist that had visited her hometown. 

Caroline also touched on underground newspapers, which I had never really heard much about. One of the facts that stuck with me the most was that some underground newspapers published stories and scandals that mainstream media would not, but sometimes they ended up being true. The most well known incident being that an underground newspaper published the story of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky after no media platforms would publish the story. After the scandal proved to be true, it came out through mainstream media much later. 

I learned a lot from Corrina's presentation as well. I did not really know about the differences between misinformation and disinformation. The part of the presentation that really stuck with me was comparing misinformation and disinformation to a game of telephone. Misinformation is like the person "who genuinely can't hear the person who is whispering," and disinformation is the person "who wants to change it to be the jokester of the group." I also got some tips on identifying misinformation and disinformation in the media such as analyzing intent and author credibility. Identifying fake news is a very important skill to have in today's age because we are bombarded with so much information everyday, it is beneficial to have some ways to sift through the information and be cautious of what you believe. 

Blog 10- The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: Have Humans Been Outsmarted?

I have always had an irrational fear of robots, animatronics or any machine that resembles a human. I am now realizing that this fear may not be so irrational. Before this lesson, I thought I knew what artificial intelligence was. I thought it was complex algorithms and machines that humans had created to make life easier and do some specific tasks faster than we could. After watching the documentary, it introduced a frightening reality. Artificial intelligence is developing at a terrifyingly fast rate, especially in the past decade. I was not aware that these machines are actually able to teach themselves and beat humans at their own games. 

One of the most unsettling parts of the documentary for me was pertaining to the game Go. The game Go is so much more than a game in countries like Japan and South Korea, "it is how you learn strategy." Lee Sedol was the world champion for this game and is seen as a "national hero" in South Korea. He has probably played hundreds if not thousands of rounds of this game, yet he was beaten multiple times by artifical intelligence. Have humans been outsmarted by our own creation? Will this turn into some sort of Frankenstein situation? Of course, humans can always cut the cord and shut down the technology, but it has become such a big part of everyday life, I'm not sure if that is even realistic anymore. While there are positive aspects to AI, such as doing some jobs quicker and more efficiently, it can cause many people to be unemployed.

The documentary claims that "50% of jobs will be threatened in the next 15 years because of artificial intelligence." The film focused on self-driving cars and how it will affect truck drivers in the future. I was honestly surprised by how developed the self-driving car technology already is. It sounds like they could be quite common in the very near future. While truck driving is not the most glamorous career, it is one that is important to me. I actually come from a long line of truck drivers and farmers. My grandfather drove a truck for over 30 year, and have never known anyone who loved their profession more. While it is a simple job, it provided for my family. While self-driving cars would be a great advancement for technology, replacing people like truck drivers is taking away income from those who need it.

The documentary opened my eyes to the reality of artificial intelligence. While parts of it help society become more modern and advanced, AI is usually painted as the villain in the media. What should we as a society believe? We are pulled in different directions as we are told that artificial intelligence is good and we should support new inventions as we modernize everyday life, but then we look at the media and see that AI could put us out of our jobs and even outsmart the human mind. One of the best examples of this is Jeff Orlowski's 2020 film The Social Dilemma. AI/algorithms are portrayed as the villain as it deflects blame from the creators of mass media monopolies (pictured above). The film personifies the algorithm into three characters that are out to get a teen boy addicted to his phone sending him ads and notifications to keep him hooked and eventually sinking into a depression. The algorithm character is shown to purposefully keep the boy on his phone to basically sell his attention. When it comes to technology, we are the product, our attention span, looking at an ad for a product, how long we stay on it, that is what companies are buying. The film deflects blame from the platform creators that knew the negative effects of social media. The algorithms are not the problem, people are. 

Blog 9- "I Want You": The History and Use of Propaganda

When most American people think of propaganda, it is usually associated with times of war, especially World War I and World War II, but propaganda can be seen all around us everyday. Propaganda is defined as the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or person or ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause. It can have positive and negative implications depending on the cause or institution it is encouraging or supporting. 

The word propaganda itself has a somewhat negative connotation to it. In the past, it has been extremely sexist and racist to persuade society to think a certain way or support a certain group. All propaganda is intentional. It can rely on manipulation through misleading information. In the past, propaganda has been used to unite a nation during war times, depending on how one feels towards the war, this can be a positive or negative thing. Bringing a nation together to fight against a common enemy can benefit the nation and strengthen patriotism, but it can also persuade society to believe bias or distorted information. 

Not all propaganda is bad. Propaganda is created to affect society as a whole as it works to change people's ways of thinking and acting. It can shape opinions and behavior. The World War I Uncle Sam recruitment poster (pictured above) and the World War II Rosie the riveter poster (pictured above) are two of the most influential pieces of propaganda in American history. They encouraged men to join the war and encouraged women to be confident in taking the jobs of men while they were away. These examples of propaganda were not necessarily negative as they were an unforgettable call to action. The danger of propaganda begins when competing voices are silenced. 

One of the most cruel and manipulative uses of propaganda was during the holocaust (pictured above). Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used propaganda to persuade the German citizens that the Jewish people of Germany were below everyone else and needed to be taken away. Nazi propagandists strategies from Communists and Italian Fascists political campaigns "to win public support and wage war." Once they gained power, they used propaganda as "a weapon of terror and media manipulation." They united the German people around Hitler as their leader and used the propaganda to "facilitate aggression, mass murder, and genocide."

Propaganda is created to appeal to certain segments of society or society as a whole, almost like advertisements. The institution knows the their intended audience and created the propaganda to appeal to them the most. Recruitment posters appealed to young men of the time, rationing posters mainly just appealed to women because that's who it pertained to. The propaganda directs the visual aid or information to the intended audience they want to persuade. It can affect different social classes differently as the lower classes do not have money to help the institutions creating the propaganda, while the upper classes do. "The average person stands little chance anymore. The poor and the weak don’t stand any chance. We have become a nation of the misinformed blindly basing our life decisions on the incessant blatherings of moral monsters with a desire for only money and power." 

Public health campaigns and elections utilize propaganda today. Modern propaganda draws upon techniques and strategies used in advertising, public relations, communications, and mass psychology. It "simplifies complicated issues for popular consumption." It is always biased, and it is "geared to achieving a particular end." Propaganda employs symbols, in written, musical, or visual forms, and "plays upon and channels complex human emotions towards a desired goal." Propaganda, of course, is not always successful. Its effectiveness depends on many different factors, including the receptivity of an audience to the message and a favorable social context. Propaganda is still all around us today even though we are not in a time of war on our land. The biggest example of our generation is propaganda pertaining to COVID-19. Many artists around the world even drew inspirations from old war time propaganda posters to create a call to action like the one pictured above. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are faced with propaganda everyday. Modern technology has made it even easier to reach our generation and persuade our thoughts and actions for their benefit.