Final Blog Post: My Relationship with Technology

Throughout the course of this semester I have learned so much about my First Amendment rights and how they relate to the digital world. Diving into topics like protected and unprotected speech, effects of artificial intelligence, and online privacy has exposed me to so many intricate realms of media law and literacy. Applying this to our society today and my own life, I see the immense role that technology plays in maintaining or threatening free speech. 

Technology has been present in my life for as long as I can remember, and in many ways has shaped the person I am and opinions I hold. In my generation, there is a major tension between the good that we have produced through technology, and the addictive, unhealthy, obsessive relationship that we have with it. I saw this represented so vividly through the two videos we watched in class, FUTURAMA and Tears for Years. 

Starting off with the positive impacts of technology, and the 1960's interpretation of that in FUTURAMA, we are able to influence its impact on society today. It is no secret that the Internet is the most impressive and brilliant discovery in history. The adaptations of technology like weather tracking satellites, interstate highway systems, and mass-producing agricultural factories that this video predicted have transformed our world from what it was 60 years ago. Reflecting on my own life, technology has allowed me to use my passions in ways that never would have been possible a century ago. I am a Social Media and Digital Communications major, with a minor in Graphic Design. I hope to someday be the social media manager for a company, and I currently hold an internship as the social media manager for a local organization. I love art, and the field of digital communication and digital design has allowed me to put this passion into an area of high demand: the digital world. Additionally, our generation has produced so much good from technology and social media. Creators on apps like TikTok and Instagram use their platforms for all kinds of education, whether that's political and social activism, mental health awareness, or general lifestyle advice. 

However, there are so many unintended consequences that have arisen as a result of technology. These consequences are demonstrated in a vivid sense through Tears for Years. While some would argue that this film is an extreme portrayal of our society's current relationship with technology, I think it is a scary and accurate portrayal of the very near future. Yale Medicine studies reveal the extreme detriments of social media on psychological health. I have a personal experience of this through my own relationship with technology. I think I speak not only for myself but for the majority of my generation when saying that during the Covid 19 pandemic, our reliance on technology led me into extreme isolation, dependency, and addiction to my phone. This kind of addiction is difficult to combat, and throughout the remainder of high school until even now, I force myself to follow things like screen time limits, and "do not disturb" features to prevent a reliance on my phone. 

Overall, I view technology as a necessary evil in our current society. While it has contributed so much to industry, science, healthcare, communication and more, the unintended consequences are detrimental and increasing every day. Personally, I want to decrease the presence of social media in my personal life moving forward, and confine it to my professional life in the context of my future career. 

Observed EOTO Terms and Concepts: Propaganda

Last week, our class split up into groups and prepared multiple presentations on various EOTO terms and concepts. I learned a lot from these most recent presentations, but one that especially stuck out to me was Elizabeth's presentation on Propaganda. Her topic initially struck my interest because of my knowledge of propaganda in World War Two, and my curiosity of its more current impacts on society. 

Elizabeth began her presentation by defining propaganda as the dissemination of information, facts, rumors, half-truths, or even lies, through mass media to influence public opinion. 

I found it interesting that the word "propaganda" actually originated from the Roman Catholic Church and was first widely practiced during the Protestant Reformation. Consequently, we see propaganda first noticeably practiced around the same time that the printing press was invented, demonstrating the correlation between industrial developments and tactics in government and culture. Additionally, I was unaware of propaganda's impact on religious issues, and has previously thought of it as solely a governmental tool. 

Elizabeth went on to discuss the impact of propaganda in the Mexican American War, WWI, and WWII. I thought that the use of propaganda surrounding the sinking of the USS Maine was especially tactical and sneaky. America used this tragedy to immediately place blame on Spain and gain support from Americans to wage war on Spain. "Remember the Maine" was the coined slogan of this propaganda, victimizing America and making Spain out to be the enemy although there was no evidence of what actually happened to the USS Maine. During the first and second world wars, the United States used propaganda to promote hate towards the Germans and the Japanese, often through racist and stereotypical drawings. 

This presentation concluded by describing the more recent presence of propaganda in Russia. I found this

especially intriguing because although it is happening right now, during my life, I have never seen it in the news or heard of it before this presentation. Elizabeth stated that Russia is offering "summer camps" to Ukrainian children affected by war, but instead of a fun and safe camp to avoid conflict, these camps are actually indoctrination camps that teach false history and propaganda. 

Overall, Elizabeth did a superb job on this presentation and I learned a vast amount of new information on propaganda, especially about its effect today.

Living in the Age of AI

I thought that the Frontline documentary Living in the Age of AI was incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. The film discussed the implications of an increasing use of AI in our society, including on privacy, national security, and online security. One point I found particularly interesting was the role of big corporations like Google, Amazon, and Facebook in the rise of AI. These companies hold so much power and data, and their utilization of AI poses a major threat to all of us. The documentary also talked about the economic impact of the rise of AI, and how it is beginning to lead to job displacement. I feel the effects of this personally, with the career path I hope to go into. I want to be a Graphic Designer, but already so much of what Graphic Designers are trained for years to know how to do, can now be done in a fraction of the time by AI. 

The documentary did touch on many of the positive impacts and implications of AI for our future. One of these is advancements to healthcare. Not only does AI make gathering data and forming diagnoses a more efficient and accurate process, but it also assists in drug discovery. Additionally, AI has proven to be

incredibly helpful in scientific discovery and environmental efforts. Scientists have been able to use AI to predict and track environmental changes, weather patterns, and possible effects of climate change. In terms of privacy and security, I came to the conclusion that AI does more harm than good. While AI can provide softwares like encryption or improved password systems, the cons outweigh the pros. AI intrinsically demands so much data collection and tracking abilities, therefore violating privacy and security on a multitude of levels. 

Overall, this documentary was an educational and eye-opening film, and has led me to reconsider my thoughts on AI in our society. 

The Progressive Era

Exploring the websites Antiwar and The American Conservative offered an insightful and fresh perspective about antiwar theories that I do not typically see in mainstream news channels. On antiwar.com, I explored an article titled "Will Trump End or Escalate Biden's Wars?" This article basically described the statements Trump has made and actions he has taken so far that implicate his intention to end the war in Ukraine. However, the article mentioned his Trump's presidency has the potential to increase US involvement in the war in the Middle East, due to Israel's escalating military actions. While Trump ultimately aims for peace worldwide and the extraction of US military forces, the article makes
clear that there will be significant challenge in the Middle East. However, ultimately it is evident of Trump's antiwar mentality, and this perspective is one that is not headlined on mainstream news. On the second site, The American Conservative, Trump's foreign policy plan was also discussed and described. This article demonstrated the widespread support of Trump, even in diverse groups or generally liberal areas. It also mentioned how Trump's success proved how much citizens care about tangible issues like job security, housing, and foreign policy. 

I find it interesting and honestly a little concerning that the information I read about in these articles is never broadcasted on bigger news sources. Moreover, that I have never even heard of these websites. I think that this is because our media generally sways in a certain political direction, with some opinions broadcasted more loudly than others. These articles prove why it is so important to actively seek out multiple opinions, perspectives, and view points on any given subject before coming to a conclusion. Ultimately, I feel that reading these two articles expanded my knowledge of antiwar theories and broadened my perspective.

EOTO Terms and Concepts: Citizen Journalism

Oxford dictionary defines citizen journalism as “the collection, dissemination, and analysis of news and information by the general public, especially by means of the internet.” Basically, this is a branch of journalism conducted by regular people in their regular areas of life. There are many aspects to this realm of journalism, and both positive and negative components. Overall, I believe citizen journalism to be an essential tool in the world of news broadcasting, however its presence should be coupled with that of professional journalism. 

Citizen journalism is beneficial to society for a variety of reasons. First, it allows for instantaneous coverage and streaming. In cases of sudden natural disaster, war zones, or unexpected tragedy, having witnesses on the scene with the ability of recording the events happening is crucial. Oftentimes, professional media outlets are unable to arrive at the scene quickly enough to capture the events happening. Or, they are unable to reach the areas where the news stories are happening. For example, this past fall when Hurricane Helene swept through Asheville, North Carolina, it was citizen journalism that allowed for the disastrous effects of the hurricane to be broadcasted to the world. The video below was captured by a resident of Ashville, trapped in their house but able to witness and share the horror of Hurricane Helene in ways that professional journalists were unable to.

Citizen journalism also allows for a diverse group of voices to be heard, especially in areas of government controlled media. This essentially democratizes news, offering real perspectives and unbiased angles. Furthermore, oftentimes citizen journalism creates specialized coverage on niche areas that may be overlooked by big media outlets. This is because people are inclined to broadcast stories and information they feel passionately should be shared with the world. Lastly, citizen journalism is far less damaging than professional journalism from a financial standpoint. This further increases the diversity of news, by allowing these stories to reach a broad group of people.

While there are many benefits to citizen journalism, some of these have the potential to be repercussions as well. For example, citizen journalism increases diversity of news broadcasting, allowing space for diverse, niche, and specific voices to be heard. While this seems beneficial, it can sometimes lead to echo chambers. An echo chamber is defined as “an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.” The diverse nature of citizen journalism promotes the consumption of information that aligns with preexisting beliefs, therefore polarizing public opinion and political climate. Also, there is a major concern for accuracy and reliability with citizen journalism. Some of the training that goes into professional journalism teaches these journalists to distinguish accurate news, and without this training, citizen journalists are at risk for false information. This leads to a lack of credibility in this branch of broadcasting.

In conclusion, while there are some concerns with reliability and polarization, ultimately citizen journalism is a crucial tool in journalism, and provides so much opportunity for the collection and streaming of news stories worldwide.

Privacy, Online and Off

While online privacy is something relevant to all of us, the issues raised in these TedTalks are areas of online privacy that I had not specifically considered before. The second and third videos focusing on surveillance particularly resonated with me. The fact that something as simple as driving allows the government to gather information and data on you is shocking and disturbing. Automatic license plate readers keeping record of every plate and tracking trips to therapy, doctors offices, alcoholic anonymous meetings, and more is an obstruction of privacy and an injustice to all of us. Furthermore, telephone surveillance has allowed any phone call for over 100 years to be tapped by anyone from our government, to another government, to a hacker or stalker. It is only with the recent development of Silicon Valley companies that encryption technology has been incorporated into these devices, protecting privacy in this way.

Government involvement in areas of online privacy is a difficult issue because of the tension between their potential to help solve the problem and their negative complicity in the problem. For example, when governments use online surveillance in traffic and telephone calls to collect data on dangerous people, there is nothing restricting them from also collecting data on regular citizens. In my opinion, the government should extract all involvement in online surveillance and use their position of power to protect their citizens from all privacy breaches online.

I see issues of online privacy in my own life through social media. I know so many people who have been hacked on Instagram, and their photos have been posted on hacker accounts promoting some kind of false identity or porn platform. Also, my friends and I often joke that “the government is listening to us,” because shortly after talking about a certain topic, we will have ads pop up on our social media about that exact topic. I think that to protect ourselves from invasions of privacy online, it is crucial to take measures like making personal accounts private, creating secure passwords, and reading all terms and conditions closely before accepting anything.

Observed EOTO Technology Timeline Presentation: The Radio

During the EOTO Technology Timeline presentations, one that resonated with me was Hudson Nugent's presentation on the radio. Hudson described the way that radio served as an improved and advanced version of a prior communication device known as the telegraph. While the telegraph was a revolutionary development in the world of communication, it was very simple and basic in nature. The radio offered news streaming, entertainment, music, and more, all in the snap of a finger and from the comfort of one's own home. 

Hudson also mentioned that an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi was the first person to ever send radio waves over long distances. He did this through a multitude of experiments, the most notable of these being when he sent a radio signal across the Atlantic ocean in 1901. Experiments like these were happening simultaneously all across the globe, and Hudson mentioned how an American inventor named Nikola Tesla was also a part of this. She continued to talk about the next twenty years of history, and the introduction of radio broadcasting stations. The first of these in the United States was founded out of Pittsburgh in 1920, and was called KDKA. Stations like these broadcasted all sorts of subjects, including current events, educational topics, sports, music, home, and more. 

In conclusion, although radios are not as popular as they used to be because of smartphones and computers, their presence is still seen in many areas of our everyday life, including in cars or emergency services. The radio also served as a technological stepping stone. With the invention of the radio came opportunity and possibility. At the time of its invention, it was revolutionary. The ability to stream news, music, or entertainment, at any time and from any distance to the source was a concept that seems impossible. From there, we were able to develop these communication technologies even further.