Final Post

 When I ask myself the question if my relationship with technology is healthy I lean towards no. I like most of my generation spend a lot of my time with my face buried in my phone. But I do think I have a good reason to do so some of the time. 

Since I became a college student I am away from my family and my best friends from home so naturally I try to stay connected to my loved ones when I am away. I find myself spending hours snapchatting my best friend or just calling her so we can update each other on our day and what is going on. However it would be healthier to just have a scheduled call time and to stay off social media so much. I also text my mom a lot and send her pictures throughout my day so we can stay connected because I learned it is easy to disconnect from loved ones when I am away. 

I definitely go too far with my technology use and overuse it which is something I am working on. When I looked at my screen time on my phone it shocked me to see that I spend almost 4 hours on my phone daily. The most used being tik tok and snapchat. On tik tok I like others who spend hours just mindlessly scrolling when I could be doing more productive things with my time. 

A huge thing I hate about social media is the culture of posting your every move, although I am guilty of this. It is like a constant competition to have the most “interesting” and fun life but it is all fake which leads to people feeling like they are doing something wrong.  FOMO or the fear of missing out is something a lot of people experience and it is all because of social media. 86% of people admit to looking at social media because of their FOMO and 39% of people admit to letting their FOMO control what events they go to. Social media is controlling our lives. 

Social media is also a huge contributor to mental health decline. It is hard to stay positive when there are a lot of negative things posted constantly on our feeds. A lot of people also feel pressure to live up to certain standards all because of what they are consuming online. I personally have been victim to feeling bad about myself but then over time I learned that social media is fake and now I take everything with a grain of salt. 41% of women on social media have reported feeling bad about their looks because of social media. It is hard to maintain good mental health when you are constantly consuming strangers' lives on the internet. 

It is very crucial to remember the harm technology can do to anyone, not just women or teenagers. I encourage everyone to make sure they lower their screen time and spend time out in the real world with loved ones. Get off the phone!

Anti war voices

 It is uncommon to see strong antiwar voices on media sites unless it is seeked out. Antiwar.com and The American Conservative are two websites that highlight the antiwar voices and opinions. But why is it so uncommon? Some Americans have normalized the idea of war and do not really think anything of it but there are a lot of Americans who are against being involved in war at all.

There are a lot of reasons that contribute to this hiding of antiwar voices. One reason antiwar voices may be hidden is because of big corporations controlling the media we consume. These corporations have financial gain tied to the military and they gain from war effort. So, they do not give voices to antiwar views to potentially lose them money.

Another reason we do not see strong antiwar voices has to do with political agendas. Politicians all have an agenda to move and most of them benefit from being in war. Some of the big mainstream news outlets have clear political bias which has a huge impact on what gets reported on. These news outlets will not push news stories and opinions that do not back their side and help out their favored politicians.

Although their voices are suppressed, antiwar voices do exist in the American media. It is important to remember to seek out these alternative media sites in order to get the whole picture. Independent journalists also tend to have antiwar voices. This is a good reminder to not just look to the big mainstream news companies for facts. If more people speak up and communicate, maybe in the future this will change, and it will be more common to hear these less popular opinions. 

EOTO 2 Reaction

There were a lot of good presentations on various subjects. One that stuck out to me was the one on internet influencers. I think it is mind blowing how in this generation there are internet influencers who can become very rich and near the same level as celebrities. They have a lot of power and most of them are just normal teenagers who post about random things. It is interesting to me how it used to be just celebrities who had this level of fame from movies and television but now anyone can become famous from posting on social media sites. 

Another presentation I found interesting was the one on deep fakes. Our world is advancing rapidly everyday especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. Deep fakes are when someone can use artificial intelligence to make a video of someone and make it seem like they are saying something that is completely fake. This is quite scary to me how advanced these technologies are getting, and it is only the beginning. It is very important that everyone stays aware of the technologies out there because it is very easy to believe what you see online, and anyone can easily be scammed or misled from deep fakes on the internet. 

Something new I learned from the presentations was about news deserts. It makes sense that some poorer areas of the country do not have access to newspapers and news but it is a sad fact. Staying informed on what is happening in local governments is very important to everyone and it is alarming that so many towns across the country do not have this luxury. Newspapers are dying now that the internet has taken over and anyone can learn anything from their cell phones or computers. 

EOTO 2- Five Eyes Alliance

The Five Eyes is an alliance made up of five countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The alliance was created in 1946 and had various surveillance and intelligence sharing agreements. They share information about things like terrorism, cyber threats, and other important stuff that could affect their countries' security. They also have a promise to never spy on each other. This alliance was a complete secret to the public until 2013. 

Why is this a risk to our privacy? There are major privacy concerns with this alliance. Citizens of these countries are at risk for their private information to be surveilled. This means everything we do online is being surveyed and shared between nations. This is something that happens because the countries share information on their own citizens with each other. This alliance allows for the invasion of our every move when we are online. There is a lack of laws protecting us citizens from this breach of our privacy, so although this alliance is sketchy to some people it is legal. 

In addition to the five eyes there are more countries who became involved in this arrangement. These are known as the nine eyes and the fourteen eyes. The nine eyes involve the original five plus Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Norway. The fourteen eyes include all of these countries including Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. There are also the forty-one eyes including all allied with Afghanistan. The purpose of these alliances is to enhance global surveillance abilities. But it puts all of its citizens at risk.

These alliances impact international relations because the nations communicate with each other on military matters which can lead to tensions between nations who are not a part of the alliance. There are differing opinions on this alliance and There are groups of people who advocate for more transparency with this alliance so we as citizens can have clearer guidelines on what is actually being surveyed and shared. 

AI Video

 The video we watched was interesting. I think artificial intelligence is a very cool thing that keeps growing more and more as the years pass. However, this video highlighted the not-so-great parts about artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is truly taking over our world. From kiosks to order food at fast food restaurants to self-driving taxis. Some people do not trust AI and fear that it is unsafe or unreliable. This leads to some concern regarding jobs being eliminated all around the world.

The video focused on the issue of artificial intelligence taking people’s jobs. In May of 2023 almost four thousand jobs were lost because of artificial intelligence and this number continues to grow month by month. In a world after Covid people in America have a hard time finding a stable job as it is. After Covid eight million people in America lost their jobs. Right now, more than ever it is important that people can keep their jobs, so they are able to feed their families. 

On the other hand, artificial intelligence has also created a fair number of jobs. In 2022 it was forecasted that artificial intelligence will create 2.3 million jobs and get rid of 1.3 million jobs. It is predicted to take time for these new jobs to happen. They will require new skills that most people do not have now, so young people will need to begin to learn these new skills. 

Overall, I think AI can be a great thing, but every great thing clearly has its downsides. Personally, I do not trust things like self-driving cars I would much rather have a taxi driver. But maybe that will change as it evolves and becomes more normal in the future. I think it will be both interesting and scary to see where AI takes the world in the next few years.

Privacy

 Today everything we do is being surveilled. Every time we are online, we are giving our private information to companies and the government.  Every move we make on the internet is being stored as data which is then sold to other parties. Your personal information is what pays for social media platforms and other online websites. Meta which is the company that owns Facebook and Instagram makes a little less than ten dollars per user.

It is not a secret that Google is tracking what everyone is doing online. This is so companies can send you targeted ads that are directly related to your life so that these companies are hitting their target demographic. Cookies is what google uses to track it's users. When you click 'allow cookies' when you enter a website it is letting companies know that you visited that website and it is all being stored. However Google has come out saying that they are blocking cookies from chrome. 

Some states government have taken little action to protect it's citizens privacy but nothing that stops it completely. In 2021 states introduced twenty data protection measures. Some states like California have created a law that allows people to ask companies to stop tracking them. Although there have been some steps toward protection nobody is completely safe from being watched on the internet.

There are some small things that everyone can do in order to further protect themselves on the internet. The first thing is not giving out personal information like your email address and phone number to companies when they ask for it. Another measure you can take is clearing your browser history regularly to stop companies from collecting this data over a period of time. It is also important to review websites privacy settings because some allow you to have some control over how much of your data gets shared. At the end of the day when you are on the internet you will constantly being tracked and it is important to stay mindful and aware of this fact. 

Eight Values

There are eight values of free expression that are all important and determine our freedoms in society. Here in America we are lucky to have the first amendment to protect us and give us the freedom to speak our mind and believe what we want to believe. Out of the eight values of free expression there are three that stand out the most to me. These three values are numbers  three, six, and eight. Without these values of free expression we would not have the freedom to truthfully speak on what we believe in.

The third value is the concept of “stable change” or “Safety Valve”. This value resonates with me because I think it is crucial to have the freedom to express your thoughts and feelings. When we are able to speak on what is bothering or angering us it can be calming to get things off of our chests. Without this freedom everyone would have to keep their opinions to themselves and everyone would be more angry because their complaints would not be heard. It helps the government because it is extremely beneficial to hear feedback from the people to get an idea of what is working and what is not. It also prevents acts of violence from occurring out of anger. It allows for a much more stable government. 

Number six is also an important one to me. Number six is promoting tolerance, which is essential to a society and government. Especially in a democracy everyone has their own opinions on everything and it is very important to learn to be mindful of other people’s points of view. A lot of the time personal views can ruin relationships because some people tend to get really upset over differences of views. I think if everyone learned tolerance and was able to accept everyone we would have a more peaceful society but that is almost impossible to make everyone tolerant. 

Number eight is another very important value on this list. Number eight protects minority views and gives everyone the right and duty to criticize the government. It is a crucial part of our democracy to be able to speak up about things that someone may disagree with. If we were unable to criticize the government there would be no freedom to think what we all personally think. The government protects our freedom to have any beliefs no matter how unpopular they may be.

These three values are all extremely important in our society. If we did not have these freedoms our government would look extremely different than it does. The government would not function smoothly if all of its citizens were silenced and unable to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.