Technology, Helping or Hurting Us?

   At the Worlds Fair in New York, 1964 people were shown a ride called Futurama. It’s seemed to promise a perfect future, in which technology would solve the majority of our problems. It displayed people living on the moon, driving their cars under the water, and using machines to cut down trees in jungles to build road's. The message of the ride was pretty clear, technology will save us. 

    Then I watched the second video, the one containing the song Mad World. Which was the complete opposite. Thousands of tired, soulless, and numb people glued looking down at their phones. It started to make me think, if technology is supposed to make our lives better, why do so many people have a negative opinion about it? Which really stuck with me. 

     Honestly, I use technology every day. Whether its for school, communication, entertainment and among so many other things. The other half of this, is that I find myself stressed, distracted from my work, or even overwhelmed. Sometimes I find myself picking up my phone and checking the clock for no reason. I’ve definitely stayed up way too late on my phone or computer and felt anxious because im scrolling on social media too long. I’ll go to check a text and ill end up on TikTok for at least an hour, making precious time disappear. So is the relationship I have with technology healthy? I’d say its definitely a mix. It feels like it depends on the day, it’s helpful in so many ways, but im also aware of letting it take up too much of my time and even energy. I need to be more intentional whenever I’m using it, not just filling empty time slots when I’m bored.

    Watching these videos also made me think about our online privacy. Since I was a kid I’ve always thought it was interesting how much comes up when you google family members and friends. Pictures, awards, old posts from my moms facebook… things I never realized were still out floating on the internet. My family, friends, and I have all shared a lot online, and of course I’ve thought about what I’ve posted. I just never thought about who would be able to see it and when. 

 

    

    Reading articles like the one from The Atlantic about facebook users still not knowing how facebook works. Made me think about how much personal information I’ve given out online, without much thought. I also know my mom has, since I was a baby. It’s a little scary how simple losing control of your data can be. A study within the article shows that 74% of Facebooks users didn’t know they are actively compiling list of their interests which is based on who they’re friends with, their behaviors, and interactions. It’s mainly used to create targeted ads, and a lot of people are completely unaware of it. 

    My opinion on technology remains a mix, I still don’t believe its all bad. It’s truly amazing what the positive aspects of it can do. Like any relationship in our lives, we must set limits and make good decisions to keep it healthy. Meaning we should take breaks and think about what we’re posting. 

Diffusion of Innovations

     When TikTok emerged, it really took the internet by storm and grabbed the attention from all the other social media platforms. This may feel like something that would have never happened, an app where absolutely everyone uses it, from family to family across the globe. According to Everett Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations theory it was bound to happen sometime soon. It followed a pattern, and the pattern helps to explain why new technology spreads so quickly and why they catch on. There’s also a reasoning behind people liking these adaptations quicker than others that may even resist. 

    Roger’s talks about the five elements that changed the way innovation spread. Those five being, the thing being innovated itself, the ones adopting it, communication channels, context of time, and the systems of society. To be completely honest, TikTok uses all five of these and it uses them well. It’s very fitting with habits that already exist, people enjoy watching short clips of videos. Apps like vine, YouTube, or even Instagram made it easy to install the app and instantly start scrolling, making them very easy to view. People using this type of media can constantly see what others are doing, which really helped push these platforms into everyone’s everyday lives. 

    The innovators creating these apps were teens that were looking for ways to express their thoughts online. The early adopters were “influencers” and “trendsetters” that saw the potential the app had. The early majority joined once they realized TikTok was more than just a silly dancing app, and the late majority (companies) followed when it became recognized in a mainstream setting. The laggards are the people who still aren’t on TikTok, they often talk about how it makes screen time increase, or they just don’t understand it. These 5 stages show what Roger’s called “barriers to adoption”.

    Next time you see an app, or any technology gaining traction, think about who would be interested early on, and what makes it appealing in the first place. Then when it blows up, think about whats holding you or people you know from installing it. 

The Progressive Era

    When exploring the First Amendment and how its evolved, we have seen how antiwar dissent experiences backlash. Americans during World War 1, like Eugene Debs, were sent to jail under the Espionage and Sedation Acts for openly admitting that they were against the war. This shows that there was an obvious blurred line between our debt to national security and free speech. Court cases like Schenck v. United States verify the Supreme Courts support in these ideas, additionally they began the Clear and Present Danger Test in an attempt to limit our right to speech. 

   

    Today, a lot has changed and the First Amendment will definitely protect your opinions on the ongoing war. Yet, antiwar opinions will still most likely never reach mainstream media. Websites like Antiwar.com and The American Conservative give people with those perspectives a platform to voice it, but I’ve never heard of it. I sent the Antiwar website to a few of my friends and a group-chat with my family and asked if they had ever read an article from them. Only one of my friends had ever heard of the website. For some reason, their influence is nothing compared to major news networks like CNN, ABC, or the New York Times. Forcing people to wonder about how (or if) the Marketplace of Ideas really is receptive. 

    There are several reasons to why there’s a blurred line, things I learned were corporate media consolidation. When the news is often going along with whatever the government narrative is at the time, especially when there’s a conflict happening. 

    Journalists of these mainstream media outlets choose what information to disclose in attempts to protect their careers, and views that go against the war are labeled as unpatriotic. This prevention isn’t something that has only happened in the past, it’s relevant in many current events. If we choose to continue to shut out these opinions, there’s a chance we’ll repeat history and enter disputes without thinking about others. If we want to protect democracy, we have to make sure dissenting voices are protected, and even debated/engaged with. 

    When looking at the past and our current condition, the United States definitely struggles with the idea of the Marketplace of Ideas. We need to focus on protecting opinions of everyone, that includes antiwar or dissenting views. This will ensure we stay a healthy democracy. 

EOTO Reax

 When thinking of video games, I mainly think of entertainment. Something fun to do with friends, it’s competitive, and they’re very unique and creative. After hearing Kinsey talk about the history and adaptations of video games, im starting to look at them in a completely different way. Which is as a strong and ever changing way to communicate around the world. 

    Personally, I had no idea that one of the first video games was Tennis for Two using an oscilloscope in 1958. I absolutely love how it wasn’t about just selling a random flashy product, it was a shift in technology’s potential, this is what really stuck with me. He then talked about the creation of Spacewar! Which was developed in 1962 at MIT, a quick development, and spread across college campuses becoming the first example of video games connecting people. I liked Kinsey’s analysis of the “easy to play, difficult to master” said by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and how those simple ideas drove crazy advancements in gaming hardware. This resulted in video games being the biggest role in the development of motherboards, graphics cards, online networks, among so many other things. 

    The war between Xbox and PlayStation wasn’t just about looking cooler than the other, they steadily became better through communities and games needing more power. Which creates better graphics, better processing, among many other things. It’s literally a race to see who can deliver a better, more attractive experience for the people playing. 

    In today’s world, video games aren’t just playtime. They’re used as instruments for storytelling, connections, and creativity. Creating industries and careers like E-sports game development. This viewpoint helps me realize how serious even the most playful technology is, creating a gateway for people who want to take videos games to the next level.

Privacy

 There is a price to pay for privacy nowadays in this digital age we live in. We are constantly leaving behind a digital footprint in everything we do on the internet, whether we acknowledge it or not. The videos on privacy give examples of how exposed we actually are. Ranging from the idea of “electronic tattoos”, which I’ll explain later, to automated license plate scanners, cell tower dumps, or StingRay devices that keep our privacy at constant risk.

    These are problems that feel personal, my friends and I are constantly sharing information from our lives on social media without even questioning who’s watching. Let alone how long that information will be sitting there on the internet, collecting dust until it pops back up at a job interview. Darieth Chisholms How Revenge Porn Turns Lives Upside Down especially hits home. For example, in high school, one of the biggest scandals was “sexting” and those photos being posted/spread all over the school. Which, is not only child pornograghy, but the idea of people weaponizing those photos is terrifying and can happen to anyone who chooses to share things like that. As a kid, it’s not just embarrassing for the people involved, it’s emotionally and legally traumatic. Most of the time with these situations, the victims are also responsible to clean up the mess years later, themselves. 

    The government has been needing to step in for a while and catch up to the adaptation of technology. Stronger laws protecting privacy against digital threats, policies on how much surveillance is allowed, accountability from companies behind the technology. It currently feels like humans are paying the price for privacy invasions they can’t prevent. Privacy invasions that can only be prevented by those same companies, or we can all decide to quit social media all together. 

    That being said, we should still be very careful about what we are posting online and stay educated on privacy laws. Most importantly, we have to voice our opinions whether we’re asking for better protection, supporting others in need, or educating people around us.