Final Blog Prompt: Technology and Me

 

The ride at the New York world fair of '64 and '65 called Futurama is an interesting sight to see in the present day. Certainly technology has brought us much further than we ever had before; however, it did not unfold as many people anticipated. 
I personally have been on many similar rides at Disney World in Orlando where Epcot was Walt Disney's city of the future, the image in this blog was the original sketch of what Walt Disney wanted the park to look like, he wanted them to be placed for people to live and work, and overall, but be a theme park, but an actual fully functioning city. Walt Disney's idea looks incredibly similar to the cities of tomorrow pictured in the world fair, but here we are some 50 years later with nothing that really matches what was predicted with technology. 
As mentioned, on the one hand, technology has brought us to a point in human development that has increased our abilities far beyond what was imaginable, so much so that it is hard to picture a world without technology, like a smartphone or laptop. 
Still, technology has had its drawbacks, social media in particular is a topic that has been hot since its creation in the early 2000s. Time and time again, studies have proven how suicide rates in young adults and teens have increased dramatically since 2008. Self-image and confidence within the younger generations have deteriorated to a point where most teens such as myself went through their middle school and high school life looking down on themselves because social media tells you how you should look, act, and be overall. 
None of these predictions of suicide were ever intended when we were beginning to predict the future of technology all the way back since the moon landing was achieved. Yet, as technology begins to continue to evolve, the human brain must keep up with the evolution. More studies have proven that the human brain is incapable of evolving as fast as technology is, via a research paper I wrote back during my freshman year of college. We expect ourselves to change with technology when has been proven to be near impossible, each generation continues to become outdated, even I, who grew up with smartphones and other new technology have begone to fall behind in how new revolutionary technology works. If we think about how our parents feel or our parent's parents feel, technology has and will continue to be a step ahead of us as it evolves, at least to the average citizen.

#9: Diffusion Theory

 

        Smartwatches or apple watches were somewhat of an unbelievable invention when they first came out in 2014. As smartwatches were and still are an expensive investment today, I would safely say that smartwatches are approaching or even already at critical mass in diffusion theory.
    
    Simply put, most people that want a smartwatch already have them, I myself have never wanted one personally because I find my phone to be all I need if I need to look at the time or check my messages. My phone can also track steps and other health factors where I don't feel the need to wear a smartwatch to tell me those factors about me.

    Many companies such as Apple still produce newer versions of smartwatches because they are trying to fight the maturation and saturation of the product, by continuing to come out with newer versions, it makes people want to keep buying the newest version of the smartwatch.

    It's plain to see that anyone who doesn't have a smartwatch most likely does not want one and or will simply never invest in one because they may have the same viewpoints as myself where it is an unnecessary tool.

#8: Citizen Journalism

 

        In the age of social media, the term citizen journalism has hit an all-time high as the ability to spread information rapidly continues to grow and evolve in the world around us. Citizen journalism has existed long before the internet however, citizen journalism simply refers to the spread of information by those who are not trained, professional journalists. Famous home videos such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy were not filmed by a professional journalist, but instead by a citizen. We still see examples of this today where videos of events on the news will be taken by local citizens in the area which the mainstream media will then use for their own news coverage of the situation. Even now, citizens in Ukraine are using home video to document the invasion by Russian forces while is then covered by mainstream media.

    Today, citizen journalism has peaked due to social media and the internet. The ability for us as citizens to spread information quickly at our fingertips has revolutionized journalism across the globe. Citizen journalism has become a double-edged sword with the ability to spread misinformation or biased information too. Yet, Citizen Journalism has still revolutionized journalism through a more democratic process of gathering information whether it be through individual photographs, videos, etc.

    The term citizen journalism first came about in South Korea during the early 2000s when citizens had expressed their dissatisfaction with the traditional news media in the country. One entrepreneur declared that "every citizen is a journalist" which prompted the creation of a local city newspaper. As the business continued to grow and a lack of employees, the website OhmyNews was started. As the internet has continued to grow, so has the number of citizen journalists around the globe. More and more apps and websites like the one in South Korea have been developed such as the Nextdoor Neighbor app which connects local citizens together to discuss local issues and report events in their area.

    A study performed in 2016 indicated that over half of professional journalists use social media to find and develop stories, thus further spreading the information provided by these citizen journalists. The concern is always that citizen journalism will always have its flaws in the reliability of the information provided as well as the facts versus the opinions being presented by the individual, still the fact is that nobody can deny the impact that citizen journalism has had on the journalism world today. 

    

#7: Privacy and The Internet

    
    

    One of the videos presented in class reminded me of documentaries I have watched before talking about how large internet corporations track their activity. The fact is that every activity we partake in is tracked by almost everyone from private corporations to the federal government. For an average citizen such as myself, it raises concern as it may always feel like someone is watching your every move. The dilemma gets even more confusing as these corporations start targeting you with specific ads and posts based on your own interests which you may have thought were private knowledge. Everything on the internet is interconnected and is used to target you specifically. 

    While the government should be working to protect our individuality and our privacy on the internet, the truth is that this data collecting benefits them as well as seen in the video mentioned above. the federal, state, and local governments can know your last known whereabouts or even ping your phone to pinpoint your exact location. The government won't do anything to harm this useful information they can gather and even purchase from these companies like Snapchat or Google.

    Useful tools to protect ourselves do exist, one of the most common being a VPN which can protect you while browsing the internet. VPNs are becoming increasingly popular for this exact reason. Another easy way to protect your privacy is to simply be cautious about what you put out on the internet and what information you decide to share as that information is forever out there somewhere on the internet even if you delete it one day.

#6: EOTO Presentations

     

    One presentation I found interesting was about the history of the United States Postal Service. The US Postal Service began before 1776 in 1775 which shows the significance of such a service to the birth of a nation. Although we take different mail carriers for granted nowadays, whether it be USPS, UPS, or FedEx, it is evident that the original postal service for the United States was a vital addition before the United States could declare itself an independent nation. 
    

    An efficient and effective form of communication for its time was needed to make the country a more self-sustaining nation. In 1775, Benjamin Franklin was elected the first postmaster general of the postal service, later the postal office department was created in 1792 and was then raised to a cabinet level department in 1872. Finally, with the postal reorganization act, the Postal Service was made into a new federal agency in 1970. The postal service we have today was born on July 1st, 1971 shortly after FedEx's debut on May 5th.


    Today the US postal service has fallen below other competitors such as UPS and FedEx but still maintains the monopoly on letter mail since the beginning. USPS only lacks in the category of package mail which has been an oligopoly with UPS and FedEx since their beginning. 

#5: Antiwar Voices

 

    Anti-war voices are critical today as tensions build between the United States and Russia, now backed by China. Unfortunately, it is hard to hear the voices of those who do not want war between the two mega powers of the world, even though most American citizens and likely Russian citizens do not want war between the two powers. 

    Yet, even though the majority of the world's population does not want to go to war, we see our leaders continue to gear up and rattle the cage of war again and again. I think it is likely that war benefits very few individuals. Still, some of those individuals include gun manufacturers, military arms manufacturers, or even news corporations at this point in history. 

    Is it possible that the United States is gearing up for war because these large corporations are the ones that give money to these politicians to run for office and continue to win again and again? In reality, there should be no reason to go to war with either Russia or China, simply put, if we want to stop the invasion of individual nations, then we need to focus on imposing punishments against Russia or China and supporting the respective countries rather than flat out declaring war against countries which have not acted on their threats. 

    Is it possible that Google and other internet browsers hide these anti-war voices in a collusion effort with the United States government to prevent our first amendment rights to speak out against the outrageous actions of our government to want to send our country into a war which mutually assured destruction is guaranteed?

#4: EOTO

 

    The telegraph refers to more than just the electric telegraph, since the beginning of recorded history, telegraphs have been used to communicate over long distances. Examples of early telegraphs include tall tower-like structures which used reflective light of the sun to transmit signals to nearby villages. Or even earlier, smoke signals were used to send signals and show locations of camps. Overall, the electric telegraph was only the result of many years of electrical innovation that resulted in the much faster and more typical way we think of a telegraph.
    
    Electric telegraphs had been around for some number of years before the one we might typically think of today used in the Civil War era of America. notably, the inventor of the Civil War telegraph noted a European telegraph which showed similar results to his plans; however, was far too complicated while he was more simplistic and efficient. 

Samuel Morse was the inventor of the American telegraph, he was also the creator of the morse code which was used to send information via electrical signals through the telegraph. While the term telegraph can be broken down into two parts, "tele" which in Greek means distant, and "graphein" which in Greek refers to writing or communication, Samuel Morse's telegraph would span even greater distances than its predecessors. 

    After many years of conferencing with the American Congress, the bill was finally passed to allow Samuel Morse to construct his prototype telegraph from Washington D.C. to Baltimore for 30,000 dollars. Within Samuel Morse's lifetime, he would see his electric telegraph grow exponentially as it traveled further west in America and eventually would even connect the two continents of North America and Europe together with a telegraph line stretching under the ocean's surface.

    The telegraph revolutionized communication as it allowed for the first time, efficient and effective communication over long distances. With this new technological power, the telegraph would aid the Union states of America to more effectively develop tactics during the Civil War and can be attributed to aiding in the Union victory. With that in mind, it is quite evident to see that Samuel Morse's telegraph not only gave way for many more technological innovations to follow but also paved the way for the world we have today.