Blog #11

    I have a mostly healthy relationship with technology. I am aware that I probably use my phone too much. As of right now, my daily average for screen time is 6 hours and 35 minutes. My most used app currently is Instagram. I enjoy going on Instagram to see funny reels and forward them to my friends. Besides my phone I enjoy watching TV shows, movies, and podcasts and playing video games. My favorite video game to play right now is NBA 2k. The favorite thing that I am watching right now is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My digital footprint is very low. I only use Instagram and Snapchat on a regular basis. Any other social media I either don’t have or don’t use it. I am not that exposed online. I have not posted on Instagram since 2017. I have not found anything on my online presence that I need to change. 

I think that the two videos that we watched were interesting and gave an interesting perspective on technology and the future. The first video we watched was about the display from the 1964 World's Fair in New York. It was about the positive outlooks of technology and the technological advances yet to come. The second video we watched was about the negative aspects of technology. It talked about how everyone is just glued to their devices and how it deteriorates your mental health. I do not think that either one of these videos are 100% accurate. I think that the effect of technology on the world is somewhere in between. I think that there have been both positive and negative impacts on our society. One positive impact that technology has had on society is the GPS. The fact that we don’t have to learn how to use a map is amazing. It is an amazing technology because you can just plug in whatever address you need to go to, and it will just know. It is also free for everyone with a smartphone. It is great because it has made life easier for everyone. One negative impact of technology is the decrease of attention span. There has been a study done that says since the year 2000, the attention span has decreased from 12 to 8 seconds. This decrease in attention spans has made it harder to teach kids patience and that is an important life lesson everybody should know. Overall, I think that there are both negative and positive impacts because of the advancements of technology. 

I think things like online censorship should not happen to the degree that it is happening. Just because someone else posts something that does not agree with your political views, does not mean that someone’s post or account should be taken down. I think that it has gone overboard with the big social media platforms. Sadly, I do not see these issues about censorship changing because all those companies get money from ad revenue, and if an advertiser does not like what someone is saying, the social media companies would be forced to take it down.    

                                                            Work Cited                             https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/09/20/17-experts-share-technologies-making-a positive-impact-on-society/?sh=2e6b400c21b3 

https://www.nu.edu/blog/negative-effects-of-technology-on-children-what-can-you-do/ 

BLOG #10

   

    The presentation I am writing about for this blog post is Landon Lozada’s. He did his presentation on Net Neutrality. I did not know what net neutrality was before this presentation. I remember when it was a big issue. I was in middle school when net neutrality ended. It is a huge deal because the end of net neutrality means that the tech companies could limit our rights on the internet. 

Net Neutrality means that everyone on the internet should have the same opportunity to succeed no matter how big or small they are. For example, a high schoolers blog should have the same opportunity as big advertisers. It was one of former president Barack Obama’s key issues. He has been in support of net neutrality since 2007 when he was still a senator. He famously said, “this allows for the opportunity for the next Google or Amazon and essentially the betterment of society and innovation.” 

I also learned that not only is net neutrality important on an economic level, but is important on an educational level. Net neutrality provides digital equality for all. It provides students and educators with the technology to help flourish learning. It also gives everyone the information to learn properly and fairly. Our country has a difficult history of not giving all of its citizens equality. 

    Net neutrality came to an end during former president Donald Trump’s administration. The leading man most responsible for ending net neutrality is former chairman of the FCC Ajit Pai. This was one of the worst things to have happen during former president Donald Trump’s administration. This gave the huge internet providers the freedom to limit peoples’ access to the internet based on their own opinions. That struck down everything that former president Barack Obama worked for. Making sure that all US citizens have equality on the internet.  

Work Cited: 

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/net-neutrality 

Blog #9

    The positive aspects of artificial intelligence and machine technology becoming more and more advanced is the time it takes to do things. If there was a way to do things like organizing sources for a scholarly article and writing a book would be great. It would save so much time, and make peoples’ lives so much easier. It would save people so much time, energy, and money. 

    The pro about the new privacy laws in California are that tech companies can’t get your information if you don’t consent to it. It will give people their basic human right to privacy as they wish. There should be no one who is denied a basic right to privacy as they wish. A con about privacy is that it would not make the internet free. As the government cracks down on data mining, it forces the tech companies to start limiting the access of their service through subscriptions. It makes the internet less fun to pay for something that I could do for free in the past. 

    Artificial intelligence affects national security because tech companies are using it to track us. That is a part of national security because the government could just call the companies if they want information on somebody and get it in a matter of seconds. That is good if the person that they are getting the information from is evil, but that is bad that they could do that to anybody they want to even if they are not a threat or not. 

    It is bad for online security and identity theft because the thieves could use that technology to get your information faster. It is also good because the tech companies could also use that technology to protect you from security and identity theft. It is both good and bad. 

   

Blog Post #8

    The term that I have chosen for the second each one teaches one blog post is confirmation bias. The definition for confirmation bias is people’s tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing belief. It is a frequent occurrence among people because it is mostly unintentional. It also happens when people ignore information that doesn’t go along with their beliefs, and it happens when people retain information that supports their beliefs. 

    The implications that are associated with confirmation bias affect the real world. Some of the ways that it affects the real world are medicine, law, and interpersonal relationships. Believe it or not, there has been research done that has shown that medical doctors are just as likely to have confirmation bias as the average person. Early in the treatment stage, doctors are guilty of making diagnoses based on an hunch. Having a hunch has shown to interfere with their ability to process information that may lead to an alternative diagnosis. This is bad because patients are highly likely to agree with a diagnosis that supports their ideal outcome and will affect the process of treatment. It affects the law because judges and juries have been known to form opinions about defendants’ guilt or innocence before they hear the evidence. This is bad because it interferes with how they process information, and it might lead to an unjust verdict. The way it affects relationships is by forming inaccurate and biased impressions on others. It could lead to miscommunication and conflicts within the relationships. It could also lead people to change their behavior to conform to other people. 

    The effect that confirmation bias has on society is that people are always looking for the positive. When people are looking for information to support their stance, they look for positive information that supports their point rather than finding evidence that is true. People don’t care about whether it is true or not, they just want to find evidence that supports their point. 

    Confirmation bias can affect all groups of people from different walks of life. One way that confirmation bias affects people that identify as minorities. One of the ways that confirmation bias affects minorities is in the workplace. Confirmation bias in the workplace can lead to a reduction of diversity in the workplace. People that are hiring may unconsciously seek out employees that fit their background or beliefs. A lack of diversity in the workplace can lead to a narrow minded workplace. This could result in limited creativity and innovation in the workplace. It also limits the amount of talent you have in the workplace. It can cause managers to overlook qualified candidates because of their preconceived biases. The result of this is missing out on opportunities to hire highly skilled and talented individuals who could bring innovation to the workplace. It can also cause managers to make bad hires and have high turnover rates. If there was a manager that hired a candidate based on their preconceived notions over hiring a candidate based on their qualifications. The outcome is that it is a bad fit and they have to find a new employee to fill that spot. 

    It affects my friends, family, and I like it affects everyone. Everybody has confirmation bias without even thinking about it. I can recount several times that my family has committed confirmation bias. I have been in arguments with my family and they look up some facts they say and find a source that proves their point and end the argument. It affects the people I know just as much as it affects everybody in the country. 

Source: 

https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias 

https://www.equalture.com/bias-overview/confirmation-bias/#:~:text=Reduced%20diversity%3A%20Confirmation%20bias%20can,leading%20to%20a%20homogeneous%20workforce. 

 

Blog Post #7

    These TED talks were very interesting to me. They were all about different topics relating to technology and privacy. The first video was about how your internet profiles are permanent and are equivalent to tattoos. The second video was about how the police track you and keep your information whether it prevents crimes or not. The third video was about how the smartphone’s messaging and calling apps are now encrypted making it harder for people to monitor your calls. The fourth video was about the outcomes of revenge porn and why the government needs clear laws for punishment. The fifth video was about how your email is not private and could be easily monitored. The sixth and final video was about how peoples’ devices give up your data and privacy. 

    These issues affect my friends, family, and I because everybody I know and I use phones everyday and especially social media. It is now a social norm to be on your phone a frequent amount and have a social media presence. If you don’t have any social media presence you are labeled as a creep. It is important in today's society to have an online presence. 

    The government should not be listening in on any of our online communications and be policing themselves to do so. I believe that the government should not be observing our calls or any other online messaging that people do without probable cause. When governments act like this, it is no different than a dictatorship that controls what people say and do. I do not think that the USA should be a police state. 

    I also think that there should be clear laws and punishment against revenge porn. I think that it is a hainass act to violate someone's privacy like that. It should not be a mistometer at all. It should be punished with huge fines and a long prison sentence. 

    

    We can protect ourselves better by continuing to use the phone and messaging apps on our smartphones. I think that is the best way to protect ourselves because those apps are encrypted. It is easier to get personal information off an email than a text message. I think that is the best way to protect ourselves. 

Blog Post #6

    I found the websites Antiwar.com and The American Conservative to be very interesting. They have articles written about all the wars that the US is involved in. I think that the reason that people don’t hear about these stories in the mainstream media is because the government does not want people to hear about what they are doing wrong. The United States government always wants to be perceived as the “good guys” regardless if they are in the wrong or not. The US government will try to silence these sources by calling it “fake news” or “slander.” These journalists are forced to go to these lesser known sites to report, so they don’t get silenced. 

 

    I think that the reason that I have never heard of these websites is because the internet companies like “Google” and “Yahoo” don’t want people to find these websites. They would rather the major news sources that are supporting the wars that the United States are involved in because they are pressured by the government to do so. These companies do billions of dollars in business with the US government, so they do whatever the government asks of them so they do not lose their business with the government. If they refused to do what the government asked of them, the government would just cancel their business with them and go to some other company. 

    I think the reason that I have never heard of these websites is because these sources get labeled as either “fake news” by the internet companies. The mainstream media has been reporting on the wars that the US is the “good guys.” The mainstream media does not want to be accused of their reports being “fake news” and them being discredited as a reliable source. They want to continue to be a mainstream source, so they report what the people and government want to hear instead of the truth.  

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/ 

https://www.antiwar.com/ 

Blog Post #5

    I really found Arianna’s presentation about Google really interesting. I did not know that the co-founders of Google were Larry Page and Segy Bryn. I did not know that they both went to Stanford University in the 1990s as well. I also didn’t know that they were both studying computer engineering. I found it really interesting that Google was originally named Backrub. I think that is a really funny name compared to Google. I think that is a super weird name to have for an internet service. They also changed the name to Google really quickly. I am glad that they realized early that it was not a great name for a search engine. I can’t think of a way that you land on that name and decide to stick with it. They launched it with the name Backrub in 1996 and then changed it to Google after they received an investment in 1998. 

    I also found it really interesting that Google revolutionized the internet. Before Google, it would take forever to find information and do research. Now it takes seconds to do it. I also find it interesting that Google is continuing to make advancements in their field by offering a wide variety of services. Some of these services include Maps, Drive, Docs/ Slides, YouTube, Classroom, and Meet. I also found it interesting that the co-founders of Google were talking about making advancements in artificial intelligence in the year 2000. They said that artificial intelligence will help them with advancements in Google. Artificial Intelligence is now used in a wide variety of Google’s products. The main thing that Google uses artificial intelligence for is their sponsored search. It is what they use to bring people that use their site to get them what they are looking for. I think that this presentation was very informative and interesting. 

https://about.google/intl/ALL_us/our-story/ 

https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bult.1720320206