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