Final Blog Post: My Relationship to Technology: Positive and Negative Effects

Over the past semester in our Media Law and Literacy class, we discussed privacy and technological advancements and their influence on our everyday lives.

Being a Gen Z I grew up with technology, I don’t know what life looks like without technology. I grew up having 24/7 access to the internet. Most of my generation, including me, depend on the usage of technology. According to an article on Jason Dorsey’s blog, Gen Z and tech dependency: How the youngest generation interacts differently with the digital world it states, “Gen Z are true digital natives. Our State of Gen Z research studies show that 95% own a smartphone, 83% own a laptop, 78% own an advanced gaming console, and 57% have a desktop computer. 29% use their smartphone past midnight on a nightly basis.” I am included in this static because I own a smartphone, laptop and even more technology including an iPad, air pods, and an apple watch. There are not many people my age that I know without a phone and laptop. Due to our usage of technology we have a digital footprint.

Personally, I know I have a digital footprint because I use digital media every single day. My usage of media has become a habit that is ingrained in me everyday. A form of digital media that I use in my everyday life is the internet. Among other things, I use the internet for my education, online shopping, and streaming media such as Netflix. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t pull up Google Chrome or Safari to help me complete a task. For example, today I have 11 tabs open in Google Chrome as I finish my finals which include High Point Blackboard, Media Law and Lit Blog, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Scholar. These are all digital media sources that help me with my academic career.

Almost all colleges, universities, high schools, and grade schools use technology to support their educational system, which constantly changes as technology advances. In today’s world most everything is done through online educational tools such as Blackboard Learn or Instructure Canvas. Having online platforms has helped Universities in a positive way because, “A digital learning platform allows access to a complete library of online resources…The learning material can be in the form of courses, multimedia content, archives and evaluations. All students can access the information anytime and from anywhere with the help of the Internet and a reading device of their choice, be it a laptop, tablet or a smartphone. Then there is also the option to download material and access for offline use” (The Role of Digital Learning Platforms in the Academic Growth of Students).

One positive aspect that technology had in the classroom was during the year of COVID19 when school went online. When classes suddenly had to go online the usage of technology helped students continue their education. At the time, almost every student was affected by this, and technology helped us adapt more quickly. In spite of the difficulty of getting used to doing school online, being able to do classes from the comfort of my own home was a big help when life was extremely hectic. Some online tools that were helpful were Zoom

and Microsoft Teams. These are online streaming sites that make it easy to have a setting similar to the classroom in the best way possible.

A negative aspect of the use of technology in the classroom is that it can be a distraction. Technology can be positive because of educational websites but there are also several websites that are not educational such as games and shopping. I know every student has used technology in a non educational way during class, I know I have. This can hinder students from learning the information effectively.

Another form of media that I use everyday is social media. I use many different types of social media including Snapchat, Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook. There are so many people around us that use social media because it can be used in many different ways. “An Analysis shows that there are 4.74 billion social media users around the world in October 2022, equating to 59.3 percent of the total global population” (Global Social Media Users).

The usage of these social media platforms has a positive affect on my life because it helps me communicate, share information, and create content. Social media, especially snapchat and instagram help me stay in touch with my high school friends that go to different colleges. Even though I do not talk to all of them everyday it is helpful to see their posts to know what is going on in their life.

Social Media also has a negative effect on my life because it is a distraction. I often catch myself checking social media when I should be studying. Also social media affects how we act in person because in social situations so many people are absorbed with what is on their phone they forget to focus on spending quality time with the people that are right in front of them.

In conclusion, technology has affected my life in positive and negative ways when it comes to my digital footprint, educational technology, and social media.

Blog Post #11: Media-sphere EOTO Reflection

Group 2 taught the class about different areas of the media-sphere which include, whistling-blowing, alternative media, mainstream media, echo chambers, online influencers, and citizen journalism. Media-sphere is the collective ecology of the world media.

The first thing mentioned in group 2 was the idea of Whistleblowing. An employee who whistleblower reveals information about illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, or fraudulent activity within a private or public organization. Some pros to whistleblowing include fighting corruption, earning financial compensation, and making sure wrongdoers are not rewarded. But the cons are putting the person's job or carer in jeopardy, the process of lengthy, and there is the possibility that the whistleblower’s claim may not be true and can have a negative effect on many people's jobs, time, and money. Whistling blowing can be a very risky job. An example, she talked about was Edward Snowden who was a former whistleblower. It gives them more access to private parts of people's lives in a negative way.

The next thing that was discussed in group 2 by Kendall was alternative media. Alternative media is sources that differ from more mainstream or dominant sources of media. They are isolated towards a certain view such as different political views. There are pros and cons that have to do with alternative media. There is a pro in that it allows individuals who feel unrepresented to speak up and express their opinions and views. A negative aspect of alternative media is that there is a risk of the spread of misinformation and fake news.

Then Erin went on to talk about mainstream media has a high influence on the internet today and is easy to access. Some examples are CBS, NBC, CNN, and more. These media sources are what people see first when they go to look at media for information. The government has some sort of power over these news sources.

Then as a class, we learned about Echo Chamber from Will. An echo chamber is an environment where a person only sees information that reflects their own opinions. To prevent this we can check multiple news sources, talk with other people who have different views, and make sure news isn't based on only rumors but actually contain facts. One thing that stood out to me from what Will talked about was when he discussed how echo chamber follows what sites we spend time on and give us more that are like them. This is not good because then people will only see information from their own views which will grateful affect them.

Going deeper Lacy taught us about online influencers. Online influencers use social media platforms to share posts and have collaborations with brands to make money. Online influencers must have a high following in order for brands to want to work with them. Some pros are being able to work from home and getting paid for doing something fun but some cons include not having a steady income or having to work when you don’t want to. Online influencers are changing our lives in different ways because of how we live according to digital media today.

Then Dylan went deeper into the idea of citizen journalism. Citizen journalism is written or put together by people who are not actually journalists. It is known as a different storytelling dimension because it is raw and widespread. In today's world, it is very easy because of how big the digital world is. This can be bad because people will often put fake news out there.

Blog Post #10: In The Age of Artificial Intelligence

The term Artificial Intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence by computers or machines. AI is used to perform human-like tasks by learning from experience. Some examples of artificial intelligence that we know or even use today include voice assistance, image recognition like face id, self-driving cars, marketing chatbots, manufacturing robots, and many more.

The world of artificial intelligence is further explained in a documentary called, "In the Age of AI (full documentary)" where the topic explores how AI is changing life as we know it through many things including jobs, personal privacy, and the rivalry between the U.S. and China.

In the video, "In the Age of AI (full documentary)" posted by frontline, the narrator says, “AI really is the ultimate tool of wealth creation.” Data is being collected in many ways by everybody in the world who uses technology. Watching the documentary stood out to me because I did not realize that the reason AI was created was to make more money for the world. They have the ability to make this money by dissecting our lives to gather information.

One thing stated in the Frontline video that stood out to me was when President of UAW Local 668, Saginaw says, “I'm scared. I’m gonna be quite honest with you, I worry about the future of not just this country but the entire globe. If we continue to go in an automated system, what are we going to do?” This connects back to the idea discussed how the people at the top with all the power have all the money and then there are people struggling to just live because they are so poor. Automation is affecting our future because big technology companies are running this world, whether we recognize it or not. And these companies are so big and have so much money. AI has to do with money more than I thought.


Artificial Intelligence is rapidly progressing and there are pros and cons to the life-changing topic. It has gone from a science-fiction dream to a critical part of our everyday lives. Artificial intelligence presents a threat but also an opportunity to our world.

One of the positive aspects of AI is that it simplifies human life and can also be a life-saving tool because it can cure diseases and be an assistance to people with disabilities.

Nevertheless, AI is changing the world and this is not without its downsides. AI threatens the way of human life and needs to be created with much planning and foresight. Also one of the most negative effects is that AI can replace cheap labor which deepens economic inequality making the lower class struggle even more. AI is also known to challenge humans for critical resources.

We need to think more about the world of AI before just putting it into action because of the effects it can have on the world as a whole. The world is becoming a new place with the presence of AI and we all need to be aware of it and recognize it.

Blog Post #9: Total Information Awareness

TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS, “ was a mass detection program by the United States Information Awareness Office. It operated under this title from February to May 2003 before being renamed Terrorism Information Awareness” (Wikipedia). Senator Ron Wyden stated that TIA was the “biggest surveillance program in the history of the United States” (USA Today). Through TIA the government was monitoring email, phone conversations, and internet searches.

The total information awareness is run by John Poindexter through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DAROA) which is a brand of the Department of Defense that focuses on military research. The system was a large database created by combining as much information as possible about as many people as possible through computer algorithms and human analysis. Then they made the information available to government officials, and sort through it trying to identify terrorists. One goal of the program was to give law enforcement access to private data without suspicion of wrongdoing or a warrant.

One good thing that could come from TIA is the benefit of stopping terrorism. The Information Awareness Office System Description Document states, “The TIA program seeks to provide a true end-to-end capability for analysts and decision-makers.” The TIA is characterized by four elements: innovative architecture, a rapid turn-around experimentation process, a technology refresh process, and an infrastructure development and tool hardening process. The ultimate goal of TIA is to identify foreign terrorists and figure out their plans to help the U.S. be ahead can create action plans.

Although Total Information Awareness was created to help our country it is bad because it takes away Americans' freedom. Under this program, every aspect of our lives would be cataloged and available to government officials. As Americans, we should have the freedom to keep our life private. The program is unconstitutional because it goes against the Forth Amendment. Every American was treated as a terrorism suspect.

TIA affected society as a whole because it is a program created to access people's personal information to try and stop terrorists. Total information awareness was created to correlate detailed information about certain people in order to anticipate and prevent terrorist incidents before execution.

It was the concept that terrorists could leave a digital trail behind them. For the government to discover that trail, they would have to collect data from everyone everywhere.

DARPA tried to give a reason for why TIA was created but it got shut down my congress. When society found out about TIA and the creation of the program altering learning about what it was there was a political storm.

Total information awareness has an impact on society as a whole because it was a treat. Over the past decade there has been an enormous immense amount of tracking and information because of technology and commercialization of data. This information could all be collected and put together to almost piece together a persons life. TIA would make this data surveillance a reality. 

If the TIA program was actually put into place then the American government would gain a huge amount of power over American citizens. It would threaten society because it goes against the government and people would abuse the ability.

Total Information Awareness would predominatingly have an affect on certain people in positive and negative ways. An example is how people that work within the government and specifically the program could possibly have access to peoples information. They could use their power to violate the law and use it for their personal use which would give them an advantage that other people would not have. This would be extremely wrong but would not put it past anyone because of the world we live in today.

Another example would be the difference of TIA would affect segments differently is the poor and the rich. As we all know, having money puts people at an advantage in life. If people have money they could use it to better protect themselves such as buying software to protect their information or something to keep the government getting too deep within their lives. Whereas the poor would not have access to something of this nature making them an easier target.

Total Information Awareness could affect me personally, including my family and friends and generation as a whole because we would be monitored by the U.S. government. Everything we did would be tracked and we would no longer have the freedom that we should be allowed as American citizens.

Blog Post #8: On and Offline Privacy

After watching the Ted Talk videos on privacy, my perspective on privacy on and offline has changed especially through technology. More and more data is being collected from each one of us because of the heavy use of technology in today’s world. We have to accept that when it comes to the digital age with photos, conversations, health information, or even finances, nothing can be private. We do so many things online that it can't be stopped.

Andy Yen's TED Talk, Think your email's private? Think again dives deeper into the idea of emails and how each email we send gets added up into a collection of emails which puts our footprint out there. The pace of technological innovation has immensely eliminated our ability to protect our privacy. Whether we recognize it or not our digital footprint is being tracked. Every day new and more advanced technology is being created that is tracking what we do online and even off.

The internet has changed the way that the world works in many different ways including the way we do business, the way we communicate, and also the way that we live. The internet has had a positive and negative in the way society is run. Almost everybody has some if not a lot of personal information online. This can be through social media like Facebook and Twitter, Google searches, or even every time an email is sent on our behalf.

Another TED Talk that stood out to me was, Your online life, permanent as a tattoo by Juan Enriquez which emphasized the idea that what we do online is like a tattoo. Would we be using the online platforms we use every day if they were like tattoos? There are definitely more people in the world that have online accounts than tattoos because tattoos are permanent and online are not but that's wrong. Enriquez says in his talk that Facebook, Google, Twitter, Linkedin, cell phones, GPS, Foursquare, Yelp, and travel Advisor all are electronic tattoos that we have created for ourselves. These electronic tattoos are treats to each one of us because of the possibility of all our information and identity could be released.

After watching the TED talks, it has made me realize that the government should be doing more to address this issue. It is hard to say exactly what they should do but one factor they could focus on is making sure people's information does not leave the U.S. Companies should not have the ability to sell information outside of the country and the government could try and stop this from happening. 

Today there is no such thing as online privacy so we must be really careful about everything we say and post online. We might think that we are posting content just followers but anything you post on the internet.

To protect ourselves from invasions of our privacy we need to be careful and thoughtful about what we put out on the internet. The less information that is shared online the better it is for your privacy. Some tips about protecting your privacy are written on the website, 30 Ways to Love Yourself Online states some reasons including, creating strong passwords, not using the same passwords on multiple accounts, locking your device, and always logging out of browsers. If we follow these it will not be perfect but can be a start to keeping our online privacy.

Blog Post #7: Laptops through the Diffusion Theory

A revolutionary innovation was the LAPTOP. Laptop computers are small portable computers with a screen and keyboard. They were designed to be more portable than a traditional desktop computer with most of the same abilities. Laptops were created for convenience because they can be easily transported and conveniently used from wherever.

According to MLN, the first portable computer was invented in February 1984 by Adam Osborn with the first one being called The Osborn 1. Osborn believed that computers would be more beneficial if they were portable. He was an author and having a computer that he could take with him would bring much convenience to this writing.

So many people became early adaptors to the laptop because of the convenience. People like convenience in their life and having a laptop makes them able to do so. Having a laptop offers the freedom and flexibility to do work from anywhere at any time. With the invention of laptops, the world has become more innovative, and life has become easier.

Nowadays, almost everyone has a laptop because they are essential to our society. Laptops are used in a variety of settings including work, school, and personal life. Laptops have become popular among the new generation because of easy internet access, portability, and size. Because of this, the number of laptops purchased has increased immensely over the past few years.

Late adaptors or people that are not adaptors at all would be the older generation of people like grandparents. This is because a lot of the older generation is retired and does not have a particular need for a laptop. This particular generation has not grown up with laptops so they don’t know  its convenience. It is not easy to learn the function of new technology so they must be used to living without one and not interested in learning. Most people that work or go to school need laptops because the world revolves around them.


There are downsides to laptops which include a high price, potential loss of privacy, need to be connected to power, distraction, and more. These days most laptops are expensive because they are convenient. Laptops can take away privacy because they store information and personal data. Your laptop must be charged or connected to power to function so if you lose that then you could possibly not be able to work. Lastly, laptops can distract people from getting their work done because of their innovative technology. You can do almost everything on a laptop so it could distract a person from getting done what they need to.

 

Although, are some negative aspects to owning a laptop but the positives outweigh them. Our world runs on laptops and it helps a person's convenience if they own one, especially if they have a job or are in school.

Blog Post #5 Anti-War Websites are Non-existent in Mainstream Media

After reading and doing some research on the two websites, Anti War and The American Conservative I have sought out their views and why they are anti-war. Website views like this are Anti-war views are rarely if ever shown on mainstream media in the United States because the government is against anti-war. Anti-war goes against American beliefs and is not a good representation of our country. This is why it is hard to find websites like Anti War and The American Conservative.

One major reason we do not see these anti-war sites often is because the government controls the media. In today's world, the government controls the media and news so they have the ability to block content. This anti-war information is deliberately hidden from us by the government in order not to harm the reputation of America. If other countries saw us as against war then it would make us look weak and that is the last thing the government wants other countries to perceive us as.

Another reason for the lack of ant-war websites is that America is pro-war and pro-military. Because of this they want to keep websites like these hidden from the people so we do not get any ideas or perceive America in a negative way. If more Americans start to believe in the anti-war beliefs, such as the ones on the website then it would be harder for America to declare war which is not what we want. The government wants its citizens to be pro-war and pro-military.

America is pro-war because war is good for the economy and keeps our country running. We also have an extremely strong military with bases in many other countries. America wants to keep our country pro-war and pro-military so keeping the anti-war websites hidden helps. Keeping Americans from anti-war beliefs helps our economy and country run.