Blog #11: Final Blog Post

 In 1964, at the World's Fair in New York, a famous display called the Futurama was presented. The point of this presentation was to predict how the world would look in the future as a result. It was an extremely optimistic display, meant to make people excited and hopeful for the future of the world.

Futurama: City of Tomorrow

The predictions that the Futurama made were surprisingly accurate in many of the claims it made. For example, the video talks about how man will soon be able to explore and the study the moon--which we know is a reality today. It also talks about how we will eventually be able to farm and harvest materials from the sea that we can use for sustenance which we also know is happening today.

There were a few things stated throughout the presentation which aren't entirely correct or haven't happened yet but all-in-all, the predictions were fairly accurate.

It is also very apparent that the people behind the making of the Futurama display were extremely confident in technology's ability to improve human's quality of life. Although I do think this optimism is a bit naive, I find it refreshing to see a group of people living a lie backed by hope and excitement rather than negativity and fear.

An animator named Steve Cutts, has created several videos that bring light to the problems that technology has caused in our lives.

Steve Cutts

In one of his animations, we see a world in which people are so all-consumed by their cell phones that they are completely unaware and unbothered by what is going on around them. People are also complete non-transparent with their lives online, making it seem like they are "living in their best lives" when in reality they feel empty, sad, and unfulfilled.

In a different video animated by Cutts, we follow a man from 500,000 years ago up until present day. We see him killing animals, destroying the earth, and overall wreaking havoc for his own personal gain. The more technology he gains access to, the more desolation this man enacts.

Both of these animations take a much more pessimistic approach to the use of technology. They serve as good reminders of the bad things that can happen if we let technology get out of control.

We as a society have become extremely reliant on technology--in my opinion, too much so in some cases. I believe this is because for so many years, when technological advancements really began to take off, it was enhancing the quality of human life that we were, in many ways, blindsided by the problems that it could bring about.

I love technology. I genuinely could not imagine life without it. Not a day has gone by where I haven't use technology in some form. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

In my eyes, technology usage becomes a bad thing when we start mindlessly scrolling, believeing everything we see instead of forming thoughts of our own.

Personally, I often find myself falling into this whole. I will go on my phone simply with the intention of responding to a text, and next thing I know, I have been scrolling through Instagram for half an hour, reading posts and automatically taking the opinions of others as fact instead of doing real research for myself. 

We as a society have to remember the importance of real, face-to-face interaction. We cannot allow technology to overpower that kind of natural human communication. We also have to become more media literate--being intentional about what we are viewing rather than sucking up every bit of information like a human vacuum.

Technology is a tool that should be used responsibly to better society. But in my opinion, the most important and valuable asset we have in our life is our own mind, and technology can never take its place. So don't let it!

Blog #10: EOTO Reflection

 Today, as I was in class listening to Group 3 present on their assigned topics, I started to realize just how skewed our views of the world are. These views are not just skewed by others but by our own tendencies. The presentations these students gave today made me wonder how far off my idea of “the truth” really is.

The first term Group 3 mentioned is the illusory truth effect. This effect occurs when those around you repeat lies to you over and over again--presenting them as the undeniable truth. We tend to believe these lies as indisputable facts as we continue to hear about them-even if we were confident in their falsehood beforehand.

The second term talked about is confirmation bias. This bias is a result of us only looking for data that supports what we already believe to be true. We ignore or look past data that could disprove our opinions or theories.

The third term discussed is known as the spiral of silence. The spiral of silence is the human tendency to not speak out about controversial issues, especially when a person understands that they are in the minority opinion concerning that specific issue. People would rather not let their voice be heard instead of being attacked and/or humiliated by those with different views.

Spiral of Silence

The final term discussed by Group 3 is known as the Overton window. This specifically refers to politics. Political candidates are limited by the public’s opinions as to what they can promote in their campaigns. At the end of the day, they need votes. If they try to pursue a campaign that goes against what the public believes, they will not get enough votes to stand a chance in the election. As a result, it only makes sense for them to discuss and promote opinions that are accepted by the general population—even if that means straying away from their true morals and beliefs.

In conclusion, the terms and concepts discussed by Group 3 made me realize how so many of the things I believe to be true are probably far from it. Individually, we interpret data from a biased perspective based on what we want to be true. But the way we interpret data is also heavily impacted by the thoughts and opinions of those around us.

Blog #9: The Age of AI

 AI has become extremely prevalent in society. It’s something we can no longer ignore. Frontline on PBS does an excellent job of explaining what AI is, how it is being utilized, and where it will lead in the future.

The workplace is one of the biggest areas to be affected by AI. AI is smart and very efficient. The truth is AI powered machines can now take over work that was originally done by humans—and they can do it much faster.

This is enticing to many companies because by utilizing AI, they don’t have to hire as many people—meaning less people they must pay. However, that puts many people out of a job.

This could lead to the formation of the type of power struggle Karl Marx warned about years earlier between capital and labor. There are the few people on the top (the capitalists) who are making more money by relying on AI, and then there are the laborers who rely on the capitalists to employ them. If capitalists refuse to employ the laborers, then the laborers no longer have a true purpose in society and the capitalists have full power and control over them.

Another area of our life affected by the rise in AI is our privacy. And why is this? Well because if companies can find out as much information as possible, then they will know how to cater to our wants and needs which leads to increase in sales on their end. They can use AI to do that. Google started doing this in the early 200s and it completely saved their company.

With this new ability to know an inordinate amount of information about users, companies have learned how to alter their clientele's behavior simply by controlling what they do and don’t show them. Smart speakers are now programmed to detect the cadence and inflection of your voice in order understand your mindset and daily routine. The amount of information that these companies have on us is startling.

Currently, the Chinese government has cameras virtually everywhere. They track people’s cars, identify people’s faces, and even monitor the way people walk. The Chinese government basically surveillances every part of their citizens' life. This has resulted in Turkish Muslims living in China being put in camps because the government wants to "keep them under control."

AI can be a powerful tool, there is no doubt about it. It's virtually unavoidable, so we must learn to embrace it. But it must also be controlled. Because at the end of the day, the horrible things we see happening in China could happen anywhere. 

Blog #8: Online Influencers

 No one can ignore or deny the fact that—especially in America—social media has overtaken many parts of our daily life and changed the world as we know it.

Personally, I grew up watching influencers on YouTube all the time— mainly "vloggers" who would post videos detailing their day-to-day life. They made even the mundane parts of their routine interesting to watch, and their regularly uploaded content kept me engaged. I truly felt connected to them.

Areas that have been most affected by the rise of social media include business, marketing, and sales. Along with social media’s overwhelming presence, online/social media influencers have emerged. According to Kate Shee with Forbes, “influencer culture has official taken over the world."

What are social media influencers? New York Times Best Selling Author Neil Patel says an influencer is “Any person who influences the behavior of others.” But when we are thinking from a marketing perspective, and influencer is “an individual who collaborates with brands to promote products or services to their audience.”

Going back to my own personal example, that connection I felt to those Youtubers is a common experience that many people can relate to. Along with that connection comes a sense of authenticity and trust. Once brands became aware of this trust, they started to use it to their advantage. Hence, influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is an effective social media marketing strategy in which a company pays an online influencer to endorse their product. Some influencers simply charge a flat rate while others will want an affiliate commission rate. This means they will get a percentage of every sale they influence.

In utilizing influencer marketing, the product being promoted—and the brand in general—is gaining the attention of a large group of people—many of which would never have heard of the product had it not been for that influencer.

The awareness of that particular product leads to an increase in sales for that company. Neil Patel says that today, companies set aside about 40% of their budget to be used for influencer marketing, which just goes to show how successful these companies have found influencer marketing to be.

So, who are these influencers and how did they come about? Some social media influencers were just ordinary people who rose to fame online due to their talent and/or personalities that have helped them stick out online. Examples include Charli D’amelio who gained popularity through her dancing and relatability. Mr. Beast, on the other hand, found success through his entertaining personality, creative video concepts, and philanthropy projects.

Some online influencers got their start on social media because they or someone they were connected to were already famous. For example, Olivia Jade was able to amass followers in large part because her mom Lori Loughlin was in Full House. Lauren Conrad gained online fame because she stared in the shows The Hills and Laguna Beach.

Lauren Conrad

Neil Patel divides online influencers into 5 categories: mega influencers, who have over one million followers, macro influencers, who have between 500,000 and one million followers, mid-tier influencers, who have between 50,000 and 500,000 followers, micro influencers, who have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, and finally, nano influencers, who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers.

It is common for these mega influencers to charge $100,000 for a singular post, so companies must be smart and strategic when it comes to how and when they partner with these influencers. Micro and nano influencers--who have smaller audiences--often have more engagement and loyalty with their followers. This can be helpful in creating that authentic trust between a company, and influencer, and an audience.

It would be foolish for companies to not see the potential for growth that comes with partnering with online influencers. They must be strategic in their social media marketing endeavors. 

Blog #7: Digital Privacy

 

In a TED Talk given by Juan Enriquez, our online presence is compared to a tattoo. They both define parts of who we are, and much like the tattoo ink put into our skin, our online presence is permanent. Enriquez calls the technological footprints that we leave behind electronic tattoos. It can never be erased, and in a sense, this makes us immortal. We must be careful what we post.

Local police departments can gather a lot of information about us—information that we never willingly handed over to them. Catherine Crump discusses this in one of her TED Talks.

She discussed location tracking. This tracking allows local police departments to make inferences about us. They have plate leaders which, simply put, are cameras that can take pictures of car’s license plates—even if you did nothing that warrants surveillance. There are also cell towers that can track your location based on cell phone activity.

Cell Phone Tower

Crump says, “Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it's not there.” This quote really resonated with me, and it is an important thing to be wary of.

In a third TED Talk presented by Christopher Soghoian, Christopher discussed how the telephones and networks we use are “first and foremost” wired for surveillance. However, big companies such as Apple and Facebook have created encrypting technology which actively prevent this surveillance. This upsets the government—especially because these big technology companies make this encryption a default setting on their products.

Soghoian talks about the controversy surrounding wiretapping. Yes, there are bad people in the world that need to be tapped However, we as the public do not. The truth is, if we allow wiretapping to occur, there is always the possibility that “bad guys” other than our American government will hack into our information.

At the end of the day, Chrisotpher says it may be harder to catch bad people by encrypting technology, but it will keep the general public’s information secure and protected.

Darith Chisolm also gives a TED Talk regarding the protection of our online information. In her speech, Chisolm gets vulnerable and personal, detailing her experience with what she called digital domestic violence.

Digital domestic violence is the term for when a controlling ex cannot get to you in a physical sense, so they use the internet to manipulate you. Chisolm shares statistics that show that, like her, one in every twenty-five women have been affected by revenge porn. Revenge porn—the nonconsensual online sharing of someone else's nude photos—is a severe problem that can result in job loss and even suicide.

Darith ends by explaining that no one should have to go through the humiliation she faced and that we should “release the shame and end the silence” surrounding this issue.

Overall, all four of these TED talks demonstrate the need to be cautious and protective of our online imformation.