My Relationship With Technology

 After reflecting on my own experiences with technology and reading articles about others experiences. (Specifically the article I’m 14 and I Quit Social Media) It really got me thinking about how I used social media when I was 14 and before that. I started using social media when I was 11 on an app called Amino. It was an app with different communities where you could make posts and meet people with your similar interests. (Like Reddit in a way). I joined after a Sims content creator was sponsored by the app. I didn’t really have any other friends who played Sims 4 so I was immediately drawn to it. Despite the age requirement being 13, I joined at 11. This is the case for others too, all accounts were made at 11 or 12.

What I did not realize is Amino was a breeding ground for pedophiles. At my peak I had around 13k followers and was at the top of the leaderboard which showcased our reputation points. You’d accumulate them by being active. Never once while using Amino was I worried or came into contact with someone I shouldn’t have. I met some amazing people who I share great memories with. I really bonded with kids who were around my age. And I was even there for one of them when her father was battling, and sadly passed away from cancer. While I am not in contact with any of these kids nowadays, I am grateful for the time I had on Amino. I taught myself how to use photoshop and would compete in editing competitions. It was Amino which launched my love for writing fiction as I would write insane stories for my sims at the age of 11. Sure there was a lot of pressure sometimes, everyone wanted to be the best. I only ever won one competition during my time but that's okay. But overall minus a few annoying staff members, Amino was some of the most fun I have ever had on social media.

While that is all in my past. I have continued to use social media every day since then. It just looks a little different. I rarely post things and I am more of a lurker. I will occasionally tweet my opinions, as for Reddit, I don’t need to be downvoted for sharing my opinions. I started using Twitter (I am not calling it X) at 12 when the age requirement is 13 and up. It was never a problem until I got myself locked out of my first account. That’s not such a big deal though, my cringey past can get deleted. That's fine. 

Although I started using social media at a very young age. I never feared for my safety. I think that is because my dad taught me the do’s and don’ts before letting myself and my two sisters have accounts. If someone weird tried to message me on any platform, I just hit the block button and that was that, nothing to stress over. I always see these horror stories of young girls being left without supervision online. While I think some supervision is important. I think explaining the dangers and how to avoid them is more effective than being a helicopter parent. As for today's concerns with data mining. That is also something I don’t lose sleep over. While getting targeted ads is a little odd. And sometimes I do think my Amazon Alexa is listening to my conversations because my family and I will talk about something, then boom it’s there. But I’m not worried about something like identity theft. That is because I use social media responsibly. Of course bad things are always going to happen, but they are less likely to happen if you're smart about how you use the internet. If you’re on the other side of this and work in the industry everyone is so afraid of, I’m sure your opinion would be different.

Sources

https://www.fastcompany.com/90315706/kids-parents-social-media-sharing 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90359992/an-ad-tech-pioneer-on-where-our-data-economy-went-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it 

Age of AI

The age of AI is a fascinating one. I’m sure no one thought this would ever be possible hundreds of years ago, but here we are. After watching the video, I realized AI can be very dangerous if put into the wrong hands. While I do think parts of the video were a bit exaggerated, like I don’t think AI robots are going to take every single job away and take over the human race. I do think they will take SOME jobs. But over time I think the jobs humans will do will change, there won’t be a need to be a cashier at a supermarket for example, but there will need to be more jobs based in technology. Of course it will make things more complicated. I think people are expecting AI to take over the world tomorrow and we won’t know how to handle it. That is the energy the video has. And I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think it will be a gradual change, and soon enough it will become a seamless part of our society. It is just another technology like a phone or computer. While yes it can have negative effects on some things, like deep fakes, and worse case scenario, if countries start using it to attack another country. But I don’t think it is all doom and gloom like some people think. The video showcases some positive uses of AI as well. Like the small things like unlocking your phone with your face, and yes chat GPT. Everyone is so focused on the scary and negative sides of something like chat GPT and don’t focus on the good parts of it. The fact that we have something that could write an assignment or whatever you’d want is kind of amazing when you step back and really think about it. Yeah there is always a chance AI could become really dangerous but I don’t think it has enough power to wipe out the human race. (As of now…) 

EOTO 2 Reaction

The group I found most interesting was the group who had different theories. I did not know what most of their terms were prior to listening. One term I found interesting was “gatekeeping”. Before listening to the presentation on it, I really only ever thought about the ‘social media’ definition of the word. I really thought it was just social media slang and it didn’t have any political context. The term is actually much more complex than what I originally thought. Another term I learned about that I found fascinating was Illusory Truth Effect. I have heard of the definition of this term but I did not know what the exact meaning was. Also how it differed from confirmation bias. This is a term I am way more familiar with. The two can go hand in hand. After you hear something enough times, you will want to search for things to corroborate the ideas learned through the Illusory Truth Effect. Lastly, unlike the previous terms I mentioned, this one I had no idea about. Overton Window was something I heard for the first time when listening to their presentation. This term is pretty relevant in today’s political climate. Everyone has different things they have inside their own “window”. It seems that everyone is trying to reduce the Overton Window nowadays with the amount of laws that are being passed that undo previous laws. Overall I think this team did a very good job explaining their concepts. And everyone had examples of their topics that made it easy to understand what their presentation was about. Especially since I did not know what some of the topics were prior to listening to their presentation. 

False Flag

 A false flag is an operation done by government officials of one country to put the blame of an attack on another country. With the goal of harming another nation without taking the blame for it. There have been countless examples of false flags throughout history. But the term itself originated in the 16th century to describe how pirates would wave the flag of a different nation to deceive merchants, therefore making the merchants believe they were selling their products to a nation they were on good terms with. The term has evolved over time, now it is used for when one nation wants to declare war on another. To pull this off, they will use an attack that takes place in their homeland as means to attack the nation of their choosing. One of the earliest examples of this newly evolved false flag took place in 1898 when the Hearst newspaper placed the blame on Spain for the explosion that sank Havana harbor, an explosion that killed over 200 U.S. soldiers. They did this to incite war with Spain. The real cause for the explosion is unknown, some claim the explosion was from inside the U.S. ship, others will claim Spain set the trap. This is an instance of the U.S. using a false flag to incite war with Spain.

While the United States has countless examples of false flags throughout history, many other countries have used them to get the upper hand in situations as well. German soldiers used a false flag to invade Poland in 1939. They did not use a direct approach with explosives like the previous example. They used the more subtle approach of dressing as Polish soldiers to ambush them from the inside. They stormed their own radio tower, one that was on the border of Germany and Poland. Dressed up as Polish soldiers, they proceeded to raid their own radio tower. To cover their tracks, they did end up with some blood on their hands. They ended up killing a civilian who they also dressed up as a soldier, so they could deepen their lie of Polish soldiers attacking Germany. Finally, German soldiers broadcast a message saying the radio tower was in Polish possession even though it was not. This stunt prompted Adolf Hitler to justify Germany invading Poland despite Poland having no part in this attack.

A modern example of a false flag takes place just a few years ago in 2020. As tensions rose between India and Pakistan, they went back and forth accusing one another of using false flags along their shared border of Kashmir. A piece of land they have been at odds with for many years. These past flags have just been accusations. But after years of going back and forth, there was a legit false flag along the border of Kashmir.  Pakistan's foreign ministry accused Indian troops of firing at a vehicle that was located on Pakistan's side of the border. Pakistan accuses India of harming their international relations. In a letter to the U.N. they state that this was India creating a false flag so they could try invading and taking over the border. Anurag Srivastava, a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry, clarifies the accusation of a false flag was indeed false and India did nothing to harm Pakistan or the border of Kashmir.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60434579

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajes.12534

https://www.britannica.com/topic/false-flag 

https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-india-kashmir-islamabad-c6ffad3af64682ce875d1e58790626a6 

Diffusion Theory

 Pioneers

Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone were the pioneers of Twitter. They were assigned to work on the project in 2004 after Odeo’s plans of creating the first platform to support podcasts fell through. They set out to create an app that focused on words and thoughts, unlike previous apps that were focused on pictures. 

Early Adopters 

Some of the oldest Twitter accounts include cofounders Jack Dorsey (@jack), and Biz Stone (@biz) and Noah Glass, a software developer who helped Twitter be what it is. His username is (@noah). As well as (@crystal) who is the first woman to join the platform. Being the 15th person to join the platform. Other than that, no personal information is known about her. Number 18 is a user who went by (@adam) the account has since been suspended so not much is known about him either. These early accounts have massed thousands, sometimes millions of followers.  

Early Majority

While Twitter had a steady increase of users soon after launch, with celebrities' and politicians alike creating their own accounts. One event in particular really spread the word about Twitter. Just a year after its launch at the South by Southwest conference and festival in Texas, Twitter held a launch event where 7,000 people attended. Following that event Twitter's daily tweets went from around 20,000 to 60,000. 

Late Adopters 

Late adopters of the platform are going to be people who don't use social media. Typically this means people who are older and less versed in technology. They would not know how to navigate the platform. They also just wouldn't have any interest in the platform. But if they have a younger relative show them the ropes they would be more likely to join.

Laggers

Laggers are going to be people who refuse to learn how the platform works. Whether it is "too complicated" for them, or they pride themselves on being off all social media platforms. These people are just not going to care to join the millions upon milli9ons of users who use Twitter daily. But when these laggers join the platform they will see the positives of joining. They will have so much information at their fingertips, and a place to freely express themselves. While there are some negatives, that is the case with any social media platform. 

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twitter 

https://www.oldest.org/technology/oldest-twitter-accounts/#:~:text=The%20oldest%20Twitter%20account%20ever,assigned%20user%20ID%20of%2012.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/advantage_aut_20_art6.pdf

Anti-War Voices

 News has a very distinct point of view that they showcase whenever it is being written for an article or broadcasted on television. This point of view tends to lean in a conservative direction. This includes the ideas about war, a conservative way of thinking is very pro war, among other things. Anything that is slightly off from this set idea, is silenced, ignored and swept under the rug. Especially when it comes to something like being anti-war. War has been so engraved in our society that it seems like there is no other way of thinking. People have been fighting wars for this country for centuries. It is almost as if you are “Anti-America”. What I mean is, if someone is anti-war, they do not appreciate the sacrifices made by American soldiers. Since this country was built on war, they are taking America for granted. The news tends to be the type of media people view the most. Meaning their opinions are shaped heavily by watching the news. So if mainstream news outlets do not shed a light on these other viewpoints, in this case anti-war. Many people will not agree with the sentiment therefore have no desire to go looking for anti-war articles/voices. Since people are not looking for information on anything anti-war. It is not moved to the top of the algorithms on platforms like Google, Bing, etc. This can also include other algorithms like TikTok or Instagram that curate your feed to show you what you are into. So if the majority of people do not have a mindset that is anti-war, it will be buried in the trenches of the internet.

EOTO Technology Presentations

Something I found interesting while watching my classmates' presentations, was the fact that pigeons were an option. Today, we know pigeons as dumb birds who walk around New York City and eat crumbs off of the sidewalk. It is cool to think they served more of a purpose at one point in time. I knew that pigeons would carry messages back then because there was no fast mail service. What I did not know is that people thought it would be a good idea to strap a bomb to a live animal and throw them into battle. I really want to know what must have went through a war generals' idea when they thought of doing this. I am also surprised about how they managed to come up with a version they could even test. I am left with a few questions though. Like how did they even make a bomb small enough to strap to the pigeon so that it could still get off the ground to fly? And with the bombs having to be so small because pigeons are not that big, how did they think this was an effective way to fight their battles? 

Back to the initial part of this presentation, the fact that a pigeon is capable of carrying a piece of paper and delivering it somewhere pretty far away is pretty impressive. It does not seem like something that actually happened in our history. A pigeon carrying something seems like something that could only happen in a movie. And I think he and the rest of his group did a great job explaining their topics. I made a mental note of what I should do to make my next presentation more professional and engaging. Overall the group also had a very cohesive look to their slides, they looked like they belonged in one team.