My Relationship with Technology

My relationship with technology is very complicated because I could say that it is healthy in a lot of ways but also unhealthy, which I feel is the same for a lot of people right now. The ability to stay connected with all of my family and friends is unparalleled and honestly I could not imagine a world where I wasn't able to just reach out with a phone call at any time. I never go anywhere without my phone and I'm almost always checking it to make sure no one has texted me or I haven't received any other kind of notification. I know that this is unhealthy but at the same time, it has become the standard for my generation and future ones. 

Generational Gap

In the past ten to twenty years, there have been so many changes with technology that the generational gap feels wider every year. My parents and many others did not have to make LinkedIn to get a job, text their friends to set up hangout plans, or have to worry about the internet going out. I have had to stop my grandparents from getting scammed by clicking on a wrong link or going too far down an ad rabbit hole.  This kind of internet awareness is known by some in the older generations but has become like second nature to everyone from my generation. To those of us who grew up with the internet already existing, we have become hyper aware of all the different facets of it. That is not to say that our generation doesn't have other issues with technology, especially with social media. 

Social Media

If I check my phone stats right now, I can see that my daily screen time has an average of three to four hours. That time is spent mostly on the apps: Tiktok, Snapchat, and Instagram. All three are social media apps which does not come as a surprise because I know that I personally like feeling connected to everyone I know. To be able to get a glimpse into the lives of others by seeing what they post on their social media is invigorating but I have also felt very jealous and disconnected. That jealousy stems from being able to see that there are a lot of people you know, or may not even know, experiencing life in a way that you wish you could. Social media feels like a double-edged sword that has allowed us to connect and socialize more online which caused people to become less social with each other in person.

There are times when I have been sitting at lunch or dinner with a group of friends where all of us have our phones out. I could be trying to talk to someone and they are not listening to me because they have their phone pulled out and they might not even realize it. That is when I feel like our relationship with technology has led us towards being more unhealthy. If I had the choice to get rid of our technology though, I would still keep it because I still believe that at the end of the day, it has allowed us to grow as a whole and gave much more opportunities than taken away. For better or worse now, technology is engrained into every part of our society and I don't see it going away. 

Cord Cutting

What Is It?

Cord Cutting refers to the cancelling of satellite or cable television in favor of streaming services or other Internet media, for example: Youtube, Netflix, Disney Plus, etc. With every passing year, cord cutting becomes more frequent; at least a million people cancelled their cable or satellite tv in the past year. People, especially those who are younger, are moving over to watch shows on streaming services off of a smart tv or other device. Since younger generations are watching more tv off of streaming services, there are parents who would rather switch to watching shows off streaming services if there kids aren't going to watch cable or satellite television.

 

The Benefits

Cord cutting is beneficial for households that don't have the money for cable and satellite tv since the subscription to a streaming service is usually cheaper. Not only is it more affordable but streaming also allows viewers to watch whatever show they're interested in on any of their devices with internet. Streaming allows for users to watch any episode of the shows available at any time unlike cable or satellite tv that only allows you to watch an episode of a show when it airs or if you decide to record it beforehand. Streaming services also allow for users to watch shows anywhere because they can be put on to mobile devices and watched at anytime. This feature specifically made it so easy for people to share their streaming service accounts to save money with friends that Netflix had to just enact a new rule that stated that any device that is logged into an account must visit the "home" location at least once a month to renew account validity.

Some Drawbacks

One of the drawbacks however of streaming services is their lack of news accessibility. Since most streaming services don't have included live television, it is hard for those who only use streaming services to get information on their regional news. For those who do want to still experience part live television to see the news on streaming services, they usually need to pay an extra fee or provide their cable/satellite tv provider (which means they're not cord cutting). Another drawback has been the competitions held between cable and satellite tv against different streaming services. One recent example of this is Disney Vs Spectrum that saw Disney blocking 15 million of Spectrum's users from watching ESPN or ABC. Disney ended up making a deal with Spectrum to allow the users to be able to watch those channels as part of a package deal with ESPN+ and Disney+.

What Our Future Might Be

For the foreseeable future, this means that cable and satellite tv could be dead within a couple of years. In order to keep making the same revenue, cable/satellite tv has starting adding more commercials in between shows. Ultimately this has caused even more cord cutting than there was before because people don't have the attention spans anymore to wait for their favorite show in-between advertisements. Currently, live event broadcasting is one of the only things keeping cable and satellite television alive as the recent Super Bowl was still watched by 90% on live tv.

Privacy, Online or Off

Privacy Issues

Ever since the explosion of the Internet and social media, businesses have started to keep track of our personal browsing data so that they can use it for their own personal gain. Anytime you remember talking about something or searching something up and then soon after see some form of advertisement about said thing, that is them using our data. Even the creators of Google who initially did not want to breach anyone's privacy eventually succumbed to using people's data in order to save their company. Companies like Google and Facebook have come under fire many times in recent years over possible misuses of data.

What Should the Government Do?

The government, if not already, should be keeping more tabs on the businesses that are using and selling our private data. The American government has been putting all the pressure on China over TikTok using our data and possibly spying on us. Most of their claims were based on China possibly trying to spread misinformation with TikTok and use our data against us. Personally, I have mixed feeling on whether or not we should ban TikTok, what I would like to see is the government going against businesses on our own turf that are misusing our data. My fear is that the government may possibly be working with these companies because they too want to use our data for their own personal gain.

What Can We Do?

One way that we can protect ourselves from invasions of our privacy is to educate ourselves in how our data is being used. Knowing how these companies take our data and sell it off to other companies can help us to understand ways of avoiding that from happening. When an application asks you if you want to get personalized advertisements, it is asking if you want to let it use your data to give you more of what you might like at the cost of your privacy. Limiting our social media use and in general technology use will allow us to control how much information these companies are getting from us. Limiting our technology use also might allow us to become more personable and interact with those we care about more face to face instead of texting each other in the same room.

Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion Theory with Facebook

Diffusion Theory is split into five separate groups of people: Innovator/Pioneers, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. Facebook's initial innovator would be Mark Zuckerberg, who created it after his temporary student rating website, Facemash, went viral. His goal was to connect college students together easily by allowing them to post a wall of information about themselves. Facebook was initially released only to Harvard university and then to a couple other ivy league universities so most of it is early adopters came from those schools. As time went on, Facebook become more and more open to the public until eventually it became fully public to anyone over thirteen years old. Once Facebook was introduced to the public, the early majority joined the website, as it was gaining more and more features to connect people together. Facebook allowed its users to post pictures of what was going on in their lives and tag people who they wanted to either look at their post or tag someone who was in the photo itself. 

The Issues with Facebook

There were and still are, a lot of people who are skeptic about Facebook because they believe that online connections are making people less sociable offline. It is no surprise that the late majority took so long to join it because they were not only mental health related issues associated with Facebook but also privacy issues. Facebook stores all the data that you put into it, every time you click on ad or on a page for too long, it stores how that information as data that can be sold out to third parties. Many promises were made from Zuckerberg himself that peoples data was protected and many people did not care or know enough in the first place for that to affect them. While Facebook is still the most popular social media in the world, there are still those laggards who are worried about their data or do not care enough about Facebook to want to join it. They may benefit from keeping up with those they care about by joining Facebook but if they already contact those people and know what is going on in their life then they do not really need it.

Antiwar Voices

Antiwar.com and The American Conservative

Antiwar.com and The American Conservative are two non-mainstream news websites that have very strong anti war voices. 

One of the first things I noticed was that the Antiwar.com had a casualty count for both Iraq and American citizens killed since 2003. This is such a unique feature for a media website because after checking some of the most mainstream news websites, none of them has anything similar to that. While Antiwar.com has a more dated look for its website, information is still easy to find and you can see different sections for each nation that has some war or conflict going on. 

I was less impressed with The American Conservative as it was closer to a mainstream news website that locks you behind a paywall once you have reached a certain limit of article links clicked on. One of the first things you can see on both of these websites is a donate button. As both of these are non-mainstream news websites, I can see how they would still ask for money since they are not being paid by a big company to write these articles. 

Why Are These Voices Not Heard In Mainstream Media?

The first amendment protects dissent, which means no matter how big the majority opinion is, the minority opinion can still be supported unless otherwise stated by another amendment. The government and media both benefit from war because war makes the government more money and gets easy coverage for mainstream media. Since war benefits the media, anti war voices are less likely to be found, meaning those who have a strong opinion have to out source to websites like Antiwar.com and The American Conservative. A lot of mainstream media websites have very specific rules and regulations that have to be followed when publishing articles but these non mainstream news websites do not have to follow those same rules and are able to more freely express their opinions.

Homing Pigeons

What I Learned?

Although I had heard about Homing Pigeons, I never realized how wide spread they were actually used. When I imagined Homing Pigeons, I thought of medieval times and kings sending out messages to their knights. I recently learned however that they were still in use in some places up until 2006 when the final pigeon service was disbanded. I found it interesting that these pigeons were used as early as 3000 BCE in Ancient Egypt as well as Ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome. Their impact was so immense in ancient times that they were even featured in religious texts such as the Bible, specifically during Noah's Ark. In 2009, South Africa hosted an experiment to see what could send messages and data faster: Homing Pigeons or their Internet service. The experiment concluded with Homing Pigeons being the faster traveler at the time with a speed of one hour and eight minutes.

War Pigeons

I was surprised to learn that Homing Pigeons were used as late as World War 1 and 2 for private messages. During World War 1, pigeons were used extensively to communicate and the United States, by themselves, used around 600 of them. There was a particular pigeon, known as Cher Ami, who was shot through the leg but still managed to get its message to its destination. That final message ended up saving around 194 people in the 77th division. During World War II, The United Kingdom had at least 200,000 war pigeons and 32 of them were awarded the Dicken Medal. Project Pigeon was started in World War II by the Americans as an attempt to create pigeon guided bombs. Project Pigeon was cancelled and eventually revived by the Navy until it was eventually proved inefficient by electronic guidance systems. 

Facebook

History

The origins of Facebook start with Facemash, a website created by Mark Zuckerberg in order to compare the attractiveness of his fellow female students at Harvard university. Using what he learned from Facemash, Zuckerberg soon realized that he could create a new website to connect all of the Harvard students together which became thefacebook.com in 2003. This website allowed for students to put their ID photo, relationship status, major, clubs, or any other information they wanted to share with others. By 2004, thefacebook.com started expanding to other ivy league universities and eventually it reached almost all universities in the United States. It was not until 2006 that the website became just "facebook" and was opened to the public for anyone who was thirteen or older. 

The Winklevoss Twins

Even as early as when Facebook was just starting out, it faced legal complications because of the Winklevoss Twins, Cameron and Tyler. Along with their fellow student Divya Narendra, the Winklevoss Twins had been previously working on a social network called The Harvard Connection, which Mark himself was supposed to be helping to create. They ended up filing a lawsuit against Mark accusing him of plagiarizing their idea and eventually settled for money and stock from Facebook. This case was one of the reasons that a movie called "The Social Network", which focused on the origins of Facebook and all the legal complications that came with it, was created.

Positive Impact

Facebook was one of the first social media networks that paved the way for almost all of the social media that exist today. Before there was an Instagram or Snapchat, Facebook was one of the few places where you could go to get updates about the people in your life. Facebook changed our way of communicating forever because before there was social media, if you wanted to know anything about somebody, you would have to personally reach out to them. Facebook allows for people all over the world to connect with each other and businesses to reach out to a wider audience. People are also able to express themselves freely, within the guidelines of Facebook, and reach out to others with similar interests to communicate and share ideas.

Negative Impact

Studies have shown that Facebook has had a severe effect on the mental health of many individuals. There were early cases, before Facebook joined the public aside from universities, of increases in depression and anxiety more from college students who were using Facebook versus those who weren't.  These health related issues also showed a decline in academic performance at those same universities where students were using Facebook. There were also a number of political issues that came from Facebook, one of them being "rabbit holes". Facebook's algorithm was designed to continuously share what you're interested in so if you showed an interest in either political party, there was a chance you would be subjected to a "rabbit hole", which led you to the extreme values of that political party. There were also issues of privacy that led Zuckerberg to the Supreme Court where he had to address the selling of data to third parties.