FINAL POST

TIME Magazine's Man of the Year was named the computer in 1982. It's not surprising that in 2025, society's relationship with technology is seeing every side of good, bad, and ugly.

Technology advancements have endless benefits that create a healthy relationship with society. The general development of information sharing is incredible. Information is quick to travel, which is beneficial in many ways, especially in terms of safety and news. Having information readily available allows the public to be well informed, liberating our freedom of the First Amendment. Tech advancements have made room for increased innovation, making life-saving medical achievements, and being a resource to uplift careers.

The Pew Research Center has done extensive research about society's relationship to technology. They found that most people believe technology has a positive effect on their lives and society. Personally, my favorite part about technology is the communication connections. Technology and social media make it so easy for me to keep in close contact with family and friends, even if I'm thousands of miles away. In fact, most participants from Pew Research highlighted that their favorite part about technology is the easy connection it brings. I enjoy communicating through phone calls and texting, but I also enjoy social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. These platforms are a fun and creative way to share photos, experiences, and communicate with family and friends. I also enjoy receiving news, knowledge, and new information from social media. Word travels fast online, and it's easily accessible for those with busy lifestyles. My relationship with social media is a healthy one, but many others feel the opposite. 

A major contribution to an unhealthy relationship with technology is social media. The creation of social media came with cyberbullying and low self-image. It's common for teenagers to compare themselves to online posts, which are usually very edited and fake. Studies have shown that social media has a powerful effect on the brain, and it can create stimulating effects similar to addiction. Dr Nancy Brooks, the director of behavioral health, explains how "Social media platforms drive surges of dopamine to the brain to keep consumers coming back over and over again. The shares, likes, and comments on these platforms trigger the brain’s reward center, resulting in a high similar to the one people feel when gambling or using drugs." This is a problem in society, especially amongst teens whose brains are still developing. Attention span issues are another problem with society being chronically online. This makes focusing and multitasking very difficult. 

Another unhealthy habit of technological advancements is the dependency we as a society hold. Businesses heavily rely on computers and the internet for day-to-day operations. If a site were to crash, most businesses would be shut down until it's fixed. A real example of this was the Microsoft outage on July 19th, 2024. A global Microsoft outage led to airline disruptions, cancelling thousands of flights. This incident goes to show the consequences of depending on technology. The truth is that when technology works, it's awesome. When it doesn't work, it's damaging. Leading to an ugly relationship with technology.

The ugly side of technology, in my opinion, is the security and false information risks. With everything being online, cyber attacks and surveillance attacks are happening. Data breaches are ruining companies and people's identities. With so many online platforms and motivations, misinformation is a reality. Remember when the five wealthy individuals attempted to explore the Titanic wreck? The situation and failure of the submersible caused a lot of attention in the media. A video on TikTok went viral with the broadcast of the sounds inside the submersible, with the individual's last moments. Except this wasn't real. The audio wasn't from the submersible at all. It was from the video game series Five Nights at Freddy's. But this TikTok went viral fast, and it spread a lot further than the fact-checked truth. On social media, news is entertainment.

As a society, we explore a good, bad, and ugly relationship with technology. Technological advancements have led to a better overall quality of life. Making tasks, connecting with loved ones, and communication easier. Although we find ourselves in an unhealthy pit with social media and dependency. An ugly side of our relationship is the security risks and information risks that technology brings. Even if it's hurting others, we'll still utilize it. In our relationship, I think the good outweighs the bad. Especially with the fact that the bad and unhealthy won't change our habits. We can build a positive relationship with technology, and take the opportunity to do so. It's not going away anytime soon.

Antiwar

Opinions on war have always caused a divide in the country, and antiwar dissent opinions are never very popular within the mainstream media. The simple fact behind the lack of antiwar voices on the news comes from the lack of popularity of the group's opinion. 

Promoting the antiwar voice has never been easy for the group. Antiwar dissent has been muted through many historical efforts. The Espionage Act created by Woodrow Wilson was aimed to suppress any actions that would undermine war efforts. This act also criminalized those who interfered with war efforts. The Espionage Act was later paired with the Sedition Act a year later. The Sedition Act further placed restrictions on free speech and criticism of the government or the war effort, and I hate to say it, but the government has controlled the popularity of antiwar dissent. Historically, the antiwar voice has never been supported by the U.S. government, causing little popularity on the subject within society.

While society consumes mainstream media, people want to hear about sports, entertainment, the weather, politics, the economy, and international news. There just isn't a want for antiwar opinions in the news. So, why would mainstream news companies cover unpopular subjects? They don't cover unpopular subjects because it doesn't give them views or make them money. Mainstream news also strays away from antiwar dissent because, again, it is unapproved by the government, and it's a sticky subject to highlight. Especially in these times today, as a public figure, it's a good idea to stay away from controversial subjects if possible. Overall, antiwar dissent isn't reaching mainstream media because society has deemed it as unpopular.

Even though antiwar dissent doesn't reach mainstream media, there are voices. The Antiwar.Com site and the American Conservative are both informative sites that voice the antiwar opinion. These sites are difficult to come across but are available for browsing. The websites enable antiwar voices to be heard despite the lack of coverage on mainstream media.

 

EOTO #2 Reactions

In class, I learned a lot of new information about information and whether that's misinformation, disinformation, or a hoax. These types of information can take on different forms that consist of awareness, mediasphere, theories, and policy. The presentations that caught my interest were the five eyes, total information awareness, false flags, and propaganda. 

Prior to the presentation, I wasn't very informed about the Five Eyes. My classmate explained how the five nations came together to share intelligence to monitor global threats. Although this was the original intent for the program, today, they focus on espionage and cyber security threats. This presentation was super cool because I learned a lot.

Total information awareness is the collection and analysis of vast amounts of data to predict behaviors or identify threats. This is done through data integration, surveillance, and predictive analysis. I think the total information awareness is great for our nation, and I like all of the tools we have to protect ourselves.

The false flags presentation was interesting to me because it's pretty vengeful. False flags are operations put in place by the party at fault to pin the blame on another party. This leads to a lot of conspiracies and the loss of public trust. These flags are most commonly used on a political or military stage. Nations carry this out by staging attacks on their own side and blaming the enemy for it. I enjoyed learning about false flags, and the presentation left me feeling educated. 

I was drawn to the propaganda presentation because I hear about it a lot in class, on the news, and in my everyday life. Propaganda involves the deliberate spreading of information, rumors, or ideas to sway public opinion. Propaganda is half truths. I think propaganda is huge in advertising and needs to be addressed more. I enjoyed what my peer had to teach the class about propaganda. 

Overall, I learned a lot from my peers during the Each One Teach One #2 Presentations. Some of the information was things I hadn't heard about before, and some presentations gave me more insight into topics I had already been familiar with. There's a mass of information in society and it's important how we perceive it.

EOTO #2 Online Influencers

An Online Influencer is someone with a large following whom businesses hire to promote their brand and product. With the pay and benefits the influencers receive to promote these brands, there are negative and positive repercussions. In this blog post, I will be exploring how online influencers affect different segments and the impact of online influencers.

Influencers and Brands mutually benefit from their relationships. Brands positively benefit from their relationships with Online Influencers because an influencer's endorsement leverages trust with viewers and customers. Traditional advertising struggles to achieve this level of authenticity. As for the influencers, they are monetarily benefiting from this relationship. For example, on Instagram, influencers with a million followers receive thousands for a single post. Overall, influencers earn income from Paid partnerships, brand collaborations, and affiliate marketing. Paid partnerships form when brands pay influencers to promote their products online. The Instagram post is a good example of a paid partnership. Brand collabs are cool because they allow influencers to work with brands and create a product that connects with their followers. Lastly, affiliate marketing allows influencers to gain income through sales through link clicks. Overall, both of these power-hungry figures are heavily monetarily benefiting from their relationship, leaving the customers and viewers out of the loop.

The power of the brand-influencer partnership creates the younger generation as naive customers, which adds to the weakening public trust in information. The younger generation sees their favorite online influencers promoting a brand or product, and because they relate to or admire them, they are more likely to trust and follow their recommendations. This makes them naive customers, allowing room for improper purchases. In fact, it's reported that 74% of U.S shoppers have purchased a product because an online influencer recommended it. In 2021, a popular influencer, Charlie D'Amelio, collaborated with the skin care brand CeraVe. Her campaign promoting the product received over 132 million views, and CeraVe gained 300,000 followers and a substantial amount of sales. Much of the engagement from this ad came from Gen Z. The power brands earn by using online influencers' endorsements can create a fake reality for society. 

Online Influencers have the opportunity to influence society as a whole. Good and bad. Influencers impact society through trends, lifestyles, consumer habits, and the economy. Influencers' followers look to them to set the newest trends. A popular trend right now is getting active and eating clean. Influencers that feed into this trend share their lifestyle so their followers can view their diets, workout routines, etc. Influencers have become such a powerful tool for business because they can determine consumer habits. Studies have shown that consumers trust recommendations from influencers more than family. This is an interesting factor for society. By affecting consumer habits, the economy is also affected. The rise of trends allows for different departments to see a rise in sales. 

In conclusion, online influencers have a great impact on society, whether it's through trends or the economy. This impact comes from the monetary benefit they are receiving and the power of trust that brands earn by partnering with certain influencers. As a consumer in society, it's important to not get wrapped up in the online world.

Living in the Age of AI

Artificial Intelligence is on the rise and automating lives. In fact, women's careers are at the highest risk as typical jobs such as cashiers and assistants can be easily automated. While the advancement of technology excites some, it terrifies others. In the second hour of this informative Frontline video, I learned a lot about data privacy and the surrounding dangers in the United States and Internationally. 

To my previous knowledge, companies and their AI technologies have a good amount of data on their users, and the Frontline video informed me how. It's explained that AI is trying to adapt to the user, so the users have personalized experiences. It was thought-provoking when the speaker said, "We aren't using social media, social media is using us". This factor alone could be a threat to important data. Paired with the concept of "digital exhaust", the data we leave behind when we browse and search, could lead to national security threats. Not only is digital exhaust a security threat, but it's also a revenue increase for companies like Google. Digital exhaust is valuable data because it predicts what a user might click on. Over a couple of years, this led to a dramatic increase in Google's revenue. This leads to the topic of "surveillance capitalism", which claims to be a private human experience but can be turned into fabricated human behavior, which is utilized by businesses because they want to know our future behaviors. Again, this is another topic that puts an individual's online security and identity at risk.

The power AI has overseas really concerns me. The Frontline video touched on the surveillance systems in China, they’re on a mission to deploy over 6 million cameras, including on every street. China's government is authoritative so this doesn't shock me, but their data mining capabilities are concerning. The video even had a section about U.S. surveillance and monitoring systems. This of course is in-home computers, cameras, speakers, and voice-activated systems. These are all optional systems which I stray away from because I think they're very intrusive and gather too much personal information, making room for security and identity risk. Circling back to China, one aspect of their surveillance system really surprised me. In the northwest region of China, a group of people called the Uighurs reside there. Through surveillance, the Chinese government and authorities determine if individuals are prone to terrorism and send them to re-education camps. In a way, our government surveils who browses dangerous ideas and concepts as well. But it is frightening seeing the surveillance power China wields and what they do with it. 

I felt informed about the rise of AI by watching the Frontline video, but it left me with privacy concerns. So much information about myself is left behind simply by performing a Google search. The surveillance tools have the potential to do great things in the right hands, but I don't foresee great outcomes with this technology in the wrong hands.

EOTO #1 Reaction

My classmates shared in-depth presentations teaching me the timeline of communication technologies. This experience was informative, as I learned of problems the new technology solved or even problems it created. The inventions that stood out to me most were the Carrying Pigeons, YouTube, Television, and Bluetooth. These are the inventions that I will touch on in this blog post. 

I was surprised to see carrying pigeons as a form of communication because it's such an ancient communication style. At the time, the pigeons were the fastest way to get messages from point A to B, this solved the issue of message sending. The carrying pigeons were named the "King's Angels" because the wealthy originally used this method. The King's Angels were used by Ancient Egypt, The Roman Empire, The Middle East, and the British Royal Family. When this was presented to me in class it left me wondering how the pigeons knew where to deliver the message, and how the right person received a message. The carrying pigeon presentation was a flash from the past that I enjoyed learning about.

Learning about YouTube was cool because it became popular while I was growing up. At the time I didn't realize how much YouTube changed the video world. YouTube allowed people to find any video, at any time. This made sharing and watching videos a lot easier. This presentation reminded me a lot of my late childhood which was a fun experience.

The impact of the television invention was revolutionary. I appreciated learning about the history of the invention, and what it took to create the television. The television revolutionized communication because it brought real-time events into homes. It was interesting to hear the speaker touch on the negative effects of the television. They talked about how television sparked debates on content regulation and parental supervision. This topic then faced many laws and regulations pertaining to what was appropriate to stream. This is interesting because this is an issue society still faces today.

Lastly, the invention of Bluetooth sparked my attention. How Bluetooth actually works, has always fascinated me, so I appreciated learning the history behind it. I was supprised to learn that the concept of Bluetooth actually started with short range radio connections. I connected with the negatives of this device, the significant battery drainage and range limitations. These are factors that are getting better through development but could always be better. 

Learning about the history and impact of communication technologies was an inviting experience. I was able to connect with the inventions of Carrying Pigeons, YouTube, Television, and Bluetooth because they connected to my current knowledge, curiousity or experiences.

EOTO: Invention of the Radio

Society uses cell phones to receive news, entertainment, and connect. Before the cell phone was the radio. In this post, I will write about the history and impact of the radio. The intent behind creating the radio was to improve communication, especially for ships overseas. This invention grew into something much greater and connected the American people through media. Although the radio improved the American lifestyle, some negative effects came with it. Before the radio was the wireless telegraph invented by Guglielmo Marconi, who kickstarted the invention of the radio. 

In 1916 the first radio with tuners was created by Ernst Alexanderson. Before the radio, we had telegraphs and the telephone. Although Alexanderson invented the radio tuner, the father of the wireless telegraph, Guglielmo Marconi, is known for creating the first radio. Many world events were happening around the time of the invention of the radio. In 1912 the Titanic sank and in 1914 World War I began. The radio was heavily relied upon by ships to send distress signals. When the Titanic sank, the issue of the radio only capable of receiving a single, limited frequency became apparent. In an attempt to take action, legislation passed the Radio Act of 1912. This sent the job of regulating the radio to the Department of Commerce. The department's job was to regulate frequencies, by assigning people times to use the radio. Then During World War I, radio control was passed to the Navy. So, many issues came from only having one frequency on the radio. It became very limiting.

Ernst Alexanderson solved the problem of limited radio frequency with the invention of tuners. With the addition of tuning, radio users could now broadcast on multiple frequencies. This invention led to the emergence of broadcast stations and jumpstarted the media world. Frank Conrad founded the first broadcasting station, KDKA. This broadcast connected people worldwide and significantly impacted American life, by providing media consisting of politics, entertainment, music, sports, and news. For many the radio was the fastest and most reliable news source. KDKA had its own important moments in history. Overall, in the 1920s America was booming with many milestones such as Industrialization, Civil Rights, Immigration, and Early Radio Programs. Ernst's invention of the radio brought the nation together at the time of these milestones.

Media and Communication among Americans soon significantly improved from radio networks. The Radio Networks we know and see today, ABC, NBC Red and Blue, AT&T, and CBS were created. The FCC provides an informative timeline of radio networks. In 1938, a significant event occurred, The War of the Worlds stream. Essentially, The War of the Worlds stream was a fake alien sighting. It holds importance because it made society panic and showed how much of an impact the media can have. Media impact is something that we still see today in society. At the time of the creation of the radio, propaganda was another negative effect of the invention. Many political leaders used the radio to spread misinformation and propaganda during World War II. A positive political leader, President Franklin Roosevelt, conducted Fireside Chats. The purpose of these chats was to combat all the negative spreading propaganda and connect with the American people as sort of a family approach. Roosevelt gained a healthy relationship with the American people through his Fireside Chats.

   

The invention of the radio comes with great history and impact. Ernst Alexanderson's invention of radio tuners solved the problem of limited frequency and allowed for quality communication. Broadcasting stations emerged and KDKA was born to connect the American people during the milestone that was the 1920's. Shortly after, radio networks emerged, and the negative effects of media appeared as leaders took advantage of the system and spread propaganda and fake news. Overall, the radio holds significance of the birth of media in America.