Final Post: My Relationship With Technology

My Relationship With Technology

By Davis Trax

Well here is is. My final blog for the semester. And if it isn't obvious enough, this one is months after the last one. This semester has been an incredible learning opportunity for me. I really have learned more about our country's history in the 1st Amendment and internet privacy. This class has been eye opening in a really good way. My knowledge of the 1st Amendment, the wrong and right usage since its formation in the Constitution, and the timeline of our country using the 1st Amendment as a lens. Then moving on to privacy of the web and how the government should or should not be watching us and keeping tabs on our internet history. It really got me to thinking about MY relationship with technology. I began to analyze my own usage of the internet both before I took the class, and how it has been over the last two months.

When I was younger, I used to hear from my parents how different technology was, but the way technology has advanced since us Generation Z people were kids, it seems like a different world. The iPhone was created by the time I was 4, and it did literally nothing compared to the iPhone 13 we have today. I could go on and on about it, but I will digress for now. Before I took this class, like I said, my relationship with technology was the same as it is now. I used the internet the same amount and I used my phone and laptop the same amount, but I didn't realize how much I didn't know. Obviously, you're going to learn something in every class that you take, and I knew I was going to learn a lot, but I didn't realize how much I didn't know, and looking back I realize that I should have done more research on how amazing VPNs are and how important staying protected on the internet is. Now I know I keep talking about the fact that I didn't know a lot of stuff, but let's get into what I did prior to this class. I would go on the internet a lot, but be unprotected and in incognito mode because I thought that was all I needed to do to stay safe. I wouldn't have to spend possibly hundreds of dollars a year to pay for something I didn't need, but what I learned even outside of the class was that hackers can sell your data even when you are on incognito mode. If it weren't for the Media Law and Literacy class I had taken, I wouldn't have been interested in checking out the data for myself. 

My digital footprint is pretty large and a lot of that isn't even my fault. If you look up my name on the internet, you can find my social media and basketball photos and LinkedInBeyond that, I am a huge sports fan and I like knowing everything that goes in the sports world so I have lots off social media. I primarily use Twitter and Instagram, but I am sometimes on Tik Tok too. These are a just a few of the ways I consume sports media. When I go on these social media accounts, I fall into rabbit holes for other interests like roller coaster accounts such as ElToroRyan or Coaster Studios, and then I watch some of my favorite musicians like Queen or Michael Jackson. If you went on my Instagram search page, all of the reels would either be music related, specifically for those two artists, roller coasters or basketball. It is a prime example of how Instagram, like all other forms of social media, cater my account and my page to what I see and watch. If I am looking at a lot of Siberian Husky videos, which right now I am, they will show up in my Instagram feed, even though I watch them mainly on YouTube. It is incredible how these platforms make the effort to hook me on more rabbit holes regarding subjects and topics that I can't get enough of.

The biggest thing I remember learning that doesn't apply to my own life is online censorship. During our class, we were in the middle of the World War III scare. All over social media, we could see people talk about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and how we would probably get involved and start World War III, and those voices that we saw were those in favor of the war. This is because the government wanted us to to think going to war was a good idea, but that's what sells in America which is why larger corporations printed and spoke about the perks of going to war, when there are many opinions out there who don't agree and believe that our country shouldn't go to war, but they aren't listened to because of online censorship.

I am very glad I had the opportunity to take this class. I learned a lot from it. I use a VPN whenever I am on the internet and expand my view to more than just a few of the same sources before coming up with my own thoughts. Thank you Professor Smith.

Post #10: Other EOTO Presentations

Other EOTO Presentations

By Davis Trax

I have learned a great deal from the EOTO presentations we have given. I especially learned a lot from my own group, as I presented on the Overton Window, a political idea theory that we, the public can use to make politicians see the benefits in compromising to both political parties. We also spoke on the Illusory Truth Effect, Gatekeeping and Confirmation Bias. I definitely learned a lot from those presentations. I also a lot from the other groups, especially the awareness group.

The awareness group had to cover topics like the Smith-Mundt Act, false flags and five eyes. The topics that I found the most interesting were propaganda and disinformation. They are similar in a lot of ways, but have key differences that separate them from being the exact same thing.

Propaganda has been used by our country for a long time. It is a way for a biased group to mislead many into thinking that an entire nation believes one thing. We have used it for many things, but the largest demographic for propaganda is anything political. The biggest of examples in America are during World War I, World War II and an extremely recent example is the COVID-19 global pandemic. The difference between propaganda and disinformation is that propaganda can be misinformed, where the information is wrong but, doesn't do it on purpose. Disinformation is the literal act of deceiving the public in a deliberate, assertive manner. Disinformation is a subset of propaganda, but a specific cut of major propaganda is actually disinformation. Disinformation also exists in World War I, World War II and especially in COVID-19. The pandemic is a great way of showing modern day disinformation.

That is why this EOTO group intrigued me the most. More than just the way they presented the information, the topics themselves are incredibly interesting and important in todays society.

Post #9: Diffusion Theory of Innovation in the Real World

Diffusion Theory of Innovation in the Real World

By Davis Trax

Throughout history, and even through our lives, people create ideas and they come to fruition and then they exist for a certain period of time. Every idea and creation that is made by man goes through a process of time, like where they are founded and created, and then a time where they grow and grow until the reach their peak and then fall to nothing. This is called the Everett Rogers Diffusion Theory of Innovation. Some of these have small peaks, but small falls. Others have large peaks and even larger falls. We'll speak on one of these today.

Today, we are doing the United States Post Office, a topic I have touched on recently, but it's fresh in my mind and has a pretty good example for Rogers Diffusion Theory of Innovation. The Post Office started in 1971 and it still has a huge impact in our mail production, but that doesn't mean it hasn't made its way through this course. The Pioneers phase date was probably March 9, 1858, when the first mailbox was invented by Albert Potts. This signals the time when people could have boxes that mail could be delivered too and hold mail that should be delivered. 

Early adopter phase, when people started sending out more mail, also has to do with mailboxes, but also with transportation. The post-mounted letter box was perfected and early automobiles were around leading to the change in transportation and that was around 1908, so that was a huge transformational year. 1926 was when First Class mail was introduced and this was when the US Post Office hit its early majority phase and in 1930, mail volume broke the 15,000 mark. In 1973, the 50,000 mark was broken and in 1998, the 100,000 mark was broken. The critical mass phase came in the year 2001, when the volume for first-class mail was at it's highest, a massive 103,656. 

Everything seemed all well and good until 2004. This was the year a company - which was pretty new at the time - changed everything. You may have heard of this company before. Google created G-Mail, which revolutionized the already growing email. It started with one gigabyte of storage, which was larger than other email companies, but as it kept growing in users, they added storage. By now, G-Mail has over 1.5 billion users as of October, 2019, and there are now over 15 gigabytes of free usage. This addition and the lowering of the Post Offices First-Class Mail volume numbers cause this to be the maturation phase.

Finally we reach the saturation phase, the most recent date in history. This date is actually a lot more recent than you might think. People still use the Post Office to send letters and packages since it's a more sentimental way of messaging than it used to be, but in 2021, the US Post Office decided to slow down mail to save money and limit air travel and rely more on ground transportation. Saving money by slowing down does not exactly sound like the best business model, but go for it. Brian Naylor said in an NPR article that lots of criticism states a "death spiral" for the Post Office. There are more objective facts, more concrete information and more knowledgable opinions on why this is not a good move, but I'll say my piece and I'll keep it short. Slowing may save money, but it doesn't seem like there will be a steady or major profit, so eventually they might have to continue cutting stuff out.

Hopefully, there are big differences in the numbers the Post Office sports, because that would completely change this article, but for now, this is where the Post Office stands and this is a great example of the diffusion theory of innovation thanks to Everett Rogers. Hopefully companies in the communication industry last longer and hopefully, the Post Office doesn't fall into nothingness.

Post #8: EOTO Presentation 2

EOTO Presentation 2

By Davis Trax

There are many political theories that exist such as Confirmation Bias, Gatekeeping and the Illusory Truth Effect. When we did our second round of EOTOs, I ended up choosing none of the ones I listed, but I instead chose Overton Window, an idea and policy theory that suggested a certain mindset of politicians.

The Overton Window idea was named after and created by policy analyst Joseph P. Overton, who stated the success rate of a policy is determined by where it would exist along the spectrum shown above. He also stated the window frames the overall range of possibilities without going too extreme on either side. So I haven't gone into any detail about this Overton Window and what it does and what the theory suggests. The Overton Window is a way to understand the change of societal ideas over time and how they influence politics. This concept states that politicians are generally limited in the ideas they support and the ones that they do support should be generally accepted by society. Any of the policies that society accepts lies within the Overton Window, and its placement depends on how much of society supports the idea. There are other ideas that exist, but these are almost always lying on the outside of the Overton Window.

As you can see, the Overton Window exists along a spectrum of ideas, each side being bookended by radical ideas of the left and right wings of politics. The ideas within the Overton Window are ones that both parties can equally support. Throughout time, this window shrinks and expands as ideas are more and less accepted over time. 

I state that there could be a way that politicians can move ideas from the outside to the inside. I honestly think that it could probably happen by the politician continuously promoting the idea to all of society, but I also think that this would be an extremely rare case.

The only issues that arise from this theory are that politicians don't have a clear cut option for the very middle of the window, meaning the most unanimously popular and supported policy, so they have to create it on their own agenda. Second of all, some politicians don't care about the window. They disregard it completely or they believe it is subjective and that it lies somewhere else closer to their parties agenda, like on the very far right or left.

What I gain from this theory is that we as a society have more power in society than we might realize. If we as a society find a common ground for an idea or policy, this theory states that a sane politician, which is hard to come by nowadays, would support this policy or idea in office or during an election period.

Hopefully, more people read up on this and we can see that if we want to, we could potentially make the government more inclined to do what we want because we all want the same thing.

Post #7: Internet Privacy

Internet Privacy

By Davis Trax

We live in a world where technology dominates our existence. We can't go anywhere or do anything without involving technology in the process, and while there are many powerful and useful tools we can gain from using technology, one of the biggest issues we face is that our gadgets aren't secure or protected from being wiretapped by hackers or the government. I recently watched some TED talks and learned some really important things about internet privacy and how we can take control of our data.

Out of the three videos we watched in class, the first one was my favorite, because I took the most from it. The main message of the first video was about society being more careful of the information they put online because all of our internet history and our social media platforms are like electronic tattoos. I definitely take pride in what I put on my social media stories and posts because I know that my data can be taken. I have always told my family that date encryption is super important. I always tried my best to protect my data by limiting what I put on social media and deleting my history, but some of my favorite YouTubers - Danny Gonzalez, Drew Gooden, Kurtis Conner, Daniel Thrasher, Cody Ko - have had videos sponsored by VPN providers and that encouraged me to download one and after sharing more information on data encryption with my dad, we both use VPNs to secure our data.

I did take a lot from the first video, but that doesn't mean I didn't have takeaways from the other two videos. The third video was very similar to the first video. The man spoke about how we can encrypt our own communication on our phones by using are FaceTime and Messages feature because Apple encrypted them so that they could not be easily wiretapped and we can keep messages to ourselves.

I think it is increasingly important that we find more ways to encrypt our data and we continue to use the methods we have now.

Post #6: Other EOTO Presentations

Other EOTO Presentations

By Davis Trax

I love these EOTO presentations. It is a great way for us to go more in depth about are advancement in technology. Since I did the USPS, which is a communication technology, I thought I would talk about those presentations that spoke on the transportation of communication.

There were two presentations in particular that I enjoyed learning about and they were about drones and carrier pigeons, which I didn't realize were so pivotal and the advancement in technology. These were airborne forms of delivery. The one closest in relation to mine was definitely carrier pigeons, since they're birds and wouldn't be able to pick up 30 pound packages and carry across an ocean. They delivered letters for thousands and thousands of years before postal services began across the globe. They popularized sending letters in the first place. They were key to the further development of letter transportation which ended up leading to the creation of the United States Postal Service.

Then there are drones, which are UAVs that are used for all sorts of things, but they were originally made for military purposes. They would complete missions that were considered "too dangerous" for humans to try and attempt. The drones we use now are used for taking photos or videos or for delivering goods or for security. Their uses have increased exponentially. These are two examples of past and future for technology, as carrier pigeons were indeed the past and were pioneers, while drones are the future, currently being developed more and more. Technology!

Post #5: Anti-War Voices Being Shut Down

Anti-War Voices Are Being Shut Down

By Davis Trax

There is so much tension in our countries relations with Russia and with what is going on with Ukraine. It seems like all we see is news about the possibility of war and that Biden is warning us about what we will do if Russia invades Ukraine. It seems like most of the country is in favor of going to war, and while that may be true, what definitely is not true is that all of the country wants to go to war.

Personally, I don't want to go to war. I don't like war in general and I don't want there to be a draft because I would definitely get drafted and I don't want to fight in a war. Platforms like CNN serve a general public that would want to see this war happen, but there are many antiwar publications that are being thrown out of the light. Websites like ANTIWAR and American Conservative are fully against the war happening, but these voices are shut out because the government wants us to believe everybody is in favor of this war and that because these websites and news sources aren't as popular as CNN or Fox that they aren't credible. It might be the case that there are more people that want to see this war commence, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people who are against it and those people need to be heard. I wish more antiwar voices who are staying quiet speak up for the rest of us and explain that this war is possible but not necessary. There is always a more peaceful route in settling even the most diplomatic of arguments. We all have a say in what happens for this country, right? Aren't we a democracy? Let's protect this country even further.