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.

Post #4: EOTO Research

The Impact of The United States Postal Service

By Davis Trax

Overtime, technology has been a huge impact on society. It changes our lives every single day. We use technology to get us places, to see what others are doing, to check the time and the weather, to see what messages we are receiving. Messages that we receive. We've had so many forms of communication throughout the history of our planet but even in the history of our country. There is a form of communication and message delivery that has existed as long as our country that, in this century, has been taken for granted and is, in fact, a separate government agency. That is the United States Postal Service.

The beginnings of the USPS can be traced all the way back to 1775, so before the Declaration of Independence was written, during the Second Continental Congress. It was decided that Founding Father Benjamin Franklin would be named the first postmaster general. In the beginning of its time, the transportation of the letters would be dependent upon where in the country these letters were being sent from. If you were sending a letter from the northern states, there were most likely stagecoaches that would come around and take the letters and would deliver them that way, which is extremely close to what we have today. If you were living in the southern states, if you were able to afford sending out letters, you were also a slave owner so your slaves would deliver the letters. Of course, as time went on, the transportation in the world modified and advanced technologically, so the USPS did so accordingly.

In 1792, the Postal Service Act was passed, creating the Post Office Department, which was a cabinet-level department in 1872. In March of 1970, there was a workers strike in the Post Office Department that went up against the US Government. This strike was due to poor wages and working conditions. What started in New York City ended up gathering around 210,000 postal workers and ended up allowing former President Richard Nixon to sign the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, turning the Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service and the cabinet-level department was turn into its own independent government agency.

The impact of the USPS cannot be overstated. It has been serving consistently reliable mail. I, personally, have had no issues with the post service. They have delivered everything I've needed to be delivered and I have received everything I needed to receive. This post service has done exactly what the founding fathers intended. The point of the postal service was to connect people who are far away from each other, and it most certainly did that. Before email, and social media, even if you wanted to send a message to somebody in the town over, you had to send a letter otherwise you would have to bike or drive or walk there. Even though times have changed, the USPS still exists and there are many postal service spots around the country. You can take passport photos there and send packages, which is the main thing the post service does. All in all, our country would not have survived before email and texting if it weren't for the United States Postal Service.

Post #1: My 5 Sources of News and Information

 My Top 5 News Sources

By Davis Trax

My interests these days are all over different topics ranging from sports, to music, to amusement park content! There are many great ways to obtain information on these topics from multiple different sources, but when it comes to me, I have a very specific few that I use more than others.

1. CBS Sports

I love searching Google for sports news especially in basketball, football and baseball, and somehow the most current and updated news doesn't come from some of my other favorite sources - Adrian Wojnaroski on his podcast or Shams Charania on The Athletic - but instead it comes from CBS Sports. I always get really good updates on the college basketball games and on recent rumors with Aaron Rodgers. They always get me up to date on all the news in sports.

2. Coaster Studios

Everybody has a hobby. Some people enjoy singing (I do too) and dancing, and I like watching a POV of my favorite roller coaster. I love amusement park content. I just enjoy amusement parks and rides so much. And I have lots of different content creators that I enjoy watching like ElToroRyan and Air Time Thrills, but my first channel and the most consistent channel is Coaster Studios. They always have great videos on roller coaster reviews, park reviews and park vlogs. Their tremendous content has actually forced me and my roommate to make a YouTube channel of our own. I've even gone into Planet Coaster, a roller coaster video game, made a coaster and have edited it into a hype video.

3. Instagram

I love Instagram so much. It is more of a personal news source, meaning I see more of what is happening with my friends and I see the news that they post, but it also gives me a chance to see news for some of my favorite sports teams, music artists and roller coaster enthusiasts - Boston Celtics, Harry Styles and Park Pros. I am able to see pictures and videos of sports plays, concert performances, roller coasters and I'm willing to scroll for an hour straight.

4. ESPN

As you can see, I love sports. I am a sports media major and have playing sports all my life. ESPN has so many different ways to obtain it's news. You can get it through social media, TV or even the ESPN App. The easiest choice for getting updates on NBA scores, articles on the upcoming Super Bowl and thoughts on the NHL All Star games. I have been watching ESPN since I was 7 years old with my dad, and there might not be a more trustworthy source. Almost.

5. Twitter

My favorite news source. I find out literally everything on Twitter. Everyone I've mentioned above I follow on Twitter - CBS Sports, Instagram, Coaster Studios and ESPN - and even more. I follow all my favorite sports teams, athletes, sports organizations, musicians, news outlets. The great thing about Twitter for sports is that you're feed is a lot easier to control than some other social media outlets. Twitter is used by so many times and even though I love Instagram, I like and use Twitter much more.