Final Blog Post

 Back in 1964, American society was so hopeful for the future of technology. Their excitement was proven through the Futurama ride that launched at the New York World’s Fair, where the attractions displayed throughout the ride showed the possibility of the future of our world with advancing technology. Their predictions of landing on the moon and innovative technology in the workplace have come true, but how the world has changed through social media is something nobody could have predicted. Futurama thought technology would be our savior, and although that could be true in some circumstances- like for national security, NASA discoveries, and manufacturing companies, the universe of portable digital worlds has completely thrown our world into an abyss. 

Yes, technology is a problem solver but it is also a problem creator. In the animated video “Man” by Steve Cutts, we are taken on this journey through time where we can see how humans have used their resources to advance into the future. It started out as innocent as discovering we can use animals for food and clothes, but quickly turned showed a turn around where the earth was a dumpter with all nature dead and the color drained from the world. This applies to us in 2022 because just as the man in the animation was, we go too far, and sometimes we do not realize how deep into destruction we are until it is too late. From the inside, it may seem like the norm or not so bad because it is what we are used to, but when the aliens came down to earth to discover the planet and realized how disgusting it had become, it was an eye-opener for viewers to see that what is normal to us may be terrible in reality and visa versa. Things may not be as bad as they seem until we take a step backwards.

The “Tears For Fears” music video let the images and music speak for themselves. It nearly made me cry because of how accurate it is. We have become prisoners to our cell phones and slaves to the internet. We have lost social skills, care for real-world problems, the ability to be authentic, and the joys that the natural world is supposed to bring us. The sad part is that as a student myself who is aware of these problems, I still act as a character in the film. I use technology for school work, social media for entertainment and news, apps for food and drinks, email and text for communication, and more. These habits have trained me to think I am being helped by technology but this is only short term. It is not enough to say we are going to change, but continue to participate in the destructive activities. 

Although I have adopted these addictive and unhelpful habits, I am self-aware and choose my battles accordingly. I use technology for its positives (to contact employers, professors, and family, to research, and more.) It has the ability to expand my knowledge on anything in the world! I try to ween from falling too deeply into the dark side of technology in multiple ways. I start by limiting my exposure to social media throughout my day- especially at night before bed when my thoughts are the most vulnerable and in the morning before I start my day. Another way I attempt to ween off of technology is the voice of my father in my head and how he always taught me never to rely on the GPS for directions, and so each time I am in the car, I challenge myself to avoid using the map so my body can lead me the right way. It is through these minute practices that we will become less reliant on our tech and more reliant on our natural instincts. My relationship with technology has become intertwined with my relationship with my instincts- sometimes I know when someone will text me moments before they do, or I am able to mentally clock the exact amount of time it will take for my mobile order to be completed for my meal- then I get the notification. Sometimes I am able to predict exactly what time it is before checking my phone, and I complete tasks in the same amount of time it takes me to finish an episode of Gilmore Girls. Yet, I have been trying to separate these parts of my life through self discipline and segregation of what is convenient and what I am able to rely on myself for. 

When you take your cell phone away and are asked to walk home from class alone, how naked do you feel? I never want to feel that way again. So, my plan is to eliminate the unintended consequences the power of technology has had on my life. For example, instead of Googling recipes I can find an actual cookbook, I can use a paper map in my car instead of the internet, I can treat social media as a priveledge and not as a “given”, I can order my food in person instead of online, I can go outside and hike instead of watch movies, I can complete a craft or read a book in the time it would take me to scroll through TikTok, and the rewards would be greater. I can positively use technology to research different parts of the world, to plan trips, to calculate expenses, and to learn about all things historical!  

I believe I was exposed to technology at the perfect time in my life. I got my first cell phone when I was 14 years old. I had to travel home alone on the bus and stay home alone for most hours of the day after school in my not-so- safe neighborhood. I had just started finding music artists that I was a true fan of, and social media wasn’t even a possibility in my mind. When I eventually did get social media, however, my older sister warned me of the dangers. It was the first time I had ever read or heard jokes about sex, sexuality, race, and gender roles. I wasn’t taken by complete surprise, but it wasn’t something I enjoyed seeing. I luckily had an innocent media feed of Ariana Grande concert posts and Webkinz toys galore. 

Technology is both making me smarter and informing me as well as misleading me. Half of what I thought was true is a myth, and people will state outright lies and demand they are true until you are nearly forced to believe it. I often worry about these things and especially the next generation. I was fortunate enough to go to a middle and high school where technology was not really used in the learning environment. The gift that those experiences have given me are irreplaceable. My writing improved, my competitive nature increased, my physical abilities (gym class) built confidence, my social skills were top tier, and through all this I faced it head on with real life set backs and was unable to hide behind a screen. Technology for the next generation worries me that they will not be able to handle reality. My family is full of young children, and so when I am with them I always make sure we are doing a non-technological activity. 

Especially during COVID-19, technology massively evolved. We became 100% reliant on it for work and communication. My relationships have both thrived and failed with technology. Cell phones always keep your partner within reach, but also have the ability to fool you about their whereabouts. Things can get misconstrued without face to face communication, and this often leads to more arguments. I agree with the statement that any technology is good within moderation and without the loss of self sufficiency. More than 50% of the time if you can do it with a phone, you should be able to also do it without it as well.

So besides the trail that the internet leaves on me, what do I leave on the internet? If you were to search me on the web, the first thing that would appear would be my Linkeldn profile and my academic achievements from high school- with my cringy graduation photo, of course. My track and field record would be next and perhaps a poetry writing contest I was entered in in the seventh grade and never won. I do have two social media accounts, however they are private and my posts are all clean. I ask my family not to post me on Facebook at all or on Instagram accounts without my approval and I do not have any saved or liked content that is controversial. I would say my digital footprint isn’t very deep and I like it this way. I clear out my search history daily and log out of my important accounts and do not link my credit card information to anything, typically. 

I have found that society’s relationship with technology is becoming increasingly more direct, and if we are not careful, we will doom ourselves. I think it is important to note that we take the bitter with the sweet and at least we are aware of technology’s dangers. It is up to us to make the decision of how we want to handle these changes.

Blog Post #10 Living in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence is one of the newest advancements in technology. It is the closest human-to-technology connection and morphing of the two we have to date. 

The purpose of artificial intelligence is to teach a computer to function as a person. These machines learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks. Some A.I. examples we have are self-driving cars, Face IDs, and computers that play chess on their own. While we give these devices minds of their own, this could be positive and negative. The eyeballs of computers have become more expansive and the ears of devices are now listening to us closer. Our feeds have become more and more curated to our preferences through the use of technology's access to our personal information and social media accounts. Our phones track everything that we do from our search history to our social media likes to our virtual shopping carts. This can lead to security breaches, however, and people are becoming increasingly worried about their safety and privacy. Computers are trying to serve us better and it can be great to have the world adapt to us, but people with our information don’t always have the same goals as us. 

Companies that track our content do so to curate our feed so it benefits them. They want to know who would be interested in their product and who it does not apply. This gives them an idea of who their target audience is as well as how wide their audience is. "We aren't using social media, social media is using us." This is a quote from the video we watched because it shows how through A.I. roles are reversed between the human and computer relationship. Because of this privacy invasion, the private human experience is raw material turned to fabrication. The oversharing and trust people put into their cell phones will be their downfall. Another quote from the video states, “...you would be horrified if you knew how much we knew about you.” 

Positives to A.I. would be a world in which everything we need is at our fingertips. We would hardly need to search for something to shop for before it showed up at our doorstep. Though this takes the human experience out of living life, we can see a slow merge of humans and technology each and every day. The world of A.I. is convenient yet tricky, so it is critical that we protect our information from the government, businesses, and hackers to maintain a boundary of privacy in modern day tech. 

Blog Post #11 EOTO Reactions

 

    In the spirit of exploring the world of Machine Learning and A.I., I decided to write my reflection on Ryan Shapiro's EOTO presentation and talk about what I learned.

    How did this come to be the machine learning and A.I. we know of today? Back in the mid-1900s, software was developing in minor ways to create big futures for computers. It started out as being used as a scoring program for games of checkers, next it developed image recognition, and later was used for mapping routes. In the late 1960s, multilayering technology allowed for future neural network research. 

    To begin, there is a clear difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence. Machine learning is HOW a computer develops its intelligence, while A.I. uses software to think like a human and perform tasks without the help of humans. It is almost like different parts of a brain; machine learning is the process while A.I. is the performance.

    Machine learning is a software program that uses the momentum of algorithms and statistics to motivate its understanding of data. In order for it to be considered true machine learning, there is no human involvement in the process. The idea as a whole is to train computers to think and function the way humans would without the assistance of a person to interfere.

What is the process of machine learning?

    First, the computer Identifies relevant data sets and prepares them for analysis. Then, Chooses the type of machine learning algorithm to use. Next, it builds an analytical model based on the chosen algorithm. It further trains the model on test data sets, revising it as needed. Lastly, it runs the model to generate scores and other findings. 

Blog Post #9 EOTO Terms & Concepts

    

     Not only do new technologies transform our world, but new business concepts and marketing strategies do as well. As our society is everchanging, companies need to keep up with competition and the desires that come with consumer culture. 

    Most businesses thrive off of horizontal integration- which involves one company buying another company within the same value chain level to increase its market share. Buying out the competition not only creates a larger company but, increases market power among suppliers and distributors, and opens up new markets for the company. These businesses have to stitch together similar companies, maintaining cohesion as the company expands and by sharing revenue with distributors and suppliers that aid them. On the other hand, a strategy that is emerging more and more is vertical integration.

                                            

What is Vertical Integration?

    Vertical integration is when a company handles two or more stages of production, normally operated by separate companies, themselves.  This could include handling suppliers, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and materials. A company that practices vertical integration would be Disney; they own Disney Channel, Disney World, Disneyland, Disney+, and more. They film, hire, distribute, and market all of their own content across the board. This idea of a “self-sufficient” company was developed during the Industrial Revolution and was greatly inspired by Andrew Carnegie. His company, Carnegie Steel, controlled the iron mines that were used for mining steel resources, the coal mines that provided the fuel to create the steel, the railroads for transporting materials, and the steel mills themselves. The idea has continued today and has many positives and negatives to its structure.

Types of Vertical Integration

    There are three different kinds of vertical integration: forward, backward, and balanced. Forward integration is when a company in the supply chain merges with a distribution channel and cuts out the middleman. Backward integration is considered an upstream business move. It involves a parent company expanding backward by purchasing and controlling earlier stages of the supply chain. Backward integration allows them to control the raw materials needed to create the final product. Balanced integration is a mixture of both business strategies.

    Vertical integration is now practiced in companies like Disney, IKEA, and Amazon, so there must be lots that are right about it. Here are some of the positives of vertical integration. A vertically integrated company owns all or several parts of the supply chain, and they become independent from its suppliers. This integration allows the company to increase efficiencies, lower costs, and compete with other companies by offering cheaper or more consistent products. By reducing costs on overhead, transportation, and other operational expenses, companies are often able to offer lower prices that attract customers. Vertical integration also allows for competitive advantage through creative appeal. If a company has control over its own marketing and distribution, it can make any changes they want without any pushback. By controlling its own supply chain, it is more able to control and deal with any supply problems itself instead of working upstream. This allows for a much more swift working process. Keeping revenues is another positive of vertical integration because there is no need to share with distributors or argue about splitting income.

 

Positives and Negatives

    With positives always come negatives. There are also many reasons why companies choose to not practice vertical integration. The main reason is that vertical integration is a recipe for a monopoly. Because one company can control so much and hold so much power, it gives them the ability to abuse that power by freely increasing their prices and making any changes they want without pushback. When there is no other company like theirs and they beat the competition, it leaves consumers with no choice but to abide by their changes and pay the extra cost. It is also not so easy to start a vertically integrated company. The initial expense is outrageous; companies must first invest a great deal of money to set up or buy factories. Then they must then keep the plants running to maintain efficiency and profits. Lots of times if a plan is not clear or a company does not have a strict set of standards, miscommunication can lead to the failure of the company before it has even launched. Rapidly changing technology is also a negative for vertical integration because they do not have partnering companies to help them adapt or to assist with costs and partnerships. Even with these obstacles, some of the most successful companies still find success through these tribulations.

    If you want to learn more about vertical integration, here is a list of well-known companies that use this strategy:

https://boycewire.com/vertical-integration-definition/

Blog Post #8 Privacy, Online & Off

                    

   

     Privacy is hard to come by these days. There is no more knocking on someone's door to surprise them- they saw you on the Ring camera 100 feet before you approached the door. You can no longer talk privately with your best friend about her breakup without Alexa suggesting the cheapest ice cream options nearby. I cannot go to a party anymore without waking up the next day and finding myself in the background of dozens of photos posted on the internet, looking regrettable. And don't even think about holding a secret because soon enough, the super sleuths of the internet will piece together information about you from the past six months to conclude that you are now working with the Illuminati. Too much?

    Lack of privacy due to the newest technologies can help and hurt us. It is helpful because I can share my location with my friends and family so they can always find me in case I am in danger. It is also helpful to know what is going on in the lives of people you know- since it is all exposed. But the negatives outweigh the positives. By inserting your phone number to register your email address, people can now contact you that you never knew. By letting Google track your location, hackers can find where you are. Having a teddy bear that monitors your children with a built-in camera can be their recipe for kidnapping my creepy coders. I think we can do more to protect ourselves from these privacy invasions. We tend to trust our resources too much- by inserting our email addresses to a new website just because we were asked to. Well, what else is linked to that email? My credit card information, my contacts, my phone number, my location, etc. People need to realize just how much they are giving away. By doing these small acts that seem harmless just to get a coupon code or become a member of Sam's Club, we are exposing parts of our lives that should be more private.

                                                                               

    I think the government should be doing a better job of protecting its citizen's privacy rather than invading it with incessant questions and numbers designed for each person. Although lack of privacy is good for tracking criminals, it is not good visa versa. It is becoming far too simple to find someone you want to find. For example, I ran the track team in high school and there were lots of boys from neighboring schools that my teammates found attractive. After all, who doesn't love an athlete? All I needed to find their future husband was the name of their school. Then, I'd search for the roster of the track team and match the photo to the person. I did not need a name or number. Once I found their photo, their complete athletic history was posted along with their name. We used the name to find the social media accounts and the rest was history. Going up to him and introducing ourselves? No thanks. This lack of privacy worked in our favor, but maybe not in his.

    So what can we do to better protect ourselves from being tracked and attacked by advertisements and internet weirdos? For starters, we can create fake accounts under mysterious names when registering for memberships. We can also clear our search histories, turn our locations off, and unsubscribe from old subscriptions with old information. We can also never have credit card information or passwords pre-saved to devices to make our lives "easier." It won't be so easy once we get hacked! 

Blog Post #7 Diffusion of Innovations

                                                 

    Trends, innovations, and ideas spread like wildfire through a population through the Diffusion Theory. The type of population that tends to have the speediest growth in terms of new trends and transformations would be the youth. Social media, schools, and universities are breeding grounds for trends and news to spread and what is deemed "cool" or not. Growing up in the early to mid 2000s, I have seen such growth with technology and social media over time. An innovation that caught on instantly and spread like wildfire would be the app Snapchat. Although writing about a social media app is cliche, this particular app seems like a good choice for me to write about because I grew up watching its growth and societal effect. 

    Snapchat is a social media and communication app where people can send momentary messages and create 24 hour long posts that delete when their time limit is up. It is not only a way to keep your peers updated about what you're doing in the moment, but allows for quick conversation hat doesn't take up storage for saving the thread. Back in 2011 when Snapchat was invented, photos could only be viewed once for ten seconds each. There was no saving, replaying, or sharing other people's content. It was a witty way to say "here I am right now."

                                                  (old snapchat logo)

    People took to Snapchat as soon as it was released and was primarily used by high school students for intimate reasons. I remember my sister did not let me download it because the app wasn't so much social as it was a secret way to communicate with no strings attached. People took it less seriously than competitor apps like Instagram because there is no trace left behind of what was posted or shared- whether it be embarrassing, funny, serious, or sad. People had no shame in what they posted because they knew it would disappear, therefore, it was also unfortunately used for cyberbullying as well. As time went on, Snapchat added more features to its app making it more attractive to other age groups. Filters, sound effects, speed up/slown down/reverse options for videos, location sharing, and streaks were all updates made by 2015, and by 2016, Snapchat had over 75 million users. Now, Snapchat has ways to watch the news, monitor celebrities, contact friends, and so much more. 

    So what made Snapchat so attractive? The text/ photo or video combination was a new form of communication. People could see and hear your face or where you were while reading the caption you put over it all at the same time. Rather then having a social media post that is overly edited, Snapchat is a more honest and organic way to reach friends. People now use Snapchat to text and call people instead of imessage or SMS text message them because they can do so without service- only WiFi is needed. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives. Afterall, Snapchat is a free way to communicate and you do not have to pay for minutes used. There are negatives, however. Because Snapchat deletes chats and photos almost instantly and forever, people in relationships fear the app is a way their partner can practice infedelity since they cannot prove who was texted or not. The disappearing photos and call history means anyone can send anything they so choose at any time. Just like any other social media, it is also used for people to try and prove they have a life by posting "interesting" or "fun" things they could be doing that makes their friends feel left out. Looking at distorted and heavily filtered images can also affect people by promoting insecurities and a fake lifestyle. Still, people find it to be one of the less toxic social media apps and continue to use it daily. 

    This technology was adopted because back in 2011 there was a very limited amount of social media usage. Apps like Instagram and Twitter were just emerging, and we were all learning together the new ways to connect when we were apart. I love Snapchat and still use it to this day- with my location off of course. You can also control who can view and who cannot view your content and who is in your strict friends list. I believe Diffusion Theory worked well with Snapchat because of its rapid growth and continued popularity over the past ten years.