Digital Footprint

 Our social media use, especially that of my generation who grow up with it since we were little, many times completely forget or do not acknowledge the potential risk we put ourselves under. We are not well aware of how our digital footprint, a data point left on the internet from our usage, can create an invasion of our privacy. We leave behind a digital footprint in anything and everything we do online so it is vital that fully understand what exactly our digital footprint is and how it may track our every movement online. 

Instagram is my primary source of social media. Ever since first getting the app in 2016, I have pretty much used it daily ever since to reconnect with friends and look up interesting stories. Starting last year, however, I have changed my account to a public business account so that I can hopefully better market myself as a filmmaker by posting various films I have made. By having my account be public, most of my followers are people that I do not even know. I had do block several of them recently when I found them to be scammers or hackers. It is a very scary thing to have happen but is a part of what happens when you give over too much control to a social media app. 

Though I got Snapchat relatively recently (about two years ago), my use of the social media app has been immense. I use the app everyday to communicate with friends and have even had to use it when communicating with other group members in a group project. Though I use it daily, I only ever use it to communicate with my close friends. I never use it to connect with people I don't know and have only ever posted to my story one time.  

 I use YouTube a lot whenever I'm bored (which is a lot) to look up interesting or funny videos to entertain myself. Surprisingly, I actually am on YouTube more than any of the other social media apps and try to use my YouTube channel to further my filmmaking career by also posting my short films to it. YouTube has made it easy to reach out to fellow filmmakers and share with them my own work. 

Overall, though I only use these three social media sites, I do now greatly fear for my privacy. Instagram and Snapchat both have my phone number, as well as my location, and YouTube has access to my email. All of these contacts were needed to create an account. Each of those are very personal contacts that I believe no one would want out in the open. Recently, after becoming a much more informed social media user, I have made myself more aware of what kind of power social media has over me in the contract of adhesion (something I did not even use to read before accepting). I have also realized that it is not just me at risk. Any of my friends and family members that are mentioned in any of my social media accounts can now also be tracked and/or targeted by people that would want to do them harm. 

The article by The Atlantic was deeply disturbing. I never knew an ad company could track a person's physical movement! It was very unsettling how far an ad agency would go to collect someone's data just so that they could give you an ad for something you may be interested in. I knew that our phones and social media presence gathered information on what kind of things we seemed interested in, but I never knew just how far it all truly went. 

Overall, though I may be uncomfortable with the amount of contact information I am required to give to my social media accounts, I do not think I have a purely unhealthy relationship to technology. I do not post personal things and only really use it to further my film career. I do not usually reach out to people who I do not know and keep my circle of those I do communicate with very small. I am extremely selective of what I post and do not rely on technology to determine my own self worth. If someone posts about going on an extravagant vacation, I do not become depressed that I am not taking part in something as fun. Social media has never affected my self worth and has never made me depressed due to any sort of comparison to anyone else. For whatever reason, I have always separated social media from my personal self and will continue to do so. 

Sources:

https://blog.infoarmor.com/individuals-and-families/whats-digital-footprint-why-does-it-matter-tips-protecting-data

https://www.simplilearn.com/real-impact-social-media-article

https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-instagrams-new-logo-2016-5

https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/put-snaps-map-snapchats-new-snap-map/

   

EOTO 2

    Political influencers have been a large part of the political landscape ever since the 1960s primarily through the use of talk shows, newspaper editorials, and radio. Political influencers and essayists such as Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and William Buckley reached nationwide popularity by debating and discussing hot topic issues around the country. This laid the groundwork for future political influencers to follow. However, the popularity of the political influencer greatly increased through the introduction of social media, making themselves available to a broader, younger audience. Now, instead of a large book or essay making one's political views widespread, a single video on Youtube, no longer than half an hour, can make one's political views much more widespread, much quicker.

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    Colleges are the prevalent hotbeds for a new age of political influencers to visit, allowing for lengthy, sometimes heated debates over a multitude of issues. With their work and political opinions made available online through social media, young people such as college students are the ones most directly targeted. Also, the issues most debated by political influencers concern matters of culture such as trans pronouns, gay marriage, hate speech, religious freedom, feminism, and race relations. These matters, more than any other area of political debate, interest young people for their relevance in the fundamental structure of the country and their own social lives.

    

    The most notable of this new age of political influencers include Ben Shapiro, the found of The Daily Wire; Trevor Noah, the host of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah; Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychology professor; and Cenk Uygur, the founder of The Young Turks; among others. These online influencers typically display a highly intellectual, concise approach to their arguments that make it easy to understand in a short amount of time.

    The effects of the presence of these political online influencers are that there are now more opinions to hear from than ever before, there is now a younger generation more interested in political matters concerning the culture war than ever before, and they encourage opinions, even unpopular ones, to be heard. However, many fear that the presence of political online influencers can create more division when discussing political issues and can lead to tense and volatile environments, especially on college campuses. The latter fear can be best shown when UC Berkley fierce riots when conservative personalities Milo Yiannopoulos and Ben Shapiro attempted to speak on campus. '

Sources:

• https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/the-past-decade-and-future-of-political-media-the-ascendance-of-social-media/

• https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/12/how-hollywood-invented-ben-shapiro

• https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/why-the-left-is-so-afraid-of-jordan-peterson/567110/

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2020/02/12/will-political-social-media-influencers-impact-this-years-election/?sh=39c256756fc0

• https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/8/18536100/sam-harris-making-sense-recode-decode-kara-swisher-podcast-interview-islam-sri-lanka-new-zealand

Online Privacy

 Our privacy is under threat more than ever in this age of innovation. In an age of technology where we are all connected, I was beyond shocked to learn from Dr. Smith’s lecture and his videos just how vulnerable we truly are. Our information is always being tracked and monitored by mega-corporates such as Facebook and Google. My fears were even more exasperated after Dr. Smith taught us about the Adhesion contract, an agreement usually made where one party gains a large amount of power over a weaker party. An adhesion contract is typically the terms and agreement contract we all sign without looking through when we update things such as our Apple ID. These contracts allow these mega corporations to track our online activity and to even instill certain features on our phones based on that activity. A prime example of this would be personalized advertisements created through Google’s algorithm. I think I was always vaguely aware of this but I never knew it was as secretive as it was. It is important that we are not naive to how our information is spread online and how it can be used against us without us even knowing.

Source for picture:

https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/5-ways-to-improve-your-online-privacy-and-security-right-now/

Innovation Diffusion- Cell Phones

 

    The cellphone is an invention that I believe can be viewed through the lens of innovation diffusion. First created in 1973 by Martin Cooper, a Motorola employee. Its convenience of having no wires and portable meant that it could reach people across widespread areas of land. This convenience, along with its ability to reach out for emergency help wherever you are, created a broad base of early adopters. 

    However, despite the cell phone’s popularity, many have simply refused to adapt to it. This is due to it being too tricky to use in many of its more technical features such as internet connection and texting and it being expensive. Today, many phones cost more than $1,000. That does not even include service or ADDITIONAL FEES. There are also other options for such detractors to consider such as the availability of landlines and public phones. For them, they may not simply need a cell phone. 

    Overall, cell phones are a ver y positive innovation which has allowed our world to become ever more connected, no matter where we are. Also, modern cell phones allow us the opportunity to access a camera, news, social media, and even email with absolute ease. However, this connectivity can also present downsides as it can easily become very overwhelming. Some can even become addicted to it. Still, cell phones and their convenience outweigh all the negatives. Like it or not, cell phones have changed the way the world works. 

Source:

https://www.knowyourmobile.com/phones/the-history-of-mobile-phones-from-1973-to-2008-the-handsets-that-made-it-all-happen-d58/

What I learned- Presentations

I learned that Sergey Brin, a PhD computer science student at Stanford struck up partnership with Larry Page, a prospective student, after showing him around the university's campus. In 1996, the pair launched the search engine "backrub." Then in 1998, "Google Beta" launched and hired their first employees. Two years later, in 2000, Google added new languages to their search engine. In 2004, gmail was added as a new feature for Google. In 2008, the Google then launched the chrome browser, competing directly against internet explorer. Google continued to progress past their original search engine brand and in 2016 created the first ever Google phone (Google Pixel). The current CEO of Google is Sundar Pichai. 

Google has changed the way nearly everyone has used the internet in a very positive way. For example, it is free to use, can be used as a research tool, can be used an advertising tool, and gives you access to a variety of different websites and information at your fingertips. Google also has many different helpful products and apps such as gmail, google scholar, google calendar, google earth, google photos, etc. However, Google also has negatives. For example, not every article you find on Google is true. Also, it is very expensive to advertise on Google and ads are put at the top to make it look as if that is the most popular website under your search. 

Blog #4

   

     Before this assignment, I had never visited anti-war sites such as Antiwar.com and The American Conservative. Each site gives their unique opinions on modern affairs concerning foreign relations, the president, crime, etc. Their opinions on these matters, often very critical of the government's actions, make it clear why they are not promoted in a way that would allow them to ever become well known. World governments have long trend of suppressing dissenting voices as shown by the issue involving Julian Assange. These two sites speak extensively about America's military operations in foreign countries and criticize the presence of troops int those countries.  The US government would of course not want to promote these sites in the attempt to preserve its idealized image of freedom and justice. I personally found these sights very interesting as it allowed me to explore opinions on modern topics that you do not usually hear of. It is very important to consider that these opinions contain a great deal of truth and information that can be very insightful to the actions of our government. We as Americans have a fundamental right to look into such significant issues in American politics and to ensure the government abuses its power. 

Telegraph

       The transfer of communication across large pieces of land before the introduction of the telegraph was largely limited due to weather and the lack of efficient receptor points. Messages largely had to be hand-delivered or signaled through ancient means such as drum beats or smoke signals. Semaphores, a long series of stations atop mountains that had used large wings to signal messages was also widely used. However, this still proved inefficient in the face of unforgiving weather and anything that could prohibit how well the stations could be seen. There needed to be an efficient and trustworthy source of communication across large pieces of land. 

Inventors from all over the globe competed to find a remedy for this problem. In 1794, the non-electric telegraph was created by Claude Chappe, using a semaphore system that consisted of a flag-based alphabet to communicate across long distances. This is most commonly referred to as the optical telegraph. Later, in 1809, Samuel Soemmering created an early type of the telegraph that relied on the process of electrolysis to communicate a message 2,000 feet away through the production of gas that was produced by gold electrodes and thirty-five wires in water. Despite these inventions and their progress, they each quickly proved to be inconsistent and limited in their range. However, in 1825, William Sturgeon, a British inventor created the electromagnet, an invention that would soon prove to be revolutionary in the world of communication. 

       Samuel Morse demonstrating the telegraph

Inspired by the power of Sturgeon’s new invention, American inventors Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale, and Alfred Vail sought to create an electric telegraph that was both practical and commercial. After designing a magnetized magnet inspired by Sturgeon’s electromagnet, they created a single-circuit telegraph that sent out electric signals along a wire by simply pressing down on an operator key.  The invention was simple in its needs: a line of poles, wire, a battery, and a key. This made it very practical and relatively simple for widespread use. 

                                                    William Sturgeon and his electromagnet

By the 1830s, Samuel Morse and Vail created Morse Code, a coded system that they used to communicate letters and numbers across telegraph wires through a set of short marks and long marks. The idea originally occurred to Morse while he was teaching art and design at New York University. In the class, he made a marker write codes on a paper by sending out electric pulses to activate an electromagnet. In Morse Code, the length of the marks were determined by how often certain letters were typically used. For example, the frequently used letter “A” received a short mark while the more infrequently used letter “Z” received a much longer mark. 

               Morse Code

Later, Morse and Vail improved the electric telegraph to mark papers with a variation of dashes and dots. This was later shown in 1838 at a public demonstration that furthered the public’s support for its widespread use. This support grew and grew until Congress finally agreed to build a forty mile telegraph line connecting Washington to Baltimore. Upon the line’s creation six years later, Congress experienced the first official telegraph message (“What hath God wrought?”) be sent from the US Supreme Court chamber to an affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland. This officially began the revolution of the telegraph (May 24, 1844).

Map of the Transatlantic Cable

Sources:

 https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph

thoughtco.com/the-history-of-the-electric-telegraph-and-telegraphy-1992542

https://www.loc.gov/collections/samuel-morse-papers/articles-and-essays/collection-highlights/impact-of-the-telegraph/

https://sciencing.com/cons-telegraph-8246524.html

https://www.britannica.com/technology/telegraph/Development-of-the-telegraph-industry