Final post

Final Post: Me, You, Technology. 

For good or for bad, the technology we have in today's society is the least sophisticated and least technological that it will ever be from this point forward, and that is scary to think about. We live in a world where humans are more attracted to the idea of online and social media gratification rather than real human connections and engagement.

In the United States, the average screen time is seven hours and three minutes. This average is up thirty minutes since 2017, and I believe will continue to rise. This statistic made me curious what my screen time is. This past week I averaged seven hours and fifteen minutes, slightly above the average. As a society, having technology attached to your hip and constantly staring at screens seems widely normalized and not even worth a second glance. 

The “Mad World Remix” is a great representation of society as a whole and its relationship with technology. It portrays the problems with people and their connections to their phones. It feels clear to me that right from wrong is being blurred in people's minds. The girl hanging onto the side of the building and everyone taking out their phone to record is an example of blurring right from wrong.

People would rather get the video than help someone in need. Shown briefly in the video is a man turning into a monster after the person steps on his foot. This is also a side effect from young generations and their addiction to technology which is they do not know how to properly represent themselves in real face-to-face interaction and conflict. These problems stem from humans not having healthy relationships with technology, but what about technology not having a healthy relationship with you? 

Technology can be your friend and can be one of the most useful tools in day-to-day life, but it comes with a cost, your privacy. One company that uses your information all of the time without you even knowing is Google. Google has an unpromoted section where it tracks and stores your purchase history, and makes it difficult for you to remove it. In an article titled Google Keeps and Eye on What You Buy, and It’s Not Alone it states, “Removing data from “Purchases” requires users to click each purchase individually: There is no way for users to easily delete their entire purchase history from Google’s servers. Removing the original emails doesn’t work either: When CNBC reporter Todd

Haselton bravely deleted every single email in his Gmail, the transactions in his purchase history still remained. In other words, unless you delete each purchase record individually, Google keeps a tally of your purchases. And there is no way for users to simply turn the data mining off.” 

After doing a Google search of “Lucas Semenza” the first websites that appear attached to my name are my personal website, my “perfect game” player profile (I needed this when I played baseball in high school), my LinkedIn, and lastly my fraternity website. I believe these websites portray an accurate and positive representation of me and I would be happy for any employer to see them. However, all of these websites do not go into what my presence looks like on social media, like Instagram. That is where you can see my life from a more personal level which is why I also make sure everything I put onto Instagram is an accurate representation of myself as well. 

With all of my friends and family residing in Saratoga, New York technology has played an impactful role in my relationship with everyone. Being so far away from the state for virtually ten months of the year, technology is the only way I am able to keep constant communication with everyone. Whether that's playing video games with my hometown friends, calling my mother every day, or seeing posts from my extended family online, it has had a positive impact on me, allowing me to stay in contact and up to date.

The bottom line is that technology is here to stay. Society as a whole will adapt to these changes and there will be new norms, it is important to not blur the lines of right from wrong because of technology.

Slideshow.

EOTO2 Reacts

 Gatekeeping and Agenda Setting 

    The presentation I learned about and decided to write my reaction post about revolves around the theory of gatekeeping and agenda setting. I found this presentation and concept to be very interesting, and it sparked a lot of curiosity in me after learning. The first thing I learned was the actual definition of gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is to control access to something or monitor it and select the information that gets released. Gatekeeping is a term I hear amongst colleagues of mine but I didn't know the actual definition. Secondly, I learned the definition and concept of agenda setting. Agenda setting is the media affecting the thoughts

and perceptions of the public. This is a term I had not heard of prior compared to gatekeeping. With both gatekeeping and agenda setting, I was given the pros and cons of both. 

Impacts

    Later on in the presentation, I learned the impacts of gatekeeping and agenda-setting on society. I had a feeling that I was generally a negative effect, and I was right. It is mainly surrounded by the power that the media already has. The media having the ability to release or not release information in whatever timely manner they choose only gives the media more power and is only more unfair to the citizens of this country. 

Affect on Me 

    Lastly, I learned more about how gatekeeping and agenda setting can and will affect my life and the lives of the ones around me. The first piece of information that can be gatekept is

information regarding politics. Not releasing information to my generation and everyone else could be crucial to how it affects me and others in the future. As far as agenda setting, this can be detrimental to the way young people like myself make decisions. This can include how one makes decisions politically or socially. 

Antiwar

Differing Viewpoints 

    In the world of mainstream media, there are viewpoints and opinions that are simply just not covered by major news outlets like Fox News, CNN, NBC, etc. Due to this, Americans have to go to alternate media sources to get the coverage and updated news they are hoping to see in the mainstream media. One prime example of this is the viewpoint on wars. As Dr. Smith said it best, "There is never a war that the

mainstream media and government did not like." On a website like antiwar.com, they go to lengths to cover this altering viewpoint to the mainstream media. This is an example of alternative media. 

Where It Started 

The concept of not hearing from alternative viewpoints is something that stems from long before today's media. This goes back to the progressive era after the start of World War I. During this time, the Espionage and Sedition Act was in fruition, meaning citizens or government officials would be thrown into jail for

disagreeing with the war effort. This could happen for things they said or wrote. This is a mind-boggling thing to wrap my head around, considering where America has come with the First Amendment today. Due to these acts, I believe it "lit a fire" sort of speaks for the beginning of alternative media. 

Back to Today 

Bringing it back to where we are today, there is a reason that websites like antiwar.com must be sought out to find strong anti-war voices. The first reason you will never see viewpoints like this on mainstream media is because mainstream media aligns with the government. From what I have noticed in my short, time-consuming news, that is one trend I see. To conclude, altering viewpoints to the mainstream media may never be integrated on certain topics, and smaller-scale alternative media will have its place for Americans to consume their news from. 

EOTO 2

Alternative Media 

    The topic I was assigned for each one teach-one presentation was alternative media. Alternative media is defined as small-scale, politically radical media using a wide spectrum of communication technologies and formats. Essentially, alternative media is a smaller-scale platform like a website, podcast, YouTube channel, etc., offering a different opinion than you may typically see in mainstream media. Like everything else in life, alternative media has its positives, and it has its negatives. It is important to compare each pro to its con to really see the impact alternative media has.

Pros and Cons 

    On the positive side, it offers a platform for marginalized voices to be heard. These voices are typically

trumped by mainstream media, however, this should not be the case. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for communities to make their own media and offers educational and political empowerment to participants. Additionally, alternative media can serve as a counterpoint to the misinformation spread by corporate media. On the flip side,  political alternative media may contribute to less informed people due to the misinformation that can be spread in their work. Also, the ease of media production in today's society can raise concerns about the effectiveness of alternative media, as well as a lack of professional standards.

Effects on Society 

    When it comes to affecting society as a whole, alternative media covers and popularizes topics that mainstream tends to not cover at all or cover less than others. For example, mainstream media would never discuss a war they didn't support or be a part of. While alternative media outlets like antiwar.com have hundreds of antiwar articles written. So, alternative media can affect groups that are the minority when it comes to political or other world matters. This includes Political and ethnic minorities, labor groups, underprivileged groups, etc. These groups of people typically are underrepresented and overlooked. However, alternative media allows a platform for the news we consume to be more diverse and alternative viewpoints. When asked the question of how alternative media affect different groups of

people whether that is old or young, rich or poor, male or female, I believe alternative media affects every person differently based on what media they consume. For example, I was having a hard time was having a tough time figuring out what kind of alternative media I consume the most. It finally hit me that the alternative media I consume the most comes from the sports world. I use several other websites outside of companies like ESPN or Yahoo Sports to collect my information. A few examples include companies like WalterPicks, Talkin' Yanks, Jomboy Media, and several others.

Closing Remarks 

    Overall, I believe alternative media is a net win for the community. If mainstream media does not want to cover a view on a topic, someone has to provide different perspectives. I think the beauty of alternative media is it can be so personalized to what your likes or dislikes are and allows you to consume more media the way you like to. I believe multiple viewpoints on one topic create competitive thinking and challenge the reader to truly think about what they see every day on the news.

Diffusion

 

The Diffusion Theory 

One piece of modern-day innovation that I took a deeper dive into is TikTok. TikTok was released in

September 2016. Today it has 1 billion monthly active users. TikTok is not the first company to invent a vertical short-form video platform, however they are definitely the most successful in doing it. 

The first app to execute short-form, vertical video content was Vine. This platform crushed with this concept and had great success. Following that was Musically. I believe TikTok had so many early adopters because they saw the success of the brands before them doing the same product, and believed it would be as big if not bigger than those two companies. There are definitely reasons people are not adopters. One reason being people not wanting to have any social media presence. I've seen this firsthand with my father, where he wants nothing to do with any social media platform. Secondly, not wanting any of their information to be given to the TikTok platform. There have been multiple cases between the U.S. government and TikTok, and not everyone trusts the platform. 

To Participate or to Not Participate 

The choice to participate or not participate in a brand, trend, product, or service is one that consumers have to make every day. For me, I weighed the pros and cons of using TikTok. In the pro category, it is a platform where the company I work for conducts a majority of their advertising and how their service gains popularity. Two, it is an entertainment platform. I enjoy being able to lie down and scroll on TikTok.  These two factors outweigh the negatives for me. However, for other people, I could see the positives not outweighing their negatives. As TikTok continues to grow in popularity, it will continue to impact millions of users, and late adopters will continue to grow. 

EOTO Personal Presentation

The Typewriter 

 For the Each One Teach One project, the technological advancement I covered was the typewriter. Unlike other options chosen, this was a topic I really did not know a whole lot about which allowed me to gain lots of new knowledge about. In my research, I learned information about who the inventors are, the impacts they had on the way people communicated, what the typewriter led to as far as technological advancements in the modern day,  the issues it was trying to solve, and some negative impacts the typewriter had. 

Communications impact 

The first commercial typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes, Samuel Soule, and Carlos Gidden in 1867. During this time period, people were in need of a way to communicate more efficiently. In the current time period, written letters were the best way to communicate. The problem with this is it was slow and could have errors throughout. Thus the typewriter was created to help solve these problems. As time passed and the typewriter made its way into offices and homes around the country, the electric typewriter was created in 1920. With the electric typewriter, it was much faster and more efficient for its users, a positive impact on all parties involved. I believe the advancements it made in communication are the is the most important impact the typewriter had during its time period.  

Organization Benefits and Job Opportunities 

As the typewriter became more popular, it was used more in business settings. With the typewriter, businesses were able to utilize the typewriter to more uniformly and efficiently organize themselves, rather than all handwritten papers. They were able to standardize letters and documents which was greatly beneficial. Another important factor with typewriters was their durability. Originally typewriters were built out of heavy metals, making them very durable but maybe not so mobile. As the product evolved, slimmer and more portable designs were created. Not only did the typewriter help businesses, but it also created job opportunities for individuals in the workplace. The ability to type became a valuable skill to have, businesses now needed typists and secretaries to assist them. Typewriters were a common item seen in businesses for the next 100 years. It seems safe to say this invention had a major impact on the way communication and document standardization is in the modern day. 

Negative Effects 

Throughout my research almost all of the impacts the typewriter had were positive. Interestingly, one negative effect I did not account for was the noise in which the machine made. Each keystroke made a loud click sound. This could lead to a disruptive environment when multiple people are all typing away at once. I still see this problem in the modern day of people clicking away on their keyboards, so it looks like this effect is around for the long run. 

The Falloff 

The falloff of typewriters began in the 1980's. During this time period, the rise of personal computers surged, as well as the word processing system that came along with personal computers. This obviously was bound to happen to the typewriter as technology continued to advance, however, I believe the typewriter was a major stepping stone to how we type and communicate with each other today.  

Post 5: In the Age of AI

 The Age of AI 

Background 

During our class, we watched the first hour of the "In the Age of AI" documentary. Within the time we watched, the video discussed multiple different aspects of the impacts of technology on jobs, humans, and data, and overall challenged the world to adapt to the new world we live in, one full of AI. 

AI is Changing Our World 

The first example of AI changing our world comes from China. China has made impressive technological advancements. Something I learned was these advancements China has been making will put them ahead of the United States by 2025, and the most advancement in the work by 2030. I was blown away by how fast China moved from minimal AI use in their society to where they are today

with multiple billion-dollar AI companies. They went from not having credit cards to shopping at stores where they use face recognition as a payment method. One of my biggest takeaways from this example is the lack of privacy. We now live in a world where it is nearly impossible to have total privacy, especially now in China with facial recognition. As much as this is a takeaway, it also is the thing that frightened me the most after watching this documentary. 

AI is Not Perfect

Later on in the video, the documentary highlights AI and technology replacing tasks that humans would do for jobs. One scenario they took a deep dive into was a family who are truck drivers. Their family have been truck drivers for generations, and they discuss the challenges that they face with AI, as well as the challenges AI faces with them. The idea of a driverless truck is something that has been in conversation, however, I believe there are multiple outside factors that point in the direction that it would not be possible. 

Whether you like it or not, AI will be a part of businesses and our lifestyles for the rest of our lives. It is now our opportunity to adapt and change to the environment around us. 

Post 6: EOTO

 EOTO 

After listening to all of each one teach one presentation, the student I decided to write my blog post for is Will Scholtes. In his presentation, he discussed the history and impact of the radio. My knowledge of the radio up to this point was minimal, and I learned a lot regarding how it came about, who it was invented by, and its ever-lasting impacts on society. 

The radio was invented originally in 1899 by a man named Guglielmo Marconi. A few years later, Reginald Fessenden created the first long-distance radio, and finally in 1933 Edwin Armstrong discovered the FM broadcast. 

The invention of the radio impacted society in multiple different ways. The first way it changed our world revolves around the consumption of news. Before the radio, the only way to get news was via the paper. With this, you had to wait until you received the papers before being able to know the score of the sports game or pressing news, you did not get it in real-time. Because of the radio, people were now able to listen to their favorite sports team play in real time,

getting instant information about the game. In the sports world, this connected so many more people because you didn't have to be physically at the game to find out what was happening in real time. Another impact the radio had was music. The radio allows people to now listen to their favorite songs, and who doesn't love it when their favorite songs come on the radio. 

Lastly, the radio was now the newest, fastest, and most effective route of communication. An example of just how important this was comes from World War II. President FDR was able to effectively communicate what was happening to the American people, thus born the infamous "fireside chats". 

Post 4: Privacy, Online, and Off

 The Affects

After watching these videos, each and every one of them affect me and my family in some way, shape, or form. The first video, it discusses all of the different apps, websites, credit card info, etc that paint a picture of who you are and what you are about. These are also contributing to facial recognition, and have gotten much more accurate over the years. All of these different factors will be tracking me for the rest of my life, and it's important to be smart about what websites trust with my credit card information, and what I post on social media. 

Government Involvement 

Sticking with the first video watched out of the three, I believe there needs to be more government involvement in the privacy of consumers of technology. A company called Face.com has 18 billion faces saved online and was sold to Facebook in 2012. Also in public, cameras recognize faces and

trends about you. The example of recognizing what you like to wear so the salesperson can guide you in that direction is scary. The government needs to have more involvement in protecting humans from technology and major companies, our information has never been more public. 

Protect From Invasions of Privacy

As far as being protected with your information on the internet, it is zero. Companies are always looking to get more and more information from you based on your day-to-day activities using technology. If we want protection, we have to go out and get it ourselves. PGP is a process to give protection, however, it's not for everyone and really only for the tech-savvy. To give everyone

protection, privacy needs to be made more accessible. One solution was created by Andy Yen. He discusses making a private key for your information when communicating with each other. He believes it is possible to give everyone privacy due to its importance. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

 Post #3: Eight Values of Free Expression

  Which Value Resonates With me the most? 

 After looking through the eight values of free expression, the value that resonates with me the most is the marketplace of ideas. This expression allows people to express themselves and generates a more creative and interesting society. As Vice President of my fraternity, this expression has been a part of my role. Allowing brothers the ability to voice their likes and dislikes surrounding any topic related to the fraternity has been beneficial to the overall success of our fraternity. If I stood before my chapter and said how things would be without any room for discussion, they most likely would not like that. Instead, brothers can voice their opinions and allow everyone to have a say. One example recently within the fraternity involves a recent fundraising event. After presenting my original idea, the fraternity was able to collaborate and share their ideas to make the event as successful as possible. 

Which Value is the Most Important to me 

As far as importance, protect dissent has jumped off the page to me compared to the others. I interpreted this question as importance for all Americans as a society, rather than just importance to me. Without protecting dissent a minority group would never be able to promote their viewpoints or disagree with the government. An example that comes to mind includes protests. Protesting would not be a thing without public dissent and minorities would never see the change they want in the country. Currently, in this country, a minority group that is rallying is the LGBTQ+ community. Because of this, there have been advancements in inclusivity around the world in major companies and social acceptance. Some of these companies include Adobe, American Airlines, IBM, and many others. Without public dissent, this movement would not have been possible and we would not have taken the strides we did. 

What Value Do I See the Most In the Modern Era 

In the modern day, the value of free expression that I see prevalent is promote tolerance. Now more than ever before, people talk the most freely about how they feel about politics, current events, government leaders, etc. It feels as if you can't scroll through Twitter with someone voicing their opinion hatefully on a politician or any other controversial topic. Although it seems backward, allowing citizens to voice these opinions, although hateful, is better than not letting a person voice their thoughts at all. A recent event that created a ripple in the world includes the Donald Trump attempted assassination. This incident resulted in millions of tweets, Instagram stories, and news articles. In these tweets and posts, people voiced their opinions based off of the incident. Whether that had to do with the event itself, how the Secret Service handled the situation, or whether people thought it was staged or an inside job, people voiced their opinions which were mostly hateful or negative towards either party. 

Recap

Overall, these eight values of free expression all have their own importance which together are critical in protecting the free speech of American citizens. Promote innovation is the most personal to me, Protect Dissent has the most importance, and promote tolerance I see most in action today.

The Founding Era & the Idea of America.

Post #2: U.S. Supreme Court 

What I Learned

After watching videos one and two based on the U.S. Supreme Court, one thing I learned about the Supreme Court that I didn't already know is the number of cases the court receives versus the number of cases that the court accepts for full consideration. As these cases come in each justice is assisted by a staff of law clerks and secretaries to decide each case. Previous to this video, I was under the impression that if a case went to the Supreme Court it was automatically looked over and accepted by the high level of the court, so I was a little surprised to find out that was not the case. Thousands of cases are sent, just not accepted. 

Important takeaways 

The most important takeaway from the videos I watched is the fact that the judges of the Supreme Court can't walk into the office and see a problem and just get started on resolving it. These justices have to wait for these cases or problems to be brought to the court's attention. I learned that after some time
once an issue has boiled up, the court will go ahead and make a ruling. This was my most important takeaway because it helped my understanding of the Supreme Court the most. 

Most Surprising 

After viewing this video the most surprising thing I learned was the time it takes for the new justices to adjust and be adequate to the task. In the video, one of the justices discusses how long it takes. They state that a justice doesn't start doing its work properly until they forget they are doing the work and it becomes second nature to them. I was shocked when I heard this because the people appointed are

some of the most qualified people in the world for the position, and it still takes these people 3 or 5 years until they are adjusted to the position. 

Media Law Blog

Top 5 Sources of News and Information

    In the United States of America alone, it was reported that there are over 3,000 news outlets in which billions of people consume their news every day. In my experience of consuming news and information, there have been a handful of sources that take up the majority of my attention, while the rest of the outlets are not as prevalent to me. Below are my top 5 sources in which I consume my news and information. 

Source #1: Twitter 

    

    I believe that a person's top news sources change depending on what type of news they prefer to consume. For me, it is sports news and information by a landslide and Twitter is by far the fastest and most efficient way to consume sports news. For example, WR for the Dallas Cowboys CeeDee Lamb signed a four-year, $136 million contract yesterday. Before any sources like ESPN, FOX Sports, or Bleacher Report were able to cover this headline live on the air, NFL insider Adam Schefter had already posted the news to his Twitter feed. This is one example of the power Twitter holds when it comes to how timely they can get news and information out, especially in a world where everything is on a need-to-know basis. These are all reasons why Twitter lands the number one spot in my rankings. 

Source #2: Instagram 

    As an active member of Instagram for over 10 years, it has landed in my number two spot for most used news sources but for different reasons than the others. This source can be used to find out current information on topics and events happening around the world, but for me most of the news I consume on Instagram is what my friends and family are doing and keep up with news and information from their lives. Instagram also played a major role in my internship this past summer. As the head social media content coordinator, I spent lots of my day on Instagram marketing and promoting for my company. 

Source #3: Friends and Family  

    When it comes to current topics in the realm of politics, I am not the most knowledgeable of everything that is going on in the United States or around the world. I believe that the older generation like my parents, older relatives, and even older friends are more in tune with what is going on in the world. It can be nearly impossible to go to a family dinner without discussing politics or worldly problems, which is why friends and family come in at number three. Since they are more connected as to what is going on, they are a great source to learn what is happening in politics. This is probably not the best way to stay educated on both sides of a current issue or topic, due to the nonvarying viewpoints I receive. None the less it is still my #3 way of acquiring information and news. 

Source #4: TV

    For obvious reasons, TV has found itself in my top 5 news sources. There are a variety of different types of news to consume when watching TV. That could be the weather, politics, sporting events, or anything that is live coverage. For me, 99% of what I consume from live TV is sports. More specifically, NFL football. This is an alternate source for me when consuming sports news or media. An NFL sideline reporter covering if a player is in or out for the game is important to me, which is why TV finds itself in my top 5 sources. 

Source #5: GroupMe 

    Last but not least, the app GroupMe is another source I use for my news and information. The type of information I receive from this app is different from any other source I have. GroupMe is essentially one giant group chat with a group of people. With this app, I get news about things going on at school, what my group's events will look like, etc. All this info is more important to my personal life and things that affect my day-to-day schedule at High Point.