Final Blog Post

Social media is a can of worms for me. once i start thinking too much about it i get extremely anxious and upset. there's a large part of me thats extremely grateful for the childhood i had, and that most of my formative years were spent outside playing with my neighbors until the sun went down. then there's a part of me that dreams of what things would've been like if i had been born ten years before 2001, and that all of my childhood was social media free. i often wish that had been the case, it makes me think my youth would've been easier in a sense.

i'm honestly not sure if my relationship with technology is healthy, my first instinct is to say it isn't, but since thats my first instinct, i think thats probably the right answer. i probably give it to much time and attention, and it takes up a lot of space in my mind when i'm not using it. i can even say i know its not making me smarter. i think quick access to knowledge and news could possibly be making me socially smarter, but overall, i think its making my ADD worse. 

i've noticed with my increased use of tiktok, and how they're short blurbs of videos, i find myself unable to focus on longer forms of media like tv shows and movies without also having something else to do. if for instance, if i'm watching a tv show or movie, ill also be scrolling through instagram or even on tiktok as well and my attention span seems to be taking a hard hit with short form media being so popularized. 

with social media being so mainstream, and me taking part in it, i find it's had some negative impacts on my mental health. i find myself looking at people my age on instagram or tiktok and often feel bad about myself and my appearance, or even the stage i'm in in life. i wonder, "why don't i look like that" or "why haven't i achieved that yet." i know this doesn't affect only me, but its very off putting to be so easily able to compare yourself so harshly to others. that for sure is another reason i wish i was lucky enough to be born sooner. 

when talking about friends and family and their technology and social media use, i notice other addictive behaviors in my friends more than family. my mother went back to school a few years ago to get a second masters in social media and marketing to make herself more informed in technology as she's never been a social media person. with this she's made social media accounts (not that she uses them) to keep "with the times" per say. my sister isn't a huge social media user as well. so family wise, i'm definitely the social media addict. my friends are about the same as myself, frequent if not almost constant use of technology and social media. 

like i said in the beginning of my post, this is a big worry for me and for the world. i often think about the day i hopefully bring children into the world. how will i go about letting them have technology and social media? when will i allow it if i allow it at all? all of it makes me so incredibly nervous and anxious i typically shove it to the back of my mind, but with recent AI and other technological improvements happening in the world, it clearly isn't something i can ignore forever. my only hope is that we as humans learn to tighten the reigns on technology and can reel things in before i have to make decisions like that for my hypothetical children. i just hope we haven't gone too far off the deep end yet.

Blog Post #7

I think there are a lot of benefits to technology, incredible things have come from it. getting in touch with old friends and relatives, new media to view, but the other side of the coin, there are negatives. i think a lot of the negatives come from greed though. for instance the video we watched on AI is the first negative that pops into my head. i even mention in that blog post that I personally think its a slippery slope because of greed. we as humans in such an advanced age as this one, of course we want more and want to see what limitations we can breakthrough, but that can be dangerous. not just because of the creation of AI, but because of things like facebook, twitter, and instagram. with social media, there ups as i mentioned previously like making and maintaining connections, but theres also a serious privacy invader that comes with it. for example, 

i remember a couple years ago hearing of a test one couple did to see if their facebook ads truly did come from the app/phone listening in on conversations. this couple didn't have a pet cat, so they began to talk as if they did. talking about their cat, what kinds of food, toys, and litter to buy for the animal. and sure enough not long after a few days of this experiment, they began to receive facebook ads for cat litter.

i think the diffusion theory is really interesting. the idea of early vs late adapters is a confusing topic though. i think a lot could play into why someone was on the technology band wagon early vs later. i think the late adapters sort of had a realization that things would never be the same and technology was here to stay so they were sort of forced into the new age.  

Blog Post #10

 The "In The Age of AI" video was really frightening to me. the opening of the video when the man was playing a game against the AI and the AI won 4/5 games... a chill was sent throughout my body. i shiver at the though of a computer intelligence learning and teaching itself to function and "think" the way human brains do. there was a moment when the AI generated a move no human had ever considered making before was bizarre to think about. i personally see no need for us to delve into this dangerous realm of AI. it is a realm i would prefer be a stone the world leaves unturned. it seems like such a slippery slope to go down. it makes me fear for my children and all future generations who may have to face the consequences of this generations greed with technology.

theres another moment that stuck out to me immensely. one woman spoke about how were not just searching google, but that google is searching us. videos and articles about this topic make me want to honestly throw my whole entire phone away and hide in my house forever. the fact that out technology tracks us the way it does is so wildly frightening it almost paralyzes me when i think about it. 

i took a class last year where we had watched a video about an AI system used in a retail store. this system was in the store cameras and it would estimate your age, note your gender, and track how long you looked at certain products. this told the store about its most popular selling items, etc. the video then went into talking about cookies. another paralyzing topic for someone who is as worrisome as myself.

something that was beyond frustrating for me was the topic of women's menstrual cycles information being bought from companies for "behavioral prediction." it's unnecessary, repulsive, and invasive. its private health information tech companies have no business meddling in, and frankly i find it a little offensive they're using it for "behavioral predictions." it reminds me of an episode of my favorite show where they made a crude joke that the men in the government knew of all the women's menstrual cycles who worked there. its disgusting to think tech companies are now actually doing something similar.

personally, i want absolutely nothing to do with "the age of AI." like i mentioned before, it's a dangerous slippery slope we are headed down due to greed. it's creating a world i am frightened to bring children into.

Blog Post #9

for my presentation for our latest EOTO slides was about the gatekeeping theory. i began discussing the two definitions of gatekeeping itself, the one from oxford dictionary which is: "the activity of controlling and or limiting general access to something." and the second from urban dictionary, which is typically now more the more common usage, and that definition is: "Hiding your interests and hobbies to keep them from growing to be “mainstream." the term gatekeeping is now a slang term used a lot over social media referring to trends. the term was first coined by Kurt Lewin a social psychologist who used the word to understand human behavior in 1943. gatekeeping theory however is about how not all news becomes released to the public, or if it is released, its pushed down to be hidden from mainstream media. one of my most important examples during my presentation was speaking about the blog post we'd previously done on antiwar.com. when i was visiting that website i was shocked at how many headlines and stories id never heard of that seemed like incredibly important information. a lot of gatekeeping is done because the news channel itself might be effected by the releases of particular stories. it could harm their reputation or discourage their typical audience. its all about what should and shouldn't be public knowledge. this is decided by the news editor, otherwise known as "Mr. Gates" which are large shoes to fill. this person has the role to decide what stories get published or killed.

https://www.communicationtheory.org/gatekeeping-theory/

https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/gatekeeping-theory/