Antiwar

 Antiwar.com and theamericanconservative.com are both two websites that have some very different takes on modern military operations in the United States of America that you would not necessarily find in the mainstream media. The media chooses not to report this and that is why we don't read up on some of this information as it is. 

A fair amount of the articles on both of these sites are about the Ukraine and Russian war and some of the details that mainstream media is not going to tell you or even talk about. These topics and some of the info discussed about these mainstream topics don't want to be reported. A lot of these sources don't want to talk about it since these companies are controlled by the mainstream companies. These two websites talk more in depth than the mainstream media about perspectives of the war. 

I believe that more people need to research for more sources like these as another type of source. Some of the sources like CNN and Fox talk about the main facts and don't go into the details and they don't want you to see the details. Also lots of mainstream media is either left or right and nowhere in between since most media is bias. These sources don't have the best track record and that is why these obscure sources are sometimes better. 

The mainstream media is also censored with what they can say sometimes and the media loves to manipulate the general public. My suggestion is to read from more than 4 sources different types and viewpoints. You also have to worry about fake news and analyze what sources are truly important and credible so you see every side from different political viewpoints and also different types of sources such as the war sites and mainstream media. 

Final Post

 Today I'm here to talk about my relationship with technology and I will also highlight society's relationship with technology.

Technology has always been a major present factor in my life and I have always lived around it. I have used technology in the classroom and in my personal life. When I was 11 I was given my first iPhone and a year before that I was given my first laptop and this is where it started. I believe that I have a somewhat healthy relationship with technology and how I use it which is mainly for school and connecting with others. I also use technology to entertain myself whether it is by watching a movie or reading about historical events online. However, I do think, I along with a lot of other people have relied on technology a lot since “Gen Z sees technology as an extension of themselves, using it for entertainment, connection, and activism.” My digital footprint online is clean. I like many others have Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. I was also formerly a member of TikTok but have since deleted it. I use a lot of these tools to post about my life and I also post some of my content as a musician where I will post videos of me playing the guitar. I also have a linkedin page where I can connect with others in different business industries. I think that I sometimes have spent too much time as my averages have been higher recently. Sometimes it is higher because I will leave my phone on even when I am not looking but I am trying to regulate my screen time and not use certain apps.

Since I was looking into my presence online, I conducted a google search on myself to see what would come up when I searched for my own name. I have seen what has come up and it is positive. I found photos of me from my personal Instagram page which is mainly positive since I am very careful about what I post about and what I say. Some of the other things that came up when I searched was from my work at The Isabella Santos Foundation where I raised money for pediatric cancer research and worked for a summer. Overall my digital footprint was clean. 

Our society has been more reliant on technology as it has become more available over time. As we saw in the mad world video we watched in this class we have seen that we have become very glued to our phones and other devices that we use. Technology no question is a wonder but we have seen lots of issues arise recently with the use of technology and I know from other friends and my own personal experience that this has caused some sleep issues, mental health issues and problems with overall health. But that does not mean that technology is a bad thing since as we have seen it work its wonders and has helped us so much over the years. We also have seen issues with fake news and misinformation as we have learned in the class which is another area of society that we have seen issues with technology. This is the darkside of technology in our society as we see it. 

Artificial intelligence has also become a big trend in the world and I think we will see an increase in these. AI is taking a lot from all of us including jobs. Things such as Identity theft will only grow with these along with the creation of deep fakes.

Technology and media will only grow in the future and all of the elements including artificial intelligence will grow. If a lot of us in society can limit our technology use a little more we can become healthier with our uses of technology and the time that we spend on it daily.

Age of AI

  

In class we watched the documentary the Age of AI and it was a very interesting documentary film. The documentary looks into the role that AI plays in our daily lives and how it's presence in society is growing. Actor Robert Downey Jr is the narrator for this film. We know AI to be present in the online world however it is growing everywhere and becoming bigger in every industry and aspect of human life. 

I was very surprised about how many jobs will be lost due to AI since this will make income inequality worse for the world. This could also cause unemployment rates to go up for the humans who are trying to keep their jobs. It is very surprising that there are jobs out there that AI should do instead of everyday people like all of us. Another big trend with AI is the development of self driving cars and the transportation system. This would be amazing since this could help cut down on traffic and would help with infastructure down the road. 

The documentary also showed off some of the developments that countries are trying to make with AI and it's software. The three countries that are working really hard to develop AI include Russia, China and the United States of America. 

When it comes to AI we need to be careful about how we use it in our daily lives since less information is becoming private and AI can do anything with some of this info. AI needs to be regulated since we need to have policies in place of how it's used and how it should be used. AI is no doubt a wonderful tool for certain things but it also can be harmful if it is compromised and we all need to keep learning about the wonders of AI so that we can use it appropriately. It is really important that we take these steps to working with AI so that we the people can have some privacy in this world. 

EOTO #2 Reaction

 In class we heard about different communication techniques that provide very important information about things involving government and society. 

One of the presentations I found very interesting was about whistleblowers. This is when an employee, formal, or current, finds some illegal activity going on in the workplace they were associated with and then leak it or report it to the authorities. Whistle blowers are a major problem for the government and there have been whistle blowers over the years involved with the US government. Edward Snowden is a primary example of this and he leaked a lot of information in 2013 from the National Security Agency. He revealed info on Five Eyes intelligence program along with other programs. He caused a lot of secret data to be released about the United States government and after he violated the Espionage Act of 1917, he, went to Russia and sought asylum. He was granted it in 2013 for one year and in 2014 he was granted it for a longer period. He is now a Russian citizen and has been living their permenantly. 

Another presentation that I found interesting was the presentation on Cord Cutting which is the process of cancelling all of your satellite TV subscriptions and choosing the alternate streaming services that provide a variety of different on-demand entertainment options available that is present at all times from different locations. This is a new and revolutionary piece of media and concept and I have to say I very much like the idea of it. I actually am considering participating in this movement after this presentation. It's a great idea and I can't wait to see it grow in the years to follow. 

Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovations Theory is a theory that essentially explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology are spread. These ideas are spread through different stages and channels based on different sizes of groups. I thought this theory was very interesting and I think it is great how these ideas are thought of and developed and adopted by different people. This theory was created by Everett Rogers in 1962 and has been related to different kinds of technology over the years. 

This picture below is Everett Rogers. 

There are five different adopter categories where these ideas are taken under consideration 

1. Innovators are the first people in this first stage and these are the people that get this product from the very start. This stage includes around 2.5% of people who use this technology. These are the people who use the product from the start and out of all the people in this group they are the group that takes risks. These are people who want to try products and use them no matter what the outcome is. 

2. Around 13.5% of people are the early adopters and these are the people that believe that change is needed for success. These are people's opinions that you can trust and you normally can ask them about the product. At this stage is when the product begins to become more popular overtime. 

3. 34% of these people are the early majority and these are the ones who like to see the full capacity of the product. They want to see to make sure it works and is good. 

4. The other 34% of people in this group are the late majority and these people are normally against change at first but, they will eventually come around and buy the product if they are really challenged to. 

5. The final 16% of these people are called Laggards. These people are normally against buying the product and they are very conservative. They don't want to steer away from their beliefs or ideas. 

One of the biggest innovations that I can relate to the diffusion theory is the concept of music streaming. This is something that has been becoming extremely popular over the last few years especially with technology continuing to become more available to everybody more easily all the time. This has been adopted by many recently and I am going to explain the users of music streaming platforms such as Spotify and where they fit into this theory. 

When it comes to the innovator stage the people that can be grouped within this stage these are tech savvy people who developed this invention and also tech enthusiasts along with some music enthusiasts. These people appreciate Spotify's amazing approach to music streaming and the execution of it. 

The general public was the early adopters and early majority portion of the service. One of the biggest reasons this is because of their "Freemium business model". How this works is that users could use the basic model of this app and listen to music with ads and not pay for the premium plan. A fair amount of people would later go on and purchase the premium plan of the app and Spotify would go on to gain most of their market share here. 

Then there are the late adopters such as myself. This includes people who were skeptical to joining Spotify or people who were using different formats to listen to their music such as cds and vinyl. This group will then join Spotify later after the slower uptake of the platform. 

The last stage is the laggards phase where these are the people who are against the change and also who have limited access to digital tools. 

This theory is only going to continue to grow with new forms of media and technology thart are being developed.