FINAL Blog Post

 The online world is crazy and has evolved so much over the past years. Although there are many benefits to media, there can also be some downsides. Privacy issues, stalking, propaganda, hacking, and so much more are still issues that people face every day. Social media has also changed the way people behave and act. People see something online and assume it's a fact, no matter how credible or un-credible the source is.

I have a few platforms that I use daily, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, VSCO, Snapchat, and TikTok. I have a pretty good following on my Instagram, however not as much as influencers have. My Facebook contacts are mainly family friends or my parent's friends, not a super large platform. For my Snapchat, VSCO, and Twitter, which consists mostly of my friends throughout high school and college. My TikTok platform is not very big at all compared to others. It is mainly used just for fun; however, nowadays, people use that platform to have brands sponsor them and gain money.

Instagram/Facebook: On Instagram, I post pictures that relate to my everyday life, whether that's going out with friends or being with my family. I like to post many food-related images on my Instagram story and if I am traveling somewhere. I have my VSCO account linked in my Instagram bio just in case people are curious to check out those photos.

Snapchat/VSCO: On the apps, I like to post videos or pictures of things that make me happy. Family, friends, food, restaurants, animals, nature, etc. I post much more on my Snapchat or VSCO than I do on my Instagram or Facebook. 

Twitter: I do not post much on Twitter because I have never tweeted about things I am thinking. I like to retweet certain things and scroll down my feed, but that is all. 

Tiktok: This new and upcoming app has been apart of my everyday life ever since the pandemic started. I scroll through it every day to check out recent trends all around the world. People dance, cook, eat, DIY, and so much more on this app. Many new influencers have become famous because of this app, such as Addison Rae, Charli D, Blake Gray, etc. I mainly only post funny or silly videos, nothing too serious. However, I did get TikTok famous for a few days because of a viral video I posted of my dad, lol. People found it funny and relatable and tossed me a follow. Other than that, I have not gone viral since. 

Information About Me Found On Social Media

• My first and last name to start, that goes for most people though
• I have the college I attend in my Instagram bio as well as the year I graduate
• I am sure they would be able to tell where I live just based on the types of pictures I tend to take or if you look at the location
• On Facebook you are able to see everyones date of birth
• On Facebook you are also able to see previous addresses, education, places of employment, and relatives
• If your ghost mode is off on Snapchat, your contacts are able to see your exact location from the last time you were active on Snapchat

It is crazy how much information people can find out about your through your personal social media platforms. Although you can private yourself on certain accounts, that does not allows keep people away from being able to find out specific information. 

I have never freely given out my phone number on any of my social media platforms. The only platform that displays my personal email is on my LinkedIn page. However this site is mainly for finding job opportunities and that such. I do not think it is very safe for everyone to know your own personal cell phone number. It gives out your area code and you do not want people to be able to contact you if you do not know them. 

Social Media Leaving People Depressed & Lonely

I do think social media can leave people feeling depressed and lonely. Some people may feel isolated or sad that they were not invited to a particular event. They may see people have an enjoyable time on social media and be upset they are taking part in that activity or similar activity. Social media also leads people to feel self-conscious about themselves. They will start to compare themselves to people they see on social media, leading to many issues. For example, some people from eating disorders because of all models or "skinny" girls they view on their pages. They think that this is what they need to look like and start to deplete their appetite, which is very unhealthy. 

Social media also distracts people from the outside world around them. Teenagers are so consumed with their phones that 3 hours will go by, and they will not even realize. They are missing out on opportunities that may not be available on their cell phones. Real-life conversation and observation are still essential, and I think that flies by people's heads at times. LIVE IN THE MOMENT......BE PRESENT

LINKS: 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90315706/kids-parents-social-media-sharing

https://www.fastcompany.com/section/the-privacy-divide

TED Talk Videos

 

Mass Surveillance is gaining information about people around the world that has not been possible before. When driving your car across the United States, they are able to know if you have gone to a therapist, AA meeting, going to church, and so on. This information combined with everyone else gives the government a good idea on how citizens interact. 

Modern technology has expanded the governments knowledge on society and police departments make decisions on who they think WE are due to this information. 

Licence Plate Reader: They are mounted everywhere you go and can track exactly who you are. They not only track people who are "wanted" but they also track every plate that they see a mass quantity of data to see where citizens have gone. The scary thing is, no one even knows that this occurs. They have photos of where you are going, and who you are with. The government could even have photos of you getting out of your car in your own driveway. 

Is it ok for the government to keep all of this information even if you have done nothing wrong? Well they keep this information in case it will be useful and beneficial in the future. 

Not only does this occur in the US but it also occurs in the UK. 

There is also something called a cell tower dump were law enforcement agents can uncover who was using one or more cell towers at a certain time to find different locations. 

Just because we are not seeing these things does not mean it is not there. This can lead to the police abusing the technology they have and the data they are collecting. It can be used for blackmail, political advantages, etc. The police can be governed by the city council which can pass laws that dispose the data of innocent people while keeping what is important.

LINK: https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_crump_the_small_and_surprisingly_dangerous_detail_the_police_track_about_you?language=en

Group one: Awareness

What is propaganda?

Propaganda is often given a negative connotation due to its history of power and control; as in the Hitler’s regime. However, the simple definition is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular cause or point of view. A big part of it is to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions by means of symbols. These symbols can include, words, gestures, banners, monuments, music, clothing, and much more. 

Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments; however, activist groups, companies, religious organizations, the media, and individuals can also create propaganda.

Do They Have a Main Goal?

Propagandists have a defined goal or set of goals. To accomplish these, they intentionally select facts, arguments, and displays of symbols and present them in ways they think will have the most effect.

History of Propaganda:

It was the Catholic Church that both formalized the practice of propaganda and provided us the word itself. Pope Urban II used propaganda to create support for the Crusades. Later, propaganda would become a powerful tool for both Catholics and Protestants throughout the Reformation. By the nineteenth century, propaganda had ultimately emerged in the form we think of it today. Because most people were literate and had more than passing interest in government affairs, politicians found it essential to influence public opinion. They shifted to propaganda to get the job done.

When is Propaganda Bad?

It is bad when used to influence some level of negativity or harmfulness, which cannot be changed or modified in any form. It is lying to the public in an effort to make some sort of profit. It influences the individual to indulge in acts that are not acceptable and may be dangerous to them.

EX: 

When is Propaganda Good?

Twists words and phrases to generate an illusion that something might be best for you when it actually is. An example of this would be promoting a product that can reduce kidney disease. Propagandists might make use of technology to create images of kidney disease and the implications of it. This will influence people to stay healthy and steer clear of things that can risk the harm of kidney disease.

EX:

 

As a system for spreading and relaying information and messages to the public, mass media plays a role in amusing, entertaining, and notifying individuals with rules and values that establish them in a social structure. Therefore, propaganda generates conflicts among society's differing classes

Propaganda in Social Media:

Propaganda is effective on social media because it can reach many people with little effort and users can filter the content to remove content they do not want while retaining what they would like to see. Propaganda, in forms of a video uploaded to YouTube, a post on Facebook or Twitter, or even a comment, has far-reaching effectiveness to advertise specific values and beliefs.

LINKS:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda

https://www.quora.com/Is-propaganda-bad-or-good

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_through_media

https://ilab.org/articles/brief-history-propaganda

Innovation: Venmo

 The innovation I have decided to write about is the app Venmo. For those of you who do not know, Venmo is a money transfer application that is owned by PayPal. It allows people to send over money or request money via mobile phones. It was founded in 2009 with the headquarters location in New York and has been extremely popular and helpful. 

Diffusion Theory of Innovations: As stated by Wikipedia, this theory "seek's to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. Everett Rogers, a professor of communication studies, popularized the theory in his book Diffusion of Innovations."

When it was 2009, I was only ten years old, so I did not even have a bank account at that age to sign up with Venmo. However, it did become a massive success because the young adults and up found this app to be very convenient. It was an easier way to make payments with family and friends rather than giving them cash or a check. Examples would be, venmoing over money as a birthday gift, splitting a bill, paying rent, etc. The transfer also only takes about a minute to go right into your bank account. Venmo also allows you to follow your contacts payments, which customers find fascinating. 

I think this app initially attracted high school and college students, but it also got exposed to adults as the years went on. Teenagers and young adults are much more up to date with the new technology and new applications, most likely why adults or older folks did not know too much about Venmo. I think it all depends on what kind of money transfers you are used to and loyal to. 

There are, however, a few risks that come along with using Venmo. These risks include scams, false claims, or someone hacking into your account. These may be why adults or even young adults may not want to sign up for Venmo. Maybe the late adapters would be the ones staying away from Venmo due to the risks it may have. 

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venmo

Learning about Google Blog #7

After listening to the groups presentation I decided to write my blog about the history of Google. It all started in 1995 when a phD computer science student named Sergey Brin, showed a prospective student named Larry Page around Stanford University. They decided to partner up and launch a search engine called "backrub". In 1998 the original launch of "Google Beta" happened and the hiring of their first ever employee. In 1999 they decided to get rid of the word "Beta" from the title. When 2000 rolled around they further advanced Google by adding new languages. In 2004 the invention of gmail came out. Gmail was an email account connected with Google. In 2018 Google celebrated their 20 year anniversery since their first launch.

Current CEO: Sundar Pichai

However there are some pros and cons to Google. Starting off with the pros, Google is free to society, it is a great research tool, you can create custom search engines, there are many different products and apps that come with Google such as, gmail, google scholar, google calendar, google earth, and google photos. Some of the cons include, not everything you see and find on Google is accurate, it can be very expensive to advertise on Google, and it is cheaper on Bing and Yahoo.

Video Cameras and Recorders

The History of Video Cameras and Recorders

The main reason video cameras became a thing was for broadcast media. The first experiments for this went down in the early 1900s. John Logie Baird was a Scottish engineer who assisted with this work and used a different older device called “Nipkow disk,” a mechanical device that fragments an image into “scanlines” utilizing a rotating saucer with holes cut into it.

By the 1930s new all-electronic designs derived from a cathode-ray video camera tube, containing two pronounced versions by engineers Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zsworykin, replaced the automatic variations with electron scanning technology. This outstanding system was built for broadcasting and soon  came to be the standard in the entertainment industry until the 1980s. 

In 1981 there was a shift from analog to digital video capture. With this came the advancement of the  Sony Mavica single-lens camera. As stated in cctvcameraworld.com, "This camera utilized a rotating magnetic disc, which was 2 inches in diameter and could record up to 50 still frames for playback or printing." Since these pictures were still saved magnetically back then, this digital camera was not an "authentic" digital camera like we see and know today. 

Sony Mavica

Digital security cameras were first used by the military for safety and protection. Even though these cameras themselves were mainly for image converting, recording was viable at the point of the display via videotapes of numerous forms. 

Then came the smaller versions known as the webcams and camera phones. It started with low-quality webcams and forms into even smaller webcams with much better camera quality. Nowadays every computer and cell phone has a built-in camera. We carry them around with us every day and use them every day. So many software use cameras such as Skype, Facebook, FaceTime, Instagram, Snapchat, and so many more. Cameras are also used to produce movies, tv shows, documentaries, youtube videos, etc. 

Since the beginning of video cameras, they have certainly come a long way. It has shaped our everyday lives and we would not have a lot of things if it were not for video cameras. 

LINK: https://www.cctvcameraworld.com/the-history-of-video-cameras.html

speech theories & social media

 There are 8 values of free expression:

1. Marketplace of Ideas

2. Participation in Self Government

3. Stable Change

4. Individual Self-Fulfillment

5. Check on Government Power

6. Promote Tolerance

7. Promote Innovation

8. Protect Dissent

In todays blog I am going to be discussing how Individual Self-Fulfillment connects to the idea of social media and how this theory can help explain why we post certain things, comment certain things, repost certain things, etc.

Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, VSCO, ect. is a place for people to express themselves and post all sorts of things. This could mean posting food recipes, beach pictures, sponsorships, makeup tutorials, videos, and so much more. This gives us the opportunity to create our own identity and express our opinions about different things. You are able to connect with individuals who share common interests with you while even learning new things along the way. However, with this being said, social media is also linked with greater levels of isolation, stress, depression, egoism, and a lacking of social skills. Normally what is shared on social media is the positive attributes in your life not the negative. A lot of the times, people will start to compare themselves to other people they are seeing online which can led to negative effects. They might think they are not good enough, not pretty enough, not popular enough, etc. 

Going on more of a different topic, a very relevant thing in the world today is the black lives matter movement. Their has been protests in every state with thousands of people marching down the street expressing their opinions. Not only has it been shown in this form but also on social media. There have been hundreds of reposts on peoples Instagram stories of different BLM articles, pictures, and so much more. Over the summer there was a day dedicated to blacking out all of social media for BLM. Everyone would post a black screen and write up a brief captions expressing their emotions. People would also post a bunch of different pictures relating to police brutality, George Floyd, and violence. They were taking advantage of their right to free speech and expressing their emotions on the topic. 

Without the right of free expression, who knows what our world would be like today. It is so important that everyone is able to create their own identity and find kindred spirits in the process. We have to let people know what we stand for and what we believe in, because without that our society would be a mess. 

LINK: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-medias-impact-on-self-esteem_b_58ade038e4b0d818c4f0a4e4