Diffusion of Innovations

  The phonograph was a revolutionary. The invention allowed users to listen to music that had been recorded using records. I know that idea is so common place now; we walk around with endless music available at our fingertips. However, at the time, music could only be heard if someone was playing it live. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, his goal was not to make a machine to play music. He was trying to expand on Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone by figuring out a way to incorporate an answering machine by transcribing messages. His first models included a writing feature and his target audience was office personnel. However, it soon was discovered that these machines can record sound and voices. The accidental development of this music centered technology, the phonograph, would change the music industry forever. Early adopters of this technology included musicians that desired to record their performances to create records and music lovers that could see the value in investing in records and a phonograph. 

    The phonograph widely was adopted after a while, because it was an economically sound way for people to play music in their homes that they were not making themselves. It allowed music lovers to listen to a single performance of an artist multiple times and allowed for the development of a deeper appreciate for the artwork. Most people had phonographs, more well known as record players, by the 60s and 70s. The early adopters had been growing in numbers up until this point. The phonograph really inspired a long line of development in music technology to cassette tapes, CDs, iPods, to streaming platforms. Through the uses and gratification theory people do a cost-benefit analysis to see the tangible advantage of using a product. It is through this theory that the majority eventually adopted the phonograph across the nation. 

Final Blog Post

     Whether we like it or not, technology has permeated into everyday use. Technology has become a substitute for so many things. More people stream television than read books, use quizlet than make hand-written flashcards, or online shop rather than in-store. Its development has certainly made aspects of society easier. It is much easier for us to contact relatives across the globe by sending them a facebook message from our smartphones than mailing a letter through international postage. The medical field particularly has amazing advances that allows health care professionals to better care for their patients and save thousands of lives per year. However, like every great new thing, users should have an awareness of both the pros and cons. 

    I know that I use technology constantly in my every day life. Not a day passes that I don't send a text or listen to music on Spotify. However, I think that my relationship with technology is healthy. I don't struggle when I am without my technology. I am a musician and will make my own music or sing when I don't have streaming devices. I have no problem reading or writing rather than watching and typing. I actually love sending hand-written letters to my loved ones and I get no anxiety leaving my phone in another room. I often go for months where I delete my social media applications so to cleanse my mind from relying on them. I think that social media platforms are very useful tool for communication and for advertising/public relations strategies. I have family and friends members across the ocean and technology allows me to keep in-touch with these people, maintaining my relationships with them. Especially over the last 2 years of varying degrees of physical isolation, loneliness impacted so many people and even harmed their mental health levels. The ability to maintain contact with friends via video chat helped so many people feel a connection to those they hadn't seen in a long time. For me, my cousin passed away during the isolation period and just the fact that I could call her on the phone and sing to her, making her smile made her feel a little less alone during the hard time. Technology makes those kind of situations a bit more bearable. That is just one way, technology has improved quality of life. 

    However, I also know that some people rely on social media to a detrimental degree. I have seen many friends develop an addiction to the validation they receive from others online. I believe that it is unhealthy to become dependent on the opinions of other people. I have also witnessed first hand the use of social media for cyberbullying and reputation slander. Just yesterday I saw a post on someone's private instagram that was bashing another person's post. The free usage of these platforms adds a layer of invisibility for individuals to hide behind when they post cruel things. Having a very private instagram without using your name and a fake email leaves certain things untraceable to the normal person. Social media has become a place where people publicly shame others and it is disgraceful and unnecessary. In that sense, many people's relationships with social media are very unhealthy. Because of this ability to remain somewhat anonymous, social media can also pose a danger with the concept of catfishing. Catfishing is defined as being when someone takes information and images from someone else to create a fake identity online to deceive people on the receptive end of it. 

    My personal use of the internet has been a positive experience and I like to think my online appearance sheds a good light on my reputation. When you type my name into google, the first thing that comes up is my LinkdIn profile and then my facebook. Both profiles I keep very professional and optimistic. Although my online presence is positive, I know that I have sacrificed my privacy in a number of ways. Tons of websites have my personal information including my birthday, address, phone number, email, and more. Websites and social media platforms offer free services or bonuses in exchange for personal data as we agree to contracts of adhesion. I do a great amount of online shopping where I sign off on the use of my email and phone number in order to qualify for an extra 10% discount. My computer itself and therefore Apple knows SO MUCH about me. It has my answers to security questions, it reads my texts, sees my phone calls, reads my notes, sees my browser history, and more. It holds my school account information and knows my fingerprint to unlock websites.

    In the documentary we watched, In the Age of A.I., it was discussed that tech companies have vast data files about each of their users. Each time we use technology like a search engine, we leave digital traces referred to as "digital exhaust". These traces allow companies to predict our behavior and target us with advertisements. These digital traces from all over our technology use creates a massive database that exists. This is a scary thought knowing that so much information garnered about us, our likes, dislikes, behaviors, personal information, and more, are present in a database owned by someone else. There is a caution that must exist in each user of technology. Although it can open some miraculous doors for humanity, it is important to stay alert and aware of everything that technology is doing in relation with your life. You use it everyday, but it uses you too.

In the Age of A.I. Documentary

    I will start by saying that this documentary was incredibly interesting. Each new thing that was discussed set my thoughts into motion and got my gears turning. There were only a few topics discussed that I had known about prior to watching the documentary. Honestly, the rapid development of technology is very intimidating. One society that is a clear example of the extremely fast growth and immersion of technology is the society of China. China has the highest population of citizens paying for phone bills and that own smartphones in general. The culture also has normalized smartphone use for everything including renting bicycles, getting financial loans in as little as 8 seconds, and order delivery service. Through all of these uses and more, China has embraced the new age of technology.

 

   China has completely developed a vast database of information about each citizen. China has incorporated technology into the every day life of its people. The technology like personal drones carrying packages to more rural homes and stores using facial recognition systems to charge people rather than having human cashiers seem like concepts from Sci-Fi movies, but it is real life. The speed of the facial recognition database used throughout the cities in china is .1 second. There are cameras all over cities, logging information about each person. If the system can't connect you to your identity, it can do a darn good job describing you physically and taking notes on the behaviors it observes.     

    One program that surprised me is the effort to stop jaywalking. There are computers at every crosswalk identifying offenders and putting their images up on a screen to publicly shame them, as well as immediately fining them. This as well as other ever present cameras on busy streets are constantly making notes of people's behavioral patterns. This is a way for the government to add more information to the profiles in the vast database of citizens. 

    Although these uses of technology made me uncomfortable, there are a lot of technologies being developed that have really great intentions and can help people. One young man, now age 25, has the credit of developing self-driving truck that he hopes will help with the high rate of automobile fatalities. There is a woman who is working to develop a possible technology that can be used to catch cancer earlier than when usually diagnosed. By studying early images of mammograms where the outcome is already known, technology can use deep learning to study the photos, pixel by pixel, to look for the signs that resulted in bad outcomes of breast cancer. This can be more accurate in predictions than leaving it entirely up to human chance. This technology has the potential to save thousands of lives per year but allowing cancer professionals to treat diagnoses earlier on. 

   Along with our positive use of technology, there will always be the con of privacy invasion. It is just important for consumers to be aware of the information they are giving out and know that the government is collecting data on us in many ways without our knowledge. 

AWARENESS: DISINFORMATION.

    As citizens of a democracy, it is important for each of us to be aware of the different tools used by people in positions of power to influence our thoughts and opinions. We recognize that the news uses agenda setting and framing to push our views on small issues, and we can recognize that the government uses propaganda to sway our decisions. Another thing to be on the lookout for is disinformation. Disinformation is a subcategory of propaganda and is defined as false information deliberately spread to influence the audience. Disinformation is used by both government and nongovernment organizations. This use unfortunately happens commonly day to day but has historically been most prominent internationally during wartimes and nationally during elections such as the 2016 presidential election.

    Disinformation is very often confused with misinformation. Throughout media, you see the two words being used interchangeable despite the fact that they are different. Misinformation is the spread of incorrect information mainly by miscommunication, incomplete context, and presenting it in a misleading way. Intent is what distinguishes the two from one another. Disinformation is deliberately deceptive and typically malicious. Perhaps it can be seen as a good thing from the perspective of the person or organization publishing it by justifying to themselves that they are trying to protect the public or themselves, but either way it is lying. This is no surprise, but lying is largely immoral therefore disinformation mainly has a negative connotation. 

    Disinformation can be extremely harmful to society. Not all individuals have the means to cross-check the information they receive or the knowledge of how to do so. This means that the disinformation may be the only thing these people know about specific topics, which can leave a portion of the public blind-sided to the truth. Bigger issues can occur if the false information is harmful to the reputation of a minority group. That kind of disinformation can incite protests or hate crimes and can wrongfully stander people's names and reputations. As I stated, disinformation was a very common tactic used while nations are at war. One example of disinformation was in 1985 with a campaign carried out by the Soviets called Operation INFEKTION. This campaign spread that the United States had created AIDS to use as an ethnic weapon against non-whites and LGBTQ+ people. The Soviets had the goal of influencing global opinion of the United States. 

    Disinformation has grown exponentially because of the impact of social media on society. Social media allows rapid exchange of information without the necessity or ability to check if the information is true before it is posted. False content can trend in mere seconds and completely ruin reputations before it is even investigated. The issue of disinformation on social media is extremely prevalent during election season, blatantly stating false claims to harm each candidate. This presents a danger because some individuals use social media as their main source of news and content. The public can be misinformed which is harmful to a democracy that wants its citizens to make informed decisions and can even incite harmful action. 

EOTO 2 Reflection

     In this set of presentations, there were a large number of topics that immediately caught my interest. These broad topics of awareness, mediasphere, theories, and policy umbrella a lot of very important and interesting concepts that the average citizen likely doesn't know much about. One of these topics is the Agenda Setting Theory. This theory is actually really relevant in my major of Strategic Communications. Agenda setting theory is the idea that news organizations can pick and choose what to put in the forefront of the media. Doing this gets certain topics into the minds of the audiences. Agenda setting allows these news organizations to filter what information is brought into light for the public. It is used hand in hand with the theory of framing. Framing theory focuses on how the information is actually presented, whether it is in a negative or positive light. Agenda setting can be a good thing in the sense that it often filters out unnecessary information or irrelevant stories but mostly is used to push a specific news sources opinions. 

    An extremely intriguing topic discussed was the Spiral of Silence. The Spiral of Silence is a theory developed in 1974 that states that people in a group setting tend to censor their differing opinions to avoid pushback and isolation from others. There are four parts of this theory. The first of which is that individuals find the ability to determine the majority opinion. The second is the individual begins to silences herself when her opinion differs from that of the majority. The third part is that ever-present threat of isolations and exclusion from the group as a result of sharing an opposing opinion. The fourth part is that there is a likelihood that this will affect future opinions and expressions by the individual. This idea is so heavily present in today's society. When the presenter asked who had experienced something similar, each person in the class had their hand raised.

    Another topic in the category of media sphere is the main stream media (MSM). MSM includes the common newspapers and both local and national broadcasts. The large corporations that provide our media focus on covering a variety of content but do have a reputation for having biases heavily present in the way they practice agenda setting and framing. These sources of news cost money to consume but are foundational to our democracy. Because not all of the nation can constantly pay for more expensive sources of news, alternative media exists and follows the example set by mainstream media. Alternative media offers a less expensive option. These are just a few crucial topics that are part of our interaction with news and participating in democracy.