Tecnhology in Society : Final Post

 Technology in Society 

Technology over the years has faced great advancements and with that comes some issues. One of my favorite sayings is "Every action has a greater re-action," (Newton). This can vastly apply to technology, social media, and various other things the public depends on today. Meaning with these great advances there can be negative outcomes. There is quite often an argument about whether the creation of the internet and social media is bad for you or beneficial. But the answer lies much further than a simple choice between one over the other. As much as I would love to say my relationship with technology is healthy it is not. I take advantage of the resources provided to me, scroll through my phone for hours at a time, and rarely look much deeper than the surface for an hour, and when I do my attention span is quite short.  ADHD and Screen Time, statistics show that there is a correlation between ADHD and long screen time, but there is no definite answer to if it can be harmful. 

Social media has opened a platform for millions of people to communicate from all over the world. With these communications, there is no doubt cultures, religions, and values, are being shared and expressed by all kinds of people. Social media along with the internet, does have a way of bringing people together and teaching them things they haven't known before. Youtube, for example, they have as many how-to videos as you could dream of, or music, and many others. Social media is another way to keep up with the most recent trends and top influencers. Of course, social media does unfortunately come with bullying, deep fakes, harassment, and revenge porn. So, not everything about the internet is extremely helpful. To further add on, the discussion of politics on social media can be both dangerous and misleading. There are plenty of people spreading information with solely a bias for a certain side as their main motivator. They may believe in the information but that does not make it true. A lot of the time information is twisted online and it spreads like a rapid-fire, which can be very dangerous considering the fact at this point in time the media pretty much controls society and their outlook on the persona of others. 

So to answer the question previously mentioned before, is the internet/social media harmful for you or beneficial. It can be either. It all depends on the user and how they are choosing to use this technology. Morals, values, likes, and dislikes, all play a role in social media and can be used to genuinely grow a business or make larger connections.  But others may choose to use it to tear down others or commit some sort of online fraud. In fact, according to, www.sciencedirect.com, " fraud over the internet has increased dramatically resulting in an annual loss of billions of dollars of customers and service providers worldwide." 

With this new advancement, it is so much easier to commit fraud and statistics show it as well. Artificial technology specifically, has been overlooked for quite some time and is just now gaining popularity and controversy. AI has been used to create deep fakes by using it to copy the voices of others, or edit a face onto another, but enough to make the public believe something is real, not only is that a risk for fraud for national security. Forbes states,, "It does not require much imagination to grasp the harm that could be done if entire populations can be shown fabricated videos that they believe are real...imagine  U.S. soldiers committing atrocities against civilians overseas; or of President Trump declaring the launch of nuclear weapons against North Korea." Not only is this harmful to security but it is a prime example of misleading information. A young kid, or politically naive, could see something like this can go into immediate panic sending it to those they know and sending that piece of fake information off into a vicious cycle that leads to anger and confusion. 

But recently, a lot of this has become accepted. People have practically come to terms with the fact that there is always going to be that one "hater", photoshopped supermodel, or funny fake video. But when does enough become too much? This acceptance has led us to question the media as well as the effects new advancements will have. TikTok for example, is currently one of the most popular apps today,  https://hub.jhu.edu/ "Basic information such as the locations of users of the app can be used by foreign actors to determine whether someone works in a facility that may be of interest, such as a military or other government facility. 

While this all may seem overwhelming and navigating your way through the internet and use of technology can be hard, being critical and leaving behind naive ways is the best thing you can do. Those who are naive let the hazards of technology become dangerous and ruin the good aspects of it. 

Despite the risks, technology is truly allowing our society to continue to grow and make more improvements when it comes to our way of living. It has helped dramatically in the medical field, marketing, and business field. It plays a major part in our consumerism-based economy and is a major linkage institution. This means that our economy relies on the people continuously buying products and a linkage institution is what connects us to what is going on with the government on a day-to-day basis. Without it, we would have a hard time getting further in advancement and continuing the neverending learning of our society. 

With current situations, our society no doubt has an attachment to social media/the internet, but specific users make the ultimate choice. Learning can be unique and fun, and the internet is just one way to access thousands of resources.  So choose to learn and be open to what danger the internet can have, and learn to have a healthy relationship between the good and bad. Try to balance. Bancling entertainment vs news is just one way you can adjust to the vast entrapments and entertainment of our technology today. 

EOTO: Cancel Culture

 Cancel culture has become very popular amongst today's generation. It is basically when a group of people stops supporting a person or group because of something that they have done. While cancel culture is typically used on celebrities for something they have done that was socially unacceptable, many also just use it as an excuse to hate on someone, or cyberbully. Cancel culture itself is highly controversial.  Social media already has a negative effect on majority of the populations mental health, but when one single person is getting hated on my millions of people for a mistake they have made, you can only imagine how that affects them. While cancel culture is meant to teach people the consequences of their actions, it often gets taken way too far and people receive comments telling them to kill themselves, that they are worth nothing, and other serious remarks that can cause one to take their own life. 

Cancel culture has turned into a place for hate to ferment and be transported onto another for little reason. But at times it can be  effective and encourages others to make good on the mistake they have made. For example, Miami Herald, goes into detail about TikTokers who waste large amounts of food for their content.  With cancel culture one effect, and many of them beginning to lose a large amount of followers they reverted to the opposite of the content they make, and now provide food to the poor instead to make up for what they do. While some question why they feel the need to record such a thing others are happy they have made a change to their habits and are now currently helping others rather than wasting good. 

                                                         Video Of Excessive Food Waste

But that is not all, there are more well-known celebrities like JK Rowling and Kanye West who have faced the backlash of cancel culture. Kanye and his brands have lost millions of dollars, and have been shunned from society. While society should definitely keep one another in check, is it worth destroying someones livelihood? or even their mental health? Cancel culture is a toxic way to address issues deemed unacceptable to our society and a more efficient way is in need. 

EOTO: Deep Fake

A deep fake is a video of a person where their face or body has been altered so they appear to be someone else or doing something they havent. Deep fakes are typically used either with bad intent to cause harm, or to be funny and provide entertainment for others. Deep fakes are a danger that result from the advancing technology of our present day world. Nowadays deep fakes are both easily made and easily accessible. Anyone can create deep fakes through apps, or softwares, including, FaceMe, FaceApp, Wombo, and others. Within these apps there are AI that recognize facial movements and can replicate them onto another. Despite the dangers of deep fakes, they are not considered to be illegal, but posting or making them of course, can put some at risk for defamation. This is if the deep fake made has damaged their character in some way, shape, or form. 

While anyone is susceptible to deep fakes that are some tip and tricks to make yourself less vulnerable. In a world where social media tends to be at the center of everything it made be hard for some generation to do so, but limiting social media posts. The less you post the less photos and videos there are for someone to take and use against your wishes. Along with that keeping your account private and only accepting people you know for sure, like loved ones or friends. Not only will this keep you safe from deep fakes but the dangers of strangers as well.  When scrolling through the internet always use critical thinking and never believe the first thing that is seen. Because as real as something may look it does not hurt to  double check on another site if this information is real. Doing this will also limit the spread of misinformation. 

According to Intelligence Group, while deep fakes seem to only uphold negative effects, they do put positive things out into he world. They help to lower the cost of video campaigns in various ways. Whether is it cutting down the time by less editing and using a deep fake over the original scene, or receive permission from someone famous and rather than needing them to fly out to film, simply requesting a picture or video of their face. Hyper-personalization is another big thing deep fakes help with as well. A makeup or clothing brand online can mimic the customers skin tone, and demonstrate what their  products will look on the customer. This significantly helps sales, and may even push an unsure customer over the edge of buying that product. Deep fakes can even allow those to connect with passed ones, and make them seem as if they have realistically come back from life. 

But, make sure to keep both sides of deep fakes in mind. Most commonly, Cambridge Dictionary , states that deep fakes have been used for porn or even revenge porn. Where a persons face is edited onto porn performers. Being used in a highly inappropriate way and could potentially put some at risk for losing their job. It is a fake video that has real world effects. 

Some other harmful effects consist of, misinformation being widely spread, chaos being caused as those stress over what is truly going on, encourages false realities and conspiracy theorists, and can be used inappropriately. A famous example is Bill Hader. He had been on a talk show doing something he was famous for, impressions, mostly of other celebrities. The video was taken and as Bill did an impression of Tom Cruise his faced morphed into him. This encouraged conspiracy theorists and made them believe Bill Hader sold his soul, was a sign of the devil, and sent them into chaos and uproar about the illuminati.   Another negative effect of deep fakes is fraud. There can be various forms of a fraud involved. using audio deep fakes a voice of a famous CEO can be stolen and have wired money transferred to whoever is behind that audio, another common one is synthetic identity fraud. Where criminals will take a mix of fake and real information from others and use a deep fake to create someone who is not even real.  

While all of this can be stressful, there are helpful tools to help allow you to spot a deep fake. Q5ID, goes into further detail of some of the dangers above as well as how to prevent yourself from falling victim to a deep fake of someone else. 

1. Unatural Eye Movements 
2. Mismatch is Color and Lighting 
3. Bad audio Quality 
4. Odd Body movement 
5. Awkward physique 

If the eyes are either not blinking or blinking an excessive amount it tends to be an AI generated image edited on to the face of another. If the audio sounds low quality on a high quality video that you have seen somewhere else but haven't heard before it most likely has been taken and turned into an edited version. If the body seems to be moving different than the head and movements that do not make sense it is a deep fake. Or if, for example, they are smiling when talking about something extremely sad. Things such as that. But these guidelines are not strict for everything and should be applied with lots of thought and consideration if it would make sense for someone to do such a thing. 

The Age Of AI

 Many believe that the threat of artificial intelligence is in the far future but that is not the case. Certain jobs are currently beginning to be taken over by AI one example of such is Panera. In the video, In The Age of AI, they demonstrated how Panera has slowly begun to replace cashiers with iPad like devices that you can order from, basically removing the need of the cashier though they still have them. Many people tend to overlook this when ordering from a chain restaurant and will tend to use the AI rather than engage with a human being. Some may be confused on the general definition of what AI is. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is a set of tools that helps you maximize an objective function, making you more money in the long run.  

Huge tech companies are constantly buying smaller companies and employ AI scientists, allowing themselves to become among the richest companies in the world. According to, Toward Data Science, companies such as these tend to lean toward monopolization. While AI does cause massive job loss, it is rarely mentioned in the media about how AI will lead to an increase in monopolization that can put society in danger. Higher prices with less quality, and with the lack of competition many people will have no choice but to buy from these companies.  In this article it states, "The problem with the AI-powered economy is that industries naturally tend towards monopolization because of the positive feedback loop that is generated as a result of AI’s dependence on data. If a particular company using AI gains an upper hand over its competitors, it will be very hard to resist a self-perpetuating cycle of monopolization. " While those companies may not necessarily want to become a monopolization, their successful margin rates, and significantly increasing profits will cause the company to continue with the cycle it is currently on. Another great example of that is Google. The founders of Google initially did not want to infiltrate the privacy of their users but once they did and saw large profit they continued to do so. They took digital traces once known as digital exhaust, a good creator turned to these as a way to predict of what a user would click on after including this in their company, Google began seeing revenues from 2000-2005 increase by over 3,000%  and  after various companies saw Google face such an increase in profits other large companies like Facebook later followed this business mode. 

Google grew into more than just a search engine. Society today is surrounded with their products. But it is not just them, other large companies have also figured out a way to bypass users awareness or permission, the systems necessary to make it work are getting better, like  Google Home, smart speakers are being trained to recognize who you are and understand about you in real time to make inferences if you're depressed, manic, or sick. Just a change in the tone of your voice can lead the machine within your home to predict there is something wrong. But the dangers with these companies like Google or Amazon, (Alexa) and other big corporations is they do not have the same interests as the public.This also falls into the concern of privacy.

Privacy is rare nowadays and the scary thing about it is that much of the public is unaware of how much people know about their lives. Everywhere you go you are trailing data and the computers watch and learn to serve you better. While people think they use social media, social media uses us. The websites you go to generally sell majority of your information. "Cookies" follow you to the websites you go to in order to market ads that would most likely peak your interest.  Maximizing their use of ads. The government can even use these cookies for political gain. Just solely based on the websites you visit, they can tell if you're gay or straight, extremely religious or not, or if you are left leaning or right leaning. Isn't that terrifying? What this is, is surveillance capitalism, it is when businesses claim private human experience as a free source of raw material fabricated into predictions of human behavior and use this to determine what we do now, then and later want to know ur thoughts, dreams, friends overall mining data of your life. Technology Review discusses how companies will sell the political information they have gathered from each user on the internet in order to allow these political leaders, companies or other similar personas to target their ads and increase the number of voters they will have. That even gets in the way of pursuing a fair and proper vote. Since many are having their information taken and used for profit. 

While AI certainly has its benefits, and can be extremely useful, implementing them throughout the peoples daily lives is a moral issue. Most big companies have no problem crossing over that line either. With these technological advances the wealthy getting wealthier, and the  poor getting poorer will correlate with AI snd can rip society apart, making matters worse in that area economically. Working together to incorporate privacy laws against these companies are crucial and can help protect the people from the government and unwanted surveillance. Privacy is a right to the people  and without proper regulations AI can take that away, so the question is are the pros really worth the cons?

The Progressive Era

 Despite the First Amendment protecting our natural rights the government tends to find loopholes when it comes to getting what they want. There has been various times in the past where the government has even overstepped its boundaries and have ignored the rights of the people. This tends to happen during war time, so when there is war it can in a odd way be good for the government. It allows them to make certain decisions without the consent of the people, use extreme censorship, and create laws that are unconstitutional but acceptable for the time being. If the people are exposed to this Anti-War propaganda they may turn against the governments decisions and get in the way of a certain end goal. Most of the time the government will push what they want you to see on the public through private companies and those who have similar views as them. There are many websites that are found to be under the radar since certain information is pushed towards the public and the same information they want you to take is floods the media. The sites ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative are rarely ever seen because of the government and their censorship. While it can be considered to violate ur first amendment rights the government uses whatever strategy they can to censor the information those see. Right now especially, we are nearly at war and there has been various talks of war in the future. So if anti war propaganda is spread, the public will be less likely to be on board and oppose what the government wants. The American Conservative discusses the areas in which the government is unchecked, exposing their flaws and coming down on them for this behavior. Another thing the government does not want to be broadcasted to the public. 

These obscure websites must be sought out because of the overload of information the government works to get put out. If they overload the media with certain topics they are able to prime as well as frame the audience. Meaning, getting you think about the topic, and then narrowing your focus on that topic since it is pretty much all you hear. Along with that many private companies tend to push their agenda onto the public and will censor certain topics based on their opinion. One prime example is Twitter. On Twitter many tweets may be deleted, and accused being either harmful information, misinformation, or just overall violating the companies policies. Forbes mentions, "In particular, when confronted with questions of bias, whether relating to political affiliation in the US or government pressure internationally, companies have remained largely silent, refusing to provide any significant detail as to their moderation policies." Indicating that these websites refuse to confirm or deny why this information is being deleted and refusing to clear up why these mass amounts of tweets, picture, or such is being deleted. To make matters even worse, there has recently been claims of censorship increasing. UMICH has done research indicating that "censorship is increasing in 103 of the countries studied, including unexpected places like Norway, Japan, Italy, India, Israel and Poland—countries which the paper notes are rated as some of the freest in the world by advocacy group Freedom House. "

While avoiding censorship can be hard, do not fall victim to this rising problem amongst the media. Do not be afraid to go further with your research and do not be afraid to be different amongst the crowd. While the government is working hard to censor the news, work harder to find this type of information and exercise your rights.

Eight Values of Free Expression

 The government is a system designed to keep order amongst the country and regulate the way we live to avoid anarachy. There are checks and balances put in place that encourages each of the branches to check one another when they "step out of line" or abuse their power. Many forget that the people are involved in this checks and balances system and are an extremely crucial part. It is also the people's patriotic duty to call out the government when it is wrong. It was one of the main concepts in the drafting of the Constitution to allow the people to be able to speak their mind about the government without any consequences and voice their opinions on what they believe is best for the people and the mistakes the government made.The media in today's time can often be compared to a "watchdog". While we are at work, school, or just completing errands, the news is able to let us know what is going on throughout the world that day. Otherwise we would be lost and have little clue about what is going on in the world around us. If the media is not completing this duty or, performing the duty incorrectly it can be incredibly dangerous to the public. 

The government adheres to what the people want. Typically, political leaders conform their ideals to the majority. If the people call out or challenge the government they are more likely to have the government perform in the way they want or reflect the majority's values. In the constitution, it is even stated "We the people, for the people, by the people." This again, keeps the government in check and avoids a dictatorship and rather a system that works collaboratively and in the best interest of the people instead of power. To me checks and balances is what allows this whole system to function and avoids unnecessary violence such as riots. The past and present of both our country and others countries provides prime examples to what happens where there is no checks and balances in place. According to the article The Government without Check and Balances, ". And unfortunately, Russia is only one of many totalitarian states, which not only repress their own citizens, but also pose security risks for the rest of the world." A totalitarian government is one that does not allow the public to disagree with it nor any type of political party. What they say pretty much goes.  They're known for making decisions that put the people at serious risk, and without these checks and balances the people suffer at the hands of the government unfortunately. To add on in the past the states had specifically left England because the people had no say and they felt as though they were part of a dictatorship. They faced great unfairness, economically. In other cases this could cause social injustice as well. 

Another problem from the past when checks and balances was not in the past, is with the judiciary system. There had been a unicameral government and so there was no proper way to fairly enforce laws among the people and the decision was all up to the government.  The sole branch, legislative, was too powerful. In the History.com article it states, "The Supreme Court and other federal courts (judicial branch)can declare laws or presidential actions unconstitutional, in a process known as judicial review." Demonstrating how without it the government was able to make whatever law it wanted to with no one to check it. 

Overall, without the process of checks and balances, the people would be under a dictatorship and would have little room to express their concerns and help shape the country. Without the media giving constant updates the people would be at a loss. The whole system is intertwined, especially with the government being involved in nearly everything, and the people determine the future. 

Diffusion of Innovations

 The telephone was an innovation that involved numerous "pioneers" one of the most well known being Alexander Graham Bell along with the fact he was given credit for the patent of the idea. He created the phone to find innovative ways to communicate. Being that he was so interested in working with he deaf, and had lots of experience with sound waves, currents, and communication. Elisha Gray would also be considered another major pioneer. He had brought his idea to patent the telephone just hours later at the patent office but did not receive such a high level of credit as Alexander did. Alexander had also been the first ever to speak over a telephone line according to America's Library, with his assistant Thomas Watson on the other line. All three, and I am sure various others were to be considered pioneers not only because they had heavy involvement in the invention but because they saw major potential in the invention. 

First ever phone call

Elisha Gray 

Early adopters are considered to typically be those who are young, open minded, and are open to new ideas as well as trying new things. The company, American Telephone and Telegraph company, now current day AT&T  would be considered one of the early adopters. They were one of the first phone companies and were known for distributing about "ninety percent of all U.S. phone equipment," according to Britannica. They put their trust in the telephone and were willing to accept the new idea and with that the company grew so much it nearly became a monopoly. What is a monopoly you may be wondering? A monopoly is when a company has nearly no competition and has control of almost all the market for the specific products they are selling. 

The early majority would be considered those who decided to jump on the bandwagon and buy the phone earlier on. So, most likely those who buy it through the distributing company (AT&T). Because they are buying into the idea that the telephone is useful. Most likely because they believe it to be more efficient than the telegraph or previous devices they may have used. The later majority are those who bought the phone because it is  now socially acceptable. Just like how nowadays you expect people to have iPhones rather than Androids for example. Or even just have a cellphone in general. This is basically what the late majority is. As popular as the telephone may have grown to be, there will always be laggards. Laggards are those who resist buying a product. So, those who resisted or continued to resist buying the telephone would be laggard. There can be various explanations to why they refuse to make a purchase. Whether it is the fact they do not want to spend money on it, maybe they do not have the money, or find the product unnecessary in general. In the telephones case, some people found it to be useless because they believed the telegraph helped them communicate just fine, and was nearly the same. Or they just preferred to write letters, the old school way to their friends, family or loved ones. Each position is equally important to the diffusion theory and demonstrates how the people react and affect the products success over time.