My relationship with technology

 

My relationship with technology has always been a big part of my life. And as I grew up it started to be something that I have to rely on. Without a doubt technology has made our lives easier by providing entertainment, GPS, fast communication, and so much more. Most of the time I use technology to provide me entertainment from my normal life, to see what fun other people's lives are compared to mine. But I also use technology for staying in touch with my friends and family back at home. Being that I'm in college and can't see those I love, having this fast communication is very convenient to me. 

Growing up as a kid I never was attached to technology like I am now. My Parents did a good job with making sure I never spent too much time with it, only allowing a certain amount of time with it. I grew up spending most of my free time outside playing with friends. But nowadays kids don't spend time outside. In a study done by Sanford Health News they say that on average american kids don't spend 10 minutes a day outside. The first time technology was given to me was when I was 11 years old and the only reason I was allowed to have it was because my mom would drop me off at soccer practice and go back to work and some days it would rain and I would have no way to tell her that she needed to come get me. 

At the time of highschool was when technology became something that I relied o
n. It became more for personal use than just for communication. In Highschool I decided to get into the world of social media. I decided to download Instagram and many other platforms like it to show family members and friends what I was doing in my life.  

Do I think that my relationship with technology is healthy? I think at times it can be unhealthy and there are also times that it's not. Sometimes I use technology for my educational purposes which I think is ok. But there are also times I spend too much time just scrolling on apps wasting my day away when I could be doing something productive. But overall I think that my relationship with it is unhealthy and that I need to cut back on the use of technology. I often get stuck on the endless cycle of scrolling on apps which later leads to me not prioritizing the right things. Spending too much time on my phone and not on homework or socializing with friends. Which is not something I want to happen. I know that this is the same for some of my friends because there have been times I have wanted to go and do something with them but they tell me they need their down time on their phone to just be able to scroll on social media for an hour or two. 

My online footprint is just what I thought it would have been. Most of the things that come up are my social media platforms. With that being said my parents have always been very strict on what I post online making sure nothing I post I would later regret posting.  

EOTO, Presentations

   What I learned during one of the presentations is what news deserts are and how it is seen today.A news desert is when a community does not rely on daily or non daily newspapers. News desert occurs for lots of reasons but some of them are because there is a lack of supply and demand. People would rather get their news from somewhere else other than having to wait a day to find out the news. Another reason that there are news deserts is because there are online readerships. This is when someone would rather pay for an online source than having to pay for a newspaper. The truth is that people are starting to refrain from newspapers because they can get their news easier and faster now with the technology that we have today rather than having to wait a day to find out the news. Some ways we could help this problem is to do in depth research on which communities are at risk of news desert or we could increase funding to news deserts. 

    

    News deserts are becoming less popular with over seven million Americans now living without enough local news. And lods of journals are being laid off from work.In one of the maps shown in the presentation it showed that lots of cities only show one newspaper to their city. And some even show that they have none. News deserts are not just hurting local news stations across the United states, they are also hurting people that are in journalism by making them lose their jobs. Newspapers are something that provides news, people's views, and provides advertising. If we don't do something about news deserts soon we will lose newspapers as a whole in the coming years. 

Living in the Age of AI

     While watching this video I learned that AI is taking over our world if we want it too or not. AI has started to take people's jobs because you don't have to pay a robot to work so they also don't have to pay taxes. By using AI in jobs it is making us either lose our job completely or to go to a less paying job. Which is making us have more people in need to rely on shelters for food or basic needs. 

    AI is causing more mortality in our world. Which even affects the younger generation. They are known to be more depressed and even to repeat a grade. It is also making it harder to be able to advance past your parents in the workplace. AI has even started to move to being in fast food changes. AI is going to make us split because it is going to continue to make the rich more rich and the poor more poor. By AI making automated systems it is going to make us not have a middle class anymore. AI is getting rid of blue collar jobs by replacing them with robots. 

    AI is also shown in our social media.Social media is searching us, we are not searching them.They can tell every detail about you your thoughts, dreams, and even your desires. They can even tell everything you are doing that day by you sending texts or searching something on Google. 

    Some important takeaways from this is that AI might have some good things about it but overall it is not what we are wanting. AI is too advanced for us and it is over all hurting us. Something that surprised me is that AI can tell everything about us just by getting little information about us.They can tell how to create my algorithms so that they are
related to my likes and needs. The other thing that surprised me is how AI can be looking and listening to us at all times. And how some people even invite them into their homes. Overall this video has made me realize how much AI is starting to take over our world and not for the good. 

EOTO Terms & Concepts

Has your family ever switched over from cable to internet based television companies like Netflix, Disney +, HBO, or Hulu? Well that is called cord cutting.Cord cutting is when you cancel a subscription to a cable or satellite service. And move to services that are internet based. This is usually cheaper and you can even save money every month. With cable at average being 200 dollars a month people are starting to switch over to internet based services. With services like this it is more accommodating to the needs of the customer. 

To start cord cutting you need to begin with moving to a streaming service that you find interest in. And all you need is a good internet connection and an inexpensive streamer like Roku or Amazon Fire. And they will give you access to lods of streaming services like Netflix,Disney +, HBO, and Hulu. If you are interested in getting local news or sports games you will have to get Live streaming services also. For youtube TV it is around 25 dollars a month. 

Most people say that they move away from traditional cable because most cable companies have long contracts and customers may also be getting channels they don't necessarily care for. Others have said that they just strictly did not use cable enough for how much they were spending on it. Cable is at an all time low right now with major cable companies collectively losing 6 million paid subscribers each year from 2019-2022. But it is not just cable that is stuffing from this. It is affecting our society by losing paid advertisements. With most of the platforms promoting that they are an ad free service, advertisements are losing some of their demographics and having to come up with a different way to reach them. 

Cord cutting will affect our generation by ending cable completely. Millennials and Gen Z are the new generation and they are already seeing a fall in cable. We are more likely to have to pay more money to avoid ads.We also don't want to have to wait a week to see another episode of a show. And a lot of this generation also likes to keep up with shows that are only on streaming services that originals  to the platform.Cord cutting also may affect the poorer demographics more by them getting to choose which platform they are paying for making it cheaper and more convenient for them. 

I think overall why cord cutting is becoming so common in today's world is because if you are trying to cut down something the first thing to go would be cable. Also a lot of it has to do with if you have kids or not because they are part of the reason some people switch over. Cord cutting is very common in America with over half of the American population no longer paying for cable. 

Privacy, Online & Off

 

    What I have learned through the first video by Juan Enriquez is that apps like facebook, instagram, and GPS are all like tattoos in a way. They are electronic tattoos that provide people with more information than a tattoo ever would. And by us having these we are losing the leverage we had to people that are watching what we do on your phone. And it is getting hard to hide from things like this because of facial recognition. By having this it makes it easier to find out things about strangers.By us using electronic tattoos we are closer to immortality because they will live a lot longer than we will live. These issues affect us because the internet always knows what we post. Therefore we need to be careful about what we put out there. The government could help this issue by creating something to stop electronic tattoos.

    In the second video I learned about how surveillance equipment is being sent to police stations around the United States. And how it is giving them sensitive information about us. One of the things that they are getting is our location. They can tell if you go to church or if you don't. Things like this used to be private but now they are not.

    With all of the videos that i watched one thing was the same in all of them. It is that the government is taking our privacy. This is affecting us by the government not even allowing us to go about our normal life without getting information about us. We could not even do anything wrong and they are still collecting this information “just in case” it is needed. How we can protect ourselves from this is to pay attention to things like this and not be oblivious to it. Also by watching what we post or even do or say out loud. 

Diffusion of Innovations

    Netflix began to get more attention in the early 2000s. So many of the early adopters of Netflix liked it so much because it was convenient for the customers. It also had lots to choose from so you don't have to worry about them not having something you wanted to watch. A lot of people decided to change to online streaming services like Netflix because it is cheaper than having to pay for cable.I personally have noticed that when you are watching cable they often play over the same shows or movies. But with Netflix you don't have to worry about having nothing to watch because they change out what they offer every so often. Netflix also does not make you wait for a new episode of a show, it offers you the whole season so that you can binge watch whenever you want. 

    But for some people that is not what they are wanting. Some people even refuse to get any streaming services like Netflix. Some people say that they like to use cable because their shows are not available on streaming services or that the internet is unreliable at times and can cause slow services. Cable also offers a wide range of channels while streaming services like Netflix only offer one kind of content. Some of the down sides of streaming services like Netflix is that it causes binge watching.

 Binge watching can cause health risks like having an addictive personality, sleeping problems, and even cause you to develop depression, anxiety and even loneliness. The other thing that is bad about streaming services is that it makes younger kids not want to enjoy being outside and hanging out with friends. I think overall it is a good idea to get services like Netflix if you are older because most of the time you don't have time to binge watch a show. And lots of times friends like to watch shows together and not having to watch ads is a plus.

EOTO Technology

 

    

    What I have learned through the presentations about the printing press is that it was designed by the Chinese in the 3rd century.And that  The Gutenberg press was what really started the printing press. The purpose for the parenting press was for them to keep up with the demand of books and text across the world. By creating the printing press there was a positive effect. The impact that it had on us was that it became easier for others to create books and text in a more affordable way. And by it being created in an affordable way it became cheaper for the customers. I also learned how the printing press works. First the image is pressed into a metal plate by a chemical reaction. Then water is rolled across the metal plate covering the image. Then the ink is rolled onto the metal plate across the image. And lastly the metal plate is pressed agents the paper to transfer the image. The printing press has had a lot of impact on today's world but there are some positive and negative things that the printing press has given us. Some of the positive things that the printing press has given us is that it is faster, cheaper, and more affordable to make books and text. It also allows uniform production of books and text. And it allows individuals to be able to be more informed and educated. Some of the negative things that the printing press gave us is that it emitted toxins from ink and paper. It also causes a widespread pollution in modern industrial areas. It also forced kids to work in factories. Overall I learned lots about the printing press that I did not know.