Final Blog Post

    As my final exam blog post, we were tasked to watch the Frontline documentary 'In the Age of AI' by the PBS network. The eye-opening documentary brings to light the positive and negative effects technology and the usage of our data relay to our internet privacy. Every day in the news, we are increasingly hearing new stories about the spying of tech companies through data collection as well as the government's wrongdoings. Headlines such as Metaverse could track your facial expressions, blood pressure, and breathing rate, and Data collection isn’t the problem: It’s what companies are doing with it. These news stories are not out of the norm. I chose these stories because they showed the true issue at hand. While there is coverage from the news, we also see congressional hearings taking place as well. We've seen Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, top government officials, and many more going on the stand to find out what is happening in the tech world of Silicon Valley.   

    The invention of technology and its benefits were highlighted glowingly from the very beginning. It was said to be a game-changer that would make our lives easier in almost every way possible. The first imaginations of what technology could be involved a perfect utopia where technology was king. Futurama at the New York world fair showed us the positives, but I don't think many could predict the negatives that would arise. They were right about all the benefits and how they could undoubtedly change our lives at the time. Technological inventions changed the way we communicate, educate, and function as a society. The Mad Max Remix video showed us the opposite extreme: we're a lifeless society dependent on our phones. I think right now, we're somewhere in between the two extremes. Technology is making big strives in advancement, and we've seen the best and worst of it all at once. The Frontline documentary gives us a picture that has been painted by current tech engineers of what our near future could look like with the advancements in Artificial Intelligence.  

Futurama Ride, World Fair NY, 1964

    The Media Law and Literacy class with Professor Dean Smith has made me more aware of current technological privacy issues. The trajectory we're currently taking as a society on the current stance of the tech companies is worrisome as our internet behavior is continually being harvested for our data. I highlighted the past, current, and future technological attitudes in the first couple of paragraphs. When the tech was in its infancy in the 1960s, it was portrayed as a game-changing tool that would benefit us all, and it certainly has been to anything there are drawbacks. When a program or product is free, you are the product. Google, Facebook, Twitter are all free platforms to use, meaning the company has to make money in some way to stay afloat. Harvesting your data and feeding their captive audience advertisements is the primary way they produce revenue. To dive deeper into this subject, we must assess my own personal consumption of technology to explain the issue. 

    I personally have a strong connection with technology and use it daily. I believe that technology is a beneficial tool in my life, although my usage on my phone and some apps is unhealthy and, frankly, too much at times. These apps tend to be social media-based, but my usage depends on the week and time of year. When looking at my phone's weekly usage averages, it is predominately social media. Technology is becoming an issue with the increasing performance of the algorithms that keep you attached to the app. The algorithm is the tech company's ability to learn and display what you enjoy watching to keep you coming back. The new app, TikTok, does this very well, and with the ability to aimlessly scroll through videos that appeal to you, it tends to keep you on longer than you would like, which explains why it's my top used app throughout the week.

Personal Weekly Phone Usage 

    Not all the technology I used has a negative impact. Although my phone screen time suggests heavy social media usage, I know that isn't beneficial. I use my phone prominently for leisure, such as talking with friends or playing games. If my computer were to have this same feature, I believe it'd be quite different. I use my laptop for more valuable tasks such as completing homework assignments, taking notes in class, working on group projects, and reading news articles. I, of course, still watch YouTube videos (a Google product), but for the most part, I try to use my laptop for productive tasks. Access to the worldwide web has made our society more aware of our surroundings. We can get articles from other news agencies from across the globe instantly. Access to historical information on demand can broaden our knowledge and perspective. Although technology has this immense power to make us more knowledgeable, I think it also has the side effect of making us lazy. The efficiency factor is immense, but at what expense? Due to this, we have become an on-demand, instant gratification country, and like anything positive, this is the associated negative. 

    With my extensive usage of technology, the ability for tech companies to collect my information for their benefit is mind-boggling what they have figured out about me. After a quick search online, I discovered that you can review your own Google account to figure out how they customize their ads for you based on your interests. The information is accurate and shows how much the company knows and learns about your online behavior. When reading a Business Insider article explaining how to find this information, the author states that the company knew about information she didn't specifically type into the search engine. These statistics and information about you determine what ads are displayed to the user. The collection and usage of your data for advertisements is their direct business model, and they are not hiding it either. 

Part of Google's Ad Personalization Data On Me

    The assembly of different categories Google has collected on me directly correlates to my digital footprint. Some categories of notable significance are my enrollment in a college, my membership to a fraternity, where I am located (New Hampshire and North Carolina), and that I am still a part of my family (not married). These startling facts are not all the information I have stored in my Google profile. My third-party website profile, username, and passwords are also saved on my Google account. I also use the photos feature to backup all my photos onto a separate cloud network from Apple in case of failure. My account overall is secure with advanced security settings put into place, but if I were to get hacked, I would essentially be giving the individual my entire identity, which includes personal information, photos, passwords to bank accounts, etc. This has worried me significantly, which is why I installed extra security features that would require the hacker to also have access to my phone to breach my account. Our technological use in the U.S. is built around the Google ecosystem, making it hard to prevent this susceptibility. My online footprint and information don't stem from only Google though anyone who posts pictures or my name on a website can come up during a simple search. When I looked up my own name, my Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and college swim recruiting account all came up on the first search page. A picture of myself also appeared because of my Twitter profile image. This ease of access makes searching for someone easy who is digitally involved but doesn't provide the privacy some would usually expect.  I know, for instance, my parents, who are not as heavily involved in social media, would not come up as easily as my name would. My mom's business profile through her employer came up, but besides that basic information, that's all I was able to find. This does seem to be a generational issue as the young people in our society become increasingly technologically connected. 

A search of my name

    Circling back to the documentary In The Age of AI, we will continue to see this privacy oversteps from our online lives to our personal lives. As tech continues to enter our homes, we give them increased access to our personal data. More and more people are embracing tech, such as the laggards on the diffusion of innovations graph, and as technologically inferior countries begin to adopt its usage, we will be giving the companies more data to work with. Overall, I am skeptically optimistic that some restrictions will be put into place to prevent these pervasive actions from continuing as congress increasingly addresses the issue. In the meantime, I and everyone else need to be more aware of what information we are giving away in this technologically progressive society.  

    

    

Futurama Photo

    

Privacy, Online & Off (Blog 7)

    As we continue to advance the use of technology in our everyday lives, some issues are raised with the security and use of our personal information. As a result, the tech companies and our own governments are surveilling their citizens to gain information on what is being conducted in the area and at specific locations. 

    Everyone is a target of surveillance, including our friends and family. Our older relatives, who may be considered a laggard and not technologically active, are also being surveilled through other means. Tech companies store our information such as faces, call records, internet searches, and other factors in their massive cloud storage while the government is tracking us through cameras mounted on street corners, police cars, toll booths, etc. We all have to consider what this information is being used for by the companies and government. They are holding onto our information for the reason that isn't entirely known to us. We know they use it to optimize searches and better their platform but is there another clandestine reason? Why is the government holding onto our info and tracking us through stingrays and tower dumps? These are some of the questions we need to be asking ourselves. 

    We can only truly protect ourselves from surveillance by speaking up against these practices to instill action. All surveillance will continue to happen no matter if we like it or not and there isn't a way to avoid it since modern life in America requires the use of technology for all facets of life. We need to speak up against these surveillance practices to our elected officials. This would be an upward challenge due to the government's history of spying on Americans and collecting data without warrants. Getting them to pass laws restricting the data tech can collect and store is what is needed desperately so this doesn't become the norm. 

Surveillance Graphic

Class Photo

In the Age of AI (Blog 11)

     In the age of new technology, artificial intelligence's presence and recent growth have made us aware of what our future could look like. The reality of automation taking over quite a few significant industries has become a reasonable possibility in the near future. We've seen the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence already in factories, our homes, and automobiles. However, these smaller inventions are only the beginning of what is to come with the artificial intelligence wave. 

    In the Frontline documentary, we same revolutionary advances in AI, such as the deep learning intelligence system beating the legendary 'Go' player 4-1, which became a nationwide spectacle. We also see China pushing technology into the next wave of inventions. One of the featured tech innovators also predicts that 50% of the jobs will be affected or severely affected by technology advances. As of right now, the Chinese are all-around more in touch with new technology as their society has embraced cashless payment, food delivery, self-driving cars, and need your cellphone for most basic tasks. They are building new cities that are AI friendly that are already replacing the traditional jobs we've always known. The country, in general, is also very open about its surveillance efforts. They are including surveillance in the design of these new cities to collect data on users to better mold deep intelligence to become more efficient and keep tabs on its citizens. As we see the intelligence become more competent, it worries what it could be used for. Tech company surveillance is worrisome because they collect our information, facial features, and fingerprints for their own usage. As we see AI become more intelligent and collect our information, we can predict that data breaches would be more lucrative and easier to conduct. This could also affect our national security and secrets. We could see a new form of warfare where we attack the infrastructure networks that run our society. Imagine automated trucks, planes, and trains getting hacked and being intentionally crashed.  This is a real risk that needs to be treaded through carefully. 

    Although there are several concerns about the ever-growing use of AI, there are some benefits to the technology. One company featured is promoting the use of self-driving trucks to help reduce traffic fatalities. They believe they can design code that is significantly safer than a human driver. The human factor has also been a major contributing cause in any form of accidents that could make transportation much safer. There is also a medical advantage to detect diseases and other illnesses based on previous data to better the fight. We don't yet know about advantages as they are being developed. The AI could read the data it collects to understand what we need to improve our lives. The AI algorithms could be the next inventors of our time, which could be very interesting what they determine we need. 

    Overall, I am more skeptical than not about artificial intelligence and am curious where it will go. The industry it's in is still growing rapidly every day, and the decisions they make are crucial towards its success and ours as a human race. 

    

EOTO Presentation (Blog 10)

    Total Information Awarness (TIA) was a mass detection program created by the United States government to track potential terrorist attacks. The program on paper stated that it was used for national defense, but many believed they were using the program to collect information on ordinary citizens. Once the program leaked, many Americans didn't like the data it was collecting because they believed their information was being recorded and stored by the government. In late 2003 the program code-named 'basketball' was supposedly defunded by the government because of the severe pushback. 

    Some of the most worrying details that came to light were what the program was actually collecting. For example, it was revealed that they were using the info to collect biometrics for facial detection from a distance, EELD collection of texts, social networking,  financial records, phone calls, and general web database collection.  

    When the program became public, the United States Information Awarness Office renamed the program from Total Information Awarness to Terrorism Information Awarness to justify the program. Senator Ron Wyden called it 'the biggest surveillance program in United States history.' When all the details were released, it was genuinely shocking what was happening. Finally, we began to see how the government would use this new tool to its advantage. 

    

    We continued to see government surveillance leaks since this was the original groundbreaking store. Although the program lost funding and was suspended, future programs used elements of basketball to create new ones. Finally, Edward Snowden revealed how wide-sweeping it truly was and how they continued to do the exact same thing except the program was more efficient. 

Total Information Awareness

    

Eight Values (Blog 3)

    We all have our own values in life and tend to live to the fullest that we feel are important. Free expression is an important right we as American citizens have that many across the globe do not have. The eight values of free expression are a marketplace of ideas, participation in self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, check on governmental power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and protect dissent. These are all essential values we should cherish, but the one I fulfill most days is the pursuit of individual self-fulfillment. Every day we do things that we know will make us happy. An example of that could be hanging out with friends, achieving a good grade on an assignment, or watching a sports game. These individual self values are essential and are considered heavily in lifestyle choices. When looking over the eight values of free expression I self-fulfillment is the value I live daily, but the one that is probably the most important is the check on governmental powers. We as a nation are built on our constitutional rights, and my right to free expression is protected by it. We as a country always need to keep our government officials in check to ensure these rights remain the same. 

    

    As stated in the first paragraph, free expression is what makes the United States one of the most unique and protective countries when it comes to free expression. Our right to free speech is one of the strongest ] individual rights we have, although recently, some believe that censorship is needed. We've seen significant tech companies begin their own censorship campaigns and become the ones to determine what can and cannot be said on their platforms. Tech companies taking control of what can and can't be said is a significant shift in power away from the user. Before, social media was a place to express yourself and connect with others of like-minded opinions. Social media has now been turned into a site where you have to be careful what you say in fear of being banned or having the post removed. This isn't an issue for the vast majority of users, but for the outspoken ones, this tends to be an issue. 

    For our second EOTO project, I am presenting the Spiral of Silence theory. The theory suggests that the outspoken members of social media platforms tend to self-regulate themselves in fear of repercussions. The theory itself tends to be when the group opinion silences you into suppressing your views, which can occur when social media companies do it to you. I have seen on TikTok, especially videos being taken down due to a breach of community guidelines. The videos can be very harmless videos, such as one where someone was talking about their career as an airline pilot, but the video was reported. Giving people the ability to report a video they don't agree with and most likely have it taken down is a dangerous precedent. As we start to see the social media companies continue to clamp down on censorship of their apps, I believe users will become more aware to self-censor themselves to avoid being removed from the platform. 

    Below is the Spiral of Silence theory diagram that explains someone's willingness to speak out on the top. As they become more aware that they are in the minority opinion and fear of social isolation is likely their opinions begin to get pushed to the bottom of the cone away from the prevailing public opinion. 

   

    One of the most concerning censorship examples of free expression from social media I have ever seen was the ban of a sitting president. After the attack on the Capitol building by rioters, we saw a ban of the 45th president, Donald Trump, from every known platform for life. This obviously was a shocking move for some but for others, they thrilled to see his use of Twitter stopped through censorship for others. Many of these people didn't agree with his political views, and since he was so decisive, they believed he needed to be removed. Questions like these need to be asked: Who determines who will be banned? Who determines what is and isn't true from a multi-faceted issue? If you censor something that is disputed, isn't there some truth? 

    

    The promotion of a marketplace of ideas, one of the eight free expressions, on a social media platform is not existent anymore. Many Americans want to see more censorship to protect their own feelings, so they aren't offended. Many do not understand the first amendment and believe people can't say things if they don't agree. As we move towards a more censored America, I am concerned that there will be pushes to change parts of the first amendment to protect the censorship movement. 

    Overall, I am concerned about the direction we are moving, especially on social networking platforms. We as a country were built of free expression, such as the eight listed in my opening paragraph. We need to work together to prevent the spiral of silence theory from occurring and the increase in censorship. We need to look at the countries abroad that have heavy censorship, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and others. We despise these countries for factors such as human rights, dictatorship governments, and oppressed citizens. These issues sprout from not being able to speak out and push back against these inhumane rules. The citizens have no platform to revolt, which is why the right to free speech is so important to protecting our own freedoms. 

Trump Tweet

Spiral of Silence Graphic

Censorship Graphic

Spiral of Silence

Spiral of Silence

Free Expression Graphic

 

Progressive Era (Blog 5)

The status quo in American politics is the United States is to be the police of the world. As a result, we tend to get involved in situations and disputes that don't affect us to sustain a political interest in the area. For example, when we think about peacekeeping missions, we usually think of the United Nations to handle it, but we have taken that role and even become the biggest donors to the UN. Before World War II, the US was only concerned and kept a very nationalistic view. As a result, we only got involved in issues that involved us. After the war, though, we became increasingly involved in other matters with a globalist stance. Some notable wars were the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq, with smaller occupations. These wars did not involve a direct attack or threat to the United States but rather a threat to our allies or resources. 

Anti-war media outlets and journalists do not receive much attention from mainstream media sources due to their stances. The news wants to agree with the current government to release in-sync messages. A large portion of their content is released from government briefings and PR releases, so they might not be invited back if they go against their messaging. War also brings in the rating, which involves money for the tv companies. While we are involved abroad, the media wants to report back and bring footage from the ground. This is also a reason why anti-war websites aren't trendy. They don't appear high on a regular search because mainstream media are covering the war, and it gets more clicks because we're more interested in that content. 

EOTO Terms and Concepts (Blog 8)

The Spiral of Silence is a theory thought of by German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. The theory is based on silencing or exclusion of people in a group because of different opinions from the majority. This silencing may be self-inflicted to prevent issues within the group or by the person whose opinions don't align with others. 

The main idea behind the spiral of silence is that someone is inflicting self-censorship of thought on themself. These thoughts are usually based on holding a minority opinion within a group. Many tend to base their censorship on the belief that they will be exiled socially and isolation will ensue if they voice their opinions publicly. 

There are four main parts to complete the spiral of silence. Part 1: The Quasi-Statistical organ or sense is your ability to determine the majority/dominating opinion in a social setting. This is in a sense 'reading the room'. We all want to fit in with our peers so mimicking their actions will lead to someone fitting in socially. Being able to determine the 'feel' is an important skill to have socially as it can determine the most appropriate way to act even when not referring to the theory. Part 2: Public opinion and the spiraling process is an important step. A public opinion is any thought or expression that can be presented within a group without repercussion with the group consensus. The spiraling process begins when an already dominant opinion becomes the prevailing one for the group. This makes the illusion that everyone is on the same page and believes the same ideas. The minority thoughts get swallowed by the overall opinion and pushed to the bottom of the majority. Part 3: Threat of isolation. Nobody wants to feel isolated from society because humans by nature are social creatures needing interactions to survive. Self-censoring to stay within the group majority is a form of social control and can be enacted to silence those with other opinions. This threat of isolation is the key factor to make the spiral occur because it is almost like the enforcer that ensures you act the way the group expects. Part 4: Future opinion. The current thought within a group may not be the only silencing factor. Future opinions can also be a thought someone has before they speak their opinion. If you know that what you say could be an issue in the future then you may not say it for future backlash. 

The spiral of silence can occur in all facets of our lives and affect anybody. One of the most common times someone may self-regulate what they say is usually when politics is talked about. Many people know that this is a very divisive issue and many don't want to get involved or know they may not have the popular opinion in the group. The spiral of silence affects everyone though although the situation may depend on when they do and don't feel comfortable talking about it. If you have ever not spoken up or expressed your feelings in a group setting in fear of disagreement or a negative perception by the group is an example of this theory taking place. 

Social media has also increased the spiral of silence theory into ways I'm sure Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann couldn't imagine. With the ability to post your opinions online for all to see we usually tend to see dominating opinions emerge. This further silences the minority opinion and makes it visible to all if they break the status quo. The platforms also give a platform to users who may want to make their account private and share with only the people they know will agree. Although this is beneficial to them by creating a way for them to express their opinions it does however further isolate them. I do believe social media has made the issue worse overall because it gives the sense of dominating opinion while also making sure everyone is able to know if you disagree. Social media does offer many great benefits but this is certainly a well-documented negative that is affecting children and teens significantly. 

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Wikipedia

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