Diffusion of Innovations - blog post 8

Rodgers, Diffusion of Innovations theory is a very robust theory that I have learned after reading I can not only be useful in this class, but in a couple of my classes moving forward. The main definition for this theory that explains how, why, and the rater of how new ideas and innovations spread. Rodgers explains the Diffusion of Innovations theories "five main elements that go into this theory as well as help the spread of new innovations; the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system". Diffusion_of_innovations

The one innovation that I chose to look at through the eyes of Rodgers theory is the infamous app... Instagram. Society loves to read about instagrams success story. "Instagram was launched in October of 2010. At the time the app was seeing about 10,000 downloads a day. However, by April of 2012 the app was seeing about 100,000 downloads a day" https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/the-rise-of-instagram-tracking-the-apps-spread-worldwide/. I believe this app caught on and spread widely throughout the US because it was one of the newer social media app that kickstarted sharing our lives and what we were up too. Our society is addicted too sharing our lives and maybe even trying to one up one another using the app. 

I believe that so many people became early adopters rather than later adopters of this new technology because of how new it was having to do with the topic of social media. Back in 2010 we had only newly been introduced to twitter and Facebook. Therefore, when instagram came out it was an exciting new app that people could latch onto. Another reason why I believe so many adopted the app early on was because famous actors/actresses, athletes, and online influencers at the time jumped onto it... so we as fans wanted to see what they were up too. Also, naturally those famous people being our idols or people we looked up too we wanted to follow along with the trend of the app. If you really think about it if no famous people joined this app it probably wouldn't have grown in popularity like it has in the past decade. I believe there are many late adopters as well. However, the late adopters are more so the older group of people such as our parents or grandparents. It took them longer to join the app because when they were young they didn't have anything like it. Us however being young when it came out we quickly jumped to it for our own entertainment in a way. 

The negative effects that come with this fairly new technology app is what most people would come to think of when they think of the main negative affect social media more specifically instagram has on people that are on it. The main negative effect we can all agree is that it causes anxiety in all aspects. According to the research published by the American Psychological Association "studies have linked instagram to depression, body-image concerns, self-esteem issues, social anxiety, and many other issues that occur within our mental state of mind"(APA). These negative affects mostly will affect the younger population rather than the older population that are on the app. I believe some people don't join instagram for these reasons... it really does take a toll on peoples mental health when they start comparing themselves to instagram models/actresses. It has been proven that people that have never downloaded this app have had a better, happier, and healthier life by just not being on this. Their mental health is 10x better than someone that go on instagram constantly everyday. At some point we have to admit that the positive of this app do not outweigh the bad. Some positives of instagram include that it; improves communication with people/friends, artistic ability, find connections, and exchange information with friends and family in a very original way. However, at what cost? The cost is how suicide rates in America has been rising since the launch of this app because of how it causes people depression and social anxiety etc. We're losing kids as young as 10 years old because of what they're being exposed too. Kids are being exposed to too much being as young as they're. They're learning things that they should not know about or develop a way of thinking that they have to be the stereotype of a "pretty girl"... skinny. 

Therefore, looking at instagram through the diffusion theory of innovations I have learned the how, why, and why it was created. By looking at this app through this theory I truly believe that this is an app that should have been made better and should be censored to hopefully make young kids/teens on this app feel more confident instead of more sad or insecure. 

Eight values of free expression - Blog post

 Eight Values of Free Expression

When we went over free expression in class I found this subject most interesting. I believe freedom of expression goes along with our most simple human rights. We have learned all about freedom of speech/expression through learning about the first amendment. There have been a lot of controversy when It comes to the topic of freedom of expression because not everyone's beliefs are the same on the topic. 

As I read through the eight theories/value of free expression I resonated most with what is known as self-fulfillment. Self-fulfillment is a type of free speech that enables individuals to express themselves, create and identify, as there true self. As I was reading this value I realized that I can relate to this value within myself. Self-fulfillment is different for every individual. Self-fulfillment means to be satisfied with yourself not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well, which are just as important as being physically pleased with oneself. 

This aspect is very important to free expression because free expression has to do with individual beliefs, but also how we express those beliefs. Self-fulfillment means something different to every single person that embraces this topic. This right gives people the basic human right to be who they're and/or who they want to be. If someone is struggling with their identity this right gives them the chance to express themselves with however they deem fit.

This value is as important to free expression as it is to me. I have known many people throughout my life that were afraid to express themselves because they weren't sure if it would be "socially acceptable". They didn't realize that it was within their own rights to express themselves however they like free of the consequences that would come without this right. People want to feel like they can be themselves while also feeling like they belong. In todays world that feeling is a very hard one to grasp. As much as we try and implement the value of self-fulfillment, unless people choose to embrace it... it will never be fully in action. 

Out of all the eight values that I read up on I have came to the conclusion that self-fulfillment and promote tolerance were the most used/prevalent in todays world. Promote tolerance is when you promote the idea of free speech/expression, it is commonly used in all forms of media/news networks. This is commonly recognized because the media like to present us with ideas such as society should tolerate anything and everything. Therefore the term promotion of tolerance comes to mind. 

All in all, the eight values of free expression serve as very important values to our basic human rights. I believe everyone should learn the eight values of freedom expression and read up on them. Reading these values helped me get a better understanding of free expression within society as a whole. I also believe many people go their lives without knowing these I believe it should be required in lower levels schooling to teach.

The age of AI/15 minute city - Blog post

 Privacy & or security?

The age of AI gives us descriptions on camera and government spending having to do with building a surveillance state. There has been multiple facilities with very high surveillance for Turkish muslims obtained by the Chinese. They have been subjected to political re-education, some even have faced torture and death. People have fell victim to high surveillance especially in china. 

There are many low-level security systems all over the world especially outside of the U.S. There are 58 countries that are starting to plug in to Chinas vision of artificial intelligence.  Many people are worried the world will split in two; The United States tech sector and the Chinese tech sector. Countries then will have to choose which side they want to be on. It is worrying that they would choose the Chinese tech sector. There is a lot of American distrust in American technology. 

The Chinese believe that they're more advanced than we're. The US government fears that as Huawei supplies other countries that were falling behind. We believe we can have a backdoor opening into their supplies. However, it is not confirmed. Huawei can claim they're a private company and they don't take orders from a communist country... and maybe they aren't yet. However, the pentagon and the United States is convinced that they will adopt that mindset and way of thinking soon when it comes to private surveillance in technology. Technology has become a tool of control. 

Chinese engagement is coming into question. Technology is becoming something countries don't want to share with another. We are also questioning if China and the United States are antagonistic against each other. The world is being dominated by the Age of AI superpowers; China and The United States. 

After Thoughts

All in all, I believed the facts on what China is doing is super scary and will be very scary for our future as they continue to progress in private security. The fact that people are even considering to adopt their mindset with technology is horrifying considering the facts of how they basically have a concentration camps imprisoning a bunch if Turkish muslims and are utilizing harmful technology within these camps is for lack of better words crazy. I believe within the next few years different countries are going to take one of two sides; China's or The United States. It is up for debate which country will have the most support for their modern technology having to do with modern security... my personal hope is that we all decide to follow the lead of the United States. That being said there are Cons to both countries. We're afraid that China will eventually fully adopt the communist way of thinking. 

The government in all countries in my opinion have way to much control over their citizens private security and the way that its going I believe within the next two years the age of AI's superpowers will be dominating the world which is a scary thought. The commuting power of AI, the technological breakthrough, that gives the government the power to track our movements, our searches, even what we text. 

Blog #9 - Key concept and terms - Mainstream Media

For this EOTO I chose the topic of Mainstream media. Mainstream media can be defined as a traditional or established broadcasting or publishing outlet. Some examples of Mainstream media include; NBC, Bravo, E!, Golf channel, Syfy, or NBC sports network. Those are just a few examples of the many mainstream media's. Along with Mainstream media we also have establishment and corporate media. There are many differences between those three medias. I will be going into those differences later in the blog post. 

There are many implications when it comes to any type of media, however especially with Mainstream media a lot of implications arise. There are not only bad implications, but good implications as well. There have been major disconnects with mainstream media and their audiences. Different age groups, races, and classes will interpret mainstream media in a different way. The biggest implication is bias. Every mainstream media news source has a form of bias within the network. Depending on you demographic that will determine what news source you watch and why.

How might this affect society as a whole? This affects society as a whole with how we interact with one another. Depending on which mainstream media source you watch it will always conflict with a different media source. Therefore, this will start many arguments, riots, and many other implications come out of this in society. For example, everything that was happening in 2020 and even into the year 2021. There were riots and society could not not matter what get along due to the implication of media bias. 

How might these implications affect different segments differently - rich/poor, old/young, male/female, etc? This affects different segments of society based on values and belief. Society as viewers to mainstream media feed into the frenzy so to speak, but it really depends on your demographic how you interpret the mainstream media. Starting off with the first differential pairing of rich/poor. Rich people tend to benefit more from the mainstream media when the economy is booming because the mainstream media portrays the rich as the people who are benefiting the most. Poorer people hear from the mainstream media that when the wealthy people benefit from our American economic boom that they should go along with what the rich are doing. The news today tells poorer voters that when the rich are benefiting that means the economy is much better. Therefore, the mainstream media basically only benefits the rich rather than the poor. Now going into the difference between old/young... "Younger audiences are different from older groups not just in what they do, but in their core attitudes in term of what they want from the news. Young people are primarily driven by progress and enjoyment in their lives, and this translates into what they look for in news". While older audiences tend to go for the more traditional mainstream media that only confirm their viewpoints. Gay/Straight is the next pairing I will be depicting for how the mainstream media acts. The research that I did came to the conclusion that the mainstream media doesn't really affect the straight/gay category. I believe that they don't really target that audience as a minority. mainstream media targets society as a whole. As for majority and minority... as I said for the gay/straight they target the majority of society, not as much any sort of minority. 

As for how it might affect me or my family... I feel like any sort of news or media will affect the population as a whole including my family and I. There are always certain subjects that could implicate my families viewpoints or standing/idea of society. 

Mainstream media has many implications, however I do believe that none of them really affect me and my family.

Blog Post- Review of presentations

I learned a lot about old and modern technology not just from my group, but from others as well. I learned from my fellow group member about the first creation and events of the newspaper. I was surprised to find out that the newspaper was invented in 1604. I did not know it was created that early. I also learned that back then just like now a days the government tried to silence these newspapers because they spoke about the difficulties the government was having at the time. 

The one thing that I found most interesting from another group was group 1. The one guy chose to do YouTube. I was shocked to find out that originally before it became what it is today it could've possibly been a dating app. 

Another thing I found interesting was from group 3 when Alayna presented about the radio. I didn't know the radio was made as early as the 1850's. I believed that the radio came to be in the early 1900's. Radios apparently seemed useless when they were first invented, then not even a few years later radio's started to boom and become very popular. Another fact that I found interesting also came from group 3. The VCR cost $50,000 in the 1950's. Only the rich could buy a VCR then. 

The next piece of information I found interesting came from group 4 about google. I learned that google plays a bigger part in our life than I have previously thought. The google effect has been linked to cause "amnesia" we don't take in information the same way we would before google was created. Netflix was another technology I was surprised by. I am a Netflix fan, I watch it all the time. I didn't realize that Netflix was subscription based by using DVD's. I have just always believed it was an app and also it was more modern and more new than it actually was. 

I am glad I learned more about not only these specific technologies, but all technologies that were presented about. I have always been interested in the history of inventions. So this project/presentation was right up my alley!

 

Motion picture invention - Blog Post #4

 

History: Who Invented the motion picture film? What were the circumstances? What problem were they trying to solve with their invention?

Most people had believed that Thomas Edison created the first motion picture film due to his invention of the kinetoscope in 1891. However, the real inventor of the motion picture film was a French artist named Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince. He was the first inventor of the motion picture camera. He was the first person to ever use a single lens camera to shoot a moving picture of 2.11 seconds. The first motion picture shot was the Rhoudhay Garden scene shot in 1888. Louis Le Prince impressed everyone with a remarkable display of four people walking in a garden. It was a cinematic masterpiece. 

The circumstances behind the invention of the motion picture movie were actually very simple. Louis believed that people would get bored of just watching casual and easy scenes to observe, that led to him claiming that the cinema was an "invention without a future (Menand, 2005). Soon after that statement, the cinema industry was in high demand from the people causing the Louis Le Prince company to travel all around Europe showing a half hour motion picture. After that, the cinema started to trump other competing entertainment shows. 6.1 The History of Movies – COM_101_01_TestBookhttps://opentext.wsu.edu › com101 › chapter › 8-2-the-his...

I don't think there was necessarily a problem that was solved by creating the motion picture. I believe that Louis Le Prince just wanted to invent something aka the cinema that was more interesting to watch than just a motion picture or a 2.11 second motion picture video. He slowly paved the way for cinemas to boom into popularity within citizens lives.

Impact: How did the invention change our world? How did it change communication? Did it have any negative effects?

The motion picture film gave people a reason to travel throughout the world to experience all emotions such as; Love, tragedy, and any other emotion you can name. Just by being able to go and watch these films it became the most loved and biggest form of entertainment around the world. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pickford-early-history-motion-pictures/

Motions pictures really paved the way for communication among the different classes, religions, and races. The development of the motion picture film went global. Everyone of all different backgrounds came to watch these films. Back when this was happening there was a ton of segregation among all aspects of life. Going to see these motion picture films where there was no rules on where people could and couldn't sit distracted the social norm to ignore someone of a different classier race. https://www.wondriumdaily.com/the-impact-of-motion-pictures-on-society/

From all the websites I looked through I couldn't find any negative effects that the motion picture film had. From what I gathered the motion picture films paved the way for people to have a distraction from their everyday lives and everyone no matter their race or class was treated equally. I believe this invention was one of the best during the time it came to be. It came at a time of major segregation and I truly believe the motion picture paved the way for segregation to start unravelling as it has in the last 50 years.