The Progressive Era

    I feel that we live in a time where censorship is very big noone wants to ever have anything bad said about them or opinions. It is if we live in a country where they want people to see, hear, and read what they want us to. The opposite opinion isn't going to be just in front of us, we will need to dig for it because they want to hide it from society. As a country we also have problems like how we send Billions of dollars have gone to Ukraine over just a couple years. Billions more to both Israel and Palestine. The government loves war due to its profitability yet barely any mainstream news sources will ever mention this. Thankfully, there are independent voices in the media who address critical problems such as America's money-fueled bloodlust. Then on the flip side we look at how much people have received from recent hurricane relief.

    Antiwar.com is officially a self-described libertarian and non-interventionist website read by antiwar people all over the political spectrum. Antiwar.com covers a broad variety of topics, such as the conflict/funding in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, new developments on American soil, and more. The writers for Antiwar have all sorts of differing political viewpoints. Readers of the site may find a pro-Palestinian article right above a pro-Israel article. This is a great way to be able see others perspectives and news and ideas but the sad thing is that it isn't just a main source that pop's up. 

    Another website known as The American Conservative offers a conservative voice that sounds quite different from your average modern day "conservative". The website was started in 2002 with the aim of combating the widespread support for invasion of the middle east. While the word conservative is in the sight's name, its self-declared views sound more libertarian than anything.  

    After reading both the news sources, I have concluded that Antiwar.com and The American Conservative are both excellent sites to read the truth behind the American military industrial complex, freedom of speech, and more, regardless of political affiliation. All while knowing you are reading the truth, and have the full truth. Not some half truth mainstream article. 

My Relationship With Technology

    I think my Connection with technology can be seen as healthy and not so healthy depending the perspective you take on it. I use many aspects of technology as a student and for my job. Like anyone in my generation I am somewhat addicted to my phone compared to older generations. But, I think the difference with me is that I am not addicted to scrolling or simply being on my phone. I am truly addicted to just having it with me, my phone is like my safety blanket. When I don't have it around me it feels weird and a sense of being lost. I am on my phone more than I would like to admit. But I think the time in which I live is to blame more than anything. I have grown up around technology and do not remember a time when anything was any different. 

    As early as elementary school I remember utilizing iPads and computers to help learn letters, shapes, and how to type. I am very exposed to the world online, and I think that is affected by my digital footprint greatly. I look now at how technology is being used in schools and jobs and it has only evolved and continues to get bigger. I have a little cousin who is 7 years old and to see how he has already started to grow his digital footprint at that age and comparing it to mine at 20 years old is crazy. But I do believe that is to fault society and our overall relationship with technology and our usage and advancements as a whole. 

    Society has a unique relationship with technology, and this is because society continues to rise the demand for technology and the advancements of it. In class we took time to look at the timeline of technology and how it has advanced over all the years and how things have evolved from one another. Society continues to go on that track as they are needy of the newest and fastest technology. But as we get into recent times technology has become somewhat of a danger and a blessing at the same time. The privacy of users information has become a problem on the horizon recently. This becomes a problem for individuals, families, and organizations. Technology has also become relied on to much by society. For example, last January I had family coming to visit me from home, but their plans took a halt as Microsoft crashed due to an update and it effected airlines and big companies and they were not able to use their Microsoft based applications. Many were out of work for hours as they work for company's that relay on Microsoft Teams and the other sub applications to run their company and have employees working remotely and now have no way to work as they relay on the technology allowing them to work remotely to much. 

Then when you look at my personal connection with technology I have a love hate relationship with technology. I wish I wasn't as connected to my phone and computer but due to the job field of sport I work in I am forced to use it more than I would like. I am using technology as a tool to be able to get prepared
for upcoming games or practices. In my field we use it to watch film and gain information about opponents in order to get prepared and get our team ready to reach our full potential for the upcoming game. Then on the flip side I am a college student who like any other has their phone on them 24/7 but this is more due to having to be able to answer texts and phone calls about work at many hours during the day. When it comes to my personal use of technology I believe that it it social media that is the problem. If you look at my screen time my top three applications being used and taking my screen time is all social media platforms. This is the problem with myself and others as I have had social media since I was about 11 years old, so I don't know any other way the past 9 plus years. Then you look in other countries and there has been recent restriction put in place for kids to have social media and not allowing it till you are 16 and 18 years old. I feel like that would be beneficial for so many, and would help many problems with development, social skills, and addictiveness to social media. 

If I could grow up in the 1980's and in a society where technology wasn't the center of it all, I would in a heartbeat. I feel like I would love this because I know I am on my phone more than I should be and I wish that I wasn't. There are days where I want to just turn my phone off so I can't talk or connect with anyone for a few hours. I think I would be more productive if I grew up in the olden days, and wouldn't have the procrastination problems that I do. I also believe that I would be more confident if it wasn't for today's society and social media. My relationship with technology truly mirrors society's to a certain extent, as I continue to juggle with the benefits and pros of the use of technology in today's day and age, and how it will ultimately effect us as a whole in the future. 

EOTO React 2

                                       

    I wasn't able to truly be able to be at the presentations live due to being on the road with the basketball team but I made sure to take some time and study some of the topics presented and also talk to some classmates to hear what stuck out to them the most from their own presentations and discoveries and also others as well.

The first term mentioned was the Illusory Truth Effect. This effect occurs when those around you repeat lies to you over and over again--presenting them as the undeniable truth. We tend to believe these lies as indisputable facts as we continue to hear about them-even if we were confident in their falsehood beforehand.

Another term we discussed was the Spiral of Silence. The spiral of silence is the human tendency to not speak out about controversial issues, especially when a person understands that they are in the minority opinion concerning that specific issue. People would rather not let their voice be heard instead of being attacked and/or humiliated by those with different views.

The final term we discussed was the Overton Window. This specifically refers to politics. Political candidates are limited by the public’s opinions as to what they can promote in their campaigns. At the end of the day, they need votes. If they try to pursue a campaign that goes against what the public believes, they will not get enough votes to stand a chance in the election. As a result, it only makes sense for them to discuss and promote opinions that are accepted by the general population—even if that means straying away from their true morals and beliefs.

These terms and concepts discussed made me realize how so many of the things I believe to be true aren't. Individually, we interpret data from a biased perspective based on what we want to be true. But the way we interpret data is also heavily impacted by the thoughts and opinions of those around us.

EOTO 2: Confirmation Bias

    We may all hear the words conformation bias and think we know what it is to a specific extent. But at the same time we may not think it but we all have bias inside our heads and use it more than you believe. We all are equipped with confirmation bias and that is "the tendency of people to favor information that confirms or strengthens their beliefs or values and is difficult to dislodge once affirmed." 

    You may ask why does my brain default to confirmation bias? That is because it's actually a shortcut for your brain. To look at new information and or facts takes a lot of energy from yourself so we use confirmation bias to just gain the info needed to solidify our beliefs or views. It also makes us feel good as we are getting our opinions and viewpoints confirmed making us feel completed and right. And who doesn't want to be right. 

    Confirmation bias can happen at both the individual level and the group level as well. At the individual level you can run into the bias with politics and health and wellness. At the group level you run into the bias with corporate decision making and even sports fanbases. But there is problems with holding these biases too. At the individual level there is the problem that with this bias you are not able to fully gain all the information at hand because with confirmation bias doing it's job we could be looking right passed pivotal information about that topic. 

    A recent time we saw in society the application of confirmation bias in play was about 4 years ago during the Covid-19 Pandemic. We had people on both sides supporting getting the shot and not supporting getting the shot. We see the confirmation bias come into play when it comes to doing research or talking about getting the vaccine. People who are pro-vaccine would be only reading and obtaining information that helps support their view to get the vaccine. Then on the flip everyone who was against getting the shot or hesitant to get it would be only taking in the info to confirm their beliefs that they shouldn't get the shot because it is to new or other reason. We also saw lots of confirmation in the recent 2024 presidential election. We see it on both sides of the aisle and also at the group, state, and individual level as well. 

    Another example of seeing conformation bias is when you think about the news source you look at daily for your source of news. You are reading that specific news outlet because you know they will align with your own ideas, and help you confirm your thoughts about a policy, president, or news story. You also see this with TiK Tok as you look your algorithm. You may think videos just pop up on your "For You" page but the type of videos that pop up there are actually because of the past videos you like or comment on or even reshare. This is where Tik Tok is feeding into your bias of videos and helps you get to see what you want to see and help the company as you are returning and using their platform. 

EOTO React 1

 

    While watching the first round of EOTO presentation I learned about many different types of technology and the times of the inventions and how they changed the history of todays society. I also feel these presentations were very important as we are college aged kids who may not even think about what life used to be like or how things have evolved from when they were invented to what they are now. 

One of the big things I learned about was the printing press. This was a ground breaking invention as it gave people the chance to print their own thoughts and opinions. This made it possible to share their thoughts and opinions with others, but also made it possible for us to have records of things from all the way back in history. This would then lead to the creation of the newspaper as well.

We also got to learn about the creation of instant messaging, we learned about the pros like being able to be in contact with many from around the world with this creation but also the negatives of personal connections with this creations. I personally love this creation as it has made life so easy to communicate, instead of having to send an email or another source of communication you can't send that instant message and get an instant reply from those you are communicating with. 

The third and final source of technology that stood out to me was the invention of the World Wide Web. Because I mean, think about what the world would look like if the World Wide Web didn't exist. This creation would change the world of using the internet and web for people to share and communicate information to one another. I learned that the WWW was originally created in order for scientist professors to exchange their finding about a topic they both were researching deeper. 

In conclusion I learned a lot about the evolution of the technology that I use today on a daily basis and the original problems it solved back then and how it continues to grow or how it still has an effect on society all these years later. 

Age of AI

 

    If you asked me at the beginning of my senior year of college what type of technology is taking over in the next 3 years and what I thought about it, AI would not be anywhere close to my answer. That could be because I was not educated on it or that I was raised in private school so having someone else do my work was never even a thought. During my middle school days I had computer class too where we went to the computer lab on campus in order to even access the internet, not even thinking about the use of AI. This was the same thing in high school except we had our own computers but property of the school. So to think the advancement of technology in the past 5 years is truly insane for my 20 year old self. 

    

    Here I am in college and the world has been introduced to the not so lovely world of artificial intelligence which can do the work for you and so much more. In today's day and age, all you have to do is type in what you want it to do and within 15 seconds you can have whatever you want. It is crazy to see that technology has evolved to this point and that we are now advancing to where artificial intelligence can do people's jobs for them. And companies have realized this and have even laid people off and fired them because they can save money just by having AI do the job of many instead of paying many. Personally I am not stressed as I want to work in the sport world and what I want to do can't be taken by AI. But for others this is not a good thing at all. The rise of AI has truly affected them and will continue to as AI is only getting stronger by the day. AI, while it does have its benefits, could lead to a downfall of society in my opinion. 

    

    A downfall to AI is that it 100% makes us humans lazier. I'm sure that most college students can relate when they say they know someone who has used AI or Chat GPT.  AI does makes everything so easy and so convenient that it can take away from a human being's want to actually do their own work which is very dangerous. Humans need the want to do their work and take pride in their work or they will get no where in life. As we have discussed in class this half a semester there is student using AI to write a 300 word blog post which just blows my freaking mind. What pure laziness. The longer that us as society allow AI to do our work the quicker it will take over more then we want it to or the two expect it to. Then we will be in a world of just AI doing many different jobs and tasks. 

Online Privacy

    The line of privacy and convenience has really started to dwindle when you think about online privacy and its convenience. There are many issues that stem from online privacy and they affect all people of all ages. They affect me personally as I have so much private information within my many accounts online and things like my gmail are accessed online so if my privacy isn't as great as I may believe it is then things like my email or social media accounts are so easy to get into and possibly steal information and maybe even my identity. Identity theft is not only a threat to individuals but can also affect a family’s security as well.  This makes it even more important to have strong privacy guidelines in place as a family and individuals.

    The biggest thing that stuck with me when watching those videos was the idea of digital tattoos. And that tattoo are permanent. I think this sits with me as we hear so much about all of our digital footprints in todays day in age and how important it is to have a clear record to get a job and get into school. So to hear it in the way of digital tattoos really changed my thoughts about it, because it is so true that whatever you like, post, comment, or share is all accessible by many people and can be seen by people so it is important to thing to yourself. If you wouldn't walk around with it on your body as a comment or post then don't do it. 

I fear that the government can't do much here as it also assist them in ways we may not even know. When it comes to police or FBI investigations online profiles and activity is used to help the authorities. So, why would they be trying to penalties themselves possibly in the future. I think that one thing they could do though is not allow company's to track us because that it the reason we see so many targeted ads on our phones, computers, and even within our apps when we are using them. It all comes back to the privacy we lack online.

There is a few things we can do to help ourselves when it comes to online privacy. The main thing we can do to help ourselves is set strong passwords for our accounts. But also use multiple different passwords for your accounts. Because I know many people who have the same passwords for all there accounts and that is a big problem. Another thing we should do as online users it to always set up two-way authenticator. This helps you keep your information extra safe with an extra layer of protection if someone were to get in. But at the end of the day remember to have different passwords and if you wouldn't show Nido your post or comment then don't post it.