EOTO #2

Mainstream Media 

For the second presentation term part, my group was labeled as the mediasphere. Each of us focused on the different types of media which included whistleblowers, alternative media and mainstream media. Out of all the terms we each researched, I found mainstream media to be the most interesting term that stood out to me the most.

Mainstream media is used everyday in society. Mainstream media delivers news and information that grabs most people's attention. This is more of the larger platforms of medias like ABC, CNN, NBC, Fox News, etc. Popular networks like these are where people can find their local and latest news updates on what is happening in the world. Majority of individuals use mainstream media for any news and information these days. Mainstream media today continues to improve. Over the years, in order for people to access mainstream media, people had to get news from local newspapers, magazines and even the radio. With the advance in technology and how convenient it is today, it is very easy to access mainstream media. People can access mainstream media through social media platforms, AM and FM radio stations, podcasts, etc.

I also researched alternative media. When I was researching alternative media, Mainstream media and alternative media happened to be very similar to each other. The only difference is, mainstream media is much more worldwide and broad. It's news for the general public to see. Alternative media is more of “non-commercial” projects that advocate the interests of people that are excluded from mainstream media. Both of these terms do some hand in hand with each other.

Today in society, if we did not have any way to mainstream media, our world would look very different than it does now. Over time, the number of media outlets has increased greatly. Technology has improved significantly over the years and has allowed us as humans become easier to access mainstream media platforms through our devices. Mainstream media is one of the most important media-spheres that we have great access to and the largest form of communication we have. Moving forward into the future I can only see the number of mainstream media expanding to bigger than it is now.

Final Blog Post

My Relationship With Technology 

Technology these days definitely comes with their pros and cons. Technology is always new and improving and growing very rapidly each and everyday. Our world is becoming to revolve around technology more than anything else. With how advanced technology really is, I can see it get to the point where people aren't going to need their cell phones or electronics for things, it's just going to become known.

Technology has become part of our everyday lives. Everything that people do nowadays has some sort of technology that is involved. It is a fast tool people use to communicate with each other, people do business, it can be convenient at times. Picture this, have you seen someone handwrite a letter and send it in the mail to communicate with another person? The answer is, probably not. My mom once told me back in her years when she was a young girl she said, “I used to write letters to my friends to talk to them. We didn't have the technology you kids have now. The only telephone around my time was the one wired to the wall and you had to spin the dial to dial the phone number.” Today, it's very likely you don't see this type of communication around you. You look around and just see everyone's face in their phones.

Social media has its pros and cons. I got my first phone when I was in 6th grade. During that time in my life was when I got wrapped right into social media. I downloaded Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, all of the social media platforms that were very common. It was something completely new to me. Even just having my phone in general. Sending text messages, posting on platforms and talking to my friends over social media platforms that I wasn't familiar with was like a whole new world that I didn't know existed. I can say since then when I got my first ever phone, I always needed my phone. I'm drawn to it and it's a bad habit that I wish I didn't have. My phone is like my life. It has everything on it and it's my only way that I can communicate with my family and friends. I do feel that this has that negative aspect to it. People have become so attached to their phones and other technology that it has almost disrupted how a human being is supposed to function in the real world. Most conversations are through social media platforms, texting, emails. It’s almost harder for people to have normal face to face conversations these days.

As I got older, I noticed that the use of social media has changed overtime. In high school, I was bullied in person and cyberbullied
over social media. Social media is not always as bright as it may seem. People in the world take advantage of social media and abuse it in terrible ways. I remember being embarrassed for the hurtful words and knowing what people were saying about me over social media was so cruel. Even today when I scroll through social media platforms, most teens and young adults are subjected to peer pressure, body images, not taking care of themselves and their health. It is very easy to become influenced by others and the content that is seen on your feed. Majority of teens this has caused them to be depressed and even leading to suicide. Social media can really have a negative effect on someone's life.

Part of the problem with social media is the decrease in personal privacy on the internet. The internet is not always a safe place and people don't realize that enough. I think it is safe to say that people get a little too comfortable on the internet at times. I personally sometimes don't catch things before I post. I was always told by my parents, “Once you post that picture, it's always out there and you can't get it back.” When I look myself up on the internet, all my information is there. My user names to my social media platforms, my pages come right up and the pictures I posted on my profiles, my address to my house. The internet can be a scary place. You really aren't protected and people can easily get ahold of your personal information when you don't even know it. People should be much more cautious of what they post and what apps they are giving their personal information to.

Overall, I do think technology has improved significantly. Technology has helped us as humans to communicate and interact with each other in many different ways. Technology does come with their pros and cons. People abuse the way they use technology at times. I think people need to realize how to appropriately use technology and social media platforms the right way. I hope moving forward in the future that there will be better advantages of technology than most of the down sides that come with it. We don't live in a perfect world, but if society can make positive changes when it comes to the use of technology and social media, there can be areas of improvement.

Blog Post #8 - Antiwar

After watching the video in class, it was really impactful to see the effects of war. This video was really hard to watch and even had me looking away from the screen a couple times. This video was not only tragic to see innocent people's lives being lost so fast, but it was also very gory to watch. Before I say anything else, I do want to mention that I am not the type of person to involve myself in learning about war. Some might ask themselves, why is this? It is because I find that war is a sad and tragic topic. It's hard not to hear about war that goes on in our world today. I wish our world can be at peace one day. At the same time, I do find war to be a topic that can bring interest to many people, especially with war that happens today all over the world. Watching this video during class was very eye opening to me and made me realize that I should involve my learning more in war that takes place in our world.

After looking through the antiwar.com website and reading through different articles, this was probably the most informed I have been on war related content that I have seen in a lifetime. I found this website to be a little overwhelming to look at just because there are links to click on for everything. There are articles on everything with the latest news, highlights, breaking news and viewpoints. Just like the video we watched in class, there were things on the website that I did not want to see. This antiwar website is not popular, due to content like this that is posted. I personally didn't even know a website like this existed. I do believe that learning about war around the world can be informative for others and help keep people up to date on what is happening around us when we might not even know.

Blog Post #10 - EOTO Presentation

After looking at all of the presentations, one that sparked my interest the most was the presentation on facial pasting. I believe a couple students in class touched upon this in class. I find that this is something common that people use in society to make fun of others or even for comedy purposes. People use these face pastings on other influencers, famous people or even your friends. It can be on anyone saying anything. One video that a presenter showed in class on their youtube channel, her boyfriend made a video and pasted Nido’s face on the character. They made it so that his eyes were blinking and lips were moving and had a recording so that he could say anything. It is really interesting to see how other people use technology and the tools to put this kind of content on social media. Technology continues to grow rapidly and will only improve from here. Even in movies, facial pasting is something that occurs when we as watchers might not even know it. In some movies producers will take pastings of actors or actresses face and body without even having them in the film. In the future, I believe that facial pastings will become more common in society. 

Blog Post #7 - EOTO Technology

One of the EOTO technology presentations that I found to be the most interesting was learning about the typewriter. The typewriter was completed in September of 1876. The first typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes. The first commercial model was produced in 1873 and was mounted on a sewing machine stand. On all typewriters, the printing was done through inked ribbon, which was fitted on spools and travels with the operation of the machine and reverses automatically when one spool becomes completely unwounded. Once the typewriter was invented, it started off as a better improvement in the direction of communication. People did not have phones to connect with each other like we do today, but people were able to print things on paper instead of writing. The first typewriter was very beneficial at the time, but there were some downsides to it. There was no backspace button on the typewriter so if there were mistakes that were made, you were not able to go back and change them. A benefit of not being able to go back and change your mistakes, gave people the advantage to think harder and improve the quality of their writing. The first typewriter had no shift-key mechanism, it wrote in all capital letters only. The problem with printing both capital and smaller letters without increasing the number of keys was solved by placing two types, a capital and lowercase of the same letter on each bar, in combination with a cylinder-shifting mechanism. The typewriter was closely aligned with the invention of the telephone in the later years. With the invention of the typewriter and the telephone, this started to spark more people's interest. Technology is still growing very rapidly today. Communication between people is always improving and still growing today. Typewriters are still a common tool that people use for communication.

Blog Post #6 - Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of Innovations theory is the rate of new ideas and technology that is being spread all over. It is the process by which an innovation is being communicated overtime in society. One social media platform that fits the Diffusion of Innovations theory is Instagram. Instagram is one of the most used apps today in society of people from all different age groups. Instagram became more and more popular as years have gone on. There are new features and benefits that have been added to instagram over the years that draw attention to users. Today instagram is still improving and continuously growing. 

Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger. They created a prototype app that was called Burbn, which allowed people to check-in where they were on the app. Instagram fully launched on October 6, 2010 and they had instant growth. The app had roughly about 100,000 users in just one week and then 1 million in two months. Instagram was growing very rapidly. Facebook decided to buy Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. There are about 600 million active users on Instagram and this number will only continue to grow in coming years. Instagram is a social media platform that allows users to create a profile about themselves and post any content they would like others to see. People can post pictures, videos and interact with others on their pages. This app is always allowing the flow of communication channels between people. Today, you can even shop on instagram, look at reels, there are so many different little features that Instagram has added that users did not have before. 

Since technology is growing very rapidly these days, there are pros and cons of using social media and staying away from it. Since most age groups are always on their phones on different social media platforms, you can stay up to date with the latest news, communicate with people and share your own content. Social media can easily influence others and it can put a negative effect on an individual. I believe that there should be a certain time span that people use social media. I do not think it is the healthiest for us as humans. These bigger media platforms can be full of hate and negativity which is not the best to read into. I find that I benefit from not spending so much time on these platforms because it's not good for my mental health. People might also choose to stay away from social media for privacy and safety reasons. The less you post and give out your information on the internet, the more people will not know about you.

Blog Post #5 - Privacy

Privacy today in this day and age is not recognized enough. Especially for people my age, this should be brought to attention more in society. Privacy on social media needs to be taken much more seriously than it has been. Social media and technology improve more and more everyday, but it is also something as individuals that we should become more aware of and what we are putting on the internet for anyone to see, not just our friends and family but strangers. After watching these TED talk videos, it is pretty evident that we as humans think when our social media pages are “private” are really not. They are open for the public, the government and for really anyone to access and that couldn't be more scary. 

One TED talk that really grabbed my attention the most was Darieth Chisolm story and the digital harassment she faced from her ex husband. She opened up about how her naked pictures were leaked on a website that was created and shared from her ex husband. She could not believe what she heard and found out that the world could see these pictures. There was not much action she could take but get the government involved in this situation and have an investigation done. She hated that she had to go about everyday knowing her pictures are out there for the public to see. Darieth did everything she could to try and put an end to this. Darieth heard back from the government and was told that the pictures and website were removed and that her ex husband was arrested. 

Darieth’s TED talk really touched me because she let her voice become heard and that is how she got justice. This can be a really sensitive and hard topic to talk about to the public but Darieth was very open about this traumatic situation. She created a non-profit called, “50 Shades of Justice.” This focused on her own experience that she went through but allowed for similar victims to share their stories as well to raise awareness. 

It is important that society becomes more aware of these issues that take place over social media platforms. It can be very easy for people to misuse social media. Before you click that share button, you need to consider if you are willing to be ok with other people seeing that content, how this can affect you and if you are making the right decision. People do not take in those factors before sharing a picture or writing a comment. Social media tracks everything people put out. The government has access to track our information and the access to our personal life. After having experience with these social media apps and how they are used, I am very careful with what I choose to post and the information I give to people. These apps are improving more and more everyday to be better and protect our “privacy.” Once you hit that share button, it's out there forever.