My Relationship with Technology

 

My Relationship with Technology - Final Blog Post

 After the thought-provoking questions raised by the contents of this course, I’d like to reflect on technology today and its relationship with myself, society, and my friends, and my online presence. My relationship with technology has gone back and forth between healthy and unhealthy. I currently average a daily screentime of five hours and forty minutes on my phone on days that I am busy, but that screentime jumps up to eight hours on days in which I have less going on. This number is much higher than I expected it to be. I consider myself to not be on my phone very much during the day, and I am working on staying off of my phone when I am with people. I mostly use social media to consume funny photos and videos, and to share them with my friends. 

My top three most used apps on my phone are Instagram, messages, and Snapchat. I consider, at least messages and snapchat, to be communication-based platforms and less on endless consuming. Instagram is where I go to scroll. This is where I spend a lot of my screentime hours. While around two hours of Instagram a day is not great, that number has significantly decreased since the pandemic. Like many, during this time I would spend 8-10 hours a day in front of a screen, whether that was for online school, homework, or scrolling on Tik Tok. 

I have realized that I am addicted to my phone. This might not sound like a ‘real addiction’ but studies show that more and more people have come to admit their phone and social media addictions. I was curious on the way the brain works with this kind of addiction so I discovered Dr. Anna Lembke, the author of the novel Dopamine Nation. Lembke has discovered that behavioral addiction, as opposed to substance, has skyrocketed in the last few years. She stated “with cocaine you run out of money, but Tik Tok is indefatigable”. In the article Constant Craving: How Digital Media turned us all into Dopamine Addicts, Lembke explains that when we are on social media and see a post or something that we like, we get a hit of dopamine. Dopamine is the ‘feel good’ hormone that releases a feeling of satisfaction and happiness. After the hit of dopamine, the brain enters the ‘come down’ period. Here, the brain craves another dopamine hit, and the less addicted one is the weaker the urge. If the craving is given into, then the brain will be looking out for that next hit and will try to reach that high. When something like this becomes a behavior, the brain slowly lowers and lowers its threshold for dopamine. This is why anxiety and depression is at an all-time high, even though we have endless happiness and satisfaction at our fingertips.  

I used Tik Tok up until December of 2022. I realized how much time I would spend on it and how much it controlled my brain. I would think about it when I wasn’t on it, I would be with friends or family and wanting to go on Tik Tok instead; it had totally taken over my mental life. So around this time I decided to delete Tik Tok. Since then I have been using Instagram more and scrolling their short form video section, but it is less gratifying. In my opinion the algorithm is not as accurate and addictive as Tik Tok is, which has helped me cut back my time significantly. 

I believe that society has a much different relationship with technology and social media as I do. One of the videos that we watched as a class was the Mad World Video. It is clear to see how everyone in the video is glued to their phones, not aware of the world around them. When walking around, I always see someone my age without a device on them. Even though our generation consumes media the most and has the worst technology addictions, in my opinion we get a bad rap. We have been fed technology from a very early age. 

I think that technology addictions are breaking apart our society in a way. I often see parents with young children, and they are both on devices. Parents today often use technology as a stand in babysitter. People also prefer to use technology than interacting with
other people. For example, in fast food restaurants, there are self service cashier screens, and people would much rather use these than talk to the cashier. Sometimes this can be more convenient, but no one every says hello to strangers anymore. 
Technology and social media has also affected my relationships with others. There are positives and negatives that come from this. Technology has been useful in the aspect that I can stay in contact with friends that I do not see everyday. This helps me create a sense of community and connection on social media. However, I find myself spending time scrolling on social media and mindlessly going on my phone when hanging out with people in person. I also sometimes will be with people and feel the need to get away and go spend time alone on my phone. I am trying to grow away from this addiction and find natural dopamine outside of technology. 

As far as my online footprint, I am private on all social media except for LinkedIn. When I am looked up, my LinkedIn posts and photos come up. My Instagram profile is also linked, but since I am a private account, nothing I shared with the public. I have been on the internet since 2016, but I have not left much of a digital footprint besides recent LinkedIn activity. 

I hope that this class and self-analysis will help me to grow away from addictive behaviors with technology and move into using it in a healthier way. 

In the Age of AI

After watching the video (In the Age of AI) I cannot help but feel terrified of the possible future. Many of the ideas and topics discussed in this video remind me of the show 'Black Mirror'. Each episode of this show presents a different future where technology rules over humans and controls their lives, and some of the technologies don't seem too far off from reality and what this video presents. 

 

One of the obvious cons to the technology presented in this video is that there is no privacy. People are essentially giving their rights and privacy away to the government and technology companies in exchange for the use of technology, apps, etc. 

 

However, there could be some pros to all of this. Technology and AI such as the kind explained in the video could help keep the general public safe from threats and attacks. But again, that is only possible at the expense of everyone's right to privacy. 

 

I was recently traveling by plane to go to the island of Aruba, and through security and TSA they were implementing all kinds of new technology that was terrifying me. 

 

To first get through the TSA checkpoint, rather than an agent looking at my passport and then my face; there was an iPad-looking device that would scan your face (like shown in the video)(TSA Face ID). I decided to opt out of this. They do not tell you that you can choose to not get your face scanned, so most people walk up and get their face scanned just as the person before did. This is the part that terrified me the most, that no one was saying anything, no one was questioning what it was or why it was implemented. (TSA now wants to scan your face at security. Here are your rights.)

 

Then again when boarding the plane instead of scanning my boarding pass there was the iPad again.  People would walk up to the screen, get their face scanned, and the screen would say "Welcome, seat 13F!". What??

 

 

This technology and AI could recognize faces and connect it to what seat you had reserved on the plane. Again I opted out of this and instead scanned my boarding pass. which took the exact same amount of time as the face-id. No one questioned what was going on or how it was working. 

 

 

In my opinion, it is a complete lie that technology like this is 'more convenient' or 'quicker for the customer'. That is just how they are choosing to market it. This technology enables companies to cut 

costs on employee wages by not needing as many attendants, and for these companies and the government to collect face-id data and use it to better track everyone even outside of airports (ie. cctv cameras). 

 

#7 Privacy, Online & Off

 These issues are concerning for me because I share so much of my life on the internet and my social media accounts. I have had internet access since I was around 10 years old, and I have had social media access since I was 11. It is terrifying to think that anything I have posted, liked, commented on, watched, or searched is in a data base right now being collected. 

This means somewhere there is years of data on me and my friends and family somewhere. The third Ted Talk speaker explained that many companies such as Apple and Android have installed anti-surveillance software into their devices to prevent the government or hackers from obtaining information. This is hard for me to believe because the phone companies, such as Verizon have access to all of my texts and phone calls.

It would not surprise me if the government had some access to these texts and calls. Having access to this information and data is a complete and unconstitutional overreach by the government. 

There should be laws put in place to protect consumers. As the fourth Ted Talk speaker implied through her story, the internet has been around for years and is rapidly advancing. There should be international internet laws put in place to protect victims like the speaker from digital harassment. 

The Ted Talk that scared me the most was the talk about the automatic license plate reader. It is terrifying to know that local and federal police have access to a database with all of my previous whereabouts. They can use this information to understand where I work, what places I frequent, if I go to Church, etc.

A simple step we can take to protect ourselves from incidents like this is ensuring we are not giving the government more information than necessary. AI and technology has advanced so far and is in every aspect of our lives. While it may be tempting, it is imperative that we do not post so much of our information and lived online to protect ourselves and our loved ones. 

Anti War Voices

 Prior to this course, I was unaware of AntiWar.com and the fight against war. Being a consumer of mainstream media I have not been exposed to the voices advocating for this. 

I believe the reason that we do not hear these anti war voices in mainstream media is due to politics and news sources being controlled/censored. Wars, as awful as they are win countries power and control. The idea of going to war as a country or individual is viewed as brave and patriotic. Most of the United States' citizens are so unfamiliar with the idea of antiwar that they do not even see it as a plausible option. 

The Anti War website definitely gives me a whole new perspective on the United States going to war. Articles that stick out to me most on the website are the "Conflict of Interest" ones. These ones point out corruption within America's government and political or war scandals. 

These articles criticize the government, but not how you would think. In todays political climate, many criticize their opposing political party not the government in total. This website is comfortable criticizing the government from 'both sides'. This is the right and duty that all American citizens have. 

I find it very smart and good for their cause that they have hundreds of authors writing articles and have news blogs and articles every day. This shows their persistence with the issue and shows that it is relevant and there are many events taking place. 

I think that finding these voices and websites are difficult because of censoring. Sites like Google are paid off by the government or politicians to censor any anti war publications. I believe this is done because anti war does not align with their campaigns and their own personal goals. 

EOTO - News Deserts

 News deserts are geographical areas with little to no local and comprehensive news. These areas lack daily or weekly newspapers. These areas exists because newspaper companies in the US are disappearing at a steady rate. 

Newspaper companies are being bought out and run by hedge funds and private equity funds. These owners are using aggressive cost-cutting tactics. These strategies are decreasing the quality and quantity of local newspapers. 

There are many negative effects that follow these news deserts. There is a strong correlation between news deserts and populations below the poverty line. Since companies are producing less quality and quantity newspapers, less people want to subscribe to a newspaper or buy one. While some of these newspaper companies do go digital, not everyone has access to the digital news. Impoverished people and areas do not have unlimited or reliable internet access. 

This means that people in these news deserts are going without correct and current information. Every citizen of the United States has a right and duty to make informed decisions. While local newspapers are disappearing, voting numbers have been decreasing in those impoverished areas. When citizens aren't informed of news, it is easier for corruption in businesses and the government. It is easier for misinformation to spread, especially on social media where information could be false and biased.

Without local newspapers we loose the idea of grass-root democracy. This is the idea of decentralizing the power of the government and giving power back to the people. But people cannot have the power to make decisions when they are uninformed. 

At this rate, two newspaper companies a week disappear. It is a supply and demand issue, less people are using newspapers because there are less being produced. This results in entire geographical areas without local and comprehensive news. 

While many feel this issue does not impact them, it does, even if you have access to a local newspaper, the internet, or any other local and comprehensive news. When we have a large population of the United States that is uninformed and unaware of political, health, and local news, we lose an entire demographic of voters.

There is hope however! Many philanthropists, journalists, and activists are bringing attention to this problem through speeches and articles. 

EOTO - Technology and What I Learned

While listening to my peers present their technology topic, I learned about the origin and impact of different communication technologies. It was interesting to see how technology has changed and how quickly, even in the past fifty years, we have advanced with our technology. 

I learned that emoji is an actual Japanese word and not some made-up word and that the emoji keyboard was not introduced until 2011 and 2013 which I had thought was introduced much earlier in the 2000's. The vinyl record that is used today was invented in the 1930's and again I had believed this model to have been invented much earlier than the 1930's. I had also believed the World Wide Web was invented much sooner than 1994 which is only thirty years ago. 

Similarly, the name Instagram came from instant camera and telegram. Because it combines the idea of a photo with a message. 

I was taught that there is not 'one' inventor of the USB because of patenting issues. Multiple countries were attempting to get patents at the same time. So it is difficult to identify who the one true inventor of the USB was.

I was familiar with the concept of the telegraph but I had never wondered how it worked. I learned that it works by creating breaks in the electrical current using Morse code. Which uses a combination of short and long taps which correlated to a key of the alphabet to be later transferred. 

The name 'Bluetooth' came from King Herald, also known as Bluetooth because of his irregular tooth, who united Denmark and Norway. The inventors of Bluetooth used it to unite different technologies. The symbol for Bluetooth used today is a combination of the Nordic H and Nordic B (Herald Bluetooth).