Blog #9

 In 1989 the World Wide Web would start and little did anyone know how huge this innovation would become. Where would we be without it today? Honestly no where. This innovation is something used every single day by millions of people. When the world wide web was first launched only select individuals had access to it. It was originally designed for scientists and professionals to allow communication all around the world. The main goal was to allow them to share ideas without having to travel in person. When it finally was released to the general public everyone spoke very highly of it and they were eager to get to use it. It was user-friendly and allowed quick access to so many things it took the world by storm. 

There were many early adopters of the World Wide Web for many reasons. There was a completely new online platform that was one of a kind. There has never been anything relative to this so trying it out peaked a large majority of the population's interest. Tim Berners Lee struck gold with this invention. The only reason for some of the late adopters was their access to the new innovation. The parts of the world that are off the grid did not have quick access to the new World Wide Web. 

Although the World Wide Web serves an amazing purpose of allowing communication around the world there are still negative aspects to it. Privacy is one main issue that comes with it. Hackers being able to steal your identity and share personal information is something that also comes along with it. When it was first invented this issue did not arise and was not a concern as much as it is now but if it was more relevant during the time there would have been more late adopters because of their concern with identity theft. Overall the World Wide Web took the world by storm and is still a very used invention.

Blog #8

 EOTO - Online Influencers

Although online influencers may only be looked at as a famous person through a screen, they are much more than that. They affect the way products and goods are sold enormously. They also play a big part in deceptive advertising. They are considered to be a form of the social media marketing that involves endorsements and product placements. An online influencer is defined as someone who established credibility in a specific industry, has access to a huge audience, and can persuade others to act/buy based on their recommendations. In 2006 PayPerPost was introduced which is a platform that allows companies and brands to find influencers. It is essentially a network of bloggers that connects to companies and pays the influencer per post. This was the start of online influencers. 

Some big examples are Addison Rae, The Kardashians, Khaby Lame, Huda beauty, the bucket list family, James Charles, and Cristiano Ronaldo. These people have a huge impact on what we think of products and what we buy. I have realized that when I see influencers wearing a certain brand of clothing or makeup it makes me more inclined to purchase that brand or product. An issue with online influencing is that there is no certainty that those influencers are ever actually using or wearing the product. They get paid to put these ads out and at the end of the day, there is nothing saying at the end of the day they take hair growth vitamins or use the face wash. 

Deceptive advertising is defined as the act of publishing, transmitting, or circulating an advertisement containing a false, misleading, or deceptive statement, to promote the sale of property, goods, or services to the public. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo promotes Nike. He is seen wearing Nike cleats, clothes, and any other product Nike creates. Does this mean that if he was not partnered with him that Nike would still be his favorite? We may never know. The amount of income he gets from Nike trumps his personal ideals for the products he wants to buy. 

Online influencers have a huge impact on other things besides just purchases of products in fact. In many circumstances, there are famous people who voice their opinions on politics or current day issues which then influence their followers' opinions. For example, Justin Bieber is very strong in his opinions on politics. In fact, he has blatantly called out Donald Trump for “caging kids.” It is very obvious what Bieber’s political views are based on his social media presence which can be very effective in swaying views of the easily convinced younger generation who does not pay much attention otherwise. These online influencers posting their opinions all of the time can be detrimental to those who do not form their own opinions and only follow along with what they have to say which is not always the truth of the matter.

Blog #10

 History of Five Eyes

One presentation that stood out to me more than others was the history of Five Eyes. Before this presentation, I have never heard of this alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This alliance began with the United States and the United Kingdom around the end of WWII. It was known as the UKUSA agreement. In 1948 Canada joined the alliance followed by Australia and New Zealand in 1956. 

This alliance allows the world to intercept communications that will remain a threat to national security. It created the Echelon Network which is stations placed all over the world to capture communication data. It collects information on terrorism, rogue states, and much more. Today there are questions on the alliance today because there are cases stating they are invading the privacy of citizens. I think this alliance is something that has been good for us and gives us more of a backbone than dealing with national security all alone. 

Blog #7

 

When watching the TED Talks in class the issue that stood out the most to me was when Juan Enriquez stated in his video that we are not famous for 15 minutes but instead we are only anonymous for that long. He compares your social media platforms to electronic tattoos. These provide as much information about you if not more than real tattoos ever could. There is also a very important discussion on how it is hard for someone to be under the radar in this day in age. Facial recognition is better than ever, posts are being posted and circulated every second, and people's lives are revolving around social media. 

One person that comes to mind more than most when thinking about this topic is my little sister. At just 15 years old it is very easy to be swept away in the world of social media. When I was her age social media presence was not seen as much, it makes it much easier for this younger generation to leave a bad electronic tattoo because they are still immature and do not know what is right or not to post. It is also affecting my generation a lot because although we are not the generation that started using social media platforms very young, we still do use them a lot and we are coming to the time where we are applying to jobs and many are running into issues because of their previous social media posts. Their electronic tattoo was not in mind thinking towards a future job when we have been posting. 

In my opinion, it is important for the government to regulate what can and can not be taken and used of people's content. We live in a free country with rights that everyone deserves and by posting on a platform we should not be releasing all of our information for the government to do whatever they want with it. In order to protect ourselves from these rights being taken and overruled we should be careful what we do on the internet, post things that are appropriate, and will not leave a bad electronic tattoo, use more highly protected search engines so that your history can not be tracked and overall to be more aware of what you do on the internet on a daily basis. 

Blog #6

After watching all of the EOTO presentations I found that I learned a lot from the presentation on Bluetooth. Before listening to these presentations there were definitely numerous things I knew I was going to learn about but I did not expect to learn so much more about Bluetooth that I genuinely did not know. Bluetooth was invented in 1993 in Sweeden by Jaap Haartsen who named the technology that connects electronics to each other after a King who had a dead tooth. When watching this presentation I began to think about how much I use Bluetooth every day and how I do not notice it. Every time I get in my car to drive when I wake up and put my apple watch on when I listen to music on my AirPods and so many other times. There are now 86% of all vehicles equipped with Bluetooth technology which changed the way cell phones were used in vehicles. This changed the game of using cellular devices while driving because now there was the capability to use them hands-free. Another huge innovation that is specifically helping my generation was Bluetooth speakers. 44 million Bluetooth speakers are sold each year which is a high number but one I expected to see on the presentation. Just about everyone I know owns a Bluetooth speaker and uses them daily. I thought to write about Bluetooth because it was one I did not expect to learn much about such as the radio waves and distances of use. 

Blog #5

 Antiwar Voices

After discussing in class the disparity in anti-war voices being published in comparison to other opinions it sparked my interest in what more there was to this topic. As I think back to news I have watched or heard there has been little voices standing up for anti-war. When reading the article Biden's Pointless Troop Deployment  the title in itself is something out of the ordinary to have as a title for news. Degrading a decision the president is making about war is something we do not see in mainstream news. If we were to dive deeper into each news source like Fox News or CNN we could not even blame the lack of coverage on the political affiliation because these sources both lean more towards opposite directions yet both still do not have sufficient coverage of anti-war opinions. A reason I discussed with my dad for why these opinions are not covered is because avoiding mass panic is a priority. If the government decides we are going to war at all it is going to stress people out and having one news source say we are going to war and justify it and another state it is a horrible decision will inhibit fear in the people. 

So why have we not heard about these anti-war sites?

Websites like American Conservative and Antiwar discuss material that is not typical to mainstreams news channels and remain a vital part of our country's understanding of what is truly going on in the world. These websites along with others like them are very opinionated and one sided to what the writer thinks and feels and does not try and be unbiased. Since was is a heavily stressed topic by many it is also one that can cause a lot of controversy. Seeking out the unpopular websites gets you all of the information you are not getting streamed mainstream and can even help you to form your own opinion more because even though some news sources lean one way or the other they are still biased and there is a lot of control over what they put out to the public. These websites giving you an alternate obscure view also allows you hear all of the voices that were silenced other places. 

Blog #4

 Netflix

 

On Reed Hastings’ and Marc Randolph’s drive to work they initially had a startup business called Pure Software which was a debugging tool for software. Hastings and Randolph carpooled to work together, which is where the idea began for Netflix. Back in 1997 Hastings had the idea after his rental of the movie Apollo 13 from Blockbuster was returned 6 weeks late and he was fined $40. The name Netflix comes from “net” for the internet and “flix” for films. Hastings would fund the idea and Randolph would run it. Randolph would own 30% but holds the position of CEO and Hastings owned 70%. Their ideas led to them trying to find a way for better viewing of the shows and movies all wanted to watch but did not want the hassle of getting to these options. 

In 1999 Netflix began offering online subscriptions through the internet. Subscribers would choose movies and tv titles through the website and were then mailed their choice in the form of a DVD with a prepaid return label. They offer members unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, or rental limits. Netflix innovated the future by introducing a new system in 2000 which used members’ ratings of previously watched titles to predict future choices. This is seen later on in the future of Netflix also when the website predicts future titles for you to watch based on past viewings. This has helped me choose things to watch and is helpful to many other people too. Next, in 2003 they issued a patent to cover their subscription rental service. 

In 2007 was when I believe their biggest innovation took place. Netflix began offering the option to use the internet to stream directly to their at-home TVs without the use of DVDs through the use of the internet. Netflix’s new partnership with Xbox, Blu-ray players, and TV set-top boxes grew the market in another huge way. Connecting their streaming platform with devices that people are using to watch other things allowed their streaming service to be reached easier. In 2010 streaming began on mobile devices which allowed those who are addicted to their cellular devices to now be able to use this platform to watch tv which has not been seen before. In the next upcoming years, they started streaming many new shows and also showed some shows in 4K ultra HD. 

In 2016 Netflix had a huge jump in its sales. They expanded to 130 new countries which brought their service to 190 countries and they now showed their shows in 21 different languages. They also introduced the download feature which allowed for on-the-go viewing. At this point, they are considered a lead user and are adopting new technology as it comes in and doing it at a very quick rate. In 2021 they had more than 200 million subscribers and offered more than 2,400 original titles.

The invention quickly changed the way all of us view shows and movies. We no longer had to return our movies in a certain time frame, watch commercials or have to leave our house to get to the shows and movies we wanted to watch, which we know now that with COVID this innovation saved many people. Netflix got 16 million new users during the lockdown. Netflix grew in exponential ways throughout the years and has changed the way we view shows and movies with it all being right at our fingertips.

Blog #3

 Eight Values of Free Expression

The Eight Values of Free Expression all are valued in different ways by different people. Personally Individual Self-Fulfillment resonated with me the most. This value holds a lot of focus on being able to express your true feelings about what you believe in. This is important to me because there have been many times that my opinion does not agree with ones of my friends, family or classmates and I enjoy speaking my opinions. One way I relate this value to things going on in the world today is through former president Donald Trump’s social media presence and followers presence. It is quite obviously seen that social media platforms control what is seen and posted on their platforms, in fact Donald Trump does not even hold a profile for many social media platforms because of what he has posted in the past. To me this is an extreme violation of expression of feelings towards the former president.

In this article by Politico it is stated how there is a level of discrimination towards conservatives speaking for the trump administration but are not doing the same thing for people on the other side. A quote from the president states  “....Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!” The value of Individual Self-Fulfillment is not shown in this aspect towards people who support Trump's administration because they are not capable of expressing how they feel because it is getting taken down. Another value I believe can be related to this topic is Protect Dissent. This value states that you have a protected right to not agree with the government no matter how unpopular or popular your views may be. This does not seem to be the case or is getting reworked to be in favor for those taking down these posts on social media which is also something that should not be occurring. 

Another reason I feel like it is important for everyone to hold high value on Individual Self-Fulfillment is because in our day in age it is hard to draw the line between how we have the freedom to say what we want but also have the ability to say what we want while hiding behind a screen. Within the first amendment you have a freedom of speech but that does not always mean that what you are saying does not hurt someone. Since social media is growing exponentially it is becoming more obvious that people are saying things with fake usernames and profiles to express opinions or feelings they would not have if it was face to face. With that also being said it is important for everyone with social media presence to be aware of the fact that you have a freedom of speech but morals should also be in place and that freedom does not get walked all over.