Final Presentation

 Relationship with Technology

By: Meagan Flynn

April 30, 2021

Growing up, as I was born in 1999, I did not have a lot of technology other than TV and radio. There were landline house phones, flip phones for cell phones, and old, thick computers. I grew up being a kid while playing outside, coloring, drawing, and always talking to other kids in my neighborhood. As I grew up, I had my Nintendo DS, tiny iPod MP3 player, and CD's to play in the car. When I was 7 years old, my mom had a blackberry as her cellphone, which I would play icebreakers on her phone whenever I was bored. At 10 years old, I went to school in Boston, MA which was 45 minutes from my hometown. My mom couldn't get in touch with me on the bus, so she got me a small lime green flip phone from AT&T. I was so excited to have my first phone to communicate with the older friends who had flip phones at this time, too. When I was 11 years old, I received my mom's old 3rd generation iPhone as my first iPhone. This is when technology really took over. I was unaware of what it would become.

As the years went on, it's 2021 and I don't know what we or I would do without any technology these days. As I grew older, a new iPhone generation and iOS update would come out and we would jump at the new technology without looking at the price. It overtakes our minds because we don't know how to live without it as it helps us more and more everyday with daily tasks, our health, buying things for us, and listening to our own conversations. I am guilty of leaving a digital footprint, but aren't we all? Just logging online can give so much information about yourself. I use all types of social media. For example, I have snapchat, instagram, Facebook, twitter, and more. I try not to expose more of myself than I need to, but it's hard when the online presence is how we communicate and meet others these days. When my friends share things, so do I. It is a chain that keeps on going and growing. There are things about my online presence that could be edited, but I am very aware of what I say and post on social media and the internet in general. It all depends on your knowledge of the internet and how you want to protect your own image. 

With the short video of Futurama in New York, it reminded me of Elon Musk with Tesla and Spaceship Earth at Epcot in Disney World. Yes, technology shapes the way that the future is today, but there is much more to life than technology that we should focus on. Technology should not shape who we are. We can get the wonders of technology and the dark-side all in one, but it just depends on what we see and how it can affect us and our future. To take balance, we need to see what is really important in life and before we post, see if it will affect us in our future. I have struggled with this personally and if it's not worth it and going to hurt us physically and mentally, then we should rethink any of it especially when it's online forever. 

Blog #12

 Something I learned from 2nd EOTO:

Online Influencer

By: Meagan Flynn

April 28, 2021

Just like most young adults and teens in the world, online influencers can control their minds any day. Personally, I love the Kardashians, popular you-tubers  and instagram models. They display what society looks for in daily life like body shape, personality, hair style, makeup, and more. We look up to them which can be good and bad. 

According to the presentation in group 2, there are five main online influencer categories: social media, political, bloggers, celebrities, and writers/journalists. 

Social media contains follower count and content. Depending on the types of followers and number of followers, the social media influencers display content for sponsorship advertisements and content for what their followers want to see. It is mostly a full time job for them since they receive money for each post. 

Political influencers contain campaign talk and politician news. This connects to the news, but more behind the scenes. They can post on YouTube, blog posts, podcasts, etc. in order to send out personal opinions to listeners and bring them over to their side of political view.

Bloggers are topic writers and story covers. They write their own personal opinions and give reviews on new or old topics for their readers. Bloggers can also write about their family and give advice to readers. There are so many blogs out there about all different topics. They can be influential or just be against your views on parenthood or plain and simple like cooking or baking. 

Celebrity influencers contain public figures and personalized connection. Celebrity influencers are the most known online influencers. The Kardashians are one of the top celebrity influencers because they have been known for years, have cute kids, great bodies, and think they are the perfect picture of life for a woman. They use their celebrity status to sell their makeup, skincare, cars, clothing etc. in order to receive more money. Followers will fall for it because they love their style and want to be like them. This is one of the most dangerous type of online influencer I think because people will buy anything they have even if they're falsely advertising. 

Lastly, writers and journalists are accessibility and textual inspiration. They are similar to bloggers and political influencers; however they write more for online viewers who like to read news and things happening in the world. They are online these days and are not really printed in newspapers or magazines much anymore. 

There are pros and cons of online influencers:

The pros: diverse audiences, credible, trusted, indirectly psychologically supportive(give good laugh), can promote supportive action(one on one interaction- livestream)

The cons: purchase influential(advertisement for sponsors, buy more than u need), and encourage hostile action (story goes too far and encourage people to react and spiral, and other races)

Overall, online influencers can have good and bad impacts on society. They can help us feel good and have a good laugh, but also make us fall for things we don't need right now, but we need to have it because the fake celebrity that we love has it. People want to become online influencers, but don't succeed. This can take a bad tole on our mental. I believe online influencers should only be allowed online to advertise products they honestly love and use and help society instead of bringing us down and changing who we truly are. 

Blog #10

2nd EOTO: Confirmation Bias 

By: Meagan Flynn

April 22, 2021

When I first heard about Confirmation Bias, I was not exactly sure what the term was. I researched on Britannica and realized it was self explanatory. The main definition of confirmation bias is the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs. It is largely unintentional and often results in ignoring inconsistent information as well as people are likely to process information to support their own beliefs when the issue is highly important or self-relevant. In the basics, how humans sometimes process information in an illogical, biased manner is humans have difficulty processing information in a rational, unbiased manner once they have developed an opinion about the issue. Why humans are susceptible to confirmation bias is it is an efficient way to process information and people cannot possibly take the time to carefully process each piece of information to form an unbiased conclusion. People need to process information quickly to protect themselves from harm, self esteem, and receive accuracy. It is adaptive to rely on instinctive, automatic reflexes that keep humans out of harm’s way. People wants to feel good about themselves and feel intelligent.

Confirmation bias is all about thinking about oneself. We never notice that we are practicing confirmation bias because it is common in our daily human lives. We don't take the time to think about what is to be said next. Even if we don't think we are selfish, it is in our everyday lives in which we don't notice. We want to protect ourselves at all costs which refers to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. As humans, we need specific things to survive and because of evolution, we have reflexes to survive each day. No matter how unselfish we appear to be, there is always going to some type of selfish ways since our point in life is to survive on this earth. Relating to society, no matter where we are and what we are doing, there is confirmation bias going through our heads. We are on social media, talking to friends and family, and living our lives everyday in which selfish ways can come across and ruin reputations.

In the evidence of confirmation bias, the context of decision-making is once an individual makes a decision, he or she will look for information that supports it. Information that conflicts with the decision may cause discomfort and ignored or given little consideration. My side-bias is when people were able to generate and remember more reasons supporting their side of a controversial issue than the opposing side. People give special treatment to information that supports their personal beliefs.

According to philosophers, people generate arguments against their own beliefs. Also, people tend to look for positive instances in which they confirm their hypotheses is true. We operate in impression formation which we look for information that meets expectations. For example, when we meet a new friend, if we hear that they like the color purple, then we look for instances where they like the color to confirm our expectation.

In the importance of confirmation bias, it may lead people to hold strongly to false beliefs or to give more weight to information that supports their beliefs than is warranted by the evidence. In the real world, it happens to doctors and can influence outcomes and expectations. For example, "Doctors often have a preliminary hunch regarding the diagnosis of a medical condition early in the treatment process. This hunch can interfere with considering information that may indicate an alternative diagnosis is more likely." Also, in society, it can influence our replies on social media as looking selfish as we do not consider the other side. Confirmation bias can effect making friends and on society as it has grown to be more accepting to everyone of all backgrounds, ages, sexual standpoint, and more. It needs to take effect on the new generation with social media and think before putting opinions out there.

Confirmation Bias needs to be more known worldwide. No one is perfect in this world and it's obvious. We strive to protect ourselves on the daily, but our mind can be more powerful than ever. Today with social media and putting our thoughts online, we should always think before saying or typing. We should live by the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. However, it's good to know that we can protect ourselves, but we need to consider the other side to compromise and be thoughtful of friends and family. We will lose friends if we are all about ourselves. Confirmation bias is not about just being selfish, but it is that we don't recognize it and it is necessary to see the unintentional bias and be commonly aware of everything in front of us. 

Blog #9

 Diffusion Theory

By: Meagan Flynn

April 26, 2021

Roger's Diffusion of Innovations is a theory of how, why, and what rate new ideas and technology spreads. "Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in the social system." In order for a new ideas to spread, it needs to be widely adopted. 

In the graph of Roger's Diffusion of Innovations given to the class by Professor Smith, the categories are Pioneers/innovators, early adopters, early majority, late adopters, and laggards. To explain the graph, the x-axis is time and the y-axis is penetration. There will only be 85% penetration/users of anything in the world. It will never reach 100% of users. 

In my first EOTO project, my topic was instant messaging. Relating to the diffusion theory, instant messaging started out as a way of communication for people with computers, so I feel it would be starting out for teens and young adults wanting to stay in touch with friends. As time goes on, instant messaging expanded as it became available on phones and not just on computers. Relating to the chart, it began with the pioneers/innovators which was AOL and grew to be on different apps and ways of communication. Just like other inventions in the technology field, it grows in certain age groups and then dies off as people don't use it anymore. However, like Apple and other tech companies, they create more and more products relating to older products and more people grow the interest in which other people join in, too. 

Depending on the product becoming popular, it depends on what people want to use it for ethically and then those who want it because their favorite celebrity has it. There can be many reasons why product interest increases and there are two main reasons that grow on the chart. Overtime, a product becomes too popular and it is hard to survive without it. For example, instant messaging is how most people connect today, as it is known as texting. Older people, who do not have phones, would fall into the category that do not use the innovation. This explains that not 100% of people use each product no matter how new or old it is to society. 

There are pros and cons to having new innovations grow and become more popular in society. Taking instant messaging for example, instant messaging has pros and cons as it can be great for quick communication, but also it hinders our ability to show emotion as it would be better to talk on the phone for that. These pros and cons can relate to how the growth of a new innovation can stop people from using it and make it die off. If there are more consumers beginning to use the new product, it is more of a pro and will continue for a while until something new comes along. 

Overall, Roger's Diffusion of Innovations chart and theory can explain the growth of any new product coming alive. This theory interests me because I have always been interested in the growth of innovations and how people cling on to a new product so easily. I have to admit, I do the exact same thing with new technology and it is better to weigh the pros and cons then to follow along with the rest of the consumers. 

Blog #7

 The Progressive Era, Marketplace of Ideas,

1st Amendment

By: Meagan Flynn

April 19, 2021

Anti-War.com:

My first opinions of the website was it was poorly organized and looked as though they just wanted donations for their cause. It was shown as a dump of links and information that they want the world to be aware of. A quote from the top of website says, 

"It seems like not a day goes by without the US escalating tensions with a major nuclear power, whether it be Russia or China. Antiwar.com is the place to find the news and views on the new Cold Wars. Whether it's US warships sailing through the South China Sea, or the Biden administration slapping sanctions on Russian officials, we cover it all. But we can't do it without you!"

The quote seems sketchy to me. The organization is against the Biden administration and obviously against all war tactics. They seem as though they want to get their opinions and facts out to the world to stop the war at all costs. The writers are not in the main stream news because it is a bias website and looking for donations that we really do not know where it is going towards. They advertise that there is a tax deduction, but I do not believe it. It is not a government official website and has random ads all over. The news does not want to put this out to the public and use sources from here because they contain opinions and not worthy for the media, as there are better sources out there. Also, the media wants overall opinions and not bias anti-war opinions just to convert the public and their opinions. 

According to the First Amendment, this organization of anti-war has the right to put their opinions on the web. However, the public does not have to look at it or read it forcefully. Personally, I would never come across this website if I did not have to. No one wants conflict on or off the web. They can keep their opinions of anti-war on this website for their FA right. 

TheAmericanConservative.com:

My first opinion of the website was that it was more organized and neater than the anti-war website. There were ads, however, but they were more relevant, not clickbait, and typically seen on a free site. The website had organized subheadings with drop-downs to see other options when exploring the site. For example, they had Blogs, About, Categories, Podcasts, Events, Fellowship Program, Videos, and a section about the Writers. Under the categories section, are the sections of different articles they have from what it seems credited writers. At the end of each article, there is a comment section where can be positive and negative because there can be nice opinions from different people and then rude comments that are not necessary. A quote from the About section is, 

"The future of American conservatism is bright—and that future is being defined, defended, and delivered by The American Conservative, an institution devoted to “recapturing the flag of the conservative movement” through quality print and web journalism, conferences and debates, and forming the minds of the next generation of American leaders."

Compared to the anti-war website, there are more rules and 3 beliefs followed on The American Conservative website. Again, according to the FA, they have rights to put this information out to the public online, but I like that there are guidelines and there is more organization. I'm not a political person, so I can see why I have not heard of this website. I can also see why it is not in the mainstream news because the news is not one-sided or biased, unless a specific channel like Fox News. There needs to be variety and not biased comments and articles in the mainstream for anyone to see. This website should be for those with opinions on conservatives and people who want to read about this subject. 

Conclusion:

Overall, there websites are not websites I would choose to visit. They are for those who want to read about their political party opinions. Referring to the progressive era and how the anti-war voices were thrown in jail, times have changed significantly with the FA and being able to voice our opinions. However, people don't want to hear their opinions on the mainstream of news which can relate back to the Progressive era before the First Amendment. Times have changed, but there is still more to come for politics in the future. 

Blog #6

 EOTO: Instant Messaging(IM)

By: Meagan Flynn

April 15, 2021

From 3500 B.C. to present time, technology has immersed and grown into something huge for society. From inventing the petroglyph to electric auto transit cars, technology advancement never stops. Each day there is some new technology and communication being introduced to the world. 

For my EOTO project, I presented Instant Messaging, also known as IM. I believe Instant Messaging was one of the beginning inventions for the technology age. It is different from texting; however, it has the same concept, but on an actual computer. 

Instant Messaging was introduced in the 1990's and began when AOL started AIM. AIM "allowed users to send messages to each other, and included user profiles, away messages and icons for more engagement." However, IM dates back to the mid-1960's when the precursor of a formal IM named the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), that originated at MIT's Computation Center. They used remote dial-up terminals to send messages back and forth to share files with one another. In 1971, IM was invented as a chat function on a government computer network for emergencies. After 1998, other chats were eventually invented like: Jabber, ichat, Skype, myspace, Facebook, iMessage, and google talk. 

The definition of IM is "form of text-based communication in which two persons participate in a single conversation over their computers or mobile devices within an internet-based chatroom." How IM works is both users log in and create profiles. When both users are online, they can "chat" each other and communicate. However, the users can only communicate if both are online. When online, the chatroom notifies others when their presence is online. 

Some fun facts of IM is short hand language and acronyms were created. For example, LOL, OMG, NP, ROFL were popular. Also, it was much less secure as anyone can message you and security on computers of protecting chats were less back in the early times of IM. Some pros of IM were that people could chat in real time with friends and they didn't have to talk on the phone, so you can get other things done at once. Some cons of IM were sometimes people needed to pay premium services to avoid pop-up windows and unless the IM client/user is set- up carefully, as said before, anyone can message you.

As I was researching IM, I believe it is one of the more interesting and innovative parts of the chart/diagram in Cottrell. Just think, what would we do without Instant Messaging? Everyday, we commit to some sort of chatting with friends, teachers, doctors, and more. It's hard to get around it. Without IM, we would have to call everyone which can take time. Messaging and using short hand language and acronyms can save us time with typing and it is known as a universal language these days. I use instant messaging everyday with texting, emailing, and chats for online shopping. Sometimes, I do not know what to do without it. However, I feel the younger generations are using it so much that they have social anxiety when calling someone simple as a doctors office or restaurant. We sit behind the screen and let the computer do everything for us. I am glad that I was born in 1999 where I grew up calling people on the phone until the first iPhone was revealed. That is when instant messaging really took over. It is best to not use instant messaging all the time and call friends and family. IM grows everyday with emoji and bitmojis, but we should grow from chatrooms and step out from behind the screen. 

Blog #8

One thing I learned in our Media Projects

 Netflix

By: Meagan Flynn

April 14, 2021

In 1997, Netflix was founded and launched in 1998 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings. It was mainly created to make watching movies and TV shows easier instead of going to blockbuster to rent a DVD. They mainly took over in 2011 when blockbuster when bankrupt. It is a very popular streaming service because its convenient and with a few clicks on your couch, you can watch any TV show or movie instead of driving to a store to get a DVD. Netflix was first released in Canada and had its first series, House of Cards. They now have 203.7 million subscribers. A few years after when it became more popular, the biggest controversy was splitting streaming and DVD rentals into 2 separate services. Their two biggest competitors are Disney+ and Amazon prime video. Officially in 2021, everything is streaming. 

Personally, Netflix is one of my favorite streaming sites. My favorite shows are Grey's Anatomy, Outer Banks, and Bridgerton. My favorite movies are After, the Bling Ring, and To all the Boys. However, there is an expensive subscription included which can be frustrating. There are family plans, that my family subscribes to, and that is smart to have for multiple people to use one account. I will always watch Netflix as there are popular shows coming and going. I can't wait for more in the years to come.