Blog #10 - Final Post

I was so happy when I returned from summer camp as an eight-year-old to find a brand new MacBook Pro on my desk. Prior, I did not own any Apple product other than the iPod Nano so I was in disbelief with all the computer could do. From iChat with friends to messing around in iMovie, I was glued to my new computer and loved everything about it. Since I did not grow up with a computer, I understand what life was like without a computer. Now that I am focusing on a career that involves lots of time on the computer, I value the fact that I was not consumed with technology growing up and that I had an active childhood. Nowadays, I look around while eating at restaurants and see parents using iPads and iPhones like their pacifiers to keep their children busy, distracted, and content. But what are they doing on these iPads? I investigated two years back when on vacation with family friends that had a four-year-old daughter. The answer is that she was watching and playing nonsense. From watching random girls on YouTube opening up toy packages (unboxing videos, as they are called, are super popular amongst children for some strange reason) to playing mindless games, she was not learning anything or engaging with anyone else.

After having my first MacBook Pro for a few years, I began taking lessons in Adobe Photoshop. By then I had an iPhone and an iPad to go along with my computer but take pride in not being sucked in. I played hockey and played the drums all my life up until college as was always busy and active. In middle school, I slowly got into social media networks with the emergence of Instagram but I have always preferred Twitter above them all. To me, Twitter is the best way to get news and allows me to participate in a community of New York Islander fans, my favorite sports team. I am guilty of spending way too much time on Twitter, mindlessly scrolling for something that might be interesting or at least entertaining. When I am unable to watch an Islanders game, you can always find me refreshing Twitter looking for game updates for the beat reporters.

I would like to limit the amount of time I spend on my phone a day and have made a conscious effort in doing so. Although I haven't been able to pull myself away from Twitter, I no longer use Snapchat, use Instagram less, play zero games, and never fell into TikTok's addictive algorithm. However, I use technology a lot and that goes back to the Photoshop lessons I took. In high school, I decided to take Photoshop seriously and now, it basically consumes my life.

When I am not doing school work, I am photoshopping. Graphic design is a passion of mine and my goal is to either work for a professional sports team one day as the head creative or to start a design agency of my own. However, taking seriously for a few years now, I have learned that immersing yourself in technology and spending a lot of time looking at a computer screen requires sacrifices because there is only so much time in a day. When I am not doing school work, I am on Photoshop or another Adobe program since I have slowly been learning some of the other applications in the Adobe Creative Suite dating back to when Covid-19 ended my freshman year early.

At this point, and I guess the past decade or so has gotten us here, technology like the products pushed out by Apple are no longer gimmicks but essential pieces of equipment to navigate life. No longer can my grandparents say that an iPhone looks too complicated for them to use because everyone has one and Covid-19 has made FaceTime the only way we can communicate face-to-face. My grandparents tried to stay away from all these technological advancements but now, my grandmother talks to the Amazon Alexa like they're best friends. My father is an entrepreneur and technology allows him to start new ventures with ease. He used to have a truck that he drove around that rotated through different advertisements but now starting and promoting a new business is super easy with Facebook, Instagram, and the internet as a whole. My mother is a teacher and Covid-19 taught her how important technology is with distant learning through Zoom. What would have happened to our education system during Covid-19 without technology to keep us connected even when we are apart?

Overall, I do not think technology has taken over our lives but has rather enhanced them. Sure, there are people that spend way too much time with their heads down but for those who control technology instead of letting technology control them, the result is a quality lifestyle where technology is simply a tool to help you navigate and communicate.

Blog #9 - Alternative Media

Contrary to the mainstream media, alternative media is not for profit and for the most part, tries to deliver and analyze news in an unbiased way. Since they are not corporate-owned, alternative media has been referred to as the "citizen's media" with a social responsibility to replace objectivity with advocacy. Alternative media is full of large personalities who look to use their agenda-free platform to challenge the status quo and to ask the questions that mainstream media networks would be afraid to ask. Alternative media has a reputation for being radical at times with polarizing personalities who propose radical concepts and policies while also seeming to have their priorities out of line. Social media networks have given alternative media access to a larger audience than ever before and social media consumers enjoy hearing different perspectives and voices as a desire for a marketplace of ideas increases.

Defining alternative media any further is a tough task considering the term alternative media represents any type of media that is not corporate-owned or for profit. Examples of alternative media could quite literally range from a blogger in his parent's basement to a modest studio with a production crew. Alternative media encompasses blogs, social media pages, podcasts, radio shows, YouTube videos, and much more.

These independent companies are often small and understaffed, however, are essential to inspiring social and political action. As Chris Atton, a lecturer and scholar of alternative media, says, the goal of alternative media is "to change towards a more equitable social, cultural and economic whole in which individual is not reduced to an object... but is able to find fulfillment as a total human being".

As a whole, society needs alternative media to contribute to the rapidly-growing marketplace of ideas that social media and technological advancements have created. The corporate-owned mainstream media is biased and that bias depends on who runs the network and the audience they are trying to please. Not looking to ruffle any feathers at the risk of losing viewers and money, mainstream networks stay away from stories or avoid talking about issues in length when that story or issue goes against the perspective of the anchors and the audience. While there are only a limited number of mainstream media networks, there is an abundance of alternative media that can be found almost anywhere from newspapers to social media. Applications like Snapchat and Instagram are expanding from a way to see pictures of friends to a way of gaining information with options to subscribe/follow both mainstream and alternative media networks.

Since there are so many forms of alternative media, it is also a lot more diverse than the mainstream media which seems to be obsessed with hiring former politicians and old white men. Since alternative media is more diverse, it focuses a lot more on political and social issues than the mainstream media and attracts more minorities who look for news from people who share their perspectives or can at least relate to their struggles.

While some alternative media is radical and in that case, no different or worse than mainstream media, it is still important that we have media that is not agenda or profit-driven.

Blog #8 - Online Privacy

As technological advancements change the ways we communicate, the concern over online privacy grows. In the Digital Age, technology has given us so much. We can communicate with people from around the world, literally bringing us face to face with the ones we love no matter how far away they are. Social media networks have allowed us to keep in touch with friends and to make new ones as applications like Twitter and Instagram have created a large marketplace of ideas in an engaging way. But at what cost? Other than buying a computer or phone, usage of social media, the internet, and many other applications are free of charge.

Millions of people around the world take part in all different types of social media networks, voluntarily giving up personal information as a ticket to participate in these virtual communities. These social media networks, as well as subscription websites, then sell this data to other companies and use the data to help companies target consumers that are almost guaranteed to be interested. In addition to basic personal information, these social media networks can pick up on your interests, your likes, and dislikes, all by monitoring how long you spend on a post and how you engage with it.

One of the biggest social media networks is Facebook and dating back to its inception, it has been under increasingly more and more scrutiny for privacy violations. In 2014, for example, Facebook ran a mood experiment which the public considered extremely unethical when the results were published leading to the data scientist apologizing and removing the study for the web (although nothing ever disappears from the internet). The mood experiment, as outlined by NBC News, involved a large number of Facebook users as the test subjects although they had not signed up or consented. As a part of the experiment, algorithms were created to show users a timeline full of either all positive or all negative posts and to see if that could impact the user's mood.

It is good that these privacy issues have been getting media attention to inform the public to be careful with the information they share and to educate them on how their online privacy is being violated. However, this is only the beginning, and trying to hold all these different networks accountable is a difficult task as they will continue to adapt and find new ways to mine both information and data.

Blog #7 - Diffusion of Innovations

In 2013, Hoverboard took the world by storm with its self-balancing scooter. Made in China by Chi Robotics, the Hoverboard was an instant success in western countries and was endorsed by many celebrities including Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner, and Chris Brown. This instant success, however, was short-lived after early units caught fire due to the battery overheating and lawsuits over patent rights plagued Hoverboard and their reputation. According to HoverboardHub.com, over 50,000 Hoverboards were recalled in 2016 promptly ending the fad although Hoverboards are not extinct and there are some late adaptors that happily and safely use them today.

Early adopters of the Hoverboard were definitely influenced by celebrities but also by its abilities. The Hoverboard can travel up to ten miles per hour, flawlessly riding up hills while maintaining the same speed and while ten miles per hour may not seem awfully fast, customers definitely noticed a difference in speed. The Hoverboard works as a controlled transportation device when a user steps onto the platform raised by two motorized wheels, they are able to control the speed and direction of the Hoverboard by shifting their balance/weight.

As previously mentioned, the Hoverboard's rise was as quick as its downfall. A U.S. News article reported that between 2015-2016, there were 26,854 hoverboard injuries that sent kinds under the age of 18 to the hospital. As kids fractured, strained, and sprained their bones in homes all across America, the lithium-ion battery of the Hoverboard was causing problems as well. Several viral clips of batteries bursting into flames coupled with all the injuries it was causing to children especially, people turned their back on Hoverboards and deemed them unsafe without at least using a helmet and other padding. As time has gone on, people have regained their trust in Hoverboards thanks to new manufacturers made possible by patent issues and although they will never be as popular as they were in the early 2010s, there are certainly late adopters who find pleasure and joy in their Hoverboard.