Blog Post 10

EOTO 2:

For my project, I talked about the social credit score. The social credit score "is a national system that evaluates the trustworthiness of individuals, businesses, and government entities." In other words, this is a score you receive based on how you act. The social credit score began in 2009. Local governments were the first to launch the first pilot testing. After some time in 2015 they piloted companies to use the social credit score as well. They did this to help combat the Ponzi schemes and corruption companies involved. After this, they implemented it in 12 cities, including Beijing. Then, finally, in 2020, all citizens of China had to sign up for the social credit system. 

Every citizen starts with a score of 1,000 and is graded on how they act. The structure is broken down into letter grades. The letter grades are followed by A (960 - 1,000 points), B (850 - 955), C (840 - 600), and D (600 - 0). People's scores fluctuate depending on their behavior. If you're being a good citizen, throwing out your garbage, speaking good about the government, not committing crimes, etc., your score will increase. If you're committing crimes, talking bad about the government, jaywalking, playing too many video games, etc., your score will decrease. 

Having a good score can help people with many things, like receiving tax breaks, waived rent deposits, work promotions, and cheaper public transportation. People with bad scores, also known as "blacklisted," are unable to receive loans or travel and have the potential for public shaming. 

China has implemented AI to track people. When you sign up for the program, they take pictures of you and scan your face. Once in the system, the 200 million surveillance cameras will watch people and see if someone is doing something bad. 

In the U.S., we saw some sort of this with the Twitter Files. The Twitter files were leaked by Elon Musk from December 2022 to March 2023. These files showed how the government was aiding Twitter to push tweets that would fit what the government wanted and suppress the dissenting tweets even if true. During the COVID pandemic, the government wanted Twitter to push the vaccine. Anyone who tweeted against the vaccine was deemed as not trustworthy. Many medical experts said the vaccine was good, and many of those tweets either got deleted or flagged. Lastly, many people also got banned from Twitter based on their political stance. It got really bad when Twitter banned former President Donald Trump. Many people thought this was ridiculous and were upset with Twitter. Overall, after looking at all of this, a big question that follows is whether Twitter is limiting American's First Amendment right of freedom of speech and expression.

Lastly, another big controversy going on is debanking. John Eastman was one of Trump's attorneys who was debanked by both Bank of America and USAA. They shut down his accounts for no reason. This also happened with the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), which is a nonprofit advocacy group that defends everyone in America to live their faith freely. J.P Morgan Chase closed their accounts because it would not disclose a list of donors who contributed 10 percent or more to its operating budget. 

Overall, politics aside, they're clearly trying to limit the right side. They're taking money away from attorneys who defended Trump and deleted Trump's Twitter because they do not like him. You may not like someone but that does not give companies the right to close their bank accounts and delete people on platforms who are expressing their freedom of speech. 

Blog Post 9

Anti-War:

War has been going on for a long time, and many humans do not like it because it's devastating. However, many countries like the U.S. benefit economically. Many men going away for war must leave their jobs, which ultimately increases employment for people currently unemployed. Another thing that benefits the U.S. is our technological advancement in the U.S. military; many countries buy our arsenal and will want to be well equipped while the U.S. is at war. Since we also will need more arsenal because we're in a war, this will create more jobs. With the growth of military supplies being produced, the increase in gross domestic products as well. Lastly, war is constantly changing so technological progress and wartime can lead to new technologies that will be used in other industries. For example, the U.S. experienced technological progress during all of its wars and continues to grow even not in war. 

For some reason, the U.S. always has to get involved in every global conflict. We believe that every country should be like us, and those who aren't should change. Another thing we love is holding the most power we can. For example, the Russia and Ukraine war is all about territory for the U.S. We want to have weapons near all of our enemies in case something bad happens. Another thing we need is natural resources. We stayed in the Middle East way longer than we needed to. However, they're the largest producers of oil. The U.S. needs oil to survive, and the cheapest way they could get that is through the Middle East. 

Overall, no one likes war because it is destructive. Many people die, and many people get hurt. Everyone thinks we should be able to live in a world where there is peace; however, that will most likely never happen. In order to strive as a nation, you sometimes have to do things that may not be right, whether that be staying in a war way longer to get access to natural resources or helping fund a war to keep allies close to our enemies. 

Blog Post 8

Diffusion of Innovations:

 The diffusion of innovation is divided into six categories: Pioneers (these are the people who are the first to use the product, usually selected people), Early Adopters (these would be people or companies who invest in the company), Early Majority (these people would be one of the first people to sign up when it goes public), Late Majority (these people are the common people who are not that into technology and up to date usually get the product once it's been out for awhile) Loggards (are people who do not use the product or are very late to join) Lastly, the Longtail (these would be people who use the product or service even though many people do not use it anymore).

   

 When looking at the diffusion of innovations, I immediately thought of Facebook. Facebook was launched in 2004. When it first came out, it was only available to Harvard college students. The people who signed up during this time would be known as the pioneers. After some time and the success of the platform, PayPal invested $500,000 into Facebook for 10% of the company. These would be considered to be the early adopters because they were the first to invest in the company. Facebook then shifted its focus to other colleges and universities. They allowed any students with a .edu email to sign up for facebook. In 2006, they opened their platform to everyone 13 years and older with a valid email to sign up. This allowed for the growth of the company, ultimately resulting in many more users joining. Many of these users who joined would be categorized as the early majority. 

Since Facebook was becoming very popular, many older people and people who did not join in the beginning also started to join. They realized that Facebook would not be going anywhere and that it was better to start using it now, or they would be left behind. This group of people would be known as the late majority. Loggards are special people because they have either never signed up for Facebook or have signed up very late compared to the rest of the world. Lastly, you have the longtail group. These people will be using Facebook forever; they will either have to shut down Facebook completely or until they die. 

Facebook is not the only company that has experienced this. Many other very successful companies have also gone through the same thing. Apple is a great example of this. Before the iPhone came out, many people either had a Motorolla or a BlackBerry. It took people a long time to switch from Blackberry to iPhone. I remember my mom got the first iPhone and then switched back to Blackberry and then to the iPhone later. Today, there are only two real phones that people use today. That would be Android and Apple. 

I think people are sucked into getting these because that is what everyone has. My grandpa had a flip phone for the longest time, but my aunt bought him an iPhone when it broke. He hated it because he didn't know how to use it or cared how to use it. To this day, he still has no idea how to use it and never charges it. I think Apple really secured the younger generation with iMessage. There are many memes of people who have the green bubble and how they are"broke" and should have an iPhone. I think people only get the phone because they do not want to be different.