EOTO 2 Reactions

During the presentations for the EOTO 2 assignment, I learned a lot of new information. I found these to be the most interesting to me. 

Whistleblowers:

Whistleblowers are people who report information to people who do not know what is going on. One of the most famous whistleblowers they talked about was Edward Snowden. Snowden was an NSA intelligence contractor who revealed how the NSA was listening to people without their consent. He revealed thousands of classified documents about this, and many were shocked when it came out. Many people debate whether he is a traitor or a hero. He opened the eyes of many people on how the government is mass surveilling U.S. citizens, good or bad. 

Mainstream Media:

Another thing I found interesting was mainstream media. For the most part, only a couple of media channels have a significant presence. Everyone gets their news from FOX, ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, or a few newspapers like the New York Times. These channels control what is being broadcast and what news stories are being told. The problem with most of these is they need to be more neutral. When we look at FOX and CNN, many people associate FOX with the far right and CNN with the far left. This may be the case, but these other channels could be more neutral. 

Gatekeeping:

Going off of mainstream media, gatekeeping also caught my attention. Gatekeeping is the process by which information gets published or broadcast to the public. There are hundreds of news stories a day. However, organizations and individuals must pick the ones they think will get the most publicity or align with their organization. Due to this, news organizations can influence public opinion through the stories they publish. You see this a lot during the election. Media companies try to persuade people to vote for one side and will put stories about the other candidates. 

Deep Fakes: 

Lastly, something that I found interesting and scary was deepfakes. Deepfakes are pictures of people that are photoshopped but look identical to the person. This is very scary because people are able to make images of people doing stuff they never did. You see this a lot with social media influencers and celebrities. To the naked eye, it looks exactly like them; however, it is not. Deepfakes are not only facial features but can also be used in voice recordings. This can be harmful because if scammers get their hands on people's voices, they will have an easier time scamming people and taking their money. Deepfakes are also used in many cyberbullying cases. People will create voice recordings of people saying something they never said. 

Overall, all of the EOTO presentations were good. However, these were the ones that stood out to me the most. We need to be careful in what we read and see. Not everything is accurate, and we must constantly remind ourselves to fact-check what we read. We need to look at multiple different media channels, so we're more educated on the topic and not be persuaded by one organization. 

Technology Pro's and Con's and How it can Destroy Society

Digital technology is a double-edged sword. There are many beneficial aspects of technology; however, there are also many non-beneficial aspects as well. For my generation (Gen Z), digital technology has been around for as long as I can remember. My generation with technology was a little different in the fact that we were not glued to iPads like the generation now (Gen Alpha) is. In my experience, whenever I go out to a restaurant, I always see kids either on their iPads or parent’s phones, watching videos or playing games.

Pros:

I feel older generations have this notion that technology is ruining the world. In some aspects, yes, but in others, no. Technology has played a massive role in developing new medical equipment and medications. It has also increased life expectancy and reduced child mortality. Another big thing it has helped is finding cures to diseases people would have never thought would be cureable.Cons: 

Technology has also made our lives a lot easier. Technology has allowed us to send messages anywhere in the world in seconds. It has also allowed us to become more connected than ever and be able to meet new people all over the world. Another thing that has allowed us to do is get news instantly. Before this, you had to wait for the evening news to broadcast the latest story or the newspaper to come the next morning. Lastly, technology has made our lives a lot easier by finding information. Nowadays, if you don’t know the answer to a question, you go straight to Google and look up the answer. 

Con's

Now, as good as all of that sounds, technology has downfalls. I believe technology is ruining the way we communicate with each other. Many people are glued to their phones and only text people. I feel that it hurts society as a whole because people will soon be unable to talk to others. This will cause huge mental health concerns because people are not going to be able to talk about their feelings or be able to sustain relationships. On the topic of mental health, cyberbullying is at an all-time high. Many people are being bullied on social media with pictures or posts about other people. 

AI has become a little too real. The people who created it have taught the AI to be just like us. This causes people to talk to AI, believing the AI bot is real after some time. There is a reason why ChatGPT only allows a certain number of submissions before it resets. Lastly, AI is taking over many jobs. AI is able to do tasks more accurately and at a lower cost than employees. Due to this, many companies have decided to hire humans instead of AI. In the short term, this might not sound as bad, but in the long term, this could be devastating for the economy, and people will be jobless. 

  

It sounds like I don’t like technology, but that’s not true. I use technology all the time. I use AI to answer emails or ask questions about something we’re learning. I use Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok every day. I know it sounds terrible, but that is usually how I receive my news. I have been told a million times to not believe everything you read on the internet, but I will admit I believe many things I read. After taking this class and reading about how people write misleading and misinformation all the time, I see myself double-checking stories I read on Instagram and putting them into Google to see if multiple news agencies covered the topic. There is no escaping technology. 97.1% of U.S population uses technology. Technology is only going to improve. That’s why we need to be careful in how we use it; we need to educate kids at a young age on how to use technology responsibly and limit the usage we allow people to use it.