Technology

 Technology

Growing up in the era of social media and technology I have seen and witnessed the pros and cons of technology. Overall I believe that technology has changed our world for the better.
In my experience technology has built my vocabulary from articles I read daily. I am able to connect to loved ones on social media and discover new beautiful places on applications like Pinterest. Even though I have had a positive look at technology I have witnessed situations that sadden me. I have seen the media corrupt and spread lies and have seen people on a date that don't even talk to one another because they are so consumed with the little screen in their pocket. There are privacy breaches, hacking, catfishing, and other awful things that have developed due to technology. Even though there are many terrible developments the one that shocks me the most is cyberbullying.

Bullying has always been around but now people can hide behind a screen and ruin people's lives. Cyberbullying is a serious issue in today’s society. 36.5 percent of people have reported being cyberbullied, 87 percent of young people have seen cyberbullying occur, and 17.4 percent have reported it happening over the last 30 days. These percentages have doubled over the past twelve years. Even though people are aware of it cyberbullying percentages are still using and people are not stopping.
People cyberbully everyday on all different social media platforms. For example, the social media platform that has the highest record for cyberbullying is Instagram. All it takes is one comment to make someone feel attacked and people can be aggressive when hiding behind a screen. The effects of cyberbullying have a negative effect on mental health. 64% of people say cyberbullying affects their capability to feel safe at school and learn. 41% of kids report that cyberbullying makes them develop social anxiety and 37% said they develop depression over it. If someone is pushed to a breaking point troubled people being cyberbullied will even take their own life.

As mentioned earlier even though technology can do such good it can also be used as a real weapon and can ruin a person's life.
https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/cyber-bullying-statistics

Media's Effect On Relationships

Media's Effect On Relationships

Have you ever looked around in a restaurant and realized those who surrounded you are more involved with their phone then who they are sitting with at a table?
I have, and it seems to be getting worse as more media platforms develop, and reports show that people are interacting less face to face. Social media has caused cheating, partner neglect, and others to have negative body issues. A report has shown that about 72% of Americans use social media to create relationships with others, rather its on a friendly or romantic level.

Social media can negatively affect relationships in many different ways. For instance, when you start comparing yourself to other people, whether it's someone random or your friends. People start comparing their relationships to others and feel that they are missing something in their own romantic partnership because of the pictures they see online. People develop insecurities and may isolate themselves, which leads them to turn not to be as open to meet someone in person. 
Even though, in my opinion, there are more drawbacks to using social media to connect, there are many instances where people find it to be beneficial to their dating lives. People feel that social media has a positive impact, and it's easier to meet and get to know people more online. Up to 83% of teenagers report that social media connects them to their friends and 48% of adults between the ages of 18-29 have started romantic relationships online. Those who tend to be more introverted use social media platforms to meet others because they have fears, insecurities, physical issues, and other real struggles that stop them from being themselves in the real world.

Overall it depends on the person and what they feel more comfortable with. I, for instance, believe in an in-person connection and focus on living in the moment while others rather talk on a screen to get to know someone first before meeting.  I believe that there is no wrong or right when it comes to social media and dating but to be wary that it doesn't consume you and make you miss opportunities.
https://www.insider.com/how-social-media-affects-relationships

Illusory Truth Effect

  Illusory Truth Effect

Usually, a theory can be described as ideas people try to explain to others that they trust. People react differently to theories, but an important factor of a theory to remember is that it is just a hypothesis and needs to be proved to be able to be called the truth. Over the years, due to media and twisting, the truth theories can be manipulated, especially when it comes to politics.
One aspect that comes to mind when thinking of manipulation of information is the Illusory Truth Effect. This effect is the positive feeling we experience when we hear something that sounds good and is repeated enough. The important factor to know about the Illusory Truth Effect is that everything that you hear may not be true.

For instance, in politics, if certain information is repeated enough about a candidate, we start to believe it is true. The Illusory Truth Effect is used when public opinion matters and can manipulate information to sway people's minds. One example of this was a headline that circled around Facebook, conveniently leading up to the 2020 election. "Trump Is Now Trying To Get Mike Pence Impeached." Type this in your Google search and see all the media outlets that published this false claim. Even though this statement is false, having it be repeated may make people question. Even though the Illusory Truth Effect is used in politics, this effect has been widely used to persuade people to believe in numerous lies.
One of the most shocking attributes of the illusory truth effect is that it can occur regardless of prior knowledge that a statement is false. The term known as Fake News is prevalent when it comes to the illusory truth effect. Stories that we know as being falsified entirely can still make an impact and make us question the truth if the false fact has been spread around enough. Our knowledge doesn't even protect against the Illusory Truth Effect because repeating a certain statement is easier to process. This effect is most commonly used in today's age due to the wide range of media outlets.
Even though there are problems associated with the illusory truth effect, I believe the most frightening aspect behind it is the uncertainty element. If there are too many lies spread around, then people start to become unaware of what the truth is.

"If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
—Hannah Arendt
Overall the Illusory Truth Effect has more downsides and can make a person think a statement is true though it is false through repeated exposure of a story.
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202001/illusory-truth-lies-and-political-propaganda-part-1
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/342988/fake-news-runs-rampant-on-facebook-as-2020-electio.html

Privacy and Its Ethical Dilemmas

 Privacy and Its Ethical Dilemmas

Listening to several different TED talks, it was alarming to find out how much of our privacy is compromised. Learning about privacy in these talks reminded me of The Truman Show. It’s as if every conversation and all our personal information is up for surveillance, and without research, most wouldn't know that a “private” phone call isn't very private!
 At first, I knew about the Patriots Act that was administered after 9/11 to track calls to monitor for any suspicious activity. Still, I didn't realize our telephones and the networks that carry our calls were wired for surveillance first. I have read about privacy violation issues about US government involvement in our personal lives. For example, if I were to talk to my spouse or family but it didn't cross my mind that another government, a stalker, or a hacker could be listening until Christopher Soghoian’s Ted Talk! All it takes is someone who can break into the surveillance system.

There is confusion when it comes to privacy and breaking moral/ethical codes. I believe we try to justify the infringement, but it's also hard to stand by and have your rights be taken away from you.
Yes, we want the government to be able to listen in an identify potential terrorist threats or drug deals, but there is no such thing as a terrorist laptop or a drug cellphone. What this means is that if terrorist telephone calls can be intercepted, so can ours.
An example of this was In 2009, when the surveillance system at Microsoft and Google was compromised by the Chinese government because the Chinese government wanted to figure out which one of their own agents the US government was monitoring.

 I like the metaphor Christopher used by saying when you build a backdoor and leave it open, you don't know who could come through it. Someone non-threatening like a friend or someone could break in through that backdoor, and the same applies in the communication world. If you leave a backdoor into a communication network open, you have no way of controlling who will go through it, good guys or bad guys.
Even though there are many pros to building software to protect our privacy and make interception impossible, the downside of building networks to be as secure would be that it'd make it impossible to catch the bad such as terrorists. The world has to choose what is more important to them, and that goes into different people's perspectives of what liberties they are willing to give up.
https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_how_to_avoid_surveillance_with_the_phone_in_your_pocket

Everything Social Media

Everything Social Media

When using my social media platforms, I have always been more reserved when it comes to posting content and photos. I am currently only using four social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Snapchat.
I always learned to be careful with the content I share, thanks to my father. I grew up with a parent who is involved in the business world. He always taught me about the importance of not posting content that could cause difficulty in the future when it came to my career. For example, you would never see a social media post of me partying and going wild on spring break. Instead, you would see a calm and collected photo of me enjoying the beach. I also try not to post to much personal information about my religion, political views, or any beliefs that could possibly make a job recruiter offended or uncomfortable.
 The one concern I have always had is not what I post but what people post of me. Yes, I am more composed when it comes to posting, but I cannot control what others post. It has always worried me about what others could do to my career from one photo that wasn't even my intention to be seen by the public.
For personal information, I am relatively private. I try not to reveal much besides my age and where I am from. On the other hand, I do post about content that I believe people would enjoy knowing about, such as my favorite movies, hobbies, and other general facts. Besides being more reserved on most of my social media, the only platform I've released my phone number and email to is LinkedIn for potential job offers or questions on my resume.
Overall my personal experience using social media has been positive. My initial interest in social media was to connect with loved ones who are far or to post photos I want to share with the world. I also enjoy looking back at all the memories I have made, and it makes my family happy to keep track of what I am currently doing.

On the contrary, I can see how social media can have a negative effect on people. An important word that has developed over the years that causes people extreme anxiety and nervousness is FOMO (fear of missing out). People don't feel satisfied with themselves or their lives when they see others enjoying it more. For example, people who are on the heavier side or who don't have perfect skin can feel depressed when they see photos of Instagram models that make them feel different. They wish they could look like others, which makes them feel malcontent with themselves.  Or someone who already feels alone can feel more lonesome if they follow a person who continually posts about having a good time with their friends.
There are pros and cons to social media, and it just depends on how people use it. People can use it in an ethical or immoral way. For example, there is a fine line when it comes to online dating. For anyone who has experienced it, online dating can be significant or catastrophic. Some people who have been unhappy with how they look can decide to catfish another person. Catfishing is when you pretend to be someone else on social media. For example, If I made a Tinder account and stole pictures of an Instagram model, and I said I was her- That would be catfishing. To contradict that, people can also fall in love and feel less nervous to talk to people online before meeting in person.

A definite pro to social media is how people have made it into their career. Famous social media influencers such as LeLe Pons or Liza Koshy have over 40 million followers on their social media platforms and make a living off of posting.

In the end, it all depends on what you want your influence to be on social media.
https://www.google.com/search?q=lele+pons&client=firefox-b-1-
https://mediakix.com/blog/top-influencers-social-media-instagram-youtube/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/
https://whatismyipaddress.com/catfish

Diffusion of Innovations Snapchat

                                                  Diffusion of Innovations Snapchat

To start off before going into detail about the success of Snapchat is to first go into the history of how this brilliant idea was first made. The idea for Snapchat came from three students at Stanford University, Reggie Brown, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. These three came up with idea of creating an application that a person could send images which would disappear after a few seconds. After coming up with the concept these three developed an app that transformed into a multibillion-dollar app. From the history of how Snapchat was developed, we can further discuss the Diffusion of Innovations Theory as a lens to look at this social media platform's success and spread.

This famous app we all know of today was not always named Snapchat. The social media platform at first was named Pictaboo in September 2011. Soon after two of the members that created the app Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy renamed it Snapchat. The real genius behind the idea of Snapchat and what made it stand out was the idea that no other application had come up with the concept of having disappearing pictures.
Even though Snapchat is commonly used today it had a slow pick up back in 2011. Most of its early adopters were other Stanford students and after a couple of months, the app only had about 100 users. Even though the social media platform started slow word of mouth became a very powerful tool in this apps future success.
A family member of one of the founders shared the app with one of his school friends and next thing you knew the platform became a sensation. It soon became a hit with teenagers and people out of interest started to download the app. After the application became more popular users were satisfied with all the features that came with the platform.

From personal experience, I was about fourteen when I downloaded Snapchat and was enamored with the new qualities the app featured that I never saw before. From being able to send goofy photos my friends could never save or having a serious conversation with someone that couldn’t be shared with others. It added a personal experience and created a safe space.
This is what made this social media platform spread like wildfire to younger generations. This platform had the advantage of being different which fascinated people. The interest of having an app that provided the disappearing photos and videos encouraged people to download and try the platform. It removed the worry from users' minds of others storing or documenting photos. 
Looking at Snapchat as of June 2019 the growth of the social platform has skyrocketed. Snapchat has reached 210 million active daily users and daily active users increased by 8 percent year-over-year.
https://appsamurai.com/mobile-app-success-story-how-snapchat-did-it/
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/snapchat-statistics

Marketplace of Ideas

Marketplace of Ideas

 We can clearly see by imagining a marketplace of ideas how the first amendment was derived which decidedly sides with Milton that freedom of speech is the foremost right in society. The right to free speech allows for the creation of news mediums such as newspapers, television, and most recently social media forums to cast out opinions from who should be the next president to which brand of detergent works best against wine stains.
We see the advantage of having free exchange of ideas in both cases: where each candidate’s merits can be compared and such rigorous discourse can be used to truly find the best fit without having an existing government choose the candidate to serve their best interests.
Likewise, in the detergent example, people can be free to experiment which soap is the best to remove that stain. However, while freedom of speech is critical, it is not without flaws. 


 
While Milton’s marketplace is perfect in isolation- it can at times be myopic to the many variables in the real world. In the first example, a handful of news individuals can adopt stances of their personal truths which can strongly influence the masses. The masses can be subject to various cognitive biases and as a result, vote for candidates based on emotion over truth. In the detergent example, corporation X can pay researchers to fabricate studies claiming their product is superior, concealing the truth. 
The critique of the marketplace of ideas is that whom Milton considers a societal censor, can continue exerting influence in the shadows of free idea exchange.
While Milton’s marketplace of ideas most literally translates to free speech it can also be used u the category of economics. In Milton’s eyes, an ideal economy is one where goods and services are created and made better through competition. 
This competition will refine said products to be the best and thus chosen as superior by the public. Without a force controlling the means of production, the best companies make the best products. It can be easy to agree with Milton here as we would all be much happier if the government didn’t tell us that we had to use Bing over Google as the choice for search engine.
Likewise, a market place for ideas in economics encourages an entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking which is essential for societal progression as there will be no force preventing you from re-defining society as a whole- we think of Steve Jobs announcing the iPhone. Of course, much like in the free speech example, the marketplace of ideas draws limitations as it fails to account that the world is not run in a vacuum.


Luckily in today’s world, we are lucky to have both marketplaces of ideas and institutions that serve as balance. Milton pioneered that the common person should have no limitations in running his society or expressing interest in being a participant. In doing so, the standard shifted towards a marketplace which shifted control away from autocratic governments and churches. 
Today, the spirit of the marketplace of ideas is very well alive but we have not, for good reason, removed governments and other institutions as they now function largely to mend broken truth rather than take on the job of defining truth for all of us to obey.

https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/999/marketplace-of-ideas