Age of AI

The age of AI is finally upon us, and it's happening rapidly. Everyday jobs are being replaced quickly with technology, and artificial intelligence is all around us wether we realize it or not. The "age of AI" documentary from frontline PBS shows us just how advanced these technologies are, and what the future of AI truly will look like.

Within the first ten minutes of the documentary, a game similar to chess was played between human and AI. After a few rounds, the human was left with only one victory compared to the four wins of AI. This was a big moment for artificial intelligence, because "It's not that robots have beat humans, it's that one intelligence has surpassed another". This quote really stood out to me because we are now comparing humans so closely to a machine. 

With AI taking over many to all aspects of our daily lives, privacy has become little to none. Phones, surveillance cameras, radios and more are listening and learning at all times. Our phones are programmed to constantly listen to what we say for personalized ads. This is a huge breach of privacy. Though it may seem invasive, it can be helpful and efficient for us at times. In this day and age almost everything we need or want is at a click of a button, and with AI working at all hours to make sure you are seeing the ads you want to see, shopping has never been easier! 

The age of AI is upon us, and there is nothing we can do to stop it now. Technologies will continue to grow and advance, while humans will continue to blindly use them. 

EOTO: Framing Theory

Framing Theory is often known as the process by which people develop a particular conceptualization of an issue or their thinking of an issue. This is often demonstrated in various news sources, when broadcasters present an issue to the public, but only share one side of the story. This creates judgements and biases of a subject before the person receiving the information fully understands the subject, so that they could make their own opinion about the situation. Israeli psychologists were the first to systematically study this topic and prove the framing theory affects our decision making. Framing theory can often be mistaken as agenda setting theory, which is the exposure to a message many repeated times that leads you to believe it to be true just based on how much you see it. Though these theories sound and are similar, framing theory is more precise in showing you a story exactly how you should see and feel about it. 

The main effect of framing theory is manipulation. It is your awareness about situations and topics, and gives you a false perspective of a situation. You may think that you know everything about a subject after listening to just one news source, but in reality that news source could be extremely biased and leave out very important pieces to the story to their advantage. Whether we realize it or not, our decisions and choices about something heavily rely on how it's presented, worded, and even looks. The most common framing seen most often is something that draws positive gain, or negative gain towards an object, person, or situation. Another reason that framing theory takes place is because our brains are wired to make shortcuts to preserve time and energy. This is also known as “heuristics”. Heuristics are shortcuts in the brain that help us make quick decisions about things in a timely manner. Though this is helpful to us in many ways, it leaves us more susceptible to framing theory due to the lack of fully processing the situation before making a definite decision about it, and not re-evaluating. 

How can this be avoided?

The best way to avoid and overcome framing theory is to understand that other people will not see the problem from the same perspective as you, and collect news from multiple sources. With this being said, it's crucial to seek information from multiple sources and different perspectives. To fully understand a story, you must be willing to look past the simple frame that framing theory is showing you. Though framing theory is mainly seen in the news, we can see it in many other aspects of our lives, even including the grocery store. While shopping for groceries you see two different beef products that cost and weigh exactly the same. One of them says 80% lean, while the other says 20% fat. After comparing the two, you come to the conclusion that the 80% lean meat seems like a healthier option than the 20% fat. In reality, these are the same steaks, but the packaging led one to be in favor of the other.

Diffusion of Innovations

 

Diffusion theory is known as a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technologies spread. A well known professor in the study of communications named Everett Rogers first popularized this idea in his book “Diffusions of innovations”.

Today I am going to be talking about Instagram, and how it’s viewed through the lens of Diversion Theory. The original Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger in 2010. The app was originally designed to be a platform for users to upload nice edited photos to share with family and friends, to where today it is known as a photo sharing, calling, and messenger app with over 1.21 billion users. Many people became early adopters to this app because it didn’t seem like an oversaturated social media app. Instagram was viewed as a simple photo platform, which intrigued parents and photographers at first. The app was also beginning to be heavily used by children anywhere from ages 12- 18 at the time. Many people became early adopters to this app because it became popular very quickly, and had fast and new technologies that other apps did not have.

As for late adopters, older people thought this app to be unnecessary, or too mainstream to use. Though this new technology is fun and easy to use, there are many downsides to the Instagram app. Some of these downsides are instagram addiction, non realistic lifestyle image, and oversharing information. Instagram can be very harmful to the younger generations of kids using the app due to how easily they can be influenced, and inappropriate content showing up in the explore page. Though over 21.1% of the world’s population uses this app, there is a good amount of people who choose not to use this app for good reasons. Not being invested in the instagram app can lead to clearer mindspace, no instagram addiction, and a better perception of what the reality of life actually looks like.

Reaction to EOTO: Gatekeeping

 Gatekeeping is often known as restricting information and controlling access to something. Gatekeeping can also be closely related to censorship which is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information.

Gatekeeping is an issue in today's society due to how it can affect what information we receive and the distorted narrative behind it. Not only does gatekeeping distort information, it shifts the attention from important news stories we should be focusing on, to lesser important quick news stories designed to grab your attention. An example of this would be influencer drama posted every day on snapchat news stories, or tiktok. These “news stories” are simply space fillers and attention grabbers to shift our attention from real and important issues the media doesn't want us to see. 

The best way we can combat gatekeeping is to make sure we always fact check news sources, and hear all sides of a story to fully understand the subject. The media loves to be in control of what we see and think about things, so we must combat the way the media controls our information for the betterment of our society. 

Anti War

 After doing some research and looking at a few political websites I can confidently say they all have one thing in common. They all want war. But why could this be? It's all about power. In the midst of a violent and cruel war, the government has power over the falling country and is able to collect large amounts of money. Antiwar voices are always casted away because the government doesn't want this side to be heard. It’s all about power and control, and when the topic of anti war surfaces, it's shut down. If you take a closer look at the https://www.antiwar.com/ and https://www.theamericanconservative.com/ website, you can tell that the information is not laid out neatly or nicely. It seems like the publisher was urgent to get this information out in any way that they could. Headlines are close together, and lots of information in various places are placed all over this website. It's overwhelming to look at, and confirms one thing. The fact that I had never seen this information before, and there was a reason for it. The government only shows us one side of things, and boosts topics that we “should” hear. This isn't fair. There shouldn't be punishment or hidden information simply because we have another opinion. If we don't have unbiased opinions and truthful information about both sides of an argument… is this country really free?

EOTO Timeline: The first email

 For my EOTO project I decided to research the history of the very first email. In 1971 the very first email was created by Ray Tomlinson. Ray invented the idea of email while he was still working for ARPANET, which is known as the advanced research projects agency network. Ray created the first email while he was working on ways to improve the ARPANET system, and decided there should be a feature where you could communicate online. While the idea was still new, Ray had only figured out a feature where you could send messages to a person using the same computer. Soon he figured out how to wire messages from one computer to another only on the ARPANET system. In 1976, the queen made history by sending her very first email. Her username was “HME2”, which stood for “Her majesty elizabeth the second”. In 1996, more and more users started using email. People started to realize the efficiency and simplicity of the email. In 1998, the first spam mail surfaced. Unwanted emails were showing up on everyone's accounts, causing frustration by users. In 2002, the first email became wireless! This was a big step in the history of the email. People could now use email from various different wireless platforms including the blackberry and other wireless phones at the time. Moving down the line in later years, around 2004, Gmail was created and completely changed the game. This was the fastest, cleanest, and most up to date email of its time. Almost every and all users switched to gmail, and the rest was history. The email completely changed the game for communication. Before the first email, the main form of communication consisted of morse code, radio transmission, and written letters. Now that email has been created, communication has never been easier and more accessible. Email is known to be used by almost all people, and is even now used by advertisers. Though there were many upsides to the creation of the email, there were still a few downsides. Some of these downsides being spam mail, pressure to respond, and misunderstandings. Spam mail has taken over all email platforms creating it difficult for users to sort through. This caused users to create multiple email accounts where they can have one for personal email, and the other for spam mail. This is just a problem in itself. Forgotten passwords, unsure of which email to use, and much more. The pressure to respond has also become a prevalent issue in email. Studies have shown that people feel pressured to respond to all emails, even when you don’t have to. Emails also play a large role in digital footprint and misunderstanding. Never send an email that you wouldn't want posted on the front page of the newspaper… because it just might happen!

https://www.emailonacid.com/blog/article/email-marketing/history-of-email/

8 Values of Free Expression

 

The eight values of free expression play a crucial role in keeping society in line. These values give people freedom to freely express their thoughts and opinions without the fear of being censored by the government. The eight values include: marketplace of ideas, participation in self government, stable change, individual self fulfillment, check on governmental power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and Protect dissent. After reading and learning more about these values, I feel that I resonate and feel the closest with Individual self fulfillment. Individual self fulfillment is an ongoing journey of an individual creating and shaping their own image. This value really allows you to express yourself freely and create your own personal identity. Personally, I use social media in many aspects of my life to create who I am to the public eye. When I was just seventeen years old, I started my own makeup business. I began with making small videos where I would post tutorials online, and teaching my friends some of my techniques. Now, I do makeup for weddings, photoshoots, and other various events. Though my business mostly relies on in person clientele and other various makeup jobs, a large portion of my business was marketing myself online. To keep this business up and running, it's crucial for me to post daily and weekly content to my social media platforms. Through the Individual self fulfillment value I am able to build and create my own image online without worrying about the government controlling what I post, or having a say about how I build my image. This is incredibly important to me because Instagram and TikTok are the main social media platforms I have been using to gain more followers and clientele. If I wasn’t able to post things that I wanted to and market myself online, my business would not be where it is today. Another value that I think is very important would be the Stable change value. This value makes the point that a society that lets people vent their opinions to create a less violent society. I think that this value is incredibly important and helpful when creating a stable environment to share opinions and solve issues amongst each other. I also feel that this one is seen in action the most today. Protests, free speech, and other various ways to express yourself have been heavily implemented in today's society so that people feel they can let off steam and express their opinion. By allowing this to happen instead of silencing everyone, more conversation and problem solving begins to occur. If everyone's opinions were silenced and cut off, anger and rage would arise amongst communities, and bigger issues would begin to spark.