Final Post

 Technology

Technology through the ages has had a massive impact on our society as a whole, there are some days now that I would always go back and think about where we would be without technology in our lives, wondering what the world would be like and how far people would advance without technology. Today, society as we know heavily relies on technology and depends on it for almost all of our basic needs in life. From using technology for basic needs or to help do jobs for us. However, with the introduction of technology, not only have their been some great additions in our lives but there have also been some negative affects as well. 

Positives

With the everyday use of technology, there are many positives that come with using technology in our lives. Firstly, technology gives entertainment to people everywhere, letting every day be different and more enjoyable than the previous. It also helps give people a more creative way of thinking by eliminating repetition in our lives. I would know since I am always online playing games, but every day is different from the previous one and the experience is always different. Another benefit is that it gives us the ability to create more equality in or society. What I mean by this is that because of technology, people who are disabled or who have speaking problems are now able to communicate with others instead of having to live with disabilities. Also because of technology, knowledge is more worldwide in our society rather than mainly fir higher class people. It has also helped with better understanding literature and mathematics because of these technological advances. For example, when I write essays or even blogposts such as these for classes, technology always helps me with writing and formulating properly with the usage of an editor tool in Word. Also just built into some writing websites, the coding within the writing program itself helps identify mistakes and errors in or writing to let us know that we should fix those mistakes. These have already drastically helped improved not only my writing but I'm sure many other people's writing as well. 

Along with these benefits, other benefits that technology has given us include a better way to manage money, better ways to track time, better ways to save time, better ways to communicate and even more. Because of technology, it has allowed us to connect with other people and also has allowed us to be able to have more creative ways of thinking in our society. Innovations and inspirations these days all come from technology. However, with that being said, we shouldn't take technology for granted because there are also a lot of ways that technology can negatively impact us.

Negatives

With the usage of technology in our society, there can also be some repercussions to using technology every day in our lives. One of the biggest issues with technology is the addiction to it that people have. Some questions that you should be asking yourself for whether you have an addiction to technology are questions like "Can I reach my device right now without moving" or "Am I constantly immersed in time-bound environments" and especially "Is my relationship with tech harming my well-being". These questions can help us get a better understanding of where we are as people with technology. 

Some mental affects that technology can have on a person can include isolation, depression, and anxiety. Isolation occurs with many people that are highly active on social media, this is because instead of people interacting with others in the real world, they would rather instead talk to people on social media or other similar apps which can lead to isolation in their lives. Now depression and anxiety were also big factors when it came to impacts on people because of technology. According to the authors of a 2016 systematic review, disorders such as depression and anxiety are highly affected by social environments where people are either being judgmental and the way they think can be more self-centered. Basically, if someone starts getting a lot of hate online in society, it can lead to depressive symptoms and can cause negative emotions an anxiety in their mental state. 

AntiWar

 Antiwar

Antiwar at the time and even now is a big deal but a lot of what people say are almost never heard of by others online. I big reason for this is because of mainstream media being able to tell where biases stand in terms of people giving their own opinion about certain conflicts between nations and during wars. A big example of this would be people that do protests that are easier for the media to handle or just even ignore don't really make it onto the news as much as antiwar protests that grab the media's attention and adds more pressure into decision making in the media.

Media

Media plays a big role when it comes to Anti-war protests in nations all over. There are 4 main reasons why media is able to just ignore most anti war protests that are made from the people. The media considers a lot of anti war protests to be one a smaller scale so it makes it harder for them to ignore tens or hundreds of protestors without revealing what biases they have. Another reason is that many protests for war are very formulaic or predictable, almost as if they were scripted. Because of the face that they seem scripted, its much easier for the media to just ignore these protests. However, protests that are more creative or baffling often gain more attention from people and the media to where they can't ignore it. A third reason is that protests that don't pressure the media are usually just dealt away with really quickly and are taken care of. However, if a protest disrupts business such as traffic flow or strikes becomes a big deal, than media would be heavily involved and pressured into covering these stories. The last thing that media can do to just ignore antiwar is because the media has their own interest when it comes to wanting something positive that would benefit them, if they don't feel like the news coverage about the antiwar protest would benefit the media, than they wouldn't cover it and just simply ignore it.

 War Protests

There are many well-known Antiwar protests that have been marked in history but there are two big ones that I believe have great importance when it comes to sparking antiwar movements. The first one was the war against Vietnam. In this war, the U.S was firing bombs and nukes against Vietnam, killing thousands and thousands of people with no gain from it. At that point, people believed that we weren't fighting for anything at all and just killing people for no reason which is why the anti-war protest became a huge deal. This anti-war movement inspired many anti-war songs such as "Backlash Blues" and "Saigon Pride" which express the importance of protests, and some were even considered protests themselves. 

The second one was anti-war movements on the war against Iraq. This war against Iraq was non beneficial and was just a reaction for what happened during 9/11 and the U.S government basically just wanted revenge for it so they entered war with Iraq. Many people realized that this was not beneficial for the U.S and this was correct. After the war, the government was in debt around 2 trillion dollars and had lost many people during the war. Now the protestors were trying to warn and were against the idea of the invasion of Iraq, they were stating that Colin Powell had falsely claimed that Iraq had weapons of massive destruction. Even after hearing this, the government just chose to ignore it and entered into war with Iraq anyways. This protest is by far the biggest one out there after the Vietnam protest.

EOTO #2 Reacts

 Five Eyes Reaction

The Five Eyes first of all is an intelligence corporation consisting of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It was established after WW2 and is used to share intelligence, resources, and sensitive information to ensure security for all 5 countries and help improve combating global threats. These main 5 eventually evolve into the 9 eyes which includes Denmark, France, Netherlands, and Norway. Eventually, it gets known to be called the 14 eyes with the inclusion of Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Sweden along with the original 9 that were already part of the group. With a group this big, it has also sparked debates in several countries about national security. I personally think that having countries sharing personal information with others is not a great idea because that could easily backfire on us, and we don't know whether what they are sharing is going against the Constitution. 

Pros

A lot of the benefits of having the 5 eyes has to do with the benefit of national security and increasing defense in these nations, along with being able to share private information with one another and help deal with any major problems that may come up in the future that could pose a national threat. There is also the note that they are not allowed to spy on each other and instead, share information with each other. They also intercept information transmitted online or over phone. 

Cons

Now when it comes to concerns with the 5 eyes, there are many that I can list. First of all, its already violating our own personal privacy as people. Some areas ban the usage of VPN's which is how we can help protect our privacy from the 5 eyes. With them collecting information and private data from us and then even sharing that with other countries, there is no guarantee that we are ever safe from other countries as well as our own with the spread of private information. Another issue that strikes me is that even though they aren't supposed to spy on each other, there are already leaks showing that they have been spying on each other for a while and taking private information from each other. This could also impact our freedom of speech to a certain degree too. Knowing that anything we say online is monitored not just from our own country but also from third party countries makes it to where people aren't going to want to say anything political either. All of this information comes from the Snowden leaks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that the 5 eyes have strayed off from their initial intents of national security and improving defense for all of their nations. Now I believe that they are still in cohorts with each other but in a very questionable manner where they have already been taking information from each other and using for themselves. I believe that no amount of information we put in the internet will be safe with the 5 eyes being able to see personal information that is used online.

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 Overton Window

   

Joseph P. Overton

Conceptualized by Joseph P. Overton in the 1990's, the Overton Window is a range of policies and ideas that the public considers to be acceptable or mainstream. It captures the ebb and flow of how society accepts various ideas through its movement that is shaped by media, political endorsements, and significant events. 

The concept of the Overton Window actually came from his first idea of using this concept as a way to convince donors that his organization that he was doing very valuable work in his company. After he died, his Mackinac colleague had taken up the concept into politics and named it after Overton himself, eventually it being known as the Overton Window. 

Spectrum

The Overton Window has a spectrum divided up into 5 different categories being Popular, Sensible, Acceptable, Radical, and Unthinkable. Each of these categories had to do with how ideas were viewed on the spectrum and that only the popular ideas would be taken up as policies. Popular ideas were widely accepted and supported. Sensible ideas were deemed reasonable but universally embraced by society. Acceptable ideas were tolerated but not supported. Radical ideas were extreme but were discussed among people. And finally, unthinkable ideas were considered outside the realm of possibility and public acceptance. These five make what as we know to be the Overton Window.

Shifts in Society

While the Overton Window does have a spectrum, that spectrum can change based on different types of shifts in society. The 4 types of shifts in society are usually caused by Media Influence, Political Leaders, Social Movements, and Major Events in society. 

Media Influence

Media influence is when media narratives shrink or expand the range of ideas that are seen as acceptable. An example of this would be depiction of gender roles in society, and persuasion to donate to charities or for other purposes. This affects a person mentally through their decision making through the influence of the media.

Political Leaders

Political leaders are able to affect the Overton Window by affecting the way people think through endorsements or denouncements which can sway public opinion. An example of this would be during presidential campaigns where they try to sway public opinion so they can be voted.

Social Movements

Social Movements are when grassroot movements or prominent figures in society help popularize ideas that become public movements. An example of this would be the feminist movement which aimed to express equality between men and women in society.

Events

Events in history have made a great impact on society and have affected how the Overton Window has shifted. Some of these events include wars, major incidents, economic downturns, and even pandemics which can change what is deemed as acceptable in society. An example of this would Covid when it was very big at the time, people start accepting the fact that we needed to socially distance from each other and that we all needed to where masks and take vaccines to do what we can to not gain or spread the Corona virus.

Conclusion

With all of these different ways that the Overton Window can change in our society, there is no doubt in my mind that anything could change with the way people think and what people demand at the time. This could either go from one small change to another or it could even change the very way we live in our lives. 

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 First Camera Phone

Before phones became a big deal in society, there existed camera phones which were mainly used for taking calls and taking digital pictures. The origins of the camera phones come from 3 different variants of the camera phone that was made. Both the SCH-V200 and the Kyocera camera phones were made in the 2000's while and earlier version of the camera phone that was not as popular had already been released much before these two, Kahn.

SCH-V200

In 2000, Samsung had made what is known as the SCH-V200 which is a camera phone that uses digital photos. The SCH-V200 is able to take up to 20 digital photos, each being at 350,000-pixel resolution. The phone and camera bodies were even basically two different parts that were combined into one phone that housed a camera. However, at the time, it had another counterpart in Japan which was known as Kyocera.

Kyocera

Also in 2000, a Japanese company that went by the name of "Kyocera" started developing their own versions of camera phones. Not only did the Kyocera act as a camera phone, but it was also able to take videos as well unlike its competitors at the time. The first edition, known as the VP-210, was released in 1999 in Japan. It used a 110,00 pixel camera to send images to Japan's PHS mobile phone network system. The goal for them behind the development was to enable more enjoyment when it came to calls between people and enabling a video function so people could see each other during calls by using the digital camera in the phone. 

Despite the fact that the Kyocera and the SCH-V200 were revolutionary at their time, they are not the original versions of the camera phone. This dates back to 1997 when Phillipe Kahn developed what would be considered as the first ever camera phone in existence.

Kahn

On June 11th, 1997, Phillip Kahn invented what is known as the first ever camera phone to take digital photos. His inspiration and motivation comes from his daughter when she was being birthed alive. At the time, Kahn didn't have a way to take memorable photos so he improvised and used a mobile phone with a digital camera and sent photos of his daughters birth in real time. This allowed for me real time captures and moments that he would not want to forget.

Because of these inventions, it has lead us to what we use today as modern phones with built in cameras to capture moments that are valuable to us, it truly is astounding to think how such a low quality of technology can advance so drastically and allow us to capture those moments that we admire just as Phillip Kahn did with her daughter. I believe that these are the happy moments that the initial inventions wanted to get out of us.

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TS'AI LUN 

The invention of paper goes to Ts'ai Lun back in A.D. 105. The way that people made parchments and stuff to write on before Ts'ai Lun invented paper was through the use of silk. However, at the time there was a huge problem that occurred and that was that there wasn't enough silk to be produced at the time with inventions of calligraphy and animal hairbrushes that also needed silk. This caused a massive reduction in production of books to the point where a better source of material was needed to mass produce books at that time. Ts'ai Lun made paper out of rags, fishing nets, hemps, and China grass, which caused a massive production increase in China. 

Printing Press

The printing press was invented in 1450 by Johannes Gutenburg. Unlike the paper model made by Ts'ai Lun, the printing press was much more efficient when it came to paper making. Instead of using silk, the printing press used metal and placed blocks with each letter of the alphabet. He also made larger quantities of the printing press by using replicas casting which created brass and made replicas by pouring molten lead over them. He also made his own ink when making the printing press because it would not have worked without a very specific type of ink that could affix to metal instead of wood. 

Impacts

There are four major impacts that paper had on society when it was invented, and mass produced.

One big impact that paper had on society was that it helped retain information and knowledge in the form of scholarly journals and books. Because of these inventions that helped mass produce paper, it led to a wider publication of books and knowledge to be spread among the population. This let people around the world instead of just the rich to be able to absorb knowledge that has been written down.

Another big impact that paper had on society was hygiene. Back before paper wasn't invented and mass produced, people were unhygienic because they didn't really have a way to clean themselves. Now with paper being invented, people can now wash their hands wipe them off or just clean themselves up using paper towels or toilet paper. This also impacted the spread of bacteria at the time and it reduced it by a large margin. This led to people living healthier and cleaner lives. 

Another big impact was the invention of newspapers. News papers allowed for wider communication to the public, revealing news about what is going on in society such as politics and economics. It also helped keep the population entertained with the wide variety of little games that appeared frequently on news papers such as word searches and cross word puzzles. But the biggest impact that news papers had was just the amount of information being speeded through them. It lead to a massive increase in demand to the point that there were even "rag wars" in America which is using rag paper to produce newspapers instead of regular paper. This also lead to the invention of the Paper Mill which helped mass produce paper using lumber and wood. 

The last major impact that paper had on society was the usage of recycling paper to make more products. The recycling industry was actually made because of the amount of paper that has been wasted in the past, which people realized it as an issue. Now because we recycle paper, it has helped reduce deforestation on our environment and helped increase the production of paper because all the recycling goes back into paper mills. It also helped clean up city streets and helped keep our towns and city clean from landfill.

 

Age of AI

Google

Google was one of the very first steps when it came to ai production, it was a simple company that let people ask questions and they would receive many different answers that they could look into. The company started out thriving for a while until the .com crash. The company founders were desperate and needed a way to keep it alive, so they gathered data from the answers that were provided used that data that people received to help other companies to keep theirs alive. I think personally that Google knowing what we like and dislike is not a bad thing because it gives us recommendations based on our searching history and what we look up all the time as interests. However, there are way more cons than pros to this because it is also taking personal information and storing that in a data bank that Google owns, this includes personal information and other information that we would not want companies to have access to. I think this scary to think about because its basically letting me know that it has all my information and it can use it at any time and I wouldn't even know it, it also has personal information and that is just frightening to think about. Just from the segment when they were talking about Google, there are already many takeaways from this such as you should be careful with what you put out on the internet because that can be used as data by Google depending what you search up.

Voice Recognition

Alexa is another example of advancements in Ai production. It helps us with just being able to use our voice to ask for things rather than having to type it in on a computer or in google. It also has voice recognition that way Alexa recognizes who is speaking at any time. This may seem like a good thing and it does have its benefits, but this is actually quite scary to think about considering "how does Alexa always know what I sound like". Alexa records our voices and no matter whether our voices are either scratchy or if were in the middle of coughing while we are speaking. Alexa will be able to recognize the person that is speaking at all times. That is because it stores that data of the person's voice just like how Google stores information of what we look up. So Alexa is basically storing very personal information into the company. Not only that, but it also stores the information of what we ask Alexa every time we talk to it. I think that this is really important to note because if our voices are stored into data, its very possible for our voices to be used as identity theft and as someone imposing as us because our voices were recorded, it's just as bad as our personal information getting stored.