Blog Post #12 ~ Final Blog Post ~ Technology

Final Blog Post ~ Technology

Technologies Amazing Advancement

Technology as a whole is an amazing advancement in society. It has changed our whole lives all together. It has helped us in many ways but also hinders us similarly. We can learn more about any resources, health, humans, animals, the ocean, our world, or even outside of it, the universe.

Let's look at ways for us as a society to connect together more, for example, communication. The only ways to speak to each other back in the day were in-person or face-to-face or by using animals like birds to deliver a letter. It wasn't until later we could ride horses to speed up the process, and then machines came along to speed it up. For instance, trains and cars, then eventually radios, personal computers and phones. These are all good inventions to improve communication with each other. However, the way they're used is a different story. 

Technology Can Be Quite Troublesome...

In today's society, we rely on it a lot, sometimes too much, and cause people to have issues. People today in towns, cities, restaurants, stores, and even schools are using phones all over the place and time. Teens, for example, it's like their hook to them; if they take their eyes off it for a couple of minutes, they feel like they miss something or are antsy. Texting each other, watching a video, face calling, playing games (EX: Pokemon Go!), or reading a post. 

Being glued to them or other forms of technology like that can hurt us, being injured by not paying attention when crossing the road or in general on the streets and sidewalks. Mentally, it can hurt us as well, especially using stuff like social media. If you post something and you receive negative comments (that being on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, or articles), it can hurt your feelings or have you feeling frustrated and mad, losing your composure. 

These comments and drama can make you feel depressed and mush-brained, getting full of yourself and losing your composure. This is why people are trying to stay away from these or cut down on the use of phones or these social media platforms. But besides those, they are pretty useful among the majority in the world. I usually try not to get involved with people online it's not worth your time. I just like to lurk around and comment on things I'm really passive about. 

Appreciating Technology?

I do, though, greatly appreciate what technology devices we have now, being able to be on the go and grab your phone and just look at what news is happening or being able to text or call my family in an instant, (With certain exceptions... like data plans, etc.) is convenient. It has definitely helped me learn and informed me on certain topics. The number of questions I searched that are on my mind or I need to get more clearance on is a lot, and getting that answer is useful in being more knowledgeable in that topic. 

There are times when a site can mislead you. I typically tend to look at credible sources or sources that are not opinionated and more on facts or information. However, without the proper guidance or knowing the basics of the cyber world, people won't pick up on these cues. This is why it's so easy to spread misinformation everywhere. In books, magazines, newspapers, what people see and hear, but most commonly online. 

Endless Possibilities with Technology & Creativity!

A really good thing about technology, though, is that it lets us be creative and figure out who we are,  what things we like, and what hobbies to develop; the discovery is endless. There are so many resources to get you started, like AI. Now, I know AI has its problems in society right now, but people have failed to realize how it can help you as a tool (AI). It can give prompts on how to get started with a creative piece if you provide ideas or information you have, or it can help you with calculations or how to use something in a program. It's not always right, but just like any other tool made by humans, the creation is only as good as the ones making it.

People see and hear about AI doing everything for you, and they lose it. It can indeed do some of those things, but the creative idea is still behind the person and how you should be using it. Use it to help you, not do it for you.  Plus, you need humans no matter what to control or fix something with a device; automation can't do everything. Even if something is automated, when it breaks or acts up, there always has to be a human or someone on site to fix it or manually manage the device.

Getting back on track, the endless amount of possibilities with technology creativity can shape a whole generation. Just look at TikTok for example, nearly around 50%+ of Gen Zers are using TikTok, even some Gen Alphaers. TikTok engagement only keeps going up and up. More people are using it, and if you ask me, I'm a little corned because TikTok kind of has a history of being known for people having low attention spans and not listening to critical topics. Their critical thinking skill is not necessarily the best... They skip on important details or brush it off like it's not a big deal, especially if they lose an easy agreement. 

Signing Off!

Overall, when comes to technology, it's evolving every second, and these things that I've mentioned are part of society, whether we like it or not. As humans, for us to grow, we collectively have to judge and make up our minds on these topics and move forward. Improve and innovate what is considered right and good for each other's well-being. Yeah, AI can be cornering and do all your work for you, but the way we use it is important. It has to be used and seen as a tool to help us, not do everything for us and lack human conviction. 

Also, the ways we manage our time with technology, too much of it can lead to the downfall of others, but when used responsibly, it can be convenient and useful throughout everyday human life. To travel, communicate, feed, or educate us or save our lives with the discovery and possibilities of medicine. 

We just have to adapt together and keep moving forward!

Blog Post #11 ~ EOTO Terms & Concepts Reax

EOTO Terms & Concepts Reax

A Concept I Found Interesting

The first concept that I found interesting during the presentation was influencers. Nowadays, influencers have a huge impact on the world, and there are many different types of influencers. Big influencers that have millions of followers, ones that are smaller and focus on a certain audience, even smaller ones, like around 250k or lower followers that have really engaged audiences, and lastly, I'm gonna mention gaming influencers, which range from any number of followers, millions to hundreds.

All of these types of influencers have a role in today's society. Gaming influencers can state their opinion and aspects of certain games if it's fun, good, or bad, have an interesting gimmick, or express something they encounter while playing. Their opinions and gameplay of games can sway people to buy that game or product. Making people support the game/developer or find the game fun and worth their time. 

Also, another thing that sways people on a game could be its merchandise, the working environment when a game is being developed, or if there is some kind of pay-to-win (P2W) feature or micro-transactions in the game. All these factors are very important when it comes to influencers. It takes one or many of them to sway a huge audience to not either support a game/product or heavenly boost it.

Now, of course, there are influencers in this world who are here to troll, and some may not even do it intentionally. It could be a misunderstanding when branching into a new genre/game, which is common with social media influencers on Instagram or a journalist playing a game. An example of this is the Cuphead incident with a journalist (Dean Takahashi) not understanding how to play the game and was REALLY BAD at following basic instructions and playing the game in general. Now, don't get me wrong, Cuphead is a difficult game, but I was able to beat it around 15ish, near middle school age. 

He even stated his whole issue about the game and then apologized to the gaming community and people for heavily criticizing the game Cuphead and the devs around it. He apologizes and mentions he was deemed unfit to be a game journalist.

Blog Post #10 ~ EOTO Terms & Concepts (llusory Truth Effect)

Illusory Truth Effect

The Illusory Truth Effect is quite the instreaming theory. From a citizen's perspective, it's not a good thing to be honest; it's not good for anyone. However, it does have its advantages, but what is the Illusory Truth Effect? The effect is pretty much believing false information that is spoken upon multiple times until it feels like it's true. For example, if I say coffee is good for you to drink every day for quick and easy energy. The thing is, that is true in some ways, but drinking or taking too much caffeine can be bad for your health, especially the time of the day you take it. Too much coffee can cause sleep disruption, high blood pressure, and weird heart rhythms, making your heart race.

People only hear the good side, and they start to believe it's 100% good for you, but in reality, it's not. The more people hear the lie, the more they begin to believe it. Have you ever heard the term "Don't believe what you see online" or something simpler? That is because what you see and hear can't be taken for granted, especially online. Online is probably the biggest place for misinformation and people stirring the truth. 

Let's look at Twitter/X for example, Twitter is filled with a bunch of people posting misinformation. People see a post and an account that regularly posts information on something and has a bunch of likes, and they believe it. The key thing is to do our research, especially on Twitter. On that platform, it's so easy to spread misinformation that some people even do it on purpose to troll and start drama and propaganda.

A recent drama that I know about is the whole thing with KSI, Logan Pual, and MrBeast collaborating to make a clone and "better" Lunchables called "Lunchly" and then a beloved creator from YouTube who is known by a generation of people, DanTDM, spoke upon something. I don't want to get in the nit and gritty of it, but Logan and others tried to call out Dan, but that didn't go so well... A generation of people came to defend him based on his comment that they shouldn't be advertising a product that could be misleading children. Again, I don't want to get into that topic too deeply, but many people kept correcting them on their product on what they say is true but weren't, and they got "Community Noted" on their posts for that. 

What is Community Notes? Community Notes is a feature on Twitter that adds context to misleading posts that usually have falsified information. This is a very useful feature for anybody involved because anyone can get swayed in the wrong direction in believing a lie to become a false truth. I myself have seen and benefited from community notes (EX: Flappy Bird coming back as a Crypto Scam.), sometimes I even bring up these topics to my parents/family and they either correct me or feel skeptical about what I just mentioned to them. Then I did a little research, and would you know it, what I saw was incorrect. 

Overall, you have to be careful in what you see and hear everywhere and do your research. Be cautious about what narrative is being told before you jump the gun and believe it. Otherwise, people or the media will have you or everyone else believing a story that's not even true or inaccurate.

Blog Post #9 ~ Antiwar Conundrums

Antiwar Conundrums

I gonna say I can't believe these websites have been pretty much shadow-banned. I have never seen these websites before. It's kind of like Twitter, where some media or people are just randomly shadow-banned. When I say shadow-banned, I mean whenever you post or do something, your things won't be publicly shared; only people who check your profile or follow you regularly would know what you're doing or posting. 

I would guess the website variation of shadow-banned is when the website is not easily discoverable through regular searches or is suppressed by someone higher up with the power not to show it. For example, companies that have power over searches like Google, Bing, Edge, and other search engines. Also, the countries could be suppressing the trafficking from the website.

The anti-war websites and topics are interesting because from a citizen's perspective, of course, you wouldn't want to fight a war with a bunch of people dying, soldiers dropping left and right, gory situations, and seeing loved ones being affected by War. You just want to live a peaceful life and with all these rules and laws being passed, especially people being able to be drafted for wars, of course, a lot of citizens don't want wars and fights to happen, it just seems like an overall huge negative. 

Especially when sometimes countries don't learn from when a war happens years later, feels like a lot of situations and issues always come back in the future in some weird way or a roundabout way to come back in society.

Now, from a company perspective and businesses and countries overall, depending on the person in power and a lot of them in the higher-ups, are going to think it is a positive. For companies, they benefit from supply and demand. They buy weapons from the same companies, and those companies are the one that funds the government. The government is also more likely to get more taxes for military spending. Also, the media coverage of wars is also crazy, especially when winning fights. The political parties benefit so much and gain so much from it. It can even drive them into the office or further their campaign. 

There are many scary things when it comes to greed and war; when things get tense, I feel like the peaceful or manageable options always get shadowed away...

Blog Post #8 ~ Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion Of Innovation theory is a theory that explains the rate of new ideas and how technology spreads. 

When something brand new comes out the reaction from most people are not going to use it immediately; they're going to wait and see how other people respond or how it's going to be used. Take the first computer, for example, in its very early stage. Computers were just blocky, stationary pieces of wire and electricity. A common person is not going to think much about it. One thought they may have might be how can this help us, advance us as a society, and how will it affect me specify. A lot of ifs and how it will really help; that's why you have to keep improving the product and innovating in a way people will care about and can use. 

Once you present the product well enough for people to become interested, some people will try it. Let's look back at personal computers, for example. The reason why they catch on is because personal computers have many features that are useful for increasing productivity. Using programs to conduct searches, calculate numbers and problems, being able to watch/display something, play games, and so much more. Of course, seeing all that is going to want people to have a computer. 

However, there will still be people on the fence. How convenient is this going to be? Will it change my daily life?  How much will this cost? Will this benefit me? Is it really worth it? Many questions that people are going to have. There are also types of people that don't care, think this is too much to gasp, or (Here's the big one!) being too expensive. All of these reasons are what can hurt a product, but realistically, a product is never going to capture every individual, just a huge majority. 

There are also sometimes situations where you know a product is good but people still don't use it or suition where see a bad thing about it. Computers, for example, you have to worry about not getting viruses and be safe in invaginating the internet and downloading programs. You could just say it's stubbornest from those people, but people still just don't see the benefit or reason to use it, even if it has a bunch of upsides. 

Lastly, you have people who can't at all benefit from the products, mainly because they can't afford them or they don't have access to them. Electronic things are pretty expensive; the cheapest good working personal computer pretty much goes for $200-400.

Blog Post #7 ~ EOTO Technology Presentations

EOTO Technology Presentations

Technology That I Learned

At the start of class, I learned about Television and who made the TV's first iteration, Philo T. Farnsworth. It first looked like a camera tube and then was put into those small boxy tv's. Part of it was made in 1927, but the first TV was made with the camera tube in 1929.

When I think about TVs, they still were very boxy for a long time in history; they were small, a bit lighter, and then they got bigger and heavier. They also later started to have more inputs, like VHS, HDMI cables, cable TV, and satellite TV. It took 68+ years until we got flat-screen TVs, and even then, they weren't even that flat, more of a thick rectangle.

Next, I learned from the presentations, were about the Internet; and some things related to it, like emails. I know many countries launch satellites, but I don't think I knew that Russia was the one that started the wave of the internet by sending a satellite into space. And of course, like most inventions in the early days, they were used for military purposes, and I'm pretty sure ever since the internet began to spark there have been many underground and water cables for the internet, especially when the internet was used for military reasons. 

Lastly, what I would like to mention that I learned was about emails and something that adds to the whole grand scheme of the internet. Emails were invented by Ray Tomlinson in 1971 but weren't really used a lot until the late 1990s. Actually, Bill Clinton was the first one to use emails, and he really didn't use them that much. I feel like the reason why emails weren't being used during that era might be because of spam emails. Spam emails weren't a thing until Bill Clinton was president. Another thing to add might be that people didn't have great access to or could buy PC or phones that use email. 

Blog Post #6 ~ Communication Tech Timeline EOTO ~ History of Personal Computers.

Communication Tech Timeline EOTO

Here's my outline for my presentation below: ⬇️

Hey guys, my name is James.

Today, I am going to be talking about the history of personal computers. Now, when we think about 

personal computers, we think about modern ones, but of course, it wasn't always like that. In the early days, around like early 1940s, computers were just a huge box of cords and switches and just stationary; they couldn't really go anywhere like today with computers. They were also loud and would

have a bunch of wheels twisting and turning. The big boxy computers could do calculations, but of course, it would be like sounds or lights to get forms of feedback and to tell what the heck it was doing.

Jumping a little bit forward until around the 1950s, they started to become a little bit smarter and smaller, being calmer and more compact, for example, the ENIAC computing system (1943), and the first computer program to run on a computer around 1948. Most of the computers made during the mid-19s were from universities or university computers. There were also a lot of them being used for military purposes or a special version of that current computer being used for military purposes like radar or translators. All of these computers were being heavily worked on, and just in the span of 10 years, there was a huge accomplishment from IBM (International Business Machines) making the 1401 Mainframe, which replaced all the Vacuum Tube Technology with smaller and more reliable transistors.
These transistors were the first to be used in their series of computers as well, and by the mid-1960s, nearly half of all computers were using IBM 1401.

It doesn't stop there with IBM; they still accomplished a lot, and this leads me to the bigger impacts of computers from the late 19s till modern times.

But before we get to IBM, Apple came along, and with the beloved Steve Jobs, and made the "Apple-I," which is a single-board computer, and then the "Apple-II" was introduced, which was a little bit bigger

but had all these features: a main logic board, switching power supply, a keyboard, case, game paddles, and so much more other little features. Apple was quite an impressive device for personal computers, but when connected to a color TV set, it produced brilliant color graphics. Apple sold millions between 1977 and 1993, making it the longest live personal computer. It was really the next generation of access to personal computers.

However, IBM made a huge impact as well during that time around 1981.

IBM introduced its own personal computer, and it was extremely popular during that time frame. It was the world's most popular personal computer in microprocessing using
certain operating systems and adapting from Microsoft. It was hard for other companies to compete with IBM because the only thing they really had to base on was prices, so there were a bunch of clones out there trying to compete with it.

I'm going to summarize quickly from that period (IBM & Apple) to now because there's so much information in history about personal computers. So, pretty much over the years, it became more innovative and more advanced to the point of getting desktops with that boxy-looking screen and base. Computers have gotten better layouts of

mice, and keyboards, and of course, computers becoming smarter and faster and have more processing power and visuals. Eventually, getting to laptops, but they looked like toy-looking laptops, very blocky. Those also came a long way to becoming smaller, flatter, lighter, and a lot easier to use.

And that's pretty much the brief history or jest of personal computers.

Sources:

1. https://www.britannica.com/technology/personal-computer
2. https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_computers
4. https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.highpoint.edu/stable/26059463?seq=7
5. https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/invention-of-the-pc