My Relationship With Technology

In this day and age, I consider it to be very difficult to make the claim that you have a "healthy" relationship with technology. Taking a step back and not just analyzing myself but even the people around me, there always seems to be the constant use of technology in everyones lives. I refer, mostly, in this instance to the omnipotence of smartphones and the internet in our lives, so this will be the main focus of my discussion in terms of how I relate with technology. I've already talked at length in previous posts on this blog of mine about the importance of digital technology in our day and age. I've talked about how I feel regarding my opinion that having a personal computer now feels necessary to receive a proper education, so I feel it would be redundant to continue that statement here. When looking at technology under the umbrella of the world wide web, however, that's an entirely different beast that I feel has much more of a good reason to be discussed at length here, not just because of matters we've discussed in class like censorship but because of how it steadily becomes a more and more prevalent aspect of all of our lives. And if it wasn't clear already, I think the amount of time spent on the internet, not just by myself but by others of all demographics, is not a balanced amount of time in any regard.

When thinking about the information the internet provides me with, I don't like to think of it as "unreliable as much as it is "repetitive." A very good majority of the time I spend online is on Youtube as well as other video streaming websites. The content I view isn't necessarily what I find to be the biggest problem, but instead the fact that I've grown so accustomed to watching such copious amounts of content. It's become so easy to fall into the rabbit hole of wasting time on Youtube, always starting with one video to listen to in the background while I work, then getting distracted and focusing on the video instead, then looking at the suggestions to find another video I think won't be too much harm to sit and watch, and so on and so on. In fact, even while writing this paragraph which I remember starting around lunchtime, wouldn't you know it it happened to me again, and now its 6:21 and this is the same sentence. The effectiveness with which this always manages to work feels incredible to me, because every single time I know that the solution is always as simple as "pause the video, do the work, come back to it later," but that almost never happens. It can be worse with other websites I use to watch tv series and movies, where I've repeatedly fell into the binging loop of always going to the next episode after the next without concern for whatever more important responsibilities I have to get done may be.  I'd say, on an average daily basis, I spend upwards of 50% of my day on the internet watching videos, a very unhealthy amount that I've always wanted to be able to cut back on. And what may be the most damning part of all this I've mentioned is that once I've snapped back to reality and get back to work, everything seems to fly by as I finish whatever assignment I was working on within the span of 30 minutes. I guess it's true what they say, you're your own worst enemy, or maybe a bit of the blame should be placed on the internet as well...

I will say, though, that spending so much time on Youtube has given be quite a bit of eye-opening information to take in from the world of commentary. What I've described in the above paragraph is definitely not a "me" problem, as even going outside of what research has discovered it's clear people find they spend way too much time watching quick videos. Tic Tok alone is proof of that, and while I don't use it myself the only things I've heard people talk about with it is how they manage to unknowingly spend hours scrolling through video after video. This relationship with technology is a menacing one, because with how these websites' algorithms feed viewers the same repetitive content it makes for an ultimately forgettable viewing experience. I'd be hard pressed to name half the videos I've watched in the last week without checking my viewing history, which equates to me feeling like I've wasted hours upon hours of time per week. If we find ourselves constantly trapped in the flow of media consumption only to find we can't even remember what we've consumed, is it even possible to call our relationship with the internet a healthy one?

However, if there's one aspect of the time I give to the internet that I do feel content with, it's my online footprint in the world of social media, or rather, my lack thereof. I've talked a lot already about my affiliation with internet sites and Youtube, but I don't involve myself with any kind of social media websites or apps. The only exception to this is that I have a Twitter account, which is normally seen as a very opinionated and even "toxic" site, but I don't count it because I only use my profile to post illustrations I make in my free time. So, in short, I have no personal online footprint to call my own, and I even Googled myself to see that there was nothing to find (it's also somewhat hard when you share the same name with an elementary school in Nevada).

However, like I said I feel content with this, and this is because of the stories I've heard about how unforgiving social media can be for kids and young adults like myself. A big thing I've learned to appreciate as I've gotten older is the importance of interpersonal communication. With sites like Instagram and Snapchat, all I can see are one-way windows in how people are forced to post and text. Because some of these otherwise interesting posts aren't shared face to face, in real-time, or sometimes go so far as to not be entirely accurate (uninformed statements, photoshopped pics, etc.) everything feels so much more impersonal. This all adds to the unhealthy relationship I feel so many people around me have with the technology they use as their primary means of socializing with others. You can cherry-pick what moments of your life you want to share with the world, and that can lead others who observe to feel insecure in comparison since they're not seeing the whole picture. You can talk with any acquaintances you know from anywhere via text message or DM, but there's no guarantee that they'll even respond. And, in my opinion, worst of all, people are free to block off anyone they're not comfortable with through the push of a button, leading to unhealthy behaviors from both people involved in these situations which should be discussed face-to-face. It all comes with that special element of anonymity that's existence on the internet from day 1, where anyone is able to make a convincing argument of who they "really" are in a way they wouldn't be able to get away with in person. And with massive waves of people following massive influencers and taking their word as gospel, it's an incredibly unhealthy dichotomy where the fans will do anything for celebrities, and celebrities themselves have come to expect instant gratification and recognition with whatever they post. A type of "techno-determinism" is at play here, since social media is seemingly built to fuel the needs of our society wanting everything delivered as quickly as possible, not entirely caring about the more subtle factors at play when it comes to skillful communication.

So, in finality, what exactly do I think of my relationship with technology? It may seem shocking but I ultimately feel like while I use the internet an unhealthy amount, it helps me a lot more than the anterior. The extent of which the internet has helped me comes in many forms, from helping to conduct research to teaching me new and surprising ways I can explore my hobbies. In fact, it was through online forums that I was able to meet one of my very best friends, and I will always be grateful for that (we talk over the phone nowadays, since we both have a little bit of a disdain towards texting). So yes, the ways in which technology and the internet influence me are certainly a mixed bag, but I feel that at the end of the day, if I could only be able to improve those negative aspects I've described in this post I feel like I could be on the road to making the seemingly impossible claim that my relationship with technology is a healthy one.

The Age of AI

I, personally, find this new age of AI to be something rather ominous. I'm no stranger to technology, and for almost 50 years now humanity has essentially depended on devices powered by electricity to sustain itself. However, in combination with how we depend on electronics there's an unmistakable trend which can be observed with how digital technology is evolving. And frankly, in the end this growth may not be for the best.

In my freshman year at HPU, my FYS course was focused on discussing science fiction and philosophy. While there was already quite a bit of talk over how science fiction is becoming science fact, I also remember another critical takeaway that pertains to this discussion. Moore's Law is the theory that the potential of computing power will continue to grow at an exponential rate, leading to computers that are much more efficient arriving before most would even expect. While we're finally nearing the pinnacle of what computers are estimated to ever be capable of, this doesn't change the fact that what we've managed to create already can't be undone. This essentially means that now that we've entered a new age of AI, there's no turning back from what impacts it may have on the world going forward.

The main point the video we watched discussed regarding AI was how it would impact both liberty and security. It talked about things like how China's social credit system is planned to be monitored in public spaces using facial recognition, and how something very similar may be on its way to the US. When thinking about this and taking a look at our own Constitution it feels like a total indictment on our right to privacy the Supreme Court seemingly wants to defend. 

However, when thinking about what goes on already in our American society, more specifically the implementation of security cameras everywhere you go, it makes me want to discuss the common debate over what it means to have privacy be taken away. I, personally, don't agree with the idea of a social security system similar to that of China in the US, but I also don't agree with the idea that we shouldn't allow for cameras to be situated in public places. I believe that liberty and security are a package deal, you can't just let one exist without the other. While it's important for people to be able to feel they have autonomy over their lives, there must also exist measures of protection to keep potentially unstable people in check. If there wasn't the predisposed notion that there's a security camera in every grocery store, then what's to stop me from exercising my liberty to steal a backpack's worth of food for myself? If the FBI thought it was an unconstitutional security measure to monitor people's messages, then how will it be possible to stop a neglected kid before he takes the liberty upon himself to get revenge on his classmates? For reasons such as these I believe that security is something that shouldn't be neglected, and the security measures we have in place in our country right now are, for the most part, beneficial.

Now how does that relate to the expansion of AI? Well, in a digital age everything seemingly now revolves around the internet. The way security is handled sometimes relies on AI to be able to monitor large sites, see social media or even the YouTube monetization process. In fact, the beginning of the YouTube "adpocalypse" back in 2017 was so detrimental to so many content creators because of the trigger-happy demonetization system that was put in place. AI would scan videos for anything that might go against the site's community guidelines, and was often inaccurate and overbearing with when it would consider something to be non-advertiser-friendly. As a result, a lot of people who depended on YouTube as their main career were unable to make the money they desperately needed. 

Therein lies one of the biggest potential problems with relying on AI in my opinion: its unreliability potentially leading to disastrous outcomes. With AI on social media already targeting and censoring certain topics based on viewers' past history, there becomes a greater concern over how that censorship may be robbing people of the truth they should be hearing about without them ever being the wiser. And unfortunately, as I've discussed in this post and in what the video we watched in class reaffirmed, AI is on the rise and is being trained to run humanity, and with what we've seen AI do in the past I can only hope that what's to come won't be too overbearing on our ability to feel in control of our lives.

Issues Regarding Privacy

Out of the four videos we were given to watch for this assignment, the one that stuck out to me the most was easily the one regarding surveillance via text/call. It's almost become common knowledge how "the government is watching," and while I'm normally more forgiving than most about that fact I find it also important to consider the alternative: those who might hack communication servers with nefarious intent. 

Many of these communication technologies were built with surveillance in mind, and there's nothing we can do regarding being recorded on certain programs we may choose to use. This video does a good job of making it very clear that the big tech companies are the ones who control the "democracy" of online communication, and it's ultimately up to them regarding how "private" our private conversations may be kept.

However, I also think the speaker did a good job of providing examples of how we can better protect ourselves from having our words used against us. Encryption codes and VPNs are things not everyone may be comfortable with installing on their hardware for whatever reason, but knowing that built-in messenger apps on phones aren't collecting messages like on social media is definitely a step in the right direction. 

In finality, I admittedly try and tend to stay away from subject matter such as this, but yet at the same time, I feel appreciative of this course and my professor for helping me face the music on a lot of these important issues. I think one of the biggest reasons for this was that I would always take issues like this into consideration of just thinking about myself personally. "If I don't have anything to hide and don't have a considerable spending record or carbon footprint, nor any sort of nefarious intent that may disrupt the general peace, why would the government care to monitor my activity?" However, now I understand how I may be thinking too narrow-mindedly because I 100% agree that no one deserves to have their privacy taken away from them involuntarily. Having your data stolen or used against you is a truly deplorable thing, so it's definitely essential for anyone to be educated in how to better protect their online information.

EOTO Observation: Five Eyes

The new information I learned comes from one of my groupmates, Nyar Freeman. In his presentation, he covered the topic of The Five Eyes: an intelligence network composed of the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and The United States. This organization was heightened in response to the September 11th terrorist attack, which is why I was drawn to this topic as September 11th was a major focus of my presentation as well. The main goal of the war on terror was to be able to conduct and exchange surveillance, but this was still all happening under the radar of course. 

After doing some more online research on my own, I discovered just how far back this organization goes. Originally, I was under the impression that this group of nations mainly collaborated starting with the war on terror, keeping close eyes on the public to make sure a devastating attack wouldn't happen again. What I learned, though, was that this group had been working even as far back as the days of the cold war, monitoring for Soviet spies and trying to contain the spread of communism. Many articles do a much better job at explaining the history of the 5 eyes than I can in this short post, but as for myself, I was just impressed learning about how much more history there was to unpack than I had initially realized. Taking a secret international surveillance organization back over half a century makes me somewhat nervous in terms of what that means for our personal freedom, but if I were to highlight a positive it would definitely be that I feel the organization's intentions are certainly in good faith.

False Flags

In our modern world of conspiracy theories and paranoia, I feel that it's more important than ever to understand the definition of a "false flag." In simple terms, a false flag is any kind of hostile action meant to antagonize a certain group while at the same time masking those responsible. Almost always you will see false flags being used in history to try and provoke or even give a reason to justify a country for going to war. Below is a catalogue of various examples through history of when these acts of inception have lead to international conflict:

• 1964 Gulf of Tonkin - A naval battle occurs between US and Vietnam. US claims another battle occurs a few days later to further antagonize Vietnam while there's no evidence of actual Vietnamese naval aggression
• 1931 Second Sino-Japanese War - Japanese officers, unknown to their government, blew up part of a railway with explosives. They claimed it was a foreign attack, which worked to provide the incentive Japan needed to go to war with Manchuria.
• 1939 Gleiwitz Incident - The most famous false flag in history, where Germany made up evidence of being attacked by Poland. This was the spark that rallied the German public opinion of supporting the invasion of Poland on September 1st, which, of course, is also the spark that kickstarted World War 2.

False flags such of these are obviously cataclysmic in their effects if they're executed successfully, but many articles such as this one will tell you how false flags are, in fact, more uncommon than conspirators would have you believe. A government conspiracy theory and a false flag are NOT the same thing, one is a baseless claim trying to be uncovered by the public while the other is an intentionally created fabrication often made by individuals rather than the government itself. A quote from Kathryn Olmstead puts it best, "The revelation of real, proven government lies and conspiracies helps explain the attraction of false flag conspiracy theories.

Growing distrust in government also allows these conspiracies to pass themselves off as true far too easily. As a result, history is flooded with fake false flag stories, with the most popular example in recent history being that surrounding the 9/11 terrorist  attack. The claim is that the entire incident was, in fact, incitement from the US government because they knew the aftermath would allow them to justifiably expand their power greatly. This did, of course, happen, but as history has revealed there is no reasonable way to argue that our government was, in fact, orchestrating this attack.

In short, the key takeaway from this post is that you need to understand real false flag inception is a very rare occurrence, but it's also incredibly difficult to distinguish between real and fake. We should be cautious of any events that could potentially spark conflict, but we also can't act prematurely when trying to place the blame on a side who may just seem to be the most logical culprit.

The Diffusion of Laptop Computers

As I began to think about what kind of technology to use for this assignment I started to draw a blank. The whole "Theory of Diffusion" is such a universal concept that I would often find it bland to try and lay out the timeline of whatever item I was focusing on in an interesting way. However, as I took a step back and thought about how I was doing all my work on my laptop, same as always, I slowly realized just how dependent I, as well as everyone around me, am on my computer for schoolwork. I always prefer taking notes by hand, but in terms of how actual assignments and even tests are completed, they are almost universally done digitally. Just a decade ago this would've seemed such a foreign concept to me. Still, I also remember vividly how my freshman year of high school was the first year my school district started implementing Chromebooks and Google Classroom into everything. Gone were the days of homework on paper and binders full of packets, the age of portable computers for schoolwork had reached its level of saturation.

Things only became more omnipotent once I entered college, and this didn't just apply to me but to my friends from home as well. Of course, with my freshman year being in 2020 Covid was obviously a huge influence on how coursework had to be structured, although I'm very thankful that my classes were still in person and not all online like with some of my aforementioned friends. Nevertheless, I can guarantee that even before Covid classes would all be structured around the student's ability to use a laptop computer, and I'm sure Professor Smith can attest to that. 

To my parents and even my cousins in their 30's, hearing about things like "registering for courses digitally," or "getting sources from the library's online database" are concepts completely new to them, so there's clear evidence that the presence of laptops in school has gone through the diffusion timeline we've talked about in class. Digital technology is, of course, growing at an exponential rate, but it's bizarre to process the fact that within 15 years laptops have been implemented by early adopters of the idea, accepted by the majority, and now become the standard through how all students must complete their curriculum. It's the very reason why making jokes about online learning sites such as Blackboard is so relatable to anyone my age, because it's seemingly everywhere all across the country.

I am, potentially, in the minority when I say that I vastly prefer the days of pen and paper. Thinking about the pros and cons of using laptops in school boils down to some extremely simple observations. On the pro side of things is the fact that having websites online for easy storage and organization of class content is extremely beneficial, as well as the fact that students with their computers can get their schoolwork and notetaking done wherever they may be. The obvious con is the fact that even in these days of saturation a laptop computer can still be a big investment. I've been to places in this country where owning a digital device isn't the status quo, and internet access is in no way instant. People living in places like this simply aren't going to be able to have a good college education unless they drop everything and dedicate all their time and money to investing to go away to a school hundreds of miles away. I just personally think it should be taken into greater consideration by universities to be able to help students with needing to make as little extra investment on top of their tuition as possible, those numbers are already high enough.

Heiroglyphs: What I've Learned

Regarding our class' first EOTO presentations, I found myself taking away a lot of new information about communication technology that I had never heard of before. Discovering how the roots of so many of the fundamental pieces of written print are in China was interesting, and the ways in which modern digital media developed so exponentially quickly says a lot about where we're headed.

However, I found that the single presentation with which I learned the most interesting facts was with regard to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Beforehand, from what I had known from a basic understanding, hieroglyphics were a series of picture symbols used to document the history of certain gods and religious practices the Egyptians would perform. What I wasn't expecting, however, was that the word "hieroglyph" wasn't an Egyptian word at all. In reality, the word is derived from the Greek "hieroglyphikos" which translates to "sacred carvings." This is a more personal connection for me since I'm half Greek, so after seeing and hearing the word with my familiar mindset of the Greek language it instantly connected how this might be a Greek word, and I found myself surprised that I hadn't considered that fact earlier.

The second key new fact I learned was that hieroglyphics are somehow able to match almost 1 to 1 with the Latin alphabet. I'm sure that the importance of the Rosetta Stone was a key factor in this, and it might be possible that hieroglyphics only received this "new" method of translation after the fact, but the fact that the unique picture symbols they used can be traced to the language I speak still fascinated me.

Overall, I feel that language is one of the most interesting parts of communication science that goes too often overlooked. The idea that there are seemingly countless different dialects around the world, as well as how they can all be translated over to one another, is a fact that I find so interesting in the scope of human development. Hieroglyphs are just a single piece of that immense puzzle, and I was glad to see it included in our assignment focusing on the importance of communication.