My Relationship with Technology

My relationship with technology has its ups and downs. From a Leapfrog when I was little for entertainment, to relying on technology to get through college, technology has influenced me in many ways. 

No matter how insignificant, I cannot seem to escape the use and convenience of technology. Let's take a look at how technology influences my life outside of just college.

At home, I work on a food truck, which is unorthodox for many teenagers, however technology is a HUGE part of the success of our business. Without technology, we couldn't efficiently work through orders, let people know where we were, communicate with our staff, clock in and out, nor could we communicate with clients and customers. 

At work we use a program called Toast. Toast is where we take orders, receive orders, and then let our customers know when their food was ready. Our job would be much harder if we had to track down each customer that ordered from us, but thankfully, technology allows us to click their order and it sends them a text that their food is ready for pickup! Our company, Crossroads Bistro is also a catering company. We use our website not only to inform customers of our menu, allow them to online order, see the location of our food trucks, but we also allow people to contact us for catering needs. 

Besides doing our jobs, without technology, performing our everyday tasks at work would be extremely difficult. Our company has two different food trucks, Big Blue and Little Green, a restaurant, and a catering business. All four business are usually running at the same time, meaning our company is split up all across the state. Therefore, our bosses typically aren't on the trucks with us, so if they need something, we get a text or call from them. Without technology, this wouldn't be possible. 

The employees also ride separately from the truck, meaning if we are late, lost, or need extra help, a quick text or call can help elevate those issues. Since we are on different trucks, are never in the same location, and don't have a secure place to put a punch card, we have to clock in and out on an app. This app is called 7Shifts. 7Shifts allows our bosses to see our location at the time of clock in and clock out, so they know we were at work, as well as they can keep a record of when and how long we worked. This allows my boss to remotely access our time charts so they can pay us adequately for the work that we did. 

Another big thing is the use of GPS. A lot of the locations we go to are either breweries, or small businesses. Neither of which are places teenagers my age are usually familiar with. To get to these addresses, I use Apple Maps, which has never failed to give me my location, ETA, milage, and most importantly, the fastest route to the job. Without maps, I would be driving aimlessly around the state of Maryland to find these unknown places that my parents might not even know!

Finally, we have the scheduling. We also use 7Shifts for scheduling. Our restaurant is located in Sparrows Point, MD, but the trucks are based in Bel Air, MD, which is about an hour northeast. So, a printed schedule wouldn't work for our crew. To get a notification that I am scheduled to work, is very convenient. I can transfer the dates and times right into my schedule allowing me to see when I must go into work. 

So technology doesn't just consume my life when Im at home or at school. Technology is used everywhere. It has been extremely helpful for the three years I have worked at Crossroads! I couldn't imagine my job without it.

EOTO Reflection #2

During our Each One Teach One presentations, I learned a lot about different terms and concepts. Many people had great presentations that taught me a lot about some things that affect us every day. The ones I felt that were the most interesting was cord cutting and net neutrality.

The entirety of group four had very good and detailed presentations that all gave good information about media consolidation, cord cutting, net neutrality, The Restrict Act, social credit score, and news deserts.

Cord cutting is when people get rid of their cable or stop paying for it. According to Haley, she stated that cable and satellite TV customers spend over $1,600 per year on channels they do not watch, which has increased by $600 annually since 2019. 

Since 2019, over 5 million people have cut the cord each year. Personally, my family has not cut the cord since my mom still watches the news and a few other programs, but we do purchase streaming services as well as have some included with our Verizon plan. 

Haley also included that cord cutting partakes in "Creative Destruction" which means it destroys age-old methods bringing in the scope for development and innovation. Currently, there are over 200 streaming services that are on the market, with the leading service, Netflix holding over 221.6 million paid subscribers. 

Another presentation that I found fascinating was Jesse's topic of net neutrality. Net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers should give equal access to content, applications, data seeds, and more without any bias towards specific websites or groups of people. Some websites have even been found guilty of slowing down websites for people who aren't subscribed to their premium sites, and even placing more ads and disruptions for those people as well. Without net neutrality, we'd have unequal internet access. 

The Age of AI

 AI has taken the world by storm. From factories, to schools, AI has taken over. Whether its taking someone's office job, or writing a student's essay, AI has removed the need for people in many situations. When money becomes the root of all problems, the fewer people we will see in the workplace, technology increases efficiency, but what can it decrease?

The video In The Age Of AI, it expresses many ways that AI has been taking over our lives just one decision at a time. Shoshana Zuboff of Harvard Business School stated, "We thought that we were searching Google. We had no idea that Google was searching us." This philosophy is scary. If you think about it, every Google search we make, Google learns more about us, whether we search medical symptoms, locations of the nearest restaurant, or even who your friends and family are. 

Surveillance is everywhere. It is terrifying. Businesses make it their goal to know who you are, inside and out. Zuboff said, ..."whenever we search or whenever we browse, we're leaving behind digital traces of our behavior..." This makes me think about the number of Google searches that I have made that could let someone know so much about me. I've looked up medications, symptoms of medical conditions, and even my doctors. This is all now stored information that I would never tell a stranger, but the internet now knows. That's horrifying.

Now I am guilty of clicking on the ads that Google provides for me. I love them, they are incredibly accurate, which is terrifying, but convenient. The fact that I don't need to say or do anything, and the internet just puts the new pair of shoes I've been wanting right in front of me, sounds great! But once you think about it, how did they know I've been wanting those shoes? According to Zuboff, "What happened was they decided to turn to those data logs in a systematic way and begin to use these surplus data as a way to come up with fine-grained predictions of what a user would click on. And inside Google they started seeing these revenues pile up at a startling rate."

Overall, the concept of AI might seem cool at first. Heck, when they put a robotic bar on a cruise ship I was fascinated, and I can't even drink! It seemed super cool that this robot acted like a bartender and would make drinks faster than any human could. But they are taking our jobs, stealing our information, and making the world a terrifying place. What is the need for this data collection? Why should they take our jobs? Why AI?

Diffusions of Innovations

 Diffusion of innovations was a theory that was developed by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations published in 1962. This theory attempts to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. He explains his theory through five main elements, the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. Rogers explains that the innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain, or in other words, stick within society and have continuous growth in usage. 

One of the biggest innovations within the past few years has been TikTok, as well as all social media. TikTok was created in 2018, previously known as Musical.ly. The app was purchased for a whopping $1 billion by a Chinese company called ByteDance, and transformed into the new app, with some of the same features. 

With a Chinese company having such a large impact on most of the world, the United States specifically, has raised many security questions. Although the app has taken the world by storm, growing mostly within the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous states and countries have already banned this app since it partakes in data mining.

The reason that this innovation has taken the world by storm within the past three years, is due to the lockdown. Over 100 million users interacted with the app during the pandemic. With people being stuck at home, there weren't a lot of things to do, but scroll on social media, which was one of the only ways to continue to stay connected with friends. 

What makes this app grab your attention so well, is the For-You feature. "This is where the algorithm puts content in front of users, anticipating what they will enjoy based on content they have already engaged with. It's also where it shows content it thinks could go viral," says BBC. 

Many people have jumped on the train of the 15-second videos, where they can watch things from dancing videos, day-in-my-life, sports highlights, all the way to trick shot videos. The creative freedom is what keeps users hooked. 

As a user of this app, I enjoy the videos that the algorithm puts together for me, but at the same time, it creeps me out how I could be seeing the same video as my roommate because we just had a conversation about it. The amount of information the app gathers is enough to tailor your feed to exactly what you like. This can pose a threat to your identity as well as national security since it learns so much about its users. 

The world of technology is dangerous. It comes across as innocent, innovative, and up incoming, but in reality, is the convenience of the app really worth your personal privacy and security?

Spitting Facts; Whistleblowers Exposing Organizations, Impacting Society

 Chances are, you've heard of a whistleblower. But what is a whistleblower, and what do they do? Although there is no publicly uniform definition, a whistleblower is usually referred to as "an individual who, without authorization, reveals private or classified information about an organization, usually related to wrongdoing or misconduct."

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, "whistleblowers perform an important service for the public DOJ, when they report evidence of wrongdoing." So, when someone blows the whistle, they can be in the line of fire by their coworkers, but legally "no one should ever be subject to or threated with reprisal for coming forward with a protected disclosure. It is unlawful for any personnel action to be taken against you because of your whistleblowing."

Let's look into one of the stories of whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld. Birkenfeld was the first international banker to blow the whistle on the secret Swiss bank accounts. His disclosures resulted in unprecedented recoveries for taxpayers with over $780 million civil fines and penalties paid by UBS and over $5 billion in collections from taxpayers who held illegally "undeclared" offshore accounts in Switzerland and other counties. 

Under the Whistleblower Program, his individual assistance granted him a reward of $104 million, which has been the largest whistleblower reward that has ever been given. 

So, what is the difference between a whistleblower who goes public, and a leaker? A leak can be anonymous, without official authorization, usually made to make information public. However, this is usually done by the government themselves for many reasons. It can be used as a protective measure in some ways, or sometimes even strategy. however, the difference between leaking and whistleblowing is a whistleblower, releases information when they feel unethical or illegal activity is occurring within an organization. 

So, for an individual who releases this information, what protections exist for them? In general, it depends on their jurisdiction. In the US, federal whistleblower protection laws have been in place since 1978. In addition, as of 2010, all companies listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange were made subjects of rules, which allowed rewards for anonymous disclosures, as well as prohibiting whistleblower retaliation under the Dodd Frank Act.

Although they are protected there have been attempts to retaliate against the whistleblowers. It mostly revolves around revealing their identity. If their identity is revealed, there have been many cases where the whistleblower was terminated from their job and then blacklisted in their sectors. There have also been cases where they receive death threats and jail sentences!

Whistleblowers can affect people of all ages. If they release information that turns out to be true, it can make a huge impact on the country as a whole. Young people, under 18 more than likely won't think anything of it, because they have no stake in the economy, and they have no say in government, so some of these issues would be meaningless to them. However, to adults, these issues are ones that usually affect them. Whether its the stock market, taxes, the banking system, the government, etc. there is always something that we can do to make a change in government and policy. That is the beauty of the system of government that the United States has. 

EOTO Reflection

During our Each One Teach One presentations, I learned a lot about media technologies. Many people had great presentations that taught me a lot about the history of the media that we use every day. The two I found most interesting were the invention of paper and the telegraph. Both are things we use each day. Although the telegraph has now changed forms, we could not live without our cell phones, and it all started from the telegraph. 

I was fascinated by the creation of paper. It is one media technology that we overlook each day but something we couldn't live without. It was invented by Le-Yang and Cai Lun of the Han Dynasty. Before the invention of paper, it was very difficult to store and share information. The engraving of stone tablets was a way of writing things down, which was a very difficult method.

The technology I was most interested in learning about was the telegraph. I am taking the American Media History class this semester, where we have learned the history of a lot of technologies, which has taught me some background information, so I was looking forward to going more in depth on this specific technology. 

The telegraph was created by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. These men connected five magnetic needles that were controlled by electric currents to point to specific letters and numbers on a panel. 

In addition to Cooke and Wheatstone, Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale, and Alfred Vail were involved as well. Samuel Morse is known for Morse code, which was often used on the telegraph, so you only had to listen to taps instead of waiting for it to point to letters and numbers. Morse code was a much more efficient way to communicate using the telegraph. Morse code assigned a series of dots and dashes to every letter of the English alphabet that can be understood through electrical signals. 

For the telegraph, Morse gained political support in 1838. After he gained support, in 1843, the first wired telegraph was created, which ran a line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, and the first message was sent. Many years later, advancements were made, and in 1861 he first transcontinental telegraph was created. Shortly after in 1866, the Atlantic Ocean had its first permanent telegraph cable placed in it. Finally, in 1874, Quadruplex system, which was one wire that translates four messages simultaneously. 

Overall, these two technologies fascinated me since I had known such little background information on them. They are things we use each day without thinking. Both technologies have been modified and developed since creation, but if it weren't for the first inventors, we would not have access to these technologies today. 

Silence is Violence; Stop Muting Media

The media is toxic. From the biased organizations, the skewed news stories, and the openly opinion news anchors, its apparent that the media lies. Society has the tendency to say "Well, it was on the news so it must be true!" That is false! The media tells you only what they want you to hear. News bias is real, America needs to wake up! 

Clickbait is huge within the media, especially social media. A news source gains revenue from every click they get. So why wouldn't they try to skew headlines to make them more appealing? These appealing headlines are where the media starts to promote false information. Specific news outlets are notorious for having biased information and stories being highlighted from their outlet.

Sources like Fox News are usually more right-leaning, while CNN, is more to the left. There are some sources that are noticeably more unbiased and have been commended for staying neutral when reporting today's events and news. 

When it comes to Antiwar.com and theamericanconservative.com, I think your typical Americans have not seen these websites since they are not a part of the mainstream media. Although they are biased sources, more right-leaning networks such as Fox News and Daily Wire are more likely to come up in a search for conservative beliefs, since they often sway their stories to fit that agenda. 

In today's society, younger people are stereotypically less involved in politics since they are less informed. Those who are more informed either do their own research or listen to the media through outlets their family and friends use, since they see it is a "trusted" source of information by the people close to them. This is where the promotion of the media bias can get boosted. 

6 out of 10 people say that they think the media is biased. With a majority believing there is bias within the news, how are Americans going to get trustworthy, unbiased, and honest news? The story itself may have 100 percent truth to it, but once the news outlets get their hands on it, they start to only tell certain parts of the story, alter information, and try to convince the readers that they are getting all of the facts, when in reality, it is just what the outlet wants you to hear. 

Especially when it comes to antiwar, those voices are usually the first to be silenced. That is a topic that is usually considered to be going against the government. Although we have a democracy, antiwar voices are seen as people going against the government, which is frowned upon, even though we have our right to free speech. 

In my opinion, I think people and some news outlets are just afraid to post the truth. The government and media outlets are all corrupt institutions with people cutting corners and trying to get everyone to agree with them. That is not okay. It needs to be more normalized for people to have a difference in opinion, as well as disagreeing with policy that is being brought into government at the time.