Final Prompt

 My Relationship With Technology

    My relationship with technology has drastically changed from when I was born until the present day. In the early stages when I was growing up, there were no smartphones or iPhones like we know them now. My dad had a BlackBerry, and my mom had a flip phone, and at the time, the BlackBerry was the most advanced technology to exist in the early 2000s, until they realized the iPhone in 2007. Since then, Apple has changed the world and created a completely new market for technology. Not only did Apple get more and more advanced, but companies like Samsung, Google, and Sony all created their own versions of the iPhone, allowing customers to pick and choose.

     Social media plays a massive role in my life and in the lives of every kid who has grown up with smartphones, laptops, and tablets. It has allowed our generation to have social media apps from a young age, and I feel that it has really taken a toll on some of those kids. I was not allowed to have any social media until I got my first phone when I was 13. I feel that this was a very smart decision by my parents because a kid younger than 13 is not mature enough to look through social media on their own. More importantly, they do not have the skills to look away or stop going on it when there is cyberbullying. The people I know who have had social media since a young age have run into serious mental health problems, and social media for them turns into showing a fake life and trying to be perceived as someone they aren't. 

    Online, my digital footprint is very good, and when I looked at it, I was a little surprised by how much of me there is on the internet. The majority of it is sports, but there is information on my social media handles. I rarely post on social media, so I never worry about people seeing my post and getting worried about what they will think about it. However, I have changed a setting on Google to show me when my name gets posted on the web. I think this is very beneficial for people because you don't want random people talking about you or putting out wrong information, and a future employer sees this and does not give you a job because of it.

    As I watched the short videos again, there is not one simple answer on whether technology is right or wrong. We see one side where the views are positive and show us how much technology has improved and how good the future could be with the new technology that will be accessible to us. The other side is negative, and I feel shows a more accurate example of how lonely and exhausting social media can be. I am not saying everyone has the same experience, but for the people who get cyberbullied or get a fear of missing out, social media is the worst possible place you can go. I think the in-between of these two examples is the middle ground for technology. Technology to me is a resource that has been given to us, and it is up to us how we use this resource. If we set boundaries and do not let ourselves get so wrapped up in what other people are doing or what they are saying, then social media is one of the best places ever. The amount of networking and connections you can make through it is like nothing we have ever seen before. We see how "influencers" are making so much money, and that is all because they are the new stars, and companies promote through them, which so far has been very effective. In the future of technology, I feel that these problems will only grow and get worse. People will be using apps and technology so much more, and I feel that they will be able to get away with cyberbullying with advanced apps. My solution to this would be having the government regulate what happens on the apps and have AI sense chats, and if it is in any way, shape, or form of being mean, then that user should be kicked off for at least a month. There would be more that goes into it, but as we see now, something needs to change, or else we will continue to go down a path that we can't come back from.

 EOTO 2

    Before I started this research on the lightbulb, I knew that it was one of the most significant inventions ever created. We all learn about these things when we are younger in school, but we have never gone into much depth from the beginning of time till the present day. Life before the light bulb was a much simpler time, and people would use the sun to know that during the day, you would do your job, or if you were a child, do activities. In those nights, there was never such a thing as a light bulb, and the source of light would be candles or oil lamps. It was always a struggle to have constant light during the night, until the light bulb was created by Thomas Edison in 1879

    Thomas Edison was the first person to officially create the first light bulb, but there were definitely people who contributed to the advancement of light over time. Humphry Davy and Joseph Swan experimented a lot with light before the light bulb was officially created. Humphry Davy created an electric battery in 1800 while he was putting the electricity to the test. He would use the battery and put wires and carbon to it, which would ultimately work, but the carbon could only stay lit for a certain period of time. Joseph Swan tried to do a similar thing in 1860 using carbon paper filament, but it burned too quickly as well, and was a great improvement from Davy's work. 

    What Edison did that stood out and was different from the other two was ultimately the thing that they were missing. Edison tried thousands of combinations and could not get it right until he finally found the perfect filament. He uniquely found out that Davy and Swan's carbon filament worked, but it needed to be in an oxygen-free bulb. This bulb would glow for 40 hours, which in 1879 was the first of its kind and made a remarkable impact. In late 1880, Edison eventually made a bulb that lasted 12,000 hours, and he would go on to get his second patent, which was for incandescent light bulbs. 

    In 1904, Willis Whitney invented something that allowed the filament to burn longer and not the inside of the bulb from getting dark. This was a stepping stone to what we know now as the light bulb created by William Coolidge, and he made a tungsten filament, which completely changed the world. This invention has completely changed the world, and it has greatly impacted people, no matter their social status. Neither the rich nor the poor realize how lucky we are to have light, and we take it for granted every single day. No human would be able to do what they do without light bulbs. There would be no offices, schools, or homes with constant light. Our world would look completely different, and there would be no advancements in technology, architecture, or health. The light bulb, personally, has been the greatest invention of all time, and it has made the world into what we know it is today.

Living in the age of AI

 Age Of AI

    After watching the second half of In the Age of AI, the technology has advanced so rapidly, and the machines are only getting scarier and scarier, which could present some problems. The video showed how the AI can learn and do extremely difficult things. The technology has grown rapidly, and we see how it can even diagnose some medical conditions, which to me is a complete breakthrough in the medical world, but more importantly, in the new world of AI. So far, and as we see in the video, the benefits that have come from AI are unimaginable, and to imagine in 50 years what the world will look like will be unimaginable, and it will be a completely different world run by AI

    What I did notice is that there may be a rise in concern for the privacy aspect of AI. Yes, AI will help security and will help the advancement of trust for big companies, but will it fail to retain certain data that could be pivotal to a company or agency? I feel that humans can do this better because if they are looking for something specific, I feel that a human would not miss it. On the other hand, the AI is processing so much information that it could lead to the machine lacking details and information.

 

   Finally, we see how, combining these two paragraphs, we could either see a bright future for AI or a future where your whole life is on the internet. Because such efficient and bright new machines are being built for huge companies and being sold, there is now a very real possibility that someone with negative intentions could hack into anyone's information, and all of their privacy is gone. The big problem will be when this happens is who do you sue, or do you sue? You cannot sue a machine, and I feel that people might get away with saying that the machine learned how to do it and that it wasn't them. This is why there needs to be rules and regulations on how fast AI is progressing. I feel like the government needs to make rules on what you can do with AI and how far you can progress it by every year or every couple of years. The only alternative to this would be if the military needed advanced AI for war, and I feel that everyone would understand the necessity of this.

Antiwar

 ANTIWAR

        It is very interesting to see the voices and characters there are on the website ANTIWAR, that have a lot of useful information that we do not hear every day. I have personally never heard of this website and was very intrigued when I first clicked on it. The first thing you see when you click on the website is about Trump telling Putin to "stop." We see how these voices are never heard, and the biggest reason is because of mainstream media. They bring up very good points, and often they have real coverage of our military and what is going on around the world.

    We see how a lot of news outlets get their coverage on people or organizations that are big names around the world. They also like to showcase things that are happening in real time and be the first to get the best story out there. All the mainstream media try to do is get views, clicks, and money. Of course, they will write great stories here and there, but they are trying to get views and be the best media outlet that there is. This takes a huge toll on the smaller outlets like Antiwar. After all, they are getting overlooked. They are not very well known because they are providing real news that I think people try to avoid.

    What it ultimately boils down to is that you are not going to get this type of antiwar news on mainstream media because it is so unique. News cannot just be about war the whole time, or they would not have any viewers. People care more about what is going on in the state or country than war, twenty-four seven. The people talking about antiwar all the time are out there; you just have to find them yourself. There are daily articles about this topic, and very true and honest websites are reporting it because they know that people deserve to hear the truth.

 Privacy Online and Offline

    The privacy we thought we had before watching these videos makes us rethink our whole lives and all of our decisions. The way the companies can collect all of our data, whether it is given or taken, is crazy and unjust. It does not just come from what we share online or on social media, but these companies track our every movement, whether that is online or offline. Knowing that the government and these massive companies can use our data, whether we say yes or no, is very unsettling. These issues are affecting me in my everyday life because now when I go on a website, I know that if I accept anything like cookies, I have given them the keys, and they have all my information and what I do online. My friend was affected by this firsthand when Google sold his information and his business got many fake calls and threatening calls telling him they were going to ruin him. This was not just a regular scam call, they knew all of his information to the tee and made him go offline which lost him thousands of dollars. 

    The government needs to regulate what information these massive companies receive and make it very hard for them to obtain this. If this does not change, then the same problems that are happening now will keep occurring, and it will get even worse for everyday Americans. What we can do to protect ourselves from this problem is not use Google but use other sites like Brave or Firefox. They do not track you and make you accept things all the time, eventually leading to your information getting realsed. Also, it is vital that we make smart decisions on social media and not release our whole private life to the public. This makes this process of stealing and realizing data way easier and could seriously hurt us in the long run.

EOTO 1 Reaction

 EOTO Reaction 

    The history of the printing press was unique in that it created the future of how we print paper and make books. Johannes Gutenberg was the first person to make this press in 1936 and released this product for commercial use in 1954. The invention of this printing press was very important and allowed people to express their knowledge and ideas all over the world. It was mainly used for the bible, which printed a whopping 42 lines per page. Guttenburg eventually made the press movable, which allowed it to be mass-produced, resulting in an increase in knowledge and literacy skills.

    The Printing Press was a massive success and started the revolution of printers as we know them today. In the 19th century, we see how there were many improvements, and the rotary press was created. This allowed faster and more effective ways to print. Today, the offset printer is the biggest kind around the globe and uses a plate that "offsets," which allows the plate to transfer the ink in the printer onto a piece of paper.

EOTO 1

       The Creation Of Netflix

    Netflix was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California. The circumstances of creating Netflix were very unique because the site was born from a mix of frustration and opportunity. Reed Hastings, after a large late fee at Blockbuster, invented a better way to rent movies. He and Mark Randolph, seeing the massive potential of DVDs and mail delivery, launched Netflix in 1998. Their innovative subscription model, with no late fees and store visits, quickly made a mark in the traditional video rental market.

    The problem that Hastings and Randolph were trying to solve was they aimed to solve the inconvenience of traditional video rental stores. Customers faced a very slim selection, inconvenient store hours, and, most painfully, late fees. Reed Hastings himself experienced this frustration firsthand, motivating him to do a service that offered a wide and intriguing selection delivered directly to homes. They wanted to offer a more convenient, accessible, and affordable way for people to enjoy movies and TV shows.

    Netflix dramatically changed the world and ultimately changed the way we view movies and TV shows. Netflix developed on-demand streaming, letting viewers switch from traditional scheduled shows and movies to personalized content. This completely changed traditional television and movie distribution models, giving the customers all of the control over what they could watch and when. Netflix's success started the now as we know it streaming industry, leading to many platforms and content. It created a trend of binge-watching culture and changed how we find and enjoy the movies and TV shows that we love, impacting everything from award shows to cultural trends. 

    Netflix solved many problems, but the biggest one was getting movies straight to you with no hassle. Late fees, which were a major complaint for most people, were eliminated with their new subscription-based model. Limited selection at places like BlockBuster and Hollywood Video was overcome by offering a huge online library. Inconvenient store hours became irrelevant as viewers could access content anytime, anywhere. Netflix also took down the hassle of going to a store, delivering DVDs directly to homes (initially), and later offering on-demand streaming.

    Netflix did not change the way we communicate, but it did change the way that people talk about entertainment around the world. Netflix offers shared viewing experiences so you can watch movies and TV shows with the people you love, even if they are on the other side of the world. Watch parties also became a beacon of Netflix and very popular things are almost always on the site which gets people talking. Shows that become hits on the platform often dominate social media and real-life conversations. 

    Although Netflix is one of the best things that has happened to the entertainment industry, some side effects are tough to look past. Binge-watching can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, leading to health problems like obesity, cardiovascular issues, and sleep disturbances. It can also lead to social isolation and decreased face-to-face interaction. Some studies link excessive screen time to mental health issues like anxiety and depression.