It's the Final Blog Post *off tune kazoo solo*

Technology surrounds us. It's taken over our world in nearly every sense, from the cars we drive to the phones in our pockets to smart homes and lightbulbs that turn on when you ask them to. We as a society depend on technology to nearly ridiculous extremes, and being disconnected, even for short spans on time, can set us super off track. Just a few days ago my phone glitched out and stopped being able to access my email, and in the few hours before I could get home and check my account from my laptop I'd gotten 12 emails! Some were just spam, but bunch of them were about upcoming exams, and it's a little bit scary to think what might've happened if I'd missed them? What if, without having the instant access that my phone allows, I had forgotten to check my email? I might have missed the message from my photography professor, telling us the prompt for our final essay, I might've missed the email about the final blog post count for this class, I might have even missed the message from my boss asking me to come in early for my shift the next day. Whenever I think about technology through this lens it terrifies me, and the only thing I can think is that I'm far too dependent.

My Dungeons and Dragons group at a smash room to deal with final's week stress, back in a time before quarantine.

On the other hand, technology is wonderful! Using the internet, me and my friends have been able to meet every single Sunday to have our weekly Dungeons and Dragons session, even during quarantine! We have three players in North Carolina, two in Florida and two in Boston, but we've been able to keep participating in the story almost exactly the same way we did when we were all sitting together at the same table, sharing dice and throwing nachos at each other for making bad puns. My best friend, who lives in Alabama, is able to text and call me whenever she wants! She can send me pictures of her dog and introduce me to her sister, and we can even have our Friday night movie marathon just the same as always. Being connected 24/7 is a gift just as much as it's a curse.

Even disregarding the benefits of staying connected through the web, the sheer amount of information available to us at any given moment is staggering. I could spend every minute of the rest of my life combing through Wikipedia and I'd still probably never find the end. I can spend hours on YouTube watching documentaries about places and animals that people that lived 100 years ago couldn't even dream of. Every December the app that I use to listen to music gives me a summary of my listening habits, shows me how my tastes have changed and how I've discovered and started enjoying new music and podcasts through out the year. We have the amazing privilege of living in a time where it's possible to pull a supercomputer out of your pocket just so you can ask it a pointless question to settle a meaningless argument. Human beings are hard wired to learn, we take every opportunity we can to explore and gather knowledge and information, and then we make it available to every body, and that is one of the truly beautiful things about technology.

And of course I worry about a lot of things that have to do with technology. What will I do if my laptop dies before I save my essay? What happens if my phone breaks and I loose my photos and other data? What if I get hacked and my information is compromised? I've taken all the steps I can to avoid these problems becoming real. I back up my documents to an external drive, I use a VPN online, especially when I'm shopping, I back my phone up every week. Tech, just like anything else, has its advantages and drawbacks. It's going to keep evolving whether we're on board or not, and rather than being ragged reluctantly along, we should take all the steps we can to make sure we have the tools to keep ourselves safe and private, so that we can enjoy the benefits brought to us by our ability to connect to each other and the world around us. 

I think that, overall, my opinion of technology is very positive. I'm not usually the optimist among my friends, but this year especially I've seen so many of the ways that technology benefits people, so many ways that it helps us stay in touch with others, to learn new things and remember old ones, to share important things like group projects and silly things like cat videos. As people we're designed to be social, to stick together, and we were able to do that this year, even when things got hard. Humans are complicated, and things we create, technology included, are a reflection of us in that way. The things we make and help and harm in equal measures, and well our dependence on technology is certainly something to be concerned about, the way we as a people have nearly always used technology as a way to speak to and reach out to each other is something that I hope stays the same.

My Online Footprint

 Until this class I never really considered the amount of information I hand out to companies, and what my online presence really means. Now that I've taken the time to consider it though, there's a lot to be concerned about.

In terms of social media, Facebook, at least, is something I don't have to worry about. I only recently made an account, and I only use it for the photography class I'm currently taking. Once the spring semester starts, I will be happily deleting the account. Other websites are trickier. I have multiple Instagram accounts on my phone, since I run the social media for the Dungeons and Dragons club here on campus, and I have several emails accounts through Google that I use for various things, though only one has my real name since the others are connected to my gaming accounts, which are also under a pseudonym. 

My most active social media is probably my Snapchat, since I use it every day to keep in touch with my friends, especially those that have moved away or are in quarantine, but that, like my other accounts, is under a different name. Even before college I tended to be paranoid about things like this, so a lot of the social media I use casually is under my middle names, unlike my professional accounts. I'm not sure how much that counts for, but it's better than having all of my accounts linked to the one name at least.

The thing I'm most concerned about, I think, is that even though I considered the risks of using my real name and took steps to avoid that, I never took steps to keep my other information safe. I let Google log me into other accounts and remember passwords so I don't have to, I seldom wipe the history on my browser because it's more convenient when it remembers what websites I visit, I let my apps have access to my photos and microphone so that I can use them without getting constantly pestered by notifications. I've started considering exactly how much of my life is online, and now, how many accounts I need to delete just because they aren't necessary.

EOTO - It Gets Loud in the Echo Chamber

The Echo Chamber is a concept that explains the phenomenon where people only pay attention to media, facts, or explanations that already fit their current world view or opinions. This can mean in regards to many things, but usually refers to politics. 

One of the most common and modern examples of this metaphor is the idea that vaccines can cause Autism. This entire movement originated from a single discredited study, but many people who read it latched onto this belief and refuse to change their stance on the subject no matter how many alternate explanations or pieces or evidence they are offered. Anything they are shown that contradicts their current outlook is rejected as false, while anything that supports their beliefs is embraced. This information might be disproven or blatantly false, but it will still be defended and wholly embraced. 

We, as people, want to believe that we can change our opinions based on evidence, that we can be rational and objective about the things we believe, but the Echo Chamber is a very common phenomena, and sometimes it can be hard to tell when you've trapped yourself in one.

Sources: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/what-is-an-echo-chamber/1/

EOTO - Awareness and Propaganda

 

Propaganda is a basic tool of the society we live in. It's everywhere, the signs on our lawns during elections years, the people we watch on TV, the shows we listen to on the radio. While the term "Propaganda" its self has connotations of wartime posters and campaigns like the one pictures above, it is, at its core, a marketing tool designed to distribute information. This information can be, and usually is, biased, intentionally misleading, or only a half truth. Using these tactics the parties controlling the release and distribution of this propaganda are able to promote political and financial agendas, products and people, as well as exercise a degree of control over the opinions and beliefs of their consumers.

When we think of propaganda, typically we think of things like the campaign above, which was circulated during World War II in a effort to encourage citizens to carpool in order to reserve resources like fuel for the war effort. Posters like this one were designed to rally the American people against our common enemy, bolstering their sense of patriotism and national pride in order to increase support for the war effort. Many of these campaigns permanently affected the fabric of out country, and some even entered the common vernacular. The phrase "Loose Lips Sink Ships" first made an appearance during the second world war, warning the public of the danger of spies in their midst, encouraging them to keep any potentially delicate information to themselves to minimize the risk that it would fall into enemy hands and endanger our troops. Today, it has a similar meaning, and is often used to prevent people from sharing information that may jeopardize a mission, whether that mission is a highly classified operation or just a surprise birthday party. 

Propaganda, especially when produced during war time, often makes use of a very particular set of marketing techniques, one of the most prominent being fear mongering. It is very common for propaganda to place a heavy emphasis on the idea of an "Us" vs "Them" dynamic, and the vast differences between the two parties. Most propaganda campaigns show these differences to the consumers with implied messages like "You don't want to be like Them, do you?" or "If you don't do this, you're no better than Them." This alienation of the enemy is often accompanied by a certain amount of racism, usually in the form of demeaning stereotypes. These stereotypes are usually mocked either through the particular phrasing of the propaganda, or through the art that accompanies it, often in the form of exaggerated caricatures designed to alienate the races and cultures currently designated as The Enemy.

Propaganda doesn't only thrive during outright war times though. It is often used during times of tension, such as the Cold War. The Cold War birthed many different campaigns, ranging from posters that instructed families to have a plan in place in case of nuclear fallout to encouragement to turn in neighbors or acquaintances suspected of collusion with the ever present Enemy, in this case, Russia.

While propaganda certainly has its uses, namely rallying support and a sense of pride from the masses, it also has several drawbacks, which include the tendency of propaganda to encourage people to point fingers and shift blame, especially towards those that they consider to be "Other". It can stick around for generations, altering our speech and insinuating itself into or culture. It is, simply put, a tool, and its nature depends largely on the acts, and intentions, of the individual or government who wields it. 

Sources: https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-2-what-is-propaganda-(1944)/the-story-of-propaganda

Privacy and the Modern World

Before this class, I was aware that the search engines I use and the websites I visit monitor what I use them for. Of course they do, how else would Instagram know to put an add for boots on my home screen only ten minutes after I do a web search for sales near me? But watching these videos and seeing the sheer amount of information about me that's being recorded and and stored is horrifying. 

I never really considered just how much you're able to learn about someone, just by skimming the bare minimum of their search history. Another thing I never considered is just how much of that information I'm giving away. I don't just use my Google account on my laptop after all, my phone is also logged into that account. In fact, I have several accounts that I use, many of which are active of both of these devices. Not only do I use my personal account, but I also have the email that's linked to my online store, as well as the social media I run for a club on campus, both of which are constantly logged in and in use, presumably gathering data happily in the background and shipping it off to where ever it goes. 

These videos were certainly eye opening, and I am, as I type this, making the move to Firefox.

Sources: https://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_your_online_life_permanent_as_a_tattoo

Diffusion of the Typewriter: From the First Word Processor to Hipster Novelty

Roger's Diffusion of Information Theory is designed to track the use of technology from its introduction to its inevitable decline. This theory can be applied to the use of the type writer. The type writer was introduced in 1868 by Christopher Sholes, the pioneer of this technology. The early adopters of became notable in 1872 with the introduction of the electric typewriter by Edison, as his alterations to the initial design made it easier to use and harder to jam. Then in 1874 the original patent was sold to Remington and Sons, and it became possible to mass produce the typewriter, though it didn't truly enter the early majority section of the curve until 1917, when the first truly portable machine was debuted. These years marked the height of the typewriter's popularity, especially with the release of the electromagnetic typewriter in 1933.

The tipping point for the typewriter happened around 1964, when the magnetic tape typewriter, as this is when computers and word processors began to become available, and gradually became more convenient that typewriters, but they were still used by the late adopters and people who didn't care for computers and how clunky they could be compared to the, but now, reasonably streamlined typewriter.

Now in 2020, we face the laggards of the typewriter era: hipsters, poets, and other holdouts who like the feeling of using a typewriter, or who find them aesthetically pleasing or fun to use. While there are plenty of these people still out there, actively using typewriters everyday, the numbers of people using them will never return to how they were at their peak.

Evolution of the Typewriter: Write Your Heart Out

The typewriter pictured above was developed in the 1980's, but remains a popular model today. It can be purchased for $190 on Amazon.

The typewriter began its journey in 1868 when Christopher L. Sholes patented the first prototype on the 23rd of June. This was the most basic form of the machine we recognize today, and it would go through several makeovers before coming into its own. 

The next notable jump in the typewriter’s evolution was the development of the electric typewriter by Edison. In addition to increasing the effectiveness of the machine, he rearranged the keys, straightening the rows and making them easier to use and a little bit more difficult to jam. The electric typewriter officially made its debut in 1872. Then in 1874, the original patent was sold and brought to E. Remington and Sons, a gun manufacturer, in the hopes of mass producing the original design. Only around 5,000 units were ever sold from this first run, but an introduction of this scale put the typewriter on the minds of everyone looking for more efficient methods of writing quickly. 

For the next several decades development stagnated, as several different models debuted and fell out of favor due to one flaw or another. The next event of note was the development of the Fox Portable in 1917, which boasted a collapsible carriage and became the first machine with a design that made it feasible to transport. The company was sued for design theft, but the idea of making the device portable stuck around. In 1933 the Electromatic typewriter was released, eliminating the problem of uneven pressure and difficult to press keys by introducing keys that require less pressure, leading to more uniform typing. 

In 1964 the magnetic tape typewriter was introduced, the first reusable storage device that allowed for correction without starting the entire document over. This device was crucial to the conception of word processing software as we think of it today.

Today typewriters are still used, though computers are vastly more popular and efficient. They are also quite expensive, serving more as a novelty to people seeking a certain aesthetic than a feasible writing tool.

Sources:https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/119673