My Relationship With Technology

Sometimes I like to convince myself that I'm not addicted to my phone, but as I sit here, writing this blog post, my phone is right next to me. Even if I put it in another room, I still wonder if anyone called me, posted anything, etc. Most of my generation is also like this. We grew up in a world of technology. I was only three years old when the first iPhone was released. I remember begging my parents to get me an iPhone in sixth grade because "it was cool". When I finally got an iPhone, my parents had a rule I could only use it for games and to text or call loved ones. I wasn't allowed to bring it to school or use it before finishing my homework. I respected these rules but I always saw my friends or older people on their phones all the time. Once I got a little older, things changed. My parents let me bring it to school. I would Facetime my friends and I downloaded my first social media app, Instagram. Fast forward to now, I have every social media app there is, and all my data is filled. 

Now VS Then

Obviously, there has been a drastic technological change in the last 50 years. While watching the videos in class, I found it interesting that most of the things mentioned are true. We have hotels underwater, people have gone to the moon, we have insane cities. The one thing they should have talked about though was how it would really affect us as humans. Although technology and iPhones have their positives, they still do have negatives. It can create a bubble for people making them forget about social cues. My biggest pet peeve is when I am driving someone and they are sitting on their phone the whole time. I understand if you are texting someone important but the whole drive is crazy! I believe our generation needs to improve in many aspects due to technology, iPhones, and even social media. When watching the second video in class, it had shown iPhone addiction and social media standards. One woman was in a dirty, dark room seeming depressed and sad but once she hoped on social to post something, she was happy, looking beautiful with a nice room. This explains social media exactly. Social media can be a place for catching up with friends, family, and entertainment, but it is also filled with fakeness and filters. Social media can be a great thing, but it is also very scary. Social media is a place to promote small businesses. It can give someone a career or give someone fame. I can think of so many people who use social media as something to give them business. 

How Does Technology Affect Me?

Technology affects my whole life and my future. It has made a whole new world and lifestyle we could have never imagined. It has given people careers, and education. One part of technology that sticks out to me the most is social media. Social media is something that allows people to connect to others. When listening to recent presentations about social media, I found it interesting how it can really change someone's life. Social media is also so important for a digital footprint of yourself. Supervisors, managers, or anyone hiring you can look you up quickly on social media. It can make or break you.

I believe that digital footprints are so important because they allow you to make a brand for yourself. When people look you up, whether that is on social media or Google, they can figure out everything about you. I think it is important to be graceful with what you post on social media or on the internet. Over the many years of being on social media, I have learned a lot. I have learned what to post, what not to post, who to follow, and who not to follow - there are so many rules! Social media can be an amazing place, but it is also scary. Digital footprints can really make you someone you don't want to be.

When I think of my relationship with technology, I believe it is good but I have seen others have some issues with it. While watching the videos in class, I noticed they had mentioned the "beauty standards" of social media. One thing I have seen all over social media is the beauty standard and how it affects women and young girls. I believe this is a huge negative to social media. Influencers can become famous just by the way they look - perfect hair, perfect body, perfect life. Social media has created a bubble for women to compare themselves to others. This can cause depression, eating disorders, or just as simple as insecurities. 

According to an article about People's magazine, around 80% of women tend to compare themselves to others on social media. When watching the video, you can see that not everyone's lives are perfect like the way they post. This can cause many issues as women see these people they want to become but can't get there. There are catfishes, fake identities, and untrustworthy on the internet. From what I have seen, it is hard to find an influencer who is real and doesn't use filters on their videos. 

My Take on Technology

Overall, I really do think technology is a great thing. I think it has expanded our brains and it has become such an important thing in everyone's daily life. iPhones, social media, and other recent technology have all become careers for people. They enable people to show themselves and give themselves a name. Although there are positives, there are so many negatives that we cannot control. On the internet, there will always be fake people. It is so hard to find real, genuine people because they want their money. They want to create a world and a bubble for people to watch. Essentially, they want people to think they can be like them, but in reality, they can't. Some people grow this fame and have platforms solely on how they look. Nothing we do is going to stop that from happening. I think it is so interesting how people complain about this happening when really, it is us letting it happen. Since people are attached to their phones, they continue to make people have these platforms and have these fake lives. If people wanted this to stop, they would have to stop using these apps. 

As I said in the beginning, I would like to convince myself I'm not addicted to my phone. If I am totally honest, I am. As is everyone else my age. I don't feel ashamed of it because it is something I love. As someone studying social media and digital communication, technology is something I have to know and I have to be good at. Do I have bad habits with my phone? Yes. Do I use it when I shouldn't? Yes. Do I compare myself to others yet still support and follow them? Yes, of course I do. That's just the world we are now. I believe that everyone does this, whether you want to admit it or not, everyone has bad habits with their phones. As much of a tool as your phone is, it is also a highly addictive device that some people cannot put down. 

Blog Response to Another Presentation

One presentation that made me very interested was the one about online influences. As a social media major, influencers are people that I will be working with in the future. Learning more about them and how they work is a must for me. 

Influencers are very influential! They can take a product and make it sell out in one day. When listening to the presentation, I found it very interesting how they are the new face of marketing. Some influencers can even make a brand out of themselves. Many influencers are involved with setting trends, what is popular, fashion, fitness, etc. They can even spread awareness about a topic about a specific cause. They can connect with so many people on a personal leave, with videos, posts, and even live content. 

Postives & Negatives

During the presentation, I learned about the positive aspects of online influencers. One of the positive aspects of this is that they have a very effective marketing reach. As I said before, influencers can sell out a product in a second. As someone who wants to work with social media and marketing, this is very valuable to learn and know about. I really enjoyed learning different ways they can connect with their followers and how much influence they have on them. Another positive is that they create a sense of trust with their followers. Since they are very personable, when they review or make an ad for a product, their followers will trust them with their reviews. They strive for content creation, so they aren't only doing ads, they are also making social media an entertaining place again. From this, they are even able to create a brand for themselves and make it their career. Online influencers are the new way of marketing. They use their creativity and involve their fans in everything they are doing. 

While I have stated some amazing positive aspects about online influencers, there are also many cons. Many people wish to become an influencers as the job seems easy and fun. Although it does seem fun, it is just the same as a regular job, they just don't show that side. Becoming an influencer used to be out of luck - you could gain a following overnight or you could work really hard for it, it was just the luck of the draw. Recently, it has become very popular. Everyone you know could be an influencer, meaning the job is becoming less luxurious. I believe this is a negative aspect because if people can become it, what makes them so special? As I said before, they do create a sense of trust with their followers but sometimes, they are being paid for saying something is good. They must say if they are being paid but sometimes, they don't, which makes it hard for their followers to trust them anymore. Normally when this happens, the influencer would be "cancelled". 

Overall, online influencers have changed the way we market products. They have changed social norms and have a heavy influence on changing trends, fashion, and becoming role models. I believe that online influencers are a great thing as we are a technology-heavy world. Social media will forever be changed. 

Blog 8 - Propaganda

Blog 8 - Propaganda

Julia Carey

Propaganda is when information is misleading or biased to promote a particular side of the government. When thinking of propaganda, images from World War 1 come to mind. Little did you know, there have been so many other examples, especially recently. This is an example from the US during WWI. This is a poster from the time to convince men to join the army. On the poster, it states “I want you” with Uncle Sam pointing. Uncle Sam was a fictional character made to embody a patriotic American. 

Recent Propaganda:

1. As I said before, there have been many types of propaganda recently. During Covid-19, there was an artist who was inspired by the war propaganda and created a poster. This poster states that people should “stay in” during this hard time of sickness. When the artist made the poster, she wanted people to stay in and stay safe. During this time in the US, many people were against that and did not want to stay in leading people to have issues with the posters.

 

2. Another recent example of propaganda in the US is from the debate for abortion rights. This poster is siding with the “pro-choice” side of the debate, stating to get their laws off women's bodies. As this is a heavily debated topic, lots of people see this and have issues with it but others agree. This poster wants to create a sense of anger in women that the people who make the laws about their bodies are not the same as them. Lots of women support this idea because women in history have worked so hard to create equal rights and recently, they feel that they are being taken away. 

 

3. My last example of recent propaganda recently is a poster made to, essentially, make fun of Trump. This poster is a picture of Trump with a clown nose and calls him a “joke”. People who do not agree with the way Trump goes about doing things or what he believes support posters like these. These can influence people to side with people who agree with this matter but it can also anger the people who agree with him. 

How Does This Affect Us?

Lots of things are heavily influenced by different beliefs and the government. It can be a news channel, a blog, or anything on the internet that could be influenced. This affects us in many ways. It can influence the way people think, making there very big debates and misinformation. Lots of people like to believe that they have the right answer to everything even when they don’t know everything about the topic. When looking at these examples of propaganda, I think it is interesting how these can easily influence the way people view different topics. They all have something similar - haters. If someone posted this and someone saw that they got hate for it, they could be scared to agree with the post because they don’t want to get hate back. It can greatly influence the way people think of a topic, maybe even changing it fully. Propaganda comes with a lot of name-calling, as seen in the poster of Trump. After learning more about this, I have learned that propaganda can be both positive and negative things. 

Blog 6 - Communication Technology Reaction

Blog Post #4 - Communication Tech Response

After listening to today’s presentations, the one that stuck out to me the most was the evolution of emojis. To be honest, I have never thought of the evolution because emojis are something I have always seen on phones. It was interesting how they were traced back to the 1800s and called emoticons. They would produce magazines and put four pictures of “faces” calling them typographical art. 

Technically, they were founded in 1982 with the smiley face emoji. A year later, they had 90 new emojis. For the next few years, they had these 90 emojis as phone communication could have been more popular. Then, in the 2000s, they noticed more and more communication rise. Now, there are almost 4,000 emojis on the iPhone.

I use emojis daily, whether to laugh at a text or send a heart to Mom! I couldn’t imagine texting without emojis. I really enjoyed learning about them as they are a part of my everyday life. I thought it was cool how they could track back to the 1800s with typewriters. To see the evolution of these things makes me interested in how they will eventually change. 

Blog 5 - History of Netflix

As we all know, Netflix is the most popular streaming service. There are about 260 million subscribers worldwide. The U.S. alone takes up about 30% of its total subscribers. 

In 1997, Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings had the idea of renting DVDs through the mail. After testing a few times, they came up with the idea of Netflix. The name was combined from two words - internet and flicks (slang for film). They combined the two words and came up with "Netflix". This is because, through the internet, you can rent a flick from them. After coming up with their name, they created the website - Netflix.com! They inspired Blockbusters and Redbox to do the same thing as them. Netflix has done many things to change the way people watch shows now. 

This is the OG website!

The Impact of Netflix

As I said before, Netflix was the first streaming and rental service for people to watch their favorite movies. It has impacted the way we watch shows now. But let's go back in time - it started as a website to rent DVDs. How did it change to a streaming service? Netflix decided to change their ways and worked with video game companies and Blu-ray discs. Streaming started in 2007 when they stopped sending the movie rentals. During this time, they started creating Netflix Originals - the first was Lilyhammer. 

Netflix has done a great deal in changing the way people watch television. When TV first came out, cable was huge but it was filled with commercials and ads. People started to become sick of this because it would take away from the show. When watching a season of a show, they would release one episode a week which created an anticipation to continue watching. Netflix was the only streaming service at the time so it became very popular as it had all the shows and movies people wanted to watch. As more people started to use Netflix, it started declining the usage of cable networks. People had to pay a small amount of money a month to watch their favorite shows so to them, it was totally worth it. Change really started to happen when Covid hit in 2020 with people staying at home all the time. Everyone wanted to watch their favorite shows and since they were at home, they could watch more than one episode a night - creating the term binge-watching. This term refers to people watching a whole season in one sitting. This is because they would release all the episodes in one day. 

Netflix today has changed so much from the day it started. At first, it was just a DVD rental service and now it has turned into a huge streaming service and has inspired so many other channels to create their own. Since this, Netflix has had some heavy competition but it still holds the number one ranking. Netflix has done a great job of creating a "new" way of watching TV. They have created their own shows and movies, have suggested lists of shows you might like, and have changed the way we think of television. To think, if these two men never thought of this idea, would we be watching television a different way?

Blog 3 - Eight Values of Free Expression

Individual Self-Fulfillment

There are eight values of free expression in the United States. They are a marketplace of ideas, participating in self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, checking on governmental power, promoting tolerance, promoting innovation, and protecting dissent. Each value is very important in the American lifestyle as it protects our expression and ideas. It allows us to express our thoughts about what the government may be doing. 

The one that sticks out to me the most is individual self-fulfillment - the ability to make oneself happy by reaching their own goals. This value is most important to me because without self-fulfillment, what are we living for? If we have no goals, then how do become proud of ourselves. I believe that having self-fulfillment is so important and is a huge privilege. You can be proud of yourself for working so hard for everything you have. Before becoming self-fulfilled, you have to have a few other things. They are physiological needs, safety, love & belonging, and confidence. With all of these factors, you can achieve self-fulfillment. Physiological needs are things that are necessary for survival such as air, water, and food. Safety means you are mentally and physically safe. Love and esteem are when you feel well-liked and respected by others. Lastly, self-actualization is when you have personal growth and achievement. 

An example of someone achieving self-fulfillment is a woman finding joy in completing a hobby she might have. After finishing something she enjoys, she will be proud of herself and happy. During this feeling, dopamine will release into your brain and you will feel a sense of happiness and pleasure. In today's world, I see a lot of self-fulfillment in social media. Lots of people have become very successful from social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. The influencers can express themselves in a way that they receive a following and success - some may even start a career from this. 

Why is this so significant?

Self-fulfillment is so important because it boosts dopamine in your brain which ultimately, boosts your mood. It will also boost your mental health. People become aware of what they can do and what they are good. People who are good at things can teach others and they won't accept something that is not right. Meaning, they will fight for what is right. This is important to a society because it allows people to learn from the best and it lets other people develop a sense of happiness and fulfillment. Self-actualization allows people to be happy with their work and opinions. In a perfect world, everyone would be able to achieve this but, of course, not everyone has the means to be able to do that. 

How could someone achieve this?

The best way for someone to achieve self-fulfillment is by figuring out what they want. Once you figure out what you want, whether that is a job, car, house, etc, you can work for it. When you know you are working hard towards something, it pushes you to do your best. If you know what you want and do nothing about it, nothing will happen. There is a quote from Dwayne Johnson that I really like, "Be humble. Be hungry. And be the most hard-working person in that room." I believe this quote is super important to this value because if you don't work hard, you won't achieve anything. Nothing happens overnight and after working so hard - you will feel so fulfilled. 

Blog 2 - US Supreme Court

 While watching each video, I found it shocking that they did not have the Constitution from 1787 or 1791 when the Bill Of Rights was added. To me, this is surprising because those are the original copies of these documents. Since the first Constitution was written in 1787, I think it is pretty important for them to have those documents on hand. I also thought it was interesting how they had all the documents after the Civil War. Even though I had prior knowledge of this fact, I will always find it interesting how people such as women, Native Americans, African Americans, etc, were not included in the original Constitution as they are now. I enjoyed listening to how RBG explained everything in this video. I always found it interesting how she fought for equal rights. 

Something I learned from this video was that the US Supreme Court gets about 7,000 cases a year to go through. I think it is interesting how people can fight a lower court ruling by going to the Supreme Court. After getting all of these files, I thought it was interesting that they only accept about 100 a year - meaning it is a very tedious process. After this process, they all go through the files and once a week, they will accept or deny the case. I also thought it was interesting that some of these cases are from almost 200 years ago - literally when these people were not alive! 

After watching these videos, I have some final thoughts about the Supreme Court. I really do appreciate all the hard and tedious work that they do. I think it is so interesting how many cases they get a year and they go through every single one of them. Obviously, the Supreme Court plays an incredibly important role in the Government but also in society. 

Blog 1 - TOP 5 SOURCES OF NEWS & INFORMATION

The New York Times is my main source of news. It has everything from games to new articles to news from all over the world. The NY Times is an app that you can download on your phone. I always love waking up in the morning and playing the Wordle with my friends. NY Times is reliable but I have also grown up around it as I am from NJ. The app is very easy to use and functional. As someone who is not subscribed, they are not throwing it in my face to become a subscribed member. I really do love the NY Times because I think they have information on anything you would want to learn about. It can be things from other states, worldwide news, or articles that will make you happy after reading. 

 

The Today Show is a news platform that I also grew up. My parents would watch it every morning and I have seen the studio plenty of times in my life. When I think of the Today Show, I think of my childhood and it brings me a sense of comfort. I really enjoy it when they cover their "lifestyle" news as it is light-hearted and fun to watch. Mainly, they cover all types of news, such as worldwide, breaking, and state news. I enjoy watching this more when I am home with my mom because we love watching the entertainment aspect of their program. 

Ever since I had an iPhone, I have used Apple News as one of my news sources. Apple News is great because it has all different types of news websites, such as NYT, The Athletic, and others. Apple News covers all types of news, just like the other two I mentioned before. They have local news, world news, and national news. Similar to the NYT, Apple News has created fun games in their app - kind of how a newspaper would be. Apple News is free but Apple News+ is a subscription where you can listen to audio articles instead of having to read them. I do not have a subscription but I think it's a really cool idea to have the articles read allowed. 

 

For my fourth source, I mainly use Instagram. I don't intentionally use it but sometimes I will be scrolling through the app and seeing a post about things happening worldwide. I like Instagram for this reason because it makes me aware of stuff happening and then I tend to go to another more credible source. With the new generation becoming the media, social media apps, such as Instagram, have become a popular place for young people to look for news. For example, if they like a political figure, they can follow up and keep up with what they say and do. 

  Lastly, like many other people my age, we hear a lot of our news from TikTok. TikTok is not always creditable but it is a good app to spread awareness of something happening. Since TikTok is so huge, many people can share their opinions about specific topics. Most of the time, TikTok will show you videos and opinions that you might agree with so you don't really get the full story of something but I do still think it is a good way to bring awareness to a topic. Since TikTok is used all over the world, there are many stories from different countries.