Final Blog Post

     As a 20-year-old young adult in 2021, I can comfortably say that I am blessed by technology. I find my relationship with it to be healthy; I have a nice balance between being engulfed with technology to interacting with my physical reality. Unlike many kids in today's day and age, my parents taught me to not have my phone out at inappropriate times such as at the dinner table, at church, or when we are visiting family members, whether it be for a holiday or just a general visit. By enforcing this, I learned to be comfortable with talking with adults and even make small talk with strangers. 

    As a legal adult, I can use technology to benefit me for work and making money. Over the summer, I worked as a DoorDash driver, which entirely relies on technology for the work itself, and the income. I also am a heavy stock trader on Robinhood and Coinbase, which has led to some profit over the past year and a half. Currently, more than 6 million people use the internet entirely for work, so it's a huge resource that people can fortunately take advantage of in today's day and age. 

    During the peak months of COVID-19, one thing that we took for granted about technology was how easy it allowed us to stay connected when we could not see each other in person. It never truly hit me how important it was that we had to entirely rely on technology for work and school. I cannot even imagine if we had no computers or phones how we would have even got through school for that year-and-a-half. I think it would be valid to assume that everything would have got pushed back for that year-and-a-half, and we would have had to play catch-up. High schoolers could have been almost 20 years old by the time they graduated. It is scary to imagine a pandemic without technology. Not leaving the house and having no technology means no shopping, no gatherings. It could have turned into a small form of socialism where the government would deliver necessities to all homes until things got under control. Another thing technology helped with during the COVID-19 pandemic was helping me stay connected with my family members. Many of my family members are either old or have compromised immune systems, so being able to use technology to contact them whenever I want is great! 

    While there are many incredible things technology gives us, there are many side effects that can negatively affect everyday life. Personally, I struggle to stay focused for long periods of time while working on homework or test, or even just staying focused through a movie that may not pique my interest as much. Many people like myself fall into the trap of just using technology simply as an escape from reality and from things that may bore us. On top of the general escape, it is way too easy to get lost in a fantasy world where time flies by in reality, but in the fantasy, time stops. Technology can be such a time waster where we miss out on a ton of incredible things that reality offers us. Plus, by just escaping to technology, my body becomes almost "too rested" to the point where it's difficult to get up and do the most normal of things. Finding a nice balance is essential in living a healthy and fulfilling life, and I continue to work on that every day. 

    One of the things I try to be aware of on the internet is my digital footprint. When I Google my name, I'm very easy to find since "Connor Disharoon" isn't the most popular name in the world. At the top is my LinkedIn, followed by a high school basketball news article from The Baltimore Sun with my picture celebrating a basket I scored during a playoff game my senior year. Other things up there include my Instagram account, my Pinterest, my ask.fm, and a few other socials - nothing that I wouldn't mind potential employers seeing. 

    As AI progresses into some of the smartest machines we've ever witnessed, I'm excited to potentially be able to interact with machines that can replicate human behaviors. While it's obviously dangerous to create beings that are superior to humans intellectually and even physically, I think it has the potential to be humanity's greatest achievement. To dive deeper into the interactions with a human-like machine, I'd love to see if machines have the potential to develop real feelings and emotions, maybe even opinions of humans. I'd love to create a positive reputation by representing humanity in the eyes of a robot. While there are many mean people who wouldn't take it seriously, there could be blunt reminders of how smart they actually are. Society just needs to be wary of that.

    

In The Age Of AI

     Artificial Intelligence is the future of our world. Machines have become smarter than us in many aspects of life, and will far exceed our abilities as humans. For example, in the game of Go, the world champion, Lee Sedol was defeated by AlphaGo, the AI program designed by Google. The wicked fast calculations by the machine to find the best moves has totally surpassed human capabilities. This is just one prime example of how machines will be able to flex their inner strength and leave humanity's intelligence in the dust.

    Artificial Intelligence has the chance to take over many jobs that are currently done by humans, such as accounting and construction, which are two jobs that can be done faster and more efficiently than humans. Kai-Fu Lee, an AI scientist, predicts that jobs will decrease by over 50% over the next 15 years. While that sounds awful for workers, it sounds like a dream as a business owner. You do not have to pay human workers nor do you have to create work schedules. Your only responsibility would be maintenance for the machines. By having machines do human jobs, the world's products will be accessible quicker. With machines, we can expect the world to advance at an even faster rate than it is advancing now.

    In terms of privacy, it has a chance to be eliminated forever. We see in China that they are nearly under a total surveillance state. They collect so much data on their many citizens every day thanks to the many cameras tracking their every move and taking note of their tendencies. There is absolutely zero privacy there. In the United States, we value advancing with new machines and technology, but not at the expense of our privacy. It is convenient when I'm online shopping and I coincidentally get an advertisement for something I was just searching, but at the same time, it's creepy that they have that information about what I like. It can feel quite invasive. Even though the government tries to invade our privacy frequently, it will never be totally gone thanks to the Constitution. 

    National security is at a greater risk with the rise of AI and digital data. There is a higher chance of hacks and leaks of information thanks to foreign government agencies having greater access to high-tech machines capable of accessing our information. This also applies for online security and identity theft. Credit card information is always a high-value item hackers try to steal from unsuspecting people. Like I said before, since everything is digital and shopping can be done online, there is a much increased chance of something like that happening. Same thing with identity theft - online financial sites require a Social Security Number, when if hacked, can lead to someone taking your entire identity, which is very scary.  

EOTO 2: Mainstream Media

     The mainstream media includes the most popular news networks on television, such as CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX. These news channels are private corporations that have the biggest budgets out of every news source. Therefore, that means they also have the biggest influence over the news people around the country receive, so the things they say and show over the air have a tremendous effect on public opinion. 

    There are many good and bad things about these types of news sources. Starting with the good, if there is a piece of news that needs to reach everyone as quickly as possible, the mainstream media is the perfect source to take on that responsibility since they have so many viewers. An example of this is when the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 happened. Every news channel was showing footage and talking about the plane crashes right as they happened. People knew very quickly that something had happened and were all prepared to react and take action. Another example is when COVID-19 was first starting to shut things down. The major news outlets like CNN and FOX News gave updates about what to expect, and people took action quickly by shopping like madmen and women getting essentials for their households.

    Another benefit to having the mainstream media is that it creates discussions for people about news that they most likely have all seen and heard about. Overall, this discussion creator helps keep people connected as a community, and as a society. 

    While the mainstream media plays a positive role in society, it also plays a very negative one. The most notable con with the mainstream media is the biased commentary. The news anchors on channels like CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News are not just news anchors; they have turned into celebrities. Currently, Tucker Carlson's show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, is the most viewed news program in the United States with an audience of over 3 million people. People that watch programs like that do not watch to hear the news; they watch because they want to hear Tucker Carlson crack jokes about Joe Biden and the rising gas prices, or basically anything where he bashes the Democrats. 

    Besides the lack of interest in the news, itself, commentators like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Don Lemon on CNN contribute to the division of society with their bias on every subject. They force apart people into a black and white world where it is either you side with the Republicans, or you side with the Democrats, and if you choose not to pick sides, you are viewed by others as a bigot or just as someone who does not care. The media contributes to the intolerance in society, and the lasting affects are bad. While I am all for having political discussions, It is important that we do not fall into the quicksand of the political hate that so many people are stuck in right now. There is more to life than politics, and the mainstream media needs to do a better job of helping people understand that and stick to just "news".

    Another form of bias the mainstream media commits is picking and choosing what stories to cover and to not cover. For example, during the riots after the death of George Floyd, FOX News and CNN covered very different stories. CNN covered the people mourning the loss of George Floyd, as well as covered the details of the whole police encounter. FOX News on the other hand strictly covered the riots that took place in many major cities. For viewers, it creates a totally different story of what people focus on. This picky coverage is responsible for people arguing and fighting about what side to be on about the whole situation. It is not fair to the United States citizens who have to feel the repercussions of it. 

Learning About Someone Else's Technology: Emojis & Emoticons

    In messaging, plain words and numbers get boring after a while, so to spice up messages and posts, emojis and emoticons were created. By "spicing up" messages and posts, people can send and receive messages with emotions attached within the emojis and emoticons. In the picture below, an emoji is on the left, while an emoticon is on the right. They share the same meaning, but the execution of sending them in a message is the only difference. 

       Emoticons entered the picture in 1982 thanks to Scott E. Fahlman, who was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Using the smiley face ":-)" in emails, it eventually spread on emails all across the world. The smiley faced also evolved into the frowning face ":-(". While emoticons are some minor innovations in communication compared to others, they still had a tremendous impact and influence on the way people communicated with each other. It is a major turning point in digital dialect that is etched in the history of communication. 

    While emoticons have somewhat gone out of style, emojis are very popular nowadays. People use emojis in texts and social media posts/comments all the time. The word, "emoji", originates from the words "e", which means picture in Japanese, and "emoji", which means character in Japanese. Popular emojis include the laughing emoji, the crying emoji, and the many colors of hearts (😂😭💜💕). Created by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999, emojis were originally created in a 12x12 grid for a total of 144 pixels. As the years have gone by, emojis have become more detailed with more pixels, which creates the picture we all see when we send them in messages. Kurita originally created 176 emojis. On phones emojis became available on the iPhone 5, which came out in 2011. Now, there are over 3,000 emojis on the latest iPhones. 

    As someone who uses emojis and emoticons often, it was neat to learn about their origins and how they came to be what they are today. They have both shaped how people communicate in 2021 and for the foreseeable future.

Anti-War Voices

    Governments hate when people disagree with their agendas. One of those being decisions to go to war. The United States government works tirelessly to promote a culture of nationalism and patriotism within its citizens, showing them that war is necessary when they say it's time to fight. If people oppose war, then it makes the United States look fake, vulnerable, and exposed, all of which hurt the wartime agenda. 

    

    The United States enters war for many reasons. Some are warranted, such as World War II, but many, such as the Iraq War was nothing but a greedy, power-hungry attempt at establishing dominance over the world after 9/11. 

    

    The United States government lies about the details of our wars. All of the stories that come from overseas are all fairytales with happy endings most of the time, where it's either "yay we got the bad guys!" or "our soldier died a brave and courageous death honoring and fighting for our country." 

    A prime example of this is the story of Pat Tillman, who was a former NFL player turned soldier after 9/11. Pat died from gunshots shot by one of his own men, but the United States government said that he died charging the enemy when he was shot by enemy soldiers, making it seem like a hero story instead of an accident. An accident like that would diminish the United States Military's reputation, but lying about the death of a soldier is a straight-up disgrace by the United States. They wanted Pat to be this All-American hero storyline and took advantage of his status as a former NFL player in order to promote war. 

    Mainstream news channels and websites are puppets of the United States government. They do exactly as the government says. Many veterans are told to keep quiet about the true events of war. Veterans have even been arrested just to make sure their stories don't get out. 

    The silencing of anti-war voices is a total violation of the U.S. Constitution. Many of these anti-war voices have great things to share with the world, but they are shut out by the government. It's totally unfair. Hopefully the future turns things around.

TED Talks: The Issues with Technology/Privacy Invasion

    While technology and the internet has many benefits, the lack of privacy and the loss of civil liberties in the United States is a huge red flag for U.S. citizens and internet users. It is no secret that everything we do and say has and is currently being tracked without us legitimately consenting or even realizing that it is happening. Some may argue that more surveillance is good in order to catch criminals easier, but it leaves the innocent totally exposed to hackers and stalkers, as well as it just straight up invades our privacy. The best thing to do is to be aware of your surroundings, as well as what you do or say. Devices are always listening and keeping permanent records that will long outlive us. As the one video described, we are leaving "tattoos of information online".

        An example of this is how police cars have license plate trackers that monitor where people travel, who they hang out with, where they live, etc. The list goes on and on. They do this for everyone "just in case" some people end up turning out to be criminals. They can catch them a lot easier. These license plate trackers are not just on police cars; they are mounted on street poles everywhere. Since they are everywhere, they can see one car multiple times and learn the tendencies of the driver. 

    In the "tattoos of information" video, Juan Enriquez talked about the website face.com that could identify anyone's face just by viewing it on screen. They got bought by Facebook in 2012, allowing them to literally have a "face book" of millions and probably even billions of people. 

    With all these surveillance devices monitoring us, Christopher Soghoian and Andy Yen share some ways to help us stay protected from big tech companies and the government. Soghoian says for iPhone users, only use iMessage to text people, use FaceTime for encrypted phone conversations, and use WhatsApp as another source for encrypted messages. These have a significantly lower chance to be tapped for information. 

    Yen shares his new email site called ProtonMail that encrypts all your emails to and from your recipients and senders without having to individually do any special encryption.

    These sources are short-term solutions to this big problem. If we want to establish some changes, we need to get many people using these apps and switching off of easy-target sites and apps. It's not easy to get everyone to switch, but the more aware we are of it, the brighter the future looks for our maintaining of privacy.

Diffusion of Innovations

       

    When I was young, my parents owned flip phones, and I always used the landline to call my friends from school. I always thought phones were a neat invention and an efficient way to relay information quickly. What ended the era of flip phones was the invention of smart phones. Now this really piqued my interest - not only can we now use facetime and social media, but we can use the internet on our phones, as well. So many people bought into this idea because everything was conveniently accessible. 

    Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, originally had the intention to make a "super slick" phone that was comfortable to hold and was reliable for calls. 

    For the smart phone, I was technically in the late majority group of this invention because one, I was very young and I was not allowed to get a phone until I was 13, and two, they were quite expensive compared to the normal phone. I really wanted one because I believed they were super cool and could do many things that would be useful for people, such as GPS, and looking up things quickly. Mentally, I was an early adopter, but I just was not able to to act on it. 

    The smartphone became so popular once people saw other people have it who loved the convenience of everything it offered. To put it simply, smart phones simply were too good not to have. If you did not have one, you were considered "not cool" or "stuck in the past", so people wanted to feel included and not miss out on the fun, plus have the benefit of all the cool perks that smart phones offered. This is why many early adopters took advantage of the smart phone early on, which opened the door for late adopters. 

    When the smart phone craze started, my parents were skeptical and kind of like "old heads" when it came to them; they held off on getting them for quite a while. My parents were late adopters because there is a huge risk of invasion of privacy, such as data and information about you being sold to companies all over the world, not to mention the many hackings that take place that take advantage of you through your personal information. These are serious risks that people take in order to have life be more convenient. Many people are not willing to gambit that freedom in exchange for the benefits of smart phones, which is why laggards exist. 

    Overall, I think the positives outweigh the negatives. The world is developing online at an exponentially fast rate, and to get a head start on success in my young age, I would be stupid to lag behind just for a little privacy. While the risk is always there, there are many ways to minimize that risk, such as only working on secure Wi-Fi networks, and using VPNs to encrypt your personal information. By having a smart phone, the world opens up way wider than it would by not having one. 

 

EOTO: YouTube

     YouTube was created in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim in order to have a place where people all over the world could easily share videos with each other. Chen stated that the inspiration for a video sharing website came after they had trouble sharing videos from a dinner party, but Karim says the inspiration came from him not being able to easily find videos of Janet Jackson's breast being exposed at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004, so creating a video sharing platform would be a perfect place to access a video of it. Obviously, that was just inspiration for the very lucrative business idea, but it was definitely kind of a shock to learn the backstory.

    In 2021, YouTube is the second-most viewed website in the world behind Google, its parent company. Besides just being a giant hub to share videos, it plays an important role for many people. Many content creators have made a fortune for posting their videos, as well as becoming major celebrities. 

    One example of a creator who has reached high status from YouTube is Olajide "JJ" Olatunji, known as "KSI". In 2019, he was listed as the second-most influential person in the United Kingdom by The Sunday Times. His main channel, KSI, has over 23.6 million subscribers, where he currently posts mostly music videos, but he used to frequently post videos of him doing funny things in public or with his family and friends. 

    A little over a month ago, he met the royal family, where he posted a video of him asking Princess Kate Middleton if she would ever make a TikTok video, where she said she "probably would not". His fame on YouTube led him down a path to where he could be in such a high level of status that he go to meet the royal family, some of the most prestigious people on Earth.

    Besides entertainment, people go on YouTube to research how to do things such as changing a tire, cooking, playing chess - the list is endless. If you need to figure out how to do anything, there is a good chance that a YouTube video exists that can help you. 

    Many companies pay for advertisements to be shown at the beginning and ends of YouTube videos hoping to generate more leads for their own businesses. From 2017-2020, YouTube made about $34.4 billion from advertisements. With this money, YouTube can afford to continue providing an excellent website for billions of people around the world.

    On top of becoming the biggest video sharing hub in the world, YouTube also became a source of music, news, and movies. In terms of changing communication, YouTube has become kind of a "catch-all" place for entertainment. People no longer have to go to many different sites just to access all of these forms of entertainment when YouTube provides all of it in one place. It really has transformed into a one-of-a-kind website that will probably stand alone at the top of content sharing for the foreseeable future.

My Thoughts About the Eight Values of Freedom of Expression

Freedom of expression is at the heart of our democracy here in the United States. It is an essential part of our country's identity, and it makes us unique from many other countries around the world. Freedom of expression encourages people to openly express themselves without having to worry about the government punishing them. While the government is still in charge, our freedoms as citizens help limit the power of the government and allow us to hold them accountable, which is one of the Eight Values of Freedom of Expression. 

The value that resonates with me the most is promoting tolerance. Something that has plagued our country recently is "cancel culture", which is designed to hold people accountable for their actions and things they say, but many times, cancel culture goes overboard to the point where it practices censorship and defamation of character because some people get offended by other people's actions. To elaborate a little more, "canceling" someone can mean getting them fired, getting them banned from certain social media platforms, or just straight-up damaging their reputation. By canceling people left and right, there is a total disregard for promoting tolerance in our society. It is impossible for a society to operate where everyone is going to like everything that people do and say. That is why we have to learn to form opinions as to what we do and do not like, as well as what we do and do not respond and give attention to. I hope we can eventually get to the point where canceling is a thing of the past, and we can focus on these values as a way of life in the United States.

Another thing I would like to touch on is the constant effort by the government to shut down the truth, which goes against the value, marketplace of ideas, where within free speech, truth will always win out over lies. Julian Assange is a prime example of using his rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights to share the truth, but the U.S. government, along with many others, are wrongfully going after him and even trying to get him killed. He has been held in custody in a maximum security prison without officially being charged for over two years, which violates the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. All of this effort to destroy a person's life just for legally sharing the truth shows how messed up government agendas can be.

As Americans, we are thankful for the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution. We show our appreciation by using these freedoms for the good of our society. While many, including the government, take advantage of these freedoms by using them for harm, the good things outweigh the bad, and they make the United States a desirable place to live. As my generation gets older and continues learning about the current mess our government is in, we might be able to make a change that benefits our future and ensures no Constitution violations.

My Takeaways About The SCOTUS

The Supreme Court of the United States has some of the biggest and most important responsibilities within our democracy. As one of the three branches of government, they hold an important role in making sure the legislative and executive branches operate within the bounds of the Constitution. That's how they contribute to the system of checks and balances, which prevents one branch of government from becoming too powerful. In order for the Supreme Court to be the best that it can be, it's essential that they have the best possible justices at all times. The fate of many people, as well as the fate of the future of the United States lays in their hands. It is the Supreme Court that helps the United States maintain its democracy by making sure things are done fairly; they're the referees of the United States government. That's no easy job, to say the least.

I was astounded to learn the huge number of cases the court reviews versus the number of cases they decide to hear. They hear less than 100 cases each year out of the many thousands of petitions they receive and review. This was definitely the most surprising thing I learned. In the video, the snippet that stuck with me was the worker pushing the large trolley full of case files down the hallway. Seeing a visual representation of the overwhelming number of cases that needed to be reviewed helped nail down the idea of just how much work is required to sift through and select each case. The process of Certiorari gives the Supreme Court enough time and energy to focus directly on the cases they choose rather than being forced to hear the many thousands of cases they receive per year. 

I found it fascinating that they all shake hands with each other at the start of each day. While it might seem tedious and repetitive, it's important that the people in charge of the highest court in the country have great chemistry with one another. For me, it caused me to have a greater respect for the justices and the job that they do. In a life-long position of power, it would seem easy for justices to get ahead of themselves and overstep their boundaries, but by getting to personally know each justice, it forces them to hold each other accountable, like a mini system of checks and balances between the justices. 

The most important takeaway about the Supreme Court is that it does its jobs fairly, without bias, nor other agendas. Once appointed to the Supreme Court, justices get lifelong terms in order to prevent any influence of possible election year outcomes. Their jobs are almost never in jeopardy as long as they maintain the expectation of fairness. The Supreme Court keeps a steady eye on the rest of the government, as well as the citizens of the United States. The job they have holds a super heavy weight in maintaining our democracy. 

My Top Five Sources for News and Information

ESPN:

    As a die-hard sports fan, getting my hands on the latest sports news is a necessity. ESPN is one of the most popular sports news companies in the United States. They share news on their website, social media platforms, television network, and mobile apps. If something major happens in sports, ESPN is going to report the news faster than any other news network that covers sports. By following ESPN for sports news, I know I'm going to be one of the first people to know about any breaking news. ESPN is the place to go to get fast, reliable news about your favorite teams and athletes - check them out here with this link: https://www.espn.com/

Benzinga:

    Benzinga is my go-to news source for anything related to the stock market. I've been investing for a year-and-a-half on Robinhood ever since the COVID-19 pandemic took over the United States. Since I had limited knowledge about stocks, Benzinga provided me with much-needed updates about what was going on with different companies. If a stock shot up or dropped really low in a day, chances are that Benzinga published an article explaining what's going on. When a stock changes drastically in a day, that doesn't necessarily mean I should act on it. That's why I go to Benzinga and get the full story. Check out Benzinga with this link: https://www.benzinga.com/news

Google News:

    Whenever I want to stay up-to-date with daily news around the United States and around the world, I go to the news section of Google to see the trending articles. Most people tend to use specific sources like the New York Times or USA Today for daily news, but being able to see different publications of similar articles gives me greater insight into what's going on. A topic covered by one news source may be different than another, but with Google News, I can quickly look through numerous articles in a short amount of time and gather all the information that I need to understand and formulate an opinion about a news topic. Here's the link to Google News: https://news.google.com/topstories?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

RocaNews:

    RocaNews is a new-age news source that was created to deliver news without bias. This was the pivotal reason I started following them for global news. With over 1 million followers on Instagram, their posts are directed at a younger audience, specifically current high school students, college students, and other young adults. Their meme-style posts are pleasing to look at, and the following slides, once a user swipes left, feature relevant pictures with quick, easy-to-read articles about the current topic without any bias. RocaNews just provides the information, while I, as a reader, am left to formulate my own opinion without being swayed left or right politically. Check out their Instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/ridethenews/

YouTube News:

    Similar to Google News, YouTube News shows a wide array of news sources posting videos to their respective channels about the most trending topics. Like I mentioned before, I like to get different perspectives. Something covered by CNN is most likely going to be covered differently by Fox News. One thing I really like about YouTube news is that they show short snippets about certain topics. I can learn in a couple minutes what most television watchers wait to learn in an hour. Probably the thing I like most is since these snippets are YouTube videos, I can see the audience's opinions about it. Users can like/dislike videos, and they can also leave comments underneath the videos too. Here's a link to YouTube News: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYfdidRxbB8Qhf0Nx7ioOYw