Online Influencers EOTO

    With the recent surge of the internet, social media has integrated itself into daily life more and more. Social media influencers whether it be via TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter have significant control over their audience. This influence can have both positive and negative consequences. Many social media influencers use their platform and following to speak about political issues such as equal rights and gun violence. This is a positive way for social media influencers to use their platform because they are educating their audience about current events that affect everyone's daily lives whether they know it or not. These types of influencers are creating a new generation of politically educated advocates ready to fight for what they believe in.

    TikTok has become a huge platform for advocacy, when the Black Lives Matter protests reached their peak in the year 2020, many black creators stood up and educated the TikTok community about the movement. Several allies of the Black Live Matter Movement followed suit showing their support. This led to a wider geographic area of young people being educated in political events and ideals.

    Even though social media influencers are a great way to be educated about current events, it also can lead to the spread of false information. With the age of social media and influencers trying to obtain views, it is hard to distinguish who is telling the truth and who is telling stories for fame. Social media and its influencers are notorious for spreading false and misleading information.

    It can be quite difficult for people to shuffle through all the information on the internet and depict fact versus fiction. This can lead to the fear or distrust of public misinformation. However, social media is one of the fastest ways for everyday people to receive news and information about current events in near real time. With one click, millions of individuals have access to recently posted news about political events and news stories.

    On the contrary, there are unfortunately more influencers on social media using their fame and following to get rich quickly or participate in drama. When influencers engage in drama, it sets a bad example for their followers, especially members who are younger and more susceptible to be influenced negatively. This type of social media influence is what leads parts of the internet to be toxic and can cause harm. Many influencers who only care about fame and fortune often degrade and humiliate other influencers to be “trending” and gain a higher following. Oftentimes, they do without remorse or empathy. This behavior can negatively affect younger generations spreading through their social media platform.

    In my opinion, I believe the way social media influencers interact and present themselves on social media can greatly impact how the younger generations on social media act. It is of the utmost importance that influencers on social media use their platform currently to maintain a positive influence over their audience and viewers.

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Diffusion of Innovation Theory

As technology progresses there are several positive and negative attributes. For example, when the Kindle was originally released, it featured a simple design that catered to individuals who wanted an easy way to read while traveling or on the go. This was a positive attribute because it allowed individuals to hold a healthy hobby and the Kindle e-reader made it easier to pursue the hobby of reading. As Amazon constantly made updates and released new versions, the Kindle began to change designs. It was not until a decade after until Amazon allowed the Kindle e-reader to be able to download external apps such as social media. The Kindle changed from a simple piece of technology that allowed the consumer to read on the go to a tablet that allows outside apps such as social media.

As society progressed so did technology and so did the demand for an e-reader that could also connect to the internet alongside social media. This technological change took the simplicity of a basic e-reader and turned into any other smart device. Throughout the age of the internet many have developed an unhealthy relationship with technology, specifically social media. In my opinion I think that developing a simple e-reader into any other smart device was a bad idea due to it taking what diversity the kindle had and completely diminished.

Only one other company other than Kindle developed an e-reader that only had access to reading materials. Several other companies such as Apple or Samsung developed smart devices that also allowed the consumer to use the tablet as a nook or a Kindle. After the Kindle allowed internet access and outsourced apps to be added, I believe it to have backtracked the initial purpose of the Kindle.

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EOTO 1 Presentations

    The iPhone was created by Steve Jobs, announcing its production on January 9th, 2007. It was later launched June 29th, 2007. Although the iPhone was announced to be in production in 2007, the actual development of the iPhone started as early as mid-2004. Since the initial release of the iPhone, it became increasingly more popular, Apple has since created 28 other iPhones. Since the initial release date in 2007 apple has sold over 217 million iPhones.

    As each iPhone was released more and more current technology was added to them to keep up with their competitive and client geographic. For example, Apple was one of the first companies to release a phone that had a touch screen. The touch screen was one of the attributes and characteristics of the iPhone that led to thousands waiting in line to buy the first iPhone.

    Even after Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011, iPhones and other Apple products continued production, still implementing on designs he left behind. The iPhone paved the way for several phone brands after such as Samsung, Motorola, and Android. These companies took several similar ideas from Apple's iPhone and morphed them into their own cellular devices.

    As more iPhone generations released, the overall quality greatly improved from the progression of technology. The iPhone continued to have the best camera quality among competitors along with iOS systems and storage. The iPhone itself has been a model to other cellular companies and has set the bar high when it comes to the creation of new phones and technology.

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Progressive Era / Anti-War Voices

    In my opinion, the reason for having to seek out obscure websites to hear strong anti-war voices is because us as a society are pro-war. Economically, the production of military machinery such as weapons and high performance vehicles (Tanks, Ships, and Aircrafts) makes us money. The United States sells machinery to allied countries, so war is profitable for us.

    Due to this, many large corporations with control maintain websites that are displayed on the internet, such as Google or Bing putting certain websites at the bottom of a search engine, meaning that websites will be viewed and visited far less. The reason for having to dig deep into the internet to find these voices has to do with political bias. If one idea is believed more by the public, ideals that are deemed “illogical” are silenced and hidden away to ensure that there is no rioting and protests.

    This can also be seen throughout the political season. Large search engines are known to be biased towards one party or another and will push some news articles and information towards the bottom of the page to ensure less of the public have access to that information. I personally have never heard or seen any of these websites and that is mostly due to the media silencing the unpopular beliefs to reduce “manic”, which I believe to be unfair. I believe that all information should be equally distributed so that American citizens can develop and create their own opinions and ideas based on the information they find, whether it is true or not.

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Amazon Kindle EOTO

 

    The Amazon Kindle was introduced as a revolutionary electronic book reader as a personal handheld library. The Kindle permitted books to be purchasable through the Internet, via the Amazon services, and viewable at any time through the tablet. This introduced an entire new avenue for electronic reading and allowed publishers to extend their reach and reduce printing costs.

    The first Kindle series was released in November 2007 and sold out within hours on Amazon's website. It was a convenient e-reader for the consumer, rather than carrying a multitude of books, the Kindle is a lightweight and portable way to read on the go.

    The success was so well received that Amazon launched a new version of the Kindle in 2009. The only changes that were made to the device consisted of a more visually appealing display of the keys and storage boost. Many attributes stayed the same such as the 6-inch E ink display. The new updates that really caught the eye of the public was that the Kindle two refreshed at a much faster piece than their previous tablet. The Kindle 2 was even more successful and shortly after became a household name. To keep up with the rising demand, Amazon released another Kindle three months after the release of the Kindle 2, in May 2009. The new Kindle was known as the Kindle DX, however after two years of being released the DX was discontinued from lack of demand for a “magazine reader”.

    In 2010, the Kindle Keyboard was released and was the first Kindle sold outside of the United States. The Kindle Keyboard was a huge hit in the United Kingdom and sold millions. The difference between the Kindle Keyboard and the previous Kindles was that it was more compact. The Kindle slowly evolved like other technology-based devices such as cellphones to be smaller and more compact to make traveling with them more efficient.

    In 2011, Amazon took a huge leap in the technological community and developed the Kindle Fire which adapted from clunky buttons to touch screen compatibility. This piqued the interest of many consumers since touch screens were becoming overwhelmingly popular. The changes allowed users to search the Kindle store for books and apps much faster than the previous Kindles and overall made consumers happier.

    Amazon released the Kindle Paperwhite in 2012 and made a huge advancement. The Paperwhite was designed to allow users the ability to read in the dark or direct sunlight. Now consumers could read outside, inside, in dark surroundings. After the Paperwhite was launched, a cheaper alternative was created to ensure a larger consumer demographic was able to get a hold of their product. In 2014, Amazon launched the Kindle 7 that only cost US$79, which provided an affordable variance for larger groups to buy and use their product in mass. The Kindle Voyage was also released in 2014 and provided the same amenities as the other Kindle launched in 2014 other than it offered a 3G option and a 300 PPI resolution.

    The Kindle Oasis was released in 2016, this version of the Kindle was completely remodeled to have a lighter and thinner frame which was not only perfect for traveling but catered those who traveled a lot and wanted a more convenient alternative to previous Kindles or hard copies of books. Two more versions of the Oasis were later released in 2017 and 2019. The idea remained similar but both options contained more storage, a better retina display and were more compact than before.

Pocket-lint

Age of AI

 

    Artificial Intelligence is a morally conflicting topic. Will it rapidly increase job productivity, or will it cost workers catastrophically? In my opinion, Artificial Intelligence should be used for speed or rapid transactions that would rather take the human hand significantly longer to complete. This includes personal identification records, financial management, and countless others. In today’s world of business, some processes may take extensive time for humans to complete, from sending or receiving data between stations or companies to storing that data for reference or use at a later notice.

    My belief is that humans aspire to do tasks as quick and easy as possible. Creating a system in which technology performs most or all tasks in replacement of human hands could be detrimental to many job positions. With the wish of total ease of access comes a strand of laziness or neglect for the job at hand.

    In addition to human versus robot jobs, artificial intelligence creates a new privacy and security risk. If a system is considered malicious, it can collect and spread personal data among other sources, which in turn leads to identity theft, unverified purchases, or security hazards for the person with leaked information. These sources of information include bank and credit card details, address, phone number, and connections.

    In my opinion, it would be beneficial to keep artificial intelligence partially incorporated into society without letting it run major systems or functionalities. Allowing this setup would benefit smaller companies who would need the assistance more than the large companies due to the connections or positions that can currently settle this line of work.

Final Blog Post

    There is always a point where too much screen time becomes unhealthy. In my personal experience, my relationship with technology is relatively healthy. Typically, I can manage my time between gaming and schoolwork. On the other hand, there are also occurrences where I lose track of time and forget about my other responsibilities. In the long run, I frequently manage to complete the assignments that are required of me, somewhat coming in close on time. Since I am a Game and Interactive Media Design major, I do spend a significant amount of time in front of a computer screen. In all honesty, I do believe it takes up a significant portion of my day to day life.

    On another note, I believe technology and the internet to be valuable tools if used correctly. Unfortunately, the internet also provides countless amounts of false or uncredited information that can be misleading. Oftentimes, this information is disguised as credible information, but after delving deeper it turns out to be false. It is not necessarily technology that provides the misleading information, but rather the people using the technology for personal gain. For example, during political elections many opposing sides will spread false information via social media and the internet to sway potential supporters away from the opposing candidate. The internet can also provide truthful information in a way that can be accessed quickly which is useful if the information required is needed in a timely manner.

    I know several people who have both a positive and negative relationship to technology. In my opinion, the negative relationship usually consists of overindulgence in social media and the internet which can be time consuming and takes away from more important things such as schoolwork and time spent with family. On the contrary, the positive impacts I have noticed with close friends and family consist of a balance between social media, school, and time spent with family. A positive relationship does not technically mean limited screen time but finding the equilibrium between the two.

    In relation to future employment due to my online footprint, I believe I would be in the clear. I rarely use or post on social media, so my online footprint is very minimal. I know employers use social media to see what kind of person the applicant is and who they are outside the work environment. Since I never use social media, it would be hard to find any negative posts in relation to my online footprint. After Googling myself, everything I found was to be expected. I found a few articles online that show my wins as the captain of the bowling team at my high school. I also found my LinkedIn page that shows my customized for my previous occupation. To be fair, I am happy with what I found because it paints me as a hardworking and dedicated individual with varying experiences under his belt. I think potential employers who look at my online footprint will be pleasantly surprised at what they would find.