Week 12: Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovation theory explains the growth of a new idea that spreads throughout society.  An innovation that had an incredible spread was streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.  This idea spread like wild fires because of the simplicity as well as convenience.  Prior to these streaming services, you had to either buy a DVD or watch the program on TV.  Going to buy a DVD was inconvenient, while watching programs on TV was risky because you could not pause or rewind the shows, not to mention there were long commercials.  With these new streaming services there are a few short ads, if any, and you can pause, fast forward and rewind whenever you want to.  The first users were obviously the creators of the services,  followed by what was most likely close friends and family, who heard about these innovations first hand from the innovators.  Then they told their friends and it spread, eventually spreading to the laggards, who are most likely senior citizens, who's kid just showed it to them.  The downside to these streaming services, as I previously mentioned in my earlier blog post, was that the other forms of media decreased heavily financially.  These services are often used as a distraction, which will always be viewed as a negative, as well as a positive, depending on what it is distracting you from. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations
https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/diffusion-innovation-model/

Week 3: The Founding Era

The Supreme Court was established after the Judiciary Act of 1789 was passed by Congress and George Washington.  It originally consisted of six justices, who served for life or until retirement.  The President gets to elect new justices, if they are to lose one for whatever reason.  The U.S. Senate has to approve of them, and in this case, they approved all six.  The Supreme Court was established by Article 3 of the Constitution, which also states that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction of all laws.  The Supreme Court was also designated to oversee all foreign treaties.  On February 1, the first session of the U.S. Supreme Court was held in New York City's Royal Exchange Building.  The number of Court Justices varied during the rest of the 19th century, but they finally settled on nine.  Having six made no sense, because what were they supposed to do if a vote split three and three?  With nine there will always be a dominant vote.  The Supreme Court has always had a huge role in solving the biggest issues in our country, even though the right decision is not always made, as they played a big part in keeping segregation around for as long as it was. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRoXYRsaeo&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca8qSuWxcG8&feature=youtu.be
https://www.snopes.com/ap/2020/05/04/called-to-order-supreme-court-begins-first-arguments-by-phone/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-supreme-court

Week 16: EOTO

COVID-19 is reported to be responsible for almost 70,000 deaths in the United States.  The graphic above shows that these are heavily inflated.  86% of the people who die due to the Corona Virus, have something else effecting them.  What medical officials are required to do is mark any deaths that include COVID at all, as a death due to the Corona Virus.  People that have any of the comorbidities above, are more vulnerable to catching viruses like this one, and are much more likely to die from them.  Many heavy Republicans believe that Democrats are inflating these numbers to make it look like Donald Trump is not taking care of his country.  No I do not believe that it is Democrats setting up Trump to look bad.  I think that there is nothing really you can do about this pandemic.  What is Trump supposed to do to save the lives of these people?  He does not have the answers to this just like everyone else in the world.  No one knows what the best option is about COVID, despite every one thinking that they do.  As little as we know about the virus, we do know that it does not cause the illnesses above.   

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/media/right-wing-media-coronavirus-death-toll-reliable-sources/index.html

https://the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/220457/coronavirus-updates/comorbidities-rule-new-yorks-covid-19-deaths

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Week 15: EOTO Illusory Truth Act

The Illusory Truth Effect is something that we most likely have all been influence by.  When something is being forced into your brain over and over, you will believe it is true.  I remember as a kid, my parents and teachers would tell me about this all the time.  If I said something mean to one of my friends, my parents would tell me that if I said it to them enough, they would start to think that it is true.  Another example of this would be being raised in a racist household.  Racism is obviously very wrong, but racists do exist.  If a kid who does not know any better, is being told that people with different skin colors are lesser than the race he is, then he is going to believe it, and I do not see that as his fault.  Yes people can have their own views, but if you are being told your whole life that something is fact, you are going to see it that way, right or wrong.  Beliefs are passed down from generation to generation, which makes it hard to break the cycle.  I have personally watched this effect people, mostly when dealing with sports and what players are believed to be good and bad.  This effects our society because is is based completely on beliefs.  Our society is based on what we see as "good morals" and what we as a community see as right and wrong.  

https://www.kub-uk.net/insights/illusory-truth-effect/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect

Week 13: Audit Your Online Presence

My online footprint is rather large.  No I am not saying I am adding anything substantial to the public, but I do take part in a large amount of online applications and websites.  I do have accounts to pretty much every kind of social media.  This includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, Youtube and Snapchat.  I do not post much on these sites, I am more of an observer.  I mostly just use these sites to stay in touch with friends, as well as finding humorous content.  Another online accessory I am big into is the gaming community.  I have an account on the main ones being Xbox, Playstation and Twitch.  I have accounts and play games on them, creating some content for others to view by recording highlight worthy events that occur while playing.  Twitch is a streaming site for gaming, where famous streamers can post their live gaming sessions.  I also have different websites specifically for career building.  This includes LinkedIn, Itch.io, Github, Wix, Blogger, One Drive and Google Drive.  These I use specifically for doing work for school and work in the future.  These are services in which I can share my game developments with my group members, or with employers.  Wix is where I have a personal website about the games I have developed, as well as my strengths as an employee.  This blog that I am currently posting on is another social media presence I have.  I also am included in a lot of newspapers and high school sports websites because I was an all-conference soccer player.  I have a soccer recruiting page including my statistics throughout high school, and how I performed in my four years of high school varsity soccer.  Weirdly enough, I have a Twitter account made about me and I have no knowledge as to who runs it.  Anyone who looked at my social media accounts would see me as someone who is not on social media all that much.  They would also see me as a very sarcastic person, because I do respond to other peoples posts jokingly often.  Another thing about me people would notice, is that I refuse to include profanity on anything with my name on it.  I do not swear, and I attempt to be the least amount of controversial I can be.  I do not wish my name to be involved in anything like that, as I know social media is how people will portray me, if they do not know me in person.  The only site that I believe has my phone number is LinkedIn.  This is in case any employers would like to reach me for any reason with questions.  Almost all sites require a valid email but the site does not generally display this email unless there is a reason to.  

https://technofaq.org/posts/2018/11/guide-to-tracking-your-digital-footprint/

Week 11: Eight Values of Free Expresion

The 5th Value of Free Expression is what I believe to be the most important and most underrated value.  This value is a check on governmental power.  North Korea is the best example of the government having far too much power.  You can not freely travel the country, let alone leave the country.  Kim Jong-un has a dictatorship over North Korea having total control of everything in the country because of his heavily armed support system.  North Koreans are completely left in the dark about what is going on in their country as well as out of the country.  The citizens are lied to and not supported in any way.  They are then told that their country is the best country in the world, they are actually told they win the olympics, as well as the World Cup every time.  The government has all of the power in this country as the dictatorship is simply handed down the family.  Obviously this is an extreme case, but the more power the government is given, the easier it is for them to acquire more power.  The press, as well as all citizens in the U.S. have the right to know what is going on in politics, thus giving them a fair judgement to decide on their vote for governmental officials.  Having the right to choose and elect the people representing as well as making decisions for our country is a right and we are required to be informed on what each and every person believes and plans to do with the power they are rewarded.  Obviously the press are informed first, who then passes it on to the public.  The problem with this system, is that the press does include a lot of bias.  Whether they realize it or not, each member of the press does have an opinion, and will attempt to portray their opinion directly or indirectly with word choice.  If there is a democrat reporter who hates Donald Trump and everything that he is about, he will portray him negatively.  The press will not necessarily lie, but can choose to not tell the full truth, leading to a consumer reading it and thinking negatively about the subject of what was said.  There is no check-and-balance system without the citizens of America.  As a nation it is our duty to keep the government in check, not giving them too much power.  This means dealing with their decisions on the subjects we do give them power on.  Any decision made, will anger someone, but we need to deal with them because these are the people we voted in to make the decisions that we do not have the knowledge about, nor the time to achieve said knowledge. 

https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Brother_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_North_Korea

Week 7 EOTO Tech Timeline

Originally, a face book was a web directory was found at universities consisting of peoples pictures and names.  They attempted to use this in order for students to get to know each other.  In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" while attending Harvard University.  Facemash consisted of putting two peoples pictures from their online "facebook" next to each other, and you decided who was more attractive.  Harvard administration shut the website down quickly after it was very successful while only being in operation for a few days.  In 2004, Zuckerberg and a couple of Harvard friends started "The Facebook."  It was a social media website, in which you can interact with other people, as well as show information and pictures of yourself.  Originally, the group of friends limited the website to just Harvard students.  Eventually it was opened to Ivy League schools in the Boston area.  It then opened up to other colleges, and then high school students.  In 2006, they opened the site up to anyone older than 13 with a valid email, with exception in certain areas.  Facebook now has 2.5 billion active users monthly that be accessed in 140 different languages. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book