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

Final Post: Relationship with Technology

People waiting in line for the Futurama ride

       

Final Blog Post

        It is crazy to think that people would ever wait that long for a ride like that.  I understand that it was fun and amazing at the time, however, with the technology and production value we have now, you would probably have to pay me to go on that ride.  I realize this makes me seem like a "dumb kid" who does not know how to enjoy things from our past, but I guess that is just what I am.  In the beginning when the astronaut jumped on the moon,  I thought the video froze because it moved nothing like an actual human would.  At first, I thought that the ride was based on the Futurama show that is on today.  I was so shocked because I did not think that the show was even close to that old, and I ended up being right about that.  

        In regards to the Mad World Remix, obviously it was extreme, however, all of the points made were accurate.  This world is now completely technology based regardless of the situation.  We figured out how to make sports technology based, with all of the new review systems when there is a close play, where I think user error from the referees is part of the game.  People do not know how to live in the moment.  No matter where you go there is someone not enjoying or absorbing a moment they are in.  For example, walking to class on HPU.  I am guilty of this but, with our beautiful campus, we should not be on our phones walking to class.  We should be looking around, enjoying the scenery, talking and smiling to our peers.  Another great example is, this past year I went to a Juice Wrld concert in Atlanta.  The whole time he was performing, everyone had their phones out and was recording every second of it.  I am proud to say I only recorded a part of my favorite song.  It is crazy to think that people would rather watch a low quality video of the concert on their phone later, rather than just enjoying the moment.  People enjoy showing off to others that they are at a frat party or a concert or a parade, then actually living these events.  I understand completely documenting a memory, but a majority people my age and younger, take it way too far.  Yes, I am on my phone a lot, but when something truly memorable is happening, I put my phone away and soak it in while maybe taking a quick picture or video every to remember it.
         Cyberbullying is a huge issue in the world today because of the different social media platforms, and because everything is online now.  Especially being a Game Dev major, as well as an avid gamer, I am very familiar with cyberbullying.  If you ever talk to the other people in your game, there will almost always be toxic behavior coming from other random people, for absolutely no reason.  Players will get unnecessarily angry when other people they do not even know, insult them.  It makes no sense honestly.  Some random guy on Call of Duty will call someone fat without ever even seeing the other person, and the other guy will be truly offended.  Cyberbullying is obviously apparent in social media with many debatable subjects being brought up.  Twitter and Facebook are full of political debates between people who have no idea what they are talking about, which leads to fights and then cyberbullying.  Instagram is full of people posting pictures of themselves, that look nothing like themselves, which leads to cyberbullying for that reason, because people are self conscious about what they look like.    

       

• https://theconversation.com/how-old-should-kids-be-to-get-phones-126389
• https://collections.mcny.org/Collection/[People%20waiting%20in%20line%20for%20the%20Futurama%20ride%20at%20the%20General%20Motors%20pavilion,%20New%20York%20World%27s%20Fair.]-24UAKVAFMJF.html

Week 6 EOTO: Communication Timeline

Netflix was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, on August 29, 1997 in Scotts Valley, California.
The two friends came up with the idea when commuting together from their homes to work every day.Hastings was a very successful computer scientist and mathematician and sold his software company, Pure Atria.  He then Invested $2.5 million in start up money for Netflix. The duo admired Amazons online shopping model, coming up with the idea to send the product to the user through the mail. They decided that VHS tapes were too expensive, as well as far too delicate to ship to people. Decided the newly invented (March 1997) DVD’s were the most logical option because of their price and durability. While the invention of Netflix is amazing to the consumer, many were negatively impacted by it. Television ratings went down, theatre revenue decreased and DVDs would be extinct without Redbox. The service that took the hardest hit is other movie stores. For example, Blockbuster went out of business in 2010 because of its inconvenient services, while still being more expensive than Netflix. In order to rent a Blockbuster movie, you had to go to the store, then drive back and return it within a week. With Netflix, in the beginning you would have the movie shipped to your house, which is still more convenient than Blockbuster. Modern Netflix, as we all know, you do not even have to leave your couch to watch thousands of shows and movies for less than $15 a month, which is what you would pay to rent one movie for a week at Blockbuster. Now Netflix only operated by mailing DVDs in the early years, which was when Netflix and Blockbuster could coexist. However, Netflix began streaming online in 2010, which by no coincidence is when Blockbuster officially went out of business. In 2013, Netflix began producing their own shows and movies, previously paying to use movies produced elsewhere. They developed "House of Cards" which as we all know is very successful, as most people have seen or heard of it. Has made over $20 billion in revenue has shown a lot of change, developing into one of the most popular online media sites we all know and love today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Software

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

Week 5 Blog Post

Anti-war

The people on the sites make a lot of great points against war and our strong presence in other countries that they see as unnecessary and I agree with a lot of them.  However, there are many comments on the government spending less money on military.  People believe this should happen because there are countries around the world with very limited armed forces like Costa Rica or no militaries like Liechtenstein who are doing what appears to be just fine.  However, limiting our spending on military is a horrible idea because of the target we have put on our backs.  Yes, if we could go back in time, I would be on board, but if we limited it now, we would be sitting ducks.  Do I agree with our spending on military, as well as our involvement in other countries, no I do not.  But under the circumstances we have put ourselves in, I believe that it is necessary.   There is one specific article about Trump wanting to get all of the troops out of Afghanistan.  This is a wonderful idea that I feel as though most people would be thrilled with, however, in every war, soldiers go missing, getting injured or are captured.  Leaving these troops behind would just be morally wrong. They will think that their country is giving up on them and abandoning them.   

https://www.antiwar.com/
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_without_armed_forces
https://news.antiwar.com/2020/04/27/trump-wants-all-us-troops-out-of-afghanistan-on-coronavirus-fears/

Week 4: Google Antitrust Probe

• 
  

 48 U.S. states launch antitrust investigation into Google

Attorney Generals from 48 States are investigating rumors about Google violating the antitrust law.  The antitrust law is the law against monopolies.  The investigations are about if Google is too dominant in online advertising.  They are seeing if the way they got this dominant was done in an illegal way.  Googles parent company, Alphabet, currently has a market value of about $820 billion, this is because of how many aspects of the internet Google has control over.  

Nine out of ten online searches are done using Google.  The Arkansas Attorney 

General states, "When my daughter is sick and I search online for advice or doctors, I want the best ones — the best advice or the best doctors — not the ones who spent the most on advertising,"  Google purchased a company called DoubleClick which is an advertising company specifically for making ads easy to click on. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-antitrust-probe-48-u-s-states-launch-antitrust-investigation-of-google-dominance-in-search-ads-and-data/

Week 2: Trump's Twitter Blocks Violate First Amendment

Trump's Twitter Blocks Violate First Amendment

President Trump blocked numerous critics on Twitter.  Public Officials should not be on social media to do anything other than post pictures of them and their families, however, we know that President Trump would not agree with me. As most of us know, Trump posts pretty much whatever he wants, and it seems as though no one is monitoring what he does post.  A lot of the things he says are not things that the leader of our country should be saying.  Anyone who is as bold as this man will get many critics, as you can not please everyone.  The Supreme Court decided that President Trump was violating the first amendment blocking these critics.  This is because he Tweets are about administration and different policies that he passes.  Every citizen has the right to see those posts, because it does have to do with what is going on with our country. The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional, and made it so the President can defend himself less through the use of social media.

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/348877/trumps-twitter-blocks-violate-first-amendment-co.html