Wether you realize it or not AI is everywhere. Stores, cars, schools, and even household appliances. But is this really a bad thing? Is AI taking over the world? Well yes, AI is taking over the world, but not in the way you think.
One of the main concerns of the public in regards to AI is privacy. The right to Privacy often differs a lot to what people think. For example you are allowed to record yourself and others in/on public property regardless of how others may feel about it. The same thing can go for AI in websites. When you allow "cookies" or something like it, it allows the AI in the website to take your information.
Now this may seem like a problem to some however you must realize, you are allowing the program to take your information. So really this is on you. Not many people know what cookies are or what it does. This is how some people can take advantage of you. Some people look at it and be like "Hey! I like cookies! I want some!
This also ties into identity theft. A lot of things can happen by pressing the magical button that says "allow cookies" I have had a few friends who have had their identity or information stolen beacuse they clicked on the wrong website.
But what about national security? Typically this isn't an issue as many national secrets and information are AI resistant, so it usually takes someone who works on the inside to get the information. This is true for almost all national security leaks that our country has had. However even if there is an AI that steals the information, it always leads to a person who developed the AI.
The websites Antiwar.com and The American Conservative have some really interesting takes on modern military operations which you cannot find in the media. So why is this? why cant you find this in the media today? The answer is pretty simple. its because the media choses not to report on it, as they would prefer to control and persuade rather than report the truth.
Most of the articles and other sources on these websites are about the Russia v Ukraine war. Most of these articles focus on what is really going on during the war. Most of which is not what the "normal" media sources tell you.
The reason why the media doesn't report on stories like these is because it doesn't fit their agenda. You see the media, such as ESPN, ABC, CBS, and others are controlled by only 7 companies. these companies are able to manipulate their broadcasts in order to suit their needs. These needs are mostly far left on the political spectrum.
The media tries to manipulate you by pushing content that they WANT you to see. This is because without control over the people, they might revoke and realize what we are actually doing.
However this isnt true all the time. There are still stories that they report true facts on. Take CNN for example. To me, they don't have a perfect track record when it comes to credibility but even they must push real, truthful content. The best example is of the Pro-Palestinian protestors over the country.
Its hard to try and manipulate the audience of them being "good people" with "good intentions". A good example is of recently, there have been these protestors at Columbia University. CNN invited Jewish students to speak about their experience dealing with these protestors. Check out this post form CNN about that.
However it isn't just war that the media tries to manipulate you with. Its almost everything.
Lets take crime for example. A few months ago there was a story pushed out by The New York Post and Daily Mail about a police officer fatally shooting a woman in her car.
As you can see the heading of the article makes it sound like the officer did it on a whim and without any thought. However this isn't the full sorry. The woman in the photo, her name was Ta'Kyia Young, shoplifted goods from a nearby store. When the police were called and approached her vehicle, Young accelerated her car to try and hit the officer. The officer, senseing his life was in danger, did what he was trained to do and stop the threat.
This is just one of many examples of this type of censorship and manipulation in the media. If you want to see more then I would suggest looking at my other blog post titled FAKE NEWS.
My suggestion is to use sites like Twitter for news information. This is because it is a sure way to get accurate and TRUE news. Twitter has a feature called community guidelines where they correct false information in a post.
Because we live in a very technological advanced era that continues to grow at a rapid pace, its hard to think about how we CAN'T use technology in our day to day lives. As a Media Production major my relationship with technology is far greater than those in other fields. This means that I understand technology to a sense that others might not thought possible.
When it comes to school, technology is an essential. From taking notes, submitting assignments to even applying. If I were to ask you how you applied to HPU or any college for that matter, you would probably say that I used a service called "Common App". This is a fast and easy way to apply to colleges without the hassle of sending letters to the school itself. Even when you got your acceptance letter it came though the schools official website.
What about jobs and applying for jobs? Same thing. Most college students and adults have access to many job application sites such as linkedIn and Handshake. These sites make it easy to market yourself and apply for jobs though their application page. Here is my LinkedIn if you want to take a look.
But what about applications outside of these? What are the pros and cons of these sites? Lets talk about the big one that everyone probably has downloaded on their phone. Instagram.
My personal use of Instagram is really only to market myself. If you look on my instagram you will see 1 post about me directing my first Woman's Lacrosse game for ESPN+. This is my primary use of Instagram.
I do follow my friends, family, and mostly sports centers and teams. Depending on how you use Instagram depends on your relationship with it. My use of instagram is purely marketing, therefore I have no insentive to look at it for more than 30 minutes a day.
Some people however use the app religiously, posting life stories and updates. If you want to protect yourself with this type of technology, then the answer is pretty simple. Don't be stupid. Don't post yourself committing illegal acts and don't start anything in someones comments section.
Cyberbullying as a whole I find stupid. We are smart enough to understand what needs to be done to stop a cyberbully. All social media sites have a feature that allows you to report and block a user for any number of reasons. However not everyone utilizes these features. Cyberbullying is not different from normal bullying. If you see something, then say something, otherwise nothing will happen.
The last thing I did was Google myself to see what comes up. The top 3 things that came up were as follows. The first thing was my LinkedIn profile. The second thing was information about my Eagle Scout project I did at Wagner Farms. The third thing was my achievements at my High School, MKA. All of which are positive and I see no negative things to be found.
To my understanding Diffusion Theory is how new innovations pick up over time and who picks them up. Its a very interesting theory. One that, looking back, has been present in my life and what I have noticed, only now it has a definition. We were asked to read the opening of Diffusion Theory from Wikipedia but I got a more detailed and easier to understand explanation from Investopedia
When a new technology comes available to the people, of course there will be some who use it and some who don't, but there is more to it than that. According to this theory when a new technology is introduced, people fall into one of 5 categories.
2.5% of people who get the product form the start are called the innovators. They are typically people or influencers who want to take risks by investing in the product no matter the outcome. Its these people who try it out the product and figure out how it all works .
13.5% of people are called the early adopters. they aware that change is necessary and usually are the people you turn to for opinions about the product. They are said to love leadership positions and guide the rest of the people twords the product.
34% of people are called the early majority. They are the ones who want to see the full capabilities of the product before purchase. This is because they want substantial evidence that the product works as intended.
another 34% of people are the late majority. they are against change and usually buy the product if they are challenged into doing so. They also do it to appeal to the population. They would typically be business owners.
The last 16% are called the Laggards. These people usually don't buy the product as they dont like change and are very conservative of tradition. Its very hard to turn them over to the product.
The 1st New Technology that comes to mind when thinking about diffusion theory is the use of AI. AI has been developing at a rapid pace and has been implemented into a lot of different things.
Lets talk about the most famous AI right now, Chat GPT. This AI program has been taking the world by storm in these last couple years. Its also worth noting that students have started using it, so much so that schools have been starting to use Ai detection programs.
A majority of students that use Chat GPT fall under the Early or Late Majority categories. Once students realized that students could use this program to "help" them on assignment's, students have been using it ever since.
Because most schools have noticed this they have started adding AI detection programs in order to see if their students work was their work or if it was written by AI. And because these detection programs are in fact AI schools would fall under the Late Majority category.
This is because the schools felt the need to implement AI into their own education system because of what students are doing. Like above the late majority only implement the product if they are challenged to do so. The challenge here would be the students.
Personally, I fall under the Laggards. There are many reasons as to why I do but here are the main points.
The first reason is because I have never used AI software for any type of assignment. I have seen what AI has created and to be honest, I'm not impressed. Ai writes some garbage material that would never pass in an actually classroom setting. I believe that it would be much easier, and probably faster, to just to do the work on your own.
The second reason is that (pardon my language) I know my shit. I get good grades in school and am currently sitting at a 3.5 GPA. Its also worth noting that I rarely study.
Now I bet your wondering "How the heck are you getting such good grades when you barley study?". Well the answer is fairly simple. I am great at Math and Science, so there really isn't a challenge there. English and History are probably the subjects I struggle the most with however there is a way around this. English and History classes have one thing in common. Papers. Because we have papers I have more time to work on them and make them the best it can be.
As long as you take good notes, and understand what you have to do, and when its due, then you will be fine.
Although AI programs have taken the world by storm in these recent years. I don't like them. I think there stupid. There are other resources you can use to help your education and future career without turning to AI programs.
Today I got the pleasure to hear some of the other presentations from my classmates. All of these presentations held valuable information about todays society. Some of the topics I have never heard of before, so allow me to take you through a few that I found interesting.
The first interesting topic was about whistle blowers. This is when an employee, formal or current, finds some illegal activity going on in their place of work and report it to the proper authorities. Some of the things whistle blowers report are fraud, abuse of power, and embezzlement.Whistle blowers are often a major red flag for the government and the government will do everything in their power to shut you up.
One of the most famous whistle blowers out there is a man named Edward Snowden. He was an IT systems expert who was employed at the NSA. He was responsible for leaking highly classified information from the NSA in 2013. He proceeded to flee to Russia where he still is today. The U.S. government now considers Snowden a traitor in violation of the espionage act.
The second theory that I found interesting from today was the overton window theory. To me it gets a bit confusing but ill do my best to explain it.
The overton window is a political science concept that represents what society will except. Lets put it this way. You are running for president and you want to know what policies you should advocate for. Lets take the right to bear arms.
Typically when talking about this you would most likely find 3 different people. The first group of people think that there should be no gun laws and that guns should be used everywhere. The second group of people think that guns are not allowed and no citizen should own a gun. But then you have a happy median which is any citizen should own a gun as long as its used privately.
Now ideally you should be supporting this happy median as it is where the overton window is, as shown by the picture.
Its important to know that the publics opinion can and will change over time so these graphs are constantly changing. Its good to know where the overton window is if you want to win you next election. The overton window helps politicians decide where they stand in order to get the publics approval and their vote.
With todays Media and news sources its hard to decipher what is real and what is fake. a lot of news sources use Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation in order to control their viewers. So what exactly are these terms I speak of? Well you may have heard the term Fake News, most commonly used by former president Donald Trump. But there is a lot more to it than that, which is why I am here, to help you understand the truth. Up top is a diagram that I found on google to help you understand these terms, if you don't want to read my article... don't worry I understand :(.
Lets talk about Misinformation first. Misinformation is what is commonly found in news sites and overall media. as the diagram suggests it is a form of information that is false to mislead others regardless of intent. Here is an example of misinformation in the media
Misinformation
On August 20th 2022 a Tiktok was posted about Disney World lowering their drinking age to 18 years old. The video got so many views that ABC news picked up on the story and did a broadcast on it.
Upon further investigation of the news lead to an article posted by a article posted by a source called Mouse Trap News. When reading the about section of the page it clearly says that they are not a legitimate news source for Disney. It also says that they ONLY write fake stories about Disney and its parks. This is why I don't listen to live news broadcasts like ABC as they clearly don't investigate their stories that they see.
To read more information about 'Fake News' and Misinformation see this source which includes some case studies from previous years.
Lets talk about Disinformation next. This is commonly referred as 'Fake News' as the information given isn't actually true. As the diagram suggests disinformation is deliberately created to harm, manipulate, or mislead others.
In 2019 Newsweek falsely reported that Trump spend his Thanksgiving golfing. However upon further investigation this claim was determined to be false. Another example of how the media doesn't fact check their own stories before publishing them
The reporter in charge of the story fabricated the golf story when in actuality Donald Trump spent his Thanksgiving visiting the troops in Afganistan.
In 2018 NBC reported that Trump didn't visit the troops during Christmas "The first President since 2002. However this was not true. Trump and First Lady Melania flew out Christmas Day to visit soldiers in Iraq. It also makes him the first U.S. president in history to visit troops in a combat zone both on Christmas and Thanksgiving. But the media didn't report on that.
The final forma of information is Malinformation. This type of information is based off of fact but is taken out of context in order to mislead, harm and manipulate.
In 2017 TMZ falsy reported that Trump changed Black History Month to African Americna History month. It is true that Trump did call it African American History month however Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton all called it that.
Thais article was taken out of context and didnt account for what all of the other past presidents have called it. Making it so that Trump was 'in the wrong'
BBC, The Guardian, and others reported that Trump wasnt listening to a speech by Italy's Prime Minister as he was not seen wearing translation headphones.
This is also true but taken out of context. It is seen here that although Trump was not wearing translation headphones rather he was wearing a translation earpiece.
Another video by CNN, which was edited, showed that Trump "Impatiently" dumped fish food in the water at Japans Palace. However he was just following the lead of Japans Prime Minister.
All of these types of information from the media can have dire effects on the world we live in today. Because we live in a world where media is the source of everything, people aorund us can be influenced by what they see online. And because they dont fact check any of the articles they are prone to believe the stories which news outlets feed out.
The bets way to combat this is to DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH, rather than going off just the information the news gives you.
There is one more thing I would like to say about fake news, propaganda and the works. There is a TV show on Amazon Prime video called "The Boys". For those who are unfamiliar with the show its about a group of average people plotting to take down the superhero industry which is lead by a company called Vought International.
On the surface it may seem like this group is the 'bad guys' but in actuality they are the good guys, the and super hero's that are in the world, are the bad guys. In my opinion this show perfectly describes what the world would be like if super humans did exist.
Vought International runs the media. They have control over almost all forms of news media that we see today. They have their own Instagram, Twitter, Live television, and much more. Because of this they are able to manipulate their audience into believe what they want to believe.
I highly recommend the show which you can find only on Amazon Prime Video. Here is a trailer if your interested. And some posters.
We live in a age of advanced technology. These technologies can sometimes be far beyond what we thought was possible. In this new age we need to find ways to protect ourselves from both the government and others. But does this mean that all of these technologies are bad? the short answer is no. Some of these technologies that we have can be very beneficial.
Being a Media Production major, I would be the most effected with privacy and security online. My job revolves around putting stuff out there, posting online, and my social media presence. My main concern is with the government and how they use my data to gain information about me. Let me start out by listing the Social media that I use most. Personally I use, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (Twitter), and Linked in.
However the only platform I post on is Instagram, so far I have only made one post and don't comment on others posts. I think the person in my family that is most protected in my Father. He has never owned any social media accounts and his information is all relatively private. You know how if you search yourself up on google, you have a good chance of finding yourself? Yea well I cant do that with my dad. He's like a ghost on the internet, believe me, I have tried.
Now there has also been a lot of discussion on what the government can do in response to your privacy online. Here is the thing, what can they do? Yes they can pass laws to help prevent the selling and collection of data but what about other things like cyberbullying and other forms speech? The answer here is not much.
Depending on the nature of cyberbullying it cam be complicated. What exactly is cyberbullying? Some more common instances of cyberbullying are comments or speech meant to harm, or belittle a person. most commonly they are rude comments under a post. These could be classified as hate speech (Do you see where im going with this?). Lets take X for example. Its the platforms job to keep its users safe, but Elon Musk has tweeted that his platform is a place for free speech, very 1st amendment like. And whats protected under the first amendment? Hate Speech!
Nowadays its harder to determine what hate speech is due to numerous opinions on it. There are some people who say trans woman aren't woman and vise versa. and those people who disagree with that will try to "cancel" or stop you from saying such things.
The government also uses you data for good as well. with your data it could be easier to protect you form future harm. In one of the videos we watched Police are using servileness cameras on highways and roads to "Track where your going". However there are benefits to this as well. Cameras cam be used to help police track down criminals and assist in high speed chases.
The simplest way to protect ourselves from invasions of privacy is to, in short, not be stupid. You have to be carful on what you post online and say online because once its ther you can never take it back. I have seen multiple people post on Instagram about their "fun weekend"n and its them drinking alchohol when their clearly underage.
Its stuff like this where you need to be smart and not dumb. The other way you can protect yourself is to just not have social media in general but lets be honest, that is not happening. Unfortunately we live in a world where social media is a necessity for both finding jobs and being present in society.
Above is a video of Mark Zuckerberg apologizing to the victims of cyberbullying on his platform (Instagram). Personally I wouldn't apologies or give compensation for the victims as Zuckerberg said, there were measures that could have been taken to prevent such things form happening or spreading, like reporting the user.
There have been a lot of discussions on cyberbullying on these platforms however I believe that this issue is not as complicated as you might think. My thoughts on cyberbullying are very... unique, and I know that everyone else opinions differ from mine. But ill explain my opinions anyway.
On each platforms that I use, and others that I don't use, there are features that allow you to report accounts for various reasons. I could not tell you how many articles, videos, and stories that I have seen where someone was being cyberbullied and, rather than reporting the account and taking action, they resulted in committing self harm. Now, here is where my opinion comes in. In no way am I blaming the victim here, but why didn't you take easier steps into stoping the bully rather than letting them get to you.
(Edit)
After posing this I was scrolling on TikTok and found a very interesting video about Apple devices. With all apple products you have a touch id on macs and some iphones that scan your finger print and face Id that you can use to unlock your device. People think that this is a way of taking your information but this is not true, its a lot more secure than you think. The way that they store that information is though something called Secure Enclave which is something unique storage system on your device. It is a physical hardware patrician which is disconnected form the rest of the device. This is a secure way fro your data and information to be stored.
