The World We Live In

I bet if you ask your parents, "Did you think we would have all this technology when you were younger?" the answer will probably be no. Of course there were the ideas of flying cars and other futuristic technological advances, but as we can see today, those didn't happen. However, the amount of technology that we do have access to today and how often we use it is absolutely mind-blowing. Even thinking about how much technology has been invented in my lifetime is incredible. 

When I was kid, one of my first technological toys was a Leapfrog Leapster. This was like the Nintendo DS before it came out and every kid I knew had one. Fast forward to when the iPod Touch came out and changed our lives more. Having a device that you could take pictures on, download apps and play games, and listen to thousands of songs was the coolest thing to exist at the time. If only I knew how much more advanced technology would become. Taking a step back and looking at how much I use technology everyday is amazing when you think about where we started, but also concerning. There was a time when information could only be found in a book or in a library because there was no such thing as a personal computer or smart phone. Now, if I want to look something up, all I have to do is type it into Google on my phone. In my opinion, that is something to praise because we have so much information at our fingertips. We should celebrate the great minds and people who spent their lives creating technology we use everyday. Computer, phones, and television have literally changed the way we communicate with others mostly in a good way, but sometimes in a bad way.

Unfortunately, there is also a negative downside to all of this technology. With the innovation of social media, I see many negative comments towards people everyday. I have seen my friends get bullied, people commit suicide because they can't handle the pain, people switching schools so they don't have to see their bullies, etc. The suicide rate between the ages of 10-24 used to be about 6.8/100,000 people from 2000-2017. Within two decades, that number increased by 56% to 10.6/100,000 people by 2017. This statistic is heartbreaking and definitely not a coincidence in relation to the social media takeover in our lives. A depiction of teen suicide can be seen in the movie, Cyberbully. This movie shows a teenage girl in high school being bullied by classmates. The stress leads her trying to commit suicide but thankfully her best friend is able to save her. This movie was actually shown in my high school to teach students that no matter what is going on, there are people to support you and help you through difficult times. Movies like this can be used to show the effects of one's words and how there is always help for those that need it.

Taking a step back in my own life, I definitely think I use technology and social media too much, but it is the time I grew up in. I grew up in the 2000's when all sorts of technology and toys were coming out. I have been alive for all major social media apps being invented like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and more. I remember being in the 6th grade (I am a college sophomore now) when Instagram was launched. I was only 13 years old at the time and looking back, I was way too young to have a social media account. The following year is when Snapchat was created and that has definitely has negative consequences. There are so many stories of peoples' snapchats being screenshotted and sent to other people and  private chats within the app also being sent to other people. I'm sure the creators of snapchat did not intend for this to be a norm of their app but that is what society did. I have consciously been trying to lower my technology usage, specifically social media. I try not to be on my phone when spending time with my family or when I am outside just enjoying nature. I have actually noticed how much my friends use their phones when we are around each other and I have found myself getting annoyed at how much they are constantly looking down at their phone. Maybe my step back has been working. Within the last 3 or 4 months I definitely have not been posting as much on my social media accounts because I try to enjoy what I am doing more in the moment. 

We do live in the age of technology but that doesn't mean we have to embrace it every second of everyday. We can take a step back and remember how to enjoy other peoples' company without taking a selfie, or going to dinner and not taking a picture of our dish. I think in certain times we can appreciate all that technology has given to us while also not being immersed in it everyday. People need to understand that what they post or comment can affect someone else in detrimental ways. Most social media apps and the amount they are used is definitely being accepted in today's society, but that doesn't mean it should. Social media is a part of our lives now but we need to find the healthy medium so that we can share our lives on the Internet and enjoy moments without needing to post about it. 

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s 

https://haleycissel.weebly.com/cyberbully-the-movie.html 

TikTok Takeover

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have most likely heard of the app TikTok that has taken over the social media world. As of January 2020 it has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times and is one of the top 5 most downloaded apps in the world. If you are that person that has never heard of TikTok, I will quickly explain it. TikTok is a social media app that lets users create and share videos. These videos can be dancing, lip-syncing, comedy, cooking, and so many more kinds of videos. The app has gone viral with videos getting millions views and likes and being shared among other social media apps.

The app got its start by being created by Chinese technology company named ByteDance. The company owns several social media apps and can be thought of like China's Facebook. TikTok was originally launched in 2016 under a different name in China and in 2017, ByteDance bought the famous app "Musical.ly" for $1 billion. Once "Musical.ly" was bought and users across the world, mainly in China, the United States, and India were adjusted, that is when TikTok really took off. By the end of 2017, it was one of the most downloaded apps next to WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook. Also by the end of 2017, TikTok had made $3.5 million and ByteDance had a revenue of $2.5 billion. ByteDance also passed Uber as the world's most highly valued privately-held startup because it was value at $75 billion. 

You might also be asking yourself what is so special about this app? Well, there are hundreds of features and ways to make videos exciting, fun, and interesting. There are many filters that you can put on your video, like Snapchat or Instagram, and you can add songs to videos to sing-along or dance to. It is also a great app because of the variety of content which makes it so easy to be on the app for hours without stopping. You can like, comment on, share, and duet other peoples' videos on the app. Since there are millions and millions of people on this app, it has created TikTok celebrities that you will surely see on your "For You Page" which is the main feed of the app that shows you videos you might like. The most famous person currently on TikTok is 15-year-old Charli D'Amelio with 41.4 million followers and Loren Gray a close second with 41.3 million followers. 

TikTok has certainly taken over the social media world and become a part of how we communicate everday. In my personal experience, I hear about a new TikTok dancing trend, or popular sound at least twice a day. I am also on the app scrolling through videos for hours on end. I also use the app to communicate with friends by sending them videos I think they will find funny or interesting. I know the app is internationally famous and I can definitely see why. The amount of original content is endless and there are so many kinds of videos it is impossible to get bored. Majority of the app's users are aged 18-34 but there are quite a lot of users aged 45-65+ showing that there is content for all age groups. If you haven't immersed yourself in the creative world of TikTok, I think it's about time!

Sources:

https://www.techaheadcorp.com/blog/tiktok-changed-social-media/

https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-app-online-website-video-sharing-2019-7#tiktoks-popularity-has-skyrocketed-not-only-in-the-us-but-around-the-world-in-countries-like-india-and-the-uk-in-november-2019-tiktok-hit-15-billion-downloads-worldwide-across-both-ios-and-android-devices-the-app-has-been-quickly-gaining-ground-in-a-social-scene-largely-dominated-by-instagram-and-snapchat-20 

https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-most-popular-stars-gen-z-influencers-social-media-app-2019-6#1-charli-damelio-414-million-40

Coronavirus Closes College

The world has radically changed since the start of 2020. The deadly and highly contagious Coronavirus has undoubtedly changed our lives. More specifically, it has changed college students' lives. College is supposed to be the best four years of our lives, living on our own, away from home, with our friends. We get to enjoy all that life has to offer while we are young. But the Coronavirus has taken that precious time away from us and changed the way we communicate.

As the virus moved into the United States in early March, some universities and colleges started to extend spring break, and move classes online. It started out as a proactive response to the virus to make sure that students did not come back from spring break and flood the campus, making it easy for the virus to spread. Many schools still had a date for students to come back to college, but that changed very quickly. Within almost 2 weeks, schools were shutting down for the semester and making all students evacuate campuses. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were some of the first schools to cancel face-to-face classes for the rest of the semester. The Coronavirus has effected not just on-campus students, but students that were studying abroad or fulfilling internships that unfortunately had to be cut short. Even though these are the appropriate measures to be taken, college students deserve the time to grieve the loss of school. 

The Coronavirus has had devastating effects on us college students. We didn't know that when we left campus for spring break, it was the last time we would see our friends or dorms. The last person you said goodbye to or hugged, was the last person you would see for the rest of the semester. It is also hard to think about all the memories we won't be creating. For High Point University students, spring semester is always something to look forward to. The weather starts to warm up and everything seems to become more fun and exciting. We should be celebrating Greek Life events, Honor's Day, Spring Sports, and all of the hard work that we have put into the school year. Seniors should be celebrating the last four years of their lives and looking forward to Graduation, the day everyone has been waiting for. Sadly, we will not be able to make those memories this year. 

On the brighter side, schools like High Point University have been so considerate and helpful to students. From offering countless services to a special offer on a Master's degree, High Point knows that we are going through a difficult time and is doing everything they can to help us. High Point University has given all students access to counseling services, the Office of Career and Professional Development, the Office of Student Success among many more resources.The professors are also going above and beyond to make this online education experience the best it can be through Zoom and Blackboard. This pandemic has changed the way we communicate with each other. There is no better time to have the technology we have today and we must use it to benefit our lives. Students have so many ways to connect with their universities, professors, classmates, and far away friends. We have to be grateful that we are prepared enough that we can continue our education online, something that not everyone has access to. I know that as a sophomore I will have more college experience to gain, but some people do not. The class of 2020 will be affected by the Coronavirus for the rest of their lives and that is something we should be considerate of. Overall, this virus has had irreparable consequences and taken away part of our lives we will never get back, but we have to stay positive and healthy so that we can get back to normal and enjoy the times to come.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/13/us/colleges-universities-coronavirus-q-a-trnd/index.html 

http://www.highpoint.edu/studenthealth/coronavirus/

The Power of Theories

Our minds are a powerful part of our bodies and can control the way we think. After researching Confirmation Bias, it is clear that our minds can trick us. I found this concept extremely interesting because people who hate to be wrong, like myself, have definitely fallen into the trap of confirmation bias. The definition of this theory is seeking out evidence to support your existing belief while disregarding any evidence that could disagree with your view or support a different argument. People who fall into this concept also interpret ambiguous information to support their belief.

Confirmation Bias was discovered in the 1960s by an English psychologist named Peter Wason, through a series of psychological experiments. These experiments showed that people tend to seek out information that confirms their existing belief. Other experiments have shown that people try to test their theories one-sided, meaning they are only looking for information to support their ideas. This can be done by positioning questions in a certain way to get different answers that ultimately say the same thing. Another term that goes along with confirmation bias is biased interpretation. This means that two people can have the same information, but they interpret it differently. Multiple experiments have been conducted to prove that this happens including an experiment from Stanford University. The experiment had people read studies about the death penalty, one case supporting it and the other arguing against it, to see if their opinions would change. After reading the studies (they didn’t know the studies were fake), almost every participant returned to their original view proving that people can interpret information in a way to support their beliefs. 

Myside bias is also a concept that goes hand-in-hand with confirmation bias. It used to be thought of as having to do with one’s intelligence but it is actually related to one’s ability to think rationally and logically. If someone has myside bias, they are not fully able to think with an open-mind and listen to another side of an argument. Confirmation bias can show up in many places, especially anxious individuals. An example is when someone has low self-esteem and is prone to feeling ignored. If that person feels like they are being ignored, they will be negatively biased towards how another person acts around them. This could have a negative effect on someone's life because it can cause them to interpret neutral information or actions as “negative” to confirm their beliefs. 

Confirmation Bias can have serious effects on aspects of everyday life such as social media, physical and mental health, and science. In the world of social media, a term called “filter bubbles” can enhance confirmation bias by showing people they are likely to agree with based on algorithms. For instance, Facebook makes almost 100% of its revenue by analyzing user data to strategically show advertisements that the user will like. Facebook’s algorithm and system use confirmation bias to basically become whatever the user wants it to be. Confirmation bias can also affect physical and mental health. People in the field of medicine used to consider a treatment successful if a patient recovered, not by looking at every reason for why this could be. A psychologist blamed confirmation bias for ineffective medical procedures that occured before scientific medicine existed. Lastly, scientists can fall into confirmation bias because they don’t want to accept information that goes against their belief. This can become dangerous because if a scientist doesn’t listen to non-supporting evidence or use it in a report, it can make their entire argument invalid which can also lead to many consequences. 

Confirmation Bias can be a hidden trap but if we can understand it, we can identify it sooner and work on not doing it. In a personal sense, confirmation bias can affect relationships with friends or family. If someone is incapable of being vulnerable and being wrong, it can have detrimental effects. Being open-minded and open to interpretation can let other people know that you care about what they are saying and will try to understand it rather than rejecting it. It can also affect one’s work because if they only look for supporting information, they will not be able to reach an unbiased conclusion that looks at all the evidence. Confirmation bias is a tricky concept that our minds fall into and can be quite powerful. Research and experiments help us today because we can better identify when confirmation bias is happening and how we can prevent it.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias 

Someone is Watching

After watching Catherine Crump's TED talk on surveillance in the United States, I have begun to wonder how safe driving really is. When I first started driving at 16 years old, I was taught the basics on safety and how I always have to look out for other people on the road. Sometimes the person driving next to you can be extremely dangerous. But what if that car next to you is a police car with a surveillance camera attached tracking and recording your license plate even though you aren't doing anything wrong? Catherine Crump talks about how police are now using these camera to record license plates of passing cars just driving around, even if they are not committing a crime. She then shows a chart with several instances of a man's liscence being recorded at different times and locations. One instance was his car parked in his driveway with the recorded picture as himself with his daughters at their home. It makes you wonder if the police have this information on you. Or if there was a camera on a police car that you didn't see while passing it and it recorded your license plate. It makes you think that the cars next to you on the road aren't the most dangerous, it's the police cars who track your license plate and locations throughout the day.

Another thing that Catherine Crump talks about is cell tower dumps that allow law enforcement to see what cell phones were using what cell tower at a certain place and time. This can result in law enforcement  figuring out the location of hundreds of thousands of people across the country. This definitely makes me wonder more about how/when I use my phone, does it make you wonder? Police can also use a device called a Stingray to send signals into peoples' house to find out what cellphones are being used inside and ultimately who that cellphone belongs to. After learning this information, it makes me seriously consider how much privacy American's have even in their own homes. It also makes me question if this is happening to me, right now, inside my own home. I know we live in an advancing technological age, but we have to understand that not all technology is used for good. We have to be careful about what we post online and understand the scope of the consequences that can come from the Internet. We also have to look at the reality of our privacy and comprehend that maybe our lives are not 100% our own, but a part of law enforcement's because they have the ability and technology to track and record us, without permission, even in the privacy of our own homes. 

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt4o-R9wzrs 

Is Your Account Really Private?

We now live in an age of social media and digital platforms. Younger generations are more immersed in this culture since they embrace the new technology while older generations tend to stand back. Since we are young, we might not grasp the full scope of what we post to the Internet. Your social media accounts may be "private", but that doesn't stop apps from collecting your personal data or your followers sharing your posts. Once something is out there, you can never get it back which is why it is so important to be mindful of what you post. 

I have grown up in this crazy social media age. I remember when Instagram and Snapchat were launched because I was in middle school and it was all anyone could ever talk about. Now I have other social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, and TikTok. Normally people have private accounts and no information in their bio, but I see it differently. I am always careful of what I post, making sure that there is no personal details, which is why I have my social media accounts public and some information in my bio. Social media apps allow the option to block people which makes me feel safer about knowing who is following me. On an app like Snapchat, if someone adds me but I don't know them, I immediately delete and block them. The same goes for my other social media accounts. I don't mind having my accounts public because it lets people in my life see what I am doing. My family members, friends, people who simply want to see my life are able to because I know what I am posting and feel comfortable having others see it. 

Ofcourse there is certain information that I would never post on social media. My email address, phone number, and house address are all things that should be kept private to ensure my own safety. You can not access this information through my social media pages even if I am public. In addition, as a young female there are certain posts that I refrain from to protect myself. I don't post anything inappropriate or anything I wouldn't want a future employer or family member to see. I think those are 2 things that can help you answer if you should post something or not. An article I came across says that it can take confidence to share your life with the world. This stood out to me because I relate to it in the sense that I am confident enough to have my accounts public because I don't feel like I have anything to hide. While there are many reasons to keep your accounts private, I am able to keep mine public without sharing personal information. 

Our world of social media platforms and technology is constantly evolving and definitely not going away soon. It is important to know how to keep your information and accounts safe by being careful about what you post. Knowing that once you post something it is out there forever and anyone can see it might help people understand how social media works more. Privacy is an important thing to have and social media might not always work hand-in-hand with it.

Sources:

https://medium.com/swlh/why-do-people-keep-their-social-media-accounts-private-d009a8222ea0

Snapchat Takeover

The innovative app called Snapchat changed the way we communicate when it was launched in 2011.  At first it was just an app where users could send pictures to friends and it would disappear after a couple seconds. Fast forward 9 years and you can virtually do anything on the app. Features includes sending videos, text messages, phone and video calls, filter lens, stories, memories and more! Snapchat has become an all-in-one app basically eliminating the need for various other apps. This social media app has about 210 million users, most of which exist in the 13-29 year old age group. Since the original launch in 2011, other social media apps have started to compete with Snapchat. Instagram now has "Stories" where users can post a picture or video and it will delete after 24 hours, the same thing as Snapchat. Facebook has also created Stories on the app to stay in the competition. 

The success of Snapchat can be looked at through the theory of diffusion of innovation. This theory was invented by Everett Rogers who was a professor of communication studies. According to Rogers, the theory has 4 components: the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and social  system. The innovation of the app "Snapchat" is the innovation itself. The adopters of this app were everyone who downloaded it and started using it everyday. The communication channels used by Snapchat were word-of-mouth, promotions on the App store and other social media sites making it possible for diffusion to happen. One of the founders of Snapchat said that a reason why this app became successful in a such a short amount of time is because the users (typically young people) liked the idea of a social media app where their posts wouldn't come back and haunt them because it disappears. By 2014, videos, chatting, Stories, and geofilters were brought to the app launching it even further. Now in 2020 it is one of the most used social media apps in the world. That would be the time component in the theory of diffusion of innovation. There was also a large social system at play in the success of Snapchat. External and internal influences like users, promoters, and relationships with partners/employees all helped influence potential users. 

There are also categories of adopters related to the diffusion of innovation. One category is early adopter and people in this category have a higher social status, some financial liquidity, education, and are socially forward. I think that many people who used Snapchat became early adaptors because this app had everything you could possibly need and more. People knew this app would become a hit so they stuck with it. It allowed you to send and receive pictures, messages, and videos that would disappear and you wouldn't have to worry about it coming back in the future. It also gave users a way to post something for everyone to see at once to show others what they were doing. While the app has been wildly successful, there can be some consequences. It stays true that once you send something on the Internet it is there forever. Snapchat creators probably did not account for people using their phones to "screenshot" pictures and messages which can become a disaster very fast. Also, other social media apps have discovered how to add similar elements and become direct competition with Snapchat. Overall, Snapchat has become a life changing app for communication and follows the diffusion of innovation theory invented by Everett Rogers. 

Sources:

https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/snapchat-statistics/ 

https://www.thestreet.com/technology/history-of-snapchat