Week 16: TikTok

TikTok

https://worldvectorlogo.com/logo/tiktok-icon-black-1

TikTok is a new social media outlet that surfaced not too long ago. TikTok is a bunch of videos on one site, from funny to musical, it has become one of the most popular social media apps. The coronavirus has helped to propel TikTok into the lime lite during these hard times and isolation. It is a way for people to feel connected with others and watch videos that will cheer them up during this hard time. TikTok was "founded in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming" (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/26/how-coronavirus-helped-tiktok-find-its-voice), but TikTok really did not start gaining popularity until recently, especially during COVID-19. TikTok, "before the coronavirus pandemic, TikTok was predominantly favoured by British teenagers, who posted prank videos or the latest trending dance routine on it" (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/26/how-coronavirus-helped-tiktok-find-its-voice), but now TikTok is being used all across the world and is bringing people together. TikTok is the ultimate unifying app, apps like Twitter have a lot of rambling and hate that is spread throughout it, but TikTok is a place that all people are equal and can do what they want, and make videos for everyone to see, "On Instagram, we are primped and preening, on Twitter, loudmouthed and strident, but on TikTok, we can just be weird" (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/26/how-coronavirus-helped-tiktok-find-its-voice), I think this best describes how the TikTok community is unique. I think that we all need something to cheer us up during this quarantine and I think that people went to TikTok for this because it is a place that has a lot of bright and funny videos. It also is a place that people can make videos for law enforcement, nurses, and doctors the people who are on the front lines during this virus. It also allows for the people on the frontline to spread information and to show that they are okay and that we will get through this together. TikTok has also become a major social media outlet fo people during the quarantine because people need something to do while they are stuck inside since they can't go out and do things, so they spend time on TikTok flipping through the videos that it presents to them on the dashboard, "TikTok is designed to be addictive: you can scroll its dashboard for hours without ever running out of content" (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/26/how-coronavirus-helped-tiktok-find-its-voice), this is what people are using to pass the time when there is nothing else to do and when they get bored. I think that TikTok is a good thing to cheer people up during this time, even though I have never personally used the app. 

Week 15: EOTO

EOTO

I am going to look into propaganda. Propaganda, according to Wiki, "is information that is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda). Propaganda is used to push ideas and ideologies onto a population and is used to manipulate them into believing what the people using the propaganda want them to believe. We can see the use of propaganda throughout history, it was used by the Soviet Union to unite the citizens under communism, to form an enemy in the United States, and it could be seen in China. Most of the uses of propaganda were a while ago and are not really seen in today's society. While the ways I have mentioned that propaganda was used, according to Wiki, "In the 20th century, the term propaganda has often been associated with a manipulative approach, but propaganda historically is a neutral descriptive term" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda). Propaganda is not always a negative thing, as Wiki shows us, but I have always seen it in a mostly negative light since the most common times that I have seen it is in a country that is ruled by an authoritarian ruler. 

https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-propaganda-posters-photos-united-states-home-front#&gid=ci0230e630c06326df&pid=poster-by-j-howard-miller-4

Now that we have prefaced what propaganda is, we should talk about how it can be good and how it can be bad. Propaganda can be something that is good because it can help bring people together to do good things during hard times or times that might require people to unite under a cause. This can be seen in the United States during World War II when the United States was putting out propaganda posters for war bonds, jobs, and unifying the country against evil. Some of these propaganda posters did things like, "As men were sent to battlefields, women were asked to branch out and take on jobs as riveters, welders and electricians" (https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-propaganda-posters-photos-united-states-home-front), which asked women to take up jobs that men were doing and now could not because they were overseas. An example of this is the image above which says, "We Can Do It!" 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_Nazi_Germany#/media/File:Propaganda_Poster_SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division_Langemarck_met_anti-Semitisch_opschrift_Samen_zullen_wij_hem_verpletteren!.jpg

Propaganda can be a bad thing in cases like Nazi Germany and how they used propaganda to rally its citizens to join the army and that they are the superior race. This can be seen in the image above which shows the Germans beating up the Allies and Jewish people. During World War II, "The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany (1933–1945) was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_Nazi_Germany), which shows the importance of propaganda and rallying people or pushing a message. Propaganda was so important for Nazi Germany and trying to convince people to follow Hitler and the Nazi party that, "Adolf Hitler devoted two chapters of his 1925 book Mein Kampf, itself a propaganda tool, to the study and practice of propaganda" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_Nazi_Germany). 

Propaganda can affect society as a whole by convincing them of an ideology or an idea, for good or for bad. The reasons above explain why it can be both good and bad for a society to experience.

It might affect segments in a good way because it can bring people together and most of the people that are being united are the working class. Propaganda can unify these lower-income people with a cause.  

Propaganda is not really a big thing right now, and I do not see it being used that much in the future, but it can affect who we choose as president because of the propaganda that they use to negatively show their opponent and to try and rally people behind their ideologies and beliefs on how this country should be, and what changes need to be made. 

These are all the things that encompass what propaganda was and is, and how it can be good or bad for society. Propaganda will always be a part of our lives no matter how subtle, and even if we realize it or not. 

Week 14: Privacy, Online & Offline

Privacy, Online & Offline

https://readwrite.com/2020/01/19/facial-recognition-shaping-the-future-of-identity-verification-market/

I have known that your internet history and what you post leaves a trail and that it is something that never truly goes away, but I did not realize the extent at which it is at with what was talked about in the TED talk. I like how the TED talk speaker talks about tattoos and how they tell stories and can drive a narrative and then compares them to the internet and how the internet is like a tattoo because it can also tell stories about a person. It is interesting how the TED talk speaker talked about facial recognition and how it is getting better and showed an image of people with the names of that person, and then goes on to describe how you could go to a place and take a picture of the person, get their name, then look them up and get their information. I found this to be very interesting because we truly never know who is watching us or maybe even stalking us if all they have to do is take a picture of you and then they have your information. I think this is a scary thing to think about, and it also feels like a violation of privacy at the same time, I think it is cool that facial recognition has gotten better, but what purpose does it actually serve? Do we really need a system that will identify people by their faces available to everyday people? This can be a dangerous thing if put into the wrong hands, and I think that this should be something that only law enforcement has because it is not an essential thing for everyday people to have because there is no good purpose for it. 

https://medium.com/the-ploy/is-immortality-possible-476f07701a17

I also found the idea that we are immortal an interesting concept that the TED talk speaker brought up. He talked about immortality and how we are all immortal because of the online footprint that we leave behind. I think that this is an interesting way to look at it, and I think that I can somewhat agree that this does make us immortal in a sense because we are leaving behind a legacy that will be here even after we are gone. He also talks about threats that you make to people and how death is usually the best one that people make, but threatening someone with immortality is worse, I think that if people stopped and thought about the legacy that they would leave behind with their online footprint that many people would change what they are doing and act differently, it might even change who people are because they would not like what legacy they will leave behind when they are gone.  

Week 13: Audit Your Online Presence

Audit Your Online Presence

https://www.freepnglogos.com/pics/logo-internet-ie

I have a very large online footprint. I use the internet almost every day at some point in time, I use it for things like school, and I use it for entertainment. I have a personal website that I use as my game design portfolio, it has all of the biggest and best accomplishments of my game design work, and I use this site to help get my works out there for internships and might be able to use it for job applications. 

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/valencia-spain-march-05-2017-facebook-593204357

I use Facebook, Instagram, and snap chat as my main social media outlets. I do not post on them for the most part, but when I do post anything, I post it mainly on Facebook as it is the one that I use the most. I use these social media outlets to stay connected with friends and family. I use Facebook to connect to some apps on my phone, mainly because it is the easiest way to make sure I have an account to save my information and save my data. 

https://www.logolynx.com/topic/profile#&gid=1&pid=5

People would be able to see that I do not post much to either of my social media accounts, they can also see my name, where I'm from, where I went to high school, how old I am, my photos, who I am friends with, and where I go to college. There is not really much that one could learn about me from looking at my social media accounts because I do not post that much on them. 

https://img.gadgethacks.com/img/original/06/40/63653518998090/0/636535189980900640.jpg

I have given my phone number and email to Facebook, Instagram, and snap chat because I use those to connect to my accounts and if I can not connect to them then I can have a verification code sent to my phone or email to recover and connect to my account. I also use my email for accounts like Amazon and other sites that require an account because it makes it easier to connect to those sites plus it is a requirement for making an account on almost every site.

https://www.wcwonline.org/WCW-Blog-Women-Change-Worlds/Connected-teaching-an-approach-for-classrooms-communities-and-the-workplace

I think that social media makes people anything but lonely, I think social media helps to make people feel more connected and social with other people across the world. Social media is a way to connect with friends from home when you are not able to be at home and hang out with them, this is a major way to stay connected. I also think that social media can keep people from being lonely because they can connect with other people and talk with them. 

Week 12: Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of Innovations

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/637822365949284445/

The newer innovation that I am going to take a look at is Facebook. Facebook first started out as a small online social site for a small group of people, but eventually grew into a site that is used by almost everyone. Facebook seemed like it blew up overnight, but in fact, it took almost a year before Facebook would become a well known social site that many people would join. Facebook was a new innovation that allowed users to connect with each other no matter where they are in the world, all you have to do is have an account and add that person as a friend. Facebook took off due to early adopters who would use the site to add people as friends, then they spread the word to people that they know and would add them on Facebook, and that person would spread the word about adding him on Facebook to his friends, and so on, which created a way that Facebook was able to spread to people across the world and that is how it was able to spread so easily. Word of mouth was the original communication channel that was used to spread Facebook to others and this is how Facebook was able to spread and become popular with others. The passage of time is important for this innovation to be adopted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations), this can be seen when I mentioned earlier that it took time for Facebook to open up to the public and it took time for people to spread the word about Facebook to others, but once it got going it really took off. The social system that is involved here is being able to connect socially with other people from across the world and to stay in touch with people, especially if you do not see them a lot, this is important for the growth of an innovation like Facebook. The social system also helped Facebook because of the publicity that Facebook was getting from external influences that talked about the new innovation that was surfacing, and this got the name out there for Facebook. Like many new innovations that are creative and helpful, they get publicity from news sources. 

Week 11: Eight Values of Free Expression

Eight Values of Free Expression

https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/interview-with-hearthstone-game-designers-dave-kosak-hadidjah-chamberlin-talking-tombs-of-terror/

I think that the promotion of innovation through free speech is the most important because it is what makes America so great at being creative and allows us to invent new technologies. Freedom of speech helped to create technologies that allow us to communicate with others, such as phones, and this is important to make sure that we are all connected and can help to further our society. If the speech was restricted, it makes it hard for people to innovate things because they can not express ideas and go against other ideas that might be used to try and make an innovation. Freedom of speech also helps with innovation because it allows people to communicate their ideas with each other and allows them to take other people's thoughts and use them to help come up with an idea for an invention, this is particularly useful in things like research, especially right now in fields that are trying to come up with a vaccine for COVID-19 because doctors can take the ideas that other doctors were using to try and get a vaccine and that might help one doctor put that idea into some of his to come up with a vaccine. If there was no freedom of speech, it would not allow people to do research and publish that research because the government might not allow it if that research goes against an idea that the government might be trying to push onto the population, it would also hinder people from taking other ideas and findings to help their own research because they won't have the information available to use. Innovation is an important part of having a good economy because other countries might not have something that is being created and will buy it, which helps with globalization and improving the quality of life in the countries that are creating new things. I think that this is underrated because people do not realize how restricted speech could prevent innovation and creativity for people who do not have the ability to speak freely. I, as someone who is a game design major, find freedom of speech very important for people in my field because it allows us to create games that are not censored because it is something the government does not like or agree with, this would be hindering innovation and creativity in the game design filed. I am a huge advocate for freedom of speech, especially for something that directly impacts something I love to do.          

Week 7: Other Group's Topic

Week 7: Other Group's Topic

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/27/16561848/google-search-always-local-results-ignores-domain

Google was created by computer scientists. The development began in 1996 and Google launched in 1998. The positives of Google are that they have mail, drive, and docs. They also have other websites that they host on their search engine. Google is a nice thing to have for people that have internet, which is becoming more common as we progress through the years. It used to be a rare commodity that people would have internet. Google allows people to stay informed with the current news and things like politics, where there are many different sides of the story and a lot of information that either side can leave out. Google allows people to be more educated on topics like politics because all information is available to anyone who chooses to search for it, and this can help people make more informed decisions than they might have if they did not search for articles that share different information on the topic, this information might be more detailed than what people might have initially thought. Google also allows for the freedom of speech because users can make edits to certain pages, or even make blogs that will be on sites that can be found on Google, which allows people to get their opinions and thoughts out to other people more easily. Google had, “In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords” (Wikipedia), which is important because companies can buy their way to what people will see when they make Google searches. This can be harmful to what people see because a word can be bough to show websites that might have biased when reporting on things like news. Overall, Google is a very useful tool for users because it allows ease of access to information and can keep people up to date on current events.

Work Cited

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