Blog #12

Final Post: A Take on Technology

Technology has essentially taken over our lives and we have discussed plenty of instances of this in class, from the impact of new technological inventions to the impact AI has had on people's livelihoods and privacy.  Personally, I think that technology has become a big part of my life, but I don't think that I've let it consume me completely.  I have Snapchat, Instagram, and Tik Tok, but I have time limits on all three apps.  I allow myself to use each app everyday roughly for one hour and 30 minutes.  There are days where I follow this time limit, however there are also days where I decide that I want to be on these apps longer.  Even though I start out practicing good habits with my time management on my phone and social media, sometimes I fall into the addictive trap.  I've learned to resist the urge to keep scrolling on these apps, because as I've gotten older, I have realized that time goes by so quick, and I want to do productive and fun things in my life.  I feel that if I didn't have this mindset, I would miss out on so many memories and would miss out on making meaningful relationships too.  I don't want to walk around like a zombie and not pay attention to my surroundings and the people I love.  The world would be so bland and this startled me as I watched this video.  I may still be connected to my phone and may break my limit on my phone at times, but I certainly am glad that I'm not constantly posting or seeing others' content.  I have learned that posting on my social media accounts gives me so much anxiety, because I constantly worry about what people will think of the pictures or videos I post.  Therefore, I don't post a lot on any of the platforms I've listed, because I want to avoid being judged by people as much as I can.  I would definitely say that social media has made me insecure at times, because I believe that the beauty standards surrounding social media are simply unrealistic.  I want to avoid the chances of me feeling like I'm not enough in comparison to others, so that is another reason why I have a time limit for certain apps on my phone.  I think that a lot of individuals fall victim to social media's addictive cycle, and I see through myself, my friends, and my younger sisters just how damaging social media can be.  Hurtful comments or simply not looking like the people we see on social media can make us question our personalities and bodies.  I don't think it's fair to any of us to think that we must fit a certain category or post certain things to get more likes or followers.  I think social media can be an incredible platform to create change and to increase positivity across the world, but I think that more and more influencers need to show the more natural parts of themselves.  If social media continues to become a less judgmental place and if people show aspects of their true selves on there, I think that it will evolve to a place where people feel comfortable posting and can stay connected to friends and family by doing so.

Social media has been a source for educational purposes for me, especially on Tik Tok and Instagram, because I think that a lot of people post on these platforms to spread information about topics that aren't necessarily talked about as much as they should be.  Therefore, I am not bashing social media apps completely, because I do think that they can be valuable sources of information.  Yet, there are always exceptions, and it is always possible that people can post things that only share their opinion to swing people's views on situations inaccurately.  I think that it would be beneficial for all social media apps to have fact checking technology, that could prevent misinformation on posts from being spread over these platforms.  I get a lot of my news from these platforms, but sometimes I am skeptical if the sources used to provide this information are credible.  It's not always easy to know the difference between true and false, because with many societal issues there are thin lines that tend to get blurred.  So, having this technology implemented could help citizens gain access to information that is guaranteed to be factual.  This would be really awesome, because then people would be more knowledgeable of what is going on in the world around them and with people being more educated, more people would be able to stand up and understand what is right and wrong in society.  Social media can be a valuable news source, but it is very important to note that if we want change to be implemented in situations that are not right, we must get this information out in a clear, factual way.

I think that technology is awesome for everyone because we are capable of learning new things and can stay in contact with another, with just a push of a button.  Technology opens the doors to so many new opportunities, but it also opens the door to misinformation, insecurities, cyberbullying, and intense harassment.  I've already discussed misinformation and insecurities, which have affected me, my friends, and family.  I've had numerous conversations with people I know about how easy it is to be misinformed on the internet, because people are very good at making false information look real.  The cycle of fake news evolves as we pass along information that we think is true to others.  I know we have all been there, where we instinctively trust that information is true and are simply too lazy to check if the source is correct or not.  So once again, we all hate being misled, so check your sources before sending it along to your family and friends!  Unfortunately, I've also had many conversations about the insecurities created by either posting or looking at social media posts with the people I care about.  I don't think that this topic is talked about enough, but it is refreshing to see that influencers are being more transparent with their audiences.  I think that it is especially important for society to keep striving towards having no beauty standards, because younger children especially are so impressionable.  I have three younger sisters at home, and I don't want them to grow up and feel that they aren't accepted or shouldn't express themselves, because they don't look like every model or influencer.

I also believe that these beauty standards have resulted in cyberbullying, because people expect others to look a certain way and when they don't, people hide behind screens and bash them.  However, I'm sure many of these people who make these mean comments online are most likely insecure themselves because they feel pressured to feel a certain way and don't.  The internet and social media can be a scary place for everyone, and I think that it is especially important to teach the younger generations how to be safe online.  For instance, Sonia Bokhari is saving herself from the horrors of social media, because she has learned that not everyone is who they say they are on the internet, and she doesn't want to risk putting herself in harm's way.  I don't think that a lot of people know the dangers of being online, but I think we need to increase our internet safety awareness in classrooms from a very young age, because more and more young children are getting phones and social media.  I sense it with my youngest sister who is 9, she feels like if she doesn't have social media she is out of the loop and she's fearful of missing out.  However, I think that it should be made apparent to children that they aren't missing out and that the internet has a lot of bad people on it.  So even though technology offers us a lot of awesome opportunities, I think that we should be mindful of the damage that could be done to anyone with access to phones, laptops, tablets, etc.

I am very proud of my digital footprint because it does not consist of anything inappropriate or anything that could get me in trouble with school or with future employers.  I pride myself on being smart on the internet because I know that I would be devastated if something happened to my future education or career.  All it takes is one stupid mistake and your life could be over, so I think that we all need to be mindful of what we post, because schools and employers look up your name to see the representation that you will be bringing to their school or workforce.  My digital footprint consists of my basketball highlights from high school, my achievements from high school and college, and my involvement in the newspaper called the View Point.  I think that this digital footprint will make me look good to employers and can put me ahead of other possible employees.  None of my social media accounts or posts come up, but if any employers went to look those up, my posts are all appropriate.  I want to have a clean digital footprint, because I know that that footprint will follow me around forever and that in some aspect, it represents me as a person.  We should all work on having a cleaner digital footprint to have a better chance at having the jobs and lives that we want.  Technology can have many positives and negatives, but I believe that we can capitalize on technology if we learn how to stay safe online and pay attention to our digital footprint, learn how to fact check, and learn how to stay positive as we use technology and social media as well.  

Blog #11

EOTO #2 Reflection: Illusory Truth Effect

The EOTO presentation specifically on the topic of the Illusory Truth Effect was most interesting to me.  I had never heard of the name of this effect, but I know that I see it all the time in the media and when talking amongst my friends and family.  I think that it is super scary that we can trick ourselves into thinking something was true, solely based on repetition and the constant word of mouth that we share amongst each other.  It is startling to see how the evolution of this effect has truly taken off, and sense it hasn't gone away yet, I think it will be prominent in human society forever.

The Illusory Truth Effect was first discovered back in 1977.  The study in 1977 showed that most of the test subjects chose certain answers since some of the statements were repeated in comparison to others.  This was fascinating to me, because if this was the situation in 1977, obviously people at the time were conditioned to act this way because they picked up this behavior from the people before them.  Picking the repeating statements was so prominent that it signals to me that this has always been a common trend in our society and it's essentially a habit that has been formed and that will continue to be reinforced throughout generations.  This study may seem harmless, but as we've seen in real life, this effect has serious implications.  For instance, during the presentation Luis asked a question about what we thought the cause of Covid-19 was.  Some of us raised our hands in favor of it being caused by bats and others voted that it was caused by a leak in a laboratory.  I was in favor of it being caused by bats, but Luis enlightened me that neither was a confirmed cause.  This came as a shock, and I realized just how easily it is to be misinformed.  This has led me to question how many other things I am misled by on a daily basis, and I will definitely look more into information before coming to a conclusion and sharing it with others.  It's very hard to know what is true and false, but I think that it's important to make an effort to try to seek the truth from numerous sources, because it is so easy to trick ourselves into going with the information that we see the most.

Everyone pays attention to the news, and we all talk and exchange opinions with one another for the most part, so nobody is excused from the Illusory Truth Effect.  This is alarming, because it's not like certain individuals can be excused and then help others see this problem.  Instead, we are all victims, but I think that if we make it a point to check what we hear from others or what we see on social media or the internet, we should be less exposed to this effect.  This will be especially hard when looking at sources of mainstream media, because a lot of the time these platforms share the same side and sources.  So, we would see the same information repeated and would establish that this is the truth through repetition.  However, maybe if we avoided only using mainstream media and looked to citizen journalists and alternative media, we might have a better chance of not seeing the same false information over and over again.  Those sources would provide alternative opinions so we wouldn't see much repetition, and we wouldn't be able to trick ourselves into solely trusting the repeated information.

We will continue to be misled, if we do not try to find other sources of information on certain topics.  The habit of relying on repetition for the truth will not slow down otherwise, and this would be damaging, because we would continue to walk around misinformed.  I don't want to walk around not knowing what is truly going on in the world, because if we do not know the truth, how can we make changes in certain situations when needed.  Learning about the Illusory Truth Effect has been eye-opening to me, and I hope others realize that we need to prevent our minds from being tainted by the delusion of repeated information, because it is not guaranteed that it is the correct information.  Nobody wants to walk around feeling clueless and making decisions based on false information, so learn to be mindful and take precautions, such as fact checking, so you can be informed correctly!