Diffusion of Innovations Blog #7

 After skimming through the Wikipedia page about Everett Rodger's theory, Diffusion of Innovations, I immediately thought about certain technologies and how quickly or slow they spread through time. In today's day when something is popular, it spreads rapidly. Everyone wants to be a part of the latest trend. Social Media apps are a huge advance in technology, they allow news to be spread, updates on anything going on in the world, and provide a source of communication to friends and loved ones that live far away. 

Threads was a social media app that blew up instantly. This app is created by Meta, which is almost identical to Twitter, now known as X. Elon Musk became the CEO of Twitter, and rebranded the social media networking platform to X. During his time as CEO, he made many changes to the app leaving many users upset. Some of the changes he made were limiting the number of posts a user can see in a day and allowing any user to purchase a verification badge or a blue checkmark on a monthly payment basis. 

Mark Zuckerberg viewed this as a perfect time to create an app that was very similar to X, with hopes that users would transition over to his app. 30 million users signed up within the first 24 hours of the release of
Threads 

Looking through the lens diffusion of innovations theory, Threads caught on and spread rapidly due to the number of people who heard about the release of the app. People told their friends to hop on a new form of technology, and it grew. So many people became early adopters due to the past popularity of  X and gave Threads a shot due to the downfall of X thanks to Elon Musk. 

There is the "late adopters" group to Threads as well. Of course, there are people who do not want to hop on a social media app just for the sake that they are already on many of them, but, Threads had some other turn-offs that pushed people away. If you wanted to sign up for a Threads account, you would have to sign up with your already existing Instagram page. In order to delete your Threads account, people would have to delete both their Instagram and Threads accounts, leaving them with nothing. Of course, the app also had bugs and issues due to it being newlyborn. All of these examples can be downsides of the technology. 

It is hard to weigh a cost-benefit analysis with a new app like Threads. There are many positives that come along with negatives. I think the answer weighs down to each person's interest in social media, whether they are a normal social media user, or an influencer can play a big part in that decision or not. 

Antiwar Blog #6

 I was unaware of anti-war websites until assigned this blog post. Of course, I have seen websites write about wars going on as it is news that needs to be heard around the world when a war has taken place. It is very intriguing to realize that I have not seen or read anything about antiwar thoughts. 

As soon as I opened up the link to the Antiwar websites, I immediately understood how passionate they were before I even read someone's thoughts or story. The way the website is set up shows that these people who are antiwar are passionate as the information is close together, every story is separated into color groups, and different text sizes which makes it easy to get the information across. 

One of the reasons why most people probably have not seen these websites is because the search engine limits who can see them. If any search engine does not agree with antiwar thoughts, they can hide the link that displays these stories and thoughts that they do not agree with. The limitation of views to these websites and the fact that they are so hard to find, it makes it harder for people to spread the word about
the antiwar thoughts. Mainstream media does not produce a whole lot of information about antiwar thoughts, or give much publication to them. A reason for this can be because the news company does not agree with these antiwar ideas, or they just focus on the war happening itself which they can view as hard news. 

I think there are both positives and negatives to this situation. One positive is that there are people out there who are very passionate about ending wars and that they are not the answer to certain conflicts. The negative is that their opinion does not surface to a popular level. Who knows, if these antiwar people can get their stories out to the majority of the public eye, it could lead to as far as a war being prevented. Everyone deserves to have their voice heard. 

Privacy in the Digital Age (Blog 8)

After taking time to watch the TED Talks regarding privacy, I was amazed at how easy it is to gain information about someone just off of daily activities. The government has so many ways to learn about us humans and what we do, honestly, it is pretty freaky. 

In Juan Enriquez's speech, we learned that everything follows us around on the internet. I grew up in an age where my parents always said, "What you choose to put out on the internet, stays there forever." His video confirmed that and actually proved there was a website that was able to identify somebody just off their face in a photo, once again, pretty freaky. 

Throughout Catherine Crump's video, I was most surprised to learn that we are always being, "tracked" in a way. At the beginning of her video, she said wherever we go in a car, we are giving information to ourselves to the government. "If you drive your car around the United States it can reveal that you go to a therapist, attend an alcoholic meeting, if you go to church, or if you don't go to church." This is something I never realized as I was driving around my country, now that I am aware of it, I would think twice about where I am going.

In Christopher Sohogian's speech, it was interesting to know that someone could be listening to a conversation that two people are having through a phone call. That is pretty scary, especially if that was a private conversation that one was having with their closest friend. This can lead to the government obtaining more information about innocent people. In order to avoid this, it is safer to save conversations to have in person rather than over the phone. The government once again won't do anything about these issues, as they are getting "free" information.  

In just a short time of listening to a few people speak about privacy, I learned way more information than what I previously knew about my privacy through technology. Honestly, I am glad I was assigned this blog. I will keep all information learned for future phone calls, drives, and posts on the internet. 

Printing Press EOTO

The Printing Press is a piece of technology that has so much history, that it would be impossible to mention all of its importance.  There is no official record of when it was invented, however,  the first official printed book, The Diamond Sutra, was created in Dunhuang, China. It was believed to be born around 868 A.D. 

Furthermore into the future, a wise man named Johannas Gutenberg continued the evolution of the Printing Press. When speaking about the history of the Printing Press, you'll often hear the term, "Guetenberg Press," this is what Johannas Gutenberg's invention was called.

His version of the new style of type began in France in a town called Strasbourg around 1440. In order for his creation to work properly, he handmade the ink his press used, which was designed to better fit on metal. 

Around 12 years later, he created a bible known as the, "Gutenberg Bible." The book consisted of over 1300 pages. This piece of writing was made in Mainz, Germany, where Gutenberg located after France. He finally accomplished his invention of the Gutenberg Press here as well. 

After this, his invention was brought all around Euroupe and became one of the largest innovations throughout history.  Italy, Spain, and France were the next few countries to get their hands on Gutenberg's creation. 

In Paris, France, education was benefited with his creation. Textbooks and reading books were created by librarians all thanks to Gutenberg. Speaking of books, this is a convenient way to welcome the next topic: how the printing press changed the world.

As mentioned in the previous graf, books were created for students. Think of how many opportunities the press welcomed to earth, it can go on forever. With the invention of text on paper, it can go as far as building cars, tools, pretty much anything included with an instruction pamphlet. (also was created by the printing press)

Before this, there were no books that could be made as fast and efficient as they could with the printing press. Handwritten books probably took forever to make, the printing press solved that. 

People were able to transfer information quicker, and were able to print important thoughts and creations with the printing press. The creation of it also gave everyone a chance to have their word spread around, if they wished to produce a book. 

With Gutenberg's creation, news was able to spread around faster. Newspapers were created with a printing press. It highly improved the flow of communication around the entire world. This was highly useful when wars were going on. 

Essentially, the world became smarter after Gutenberg's creation. With books, newspapers, and other articles made, knowledge was able to become more advanced. Without the printing press, us on earth today would not be aware of some of the history in the world, if it were not printed. 

Copying became much more easier with the invention of the printing press. Gutenberg made around 180 copies of his bible, this meant more people were able to access the same book at a time, which is a way knowledge and information spread. 

The Printing Press is one of the key creations of our history and we would not have evolved into the world that we have today without. 

CREDIT: https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press

https://www.tckpublishing.com/the-printing-press/

U.S Supreme Court (Reflection)

 

After reading about the Supreme Court, I learned many things that I did not know beforehand. It is important to learn about the government that we live in. Knowing how the system works will keep you prepared for future elections and debates. 

One thing that I did not know about the Supreme Court is the history of its beginning.  The first meeting of the U.S Supreme Court was scheduled to be held on February 1, 1970. However, the first meeting had to be pushed back one day due to transportation issues. 

I think the most important takeaway that someone should know about the Supreme Court is being aware of what happens, who is inside, and the basics of how it works. Not everyone needs to follow every news or case that goes on in the Supreme Court, however, it is important to know what goes on. Everyone should know that there are nine justices. Justices are chosen by the president of the United States, and the U.S Senate confirms the list. Another important takeaway from the U.S Supreme Court is that there are multiple branches within. 

The most surprising thing that I have learned after reading the article is that only 115 justices have served time with the Supreme Court. I honestly thought that the number would be way higher, 115 seems small to me. I was also surprised that the first meeting was held in New York. I would have expected it to be in Philadelphia or Boston, never would have guessed that it was in New York. Another thing that surprised me when I learned it last year, was that the president chooses who sits in the nine seats. I learned this last year when taking American Politics, I would have thought that the president would get a say, but others in the government would also get a say that equals out. 

Top Five News Sources

In 2023, it is hard to find a source of news that is 100% factual and trustworthy. Social Media over the years has grown to be one of the largest and most popular places to go to find news. The downside with social media is that everyone can post on it, therefore, you have to be careful with what you trust.

The first place I go to for news is X, formerly Twitter. As a journalist, this is where I go to and post my news. X is a great place to find news, as long as you know who is trustworthy. Elon Musk decided to make it so that anyone can buy a blue check mark, which makes it harder to find trustworthy accounts if you didn't follow them beforehand. 

Funny enough, I hear a lot of news from my Dad. There are many times throughout the day when he will text me, "Did you hear about this" and it always happens to be something new that has not reached me yet. Most of the time, he is correct in what he tells me, so I trust what he says. 

A lot like "X", I go to Instagram and see news on this app first. I follow many of the same pages on both apps, so it comes down to what app I open first to see what news has dropped. If I see certain news on Instagram first, I usually head to X because people are more vocal there, and I like to hear people's opinions. 

Fox News is another place where I get my news from. However, this is usually when I am at home. My family watches this channel and I'll pay attention to it throughout some points. I find news shows boring, so unless the news is something super dramatic, then  I would watch it. I had to add it to the list, as it was on the television when I was at home as a kid. 

The Boston Globe is a news source that I always read with my grandparents as a little kid. Still today, I head onto The Boston Globe website and check out what news is on there. I am from Boston, so finding local news in my hometown is important to me.