My Relationship with Technology

 Final post

    Do I think my relationship with technology is healthy? Not really, I’m sure I could spend less time on my phone. If you asked my roommate if my relationship with technology was healthy, she would say “Kiara, if I could, I would throw your phone out of a moving vehicle going 90 down the highway. You spend more time on that metal brick in a week than you ever have studying” (This is an exact quote from Kathryn) Well, I think this goes to show that technology plays a large role in my life. If you see me without my phone, something must be seriously wrong with me, and yes,
I know this is terrible.

    Because of this, my online presence is fairly prominent. I have an active Instagram and TikTok. I also run the social media for the company I worked at prior to college. I was also in some articles for dance and academics, so it's safe to say that if someone wants to find me online, they will.

     Honestly, I had never really put too much thought into how prominent my digital footprint is until this class, but now that I have taken this class, my online presence is a little scary. I find this especially true after going over privacy. You can find my post on privacy here. With my extensive digital presence, I must have very little privacy, and that thought is terrifying. Although I only put good things on social media, there is other media not controlled by me. This means that if someone publishes something about me, it would be very easy to have it linked back to me and my name. When I google my name my very active and VERY public Instagram comes up. From this, one could find out a lot about me. I go to HPU. I am in a sorority. I have a large family. I’m from McDowell County, NC. I graduated valedictorian from Nebo Crossing Academy. I graduated high school with an associate's degree. I am 18. This is all stuff found on my personal Instagram. No further investigation required. If I can find all of this from a glance at my Instagram, what can be found if a deep dive is done? My social media presence paints me in a positive light, but it is still a little nerve-wracking to know that so much information on me is readily available.

  

  Although my screen time can be concerning, I don’t think technology is all bad. I use technology often to keep up with friends and family. I have friends and family all across the state and country. I often use social media such as Facebook and Instagram to keep up communication and relationships with them. Also, I feel as if I am more informed and up to date on current events. Although I do not always actively seek out news, I always see news. With algorithms that show you what it knows you will like and the world always changing and moving, you are bound to see some news article that pertains to your interests (I get so much news about Taylor Swift). Because of this, I feel like I am a more well-informed citizen even if most of that information is about books and concerts.

    Overall, I’m sure I could have a better relationship with technology, but I don’t think my relationship with technology is all negative. I get so much information from technology, and I get to keep up with family and friends. Who cares if my attention span is ruined from TikTok (I do care, it's an issue). I am a more well-informed, social individual than I would be without technology.

EOTO 1 Reaction

 EOTO 1: Ball point pen 

    I learned that the ballpoint pen was not created out of necessity, but out of sheer want for convenience. The ballpoint pen was invented in 1888 by John Loud. Loud did not like the fountain pen because it did not work well on all writing surfaces (he worked with leather and needed to mark it sometimes, but fountain pens didn't work for that), it was messy, and it was difficult to refill. Turns out, he was not the only one to have issues with the fountain pen. journalists and students disliked the overly complicated pen as well. Although Loud invented the first ballpoint pen, he definitely could have done better. This was proven by Laszlo Biro. Now, Biro loved to use the fountain pen, but he often smudged the ink. Therefore, he tried to use the thicker, smudge-free ink used on newspapers in his fountain pen. This obviously didn't work. However, when he saw his kids playing with marbles in the driveway, he thought that he could invent a pe with a metal, ball-shaped tip that would allow the ink to flow smoothly, and thus the modern ballpoint pen was born! Now, you can't go a day (or even a few hours) without seeing a ballpoint pen. These pens are easily portable, inexpensive, and fairly clean (unless you leave them in your pockets and wash them like I do). This pen became the go-to for all your writing-based needs. Honestly, I'm so glad that I don't have to carry around a messy fountain pen and inkwell because I stain my clothes enough already!

EOTO 2 reaction

 EOTO 2: Propaganda

        The definition of propaganda is communication, through media or otherwise, that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda. This communication is intentionally never objective and is meant to selectively present facts that work for a specific side of an argument or social issue. Propaganda is designed to elicit an emotional response from its audience. Something I found to be incredibly interesting about this topic was that propaganda, while carrying a negative connotation, is not intended to be a negative term. The term propaganda is used to describe any type of material that promotes a specific opinion. As such, you could say that even pushing media that promotes love and inclusion is propaganda solely based on the fact that it only pushes one opinion. Propaganda is rather self-explanatory in that it, by definition, means to propagate information. At its core, its purpose is to push one agenda in order for it to flourish while likely dominating another agenda. Unfortunately, propaganda does have a significant negative effect on our society. Societies thrive when they are logically driven; however, a large presence of propaganda in our societies can lead to them being emotionally driven. This often means that societies with more propaganda (even if pushing positive agendas) could fail to thrive.

EOTO 2: Neilson Ratings

 Neilsen Ratings

    Chances are, if you have been on any streaming platform lately, you have seen a ranking of popular TV shows, but have you ever wondered where these ratings come from or how we get them? Well, these ratings are called Neilsen ratings. These ratings began as a way to measure the popularity of radio shows, but who listens to those anymore! They then transitioned to covering cable TV, but we don't watch that anymore either, so, in 2017, Neilsen group switched to including streaming in their ratings as well. Neilsen ratings are measured by taking a sample group of households and tracking what they watch, where they watch it (streaming service/channel), and how often they watch it (Britannica). Through this data, they get a general idea of how popular a TV show is in the average American household. This group began as a collection of 25 thousand households in the early 2000s to now having around 100 thousand households as of January 2024. Neilsen ratings can also affect advertising rates (Britannica). For example, if your channel has TV shows that are doing really well and have high Neilsen ratings, that means many people are tuning in to watch your channel. Therefore, companies would be willing to pay higher prices to advertise on your channel in the hopes that their advertisement would be seen by more people. However, if your channel has poor Neilsen ratings, that means nobody is watching your channel (loser), so a company would not be willing to pay as much to advertise with you. What I found really cool while doing my research, is that Neilsen ratings are public and updated frequently. Check out this image! This is the Neilsen ratings of popular TV shows from the week of November 10th. It makes sense that these shows would make the list. I have heard so much praise for all of these shows, and I have even seen some of them myself!