Blog #11 EOTO 2 Reflection

 The EOTO I chose to reflect on was about online influencers. Online influencers are social media marketers that endorse products and are considered to have a social influence over their followers. Businesses themself are no longer the standard marketing technique for promoting their own products, influencers have taken over the industry and brands know that they're essential.

More than half of the United States population is on social media making it an essential part of many users' lives. With that being said, people tend to adapt to the trends that we see on social media. Online influencers are considered to be digital creators with a large following on social media. They produce content that is meant to encourage their following. Online influencers are basically online celebrities that are highly engaged and active on social media. Influencers collaborate with brands to promote their products or services.

My generation watched online influencers rise and gain relevance. There are many benefits for users that follow their favorite influencers. Influencers build trust and credibility with their followers by posting the brands that they're working with, further influencing their followers to purchase. As these influencers are working with brands, they're continuing to improve their brand awareness. The content that influencers post inspires their audience. Influencers can also gain compensation for the post, many online influencers do this as a career.

There are many negative effects of online influencers. Influencers can be promised a large amount of money for a post for a product that they don't even like. They will then promote this disliked product to their audience which can then create distrust between the followers and influencer as the post was not truthful. If an influencer is to not state that their post is sponsored this can also decrease their followers' trust. If a brand is to collaborate with an influencer that many don't like, its brand reputation will decrease.

Social media plays such a significant role in our everyday lives and the content that is being promoted has a significant impact on our buying. There are no guidelines to being an influencer, anyone is able to influence online, what matters is the impact that the influencer is making on their followers.

Blog #10 Artificial Intelligence

  Artificial intelligence (AI), is the ability of a computer or machine to mimic or replicate intelligent human behavior. This involves learning from experience, adapting to new situations, solving problems, and making decisions based on available data and information. AI is typically achieved through machine learning algorithms, which are designed to improve their performance over time as they are continuously exposed to more data and experiences. AI's potential is huge and has the potential to revolutionize many different industries and fields, from healthcare and transportation to finance and entertainment.

AI systems rely on the collection and analysis of large amounts of personal data, therefore, making privacy a major concern when it comes to artificial intelligence. The data collected is used to train and further improve the performance of AI algorithms, but this carries potential risks to individuals' privacy. If personal data is being collected without individuals' knowledge or consent, or if it's mishandled or misused, it could lead to serious breaches of privacy. It is important for organizations that partake in AI software to implement privacy policies and practices, such as receiving users' consent before collecting their data, implementing de-indeficiations techniques to protect users' privacy, and regularly monitoring and auditing their AI systems to ensure they are complying with privacy laws and regulations. It's important for regulators and policymakers to develop and enforce extremely clear and consistent rules and guidelines for AI and personal data.

There are many benefits of ariticial intelligent. AI improves efficiency and productivity, it can automate tasks and processes which allows businesses and organizations to operate more efficiently and effectively. AI can also increase accuracy as systems can process large amounts of data quickly and more accurately, which further reduces the the potential risk for human error. AI can also help make decisions by analyzing data and identify patterns that may not be immediately apparent to humans. Innovation is increased because of AI and will help businesses and organizations generate new ideas and solve complex problems in novel ways. Lastly, AI can be used to provide personalized, real-time customer support, and it improves customer experience. AI has the potential to drive significant improvements across a wide range of industries and fields.

However, there are many negative effects of AI technology. AI can take away creativity and flexibility as AI systems are designed to perform specific tasks, a computer can't necessarily think outside of the box and come up with creative solutions to problems. AI can be very biased due to the data that they're trained on which can lead to discriminatory outcomes. As we continue to see AI advance it may lead to job displacement because it can perform tasks that were previously done by humans. This could lead to job losses in multiple industry. As previously mentioned there are obvious security and privacy concerns as AI systems hold large amounts of sensitive data. There are ethical concerns as well as AI continues to advance, such as how to ensure these systems are used for the greater good rather than malicious practice. 

AI has the potential to play a large role in national security, it could protect a country from external threats and has the ability to respond to internal emergencies or disasters. AI has the ability to power surveillance systems that could be used to monitor borders and then identify potential security threats. AI-powered drones could be used for missions or to deliver aid in situations. However, there are also risks that could be associated with using AI for security purposes. AI-powered weapon systems could raise ethical concerns as their is no human control over the system. It is important to ensure that AI systems used for national security purposes are transparent, accountable, and subject to appropriate oversight.

AI could certainly be used for identity theft, but it is important to remember that technology intentions is not to be malicious. It is up to us to determine whether it is beneficial or harmful. AI could be used to determine whether large amounts of data to identify patterns that could indicate fraudulent activity, which could further prevent identity theft. But, AI could be used by criminals to steal personal information using algorithms to produce fake identities or phishing emails. It is up to us, organizations, and governments to ensure that AI is used ethically and responsibly so that is being used in the correct way.

AI has the potential to revolutionize many different fields and make them more efficient and effective. However, there is room for error as it can be misused in the case of identity theft or other types of cybercrime. AI leaves us with important ethical and social questions as wse have seen the impact is has made on jobs. As the field is continuing to evolve, it will continue to change in the coming years. It's important for us to stay informed about the latest developments of artificial intelligence and understand its potential implications.

Blog #9 Confirmation Bias

 Firstly, bias is when we think in a way that leads us to be wrong. It really does not matter who you are, how smart you are, who you voted for, etc., everyone has biases. Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias that involves interpreting and favoring new evidence that confirms someone's existing beliefs, theories, or biases. Confirmation bias is essentially your internal "yes man"

Confirmation bias can be extremely problematic and is still continuininig to evolve today. Philosphers and scientists have come to a conclusion that confirmation bias is adaptive. The reason it is continuing to evolve is because it has influenced us as individuals and the social structures that we are under and we ultimately believe things to be the truth. This can then result as an issue as we are not believing the real truth, just what we want to believe. We are subject to confirmation bias because we are just trying to support our own beliefs. We see a lot of confirmation bias in the media, "fake news", and tend to believe what we are hearing because it is coming from what we believe is a trusted source.

While there are many negatives to confirmation bias is does make our lives a lot easier. We cannot sit around pondering and researching everything that is presented to us. We often have to think and answer right on the spot, we are not going to change our own beliefs to make others happier. Confirmation bias does help us build confidence.

However, the negatives of confirmation bias clearly outweigh the positives. People tend to ignore information that is actually correct because it contradicts their own personal beliefs. A persons perspective will not change based off of evidence and the actual facts. With that being said confirmation bias can lead to very poor decision making. Confirmation bias can "lead to partial, and therewith for the individual less reliable, information processing".

Confirmation bias can be very influential over our lives. To prevent it from occurring you should be looking for evidence that supports your point of view. By looking at your own beliefs you should search and see if you're wrong, not just if you're right. It is extremely important to look at all sides and carefully consider all of the information before stating what you believe to actually be true.

Confirmation bias impacts how we gather our information, but it also influences the way that we recall and further interpret information. It can effect every aspect of our lives due to our own personal opinions. We should focus on evidence, not just our own beliefs.

Blog #8 Online Privacy

 These TED Talks were very insightful, I cleared my search history after watching them because they honestly freaked me out. These videos were very helpful because the internet plays such a crucial role in our lives. We sign up for different websites, scroll on social media aimlessly, and sit online for hours not even questioning what we are giving these platforms and the repercussions that they can have.

The TED Talk by Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad focuses on how tech companies are sharing our personal information and how there is no privacy. Companies collect a lot of our personal information and we don't even realize that we are allowing them access to collecting it. Mustard and the Norwegian Consumer Council took a day and a half to read all of the terms and conditions on what is considered an average phone. Companies have access to all of our data, they see everything we click on, what we purchase, and everything that we read, and then proceeds to sell it to other companies for their personal databases.

Revenge porn is defined as nonconsensual porn that is posted on the internet and then distributed without consent. The only time I had heard about revenge porn was when Ray J released a video of him and Kim Kardashian, I believe this happened over ten years ago. You really do not hear much in the media about revenge porn so I think it's very insightful and beneficial that TED Talk released this. The video shared that there are not really any repercussions for posting revenge. There is only one law that protects individuals that are subject to revenge porn. I think it was very important for this video to be released because it is so unspoken of.

Andy Yens TED Talk about Proton Mail focuses on all of us coming together in agreeance that privacy should always be our top priority. Yen created his own email service where messages can be sent and received without the messages being read by the server. The only people that can see the messages are the messages and the person receiving the message. Proton Mail has grown significantly as the company has put a lot of funding into it. They put so much funding into the service because they want their users to feel safe and ensure their privacy, making Proton Mail a trusted source by its users. Currently, there are over 50 million users that use their encrypted services to make sure when you're online it is actually private.

Being safe online is extremely important as it protects us from the harms and risks that data collectors can obtain from us. These TED Talks were very beneficial and taught me a lot that I didn't know about online safety. I am not typically someone who remembers to clear my browsing data but these videos showed me the importance of it and moving forward I will.

Blog #7 Diffusion of Innovations

 Diffusion of innovations, or ideas, is a theory that follows the pattern and how fast ideas, practices, or products move throughout a population. The Diffusion of Innovations Theory was developed by E.M. Rogers in 1962 and is one of the oldest social science theories. This theory focuses on the pioneers, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. 

The pioneers or innovators are considered to be risk-takers as they are the first to think of the idea or innovation. They are looking to expand technology that they believe would benefit society. The next adopter category is the early adopters. They are like the "beta test" group, they look for new ideas and try new technologies. As you continue to move up the bell curve the next group is the early majority. The early majority is a stage in diffusion of new emerging technology. This is often the first new technology or idea. Going down the bell curve is the late majority, this group is often scared of change and the only time they will test/try an innovation or idea is when it has already been tried by the majority of people. Lastly, the laggards, they are the last group to test the product.

As you continue to move up the bell curve, ideas, products, and practices are continued to be tested and help with consumers decision making process. I believe that this theory is extremely important because it allows us to understand how trends work. Being an early adapter can be very beneficial as it can bring someone a greater access to wealth if they invest in the product early enough. Typically those who are late adopters might have less money and don't want to risk investing in something in earlier stages because they don't want to take the risk. Some decide not to adopt at all because they're simply scared. Many do not put time into technology due to the fact of it being distracting.

The technology that comes to mind when I think of diffusion of innovation theory, the iPhone comes to mind. When the iPhone 3G, the first Apple phone, was released many others were still using Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, etc. The iPhone was the first smartphone. Many consumers didn't make the switch to Apple phones when they were released because they were already so comfortable with the current technology, everyone had a difficult time in the beginning adjusting to this new technology. Adopters didn't pick up on the iPhone right away, however the iPhone completely took over the cellphone market and reinvetned cellphone compleltly.