EOTO 2

    The Sherman-Anti trust act was created in 1890. This was the first legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress. The reason it was passed was to counter concentrations of power that interfered with trade, as well as to reduce economic competition. This law was named after John Sherman, who had been a part of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S Senate, as well as many other groups, in the course of his lifetime. During the lifetime of this act, it was primarily used against businesses who had acquired industrial monopolies, but rarely succeeded- it was most successful against trade unions. Many laws and acts released afterwards changed how this act worked, one of which being the Clayton antitrust Act.

    Vertical Consolidation is a Consolidation that involves two or more entities at different levels in the supply chain, such as a Facilities-based Licensee and a reseller that sells that Licensee’s services. This has affected many businesses, most notably through my research, the health care market. Not only did these merges increase costs, but there are areas where hospital services are highly concentrated—where few hospitals compete—correlates to more expensive services. Vertical merging also causes organization and coordination to be more complex, and very few health services reported an increase of quality after they merge. The main reason for this occurring I could find is that there are now less competing groups, so there is smaller motivation for them to do better. With all of this, it is hard to say that vertical consolidation is worth it for these organizations.

 

Final Post Assignment

Our Relationship With Technology - Technology's Relationship With Us

— Do you think your relationship with technology is healthy? Why or why not? Do you think that you are giving technology the appropriate amount of time in your life, or do you think that technology is taking up too much time in your life? Do you think technology is informing you and making you smarter, or do you think that technology might be misleading you and giving you unreliable information? Do you ever worry about these things, or do you think it's just an accepted part of the society we live in?

— What about your friends and family? Do you think that technology is a positive part of their lives? How does technology play a role in your relationships? Good and bad.

— What is your online footprint? If you were applying for a job today, the first thing your prospective employer would do is go online and find out as much as she or he could. What would they find? How much of an online presence do you have? Google yourself — that's the first thing they will do! What comes up? What kind of image does it paint? Is there anything you should edit out of your online presence?

    When it comes to one saying if one's relationship with something or someone is healthy, usually it is not best to ask the person who's relationship is being judged directly. This is because they may see things from a skewed angle, and may not know for sure if something is bad for them. It is best to ask someone from an outside perspective, and let them observe the person in question, and let them decide whether their relationship with something is healthy or not.

    I bring this up because while I personally think my relationship with technology is fine, others may not see it that way. I will admit that I spend a lot of my time on technologies such as computers, phones, and sometimes gaming consoles. Granted, ever since I started college, I have been spending much less time on gaming consoles, but due to my primary interests being playing video games, coding, drawing/animating, and video editing, as well as my major being game design, I spend a lot of time using technology anyways. To further develop these skills, I have to use technology, and I am perfectly fine with that. While I personally think my relationship with technology is healthy (unless if not being able to function or do anything without it counts as unhealthy), a bystander may say otherwise, due to the amount of time I spend using it (an amount fine with me but will likely appear as abnormal for others).

    While those are my primary uses for technology, I also use it for internet browsing. Not only do I use it to look up how to do something (whether it has to do with technology or not), or I go on YouTube to watch videos while eating or to listen to music while doing work. I also have several webcomics bookmarked, and I check in on them to see updates to the series. And of course, I use technology to be able to do schoolwork- I am using my gaming laptop to write this post right now. With all of this, I believe that technology is helping me be more informed and more knowledgeable.

    However, there is still a fair share of both misinformation and disinformation caused by technology- or more specifically, it helped drastically increase the spread of both. Not only that, but anyone can post anything online, whether it is a website, video, document, etc, and say anything as long as it does not violate ToS. People are able to be rude to anyone, or be "toxic" or "trolls." I'm glad that technology also greatly increased the spread of accurate information, but fueling both sides of this conflict will not help it die down. This conflict is so large that whenever we open ourselves to a new source, we read with caution, and compare it to what we already know, to see if the source can be trusted or not. Despite this, we have accepted the fact that there are people out there who spread misinformation and disinformation, and that besides not letting anyone post anything, there is no way of stopping this spread.

    While I cannot truly speak for my friends and how technology has affected them (even though a large majority of my generation cannot escape the clutches of TikTok), for family I'd say it positively benefited them. My parents use computers for their jobs, TVs and portable devices (phones, tablets, etc) to watch shows and movies, and sometimes use Facebook. I can even think of some specific examples- almost a decade ago my dad even ran three Clash of Clans accounts simultaneously- he now instead plays Fortnite for 30 minutes to an hour each day. My sister mainly uses a gaming laptop for schoolwork and sometimes games, and uses her portable devices to access social media, to either see what her friends are posting or to post content of her own (which she did for TikTok and Instagram).

    Googling my name brings up dozens of people, none of which are me. I was able to eventually find myself after several minutes, but only through a site that lists everyone with my name that lives in the United States. I feel like it was harder to find me because I try not to associate my name with my social media accounts. My YouTube channel, which I have been posting videos on for almost 4 years, does not have my name documented. However, when I searched my name via images, I found myself quite quickly, only because HPU required us to create a LinkedIn account. If it was not for this account, I would say that my online footprint is nearly invisible.

Blog Post #7 Assignment

About some new innovation, in the past or in the present, and view it  through the lens of the Diffusion Theory. Why did they catch on and spread? Why did so many people become early adopters? Why are some people late adopters? Or not adopters at all? What about the downsides — do you see any negative consequences in the technology? For example, why am I not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media? Why might I have made that choice for myself? And how would I benefit if I did? Would the positive outweigh to negative? How do you weigh that cost-benefit analysis with a new communication technology?

     When it comes down to something that has been put onto the market, no matter how popular it becomes, there will be people who buy or invest into it either early on, while it is already popular, while it is dying down, or not at all. This is called the diffusion theory.

    There are different reasons of why people would fall into different categories. For this, I will go on why people would fall into each category for when a new video game is announced and (hopefully) released. The innovators are people who heard about it early on, and were immediately excited for the product. For the video game industry, this would likely include people who are on the publishing and marketing team for a game, as well as people who funded the game to the point that it can be produced and sold. This group also includes people who worked directly on the game.

The early adapter group will more likely be fans that were invested in the game early on. This group will include people who pre-order games. These people also partake in early access content or pre-release demos if they are provided. This group also consists of news articles that talk about the game.

    Third is the early majority. These are the people who buy and play the game within the first few weeks of the game's release (that time may increase or decrease based on what kind of game it is- for example, that time is much larger for live service games, or games with post-launch updates). These people were ready to spend money on the game without knowing if the game would be good or not, despite what was previously shown- which surprisingly happens very often. People who make reviews, or make videos based on games are able to play the games and write or make content based on the games, allowing more people to learn about it and also join this group.

        Fourth is the late majority. For video games, it's hard to say when this group ends and the next begins. This may be a group that didn't originally play the game for various reasons. Maybe they didn't have the time or money to buy and play, maybe they simply didn't hear about the game. Maybe they weren't originally interested, and eventually decided to give it a try.

    The final group is the laggards. I don't entirely know how long you would have to wait to be in this group when it comes to playing a video game. For live service games, it would likely be when the game is "dead," with little or no players to play alongside or against. For console games, it may be when the game is only available on a console no longer being produced or supported (or through emulation), like the beloved Kirby Air Ride that people desperately want to return, no matter how. And then there's the group within the group that will never play this. For some, it may be a more extreme version of the "late majority" (never hearing of the game, never having enough time/money, etc), but worse, it could be people against video games. I won't go on a rant against these individuals, just know that the quickly growing field of video games can be stimulating and incredibly helpful, and in a way, is like an interactive TV show or movie.

Blog Post #10 Assignment

 Write a regular post reflecting on the video — what you learned, what you thought were important take-aways, things that surprised you, things that frightened you. Questions to spark thinking:

What are positive aspects of more and more complex artificial intelligence and machine learning?

What about privacy, pros and cons?

What about national security?

What about online security and identity theft?

    As someone who uses computers every day, am a large fan of electronic music and video game music, have an interest in coding and animating, and am planning to pursue a major in game design, it is safe to say that my activities online can be easily tracked based on how much my hobbies and interests rely on technology, and eventually potentially AI (even though there are some things that AI cannot do, like create new, interesting ideas for games, since they're creating things based on what others have done prior).

    Despite all of this, there are still benefits to AI and machine learning, as well as its constant evolution. For one, it can help law enforcement through facial recognition. It also makes some jobs easier or not have to be done by humans, which is really helpful for dangerous jobs like high-risk medical procedures, mining, and more.

    While all of this is helpful, there is a field that I haven't talked about yet: Privacy. AI can be used to breach privacy and know nearly everything about people, from their interests to what they do on a daily basis. Companies like Google and Facebook use user preferences to better understand the user, and to give them ads that would better appeal to them. They use search terms and messages written by the user to determine this. This information is also given away to 3rd party companies and sites.

    This issue goes beyond just companies, unfortunately. Governments are also able to do this, both the U.S government and others around the world. Not only are they also able to see one's interests, but they're also able to track our every move with cameras, posts, and even our own phones, an object we take pretty much anywhere. Anything that a cybercriminal can hack into, the government can hack into as well, likely with more efficiency as well. Based on the video we have watched, China is the strongest government when it comes to surveillance. With the 600m+ cameras they have in their country, as well as the ones they are sending to dozens of other countries to help spy on their own citizens, they are going to be a powerhouse in this field.

    AI and technology has shown to be both good and evil- while they can be used for both, it all depends on what us humans tell it to do. We can modify it to make our lives better, or make our lives worse, and so much less private.

Blog Post #11 Assignment

 Write a post about what you learned from a different team. Either write about that team's presentation as a whole or zero in on a term or concept you found interesting.

On October 3 of 2023, me and several other student were put into groups to talk about a variety of categories that fit in the following categories: Awareness, mediasphere, theories, policy, and age of AI. The category I would like to focus on for this blog post is theories.

Within the different categories, there were different topics that were discussed. The first one I will write about is the Overton Window theory. this theory was formalized in 2003, and considers whether an action or idea created by a politician or leader is unthinkable, radical, acceptable, sensible, popular, etc. This all can be difficult to balance, or find what would work best, since it is all based on public opinion and standards, which can shift or change over time. Not only that, but it can also be swayed by disinformation and misinformation, so what people think or believe can vastly vary throughout the population. While there are many negatives to this, there's also some positives. For example, it can be used to help know if the general population wants or does not want something to occur, and the people in government positions can act accordingly. 

Another category in this category is confirmation bias. This is when people process information by looking for or interpreting info with their own beliefs from prior. This can make it hard to accept information that is against or contradicts your own. Most instances of confirmation bias is mostly unintentional, but it is something that is shown to affect all. It is important to be able to detect when you are showing bias, and to not let it affect what you think or do. When discovering something new, try and start with a neutral opinion and to not think of anything that can sway that until after you learn a bit about what you're learning about. It is important not to jump to conclusions about something you know little to nothing about.

Blog Post #6 Assignment

 Fast forward to today, when the United States government is waging military operations all over the globe. Explore this website: ANTIWAR.COM  Also explore this one: The American Conservative  Notice how the writers on these sites are all very strong antiwar voices that you NEVER seem to hear in the mainstream news. I wonder why that is, don't you? You've probably never even heard of these websites. I wonder why that is? Why do you think you have to seek out obscure websites in order to hear strong antiwar voices?

    There is no single answer to the question above, since it all depends on the person who's answering's perspective, opinion, or what they have witnessed or experienced in their life- basically, events that can create bias within their minds. For example, the most tame explanation that I can think of is that everyone has their own thoughts an opinions, and it just so happens to be that the mainstream news like NBC, CNN, and Fox simply do not share those same thoughts or opinions, or at least, don't entirely agree with them. 

    Another could be that the sites listed with the prompt do not share the same values or beliefs as mainstream news companies, and do things very differently. Looking at Antiwar, you can see that they are "devoted to the cause of non-interventionism and is read by libertarians, pacifists, leftists, "greens," and independents alike, as well as many on the Right who agree with our opposition to imperialism." Meanwhile, you would never catch places like Fox (or the other smaller news source, The American Conservative) saying something like that.

    For why I, and I assume many others, have not heard of these two sites is most likely due to how Google's algorithm, or more specifically, ranking results appear. They are more likely to put something on top if it is something that has generated a lot of views and clicks- which pushes Antiwar and American Conservative down. Not only that, but if you search for those sites more, they will likely appear higher in the future. People are not as likely to search for a specific non-mainstream news source. Not only that, but the mainstream news sources have people who trust and believe them to keep them relevant (for better or worse), while the others do not, or at least to the same degree. It also doesn't help that many people nowadays do not do as much research, often only sourcing one or even zero places (and the one place may be biased, incorrect, or from someone who is not an expert in the field).

    In the end, it seems to be that we need to seek out obscure websites because mainstream news, at this point, is most likely corrupted by greed and power. They will do whatever they can to make the ones they support appear to be correct, even if it means losing their reputation or twisting the truth. Though many in that situation do not care about their public image anymore, since they have enough money to have them set for life, to watch the world burn from the damage they've and others like them have done. This is why we need more obscure sources- while some may not have access to the same kind of information, these people know that messing up can bring them to an end- causing them to give it their all, to make sure they are correct to stay on the face of the internet. While they will likely be tempted by larger corporations to always take their side, to make them appear as perfect, they know the amount of damage that can be done upon a backfire. They are not going to take the dangerous risk, and as a reward for that, they become some of the best sources out there.

Blog Post #5 Assignment

 Write a regular blog post about technology that you learned about from someone else.

    I would say that this is a bit of a difficult question for me, due to many aspects of what I know about computers, which is what first came to mind when I thought of "technology," coming from me experimenting, messing around, just doing things on my own. There wasn't really anyone who I really asked for information or advice when it came down to how to use a computer, or how they worked. For example, no one really taught me how to use a search engine, or how to see something I downloaded. I was able to figure those out on my own, as well as many of the various sites that I know about. Curiosity (combined with caution, of course) and introvertedness led me to being able to look up or check out different things without talking to others about it beforehand. However, there were some aspects that I did get from others, that being from family or from people online.

    One of the first ever softwares I remember using was Type to Learn 4, or as we called it, TTL4. I believe my elementary school required us to use this software to learn how to type efficiently. It taught us how to position our hands when typing (though I'll admit I never used that advice, especially once I started gaming on PC- WASD, shift, and space keys all the way). It also, through different typing games and various sentences, gave us the knowledge and skill of how to type faster and with less errors. This was one of the few educational sites I actually found fun, so I often tried beating my previous records. I can't exactly say if it benefited me, but I don't regret using this software.

    Something else I learned about from others was coding. While I started learning my first programing language, java, in 9th grade, I've been using the program Scratch since 6th or 7th grade. Through that I made a few games of various genres, and decided to return to it for a school project (I would've used Unreal Engine 5 but my laptop keeps quickly crashing when trying to pull it up, and I haven't exactly learned C++ yet- only java and python). I'd say that those were among my favorite assignments in middle school. And now that I think about it, all of my favorite assignments for each school I went to had to deal a lot with computers. For high school, us using Code.org was a close second for my favorite, losing to us making music on Soundtrap (reminding of me of when we made music in Garageband. Wow, the memories...

    It goes without saying that we, intentional or not, or even willing or not, learn a lot about technology from others. This can surely also be applied to everything- since we do not start off knowing everything, and testing everything on our own would not only be very time consuming, but would be incredibly risky. It is best for everyone to learn from others, and have them help further the spread of that information. Through working together, we can become incredibly efficient vessels of knowledge, and increase what we know exponentially than if we researched on our own.