Blog Post #10: Propaganda

Propaganda for me has always been an area of interest for me because I have always found it interesting the different forms of propaganda used and how it has evolved over time. As an American when I first think of propaganda I think of old Uncle Sam photo recruiting for the U.S Army. 

One of the biggest threats to face Uncle Sam however was Hitler's Germany during WW2. Adolf Hitler took a country that was in financial ruin following WW1 and used his propaganda to rebuild the country and create a belief amongst its citizens that they hadn't had since pre WW1. The key to Hitler's success with this propaganda was reaching his citizens in as many ways as possible. Propaganda was spread through speeches, art, music, theater, and state run radio. Compared to today Hitler had less resources to reach his entire country yet for a period of time was able to do so and get people to buy in to what he was saying.

Earlier we talked about Uncle Sam and how he was the poster-child of American propaganda for years but there are multiple other forms of propaganda to be found in America today. First you see these politicians all over social media posting multiple messages a day just to make sure that their voices are heard and that they stay on citizens minds. Another form of propaganda I think of in America are our sports teams around he country both professional and college. A lot of these teams have very passionate fan bases who buy tickets to go to games and to get merchandise. Do you ever stop and wonder how a team promotes themselves in their community? Through billboards, commercials, or social media these are all forms of propaganda that teams use to generate interest and passion into their fan bases.

 

Blog Post #8: Vertical Integration

Let's all pretend for a second that we have $100 million. Would you choose to leave that money alone or invest it and possibly double your money or lose all of it? It's a deep question when you analyze what you could gain vs what you could lose. This is the conversation some of biggest companies in the world are having over a strategy called vertical integration.

Vertical integration is a strategy that allows a company to streamline its operations by taking direct ownership of various stages of its production process rather than relying on external contractors or suppliers. One of the earliest examples of Vertical Integration comes from Carnegie Steel Company in the 1890's when they took control of supply, logistics, and shipping. Many modern companies have found success using this strategy including Apple, Amazon, Zara, Tesla, and Netflix.

Some of the benefits to vertical integration include faster production time, more control of your products, and saves the companies money long term. It is very important in any business to be able to get your product out to the market as fast and efficiently as possible. By producing and assembling all parts of the product in house it allows you to know when you should put your product on the market and how much more of certain products you need. Lastly by taking control of all aspects of production you take out third parties who may try to charge you more for parts based off inflation and save you hundreds of millions of dollars down the line.

Some negatives however of vertical integration include the upfront cost companies have to put up to start this strategy, less attention to detail, and increased organizational complexity. When starting the process of vertical integration companies have to invest millions of dollars into acquiring all the parts necessary to successful vertical integration and will not see profit from that investment for sometimes decades. Also now because you are responsible for producing more products it could cause companies to pay less attention to detail on certain products than they would have before. Finally by deciding to vertically integrate you add more operations to your already existing operations and you have to find a way to make it all flow seamlessly or it could mess up operations and ruin the investment. 

Personally I feel that vertical integration is a great strategy for any company. If companies have the money to invest into the strategy and do it right it is a great way to maximize profits years down the line and continue to make more money. It is an investment that companies will make if they truly have the confidence that their business will be successful for multiple decades and allow them to eventually see profit.

So with all of this new information haven been given to you I want to ask you the same question I asked originally. If you had $100 million dollars would you leave it alone or would you invest it with the possibility of doubling your money or losing it all together?

Blog Post #9: Age of AI

This will make me sound older than I am but I remember a time in which technology still had not made it's way into everyday teaching like it is today. When I was in secondary school we had to go to the computer lab to use computers. And because there weren't many computers in the computer lab my teacher would have to rent times for the entire class to go use the computers. Then we would evolve to my individual classrooms having their own computers by the time I got to 5th grade. Then later on in middle and high school we were getting our own laptops that we would use everyday to do every assignment and we were allowed to take the laptops home as well. 

Now here I am in college and the world has been introduced to artificial intelligence which can do the work for you. All you have to do is type in what you want it to do and within 30 seconds you can have whatever you want. It is crazy to me that technology has evolved to this point and that we are now advancing to where artificial intelligence can do people's jobs for them. And companies have realized this and have laid people off because they can save money just by having AI do the job. I do not believe that this is a good thing by any stretch of the imagination and AI, while it does have its benefits, could lead to a downfall of society in my eyes. 

I feel that AI makes us humans lazier. I'm sure that most college students can relate when they say they know someone or themselves have used AI to do their school work for them. AI makes everything so easy and so convenient that it can take away from a human being's work ethic which to me, is one of the biggest tools you need to be successful in life. The longer that we allow AI to be taken advantage of like this the less confident I feel in future generations to be able to do tasks and think for themselves.

Final Blog Post!

 I think that this video does a really good job explaining what I think is wrong with society today. As a society we have become too dependent on technology, specifically social media to bring joy and happiness into our lives that we fail to look up and really observe the world around us. I think one of the worst inventions that has come into existence for humans is the advent of social media. 

While I do think that at its core social media is a good thing when used properly because it allows you to receive and share photos and information with friends, family, and old acquaintances from your past. Social media allows you to connect with more people that you may not have otherwise met. As a sports fan being able to see game highlights while the game is still going on is a great advancement in technology compared to when my parents were kids or even when I was a young child.

Sadly I have to think back to the video and agree with one of the overarching themes which is that social media is fake. People will go on social media and portray a lifestyle and image that they may or may not have. In the video there are multiple examples of this including the girl who when in the picture frame of her phone has a smile that lights up a room, but when off the camera she's miserable. 

Later on in the video it hit on another toxic trait of social media which are the keyboard warriors. In the video it shows this girl who was dancing and everyone around her was recording, she assumed that they were laughing with her and enjoying her performance but instead they all went and made fun of her on social media to the point she killed herself. And instead of recognizing what they had done to this girl everyone just moved on like nothing happened. Very indicative of real life where social media bullying is a growing cause of death among teenagers.

Blog Post #7: Privacy Online

When it comes to modern technology people fail to realize that by having a smartphone or any smart device they are being tracked and giving up a lot more information about themselves than they realize. It could be something as simple as your phone listening to you talk. Everyone I feel has been in the spot where you were talking about something and then you look down at your phone and you see an advertisement for the product pop up right... trust me this is no coincidence.  All of these technology companies thrive on breaching into our personal lives to see if they can make even more money off people by recommending and showing ads for things they hear. 

A different way that these companies get all of our information is through web tracking. Companies online will track all of your searches and collect all of your personal information. One way these websites try to get you to agree to this is by having you agree to all cookies when you first enter a website. Some of the companies have creative ways that they do this including not allowing you to access whatever you want to look at until you accept all cookies. 

My last example is an app that really has taken over the younger generations and has become a hot topic of conversation over the last year because of their ties to tracking people and the Chinese government... TikTok. TikTok has been ousted as being one companies that uses a tracker called pixels that track all of your activity that you have on your phone... yes even when you are not on the app. This is even including your username and password that you put on your account that is supposed to protect it from hacking and other impersonation attempts.

In the end the more I start to learn about technology and how it works the less of it I want to deal with. I understand from the companies perspective why they would track everyone because all they want to do is maximize profits and they want to dangle products in your face that they know you are thinking about. I understand there is no real ethics in business but on a human level how could you even let your family possess and use this kind of technology especially if you know how it all works and the harm it could cause?

Blog Post #6: The United States' Love of Chaos

What is the best kind of news in the media that causes the most clicks, comments, and views in the United States? One simple word can sum it up very well... chaos. The news that we see in America on a nightly basis is almost always based around death, war, or politics. Today people in America are so divided they watch their different news stations like CNN and Fox News just to receive the same information but from two completely different view points. 

I feel that when it comes to anti war websites you do not hear or see a lot about them because they do not generate the headlines that grab people's attention compared to a bombing. Like while reading through antiwar.com website I found an interesting article talking about how Russia offered the U.S to enter negotiations to end the war in Ukraine and the U.S denied it. That is completely different then what you would see in mainstream media where it is made to look like the U.S is doing everything they can to help the Ukrainian people and simply that is not true.

Another article I read was about all of the journalist that have been killed in Gaza during the war between Israeli and Hamas. 85 journalist have been killed since that war started and the article says it averages out to about five a week. It is extremely sad to read something like that because innocent people are being killed while trying to do their job and a civic duty in providing citizens vital information that could save their lives. 

In the U.S we love to act like a nation that is trying to prevent wars but in actuality we are helping aid multiple wars around the world right now. All the different anti war websites out there are trying to show that and the government could be censoring their content to prevent it from being seen from a wider audience because they do not want people to know the details about the wars they are financially backing. Could the wars in Ukraine and Israel be over if the U.S was not involved? I can't answer that but that is something the United States' government doesn't want you to even consider.

Blog Post #5: Carrier Pigeons and Dumb Humans

 

In class we learned about different forms of technology and how it has evolved over time to get to where we are today. One of the most interesting ones that I learned came from Julia Foster and she talked about Carrier Pigeons. I thought it was very interesting that a pigeon no matter where you take it knows where "home" is and knows how to fly back there at any time. On the surface level it made me wonder how humans were able to figure this out about pigeons, but once it was proven that pigeons always know where home is it would be easy to see why humans started using them to pass messages along. 

I was very intrigued by the way that carrier pigeons were used in war especially in World War 1. For Germany to use the carrier pigeons as a way to gain intelligence on the enemy by strapping a camera across the bird's chest is genius. They were able to use things that you would find in nature to help game-plan against the enemy but did not have to use planes which obviously are way easier to spot and recognize and doesn't run the risk of costing a human their life.

So after giving human's credit for coming up with at the time a creative and faster way to transmit messages to people Dr. Smith ruins it for me by telling me about a pigeon being held captive for EIGHT MONTHS by Indian authorities on suspicion of being a Chinese spy. In the year 2024 by the way... at this point thanks to bigger and better technology I do not think countries are going to use pigeons anymore to transmit information. Much less train one to become a spy and be able to communicate back what they see. 

Overall my big takeaway from learning about carrier pigeons was how humans can be smart and creative but also very dumb at the same time. Also with how many animal rights organizations that there are in the world now I am surprised I did not hear or read a bigger outcry to get this pigeon freed. You would think that a pigeon being held against its will by a country would be at the top of their list of animal injustices to talk about.