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?