Why your privacy is never private

The hot topic of privacy and cellular devices have been taking over the media for the last couple of years. Our society has become aware that the government can spy on us and hold records of data about us; yet we still choose to use these devices. After watching the TED Talks posted to the class blog, I was given a whole new perspective of how much the government really knows about us. The speakers provided specific examples that no one really thinks of which made a lot of people in the crowd uncomfortable.

I was very intrigued by Juan Enriuquez’s TedTalk. He opened the talk up with the topic of tattoos and how they are permanent on peoples’ body and display a message or meaning. He connected a real tattoo with our cellular devices and called it an “electronic tattoo”. He describes an electronic tattoo as something that provides just as much information about you as a regular tattoo does and people are plastered with these electronic tattoos from how much they put about themselves online. This was a very interesting approach that I had never thought about. I believe that it really helped paint the picture for others on how much of what they put online, stays online. And it will stay online way past after death.

Catherine Crump shocked the audience when she talked about how much information the police have on everyone. She explained that mass surveillance is allowing police to access information about everyone and location information reveals where you go. This helps the police better understand how people interact with other people and what you do on a daily basis. In addition, she talks about the automatic license plate reader; a device that snaps pictures of every car that moves past it and put the license plate in a document. Although it is claimed that this is used to find criminals, people who are not guilty of any crime are still in this document with a picture of their car every time they pass one of these automatic license plate readers. The police can see where everyone is going and at what time.

Christopher Soghoian explains the surveillance system process to the audience. He claims that these systems apply to everyone and telephone companies have access to listen to any phone call you make. Therefore, the next call you’re on the government could be listening. He raises the problem on how criminals can hack into these systems and get a hold of your information as well.

I knew that the government had a lot of information on us, however, my eyes were definitely open after listening to these TED Talks. It gave me a new perspective on how much variety they have on finding data and information. Let me know what you think in the comments section!

Click here for Juan Enriuquez's TED Talk!
Click here  for Catherine Crump's TED Talk!
Click here for Christopher Soghoian's TED Talk!

How loud is your echo?

After listening to Group 2’s presentation, I found the topic of Echo Chambers very interesting. Echo Chambers refers to a label used in media to reference a situation in which beliefs are amplified and re-verbed inside of a “space”. This “space” refers to a group of people or organization. So, this basically means that people choose to become part of an environment where only their views are shared and supported. This is an issue because it does not provide positive feedback since only one side of a perspective is being shared. This can eventually lead to extremism if people do not take into consideration what the other side has to say.

   

An example of this would be if you loved milk chocolate and only wanted to talk to other people whose favorite chocolate is milk chocolate as well. You had no interest in hearing from dark chocolate or white chocolate lovers because you only wanted to hear from sources that would agree with you that it is the best candy. Therefore, you form a group that meets that 9PM every Wednesday to discuss the perks of milk chocolate. If you did not agree that milk chocolate was the superior chocolate, you would not be allowed in the club.

   

In my opinion, I do not believe this is a good idea because people who do this are basically just talking in circles. There is no feedback and their perspective is not broadened so they only know what they want to know. Click here to read about a recent example of an echo chamber in politics!

Disinformation and how Nutella might not be telling the whole truth!

In class I informed my peers on the topic of disinformation. Disinformation is false information which is intended to mislead; typically in politics. Powerful figures dis-inform in order to distract from an issue or inspire its consumers to take a certain action. Some examples of this are websites posting false information online to gain ad revenue or the government using disinformation to their advantage to gain support on a policy.

A current situation is Russia using disinformation to cause conflict within America and Europe. Russia projected campaigns convincing Americans and Europeans that 5G cell phones were dangerous. The point of them doing this was for people to start picking sides on the topic and go against each other. 

Disinformation happens more than we realize whether it be through the government, racial division, or anti-vaccine campaigns. I do not believe that disinformation is just because you could gain a supportive audience in other ways than misleading. Besides politics, I see disinformation in advertising a lot. As a Strategic Communications major, this is something that I will have to deal with in the work world and will have to make the decision to disinform or be honest about products and their features or benefits. An example of disinformation in advertising is companies like McDonalds or Wendy’s making their food appear more appealing in commercials than in person. They use tricks like using toothpicks to hold a burger together or cardboard underneath pancakes to make them look fuller. Companies like Nutella advertise their product to be a healthy alternative from chocolate when in reality, the only healthier alternative in it is hazelnut; if you look at the nutrition label, Nutella is actually worse for you than regular chocolate. When someone gets exposed for disinformation, the outcome is worse for them than better, which is why I believe there is not a good reason to use disinformation to get ahead. Click here for the article explaining how Nutella used deceptive advertising!

Does the Internet know you better than you know you?

Today, anything you post online can be visible to friends, families and even future employers. It has made me very aware that when you post something online, it typically never goes away. However, what about the information online about you that you never knew was out there? After googling myself I was surprised at the results that appeared. The first link stated my name, the town I was from, the year of college I was in and an overview of my summer internship this past summer. Although none of this was negative, I did not expect a full summary of myself to come up online. I continued to scroll and found old articles about myself from playing competitive softball in high school or volunteer opportunities I was apart of when I was 15 years old. 

    Just like every female 19 year old, I use a variety of social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook. However, my social media accounts did not pop up when I searched “Julia Del Viscio”. I was confused at first but quickly realized that all of my accounts are under my nickname “Julz”. Once I searched “Julz Del Viscio”, all of my Instagram and Facebook links and posts popped up.

    It has become so simple for others to find information about other people by simply typing in their name. Besides people posting their own information on social media, companies play a big part in why personal information like phone numbers and addresses are public. Whenever you sign up for a social media app, you are asked for your email. This automatically links the social media app to your email and possibly find information through your email. I have given my email out to sign up for websites or apps without thinking about these possible risks. The reason that companies get away with this is because people never read their long policies that could state that they are allowed to do so. We all quickly scroll through the policies just to click the “Accept” button and start using the app. Click here to find out what the first article about me on google was!

The Astonishing Growth of Women in Leadership

The exploratory stage of women in politics was in 1848. This was when the first women’s rights convention was held that led to the Declaration of Sentiments. This document was signed by 68 women and 32 men that demanded equality for women. These 100 people are considered to be the pioneers of the beginning of women having a respected presence in politics.

The take-off stage would be in 1972 when the first African American woman decided to run for president. Shirley Chisholm received 151.95 votes and received more votes in the primary than McGovern. This was the take off for women in politics because not only did Shirley running for president grab people’s attention, the fact that she received over 100 votes was revolutionary. I believe that so many people became early adopters because they started to see how dedicated and determined women were. Also, women started to bring different perspectives to the table than men, so more people may have been drawn to the fresh ideas.

The tipping point of women in politics was in 2016 when Hillary Clinton ran for president. Leading up to this election, women having a respected presence in politics was more normalized and we were beginning to see women in leadership roles more often. Clinton, however, really set the tone when she and Trump were not far off in votes for electoral college. Clinton having 232 votes and Trump with 306. It was a revolutionary election that proved women could competitively run for President of the United States against a male. People have not only accepted the fact that a woman could be in power, more people like the idea of it.

The saturation point would be in present day 2019. Our 116th congress is the first one to have one-fourth of the board being female. These are ground breaking numbers that prove that the majority of our country are for women representing America in the political field.

I believe that the laggards are a small percentage of people who are very old school about how the country should run. However, I do believe that as the next decade approaches, we will begin to see a full acceptance of women as leaders in the political field. Click here for a more in depth timeline on how women have made an impact in our country!

The Most Inspiring Right

Out of the eight values of Free Expression, I believe that freedom of speech is the most important. Free speech promotes individual self-fulfillment by enabling individuals to express themselves creatively. The world is constantly adapting, therefore, the need for a variety of perspectives and ideas is vital to maintain a successful society. If people were not allowed to express themselves, everyone would portray the same thoughts and ideas. This means that we would never progress as a society.

    Although freedom of speech is the most important, I believe that it is also the most underrated. The reason being that people take advantage of this privilege and do not appreciate it enough. Especially in the present time kids, teenagers, and adults are almost completely free to express themselves however they would like; often forgetting that self-expression used to be much more restricted and judged by others.

    Since the freedom of speech and self-expression used to be a lot stricter, I believe it is the most inspiring out of the eight values. Not only has our society come a long way in the past 50 years, change is continuing to be made in the present time. For example, gay marriage was not legalized until 2012; only 7 years ago. People who were gay were restricted on how they were able to express themselves since most people viewed being gay as a negative scenario. However, it has been completely normalized as well as a couple other ways to express yourself freely.

    These are the reasons why I believe that freedom of speech and self-expression is the most important, underrated, and inspiring value of the eight. Click here to see all of the laws that have been passed in the 2000s! Some of these laws have allowed our society to express themselves more freely.

Is the Zombie Apocolapse a Result of Cell Phones?

Today’s society depends so much on their cellular devices that now even the generations who grew up without them are questioning how they ever went so long without a cell phone. Cell phones have advanced rapidly over the past decade and have gotten to the point where everything people could ever need is in their hand: information, communication with friends and family, news, TV, etc. Although this has been a blessing, it has been a curse as well.  Society is so addicted to these devices that we depend on them more than we depend on other human beings. 

The Mad Work Remix of Moby video presents us with this in a dark, twisted way. However, it is only twisted because none of what is included in the video is false.  It is actually unbelievable how this is really the world in which we currently live. The video presents us with a young boy without a cell phone who is shorter than everyone else and is the only one who has real emotions towards things going on in the world. He gets bumped into and stepped on in the crowd because no one will take their eyes off their cell phones to look up. The video is in black and white to show how nothing has emotion or “color” because people are too consumed by their devices. Some examples used were a regular girl in her room who instantly becomes a model when she gets behind her cell phone, demonstrating editing and filtering. Another is two people on a date that are not even acknowledging each other because they both are too busy responding to texts. Lastly, another example was how everyone was recording a deadly fight and posting it, instead of being willing to help stop the fight. These are three examples used in the video that we see everyday in our society.

I think that the video is genius and does a great job portraying what we are going through as a society. While I do believe that cell phones have a lot of good that comes out of them, I agree that they can also turn people into walking zombies.

Click here for the link to the video! It’s only 3 minutes and worth the watch.