Don't Let Your Guard Down

To round out this blog, the final post will be about privacy. Privacy is something that we take for granted, but many big companies are taking advantage of this general way of thinking. Facebook, for one, is a large name that has been caught doing some very unethical actions, including selling private information from its users to third parties as described by CBS news. 

The information they're selling is not just demographical either; it includes your behavior and habits as well. Under the guise of "targeted advertising" Facebook continues to defend itself from these claims.

Privacy is something that we assume is high priority, but in fact is is lowest on the scale. Almost anything can be monitored, from bluetooth devices, speakers, phone calls, emails, virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri, basically anything you do that uses technology. This TED talk video shows just how dangerous bluetooth devices are, allowing predators the opportunity to hack into children's toys and take advantage of their young minds. 

Despite all of these privacy breaches and news headlines about sold information, people still choose to use these social media and internet tool. Why do we do this? This article explains this somewhat, detailing how even though usage of the app has gone down in terms of likes, posts, and shares, the amount of new accounts being made stays steady. 

Privacy should be a fundamental right we have on the internet, but companies are updating their privacy terms without notifying people, and making their terms so long that we just scroll down and check the box to continue using the app. Since these large companies aren't going to change this way of operating, we need to become more aware of what information we put online as well as where, because it very well may come back to haunt us one day. 

All Eyes On Us

Five eyes is a term related to awareness, in that our privacy isn't as protected or private as we thought. The term five eyes refers to the international surveillance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States to connect an share information. The information they can gather includes everything about you, ranging from browsing history, location history phone calls, etc.

The concept for the five eyes agencies came from the UKUSA Agreement, a treaty that was signed during World War II. The treaty stated that all parties must share unedited surveillance info with each other, and help monitor communications. The five eyes created ECHELON, which was the surveillance system to monitor the communications of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Block, but now private communications from all over can be monitored. 

There is also more than one group like this, including nine eyes and fourteen eyes. These groups include and add onto the five eyes agencies, accumulating more and more countries as the number of eyes goes up. This website helps to describe the difference in each group.

I found this concept to be frightening, yet not surprising. While this information collected could be used to help track down criminals hiding in foreign countries or to ensure the safety of the countries involved, it is a scary thought to know that we are always being watched and observed. The fact that any country in these alliances can access our information also puts us at unease, and is what makes technology and innovation deceiving. This article on the NSA and its documents concerning the five eyes alliance I found interesting, since it details the aims and goal for the five eyes group and how it connects to the NSA. 

Echo Chambers

An echo chamber can be described as an environment in which a person encounters opinions or beliefs that coincide with their own, so their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas aren’t considered.

Some positive implications of echo chambers are that they can maximize information available to individuals in the echo chamber, as well as providing an easy way to exchange information due to a smaller audience. Also, individuals with the same thoughts and opinions tend to flock together, creating a sense of alliance with others. 

Negative implications of echo chambers can also be found such as people's preference to listen to information that backs up their own opinion and are not going to take opposing sides or views into consideration after being reinforced by others in the echo chamber. 

Echo chambers can also create distrust between news outlets and consumers, as is the case with the spread of fake news through social media and occasionally larger media platforms. Also, these echo chamber may find each other on social media and engage in "online comment wars" where harsh things are directed towards the opposing side.

Echo chambers also have an effect on our society, and since we are a feeling-based society today if we don’t like facts we refuse to believe it's true, and if false information is presented that we like, we tend to believe it. This is mentioned in the Forbes article. Echo chambers also create these segregated groups that individuals can be drawn to, further reinforcing the opinions of that echo chamber. 

Different groups can also be impacted by echo chambers, much like political parties especially during campaigns. Republicans and democrats love to bash each in the media, actively spreading negative or even false information about the opposing candidate. Once this information gets bounced around in the chamber, it leaves a mark on each individual it hits imprinting a biased opinion. 

Minority groups can also be affected, such as certain ethnicities coming together to voice their views to each other. Echo chambers allow these people to find others like them with the same opinions, and since everyone likes being told they're right individuals gather at these chambers.

Echo chambers can be both positive and negative in relation to society. The active participation of individuals in the media combined with the variety and information present in the media can help us to avoid the negative aspects of echo chambers. This can be further explained in this article. By having and voicing our own opinions, while also keeping in mind that other people also have opinions and views and that they may differ from our own, can help to keep our generation online and in person a safe space to express our views to each other. 

Private Turned Public

We often take privacy for granted, not putting much thought into what may be online about us. However, just a simple Google search can unveil loads of information about you, your life, and your history. Many sites such as BeenVerified and ClustrMaps collect every public record that even mentions your name, and presents it all to you at the click of a button. 

I don't think that I have a very large online footprint, since I only have two social media accounts, plus an email. I have never had a FaceBook page or a Twitter account, so while I definitely am shocked at the scandals that have come out about the platform I can't relate to them personally. I have always been very against FaceBook, and did not see the point in it. 

I have been this way with all of my social medias, only creating a Snapchat account to talk with friends, as well as an Instagram account to help market myself as a model and potentially get noticed or liked by an agency. Especially since social media and "influencers" are a huge topic with today's society, it made the most sense for me to cave in and create an account.

 

I only ever upload pictures of myself usually when I'm at the beach, since that's my favorite place to be, or dancing in both pictures and videos. On Snapchat, I only have a select group of people as friends whom I've met in real life first, to help verify that no information could be used in a poor way against me. 

Social media has lost its appeal to me, and I am not mad about it at all. I am no longer unhealthily obsessed with Instagram and making my account more pleasing to the eye to gain more followers. I don't care about the amount of likes I get or if so-and-so has more followers than me and is prettier. I feel much more confident in myself as a result of this, and have no desire to return to the destructive online world so many people immerse themselves in. 

While online connection is a wonderful tool when used for the wellbeing of people, when used for other purposes it can have different types of negative impact. The article Is FaceBook Making Us Lonely? really helps to show this, outlining and detailing the shallowness and loneliness that can cloud users of social media. By trying to one-up and be better than other people on the platform, individuals can develop a narcissistic personality that carries through not just online, but in real life as well.

This leads to feelings of loneliness, which can cause depression for silly things like not getting enough likes or this person has more followers than me. There are great ways to avoid this however, such as following inspirational people and detoxing your accounts from content that makes you feel horrible about yourself, as well as to stop following people you are more enemies than friends with. 

One person who I love to follow is Gary Vee, since he's very inspirational and acknowledges social media as a self-made tool in a healthy way. His Instagram is here. Another great person to follow is Mike Stud, and his podcast YNK. 

Innovation of Dance

Dance is interesting, since it's an art form and also at the same time a mode of communication. Art is used to express emotions, which the movement is able to communicates to the audience to hopefully allow them to feel something during and after watching the piece. Dance is also constantly and frequently in the media, using platforms such as film, movies, commercials and early videos of performances to help share the art form. Using Rogers's Diffusion of Innovations (or Ideas), we can visualize the explosion of dance in our culture as well as the media. 

The exploratory era on the timeline would consist of dance pioneers such as Doris Humphrey, Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. These individuals helped to shake up the world of dance and pioneer the weird and different dance styles that led to new genres, such as modern, contemporary, and most recently hip hop. Another exploratory element of dance in media would be social dances, including phenomenon such as the whip, nae nae, crank that, Charleston, and the floss. Society tends to catch on to these dances and use them at many social gatherings, such as formal events, weddings, school dances, and even just walking down the street fooling around. 

Exposure also played a key role in expanding the dance world, with many dancers flocking to television shows such as Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance in hopes of catching the attention of the public through media to make it big. Examples of this include tWitch and Travis Wall who are now headlining choreographers. 

The uptake or ascent era consisting of early adopters and early majority of the idea would involve creators like Matt Steffanina uploading tutorials to YouTube and Instagram, giving wannabe dancers the chance to bust a move just like the professionals they've seen on TV. Other shows such as World of Dance, America's Best Dance Crew, and Dance Moms have also catapulted numerous dancers to fame such as Maddie Ziegler, The LAB, and many more. 

I would say that the tipping point for dance in media hasn't happened yet, but it could be the emergence of dance in other social medias, such as Insatgram, Tik Tok, and YouTube. All of these platforms provide the tutorial aspect so anyone can learn how to dance simply by following the videos posted.

Another peak for the dance explosion in today's media would be online classes, some of which are streamed and then posted to different platforms or membership sites. These membership sites include Steezy Studios and CLI Studios, making it easier than ever to learn routines from top notch choreographers at your own pace. Steezy specializes in hip hop, while CLI is more contemporary and technique based each attracting their own flock of dance fanatics.

This wave of media caught on because dance is a great form of exercise and therapy at once, with people expressing themselves by moving their body in a particular way. Once dance went mainstream, people began to explore these ideas more and share their ideas, expanding the world of dance to many more people than it had previously. So many people really liked dance because it meant something different to each of them, and they also had individual reasons for performing. The only downside that I can see for dance in the media is that the toxic aspect of the internet can really dampen the safe creative atmosphere that dance fosters, deviating it from its roots and original purpose of sharing experiences with others. 

Society's Watchdog

The watchdog role that society possesses allows us to check the power that the government has through watching and criticizing what they do. We have protection to criticize the government due to our First Amendment rights, giving us the freedom to speak out against the actions and policies that they may introduce as we see fit. 

I feel that out of the eight values, this watchdog role is the most important because if we are not allowed to criticize the government, they are just going to keep gaining power and make choices for themselves instead of the country and the citizens who inhabit it. Also, by voicing our opinions we are able to express our disproval of choices they make for the country, potentially turning over a new leaf and encouraging the government to change their opinions on certain topics, such as same-sex marriage. 

This value is also inspiring to society since it urges society to speak up and out, join marches or protests, and allows everyone's opinion to be seen by others. This also makes this value meaningful, supporting and respecting each individual's opinion. Of course this doesn't come without backlash, with the explosion of social media allowing everyone to make comments on other's opinions oftentimes arguing with someone they may not know over their specific beliefs and values they think are right for everyone.

This watchdog value and the above information can also be tied to the safety valve or stable change value, allowing people to voice their opinions both supporting and dissenting others views on a topic. Everyone has their own views and opinion on subjects such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and gun laws, all of which are very hot topics prevalent in today's society. By allowing society to voice their opinion, nothing is held back or hidden and everything is put on the table to examine, both by the government and other members of our culture. 

Advancing Communications and Lost Skills

SMS stand for Short Messaging Service, meaning the total character count for the message must be 160 characters or less. The concept for SMS messaging came from Franco-German GSM Cooperation by Freidhelm Hillenbrand and Bernard Ghillebaert in 1984, and the first text message was sent in 1992 by Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms, to Richard Jarvis, from Vodafone, telling him “Merry Christmas.” In 1993 Nokia became the first manufacturer to support user-sent text messaging, and in 1997 Nokia produced the first mobile phone with a full keyboard, the Nokia 9000i Communicator.

Through the innovation of smartphones, the virtual keyboard gained popularity and added aspects such as spell check, automatic correction, and predicted words/phrases to use in texts. Many social media and internet platforms use the SMS style, encouraging its growth, and in 2007 Americans sent and received more text messages than they did phone calls per month. Today, SMS is the most used data application with 81% of mobile phone users utilizing the tool.

Although text messaging is a quick and convenient way of how we communicate with and manage friends, family, work and social activities, it can create poor communication skills for avid texters and decrease social activity between people, decreasing the amount of time spent actually being with them. Texting also takes out all of the tone or personality of your message, creating misinterpreted meanings, things being taken out of context, and hurt feelings that could be avoided with a simple phone call or chat in person. For the full article, click here.