Blog post #6 anti war

War is something the everyday citizen fears. No one wants to be in a war, Ever since childhood I've been told WW3 and nuclear annihilation were always just around the corner. I'm not the only one who experienced this.

 Looking back at the past hundred years it's not only obvious but scary to see what wars the US has jumped into. The Korean War, Vietnam, Iran/Iraq. All countries the US invaded/helped a faction in an ongoing war with. Now we see the same thing with Ukraine and Israel. In the nearly 247 years this country has existed it's not been at war for 17 of them. Wars aren't cheap, the US spent over 120 billion dollars on the Vietnam War according to The Veterans History Museum. The US has sent billions of dollars to both Ukraine and Israel. Yes, these countries need help, but our country has problems that need solutions.

 Inflation has increased the price of almost everything, the housing market is a disaster, government corruption/lobbying is at an all-time high, the police in the country are poorly trained, there is a teacher shortage, poor infrastructure, food deserts, the government is 33 trillion dollars in debt, etc. Imagine what the country could be if it put its money into solving its own problems and not the problems of the world.

But why would they? War can increase a country's GDP, can reduce unemployment, and the government can do stuff they normally can't do. Money will go into the accounts of government officials. More money can be spent on military improvements. technology normally improves exponentially during times of war.

But what does this mean to the average citizen? historically speaking, gas prices increase, rationing, and propaganda being presented on every major news outlet. just to name a few. What happens after. Some soldiers come home disabled either physically or mentally. How many homeless people have you seen who are also veterans, that number is probably more than zero. The US would also be billions of dollars more in debt to who knows who.

The US Government loves war, it wouldn't have been in it for 94% of its existence if it hated it. We can vote and protest all we want but with a pattern like this the next war will come and go and history will repeat itself as it has dozens of times before.

Blog post #7

Google started gaining traction due to the order of results it gave during a search. The popular search engine at the time was Yahoo which ordered results based on times the search term was used on a page. Google used a ranking system where each page is ranked by a number of factors, this algorithm constantly changes even today. Early pioneers of Google have become extremely wealthy. The first investor of Google Andy Bechtolsheim invested 100,000 dollars in 1998 now his shares are worth 2.8 million dollars. 

Google is very much part of our daily lives, This morning I was woken up by a Google Home, I had to Google something in class, I checked my Google email and now writing this blog post on a Google-owned website. I've had a computer in the house for as long as I can remember, these computers had Google software has always been a part of my life. Whenever I have a question using Google is my first instinct. I can only wonder how people got information before the use of the internet. 

Off the top of my head, the only people who don't use Google are my grandparents who refuse to use modern technology. Other than that the only people who stereotypically don't use Google are Amish people, the elderly, people with privacy concerns, and people in extremely remote places without access to technology.  As high-speed internet is brought to more and more places Google will be adopted by those people.

With Google being so large there are many pros and cons to this

pros:

1. Google has provided 154,000 jobs to Americans.

2. Google helps millions of people every day with their products. Having so much data accessible to anyone with an internet connection has completely changed the way we get information.

cons:

1. it's a monopoly. Google has no real rivals when it comes to search engines, Although Duckduckgo and Bing are used by some Google having Drive and many other tools available in their browser makes others practically unused by the masses.  

2. With so much data in one company if any data breach occurs millions of users' personal data(banking info, passwords, emails, phone numbers, files) will be compromised.

3. Google is one of the largest companies in the world. estimated to be worth over 1.45 trillion dollars. One entity owning so much wealth is dangerous. They could buy out numerous politicians, lobby government actions, and track the data of government figures.

blogpost 4# Tech Timeline

 

Nov 18th Edit was made to fix the format issue.

"Google it!" is something we've all heard and said but where did it all start and how has it affected our lives? The first search engine was known as Archie founded in 1990. Through the following years, more search engines have come and gone, Yahoo, AOL, etc. The one that became "the search engine" was Google. Google is now used worldwide except for a few countries that banned it. But how did it all start?

According to Google, Google started in 1995 in the dorm rooms of Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Three years later in 1998, Google Inc. was founded google later implemented Google Images in 2001, acquired what is now Blogger in 2003, Google Maps in 2005, acquired YouTube in 2006, and from there they keep on growing acquiring more companies like HTC and Nest. As of now, Google is 25 years old. In those 25 years, google has changed the world for the better and the worse. For one Google Drive has made Microsoft 365 obsolete with its cloud storage system. Gmail is now by far the most popular email provider.

But is this a good thing for one company to own so much? Obviously not, although it is useful to have one account for everything. If that account gets compromised it would be better. With Google having such a hold on what we do using smart devices it has a lot more data on us than we think. What did you look up 2 months ago? don't remember? Google knows. It knows everything you've looked up using its engine. How many YouTube videos you've watched, and how many Google docs you've created, if you use Google Maps it knows where you started and ended.

What can we do to protect ourselves from this mass data farming? Truthfully not much. But some small things can reduce the amount of data.

 1: Using a VPN(virtual private network) This protects you information from your ISP(internet service providor). It does this by encrypting your IP address. Overall it protects you but not from everything.

2: Turn off personalized ads. You can do this by going to your Google ad settings. Google will still get your data but it can be assumed it takes less.

3:Using non-Google products. for every Google product, there are multiple alternatives, the Google search engine, Duckduckgo and Bing, Google Maps/Waze, Apple Maps, etc.

4: Unplugging: This is more of a Joke but to have the least amount of your data taken use Google products as little as possible. However, in the modern age, This is almost impossible with most jobs requiring you to have some degree of technological literacy. Not using any form of smart technology is frowned upon and frankly for good reason. Although our data is being farmed by big tech companies there are ways to protect yourself and it is important to know how to use modern tech properly and safely.

Blog post #8

 After watching those TED talks about data privacy I learned some new things but most of the information was stuff  I already knew. This lack of privacy in the modern age is scary, to say the least with the rise of surveillance having a private digital life is near impossible. Even for someone like me who has only posted five things to his Instagram in the past 4 years.

This level of surveillance feels almost Orwellian at times Although there are ways to avoid this surveillance with Imessages encryption, WhatsApps' end to end encryption, Facetime, Duckduckgo, etc we seem to always have the watchful eye of either a private company or a government on us. From the TED talk from Catherina Crump, we learn about automatic license plate readers and how many there are. An example she used was of a man who acquired the pictures that were taken of his car, He got dozens of them the most notable being one that was of him and his children in his own driveway.

This is just an example of how the government has no respect for its people or their privacy as technology evolves we can expect the watchful eye to get stronger and more advanced. If any of these surveillance systems are compromised the data gathered can be used to exploit, blackmail, or target the everyday person. Knowing that files upon files that contain information about me exist, these files that I do not have access to, and can be viewed by unknown parties without my knowledge is not just upsetting but terrifying.

No entity should have such a level of surveillance on innocent people. The government should limit how much data private companies can collect and what kind of data they can collect. Similar restrictions should apply to the government as well. The future is uncertain when it comes to these things because both the digital privacy industry and the surveillance industry are multi-billion dollar industries.

Something I've always said when it comes to digital privacy. "If a company or government wants your information they'll get it" You can protect yourself as much as possible but if an entity wants your information they have the resources to get it. For example, if Google wanted my data specifically they have millions of dollars to spare some of the smartest computer scientists in the world and tech that isn't available to the public. What I use to protect myself and minimize my data collection is, using Apple's messaging system which uses high-level encryption, apple claims they aren't able to see users' texts, and Brave browser which is a free browser that collects less data from users' google and comes with a free-to-use built-in VPN. Most importantly I don't give out any personal information over the phone and I try to do everything in person.

Key Post #1

 Of the eight values of free speech, I've read the ones 

 these are the ones that stick out to me the most.

1: Participation in self-government. This is about how most voters won't make wise decisions while voting. With the rise of social media and with it the rise of misinformation making well-informed political choices is more difficult than ever. "You are not immune to propaganda" is a quote that I've been seeing more and more often. Giving everyone with an internet connection a platform does have its cons. Sites like TikTok and Facebook spread conspiracies and misinformation like wildfire. These are not only dangerous to the people the false information targets but also to the whole American population if more and more people believe in these theories. I remember back in 2021 when US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed "Jewish space lasers" Article found here. Although she meant this as a joke or exaggeration if people actually believed theories like this it could be bad for people of Jewish faith or ethnicity. As someone who is ethnically Jewish, I'm lucky to have not faced much anti-semitism. But my family members have shared their experiences of having to explain to people that Jewish people don't control banks or have tails. As society progresses news literacy will as well. 

2:Premote tolerance. This talks about how people naturally dislike hateful speech and how ideas become

more accepted and normalized. With social media giving everyone a platform this is easier than ever. The rise of vlogs, blogs, or any user-generated media in the 2010s allows the everyday person to view the life of someone completely different. For instance, the "van life" trend popped up a couple years ago, the idea is simple, people live out of their vans and document their day-to-day lives. Many of these vans have been modified and decorated to be almost like a small RV. Before this trend, it would be frowned upon to live in a van but thanks to social media times have changed. There are many more examples of things becoming accepted through the use of social media such as  LGBTQ, dressing alternatively, other ways of life, etc. Social media has forever changed the way society views new ideas. People of my generation have grown up with social media and its effects that's why my generation is leaning more to the left compared to our older generations, Article here.

     As stated in the article our generation has been through what feels like a global disaster after the next, from a young age we had to experience the after-effects of 9/11, the 2008 recession, COVID-19, Afghanistan, and most notably climate change. With climate change, we are told as kids that global warming is caused by pollution by corporations. That definitely steered Gen Z towards a more left-leaning ideas. Not like that was a bad thing, but an interesting example of free speech. If this country didn't have free speech it's unlikely the everyday person would know about some of the even darker sides of these problems.

BlogPost #2 Supreme Court

From the short documentary I watched, I learned more about the petition system that is used in the country. hundreds of petitions are sent to the Supreme Court daily and only a handful are taken to court. Another thing I learned is the justices have to write opinion papers. In the documentary, the example they used was an 80-page opinion which was then shared with news outlets, You can see journalists writing notes and highlighting the opinion throughout the segment. In the pre-digital age, I found it fascinating to see physical pages passed out to people rather than just sending a PDF through email.

I knew the Supreme Court had a lot of power especially when Roe v Wade was overturned but this documentary really showed how much they can do.

    To add to that. The justices have no term limit so as we are seeing most justices are in their late 50's and 60's. Clarence Thomas is the oldest at 75 years old.

the most surprising thing I learned was the 3-year rule. Justices have a "rule" where they don't fully comprehend what they are doing until about 3 years into their career.

Seeing the justices talk about their career humanizes them compared to just reading an article or seeing a news segment about what they did/ are doing in the courtroom.

My top 5 new sources

 5#

MSNBC

I see a lot of their posts on Twitter and it used to be on a lot back home I never liked how many commercials they'd play.  I am aware of their biased views and I try to take that into account when consuming any of their articles/news segments.

4# 

CNN.com 

CNN is always on back home so if I see something interesting I'll watch it but rarely go out of my way to turn it on. I know it is a biased source, but it's rare to find a major news outlet that isn't. I do go on their website once a week to see if anything major happened because I try to stay somewhat knowledgeable in politics.

3#

My parents

I know this sounds ridiculous but I get a lot of news from my parents I used to be very into politics in high school. However, being a left-leaning person in a right-leaning town got tiring. I stopped watching/reading major news outlets due to my undying hatred of advertisements. So if anything really interesting happens in the news my parents will tell me or I'll hear about it from social media. 

2#

IGN

Being in the games industry I like to know what's going on. Their rise to fame is their game reviews which I always found bland. I mainly read their articles relating to the games market and what people are interested in. I also read many of their reports on game sales which I always find fascinating.

1#

Twitter/X

Twitter, now known as "X". A lot of the news I get is related to game development or news in the games industry. I do get a lot of normal news as well and I find Twitter to be the easiest way to digest news. Being able to read something directly from a politician is a good way to learn about their policies and who they are as a person.