BLOG POST #9 EOTO Reflection 2: Online Influencers

    

    Online influencer's have become a lot more popular in the recent years. This is because social media usage has skyrocketed. Today, Paige did her "Each One Teach One" presentation on online influencers and how they impact our society whether it be good or bad.

    Online influencers hold a lot of responsibilities. As the title says, they are highly influential individuals on social media today. Online influencers have a big platform, with a large following. Because of this, they make money from their accounts, and obtain sponsorships along with brand deals. Online influencing can be an entire job within itself, and most people that are in this field make their entire living off of their social media platforms. They develop their own personal brand, and gain support from their followers.

    Online influencing seems like a dream for most people. They are able to sit and work from home solely by posting on social media. However, there are a lot of downsides to the online influencer life that is not shown to the outside world. This career can cultivate a lot of stress because social media can easily affect your mental health in a negative way. It can also be very hard to deal with business interests and generate profit, while also maintaining honest opinons on products. Brands send "PR" to creators in exchange for a post on their platform. This can generate a lot of traffic to their websites and purchases as well solely because someones favorite creator likes their product. However, if a brand is sending you a free product, they are obviously going to want a positive review or reaction to their product. This can become tricky, because they may just be saying what the brand wants them to say, instead of how they actually feel about the product. In turn, their followers may purchase this product just because the creator did, and it may not actually be as great as the creator made it seem.

    Online influencers vary, becuase men and women are interested in different things. Women tend to lean more towards fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and cooking creators, while men tend to lean towards sports, entertainment, and business creators. This creates a broader environment for online influencers to flourish from. Throughout all influencers though, they are always prone to hate comments. People have the ability to say whatever they are thinking on the internet in an instant, which can be hard for online influencers to deal with. Online influencers have to have thick skin, and be able to brush these comments off and continue in their line of work.

    Large online platforms give online influencers the ability to promote whatever they may choose to. They can use their platform for good and change, but they can also use their platform just for fun. This gives online influencers a lot of freedom when it comes to content that they share with their followers. Collectively, online influencers impact our younger demographic more than anyone, because they have grown up using social media, and watching their favorite creators on different platforms. 

    Overall, online influencing can seem like a dream and a walk in the park all at once. Many people aspire to be YouTubers, TikTokers, and content creators, but it is important to know that negative impacts can come from this. Social media is not everything that it is made out to be, and this presentation really brought attention to that. 

BLOG POST #8 EOTO 2: Confirmation Bias

                             

    

    Have you ever wondered why we favor our existing beliefs? Well, that is because of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, by definition, is known as "our underlying tendency to notice, focus on, and give greater credence to evidence that fits with our existing beliefs". Think about it like you were reading a newspaper that has a lot of information, but you already have a knowledge of the topic. Because of the confirmation bias, you would be more likely to believe the facts that you already know, becuase it is confirming your existing beliefs. In contrast, the facts that you haven't heard and may not be so sure about, you may not believe. It is almost as if you are reading with blinders on, and only believing what you want to believe. 

    Confirmation bias can be good in some cases, but can also be extremely detrimental to us as a society. Confirmation bias helps individuals to stay confident in their beliefs. When an individual finds information that supports their preexisting ideas, it confirms this information and in turn, makes them more confident. This eliminates mental conflict which can also be known as cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a mental state of discomfort that occurs when something does not line up with what is said. This puts a stress on our minds which obviously, no one is going to enjoy.

 

    However, when looking at the bigger picture, confirmation bias can have troubling effects. Confirmation bias can keep us as individuals from having an open mind, resulting in a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset allows no room for growth. If we are only reading and believing things that confirm what we already think, there is also no room for growth and can be detrimental to our learning. It can almost lead to ignorance. News is one of the biggest problems that confirmation bias affects. When individuals believe one view, they will only read and consume news from networks that align with their beliefs. Imagine you were watching the election and following the candidates from a far right leaning network. This would be ignorant, because you would only get half the facts. This leads to one of the biggest problems in society. 

    Socially, confirmation bias can impact relationships and day-to-day interactions. Since confirmation bias essentially reiterates a belief that an individual already has, it can easily strengthen in-group biases. In-groups and out-groups are the social groups that you identify with. Your in-group is the group who you as a person belong to in regards to the individuals that you spend time with and share common beliefs with. Your out-group is the exact opposite, the people that do not have beliefs like your own. Since these individuals do not share your beliefs, naturally we as individuals tend to not enjoy spending time around them. Confirmation bias reinforces our beliefs, so when we read things that align with what we already know, we believe it instantly. As a group, our whole in-group will tend to believe these things and stick together, which strengthens in-group biases. This can create a huge problem socially because it can create social divides between groups with different belief systems. 

    The effects of confirmation bias are evident in every part of our lives; socially and personally. The problem with confirmation bias is that many individuals do not think this is something that affects them. However, the truth is that it affects everyone whether we recognize it or not. The close-mindedness that confirmation bias enforces can keep us as individuals from growing and connecting with others. As everyone knows, a fixed mindset is one of the top problems with our society today and confirmation bias is only making fixed mindsets more prevalent. So next time you decide to shut your computer after reading what only confirms your own beliefs, try scrolling further, and also recognizing other views in order to avoid this confirmation bias. 

BLOG POST #7 The Age of AI

     Artificial intelligence, known as "AI" is a new technology that has changed the world we live in in numerous ways throughout the recent years. In today's world, it is so easy to look up a question that you might have, and get an instant answer from artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is on its way to reimagining our world, and changing the world as we know it. After watching "In the Age of AI" by Frontline, I was surprised by what could be to come from this advancement, but also alarmed by the ethical dilemmas that come with it. Artifical intelligence could be a great thing for this world, but it is important to understand the technology fully so that we can outweigh the risks. 

    The ethical concerns of artificial intelligence are huge. Privacy and job displacement are some of the most alarming ethical concerns of them all. 

    Artifical intelligence platforms rely on large amounts of personal data which raises many concerns about how this data may be collected and obtained. Protecting internet users' privacy is one of the biggest ethical concerns in todays society. While artificial intelligence claims to practice ethical values, and that they only collect necessary data in order to produce desired results, with all of the privacy concerns with the internet today, we can never be too sure. Users should be aware of what data is being collected about themselves, and specifically how it is being used in order for this to no longer be an ethical concern.

    Job displacement is a huge concern that I hear throughout my major every day. In many career fields, jobs are being taken over by artificial intelligence, becuase why pay someone to do something that can be done through AI? While there are usually problems with AI doing work, for example in my career field, there have been times that when AI writes a story they get facts wrong, or repeat information, it is still insanely easier to go back and check their facts in order to make that change, rather than hire someone to write the entire story. 

    Even though these are only a few of many ethical dilemmas presented by artifical intelligence, there are some positive effects as well. Artificial intelligence can aid society in a variety of ways. One example includes AI chat bots used in customer service industries. AI chat bots can improve customer satisfaction, and work more efficiently than individuals can. Another example of artificial intelligence being used for good is in the healthcare industry. Arificial intelligence can breakdown medical images and help to develop new treatment plans. This can be beneficial for the healthcare industry in the long run. 

    As I stated earlier, the risks of job displacement caused by artificial intelligence is a huge risk to society. Not only are people going to lose their jobs, but it will be detrimental to the economy in return. There will be no way to support those displaced by AI, and the overall spending in our economy will also plummet, because individuals have no money to spend now that artificial intelligence has taken their jobs. 

    Overall, this new age of artificial intelligence brings many benefits, but with good always comes bad. With all of the ethical concerns and risk factors present in the use of AI, we have to be sure that we are using artificial intelligence the right way, and proceeding cautiously when we do. 

    

BLOG POST #6 EOTO Reflection: Facebook & Instagram

         

    I was able to learn a lot about different technologies throughout our Each One Teach One presentations on Wednesday, November 6th. There were a lot of different inventions that each person put time into researching before they taught us about that specific invention. While I enjoyed learning about all of these differnet inventions and technologies, the one that stood out to me was the invention of Facebook and Instagram, by Tatum James. 

    Mark Zuckerberg and his partners invented Facebook while they were sophomores in college, which was shocking to me becuase they would have been my age when they produced this huge social media platform. It started as just a communication system for their Harvard, for students to post events and other thoughts and opinions. Later, Facebook expanded to other universities, and eventually grew into the largest social media platform. It is shocking to me that something this huge, started so small and by someone my age. I could not imagine building such a popular social media site right now, and eventually becoming wealthy because of it. 

    Instagram came from the term instant camera and telegram, hence the name "Insta-gram". It was originally invented for individuals to be able to edit their photos differently than they were allowed to on Facebook perviously. It opened up a total new way to share information and even created job opportuntities for influencers and other content creators. Instagram is now a bit more modern than Facebook, with a larger demographic of younger users compared to Facebook. 

    I really enjoyed hearing the background of Facebook and Instagram, because while I use Instagram each and every day, my parents use Facebook each and every day. Knowing that an app that I use religiously was made by a group of 19-20 year olds at Harvard University, is totally incomprehensible to me. 

    One thing that I liked about this presentation was the noting of how social media does not always portray the truth. While Instagram and Facebook are fun ways to connect with others and easy ways to get information updates, what your friends are posting is the good of their lives. Nobody is posting their overwhelming breakdowns, rather they are posting their fun Saturday nights. Along with this, people can post any information they want, and it is your responsibility to fact check these post and form your own opinion.