Blog #11 - EOTO What Did I Learn? pt.2

In class, we heard many presentations covering many different topics such as awareness, mediasphere, theories, and policy. One thing in particular that caught my eye is how influential political influencers such as Trevor Noah and Ben Shapiro are. 

Before I heard this presentation, I knew that some of these influencers created controversy based on things that they said but I had no idea how much more public opinion came out because of them. People hearing things that some of these influencers say annoy people and cause them to state their opinions whether they may be controversial or not. One of my personal favorite influencers is Trevor Noah because his show is on comedy central. In today's heated political climate it is always nice to have a laugh about things going on whether you agree with what he is saying or not. Other political influencers I like are Bill Mahr and John Oliver because of the comedic spins they put onto their shows as well. I've never been the biggest political person but these shows make it easier to understand what is going on due to the comedic spins they put onto their shows and views. 

Politics are the talk of the country and the world today. United States politics not only have effects here in the states but all over the world. The political influencers throughout the country not only make their voices heard to many but cause others to make their voices heard as well and that is what makes America great today.

Blog #10 - EOTO Illusory Truth Effect

 The Illusory Truth Effect. What is it? "The Illusory Truth Effect also known as the illusion of truth describes how, when we hear the same false information repeated again and again, we often come to believe it is true." (The Decision Lab). With the political climate of today's world and the news coming from different sources and backgrounds, this is in play more than ever. 

 The Illusory Truth Effect was first discussed in a 1977 paper by Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino. Hasher, Goldstein, and Toppino’s work was the first to demonstrate the power of repetition on belief. They worked in a lab having college students read a list of statements both true and false every two weeks and rated how accurate they believed the statements were. Over the three sessions, the participants rated both true and false statements as more accurate. Later studies would go on to demonstrate that the illusory truth effect occurred even when people had knowledge about the claims they were evaluating. 

 So why does the Illusory Truth Effect have a big impact in today's society? Interest in the Illusory Truth Effect grew in the late 2000s and 2010s, as the internet and social media became more and more important for breaking information to masses of people. It became a particularly popular research topic after the 2016 US Presidential election when questions were swirling about the influence of foreign countries on the results of the election. Research showed that the illusory truth effect most likely played a role in people’s acceptance of false stories on social media and on different news outlets such as CNN or Fox News.

Ever since President Trump took office in 2017 and during his campaign in 2016, the term "Fake News" has been everywhere. It also caused a lot of people to question whether the news they were receiving was really the truth or if it was just what they wanted to believe. The internet is a gold mine for false rumors, conspiracy theories, and outright lies, and none of us are immune to seeing them. According to a study published in the journal "Science", on average, false stories reach 1,500 people six times faster than true stories do. They’re also 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than real stories. Because of social media's influence on us and how often people use it, it is inevitable that all of us will encounter "fake news" at some point, and in fact, we probably do so on a very regular basis. This alone puts us at risk of the illusory truth effect.

 Clearly, the problem is not a lack of awareness when looking at the news, people know that unreliable information circulates all over the internet. It seems that people just don’t believe that they would ever fall for those stories and believe false information. It’s important to be aware of the illusory truth effect, and other things that may affect our judgment. When reading or watching the news wherever you may get it,  think a bit more critically about the information you are receiving and question whether you find that information to be true or not. 

Blog #9 - Digital Age TED Talk

 For this week's blog, I watched Christopher Soghoian's TED Talk about people listening in to your phone conversations. The opening line of Christopher's talk got my brain moving quickly. To open his TED Talk he stated, " For more than 100 years, the telephone companies have provided wiretapping assistance to governments." I kind of had an idea that people from the government could always tap in if they wanted to but I never knew that it has been going on for that long. It's crazy to think that you could be talking to a spouse, child, or friend having a private conversation, and some stranger working for not just the US Government but any government could just tap in and listen. But it isn't just the government that could tap in and listen, a hacker, criminal, or stalker could tap in and listen as well. Soghoian talks about how there are surveillance systems put into place by the telephone companies but not from Silicone Valley companies. Although Christopher mentions that over the last couple of years, Silicon Valley companies have built strong encryption technology into their communications products that make surveillance extremely difficult. Christopher says to control whether these encryption tools will be used by the good or bad guys Soghoian says networks need to be built as secure as possible. He ends his talk like this "We need to use these tools. We need to secure our telephone calls. We need to secure our text messages. I want you to use these tools. I want you to tell your loved ones, I want you to tell your colleagues: Use these encrypted communications tools. Don't just use them because they're cheap and easy, but use them because they're secure." I support Soghoian on his stance. Even though it may mean for now that police have a tougher time catching criminals, in the long run, the privacy of your personal life will benefit. 

Christopher Soghoian TED TALK

Blog #8 - Snapchat through the Lens of Diffusion Theory

People in today's society are all aware that there have been innovations in technology that have been transcendent to our daily lives. The innovation of new technology has come very rapidly due to a theory called Diffusion of Innovation which explains how, why, and what the rate new ideas of technology spread. A great example of this theory are the four major social media sites people use today which are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat which were all invented within a seven-year period (2004-2011). The Diffusion of Innovation has four main elements that influence to spread a new idea which are the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and a social system. The four social media platforms were all created right after one another due to the Diffusion of Innovation.

Take a look at Snapchat for example. Before Snapchat, an innovation of sharing photos had already been established. With the innovation already established that also meant that the communication channels were already in place for a new application of the innovation that is sharing photos. Clearly, all of these social media sites were not invented all at the same time so it did take extra time for Snapchat to come into its own because it is different from sites like Facebook and Instagram. Then came the part where Snapchat needed to adapt to the social system, which was falling for the new technology that is social media but wanted something that could give a user more privacy since other sites were known for not having much privacy. What made Snapchat such a hot commodity during its launch was that the app's purpose was to create a privacy-focused messaging app where you can view a message or a picture once and then it goes away forever. This is widely considered as an innovation but it also adapts to the social system because users were able to get the privacy they were looking for on social media with the innovation of Snapchat.