Blog #13 - Our Relationship With Technology / Technology's Relationship With Us

 I personally feel that my relationship with technology isn’t 100% healthy but definitely is not unhealthy. I feel that technology takes up a good amount of time in my life but I have seen situations with people that I know where technology takes up way more time than it does with me. I use different pieces of technology each and every day whether it be my phone to check texts and social media, my computer to do classwork and make sure I'm doing good in school, or even my Xbox to play video games with my friends, technology is involved in my life very frequently. When people saw Futurama at the worlds fair in the 1960's, people started to freak out that this is what technology could do for the world. But it didn't necessarily play out that way. The technological aspect of technology is trying to inform us and make us smart but the people who are giving out the information using technology can sometimes mislead us and give unreliable information. Platforms such as twitter and facebook were created to help inform us and communicate information to us faster and technology has helped immensely to make that happen but some of the people on the platform have given out false and unreliable information. An example of the type of information technology has given us could be something like this, "From food delivery to wider lifestyle industries, businesses are having to adapt to this change to stay relevant and successful in consumer's lives. Notably, successful businesses in the industry and lifestyle sectors are using technological advances to progress. In 2019, food delivery accounted for about 80% of all food orders, however, only contributed to around 30% of gross profit. Food delivery has been so popular in recent years that in 2017, the US saw 70% of all deliveries related to food products. Since 2017, food delivery services have had to identify weaknesses and continuously adapt to remain competitive."(CISON). This is a perfect example of how technology can bring useful information to businesses that can help them to grow and continue to develop. I feel that I have just accepted all of these things and that its just the way of life and part of society today. Life today revolves around the internet and all the different technologies that use the internet. For example, if you see someone walking around on campus without a phone, that looks weirder compared to a group of people walking together all on their phones. It’s just how life is at this point. The world revolves around technology and it is only going to become more advanced and lead us to new discoveries. 

Blog #12 - Audit Your Online Presence

 When it comes to my online presence, I don’t have the largest footprint compared to others. I don’t have my own website or my own brand. I mainly stick to social media. I use all the major social media sites. I have accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook. When it comes to Instagram I mainly put up pictures of me with my friends and family or just pictures of myself doing fun things. On Twitter, I rant about everything going on in the world of sports and music. Snapchat I mainly just talk to my friends and Facebook I maybe check once a month. If someone glanced across my social media pages they could find out that I am an avid fan of all my favorite sports teams and that I also like to listen to music. People would also be able to find out that I like to go venture out and do a lot of things and see a lot of places.

 

 When it comes to dealing with these social media sites and many other websites, there has been a history of personal info being leaked. The only kind of info I give out to websites is my email and that is only because you typically need an email to sign up for lots of websites. I never give out my phone number unless it is completely necessary because I do not feel comfortable with random websites having my phone number. 

 Social media is a place that can help people flourish but can also put people in the gutter. I feel that social media can absolutely make people lonely, depressed, and isolated. For some people that are on social media that maybe don’t have a lot of friends, seeing people together having fun all the time can definitely take a toll on one's mental health and stability. For example, “When you sign up for Google+ and set up your Friends circle, the program specifies that you should include only “your real friends, the ones you feel comfortable sharing private details with.” That one little phrase, Your real friends—so quaint, so charmingly mothering—perfectly encapsulates the anxieties that social media have produced: the fears that Facebook is interfering with our real friendships, distancing us from each other, making us lonelier.” (The Atlantic). That is just one small example of how social media could make us feel lonely.