Final Post: Our Relationship With Technology, Technology's Relationship With Us

 

Technology is a way of life for all people today. It is hard to think back to a time when some type of technology was in my life. My generation was at that awkward point in time where we would go play outside and have fun but we also had iPads to play on when we came back inside. You then look at the newer generations and all they know is some type of electronic. What will this mean for the far future generations? Will they still be able to form relationships the same way we do today, face to face, or will it all be online?

My relationship with technology has definitely evolved from childhood to now. I got my first phone in the 4th grade (an iPhone 4) and I never used it. Now I am a freshman in college and I fully rely on technology for almost all my school work, I am currently on my laptop just to write this. I wouldn’t say my relationship with technology is unhealthy but I wouldn’t say it is healthy either; there have been plenty of times when I have been on my phone rather than doing something more productive, but on the other hand, there have been times where I know I need to put my phone down and I am more than capable to do that… at times. Technology does take up a lot of my time though, but it is for more than one reason. As I stated before the majority of my classwork is online so I would have to use technology a lot of the time already, but including my usage in my free time, I may go over the appropriate amount of time. Technology is making me smarter; knowing how to use technology in the first place is making me smarter because it is such a huge part of society today, there is also the fact that if I don’t know how to do something there is a 99.99% chance that there is a step by step plan on the internet that will show me how to accomplish it. There is the idea though that the information put online is not always 100% correct and that does worry me because I rely so much on the things I look up online to be factual when researching certain topics, at the end of the day I have to accept that is something that will not change anytime soon. 

My family doesn’t use technology compared to as much as I do; I am also one of the youngest in my family so technology took up a greater part of my life than it does to them. My friends on the other hand, who are all around my age, use just about the same about of technology as me if not more. Technology has helped our relationships because due to technology it is much easier to communicate with all of them especially since we all live in different places. 

If someone was to Google me they would find me on just about every social media platform. Both my Instagram and Twitter are public so anyone could view them but I still have complete control of what people can see because I have control of what I post.

Blog Post #8: EOTO Machine Learning

Machine Learning is defined as “the use and development of computer systems that are able to learn and adapt without following explicit instructions,” according to Oxford Languages. The history of machine learning is dated to the 1940s but it was not until the 1950s that we saw machine learning in action for the first time. There are many names connected to the creation of machine learning but the one that stands out the most is Arthur Samuel, who was a computer scientist at IBM and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and computer gaming, he then proceeded to coin the name “Machine Learning” in 1952. The program was originally designed as a computer program for playing checkers, the more the program played the game the more it learned. Today machine learning has evolved into much more than just checkers, many scientists and researchers started to develop new programs and algorithms which lead to image recognition, pattern recognition, and Sybil which Google introduced which is a system for predicting user behavior. 

With machine learning comes many benefits including trends and patterns that can be identified much more easier, the program can review large capacities of data and discover patterns and/ or trends that humans could otherwise not. Machine learning also improves over time, the programming that machine learning uses typically improves efficiency and accuracy due to the constant data that is being processed, the more data that is processed the more the program has the ability to learn from it. Although there are many benefits to machine learning it does come with some negatives including the high level of error susceptibility, “for instance, you might have a faulty sensor that generates a flawed data set. The inaccurate data may then be fed into the machine learning program, which uses it as the basis of an algorithm update. This would cause skewed results in the algorithm’s output.” Machine learning can also take a lot of time and money to keep a program running especially if you don’t have a lot of computing power.

Machine learning affects just about everyone today. It provides protection for the environment, it can access and store more data than humans, and machines can detect patterns that can generate solutions to just about any environmental problem. With machine learning, we can also use it to attempt dangerous tasks, humans no longer have to put themselves in danger when doing risky activities now that can be taken over by robots. There have also been advances in home automation and security, many homeowners turn to technology for their alarm systems and surveillance cameras with machine learning and facial recognition technology a database is created to recognize frequent visitors to a home which then allows them to detect unwanted visitors. 

These examples are nowhere near the end of just what machine learning is capable of doing. It will continue to evolve and bring us new developments to better our everyday life. I personally can not wait to see what is in store next for machine learning. 

Blog Post #5: Antiwar Voices

 It is honestly so crazy to think about how we really don’t know/ don’t hear about so much in mainstream news outlets. We hear so much about WAR WAR WAR but we never hear about antiwar voices when there are websites like ANTIWAR.COM and American Conservative that have writers with very strong antiwar voices. The fact that we don’t hear from these voices goes with the mainstream news outlets not caring about others' opinions if they do not align with the government, and who does war benefit… the government. 

In today’s society and with its advances you would think that we wouldn’t be in the position of war as much as we are and it wouldn't be as aggressive as it is. In spite of that war is still a prominent event in today’s society and getting more aggressive day by day. If you look back at the creation of the atomic bomb, about 140,000 people in Hiroshima and around 74,000 people in Nagasaki died to this one invention. Nevertheless, there were advertisements of sorts to show people just how important it was that we had it, and no matter how many people it killed it would lead to peace in the end, but we rarely heard from the people who thought it was wrong and were completely against it in mainstream news outlets.

At the end of the day in mainstream media, the account of pro-war will more than likely be more well-known rather than antiwar voices. We as people of the world must learn to speak up and make some noise so that we can get our voices out there regardless of our views.