Our not so private life

Thoughts on Privacy

After watching the Ted Talks that were linked to our class for today I was very intrigued by one certain video. This video was about how police enforcement have all of our data and are storing it just in case. They capture our license plate number wherever we go and they store it in their massive data base. So far they haven't used this data on an average human being. They are just storing it just in case. This Ted Talk in particular was very opposed to this idea. I for one, am not. I don't mind having my license plate picture taken.

I am a young female in college. My parents have my tracking wherever I go. This is because hundreds if not thousands of girls each and every day go missing in the U.S. If the government is taking pictures of where I am and keeping track of others, it will be easier for them and faster to track me down as where I am. I almost feel safer knowing that people are able to help me by using this high technology in order to solve crimes. I get where people are coming from and how it's creepy in most ways, but there are so many people out in the world who have bad intentions. With all of the crimes that are being committed, we are able to stop them faster and catch people doing horrible things. 

The other video that I thought was interesting was how Apple is actually helping us maintain our privacy when using their apps for FaceTiming and messages. It is unheard of companies helping their consumers maintain their privacy. If there is a way for them to make our devices private on all of our apps that would be even better.

I believe that government is only listening on our calls and other because it all comes down to safety and that people are just nosey. If one doesn't have anything to hide, then there really isn't a problem. I get why people are so against this, but if a major terror event happens, the government is able to use the information that they have previously collected and help solve the problem to whatever has happened. 

Reflection of Group 1's Presentation

Group 1

This past class we had an EOTO class period. This stands for "Each one Teach one." For this certain EOTO, a group had a certain amount of terms and had to explain to the class what each term meant. I chose to narrow in on group one's presentation. This group had terms such as: Propaganda, Disinformation, Educational Exchange Act, Total Information Awareness and False Flag. In particular I thought two terms that were taught to the class were very interesting and those were propaganda and the Education Exchange Act.

Focusing on propaganda, this is the spreading of ideas or information to overall help the public. This was initially to spread fear. It's this time of year that politicians are campaigning a lot in order to gain voters and they are doing this by bashing their opponents either on the same side of them or on the opposite political side. We are able to see different commercials about political opponents and watch them tell the audience fake information about them. The whole reason as to doing this is to gain more votes for them and to make the audience less inclined to vote for someone based on the fake facts that have been given to them. Down below I have placed examples of propaganda for this upcoming election term for 2020.

As you can see above, this is a form of propaganda from the Trump campaign. The middle one is a great example because this is spreading fear to the public because it makes them question if America's safety is really at risk. Some might believe that since this is from the Trump campaign; he will be able to insure safety to the nation and therefore they will vote for him. 

The other term that I thought was interesting to learn about was the Educational Exchange Act. This is when the United States creates a better understanding of our country and teaches it to other countries. I feel as though this act has been very beneficial to the many nations because now in the business world, if you don't speak English and you want your company to be widely known, then you won't succeed. Most deals are done in English and many people know our customs. Since we are spreading knowledge about our country, we should be doing the same here. Many people from the U.S. are not from here and it would be nice to learn about other customs that are practiced around the world.

Cutting the Cord

Has your family cut the cord?

This has been a popular topic to discuss about since 2010. As trends come and go, cutting the cord is one of the newer "trends" that families are doing. So what is "cutting the cord?" The official definition of it is, "the process of cutting the cable connections in order to change to a cheaper TV channel subscription." source. There are so many different outlets to watch television now that are much more popular than cable tv now. The top competitors for cable networks would be Netflix, Hulu and now since November 12, 2019, Disney+. How did cord cutting become a thing and why has it lasted so long?

We started to see this trend in 2010 and from that point on, it has been growing. Many cable companies can't stay alive nowadays because of all of the other options. There are multiple advantages to cutting the cord. For one, it is so much cheaper and people are able to watch movies and/or tv shows without any interruptions. Since this topic has come up, I was talking to my roommate and her family has cut the cord and they now have YouTube TV. She lives in a very secluded area where the cable is unable to reach her, therefore; her family uses YouTube TV and they also have a Netflix subscription. With positives towards moving forward with cutting the cord, there are also disadvantages.

If one subscribes to just Netflix and cuts the cord; they are unable to stream live tv and they won't have access to some very popular channels such as HGTV. They would have to subscribe to other platforms that offer other variety of channels.

Netflix is recognizing their competition and about a year ago, their "Netflix Originals" have sky rocketed with popularity. In 2019, Netflixs' revenue was over $5.2 billion dollars and is still growing. The newest platform that has been added is Disney+. Disney+ has all of the favorite old shows and movies. They are also cheaper per month and the target audience is more geared towards millennials. The platform has only been available to the public for two days, but their subscriptions has been very popular and people were also able to pre-subscribe to the platform. Almost more than 2 million people subscribed to Disney+ on the first day and I know my family was part of that 2 million.

There are plenty of benefits to cutting the cord, but as of right now I believe that cutting cord completely would not benefit my family. We still have cable and we also have a subscription to Netflix and now Disney+. My dad is able to still access all of his sports channels while his kids are able to enjoy movies and shows from their childhood.

Online Presence

Look up your name and what do you find?

Today in class we learned about different privacy laws and how most social media platforms and websites are able to watch you while you are active on their platform while also not active. Many people today are starting realize this information and they are not so thrilled about it. What most of them don't know is that when they first began to use the application, they agreed to let the apps use their information in the "Terms and Agreements." Who actually reads that long contract though? Exactly, no one, because everyone is so focused on setting up their new social media platform or if it is a website and they agree to use cookies; they are wanting to move forward on the website.

Facebook has been the most concerning social media platform that has been invading everyone's privacy and they dominate all platforms in general because they also own Instagram now. Nowadays to make consumers lives easy, they have started linking the login to Facebook to other accounts. An example would be if you don't have an account for Pinterest, you are able to login through your Facebook account and all of a sudden you now have a Pinterest account without having a new login. What people don't realize is that if you login through your Facebook account on any platform, they are allowed to store the data that you have created on different applications. The main question is why are they able to do this? They are able to do this because they are classified under a Private Activator and since they are private, people are not able to fight against them because only the government can not violate your rights.

The most popular social media sites that I use is Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook in that order. My Instagram account is not private so anyone is able to find me and I don't have the secured privacy settings that Facebook has to offer. Since I use my Instagram and I am aware that it is open to the public, I make sure I don't post anything inappropriate. Most of my photos consist of my friends at family-friendly places. I make sure what I post is age appropriate because I have extended family members on there as well as potential people who are interested in hiring me are able to see what I do. 

I believe that in today's world, many people in my generation are giving away their information without realizing the repercussions for it. We live in a world today where everyone is living in fast pace and they don't have time to truly look at what they are agreeing for the websites and platforms to do. This can seriously be damaging if someone wants their privacy to stay completely private. It is hard for one to stay completely off the web, but there are different ways to stay and keep private by using precautions.

Roger's Diffusion of Innovations: Venmo

How has Venmo Changed the World?

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As college students and young adults, we don't carry cash with us. If we do, then it is probably less than $20. There is no need for cash for us anymore because we have many different forms to pay without using cash, such as using our debit cards, Apple pay and now there is Venmo. Venmo has changed the way we look at how we are spending money. Venmo is an app that is free and it is very simple to use. You are able to hook up your bank account to Venmo and your friends are able to send you money and vice versa. An example would be if you and a friend were out to dinner and you forgot your wallet. You are able to pull out your phone, search your friend on Venmo and type in the amount of money you want to send them. With one click they are able to have it in their "Venmo balance." From that point, the friend is either able to direct deposit the money right into their bank account immediately for a slight charge, or they are able to deposit it into their account for free, but it will take three to five business days. So how did this all start?

Two college students, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail were students at the University of Pennsylvania. The early stages of how Venmo came to be was that they both went to a concert for a weekend and one of them forgot their wallet; for the whole weekend only one person was paying for the trip and by the end the person who forgot their wallet had to write a check. They were thinking that there must be a much simpler way to send each other money.

Today in class we learned about Roger's Diffusion of Innovations and our example that we used was cable television. There were five major sections that we broke up the idea into that was part of a bell curve and those were: Pioneers/ Innovators, Early adaptors, Early majority, Late adaptors and Laggards. I have been able to break down how Venmo was created in these stages.

Pioneers and Innovators

Kortina and Magdon-Ismail were the first two to come up with the idea. In 2009 they came up with a system by paying over text and just writing their name and how much money they are giving. They soon realized that they needed to distinguish what each payment was for, so they would write one or two words to go along with it. This would later adapt into emoji's. In 2010, they raised $1.2 million seed money through financing round

Early Adapters

In 2012, Braintech which is a fintech payment company aquired them because they were able to see their potential. The app also opened to the public in 2012 and after their final quarter of that year, the app had $59 million of mobile transactions.

Early Majority

By 2013, the first quarter processed $81 million and Braintech was acquired by PayPal for $800 million.

Late Adaptors

In 2017, they have processed $8 billion and it keeps growing from there.

I have not listed the Laggards part of the bell curve because I believe that Venmo will continue to rise for a while until something new and better comes up and so far there isn't one yet. Venmo has truly changed the way people go out to eat and go shopping in general and it has changed for the better by making people's lives easier.

Sources down below:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Individual Self-Fulfillment

Self-Fulfillment. What is it?

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After I graduate from college, I hope for a well paying job that I love and that I can move up in the ranks. I also hope to one day start a family and live a picture perfect life. All of my hopes and desires are categorized as self-fulfillment or self-actualization. One of the definitions that seemed to resonate with me the most was, "Self-fulfillment, is the combination of the hopes we have for our lives as well as the plan we create for achieving them." Self-Fulfillment Definition. 

The main topic that came to my mind when thinking about this was the American Dream. The American Dream can mean anything people want it to mean. In most cases, people nowadays come to this country to start all over and to make something of themselves. They had a burning passion to make a name for themselves and they had all of these hopes and desires to make their lives the best that it can be. This could be working all day and night, but you would be coming home to a loving home with your white picket fence and to your wife who you had two kids with and of course the family dog. 

When our forefathers came together to write the Constitution, they specifically put in freedom of speech. We today are now able to write about what we want to and say in what we believe in out loud without being punished. Of course there are some restraints, but for the most part we have the freedom to do so. Since we have this right, we as students are able to write these blog posts and put our own personality into it. 

I chose this speech theory because I find it interesting how America is like the big "melting pot" with all of our different cultures that surround us and religions that can be practiced freely along with schools who are able to teach multiple different languages without there being one right one. I attribute all of this to the first amendment and this is the American Dream that our forefathers who wrote the constitution thought of. The dream has changed since our world has changed, but the dream will still be there and it can relate back to the freedom of speech.

Simone Who?

Simone Biles. That's all.

Growing up I was a pretty energetic kid and my parents didn't know what to do with all of my energy. They placed me in a recreational gymnastics class and from that point on I never stopped loving the sport. I was a competitive gymnast my whole life starting at the age of six and going all the way up to my senior year of high school. I have won multiple state and regional titles during my career, but nothing compares to Simone Biles. At first I didn't know who she was, we just ended the 2012 Olympics and the U.S national team took home the gold. Now we were back to watching smaller elite competitions. In 2013 Biles won her first gold medal and it took off from there. After her win, my gymnastics gym back home was able to host her and have her speak to us. This was a life changing experience. Not only was she so humble, but she was able to give us advice about the sport in general and how to balance school and gymnastics while maintaining your grades.

Since 2013, Biles has won 24 world medals and most of them were gold. She just competed in Stuttgart, Germany at World's where she won in all-around, vault, beam and floor. As a previous gymnast, this is unheard of. When you watch her perform, you don't even believe she's human. Biles may have won 24 medals, but she now has multiple skills named after her and those include two on floor, one on beam and one on vault.

Simone Biles has also done so much for the young girls who are afraid to speak up for themselves. She is an avid speaker for the Me Too movement because she is a survivor of Larry Nassar who sexually abused her. She has asked USAG to change their ways and they are changing slowly but she wants more to happen so that the sport can be safe for everyone. Since she has such a large following, she is able to have her voice heard more and people are able to stand with her and support her. 

Simone Biles.

Above is the article about her recent medals!