The Price of Technology

Image found on networld

Technology is not only man's greatest asset, but also our greatest enemy. Technology can and has been used to solve many problems and has given mankind the ability to do what was previously thought to be impossible. It has also been the cause of whole new forms of destruction.

Technology isn't good, but it also isn't bad, its simply an outlet. Lets take the internet for example, there is easy to access information such as; news, social media, and video entertainment, and video games. However there is bad in each of these things.

Social media is very prominent in our modern era. Just about everyone and their grandma has it. It allows for ease of communication, an easy way to keep up with friends, and much more. However it also allows for people to cyberbully others anonymously. Many at least 1/3 of people ages 12-17 have been cyber bullied . This is a staggering statistic however some people don't find it that surprising. 

Video entertainment is seen by a majority of people as a good. Thanks to technologies such as the TV, computer and one of the greatest innovations in the modern era the internet people have access to almost an infinite amount of entertainment, yet there is always "nothing to watch". Some people view this plethora of entertainment to be a downside, specifically "adult entertainment". 

Year in review of Pornhub

Pornography in the modern era is at an all time high. Porn sites such as Pornhub have billions of views each year, however there are a lot of people who think porn should be illegal or that it is amoral. This shows that online entertainment can be a very gray area.

Technology isn't just limited to the internet though. A.I. is also a booming industry, some people think it may be the next big step in manufacturing. It can lower cost and help get the job done much more efficiently and faster. A.I. can take the jobs people don't want to take or that are too dangerous for people. A.I. can be found in many things, from video games, to research. IBM has an A.I. known as Watson. 

Cortana From the Video Game Series Halo

However there are many people worried, and for good reason, about the limits of AI or more specifically the lack thereof. Many of the world's top innovators and scientists believe that there should be restrictions on an AI's capabilities due to the fact that if no restrictions are in place they can easily end the world. One of such people who believe that we should be worried about A.I. is Bill Gates. 

Technology as a whole has its pros and cons. When one tries to find the morality of technology one can see that it is in a gray area, neither good nor bad. Technology is made with good intentions however it can either be used with bad intentions or some people may view it as amoral while others think its fine. One person may think that you spend too much time on social media while another thinks that you don't use it enough.

Sources

11 Facts About Cyberbullying. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying

Holley, P. (2015, January 29). Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: 'I don't understand why some people are not concerned'. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/01/28/bill-gates-on-dangers-of-artificial-intelligence-dont-understand-why-some-people-are-not-concerned/ 

How Many People are on Porn Sites Right Now? (Hint: It's a Lot.). (2020, February 20). Retrieved from https://fightthenewdrug.org/by-the-numbers-see-how-many-people-are-watching-porn-today/ 

COVID-19 and Tik Tok

TikTok Logo

During quarantine people find themselves looking for things to pass time. Whether that's watching TV, playing video games, or spending time on TikTok.

TikTok is a very popular social media app in which people make short videos, similarly to Vine. TikTok was already very popular before quarantine but now that people have even less things to do before more and more people are turning to social media, and even more to TikTok.

There are a plethora of videos for people to delve into to spend the day watching. Whether you want to do a dance challenge, or just laugh TikTok has the content for you. For those creatives out there you may want to try your hand at making a video as well. Since TikTok is at an all time high you may see yourself go viral! People are trying more and more to go viral now that they have the free time to do so now there are even some people quitting their jobs in an attempt to make a living off of TikTok.

One popular form of video is of people "pranking" their boyfriend or girlfriend by walking in the room naked. Not sure of how the parents feel about this one, but one cannot deny its popularity due to how prevalent it has become.

My guess to why TikTok has gained a boost from current events is due to people trying to find an escape from what is happening. Why not forget about the virus for a few minutes and laugh at something online.

People are flocking to mediums as a form of escapism, and TikTok is doing the right thing at the right time which has made it gain a huge surge in popularity. As more and more people flock to TikTok as a form of escapism TikTok will gain even more popularity, thus gaining more attention and causing even more people to flock to it.

Sources

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/26/how-coronavirus-helped-tiktok-find-its-voice 

Animal Crossing Banned in China

Screen shot of protest in Animal Crossing

Since quarantine many people have turned to different outlets to pass the time while at home. One of those past times is gaming and during quarantine a new Animal Crossing game was released and is drawing attention from people of all ages and from all over the world. 

Animal Crossing is a game in which the player creates a character and plays to pay off their debt, and help expand the village they live in. They can create things in said village and the game has very in depth customization. Which has drawn some attention.

In Hong Kong since citizens cannot leave their homes they have taken to Animal Crossing to hold protest. The protesters have made pictures of Winnie the Pooh, which is banned because people make fun of the President of China by calling him Winnie the Pooh, and other various activities in game. They to get word out about their protest they've been posting pictures of them on twitter for the world to see. In China there are strict censorship laws in place that can hurt companies that distribute games. So all retailers that sold Animal Crossing stopped selling it in a preemptive way to avoid legal troubles.

This goes to show how oppressive China's hold on all forms of media are. 

One must give it up to the protesters, for coming up with a unique way of gathering even during this pandemic that didn't put anyone at risk and still managed to use their voice, no matter how restricted it may be, to let people know that their movement wouldn't be put on halt. 

However even if distributors no longer sell the game that doesn't take the games away from those who already have it. Even if they can't use that game, I'm sure they'll find a way to keep on protesting.

Source

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/animal-crossing-game-removed-from-sale-in-china-over-hong-kong-democracy-messages

Trump Cutting Back on Press Briefings

Image from New York Times

During the COVID-19 pandemic there have been a lot of press briefings meant to inform the public about what is going on. President Trump however has somehow managed to turn these briefings into somewhat of a spectacle and his approval has dropped as a result.

For a while now Trump has been down playing COVID-19 and has been making outrageous statements. One of which he said maybe using disinfectants in the body could fight COVID-19. Have to agree with him it will most certainly kill the virus... along with anyone who injected the  disinfectant in their bodies. The sad thing is that people are believing him. Twitter has decided to take down what he said about the disinfectants because they could cause harm to people.

Recently polls have shown that these briefings are causing Trump to lose approval among Americans because they believe he is mishandling the COVID-19 epidemic.

A recent poll has found that 51% of Americans disaprove of Trumps handling of the crisis while 39% approve. This is not good news for Trump since there is an upcoming election. However as of now there has not been a change in the point gap for the general election.

This can be blamed on the fact that the US by far has the most COVID-19 cases in the world right now and his showings at the press briefings have made him look woefully incompetent.

Recently Trump has announced that he would be cutting back on his briefings. Quite frankly that would be a smart move by his part. His appearances are not helping him at all and are only hurting his approval ratings and with the election coming up, its better to mitigate damage and since his briefings are damaging his chances he shouldn't be doing them. He doesn't want the point gap to increase even more.

Sources

The Hill https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/495177-approval-rating-of-trumps-handling-of-coronavirus-drops-10-points

New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/technology/trump-coronavirus-social-media.html

Valorant Taking over Twitch

Recently RIOT games has released a beta for their new game Valorant, but what is Valorant?

Image of Valorant from CNBC

Valorant is a FPS (first person shooter) mixed with some MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) aspects. From the FPS it mostly takes mechanics from the popular FPS CSGO which is a highly competitive game which people love, and drew influence from Overwatch ( another FPS MOBA that leans more towards MOBA than FPS). 

In Valorant the player picks a character to play as with a team of 4 other players and they compete against another team of 5. Players gain in game currency after completing certain objectives in game, like killing an enemy player, which they can use to buy new guns, armor, or abilities.

The game involves both a team that attacks and a team that defends. The attacking team is given a bomb and their goal is to plant the bomb at one of the bomb sites and to have it explode. The defending team's goal is to stop them from planting said bomb or from letting it explode. The attacking team wins if they either A) plant the bomb and it explodes  or B) kill the entire enemy team. The defending team wins if A) They kill the entire enemy team B) Diffuse the bomb or C) defend the sites until time runs out. Attacking and defending teams switch at half time which is after 12 rounds so the attackers become defenders and the defenders become attackers.

What separates Valorant from other FPS and MOBAS is the fact that it combines aspects from Overwatch and CSGO. From Overwatch it uses the ideas of characters having specific abilities and ultimates that they can use after a certain period of time or by completing a certain amount of objectives. It takes the core game play of CSGO from gun-play to movement. As a result many people who played both CSGO and Overwatch professionally are flocking to this game because it has drawn a lot of interest due to its concept and since its new. 

Recently Twitch has had Valorant being the top of streaming, beating Fortnite, and LoL. Which is amazing in its own right. Streamers saw the opportunity this game would provide to boost their viewer ship and saw a fun game to play while viewers saw a game that was fun to watch and something they may try to get into. This made for a perfect storm that lead to a surge in popularity for Valorant.

If you have the time on your hands I highly recommend checking out Valorant! 

Sources 
Browne, R. (2020, March 2). The company behind 'League of Legends' is taking on Activision Blizzard with a new shooter game. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/02/riot-games-reveals-tactical-fps-game-valorant-to-take-on-activision.html

Goslin, A. (2020, April 7). Valorant beginner's guide and tips. Retrieved from https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/7/21207394/beginners-guide-tips-suggestions-buying-weapons

Citizen Journalism

Image from Brandwatch

The age of the internet has brought society many new forms of consuming media, be it watching videos on YouTube or reading the news online you have the internet to thank, and with new ways of consuming comes new ways of producing. One of the things the internet has made much easier is citizen journalism, but what is citizen journalism?

To put it simply, citizen journalism can be defined as citizens taking an active role in reporting, analyzing, or documenting events. So someone on YouTube reporting, and analyzing current events is in participating in citizen journalism.

Recently citizen journalism has been on the rise, and the reason for it is the internet.

The internet offers a vast wealth of knowledge and an easy way to upload said knowledge. So when a police officer is violating a citizens rights and someone is around to record it, they will record and post it on the internet, therefore contributing to citizen journalism. There is also a wealth of photos on the internet. These photos can be used by journalist to help tell the news and bring light to a subject.

Citizen journalism can effect people every where. One can obtain a new news source, journalist might use material captured by citizen journalism (videos) and report on them. Citizen journalism can and is used by everyone. Whenever there is a video that someone post online documenting an event that occurred, for example lets use a police officer in New York putting someone in a choke hold, and then the media, for example lets take the NBC, uses said video to report on it, society as a whole is viewing something captured by citizen journalism therefore benefiting from it.

Citizen journalism isn't limited to videos. Blogging is a form of citizen journalism. If one wants to analyze current events in their blog then they are participating in citizen journalism. 

The internet is a treasure trove for journalism, and journalist today have citizen journalism to thank for easy access to new information that would've been harder, or not possible, to bring to light before.

Sources 
Bulkley, K. (2012, June 10). The rise of citizen journalism. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/11/rise-of-citizen-journalism

What is Citizen Journalism and How Does it Influence News? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/what-is-citizen-journalism-and-how-does-it-influence-news/

Self Audit

Just about everyone has an online presence. From your grandma to your little cousin who seems a little too young to own a phone, but how much of an online presence do they have? How much of an online presence do you have? I pondered this question about my online presence and I came up with an answer rather quickly/

I have little to no online presence.

How does it have little to no presence in the modern era? Well the answer to that is also simple. I just made my social media rather recently, and I don't like posting so my presence is very small, and people probably don't find what I post to be rather interesting.

From my social media one can figure out I'm an African American, go to High Point University, and maybe that I like taking pictures. There isn't much else anyone can figure out. When I google myself I don't pop up but people who share my name do, and there is a surprising amount of people who's name is Randall Belcher out there.

Some people say that social media can make people feel depressed, lonely, or feel isolated. Well yes it probably does, but  I don't feel that way. Since I look at social media as the "best parts" of peoples lives I don't feel like I'm missing out when people post where they are going, what they're doing, or who they are hanging out with. If one believes that people's post are actually what they are doing everyday then it makes sense why they would feel depressed or lonely because if they see everyone posting the best parts of their lives and believe that's them everyday they can feel like their life kinda sucks in comparison.

I should probably try to increase my presence on social media, use my platforms as a way to advertise myself. That way when employers do look for me they find me easily and like what they see.

Sources

Charles, S., & M.d. (2019, March 15). Social media linked to rise in mental health disorders in teens, survey finds. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/social-media-linked-rise-mental-health-disorders-teens-survey-finds-n982526