Post Eight: Innovation & Diffusion Theory

The diffusion of innovation theory is the theory that explains how technological advancements spread within cultures and adopt a wider audience than initially invented for. This theory attempts to explain how new practices evolve into societies and how individuals adapt to these innovations. 

For my diffusion of innovation theory post, I found Facebook to be a perfect example. Facebook was started for one purpose and evolved to eventually connect the entire globe. 

In its beginnings, Facebook was designed to be used on college campuses to connect students to each other, professors, and networking opportunities. Now, Facebook is used not only by college students, but by pretty much every demographic of individual and it’s even used for businesses. It’s become a platform for people to share their personal lives and their professional lives, and it has truly connected the world in an entirely new way.

Another remarkable thing about Facebook is that it really is the founding father of social media. While sites like MySpace came before it, these were used by pretty specific demographics and never really grew into a new technology. The invention of Facebook not only grew just the platform of Facebook, but created the entire concept of social media and from this invention, platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have come about. 

I firmly believe that Facebook single-handedly changed the culture of the world. While it is not the only media and way to connect with others, it created the concept of sharing your life on the Internet as a societal norm. 

I really enjoyed reading about the history of Facebook on brandwatch.com. I had watched The Social Network movie all about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, so I was pretty familiar with kind of the formation of the site, but this article does a great job teaching all about Facebook and different challenges and scandals that ensued. 

It talked about an interesting aspect regarding the Facebook algorithm that changed in 2018 that directly affects all Facebook users. The algorithm focused on showcasing more of an individual's family and friends and less of companies, charities, and organizations, unless these businesses began paying for ads. I found this incredibly important to note in this blog post because this too was quite a diffusion of innovation. Now, on every social network platform, paying for ads has become remarkably mainstream. One can advocate for this being good or bad, but it’s real. This algorithm basically made organic advertising obsolete which drastically changes the way businesses move forward online. 

Source:

https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/history-of-facebook/

Post Seven: Other EOTO

 I thoroughly enjoyed the EOTO segments of class. It was such a cool way to learn about some fun technologies and issues that I only had relatively surface-level knowledge of prior. 

I found the presentation on cassette tapes to be so interesting to learn about. Someone from my generation only looks at cassette tapes from such an archaic thing, and we lack the understanding of how cassettes were such an innovative technology of their time.

As of the 2000s, cassette tapes are basically non-existent, but they were such a treasured and appreciated means of entertainment and education. 

Their major disadvantages are that they just were unable to compete with the innovative replacements. Now, we can access this type of information via the internet and do not even need tangible tapes or discs. Another disadvantage was that they only had about a 10-year life span, but that is pretty impressive if you look at it from that time frame's point of view.

Post Six: EOTO The Fax Machine

 

Since a young age, I have been fascinated by the fax machine. I am to this day mesmerized by how it works, even though they are basically archaic at this point. I know it's silly... there are so many newer, better, faster technologies but they don't boggle my mind in the same way. How can someone put a document in their machine and it print out somewhere far far away?! Not only is this piece of technology interesting to me, but I believe it is due some credit for where we are today when it comes to sending and receiving documents and data. 

via

This is an incredibly thorough infographic I found informing the transformation of the fax machine. (Click to enlarge to read.) 

Fax machines were designed to send information fast and relatively securely. While technology has far surpassed this today, we'd be remiss to ignore the impact the fax machine had on the way we communicate today. 

In 1843, Alexander Bain Was able to reproduce graphic symbols in lab experiments. He received a British patent calling this device the “Electric Printing Telegraph.” Following this, a man named Frederick Bakewell furthered on Bain’s designFurther on beans to create a “telefax machine.” This was innovated upon to create the “Panetelegraph” by Giovanni Caseilli. All of these advancements were roughly 11 years before the telephone was even invented. 

In 1880, Shelford Bidwell Instructed a scanning instructed a scanning photo telegraph which was the first device to scan a two dimensional piece of data without any plotting or drawing. This was followed by a few people advancing technology a bit further each time. 

In 1888, Alicia Gray further developed the faxing technology. Through the invention of the “telautograph.” This allowed individuals to send signatures long distances which was especially helpful for verification of identification in land ownership. 

The most significant year for the faxing technology was 1924. The first significant event in this year was on May 19 when the AT&T corporation was able to send 15 photographs by telephone from Cleveland to New York City through the process of transmitting pictures by electricity. This was the first instance of using a phone to send information and not a radio. Following this, the radio Corporation of America, known as the RCA, Developed the first wireless transmission of information. This was called the “TransOceanic Radio Facsimile” and through this they were able to transmit a photo from New York City to London.  This is not all that was accomplished for the faxing technology in 1924. The AT&T corporation was also able to develop the first color facsimile allowing photographs to be transmitted in color. By the end of 1924, it was possible to send a single page fax in only six minutes! Today, we are used to being able to send high volume and virtually seconds, but this was the first efficient medium to transmit information virtually. 

In 1960, the first satellite fax was used to send a photograph from the US Army for America to Puerto Rico. In 1964, the Xerox corporation patented what most of us know as the fax machine. What we understand as a fax machine is essentially telephone transmission of letter-sized documents. They perfected the technology over a few years and it became a widespread use machine. By the late 1970s, companies around the world had begun to use fax machines.  As the years pass the machines became more compact and even faster. In 1974, a single page fax to be sent in three minutes. Fax machines were still relatively expensive at this time even though they were decreasing in price and increasing in affordability. By 1980 to a fax machine cost around $20,000. By 1996, the Internet fax was released And this allowed the general public to send and receive facsimile via computer and became a household technology. 

Fax machines were still used into the 21st-century, and some people still use them today. However as computers have evolved and become even more innovative and the use of email is common place, faxing of information is not nearly as efficient as other modern means to communicate. 

I will never not be fascinated by the fax machine and it still boggles my mind how this crazy machine works. 

Did you guys grow up with a fax machine? I remember my brother and I would forget a homework assignment at school and we would call a classmate and have them fax us a picture of the worksheet so we could do it at our house and still be able to turn it in in the morning.

Post Five: Eight Values of Free Expression

 

The marketplace of ideas is something I would love to delve deeper into. My personal value is truth. I seek to find it in all things, and I aspire to cultivate a culture of truth in the world someday. I think in the past, journalism has had a strong reputation for truth, but today this is greatly tested. The truth is becoming seemingly harder to seek out in everyday life and if the truth is present, it is often buried beneath biases and opinion. 

The topic this week is very interesting because it pertains to some very critical aspects of the American lifestyle and the American government. The principle I find to resonate the most is due to the current climate of the world and the fact that we are just over a month away from a critical election. Participation in Self-Government is so incredibly important, and something that all Americans should honor and take very seriously. Democracy is great because it represents its people. Freedom of speech allows us the ability to have a voice in who leads our country.

Along with this is the next principle: stable change. As citizens, we are able to voice our distaste and opinions through speech, writing, and protest. This theory predicts that by allowing individuals to voice their stances, less violence will ensue. This is perhaps a bit questionable with the current state of the world, but I still believe that this is an important theory.

The theory of self-fulfillment and self-actualization is at the heart of our desires as people. We tend to flock to those who share our mindsets, and freedom of speech allows us to find likeminded people. Some people view this behavior as prejudicial or non-accepting, but I think it is human nature to prefer the company of those who share your values and beliefs. 

Check on governmental power is so important as this is what differentiates the United States government from other governments. We have the ability under the freedom of speech to question abuse of power and ensure the check-and-balance system of government is upheld.

The next theory is to promote tolerance. This theory teaches that through freedom of speech we are more tolerant of others. The freedom of speech protects hate speech with hopes that through understanding and learning from these actions, we become a more tolerant society.

Promote innovation, to me, is an obvious aspect of freedom of speech. Through the sharing of ideas, we all can become inspired and brainstorm off of one another. This is a great benefit of having an open forum of creativity.

Finally, protecting dissent is one of the most important aspects of the freedom of speech. Minorities have the right to voice opinions. Citizens have a right to voice distaste with the government. According to this definition, it is our duty to criticize the government if we disagree.

Post Four: Antiwar Voices & Anti "Fake" News

This week we talked about life following the end of WWI. People were tired of the war and talking about it was triggering (kind of how I feel with coronavirus - ha!). Then we led into prohibition and just more divide and hardship. Life during and after this war, individuals were persecuted for any antiwar talk.

Skimming Antiwar.com and American Conservative, I found it quite interesting to read a dialogue so drastically different than that of mainstream media today. Most news today (even with each network's biases) portrays the world through certain lenses. Regardless of how news may "lean," there is still a certain level of political correctness prevalent throughout.

Donald Trump is notorious for his attack on "fake news." I'm not here to get political at all, but I think he makes a very important point that as Americans we should caution ourselves with. Everything we hear is filtered and filtrated to some degree. I think it is hard to come to your own conclusions when approaching current events because everything is told to us through a narrative of how the author wants us to comprehend the information. 

While we never seem to hear about these strong voices on mainstream news, I think it is wonderful that there is a place for them to exist. This doesn't mean that I agree with what is being said, I just find it important that all voices have the ability to be heard. It causes me distress sometimes by the lack of information I can find on certain topics because of media censorship - but this is off topic and I digress.

I think you have to seek out antiwar voices because the government needs the overwhelming support of citizens when it comes to things such as war. 

Post Three: Bedrock Principles & TikTok Ban

This week in class we studied the six freedoms of the first amendment in-depth by looking at the Civil War + Reconstruction timeline and the 3 freedoms of the First Amendment and the bedrock principles of the First Amendment law. 

Prior to this course, I think I was pretty ignorant when it came to what is included versus what is not included when looking at the Freedom of Speech. Now, I firmly believe most people are. 

The Six Freedoms include From Religion, Of Religion; Speech, Press; Assembly, and Petition.

The Bedrock Principles are something completely new to me that I had never studied before, and it really helps to delve deeper into the first amendment. 

The first principle is that First Amendment protection is not absolute. This means that you can be punished and held accountable for threatening the president or public safety.

The second principle is that the First Amendment is not a shield against the law of general applicability. This means that for some laws, there is no exception. Everyone is held accountable for criminal and traffic laws.

The final principle is that the Freedom of the Press is a fundamental personal right, not an institutional one. This is the strongest type of right because it is specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights. We are all equally protected.

The first amendment condones that Congress shall make no laws infringing on personal liberties, but obscenity, fraud, child pornography, and true threats are not given protection under the First Amendment. 

VARIETY.com recently published an article about Trump's banning of TikTok. Critics of this ban say that this decision is made without precedent, and others flat out claim that this abridges First Amendment rights. This decision is made with the Trump Administration's concern that the Chinese government will be able to access Americans' personal data through this app. 

I find this whole topic very fascinating because it is a bit unprecedented. As technology evolves, the dangers and risks on society change. This is crazy to me because I never really thought the First Amendment was still controversial today, but honestly, it is more relevant and critical than ever before. 

The claim to ban TikTok is out of concern for national security and personal safety, yet it an act of the Government controlling its people. Where do we draw the line? This entire controversy has made me really question the amount of personal privacy in my own life, and I am more than guilty of falling down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories about our phones listening to us and personal data being hacked. 

I can honestly say that I do not have a strong opinion either way on this TikTok ban, but I am very intrigued as to what will happen.

Source: Variety.com

Post Two: U.S. Supreme Court

This week in class, we learned so much about the U.S. government, branches of government, and allocation of power. We specifically focused on the Supreme Court. It's been since high school since I've had any class on U.S. government, and it's been since middle school that I truly comprehensively studied the branches of government. This was a good (and very necessary) refresher.

In class, we discussed the "formula for American democracy" which explains how we shift power from federal level to state level to power in the hands of each individual. Professor Smith discusses how America is the only country that at its core believes in limited government. We have enumerated powers which means the powers of each government entity is written out and assigned. The government gets its power through the consent of the people, and these powers tell the government what they can and cannot do. American democracy believes in freedom maximization for its people. We want the largest amount of freedom for each individual without interfering with another person's freedom. Professor Smith coined this "ordered liberty."

The Supreme Court is the Judicial branch of the United State the highest court in the United States, and its main role is to guard and uphold the Constitution. It manages cases appealing to the Constitution and has the authority to prevent laws that are unconstitutional. Many of the Supreme Court decisions are made by the nine justices that make up the court. These justices are appointed by the president. However, the Senate can block the appointment. This means that filling the nine justice spots when one becomes available often becomes cut-throat and political. **I watched this video  and found it super helpful. It is a quick 2-minute video that simplifies everything, and a great watch if you have a couple minutes to spare in your day. 

The Supreme Court is very important to our daily lives as American citizens. Their role ensures that the First Amendment remains protected and after this week's class, I'm much more aware of just how important the role of the Supreme Court is in American democracy.

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Sources: Supreme Court History, Newsweek Video