Final Post

 By James Hoban

    In our current year 2023, it is clear how large on an impact that technology has played into our lives. We are all on our phones and social media every day on a regular basis. It's how we communicate, educate, and entertain ourselves all the time. Technology has grown and become more a part of our lives every day but no one seems to take a second to think about how all of this connectivity and wired connection has impacted us and our daily interactions. 

    As much as we are all very thankful for the connections and entertainment that technology has provided us, it is easy to overlook some of the negative impacts that have come along with it. In my opinion, for every technological advancement that brings us closer, it slowly drives us apart. While I understand this could be a confusing concept to grasp as you may think "if we're more connected, won't that allow us to understand each other and connect even better?". While this can be true, one must think about how when you send a text to someone as a form of communication, that is a face to face conversation that has been usurped by a keyboard and fingers. An extension of this idea can very much relate to the home environment with families. I remember growing up and having my mom yell up to the rooms of my sisters and I "Dinner's ready!!!" which was always very exciting to hear, as I have always loved my moms cooking, and hearing her yell up to us just signified that it was time for a good meal. Now when I am home and I am lucky to have my mom cook a nice home meal, I am greeted with a text in our family group chat telling us "come downstairs food ready". While this conveys the same message that she would yell up to us from the kitchen, it feels different. 

    This is one of many examples to me of how I feel we are losing some of the key parts of communication between person to person. However, I find myself thankful for many parts of this sort of communication, especially when I am here attending HPU. Without the communication resources we have access to now, I wouldn't be able to call my mom or dad when I'm having a bad day or just feel like checkin in and having a conversation with my parents or sisters. Throughout all of the ups and downs of how this sort of communication impacts us, it is something that defines our culture today and will help us, and hurt us, for as long as it exists. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

 By James Hoban

After reading through the 8 speech theories, it is easy to see how each of them could play into different aspects of our lives. It is important for us to analyze the type of communication and self values that we share with one another and these theories do a great job of helping analyze that.

    The first theory that really stuck out and connected with me was the Individual Self-Fulfillment theory or "self-actualization" which talks about how free speech becomes a part of us and helps identify who we are. Having free speech in my opinion is key to letting us express our ideas freely and be able to discuss our opinions with one another without risking persecution or discrimination for these ideas. This in my opinion is a key part of what makes America so special and allows us to identify with the groups we most connect with and understand. 

    Another one that caught my attention was the section talking about promoting innovation. This section explains how free speech plays an important role in innovation because without it we might not have the opportunity to fully express brand ideas or goals for the future of a brand without the opportunity to speak without censorship. Free speech has alway been a key part of business and media because it allows for full expression with advertising and brand connection. 

Why do People Fear New Technology?

By James Hoban

 

For a very long time is has been common for people to be unsure or uncomfortable with new technology coming out and impacting their lives. At one point in time people even turned away the invention of the refrigerator since they weren't sure how or why it could benefit them. There are all different sorts of reasons why people may be uncomfortable with new technology, but those who take the leap and become the pioneers of the new technologies coming out, are the same people who are able to build themselves up within that industry and become the pioneers of a generation of tech users. 

The Television Explosion (societies introduction to television)

 By James Hoban

Television was introduced in the late 1920's and early 1930's to American consumers. It immediately grabbed consumers and was a new way for different people to connect and share common interests over their favorite programming to watch. Not only did the release of the television connect consumers and families in a new way, but it also created a vast new venue for advertisers and companies to broadcast their new products and services.  It was a new and exciting technology for its time and it grabbed the attention of everyone around for how revolutionary it was.  As television first came about, there was not a whole lot of programming to be broadcasted so the shows and programs only ran for a few hours of the day at first. The early broadcasts consisted mostly of news, sports, music, and comedy skits. This was easily consumable content for the American people as these are things everyone is able to tune into and enjoy with their friends and family. This was one of the biggest aspects of television in its time. The fact that two people could watch the same program from separate places, then come together and discuss the program that they watched in person was an impactful thing in this time. It helped people connect more and understand the world a little better with better outreach for news.

Privacy, Online & Off - How It Impacts Us All

 By James Hoban

With the digital age continuing to grow on a daily basis, it has more of an impact on our lives every single day. We grow more connected with the internet with every click or touch of a button. Website use is often if not always tracked and logged so that advertisers and third party companies can use that info in an attempt to sell you a product or service. While this is quite common, it is not always the intended purpose for the companies doing this data mining. A lot of the time with companies like Facebook and other popular sites with internet users, the information that they save to their databases is used for more than just advertising. There have been cases with not only Facebook but also with Twitter and Instagram where the government becomes involved and needs to take a look at your private, archived information in an attempt to connect certain people to ongoing investigations and other instances like that. This isn't the most common use of the information that is being stored on us but nonetheless, we should be made more aware for the information about us being kept and used by these companies for various reasons. 

As mentioned before, the most common use for the storage of our personal data is to give us personalized ads, for things that these media services believe we would want or need, based on our previous searches and areas of interest. Say you were looking at videos of cats or how you should best take care of a new cat or kitten. YouTube or Facebook can take these recent searches, and based on what you have searched, in this case being new cat care, you will begin to see ads and video suggestions for things like litter boxes, and what type of cat crates are comfortable and friendly for young cats. This can be useful to many of us for seeing things we didn't know we needed to see, but at the same time, brings a level of insecurity and exposure into our personal lives that some people may not be comfortable sharing with a large media coorpertation like Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

My Top Five News Sources

By James Hoban

RapTV on Instagram RapTV Instagram Page 

RapTV is a very popular instagram account started in 2016 which began with sharing news about the rap industry and the rappers in it. Now the account can have all different sorts of news spanning from posting about the 2020 election and other important topics, not so closely related to rap. With 10.9 million followers on their instagram account, it is one of the biggest rap news sources in the world.

Joe Rogan Experience Podcast The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast

The Joe Rogan Experience is a very popular podcast channel which has all different sorts of guests and an even wider range of topics they like to cover. Many important people in our world today have spoken on this podcast such as Elon Musk, Mike Tyson, Alex Jones, Mark Zuckerberg, and many more. My favorite thing about this podcast is when Joe speaks to people like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg and they talk about the advancements in technology and science that they are developing. It is very fascinating to me to understand a little better the direction of where technology is heading and how truly incredible the technology behind it is. 

VICE News VICE News Youtube Channel

VICE News is a very popular youtube channel which shares content covering all different sorts of things that are happening in the world at that time. Some videos can cover stories from things happening within the world of crypto all the way to stories following self-formed militia groups of teenagers in Ukraine. The wide variety of content offered on this news channel allows for people to receive a better understanding of whats going on around the world and not just within out own country.

Friends and Family

A big news source for me has always been speaking to my family and friends. Often when something comes up in the news it is a topic of conversation at the dinner table with my family or if I'm in the car driving around with my friends. This is probably my most frequent form of consuming news since people often like to talk about the news they hear with their friends like mine do.

YouTube YouTube

A great source of news is the streaming source YouTube. With around 3.7 million videos being posted every single day, it is a great source for news from all different types of sources. While news today can be very biased coming from different sources, YouTube is a great place to hear different news stories from multiple different perspectives and opinions. This is valuable for news consumers to be able to get a full scope of different news stories going on around the country and the world.