Alternative Media vs MSM

Alternative media is the lesser known type of media, especially in today’s society. The best way to define Alternative media is that it is the opposite of Mainstream Media (MSM). Unlike MSM, Alternative Media is smaller, not corporate owned, not money motivated, and usually not as regulated as MSM. With this comes a multitude of different pros and cons. 

Starting off with some of the Pros of Alternative media, it can be a great way to find stories on topics that mainstream media may not cover for a variety of reasons. Some reasons main media may avoid certain topics are, to avoid being too political, don’t or do want to make someone look bad, they don’t feel it is appropriate to broadcast worldwide, they have been persuaded to keep something quiet, and many more. 

A con would be that Alternative media sources can be a lot harder to find and are not as accessible to everyone as Mainstream media is. Mainstream media is found everywhere, in the local newspaper, on news channels being broadcasted in your local business, or even just in the news app on your phone. While all of this is great, unfortunately it means that Alternative media gets buried below MSM and is often not discovered by many. 

Another con is that Alternative media sources may not be as fact checked as some Mainstream sources are. Although there have been plenty of instances where mainstream media has broadcasted fake news or news that extends the truth, for the most part they have to make sure their sources and information are pretty accurate in order to share it so greatly with the entire world. However, because some Alternative media can be pretty underground, there are not many people as concerned with fact checking the sources to ensure they are getting the correct information. 

However, don’t let these cons stray you away from Alternative Media. It is a broad spectrum and there are a lot of really good reliable sources. In an article about The Advantages of Alternative Media Khalid Khan goes over all of the pros to using Alternative Media vs. MSM. The main points he makes as to why Alternative media is a great choice is because if you find a good source they can be extremely informative and not biased. They don’t have an agenda of swaying people's political beliefs but rather to post all and whatever stories they want where as MSM picks and chooses bigger more dramatic stories. He also says that MSM tends to rerun the same stories over and over where Alternative media tends to always be releasing new and up to date content you can’t find anywhere else. 

The main effect it has on different groups in society would be its availability and wide array of topics and beliefs. As far as availability, Alternative media can be a lot harder to find if you don’t know how to search for it. Therefore, people who don’t have access to the internet everyday and rely on more heavy broadcasted news may not be able to read into these sources much. If everyone were aware and open to using alternative media over MSM then it could have a really positive effect because everyone would be well rounded with all the information we should know without any bias or ulterior motive.

Social Media Can be Dangerous

I have always been someone who thought about and tried to be aware of my social media and online presence. However, after taking this class, it has definitely made me see it in a newer scarier light, especially because of websites like Facebook. Although I don’t use Facebook much, I do still have an account and I know that Facebook has bought out many of the other sites that I use. It is sometimes scary to think about all the information they now have about me that will be there forever. Some of the privacy issues are crazy such as discussed in an article by Fast Company. However, thankfully I don’t think i’ve ever ousted anything that bad where it has to be a huge concern of mine. 

Overall, it is hard to say exactly how healthy or unhealthy my relationship with the internet and social media is. I do believe that I have a healthier relationship with social media than many other people do my age and I do not let it control me too much. However, I do still find myself doing some unhealthy habits for the sake of social media like over thinking what pictures I post and trying too hard to get pictures at certain events so that I can post them.

One newer feature that I find helpful on my phone is the screen time app. It allows me to keep track of how many hours a day I am spending on my phone and where I am spending them. Again, my numbers could definitely be better, but they are a lot less than the average person my age. I have friends who probably spend three times the amount of time on social media than I do. However, even though I spend less time on my phone and social media than others, I do feel that I spend more time on my computer doing other things like watching Netflix or playing video games. It is hard to say how much better and or worse those habits are. 

As far as using the internet for knowledge, I would say it overall makes me smarter, but there have definitely been times I have been misled to believe false information. I think as I get older and wiser, I have learned to take information like a grain of salt and make sure I look into topics further before just jumping on a bandwagon of conclusions and opinions. The internet is a tool, and if you use it right and cautiously, it can be very informational and helpful. 

As stated earlier, my friends and families social media usage is much different than mine. I have friends and family who use it way more than I do, but also ones who use it a lot less. I would say for the most part it is not a super negative part of their lives. I think they are all pretty good at not getting too overly involved in it and allowing it to affect their mental health in ways such as comparing themselves to others or feeling too isolated. I also feel the majority of them are smart enough to weed through the lies and fake news and form their own opinions. However, I do see people all the time who are not as fortunate and fall into really dark places because of the tolls social media can take. 

With all the social media influencers and pressure to post your best sides only, social media can present itself as a really toxic place that brings people down. Since the uprise of social media mental health especially among teens has decreased. As stated in this PBS article, teen suicide rates are on the rise and a lot of it can be linked to social media. Influencers often make people feel like they need to do a certain thing or look a certain way to be cool and accepted. This makes people who can't look like that or can’t afford the lifestyle they are living feel worse about themselves. This then triggers people to try to put on a certain front on social media to be someone they may not actually be. This then again spirals people to look at real people they may know and see themselves only sharing this best side of themselves and again compare themselves and feel unworthy. 

In conclusion, the internet can be an amazing and a terrifying place all in one. The last thing we want is to end up all being technology zombies as portrayed in the Mad world Remix Video. It is important to limit use and make sure you are looking at it all from an outside perspective so you don’t get sucked into some of the draining blackholes that others do. It can be a fun place to express yourself, share memories with others, and keep in touch. Just remember that most people are putting on a front and you don’t have to compare because you never know what is actually going on for someone behind the smiling photo. 

What I learned from Today's Presentations

One topic today that I found interesting and really relevant was the topic of Illusory truth effect. Illusory truth effect is defined as when people start to believe false information to be true after hearing it or seeing it multiple times. One of the biggest and obvious problems with this is that is not good to have people believing information that is not true because it causes divide within the country, it can make people uneducated and more harshly, seem stupid. It makes issues much harder to solve if we are not using the correct information to even understand the issue, never-mind take the right steps to solve it. It can also persuade important topics like politics, and Covid 19. When trying to choose a candidate to run our entire country or know to to stay safe and put an end to a pandemic, it is important we have the correct information and don't fall for fake information coming out because it will make life and hardship for us even worse instead of getting better. 

I feel like goes hand in hand with another topic the group discussed which was confirmation bias. This is the tendency to process information by looking for information that backs up ones already existing beliefs. This works along with the  Illusory truth effect because people may begin to begin false information, and then from there only want to search for and believe information that backs up that belief instead of listening to some of the information that actually may be the truth. People may ignore or get upset when they see information that does not go along with what we believe to be true and leads to claims of fake news and divides among the country.  

Overall, these are both so wild and it hard to believe this actually happens so often. However, I think in 2020 and 2021 we have seen so many examples of this especially with the election and the pandemic. It is sad how divided everyone is and no one seems to know what the real truth is. 

 

When thinking about the Rogers Diffusion of Innovations, there are a lot of different ideas or innovations that can be applied using this model. This model shows the stages and usage of a certain idea throughout a time period.  The stages are the pioneers in the exploratory stage, then the early adopters in the build up stage, then the early majority, followed by the late adapters and lastly the laggards with saturation. 

One that has happened in my life that I feel is relevant to this is the creation of the Social media platform Instagram. Using the model for Instagram, the pioneers would be the first users and the creators of the platform. The Early adopters would be the first bigger group of people to start using the app and spread the word of liking using it. Then we have the early majority when the majority of the population is now using this platform. Lastly we end with the late adopters who decide to join late in the game of its existent, and the laggards who will never get on the bandwagon and make an account. 

If I had put put myself in once of these categories I would say I was either an early adopter or early majority. I first made an Instagram account when I was in 5th grade, which I don't think was technically allowed at the time, this was probably 2013 which made me about 11 years old. Since then as seen on the graph the number of users increased rapidly and has definitely increased more since the original 2017 number. The app has also gone through many different versions and updates that have changed it drastically since the original version. 

I think the reason Instagram caught on and became so popular was because the use of Facebook was on the decline due to multiple factors such as it was more boring, but most importantly all the late adopters began to use it and younger adults and teens began to find it no longer fun with all their parents and grandparents using it. Instagram offered a new fun platform where users could create a page only with images and captions and not status updates such a Facebook. It was new and gave younger people a platform to interact with each other away from the old people. 

Now today, it has become a lot more similar to Facebook. Many of the older people discovered it and decided to join late for a multitude of different reasons. One, again Facebook was declining especially now that many young people had left the platform, Instagram offered many fun aspects such as businesses and celebrities, and some just wanted to be able to see what others like their kids were doing.  

There are still laggards and forever will be for Instagram. This is because some people just don't like the platform, and others don't use social media at all. Reasons one may choose not to use social media includes, they find it boring, they don't have time, or some people are more private and choose not to share their life in that way. This leads into the downsides of Instagram. Even though you can make your account private, it does still allow your life to be very public and can always increase risk of dangers such as stalking. It also takes a toll on many peoples mental health for multiple reasons. People tend to paint themselves as someone they are not, or filter to only show the good aspects of their life. This can make people feel bad about themselves for not doing as much as someone else or not looking the way they look. 

Although numbers are still increasing, there is no saying what the future for Instagram will hold. There will always be the laggards such as my parents and grandparents who I don't think will ever download the app, as well as new competition and chances the app may one day die out. But if it does, there will be something new to take its place and start the whole cycle over again.

Freedom of Speech, Unless you are Anti-War

 

The topic of Anti-War has been a hush hush topic in America for a very long time. One big example of this was in the progressive era with WW1. Many people were thrown in jail for speaking out against the war. Many people felt this violated our right to freedom of speech especially because the government was involved however the people in jail were never released. 

Over time this improved slightly, but there is still a lot of controversy and issues with those who want to go against the government or who are anti-war. Fast forwarding into today's world, a lot of these issues still persist. Although it is not as obvious as it once was that the government wants to cover up Anti-War voices, it can be seen by the lack there of in our highly broadcasted media.

Although we don't see Anti-War voices in our popular media, they are still out there on platforms like The American Conservative and even more commonly on their website dedicated for their stories and voices AntiWar.com. This site is dedicated to tons of stories and writers who are using their freedom of expression, press, and speech to look down on and go against the multiple different war movements going on in America today. 

As for myself, I did not even know these sites existed prior to now. This is for many different reasons being one, I am not super into news, and also that if I go onto google or turn on the news channel these websites and ideas aren't broadcasted. As for the question why are these sites so unknown and hidden, it is hard to say exactly why but, it defiantly has to do with America's history and how those who expressed these opinions were punished and silenced. 

Going forward we must spread awareness that these voices are out there and make sure they maintain freedom to exist and spread their opinions. One of the things we fight for in America is freedom, and while this freedom may not be as pressing as other issues going on nation and world wide, it is still an important one to make sure everyones voices are heard and accepted safely.

Early Technology Presentations

 Today in class we got to hear from 4 different groups about the history of different technology that is common and very developed now a days. 

I found the iPhone presentation done by group 1 really interesting because this product has sky rocked and become the most popular phone in the united states along with all the other apple products as well. 

I also find it interesting because when it came out I was old enough to remember and be involved in that era of time. I can remember when everyone in my family got their first iPhone. My older brother came over to our house and was showing his new iPhone 1 off to my dad. My dad thought it was so amazing that he was convinced right then and there he needed one. So we all hopped into the car and we drove to the AT&T store where he bought his first iPhone 3. 

The first iPhone was released in June 2007 and within the first year they sold 1.4 million phones. The iPhone 3 was released only a year later in July 2008. It is amazing how after that each year or two a new iPhone would release with even more capabilities that had never been done before. It has also transformed a lot visually from bigger to smaller and now back to big again with the Plus line.

I didn't get my first iPhone until I was in 7th Grade which was about 2014, but before that I owned two other groundbreaking apple products, the Ipod Touch and the iPad mini. 

My first phone was the iPhone 5c which was cool because it was the first iPhone to come in all kinds of fun colors. Since owning my first phone, there has been so many changes from picture quality, to finger print passcodes, then they removed the headphone jack, and added face id passcodes. 

Overall, I would say it was one of the biggest and has the biggest impact of society because it led to many of the apps and platforms we have today along with the computer, and most teens in America today own a smartphone if not an iPhone. 

The good, The bad, and The ugly of Computer AI

 Artificial Intelligence has been developing rapidly and taking over a lot of aspects of life in the U.S and especially in China. In the movie "In the Age of AI" (full film) by FRONTLINE Some are referring to it as the New Space Race” or that data is the new oil and China is the new Saudi Arabia. 

Some of the pros are using computer intelligence for harmless and useful scanning over data such as in the medical field. There was talk about using computer intelligence to look at breast scans to look for early signs of issues or cancer. Computers can go through data way faster than a human can, so if it is accurate enough and can spot what we can or more, it can be a very useful tool to help us improve. 

However, there are also a lot of cons to Computer AI especially when it comes to privacy. Computer AI allows companies to collect all sorts of data from people from who you text to what you look up online and even where your location is. That can be pretty scary. The problem with this is there is no telling who gets this information and what they are doing with it. It is a current issue trying to limit and regulate data selling. 

With all of our data being sold around and easily taken it puts people at risk for things like identity theft or other hacking and safety issues. This can also have an effect on national security. Although our important national data is pretty well protected, with the advancements of hacking and AI there is no saying what can be done and if we are able to keep up the security as fast. It can also be used to sway people's opinions such as in politics. 

Lastly, it is also an issue because people believe that as computers develop and become smarter many jobs will be lost because companies will be able to replace them with cheaper more efficient computers. It is a worry that this could take a big toll on the world's economy and it will be hard to find enough other jobs for those in replaceable positions.

Thankfully, although there is no saying where the U.S will go in terms of privacy and AI, we are doing comparatively better than other countries where citizens are constantly being watched and tracked by cameras and AI. It is important to recognize the urgency of this issue and make sure something is done about it and regulations are put in place before it does get too out of hand.