Final Blog Post

 There are a lot of ways that social media has changed the way that we get our news and information. For example, the mainstream media no longer has a monopoly on information; anyone at any time can now provide their input or opinion on something, even if they are not qualified at all to give it.

Before social the mainstream media was not fact-checked; they were able to say whatever they wanted, and no one batted an eye. Which caused Americans to be more likely to trust what the news was saying, either because no one knew it was false or they were telling us the truth. 

There is no way to be one hundred percent sure either way. If it were that they were telling a reason large news companies may have switched from telling us the truth to spreading misinformation would be that social media companies are taking the advertising revenue that news stations used to get. Around 2 billion annually, these news stations could be attempting to make up for this lost revenue by presenting news stories that generate more clicks. 

Axios has done a survey every year since 1974 with 1000 people. In the past decade, the trust in the mainstream media has gone down significantly, and we hit an all-time low in 2024 only 31 percent saying that they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. According to Pew Research, people under 30 are almost just as likely to trust news from mainstream media as they are from social media, 56 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

Today, less and people trust the mainstream media to the point that we have started trusting sources that I would consider seriously flawed, and with large corporations in social media and in the news only caring about generating clicks and making a profit I am not sure how we can go back to a time where we had faith in the news were receive.

Blog Post 11

 An echo chamber is when someone only encounters ideas or beliefs that are the same as the ones that they already hold and believe to be true. Today, many people find themselves stuck in these echo chambers due to social media and the division in the country.

Often, people who scroll through social media only follow accounts that they agree with and only see content from those accounts. Which prop up their ideals and beliefs while demonizing the other side. For example, many news anchors and celebrities have compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. Someone who sees this comparison over and over in their little

echo chamber is going to have their beliefs that Trump is an evil fascist reinforced, which will continue to radicalize their views, until the point that they look down on or even hate people on the other side of the aisle.

Members of both political parties do this. When you are inside an echo chamber, you cannot think critically for yourself, and you rely upon and allow others to think and make up your beliefs for you. Only watching one news station or only following the same few account, or only talking and debating with people who already have the same beliefs as you will create this echo chamber, and allowing yourself to stay in the echo chamber and not branching out and hearing other points of view makes you a very shallow person with limited intelligence.

Through my social media I notice that I do only follow political commentators from the groups and party that I support so I have now gone through and made sure its not just one group i am hearing from it is multiple with diffent view points even if I disagree, when before this with major events or facts about people I would check with differnt news groups or sources from both sides of the asisle so at minimum I heard and understood the agrumument of the other side.

As Americans, we cannot allow the fear-mongering and dehumanization of people in the other political party in these echo chambers to divide us.

Age of AI

  As AI has become a bigger and bigger part of our everyday life, we run a lot of risks the more we advance it. For example, in China, they have used a social credit system where cameras have been installed throughout the country and use artificial intelligence to track their citizens, who they are, what they do, and who they hang out with. Every part of their day to day life is monitored by the Communist Party.

This causes major privacy problems for their citizens and the minority groups like the Uyghurs, who are under constant surveillance with all of their movements tracked as if they are all assumed to be criminals. Government surveillance like this is a real threat to the privacy of citizens around the world. As other countries see what China is doing, they themselves may decide to do something like it, even if it is not on that scale. It seems like whenever the government gets a new way to get control and invade our privacy, they do it. 

There are some positives to the advancement of AI. While the government may be able to use it to keep surveillance on us, it could help people like the police solve crimes or ID criminals that we may not have been able to identify before. AI has also helped companies increase their ability to manufacture their products at a higher and cheaper rate, but that also comes with many Americans losing their jobs.

Some experts had said that the job loss in some fields will be made up by new jobs in other aspects of the company, but I have a hard time believing that is anywhere near true. There is still a lot we do not know about AI. None of us can truly predict where it is going or what will be done with it, we just have to hope that the government and large corporations do right by us and do not abuse it. That seems unlikely, though.

EOTO 2

The Illusory truth effect is a psychological effect where the more we hear or see something, the more we believe, trust, and remember it. As humans, we find comfort in familiarity. Today, we can see the illusory truth effect in the news advertisements, political propaganda, and conspiracy theories. There are both pros and cons to the illusory truth effect; some cons are the spreading of misinformation, bad decision-making based on inaccurate information, and political candidates using it against us during election seasons. All these cons can sway public opinion about people or major events. There are some, but only a few, pros to the illusory truth effect, because we are programmed to remember information the more we are exposed to it. We can use it to our advantage when studying or just trying to remember information. For example, when studying for a test, many people use flash cards; this repeated flashing of information to our brains forces us to retain the information. Every day,

We are affected by the illusory truth effect and do not realize it; one of the biggest examples for our generation is on social media. Every day, we spend hours of our time scrolling through information, and often the same information is repeated to us on the app. Many times, it is the same information being shown to us within hours, by people who are not verified sources or qualified in any way to give us this information.

 While some times the information may be true, often it is inaccurate or blown way out of proportion, and none of us ever really bother to fact-check the information with a trusted source, we just see the information and assume all these people cannot just be wrong, so it must be true. Today, the news is very politicized, and they use the illusory truth effect to sway our opinions on just about every event or candidate that they can.

 So example, if you go on Fox News and watch their programming, they press the narrative over and over that China is the enemy and a threat to our country. If you were to tune into CNN or MSNBC, you would see that they relate every topic to Russia being the enemy and a threat to the nation. 

These large media companies know that most Americans turn on and watch the same news station whenever they turn on the news, so they can use that to their advantage by selling the same narrative night after night, attempting to create fears and division throughout our country and is one of the main reasons our country is so divided.

Many companies are well aware of the Illusory truth effect and take advantage of it through their advertising and marketing. How many times have you seen the same commercials on television over and over?

 They know that even if there is a company with a better product than theirs, if they can get their product in front of you, there is a much better chance you are going to trust them and buy their product. This also allows these companies to cut corners in the quality of their product because they know you will trust them and probably will not try a competitor's brands if they cannot market it in front of you.

 The Illusory truth effect is something that we encounter every day and need to be on the lookout for because if you do not notice what is going on around you, can may fall for these psychological tricks.

 

Diffusion of innovations

  When social media was first starting to be invented and released, like Facebook in 2004 and Instagram in 2010, many people got on and became involved in it quickly. At first, many people viewed it as a new way to communicate and share what they are doing with others. While email had been around since 1971, so people did have instant communication, many people were not as social on the internet. While Facebook did come out in 2004, it did not blow up in popularity until two years later in 2006.

One of the issues that people had with joining the social media platform was that they felt and believed that putting their lives online was an invasion of their privacy. Still today, there are issues with privacy and a lack of trust in these big social media companies selling our data. Some viewed social media as a new way to spread their information and beliefs. The creation of social media allowed for people other than the news to have a voice and be able to have a story that they could share with others all over the country and the world. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2024, 54 percent of US adults get their news from social media. The most used for news is

Facebook is in first place, and YouTube comes in second. Giving everyone a voice on the internet comes with both good and bad. The good thing is that now everyone has a voice, and it is much harder to censor or keep information from people. The bad thing is giving people who spread misinformation and lies on the internet, which has become increasingly easy because many people do you know see something on Facebook or some other social media platform, then go and fact-check it on a reputable source online. The other major negative is that these big social media companies invest in finding ways to make their site more addictive.

These companies had not been truly called out by the majority of the population until recently. As more technology gets released and comes out, everyone individually needs to evaluate and make the decision for themself if they want to get involved with it. You never know some day people might believe getting an implant in your brain is a good idea, but everyone who can stop and think for themselves and not just follow what the next greatest technology is may end up being the ones who are better off.

Anti-War

  While the government likes to tell us they are entering a war for noble reasons, like protecting democracy or fighting terrorism, the reality is that they make billions of dollars off the deaths of others. The big news companies are all owned by a small group of the ultra-wealthy who have the ability to make money for themselves and all their friends who have a common interest in these wars. The United States government spent 13.3 percent of the federal budget, or 820 billion, in 2023,

841 billion in 2024, and 849 billion in 2025. The United States has invested trillions of dollars over the years in war there is no chance they would ever promote any anti-war sentiments. To find websites or news sites that promote an end to war are going to be run by people who are not at the ultra-wealthy status in this country, because everyone at the top knows what the government invests in, and also themselves invest in it. All major news companies and almost all major companies in general are owned by Vanguard and BlackRock. In 2022

, BlackRock had tens of billions of dollars invested in military and civilian weapons manufacturers. BlackRock has so many assets under its control that they have a higher GDP than every country in the world except for the United States and China. As of 2024, Vanguard has 61.08 billion invested in defence contracts, 39.02 billion invested in the nuclear weapons industry, and another 22.26 billion invested in “controversial” weapons. Together, both BlackRock and Vanguard own

18 percent of Fox, 16 percent of CBS, and 13 percent of Comcast. So they own massive percentages of all the major news stations, which they are going to use to protect their other investments by promoting war. To do news and be anti-war means you are not owned by these companies, and they are not going to make it easy for us to hear from them, so to find the truth with no ulterior motives, you really need to dig and see what interests these companies have in promoting a certain situation. Always follow the money.

Eoto 1 Reflection

 Throughout history, we have continually tried to increase our ability to communicate with each other. The US Postal Service was created in 1775, with Benjamin Franklin

appointed as the first postmaster. Before it was first established in the late 1700s, people were unable to communicate without being there in person or someone sending a message for them. When the postal service came around, people from opposite sides of the country could send a message to one another in days, which today may seem slow because of our modern technology, which sends a message in an instant. The postal service used

steamboats, railroads, and even private services to get people's mail across the colony. The early goal of the post office was not to deliver citizens' mail, it was more focused on keeping the military and political leaders in touch, or to deliver news of major events either in the United States ot international news, which in the 1770’s was a little bit important seeing new major events were happening everyday. The mail service had impacts beyond just delivering news and messages; the creation of the US post office helped to create economic growth in the country, and allowed Americans in rural parts of the US to communicate with the larger cities in the US. Some of the biggest issues that the postal service faced with its creation were an easier way to ship illegal substances, because the

cannot go through your main; they do not know what you are shipping. Today, the mail service still has a place even with all the newer, more modern ways of communicating. Many companies still send bills or information through the mail, and when you need to ship a package, you most likely use the mail service. While most of us will continue to use email, text, and call to communicate, every once in a while, our only option is the US Postal Service, and we forget how bad we need it.