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.

Privacy

  Now more than ever, online privacy has become a bigger and bigger issue, not just here in the United States but all throughout the world. With each search on Google or post on social media, we create a digital footprint that will live until the end of time. This could affect hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people now and increasingly in the future. As generations like mine that have grown up on the internet

Go in for job interviews and attempt to get jobs, everything we have said or shared online will be available for our employers to see. On one hand, this can be a semi-decent thing because the truly strange or abusive people you will be able to weed out, but the people who may have said or shared something that no longer represents them as a person, either because they 

have changed as a person, or they posted it when they were much younger, and have matured, their digital footprint could still haunt them down the line. The government seems to have been extremely slow and lazy, as the government usually is when it comes to making laws about protecting our online security. In recent years, there has been a push for increased protections, and some have been passed, like the Online Privacy Act of 2023, which was passed by

Congress in April of 2023. Even if the government passes bills to protect us, they are only going to do so much (because they really don’t care). The government will only give us protections when we really start to make a big deal about them invading our

privacy. They may have passed a few bills that protect us from a few things to make it seem like they are helping us, but there are still plenty of issues that they are not addressing, like the government using our license plates to track when and where we are going throughout our day-to-day lives. Like this TED Talk pointed out. As technology keeps getting better, we need to put more and more pressure on the government to limit its surveillance of innocent private citizens.

EOTO 1

The invention of video allowed people to convey messages and ideas to larger audiences in a way that was never possible beforeInitially, if you wanted to get an idea out, you had to either write in the paper or travel and give speeches to the group that you wanted to talk to. Then, with the creation of video, all of a sudden,n you could be in multiple places at once. The earliest films did not have audio and did not often have a message, but were more of filmmakers experimenting with the camera.  So these films might be of someone walking, making facial expressions, or dancing. The first recorded video that we know of was made in 1888

by Louis Le Prince, and was called the

"Roundhay Garden Scene" is a two-second clip of a man and a woman walking.

As time the video would get more advanced and eventually get both audio and color. Which would allow for

clearer and more passionate messages. In 1927, Warner Bros. released the first full-length film with sound,

called “The Jazz Singer,” and the first movie that was completely in color was a French short film in 1902.

“The Trip to the Moon.” As video became more and more important to communication

In the 1900s, companies were trying

to find more ways to use video. So, at the 1964 World Fair, AT&T unveiled the picture phone, which was

the first attempt to allow people to both see and talk to each other at the same time. This was almost

completely unrealistic because it required its separate phone line, had a very high cost, and when this

technology was first revealed.

Many Americans in the 1960s, when the picture phone was revealed, feared

The idea of their face being transmitted from one device to another instead of just their voice. Today none

of us even take a second thought to think we are putting our faces out on the internet, but they would have

viewed video communication the same way many of us view Neuralink, the brain implant being made by

Elon Musk's company, and when you put it into that perspective, it’s not that crazy for them to think that.

Before early recorded film, people used objects like Zoetropes, Kinetographs, and Kineoscopes.

The Zoetrope was a cylinder like object that you could peer through a slit in the side

of the object with a

paper strip, with different stages in the animation. Giving the illusion of movement. Kinetograph was

designed by Thomas Edison. It was a camera that was able to take a fast burst of photographs. With

modern video, we can look frame by frame as if each frame were its own photo. The Kineograph did

this on a much smaller scale. The kineoscope was also invented by Thomas Edison. This device was

like a single-person movie theater where the film could be viewed through a small peephole. Inside this

large box, a roll of film lights up and plays. Throughout history, humans have attempted to give life-like

movement to inanimate objects, and as time has gone on, we have become better and better up until we

can show the exact moments we make through modern videography and film.