EOTO Reflection #1

When watching my peers present, one presentation that I found intriguing was the VCR. I knew a little bit about the VCR, and how it was used to record and playback shows and movies, but I never really thought of how much it impacted society. 

 

The VCR was invented by Charles Paulson Ginberg in 1956, he was born in 1920. Charles was known as ”The father of the video of the cassette recorder.”  Technology has come so far that we can record anything with our phones and stream them to our TV’s. When you think of a VCR nowadays, you think of a small box that usually goes under or around your tv and costs around $100, but back when it was just made it was a massive box that sat under the television. When VCR’s first came out they were very expensive and the cost was upwards of $1000. Most media companies used the VCR because they could afford them.  By 1985 the cost came down around $200 and the average person could afford one. Not only did people play back videos that they made but that is how people watched movies that they rented. Now we have netflix and hulu and can watch it right on our tv without having to rent a movie and put it into the VCR.    

Media companies did not end up liking VCRs, because as the peer that presented, they said people could now share things without the company getting a cut of the proceeds. Media companies did feel threatened because the VCR could possibly take them out of business. 

My parents have VCR tapes that they used to record us on when we were little. The only way to watch the tapes was on a VCR machine.  People ended up raving about the VCR because now they didn't have to leave their house to watch a movie, they pretty much had an at home theater. This VCR really had a huge impact on people back then because they have never had anything technologically advanced as the VCR, and now they have this freedom they thought they would never have.

No one ever thought that today, we are going to be this technologically advanced, but now we have everything right in front of us, and can watch whatever we want, from wherever we want.

Final Post

Is the world we live in bad? Are we safe? These are the two questions that I keep thinking about after learning about the safety of our personal information. I understand that everything we put on social media, it is for everyone to see. It never really goes away and can hunt us for years to come.  Like the rest of the world, I am attached to my phone.  The Moby video was funny, but sadly enough this is what our world looks like.. Our phones never leave our hands and wherever we go, even into the bathroom our phone comes with us. I do feel that our generation relies heavily on our phone and because of that  we may lack the communication skills that we need. If I  surveyed a hundred people on whether they would give up their phone  so they could maintain their privacy, I would guess that 100 percent would not give up their phones, nor would I. 

When I was in middle school, my sister’s best friend, at the time, stole my mothers email address and used my name to open a Facebook account. My mother at the time was not on FB  nor was my sister.  She posted timelines  pretending it was her and saying horrible things to people. She friended people that my sister was not friends with nor would she be. When I searched my sister's name it brought up a made up account with my sister's name on it. The good news was that there was not any information that would be a problem for her later on in life. The fact that people can steal someone’s identity and make up accounts under their name could hurt someone's reputation in the future.  I decided to google one of my grandfather’s who writes engineering text books for colleges. Google brought up all the books that my      grandfather wrote and google even linked me to my grandfather.  

Boylestad
studylib.net

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 I searched my friends on instagram and Facebook to make sure posts that they have of me were clean. This is another level of privacy that most people do not think about. You might be careful about what you post but a family member or friend might post something that you do not approve of. You want to trust family and friends but you might want to tell them to ask permission next time they post a picture of you.  “Surely, users know that Facebook uses information about their behaviors and friendships to deduce a constantly updating list of their interests. This detailed information about people constitutes Facebook’s competitive advantage: If it knows what people like, it can put ads in front of them that are likely to result in purchases”https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/facebook-users-still-dont-know-how-facebook-works/580546/. This shows me that not only do we need to be careful about things we post about ourselves but every swipe of the key tells facebook, google, instagram and other platforms  information about us. 

I do not feel that technology has impacted me in negative ways. It could, but going forward I will keep myself as safe as possible. What I do like about technology is the communication that it allows us to have. You have facetime which allows you to communicate and see the other person. For friends that are far away, I use snap chat to take a picture and send it. SnapChat says it goes away instantly but people do need to know that everything gets stored in the cloud. Another reason to think before you post.

This summer I will be starting an internship. Due to technology I was able to have face to face interviews that led me to getting the job.  I felt confident that if the company searched the web they would not find anything negative about me. I am on social media like millions of other people but I have been educated and smart enough to know what to put on and what not to. We live in a highly advanced world that can work to our advantages as well as get us into trouble. People need to understand that everything is public and if you want something to stay private then leave it off social media and put your phone down.  It will keep you safer in the long run.