Parker Crumrine- Final Exam blog post

 Background on my online presence: After looking myself up on the internet and evaluating the social media sites I have and the extent to which I am on them, I find it fair to say I have a rather large social media presence. The social media accounts I have include Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok.  While each of these social media platforms serves its own unique purpose they each are addicting to consume on a regular basis.  I was introduced to Instagram first at the age of 11 after hearing about it from some of my friends in 5th grade.  When I was younger I used to spend multiple hours each week posting content from my own life and liking other people's posts on a regular basis.   Today I still spend a fair amount of time on Instagram scrolling through content however I post way less frequently than I used to.  In the summer of 2016, I was introduced to Snapchat for the first time through a group of friends.  At first glance, I thought the app was rather odd and pointless because all it involved doing was opening someone's snap and responding to them.  Despite this, I gave the app a chance and soon saw myself become hooked to it like everyone else.  Multiple times a day I am inadvertently grabbing my phone to access this app in order to communicate with people.  Unfortunately, I am still using this app way too frequently today to communicate with a wide variety of people.   Finally, I was introduced to Tik Tok in the summer of 2019. While I never post content I spend multiple hours per day scrolling through content.   

Concerns/Dangers of Social Media:  While social media has enhanced our lives in some good ways it has also introduced and heightened certain concerns.  One of these concerns includes the content of our lives being shared to the outside without any of our knowledge.  There have been many examples throughout our world of people's content being shared completely unknowingly.  One example of this involves a 13-year-old girl whose parents were sharing her content as a younger child on Facebook.  The consequences of people doing this involve a semblance of trust being lost along with a loss of privacy.  The bigger concern of the use of social media is the potential for addiction.  Unfortunately, many social media apps have features that increase the likelihood of addiction developing. 

 Notifications: One prime example of a feature that has enabled social media usage has been the usage of notifications. On a personal level, I have seen my usage with a specific social media app go up when I receive a notification on my phone.  Notifications are the alert that pops up on your phone which alerts you if someone has liked a photo or messaged you directly.  The reason why Notifications play a key role in promoting social media addiction is because of how prevalent they pop up.  Each time a notification pops up it tempts you as a consumer to naturally want to look at that app.  This was the intention behind each of these social media platforms enabling this feature onto their apps.  In fact, a documentary I recently watched called the social dilemma mentions how the screen time usage of social media apps has gone up since the incorporation of notifications.  

 Mood: Another real danger with Social Media is the ability it possesses to have an effect on our mood.  This could be the highs of someone liking your post or the lows of someone posting an image of you on Snapchat you do not like.  Unfortunately, Social Media's ability to control our moods has highly contributed towards an increased suicide rate in teens and young adults from 15-29 years old.    

 Privacy:  The third and possibly the most notable concern from social media is our personal privacy being violated.  Several social media apps have enabled features in them over the past several that have violated this even more.  One example is Snapchat's newer feature called Snapmaps.  Snap map is a feature where you can see your friends' locations and how long ago they were on the app.  More concerningly this feature enables another way for the government to see our locations on a regular basis.  

Impact on the future of Gen Z: With my Generation Gen Z being the first generation to live out the majority of their lives with the existence of social media the long-term implications of having social media are unknown.  Unfortunately, this means my generation is essentially the test bunnies of potential long-term physical and mental health damage resulting from use. Regarding physical health having a device that encourages you to sit down and look at it rather than to be exercise or be present in any situation will cause obesity rates to skyrocket over the years.  Additionally looking at your phone requires you to bend your neck to a certain position while on it.  This could have effects on the posture of your neck as you age.  Another long-term impact social media can negatively contribute to is your ability to land a job. A certain photo or image you or someone posted of you doing or saying something you shouldn't have unfortunately can prohibit you from landing a job in the near future.  

My Plans for the Future:  While I see and am aware of the many negative effects social media has had on people in my age bracket I intend to keep all my social media platforms.  Despite this, I will make more of a concerted effort to monitor my usage of each app.  In the near future, I do not intend to get any other social media platforms except Linkin which will be used for job purposes strictly.  Overall this assignment has further informed me about the dangers of social media and the effort I can take individually to reduce the amount of content I am posting.  

Works cited: https://geeksroom.com/2017/06/snapchat-snap-map/111555/

https://www.fastcompany.com/90315706/kids-parents-social-media-sharing

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/teen-suicide-rate-spikes-56-in-9-years

Vaccine Mandates- Impact on FA law in the future

 Works cited: https://www.foxnews.com/media/ron-johnson-no-fda-approved-covid-vaccine

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/11/texas-greg-abbott-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/

http://www.4j.lane.edu/communications/2013bond/news/roosevelt/

https://www.wxow.com/coronavirus/wisconsin-dhs-releases-covid-19-vaccine-plan/article_c5164ab2-aedd-5f2f-bb1c-dee83e08f31c.html

Introduction: Over the past 18 months our country has endured a continual sequence of devasting events from COVID 19.  These include deaths, illnesses, businesses closing down.  On top of it all, we have governors, senators, mayors, and of course our president who are struggling between helping people's personal safety at the expense of regulating their freedom.  This struggle is most prevalent when the discussion about the COVID 19 vaccine emerges.  Since its emergence in December of 2020 the vaccine has generated three different categories of opinions from the people.  These are the people who are against themselves and others getting it, the people who may or may not get it but respect free choice, and the people who have gotten it and want everyone to get it.  Overall these viewpoints have had drastic events on people's livelihood in multiple ways.

Location of residence:  Many people over the past 18 months have moved to or stayed in certain places because of their governor's or senator's opinion on regulations over the Coronavirus.  This can be seen most notably in New York City where Mayor Blair de Blasio recently required a covid shot for anyone to enter a restaurant, movie theater, or bar. These restrictions have caused more of a lifestyle centered around protecting your own personal health at the expense of enjoying pre covid activities. Unfortunately, these restrictions have affected family life far beyond staying indoors more frequently.  Many children are losing valuable experience from being in a school where they can experience academic and social growth.  The social experience of going to school has a different effect on people of different ages.  For young kids in preschool not going to daycare or school could affect their ability to become potty trained or learn basic cognitive skills such as speaking properly.  While the Middle School years are seen as an incredibly awkward 3 years for many people the social experience is key for human development. In Middle school, you learn about important concepts such as Sex and you also experience a sense of social immaturity between you and your friend group.  Without having in person classes you risk children encountering that stage of social immaturity in High school rather than Middle school.  

Other states such as Florida and Texas have taken a much different approach to the shot.  Recently Governor Greg Abbot from Texas banned any private or public company from requiring any vaccine mandate for any of their employees.  Instead of requiring people to get a shot Abbot sees and respects the people's choice towards whether or not they deem it as necessary to get a Covid 19 vaccine.  This approach has allowed people living in Texas to enjoy aspects of pre covid life while still understanding the implications of a global pandemic.  These looser restrictions have caused Texas to experience massive growth as a state since the pandemic began.

My issue/ concerns with vaccine mandates:  First off I want to state how I respect your decision to either get vaccinated or to not get vaccinated because I understand every person has a different medical situation or concern over the vaccine which plays a role towards their decision to get the vaccine.  Unfortunately, many people have taken a different approach when approaching the vaccine.  On both sides, there is too much disrespect towards people who are either vaccinated or not vaccinated.  This disrespect can be seen in multiple ways through canceled culture or from our president, senators, or governors mandating vaccines.  While the intention of these people is to protect the general public by enforcing these rules they fail to recognize they are delivering this in somewhat of an authoritative manner.  This authoritative manner can be seen by people prohibiting you to enter places without being vaccinated or instructing you to get vaccinated without knowing anything about the shot. Unfortunately, certain people are pressing others to get the vaccine so much certain downsides or dangers regarding receiving the vaccine are being ignored.  The most prevalent out of all of these is the fact the vaccine has not yet been FDA approved.  Unlike other vaccines, this one has not been tested in a lab for multiple years so there is no guarantee it is safe for you in the short term or the long term.  

Why these mandates can impact FA law in the future:  While mandating someone to get a vaccine is not a direct violation of FA law many of the viewpoints inherited from this pose a real threat to violate aspects of FA law in the future.  For example, if the government views it as a right to tell you to get a vaccine they may view it as ok to instruct you to believe in a certain religion in the future.  As a citizen of this great nation this affects my rights as a citizen to be able to openly express what I believe in.  Overall knowing my FA rights as a citizen could be threatened in the future by our government makes me concerned about where our nation is heading.  

Parker Crumrine Blog Post 13- Equality vs Human safety

                                                 When Equality overtakes Human safety

Works cited:

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/national/michael-w-chapman/liberal-media-censor-alleged-bathroom-rape-teen-girl-boy-skirt

https://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2021/10/virginia-school-board-hid-bathroom-assault-to-protect-transgender-policies/

https://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/target-transgender-restroom/2016/04/22/id/725278/

https://www.livenewsmag.com/cnn/

 The development to the story:  Over the last several weeks we have engaged in multiple conversations over how large chain news sources can be biased towards the information they have provided.  Recently an incident has occurred involving a highly controversial topic in our Country.  This topic involves the approval or disapproval of providing Transgender bathrooms in public spaces. This movement for transgender rights began under the Obama administration in 2008 when he campaigned for more equal rights to gay and transgender people. Over his 8 years in office, Obama took measures to implement this equality such as instructing all public schools to allow transgender bathroom use in May of 2016.  Seeing the movement was gaining large companies such as Target began implementing transgender bathroom use in many of their stores.  

The story:  Over the last 5 years rights for transgender people have only increased.  Unfortunately, the growth of transgender rights has been at the cost of protecting basic human rights.  This can be seen no better than a recent event that has occurred.  This event involved a 14-year-old High school Freshman, Female from Virginia being raped by a male wearing a women's dress.  Immediately after being raped the girl told her parents who were rightfully upset about this.  The parents contacted the school immediately to tell them about what had happened to their daughter. Unfortunately, rather than helping the female, the school was more concerned with covering the incident up as a whole. This can be seen by a school official commenting on the issue by saying " The predator transgender student or person does not exist and to his knowledge, we do not have any record of assaults occurring in court restrooms." The school board is believed to have covered up this issue in order to protect the rights of transgender people by not painting a bad representation of one.  

My Problems/ concerns with this incident:  As someone who is all for equal treatment of everyone I see an issue when equality comes at the expense of people's personal safety. First off rape has always been and will always be a huge issue in our world, especially to young Females.  Unfortunately, the introduction of transgender bathrooms has provided an easier outlet for women to be raped at the cost of promoting equality for transgenders. When you have a private space such as a bathroom in a public place where people of all ages and sexes have the ability to enter the chances of rape occurring are much higher. Despite this, I never thought I would see a day when an innocent woman would be raped for no apparent reason and the predator would receive no consequence because of the gender they identify as.   Aside from equality, this incident signals an even bigger problem in our country which is our society losing human decency norms.  If rape is now acceptable by a certain group of people after being completely unacceptable throughout its existence by anyone then I question what will be next.  Another long-term effect of this incident is another rapist around the world taking notes over what has happened. Seeing someone receive no consequence for committing rape will cause many rapists around the world to remodel the action which increases the likelihood of an event like this happening again.   

The impact the News has played on this event: While transgender rights have been a hot topic in our Country over the course of the last several years our accessibility to this story is a big contributing factor as to why this event has been swept under the rug.  This is due to our large-scale media sources such as Fox News, CNN, and ABC not broadcasting this story.  If so-called reliable news sources do not broadcast important information in our country then they are limiting the amount of knowledge we can gain and our ability as citizens to form an opinion on a situation.  If we are unable to form views then many of our FA rights such as freedom of speech are unable to be exercised because of this. 

Overall takeaway: Overall this event frightens me for the present but most notably for the future.  This event has shown me how basic human rights can be sugar-coated for anything.  

 

Parker Crumrine- EOTO 2 presentation review

 sources: https://www.picpedia.org/highway-signs/f/fake-news.html

When listening to all of the EOTO presentations the one I took the most away from was the Mis info vs Real information. I felt like this presentation resonated with me and the entirety of Gen Z because many of us form believes based off of our parents or our friend's beliefs rather than doing our own research.   While listening to this presentation I found it helpful to learn the difference between Fake news and disinformation. Our speaker defined fake news as purposefully crafting something changed to meet a certain group.  Disinformation was defined as intentionally sharing wrong information.  Knowing the differences between the two is critical towards determining which one a certain news source is expressing.  This information has allowed me to determine most news sources use Fake news because their information is more modified towards appealing to a certain group of people rather than 100 percent factually incorrect.  After speaking out about the differences between the two our speaker articulated why we fall for fake news.  These reasonings were known as the 6 degrees of manipulation which include discrediting, emotion, polarization, impersonation, trolling, and conspiracy.  Often times many news sources use a headline or a certain tone of voice which helps express one of these degrees of manipulation.  

Knowing the danger each of us faces towards falling for fake information our speaker provided us methods towards distinguishing real news from fake news.  This method known as the Brian Southwell method outlines several different techniques we can implement towards determining whether the news you are receiving is fake.  The methods are: analyzing the information, identify the information, question the intent of the information, discovering if it is an authoritative resource and evaluating the information.  If we are able to utilize each of these 5 methods the next time we watch something on the TV or read an article we will be able to form our own opinion on a certain topic.  Overall this presentation has outlined important information I can use in the future when I am trying to determine whether a source is legitimate or not.  

Parker Crumrine- Ken Igneus speech

 General overview of llgunas hike: Recently I had the pleasure of hearing a speech from a man who had hiked the entirety of the Keystone XL pipeline by himself.  Ken llgunas a 29-year-old male from Buffalo New York was working in the oil fields of Alaska when one day he felt compelled to hike the Keystone XL pipeline.  Llgunas's callings to hike the Keystone XL pipeline revolved around his strong opinion about the Keystone XL pipeline causing more harm than good to our environment.  Llgunas's hope was to spread awareness to the general public about the damage he believed fossil fuels were having on the environment.

llgunas's journey:  Llgunas's journey began in Canada and would last from September 13th, 2012 to February 8th, 2013.  Before embarking on his trip Llgunas stocked up on essentials such as an adequate supply of food, water, lighting, and clothing.  Llgunas's journey from Canada all the way down to Port Author Texas.  While traveling llgunas asked citizens their opinions on the pipeline. Llgnunas noticed the attitude of the pipeline varied from state to state. Certain people's livelihood depended on the Keystone XL while some people wanted it gone as soon as possible.  Llgunas witnessed more of the positive reactions surrounding the Keystone XL in places such as Alberta Canada and Texas.  These specific locations are places where the ground is most suitable for mining oil.  This has prompted a large number of people to become directly or indirectly involved in the oil and gas industry.  Directly being involved in this business means you have worked firsthand by mining the oil out of the ground, refining it, or transporting the oil.  Indirectly working in the business could be working at a hotel, restaurant, or shop located near an oil field. The pipeline's ability to provide a large variety of new jobs in these areas has caused a huge economic boost to many people.  

One example of the pipeline's ability to cause a huge economic boost involved a farmer Llgunas interviewed while hiking across Canada.  The farmer stated how he and several other farmers got the company to up their compensation 30 times from their original offer.  Llgunas encountered a different reaction when encountering a local citizen in Nebraska.  This citizen named Gary worked at the town's history museum in Omaha Nebraska.  Gary's attitude towards climate change reflected more concern towards what is happening rather than a specific reason why it is happening.  After meeting Gary, Llgunas's journey lasted several more months where he would encounter issues such as weariness, famine, and dehydration before making it to Port Arther Texas where the pipeline ends. On February 8th, 2013 Llgunas arrived in Port Arther Texas where he encountered the oil refinery. Llgunas was blown away seeing the ability man possessed to create something like this.  Unfortunately recognizing this Llgunas saw the potential man plays towards destroying our environment.   

Takeaway/ questions I have after hearing this:  While I see and understand some of the concerns Llgunas expressed while discussing his journey I do not entirely see the realism behind eliminating fossil fuels completely.  As someone who is from Texas, I see the economic benefit oil and gas has provided to many people's livelihoods.  I know many families who are or have worked in the oil and gas industry at some point in their lives.  Eliminating fossil fuels means you force those people to seek out new jobs.  Unknown to many people Fossil Fuels produce many other products other than natural gas such as clothes, cell phones, purses, shoes, and many more.  Eliminating Fossil Fuels would mean we would be unable to receive many of these items.  Finally, Llgunas speech did not convey a method towards eliminating fossil fuels.  Overall despite some of my objections, I found it helpful and informative to hear about Llgunas's journey and his perspective on fossil fuels.   

sources: 

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/11/f68/Products%20Made%20From%20Oil%20and%20Natural%20Gas%20Infographic.pdf

http://www.kenilgunas.com/2012/10/day-17-oyen-alberta.html

https://5thworldadventures.blogspot.com/2018/07/map-us-shale-oil-fields.html

Parker Crumrine- Antiwar

 Throughout our Countries history, any opinion opposing a certain belief the government had about a specific topic was oftentimes punished.  This can be seen back in the 1910s from many Americans being thrown in jail during WW1 for opposing the movement for getting involved in WW1.  More modernly we see our government censoring Anti War opinion.  A big way they have implemented this is through the accessibility to Anti War viewpoints we see on mainstream media stations.  Many mainstream media news sources such as CNN either oftentimes don't cover or don't express a strong enough opinion against the antiwar movement in our country today.  Despite this certain sources such as ANTI WAR.com and American conservative provide informed and educated opinions on our involvement in wars overseas.  One of my favorite articles from Anti War. com is titled "Rural Afghans Hated Americans".  This article provides a first-hand account from Afgan citizens about the impact the US has played on the ongoing war climate in their country.  They credit the presence of the US army for keeping them safe from the Taliban for the last 20 years but they do bring up some of the bigger challenges the presence of the US troops has caused.  The main issue they cite is how the amount of damage and casualties the US army has caused in their hometown due to their airstrikes on land.  

Unfortunately, the damage Americans were causing in the City eventually prompted more people to join the Taliban to revolt against the US.  A prototypical mainstream news source would not cover this story out of fear of the government censoring their viewpoints.  Unfortunately, sources such as ANTI WAR.com are obsolete because they are portraying an opinion that does not align with the governments' viewpoints on the situation.  In mainstream media, the governments' influence on the information shared with us prohibits our ability to become informed citizens.  Our inability to be informed over what is happening in the world today will further hinder our ability to form a viewpoint about a specific matter.  Overall our views and knowledge over situations will always be limited if our government continues to play such a substantial role in regulating what sources are viewed.

Sources

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghanistan-village-us-taliban/2021/10/04/e531303c-214a-11ec-a8d9-0827a2a4b915_story.html

https://www.antiwar.com/

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/web-categories/realism-restraint/

Parker Crumrine- Age of AI Video documentary

 Fear, anxiety, concern are the three words I feel when I am describing my feelings about the development of technology around our world in the future.  Each of these feelings felt very real to me as I was watching this video.  My emotional feelings for this topic stem from several of the problems this new technology will cause towards the future of our country as a whole.

works cited: 

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/a-new-study-measures-actual-impact-robots-jobs-its-significant#:~:text=The%20automotive%20industry%20employs%2038%25%20of%20existing%20industrial,material%20handlers%2C%20and%20welders%2C%20Acemoglu%20and%20Restrepo%20write.https://nypost.com/2019/10/22/seven-in-10-americans-would-trust-a-robot-do-their-chores/

https://www.idginsiderpro.com/article/3269023/the-biggest-ai-startup-deals-of-2018.html

 https://cigen-rpa.medium.com/the-impact-of-robotic-process-automation-on-the-automotive-industry-6a0eabaf9ee1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dZ_lvDgevk

 Effect on Work:  While technology in the modern-day has enhanced our ability to work whether it is communicating with someone remotely or using creativity on a PowerPoint project, this video has taught me to not expect this to continue.  The reason why this is not expected to continue is that machines or robots are expected to eclipse the intellectual level of human beings sometime in the near future.  Due to their intelligence, many of these machines or robots will be incorporated in some sort of role in job industries.  This will cause a high percentage of workers to be laid off because of the technologies ability to perform the task. I found it surprising to learn how some industries have already been affected by this such as the automotive industry which almost relies solely upon robots.  More concerning for the future this video mentions robots might be taking many of our desired white-collar jobs such as a reporting analyst.   As someone who desires to go into a career potentially involved in reporting this information frightens me.  

Effect on Personal Security: In our modern-day lives one of the biggest concerns we face today is our personal security.  Unfortunately thanks to platforms such as social media and google our personal security has never been more at risk.  The risk of incorporating more Artificial Intelligence into our lives will further damage our ability to have any kind of security in our lives.  This can be seen by seen from the use of facial recognition.  In the video, we are introduced to a system known as Megvii which is a facial recognition app used to identify people. I had no idea this app had the capability to spot out someone's age, gender, and what they're wearing in the span of a few seconds.  More concerningly this app provides an easier outlet towards enabling the government to spy on you from multiple locations.  As a whole, the incorporation of AI in features such as facial recognition will make our security even less secure in the future than it is today.  

Effect on families:  Economically speaking the increased amount of job layoffs will have a big impact on the livelihood of many families.  Many parents will be required to look for a new job opportunity they believe will not be replaced by a machine or robot.  The increased amount of job layoffs will decimate our middle class even further making the gap between the rich and the poor even larger.  Psychologically speaking effect of a greater amount of job loss will cause an increased amount of stress in family life.  This incorporation of new technology will also have a profound effect on our children in school.  If the children know there is a machine or a robot who has a greater ability to do their school work why would they bother trying.  Further, their ability to land a job in the future will be even greatly hindered by a lack of options due to the machines and robots.  

Overall takeaway: While it can seem exciting on paper to think there could be robots or new technology in the near future the cons might outweigh the pros of having them.  As a 19-year-old college student, I find it disappointing how new technology could hinder my basic values in the future such as personal security and a stable job.