EOTO #2 Reactions

 

    After watching all the presentations in class, the group that really piqued my interest was the group 3. Their discussions on the theories presented were the most thorough and detailed out of the bunch. One term that I really found interesting was the term Gatekeeping. "Gatekeeping is the process by which

information is filtered through the media to the public"(Wikipedia). This idea that media is filtered from the public's view is crazy. As someone who watches live media, the idea is that most of the true information that I'm given isn't even the full scope of it. Another interesting point I learned during the presentations was the idea of gatekeeping in social media. Gatekeeping in social media is increasing more and more each day with influencers and celebrities running the show. One thing they do to gatekeep is they only show a small fraction of their actual lives. They do this by picking and choosing what people are allowed to see on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Another point they

talked about in their presentation is gatekeeping in politics. This is more so working with the fact that broadcasters or news reporters get information and pick and choose what they want their viewers to hear. This creates a divide between viewers because one side is getting fed information that the other one isn't.

    The presentation overall did a great job of informing me and keeping me aware and grounded in these ideas. I think we as a collective community need to start realizing that celebrities' lives are not fully shown and that we only see their lives on a microscopic level. Gatekeeping is something we should all know and be informed on and I'm glad this group talked about some of the ways it's used in the world.

Relationships with Technology for the Future

 

Our perception of technology is on a spectrum where both ends are wrong. On one end we have this perception that technology would’ve been super advanced with flying cars and hoverboards. (Thank you Back to the Future). This idea of thinking that technology would advance fast enough from 1985 to 2015! Overall, the idea that technology would progress at this pace was thrilling and we were excited to see what the future would hold for us. Now in 2023, technology scares some people because it’s getting too advanced for our brains to understand. We used to glorify technology usage with movies like Back to the Future and now we’re terrified of what technology can do to us. With these ideas

in mind, I’d like to think that my relationship with technology is pretty healthy. I’m able to separate my online life from the real world. I think that this final assignment is challenging me to think critically about how technology affects my life. A few points I’d like to make during this post are how I balance my time on and off social media, my digital footprint, and my opinions on how technology is viewed and perceived through my mind.

To start, my relationship with technology over the years has varied. My tech usage is far less than it was in 2020 where my entire life was through a screen. COVID helped me grasp a better understanding of technology usage. I was in a bad cycle of waking up at 11 am, getting the minimal amount of work I had to do, playing video games till about dinner time, which was about the only time I was away from my screen and then after that playing more video games till about 3 am and then go to bed. Rinse and repeat for about four months and that was my life. I felt empty without technology and I knew I had a problem and having school online was not helping. I felt the need to always be on my phone and it was hard to get off of that. Now being in college for about a year and a half I’ve learned that I don’t need to keep every memory in my cellphone and live in the moment. Time away from my phone always feels good because I accomplish more. The most I use it for is for music but even then I just use my record player. 

    A big idea we push at High Point University is our digital footprint and what we post online may come back to bite us in the future. I wholeheartedly agree that posting pictures in videos should be

appropriate for social media, but that shouldn’t deter people from posting. Personally, my Instagram is public because I have nothing to hide. I want to show everyone who I am and what parts of my life are like. The same goes for Facebook and TikTok. Though Facebook is mostly for my relatives to see what’s going on in my life, TikTok is private just because for me it’s more personal and I like sending videos to my friends. I also use my common sense not to post or repost certain political opinions, as that could affect my life in ways I do not want to know about. Finally, I can say that I’ve accepted the society we live in. Does this mean I accept the actions of some people? No, it doesn’t. Every person is different and they’re in control of their fate in certain ways. In Greek tragedies, this is called Hamartia, and there are two ends of the word’s meaning. It’s either present under error or

transgression. In this case, people who use technology for its unintended purpose, and then get caught fall under the transgression portion because of the flaw in judgement. I do think that technology was created to benefit us, and for the most part, it has! Unfortunately, humans have to ruin it for their selfish cause. I do think in the future though, there will be something in place to better reprimand people who misuse technology for evil and unorthodox purposes.