My blog

 *This DCI assignment asked for us to suggest a work of fiction that we would assign for the next class and why it is relevant to our class.* 

     Every ounce of technological advancement our society seems to “discover,” is just an intense form of understanding the limitations of humans. I went to a talk at my school on Roboethics by Ronald Arkin where he mentioned that when he study robots he really is on the quest to ultimately solve: what makes us human? 

    The three works of fiction that stood out to me all dive into the issues of being human. 

    The first work of fiction I would highly recommend is the Twilight Zone episode “I Sing The Body Electric” (Season 3 Episode 35). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQyLupktgRs (here is a link to about 5 minutes from the beginning).

Without spoiling too much of the episode, a father losses his wife and is raising their three children by himself. The children’s Aunt Nedra believes that the children need guidance that the father cannot provide. Although the father protests and says he can provide that guidance to his own children, Aunt Nedra passes by the children and expresses her sadness to them. This sparks the father to reconsider that he can provide his children love, but he cannot be with them all the time. The son brings a magazine named Modern Science, that has an ad for I Sing The Body Electric machine that mimics an elderly woman. The rest of the episode dives into what happens to the family when the two younger children create a machine that is eerily alike to their dead mother. Does Grandma (the machine) have the ability to raise the children like a human would? Does the Grandma love the children? Is the Grandma truly a gentle machine or just programmed to be gentle? Is it possible to have a gentle machine that is truly selfless? There’s so many questions this episode can produce. I was attracted to how similar it was to the somewhat recent movie Ex Machina that looks into the selfishness of humans and AI. Both looked into the Turing test, which asks the participant to determine using a very specific set of procedures whether the other participant behind the screen is a robot or a human. I’m oversimplifying the whole test, but it’s a relevant question especially now that AI can now walk like humans and look like us. I would assign this episode (which is about 25 minutes long) along with a reading about the Turing test and Sophia the AI that goes to UVA. I would ask the students if this episode paints the Grandma more human-like or less human-like? And I would ask if the Grandma would pass the Turing test or fail it. Furthermore, I would conclude asking the students what does this episode tell us about humans and our need for guidance, attention and love. The graded assignment would be just the discussion questions and the worksheet.

     You could also show them the 1981 Electric Light Orchestra song, “Yours Truly, 2095” in class. This song may seem a little random, but it displays the singer writing a letter to a past human lover talking about all the technology he is experiencing. Furthermore, it sounds like the singer is talking about a robot that is suppose to remind him of the human lover, but he finds it difficult to really erase the human lover from his mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb5TV7JUvzo (again a link to this song).  The whole song is a take on what the 21st century would be like now that technology is improving exponentially. I would have them either pull out a section of the song that they thought showed the singer’s mixed feelings about the robot the best or have them make a skit or song depicting themselves writing a letter to a human about some technological advancement in the near future. I also really like this song, because it deals with the Turing test and whether Robots can fill the void that loneliness creates. But then again, I’m pretty biased, because ELO is one of my favorite bands.

   The second piece of fiction I was considering was another Twilight Zone episode, “ A Thing About Machines” (Season 2 episode 4). This one is hard to describe without spoiling or imposing my own theories, but here I go. A man has problems with technology and grows more paranoid about technology as he notices his new devices turn on by themselves. The reason why I like this episode is it dives into whether technology is an extension of our mind and fears. * SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD * We find out that the man is a practicing “Sophisticate” who cannot control technology nor people despite attempting to do so. His whole life seems fake and manufactured. One comment it definitely had was that technology has the ability to mimic our mind and expose our own emotions. For instance, the man calls some ladies to have dinner with him, because he doesn’t want to be alone, but he discovers things about their lives which shakes him from his fantasy. The ending is a classic Twilight Zone cliff-hanger, which would provide for an interesting discussion. I think you could throw this episode with a reading about technology’s effect on our mind, mental health and how anxiety impacts our usage of technology. For the graded assignment, I would just have the students write about their interpretation of the ending and whether it shows that technology is part of the human mind or whether technology is just a distraction for our mind. 

   The last piece of fiction is the Black Mirror episode, “Hang the DJ” (Season 4 Episode 4). This one deals with a girl named Amy and a man named Frank who are paired up with this device that guarantees matching you up with the one. In order to get the 99.8% accuracy that the device claims to produce, you have to go through multiple dates with the system in order for the system to gather better data on what you like and what you don’t like.  Throughout the episode, it throws in social commentary about hook-up culture, relationships, love, and online dating. Considering online dating has become more popular, I thought it would be interesting to discuss how accurate online dating can be? Are we going towards online dating because it simplifies going through the process by yourself? How has technology impacted the way we form relationships with people? It also merits how accurate data can be. The ending was also really wild, but again that would be a major spoiler if I made a comment on it. Again I would just put it with the readings and discussion questions. Maybe even throw in a blog post about what you would have done if you were placed in the system where everything is planned by data.

ATTENTION: THE BERLIN WALL HAS FALLEN

*THE FOLLOWING BLOG HAS BEEN CREATED TO INTERPRET A HISTORICAL EVENT IN THE EYES OF SOCIAL MEDIA. MAY RONIE REST IN PEACE*

WHILE POP CULTURE WAS FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE NEW SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE ABOUT THE “FRESHMEN 15…” EAST BERLIN IS FINALLY FREE!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO
Today has been a victory for freedom in the face of the Evil Empire. Ronald Reagan’s words to Mikhail Gorbachev on June 12, 1987 begging him to step on the side of freedom and, “tear down this wall” finally got to Gorbie.
Our journalists obtained a highly classified document leading to this very decision.

I remember the day I came to West Berlin. I walked around and saw all the modern architect and all the colors. It was lively, but it didn’t add up. The guards…the wall…the cage. A German lady I interviewed scoffed at me when I asked her if she even remembered life without the wall. The traditional, “life was better” remark didn’t sum up her anguish. She stared at me and told me that her lover was across the wall caged up in the lies of the Soviet Union and Communism. There he stayed forced to never leave. She told me she hadn’t heard from him since the last Twitter post he posted in ’61 when East Berliners were trying to escape to West Berlin. The described document is posted below.

His words were ill-advised, but understandable. I remembered her face, youthful but aged. I haven’t heard from her since that day. I don’t even know if Reinhardt von Erickson ever escaped to East Berlin. When I tried to obtain records on his whereabouts, I discovered his documents were gone.

The Berlin Wall was first just a barbed fence. It then turned into the Wall, August 13, 1961. A year later, the East German government added the “death strip” which was covered with tripwires and no form of protection from the Guards above who were allowed to shoot whenever. The Wall stayed up there, separating two drastically different ways of living. On the Western side, there was modern architect, colors, cars, supermarkets and people out and about. On the Eastern side, there were ugly Post-War Buildings, dreary colors, no cars and people barely out.
It was clear that change had to happen. That is why today, November 9, 1989 is so important. Of course today would not have happened if it wasn’t for the successful uprises in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Honecker finally opened up some spots for East Berliners to cross over to West Berlin. Hundreds of East Berliners rushed over to escape the Iron Curtain.
Here were some of the posts from today…

 

WHAT THIS BLOG POST TAUGHT ME:

Enough pretending that my writing skills are actually entertaining enough to not put everyone to sleep.
I struggled with this assignment. I knew about the fall of the Berlin Wall, but actually writing from the perspective of someone going through the events as if it happened today, was really hard. I realized that while social media may help get the message across, you’re only so limited to what you say and how you express the current event. Furthermore, when it comes to such an important event, it was difficult to pick what to say and what not to. I didn’t want to express the events that happened Nov 9, 1961 in a way that didn’t highlight the significance of it, but I also wanted to be somewhat realistic in displaying what they knew during the time. I realized that there was a lot of confusion and disbelief. So I made the conscious decision that the journalist would be slightly vague at times, to emphasize how knowledge can sometimes either be withheld or how knowledge can be left blank. In reality, the Berlin Wall was suppose to happen the following day on the 10th, but Honecker didn’t make it clear to the Press Secretary when East Berliners would be allowed to cross over. This also shows misinformation and miscommunication was possible before social media. But as we talked in my DCI class, social media has the ability to amplify the spread of misinformation by blurring the lines between real news and #fakenews. Moreover, now we have trolls who get a kick out of spreading negativity.
What was also interesting for me to find out was how the iconic, “tear down this wall” line was almost taken out of the speech if it wasn’t for the speechwriter and Reagan. That just blew my mind, because that’s the line we associate with the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It showed me that with social media, catchphrases can be tossed around quickly and turned into hashtags. But before social media, coming up with a phrase that stuck to people required grit and hard work.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/summer/berlin.html

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2014-featured-story-archive/a-look-back-25-years-since-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall.html

https://pop-culture.us/Annual/1989.html

Raise your hand if you’ve ever read the Privacy statement on any website or platform. Do you even know how to access the Terms of Agreement on the platforms you use?  

Most people would answer these two questions—no. In fact, I asked an adult college woman similar questions about the Terms of Agreement, which usually houses the Privacy statement. She answered the following way:  

 She isn’t the only one who feels this way. Why is it that Facebook and other Social Media Companies can hide behind the digital curtain and do whatever they like under the guise of, “we already told you we use your data.” 

On any other agreement, such as a contract for a house or a job, we always read every line and sometimes we have a lawyer go over the contract with us and “dumb it down.” We don’t do this for our online lives though. Why? 

In our DCI 180 Black Mirror Class, a similar thought experience occurred. Each of us having read about how Social Media companies actively invade our privacy, admitted we never read any statements or agreements. We skim and scroll to the bottom and hit the beautiful and bold, “I Agree” statement thus selling our souls to bureaucratic Social Media Sharks. Our Professors decided to have us read any Privacy statement of our choice and have us interpret it.  

I personally picked Facebook, because of the numerous privacy violations that occur on the platform such as the Cambridge Analytical Scandal which gave data on people and their contacts without any of their consent. Furthermore, this data was used by the Trump election committee to actively target potential Trump supporters with personalized ads. Because many people get their news from Facebook, some commentators blame the Cambridge Analytical Scandal for electing Trump as President.  

Before reading Facebook’s Privacy Statement, I noticed the format was extremely different from the traditional contract. Facebook made their Privacy statement bullet-pointed and interactive with blogs detailing in a quick and simple way common questions. In addition, at the bottom of the page, they even included a “privacy check-up.”  

The first commonly asked question was asking, “how do you change who gets to see your posts and photos?” The way I interpreted Facebook’s answer to this question was that it’s simple to change whether you post publicly (anyone can see it even strangers) or privately. You can even specify which groups of people (friends etc) see which posts you make by going on your computer and going to your friend page and using the menu to add them to either a specific list such as friends or a new list.  

The next question dealt with how you can see how others view your profile and how you can update your profile to hide some content that you wish to remain hidden or private from the public. For instance, if you posted a personal update on your Timeline that you wish only your friends may see, you simply go to the top right corner of your profile and click the ellipses and click on the option of edit privacy. If worse comes to worse, you can always go to setting and change the Timeline privacy that way. 

The other sections were all similarly formatted as interactive slides. I found the Stay Safe and Secure section the most interesting. They mentioned how you can check to see whether you have been hacked by checking to see how many devices are logged in. If this sounds like something you’d like to do, go to More on your top right corner of your home page then click Settings and then go to Security and Login. Then after you’ve clicked Security and Login, you go to Where You’re Login in. If you see a location that does not make sense, you click the drop-down menu and you can select the option that is applicable to you.  

I learned from reading Facebook’s Privacy policies that they tried to make their policies easier to read and specific enough to help someone figure it out on their own. But, I also found that some issues such as Phising were briefly explained and then at the last slide it would tell you if you wanted to learn more click on this link. I don’t really think most people would click on the link for further read, but at least it’s there if we need it. Overall, Facebook’s format was better than other companies who treat their Privacy Policy like a reading for an Intro to Digital Law grad class. Oy Vey.  

Another interesting point they mentioned under the above section, was how they don’t share any of your “personal information without your permission.” This sounds jolly, until you realize by clicking Terms of Agreement, we all allowed them to gather personal data on us and use it to sell to Advertisers who further track our data. Everything is personalized for us. Thanks Facebook… This is why we can’t have nice things 👀. 

A couple tips to leave you with a better and more private online life: 

1. Create different passwords for different websites. Make sure they have a combo of Uppercase and Lowercase characters and numerical values. Write them down in a journal that you won’t lose.  

1. Don’t share passwords 

1. READ the policies and familiarize yourself with what data they gather and how they use it.  

1. Don’t click on sus links or give info like credit card numbers or social security. 

1. Common Sense… if it looks wack it probably is fake. 

Good luck and Happy Typing! 

 

On a sunny, yet cool day I was given the task to stalk my Professors…thankfully not physically (not trying to pose for that mugshot). But they asked me for my DCI 180 class to stalk their digital footprint.  

In class, we have been discussing how much information on you or about you is online. Every click on Facebook. Every retweet. Every photo posted on your Insta. Every pin you keep for Pinterest. Everything.  

It seems very 1984 that “Big Brother” is always watching you, but in this case “BIg Brother” doesn’t end with the Government. Big Brother has become the whole world when talking about your digital presence. Freaky…I know.  

When I searched up my Professor’s names, I immediately saw their photos and W&L. My first observation was how different both Professors dealt with their online presence. I found more information about Professor Teaff than Professor Abdoney.  

I discovered Professor’s Teaff personal website that listed her education, jobs, portfolio, and her skills and abilities. I learned she went to a Fulton-Montgomery Community College and got her Associates degree in Visual Fine Arts. Then she went to Potsdam (also in New York) where she graduated with a BA in Studio Arts and Politics. Then she ventured out to Virginia Commonwealth University to get her Masters in Museum Studies/Art History. Immediately after receiving her Masters she worked at Virginia Military Institute as a Government Documents Assistant. Her last year at Virginia Military Institute (2001) she also began her second job at Rockbridge Regional Library this time as a Cataloger/Technical Services Assistant. She stayed in this position for a year and then Professor Teaff went back to school. She got another Masters degree at University of South Carolina in Library and Information Technology. While getting her second Masters degree, she was working at W&L as an Interlibrary Loan Coordinator. To this day, Professor Teaff still works at Washington and Lee as a Professor for DCI and as a University Service Access Service Manager.  

Professor Teaff’s Facebook was public, which helped me stalk her better…Oh My Goodness! I found out we liked a lot of the same things, minus I did not publicly like those Facebook pages. She seems to like a lot of punk music (The Velvet Underground) and overall very 80s music (Duran Duran). Either way, fantastic music! She also seems to like a lot of Feminist clothing brands and unique little boutiques. She also liked Stacey Abrams, which tells me she leans left. She seems to really support respecting everyone’s dignity and seems to support organizations like Planned Parenthood, Wounded Warrior Projects, and LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈 rights.  

Professor Abdoney was a lot more private. I found pictures of her son, who should be around 3 or 4 now. I also found pictures of her husband with her. But I could not find a lot of stuff that she liked on Facebook. I know she supports Planned Parenthood, but that’s from hearing her say that. Some of the tweets she retweeted and some of the photos she used for her Facebook background point to her being a feminist and most likely 3rd Wave to maybe even 4th Wave. Other than that, a lot of the information I got from her was from Facebook and other past DCI 180 blogs. Ironically, I discovered a fake account about her or at least some of it was not updated. It said she was 49 years old and her birthday was 6/19/1976 and she lives in another part of Florida (not Tampa). I could not find Voter Registrations or Campaign Donations on her name, which made me just guess her political affiliations through what she posted. In retrospect, although it’s safe to say she is Democractic, it is a little misleading, because there’s a spectrum to being on the left and right.  

On this cool, yet sunny day I really learned that nothing is invisible. Big Brother as a concept does not end with the Government nor will your digital audience ever stop expanding.

 

 

It wasn’t until I went phoneless for a couple days that I fully comprehended how much I depended on technology.  

Here are all the apps I use: 

• Snapchat (communication and personal use) 
• GroupMe (academics, and communication) 
• Word (academics)  
• Spotify (personal use) 
• Youtube (academics and personal use) 
• IMessage (communication) 
• Outlook and Gmail (academics and communication) 
• Google (academics and personal use) 
• IDLE 3 and Python 3 (academics and personal use) 
• pearsons (academics) 
• Padlet (academics) 
• Canvas (academics) 
• Sakai (academics) 
• Ancestry.com (personal use) 
• Notes (academics and personal use) 
• App store (academics and personal use) 
• Livesafe (personal use) 
• Shopping websites (personal use)  
• Calendar app (academics and personal use) 

 

I’ll admit those couple of days, I was phoneless, I was not completely “off the grid.” I still had my iPad and my laptop. I found that being phoneless I missed being able to communicate with people easily. Every time I made plans with people, I had to email them and either hope they responded immediately or hope I did not miss their response. Before and after every class, I was obsessively scrolling through my emails and refreshing. I just hated how I could not be walking around and checking my texts. I needed to be sitting down in a place where my wifi was working.  

I was not suffering any form of withdrawal from not being able to access 90% of the apps I often used. But, I started to understand how inconvenient being “off the grid” is for many people. In retrospect, it made me realize how people and families who do not have access to technology, whether it is because of geography or money or numerous other factors, are put in a huge disadvantage in our new digitalized world where there is an app for everything. 

I had a conversation with a girl a couple years ago, about how we wish we went back to our flip phones (shout out to my old blue flip phone!), but a smart phone is much easier. We both questioned how “connected” we truly could be when the majority of our communications with people involved fillers or superficialities. Obviously, we did not mean every couple texting each other texts worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy did not mean it. I’m sure they did. But can you really say you’re friends with someone if you mostly text them and not talk to them? 

It is hard to feel a huge sense of community until you step foot in a place that technology does not rule the world.  

The apps I mentioned above all make my life easier. I can text someone dinner plans, while checking my calendar and searching up articles about the Israeli elections. If I did not have some sort of smart phone, I would not be able to do this so conveniently anywhere I wished. I admit this simple truth. Dare I say I NEED technology.  

Although, I depend on technology, I acknowledge that technology has not always helped me. Instead of sitting down and writing essays, I type them without feeling any connection to most of what I write. Instead of reading a physical book, I spend most of my time reading and skimming online resources. In our class we learned that online reading does not equal physically reading a book or article. Meaning that when we skim all those wikipedia pages we never fully understand them. Physically reading a book is always much better.  

Despite the tradeoffs of technology and the list goes on…we all need it. Even if it is not always a symbiotic relationship.  

 

Probably not…but you’re welcome to browse.