My Relationship With Technology

There are long periods in my life where I don't give the slightest time to think about my relationship with technology. But whenever I do, I get different feelings every time. Sometimes it's bittersweet, sometimes it's frustrating, and there are even sometimes when I don't know what I'm feeling.

I can't remember the exact point in my life when I first played with technology, but I do remember the fond memories I had playing video games on my GameBoy, DS, and Wii. I also remember receiving my first phone from my parents. It was a flip-phone, but I didn't use it as much as I use my iPhone today. I remember when my Dad used to have a Blackberry before he switched to an iPhone as well. I remember all of the other apple products I got before my iPhone which were the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch. I remember playing Vortex to pass the time on the iPod Nano and playing Pocket God on the iPod Touch. I spent so much time playing video games that I got to a point where my parents had to restrict my play to 30 minutes on weekdays. I always hated that restriction because the 30 minutes always felt like 10. I didn't care if time flew faster when I was having fun, I wanted it to be the opposite so I could spend my time playing video games for as long as I could.

Of course, now that I'm older, I can understand why my parents put that restriction on me in the first place. They were simply worried about my health if I were to play video games all day without any restrictions. Looking at the amount of time I spend on my iPhone, I now have a glimpse at the perspective that my parents had about me years ago.

Given that I normally sleep for around 6 - 8 hours each night, that leaves 14 - 16 hours left in the day to do whatever entertainment I want and I spend around 9 1/2 hours on my iPhone. Keep in mind that this doesn't include the amount of time I spend on my computer, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or Oculus Quest. Looking at this information, I can see that I could find more of a balance between the amount of time I spend on technology and the amount of time I spend in the real world. I could go on walks around the neighborhood, play a board game with my family, stick around longer at family dinners, read a book, or do lots of other things besides being alone on the computer or my phone.

However, I don't hate technology. I think it's a great thing to have in the world. And even though it has brought some downsides, I think the upsides are more just as important because they can benefit us like nothing ever has before. But never forget about the downsides. This video from 2014 perfectly describes the downsides of spending your time on technology all day.

I'm not going to lie. This video makes me want to leave my phone in the house and spend more time outside interacting with people. Not now, of course, with the coronavirus pandemic going on but definitely later on in the year. In the end, my relationship with technology isn't bad, but it isn't great either. I'm looking forward to improving my relationship not only with technology but with the people that I spend most of my time around.

Related Videos:

https://youtu.be/2-5aK0H05jk ('64-65 NY World's Fair FUTURAMA Ride Video)
https://youtu.be/5DU1B_XkyIk (Mad World Remix of Moby Video [Are You Lost In The World Like Me])

Looking Back on Coronavirus

On February 17th and March 9th of 2020, I made two blog posts about how COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus, has had an effect on our world. However, I would have never imagined that this virus would have this much of an impact on the world.


The picture on the left shows how Times Square has changed from a normally heavily crowded place in New York City to a near ghost town. It's amazing to think that we're living in a time where nearly the entire country is on lockdown due to the threats of a highly contagious virus.

It's even more stunning to compare photos from before the lockdown occurred. In fact, here's Times Square during Broadway Week (late January to early February).

Just look at the difference between people and cars from the two photographs. The amount of people and cars that are visible between the two photographs is so big that it almost looks like they're two different cities. It's astonishing to think that this could even happen in a month!

No matter the result of this outcome, everyone in the world can already tell that the coronavirus outbreak and global lockdown will be written in the history books where it will be studied by future students for generations.

Another thing to wonder about between the two photos is the stores in the background. Now that only essential businesses are open, a new perspective is being brought upon the American people. Normally, we would think of essential businesses and the people who work there as nothing special, but now they are the ones who are getting all of the attention in this strange time, especially doctors and nurses. Even though living under the threat of a highly contagious virus is bad, something like this may (hopefully) never happen again.

Related Articles:
China's Iron Fist Is Turning The Coronavirus Into An Economic Disaster
YouTube is Demonetizing Videos About Coronavirus; Creators Unhappy

Illusory Truth Effect

The quotation, "Repeat a lie often enough and people will eventually come to believe it," has often been attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Whether you believe this to be true or not, decades of research on what psychology calls the "illusory truth effect" have validated this to be true.

What Is It?

Also known as the validity effect, truth effect, or the reiteration effect, the illusory truth effect "...is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure" ("Illusory truth effect", n.d.). The phenomenon was first identified and described in a 1977 study at Villanova University and Temple University by Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino. In a 2015 study, researchers discovered that "...familiarity can overpower rationality and that repetitively hearing that a certain fact is wrong can affect the hearer's beliefs" ("Illusory truth effect", n.d.). The illusory truth effect plays a significant role in such fields as election campaigns, advertising, news media, political propaganda, and has been linked to "hindsight bias", in which "the recollection of confidence is skewed after the truth has been received" ("Illusory truth effect", n.d.).

Use Throughout History

As previously mentioned, the illusory truth effect has been used by the Nazis, who favored the repetition of lies to sell the public on Hitler and the Nazi party's greatness. It has also been used in George Orwell's novel 1984, which "...portrayed a fictitious dystopia inspired by the Soviet Union under Stalin in which a totalitarian political party oppresses the public through 'doublethink' propaganda epitomized in the slogan, 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength'" (Pierre, J., 2020). Lastly, the illusory truth effect has been an effective component of advertising (see puffing).

Use In The Present

The Nazi party is no more, 1984 has been published, but the illusory truth effect has still been a part of advertising. Other than that, the effect also finds its place in politics. This has been especially the case during Donald Trump's 2016-2020 presidency with "fake news". Furthermore, the illusory truth effect has been used with newspaper headlines whose statements are framed as questions (for example: "Is President Obama a Muslim?").

My Opinion

I thought it was interesting to learn about an effect that would have really helped me during my senior year of high school. Back then I was taking AP Psychology and reading 1984 in English. I'm surprised that I didn't learn about this earlier. I see this in the media all the time and on particular websites. I would highly recommend sharing this phenomenon with others.

Related Articles:

Illusory truth effect (Wikipedia)

Illusory Truth, Lies, and Political Propaganda: Part 1

My Online Presence

I personally don't think that I have an online footprint on social media as I'm more of a browser than a poster. I don't have a personal website because I think the only time I should have one is when I'm starting my own company.

While I currently use 11 social media sites, I rarely post anything on any of them. I did put a few things on a couple of social media sites as well as linked to other social media sites, but I've gone back and deleted what didn't match my current personality. The pictures didn't tell much other than the places I had visited for vacation, holiday wishes, funny photos, but I never got a whole lot of followers off of that.

If a visitor were to glean from my social media, they would see that I don't post a lot of content. They could probably also see some stuff that I would rather them not see but I can change a few things to make sure nobody has to see that. As for the private information I've given out, I now feel like I've given out a bit too much on social media sites like Discord and Facebook so later this week I'll work on getting rid of that information. The reason why I put my information out there was because I expected people to go to my other social media profiles and follow me there.

I can see how social media can make people depressed because they constantly see pictures of their friends having a much better time than they are.

Diffusion of Innovations (Oculus)

Ever since the invention of the stereoscope in 1838, virtual reality began its place in the world as a toy for young children to play with. Nearly two centuries later, it has not only become a thing for adults, but it has now become a gaming experience that paves the way for its new era. But how did all of this happen? To answer this, we only need to look at one company: Oculus.

Palmer Luckey was only a teenager in 2001 when he caught the attention of John Carmack, creator of Doom and Quake and founder of id Software. Luckey had been working on a virtual reality prototype by tinkering and modifying existing parts from a collection of head-mounted displays. Seeing an opportunity, he sent one of his PR6, or Prototype 6, prototype to Carmack. Luckey would eventually call this prototype "the Rift".

In June 2012, Carmack demoed the model at E3, arguably the most popular and massive premier event for computer, video games, and related products. His event would quickly stir interest from the public and from industry leaders. Building off this interest, Luckey and his Oculus executive team created a Kickstarter campaign, which offered people a chance to get their hands on the newest innovation of virtual reality first and invited the earliest adopters to help shape the platform's future by building their own applications for it. The Kickstarter goal was set at $250,000, but at the end of the campaign, 9,522 backers had pledged $2,437,429 with 72% paying $300 or more!

After being deemed as "the most revolutionary gaming experience seen in years" by The Verge, getting a late-night close-up from Jimmy Fallon, and having the first grandmother test it out, Oculus would go on to be purchased by Facebook for $2 billion dollars. Since then, Oculus has been going strong to this day, with its only concern being that it can cause motion sickness to some people.

Related Articles:
Diffusion of Innovations
A Brief History of Oculus, from Day Zero to Day One
Oculus Rift: Step Into the Game -- Kickstarter

Watchdog Journalism

As Watergate, Irongate, Clintongate and all the other "gates" demonstrate, freedom of the press enables citizens to learn about abuses of power -- and then do something about the abuse at the ballot box if they feel so moved. We, along with the press, are part of the check-and-balance system to restrain government power and abuse of power.

The Watchdog Role (also known as Check on Governmental Power) is the fifth value of free expression out of the eight speech theories. This category, (known as watchdog journalism), "...informs the public about the goings-on in institutions and society, especially in circumstances where a significant portion of the public would demand changes in response" (Wikipedia). Out of all the eight speech theories, I believe that the watchdog role is the most important because it appears to be the most relevant in recent years. For the past five decades, there has been at least one presidential controversy that has happened. In the 1970s there was Watergate. In the 1980s there was Irangate. In the 1990s there was Clintongate. In the 2000s there was a lot of drama with George W. Bush. In the 2020s, there was the whistleblower scandal with Donald Trump.

Even with all the previous events, watchdog journalism has been mentioned by important figures in the past. Before he became President, Thomas Jefferson famously said: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to choose the latter". However, as a Chief Executive, Thomas Jefferson stated: "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper" (Hudson Jr, 2018).

Previous President Barack Obama stated: "Government without a tough and vibrant media is not an option for the United States of America". Currently, President Donald Trump has called some members of the press "enemies of the people" and purveyors of "fake news". While I do believe that some news sites have very misleading titles, not every single news source is "fake news". I personally believe that Trump criticizes anybody who disagrees with what he is doing. I mean just look at his Twitter! It's completely full of drama, insults, and boasting to boost his own ego. He mocked 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg because she was Time's Person of the Year. Stuff like this makes me wonder how Hillary Clinton would have fared as president instead of Trump.

Related Articles:
Watchdog Journalism (Wikipedia)
2018 State of First Amendment Survey Reveals People Believe in Media as Watchdog

YouTube is Demonetizing Videos About Coronavirus; Creators Unhappy

COVID-19, more popularly known as the coronavirus, is a pandemic that is not only sweeping the nation but also the media. Many news and social media websites are swarmed with articles and posts regarding the latest news and opinions of the coronavirus. However, one popular social media is demonetizing its content creators for mentioning or talking about the coronavirus: YouTube.

This isn't the first time where YouTube has demonetized videos about sensitive subjects in the past, as they have demonetized countless videos regarding the status of a "loss of life, typically as a result of a pre-planned malicious attack" per the company's advertising guidelines. Some examples of events they have demonetized include the Las Vegas shooting and New Zealand shooting. While YouTube demonetizes videos for using the word "coronavirus", they also demonetize videos for referencing the coronavirus in some way. When YouTubers tried to talk about the Game Developers Conference (GDC) being canceled, they got hit with demonetization as well.

However, not everyone gets demonetized. YouTubers such as Casey Neistat and Phillip DeFranco have criticized YouTube for giving news channels preferential treatment regarding sensitive subjects. News channels often run videos about sensitive topics with ads because they provide the ads themselves.

I understand that YouTubers are trying to make some money, as some see YouTube as a job and that job is the only one that they have, but if YouTube is demonetizing videos about a topic that you really want to discuss, just talk about something else.

Related Article:
YouTube is demonetizing videos about coronavirus, and creators are mad