jackfiorini13-blog

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Cyberbullying a Result of Technology Advancements

An ever increasing large number of young teenagers have phones and social media accounts than ever before. Often times bullying used to only be able to take place sadly in schools or the playground. But now kids can never escape the harassment and mean nature of some other kids. Today’s bullies, have new weapons for the use to bully another kids even when they are in their own homes. The Internet is a place where kids can get on chatrooms, instant messaging and especially social media, all places where bullies can inflict all sorts of cyber attacks. Bullies are inflicting harm in new ways and make it harder for the victim to escape the torture of being made fun of or whatever it is.  DoSomething.org reported 43% of kids say they have been bullied online by their peers. And 70% of students admit to seeing Cyberbullying taking place online. The hardest part about cyberbullying is the prevention. There are so many different ways for kids to get in contact with another kid they are attempting to bully. It doesn’t even have to be direct, it could just be an embarrassing or exposing photo of someone they post to make fun of the person for everyone to see. Adults need to encourage kids to speak up if they are being bullied in any manner, cyber or not. Though cyber will be more difficult to deal with it will help the victim of cyberbullying possibly escape there current difficult and emotional situation.

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Study on NBA Relationships

I found reading an article on NBA players relationships on social media and how it affects team chemistry extremely interesting. Oliver Stanley posted an article explaining a new study that was done where researchers looked at how individuals on NBA rosters can attempt to disconnect themselves from struggling organization. They did this by researching the Twitter connections of professional basketball players on the same team. They found that all-star caliber players on winning teams were happy to connect with their less talented or younger teammates over social media. While all-star caliber players on losing teams avoid those connections on social media or make them much less frequent. They use LeBron James and the Cleveland cavilers as a positive example in this study and Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks as the negative example.  “An analysis of their interactions showed they made only 41% of all the possible connections, compared to 68% among the Cavaliers. The Knicks’ lack of connection was reflected on the court in their 17-65 record, the worst in their 71-year history” (Stanley). These analyses were completely based off their twitter interactions between each team’s teammates. I as well as Oliver Stanley clearly think this data is a good representation of each team’s chemistry and with bad team chemistry no team will be successful.

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The Rise Online Dating

Online dating has become a staple in our society over the past few years for people looking to meet new people and have new interactions. It’s also not the stereotypical “desperate” person on these websites either, many users feel that it is just a more efficient way of meeting people.  Majority of online dating site users say they are people that are looking for potential partners offline but also advertise themselves on online dating sites as well to broaden their chances of meeting someone. Others say that they are too busy with work and such to date or find someone for themselves, so they put some of their information into dating apps and let the applications do the work for them. Sites such as Match.com, eHarmony, and Tinder and just a few of the many sites available for people looking to join an online dating service. There is some evidence that online dating is also helping to improve Americans long term dating success. Researchers from Harvard and the University of Chicago found that marriages of couples that met were less likely to result in divorce and had a slightly higher marital satisfaction rate. I’m not sure if this is the right way to meet people of not but technology is definitely pushing people in this direction. Also it’s not so much that technology is pushing people in this direction but is allowing people to go on the online dating route. Either way people seems to be gravitating towards online interactions over actually face to face interactions more every year.

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How YouTubers Make Money

Growing up I surprisingly didn’t watch many Youtube videos or other sites similar to it. But as I grown older I and have more access to internet with my own laptop and such I have increasingly become fonder of it. I enjoy watching sports clips, listening to music, and occasionally watch streamers and or video bloggers. These “Youtubers” as they refer to themselves as, create their own channels and post videos from time to time on different subjects. This sparked a question because I knew that Youtube was most of theirs only source of income, I wanted to know how they made money off Youtube. What I found was that popular Youtubers have ads play in front of and during their videos and they receive monthly checks from YouTube for ads running during their videos. But besides the money coming from Youtube directly, Youtubers have found other ways to bring in cash. Often times popular content makers will create their own merchandise or “merch” as they often call it. They sell this merch for whatever price for some extra cash, while their subscribers in return get a souvenir to support their favorite Youtube Channels.  Also companies will sponsor Youtubers to advertise certain products to their large audiences as cheap advertising for the company. Finally, I found that a lot of Youtubers use something called Patreon, and what I gathered was that it was a way for subscribers or fans in general to donate to their favorite Youtubers. The site takes 10 percent of the donations, while the content creator receives the rest. A lot Youtubers make more through Patreon than they do from their Youtube paychecks.

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Technology Eradicating Human Jobs

The United States Postal Service has been subject to mass downsizing since the rise in email and is the perfect example of technology making human jobs irrelevant. The United States Postal Service reported in 2011 that mail has declined by more than 43 billion pieces in the five years prior to date. It has continued to decline and while “snail mail” is not completely erased, the rise of email has resulted in the death of standard mail. Customers have shown that they prefer the more time efficient email over standard mail. This makes sense due to most people and company’s doing a majority of their work on their computers. Which allows them to send or share with others online, rather than printing out on paper and sending through standard mail. Things such as letters, invitations, notes, flyers are all things that would have previously been on paper are now directly being produced and shared online, making paper and postal service irrelevant. The biggest problem that comes along with the rise in email is the loss of human jobs. During 4 years prior to 2011 the USPS was forced to fire 110,000 career employees. This is concerning because the number of unemployment will continue to grow while technology constantly is making human jobs less important.  

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Apple Phones

Apple has been making iPhones for a little over a decade now. With each new phone generation and every update there are new helpful or fun applications or systems added to make each apple phone a little different and more advanced. But why is it that after about 2 years with your iPhone it starts to slow down and not work properly? The answer is that apples software is the cause for the malfunctioning phones and that it’s exactly how apple wants it. Apple releases a new mobile phone yearly, and with it is a new latest and greatest version of iOS. But when people with an older model of the iPhone download the new iOS the old phone often can’t quite handle the new operating system and its functions. In result the phone gets increasingly slow and finicky, so the answer for most people would be to go and get a new iPhone. This system apple uses has worked very well for them as most Americans are purchasing a new iPhone about every 2 years, which apple profits from greatly. Many people have caught on and are outraged with apple for this, others either haven’t caught on or don’t mind buying the new iPhone every couple of years. It does seem like a bit of a scam that apple has millions of people caught in. But at the end of the day apple says they designs a new operating system, which has more features and in result takes up more space and requires more computing power. The consequence of that is that they don’t work as well on older iPhones.

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SOS D5 418

In an incredibly popular video game made by Epic Games calledFortnite Battle Royale, there is increasingly growing evidence that the gaming company is planning to “destroy” or edit out a popular part of the games map. In an article posted by comicbook.comTyler Fischer explains that ever since Fortnite added a new location to the map called Tilted Towers, the game has experienced significant lagging and other system problems due to the popularity of the titled towers. Epic games seem to not want this part of the map attracting so many users any longer and this could be there fun way of getting rid of it. About a month ago after an update of the games systems, users noticed what looked like a comet up in the sky. At first people believed it was added just as a visual in the sky but soon there became other theories for its placement in the games. “A Reddit user by the name of vigilancefoetracer took to the forum and revealed that the game's recently added and mysterious controller vibrations reveal a Tilted Towers SOS signal when translated into Morse code” (Fischer). When translated using Morse code, the patterns translate into a message saying. SOS D 5 418. When put together it makes a lot of sense, SOS is a classic destress signal, While D5 is coordinates to Tilted towers on the Fortnite map.  But there has been much debate over the last part of the message, “418” to many meant April 18thbut sense tilted towers still stands that theory is disproven. Now many believe that it’s code for April 2018 and will happen later this month when the game updates come out. The destruction of titled towers is unfortunate because of its popularity but the way in which they are removing the city is quite interesting. It’s a fun way for Epic Games to justify the destruction of the towers and their way of leaking the hint towards the removal was incredibly clever Most importantly the destruction of tilted towers will help the game with its server issues and will make the game more enjoyable overall.

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Snapchat Update Receives a lot of Criticism

An article from USA TODAY by Brett Molina talks about the large amount of criticism the smart phone application Snapchat is getting after it’s update a couple months ago. One of the most popular messaging apps among young smartphone users launched a major redesign in its latest update a couple months ago. Since the redesign the application company has received an enormous amount of complaints. Most of the complaints are about the new design and ability to navigate the application. “The app currently carries an average rating of 1.9 out of 5 stars on Apple's App Store” (Molina). When you look through the comments in the apple store it is nearly impossible to find a positive review. Users have even gone as far as starting a petition online to convince snapchat to go back to what the app looked like before the update.  Apparently the change in formant is due to increased pressure to stay relevant to users. Snapchat has been trying to deal with other social media platforms such as Instagram using the same kind of ability to post or directly send images that disappear after a set period of time. In result they have clearly been trying to add relevant news stories to their app in hopes to interest their users, which forced then to change their format. But in doing so they may be pushing away more users than gaining. According to eMarketer, Instagram will total 104.7 million users this year, compared to the 86.5 million users for Snapchat this year in the U.S.

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New Sideline Technology Used in Sports

In a Washington Post article by Jacob Bogage, he discusses a new way athletic programs are using technology as an advantage for on field play. This new strategy with the goal of gaining a leg up on the competition was first introduced on football sidelines at the professional and collegiate levels. But since then it has gained much popularity and is being used by a Varity of different sports at all different levels. This new technological instrument coaches are exploiting is on field instant replay viewed on tablets for coaches and players to view and critique themselves during games. No longer do coaches have to wait till after the game to go back and look at a play they were curious about. Within seconds they can watch a play that just occurred on the field already broken down into clips due to instant streaming. “They connect cameras used to collect game film with a network that feeds the video to connected devices, such as tablets or smartphones. A coach in the press box tags each play in real time and uploads the clip to the network” (Bogage). This allows coaches and players to make quick in game adjustments that could be the difference between winning and losing. Maybe a couple years ago only the professional and top colligate teams would be using this technology. But within the past the past year or so, teams all across the country from multiple sports are using this technology to try and gain an advantage on their competition. For example, I know the lacrosse team here at Syracuse just started to use this technology this year. Program’s like this can cost anywhere between $1,000 - $3,400. I think this new way of using cameras, film and mobile devices is just one good example of how far we’ve advancement when it comes to technology. The way we are using technology these days makes it seem so simple, like it’s no big deal.

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Technology in the Classroom

In our modern society, technology is intertwined with students and their everyday lives. Current high school and college students have grown up in a digital age where advancements in technology were being made frequently. While technology has cemented itself as a staple in our society there is a struggle to whether it should be present in the classroom or not, or at least to what extent. Are the benefits that come along with having technology as a tool in classroom worth the potential distractions that come along with it? Many would argue that the benefits are not worth it and are ultimately hindering students from reaching their fullest potential.  “Classroom engagement is at an all-time low and lecturers are competing against countless diversions from phones, tablets and laptops” (Himmelsbach). These diversions limit the amount of information students are able to comprehend and learn over the course of class. On the contrary to these distractions are the benefits of technology in the classroom that include new learning styles and opportunities.  Students have the opportunity to participate in digital environments and engage with a large number of peers learning the same material. Faculty can change their educational practices to a more efficient and easy way of learning material through the use of specialized courses. Also an advantage is personalized instruction, with new models that include online collaboration and a wide array of innovative learning strategies. While this helps students a tremendous amount in learning new subject it also helps teachers make sure students in their class are participating regularly. “Online polling and other tools help to engage all students, including shy students who wouldn’t normally raise their hand in class. Online engagement systems allow you to regularly check in with students for feedback on course materials and assignments” (Himmelsbach). Overall technology in the classroom is a sort of double edged sword in a way, and it should be at the teacher of the classes discretion of whether or not technology is allowed in his or her classroom.

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Blog #2

In “There’s Nothing Lazy About Using Emojis to Communicate” by Vyvyan Evans it talks about the probable scenario where emojis become another language that humans will use to communicate. I believe that the article makes a lot of really interesting points, but in the end weather or not emojis do become a new way of communication come down to future generations. It seems probable sense the majority of the population that utilize emojis are in the younger generation and understand how to use them. So as we age and grow up we could bring emojis as a form of communication with us, as well as teach the younger generations. When I use emojis in text messages, posts, etc. it’s almost always to emphasize how I'm feeling, and my reader can understand my emotion within said text messages or posts.  Emojis couldn't become a full on language in my opinion due to because not everyone could understand or use them effectively going forward. But I can see them becoming a huge part of our future vocabulary and such.  Also another solid point for the use of emojis are that they are practically Universal, anyone could understand a sad, happy, or sick face. In my opinion I think emojis will be around for a long time going forward and their future as a language is uncertain. But I believe they're here to stay for a while, especially to emphasize a point writers are trying to make in text.

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Blog Post #1

I think I would classify myself as a organic intellectual because I have always been the type of person to react based on how I feel about something and not go along with the social standards all the time.  A lot of my reactions are natural and based on my true emotion and personal perception of a subject. It really doesn't matter whether I'm happy, excited, sad, curious or feeling anything else, I usually don't think about what would be traditional reaction or way to act, I just act in whatever way I feel which is different than a lot of people. For example I definitely have my own sense of humor and it probably takes people off guard or time to get used to it. As well as when I get mad or sad I have my own unique ways of dealing with whatever I'm upset about. I think it’s good that there are people who are organic intellectuals because the world would be a boring place with just traditional intellectuals. With both organic and traditional intellectuals I think they challenge each other to grow and see the others point of view. This way the world stays interesting and allows people to understand other intellects.