Technology is an amazing way to receive information and learn more about the world quickly and efficiently. Technology has also helped produce and increase productivity of most of the industries. Personally, technology has been a big part of my life since I was born because of the generation I grew up in. Technology has had a significant impact on how I learn and find out information including news.  

    My relationship with technology is healthy but can get unhealthy when it comes time to do my work. Due to technology, I have become a procrastinator. I never was a procrastinator in high school but once I got to college and had bigger projects with a longer time period to do them, I started to go on social media to procrastinate my work. This has become an issue because I still always get my work in on time and a good grade, but it stresses me out to wait until last minute.  

    In continuation, technology has been immensely helpful to me when trying to learn new things. I think technology is making me smarter but is also making me more impatient. I do not trust anything I read before fact checking it to ensure I do not produce a false idea. Yet, since I am so used to being able to have an answer to a question in seconds, I become impatient when I cannot get the answer right away. Also, it is easy to fall into the trap of fake news because it is made to look so real and grab readers attention. Technology has made it quite easy to spread news that is not true with no verification before it is posted.  

Privacy Issues 

    Something that is a big concern for me is privacy issues. I know that countless times different social medias have been hacked and people's information and identities were stolen. There have been times when people will check their bank account and there is nothing in it. It is left completely drained by someone who got information about them and passwords to hack into different systems. Personally, I have seen a lot of my friends get hacked on Instagram, or people will make accounts of other people pretending to be them. This is very scary and make me be more cautious when deciding on what I should post. When reading the story about the 13-year-old girl being posted online by her mother since she was a young kid and having no idea that caught my attention. It is interesting to me that a mom would be so comfortable posting all her child's information without thinking twice. Privacy is a problem on the internet and Facebook continues to get hacked. In the beginning of April, it had come to many people's attention that half a billion Facebook users could have been hacked, with personal information and phone numbers being stolen. I have learned that even if you are careful with how you use the internet, something bad can happen to you.  

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EOTO - What I Learned

PROPAGANDA

     I learned a lot about propaganda in class and by definition it is meant to influence and audience and further an agenda. I learned that they sometime withhold facts just so that their ideology seems more legit than others. In the 20th century propaganda was known as a manipulative approach.  

    Propaganda is especially used today on social media to impose ideas during different election times and major events. Propogandists have goals and they chose facts that will directly intimidate and convince people to think as they do. Propagandists use words, symbols, and facts, to present them in a particular way that will make one think the most. Some propaganda is filled with lies and almost all the information that is put out is not real fact.  

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In my opinion propaganda is not a good thing because it divides the country and other countries. People will be fighting about information that is not even true. Propaganda can even cause riots if the wrong information ends up in the wrong hands. An example of propaganda is political signs and commercials are an example of propaganda.  

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    It is crazy to think that even presidents use propaganda to move their agenda along. John F Kennedy used propaganda to further encourage the idea that the United States needed to put a man on the moon. I think that propaganda should end because of how much harder it makes people's lives to find real information much harder than it should. Propaganda is becoming more prevalent every day because of people's online presence and companies using click bait to pull in more readers. Overall propaganda is not helpful to any nation and should not be allowed.   

 

Cord Cutting

    Cord cutting is a problem that is new due to new streaming services created by Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Cord cutting is the practice of ending a cable or satellite service and even opting to get rid of your land line. People have many varied reasons for why they end their monthly payments for cable and satellite. 

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    One of the main reasons for people getting rid of their cable and satellite is because they want to save money and pay for less expensive streaming services. Some cable companies do not want to lose customers, so with this they have started their own streaming services known as HBO now, Showtime OTT, CBS All Access. In my opinion this is a smart way for them to create revenue.  

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People in today’s generation do not use landlines as much as they once did. Since the invention of the cell phone, almost everyone has gotten one and uses it more than their landline. Therefore, a lot of people have decided to get rid of their landline so they could save money. I know that my family stopped using their landline 2 years ago because we all have iPhone’s and did not have a need for a landline because no one called that line anymore.  

Although, it seems as if cord cutting is saving consumers money, there are some problems with it. Cable and satellite TV are easier to use and offer more programs and options than some streaming services do. Also, most of the steaming services do not offer the streaming of live sports, events, and news.  

    Cord cutting right now is saving people money, but it is predicted that the cost of streaming services will continue to increase. For an example YouTube live has increased from $35 at launch to $50. Another issue with the streaming services is that you cannot skip commercials unless you want to pay even more a month. For Hulu if you want to skip commercial's you must give an extra $6 a month to the company. The ads are also very repetitive and can get annoying because they are every few minutes. Sometimes the same ads even play back-to-back. 

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    To continue, cord cutting skyrocketed when the pandemic hit. More people started using online shopping, multiplatform gaming, and streaming services. By the year 2024 it is predicted that 46.6 million households will no longer pay for cable. That is approximately 1/3 of the United States which is crazy to think about.  

“Consumers are choosing to cut the cord because of high prices, especially compared with streaming alternatives,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom. 

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    Having the news and live sports on cable and satellite Tv is what is keeping most people to continue to pay for the service. Yet, slowly streaming services are offering sports and soon everything will be offered on streaming services.  

    Overall cord cutting has many positives and many negatives. If you are looking to cut the cord, I recommend doing a lot of research to see if it is the right fit for you and your family. Cord cutting will continue to expand with the upcoming new streaming services and new generations that will likely want to stream more than pay for cable and satellite.