The Gray Space

Propaganda is defined by The Oxford Dictionary as "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view." For as long as humans have plotted to gain power and influence over one another, propaganda has existed. Although it has taken many different forms throughout history, propaganda has always been a tool of persuasion, especially for leaders or aspiring leaders in societies. Propaganda even spans back as far as the 20 BC days of the Roman Empire when it was used by leaders such as Augustus. In most cases propaganda is employed in matters of politics. Propaganda is often used to elicit a response from the viewer that is based more so on emotions than facts and critical thinking, as propaganda often works to exaggerate and embellish   in order to manipulate an audience. Throughout history propaganda has proven to be effective at manipulating the masses. Especially within societies where othe...

Most of my time spent on the internet consists of surfing youtube for videos related to entrepreneurship, sales, or my latest obsession: Navy Seals. Of course the Youtube algorithm is always diligent in tracking all of my activity, and recommends me more videos that are similar to those I have recently viewed. I am sure we have all experienced this, and on the surface its a great thing. But if you think about it more carefully, its just as eerie as it is convenient. Many social media platforms have algorithms that function very similarly. Instagram is the social media platform that I spend the most time on. I am fairly active on the platform and have a following of 21,000 users. 95% of my followers (or more) I have never met in person. They support and chat with me through the screen, and I have built meaningful relationships with some of them despite the fact that we have never once met in person and most likely never will. This speaks to the fact that the internet is a strange...

In this week's blog post we will be examining the social media giant, Facebook, through the lens of Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations theory. Facebook officially launched in February of 2004 and was primarily created by Mark Zuckerburg.  The purpose of the site was to provide a platform where Harvard students, exclusively, could connect with each other. Fast forward to 16 years in the future and Facebook is now a an absolute bohemoth that dominates the social media space with an estimated 2.5 billion users. Additionally the company has its hands in other industries as well, as the company has acquired additional assets such as Oculus Virtual Reality, and WhatsApp. How did a small platform that was created for Harvard students take over the world and change the way that humans interact on a global scale? More specifically, how does Facebook's rise fit within the Diffusion of Innovation theory that was laid out by Rogers? Those are the questions that this blog post w...

In 1644 the English author, John Milton, wrote a pamphlet that was controversial at the time and had it sent to the Parliament of England. In the pamphlet Milton expresses his strong opinions regarding censorship and limiting speech, for which he was not a fan. Although this piece was written by Milton centuries ago, its message is still relevant in 2020. Milton was certainly ahead of his time as he already understood the vital importance of diversity of opinion, as well as the benefits that a marketplace of ideas can bring to a society. These are especially important aspects within a democracy. However, even in modern-day America, there are still efforts to shield the public from certain opinions or silence certain voices. This occurs in the realms of politics, journalism, and social media, and is not unique to any one group, political party, or ideology. Milton believed that the public should be trusted to view, process, and react to information on their own behalf. He believed th...

For this week's blogpost I will be writing about another technology on the Com Tech Timeline. The technological advancement that I am going to cover this week is "the first email sent". The first email ever sent was sent from one computer to another in a room in Cambridge Massachusetts. This email message was a test message, and was sent in 1971. The email message read, " QWERTYUIOP". The man who sent the email was Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer who worked for a company called Bolt Beranek & Newman. Bolt Beranek and Newman was the company who created ARPANET. ARPANET was essentially the internet before the internet existed, as it was a system that consisted of a network of computers that were connected to one another. While working for Bolt and Beranek, Tomlinson had a side project that he was working on as well. He wanted to figure out how he could create a way for computer users to send messages or files to other computers. Up to that point, computers ...

When considering the EOTO Tech Timeline, I focused on Virtual Reality. Virtual reality is an invention that is a bit more abstract than some of the other technological inventions that are listed on the Tech Timeline. Because for hundreds of years prior to the invention of virtual reality technology, philosophers and inventors have been interested in exploring some form of virtual or alternate reality. And so, throughout history there have been those who attempted to actualize this concept with a very wide range of approaches. But the first virtual reality model that resembles what we recognize as VR today, was created by Ivan Sutherland and his student, Bob Sproull in 1968. Their virtual reality model somewhat resembled what we know today as a VR headset, but it was different in many ways. It was extremely heavy, and was so heavy that it had to hang from the ceiling. The virtual reality experience that it offered was nowhere near the VR that we are now accustom to. It was not inte...

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade, you are probably familiar with the online video streaming platform, Youtube. Youtube officially hit the web about fifteen years ago in 2005. Since then, the platform has seemingly taken over the world, and is now the second-most used search engine in the entire world. Youtube would be the world's largest search engine, if it were not for one other monster of a company that dominates the search engine space. We all know them as Google, and odds are, you're using their service in some way as you read this. With Google as its only main search engine competitor, it is not hard to see why Youtube is so widely recognized and used all around the world. Youtube's 2 billion active monthly users is an astounding figure, and with 4 billion eyeballs watching Youtube on a monthly basis, the potential ways to profit on user activity is seemingly endless. This massive number of viewers on the platform has also created the opp...