EOTO Technology - Instagram

 Through the EOTO Technology presentations I learned a great amount about Instagram and how it came to be. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger came up with the idea of Instagram and initially called in Burbn. After they started to critique the app and try to make it more unique than others, they decided on making the app more focused on photo-sharing. They pinpointed the goal on likes, editing, and sharing of the pictures that people would be posting.  On October 6, 2010 Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released Instagram to the public and people initially were attracted to the idea.

 Since Instagram became so popular it is clear that there would be an impact from the app. The major impacts of the app could be considered body issues, beauty standards, and the encouragement of travel, these being positive or negative. As far as body issues go, young girls and boys, and honestly anyone, may see a photo of an influencer on Instagram and instantly compare themselves. This also ties into the idea of beauty standards. Influencers use a lot of filters or even editing apps to make themselves look beyond attractive, but in reality, it is not what they look like. This idea creates an unrealistic beauty standard that the viewers on Instagram are now looking into. The two major problems with Instagram both go back to the same concept of normal people comparing themselves to unrealistic standards and making themselves feel bad. On the flip side the most positive impact from Instagram is the encouragement of traveling. When viewers see influencers travel to an intriguing place, it encourages them to travel to that same place. 

Although Instagram is still a recent released use of communication it has had major impacts on our society. These impacts include both positive and negative. The social media is based around “photo-sharing” and continues to thrive off that same concept today in 2023. 

Diffusion of Innovations

 Emoticons, better known as emojis caught on so quickly due to the fact they were easy ways of communicating and expressing emotions. It is easy to say that people became early adopters because of the exciting new idea and way of communicating with desired others. Once it was known that emoticons were being used, it immediate intrigued others and encouraged them to follow the trend. Emojis are a very creative concept, so when the announcement of them came it was clear to see they would take a grasp on society.

There are five very distinct sections of the diffusion of innovation theory. The first section, or group, is the innovators. The innovators are the people that would like to be the first to try things and/or test new ideas and creations. A great example of innovators are the people that had camped outside the apple store in order to buy the first iPhone. The next section of the diffusion of innovation theory is the early adapters. Early adapters are the people that like to take risks and promote new opportunities when it comes to an invention. Thirdly there are the early majority. The early majority are the people that like to know an invention is good before they go and buy it. This tends to be when an invention gets popular and people begin to buy it. The fourth section of the theory is taken over by the late majority. The late majority are the people that are scared of change and tend to refrain from any type of change. The very last section of the theory is devoted to the laggards. Laggards are traditionalists that are extremely hard to get interested in new inventions. 

            

With all positives there are negatives. In this case, the early adopters and early majority would consist of those that supported the idea of a new way to communicate with others and using emojis constantly. This group of people is most likely younger generations such as teenagers and 20s-40s. On the other hand, you had people that didn’t love the idea of new communication and found that these emoticons were actually hurting our language. This next group of people are the older generation that typically don't know much about technology and like to stick to the way things use to be. There are also people like traditionalists that believe that emojis are the reason people refrain from using sentence structure and proper grammar when texting or online communicating, these people would also be grouped within the late majority and laggards. The majority of the laggard population would include people that truly hate the idea of changing how we communicate with each other and push for the idea of grammar being important, even if it is on posts, tweets, texts, etc. 

            After mentioning the downfalls presented by traditionalists it can be easy to see why some people chose not to use emojis at all. One may choose to focus on their grammar and sentence structure rather than focusing on quickly getting their point across through icons. If this person was to start using emoticons, they would save time, present more emotion when communicating with others, and avoid confusion through wording. As you can see, there are both positive and negatives of the use of emoticons but in this case I must say that positives outweigh the negatives. Emojis have created a type of new language that helps humans communicate quicker and more efficiently, although they cause some issues involving less worry about grammar and/or sentence structures. 

U.S Supreme Court

    Within the United States it is extremely important to know that the Supreme Court "is the highest federal court in the country and the head of the judicial branch of government". This means that the Supreme Court pretty much is the highest power in government, currently consisting of 9 justices, and has the ability to watch over both the Executive and Legislative branches. It is surprising to know the extent of power that the Supreme Court ultimate has, despite the idea of checks and balances.

    The real beginning of the Supreme Court was in 1789 when the Judiciary Act was put into place by George Washington, stating there would be six justices. The Supreme Court went on to have their first meeting February of 1790 and their first decision in August of 1791. This decision was made a day after hearing the arguments of West V. Barnes, in which there was a financial problem involving a farmer and a family that he owed money to.

The Supreme Court consists of about 6 justices that are nominated by the President of the United States and denied or approved by the US Senate. Although the Supreme Court began with 6 justices, a rule was put into place later on that the amount of justices can range from as low as 5 to as high as 10. The most important one of the justices would be the Chief Justice. Before reading this history article, I did not know the importance of the Chief Justice. This person is responsible for the agenda, the writing of opinions, sits on the board of Regents, and looks over trials of impeachment. 

    The Supreme Court has a much larger role than I previously thought. It has the most powerful jurisdiction over federal court cases and even state court cases that include some federal law. Despite the intense power I realize the Supreme Court holds it is vital to keep in mind that it is balanced by the Executive and Legislative branches. 

Speech Theories

    The three most important speech theories are promote innovation, individual self-fulfillment, and stable change. The first two focus on the idea of freedom of speech helping to create a good sense of diversity in society, especially through self expression. On the other hand stable change focuses on the idea of said individuals expressing themselves so that there is a restraint from violence. Although, all three theories are different, they all work together to prove the good that the freedom of speech brings to society. 

Promote Innovation 

    A collaborative and diverse society is brought to us through the expression of freedom of speech. The first amendment allows us to express our ideas no matter the extent of them, refraining from violence of course, to build on creativity all around us.Without freedom of speech it is hard to say that there would be as much diversity in the world that there is today. The idea of promoting innovation can be defined as producing a more creative world when people are opening to saying what they believe in. This expression can be seen as religious beliefs, political views, opinions on controversial topics, and honestly anything. I believe the promotion of innovation is extremely important for us as a society because of the already existing diversity that is present all around us. Diversity is something that we all see everyday, embracing said diversity helps us all to get closer and help each other where help is needed. 

Individual Self-Fulfilment 

     Not only does the freedom of speech create a more diverse and exciting society but also more diverse and exciting individuals. When people are free to express themselves they are more likely to accept themselves. Once a person is satisfied within themselves they allow themselves to continuously grow. A person that is happy with themselves builds a better society and helps others to future accept themselves. It is easy to say that happiness comes from creativity and expression. It is also said that free speech encourages the creation of identity. Identity can be defined as "qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group". I believe that all people are created to be different and those difference help society from falling apart. The differences that are created through individual acceptance make differences in ideas that are helpful rather than harmful.

Stable Change

    The freedom of speech allows people to express and be themselves while also refraining from the violent side of humanity. Stable change is the idea that when people are able to express their angers in society they are more likely to avoid getting violent. When people are given the chance to express their anger through words they release all frustration before they would resort to any kind of violence. This speech theory makes the most sense to me considering I know how it feels to "rant" or "vent" about something that is upsetting. Once talking through my problems I feel less angry and tend to not think about violence as often. With this being said Stable Change is the most important speech theory to me. The idea of restraining from violence is a moral that I hold very close to me. I have always been taught to talk through my problems rather than to act on them. Refraining from violence can help a person grow in a positive way and overall help society to grow in that same positive way.

    

Five Sources of News

    Nowadays, there's a variety of sources to receive current news, some sources being more accessible than others. Social media is presently more known for putting out news, that being said social media takes the top 3 spots on my list of news resources. The 2 remaining spots on my list are filled by easily accessed apps and website pages on my phone. The best way for me to check the news is to pull out my phone. 

    The top spot on my news resource list goes to Instagram. With a simple open of the app I am immediately shown a news article on either, my feed, or on the news page itself. Instagram is my most used app on my phone, meaning it takes up a lot of my time. I find it very easy to navigate the app, and in that case find whatever news I'm looking for at the time. 

    The second spot on my news list is easily given to TikTok. There is such a variety of ways to access news sources on TikTok, whether that be going to a specific news page, searching news in the search bar, or finding it on your foryoupage. TikTok consists of short, typically entertaining, videos. I really love TikTok as a news source because there is minimal reading and videos only last from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. 

    As far as my third choice for accessing news, I would have to say I use Snapchat the third most. There is a discover page on the app that provides different news platforms that you can watch. They all consist of small videos and links to the webpages. I like using snapchat besides it is one of my most used apps, so I am typically on it when I am going on my phone. I also like that the news on the app is mostly celebrity news, which is something I find extremely interesting. 

    Besides social media I get my news from the news app on my phone. The app comes already downloaded on your phone making it very accessible. The app is also programmed to send the user notifications when breaking news is occurring. I would have to say this is my favorite feature of the app because it grabs my attention when I get the notification and encourages me to go into the app and read the article. Truthfully, I wished I used the News app more because it provides every news source you could think of.

    My last news source would be accessing it through my television. High Point University provides cable boxes for all dorms, so I simply just have to plug it into my TV and I am able to access all cable sources. When I am intrigued all I do is turn on my TV and change the channel to either the local news, FOX8 or FOX. I like watching the news on the TV because there is no reading large articles but rather just watching and listening to someone talk about what is going on. 

    News sources are all around us. I tend to find news sources on my phone the best for me considering I always have my phone on me. Social media has evolved to the point of having news linked right on it. Accessibility is key for me when going to a read and/or watch the news.