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My Favorite App

Alike many others of my generation, I would have to say that my favorite app is Tiktok. This app has taken practically the world by storm and has their users hooked on their content. I have adapted this trend myself and believe this to be my favorite app due to how personalized and tailored to the user it is. When scrolling on a feed of almost every other app, recent posts are shown whether or not you care about it or not. However, Tiktok’s algorithm is very precise and absolutely tailors the short videos to the user which is causing the addictiveness of the app. For example, I love golf, and every 5th post or so would be a post about golf, which keeps me hooked and scrolling for more content. After reading this week’s articles, three factors that play into my decision would be the interaction design, experience design, and human-centered design. Tik tok was able to design a platform that completely caters to the users by displaying content not based on how recent it is, but rather based on their algorithm of my personal interests and likes. Privacy is a huge problem and criticism that Tik tok is dealing with, due to how personalized the content it however. Personally, I believe that Tik Tok’s ability to cater to the user directly sets it apart. Users can take part in the fun by using audios and dancing for their own tik toks, which is where the interactiveness feature is shown clearly.

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OLPC’s Mission: Both a Success and a Failure

The OLPC’s motive is to make education a priority, not a privilege to all students and children who are unfortunately impoverished. Each child would be given a laptop which would enable the student to learn. A factor that led to the success of the project, as seen in Nigeria, is that the organization was able to find donors and a partner to deliver 500,000 machines to the youth of the nation. Finding these donors to cover the huge costs of these computers since there are so many of them can be a challenge, however this factor ended up coming through for OLPC and their mission in Nigeria. Another factor that plays into whether or not the mission will be a success is if the students and teachers will be able to use the computers for its purpose. An example of a failure of OLPC’s mission took place in Peru for the exact reason that the education system is very inadequate, the students are very uneducated, and the teachers had very poor literacy with the computers. Some countries such as Peru have experienced a poor education system for many years and even with the laptops, it does not address the real problem that there is a wide spread issue of poor education systems and uneducated teachers and students. As mentioned, the teachers were not able to even connect to the internet. In such an environment such as Peru, the conditions are bad as it is a third world country and a computer will not be the answer to their problems. I would modify OLPC’s motive in Peru especially and fix the aim of the project to develop a better education system first, then introduce the computers. Capital should be put towards getting educated teachers, getting students on the right track, and ultimately bettering the schools. 

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BioButton Evaluation

The “Bio-Button” that Syracuse students would wear to reveal temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and whether or not they’ve been in close contact with somebody who has tested positive for covid recently could definitely have its pros and cons. Some implications with this button would be that just because you were close to somebody who tested positive does not mean you should be not able to go to class. For example, if I were to walk past someone on the street and make very minimal contact with them and did not contract the virus from them, would I then not be able to go to class? Also, if I recently tested positive for covid and have recovered, then came into contact with somebody who has it, I would not be able to contract it immediately after; the device would show that I have been in contact with somebody who has covid, however I would be unaffected as I have antibodies for the virus. There are definitely implications that would make the results shown on the button to be inaccurate and misleading. When it comes to privacy, if somebody were to have a heart condition, they may not want to be aware of their heart rate at all times, or the device may even give wrong information without considering the person’s health circumstances. The data can very well be skewed or misleading if the person does have a heart condition that affects their respiratory and heart rate, which in turn can provide false results. Although a good idea, the logistics and potential mishaps in the device need to be worked through before being implemented. 

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Security: The Most Important and Common Concern of an Online User

The most important theme to me out of the five within information ethics literature would be security. Security is an ongoing problem that occurs online that does not have a definitive solution. Sadly, hackers and those who are advanced in technology for the wrong reasons, could and will have access to your personal information such as address, credit card, and social security number. This can be very costly and unfortunate for an online user who either got tricked or believes that they are entering their information to a trustworthy website. Measures can be taken to avoid this from happening, however more measures and security must be implemented for the online user who may not be advanced in technology.  Whether it’s a simple Google search, entering personal information on a website to purchase something, clicking on a website, or really anything, data is being collected regarding your personal information and search history. People take measures to ensure that their information is protected and they have not been breached or hacked by downloading various softwares that will scan their computer. However, these may be even trying to get personal information out of you! The internet is a dangerous place as it can be described as a highly networked society. As mentioned briefly in the text, the US government should be obligated to protect those online from having their personal information breached by an unwanted party or hacker. Security would be the most important theme because the others are affected by overall security such as privacy, ownership, and access. 

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Wikipedia: Proceed with Caution

 When I am tasked with an assignment or a research project, I do what I can to avoid the usage of Wikipedia for my information. I have learned in high school that Wikipedia can be an unreliable source which may contain misinformation. This can be due to the fact that many people have access to a particular article or piece of information on the Wikipedia platform. This means that anybody can edit, make changes, or even add to the content provided. With this feature being available, there is no authority of the author as there are multiple. Somebody can add on to an article that they are unfamiliar with or do not hold acceptable knowledge in. As mentioned in the extract, "“Most faculty are definitely not prone to accept students quoting or citing Wikipedia in their assignments, nor do they see it as legitimate to cite or make references to Wikipedia in their own research or teaching." This is definitely a red flag for Wikipedia as experienced and knowledgeable faculty members including teachers and college professors do not believe that the source is reliable for students to use or cite. 

After reviewing the feedback based on my entry, I found that the example paragraph one is closest to mine. There is a clear argument and great opening sentence used in this example and I could have been more clear and aggressive in my own. I believe that there is a clear point and argument throughout mine, as I do not believe that Wikipedia is a reliable source of information on a scholarly level. The first paragraph that relates to mine uses the first hand of the entry to discuss how popular it used among students, something I could have done in mine. Then, they pull examples and cite sources that show the issue with Wikipedia and how it can be an untrustworthy source.

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Twitter’s Authority Over The User

Twitter is my favorite platform to use on a daily basis in order to express my thoughts, view content of my interests, and to even inform myself about what’s going on in the world today. For me, Twitter has it all and if I wanted to go catch up on news, I would simply open up the app instead of turning on the television. The first example of Twitter holding authority over their user is that they hand select the News articles they want me to read. When I go on the explore page and want to read about what’s going on in Ukraine for example, there are only a handful of articles from selected news outlets of their choosing. These can be biased or inaccurate and are definitely in financial agreement with Twitter so that their content can be shown first. Another example of Twitter holding authority over the user can be seen when I am scrolling on my home page. Every ten posts or so a sponsored advertisement will appear in which Twitter is making money on by the company. I have no control over what advertisements appear, as that is solely up to Twitter. This can be repetitive for me however it is something I block out as I rely so heavily on the platform that it wouldn’t turn me away from using it. Another example of Twitter having power over the user can be seen in what happened with the deletion of former President Trump’s account. Twitter has full control over what content is being published on their platform and can do what they need to do to establish that, such as deleting accounts and limiting content. Some ways that the power dynamics of Twitter can be addressed could be tweeting about it, reporting the advertisement as repetitive, making polls on Twitter about the power they hold over the user, or even emailing Twitter about it. 

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Misinformation and Disinformation

Misinformation is closely related to disinformation, as disinformation is a form of misinformation. As a whole, misinformation can be described as false or out of context information that is presented as a fact, intentionally or not.  Disinformation is an intentionally false set of information or facts which is meant to mislead or provide the audience with wrong information. One group of people that may be affected negatively by the usage of either would be those who watch the news. If the news station was to present wrong information regarding an event or person, people will believe it because the info is coming from a credible source. Another group that would be affected negatively by the usage of mis or dis information would be voters in our country. If a presidential candidate were to display wrong statistics or facts, they would get people to believe something that is not true. This could be damaging for an entire country as a candidate could be getting credit for something that is not true. Another group that would be affected negatively by mis or dis information could be someone accused of a crime or the jury. If any information is presented incorrectly in a court room, somebody will be affected by it. If somebody did not commit a crime for example and a witness is saying they did and they have proof, this can negatively affect the person being accused and the integrity of a court room. 

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My Thoughts on Google

Google is a search engine that is vital to all people regardless of what it is being used for. The search engine provides instant and useful results of information to what you are trying to get out of the search. The controversy with this however is that Google pieces your personal data together including previous searches, IP address, your interests, and generally information that you may not want to be public. This can be a breach of privacy to many people as your personal information is available to Google which allows them to produce such accurate results in the matter of just a few seconds. My take on the matter is that Google is vital and has data of billions of users so I do not feel alone whatsoever or targeted. I think that the accurate results are key to answering a lot of our questions as it helps me on a daily basis to get the answers to my questions. So, I think that Google’s method of results is definitely more helpful than creepy.

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“Illegal Alien”

The problem in this story is that student of Dartmouth and immigrant from Mexico, Melissa Padilla, came across a term used to describe people of her kind that she determined to be offensive. This term is “illegal alien” and has been used on a government level to refer to immigrants into the US. The real problem is that she believes it is offensive and used to demean Mexican immigrants, regardless of legal status. This term also can undermine the amount of hard work and effort it took her and her family to become a citizen of our country. The power is being exerted by Melissa who is working hard to make a change regarding this term and the Democrat of Texas even agreed. My own point of view is that this term is offensive, especially for a group of people that have put in so much effort to become simply a citizen of our nation. These people are in search of a better life and to be deemed “illegal alien” is an issue as Padilla would agree.

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NFTs: My Need For Information

In today’s world things are fast changing, new innovations and ways of transferring money are huge components to the way change is coming. NFT’s or non fungible tokens are very common and can be in the form of a digital art. People are making a lot of money investing and holding these NFT’s so I was in need of information to take part in this. I then took to Twitter, Google, Podcasts such as Gary Vaynerchuk’s in order to do my own research before investing on Open Sea, the marketplace to buy and sell these pieces of digital art. The purpose for me was to join something early that can potentially give me good returns on investment. It did not take me long to find information about the topic, as it is a very new and hot topic in today’s industry.

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Apex Culture

I run a music focused social media page on Instagram and on our website called APEX Culture. Personally, I enjoy writing and expressing my thoughts about something I am passionate about so my friend Samy and I have started this platform. This post is a review of an album by music legend Kid Cudi and was created in its entirety by me; these are my thoughts about the content, a picture of the album cover, and my overall take on the music. I contributed this fully by myself while listening to the Kid Cudi album, so the content is all mine however based on the music. The portion created by others is the album which is titled “Man on the Moon III” and thanks to musical artist Kid Cudi. I discovered this content on Apple Music and social media, which let me know that this project was being released. I use social media such as Twitter and Instagram to get knowledge about music. This post was also posted to the Apex Culture Instagram where it got likes, resulted in followers, direct messages, and even got a comment on the bottom of the blog post. 

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Information

The definition of information that stood out is Richard Derr’s interpretation of the term. He wrote that “information is an abstract, meaningful representation of determinations which have been made of objects.” Derr has five requirements for something to be deemed as information which are: information be a representation, abstract, meaningful, consisting of determinations, and that the determinations have been made of certain objects. I agree with these guidelines as information is everywhere and does have to be meaningful or telling to a certain degree. I feel that really everything in our world can be deemed a piece of information to some degree as you can draw observations and inferences from all of your senses. For example, if you walk into a room and you smell food, you can safely assume that there are people cooking, and to me that is a form of information you are receiving in a different way.

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My Introduction

Hello, my name is Parker Leavy I am a senior at SU with a concentration of project management within the School of Information Studies. I am from Livingston New Jersey and have a sister that goes here as well. I have an interest in playing golf and tennis and like to watch sports and invest in stocks in my free time. Post graduation in May I hope to have acquired great knowledge in the areas of project management and digital marketing as I will enter the workforce. I am currently in the job search and am confident in my ability to land a job perfect for me hopefully in NYC or NJ.