Blog 12 : Final Presentation

        My relationship with technology first started when I was in the fifth grade. My parents surprised my sister and I on Christmas and gifted us with our first iPhone 4’s. My parents were reluctant to give my sister and I phones at such an early age. However, with the transition to middle school, they thought it would be important to communicate with them about our whereabouts. Today, I use technology almost every day. When online  I enjoy using social media, communicating with friends and family members' lives, gathering information, entertainment purposes, and much more. For the most part, I believe my relationship with the media is somewhat healthy. 

        The main social media apps I use are Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.While using these apps I make sure I am always very mindful about what I am posting. You never know when a post will come around again and whose hands it could get into. This is because every time you post you are leaving behind digital footprints about who you are! When I was younger I felt as though I was more carefree about what I was posting. Now, as I am getting older and soon applying for jobs, I want to look as professional as possible online. Companies today may look at your social media accounts and I see no problem with that. Companies want to make sure they are hiring good people outside of the workplaces and will represent their brand well. 

        Watching the short videos in class about technology was very eye opening. I am torn because I do feel like technology has made such great strides in history. Technology is constantly changing and new devices are being invented each day. I feel that it’s our choice as society members to make the decision on how we are going to deal with it. I try my best to monitor this and not be as attached to my phone. Being too attached to your phone you miss out on quality time and you are not as socially aware of what’s happening in our outside world. We saw this in the “Tears of Fears” video where everyone was too invested in their phones to look up and help with what's happening around them.

        After learning about AI and online privacy this year in class, it has opened my eyes to how much technology truly monitors our lives. Not to mention, making good decisions on what I post and what I should not. Companies are using their technology efforts to gather information about us without us even knowing, which I find very troubling. Sadly, I am confident these issues will continue to play out in the future. Even though laws have been put in place to protect us from this, I feel corporations will not stop. I feel as though this is a sad truth we are going to have to live with for the rest of our lives.