My Relationship with Technology (Final Post)

 

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Technology... the Good and the Bad

Why do you use technology? Some people might say they use it for work or to stay in touch with their family. These are great examples of using technology in the way their inventors imagined. Yet, so many wrong ways technology has begun to be used in modern times. Terrorism has already started to utilize it to help their plan. At the same time, law enforcement can violate privacy rights to "protect" citizens. I don't want to sound like I don't enjoy technology; it's the opposite for me. My job requires me to stay up to date with new technology coming out. Media production could not be where it is today without the advancement of technology. My goal of this post is to not deter you from using it but rather to have a safer relationship with tech.

The Bad

I know I put the good first in the heading, but it sounded better. So here we are with the bad. Though there is military technology advancement in the U.S, it also means the people we are fighting have technology too. Just like you use Facebook to keep track of your family, radicalized terrorists have been using it to connect to more people. A paper from the Center for Strategies & International Studies written by Seth Harrison looks at how this has impacted the 16-year War on Terror.

Social Media has allowed terrorist cells to move across the world without having to leave their homes. They are posting propaganda all across the internet in hopes of radicalizing others... and it's working. Since May 2014, over 200 individuals have been charged with offenses connected to ISIS. By talking with people on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, groups like ISIS or AL-QA'IDA can speak to people never thought possible. How is the government supposed to protect its citizens when it's possible to talk to anyone and feed them false information? 

Unfortanley for that country's citizens, it means violating their privacy rights. With the government trying to monitor the pages of terrorists, it also means they are watching ours. Supposedly they are not allowed to do this without warrants and a lot of other paperwork. Still, if you put your information on a public sight, they can see whatever they want. This is the price you have to pay if you want to see your grandchild's first day of school from across the country.

The Good

Just as I said that the cost of seeing your grandchild's first day of school is having the government watch you, it does mean we can see things we used to miss. So many events and memorable moments have now been seen and even recorded. If you remember living without a cell phone, think about how easier your life is now. Think about having to go somewhere without GPS. You either had to use a map or print the direction on mapquest when the internet came out. I remember when I had to read them to my mom, which was not the easiest for a small dyslexic kid. The internet alone has changed how we live every day. Currently, my entire job revolves around me using the internet for research on people. I would not have an internship or any future jobs without technology. 

So the question is, how do we safely use the internet and technology. The idea is to just be smart. When you see information that makes you question, do your own research. Be safe with your passwords, and don't reuse the same one repeatedly. There are VPN ad's all over the place. Don't waste your money on them. Unless there is really a reason for you needing to appear somewhere else. Keep your personal information to yourself. Most importantly, just don't be an idiot.

Final Thoughts

I hope that I made up for the scary part about terroirist. Technology is a beautiful thing, but it needs to be respected. It can lead to such good in the world, yet just like anything else, it can be used for evil. There has been so much advancement in the last 100 years that we don't know how to protect ourselves. When doing anything on the internet or using a piece of technology, I think about what information it could collect. The other day, I realized that my toothbrush courses you into getting you to brush your teeth twice a day by offering rewards. Then it hit me, the company can give these rewards because they go and sell that data. Now I don't personally care if they want to see how often I brush my teeth (which is twice a day), but someone else might. Continue to use technology. You won't be able to function without it; just be smart.