What Will We Do Without Instagram Likes????

As I was scrolling through Facebook a couple days ago, I saw a link that someone shared to their timeline. The title of the article was "The CEO of Instagram is taking away likes". My first reaction to that was "Oh no, why?" I was confused as to why they wanted to take away likes from Instagram. I thought about it for a while and my opinion changed. I realized that by doing this will be beneficial for  people. Its time to live in a world again where our focus doesn't revolve around likes. I am sick having this thought in the back of my mind that my social media isn't "good" enough. I feel embarrassed even saying that. I go through my Instagram and look and see how many likes each photo gets and if a photo doesn't have enough likes, I will archive it. Instagram users will be experiencing an app without the focus on likes and I think this is truly going to be the best for people. Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram decided to hide likes to followers for a little bit. He is doing it as a social experiment to see how people react to not seeing likes on their pictures. Living in a world without likes? I cant relate. Ever since middle school, that I can remember, likes have been a big influence for not just me but peers in my classes. Social medias biggest flaw is obsession with how many likes you get on your photo or status which is why Adam is trying to make a point and disappearing likes from photos for a couple months to create less pressurized society.
https://www.newsweek.com/instagram-ceo-announces-likes-will-disappear-us-accounts-starting-next-week-1470755

What makes me think in the back of my mind about Instagram taking away likes is, what is all of these Instagram influencers going to do? Their job is to post and promote brands on Instagram, they practically live off of likes. What are they going to do now? There is definitely people out there who are making thousands of dollars off of likes on their Instagram posts. What also makes me think  is the people who buy/bought their likes and followers are the ones who are the fools now. All of those influencers must feel stupid knowing they wasted all of their money for fake accounts to give them clout. All of this is about clout and doing posts for the "people" and catering to their likes. What I mean by that is they try and get as much attention as they possibly can to please everyone. The goal is to get attention to their posts and how many likes they get on your picture is important for them. People are obsessed with the number of likes each of their pictures gets and taking away likes on Instagram is going to be a culture shock for most. We will just have to wait and see how our society reacts to this.

Social Media Age Restriction

This past week while we were talking about Privacy in class, we watched Terms and Conditions may apply (2013). In one of the scenes, it showed a session in court where they talked about how kids under the age requirement are signing up for social media accounts. This was a shock to me even though I have done it myself. When I was younger I wanted a Facebook account so badly, but I wasn’t old enough. I signed up anyway and got away with it. At that time I believe I was 11 years old and you have to be at least 13 years old to have one. In my case, nothing bad ever came from it, other than some embarrassing posts from middle school.

I read an article called 3 Reasons Why Social Media Age Restrictions Matter by Diana Graber. This article was interesting to read because I have never thought in depth about this subject matter. Graber goes over the 3 reasons in great detail some of it can feel like common sense. Although, I don’t think a lot of people realize that it isn’t completely safe for children under the age requirement to have social media accounts. This is a big concern, to say the least.

This is an excerpt from Graber that gives a lot of information about the age requirement for social media:

“The minimum age to open an account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Kik, and Snapchat is 13. Vine, Tinder, and Yik Yak it’s 17. YouTube requires account holders to be 18, but a 13-year-old can sign up with parent’s permission. Despite these clearly stated and published age restrictions, large and growing numbers of children 12 and under are using social media networks often with their parent’s knowledge and consent.”

This can cause a bunch of different issues because even though parents have the knowledge and gave them consent they are not watching what they are doing on this social media 24/7. That creates an even bigger issue like Diana Garber has said in her article children’s personal information can be at risk. If they are young enough they might not know what is right and wrong to post on social media, and this can lead to a lot of serious problems. They could add their birthday, home address, or where they go to school, which can hinder their safety. The next reason kids under the age requirement shouldn’t have social media is because “children under 13 don’t have the same hardware upstairs to make smart decisions online”. Graber throws in facts about how at 12-years-old it is very hard for a kid to understand their actions online can have large consequences. Graber’s last point is that “Lying is just plain wrong”. This one is a given because we are taught to not lie, regardless of where they are doing it. Which in the end can cause more problems in their future if they get away with it when they are younger.

After reading this, I do understand why it is an issue and why I probably shouldn’t have had a Facebook account when I was younger than the required age. I honestly didn’t think a lot about that before, because I knew not to put any personal information online. It could have been very bad if I did. Do you think it is wrong for someone under the age requirements to have social media? Do you think it’s okay that the social media platform creators know about famous kids on social media that are under the age requirement but don’t kick them off?

Just Look Up

The first time I watched this video was about 4 years ago. It came out April 25th, 2014, and has reached over 61 million views. I watch it pretty often to remind myself of the world we live in, and I think everyone should give it a watch. It is called Look Up by Gary Turk. It relates perfectly to just about everything we have ever talked about in this class, and if you have not seen it, I am happy I can share this with you.

The video starts off with stating we have hundreds of friends but yet, we are still lonely. Our phones, laptops, and media we call social are anything but, when we open our computers and it's the door we shut. Have you ever thought of that? We call all these platforms social media, but are they really social when it is us who are isolating ourselves to use them? We have forgotten how to speak to one another and make eye contact we need. Gary has so many amazing lines in this video but one of those are, “Be there for your friends and they’ll be there too, but no one will be if a group message will do”. Group messages via texting have taken over our connections. My friends and I will sit in the same room, and group chat with each other without speaking out loud. We need to just talk to one another, and learn to coexist again. We have all been taught not to talk to strangers, but not all strangers are bad. It is ok to talk to a stranger on your commute to work or school, you are not weird for doing so. 

Another point Turk brings up is the fact that small children are going just about everywhere with smartphones, or iPads. We constantly see children out to eat being occupied with games and shows they can watch on one small device. Turk states, “It’s not likely you’ll make worlds greatest dad if you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad”. This line genuinely makes me sad. My younger brother is six years old, and has grown up playing games on all of our phones. I have taught him to go outside and play, but nothing makes him happier than being inside and sitting on the couch with multiple games to choose from on a device.

We have become a generation of idiots, smart phones, and dumb people, as Turk would say. Although I don't believe we are idiots or dumb people, we just have to rely on the internet to give us the answers we are unaware of. Google, Bing, Yelp, and more, are at our fingertips and teaching us more everyday. The only way our smartphones are making us dumb, is the fact we spend more time looking down than realizing what is going on around us. A piece of advice Gary Turk offers us is, “So look up from your phone, shut down the display, take in your surroundings, make the most of today”. This is something we all need to do. We all need to take in our surroundings and make the most of all of our days. We don't live forever so we need to stop wasting our time. Today, I checked my screen time on my iPhone, and in the past week I have spent 15 hours and 54 minutes. That is almost one whole day. 

To end this video Turk reminds us, "When your too busy looking down you don't see the chances you miss". Look up from your phones and fill your time with real life connections and interactions. Make your friends feel real, and your family feel loved. Make these eye to eye contact connections and stop group messaging. I am challenging myself this week to decrease my screen time, but giving more people my love, than a like.

I hope you all take 4 minutes and 58 seconds out of your day to watch this video and change in a way. I hope it opens your eyes as much as it opened mine. Watch it more than once and think about every word he says. Look up from your phone and live today!

Rose are Red, Violets are Blue, You have no privacy, what can you do?

As we learn more about privacy, or the alarming lack of it, on the internet/social media, the big question that looms large is: What in the f*** can we do? It is normal to feel helpless, and overwhelmed, but there are ways to increase your internet privacy if you put in a little bit of effort and elbow grease.

Swap up your search engine/web browser: On my PC at home, I use the search engine DuckDuckGo. There are many privacy benefits to this platform, including the fact that they don’t store any personal information, whatsoever, on their users. This company prides itself on privacy, and is also accessible through the browser Tor. It has a very simple interface, and is easy to use. You will also find the search results vastly different from Google’s, which is sometimes a good thing, as it diversifies what information you are being shown.

Use a VPN. There are a number of VPN services out there, some are free, and some are paid for. The paid services are often cheap, and run smoother than the free versions. There are programs you can download, or extensions you can simply add to your browser. You may experience some latency, but a VPN is a surefire way of securing your data. Do some research, and figure out which one is best for you.

Stay informed on pro-Privacy policies. This is one of the harder ones to do, but there are entities out there that do this for you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (Thanks Dr. Elizabeth Ray) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1990 as a reaction to a major privacy violation. They are still in the fight for privacy, and they have a function called the EFF Action Center on their website, that will tell you what pro-Privacy policies are worthy of support, and provide a link to how you can support them. They do the leg work and show you where to look, you just have to look. Legislation changes are the biggest things that will help solve the privacy problems across the internet, so supporting these will be huge for the future of your privacy.

Terms and Conditions

Reading the Terms & Conditions is a very rare occasion, and has been for many people.  I am included in this, because it's not something I want to put my effort into doing.  It always seems to be a long page of small writing that no one wants to carefully read.

A Georgia high school teacher, Donelan Andrews, won a $10,000 dollar reward just for reading the Terms and Conditions of a travel insurance policy when purchasing a trip to England.  The Florida insurance company inserted a prompt in between the terms and conditions that promised $10,000 dollars to the first person that emailed the company saying they read it.  The company had created a top-secret Pays to Read campaign which showed the significance of reading policy documentation.

In 2017, 22,000 who signed up for free public WiFi, agreed unknowingly to 1,000 hours of community service because the company wanted to show how the lack of consumer awareness of what they are actually signing up for.

It makes you wonder what you actually have signed up for when using certain social media.  No one wants to actually read the fine print, its long and quite boring.  Sometimes this can be considered dangerous, as you can be agreeing to just about anything.

My cousin signed up for a shoe site called JustFab when she wanted to order a pair that she liked.  She didn't realize at the time that in order to be a member, they would charge you a certain monthly fee.  She was angry because the site did not make this obviously stated anywhere on their media platform.  She realized that they did however, state this in the Terms and Conditions.  She kicked herself because she skimmed fast not paying attention to anything that was stated.  She did get angry though and blamed it on the, "who actually reads the Terms and Conditions though?".

We need to be more aware of what we are agreeing to when we agree to the Terms and Conditions of online platforms in which we share our personal information and photos.  These platforms have ownership on the media that is posted and can do what they would like with them.  We need to resolve this by fixing the way that Terms and Conditions are presented to us.

Powering Down On Thanksgiving

Every year when my very small family of fourteen gets together at my house, we make a very important rule: no phones at ALL times! We have a basket in our living room that everyone must put their phones in right next to the jar and pieces of paper that we all write what we are thankful for. We also do this when we get together for Christmas. After we finish hanging out while our delicious Thanksgiving dinner cooks, we all sit together and eat and talk about how fun or crazy our year has been. We then get our phones back after we eat. My grandmother started this tradition before she passed away because she felt that nobody paid attention to anything and there was silence in the air. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two holidays out of the year where my family gets together to see each other. Using your phone makes you easily distracted, especially with the numerous social media apps there are, it is easy to get lost in your phone and not pay attention to what is around you at the moment. By having the no-phone policy, we can really get together as a family and have actual conversations. 

Put your damn phones down! CBSN makes a great point about why we should keep our phones away and out of our reach during the holidays. Your family that you do not see may travel for hours or even take flights to come see you. Not using your phone for a few hours of the day and associating with them will be greatly appreciated, especially your elders. 

Does your family allow you to use phones during the holidays? Or do they do the "basket method" like mine? If your family lets you use phones during the holidays, is anybody really paying attention and hanging out together? 

What happened to carrying an agenda as a hall pass?

Remember in high school when you needed to use the restroom or go to your locker for something? Teachers would give their students slips of paper that they would sign or they would have to sign the student's agenda that they would carry around with them. Now, technology is apart of this process in some schools. However, it raises some privacy concerns.

A high school in Virginia began the use of the app e-HallPass. The application allows students to request to leave the classroom in order to go to the restroom, the nurse's or principal's office, or somewhere else on campus. School administrators access the request and are able to approve or disprove based on who is and how many students are already out. E-HallPass tracks previous times the student has requested to leave class (to track patterns) as well. 

Some students believe that this application being used by the administration of their school is invasive and unnecessary. One student has even begun a petition to get the school admins to stop using the application, claiming "e-HallPass invades privacy and deprives us students of things that should be basic human rights". 

I have been out of high school for some time, so I have never heard of this application. Most of the time, I would just use the hall pass section in my school-issued agenda to get a teacher's signature if I needed to leave class. Because of this, I needed to do more research on e-HallPass. 

Through the Eduspire Solution website, the software company that supports e-HallPass, there is a short and simple list of the application's uses. Things such as administrators having access to current hallway traffic, flagging "hall pass frequent fliers, pass abusers, and stem problem behavior", and reports of traffic at specific times. This list also includes a specific section on privacy, stating that the application does not need GPS or other location-tracking services in order to function. Schools that use the app also do not require their students to use their own personal devices.  

I attempted to check out the app myself, but I wasn't able to get access as it is administered by school administrations. There is the option to demo e-HallPass. Unfortunately, I don't have time to schedule a demonstration this weekend and write this blog post as I am at a conference in D.C. 

Although I couldn't access or demo the app, I found Eduspire Solutions' privacy policy. In the privacy policy, Eduspire Solutions says, "User data...used by our application may include user first and last names, user email addresses, user graduation years, and other related data that may be considered Personally Identifiable Information under relevant data privacy regulations and statutes". Eduspire Solutions continues to say that the gathered information is provided by the user through e-mail or other direct contact from the user. Advance notice needs to be given to the user prior to the transfer of personally identifiable information to a third party.

Eduspire Solutions does not sell information to third parties and is only shared with people who are "...working directly with Eduspire Solutions to support our software...". The information provided is only used in the context of e-HallPass (or another Eduspire Solutions application) and not for use of anything else. Information provided can be deleted at any time through a request by the original information provider, being the school or the school district.

Eduspire Solutions states that they do not share information with anyone besides a few select people working for Eduspire Solutions. These workers have special access and rights to obtain the user's identifiable information. There is a sentence at the end of this "security" section that specifically states, "Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information".

Now, after reading this information and learning more about e-HallPass and the support system behind it, I can see where the student who created this petition against the use of e-HallPass is coming from. Students should not be tracked when they need to use the restroom, because it is a natural body function. They can't control when they need to use the restroom. If they need to go, they should just go.

Having said this, I don't think the use of e-HallPass is any more invasive than the use of a paper hall pass. GPS or other location-tracking is used for the app, so it's not like administrators are watching the student's every move. They can use the app to see what other students are out at that time, possibly to avoid altercations between students and to cut down on the amount of students out in the halls at one time. E-HallPass is a collective and centralized hall pass that administrators have access to.

So no, I don't think that e-HallPass is a bad idea. I'd even say that it's a great development for high schools. It cuts down on the use of paper in schools and it makes it easier for teachers and other faculty members to track who is abusing hall passes. Location is not needed to use the app and Eduspine Solutions says they keep their users' information private to their company and the workers.

I remember a couple months ago, there was a trend on Twitter where people shared the strangest objects they were given as a hall pass. To finish this blog post, I'll include some of my favorite additions to this trend below.

Also, here is what some of my friends had to say when I asked them what they used as hall passes in high school:

• A broken lunch tray
• A broken toilet seat
• A baby doll head (my own experience)
• A banana with "hall pass" written in sharpie

What do you think? Is e-HallPass intrusive and a violation of student's basic human rights? Or is it just a simpler way for school administrators to track hallway comings and goings?

Technology, Privacy and Security

Last week in Professional Sales two with Professor England, class took a little bit of a side track. The professor took the time out of the day to teach the class something that is crucially important to our protection and our privacy. He brought up the new ways in which technology makes hacking a whole new game. Certain classmates shook in their boots and started rapidly asking questions as he loosely mentioned some ways he claims even little kids that grew up immersed in technology know how to easily steal your soul. He spoke about a group of people who he watched on 60 minutes. They drove up 93 North starting at its beginning in Canton, Massachusetts to its end in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, hacking all of the road side businesses simply by connecting to their wifi. They did this to mess with their systems as a prank and also an experiment. It look only the few seconds in which they drove by the businesses. He also spoke about the dangers of connecting to public WIFIs. He mentioned that if you connect to a hacker’s fake WIFI then your privacy and protection is up to their discretion. They could steal absolutely everything on your computer and therefore everything that connects to your computer such as your phone, Ipad, Fitbit or even your smart home and baby monitor. A search of these security risks brought me to, https://qz.com/1493748/how-one-lightbulb-could-allow-hackers-to-burgle-your-home/. This site states, While it may be convenient or even fun to control your home from a smartphone, there are many documented cases of how critical security devices like locks, alarms, and even baby monitors can be hacked. According to a new study by computer scientists at The College of William & Mary, even seemingly benign smart home devices, like smart plugs or lightbulbs, can provide entry points for hackers”. They explain this by stating that all of these smart home devices are connected over wifi. Therefore all it would take is for a hacker to connect to something simple like a power outlet which turns on a light at the time you usually arrive home. This hacker now not only knows when you usually come home but also can now get into your alarm system which is also connected to that “at home” setting. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel thought about the fact that smart cameras and door bells are mass produced giving millions the ability to find their weaknesses and then use these weaknesses against whoever they choose to hack. Overall, security has always been an issue but technology has given means for new security and privacy issues. Peeping Toms no longer have to risk a neighbor catching them peeping in a window but now can hide behind a computer viewing your webcam from thousands of miles away. Smarthomes and wifi are just a few ways for hackers to take over whatever they chose.

Spynority Report

Does the good of social media outweigh the bad? There are solid talking points for both sides of this argument, but no clear winner. I work at Belmont Middle School, and one of the big problems being discussed in academic circles is the use of social media by the students. Cyber bullying, inappropriate messages, threats and sexting dominate the current landscape here. Most of these incidents happen outside of school hours, but lead to discipline at school. These types of things have led one school district in Iowa to make some interesting moves. The Iowa City Community School District just received a $187,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to contract a company that will monitor students' social media accounts for potential warning signs that students may hurt themselves or others. There is not a lot of information known about what exactly will be done, or how it will be done, but it is a pretty interesting move. Will this set a precedent nationwide, and what are the ramifications of this action? Is it a violation of privacy, and how does someone dictate exactly what amounts to a “potential threat?”

How would you feel if you knew that your social media accounts were being monitored? I believe that this would shift how we behave accordingly, however I do not think it will necessarily prevent things. In my opinion, students will find other ways to express themselves, and find a way to operate in the same kind of manners outside of the all seeing eye. I see this causing more problems than solutions, not to mention the ethical debate that will take place if someone is disciplined for something they have not actually done. Do you think this is a step in the right direction, or a solid step off a cliff?

"Privacy" on social media

As I start to think about graduation, I cant help but think about all of the media content I have posted throughout my experiences in college and high  school. Am I worried about what I have out there? 100% terrified what companies I will be applying to will see. I'm scared that the content I have posted is going to stick on there forever and in the back of my mind, I am extremely anxious about applying the end of this year. I know that not all companies extensively research and see everything you have posted but I know that most do. Is social media going to ruin my life? Is a question that I literally ask myself everyday? I know I sound guilty because I am so worried but I am nervous about the underage drinking posts I've made or the inappropriate outfits that I have worn out or just posts of me doing dumb shit, because I sure was a wild one the first year of college. Privacy is something that I haven't quit actually understood until taking this class. Privacy on the internet doesn't exist and that scares me. Yes, when my Instagram account is private that only my followers can see what I post but I don't personally know every one of my followers. I don't know if there is accounts that I have let follow me who are there to see if I post anything bad or if they are out to get me. Watching the documentary, Living in Public really has opened my eyes about what I should and shouldn't post on social media. Sometimes I wish that I can delete all of my social media accounts but I know that my posts just wont be "deleted". Does anybody else have these worries? Or am I just paranoid and overthink every possible situation?