I definitely agree with this. I think a lot of times we try to blame technology for our issues as a way to not take responsibility for our behavior. While I do agree that technology has it's share of problems, I don't think it is solely to blame in most situations. A lot of todays issues are unfortunately not unique to the modern day. I think especially in the US we tend to repeat history and then act like it is a new thing and use technology as a scapegoat. I think those societal problems have always been there, technology just makes it much more known because we have so much access to information in a way we didn't in the past.

I think that this is a smart way to approach issues. So much of what is on the internet is misinformation and toxicity. I think that this has been on the rise in recent years. I went through something similar to this case study. I was not quite old enough to vote in 2020 but I was able to vote in 2024. My parents have always tried to teach me to research things thoroughly before establishing opinions. During that whole campaign cycle I tried to especially focus on local issues. I think so much of media today focuses on these massive elections that it makes people forget that local ones matter too. It was concerning to me that so many things that were on the ballot for my local election I had heard very little about. It took a lot of research to find anything about what the pressing issues were locally. I think that a lot of people would benefit from strategic searching when it comes to politics and especially when it comes to staying aware of local issues.

This is a particularly scary aspect of this article. I think today we have almost no privacy unfortunately. While I don't think it is nearly as bad in the US I think it is steadily getting worse. I find it very concerning that a lot of tech and media giants will advertise on being private but in reality that's not the case. While I do agree that if you are doing/saying something that you wouldn't be okay with people knowing you probably shouldn't do it online but also I feel users should be entitled to some level of privacy.

This is an interesting phenomenon. I think that fandoms aren't inherently negative but I do think this causes some dangers. I think that this had led people to feel obligated to information about celebrities or other public figures. I've seen lots of public figures have to set boundaries with their fans about not wanting to share every aspect of their life. This sometimes leads fans to feel "betrayed". I personally think it's odd to expect a person who you do not know to let you in on every part of their life. I think social media has made people feel as though they are obligated to that.

I think this is an interesting take. I don't necessarily agree with it. While I think that humans greatly underestimated what the internet would become I think we have the ability to understand and regulate it. A common issue with the internet is the lack of regulation. I think that the lack of regulation is due to the profit incentive. Like we talked about on Thursday, the media is a lobby that benefits politicians and their refusal to regulate it keeps them rich.