Technology and the Economy

Technology has had both a postive and negative impact on the economy. It has helped the economy because more technology = more jobs. YouTube and Blog websites are creating more jobs for people. Advertisers have made a fortune off online advertising, and internet advertising is only growing, thus creating more jobs. Also, Job sites such as "Monster" has helped people find more jobs, there are more jobs being created online because of newspapers and magazines going electronic. On the flip side, because newspapers and magazines going electronic, people working for these print companies may also lose their jobs. Identity theft is a lot easier to accomplish with the development of technology over the years. Therefore, technology has had both positive and negative impacts on the economy.

Privacy

Privacy is an issue we have discussed in length in this class. In my opinion, I do not think we are able to have a lot of privacy on the internet, we can't help it. As time goes on, its only getting easier and easier to gain access to more and more information about people. In the long run, there are a couple inconveniences, but nothing huge. We have to be aware that whatever we put on the internet is fair game. I believe that if you don't want someone to see something, either don't put it on the internet or figure out how to cover it up. To increase our chances of gaining more privacy on the internet, we can read the privacy policies on websites that we have to register for. We can also limit the number of websites we give our personal information to.

Today I was thinking about how life would be different if I lived in China with their internet censorship laws. I go to certain websites on a day to day basis, and several (if not all) of them I could probably never get access to there. Websites such as FaceBook and Perez Hilton are blocked there. Even this website is blocked there. I think their rules are too harsh and unnecessary. I believe people have a right to browse the internet as they please. I am thankful to live in a place where i can have access to almost any website i want to go to. I believe it is each individual's (rather than the government's) responsibility to be moral and ethical when using the internet.

In the past, we have discussed a lot about video games and ethics. In my opinion, I think that video games definitely have a huge impact on kids, especially younger kids (age 5-12). I have done a little bit of research and have found that there are many theories that link violent video games with raised levels of agressiveness in children. If kids play these violent games enough, they can be come desensitized to it. However, I believe that is the parent's responsibility to control what their children are playing and for how long, not the creators of video games.

First Blog!

This is my first blog ever and I am very excited to get the opportunity to create and update one of these for the first time! Last class we talked a lot about how technology affects our social life. In my opinion, technology makes a huge impact on our social lives. Through things like facebook and myspace we can not only keep in touch with old friends, but also keep ourselves updated with what everyone is doing around us. Personally, if i want to find out what everyone is doing on a specefic night, a lot of times i can find it through facebook. I have become a victim of Facebook, in that, I spend a lot of my time on it, when i could be outside or socializing with actual people instead of doing it online. I feel as though many people share my same problem. If people's involvement in this technology age keeps increasing where will we be in ten years? What about twenty? For me, it is scary to think about because i feel as though, technology will have a greater and greater impact on our social lives and we will continue to lose person - to - person contact.