Diffusion Theory on Virtual Reality

 

Virtual Reality, we have all heard of it and know some of what it is capable of, however, do we understand why the spread of this invention happened the way it did? According to Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory, there is a reason and process behind the spread of inventions. Before going into 3-D printing, let's look at this theory a bit more in-depth.

Diffusion Theory

    Everett Rogers created the diffusion theory to explain the spread of ideas and innovations through why and how. "Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system." The theory explains that there are five main influences on this spread: " the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system." He also explains how there are "adopters" that all play different roles. These adapters are categorized into five different categories as well: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.

The Start

    Now that we have the main idea of diffusion theory, let us connect it to the spread of virtual reality. VR was first created in 1956 by cinematographer Morton Heilig. The machine was called the "Sensorama" which combined a "3D video, audio, vibrations, smell, and atmospheric effects, such as wind." Ever since this, VR has grown and never stopped and is expected to grow even more in the future.

Diffusion theory and VR Headsets

VR has many aspects to it that will catch the eye of individuals. Being considered an "escape" from reality, VR headsets have become extremely popular today. With VR headsets being released to the public in 2016, the early adopters were able to get their hands on some. Today we can say that VR headsets are much further than marked in the photo to the left. Metaverse describes that "VR offers several advantages over traditional gaming and entertainment experiences. First, VR allows players to immerse themselves in a game or other experience completely. This is thanks to headsets that block out distractions and create an immersive environment." However, VR headsets can be used for so much more than gaming. Training, education, increased productivity, escapism, social networking, and more are all examples of the benefits of this creation. While they are expensive as well, they are not outrageously expensive and hard to get. The reason some individuals are late majority or laggards would be because of price. 

    However, there are some individuals who don't have a headset, why is that? First, we need to understand there are disadvantages to VR headsets as well. These are health risks, social isolation, and expense. With this being said, the positive points of a VR headset heavily outway the negative. As most of these negative points can be prevented as long as you use the headset responsibly. And with the idea of how VR will grow and help our society in the future also pushes the spread of it. Making more and more individuals want to be a part of the growth by buying pieces of it. 

 

Framing Theory

    Framing theory is a theory that we probably all know about but didn't know its technical name. Framing theory can be defined as, "framing theory suggests that how something is presented to the audience (called “the frame”) influences the choices people make about how to process that information" The idea of framing theory was invented in 1974 by Erving Goffman who said, "we use in our day-to-day experience to make sense of the world." This theory has two different categories to it. Natural and Social. Natural framing theory is when the way you grew up and the experiences you've had will change how you view a situation. While social framing theory is when the media or an outside individual purposely will manipulate a situation so you will view it a certain way. 

The Use

    The news and media will use social framing every day and we don't even realize it the majority of the time. From crime stories, celebrities, politics, etc., the news uses this theory to make them agree with their side of the story. Politics is a great example of this. Between liberals and Republicans, each side uses social framing theory to convince you their candidate is better than the other. Making them look bad, taking something they say and turning it against them, or using photos of them doing an activity. When used strategically, this theory can bring out the best and the worst in people. 

To take a lighter note though, framing theory can also be used in advertisements. For example, the photo to the left shows very similar advertisements, however, the way the bottom one is framed will look better to the customers. This is a great example of a company using both natural and social framing theory to its advantage. Knowing this skill is a great advantage in the advertising industry.

The effect

    When looking at how framing theory affects our society we need to first look at how it affects individuals. The Decision Lab shared a lot of great opinions and facts about framing theories' effect on the individual and society as a whole. A great example they share states, "Think of someone who unwisely chooses a high-risk investment portfolio because their broker emphasized the upside instead of the potential downside, or a citizen who votes for a protectionist candidate because media coverage has only highlighted the negative repercussions of past trade agreements." 

    Looking at the effects it has on society, they used the example of climate change. Despite all of the facts and proof of climate change, there are still many individuals that do not believe it s really happening. Decision Lab shared that, "This may be because climate change has been framed as a scientifically contentious issue by some media outlets and politicians, who also often highlight the short-term financial costs of environmental policy." 

Why should we care? What can we do to avoid it?

    Framing theory can be used in both negative and positive ways, as discussed earlier. We do not want to let ourselves be fooled by the media because of framing theory. As a society, we should be educated and check sources, and research topics before forming an opinion, and stop the spread of false information. Being aware that the framing effect is real and is constantly used today is already educating us to improve the current situation. 

YouTube?

 YouTube is a site that we all have heard of and used at least once before. Whether it's to watch a "how to", gaming videos, or someone playing with dolls. YouTube has a video of almost anything and everything. But when did YouTube become a thing? Who created it? Why was it invented? These are all questions that I never knew the answer to before learning more about YouTube. Let's start at the very beginning.

Dating App?

Youtube was first created in 2004 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. But it wasn't invented to be what it is now, the idea of YouTube was to first be a dating app called "Tune in Hook Up". Somewhere where individuals could upload videos of themselves to meet others in a romantic way. However, this idea changed quickly when there was little interest in it. This is when the YouTube we know and love today came around. "YouTube' officially made its debut in 2005 and quickly took off. 

YouTube Today

My fellow classmate, Micheal Connelly, talked about how YouTube has become such a huge part of our society today and the positive and negative effects of this. YouTube's entertainment section is the most popular section with sports, video games, vlogs, and more. Youtubers can make millions while filming content for their subscribers, making this one of my dream careers next to acting. (This is a joke.) On a serious note, YouTube allows anyone to have a voice and share their creativity with the world. We can also now quickly access videos from various genres so quickly. When before YouTube the main forms of entertainment through technology were movies, shows, and sports. 

The Impact

While I mentioned a lot of great impacts YouTube has created, there are also some negatives. False information can be spread very quickly through the site. There are also multiple cases where hate has been brought to Youtube because of inappropriate content, hate speech, racism, and more. For any children using it, this can be a bad influence and promote these behaviors for the viewers. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

 I have never heard of the eight values of free expression before research. However, these are all the ideas of our fundamental freedom of speech and are important whether we realize it or not. This textbook titled, "Free Speech on Campus", states an amazing reason why free speech is important with this quote, "First, freedom of speech is essential to freedom of thought because a person cannot develop an independent point of view about the world unless he or she is exposed to different ideas about what is important and what beliefs are most meaningful, and is permitted to converse with others about their experiences or thoughts. " 

Here are the eight values of free expression:

1. Marketplace of Ideas
2. Participation in Self-Government
3. Stable Change
4.  Individual Self-Fulfillment
5. Check on Governmental Power
6. Promote Tolerance 
7. Promote Innovation
8. Protect Dissent 

My thoughts

After reading and learning more about each value and the importance behind each one, I found a few that I felt resonated with me personally. The first one is "individual self-fulfillment". This value can be understood when looking at C. Edwin Baker. This value is the idea that free speech allows everyone to express themselves and their identity. I grew up as a very creative individual, and the thought that I could not have the freedom to express myself scares me. The second value I felt close to is "promote innovation". This one relates closely to the one I just mentioned, "individual self-fulfillment". This value shares how communities can promote their citizens to be creative and find interesting and new ideas. I feel like these are so important when looking at the growth of a nation. Without creativity or allowing people to make new inventions, ideas, etc., a society will never grow or learn. 

As a society today I feel you see each and every value used to some of its fullest potentials. Whether it is protesting, making a post on TikTok, or creating clubs at schools. We see individuals using their freedoms every day. Some of the values that I feel we see most today have to be individual self-fulfillment, checking on government power, and protecting dissent. We already discussed what individual self-fulfillment is, but when looking at our society and how we use it it is so important. Social media and technology have become huge in our society and I feel their purpose and use will only grow. Online people can express themselves, their ideas, their thoughts and opinion, news, and more. It is incredible to think how it has changed. Checking on the government is something you can see daily at this point. When before it wasn't seen as much. Checking on the government is exactly how it sounds when citizens use their freedom of speech to check in and express their thoughts to the government. Again, you see this in a lot of social media platforms. Lastly, protecting dissent is protecting the idea that no matter how weird or unpopular someone's opinion may be, they are still allowed to share it and have the right to disagree with the government. 

Why should we be worried?

Twitter. After Elon Musk bought out Twitter we discovered some dark truth behind censorship. This article written by Jon Hersey explains how Twitter has been working with the government to censor certain journalists and political members, but then exposing others more. We should care about this as the government is disregarding our freedom of speech and all of the values I just shared with you are at risk because of this. As I said before, social media is going to only grow, and knowing that the government can be working with CEOs of social media platforms to silence certain individuals is scary. We should be calling the government out on its actions and sharing this information with everyone. Let us protect our freedom of speech and its values as well.

Mainstream News

 

Main Stream News, What is it Hiding?

News is everywhere: the radio, television, your phone, and your laptop. However, is the news we see and hear about accurate, and why do we not hear about other important information worldwide? I took a look at two different sites, Antiwar, and The American Conservative. Both of these sites are strong antiwar voices. Personally, I have never heard antiwar voices or opinions in mainstream news, and I wondered why this is. These aren't the only voices that the mainstream isn't sharing, think about all other opinions, popular or not, that are silenced and not talked about. 

Antiwar Voices

After taking a look at the two websites I mentioned before, I realized I never heard, seen, or acknowledged antiwar voices. Whether it was websites like these, on the news, or through social media. These websites exposed some of the violent issues that were going on in not only America but the whole world. From NATO running out of ammo to America shooting down UFOs, I learned so much new and important information that I haven't seen on the mainstream news. All of the information I was seeing made me wonder why our news channels aren't covering this, why haven't I heard about these important issues before now? I pondered on this question, but I knew the real reason all along.

The News and The Government

The government has the mainstream news channel in a chokehold. Making their silence and sharing what the government feels will make them look better to the people.  A prime example of this is Twitter. The government working with Twitter to ban certain people's accounts and push other tweets out more shows how the news and the government could be doing the exact same thing. Trying to hide their violent, bad, and just plain-out dumb decisions by silencing those who expose them isn't anything new for our government. Anti-war voices have been silenced for decades now, so this is nothing new. Having to dig deep and look for these sites and platforms that will share this opinion with you is becoming more difficult, as we fall victim to listening to mainstream news and not even considering other forms. But, I have now learned that I need to be wary of trusting mainstream news sources and do my own research on what our governments and others governments around the world are doing. 

Cell Phones to Smartphones, How did we get here? 

Cell Phones, we all have one, but do we know the history behind them? Before researching and digging into the history of how we got to the cell phones we all know and use today, I had no clue how we went from the old phones you see in the 1960s-themed movie to what I have in my hand right now. This is why I decided to look into it and share what I discovered with you guys. I found a great timeline that you should look at once you're done reading here to see photos of each phone and how they changed. 

The Beginning

Let's go back to the 1870s when the first phone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. While it looked like a weird cone-shaped object, it worked and was the start of an invention that would change the future. This phone led to the creation in 1905, when you could dial the number and didn't have to go through an operator to call someone. Crazy to think you used to have to do that. In 1925 we get the rotary phone, and in 1960 phones were attached to cars to have "mobile phones". This idea leads us to the wireless phones that we see today. 

Cell Phones

Cell phones progressed quickly to get to our iPhone 13 and Samsung S23 that we have now, so strap in because this is about to be a lot of information. The first wireless, mobile phone was invented in 1980 and was known as the AEG Telecar CD. It was a huge box that you had to carry around, which seems uncomfortable to me. But we were all saved when Motorola invented the Motorola MicroTAC9800X in 1989, also known as the first flip phone. 

Smartphones

It only took 5 years to go from flip phone to the first phone with a touchscreen that came out in 1994. It was called the IBM Simon and was considered the first smartphone. However, all of these phones didn't have a camera at all, well that was until 2000 when the Sharp J-SHO4 becomes the first phone to have a camera built into it! Then in 2002, Blackberry came out changing the phone industry forever. The last one I will mention is the iPhone that came out in 2007 bringing "apps" into the picture. 

The Impact

I know you're questioning why it is important to know the history of smartphones or why you should even care. Smartphones are the most used technology in the world. Allowing you to communicate with someone across the world in a split second. We use them to capture important and unforgettable moments, talk to those important to us as well as make connections that will help us in the future. PhonesThe development of where phones started to where they are now is so impressive and makes me question what they will be like in another 20 years. Jack Flynn shares some up-to-date statistics about cell phones today. Here is some I found interesting, "85% of U.S. adults own a smartphone as of 2022. The average American spends 5 hours and 24 minutes on their mobile device each day. On average, Americans check their phones at least 96 times per day, or once every ten minutes. As of 2022, there are roughly 6.65 billion smartphone users across the world. That’s 86% of the global population."  Just these 4 facts show how much our society today revolves around cell phones and how it truly has changed us as a society.