Technology Addicts

Imagine this... the year is 2014, a time when an actually verbal agreement is no longer needed. A time when you can quickly look up different witty things to say to a girl in an instant. A time when distance does not restrict you from talking or knowing another person. A time to look down and have a face to face conversation with someone across the world. A time to spend your entire paycheck on things made over seas and actually never hold that dollar amount.

Well if you were reading this 20 year's ago, you'd just believe I'm telling fiction. Now this is all happening. Now a person can spend as much as they have to their name just with the swipe of a card, and not to mention your entire identity can be gone in an instant.

Technology is an amazing thing, but what is it really doing? destroying...Yes.. helping.. yes. The man will destroy this planet with what he creates, no i'm not saying the movie "iRobot" will actually happen, but I am saying that the larger we grow the more of a risk we our to ourselves.
We put so much into technology and trust it so much, what will we do when it fails us? The time when we no longer have books, because we all have digital readers. What we will do when our electricity fails? how will we gain knowledge if we do not have a charger?

War is what will happen when technology fails, and who will be the strongest? Most likely it will be the poorest countries because these people did not have the money to indulge and warp their life around technology. The world is growing, and we are running out of space. Whats next? Us as humans having to learn to adapt to aquatic conditions? it is possible. Will we have to reverse Evolution?

The world population is now estimated at  7.165 billion according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Now why is the number of humans growing and growing? technology is the answer. Think about this  in the 1800s the average life span was 40 years of age, Now due to modern technology and medicine the life span is 85 years. This has increased to because of our knowledge of medicine, and Sanitizing. But what don't we know now? There could be a jump in our life span's. We just don't know though, thats what is scary to us. 

Time to Get to Each Billion
	Billions of People On Earth	Year	Time Span
	1 B	1830	50,000 years
	2 B	1930	100 years
	3 B	1960	30 years
	4 B	1975	15 years
	5 B	1989	14 years
	6 B	1999	10 years
	7 B	2011	12 years	The recent rate of increase has slowed due to diminishing birth rates.
	8 B	2025	14 years
	9 B	2045	20 years
	. What could intervene? 1. Starvation - Can we feed 8 billion people? Some say no. 2. Disease Epidemic - SARS, a new bird flu? 3. Nuclear winter - nuclear war, comet, or asteroid? 4. Birth rate change 5. The Earth's poles flip 6. The Apocalypse (religion induced)

So we are now trying to make a dollar, thats the only goal in life right? But have we noticed what we are doing to the earth? The United states is regulated by OSHA, but like any smart business men we will find the way to get around current regulations to make the greater dollar. Thats why we build factories in Countries without Regulations just like China for instance.  We can produce more product at a cheaper cost because of no pollution regulations.  So what are human's doing? Destroying our current world for something that we made up ourselves....money. 

Everyday New technologies come out to aid us in task so we do not have to do the labor we use to. As long as these material objects do not have their own mind and opinion we should be safe..from them taking over our world. But we will never be safe from our own brothers and sisters. 

GPS location: How Safe Are We?

 Technology has advanced so much in the past couple of years its remarkable. The idea of knowing a person is doing and knowing exactly where they are use to seem fiction, but now it is a reality.

Smartphones are the most popular thing out. The thought of not being able to connect to your online persona strikes fear in the hearts of many now a days. Have we thought about how much privacy we are actually giving up though? Now every app I seem to download would first like to know if I would like push notifications, then the following question is would be alright to turn location services on. Like anyone who solely wants to get to their media I just accept. Now is weird because any picture I take or any Status I update is now free for the public to see my exact location.

Now this thought can be good or bad. Good if people are worried or I am currently on Vacation and just wanting to show off to all my friends. But the bad outweighs the good here. Say I post a picture and check in at a restaurant. Anyone can go to that page and find me. Some people actually confront some these miss-user's in prank form, acting as if they know the future. Its funny because the people are so shocked, but in reality it shows how careless we are with our social media.

Kinda scary because you don't know who has your information just from seeing you post. Seems like "Big Brother" is watching us, but why should we be mad... I mean we are the ones posting it.

Another scary thought is that most children have smartphones. Teenagers looking for friends. This is a predators dream.  Murderers can happen very easily, especially if you know the exact location of your target. 

But on the positive side if you're a parent of an untrustworthy child, you can now their every move. 

The Power Of the Spoken Word

    The voice is the most powerful tool a human can posses. No matter what you say as long as you say it with confidence, and passion you will gain a following. History has proved this, but sadly the spoken word was usually used to benefit in negative ways.   

     This can bee seen through World War 2 especially. Adolf Hitler was just not an evil man, More than anything he was an amazing speaker. if you take the time to actually listen to some of his speeches, without the thought of what he, he will suck you into his way of thinking. I found myself listening to a speech in 1936, and found myself agreeing with his words. No, I am not a racist nor do I hate the same people he hated, but his words persuaded me. Now I understand why this man led a nation, and was so close to dominating the world. Yes, what he did was horrible, and no I do not support what happened, But I do have to give him credit on his ability to persuade.

     Jim Jones is another example i'd Like to give.... Jim Jones for you people that do not know, was an American religious leader, communist, and community organizer. Jones was the founder and leader of the "The People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ" Church.  This is know best for the events that occurred because of Jim Jones in November 1978, when Jones led his church to commit a mass suicide. Jones used his power of persuading to kill 909 people. He persuaded these people to relocate out of the United states to Guyana, and live a life dictated by himself. Jones led his followers to commit mass suicide by drinking Kool-aid laced with cyanide. The mass suicide was brought on by a visit from California Congressman Leo Ryan, who was investing rumors of human rights abuse. Congressman Ryan visited Guyana to witness what Jim Jones had been doing. Sadly, Congressman Ryan's trip ending in his death on an airstrip by Jones' instruction.  Jim Jones feared Congressman Ryan would go back to the US and expose the truth... so he killed him.  Then directly after, Jones directed his followers to drink the Kool aid in fear of the backlash of his actions.

   Now we have seen 2 examples on how the voice has cause death and destruction lets look at some positive impacts.

   Martin Luther King Jr.  was a remarkable man.. the impact he had changed a nation. His un-violent approach brought communities together. People of all different backgrounds, and of different race joined as one while he spoke. He led a revolution and changed the United States forever just with his words.  He is remembered most by his infamous line "I have a dream", which he said in his speech during the march on Washington in 1963. He led the nonviolent revolt against the US, and commanded equality of man.  

  Martin Luther King Jr. took the nonviolent approach and used his words to gain equality, but by far he was not the only person to do this at the time. Stokely Carmichael was a Trinidadian-American Black Activist active during the same time as Martin Luther King Jr.. Carmichael coined the term "Black Power".  Carmichael came with strong delivery and an extremely persuading way of thinking.  He later became Prime minister of the Black patter party... a more violent approach to equality.

  Another way to be heard is through the power of music. Many artist have said things they did not actually mean. Just because a lyric says to do something does not mean that you do it, this is a common misinterpretation. Can we blame peoples actions on the music they listen to? The example that just sticks out more than anything in my mind would be Rock Star Marilyn Manson, and the backlash he received over the killings of High school students and teachers at Columbine High school on April 20, 1999. 

  Blaming a Musician for acts he did not commit? Yep, America did it.  People take something and evolve it into a completely different thing. Yes, his lyrics may of been bad and odd, but did his actual lyrics kill those people? No, those kids killed those people.  The only ties they have is that those kids listened to Marilyn Manson, and just because he was off the wall and something the media did not like, they tried to blame these murders on this person. Wrong? Yes of course but who's really to blame? 

 The voice is undeniably the most powerful thing a human can posses. There is one thing all these people did, and that was know how to relate to their audience. Good or bad, These men set the times apart in history.  There is a reason the words of these people are still around. I could take any quote from Adolf Hitler or Jim Jones and post it on Facebook and receive an amazing amounts of likes... as long as I didn't clarify on who's words I was using. Movies have been made strictly over these peoples speeches. Full on movies. The voice is the best way to persuade a person, or even a nation. 

Why take action and risk it all, when you could just use your words to prove your point.

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.” 

                                                   ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

Net Neutrality: What Will it really do to us?

 
      So as many of you know the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on the subject of net neutrality about 4 days ago..... but you're probably wondering, what is net neutrality? Well let me break it down where it is easy to understand.

   When you visit a website... it comes at a certain speed. As of right now it doesn't matter what content you are pulling up. It will all appear at the same speed depending on your internet service provider. So say you're paying $59.99 a month for "lightning fast internet"... any site you visit will come at the same rate.."lighting fast". What net neutrality will do, is let the bigger corporations with more money like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, these companies will receive faster loading, but at a cost out of their pocket.

   So for all you history people out there, this will evolve into something similar to Standard Oil, and JD Rockefeller. Basically, the internet will be ruled by big named corporations that can afford to have their name out there. So the disappearance of public opinion will happen. The only story you will probably be reading is off of CNN or other huge News networks. So the Idea of freedom, is no longer. Worried yet?

  Is this gonna happen? Most likely... yes, but like anything, it all depends on the money, and internet providers now have an eye for a profit maker. So we will probably be telling our children of the times where we could find local opinions, or someone that wasn't controlled by the money. The founding father's did not want this country to run entirely off of money but like the old expressions says.."you got the money, I got the time." Meaning if you got the right amount of money, anything is possible. "Money can't buy everything"... whoever said that wasn't living in the current United States of America. It doesn't matter how bad or sick the crime you committed was, it just depends on how loaded your bank account is.

   So America needs another revolution? I believe so, but instead of a civil rights movement it is going to become an Internet movement. I find it ironic that we overlook some of the common theme's said in the 1960's. The black power movement had its specifics, but if you listen to those revolutionist's speeches, they still apply today, just dealing with the internet.  Below are lyrics from the song "5 to 1" by The Doors. Do you think it would be pretty amazing, if we would just apply these lyrics to our modern dilemma? I think so, but when is the actual Revolution going to begin? Let me know.. I'm sure i'll be the guy holding the sign.

"The old get old and the young gets stronger

May take a week and it may take longer

They got the guns but we got the numbers

Gonna win, yeah, we're takin' over, come on!"

Technology: Aiding or Hurting Us?

  Common sense seems to not exist with the modern youth, but you can bet they know how to work any iPhone or new technology that came out. Text over phone calls, Google over wise advice... thats the modern way of thinking, but what are we really doing to our future leaders? When a child ask for life advice, will be just reply with "google it" or will we actually be capable to answer their question? My father was born in 1947, he may have not known how to work the TV or his cell phone, but he gave me something I could not get from any of that, life experience.  He taught me it was better to not fall victim to this technology craze... to have an actual conversation with someone instead of texting.  I cannot even explain how much knowledge i gathered from this man, my true role model. Since his passing I have started to noticed myself falling more and more victim to what he told me not to. The technology craze is starting to captivate my life.

   As I grow older I notice how valuable an actually encounter is. Im starting to realize how important the value of research is, and yes Google is the easiest way to get many different opinions, but are those views necessarily true? What if the internet goes down? how will be research?! People will run around like chicken with their heads cut off, just because we don't have this asset. Well people guess what, humans did it for thousands of years without the internet so if we lose it, yes it'll be back to the dark days but it will also open doors for things we took for granted.

   The up in coming high school freshman class of fall 2014 will be the senior class of 2018, now think about that... those kids were born in the year 2000, all they have ever known is technology. So if something did happen to the internet, what shall these kids do? Does this mean they will have to go outside? or actually open a book? Yes, exactly.... The internet has destroyed a lot of lives, but it has also aided us in many ways. We can now communicate across the world, within seconds. We also learn of different cultures, we probably had no previous knowledge of. The internet has also led in a few revolutions in the past couple of years.  Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, the revolutionist kept in contact.

 So as you can see technology has helped us in many ways, but also has hurt us in many ways. Everything is good unless you over indulge. If you text to much, thats bad, if you search the internet for multiple hours a day that is bad... if you eat too much thats bad.... If you do anything at all  too much it is bad for you.  Too much of anything makes you an addict.  So what we need to take from this is, technology is great as long as we use it the correct way and correct amount of time.

Industry Plants: The Media Machine

     Trends take off fast, and are great money makers, but how do these trends start? Some say artist just have talent and that's why their discovered, but has any asked themselves, did someone plant this guy just to make money? As we all know the music industry is fully functioning machine, but like anything it all comes back to money.
    Gangster rap exploded on the scene in the late 80's thanks to a group named NWA, heard of them? Nigga's With Attitude, is what the name stood for. An extremely controversial name for the time. Plus their impressive delivery, constant profanity, and black power type movement captivated the world. Before you knew it everyone was listening. Parents prohibited their children from listening, and even the government took interest. Shocking and offending the masses isn't uncommon in the pursuit of money, but what this did was open the music industry gangsta rap. The 90's was a great time for different music, grunge, pop, and most importantly Gangsta rap. NWA opened the door for this new type of music, which they did not participate in most of the crimes their lyrics claimed, but it showed artist that you do not have to speak in truth and that music is an art form.

    So now one can ask themselves, was NWA an industry plant? Did someone devise a plan to shock the world with this look into the "Gangsta Life"? This is possible, seeing that a few of the members were already musician's, but not of the gangster type. Yes, they were from Compton, Easy E was a drug dealer who funded the group's production cost in the beginning. So they  did see these hard struggles, but did not necessarily live out their lyrics of killings, and rape.

 Does this happen in modern times? Of course it does....a perfect example would be Tyler the Creator. A rapper out Los Angeles. He shocked the world with his offensive lyrics most talk about rebellion, but there is also lyrics of stalking, confusion, and not knowing his father. Gaining a strong internet following via tumblr, Tyler's shocking lyrics grabbed every rebellious teenager's attention...but it wasn't just his lyrics. His unique style of beats and having an all star group backing him. OFWGKTA... Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, was his group mainly of close friends, but friends with talent. Tyler is definitely not the most talented one, but he is what got them all famous.  Frank Ocean, an R&B singer/Rapper has had great success with his solo career. Earl Sweatshirt, is a rapper who gained a strong following at the rise of Odd Future, while the group campaigned to free Earl because his parents had sent him to a boarding school because of the music he was making with his friends.

 Who manages these kids? Well Tyler was took under the wing of Christian Clancy, a manager/producer in LA. It seems as Clancy told Tyler what to say, and how to get big. Tyler mentions this idea in multiple songs, for example in the song "Answer", which was a song to Tyler's dad he never knew. "I got Clancy, he gave me the chance to see a world I wasn't supposed to" and also in the song "Domo 23"...."Popping since Bastard,(manager) Clancy's my slave master, thanks to them crackers, my pockets are fatter"

 Tyler the Creator and his band of friends getting famous off of scaring "white America" as he puts it. As soon as his following grew parents started restricting their children from hearing his music, similar to KISS in the 80s. But like anything mom and dad tells us to do... we will do the opposite. Long tube socks, cut off jeans, and tie dye shirts soon clothed the youth.

   In my opinion he is marketing genius, because he got the attention of the masses by scaring the parents, and telling kids it is OK to be different. But was it all his idea? i'm sure Clancy had a lot to do with it. As soon as the fame hit, Tyler showed his true colors...he isn't a serial killer, he isn''t a homophobic, he isn't what his first music claimed he was. All Tyler the creator is, is a confused 21 year old kid...who just happened to know how to get in the spot light. Walking the line of Insane and Genius. Oh yeah, Tyler also made half a million dollars solely by selling socks. The outro on the Odd Future song "sandwitches" says "And we don't f***ing make horrorcore, you F***ing idiots, Listen deeper than the music before you put it in a box."

Social Networking: Good or Bad For War?

   Since the beginning of time, there has been war. As long as there is 2 People or 2 animals on this earth there will be war, sad to say but the truth isn't always happy. Currently war's are all over the world; I mean yeah, this is how it has always been, but now we can actually see it through the use of the internet. Technology is so advanced, many people have different devices to record on at all times.

   Social media has had a great influence in modern times, its even helped lead revolutions such as in Egypt's case. The revolution leaders kept in contact through social media, so now I'm sure you're thinking..."Wow! Social media is the greatest thing ever created!" but like any other thing there is great potential and bad potential. Yes, it helped fight against a corrupt government, but what is stopping it from "the bad guys", you could say. Nothing, absolutely nothing... the great thing about social media is the freedom you have on so many different platforms. You're opinion can be heard, and the thought is the worst that could happen is you get in a heated ALL CAPS BATTLE, with someone probably across the world. Sadly to say thats not fully true. Many murders, rapes, abductions, divorces, and suicides have happened due to social media.

So now back to the war subject.  As many know there is a war in the middle east, it is not new news, so if you haven't heard of the holy war, aparently you're a child or just live under a rock. Now similar to what Egypt did, Jihadists are posting on social media trying to recruit.  Yes, the bad guys have now taken control and thanks to the worlds love of gore... the following is growing strong. Extremist are rumoring to invade Syria through Turkey and even taunting on social media.

 Taunting is one thing, but to actually post pictures of their killings on Facebook is pushing it.  Below is a picture taken from a Jihadist's personal Facebook page.... behind the box I've placed lies 2 heads stacked on each other... but I personally do not want people to see that. 

     The war is growing in numbers, not only fighters but casualties. The stronger following the British Jihadists receive, the more empowerment they have. People all over the world are tuning in to see what the extremist have next or what they are claiming that have done. 

   With all this it makes you think, is technology and social media our demise? People die everyday from technology, also many people are joining a war due to social media. So as I said in the beginning war is gonna happen no matter what, but all social media seems to be doing is adding a whole new aspect to it. When is the war on social media gonna begin? Are our rights to talk and converse and connect across the world gonna be limited now? "Not in America, the land of the free"...or so we think. 

sources: http://www.vice.com/read/british-jihadis-beheading-prisoners-syria-isis-terrorism