Author: admin

My module 3 methodology project focus was on VPN (virtual private network). I’ve been using a paid for VPN for over a year now. In the past I have used free to use services for just everyday use, but I have felt an interest in exploring a paid service to see if, “is it actually worth it?” With my use for over a year now I didn’t know if VPN really is just of the expense price tag that it comes with. My tool for this project was Express VPN, a paid to use service with a decent price tag. In my project I go into depth about the usages on VPN and how it helps create private networks when in a public setting or you can set where you are to different countries to unlock different content in far off lands. Some questions I received were about the ethics of a VPN, and with that I take everything with a grain of salt. I see nothing wrong if you explore other content that just isn’t in your region as you already pay for the service. The gray area is when the context is free in other places and not here and you say you are in the place it’s free, it truly is up the network or website to put in more bearers if they don’t want different people accessing it. Where I draw the line is when people use VPN for the negative of others and I believe that indicates their character and that’s just wrong. I think a VPN is worth it! It’s at least worth it for the regular person to just try it out at these. The price is heavy but if you get it at the right time, I believe it is worth it. I feel much safer online and I find myself using more streaming services with this added feature to explore new/ just more content. 

Never in my life did I think I would learn so much about a Wi-Fi router.

Our group project focused on the Linksys WRT 1900 AC router. This router is usually used to support and gaming computer/ gaming consoles. I chose to research the antenna connection. I found it made with three different components as it has the SMA port (the metal part that connects the out to the inside) then it has the cable wire on the inside and then the PCB. All of these components help with the function of making the antenna connections. I chose to specifically write about the SMA port because I was actually able to find research on it and I thought it was cool for it to be internal and external. The research part of this project was a little bit of a struggle, but it was manageable after watching some YouTube videos, that’s where I would listen for buzz words and then furthermore, I would do deeper research. This YouTube video was really helpful with this and helped me get just a better understanding of the router itself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSDBCmz8kiA . I am sort of confused by the question of “how you applied what you learned to produce the database for your artifact.” Honestly, just taking part in hands-on learning was really helpful with the process of making a database post about it. Being able to take it apart and see all the interworks was just cool but really interesting.

Selfie culture has been something my culture has grown up with with the evolution of social media always being at our fingertips the possibilities are endless.  One thing I have noticed growing up through this digital age has been the self obsession of looking perfect all the time. The need to look good to be treated good is at its all time highest and the negative side effects of this self judge will only become more prevalent over time. Selfies are the self portraits taken by you, these pictures will either live in your camera roll forever or will be posted online for all the socials. 

But let’s go back in time and take a deeper look at where the selfie came to be. The first recorded selfie was taken in 1839 by Robert Cornelius where he was able to take part in this phenomenon by using the method of daguerreotype to take this photo. Furthermore, the first mirror selfie was taken on a kodak black by the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolavena in 1914. Now let’s jump to when the word was first coined, in 2002 on the ABC forums after a post made by an Australian man named Hopey. Now just to 2013 when the word was added to oxford dictionary and officially became a word. 

Now we live in a world where selfies are just part of the everyday norm but with this new norm. But my question was does taking selfies affect your mental health and did the popularity of selfies change the beauty standard we live in today. With a simple google search you would find yes selfies did affect the beauty standard and it can affect your mental health. But the real question is why? Selfies and social media have basically become a synonym at this point so there is no shocker the fact social media is bad for your mental health that selfies follow the same rule. With my research I have found that many medical professionals believe taking too many selfies can lead to major mental health problems. The American Psychiatric Association actually confirmed that taking selfies is a mental disorder and even went as far as to term the condition “Selfitis”. With this information this addiction has led to many more mental health issues as in the extreme case people would face digital narcissism, body dysmorphia, psychosis. Now, yes if you take one selfie you won’t be facing these issues but in the extreme cases over time doctors have found that people with mass amounts of phone usage, overconsumption of social media, and just the process of taking too many selfies could be the issues a person may face. On average the normal teenager will take around 8 selfies a day this equals around 2000 to 3000 per year and to take in note that they take about 16 minutes to just get one “good” selfie for most this is way too much time for taking selfies. Also 50% of teenagers before posting a selfie would be likely to edit it. 

Going into the beauty standard of selfies, is just another unachievable issue mainly for women to face. As I just said in the last statistic 50% of teenagers edit their selfies before posting them. This furthermore translates to the beauty standard isn’t even achievable for the regular person because nothing is real anymore. The era of looking perfect all the time isn’t real because being perfect isn’t nature. This fact has messed with me because I used to be one of those girls, I would never send a selfie without a filter on it, I never felt pretty without it, I always felt my forehead was too big, or my skin looked really bad. These factors have affected me as the person I am, and I wouldn’t wish that mental fatigue on anyone. The social pressure of looking good is high enough that the power of social media is just making it harder for it to be a real human these days. 

This blog post allowed me to study and understand what selfies have done to the world and me. Learning about how often I internalize them and actually the dangerous factors that they may be putting on into the beauty industry and how it may be affecting the mental health of everyone due the common nature of selfies being linked with social media. It was interesting to learn there was actually a name for the mental health disorder taking too many selfies may induce. This being the second module I definitely should have made a better PowerPoint explaining further my thoughts and I should have had a better way of presenting the information I have learned. This module made me realize I truly struggle to write when I am totally not interested in a topic, but I think it is making me a harder worker as this is teaching me to write about something even if I don’t fully love the topic. The Ability of being able to write about anything is very interesting to me and makes me want to work harder to achieve that. Being on time is something I struggle with but with time I believe I will be able to keep pace with my classmates. The comment I received made it clear that a lot I made clear for myself wasn’t clear for everyone else. I believe if i keep track of my info in a different setting and maybe go to the speaking and writing center they will be able to help me with formatting my thoughts better to make a better presentation for everyone to understand and be less scary with the facts of how I presented them in class. With these all noted I believe this wasn’t my best presentation (but I am also just not the best presenter) I do believe I can do better, and changing the format of how I presented and putting more facts on my slides would help that.

This blog post allowed me to study and gain a grasp of what ads I am taking, how often I am taking them in and the just gave me an overall whole new understand of the ad system of YouTube. This first module made me realize I will for sure need to work on better time management skills, and that I really need to reach out if I don’t grasp the topic at hand. many of the comment I got after talking made it clear that I should have mentioned them and covered them in a much clearer way. I felt as if I was just repeating myself over and over again during my discussion. I definitely need to work on that.

I love YouTube, YouTube is one of my favorite platforms to go on. I spend nearly 2 hours a day watching. YouTube is just really useful for me, when I need help with something or when I just need to watch my favorite influencer have a day or when I need to get an update on the next major pop culture scandal. But one thing I hate are the ads, now yes, I know you can use ad blockers, but ads are my commercials. All of the streaming platforms I use don’t have ads, so I find it to be interesting to have ads on YouTube. YouTube was created in February of 2005; its mantra was you broadcast yourself. The platform was a huge success and soon was bought out by google by 2006, with this the platform be gained to have major ads be promoted on the site and in the videos. With my time of documenting the ads I had received I mainly got ads for Grammarly, Doctors offices in the area, Banks, Streaming networks like Max, Fox, Disney+. All of these were slightly concerning to find and notice due to my resent googles searches. These ads felt so much more targeted after taking note and being much more observant of the things being promoted to me. Another weird thing with this was that I was mainly looking up these things on my phone and not my computer…the place I watch YouTube the most. Now yes, I am logged into YouTube on my phone as well as my computer back I just found it to be crazy the date could be shared from one device to the other. I always noticed that 9/10 out of ten if it’s a skippable ad I will skip it was so I found it interesting that YouTube will allow for certain ads but not all.