Modern Technology: Good Omens
Abu Lughod and associates talk about the effect of Egyptian melodramas on the people who watch it. It was interesting at first to talk about the differences between Egyptian melodramas, that work towards the hegemony of the group, and that are within the bounds of political and social contexts of the world, and comparing that to what would be found in the United States when oftentimes, there will be some hidden context and meaning before. It was briefly mentioned that the melodramas in the United States, like The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless avoid mentionings of political and social commentary. Yet, there are many things that have been within the context of politics and society that are found within modern television and melodramas. Most of the political handoffs that end up on television are found in comedies but still live TV shows that do not fit the standard melodrama. Even this, according to the “Out of Shadows” documentary, has been used by the government to control the people through the usage of propaganda within the media. Out of the shadows was a video that discussed the involvement of the US government in popular cinema and how many of the systematic ways that the government has been able to control the country through using the media as a method of spreading propaganda. It was something that was never recommended, but could only be found through searching the exact title, but now is taken off of Youtube.It was an eye-opener to many on the idea of how the media is used to control the people in the most subtle way possible, and it seems possible that there is a similar, but not exactly the same, system that could be found in Egyptian melodramas.
Extended past the media, there has always been the expectation that the technology that we use is something that can be controlled by the government. As technology becomes smarter, there is a fear that technology will replace humans one day in many jobs, so much so that the world will become so automated that it will be robots that run everything instead of humans. The most classic example of this is a movie like The Terminator, a story about an android sent to the past to kill a woman to stop her child from saving the world against the robots. It is also what gave a boost to Former President Trump’s campaign in 2016 to gain a following of those who were losing their jobs in the Midwest. But, as Atanasoski and Vora went over in the introduction The Surrogate Effects of Liberalism, it is clear that the innovation of technology exposes a lot about the world. As the world went from chattel slavery to industrial technology, there are clear racial disparities exposed within this fear of technology. It continued to discuss the past changes in technoliberal ideals. For example, the invention of the cotton gin was what caused a growth in the usage of slavery within the southeastern part of the United States, as it made it much easier to use cotton as it filtered out all of the seeds that were found within the cotton that were priorly much harder to get out. Thank you Eli Whitney.
At the same time, it made a purpose for the large usage of labor that could be used to gather the labor, making the usage of slavery to do such arduous work much more relevant in the United States.Modern technology has innovated many of the ways that we communicate as well as doing domestic work around the home. It has made it much easier for travel, as well as sharing ideas. However, there are other dangers about technology that was not as thoroughly discussed within either paper. Of course, the ability to control others through the use of technology was discussed, but the continual monitoring of people was not mentioned, and that has become more of a prominent issue at the moment. Within the palm of our hands, we hold one of the most powerful items to ever exist. It holds the ability to communicate, to find entertainment, to act as a map, to learn about the current news, and many many more possibilities of usage. However, it
also acts as a constant tracker as when it is used, it gives our location away which can be used to track ourselves. There is also, of course, the dreaded internet history, as there is a footprint that is also left when people use their electronics, that is permanent and relatively easily traceable. The dangers of technology can be examined in the case of the large oil hack that occurred i n one of the largest oil rigs that affected the Southeastern part of the United States, where many places ran out of gas because of the panic that ensued. Not to mention the Sony hack, the hack of twitter, and the hack of other social media platforms, such as Facebook and the access to private information and how that is used for social and political means, especially in the case again of the 2016 elections and the leaking of Clinton’s private emails. There are so many avenues of technology that can be shared and changed over time, and many future usages. But as the world has gone even more digital in the past year, there are many things that people should be wary of, since the usage of technology has been made more mainstream, and how many people have not realized yet how dangerous technology can be, which I think is best expressed in the movie “Megan Is missing”, a movie about a girl who goes missing as a result of a social media platform similar to Omegle.
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