MedLawLit FINAL: Techworld, where we went Right and Wrong

According to Statista, 4.66 Billion people have access to the internet worldwide (as of October of 2020). 4.28 billion people accessed the Internet from a mobile device of some kind. So many people these days are carrying around a computer in their pockets. Computers that are more powerful than the whole room of technology that first landed humanity on the moon. These portable computers also have cameras with pixel resolution better than most digital cameras, tap into the sum total of all human knowledge known as the internet, and store several gigabytes of games, movies, songs, and photos.  All of that in your pocket. Sure it's no flying car, space rover, or mobile factory, but hey, it's pretty amazing all the same. Shame we didn’t keep the Retro futuristic aesthetic. That’s a pretty cool look, in my opinion. [sauce: https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/#:~:text=How%20many%20people%20use%20the,percent%20of%20the%20global%20population.]

 

So much of us exists online now. Our friends, mail, thoughts, opinions, money, and achievements are all on the internet. And while the human brain is fallible and can forget things you or others have said, the internet never forgets. People online can dredge up tweets or statuses from many years ago and use it to discredit your current operations [sauce: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/20/17596452/guardians-of-the-galaxy-marvel-james-gunn-fired-pedophile-tweets-mike-cernovich] I tend to keep myself out of the public eye. I have a few social media accounts with my real name and a real email attached, Facebook and LinkedIn specifically; the rest I keep anonymous such as Reddit and YouTube. Most of my activity on the socials are kept to a minimum. So mu digital footprint is rather shallow. If someone found all of my social media and looked over them, they probably wouldn’t find much concrete about me. Perhaps what games I like and what my voice sounds like. As well as what my preferred career path is. Other than that, you can’t find much about me personally. If you find my Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll get my Professional email and maybe my phone number and home address. But aside from that, you won’t get anything. The social media I spend the most time on are YouTube and Discord. Both of which are fairly anonymous with their content. If someone got access to my devices and looked at my recommended videos or the servers I'm in on discord, one could probably gauge where my interests lie. Then again, those aren’t really proper measurements of a person’s personality as a whole. More of a snapshot of their interests at that moment, interoperated by an algorithm in YouTube’s case, and what communities they are most active in through Discord.

 

Progress always has its ups and downs. For every good thing a new invention brings, it will doubtless bring several bad things with it. there are consequences to having unfiltered access to almost everyone in the world. it allows crazy and harmful ideas to find more people. It allows those people to enact horrible deeds on those who do not deserve such ridicule and torment. Screen addiction is a real thing. While I myself try to work a good balance of real and digital into my personal life, others are not so restrained. The internet is the best and worst thing that humanity has ever made. It brings together many but pushes apart just as many more. it is a great and terrible utility that must be used responsibly by those who let it into their lives. Lest they be overtaken and overwhelmed by it.