COM Beat Reporting Blog Update #1

  This weeks blog post will be important information regarding my beat, which is crime. I will be covering latest news updates, updates on stories I will be covering, and an updates on my sources. While crime has always been an issue throughout the town of high point. Protocols have been put in place to help decrease crime rates. The police department has done this by offering 500$ too anyone who reports information leading to an arrest of a felon in possession of a gun. Little steps like this have cause crime to decrease in 5% in high point this year, and 7% in 2022. According to the article "New High Point Crime Stoppers program designed to seize more illegal guns" written by Tess Bargebuhr. An incident occurred on August 1st 2023, which was an assault with a gun. On 300 block Taylor Avenue, where officers upon arrival discovered a man with a severe gunshot wound. According to the High Point police department "Due to the early investigative process of this case, no additional information will be released at this time." Their was also an armed robbery arrest made on August 21st 2023. The robbery was made at Laurelwood park, where a female victim was approached by two men wearing ski masks. They demanded her wallet and car keys, and then fled the scene with her call and wallet leaving her unharmed. 3 juveniles were arrested with the involvement in the robbery, where two illegally possessed firearms were recovered. According to the High Point police department "All three are currently being held in the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center on Secure Custody Orders. Due to the age of the offenders, no further information will be released." High Point police officer Robert Tull has received the Hank Snyder Beyond The Call Of Duty Award, on July 10th 2023. He has been apart of the High Point police department since 2014 and was offered the lieutenant position earlier this month. According to the High Point Police department "He now serves as a Patrol Supervisor and is also a member of the High Point Police Department’s SWAT Team. In May, he retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserves as a Master." He has gone above and beyond in the community to serve for High Point. 

Sergeant, serving on missions in Iraq and Syria. He served for 21 years.    The following stories are all follow ups on recent information released by the High Point Police Department. The next following beats will be covered on information revolving High Point University campus, which sources will be High Point campus security, and other online sources. The next stories I will cover in my beat will be the decrease in gun crime, and other ways the community has helped decrease the crime rates around High Point. 

Week 5 Diffusion of Innovations

     Innovation in technology began once the world took a turn, and took a step into the unknown. The moment technology formed people had to get used to having little to no privacy. But before technology how did the diffusion of innovation theory exist. It existed before technology because of newspapers, writing has always been a way to express and spread your values and thinking. Throughout time people have formed different opinions on situations and have learned to spread this through different ways depending on the time period. 

Assumptions of basing our work on diffusion of innovation - OneOp

    For example a part of diffusion of innovation theory involves political beliefs and values. Since the beginning of our government political parties have been around, the only thing that was different was the way the news spread on what party you wanted to be apart of. According to the article Diffusion of Innovation Theory "It originated in communication to explain how, over time, an idea or product gains momentum and diffuses (or spreads) through a specific population or social system (Wayne)." The political parties grew throughout time, but they have always been around. The way the system is run is pretty much the same just the technological growth is different. 

How Did The US Political Parties Get Their Mascots? | Wisconsin Public Radio

    Political parties formed 1787 during the federal constitution, and have been further developing since. Political parties are the balance of our democracy, they hold values to what the people believe. With in the government system political parties have been and continue to be around. With this the diffusion of innovation theory stands. According to the article Diffusion Of Innovations Theory, Principles, And Practice "Over time through waves of innovations, diffusion changes societies. Sometimes these changes manifest as differences in knowledge (Dearing & Cox)." These changes while not through the actual political parties occur with the different viewpoints formed throughout time. According to the article The politics of policy diffusion "policies in one unit (country, state, city, etc.) are influenced by the policies of other units (Gilardi)." This quote explains that throughout time political parties have changed their views and improved. 

Opinion | Two-party tug of war pulling U.S. apart

    Diffusion of innovation is the process of something over time gaining momentum. This occurred in the way that technology increased the political game. However political parties have been around since the beginning and that is why the diffusion of innovation theory still stands. 

                                                                          

EOTO reflection

     During the research part of the presentation I was able to expand my horizons and learn more about the innovation of different technologies. We rely on our different social networks, so it was really interesting to understand the more deeper aspect of how we as a population grew technologically. 

Advantages and disadvantages of modern technology - Thrive Global

    We use different platforms to see the world around us and peoples view on it. What started as a simple stone tool has increased into what we now call virtual reality. The way it started was by someone simple. using their brain to think outside the box and create something. And then it kept escalating throughout time because people became more self aware of what they are capable of. The stone tool was the start of it all, and without it we would not live in the world we do. According to the article Stone Tools "Middle Stone Age toolkits included points, which could be hafted on to shafts to make spears; stone awls, which could have been used to perforate hides (Smithsonian)." This was the purpose behind stone tools and that was the moment humans discovered what they are capable of.

Primitive Stone Age Weapons Pack in Weapons - UE Marketplace

    Technology has continued to escalate further and now has advancement as far as the virtual reality. The virtual reality headset was created as an advancement to video games. And has increased as time has gone on. According to the article VR headset (virtual reality headset) "allows users to interact with simulated environments and experience a first-person view (FPV) (contributor)." Virtual reality has continued to play a role in what are future will look like. 

    These different technological aspects have increased and will continue to do so. With in our presentations we took a more so look into the technology that fell in between these placements, but never touched base on what started and has currently finished it all. 

EOTO 2 reflection on tik tok

    Tik tok has been an app that has been blowing up the charts lately. This is because of the content it produces it has such a broad base audience that anyone can get reeled in. The creativity behind this app while very smart, can also be very harmful to the human mind.

TikTok News and Top Stories | TikTok Newsroom

    The very reason this app can be so harmful is because it makes people's attention spam shorter than what it's supposed to be. An attention spam is the ability to focus on the process or the task at hand. With Tik Tok causing are attention spams to grow shorter and shorter because the videos are thirty seconds long we don't see the harmful side too it. Notice how when you sit to read a book or study, you have to take breaks in between to look at your phone. Well the main reason for this is because everything that occurs in are brain we train it to be there. So once we create the habit of scrolling through quick thirty second videos for long periods of time we aren't able to function at full potential anymore. 

    Tik tok just like other apps also have the ability to show teenagers harmful content that can affect them in the future. They target what they think you might want to see, but an app with that much power can show you whatever it pleases. According to the article TikTok may push potentially harmful content to teens within minutes, study finds "TikTok may surface potentially harmful content related to suicide and eating disorders to teenagers within minutes of them creating an account, a new study suggests, likely adding to growing scrutiny of the app’s impact on its youngest users (Kelly)." This app impacts the way teenagers and growing adults think and can be very harmful if not carefully watched over. 

Anti War

     The anti war was something created to try to keep the peace with in our nation. You find very few articles that present different sides that go against the government. They censor what we are able to view and find online and lots of times don't present us with the truth. The government censors are viewership and doesn't show us the real reality behind it all. 

    The anti war is what the government uses to censor us, they do this so that people only protest half the information. If you notice the stuff found online a lot of the times agrees with the government more than going against it this is the cause of why are country functions the way it does. They want you to form opinions on viewpoints that you only have half the truth of. Throughout history and time the government has been keeping the peace with them in power. 

    The half truth is where you see only one side and not the other perspective. The viewpoint where the government wants you to agree on all of their actions, but does it in a discreet way where they give you some room to disagree. Throughout time and history the government has been doing this to keep us in check with the system.  

midterm blog

Social Media And The Affects On Mental Health Final Blog

     Social Media is a network that contaminates peoples brains and the way they think. Overall it has a negative impact on society and the way that people work within the world. Society has been changing since social media has entered our world and in a negative way. Since the beginning of its appearance people have started questioning themselves and the way that they think. Social Media impacts people in the following ways; takes away creativity, makes people question their appearance, and also isolates people from how beautiful the world is. 

Social Media: how to use it safely - NCSC.GOV.UK

    Creativity is something discovered within that everyone maintains in different ways. However when social media became a thing it more so took away creativity than expanded it because people started the process of trying to be like everyone else and following trends. Although trying to fit in has always been a thing social media grew people more and more into that mindset. That is one of the main issues with social media and the process behind why it was created. The creation of social media allowed for people to shift their mindset to a more broad basis, people see someones post online and think let me post something similar instead of taking that persons post and making it their own by opening their mind. Expanding the mind while being a process of learning to think for yourself. But people will always influence others, the difference is wether is an influence to think like you and not like someone else. Think of it this way, you become more like the people you surround yourself with and not in a bad way. However social media has made it possible for everyone to be surrounded by everyone and that is the reason people are loosing their creativity. According to the article How social media can inhibit creativity? "The study’s authors suggest that social media may make it harder for people to think outside the box and that the constant stream of information from social media can be overwhelming and lead to decision fatigue (seomajid)." The way people loose their creativity through social media is because they feel overwhelmed to keep up with the daily posts and with that they loose their reality discovered within themselves and the real world. 

Social Media: how to use it safely - NCSC.GOV.UK

    Being insecure is a natural habit created within yourself that impacts the way you view yourself and others. Although judging yourself is a completely natural habit, social media plays a major role in why people around the world struggle to love themselves. Looking at how people view themselves and then viewing yourself from that perspective is impacted when social media was created. People see someones post and think why don't I look like them, or why aren't I as happy as that person. However social media is the way someones life appears on the outside and not how they feel on the inside. Social Media has made the world more shallow in that since, people care more about how they appear than who they are on the inside. With this a world is created where people care more about what others think of them, then a world where you are just who you are. According to the article Social media effects on body image and eating disorders "Research clearly shows that media exposure contributes to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Social media is unfortunately shaping our concept of beauty (Fleps)." Eating disorders and views on body image have been increasing since the beginning of social media due to the world growing a more shallow viewpoint.  

What Is Social Media 2.0? Simple Explanation And Examples | Bernard Marr

    Isolation is something that impacts the brain and the way it works, it is not good thing. Teaching yourself isolation from others and the world causes feelings of loneliness. Technology is something that causes a distraction from everyday life, it causes people to not be in touch with the real world and all it provides. According to the article Technology Use, Loneliness, and Isolation "Technology compulsion, like other forms of behavior compulsion, may lead to obsessive thinking and behavior and feelings of anxiety when not connected (Lancaster)." The way that technology makes people feel bad about themselves and challenges their point of view not always for the best. Although challenging perspectives is a good thing the outcome from looking at a screen all day isn't healthy. 

Social Media Is Addictive. Do Regulators Need to Step In? | Yale Insights

    Technology while providing a more stable way of communication, also causes a more chaotic environment to form. These different forms of technology although have some good outcomes cause a lot of bad ones too. Technology causes a lack in creativity, feelings of insecurity, and isolation. So technology more so harms society than benefits it, with the way it makes people feel about themselves.