Privacy TEDtalk Videos

 Privacy in this digital age has become nonexistent. What was once simply a tool in order to find depths of information has now divulged into tracking devices, into file cabinets of personal information, and most terrifyingly: into a database of what you and every single American are doing, where you're going, and millions of subtle details into the person you are.

Prior to the influx of wearable and carriable technology, the personal habits of American citizens was truly private. The daily goings on of a mom who preaches word of the gospel to her bible study who has not been to church in a year, to a father who prides himself on being a family man but stops off at the local strip club every Friday after telling his wife he has to "work late" used to be known to only by those individuals. However: that is now no longer is the case. The father Facebook messages his wife as he leaves the office and is logged into Facebook's database, Apple's Maps app tracks and logs his drive to the club, the instant license plate reading surveillance cameras perched atop decades old light posts give evidence of his weekly arrival, and finally his phone call to his dancer who he has built a rapport with is done in a system which was built for surveillance first.  

Someone is consistently listening, watching, and logging the goings on of the over a billion individuals around the world who use this technology every day. There is are violations of our privacy happening every second of every day and on a scale where it is too intimidating to do anything about it. I think of my generation, Generation Z, who has grown up entirely online, who from a young age and before anyone knew the repercussions have been posting and searching and calling about information which has the potential now to ruin our lives. Our childhoods are saved into hard drives, our private questions which we are too scared to talk to family are friends about but trusted the surplus of information on the internet to help answer are etched into the digital tattoos of the people we are. 

This leaves us at an unsurprisingly sad state: realizing that it may just be too late for us.

Diffusion of the iPod

 The iPod, a portable MP3 player originating just after the dawn of the new millennia in 2001, dawned just mere months after Apples introduction of iTunes, a platform to purchase, sell, and download music. Apple, wanting to get into the portable device category sought after a market less saturated than digital cameras and camcorders- coming to the realization that the portable music playing devices of the time were useless and poorly designed and in the need of an innovative makeover- and who better to do that than Apple? The original iPod debuted with a sleek design and the capability to hold 1,000 songs, pre-packaged with headphones and a charger. 

The iPod immediately performed well with its primary adopters, quickly becoming the leading MP3 player among all markets, adored by athletes for its lightweight feel and headphone compatibility while working out, as well as casual use for its ease and quality while also looking unique and sleek. After earning a reputation as a respected entertainment device, the iPod eventually came to be accepted as a business device, used by government departments, major institutions, and international organizations  turning to the iPod line as mechanism for business communication and training, such as the Royal and Western Infirmaries in Glasgow, Scotland, where iPods were used to train new staff.

At their peak in 2009, eight years post its original release, the iPod saw 24 million quarterly sales. However, its success began (and continues) to fall as the inclusion of the iTunes Store as well as other music sharing/downloading vessels such as 8tracks, Spotify, and Soundcloud gained popularity and became accessible through the time's increasing popularity of smartphones. 

All MP3s, but especially through the popularity of the iPod, standardized the social norm of wearing headphones in public. Even on campus now, walking to class many of my peers will walk with their head down and headphones in, mind unfocused on the world around them as they sink into the mundanity of their own music and own worlds. I'm willing to bet you've tried to say "Hello!" to a friend you see on the street who becomes completely oblivious due to having their headphones in. 

Personally, having an iPod from a young age allowed me to find an individual identity in my music taste and grow as an artist myself by being able to find new music as well as play the songs which influence my style now over and over again. However, I will be the first to admit I was one of the kids who would sit on the bus with their headphones in, not talking to anyone and getting myself lost in the music while staring at my small town out the window. Is that because of my access to a distracting device, or the fact that I did not really have friends... the world may never know!

8 Values

 The Eight Values of Free Expression are integral to the free speech in our country and what makes this country so great. The value of individual self-fulfillment, the idea in which free speech enables individuals to express themselves in whatever fashion they may want, is- to me- the upmost important of the values. There are few things in this world more freeing than thought. Allowing freedom of thought to be expressed, despite how controversial or how out of the box, it allows for freedom of speech to mean so much more than just saying whatever you want- it becomes an aspect of bodily, mental, and spiritual autonomy. Freedom of individualized expression is the creation of jazz, it is the choice to wear knee black knee high boots, winged eyeliner, and a band tee to a Connecticut country club, its standing up to your relatives whose religious beliefs disregard the essence of your identity. 

The concept of individual self-fulfillment is integral to the function of modern society- however two I find the most intriguing are through social media and the music industry. Social media- especially in content created by and targeted for generation Z- is anchored in individuality of the creator. The creator does something unique, whether its an individual like @bestdressed on Instagram whose content is reliant on her ability to shop secondhand and vintage and still create distinctive, while eccentric outfits (and to me rightfully earning her namesake) to a TikTok creator whose entire persona  (and I cannot make this up) is covering his head and chest with different condiments, such as Nutella and ketchup, and then acting as the Joker from the Batman universe. This is not a dichotomy, but the prolific reality of life on the internet. Individual self expression, especially in the way in which social media not only encourages but celebrates it, allows for individuals who before may have thought they were the only ones going through something or the only ones who like certain unconventional things to feel less alone. Not only does the freedom to express oneself create a happier populous, but it creates niche markets and communities across social medias around likeminded people. 

The music industry is another environment in which self actualization is integral to its function. The creation of music in and of itself is an incredibly personal experience, an expressive art form utilized to discuss facets of someones life they either need to let out or a message artists believe their fans need to hear. Everyone has felt the community of singing back lyrics sung by their favorite artists- thousands of strangers united in the pain or joy of one person, this community only found through the kindred connection formed by someone's art. People revere artists from The Beatles to Kanye West and everyone in between because of their ability to express themselves and create their own identity as an artist. This autonomy in style and voice is what makes music so easy to connect to, individuals having the opportunity to find parts of their own individuality through the voices of artists. If not for the concept of individual self-fulfillment, there would not be the diversity in style, craft, and art that there is today.