Amanda Gallop

Growing up, whenever I would walk into class and see an episode of The Twilight Zone on the SmartBoard, I would get so excited. It was a treat to watch an episode instead of listening to a lecture and taking notes. When I thought of what could be added to this course, a variety of different TV shows, movies, books crossed my mind. However, one episode of the Twilight Zone, “From Agnes—With Love,” stuck out to me. The well-known Twilight Zone series is similar to Black Mirror, another series we have watched multiple episodes from in this course. The franchise has episodes in various genres, such as science fiction, drama, absurdism, etc. The show represents a lot of the different topics we have discussed in class.

In this particular episode, James Eldwood is hired to repair a computer program, Agnes. This program is what we would compare to a Siri-like application today. Though James fixed the program, Agnes stops providing answers to her demands and starts discussing James’s love life. Agnes gives him poor advice, and his first date with Millie, a co-worker, goes wrong. Agnes refuses to respond to questions and is only interested in talking about James’s love life. Agnes reveals she is in love with him and is jealous of his relationship with Millie. James believes that a computer cannot love a human, and she responds by going absurd, leaving cryptic messages, and still not responding to any of the requests. Though this episode came out in 1964, it still discusses a lot about technology in our day-to-day lives.

The idea of artificial intelligence is something we have spent a lot of time on in class. Moreover, we have talked a lot about our privacy on the internet and how our computers and different platforms collect data on our lives. Obviously, this episode is very fictional and would never happen in real life. Still, it is interesting to discuss how an artificial intelligence program could potentially hear all we say and then try to impact our lives based on it based off of the answer it gives us. I think that the theme of this episode is man vs. technology, an idea we have discussed in class on various occasions.

With this episode, an assignment I would give is to compare and contrast it to a Black Mirror episode. How is production the same? How is it different? What are the similarities and differences between the two? What are the main messages each episode is trying to convey to its audience? There is a lot that can be done in order to see how the two series correlate and how the themes overlap. Overall, I think that this episode would be a fun addition to the class.

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor was a historic event, as it was the main reason that the United States got involved in World War II. If this event occurred in the age of Twitter and times of social media, many Americans would have known about it sooner, and many would have voiced their opinions about getting involved in the war. Moreover, many would have expressed their condolences to anyone affected as many choose to do on Twitter today when an incident like that occurs.

The news of the attack on Pearl Harbor shocked Americans around the world days ago. What surprised Americans, even more was that Germany and Italy just declared war on us.

So just how did we end up getting involved in another World War?

Just days ago, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japan issued a surprise attack on America and bombed Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii. On Sunday, Japanese forces destroyed many American naval ships. Along with this, more than 2,400 Americans died while another 1,200 were wounded. The attack lasted for two hours.

Relations between Japan and American had been tense before this event. Both countries had been competing for political and economic influence in the Pacific, and the United States had stopped giving them resources, such as oil. Japan wanted to attack America to cripple the United States Navy and to prevent the United States from attacking them first. Moreover, they wanted to prevent them from gaining more influence in the region (“Pearl Harbor Bombed”).

On December 8, the President requested that Congress declare war on Japan. Congress accepted his request. Today, three days later, Germany and Italy, allies of Japan and a part of the axis powers, declared war on the United States. This officially marks the entry of the United States into World War II. After the lasting impacts of World War I, America wanted to remain neutral and stay out of any further conflict. However, after this devastating attack, President Roosevelt decided to get involved and join the allied forces (“Pearl Harbor Bombed”).

Here are recent tweets from our President explaining his decision and expressing his sympathy to those who were affected:

 

On Twitter, many Americans expressed their condolences to all those who were affected. 

@user18293: What happened in Pearl Harbor can never happen again. We must come together. #PearlHarborStrong

@user43823: This is a sign we must get involved in the war! Remaining neutral is not enough. This is unacceptable. #PearlHarborStrong #WWII #Americaisready

#PearlHarborStrong was trending on Twitter just moments after Americans heard the news. 

World War II has been ongoing since September of 1939 when Germany attacked Poland. Two days after this first invasion later, France and England declared war on Germany. After the fallout from the first World War years prior, such as economic devastation, Germany is determined to gain more influence in the world and off-set their losses. 

President Roosevelt is set to issue an address to the nation this afternoon.

Note: This is an ongoing story. Check back for more updates.

 

Works Cited:

“Pearl Harbor Bombed.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pearl-harbor-bombed.

Snap Inc. is a camera company with various products and services, such as the well-known social media platform Snapchat. A lot of people, especially teenagers, use Snapchat to communicate and share pictures with their friends. How many of those teenagers, though, read the Privacy Policy when first signing up? I guarantee not a lot. I decided to read into their Privacy Policy to see what information and data they collect.

They collect three different categories of information: the information you provide, the information we get when you use our services, and the information we obtain from third parties.

Information you provide includes what details you give them when you sign up for an account. This includes your name, email, birthday, phone number, etc. This is a pretty typical part of a Privacy Policy, so I was not surprised by anything.

Moreover, Snap Inc. collects information when you use their services, such as how you interact with ads and their services (such as filters). This did not surprise me, since many other companies do this, too, such as Facebook. As read in an article titled “Breaking up with Facebook,” every interaction we have is tracked and stored in a database. Each company may do something different with this information, but they each track down what we do. Snapchat may also track who you communicate with (and how you do so), information on what device and camera you use, your location, etc. Snapmap is a feature that a lot of teens use. You have your friends on a map, and their location updates overtime they log on. Of course, this can be turned off, but as I read in the article “Fitbit Could Prove a Man’s Innocence,” it may help specific situations.

Snap Inc. also collects information about you from other users and third parties. For example, if you link your account to another service, such as Bitmoji, the companies may trade information on how you use their services. They may also share information on how you interact with different ads to tailor your experience better.

Snap Inc. communicate with their users that they may use the information they collect with other Snapchatters, business partners, affiliates, third parties, and even the general public. While the Snaps and Chats you send are automatically deleted (unless saved), Snapchat saves a lot of your information for more extended periods or until you ask them to delete it.

While reading this Privacy Statement, I was surprised about how much information they actually store and how they share it with other companies and even the public. However, I know that even if people are aware of how their information is being collected and stored, their behaviors will not change, and they will continue to use it.

The internet and social media help us stay connected with others, as proven in “Social Media’s Not All Bad – It’s Saving Lives in Disaster Zones,” and it may help us in certain situations. However, it is up to each user to read these companies’ privacy policies and decide whether not to want to share their information and have their interactions tracked.

After showing an undergraduate student the Privacy Policy of Snapchat, I followed up with some questions.

 

Professor Mary Abdoney currently works as a professor and the Research and Instruction Coordinator at Washington and Lee University. As one of her students, I only know what she tells us about herself in class. In our current circumstances, given an on-going Global Pandemic, and the course being on Zoom this semester, it is difficult to get to know your professors, so I was intrigued by this assignment and what I would find our! I put my Google skills to the test, and here are my findings. Professor Abdoney graduated from the University of Florida in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. During her time there, she was apart of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She went onto the University of South Florida, gaining a Master of Library and Information Science; she graduated there in 2001. In 2006, she began working at Washington and Lee after years of gaining experience at Eckerd College. She earned tenure in 2012 after being there for six years. During her time at W&L, she met her husband, Ned, and the two got married on September 29, 2012. When she was 38 years old, she welcomed their son, Emmet. Outside of being a librarian, she loves to garden and has a passion for cats!

Professor Elizabeth Teaff is currently a professor and the Head of Access Services at Washington and Lee University. She grew up in upstate New York. Professor Teaff started her college career at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, where she studied Visual Fine Arts. Upon graduating and earning an Associates of Arts, she enrolled in the State University of New York at Potsdam. She graduated in 1996, earning a Bachelor of Arts. Here, she studied Studio Art and Politics. She went onto Virginia Commonwealth University School of Graduate and the University of South Carolina, gaining a Master of Library and Information Science. Upon graduating, she worked at the Virginia Military Institute and the Rockbridge Regional Library. In 2003, she started working at Washington and Lee University, and she is still here today.

Both Professor Abdoney and Professor Teaff do not have many personal pictures or posts on their private accounts, assuming they both know the risks and dangers of the internet. What you put out there is for everyone to see, so they must remain cautious about deciding what to post (“Your Digital Footprint Matters”). Moreover, since they are both professors at a university, the school can see and monitor what they publish. They must be cautious, too, since they do not want students or faculty to report any misbehaving (“Washington and Lee University’s Computing Resources, Network, Website, and Email Use Policy”).

It is surprising, and a little eerie, how much information you can find on someone after just spending twenty minutes on Google. Who puts this information out there if not you do not? How do are they able to get it? Our participation on the internet matters, and it is evident through this (“What is Participatory Culture?”). I am now curious how much people could find out about me!