History of Smart Phones

The best smart phones according to the NYT.

 Try leaving your room without your smartphone. Even if you are only walking across campus, something probably feels missing.

That reaction makes sense. A smartphone is no longer just something we use to make calls. It is also our camera, map, calendar, alarm clock, music player, search engine, wallet and connection to friends. For college students especially, it can feel like an entire backpack of tools has been squeezed into one screen.

Smartphones did not always look like the thin glass rectangles we carry today. One early example was IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator. It was developed in 1992 and sold in 1994. Simon had a touchscreen and built-in tools such as a calendar, appointment scheduler, to-do list and electronic notepad. It was large, expensive and had about one hour of battery life, but it introduced ideas that would later become standard smartphone features.

The smartphone became much more recognizable in 2007, when the iPhone helped popularize a touchscreen design without a physical keyboard. Since then, phones have become faster, smaller and capable of running apps for almost every part of daily life.

The biggest reason smartphones are popular is convenience.

Instead of carrying a camera, paper map, planner and laptop everywhere, we can use one device. A student can check an assignment, message a project group, look up a source, take a photo of class notes and order lunch without switching devices.

Smartphones also make distance feel smaller. A person can video call family, send a message across the world or follow breaking news in seconds. In an emergency, a smartphone can provide directions, contact help or share a location.

This convenience helps explain why smartphone ownership is so common. In 2024, 90 percent of U.S. adults reported owning one. Worldwide Mobile ownership is also widespread. In 2023, 78 percent of people age ten and older owned a mobile phone, although that figure includes both smartphones and feature phones.

Of course, smartphones are not perfect.

A single notification can interrupt a study session. A quick check of one message can turn into twenty minutes of scrolling. Phones can also compete with the people sitting directly in front of us.

Privacy is another concern. Many smartphone activities create data about our interests, habits and locations. Researchers and students have raised concerns about intrusive marketing and privacy invasions connected with smartphone use.

There is also an environmental side that is easy to overlook. Smartphone production depends on mineral extraction, and replacing devices frequently adds to electronic waste. Researchers discussing the cultural and ecological effects of smartphones have emphasized that access to modern technology depends on physical materials and global production systems.

That question may be too simple.

A smartphone can help someone learn a new skill or distract that same person from an assignment. It can strengthen a long-distance friendship or interrupt an in-person conversation. It can save time while also making people feel constantly available.

The device is powerful, but how we use it matters just as much as what it can do.

For students, intentional use might mean turning off notifications while studying, keeping the phone out of reach during class, checking privacy settings and avoiding unnecessary upgrades. None of these choices requires giving up the technology. They simply put the person back in control.

Smartphones are probably not disappearing from our lives. The better challenge is learning when to use them, when to put them away and how to get the benefits without allowing the screen to control every free moment.

AI DISCLOSURE: During the creation of this post I used Copilot, Microsoft AI, to research about the history of smart phones and how they impact us today. I also had copilot write this blog post by telling it to use all of its research and to write it in non academic format. I also explained to copilot that I am a college student and this is a class assignment as well as to write in short paragraphs. 

Anti war blog

 

People march through the streets to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

A big reason strong antiwar voices can feel harder to find is that mainstream news organizations usally focus on higherups in the government and military as well as elections and current conflicts or events. 

We don't always hear from people who strongly disagree because of what the news organizations usally care about. But websites like Anti War and The American Conservative give these opinions more attention. For example, LINK says that one of its main goals is to support a U.S. foreign policy that avoids unnecessary involvement in conflicts in other countries. The website also focuses on the costs and the repercussions of the war that not many people know about and that don't get alot of attention from larger news channels.

I also think large news companies focus on stories that will get the most views or readers attention. Antiwar opinions don't always fit with the stories they usally want to cover. This can make people frustradeted because to read on this topic they have to search harder to find a credable source. 

I also think people sometimes trust major news compaines simple because they revognize their names. I know that I never question what I am hearing on a major news source but when I see something on a smaller one I tend to question it. Smaller websites obviosuly can have good information on them, but people may never find them unless they go out of their way to look and search for the information. This shows mow much the news we choose to watch or read can affect what our opinion is or what information we are exposed to.

I havent really heard anything about these websites before learning about them in class, which shows how easy it is to only see information from major news sources like CNN, New York Times, and Fox News. 

Social media can make this even more noticeable because people often see stories based on what they have alreadt clicked on or watched or engadged with. This can cause people to keep seeing similar opinions instead of being introduced to completely different ones to ether gain new knowledge or even change their opinion.

I think it is so important to look at different sources to hear and read different opinions especially as young adults because our opinions and knowledge is changing and growing everyday. At the same time we still have to check the facts and remember that every news source has its own little or big bias and point of view. 

Just because a source is smaller or different from mainstream news it doesn't automatically mean that its right or wrong, same with large news sources. We shold always be comparing information from different places and think about who is writing it or saying it, what evidence they have the back what is being read, and what personal point of view they have on the topic. Doing this can help us understand issues like war and U.S. foreign policys from more than one side instead of believing the first thing we hear or read.

Privacy online and off

What flock cameras are doing.

The two videos I watched during class made me think about how much privacy or actually lack if privacy I have and how much privacy people are giving up without even realizing it. The first video my classmates and I watched focused on government and police surveillance, mainly flock cameras. 

These cameras can be useful for lawinforcment but they arent being used in a respectful way for citizens that have not commited crimes. Police officers are abusing there power, they are collecting information about people who have done nothing wrong.

 Liscense plate readers can record a plate along with the date, location and time, which means that storing enough of this information can create a long history of where someone has been and what they do during their day to day lives. 

Thus issue affects everyone around me because especially for me I am constanly going places without really thinking about who might be watching me. In highschool I would drive to school, after school programs, my friends houses. My dad drives to different job sites all day all around Connecticut, the vet, and down the shore. 

I understand why police want technology that can help solve crimes and see where dangerous people may be going, but I also don't think that innocent people should be getting followed just because the technology makes that an option. There needs to be a balance between public safety and people's right to privacy.

I think the government should work on creating stronger and clearer limits on how surveillance information can be collected and kept. Police should be able to use technology for legitimate investigations but only for that and I also think that their should be a specific team of law enforcement that are allowed access to this technology to stop the police officers that are absuing their power to stalk their ex partners.

The second video I watched in class has an idea of electronic tattoos, this really stood out to me because I started getting tattoos at 14 years old and personally I think my tattoos are a big part of my identity. The electronic tattoo idea was explained by showing social media and other online platforms create a digital record of our lives. The comparison to a tattoo makes so much sense to me  because something we post online can be almost impossible to delete just like getting an actual tattoo removed is extremly painful and expensive so its hard to get ride of as well. 

He also explained the stories of Sisyphus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Atalanta and Hippomenes, and Narcissus he comapered their stories with whats happening now and hekoed explain different problems with this. We can become stuck with things from our past, learn information about other people that we night have been happier not knowing, and have embarrassing posts, messages, or mistakes follow us long after the post date.

This obviously effects alot of people my age because majority of the life we live, we live it online. Something that may seem harmless when it is posted could look extremly bad years later. For example Proffesour Smith shared with us the story of two sorority girls a while ago posted a normal TikTok, they had skin care face masks on but they where "canceled" because the face masks where black and it was considered black face. We can't control everything that governments, companies, or other people collect, but we can control some of what we share. We can make accounts more private, use strong passwords, review app permissions, turn off unnecessary location sharing, and think before posting personal information.

Overall, both of the videos I watched in class showed me that privacy is becoming more and more public everyday due to technology. Technology can amke society safer and more convenient but it can also make it more dangerous. Governments need reasonable limits on surveillance, companies need to be more transparent about data/cookie collection and people need to pay more attention before hitting accept, allow or post. Technology should not be able to make privacy disappear.

AI DISCLOSURE: During the creation of this post the I used Copilot, Microsoft AI, and Grammarly. I took detailed notes while watching 2 videos about privacy and I took notes during the lecture. I used Copilot to organize my information and grammarly to fix my grammar and spelling. 

Eight Values

Out of the Eight Values of Free Expression, the one that I resinate with the most is individual self fulfillment, also known as self actualization. C. Edwin Bakers theory explains that freedom of speech gives people the ability to express themselves, grow as themselves, develop their own opinion, their own identity, and connect with people who may think similarly or with people that help them see things from the other side. 

I think this value is one of the most important in todays sosiety especcally because our main communication happens online. Social Media is used by almost every single person on the world daily, social media has given people a whole new way to not only communicat but to express who they are, what they care about and has given them a space to find people to connect with.  

When I think about freedom of expression, I often think about social media first because along with the rest of the world I use it everyday and I hope for it to become my carer one day. 

Apps like instagram and TikTok allow me and so many others to share ANYTHING about themselves, many people find more comfort sharing important information online then they do in person. But people also have the opportunity to share the simplest of things like posting a photo of your bowl of pasta or making a TikTok because you liked how your outfit looked.

 People can decide what parts of themselves they want to share with others and what parts they want to hide that they might not be able to hide in real life. Social Media connects directly to Baker's idea because expressing ourselves can actually help us figure out who we are and can help higher our self asteem. 

This us something I can relate to personally because I am so intrested in social media and comm. I have seenhow social media has affected my life and I have seen how it can be used for much more than just sharing with friends. It personally has helped me develop my voice and has really helped me be more productive by posting "day in my life's." When someone creates content, they have to think about what they want the viewers to know about them and take away from the content. Wether or not someone posts content about the gym, lifestyle, cooking, or fashion, they are making a choice about how they want to express themselves on their platform and how that want their viewers to see them. 

Research also shows that young people see social media as a place to vent, meet friends and a place to express their creativity through content. According to a 2025 pew research center study, 63% of teens said social media gives them a place to show their creative side, while 74% said it makes them feel more connected to their friends. These stats stood out to me because they show Baker's theory happening in the real world. People are not only speaking online they are using that content to create, connect, and find people. 

Graph from Pew research center 

Their is also another point of view on this, social media doesnt always give young or any age creators confidence and or a perfect sense of self expression. Sometimes it can make people want to change themselves to fit in or due to the hate many creators get it makes them feel shitty. Alot of creators care about followers, like, and views or even wether or not their post looks as good as another creators. 

The same Pew study found that 31% of teens felt pressure to post trending content instead of the content that fits their lifestyle and niche. Another 27% of teens said that social media sometimes made them feel worse about their own lives. So with this it obviosly shows issues with how social media can affect an individuals self fulfillment. Social media gives us more opportunities to express ourselves, but it can also pressure us to express the version of ourselves that followers and viewers will like and agree with. 

This is why I think Baker's theory is so important. Genuion self expression isn't just having the ability to speak and share what you think, its having the freedom and the choice to communicate your OWN identity. If everyone only posted things they think all viewers would approve of social media would not be what it is today. 

I also think this connects to why freedom of speech is so truly important beyond social media. Every individual needs an opportunity to express opinions that may be different from everyone else. We all develop as individuals by sharing ideas, listening to other people, and learning how to agree to disagree. Having the opportunity to express yourself gives the individual a sense of independence and control over your own self growth and your own identity. 

Overall, everyones individual self fulfillment is the value of free exoression that feels the most important to me. Social media has show me how I want to display myself in everyday life and has grown my knowledge in so many aspects. It gave me a voice and continues to give so many other people their won voices. It has helped people discover their interests and has helped them find a community they can fit into with out having to change themselves. To me, that makes freedom of expression even more important. Having a voice is not just about being able to say something, it is about having the freedom and choice to figure out who you are and share that person with the world. 

Supreme Court Reflection

The U.S. Supreme Court is the most power court in the world.

 

After watching The Supreme Court video , I came away with a deeper appreciation for how much the Supreme Court depends on public trust rather than force.

I had always thought of the Court as powerful because of its legal authority. What surprised me was learning that its power ultimately rests on the faith that Americans place in its decisions.

The Court interprets a Constitution that is more than 200 years old. That responsibility has been carried by more than 100 justices throughout the nation's history.

One quote from the documentary stood out to me: being appointed to the Supreme Court is "akin to being struck by lightning." It also takes three to five years before the job begins to feel normal.

I was surprised to learn that Americans did not always accept the Court's authority. The acceptance the Court enjoys today had to develop over time.

The Video also highlighted Chief Justice John Marshall's statement that "we must never forget it is a Constitution we are expounding." That idea helped me understand how the Court approaches its role.

Another important lesson involved the Dred Scott case and how the issue of slavery was ultimately resolved through the Civil War and constitutional amendments.

What changed my view the most was learning how the justices interact with one another.

Before watching the video, I viewed Supreme Court justices as people who existed on a different level from everyone else because of the importance of their positions. The documentary made them seem much more like ordinary people.

The justices shake hands before every meeting and before taking the bench. One of the justices explained the tradition by saying, "It's harder to hold a grudge after shaking someone's hand."

That simple practice surprised me because it showed the human side of the Court. Despite their disagreements, the justices still make an effort to treat one another with respect.

I also learned that the Court cannot simply choose problems to solve. It must wait for real cases to be brought before it.

The Court receives more than 7,000 cases every year, yet only a small number become major decisions. Once the justices vote, a member of the majority writes the Court's reasoning, and the drafting process can continue for months.

My biggest takeaway is that the Supreme Court depends on an unspoken agreement between the people and the justices. Without that trust, the authority of the Court and the freedoms it helps protect would be much harder to sustain. 

AI DISCLOSURE: During the creation of this post the I used Copilot, Microsoft AI. I took detailed notes while watching a 20-minute video about the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to facts that I learned, I emphasized my own reactions and opinions while watching. I then asked copilot to help me improve my text by correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Top 5 News Sources

 5 Sources I get my news and information from:

1. Tiktok 

I commonly watch TikTok's from all types of different creators, some have the same beliefs as me and some have opposite. I found that getting some of my information off TikTok has been more helpful for me to understand and has helped me see the other perspective. The down side about TikTok information is that it can sometimes be fake news and I do have to be better at looking in to see if what I am watching is true or false. 

2. Instagram

Just as I said before with TikTok I follow a bunch of different types of creators on Instagram but something that I really only do on Instagram is look threw the comments on a reel or a post and see what the other viewers opinions and thoughts are on the information that is in the content. I also have noticed a pattern on my own social medias that my Instagram usually shows me more of what’s happening in the world and my TikTok tends to show me more of the Politics in America. 

3. Spotify

On Spotify I listen to three different podcasts that all have a focus for different information. First is The Daily, New York Times where I find information about social issues, politics and major events and I find that they really go into detail about certain issues. I also listen to Pod Save America, this podcast is many about politics and it has really helped me see a different view then my own because this podcast has a little democratic bias. Lastly I listen to Pod Save The People, this is a podcast that has taught me a lot and it shows how current events connect to there broader social impact. 

4. Safari ai 

When I hear of anything I’m interested in I often do a quick search on safari and read over the AI summary, this just gives me some information on the topic quickly and simply. I never use it in an actual way to find out information but more of just a quick look before I have time to get more information. 

5. My dad 

Lastly I would honestly say my dad, we talk about everything together and he is constantly sending me news articles, TikTok’s, Instagram reels, and even AI stuff cause he can’t tell it’s fake. He also watches lots of news so he is able to tell me what he sees on that and I commonly get a lot of my information through him but I also make sure to fact check him every time because he tends to miss hear things.