Diffusion of Innovations

    

    In 2020, there was an estimate that 2.69 billion people play video games and this number is expected to rise to 3 billion in the next couple of years. How did this all start? Well, the first video game was Pong in 1958. A few years later Steve Russell made Spacewar!, in 1962 and the first home console was made in 1972. Over the next few years, video games started to grow with the introduction of arcades where most of the famous video games would be available to play.

    This is one-way video games started to rise as it was available to everyone who had coins. Another way was the home console was making huge strides in making their consoles better and cheaper with increased graphics and gameplay in order to give people more of an incentive to get them.

    Video games today are of course way different than they were back in the 80s. As technology has advanced, games have been available to more and more people through different means. Through arcade machines, home consoles, computers, phones, and in more recent years VR. With so many options to choose from, there is almost no way people would be able to get these games right?

    Unfortunately, as I said earlier, only about 2.69 billion people play video games and there are about 7.85 billion people in 2021. So not everyone even has access to technology. Like India for example in 2010 only about 92 million people had access to the internet and now in 2021, there are about 845 million people who have access. This is the only thing that is stopping people from playing video games. It is also a personal preference as some people just don’t want to play even though they could or people don’t like what video games can do to people like these articles (Article1, Article2) talking about how video games cause aggression. 

    For me at least I think that video games have done so much good in this world. They have allowed people to stay in touch with other people and make new friends. Video games' effects on people are good, like giving people better problem-solving skills to solve a puzzle, social skills, teamwork, and overall a better mental state. 

Other sources: 

• Total internet users in India | Statista

Video Game History - Timeline & Facts - HISTORY

Privacy

   

    To me, the issue of privacy affects me because I can't do anything not just on the internet but my day-to-day life without someone having access to it. I have always had these eyes looking at me everywhere I go and do. What is the unspoken truth about the internet is that once you post something on the internet there is no turning back. Once it is sent that is it. So this gives people anxiety about what they should and shouldn't post as it could affect their lives later in life. There are several examples of this like when James Gunn was fired from doing the Guardians of the Galaxy movie because of several offensive tweets that he sent years ago. I think that kids should not have access to social media until they understand that their actions may have consequences. 

    What should the government do about privacy issues? Based on the information that the videos gave me I think that they have enough already. Them taking pictures of our license plates, seeing where we go with our GPS, face recognition, or even listening to our phone calls. I think they just need to step back. In one of the videos a man mentioned a good point that it would be better to be secure and have a harder time catching criminals than those criminals being about to find you. So the government should give us a bit more privacy rather than strip it away.

    The best way to protect yourself is to just simply be smart. If you don't need to send that picture of what you ate this morning then don't send it. Use secure websites and enable a VPN. Limit yourself from technology and social media as much as you can. That way there isn't as much information on you. 

History of Video Games

    In the beginning, all there was were two lines and a white dot that started this train called video games. The first video game was Tennis for Two or more commonly called Pong created by William Higinbotham in 1958. Later in 1962, Steve Russell invented Spacewar! which was a computer-based space combat video game. Spacewar! was the first video game that could be played on a computer. Approximately 5 years later Ralph Baer created the very first home game console, a device that could simply be plugged into a TV to play video games. It would take them about another 5 years until they started distributing them in 1972. More and more games were made through the rest of the 70s. Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man were created and an industry came into being.

    However, the video game train eventually ran off the tracks in an event known as the video game crash of 1983. The crash was mainly caused by Atari. Atari had been very successful in the home game console market mostly due to the fact that they owned popular arcade games. They put those arcade games into their consoles. This led to some downfalls to this success. One example is what is called the worst game of all time E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Despite the success of the movie, the game was a flop. It was so bad in fact that it sparked the myth of there existing piles of unsold E.T.  game cartridges buried somewhere in New Mexico. 

    Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the video game train to pick up speed. In 1985 a Japanese company called Nintendo came to the United States. Nintendo took a significant risk by investing their money into developing a console with better quality and selling it for a lot less. In keeping the price low on the console, Nintendo had to rely on the sales of their games in order to make a profit. This idea worked in their favor. Nintendo dominated the home video game market until the end of the decade with games like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid.

    At the same time Nintendo was dominating the home console market there was a huge leap in computer technology. Now it was Sega’s turn to innovate. They challenged Nintendo with the release of The Sega Master System but it was a failure. However, they learned valuable lessons and developed the Sega Genesis. Nintendo’s main target was a younger audience. Sega‘s plan was to target more mature audiences. Based on the success of The Genesis, Nintendo tried to attract a mature audience as well. During this time Sony jumped in and came out with the first Playstation. Nintendo and Sega couldn’t compete with the Playstation's more enhanced support experience. The Playstation completely dominated the video game market up until the Playstation 2, which was also able to play games from the original Playstation. Additionally, it was the first gaming console that allowed you to play DVDs which made it the best-selling console of all time. 

    In 2006, the Playstation 3 was released and for the first time Sony was experiencing some serious heat from its competitors. The Xbox 360 was very similar to the Playstation 3. Although Xbox and PS were high tech, the Wii was more popular because of its motion-sensitive remotes which made gaming more active and helped appeal to a larger audience. 

    In 2012, Nintendo released the Wii U, and a year later the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One were also released. A few years later they all created more powerful versions of their previous consoles. With the Playstation 4 Pro in 2016 and a year later with the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox One X. 

    

    Video games have changed the way we communicate by building up friendships both in person and 

virtually. What was once something you would only share with people watching you at an arcade was transformed into something you could play at home with your family. Now you can play video games with players all over the world. What originally started as two white lines and a dot has morphed into real-life graphics and interactive gameplay. Minecraft, the best-seller game of all time, has helped people use their imagination and creativity. Additionally it has been used as an educational system and even a blueprint for a Microsoft campus. 

    Convenience can also be created by video games. When you are at a boss battle you need convenience to proceed. Video games are going beyond being just entertainment. For example in the Disney+ original series The Mandalorian instead of using a typical green or blue screen the designers utilized a giant screen that displayed the scene in real time using unreal engine which is a software used to make games. 

Sources:

10.2 The Evolution of Electronic Games – Understanding Media and Culture (umn.edu)

Video Game History - Timeline & Facts - HISTORY

The Evolution of Video Games: A Brief Timeline of Gaming Industry (Pong, Arcades, and Gaming Consoles) (gamedesigning.org)

Infographic: The History and Evolution of the Video Games Market (visualcapitalist.com)

8 values of Freedom

    

    The freedoms of the United States Constitution provide citizens the right to freedom from religion, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition. These are the six clauses of freedom in the first amendment and the basic foundation of our country. Our founding fathers wanted a system where each individual could share their thoughts and beliefs which was the whole point of leaving and living in America. 

    The eight values of free expression are Discovery of Truth, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. What these are meant to do is ensure that our government remains in check.

    For me, I think that Promote Tolerance is the most important of the eight expressions. Tolerance theory is the acceptance of an action or idea with which you disagree with. In today’s society, we are constantly having debates about issues on what you should and shouldn’t do through social media. It is annoying that we find it easier to just argue with someone instead of stating that they are alright with your point of view but here's mine. People always say that your opinion is just flat-out wrong instead of giving them good reasons as to why they are wrong. Another aspect is that when they look at what is wrong in the world they just focus on that and then think that everything else is bad because of it. For example, some policemen have committed some form of police brutality and then people say that the entire police force is just bad and should be defunded. Which is just wrong isn’t true, just because one egg in the carton is bad doesn’t mean the entire carton is bad. When it comes to social media people just have no tolerance about what they say because they think that they are safe behind their screens.

    A man named Lee C. Bollinger said in his book called The Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist Speech in America that he argues from a standpoint of tolerance in favor of protecting extremist speech. In this book, he states that tolerating extreme speech is important because being protected itself, provides a shield for more mainstream political discourse. Supposedly tolerates reduces racial and ethnic tension, respects the rights of others, and diminishes the perception that other people are a threat. 

Sources: Tolerance Theory | The First Amendment Encyclopedia (mtsu.edu)

U.S. Supreme Court

One thing that I learned about reading History's website and watching videos about the Supreme Court was the difference between the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices. I have heard of these titles before but I never actually knew what they were or what they did. It turns out that the Chief Justice sets up all of the meetings and the agenda for the other Justices which is a very important job. 

The most important takeaway is that the Supreme Court is the highest Federal Court in the United States. There are nine Judges and they are handpicked by both the president and the Senate. These nine Judges have the final word in what counts as Constitutional or not. 

The most surprising piece of information is that the Supreme Court is given thousands of cases a year and only does about 100 of them a year. One reason why they have to be so careful in which cases they take is because of the ramifications it could have. The decisions they make are very important as they could change how the country operates and take on similar court cases. For example, if they make a decision that revolves around a certain topic they have to use that previous court case to answer the next one that revolves around the same topic. If they answer it differently then they could get hated for not giving the same answer.

Something from the video that changed my opinion on the Supreme Court was their tradition for all of the judges to shake each other's hands before the start of each court case as a way of respect.