EOTO Raction Post

My classmates' presentations encouraged me to think more critically about the technologies I use every day.

Listening to my classmates' presentations about technology, one of the first things I thought about was my own relationship with the technologies they discussed.

I didn't exactly grow up sending messages through pigeon carriers or petroglyphs, but there were many other forms of technology that had a lasting impact on my life. As I listened to the presentations, I found myself reflecting on how much certain technologies have shaped the way I consume entertainment and communicate with others.

When I think further about the technologies that have had the biggest impact on my life, three stood out right away: iPod, motion pictures, and Netflix. 

The presentation about the iPod was especially interesting to me because it was a technology I actually used growing up. My parents, one Christmas, had gotten me and my siblings an iPod touch. Before this project, I knew the iPod was popular and a sign of how advanced our technology was becoming, but I did not realize how revolutionary it was when Apple introduced it in 2001. 

Learning that it allowed users to store thousands of songs on a single device helped me understand why it changed the music industry so dramatically and seemingly overnight. 

I don't remember much about my iPod touch, but I do remember that I took it with me everywhere, even when I would lock myself out of it by forgetting the password for days. 

Another presentation that caught my attention focused on motion pictures. Learning about early films made me realize how much entertainment has changed over time. 

It is hard to imagine that movies once consisted of short, silent clips when today we can instantly access almost any film or show we want. 

What surprised me most was realizing that the motion picture industry laid the foundation for so much of the entertainment we consume today. Growing up, watching movies always felt normal, whether it was a movie night with my family or rewatching childhood favorites.

 Because film has always been such a common part of everyday life, I never really stopped to think about where it all began. Learning about the origins of motion pictures made me appreciate how one invention could
influence generations of entertainment and storytelling.

Iconic Netflix Image

Netflix was another technology that stood out to me because it shows how quickly entertainment continues to evolve. I learned that Netflix originally started as a DVD-by-mail service before becoming one of the largest streaming platforms in the world.

As someone who grew up with Netflix, it is easy to take for granted being able to watch almost anything whenever I want. 

In my opinion, Netflix was the first streaming service that really became a household name and changed how people watched television and movies. 

It is used every day by millions of people, and honestly, I cannot remember a time when Netflix was not part of my life. 

Learning about its history made me realize how quickly entertainment has evolved from movie theaters and DVDs to having thousands of shows and movies available with just a few clicks.

Overall, these presentations made me realize how much technology has changed in such a short amount of time. From the iPod making music portable, to motion pictures changing entertainment, and Netflix making streaming an everyday part of life, each invention built on the ones before it. 

Learning more about their history helped me appreciate technologies that I normally take for granted and made me wonder what current technologies will seem outdated to future generations.

AI Disclosure: AI was not used in the making, writing, or research of this article. Grammarly was used only to check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

EOTO - Rewinding History: How Cassette Tapes Changed Communication

Small enough to fit in a pocket, powerful enough to change how the world recorded and shared information. 

Somewhere in a dusty attic, there's probably a cassette tape holding someone's first words, a favorite song recorded off the radio, or a mixtape made for a high school crush.

Unlike the photos stored in our phones or the playlists saved to Spotify, these memories are trapped inside a small plastic rectangle, waiting for someone to press play.

For many people, cassette tapes were more than a way to listen to music. They were a way to save memories, share emotions, spread ideas, and communicate with others. Long before podcasts, voice memos, and streaming services, the cassette tape allowed ordinary people to record and distribute audio in a way that had never been so simple before.

Although cassette tapes may seem like a relic of the past, their invention changed the way people communicated and helped create the foundation for the portable, personalized media culture we know today.

Lou Ottens (1926–2021), Inventor of the 

Compact Cassette and pioneer of 

portable audio technology.

The story of the cassette tape begins in the early 1960s, when Dutch engineer Lou Ottens and his team at Philips were searching for a better way to record and play audio.

At the time, most recordings were made using reel-to-reel tape machines. While effective, they were large, expensive, and often too complicated for everyday consumers. 

The problem Philips wanted to solve was simple: how could audio recording become smaller, more affordable, and easier for ordinary people to use?

In 1963, Philips introduced the Compact Cassette. The goal was not simply to make music portable, but to make audio recording accessible. Instead of dealing with bulky equipment, users could carry recordings in their pockets and easily create their own. 

What started as a practical solution to a technological problem quickly became one of the most influential communication tools of the twentieth century.

The Sony Walkman made cassette tapes 

portable, allowing people to take their 

music almost anywhere for the first time.

What made cassette tapes revolutionary was not just their design, but who they empowered. Before their invention, recording and distributing audio was largely controlled by broadcasters, recording studios, and organizations with expensive equipment.

Cassette tapes changed that. Families could preserve memories, students could record lectures, and individuals could share voices, stories, and music with one another. Audio recording was no longer reserved for professionals.

The cassette tape also transformed the music industry. People gained greater control over what they listened to and when they listened to it.

They could record songs from the radio, organize their favorite tracks, and create personalized mixtapes. As discussed in Smithsonian Magazine, these recordings often became expressions of friendship, personality, and emotion. In many ways, the mixtape was the playlist of its generation.

The impact of cassette tapes can still be seen today. They helped establish the idea that media should be personal, portable, and user-created. Modern podcasts, voice memos, audiobooks, and even social media audio content all reflect ideas that became widespread during the cassette era.

However, the technology was not without drawbacks. Because recordings could be copied easily, cassette tapes raised concerns about copyright infringement and intellectual property rights. Music companies worried about unauthorized duplication, leading to debates over ownership and fair use that continue today with streaming services and digital piracy.

Today, cassette tapes are largely a nostalgic reminder of another era. Yet their influence remains everywhere. Every playlist, podcast, and voice memo exists in a world shaped by the idea that anyone should be able to record, share, and access audio. 

The cassette tape did much more than change how people listened to music. It changed who had the power to communicate, and for a piece of plastic small enough to fit in a pocket, that is a remarkable legacy.

AI Disclosure: Microsoft Copilot was used to assist with brainstorming, researching the history and impact of cassette tapes, and refining the organization and wording of this blog post. I prompted Microsoft Copilot to help shape a blog post of between 500-600 words written in a smooth academic style regarding working on a project for a Communication Law & Ethics college-level class on the history of cassette tapes. All sources were reviewed by me, and I edited the final content to reflect my own understanding and writing style. AI did not contribute to the images placed to break up and explain the text. 

Privacy, Online and Off

The scariest part isn't what we choose to share; it's what we never realized we were sharing in the first place.

I always thought of a tattoo as something physical and permanent that you consciously choose to display on your body. It never occurred to me that we could have nonphysical tattoos plastered all over every aspect of our lives. 

A picture I post, a reservation I made, my entire Google search history, and any comments I've ever made on social media become part of me... an invisible and intangible string permanently connected to me for not only the rest of my life, but potentially the rest of eternity.

Juan Enriquez's TED Talk, "Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo,"  really slapped me awake to the world we live in. It reiterates that the internet will never forget, no matter how hard we may try to. 

Growing up in a time of fast-paced invention and the expansion of the internet and its capabilities, I was always warned to be conscious and precise about what I posted and what I "allowed" other people to see about me online. What I was never really warned about was how invasive technology itself could be. 

I knew to think twice before posting a picture with someone smoking or drinking in the background or saying something I wouldn't want people to find years later, but I never thought as much about everything happening behind the screen. 

The feeling of always being watched and monitored really starts to set in after hearing Christopher Soghoian's TED Talk about phone surveillance.  

What really shocked me was his explanation of the surveillance capabilities built into our phone networks, meaning calls can potentially be monitored and accessed not only by governments but also by other countries' intelligence agencies, as well as hackers, criminals, and even stalkers who are able to break into the system. 

Soghoian even uses real cases where surveillance systems were compromised, showing that this is not just some unrealistic scenario. 

Something else that stuck with me while watching the TED Talks in class was that this kind of tracking and invasion of privacy does not even require social media. It does not always depend on a picture I post, a comment I make, or information I intentionally share online. It can come from the actual technology sitting in my pocket.

That is the part that I find so crazy. We have become so accustomed to having our phones with us all the time that it is easy to forget just how much technology is packed into something so small. Even when I am not actively using social media, my phone is still connected to networks and capable of communicating information.

 The idea that something I carry around every day can have this much access and capability, and that almost everyone is unaware of it, is nothing short of astonishing.

 

It also makes me think about how much privacy we should realistically expect in a world where technology is becoming integrated with everything that we do. The answer cannot simply be to stop using technology; this is simply unrealistic. 

The answer instead could be creating more laws to protect that privacy and having the government take responsibility to make sure companies and communication systems have strong protections, as well as being transparent about what information is collected and who can access it. 

I also believe that once you are more aware of the lack of privacy we truly have, or the right to privacy that we so easily give away when clicking "I acknowledge", we need to pay more attention to what we are agreeing to and what information we are making available to companies. 

This all feels especially personal to me because I am constantly on Instagram, and my internship involves looking at other people's social media, tracking posts, and paying attention to what people are sharing online. 

I spend time looking at other people's digital footprints without really thinking about the fact that I am creating one of my own at the exact same time. I think that is what changed the way I look at privacy after watching these talks. 

I used to think being careful online mostly meant thinking before I posted. Now I realize there is a whole side of my digital life that exists beyond the things I consciously choose to put out there.

AI Disclosure: AI was not used in the making, writing, or research of this article. Grammarly was used only to check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Eight Values of Free Expression - Marketplace of Ideas

Women Gossiping

I love gossip. There, I said it. Whether it's celebrity drama, a TikTok exposing a new side of a story, or everyone online trying to get the latest and juiciest story they will ever hear. 

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized my love for gossip actually connects to something much bigger... freedom of expression. 

Think about what happens when there is a really interesting story going around. There is almost never one straight story or explanation of what happened. 

Someone says one thing, someone else has a completely different story, then someone comes out with a three-minute TikTok explaining what actually happened. Suddenly, there are five different versions of the same story, and we get to decide for ourselves what we believe. As ridiculous as celebrity gossip can sometimes be, I think there is something surprisingly important about that. 

This is what made the Marketplace of Ideas stand out to me. 

The Marketplace of Ideas is based on the idea that people should be free to express different opinions and perspectives, allowing those ideas to compete with one another. Instead of having one person or organization decide what everyone should believe, we are exposed to different viewpoints and have the ability to decide for ourselves what we agree with. 

To me, that is one of the most important parts of freedom of expression; we are allowed to hear more than one side. 

Hands with Microphones

I started thinking about this in relation to my first blog post, when I wrote about Vogue and traditional magazines. When I think about magazines like Vogue, I think about how much control traditional media has historically had over what stories we see. 

There are editors, writers, publishers, photographers, and entire teams deciding what deserves to be put in front of an audience. Someone has to choose the story, approve the story, and ultimately decide whether the public gets to see it.  

Now this process looks entirely different. Anyone can have a platform. And no one is there to tell them what they can and can't post. 

I can open Instagram or TikTok and see someone's opinion about a celebrity before a magazine has even thought about publishing a story about it. I can see someone break down a political issue before I even knew it was an issue. 

I can listen to a podcast where someone gives an opinion I have never heard before. I can see a person with no traditional journalism background become someone thousands or even millions of people listen to.

This isn't just something I feel like I see constantly in today's world; it's something that data is proving. Pew Research Center found that 38% of adults aged 18 to 29 regularly get news from influencers on social media. The influence of social platforms becomes even clearer when looking at where young adults are getting that news: 43% regularly get news from TikTok, 40% from Instagram, and 41% from YouTube. 

Candace Owens 

This is where I think Candace Owens becomes the perfect example.  I actually like listening to Candace Owens, and I think that is part of why I thought of her when thinking of the Marketplace of Ideas. 

Whether someone agrees with her or strongly disagrees with her, she has built a massive audience by expressing her opinions directly to the public through social media, podcasts, and other digital platforms. She does not have to wait for traditional news organizations to decide that her perspective is worth publishing. 

One of the most important things about the Marketplace of ideas is that it does not require everyone to agree; in fact, it almost depends on disagreement. Candace can share one perspective; someone else can challenge it, and another can offer an entirely different explanation. 

We are then left to compare those ideas and decide what we believe. This is what makes freedom of expression so interesting and important to me; it is not necessarily about making sure everyone hears the same message. It's about making sure people have the freedom to speak and that others have the freedom to listen, question, and challenge. 

However, I also think this is where the Marketplace of Ideas gets complicated. Just because everyone has a voice does not mean that every voice is telling the truth. 

Social media can give us access to perspectives we may have never heard before, but it can also make it difficult to know what information we should actually trust. Having the freedom to hear different ideas also means having the responsibility to question them.

Loud Mouth Poster

That is ultimately why the Marketplace of Ideas resonates with me. I don't think freedom of expression is important because it guarantees that the "right" idea will always win. I think it is important because it gives us the chance to hear ideas in the first place. 

Maybe that is what I love about gossip more than I realized. It is not really about finding one perfect version of a story. It is about hearing all the different versions and trying to figure out what I believe. And in a much bigger way, that is what freedom of expression allows us to do every single day. 

The Marketplace of Ideas may be messy, loud, and sometimes completely chaotic, but I think that is better than having only one voice deciding what everyone else gets to hear.

AI Disclosure: AI was not used in the making, writing, or research of this article. Grammarly was used only to check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.