Volume 8 | Issue 2

B A LL BEARING S SPRING 2017

Our Digital Destiny In death, we live on through social media as loved ones preserve accounts and cope with loss in new ways. page 21

No Escape

Producing Personhood

Bursting the Bubble

page 17

page 29

page 33

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR When I was a freshman in high school, my maroon LG enV2 flip phone was my most valued possession. It was primitive by today’s standards—I could only call and text with it—but my parents knew that if they really wanted to get my attention, all they had to do was take it away.

And that’s what they did when I stayed up past midnight to text, as I had been told not to do several times.

But I didn’t readily accept the punishment.

I would plead and bargain with them. When that didn’t work, I’d come home from school and search my parents’ room for the device while they were still at work. On one such day, I found it in my dad’s T-shirt drawer. I turned it on to respond to the messages that had accumulated throughout the school day, and then turned it off, placing it back in the drawer precisely as I had found it.

I could do without TV, without Internet, without a social life, but I needed my phone— even though it had no data plan, no apps, no games, and I didn’t use the alarm clock or calendar. Today, my parents’ punishment would carry a much heavier burden.

In less than a decade, the phones we use— and what we use them for—have radically changed. Our digital world allows for rapid advancements in the ways we connect to one another and the ways we go about our lives.

Technological breakthroughs affect working, traveling, communicating, and information gathering—so much that the Internet is considered a basic right by the United Nations (“World-Wide Right”).

The social world at our fingertips is also changing how we deal with difficult subjects.

People now grapple with death in online grief communities by writing messages to loved ones who have died on public social media posts, and in memorializing accounts to preserve legacies (“Our Digital Destiny”).

Technological advancements have also led to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, which can now do what humans cannot. Though

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ALEX KINCAID

editor-in-chief amkincaid@bsu.edu @alexkincaid22 scientists are not close yet, some believe we might eventually create machines that are no different from humans in their capacity to make choices and respond to emotion (“Producing Personhood”). It might seem like we’re living in an episode of Black Mirror, with the advancements that seem to happen every week and leave most of us struggling to keep up.

These technologies, along with the advancement of the Internet, are the most important commodities of our time. They bring some terrifying implications but also a freedom that has never existed before. They can enlighten or destroy us. Make our lives easier or cause us hardship.

But one thing is certain: We need technology to function in a society that relies on it, and there is no escaping it.

From birth to death, it is now our destiny— regardless of whether we want it to be.

BA L L B E AR ING S magazine

To join the conversation about how technology is transforming our lives, visit ballbearingsmag.com

April 17 — Learning in the Digital Age May 1 — Tangible Effects of Virtual Reality

Exp.May 3, 2017

Exp.May 3, 2017

Exp.May 3, 2017

BALL BEARINGS • SPRING 2017

CONTENTS 15

WORLD-WIDE RIGHT

17

NO ESCAPE

29

PRODUCING PERSONHOOD

In 2011, the United Nations released a report that declared disconnecting people from the Internet to be a violation of human rights. In 2016, they decided that all nations should provide citizens with Internet access.

21

OUR DIGITAL DESTINY

Though artificial intelligence cannot yet match the human mind in many ways, further advancement could force us to decide what separates mankind from machines.

In death, we live on through social media as loved ones preserve accounts and cope with loss in new ways.

33

BURSTING THE BUBBLE Those who surround themselves with like-minded people, both in person and online, sometimes believe the ideas expressed in their circles reflect the opinions of the world.

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Though Kasey Burchett would prefer living without modern technologies, like her phone and social media, that doesn’t seem to be an option in modern society.

45

ONE NATION UNDER MEMES Though memes have technically been around for decades, modern memes influence pop culture, the ways we interact with tough subjects, and our senses of humor.

B ALL B E AR I NGS

INSTAGRAM:@ballbearingsmag TWITTER: @ballbearings ballbearingsmag.com

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Discuss

Debate

The Internet is the most important system of our time, and with it comes terrifying implications, but also a freedom that has never existed before. It can destroy or enlighten us.

Finding Love Online

Fifteen percent of Americans have used online dating apps, and meeting a significant other online has lost the stigma it used to hold.

Eleanor Ahlberg sat across from her now girlfriend, Shelby Hahn, in their women’s and gender studies class. At the time, they were just two strangers with no idea that their relationship would spark through an online dating app.

All semester Eleanor would think about Shelby from across the classroom, but Shelby never looked her way.

When Eleanor tried to talk to Shelby, she ended up just nervously asking to borrow a pen. After the class ended, Eleanor created a Tinder account to search for Shelby, hoping Shelby had a profile on the app. They matched with each other the following semester and had their first conversation on March 1, 2016.

Online dating has been stigmatized in the past as only for people desperate to find love or casual sex. But today, 15 percent of U.S. adults report that they have used online dating sites or mobile apps, according to Pew Research Center. These include Bumble, Zoosk, Plenty of Fish, and Tinder. Each has its own unique attributes, such as making women begin the conversation or having users swipe left or right based on whether or not they like the other person’s profile. In 2015, 59 percent of Americans said online dating was a good way to meet people, according to Pew Research Center.

Some people do use these apps to hook up, but others use them to find relationships. According to Pew Research Center, 5 percent of those who say they are in a committed

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relationship also say they met their significant other online.

Even though Eleanor and Shelby had a class together, they probably wouldn’t have started dating without matching on Tinder.

Many people who meet online face difficulty telling others, fearing the stigma society has attached to these apps. Eleanor used to tell most people she had met Shelby in class, but they don’t worry about what people think anymore.

“It’s kind of romantic in a weird Millennial technological way,” Eleanor says. story: claire demirjian

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Smart Technology

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As Sean O’Kane watched his dog playfully jump around him, he didn’t worry about capturing the moment on his phone’s camera. He simply pressed a button on his sunglasses and let them record the moment for him.

As technology becomes more integrated in everyday life, new inventions are introduced to fit everyday needs, whether it be for entertainment, health, business, or luxury. According to David Pogue of Scientific American, a new gadget or updated version of an existing product is introduced about every year.

Many of today’s high-tech gadgets, like Spectacles by Snapchat, are created for leisure or the simplification of daily responsibilities.

Ball State University junior Chris Seibert first heard of Spectacles when he read a Bloomberg Business article, and then noticed they were trending on his Twitter feed.

Already a fan of Snapchat, Chris searched online for a way to purchase the glasses. But according to Biz Carson of Business Insider, they were only available through a traveling vending machine known as a Snapbot, which could pop up anywhere for forty-eight hours at a time with very little warning.

During a trip to New York City over winter break, Chris found a store with these vending machines and paid $129.99 for his pair of Spectacles.

O’Kane, a tech reporter for The Verge magazine, reviewed the Spectacles’ ability to record video from the wearer’s point of view with just the press of a button. The glasses have built-in Wi-Fi, and they send all recorded content to the Snapchat app through Bluetooth, O’Kane says. They allow us to capture memories at a moment’s notice.

Spectacles became available to purchase online on February 20, 2017.

But gadgets can also have a more utilitarian purpose.

The Sleep Number 360 smart bed is one such gadget. According to Megan Wollerton of CNET, the mattress optimizes comfort levels while a person sleeps. Its built-in software warms feet and adjusts the mattress to the sleeper’s position. It can also eliminate snoring. Owners can even track sleep quality through the Sleep Number app.

Fifty years ago, one could not have imagined video-recording sunglasses or a bed that knows when the user snores. However, these technological innovations are redefining the way we live our lives—all with the touch of a button. story: madaleine townsend

lightning jr.

Gadgets once only seen in sci-fi films are now becoming elements of everyday life.

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The Virtual Dollar

Nearly half a million jobs have been created for app developing, which didn’t exist until the Apple App Store began in 2008. Less than ten years later, app purchases are expected to generate $76.52 billion in 2017.

After Allyson Daley completed the second level of Super Mario Run, a game that can be played on smartphones, she didn’t hesitate to pay the $9.99 fee to unlock levels three through ten. Allyson, a freshman at Ball State University, said her mother probably rolled her eyes when she saw the purchase. But she bought it anyway. She enjoys the game, and that’s all that mattered to her in that moment.

Consumers like Allyson have led to the prediction that app purchases will generate $76.52 billion in 2017, according to The Business of Apps, an organization that helps individuals understand the marketing and monetization of the apps industry. Compared to the 2015 total revenue of $45.37 billion, that is nearly a 60 percent increase over two years. In-app purchases of additional levels or features, like the ones in Super Mario Run, contribute to this rise.

Ten years ago, apps didn’t bring in much money. Apple released the first-generation iPhone in June 2007 and created the App Store in July 2008. Emsi, a company that uses labor market data to connect and inform businesses, reported no app-related jobs in the U.S. before the first iPhone. Today, there are nearly 466,000 of these jobs.

Apps continue to affect the economy in ways many economists never expected.

Cecil Bohanon, a professor of economics at Ball State University, says society usually believes most products and services will decline with technological advancement.

Consumers don’t usually think new technologies will create new opportunities for employment, like the ones created by the App Store.

When we introduce new technology, Bohanon says, the old never completely dies.

Bohanon still sees the economy’s ever-changing future as heavily technology-based. Many people fear that with all of these technologies replacing the jobs of factory workers, human hands will no longer be needed at all. That is not the case, though.

With the invention of the computer in 1946, secretaries were worried that their jobs would be replaced. Years later, that is still not the case. We still have secretaries, although their jobs have been changed significantly by technology. The technology of apps may change the job market, but as seen with the spike in jobs the industry has created, it will most likely never replace human work completely.

story: samantha kupiainen

Logged Out

Vine shut down in 2016 because it wasn’t attracting enough users. In a world of websites and apps competing for user attention, some social media simply die out.

Social media. In 2017, those two words hold a lot of power.

Around 68 percent of all Internet users in 2016 were also using social media, according to Statista. Mega-sites like Twitter and Facebook attract new users every day, while other major apps like Instagram and Snapchat are also growing. The desires to reconnect with people or to share opinions and memories drive users to these sites.

But for every Twitter, there’s a Myspace. And for every Facebook, there’s a Foursquare. Even as recently as January 2017, a social media site “died” when the world said goodbye to Vine as a standalone app. Twitter purchased the popular video-sharing app last fall and it gradually shut down.

Vine and Myspace became superfluous with the rise of newer social media. They were forced to either close or accept a scant amount of users. Vine’s trademark six-second loops were incorporated into tweets, and Myspace eventually lost to the juggernaut that is Facebook. For many users, it’s hard to stay committed to a site like Myspace when Facebook can do

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everything it does and more.

This is the cycle of social media. Being original in the digital age is difficult, and only a few companies get it completely right. But even then, their success only lasts so long.

Social media outlets have been used by many college students since they were at least in middle school. Preston Husband, a freshman telecommunications major at Ball State University, remembers when he first got his social media pages. In sixth grade he created Facebook and Instagram accounts that are still active, but never made a Myspace. He thought Myspace was just a lesser version of Facebook, so it was unnecessary.

Preston is just one of the many who either left the site or never went there in the first place. Today, Myspace attracts around twenty to fifty million unique views a month, compared to Facebook’s one billion unique users. And with Facebook attracting one-seventh of the world’s population, it is easy to see why other websites and social media have trouble keeping a loyal user base.

story: spencer sharpe

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Unchecked

When sharing anything is possible at the touch of a button, false information can spread quickly, bypassing the verification process journalistic news undergoes.

Steve McLaughlin* sat at his desk at Ivy Tech Community College, scrolling through the news online. One story stood out to him: “Donald Trump Plagiarized Bane in His Inaugural Speech.” Plagiarizing the villain from the last Batman movie seemed like something Trump would do, Steve says he thought.

He chuckled, clicking the link to read more. Steve’s eyes moved from line to line before abruptly stopping. The story, he realized, was fake. Though the website looked credible, the piece was not accurate. And it had been shared on Facebook more than 64,000 times.

Steve, an instructional librarian, should know fake information when he sees it. His job revolves around helping students find and identify correct information. But even he has been fooled by fake news at least once.

When anyone can share content that reaches hundreds of thousands of people, misinformation spreads quickly.

Journalists are trained to find accurate information and provide audiences with the truth. Non-media individuals do not always have this training. Journalists are also taught to hold officials accountable and to serve the public. Now, possibly more than ever, journalists are vital.

Anyone can post information. But journalistic articles go through a complicated process to ensure accuracy. In a

study published by Journalism Practice, all of the twentyeight journalists surveyed expressed an overwhelming passion to find the truth. The study found that journalistic fact-checking processes resemble social scientific methods.

The journalists in the study were also aware of their own limitations and said they relied on their publication to make decisions about unverifiable information.

A journalist’s verification process involves multiple drafts, copy editing, proofreading, and fact-checking.

When non-journalists attempt to do the job of a journalist, but bypass the process, news has the potential to spin out of control. Instead of being verified, it can simply be inaccurate or present opinions as fact. It also blurs the lines of who should present news, and leaves that responsibility open to anyone—qualified or not. This is something Steve sees as a problem.

As he leans back in his chair, the old plastic creaking, he can’t help but think about journalists and the role they play in making sure the public knows what’s going on. Especially in the days following President Trump’s inauguration.

“Journalism,” he says, “is the only thing preventing the republic from falling into a dictatorship.” *Steve McLaughlin has no relation to the writer, Merritt McLaughlin.

story: merritt mclaughlin

“Journalism is the only thing preventing the republic from falling into a dictatorship.”

STEVE MCLAUGHLIN

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The Business of Social Media

Social media have become more than places to simply connect with friends.

Many users have found ways to create businesses using these platforms.

Ashley Zhang grabs her camera and yoga mat and heads out onto the snowcovered grass near DeHority Complex.

With her bare feet freezing from the snow and the rest of her body shivering from the cold, she rolls out her mat and begins taking pictures of herself doing yoga.

A senior at Ball State University, Ashley created a yoga-specific Instagram account less than two years ago to track her progress. She now has nearly 18,000 followers and companies contact her to promote their products. Her Instagram has turned into a business.

Nicole Hendricks, a journalism and public relations instructor at Ball State University, says social media outlets have become platforms for anyone to create a personal brand and make money by endorsing products. The more attention you receive on different platforms, the more money you make.

There are entire companies dedicated

to connecting social media stars with brands. Famebit, for example, works with brands like L’Oréal and Canon to find creators who will promote their products. Another company, Gleam Futures, manages what they would call “digital-first talent,” conducting business deals, scheduling meetings, and tracking analytics of the people they work with—things one might expect the manager of a movie star to do.

Companies began contacting Ashley when she reached about 10,000 Instagram followers. She has been paid for sponsored posts but still holds a standard of honesty.

“I want to keep it real with my followers,” she says. “I don’t want to sell something I don’t believe in.”

With social media at the center of our society, it’s no surprise people are turning it into a lifestyle. Pew Research Center found in 2016 that 32 percent of Internet

users were on Instagram, and roughly half of those check it every day. That’s more than double the amount of users in 2012.

An individual can make thousands of dollars using the same technology most of us have in our back pockets.

Hendricks calls these people the new “up-and-coming celebrities” and thinks they are more relatable to the average person than typical celebrities.

Ashley hopes to someday make a living out of her social media accounts. Until then, she will continue posing, snapping, and posting.

“I want to keep it real with my followers; I don’t want to sell something I don’t believe in.”

ASHLEY ZHANG

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story: hannah sordyl

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Diving into the Dark Web The innermost layer of the web is designed to make user identities anonymous and can lead to illegal exchanges online.

like any other browser. According to Ryland, most of Tor’s websites can be accessed by anyone who cares to download it. Limited access exists primarily on sites that host illegal content or activities, which allows them to stay partially hidden from law enforcement.

But law enforcement has gotten better at identifying illegal online activity. Ryland says the government uses “honeypots” to create fake dark websites that resemble actual illicit websites, so authorities obtain the personal information users provide to buy illegal products or services, and can then intervene.

As technology continues to grow and change, criminal activity has the potential to change with it, existing within a layer of the Internet designed to protect identities and keep crime in the dark.

story: julia steele

photo: terence k. lightning jr.

Only people with a special browser can access the underworld of sorts that lurks on the Internet. This layer can act as a digital black market, or simply as a gateway to private webpages only certain people can access.

Ryland Babusiak, a computer science student at Ball State University, first became interested in the dark web when it gained popularity in 2013. This public attention came largely from the rise of the Silk Road, one of the first and most prominent illicit websites. It is most known as being a market for illegal drugs.

Ryland first heard about the dark web in an online post, prompting him to do his own research. He saw people debating the pros and cons of this new technology, and he recognized its benefits.

As a society, the term “Internet” is widespread and it’s known as a resource that is available virtually everywhere.

This commonly-used part of the web is called the surface web, which is accessed through search engines like Google.

However, there’s more to it. According to BrightPlanet, an organization that allows others to access information beyond what search engines provide, search engines operate by finding and identifying links—but not all web pages can be accessed.

This is the case with the deep web, which includes material and pages only some people can find. Websites like Blackboard would be considered part of the deep web, as only students with access can log in.

The dark web, which is the deepest layer, cannot be discovered through most browsers. According to BrightPlanet, users can only access it through a separate web browser called Tor. But Tor itself is not illegal and does not promote illegal activity, according to the Tor Project.

Tor is also known as the “onion browser” because it hosts websites within the domain “.onion” instead of familiar domains like “.com” or “.edu,” Ryland says.

Tor keeps users anonymous by hiding their IP addresses. It connects to a different IP address every ten minutes or less and is sent through three unique servers before reaching a destination, according to the Tor Project. This process masks each user’s location, which fulfills the browser’s main purpose of being untraceable. Certain countries limit access to the Internet and accurate news, but Ryland says citizens can find information using Tor. But Tor also hosts websites that sell illegal services or goods. Joseph Cox, an investigative journalist who is working on a film about the deep and dark web with Vice and the BBC, shares more information about this other world on the Internet through video lectures. According to Cox, the dark web markets weapons, passports, counterfeit currency, personal information, hitman bids, jihadists, and hackers. Cox says users can anonymously pay for these items and services through BitCoin.

Tor can be downloaded directly from the Internet, just

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Wired In Since its inception in the 1960s, the Internet’s sociopolitical significance has evolved alongside the technology. story: emily sabens

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illustrations: kaleigh friesen

//q&a From earning a college degree through online classes, meeting and mingling with romantic interests, Skyping with loved ones in faraway places, or even doing a quick Google search, there are numerous reasons why billions of people access the Internet every day.

American society has made it so easy to open a laptop or pull out a smartphone that we often forget what the world was like before the Internet.

For some around the globe, complete Internet access still isn’t an option.

Countries like North Korea, Vietnam, Iran, and China have strict Internet censorship rules—so strict that many in those nations can be thrown in prison for violating related laws.

Ball Bearings sat down with five experts to better understand the Internet’s history and how it has shaped our society.

The Creation

Douglas Comer is a distinguished professor of computer science at Purdue University and an internationally-recognized expert on computer networking.

In the 1960s, people were exploring networks that hooked computers together. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) led this exploration, building something called ARPANET. They wanted to have resource sharing. Computers in those days were huge and cost a fortune and a half. ARPA couldn't afford to put

one in every one of its sites, and they wanted to have a network hooked together. Then, a user who lived in Utah and worked on an ARPA project could use a computer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at MIT. Here's the deal: When Sputnik went up in the 1960s, it changed everything.

High school kids were told to go into math and science. “We have to beat the Russians.” It was a big push. Everybody, including ARPA, worried about Sputnik and the Russians. A lot of the work ARPA funded involved technology.

“How do we build better rockets? How do we build better bombs?”

1970s

Aimée Morrison is an associate professor of digital humanities and multimedia practice at the University of Waterloo. Her areas of expertise include digital media and the history and theory of media.

You begin with this Internet that is a research project. It's defense related and national-security related.

But it has to be run by people, and the people want to have fun, right?

They almost immediately start communicating over the Internet.

They send little messages. They're not just sending files: They're sending files that are also messages. They're using it as a chat system.

From 1972, you get the first formal email programs developed. It blows up the Internet. People have used email like crazy from 1972 until [the present].

1957: The USSR launched Sputnik, an artificial earth satellite, into space. This scared America, who feared losing the technology race. The country wanted to connect all major universities’ computers in order to share valuable knowledge and innovations.

1969: ARPANET was created. It was the earliest computer network to date. Over the years, it evolved into the Internet that is so widely used today.

1980s

David Carlson is a professor of new media journalism at the University of Florida, as well as the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. Carlson’s specialities include communication technology and interactive media.

Domain naming was developed at the University of Wisconsin in 1983.

Online services like Viewtron and Gateway were going on in the background. Those were created by newspaper companies. Even way back in 1982, they thought the future of news would be to deliver online rather than on paper.

It was a good prediction, but they were so far ahead of themselves it didn't work. They lost a lot of money, partially because they had to have huge computers to house the system. They also had to develop the technology for people to use in their homes. So the cost was too high for the era.

In 1985, the Whole Earth Lectronic Link (WELL) was founded in San Francisco. It was a network geared to consumers, letting them send emails and stuff like that. The key point—and this will sort of bring us into the '90s—was that a number of different services were created to appeal to consumers, but they were islands. You had CompuServe, Prodigy, America Online, the WELL, and a few others, but customers of those could only communicate with customers of the same service. There was no Internetworking among the services that consumers were allowed to use.

1971: The first email was sent. Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer, made a mark in the evolution of communication by sending the first email.

1976: Ethernet was created by Robert

Metcalfe. This allowed different devices within close proximity to be connected on the same network.

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1990s

Eric Goldman is a professor at the Santa Clara University of Law and the co-director of the High Tech Law Institute. His focuses include Internet law and Internet protocol.

The first real web browser was developed in 1994. We saw relaxing of the rules for commercial activity on the Internet. The Internet was initially built for scientists, academics, or military and government purposes, so it wasn't very easy to do commercial activity on the Internet.

The World Wide Web didn't instantly take off. It took a few years to really penetrate. I'd say the second half of the 1990s was when most people were using the web in preference to other Internet options.

Before the World Wide Web, there were bulletin board services, or BBS's.

BBS's were usually geographically local because you had to make a

telephone call in order to have access, which created toll charges.

Usenet was a threaded discussion area that would propagate bulletin board service to bulletin board service. So, you could send a message to Usenet and your local BBS, and then it would be propagated to other BBS's in the network. People would reply to your message or add to your message. After a while—it might be hours or days—that thread might come back to you when your BBS picked up the new message.

When I wrote my first Internet law paper in 1993, I used Gopher.

Gopher was basically a service for doing text-based navigation of electronic files. You couldn't click on links; you had to type in a number.

Gopher was a way to find files on other sites before the web.

Google was developed in the second half of the 1990s, but it didn't have much of an impact until the 2000s.

There were various ways of doing keyword searches in the old days,

1983: Domain naming began at the University of Wisconsin. With domain names, users could now conveniently link text names to IP addresses.

1990: The first search engine, called Archie,

was invented. Internet users could now use the simple search engine to find publicly available files.

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but they weren't very good. We could do some pretty powerful keyword searches there, but only within their index. We didn't have to pay for it, but somebody who paid for it, paid a lot of money for the keyword searches. It was a very expensive tool.

Yahoo starting in 1994 was really the game-changer. It provided links to sites that were basically editorially curated. We were able to navigate to the things we were looking for by having someone holding our hand and helping us, and that was really revolutionary at the time because there was no other way to do that.

There was no other standardized resource. We got various keyword searching tools after that, but the search indexes were spotty. None of them were comprehensive. It was entirely likely that if you did the same keyword search in different search engines, you would get very different results just because of the indexing— not because of the algorithm.

1991: Gopher, an Internet application that provides point-and-click navigation, was created at the University of Minnesota.

1995: Yahoo was launched by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo.

Initially, Yahoo was a guide that was a compilation of more than 2,000 websites.

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21st Century

Joe Touch is the director of the Postel Center at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute and a research associate professor of computer science and energy enhancement systems.

The apps we use today pretty much use only [the basis of what the Internet was founded on].

This is an important point. The Internet protocols that we have built everything on haven't really changed over the years. There's a lot of Internet researchers who are all about the ossification of the Internet, impeding progress and innovation, but that's bullshit. It's not true. If that were true, then Mark Zuckerberg would still be a student at Harvard. So would Bill Gates, and so would everyone else.

One person's ossification is another's

stability. The reason we have all this innovation and application is because all of those things have been stable for such a long time.

The Internet has not stopped evolving. When will we start seeing that [evolution] in our apps? Twenty to thirty years. It takes that long.

When I started here at Information Sciences Institute, we were working on video teleconferencing. I had a $30,000 machine on my desk. I had a $10,000 camera. I was able to Skype all around the world. It took twenty years for that to be a thing people could do from their laptops. It takes time. People will say, "Where is the innovation?" But it's happening all the time. You just don't see it.

When the Internet was first created, the legend began that it was created to survive the nuclear war. But it was really made for people to do remote computing and exchange files through email, which is pretty much what we use it for today. It was designed for human interaction.

1998: Google opened its first office

in California; however, the company did not grow in popularity until the 2000s.

2004: Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg. The site allows people to connect with friends and family, as well as learn what is going on in the world around them.

Arthur C. Clarke said [that] any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic.

When a new technology comes out, it does look like magic. And then it starts looking like a tool. Then, it fades away. When the telephone came out, or electricity came out— wow! Everyone had to have this magical new thing.

As it evolves, technology goes from being magic and a luxury to being a tool we use every day. Then we start not thinking about it. You don’t think about driving a car and having a car.

Everybody does. It's just part of your daily life. You certainly don't think about electricity. It's just there. In the last couple years, the Internet has gone from something you had to connect to, to something that is just always on.

The more it's always on, the more it fades into the background.

Ball Bearings has edited statements for clarity.

2005: YouTube was launched by three former PayPal employees. The site allows Internet users to upload, as well as view, a variety of video clips from around the world.

2006: Twitter, a social networking and news website, was created. Individuals can post messages called “tweets,” as well as interact and respond to other users.

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D W L R I DE O W H G T I R stor

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un n e y: g

ers, a writer for byte at ball sta r m as t te u

nive rsit y

//reported

In 2011, the United Nations released a report that declared disconnecting people from the Internet to be a violation of human rights. In 2016, they decided that all nations should provide citizens with Internet access.

I

n the 1960s, the Internet was created for small networks of military computers. Now, just about everyone has access, and it’s become essential. It’s involved in nearly every aspect of our lives. In 2015, former President Barack Obama said that high-speed Internet is not a luxury, but a necessity.

The Internet has become the key source and distributor of information, commerce, and even entertainment, says Michael Gerhard, an associate professor of telecommunications at Ball State University. Life becomes difficult without it.

From politics, to health, to education, you’re missing out if you can’t use the Internet. We get almost all of our information from it. Gerhard says that since it affects every aspect of our lives, those who are without it are at a disadvantage—leading many to debate the fairness of not having that access. Today, if you don’t have access to the Internet, you don’t have access to information, which is considered a basic right by the United Nations.

As of July 2016, more than 3.6 billion people have access to the Internet. That’s almost half of the world, which means that the other half doesn’t. And that’s where the problem lies. Around half of the world does not have a liberty deemed essential to the 21st century.

“Every generation has to fight for liberty or else we run the risk of losing it,” says Gerhard.

People in North America and Europe have more access to

the Internet than others, with 89 percent of people in the U.S. using the Internet, and 80 percent in Europe, according to Pew Research Center. The Middle East is next with 72 percent. Africa has the lowest amount of Internet users, at 25 percent.

In July 2016, the United Nations declared Internet access a human right in response to concerns over lack of access and suppression. It also emphasized the importance of “applying a comprehensive humanrights based approach when providing and expanding access to the Internet, and for the Internet to be open, accessible and nurtured.”

Russia, China, and South Africa opposed the resolution.

Gerhard thinks that it’s going to take politicians, citizens, international organizations, governments, and a lot of other entities to get this idea rolling—it has to be a united effort.

However, this isn’t going to be an easy fight. There are challenges to implementing the resolution in all countries because of economic strain, differing political ideologies, and a lack of infrastructure. But people are trying. Some private entities are working to expand access to the Internet to all parts of the world regardless of location and infrastructure.

The most notable efforts are from Google’s Project Loon, Space X’s low-orbit satellite network, and Facebook’s Aquila drone.

Project Loon provides Internet access through the use of helium balloons that hover up to twenty kilometers in the air. These

EVERY GENERATION HAS TO FIGHT FOR LIBERTY OR ELSE WE RUN THE RISK OF LOSING IT.

MICHAEL GERHARD balloons use solar-powered equipment that link to networks on the ground in order to beam down Internet service. Google says that its balloons can deliver Internet access to 60 percent of people who currently have none.

The project has already seen success in remote areas of Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand.

Gerhard thinks the idea of providing equal access to information and resources to everyone might need to be resurrected. He compared the massive exchange and creation of ideas in the Internet age to the intellectual and philosophical advancements of the 18th century from figures such as John Locke.

He says that our country and constitution are rooted in the Age of Enlightenment—an 18th century intellectual movement that focused on liberty and progress. Gerhard says providing equal access to the Internet is a way to continue that tradition.

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Though Kasey Burchett would prefer living without modern technologies, like her phone and social media, that doesn’t seem to be an option in modern society.

photo: jordan manders

photo: lauren dalhauser

NO ESCAPE

Kasey Burchett, a senior at Ball State University, lived in the jungle for three and a half months.

The experience in the summer of 2015 was part of a biology internship in Panama, which she shared with about thirty other students and directors she had never met.

Falling asleep in her hammock, a ceiling above and dirt floor below but no walls to keep out the night, Kasey would hear geckos calling.

She walked barefoot during the day despite the cockroaches, spiders, and snakes. In Panama and on some other trips she has taken, she couldn’t access any form of technological communication.

Unlike most twenty-one-year-olds, Kasey would rather have it that way.

But she can’t. Kasey loves to travel the wild without the distraction of being online, but she also loves her family. She’d rather live Internet-free, but the web is the only thing bridging her juxtaposed desires to travel the world and stay close with people at home. So she needs to find a balance.

Widespread technology use stems largely from a desire to be connected and stay up to date on important issues, says Dr. David Shanley, a psychologist specializing in anxiety treatment.

Anxiety might increase when the messages stop because people fear missing something about friends, family, or the world. But Shanley doesn’t think a screen can resolve that fear. Users end up missing out on what’s happening right in front of them, he says, which is exactly what Kasey is trying to avoid.

Kasey first realized her dream of traveling with a purpose when her high school senior class went to Nicaragua on a mission trip. As she created the foundations of a secondary school to replace the one-room building that served all the children in a community near Chinandega, she knew she wanted to work on sustainable development.

This dream career would most likely happen in areas with little technology access.

She prefers learning “out in the wild,” through hands-on experiences she can’t get in a classroom at Ball State, where she studies natural resources and environmental management.

The first week of Kasey’s Panama internship frightened her, but she soon grew accustomed to sleeping in the jungle. Bushwhacking through the rainforest with a machete, she saw things she had never imagined: A blue leaf, a pink caterpillar that looked like cotton candy, and a mother tarantula with her baby.

The most difficult challenge for Kasey during her trip was spending so much time with people she didn’t know. But she started considering those

photo provided: kasey burchett

story: katie grieze

As Kasey backpacked through Panama’s Chagres National Park during termite mating season, bugs filled the air and landed on her and her friends.

strangers family after just one month, and believes this would have taken much longer if they’d had access to Wi-Fi. When the technology is taken away, face-to-face human connection remains.

According to a Psychology Today article by Dr. Alex Lickerman, technology can also harm real relationships when used for easier confrontation because it doesn’t communicate emotion nearly as well as face-to-face interaction. The difficulty of confronting a problem in person, writes Lickerman, creates better opportunity for relational and personal growth.

Kasey understands the value of those opportunities and says living three months without cell service, television, or any contact with the outside world is easy and allows for the simplicity she loves.

She struggled to come back from a life like that.

According to Pew Research Center, 82 percent of adults say cell phone use in social settings frequently or occasionally hurts conversation. But 33 percent say it sometimes contributes to the group atmosphere, allowing people to record memories through photos or look up things to do together.

When Kasey doesn’t have Internet or phone access, her main challenge is staying in touch with relatives who live all around the United States. A devotion to her family won’t let her disconnect.

Kasey returned to Panama on the last day of 2015 for a New Year’s Eve celebration with the

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photo provided: kasey burchett Kasey and the other interns gathered to eat in a type of building they called a “ranchero.” Panamanian neighbors and past internship directors had built these structures from the ground up using wood and palm trees.

THAT MADE ME REALIZE THAT AS MUCH AS I LOVE TRAVELING, MY FAMILY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME.

KASEY BURCHETT

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Benefits and Risks of Using Technology Social media can provide a sense of belonging and help people find role models.

Social media articles and smartphone apps designed to track diet and fitness help people live healthier lives.

Smartphones damage sleep schedules when people stay up too late texting or scrolling through social media. This increases chances of suffering from stress and depression.

While some feel that being in constant communication with romantic partners strengthens relationships, it can also limit options for in-person conversation.

Use of social media can harm memory when, rather than idling during free time, people overload their minds with information as they scroll through news feeds. When there is so much information competing for attention, less of it stays in the long-term memory. source: allpsychologyschools.com and kth royal institute of technology

same organization that arranged her internship.

She spent most of the day in the valley that had been her home for more than three months, again without a phone signal.

She went to Panama City that evening, planning to just leave her belongings at the hotel and enjoy the New Year’s festivities. Before leaving the room, Kasey used the city’s Wi-Fi to check her phone for the first time all day.

She read the first text, from her mom’s cousin: “I’m so sorry about your grandma.”

What’s happening? she thought.

She then noticed the five missed calls and the other texts offering condolences. Something wasn’t right.

She called her mom and learned that her grandma had passed away twenty-eight hours earlier. Kasey began crying in a room full of strangers.

Though Kasey enjoys the simplicity that comes with going offline, she now hesitates before traveling places where she won’t be connected.

“That made me realize that as much as I love traveling, my family is very important to me,” she says.

She is thankful for Skype, on which she relies to maintain several long-distance relationships.

Such technology can be beautiful, she says, if reserved for important cases. She doesn’t believe anyone should “switch off” entirely, especially if they have a loving family back home.

According to the Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research, the use of Skype in longdistance relationships improves relational satisfaction.

And approximately two-thirds of individuals on social media say that maintaining contact with friends and family is a main reason for using their accounts, according to Pew Research Center.

Do I want to follow my dreams or stay close to my mom? Kasey sometimes thinks when it seems like those two desires can’t coincide.

If she could, she would choose to live in nature all the time. But Kasey is trying to find a balance between what she wants to do and what she needs to do.

Occupational Psychologist Dr. Christine Grant says people must figure out how to use the Internet in a way that is compartmentalized and beneficial. They should develop an awareness of how technology affects them and use it to achieve their goals instead of letting it hold them back.

After graduation, Kasey would like to join World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms in Australia for a few months. She then might do another six months with Conservation Corps, a service organization that sends young adults on months-long land management projects. She will hike the Pacific Crest Trail with her best friend in April 2018. Everything else is up in the air.

She has considered joining the Department of Natural Resources or Peace Corps before returning to graduate school to study fungi.

Though unsure of where she will end up, Kasey is fairly certain it will be out in nature, still struggling to find the balance between the life she wants and the life technology has created for her.

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OUR

DIGITAL DESTINY In death, we live on through social media as loved ones preserve accounts and cope with loss in new ways. story: miller kern

A

s we become more dependent on the Internet, and find ourselves constantly connected through apps and social websites, we are beginning to understand the way humans cope with big life questions—like birth and death—online. Grieving death has a new social element now that we are able to communicate with others about it across online platforms. When we post to a loved one who has passed on, or to

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a newborn or unborn baby—or create accounts for people who have no control over the pages—we are creating a digital footprint for that person. One that will not go away, whether it was made before birth, or added to after death. But when we post to loved ones who have passed on, we are doing more than adding to their digital footprint—we are tailoring our grief to our needs. Today, social media allow us to cope with loss in an individualized way.

Tina Clark lost her daughter, Madi, to suicide on April 30, 2016. This memorial was planted at Riverside Gardens Park in Leo, Indiana, to honor her. Local photographer, Kelly Morel, came across the memorial on a walk through the park and snapped this photo. photo: kelly morel

DEALING WITH GRIEF

“Good morning, Madi,” Tina Clark says each day as she wakes up in her home on the outskirts of Fort Wayne, Indiana, knowing she won’t get a response. She takes in a breath of her daughter’s loofah that she sleeps with each night, inhaling the lingering scent of Madi’s body wash. She checks her phone, then gets up to start her day.

Tina’s daughter, Madison, or Madi as she was often called, died by suicide April 30, 2016, at twenty years old. It hasn’t been easy, but Tina has found a tool to cope with her loss—and it has come in the form of social media.

Before she utilized this coping

mechanism, she was angry. She went out drinking more than usual. She drank to get drunk and to forget. She also started drinking and driving. She didn’t care who she hurt—even if it was herself. After Madi’s death, she wanted to die, too.

Tina closed herself off from the world.

She was sick of people she barely knew coming to her house to give condolences.

She hated seeing pictures of people’s happy lives on Facebook. Family and friends of Madi were posting photos and memories of her, but Tina avoided looking at them. It hurt her too much to think about her daughter. She kept her social media accounts active—keeping Madi’s digital footprint alive—but didn’t alter it. Being on social media was too painful at first.

This is a valid way to grieve, says Deborah Mix, an associate professor of English at Ball State University who created a program in which she and students studied vernacular memorials—memorials that serve as functional rather than monumental.

She says Facebook doesn’t know any better—it runs on an algorithm—so it can ambush a mourning person with painful memories of a lost loved one in the form of birthday reminders or old photographs. It could set up an upsetting experience.

Tina’s other daughter, Megan, was living in California when she found out her younger sister had died. No one out there knew Madi, so they

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Creating Permanent Identities “Digital footprint” is the term used to describe the trail or traces people leave online. This includes posts, comments, video chats, app use, and email records. All of these can be seen or tracked by others. Digital footprints contribute to a growing portrait of who people are online and are more public than people assume.

Today’s youngest generation is the first to grow up with their lives on the Internet. People develop an additional identity online, and this could be very important for this new generation, says Fabio Rojas, a sociology professor at Indiana University. An online identity is different than the identity a person exudes in reality. This extra identity is already being created for many children whose parents are present on social media. Their identities are in the hands of other people.

On June 3, 2015, Kristina Powell, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, posted a photo of a sonogram, baby shoes, and a calendar with a check mark on the date December 9 to Facebook. This was the start of Kristina’s daughter’s digital footprint.

Kristina and her fiancé, Brandon Pavey, have posted pictures of their daughter, Alena, on Facebook and Instagram since before she was born. Alena is a little more than a year old now, and her parents’ friends have seen virtually every stage of her life online.

Alena will not have a voice in what is posted about her for years.

During this time, her parents will have created an extensive Internet history for her. An active parent on social media will post around 1,000 photos of their child before they turn five, according to a survey by The Parent Zone, an organization that curates information to help families and schools. Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, predicts that young people will one day be entitled to automatically change their names upon reaching adulthood to escape or disown the digital footprints of their youth.

weren’t really affected. They were able to continue their lives normally while Megan was hurting.

Unlike her mom, Megan turned to social media. This was the only place she didn’t feel alone. It was the only place she was able to connect with people who could relate to the pain she was going through. Social media helped comfort Megan until she was able to come back to Indiana to be with Tina.

While some people may not be ready to see photos and posts on social media, it can be helpful for others, says Christine Sefein, the clinical director of adult programs at Our House Grief Support Center in Los Angeles. Social media outlets put grief on a public scale. Those who turn away from social media after loss are not yet ready for that.

Tina didn’t want her grief publicized in any fashion. She didn’t want to open up to anybody at first, not even in person.

A few months after Madi’s death, people who were close to her began coming to Tina with signs they felt they received from Madi. Tina wasn’t a devoutly religious woman, but she couldn’t help but be jealous of these signs she thought had the potential to be Madi. There was the butterfly that kept lingering around Megan. A pastor from Madi’s church saw her in a dream, glowing with a red-orange aura. Madi’s first love even said that she came to him and spoke directly to him while he was in the shower one day.

Tina hadn’t received any of these signs, and she became upset. Why isn’t Madi talking to me? I’m the one who loved her the most. If there was a God, she wanted him to reveal signs from Madi.

When Tina first heard that Madi’s first love had heard from her, it was through a text. She was out with friends and had drunk enough margaritas that she knew she wasn’t in the right state of mind to have a conversation with him. But the boy was desperate for a response, so he came to the restaurant where Tina was. He told her about the interaction he had with what he felt was Madi’s spirit and how she wanted him to lead Tina to God. He would not leave until Tina acknowledged what he believed was Madi’s request. And finally, through a hazy tequila fog, Tina started listening.

She’d never been big on religion; she couldn’t quite get behind something that left her with so many questions.

But Madi had always tried to get her into it. They made an agreement that they would start going to a Saturday night service together shortly before Madi died. Now, Tina was desperate to have that connection back.

Tina began sifting through Madi’s study Bibles. She opened Madi’s nightly devotional and followed the pages to a bookmark placed in between April 29 and April 30—the day she died. She decided she had to be accepting of this kind of stuff if she wanted to receive signs from Madi. So she opened herself up to God, and she prayed. And to her surprise, her anger and bitterness at her daughter’s death began to melt away. When it was gone, she began posting about Madi on Facebook—finding solace in social media in the same way Megan did. Mostly, Tina shared Bible verses and testimonies that made her think of Madi and healing.

used with permission from megan clark

FINDING A CONNECTION THROUGH DEATH Processing her feelings through Bible verses did not heal her completely, so Tina went to a support group for people grieving loved ones lost to suicide. But it didn’t help her.

Tina walked into her first session and immediately felt weird.

She brought her best friend with her for support, but she still didn’t feel right. There were about twenty other people there and they were all sitting at different round tables.

Everyone introduced themselves, and then moved on to sharing their stories.

“My daughter drank bleach for the third time,” offered one woman. “And that third time, she was successful.” Tina ached.

Madi wasn’t like that. Another woman spoke up. Her husband had tried to hang himself multiple times, and like the girl who drank bleach, was finally successful.

Tina felt sick to her stomach. The people in those stories were troubled and wore it on their faces. Her Madi loved life and loved to smile. Her suicide was impulsive; she wasn’t like the people in these stories. Like most suicide deaths, Madi left a note. In it she detailed to her loved ones that she was not happy and needed to be with God. To Madi, the world was cruel, and she wanted to leave.

When Tina left the support group that day, she knew she would not return. No one truly knew her pain—what it felt to have her daughter ripped from her grasp so unexpectedly.

Sitting in groups with others who didn’t have a story like

photo provided: tina clark

Tina created a memorial to Madi in her backyard. Tina changes out the decorations to match seasons and holidays.

In this photo, the memorial is set up for Valentine’s Day.

Madi’s just felt pointless.

Instead, she talked about Madi through social media with others who felt her pain. Tina realized she was able to connect with people who have gone through the same situation she has in online grief communities. She has found more comfort from people on Facebook than she has through in-person support groups. Because she knew they understood what it was like.

They had stories similar to Tina’s, and they shared her pain.

Tina found out about a suicide march in Auburn, Indiana, in December of 2016 through Facebook, and she decided to go and walk for Madi. She shared the event on Facebook and said all were welcome. She made and sold shirts—black with pink angel wings because pink was Madi’s favorite color. Madi’s team of marchers wore the custom shirts or other pink clothing items to signify they were together.

This wasn’t the first suicide walk Tina participated in, but there was something different this time. When Tina arrived at the march, she noticed an overwhelming amount of red T-shirts.

This group of friends and family members had the same idea she did, to wear matching clothes for their lost loved one. She needed to know their story—she needed to find the grieving mother, who she knew would be wearing white beads.

White beads signify the mother of a child lost to suicide; each mom received them before the walk started. Tina had the same beads around her own neck. Finally, she found the beads and approached the mother. They shared experiences and found out their children had similar stories. The two women exchanged phone numbers and agreed to stay in touch.

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The Stages of Grief

The five stages of grief have evolved since their introduction as the Kübler-Ross model in 1969. The stages were not meant to be packages to compartmentalize emotions, but rather act as part of a framework for dealing with loss. Not everyone experiences every stage or goes through them in a specific order—they are fluid. source: grief.com

Depression

Acceptance

The person begins to focus more on the present and grief enters on a deeper level. The person withdraws from aspects of life and feels hopeless.

Denial The person believes what happened didn’t happen—that something is a mistake. Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief.

This stage is about accepting the reality that a loved one is physically gone and recognizing that this new reality is the permanent reality.

The person becomes frustrated, taking anger out on those around them. They begin looking for someone to blame.

When Tina got home, she added the other woman as a friend on Facebook. She shared her son’s story and posted about the comparisons to Madi’s story. Once again, social media were helping her to cope with her loss by finding others who shared her pain.

Mix, the professor who studied memorials, says online platforms allow collective interactions. People have a space to see how others are handling a loss and start conversations based on their perceptions. She says humans sometimes avoid talking about grief face-to-face because we are nervous we might say the wrong thing and upset others.

Another way social media aid grieving is with the ease of communicating between long distances. These platforms make it possible to connect with people we wouldn’t normally be able to—people who live far away, or who we don’t even personally know.

The world saw this play out on December 27, 2016, when suddenly Twitter became a global memorial service for Carrie Fisher, the comedic actress best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars saga.

Fans dug up quotes from past interviews and shared Fisher’s humorous obituary request—to report that she drowned in moonlight strangled by her own bra, when in reality she died from complications of a heart attack she suffered four days before her death.

The world found healing through a community created online, the same way Tina found more healing through sharing her grief with others on the Internet than she did in person. Sefein, the director of adult programs at the grief center, says social media outlets add a community-building aspect to grieving.

The ability to share and connect about a common topic with people from all over the world provides a different type of

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Bargaining

Anger

The person hopes they can avoid or change the cause of grief. Often, he or she makes the promise of a reformed lifestyle if only to prevent their grief.

comfort. People are able to seek out others grieving the same person or specific situation they are. This goes back to what Sefein said about grief being on a public scale now.

The Internet has made grieving a social activity.

Tina heard about a woman who was on The Bachelor who had died in the hospital two days after a suicide attempt back in 2013. It was another story similar to Madi’s, and she wanted to talk to the woman’s mother. She needed to tell her about Madi.

Tina tried Googling the mom to find any sort of contact information, but she wasn’t having any luck. She gave up for a while. Then she tried again. This time she was able to find the mother on Facebook. She sent her a private message and the woman called her immediately. She wanted to talk about her daughter, too.

The two mothers text every day and are just there for each other if one ever needs support. They comfort each other in hard times and rejoice in cheerful ones.

They haven’t talked about meeting up in person. Tina lives in Indiana and the other woman lives in New York. Tina doesn’t like traveling. She likes to stay with her dogs in her home, where she can feel Madi’s presence.

KEEPING MEMORIES ALIVE On November 4, 2016, Tina noticed she had been tagged in a comment on Facebook. She opened the app to check the notification. When she clicked on it, she was brought to a photo of the tree that she had used donation money to plant in memory of Madi, at Riverside Gardens Park in Leo, Indiana.

A local photographer was taking photos in the park when she came across Madi’s picture next to the tree. She took a photo of it and posted it on Facebook with the caption, “At the park, I came across this newly-planted tree in memoriam of a

edit a post. She added text to the post saying, “This reminds us of Madison and other girls who fit this scenario.”

Mix says that while posts like this could be scary or upsetting to Madi’s Facebook friends, they could also be comforting. It really depends on how active a person was on social media while they were alive that determines their digital presence after they die.

If someone was a regular poster online, the sudden absence of frequent posts is jarring and noticeable to his or her friends.

Mix says these people are more likely to receive a wave of posts to their pages when they die than those who are inactive on social media during their lives.

When Madi died, several friends wrote messages to her through Facebook. Most were saying she died too soon or sending prayers to Madi’s family. Many of the messages were more directed toward Tina to help her stay strong during the worst time in her life.

used with permission from laura lengacher

MOVING ON Sitting at her dining room table in late January 2017, Tina thinks back on her journey through life without Madi. It’s been almost nine months since Madi died, but it doesn’t feel like she’s gone. Just a few feet away in the living room, there are photos, cards, and plaques surrounding Madi’s pink floral urn that sits on Tina’s mantel. Just outside the window, Tina can see the memorial she set up for Madi in her backyard. She changes out the flowers depending on the season. Right now, she looks at a sea of pink for Valentine’s Day. On warm days, she likes to sit out there and feel the silence surrounding her. Every so often, the wind will blow the chimes next to Madi’s picture. Tina feels at peace. She knows Madi is in a better place now than she was while on earth.

“I wouldn’t want her back,” Tina says. “Not in a million years.”

If Tina sees Madi again, she wants to go to her. She doesn’t want Madi to come back to the world that caused her so much pain.

Until Tina is reunited with her daughter, she will continue to keep her legacy alive by posting about her on Facebook and healing through social media in her own way.

Tina and Madi on vacation in Cancún, Mexico in 2014

photo provided: tina clark

young woman who died too soon. I didn’t notice while I was taking this picture, but it looks like there is a rainbow leading to the tree with an orange-red orb next to it. I read that an orb this color means confident, healing energy. Awesome!”

One of Tina’s friends had seen the photo and tagged her in it.

Tina got goosebumps when she saw it. She knew it was truly a sign from Madi—a sign she had been searching for. There were a couple of incidents that Tina perceived as minor signs, but this one was bigger. The orb matched Madi’s red-orange aura from the pastor’s dream.

Like this unexpected blessing, Tina has found that social media allow her to keep Madi’s memory alive—whether it is she who posts about her daughter or a stranger.

Facebook takes this social grief to another level with the option to memorialize an account if the user has died.

Introduced in 2009, memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.

The word “remembering” appears next to these memorialized pages. They don’t show as active accounts. A memorialized profile does not show up in suggested friends or in birthday reminders.

This might be the best option for some, but it really depends on the individual’s family, Sefein says. The world of grief has turned away from the five stages model—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—and has adopted a more fluid method. One important aspect of this model is maintaining a connection with the person who died.

“We don’t forget them,” Sefein says. “We find ways to keep them in our hearts.”

Memorialized accounts can act as this connection. They honor that the person has died and act as a tangible sense of reality of the death. Memorialized accounts offer users a new way to preserve the memory of a loved one who has died. But Tina isn’t quite sure that is the best option for her situation.

Instead, Tina has the email address and password to Madi’s Facebook profile, and has access to post on the page. She used the forgotten password feature on Facebook to send a password reset email to Madi’s already-logged-in email account. From there, she changed the password so she could have access to her daughter’s Facebook page.

Sefein says the decision to keep an account active is ultimately up to the family or loved ones of the person who died. They have to focus on what’s going to be most helpful to them, not to everybody else.

Tina has been debating if it would be okay to post from Madi’s account on the anniversary of her death. She’s on the hunt for the perfect song or poem that says, “I’m in Heaven, I’m doing well, and it’s okay to move on,” from Madi. If Tina can find one, she will post it.

She doesn’t want to creep people out by posting as her daughter, but she wants all of Madi’s friends to know that she is in a better place. She wants to reach the right audience with her message. That audience is Madi’s friends and family, who once connected with her on Facebook in life, and again in death.

Tina was logged into Madi’s account to change some of her settings to private. She then forgot which account she was on when she saw an article that her daughter, Megan, shared. It was titled, “This Is Why The Strongest Girls Feel Insecure All The Time.” She read it and immediately knew she wanted to share it because she thought it described Madi perfectly. Tina didn’t realize she had accidentally shared the article from Madi’s account until one of her friends texted her saying Madi’s account had been hacked.

Tina panicked and began asking friends for help on how to

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photo: rachel ellis

PR DUCING Though artificial intelligence cannot yet match the human mind in many ways, further advancement could force us to decide what separates mankind from machines. story: katie grieze

illustrations: jennifer firoved

During Final Jeopardy in the episode that aired on February 16, 2011, a computer screen sat between longrunning stars Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. On it, swirling green and blue lines represented the thought patterns of IBM’s Watson—a questionanswering computer system.

Watson’s hardware filled a neighboring room as he worked to process natural language and sift through 200 million pages of data to find the winning answer.

The category was 19th Century novelists.

Alex Trebek, the show’s host, read the clue: “William Wilkinson’s ‘An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia’ inspired this author’s most famous novel.”

Watson had thirty seconds to find the correct response.

“Who is Bram Stoker?” he answered in typical Jeopardy! style, and a group of IBM scientists jumped to their feet in applause.

Scientific developments, from the Copernican Revolution to Darwin, have challenged the perceptions humans hold of themselves and their place in the universe.

That narrative of advancement

is best understood through the evolving relationship between humans and technology, says Jen Rowland, a Ball State University philosophy instructor. Relatively new technologies, like automobiles or the Internet, are now often considered necessities to a modern lifestyle.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is still more of a luxury than a necessity. Advanced versions are seen mostly in scientific-based applications, like medical diagnosis. It hasn’t dramatically affected the common person yet, but it could evolve into something far more influential.

If programmers create a machine with a human-like mind, says Jeffrey Fry, a Ball State University philosophy professor, it might lead to a diminished sense of human superiority and uniqueness.

Technology, he says, puts humanity in its place.

Complex technological advancements force humans to answer questions about themselves that they might not have asked before, Rowland says.

The central question that arises in the debated possibility of artificial general

intelligence (AGI), systems that might resemble humans in their ability to respond to various unpredictable environments, is what makes humans people. Scientists debate how closely a mechanical being must meet these criteria to be considered a person as well.

Understanding Current Artificial Intelligence Scientists don’t agree on the definition of artificial intelligence, according to a 2016 report published by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

Some choose loose criteria, including any “computerized system that exhibits behavior that is commonly thought of as requiring intelligence.” Others believe AI must be able to rationally solve complex problems or figure out the appropriate actions to achieve goals in any situation.

But either way, according to a report by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), most professionals do agree that current artificial intelligence “falls short of human capabilities in some critical sense.”

To create a machine that resembles

30

complex human functioning closely enough to be considered a person, humans must decide what elements define personhood, and then whether it is possible to create electronic versions of those elements.

Rowland says some people believe this kind of artificial general intelligence is impossible because whatever is at the heart of human intelligence cannot be programmed into a machine. Others, including Rowland, believe artificial general intelligence will eventually happen because there is no such thing as a supernatural human element.

She believes human brains are no different from complicated computers, so scientists are bound to figure out how to simulate all the mind’s processes.

But according to MIRI, they aren’t close yet. Today’s AI don’t resemble those of science fiction. Their behavior is mostly predictable. They can’t exactly think, the report said, but they can learn from experience.

Before AI, there were expert systems, says Sushil Sharma, associate dean of Information Systems at Ball State University. These computer systems were programmed with fixed reactions to every scenario the creators could think of. If some part of a situation wasn’t programmed, the system could not make the necessary logical connections to react at all.

Now, computerized systems with “self-adaptive” capability can use experience and patterns to make their own decisions when presented with scenarios not written into their programming.

Self-driving cars use this kind of process to avoid collisions in unpredictable traffic environments.

Nevertheless, says Sharma, this ability still depends on

31 • ballbearingsmag.com

human programmers. Scientists have not created mechanical people. They still haven’t come close to understanding the full power of the human brain, Sharma says, so creating artificial intelligence that meets or surpasses the brain’s complexity might not be possible.

Decades of research attempting to create artificial general intelligence has not been very successful, according to the OSTP report, and most experts agree that it will take several decades more.

Creating Something Ethical While Sharma supports the continued development of artificial intelligence, he wouldn’t want to see it in all areas of life. He says it should be reserved for objective procedures, like surgery or space exploration, and avoided for tasks that demand the human emotion and empathy he doesn’t believe can ever be programmed into computers.

The intention shouldn’t be to create a human-like machine that can perform the assorted tasks of a human’s daily routine, says Sharma.

A person is more than a data processor. Humans have morals, emotions, and personalities. They make decisions based on more than numbers and patterns, says Sharma—sometimes it’s just a gut feeling. The challenge is creating an ethical computerized person.

Sharma and Rowland agree that ethical behavior can’t be programmed into artificial intelligences. Wisdom comes from observation of one’s own actions and the actions of others, says Sharma. It comes from experience. Decision-making is based on upbringing, value systems, and the human emotions

IT MAKES NO MORAL DIFFERENCE WHETHER A BEING IS MADE OF SILICON OR CARBON, OR WHETHER ITS BRAIN USES SEMICONDUCTORS OR NEUROTRANSMITTERS.

MACHINE INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

of sympathy and empathy, so Sharma doesn’t think artificial general intelligence can be possible.

But Rowland doesn’t believe in a human element. She believes AI can develop their own morals through learning, experience, and mistakes, just like humans.

Creating trustworthy artificial general intelligence will require software that “thinks like a human engineer concerned about ethics, not just a simple product of ethical engineering,” according to MIRI.

Attributing Moral Status Experts generally agree that current AI systems have no moral status, according to MIRI. This means humans can treat them like things, not people—altering or deleting, or otherwise manipulating and using computer systems, as they please. The current ethical limits concerning AI are all based on the well-beings of other humans, not the wellbeings of the systems.

The attributes of moral status remain unclear, but the MIRI report explains two often-accepted requirements. Sentience is the capacity to feel and experience the world subjectively. For example, sentient beings can feel pain and suffer. Sapience, or personhood, is associated with intelligent abilities like being self-aware and responding to reason.

According to the MIRI report, any AI system with either of these characteristics can’t be treated like an inanimate object, but the level of moral status would vary. A sentient but not sapient AI might be treated like a living, non-human animal. But if it also had sapience like that of a human, according to the report, it would have the full moral status of a person.

Rowland agrees with this perspective. She believes that if AGI is ever developed that can think in the same way humans do, it might be immoral to program it, just as it would be immoral to brainwash a human.

Author Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics was that “a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” Rowland doesn’t believe this “law” could apply to artificial general intelligence.

She says turning off an intelligence with moral status, even if it was endangering humans, would be murder. And MIRI agrees that AGI would be protected under human laws.

“It makes no moral difference whether a being is made of silicon or carbon, or whether its brain uses semi-conductors or neurotransmitters,” the report said.

According to this perspective, artificial general intelligence that would meet moral status requirements cannot be created with human benefit in mind. It can’t be used by humans for any purpose. It needs to be free.

The extent to which human biology is necessary for a mind to function like a human’s remains an unanswered question. It might not be a mystical, supernatural element that prevents AGI’s existence, Fry says, but simply some irreproducible physical aspect of human neurobiology.

Fry also suggested that the current definition of intelligence might be subjective. Maybe machines would have their own kind of intelligence. Their moral status cannot be determined by whether their particular kind of personhood resembles a human’s.

To create an artificial conscious being, says Rowland, humans must first solve the mystery of how their own intelligence works.

32

BURSTING THE

33 • ballbearingsmag.com

Those who surround themselves with like-minded people, both in person and online, sometimes believe the ideas expressed in their circles reflect the opinions of the world.

story: samantha stevenson photos and graphics: emily wright

“Let’s Get Wasted When She Wins,” Hannah Schneider typed as the title for her Facebook event on November 8, 2016.

Hannah and her friends would gather in Brother’s to drink their Long Island pitchers and celebrate Hillary Clinton becoming the 45th President of the United States. Because that’s what everyone Hannah knew predicted. But it didn’t happen.

Hannah invited thirty people to her event and meticulously ensured they were Hillary supporters, or at least not in favor of Donald Trump. She chose a local Muncie bar and restaurant called Brother’s as their meeting spot. She created a meme of Clinton on Facebook, placing the words “Frick Yeah Baby!!!” over photos of the candidate. At this point, she was almost making a joke of it, she says. There was no way Clinton would lose.

The group laughed and clinked their glasses together as they watched the electoral votes trickle in on election night. There seemed to be a split among the people in the bar. As her side cheered, the other side would sit in silence, and vice versa.

The Facebook event page became a place for the people Hannah invited to spread positivity regarding the election.

Throughout the night, they would post about Clinton “having it in the bag.”

But as the Electoral College votes came in, Trump took Ohio. Then he took Florida. Suddenly everything Hannah and her guests knew didn’t seem to add up. There were cheers for Trump all

around them. The drinks were gone, and the atmosphere had shifted.

Some in Hannah’s group began to leave the bar, not wanting to be surrounded by those rejoicing as Trump pulled ahead. The Facebook group’s tone also changed as members began messaging frantically, “Guys, I’m really scared… Is anyone still up?”

To Hannah’s dismay, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States.

Hannah had been living in an echo chamber. An echo chamber, or a filter bubble, is a space in which one’s biases and behaviors are reinforced by limited access to opposing viewpoints.

If someone who identified as liberal only read liberal editorials, for example, the ideas in those articles would only confirm what the reader already believes. Kristen McCauliff, an associate communication studies professor at Ball State University, says people in echo chambers surround themselves with information that tends to confirm their attitudes and opinions.

While comfortable and convenient, echo chambers can be problematic.

They can confirm biases, attitudes, behaviors, and “facts” that aren’t necessarily true.

“Humans tend to feel more comfortable in these circles of likeminded people because humans avoid cognitive dissonance,” McCauliff says.

Leon Festinger first proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance in his 1957 book, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Festinger compares cognitive dissonance, a feeling

HUMANS TEND TO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE IN THESE CIRCLES OF LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE BECAUSE HUMANS AVOID COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.

KRISTEN MCCAULIFF

An associate communication studies professor

of inconsistency, to the feeling of hunger.

Humans sense the inconsistency and need to address it, just as they need to eat when they’re hungry.

McCauliff says that uncomfortable feeling could explain why a smoker might avoid reading about the negative effects of smoking. It also might lead someone who just purchased a car to search for reviews confirming that the car was a good purchase.

Hannah didn’t realize she was in an echo chamber. Those in an echo chamber usually don’t intentionally limit the information they see. For example, Facebook will suggest articles similar to ones a user has been frequenting.

Justin Reich, executive director of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT’s

34

r, 2016 e n te hc

of people get their news from social media

a rc

feed on her computer.

Social media can also help politicians reach the public. Rather than paying for advertising, social media users can campaign for their candidates online.

Clinton spent $79.1 million more on advertising than Trump did during the race, but social media helped Trump win for free. He could tweet, get media coverage about his tweet, and have his followers retweet him.

Social media algorithms and the bubbles they create can contribute to unhealthy perceptions of the world, McCauliff says. People in the comfort of familiarity don’t encounter attitudes or behaviors that challenge their own.

McCauliff was surprised by the election results, but she spoke with a progressive friend who wasn’t. That

es e

Office of Digital Learning, says some echo chambers are created for users by algorithms on media platforms. If people don’t intentionally seek stories other than the ones suggested to them, they might think everyone shares those opinions and ideas—not that they are only seeing what confirms their beliefs.

Rebecca VanMeter, a professor of marketing at Ball State University, says algorithms are great for businesses. By understanding a consumer’s location and habits, businesses can better market their products. But VanMeter doesn’t necessarily think that’s a good thing. She says it’s an invasion of privacy that often scares her. One morning, for example, a pair of boots she had searched for on her phone appeared in an ad next to her Facebook

e e: p sourc

w

BY THE NUMBERS

Within each political ideology, these percentages of people agree with the following statement: “It’s important to me to live in a place where most people share my political views.”

Consistently Conservative

50%

Mostly Conservative

29%

Mixed

22%

Mostly Liberal

Consistently Liberal

25%

35%

Within each political ideology, these percentages of people agree with the following statement: “Most of my close friends share my political views.”

Consistently Conservative

63%

Mostly Conservative

44%

Mixed

25%

Mostly Liberal

25%

Consistently Liberal

49% source: pew research center, 2014

35 • ballbearingsmag.com

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An echo chamber occurs when similar views are represented and reiterated in a circle of friends or online, as an individual’s social media feed confirms his or her ideas. People can burst this bubble by listening to ideas expressed in all communities and areas of the political spectrum.

friend had listened to conservative news radio during the campaign, so she understood that Trump had more supporters than many people thought.

Echo chambers can threaten democracy by creating different sets of “facts,” McCauliff says. For example, according to a 2016 Gallup poll, only 40 percent of Republicans worry about global warming compared to 84 percent of Democrats.

This is why Reich, from MIT’s Office of Digital Learning, believes echo chambers are a problem. If people on both sides of the political spectrum overlook facts and refuse to discuss social issues with civility, healthy debates will cease to exist. “Democracy relies on interaction between those with opposing viewpoints,” he says.

People need to balance stepping in and out of their echo chamber communities, McCauliff says. She makes an effort in

her own life to reach out to people with political beliefs that challenge her own.

She wants to understand why she didn’t foresee Trump’s victory.

Reich says there are two theories about information on the Internet. The first: The Internet is a place for engaging in conversation with those different from us. The second: The Internet can enable bubbles in which individuals only engage with people they choose.

As months have passed, Hannah says she can now understand why she found herself in an echo chamber. But she still doesn’t agree with the election of Donald Trump, and she finds comfort in those who share this opinion.

Escaping an echo chamber is difficult.

It requires a change of habits and a conscious effort to hear opposing views.

McCauliff says she might consider listening to conservative radio in the car ride home, just as her friend does.

Even as she teaches students about their echo chambers, this election forced her to reevaluate her own.

DEMOCRACY RELIES ON INTERACTION BETWEEN THOSE WITH OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS.

JUSTIN REICH

The executive director of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT’s Office of Digital Learning

36

//feature

Hannah Mahurin uses social media to share her cancer recovery with the world. This is becoming commonplace for all types of recovery.

story: taylor meyers

H

annah Mahurin, her sister, and her mom were lying on a bed in early March of 2016. Hannah was fatigued and zombie-like, with only enough energy to watch Disney movies.

Her mom got up and left the room to answer a phone call, then came back to sit next to Hannah a few minutes later. She took Hannah’s hands in her own.

It was only a week after the doctors removed Hannah’s bone marrow—a final test after forty-five days of pricking and prodding and uncertainty. The doctor had just called with Hannah’s results.

Hannah was only nineteen when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

The doctors had tested Hannah for mono four times, but each result was inconclusive or negative. Each time, the doctors mentioned it could be cancer.

The word alone made Hannah burst into tears.

But when the diagnosis was confirmed, she didn’t cry, even as her family did. All she felt was relief.

She finally knew what she was up against.

Hannah started chemotherapy three days later, and soon after she started blogging her journey.

Almost everyone owns a smartphone, laptop, or some other device to reach the Internet. Social media are a tap on a screen away; users can post in seconds.

Hannah’s blog, “Hannah vs. Hodgkin’s” had a view count of more than 3,000 in the month after she created it in March 2016. She called her first post “The Beginning.”

“For a month and a half I’d been dragged around photos provided: hannah mahurin

38

Excerpts from

Hannah vs. Hodgkin’s “Dr. Parshad explained that I would start chemo Wednesday (tomorrow). I’ll have a treatment every two weeks for six months.

I’ll lose my hair, my favorite physical trait. I don’t want anyone to shave their heads for me. I would hate for anyone else to pledge solidarity in that kind of way.” ­—The Beginning, 3/22/16 “I like my face, I think I’m pretty still, but my hair was beautiful. It was long and soft and blonde. I miss braiding it when I get bored, or putting it into a messy bun when I want to feel cute, or leaving it down when it’s cold.”

—Tortoise and the Hair, 4/14/16

“I don’t cry a lot anymore. I’ve come to the realization that cancer isn’t really worth my tears. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it sneaks up on me and I realize the gravity of the situation and how much my life has been affected. At the same time, I find myself grateful for this hell-on-earth.”

—The Benefit, 6/14/16

“I’m going to school this semester, just part-time, which is agonizing. Everyone has advised me to take it slow and ease back into things, and I should, so I am. There’s just that part of me that is ready to blaze trails and go learn things and be out and about... I did get an A in my summer class (BOOM!) so that made me feel awesome. Glad to know cancer hasn’t taken everything from me.”

—One and Done, 8/14/16 39 • ballbearingsmag.com

being poked and interrogated,” Hannah said in her first post. “At this point if I meet someone I’m liable to just say ‘Hannah Mahurin, 9/18/96.’ I’m now the product of the medical system.”

Hannah used a blog to document her recovery from a disease, but people are using the Internet to document recovery from just about anything. Some drug addicts hold themselves accountable in their journeys back to sobriety, and people recovering from eating disorders post photos of their changing bodies. Documenting progress back to health has become commonplace.

“People are natural storytellers, so in some ways blogging about one’s struggle or journey with a disease is a way of telling the world one’s story,” says Kevin Rand, an Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) psychology professor.

Rand believes blogging is a way to work through emotions and make experiences meaningful—especially the negative ones.

Most doctors encourage cancer patients to seek out

FOR A MONTH AND A HALF I’D BEEN DRAGGED AROUND BEING POKED AND INTERROGATED. AT THIS POINT, IF I MEET SOMEONE I’M LIABLE TO JUST SAY, ‘HANNAH MAHURIN, 9/18/96.’

HANNAH MAHURIN some form of therapy after their diagnosis, according to Good Therapy, a website that educates the public about mental health issues and therapy. Counseling can help patients deal with the depression, anxiety, and anger that might come with diagnosis.

But Rand says people are resilient, even when facing a disease. Most don’t need therapy if they have a healthy outlet like blogging.

Therapy does help Hannah deal with anxiety and depression, but blogging provides an unconventional escape from her emotions.

Nicole Hendricks, a professor who teaches classes about social media at Ball State University, believes it’s more rewarding to write out feelings than to talk to someone.

Hannah was a college freshman studying English education at IUPUI when she was diagnosed. She missed two weeks of school for countless doctor appointments and the fatigue that went with them. She knew it would be impossible to make up all of that course work, so she decided to drop out.

Hannah’s Wordpress statistics show that her blog has reached countries all over the world. In writing about her feelings, Hannah also educated readers about her

//feature

graphic: bailey shelton

Above: Hannah’s blog, “Hannah vs. Hodgkin’s,” has reached readers across the world over the past year. Although most readers come from English-speaking countries, a handful of readers also come from places like Japan and Peru.

disease. But she mainly wrote the blog to stay in the habit of writing when she had to drop out of school.

Hannah’s main concern with going through chemo was losing her hair—her favorite physical trait about herself.

She didn’t want to be like Jamie from A Walk to Remember, waking up with clumps of hair on her pillow. (Although, she says in her blog, that is extremely unrealistic.)

“I think I want to shave my hair,” Hannah said to her sisters after one week of chemotherapy.

Her sisters assured her they would stick by her no matter what she decided. After another hour of contemplation, Hannah and her sisters went to the kitchen to shave off Hannah’s hair.

In her post “The Tortoise and the Hair,” Hannah writes, “It’s way sadder to run your fingers through your hair and end up with a handful than it is to look at myself in the mirror.”

She posted a photo of her newly-shaved head for readers to see.

Along with documenting her progress and tribulations, Hannah used her blog to express gratitude to those supporting her during this difficult time.

In June, her sister, Holly, planned a fundraising event to help

pay doctor bills. Hannah wrote three blogs that month, using one to thank everyone who attended the benefit.

“I had to talk to a lot of people, some I had never even met before,” Hannah wrote on June 14. “I felt a lot of responsibility to be a great host. After sharing that feeling, I was assured that all I had to do was have fun. I absolutely did, too.”

Her family sold T-shirts printed with Hannah’s face and the slogan “Hannah Vs Hodgkin’s.” Everything was purple—her favorite color. Hannah marked her journey on Facebook through an album of 273 photographs.

Hannah finished chemo in August 2016 and is currently in remission.

“Since chemo ended, I’ve been hyper-aware of everything that my body is going through,” Hannah wrote in a December 2016 post. “Being neutropenic for nine months just so happens to lend itself to hypochondria, which only heightens my alreadyheightened anxiety and feeds my depression.”

Hannah says remission is better than cancer, but she isn’t quite cancer-free yet. She will continue writing and updating her blog through what’s left of her journey.

40

//reported

WHERE WE DRAW THE LINE Social media outlets boost self-esteem, causing us to become attached to them. But they can also distort reality and cause addiction. story: lauren donahue

The night she decided to delete social media from her phone, Gina Massa, a sophomore at Ball State University, was sitting in her dorm room completely alone. She thought that college was the time in a person’s life when they get to discover themselves and become content with who they are, but as she scrolled through her social media timelines, she felt nothing but dissatisfaction.

Gina started comparing herself to the other women she saw, and felt disdain toward the “false sense of reality” that seemed obvious in many of her friends’ profiles. Fake, fake, and more fake.

As more social media platforms are created, people are empowered to create digital identities, that may or may not represent their true selves, and to maintain a 24/7 connection with friends and family.

Today the average person engages in social media 23.6 hours a week— more than any other entertainment platform—according to Rebecca

41 • ballbearingsmag.com

illustrations: amanda bailey

VanMeter, an assistant professor of marketing at Ball State University.

VanMeter thinks that this has created opportunities, but also presents psychological concerns. It’s possible to become attached to social media, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, she says.

However, she also found that addiction is a risk. People may become so dependent upon their digital identities that they have difficulties achieving human connections that aren’t online.

According to VanMeter, determining the difference between these two types of behaviors is crucial to understanding a healthy use of social media.

Social media attachment can be beneficial to Internet users, specifically in regard to self-image. According to a study conducted in 2012 by Common Sense Media, one in five teens believes that social media had a positive impact on the way they view themselves, as opposed to the 4 percent of teens who said otherwise. This same study also

found that almost 30 percent of teens believe that social media has made them more outgoing and less shy.

According to VanMeter, people who identify with these positive reinforcements created by social media show signs of attachment. For these people, their digital identities have given them a source of selfappreciation that they might not receive from other mediums.

However, this can easily cross over into a more serious concern: Addiction.

According to research conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Internet addictions have become a world-wide social issue.

Currently, Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), used by mental health professionals for assistance in diagnosis. But Megan Lung, a counselor at Life Recovery Center in Indianapolis, believes this is only because there isn’t

an agreed upon treatment process among professionals.

Despite not being recognized by the DSM, IAD can have serious implications.

IAD makes it increasingly difficult to maintain relationships, according to Lung. She believes that when a person is constantly looking at their phone during conversations, it can put a relationship at risk, along with other areas of life, like school and work performance.

Social media are designed to be used readily at the touch of a button, but they can make distractions more common while trying to complete tasks because of their ease of use.

Whether or not someone is simply attached or addicted is a controversial subject and one that is difficult to measure, according to VanMeter.

Lung believes that while it is difficult to determine the difference between someone who is addicted and someone who is not addicted, there are still ways of determining an accurate diagnosis. The first step is determining whether or not someone is constantly and impulsively using social media.

The second step in determining the presence of an addiction is concluding whether or not impulsive social media usage continues despite negative consequences that occur. For example, if someone were to crash their car

because they were looking at social media while they were driving, and they still compulsively check social media while driving in the future, this person may have a social media addiction.

Gina was likely only attached, because when she started to notice negative side effects, like constantly feeling compelled to check her feeds, she made the decision to quit using them. At least, until she felt more in control of her use.

She wanted to get rid of the feeling that she wasn’t enjoying life as it happened because she was too busy documenting it on social media. Gina was able to recognize the problem on her own before it got out of control, which Lung says is crucial.

After deleting social media, Gina says she was able to take a step back and realize the outlets weren’t the problem—the problem was how she was using them. She was constantly thinking about them and how she could use them to influence how others saw her. Every picture she posted was an opportunity to show everyone how many friends she had and how much fun she was having.

But she realized she didn’t need social media to prove anything, she just needed to know those things herself.

When she felt more in control of her

usage, she downloaded some of her social media again, and now uses them as a way to preserve memories and interact with her friends, rather than to prove something to others.

But it’s not always easy to cure these kinds of addictions.

For patients with chemical addictions, such as alcohol and drug addictions, it is important to encourage the patient to stop using these items, according to Lung.

Social media, however, is defined as a behavioral addiction, where a person reaches a risky and high level of dopamine, the chemical that triggers happiness. Because social media are so prominent in today’s society, Lung believes it is not logical to ask someone who seems addicted to delete social media completely from their lives.

Instead, she believes each case should be addressed independently.

She talks with her patients on ways to spend their free time that don’t involve staring into a screen, and how to use social media in moderation— just as Gina did for herself. Now that she moderates her social media usage, she’s noticed that she can have more fulfilling conversations and be content with observing what happens in the world around her, rather than documenting it on a screen.

PEOPLE MAY BECOME SO DEPENDENT UPON THEIR DIGITAL IDENTITIES THAT THEY HAVE DIFFICULTIES ACHIEVING HUMAN CONNECTIONS THAT AREN’T ONLINE.

REBECCA VANMETER

42

Finding the tool for you in a world of constant technological innovation can be tough, but knowing yourself can help you pick the right one. story: renee human, assistant professor of journalism at ball state university and adviser to byte

photo: jordan manders

Technological Toolbox

//column

IT IS AN EXCITING, INCREASINGLY FAST-PACED TIME IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT: STATE-OF-THE-ART POSSIBILITIES SEEM TO BE OFFERING THE CONSUMER EVER-MORE INCREASING REALITIES. BUT IS IT WORTH IT TO TRY TO KEEP UP WITH THE DIGITAL JONESES?

RENEE HUMAN

I

bought my parents an Echo, Amazon’s amazing voice-activated home assistant, as a Christmas present last month. After one day, my dad had his Alexa interacting with him beyond what I have with mine—and I am currently developing for the Echo.

“Alexa, who is the fairest of them all?” “Alexa, tell us a joke.” “Alexa, we’re home.” “Alexa, order more paper towels.” “Alexa, play Three Dog Night.” She responds to his whims patiently and persistently.

Yet, my dad refuses to dump his ancient flip phone for a smartphone. I try to reason with him—GPS! Facebook!—and then I go for the emotional appeal: “We can text every day!” Still, my dad persists: “I don’t want to be always looking at my phone. I don’t want to be tethered to it,” he simply says.

According to Pew Research Center, as of January 2017, 95 percent of Americans now have mobile phones, 77 percent of which are smartphones. This is double the number from a 2011 survey. Other new tech offers the promise of similar growth, namely voice-activated home assistants like the Echo. These devices experienced exponential sales during the holiday season, with an estimated six million units sold in 2016. Headsets like the high-quality HTC Vive, released in April 2016 for just $800 have made virtual reality accessible and affordable for the masses.

It is an exciting, increasingly fast-paced time in technological innovation and development: State-ofthe-art possibilities seem to be offering consumers ever-more increasing realities. But is it worth it to try to keep up with the digital Joneses? At what point do we decide to invest money, time, and effort into a technology, and when do we let a technology pass us by? When should we?

Communication specialist Everett Rogers’ 1962 theory of diffusion of innovation tells us there is a bell curve for adoption with a smaller number of early adopters on one end of the curve (think Apple fans camped outside stores waiting for the next iteration of the iPhone) and

technological Luddites on the other (think landline only).

In the middle are most of us: I crave the new Google Pixel phone but my Samsung S6 Edge does the trick right now. I will wait for the second generation where the initial kinks are worked out and my mobile carrier offers it as a more affordable option.

But the concern my father raised about new tech having the power to hold us in sway may be the greatest issue at play when deciding to invest in a new device or service. How can we make technology work for us instead of vice versa? Many communication scholars would say that the answer lies in identifying our own personal perspective along a spectrum: On one end is the position of technological determinism, which states that technology becomes available and begins to change us and how we work and live. On the other end is the social construction of technology, which states that we develop technology to fulfill a need or desire.

At first glance, it appears that my father is a technological determinist while I fully support a social constructionist position. After some reflection, it’s not that simple at all. His new Echo is thoroughly fulfilling his needs, a smartphone would not. And I am constantly studying emerging tech with unparalleled devotion bordering on radicalism. In short, I may be more of a servant of tech while he is savvy enough to know what to choose and what to reject.

New technological innovations and our interactions with those tools are going to spur new ways and theories of embracing or rejecting said tech. At the heart of making technology work for us is a personal awareness, perhaps not built on spectrums or labels, but on comfort levels with our own needs, desires, and skills. It is knowing ourselves and then seeking out what devices can truly fulfill us. It is finding the right tool for the job in an ever-exponentially expanding technological toolbox, even if your tool choice isn’t the same as mine. Even if that tool is a flip phone.

44

//reported

ONE NATION

UNDER MEMES story: taylor hohn

illustrations: annelise hanshaw

Though memes have technically been around for decades, modern memes influence pop culture, the ways we interact with tough subjects, and our senses of humor.

Mike McGee sat next to his best friend, Matt, in Algebra II, just like any other day in 2013.

“Hey, make ‘the face,’” Matt said. “I want to tweet it.”

Mike had always been able to make his veins pop out on his forehead and neck. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was good for a laugh now and then. Mike made the face, and Matt snapped a picture, tweeting it with a popular hashtag. The tweet accumulated seventeen likes and one retweet, from Mike himself. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing unexpected.

A few months later, Mike woke up to hundreds of Twitter notifications. The same photo had been picked up by a parody account on Twitter, and his account flooded with likes, retweets, and new followers. The high school sophomore’s silly picture was soon on BuzzFeed, iFunny, and Reddit. Mike had become a meme overnight.

45 • ballbearingsmag.com

What is a Meme?

“Meme” was first used by ethologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. But what we picture today when we think of memes most likely doesn’t relate to ethology, the study of animal behavior. Dawkins’ meme is a viral behavior, passed down along generations. The “selfish gene” Dawkins discussed isn’t a gene at all; it’s an analogy for how the meme, or behavior, spreads, says Michele Coscia, post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Development.

When Coscia first read Dawkins’ book, the viral image of the “Socially Awkward Penguin” kept popping up in his head. The penguin fit into what he— along with most people today—would think of when picturing a meme.

Coscia was curious if Internet memes fit in with the memes Dawkins theorized in his book. After conducting his own

research, he decided that they do. Through his study, he discovered that there are two different categories of memes: Natural and artificial. The penguin and Mike’s meme are considered artificial, since they were created in hopes of going viral.

Natural memes are the opposite. No one makes a decision that a natural meme would become viral. It just happens. Coscia says that blue jeans are an example—there’s a general opinion of them, but no one ever consciously formed it.

In the case of Mike’s picture, the parody Twitter account that posted his photo caused it to go viral. His meme didn’t catch on just by chance.

Becoming a Meme

Daniel Lara thinks of himself as just a regular teenager. He loves playing on his Xbox, which is how he met his best friend, Josh Holz.

Daniel and Josh aren’t regular

//reported teenagers, though. Combined, they have more than one million followers on Twitter and Instagram, and model with LA Models. They also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and received a lifetime supply of Vans products.

On February 15, 2016, Josh posted the “Damn Daniel” video, and the two became Internet famous. About seven weeks after, the boys attended the MTV Movie Awards to cover the event on DeGeneres’ snapchat. They brought their yearbooks and got signatures from the celebrities they met, including Gigi Hadid, Andy Samberg, Cara Delevingne, and Seth Rogn.

Although Mike McGee didn’t meet celebrities or get a lifetime supply of shoes, he still got more attention than he did before the meme.

When he returned to school from winter break after the meme went viral, students would come up to him and ask him to do the face. He remembers getting headaches from doing it so often.

Now, more than three years after the meme initially went viral, Mike’s brief fame has definitely died down. When he shows people the picture, they’ve either never seen it or freak out.

What this Means Bernie or Hillary?

This question was on a lot of voters’ minds during the Democratic Primary in the spring of 2016. It was also the title of a popular political meme during the time.

In late January 2016, Jeff Wysaski—also known as redditor ObviousPlant—made parody political signs and hung them up around Los Angeles. Above photos of the two candidates the signs read, “Be informed. Compare them on the issues that matter.”

Instead of contrasting Hillary Clinton’s and Bernie Sanders’ actual policies, the signs theorized what their opinions would be on topics such as space vampires, Harry Potter, and Iggy Azalea. Jeff’s original signs, and the reproductions that followed, poked fun at how Sanders seemed to be more laid back and relatable to Millennials.

Jeff was inspired by real comparison sheets of the candidates he had seen during the primaries. The Bernie v. Hillary posters were his way of pointing out the two candidates’ stark differences in personality. He didn’t expect the posters to become as popular as they did. “People remixing and making their own signs was definitely a surprise,” Jeff says. “It really took on a life of its own.”

But memes do more than just mock politics. One of Jeff’s other posts just went viral in February. He went to an animal shelter and made signs for adoptable cats’ likes and dislikes. He’s always trying to make people laugh with his posts, but he was also hoping to increase the adoption rates.

The “Damn Daniel” video also did Vans some big favors.

White Vans “saw 100 percent sell-through” in the days following the video’s posting, according to VF Corp’s Chief Operating Officer Steven Rendle. And Daniel isn’t even an official spokesperson for them.

As a lesser known meme, Mike looks back and considers it an important milestone. It certainly changed his life at first, but doesn’t really affect him anymore. But even if memes don’t really change their creators, they change our culture drastically.

2016’s TOP 10 SEARCHED MEMES At the end of every year, Google takes a look at what searches were popular. These were the ten most popular meme topics of 2016.

1 2 3 4

Harambe Pokémon Go Damn Daniel Dat Boi

5

Spongebob Caveman

6

Michael Phelps at the Olympics

7 8 9 10

Donald Trump Netflix’s Making a Murderer Ken Bone Birdman

source: google’s year in search 2016

46

//reported

EVOLUTION OF HARAMBE May 28, 2016: June 1, 2016:

Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, was shot and killed by Cincinnati Zoo employees when a four-year-old zoo guest fell into the enclosure.

The Cincinnati Zoo posted a page “Honoring Harambe” on their website, asking people to donate to the Mbeli Bai Research Program on lowland gorilla behavior. In response to Harambe’s death, the zoo promised to “redouble” its effort for gorilla conservation.

June 5–July 2, 2016: July 4, 2016:

The search activity on Google for “Harambe” died down from May 28.

Comedian Brandon Wardell was the first person to tweet “D-cks out for Harambe.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, he says he was inspired by a tweet from @sexualjumanji that has since been deleted.

July 31, 2016: August 22, 2016:

The amount of Google searches for “Harambe” hit an all-time high. Related queries included “D-cks out for Harambe” and “Bush did Harambe.”

Thane Maynard, the director of Cinncinati Zoo, told the Associated Press that employees and visitors of the zoo were not happy with the memes making fun of Harambe’s death. “Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us,” Maynard said.

August 24, 2016: August 26, 2016: September 13, 2016:

Comedian Leslie Jones’ website was hacked and a photo of Harambe was inserted on the page.

Rapper Young Thug released a song called “Harambe” on his album “JEFFERY.” The titles of the songs are references to some of his influences.

The name “Harambe McHarambeface” won a poll by 93 percent to name a baby gorilla at Jinhua Zoo in China.

Zoo officials accepted the name, but also gave the gorilla the Chinese name “Heijin,” since “Harambe McHarambeface” was impossible to translate.

November 8, 2016:

Fake news reports circulated hours after polls closed that Harambe received more than fifteen thousand votes in the U.S. presidential election. According to Snopes, there wasn’t even a running tally for write-in candidates, and a vote for Harambe would have been considered an “unofficial vote.”

February 7, 2017: 47 • ballbearingsmag.com

A Cheeto that looked like Harambe sold on Ebay after 132 bids for almost $100 thousand.

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