Blog Post #5

 EOTO Timeline Project

Kyocera Visual Phone (VP210)

The Kyocera Visual Phone (VP210) was the first camera phone invented in 1999. The product was manufactured between the years of 1997 to 1999, but it was first released in 1999. The camera phone was invented in Japan by the corporation, Kyocera. This was the first phone sold commercially with a built-in camera. Although there may be some confusion on the internet about who really created the first camera phone, I have found that Kyocera was technically not the first camera phone. Although it was the first camera phone sold ever, the idea of having a built-in camera phone was not their idea. This idea came from Philippe Kahn.

Philippe Kahn's Background

 Philippe Kahn created the first camera smartphone in 1997. A little background information on him --- Philippe Kahn was a French engineer and software entrepreneur. Although Kahn was famous for the invention of the first camera phone, he was also the CEO of four different technology companies.   

Kahn Invention of The First Camera Phone

 He created this in order share pictures instantly with friends online, along with the public network. During this time, Kahn's wife, Sonia Lee, was expecting a baby. Kahn wanted to create something that can allow him to share his baby's birth with his friends and family, but what was really important was that he wanted to share it with them instantly. Creating the first camera phone, allowed him to do just that as he shared a picture of his newborn baby with them. And to show how impactful it was, his picture of his baby was shared with 2,000 people. According to Kobra Tech, Kahn created this by "connecting a digital camera with his flip phone using a wire he ripped out of his car telephone." 

Sharp's 'Nokia' Camera Phones

 After Kahn's invention of the first camera phone, other companies were inspired and tried to create their own camera phones. The 'Nokia' Smartphone was another camera phone that came out in 2002, owned by the Sharp Corporation. The corporation was founded by Tokuji Hayakawa. The Nokia camera phone was made in Japan and only sold in Japan in 2002, and surprisingly, it wasn't as popular as you'd think it'd be. According to Android Authority, in 2003, when the phone was sold in the U.S., it became a hit and 80 million of this smartphone was sold all over the world. Fast forward to 2007, when the first Apple iPhone came out, the Nokia camera phone wasn't as popular, but this is extremely important as this and all the other first camera phones influenced other companies and people to create their own. This leads to my last topic --- how has camera phones impacted society?

Impact of Camera Phones

 We can clearly see that the inventions of camera phones has really impacted our world, especially today, as everyone (mostly everyone) owns a phone. We can see the changes between our phones now compared to the ones invented in the past. We can see how technology has advanced and progressed into something so amazing. And by amazing, I mean, how much technology, especially iPhones have changed our world. Along with that, camera phones have also led our world to the influence and awareness of social media today. Social media impacts our world tremendously now and that involves camera/digital photography because most social media platforms allow you to share digital photography or videography. The impact of camera phones also have changed the way we communicate with others. 

Change in Communication with Camera Phones

    The invention of camera phones also impacted the communications we have as camera phones or any phones in general, allows us to communicate with one another through call, FaceTime, other social media platforms --- such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc. Even during the COVID-19 Pandemic, phones, although mainly laptops, allowed us to communicate with professors, classmates, advisors through Zoom, Google Meets, and other similar apps. Most of the time when we communicate with others, we usually do that through text messages on our phones, call, FaceTime, or social media apps. Bringing up social media again, we can also communicate through platforms by commenting, posting, and sharing. This just demonstrates another form of communication. According to Kobra Tech, "Today, on average, people upload 350 million photos on Facebook everyday worldwide." This just goes to show how camera phones have very much changed the way we communicate with others. 

Negative Impacts of Camera Phones on the World

 Although iPhones, and other technologies have changed our world today in a positive way, there are a lot of downsides to this. Technologies, especially iPhones, has had a huge influence on our world. The majority of the world either owns an iPhone or Android, and although it can be very useful, it is really bad for the younger generation. Kids are starting to get phones at the age of 8 or 9, which is really important to recognize as there weren't even phones until the late 90s. Being on phones has enabled people to be glued to their technologies and this impacted their lives both mentally and socially. The invention of technology has also led to the world of social media, which can bring both positivity and negativity. The idea of mental health also stems a lot from the world of social media as people posts digital photography and videography every single day. Social media allows people to comment, like, and share on each other's platform and some of these comments can be good, others can be bad, which is why this is one of the main reasons why camera phones can have a negative impact on the world.

Blog Post #3

 Eight Values of Free Expression

    Out of the eight values of free expression, the one that resonates with me the most is Protect Dissent because it states, "Our system is not supposed to be one of a mob rule. The First Amendment projects minority views, no matter how unpopular. You have a strongly protected right to disagree with the government --- and everyone else. In fact, it is your patriotic duty to criticize the government." I feel that this personally resonates with me as I believe that we are all created as humans to have differences, including beliefs, values, looks, opinions, etc. We have the rights to speak our own thoughts and opinions and we are allowed to have different ideas and opinions as others. As an individual, I always try and project how everyone has different perspectives on things, and that we as humans should try and hear others out. I believe that having differences within a society is important as it allows us to expand our knowledges and understandings on other things. This allows us to keep an open mind and I think having that is very important as it allows us to grow not only as individuals, but also it helps us grow our knowledge on the world and accept that we are all different. 

    The one that feels the most important to me is Promote Tolerance as it teaches us to become more acceptive of different things around the world. Lee Bollinger states that, "the First Amendment protects hate speech because society learns valuable lessons from, including why it is hateful and worthy of condemnation." This is very important as we need to learn to accept that society has different cultures, and that we need to build our understanding and acceptance of those cultures. Along with that, people have different opinions on everything, and although most things people say or believe are wrong, it is our job as human beings to hear everyone out before hating or turning them or their ideas, beliefs, or values down. Just as Bollinger said, "It's how we spread norms about acceptable behavior." Being open to other cultures will help enhance our knowledges on other cultures, leading us to building cultural acceptance within the world. According to the United States Institution of Peace, "instability, conflict and human rights abuses are daily occurrences worldwide, often driven by hostility based on religion, belief or ethnicity." To ensure that better instability and our human rights, educating tolerance can help us bring more peace to the world by enhancing diversity and equality. 

 The value of expression that feels the most personal to me is the Individual Self-Fulfillment as it states that, "Free speech enables individuals to express themselves and thereby create their own identity --- and, in the process perhaps, find kindred spirits. Freedom of speech thus becomes an aspect of human dignity, human agency and autonomy." This expression feels the most personal to me and I feel like to any individual as it expresses that we should all develop self-expression to help us build new skills, confidence, and overall our personal growth as an individual. 

    Some of the values of expressions that I see in action today are Individual Self-Fulfillment, Promote Tolerance, and Protect Dissent. We can see Individual Self-Fulfillment, Protect Tolerance, and Protect Dissent expressed in the world today as these three values of expression all revolve around the idea of establishing a freedom of speech. For Protect Dissent, people show this all the time through social media now. We'll see tweets on twitter, posts on Instagram and TikTok relating to people's opinions to the government --- some good and some not so great. This demonstrates the expression "Protect Dissent" as people are freely expressing their personal opinions against the government. 

For example, when the Roe v. Wade case came out, there were a lot of people posting on their Instagram stories, along with TikTok, the case and explaining how angry they were at it. This theory can really help explain what's going on in the world as it allows others to take a deeper look into news and seeing others criticize the government can help others also speak up and use their freedom to express how they feel about this. This can also lead to people starting to protest, and depending on what the situation is, this is can be a good thing because the people are standing up for their rights. As seen in CNN's article, there were large protests outside the White House against Supreme Court, regarding the Roe v. Wade case. This just shows how influential social media can be on people expressing their rights and learning about the current events happening in the world today.