Service Blog Post

Service can be a two sided sword that can just as easily harm a community as help it. Through volunteering, for example, while a short term service can be supplied, the volunteer removes agency from the community by doing a task for them and possibly making the community dependent on the volunteer's continued assistance. Of course, volunteering is an important aspect of being a part of a community as it supplies manual labor where previously none could be afforded.Volunteers can do the work the community is not willing to pay for yet is important to the well-being of the community. I knew most of this going into the lecture and was unsurprised.

In my high school JROTC unit, we had an annual service learning project where we would gather supplies to donate to a local veterans home. In my last year in the battalion, we were told by the high-ups that we were now meant to do a different project each year as opposed to the same one we'd been doing. However, the home had come to expect our contributions and would be harmed by no longer receiving our donations. In other words, they were now dependent on us and could not function without us. We elected to do two service learning projects so that we could continue to support the home. There is not much that can be done now to help, besides to perhaps wean them off our contributions. The battalion is unlikely to make the same error with future projects.

Information in the Internet Era

I quite liked the speaker, as he was very good at speaking to the audience. He spoke clearly with humor thrown into a rather serious topic, which made it easier to listen. I hadn't previously known about the bracelets Disney would use to track guests or to make purchases in the park. It sounds very convenient for the person, but I think it has a side effect of having people purchase more things. This effect has been thoroughly studied between cash and credit/debit cards, so I am sure it extends to the bracelets. I don't think the speaker really went far into the question "Is google making us stupid?" which was somewhat disappointing but I found the following topic more interesting anyway.

I'm not particularly frightened by the amount of personal information on the internet. It can tick in the back of my mind sometimes, but frankly I have more concern about apps on my phone secretly being able to have access to all the things on my phone. An app having unlimited access to my camera, mic, photo albums, contacts, etc. is unsettling. It creates a sense of unease when I leave my Spanish class and start seeing ads in Spanish on YouTube where I previously only ever saw English ones. 

Companies selling my data to advertising companies on its own isn't too scary. It allows for targeted advertising, like the Target girl, but I'm not particularly bothered by that. However, I don't trust the companies to keep my information safe. Identity theft is a very real threat and can have long term ramifications, whether on one's credit score or even criminal record if someone commits a crime while assuming my identity. Additionally, my parents drilled into me a "stranger danger" perspective on the internet, so I rarely input true information anyway. I was always less scared of companies using my information than people tracking me to my house and trying to harm me in some way. That fear has dissipated for the most part, but it still lingers in my mind.