Is Fake the New Real?

Credi t: https://www.pcmag.com/feature/331347/hands-on-with-microsoft-hololens/2 In a past blog post I discussed augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) and their use in entertainment, but this post will focus specifically on wearable technology, the downsides and how it can influence our everyday life at home and in the workplace. These wearable technologies were created to add convenience to our lives and to improve our productivity, but why are they hitting roadblocks? Credit: https://minutehack.com/ opinions/is-google-glass-staging-a-comeback Google was one of the first notable large companies to release a product like this, which they called ‘ Google Glass ’. According to Forbes, the Google Glass project failed because the company did not address the issue of helping their consumers understand why they needed the product. As they quote Steve Jobs, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.   In my own opinion, I ...

Credit: https://www.hoyes.com /blog/beware-fake-canada-revenue-agency-calls/ In today's society it’s hard to know who and what to trust anymore. There are spam emails with viruses, fake accounts, and phone calls with people claiming to be someone they aren’t. The purpose is often to gain valuable information or blackmail the user to regain access to their own information. Some sites and emails look so similar that they can only be told apart if you are looking for the slightest differences. This seems to be normal and only getting worse. As millennials, we have been raised with technology and are therefore slightly more aware of what to look for and are more cautious when navigating the internet or giving out our credit card numbers. The older generation has less knowledge and are therefore in turn more gullible and susceptible to fall for these online scam artists. Credit: http://www.netnewsledger.com /2017/10/30/opp-warning-public-ongoing-cra-scam/ An exampl...

Credit: https://www.quora.com/Will-virtual-reality-games-exist As technology continues to advance, one of the main focuses has become merging the virtual world into reality, or making it appear real.  Virtual reality  (VR) is one way of making this happen, by providing the user with a  headset , and often controllers, to look and move around in the simulation. The focus is on altering what our brain perceives to basically trick it into thinking we are somewhere else other than where we physically are. This allows the user to have unique experiences that may not have otherwise been possible in our real world. I tried a version of virtual reality a couple months back that was extremely immersive and interactive at a place called “ Mirage VR ” located in Kitchener, Ontario. It used the technology of motion capture to provide a full body experience, where every motion we did in the real world was transferred into the game in real time. Therefo...

Credit: https://makeawebsitehub.com/social-media-sites/ Nowadays social media has become extremely prominent in our lives. This constant connection can be a good tool for keeping in touch with people far away, such as with friends who go to different universities, but at what point is it affecting our choices in real life? According to CNN, “..young Canadians between the ages of  18 to 34 spent … an average of 34 hours per week [on the internet] in 2016, or nearly five hours per day” (Thomson, 2017). Although some of this time is spent learning new information, a majority is spent on social media sites, either updating statuses and photos, or scrolling through feeds of other people’s posts. It’s so often that I’ll see groups of friends physically sitting beside each other while they scroll through Instagram in silence.  Even if we shift our focus to the world of social media itself, it can be extremely deceiving as it displays images that are photoshoppe...