Tuesday, October20th, 2015 | TechNeWS

opinion@technewsiit.com

AUSTIN GONZALEZ

3

Internet as a societal polarizer

Jerry Sha
TECH NEWS WRITER

You’re wrong:

Now those are two words that no one
ever wants to hear: But this simple observation
of arguably basic human nature, combined
with recent developments in how humans
seek and access information, has some very
profound ramifications:

Information access has always been
very tightly constrained When Guttenberg
started the printing revolution, everyone
read the Bible because that was the only book
printed in bulk Evenwith the invention of mass
media, casual consumers of information still
have very little say in the type of information
they consume: A Soviet citizen in the 60s heard
TV, newspaper, and radio content glorifying
the state and the communist way of life, while
his American counterpart, in essence, hears
the same thing regarding democracy and
consumerism:

Then, of course, Google happened:

Google made the content of the
Internet not only easily accessible, but easily
customizable On the TV and radio, even with
today’s hundreds of channels, you see what
the show producers want you to see: On the
Internet, however, you see only what you want
to see:

While great for the consumer,
this unprecedented level of control over our
intellectual intake has many immense dangers:
Instead of broadening our scope of learning,
internet browsing instead tends to polarize our
existing views, or even worse, blind us to the
possibility of valid conflicting views:

This concern is actualized when the
University of Minnesota published the results
of a study titled “The Internet and Racial Hate
Crime: Offline Spillovers from Online Access,"
and the summarizing statement of conclusions
read “The incidence of racial hate crimes
increased by 20 percent when a new broadband
provider entered an area, according to new
research from Carlson School of Management
and NYU Stern."

The study makes two key
observations: First of all, the correlation
between broadband access and rate of
racially charged hate crimes becomes highly
significant only when there already exists a
high level of segregation and racially charged
keyword queries in the American county being
surveyed: In racially hostile demographics,
the positive correlation of hate crime and
broadband access was sometimes as high as
200%, while progressive or liberal counties
saw little to even negative correlations The
point being proven here is that internet access

did not instill in everyday citizens an urge to
commit hate crimes, except when the citizen
in question already likely had been exposed to
raciallyecharged ideals:

The second observation made by
the researchers further affirmed the ideal
polarization theory by noting that over 60% of
the crimes recorded were committed by what
popular media would call “loneewolf actors,"
individuals who are acting on their own
behalf, without external motivation from an
organized group: This observation leads us to
conclude that individuals with internet access
areiinstead of being pressured by outside
organizations to adopt certain viewsiactively
seeking affirmation on their own for views
they already hold: After all, no one likes to hear
that they are wrong, and everyone wants the
affirmation that they are thinking, doing, and
believing the right thing, no matter how wrong
even the majority of their peers may view those
thoughts, actions, and beliefs: This affirmation
of fringe views frowned upon by the majority
of civilized society, tragically, is made possible
and sustained by access to the Internet, which
has already firmly established itself as a staple
of modern life:

Mark Twain once wrote that “Travel
is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow,
mindedness, and many of our people need it

sorely on these accounts: Broad, wholesome,
charitable views of men and things cannot
be acquired by vegetating in one little corner
of the earth all one’s lifetime" The Internet,
at its creation, was meant to allow its users
to virtually travel across institutions and
environments to access information and ideals
not locally available, it was meant to be a tool
to broaden our minds and banish our bigotry
And yet, once again, a powerful tool created
for human benefit has been warped by the base
desires of the human individual, drawing from
the Internet only the ideals which suit them,
and in effect, building a concocted reality of
handpicked ideals around themselves, with the
intention of vegetating within forever:

While normally optimistic, I see
no feasible solution to the issue at hand:
The adaptation of the Internet was far from
a wellecontrolled event, and the freedom it
embodies has been enshrined too wholly and
unquestioningly for drastic change or heavy
regulation: Like racism, cronyism, corruption
and nuclear proliferation, the use of the
Internet to selfedeceive is just yet another
regrettable blemish of the human condition,
one that is far from impossible to remove, but
we can seemingly only hope for its removal
within our lifetimes:

campus@technewsiit.com IE; I; i i : EEI

IEEE to host technical writing presentation

Genevieve Hummel
TECH NEWS WRITER

The Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s
largest professional association dedicated
to advancing technological innovation and
excellence for the benefit of humanity IEEE
and its members inspire a global community
through IEEE’s highlyecited publications,
conferences, technology standards, and
professional and educational activities:
Anyone interested in learning more about
how to publish papers in IEEE periodicals
and conferences as well as time saving search
techniques for finding technological content

should join IEEE at IIT for a presentation
titled “How to Write a Technical Paper for
Publication with IEEE?’

IEEE Client Services Manager Ialyn
Kelley will present an overview of how to
become an IEEE author on Tuesday, October
27 in Life Sciences 111 from 173 pm: This
presentation will cover topics such as how
to select an appropriate IEEE periodical or
conference, how to organize your manuscript,
and how to work through peer review She will
discuss how successful IEEE authors structure
quality work to improve their chances of being
accepted: You can learn how to avoid common
mistakes and ethical lapses that will prevent
your manuscript from being accepted: Kelley

will also provide insights into what editors
look for in a submission and discuss some
common reasons that editors and reviewers
reject papers:

Kelley will also discuss strategies for
using IEEE Xplore effectively for a literature
review She will talk about how to stay up to
date on the latest research using saved alerts
and downloading citations into bibliographic
management databases: IEEE Xplore is the
premier database for research in electrical
engineering, electronics, computer science and
related disciplines: This database, produced
by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers, is a digital library providing full
text access to more than 3 million documents,

including journals, magazines, conferences,
and standards, as well as content from IET
(Institute of Engineering and Technology),
AlcateleLucent and VDE Verlag:

This presentation is open to any
interested IIT student, regardless of major
Students are not required to be members of
IEEE: Lunch will be provided to all attendees:
This presentation will provide a good insight
into the process of writing, submitting, and
receiving approval for the publication of
technical writing Any student interested in
publishing in any technical publication should
consider attending this event to receive fist
hand outlooks and advice about the topic:

CSA meeting discusses campus
safety app, upcoming events

Ricardo Torres
TECHNEWS WRITER

Commuter students make up a large
part of the student body at the Illinois Insti
tute of Technology They face the daily chal
lenge of commuting to school from different
parts of Chicago and sometimes their journey
may take hours: Due to this long distance from
campus, they tend to be detached from campus
activities and have fewer opportunities to so,
cialize with the student body Fortunately, the
Commuter Student Association (CSA) focuses
on helping connect commuter students by
providing them with fun activities and keeping

them updated with events and opportunities
on campus:

The CSA held their second general
body meeting on Tuesday October 13: It was
hosted at the Bog instead of the usual Wish,
nick Hall location: The meeting was lead by the
CSA President, Kevin Tapia: He welcomed the
students to the meeting and handed over the
floor to William Gordon who represents the
CSA in the Student Government Association
(SGA) meetings:

William Gordon spoke about the
Rave Guardian App that SGA is attempting to
bring to campus: This application will help cre
ate a safer community at IIT and it will have

more of an impact on commuter students be
cause they will be able to travel at night and feel
safer on campus with the Rave Guardian App:
The app contributes to a more secure environ,
ment by providing users with features that
they can easily access on their phones: Among
the many features, it offers a feature called the
Panic Button Pressing this button will imme
diately alert campus safety with your location
and your personal profile information This is
ideal for when a student is traveling at night
and needs immediate assistance: Gordon in,
formed the students to support SGA as they
will be petitioning daily on the MTCC Bridge
to bring the Rave Guardian app to campus:

The floor was returned to Tapia who
spoke about the fun events that the Commuter
Student Association will be hosting for the
month of October and early November: Some
of the events mentioned included SkyZone,
Statesville Haunted Prison, and the Dia de los
Muertos Party at IIT The dates are yet to be
announced for these events so Tapia encoure
aged students to look out for these activities by
connecting with the Commuter Student Assoe
ciation on their Facebook page and by joining
their mailng list by sending an email to come
muterstudents:iit@gmail:com:

Blow off some steam, burn some rubber

Lahfla Rauf8¢ Austin Gonzalez
TECHNEWS WRITER & OPINION EDITOR

Last Wednesday, the 14th of Oce
tober, officially marked the halfway through
semester, meaning by now all the midterms
should be over Midterms can be very stress,
ful, and the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) is here to help with a great way to blow
off some steam: Racing simulation.

What’s more fun than ripping
around corners of a track at breakneck speed?
Ripping around corners of a simulated track
and not breaking your neck when you invarie

ably crashl On October 13, SAE presented its
simulator to students in the MTCC: It was
originally supposed to be held in Perlstein
Hall, but, because of electrical problems, it had
to be moved to the MTCC Bridge: Even in the
face of this problem, the event was very suce
cessful with several students getting a chance
to feel what it’s like behind the wheel of an
Formula SAE car: Because of popular demand,
SAE will now be hosting this racing simulation
event on the MTCC Bridge every Tuesday dure
ing the lunch hour starting at 12:40 pm:

Do not mistake it to be a normal are

cade game: It is not a game; it is an experience:
This simulation gives the real life thrilling ex,
perience of a real Formula SAE time trail: The
simulator uses a topeofetheeline force feedback
system so you can feel the tires grip the road:
The base of the simulator is a real chassis that
ran in past competitions for Illinois Tech: Take
it from a person who actually tried it, I would
definitely recommend it to anyone who aspires
to be like Sebastian Vettel (winner of Formula
1 from 2010 untill 2013):

With this simulation, you can come
pare yourself to the best race car drivers in the

world: Not only that, you can also compete
against your friends: It is not easy; only people
with skills can win:

If you think you have the skills, then
come to the bridge on Tuesday and compete
against all of the participants: The winner will
win a limited edition souvenir from SAE: The
winner will also be able to walk away with the
title of “Best Racer at IIT” So what are you
waiting for? Stop stressing over exam results
and come to the event for a little excitement: