Blog #6: Anti War

While looking at the websites ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative I learned about speaking out against war but I realized it is very rare to hear news, whether that be on TV, the radio or articles against war. These two sites really show what we never hear about, well at least what I have never heard about. 

Now one story that stood out to me while on ANTIWAR.COM was The Real History of the War in Ukraine.Have we all heard about the Ukraine war, yes, but do we know the whole story or one side of the story? In this article it states that Biden has “relentlessly promoted NATO enlargement and supported America’s deeply destabilizing wars of choice in Afghanistan, Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine”. Now why don’t we hear or see that on our daily news? Well to put it simply, they don’t want us to. They only want us to hear and see all he good that we are doing when in reality that is not the case. Our media is censored. We don’t hear the whole truth and it is truly sad.                 

These are anti-war voices that need to be heard. News outlets like NBC News, Fox News, CNN and many others  only show you what the government would be okay with. Therefore, anti-war is not top on their list when it should be. Our world today listens to the news for what is going on and or News sources aren’t going to share these stories that are on these two websites when they should.

I feel they don’t share these stories because our world isn’t fully anti-war. So these stories on these two websites wouldn’t get good views on news outlets. The news leans towards what gets them the most views and shows what the people like to hear because they know that will keep the audience more intrigued. 

Blog #5: All About Google!!

While learning about topics that my peers taught in class, one that stood out to me was Google. Currently, as I am typing this blog I am using Google. I think Google being made was an incredible idea and I owe it to the founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google has so many different amenities that are used on a daily basis like, google docs to write your papers, google slides to make a power point whether that is for school projects, work presentations, etc., google calendar to help keep yourself organized, google maps to help you get to your destination and many more. I also love google drive, I never worry about losing something that i worked so hard on because I know it will be in my trusty drive! 

Google was founded in 1998 meaning it’s not even 30 years old yet. I’m not sure why but I always thought Google was developed way earlier than 1998. It is an amazing browser used world wide and there are constantly new additions being added to Google. I find it to be very easy to use compared to safari and I feel it has many more amenities than safari. I may be biased because it’s all I’ve ever known but I know I can count on Google.

Another great concept that I touched on briefly was Google calendar. I use this to keep my life very organized. For instance, when I hear I have an exam, presentation or any type of homework I immediately put it on my Google calendar. Same thing goes for an event or meeting I need to attend.

I still can’t believe we have only really had google for twenty five years. I have learned a lot more from hearing about Google in class and can’t wait to see the celebration they have when they hit that 30 year mark!

Blog #4: Emoticons :-) & Emojis😁

 In 1982 a Carnegie Mellon Professor, Scott Fahlman realized students were misinterpreting emails being sent to one another. he wanted to make a change in writing, to make it easier for students to understand the point they were trying to get across and with that being said he created the emoticon. The emoticon helped students portray their feelings with what they were trying to say. 

In this image Fahlman is holding up the first ever emoticon. He posted this emoticon on the school's online bulletin board, only accessible to the university. he made this emoticon as a "joke marker" to take the stink out of mocking statements or pranks. This symbol was a way to express feelings of sadness or joy. 

Years later emoticons now we're emojis. It all started in the mid 1990's , NTT Docomo, a Japanese phone company made a black heart that was used on pagers. In 2011, Apple added their own emoji keyboard outside of Japan. By 2015 Apple created the smiley emoji with laughing tears. Naming it the laughing emoji 😂. There have now been three thousand emojis made since the beginning and although that seems like a very large amount Jeremy Burge says "So while I think we'd manage without it, I don't know why we would choose to live in a world without emoji's." Emoji's make texting a lot easier to understand what a person is saying.

While emoticons and emojis have changed the world, people still see positive and negative impacts on using emojis.

Positives:

Emoji's enable you to give your message a precise tone. Without emoji's your text is just plain with no emotion to show how you feel.

It saves time when trying to send a quick message.

Affective Advertisement- if an advertisement shows an emoji it becomes more effective 

Negatives:

Roasted Vocabulary becomes a problem because kids begin to use emojis too much causing them not to spell correctly. 

Affective Formal Communication comes into play. Some businesses don't allow the use of emojis and informal text saying it ruins the concept of formal writing.

After going through and learning about the history of emoticons and emojis I personally believe they were an amazing invention. I believe emojis are a very helpful communicating mechanism in this world today. We all take texts and emails very differently if we don't see the emotion that is supposed to be given but with emojis it stops the miss interpreted text from happening. What do you think of the invention of emoticons and emojis?

Blog #3: Promote Tolerance&Promote Innovation

The words "Freedom of speech" have always been something I have heard throughout my years of schooling. The First Amendment is that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment or religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."(https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment) This being said freedom of speech is something that will always be personal to me.

All of the Eight Values of Free Expression are very important. To me two of them stood out the most. The first one being Promote Tolerance. Medlawlit says "It has been argued that freedom of speech, especially through our practice of extending protection to speech that we find hateful or personally upsetting, teaches us to become more tolerant in other aspects of life- and that a more tolerant society is a better society." (https://medlawlit.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_9.html) Freedom of speech is the way everyone expresses themselves and because of the First Amendment we have the right to do so. 

Protesting has always been very controversial but it plays a major role in freedom of speech. We count on being able to express ourselves and some countries don't have that. We are not afraid to stand up for ourselves in this generation today which is a good thing but sometimes we don't use our right to freedom of speech with protesting in a good way. Some people resort to violence when protesting. To me I don't see how that really gets you anywhere with your protesting and I understand why although we have freedom of speech there comes a point where it needs to be stopped when violence begins. Being violent to get your voice heard should not even come across to anyone as a good idea. Using your voice in a peaceful and passionate way about what you are protesting goes a long way.

The second Value of Expression that stuck out to me was Promote Innovation. This means that "a community in which free speech is valued and protected is likely to be a more energized, creative, interesting society as its citizens actively fulfill themselves in many diverse and interesting ways."(https://medlawlit.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_9.html) As a female who wants to go into the sports work field full of males I relate to Promote Innovation. I feel that the more women who go into the sports work field will show innovation. Although it is overloaded with the male population that is why promote innovation stands out so much to me because it's fighting the stereotype that working in sports has.

We are very fortunate to have these Values of Expression. We just need to use them in the right way. For promote tolerance yes we can say what we want but doing it in a violent way will not be the answer. As for promote innovation we need to stand up for our passions. The First Amendment gives us the right to feel, speak and act however we want but it does come with it's boundaries just like everything else. 

Blog #2: The Supreme Court

 Before learning about The Supreme Court I never new how involved they are in the United States. Now that I have learned more about it I find what they do very interesting. 

In 1789, George Washington the President at this time signed the Supreme Court into law. He organized the court so that there would be six justices who would serve on the court until death or retirement. The justices are nominated by the President and are confirmed or denied by the U.S. Senate. 

The first six justices on Supreme Court were Chief of Justice John Jay and Associate Justices John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison and James Wilson. The Chief Justice being John Jay had to be the one to overlook the Supreme Court and set agendas for the justices weekly meetings. 

The Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial body on earth. Somethings I didn't know about the Supreme Court before was that they receive more than a hundred new court cases a week and around 7,000 a year, but they only end up accepting about a 100 a year. Another thing I never new was that the Supreme Court hears cases in public and lawyers on each side have 30 minutes to make their arguments before the court.  I think that is very interesting that you get to see the Supreme Court in public doing their work deciding on cases. 

The most import take-away from learning about the Supreme Court is that they do put a lot of time and work into shaping the United states into what it is today. Some of  these examples are, Roe v. Wade which is women having the right to abortion during the first two trimesters. This was later overturned in 2022. The second example is U.S. v. Nixon which found that the President cannot use his or her power to withhold evidence in criminal trials. These cases that the Supreme Court go threw along with all the others have had lasting impacts on the nation and will continue to do so. 

The Supreme Court has so much say in our country that I never knew about. I always looked at the United States as just the President being the main power but in reality it is the Supreme Court who has a major say on things that have shaped our world today.  

Blog #1: Top 5 News Sources

Growing up I was never someone who followed the news. As I have gotten older that has changed, I am always interested in learning about what’s going on not just locally but around the world. These are my top 5 sources that help me navigate what is going on in our world and hopefully they can help you too. 

1. News 12 

News12 has a channel but personally I like the website. Normally I go onto the news12  website on Mondays and Fridays.On Mondays catch up on anything that has happened over the weekend and on Fridays I look at what went on throughout the week. You can look at local news, the weather, investigations that are taking place around you and so much more.

2. Instagram 

Instagram is a great source of news. It has a wide range of accounts to follow whether that be, news accounts, celebrity news, etc.. Anything you like you will be able to find on Instagram. These accounts will keep you updated on the latest gossip/news.

3. Tik Tok 

3. TikTok

TikTok has really taken over many people's lives in recent years. The app lets people post videos anywhere from 15 seconds to 10 minutes long. Although you can’t believe everything you hear, I try to find the most reliable story. I use this app to look up what is going on in celebrities' lives. I follow several accounts that always consistently update what is happening in that world. You can also use TikTok to learn about current world news. When everything was coming out about the Submarine that exploded you would see many videos of how it happened and updates on what has been found. TikTok keeps you very informed on current news that happens daily.

4. The New York Times

4. The New York Times

The New York Times is a great source of news. They don’t cover one specific topic which is nice because you can find a wide range of stories. It is also a very reliable news source and stays up to date with topics. 

5. Apple News

5. Apple News

Apple News is great because it is very convenient for people. The home page is the most recent news of the day but if you are looking for something specific you can easily search it up. It has a wide range of sports, crime, politics, etc.