Blog 5: Videos

Introduction 

These videos were very eye-opening. I feel like these are topics and discussions that people know about, but no one really takes a second to think about what this really means. I took away two things: the Internet footprint and the way that the government watches and surveillance us. I will say that for the first video, I like how he opened up his topic by talking about tattoos and saying that our footprint is basically our tattoos.

How this Affects You

This affects us in a big way. As I said before, I feel like everyone knew this due to the inventions of cameras, coverings, VPNs, and other inventions used to keep security. Still, I don’t think anyone knows the actual implications. This means that the government has a sort of folder. What a person is watching. This could be a good thing if the person’s a criminal, but if the person’s not and is just a citizen, this is a massive invasion of privacy 

What the Government can do

I am not sure what the government can do, as one of the topics is something that they contribute to as they have access to phone logs. Knowing what I know, I don’t think the government would change what they’re doing, as they definitely think that they’re doing the right thing. There may be a few cases where these tactics have worked in the past, and they will use those experiences as proof that this tactic is necessary.

How to Protect Yourself

I stated before their inventions to help and protect people from the government or whoever is looking through your data; I would say if you’re concerned and scared about this topic, you should look up and invest in some of these products, but make sure you don’t go too far down the rabbit hole as this is something that no ordinary person can fix and this may be our reality. However, there’s a sure thing we can do to combat this, but there’s nothing we can genuinely do to fix

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Cites

(Couldn’t find the videos links so I used your cite)

Smith, Prof. (n.d.). Media Law & Literacy. https://medlawlit.blogspot.com/ 

Blog 7: Comparisons

 Introduction 

Today, the U.S. is involved in military operations around the world, yet antiwar voices are often overlooked in mainstream media. Websites like Antiwar.com and The American Conservative strongly critique U.S. foreign policy, but these perspectives rarely make it into major news outlets. Many people have never heard of these sites. You are often forced to seek less mainstream sources for solid antiwar opinions. This raises important questions about the role of media in shaping public understanding of foreign policy.Exploring these alternative viewpoints can help us understand why certain narratives dominate the public discourse and what is at stake when critical voices are sidelined. It’s worth considering why these sites exist and why their voices remain on the margins of mainstream news. I tried to find two articles that are similar on these two websites to compare and contrast the difference on how they write and how they view situations.

The American Conservative: “Report: Israeli Officials Concerned by Trump Desire to End Gaza Conflict”

This article is pretty neutral but shows some concern about Israel's hardline policies and how a second Trump term could create problems for Israeli leaders. It talks about Israeli officials being worried that Trump wants to end the Gaza conflict quickly, which might not fit with the political situation in Israel, especially with right-wing ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in power. The article suggests that if Trump becomes president again, he might push for a fast end to the war, which could create tension between Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government. It also compares how Trump’s approach could be different from President Biden’s, showing that both U.S. leaders could face difficulties working with Israel depending on their stance on Gaza. The article focuses on the challenges of U.S.-Israel relations and Israel’s internal politics.

Anti-War: “'We want an arrest warrant for Biden': Activists call for wider accountability for Gaza war

This article takes a pro-Palestinian, anti-war stance, criticizing U.S. support for Israel and calling for more accountability in the Gaza conflict. It argues that the U.S. government, under President Biden, is helping to fuel the violence against Palestinians by backing Israel. The piece highlights the efforts of human rights activists, political organizers, and pro-Palestinian groups who believe that the U.S. is helping Israel commit severe crimes in Gaza. The article supports the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. Still, it also points out that the U.S. should be held responsible for its role in the conflict. Overall, the article is critical of both Israel's actions and U.S. foreign policy, stressing the need for more decisive actions to stop arms sales to Israel and hold leaders accountable. The piece reflects a left-leaning, anti-war viewpoint, especially against U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

Conclusion 

The two articles talk about the Gaza conflict and U.S.-Israel relations but have different viewpoints. The American Conservative article is more neutral, discussing how a second Trump term might create problems for Israeli leaders if Trump pushes for a quick end to the conflict. It focuses on the political challenges between the U.S. and Israel. In contrast, the Anti-War article is critical of U.S. support for Israel and argues that the U.S. is helping fuel the violence in Gaza. It calls for more accountability from both Israel and the U.S., especially regarding arms sales to Israel. The first article looks at the situation from a political perspective, while the second takes a strong pro-Palestinian, anti-war stance.

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Cites

Stallings, M. L. (2024, October 22). Report: Israeli officials concerned by trump desire to end Gaza conflict. The American Conservative. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/report-israeli-officials-concerned-by-trump-desire-to-end-gaza-conflict/ 

Hearst, D. (n.d.). “we want an arrest warrant for Biden”: Activists call for wider accountability for gaza war. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/we-want-arrest-warrant-biden-activists-call-wider-accountability-gaza-war 

Blog 6: Someone else’s Technology

Introduction

This project was something I found fun, as this class had an exciting blog Post instead of assignments. At first, it was hard to write these, but I think I’m finding my groove and realizing how to do this. These projects have helped me find an interest in writing and, even more importantly, an internship. Now, I have experience with a blog. On to the real stuff. Why are you reading this blog? I want to post my opinions on everyone’s speeches rather than choose one. I have a few that I would like to talk about, as I thought they were pretty good, and it was hard to choose. I will be talking about three of the presentations. These are emoticons, carrier pigeons, and bluetooth

Emoticons: 

This presentation was fun. I remember thinking that the presentation and the presenter were making it fun. One thing that stood out to me was how she said that the smiley face emoticon :-) Was not meaning happy or sad. It means. It was not severe. It was just kidding before JK was a real thing.

Carrier Pigeons: 

Although I said the last presentation was fun, this one was so entertaining. I remember the girl in class who chose this topic was excited as it’s a fun topic to do, and if you do it right, you can make it very funny, which she did. She had great energy, and I honestly did learn about carrier pigeons. I found three facts interesting in this presentation: carrier pigeons first started in 2000 BCE Mesopotamia, World War II, and World War I relied on carrier pigeons to rely on Messages, and The telegram took over the carrier pigeon role.

Bluetooth:

Bluetooth is exciting, as I’ve had it all my life, but I don’t understand how it works. All I know is that it makes my headphones work and allows me to hear music. During this presentation, I learned that Bluetooth is not only audio, which I found weird as I always associated it with that. 

Conclusion

To sum it up, I think everyone did amazing on this project, and it was enjoyable to do as we had some interesting topics and all learned some excellent details. I liked how there were some silly options that we could choose from. I hope next project I get to choose one of the funnier ones, but I did like how my turned out.

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Cites

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Carrier Pigeons (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/carrier-pigeons.htm 

Bluetooth technology overview. Bluetooth® Technology Website. (n.d.). https://www.bluetooth.com/learn-about-bluetooth/tech-overview/ 

Blog 4: First Cell Phone

Introductions 

Imagine a world where if you were lost, you would have to pull out a map and figure out where you are and where your location is, or a world where your friend who’s across the country needs to connect with you but doesn’t have a phone, so she needs to find the nearest phone booth and call. After picturing those situations, you can see why technology is a gift. Technology is something spectacular that has made our lives so much easier. 

Personally, I use my phone every day. I use this device to do my homework, watch television, and connect with my friends and family. This would not be a thing if it wasn’t for the first cell phone. 

 

About the Creator 

The excellent Martin Cooper, an engineer at Motorola, started all of this in 1973 with an idea. He made the blueprint for a Device that had never been heard of before. The idea wasn’t even considered a landline advanced for the time, as it was a mobile phone. It was a crazy idea, but Cooper accomplished it with his prototype.

Problems of the First Phone

Although this phone started the pathway of technological Innovation, several issues were faced. These issues include battery life, bulkiness, cost, and call quality.

 

Battery Life: The battery life was a significant issue as it only lasted 20 minutes after a full charge. This was an issue as it took 10 hours to charge.

Bulkiness: The phone, although portable, was very bulky. It was 10 inches tall, and 2 1/2 pounds people even called it the brick due to these factors

Call Quality: At the time, call quality wasn’t the best or worst, but due to our improvements and technology, we can see now that the standard wasn’t the standard then. Calls often sounded fuzzy and would break off.

Cost: due to this being the first invention of its kind, the price was costly, being 3,995 in now times money

Effects on the World

Cell phones have many positive effects, such as improving communication worldwide and opening a new ballpark for new devices to pave the way for freedom to call anywhere. There are so many positives. There are a few negatives, as this path leads people to have distractions every day that distract them from their work, and such a decline in face-to-face conversations occurs, too. Privacy became an issue as people were trusting of strangers as no danger occurred yet

How it Changes Society

As I stated before, people could call from anywhere, and a string couldn’t tie them down. This technological shift transformed society by enabling greater mobility, boosting productivity, and fostering constant connectivity. Over time, the development of smartphones further changed how people interact, work, and access information, shaping modern society.

Conclusion

Martin Cooper’s invention of the cell phone marked a private moment in technology history. It opened up new possibilities for communications, forever changing how we connect the first cell phone. It’s had its share of problems, but its impact has been profound today. Smartphones are more than just communication devices; they allow us to do things, and we have Cooper to pave the way. We must consider both positive and negative aspects when looking at these devices and use them responsibly. 

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Cites:

Hardy, J. (2024, November 1). The first cell phone: A complete phone history from 1920 to present. History Cooperative. 

    https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ 

Old Dominion Univ. (n.d.). History of phones. History of. https://www.cs.odu.edu/~tkennedy/cs300/development/Public/M01-

    HistoryOfPhones/index.html 

McNamee, K., & Yu, M. (2023, April 3). 50 years ago, Martin Cooper made the first cellphone call. NPR. 

    https://www.npr.org/2023/04/03/1167815751/50-years-ago-martin-cooper-made-the-first-cell-phone-call 

Gibson, W. E. (2022, July 13). The first cell phone call was made 45 years ago. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-

    2018/first-cell-phone-call.html 

Blog Post 3: Second Level Thinking

 Life right now is hectic. If you tried explaining what America was to someone when it was founded, they would be confused. Social media has evolved from a small thing to share pictures and messages to a corrupt system that can hurt people and is often used for corrupt purposes. Scams, catfishing, and stalking are happening on the Internet as we speak. Something used to connect someone from a state away is now used for sad and tragic things.

Social media is probably the best and worst invention, as it helps people stay connected but corrupts and consumes their lives. If it were just photos and sharing your life with friends, that would be fine, but there is a dark side. It can affect people's body image and even cause or help stalking in some cases. There is also proof that people's attention spans are getting shorter due to social media videos. Some people can’t focus unless two videos are going on, and don’t get me started on “Brain Rot.” “Brain Rot” refers to internet language or those deep into memes and internet culture and won’t stop talking about it.

I think social media connects to one of the theories we discussed. The theory is to Promote Tolerance, as I believe that we have become numb or tolerant, depending on how you see it. The other day, my class, which talks about the philosophy of death, was talking about a video they saw of someone passing and talking about it like it was normal. First off, it’s disgusting to know that someone passed on a film, and it was posted on Instagram. This app needs sensors to be modern and better. The fact that the people in my class saw nothing strange about that. It also tells how media and posts are so out of this world that we are numb. 

I also can see Promote Innovation as a theory that works, as people on the Internet value freedom of speech tremendously. Comments will be posted on rude videos, and others will defend the rude comments, saying they’re just using freedom of speech. This has caused a lot of hurt and damage to those who post. There are a few examples of people getting hate comments and those hate comments getting rewarded, such as Jake Novak, a TikTok employee who got hated on and quit due to that. 

A theory that I do not see on the Internet is Protect Dissent, as mob mentality is very strong on the Internet. Protect Dissent says the little guys are protected, and the mob can’t touch or affect them. As stated before, there have been incidents where heat has piled on and hurt a small creator.

To conclude, there are a few theories used in the Internet and social media right now, and there are a few theories that aren’t used. It’s interesting to compare and contrast what we use and what we don’t, and it helps us see how the Internet is used and the truth behind it all.

Blog Post 2: Supreme Court

 I am not the most political or historical person, as I don’t keep up with that stuff. So, this was an excellent opportunity to learn about our history and some political views of the court. Although I don’t think I was in class for the video, I decided to research the court.

I learned a lot about the Supreme Court. Some information that you didn't already know was that there was a Chief Justice. I knew we had nine members of the Supreme Court, but not that there was a leader over the associate justices. Chief Justice oversees the federal judiciary and presides over presidential impeachment trials in the Senate.

The most essential takeaway point about the Supreme Court was that it has a Republican majority, with a ratio of six to three.

The most surprising thing you learned was that they have lifetime appointments, with the oldest person being Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 

Being 90 is a crazy fact to me, as a person should have a limit just in case they become corrupt or confused the older they get. I wonder what happens when people want you to resign and you refuse.

The information I learned changed the way I thought of the Supreme Court as a judicial review court. I always thought they were the highest court, and when there was an issue, it would be taken to them. However, thanks to Marbury v. Madison, they have the power to strike down laws or government actions that violate the Constitution.

Blog Post 1: News Sources

News is an essential source of information. It helps us learn facts or options that can help us form our thoughts or feelings on any given topic. The sources I used to look at topical information then were TikTok, Instagram, CNN, Fox, and podcasts.

TikTok:

Social media might sound silly to get information from, but it has some good sources. There are a lot of characters on the app who may do things differently. There is a creator on the app called “fishnewsbroadcast.” This is a creator with a bias towards the republican side as they display similar beliefs and often insult President Joe Biden. Another score on the app is “daily mail,” a news site with a website that runs a TikTok. TikTok is an app where you can find all funny and severe scenes; you might see the talking fish from SpongeBob and then a rebuttable new score. 

Instagram:

This app has been around for a while but seems to have tried to become another TikTok. It’s very similar to the app as it is a short-form video with severe and silly topics. The creator of this app is “NiickJackson,” who covers news of the earth rather than political stuff. However, my favorite is the memes. People will take pictures of political candidates and write a joke or something silly about them.

CNN

I do not lean on any side politically, so I like to view both sides of the argument. I want to see what they say about each other; it is often very similar. CNN is a Democratic political station. They usually talk about President Biden as being good and Trump as bad. I prefer to watch the news rather than read their articles, so it may be different on paper.

PODCAST

I have recently been into Podcasts, as they are easy and good for multitasking. I listen to a few for politics and entertainment. One of the ones I like is “Call Her Dady,” which is a little political and includes an interview with Vice President Kamala. Other podcasts that are meant for politics are the “Ben Shapiro Show” and “Morning Brew Daily.”

FOX

I prefer to see both sides of an issue since I am not politically biased. I enjoy reading their opinions on one another, and they frequently have much in common. FOX is a Republican political organization. They often discuss how Joe Biden is terrible, and President Trump is terrific. It might be different on paper because I like to watch the news rather than read their articles.