Class Wrap Up (Week 16)

My experience with the blog posts was interesting. It was a new way to help me memorize what we did in class as well as present my opinion on it. Usually, when I study it’s a strenuous task. I have to go over notes, read over power points and other methods that take hours. However, for this class I would just read over the blog posts and I would have a solid recap of the class. Even while I’m writing it, I feel like I’m taking in more information than usual. I liked the creative flexibility we had in the blog. I’m a big fan of customization; I like to put my special mark on everything that I own so it’s different from everyone else’s. I like the edits that I made to the blog and it gives me a sense of belonging. Other times that I had to do a class blog I wasn’t this attached to it because I had no flexibility. 

The class itself was different than I thought it would be but in a good way. I thought this was going to be a class about more about “media law” like the 1^stamendment and copyright (which it was at first) but it transitioned into conspiracies about the internet/ government and that was fun. Even though your spiels about how “google is watching me” and how “I walked into the classroom already signed into google” were a little repetitive, they were fun and I was happy to see a different side of things. Your thoughts on google and the government gave me a little paranoia myself for a while and I’m happy how I’m educated on the subject. Though one part of me wishes that we had a test on the conspiracy portion of the class, It was fun to learn about it regardless.

Privacy on Internet (Week 14)

Privacy on the internet has been a problem since the early 2000's. Once cameras were added on laptops, computers and smartphones, people accused the government of watching them through the camera lens and up to this day I still see people with their cameras taped. I never understood this type of paranoia people have with the government watching you. I'm not saying that they aren't, they definitely are watching you but why do you care? In this digital age, they can watch you through alot more than your cameras. As long as you're on a public wifi they can probably watch what you're doing on the computer itself and they definitely know your location. At this point, why even try to hide yourself?  If you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about I understand that it's the general idea that you're always being watched and that can be unsettling but as long as you aren't trying to plan a terrorist attack, they won't really bother you (based on the conspiracy theories). But following my philosophy, my views have changed over the years. I used to have all of my social media private but I don't care anymore. All of the things that I post and comment on are NC-17 so I'm  not worried about my boss being anything that I wouldn't show my grandma. The only social media outlet that I actually keep private is my snapchat because it's mainly for my friends/ people I meet. I don't let strangers follow me on that platform. The trick to keeping things private things "private" on the internet is my not sharing them with anyone and keeping your personal ideas/ memories in your head where they belong.

Newer Innovations- Twitter (Week 11)

Before I begin talking about twitter, I was doing research on newer innovation and I found out that myspace has transitioned away from being a conventional social media site. Nowadays, they serve to be more of a news site than anything else. I just found it interesting that since they were completely overtaken by Facebook and twitter, they ventured on a new path. Sadly their popularity hasn't grown much since 2005. Twitter began in 2006 and it was one of the first social media platforms to promote what they did in such a simple way. People were drawn to the idea of simply posting your thoughts in a public sphere but twitter was one of sites that created the digital sphere. A digital sphere is the same as the public sphere but it's a platform where everyone has an equal opportunity to spread their opinions and thought to the general public. Positives of this are people going viral and achieving fame through social media profiles while negatives include people saying the wrong thing on these platforms and ruining their career. There have been people posting racist comments or been caught being racist on camera that have lost their jobs. Your online profile is a blessing and a curse and it'll be with you for the rest of your life in this digital age.

Presentations Feedback

Today in class we had presentations about the different factors of how communication impacts our lives. The topic that I was most fascinated with was the Illusory Truth Effect. The illusory truth effect is when things/words that are repeated are more accepted and believed to be true. The presenters claimed the repetition of things make them seem easier to understand and safer to trust. I believe that this is true because in this age of media, we're fed information all the time and we believe  almost 75% of the information that we repeatedly see on social media, blog posts, etc. is true. The video when Maddow is contuiuously taking about Russia; talking about Putin and it's effect on America and we truly believe that Russia is a threat.  Stuff like this is also an example of propaganda. When I was in elementary we didn't get much education on what to believe in the media because the internet was just on the rise and people didn't know the dangers/backlash of media. My cousin works in an elementary school in NY and she tells me that they're told to stress to the students about the dangers of the internet that they could be easily pulled into at a young age. Things such as violence, cyber bullying and believing everything that they see. Hopefully, the next generation will be more equipped when it comes to the illusory truth effect and they won't clench on to an idea that they see on the internet until they do some research first.

False Flag

A false flag is a covert political/military operation carried out to appear as if it was undertaken by another party. This operation is usually targeting their own forces/people while pretending to be someone else. False Flag is one of the highest bases of the conspiracy world and we see a lot of it on social media. The most prevalent false flag that you would be aware of is "Bush did 9/11". There's allegations that the CIA met with Bin Laden 2 months before 9/11 and it was all a ploy to get the PATRIOT act in motion. Note: I don't believe these allegations and it's nuts for anyone to believe such claims but this is the topic that I chose for the presentation. A false flag that really happened was when the nazis attacked their own people and blamed it on Poland so the citizens would justify the Nazi's plan to invade Poland. When governments do this it's to justify their goals or to get the country to deem an opposing country as evil through misrepresentations. It all boils down to the idea that the government is the puppet master behind everything that goes on in our society, good or bad.

My online presence

Besides my social media, my digital footprint doesn't lead that far. I can be found by my track records  (which are kept online) and that's about it. Besides Facebook, most of my social media accounts are in different names, the only one that I would say is completely anonymous is my Youtube account (and even that has my initials in the title). I pretend as if it would be difficult for people to realize that it's me but all of the accounts are linked to my gmail so it would be easy for any big name company to track down all of the sites that i'm linked to if they had to. The stuff i post on social media is mainly fashion based, i never really post myself at a party (unless i'm wearing an outfit I like) and I definitely never post myself drinking or doing any other things. My parents told me when I was 16 "If you wouldn't show a post that you posted to your grandma, then don't post it." And i've carried that with me ever since. Most young adults know the do's and don'ts of social media/the internet and don't do stupid stuff like hand out their password, post inappropriate pictures or click on sketchy ads that lead to viruses. I wouldn't be surprised that in elementary school, they're educating kids on the dangers of the internet and how to handle themselves when they get on it.

Most important value of the 8 Values of Free Expression (in my opinion)

In my opinion the most important role of the government is the value to Check on  Governmental Power. Without this value, all the the other values wouldn't be possible. The liberty to allow citizens to check on the government without any retaliation from the government itself is what separates us from a dictatorship, communist regime or a monarchy. The Watchdog role that the media is provided is one of the most essential roles that they have as reporters, actors and writers. If news stations weren't allowed to report their opinions on the government than the government would get no feedback from the people that they are trying to govern (unless there's a riot/revolution). Just look at how upset Trump gets over the slander that he gets from the media on shows like SNL. Late Night shows genially make issues of the government the core segment on their show; by spreading the issues of government and the abuses of power on live television they're educating people that wouldn't usually look into government affairs to see what's going on in our society.