Blog 5: Smartphone EOTO!

 Imagine the average person's life, from morning to night. Many times the first thing a person grabs after waking up is their smartphone and the last thing they do before they go to sleep is watch Tik Toks, check the news, etc. before putting their phone down to rest. 

A smartphone is a cellphone that lets you do more than just make a phone call or send a simple text. It is a high-tech phone that has a touch screen to allow other users to interact with them. 

 

Smartphones are the big thing nowadays, whether you are 5 or 80 most people have smartphones whether to play games, look at current events, use it as a map, etc. it has so many features that can help out any person. 

This is a brief history of the smartphone: 

1992: IBM announced the first smartphone was invented with a small LCD screen and one-hour battery

1994: The smartphone started to have apps like calendars, address books, calendars, notepad, etc.

2000: The first camera smartphone was made but was only available in Japan. The phone was called J-SH04.

2001: The Smartphone was able to connect to the internet with a 3G network.

2007: Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, the first phone to be touchscreen while also connecting to the internet and having a camera.

Since 2007 companies have competed with Apple to have the best and newest smartphone. The newest iPhone 14 was created in late 2022, expect more to come soon from Apple! Apple is one of the best tech companies that keep expanding day after day.

There are many pros and cons to the smart-phone: 

Pros:

It provides endless entertainment for those who are using it, there are all different kinds of apps whether it be social media platforms, games, or news channels. It provides all different platforms for varying age groups.

 It keeps loved ones closer by being able to call them from all around the world. There is an app included with the iPhone called Facetime. This is where a person can video chat another while being able to talk to them as well as see their face. 

It makes using a map a lot easier than it used to be back then. If you just put the address of the place you are attending it will pop up the fattest route and step by step how to get there. The apps include Google Maps and Waze. 

But there are cons to the smartphone…

All smartphone users' privacy is at risk because many people don't read the terms and conditions on different apps and don't realize that they are taking their information to shoot out ads onto their platforms.

Smartphones also cause many health problems including both mental and physical problems. Many users get distracted by their phones for hours and they forget to do the basic needs in life like exercising and eating. It is also bad for people's mental health because there are many incidents around the world where cyberbullying is a problem that causes many smartphone users to become depressed. 

The smartphone is known to be one of the best inventions but is it really healthy?

Blog 4: Eight Values of Free Expression

 There are all different speech theories, these include the eight values of free expression. The eight values of free expression are Marketplace of Ideas (Discovery of Truth), Participation in Sef-Government, Stable Change (Saftey Valve), Individual Self-Fulfiment (Self-Actualization), Watchdog Role, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. 

The United States is filled with so many people, it is very diverse. The population of the United States is diversely filled with different backgrounds, leading to varying views on outlooks. This makes the country a better place because it is an excellent way to learn all about different people's ethnicity and religious beliefs. I believe that “Promote Innovation” (the seventh speech theory)  is the best speech theory out of the eight to choose from. 

Promote Innovation as stated in the media blog post is “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”. 

This is a good way to look at life, with everyone having different opinions on major conflicts in our country I believe that Promote Innovation is a great way of examining free speech. It will make the the whole country open to listening to other sides and learning from that. This can cause parties to realize what they like and dislike about all the different kinds of problems that the world faces on a daily basis.

 

Gong along with “Promote Innovation” I agree with the last speech theory, “Protect Dissent”. In my eyes, these two theories go hand in hand. As stated in the media blog post, Protect Dissent is “Our system is not supposed to be one of mob rule. The First Amendment protects minority views, no matter how unpopular. You have a strongly protected right to disagree with the government — and everyone else. In fact, it is your patriotic duty to criticize the government”.

It is a good way to learn about people's different beliefs and even question them to make sure they realize what they are rooting for. The First Amendment protects anyone no matter a person's race, ethnicity, gender, etc. but it also protects people who don’t agree with others to speak back toward them. As I said with Promote Innovation I think this a good way for the population of the United States to learn more about each opinion. 

If we lived in a world with no debate would it even be a great world? No, it would be a scary dystopian life that had no diversity and no fun!

Blog 3: Thoughts on Supreme Court

After watching the Supreme Court video as well as reading the History Channel article on the Supreme Court I learned new information that I never knew before this. I never knew much about the Supreme Court but in eighth grade I went to Washington D.C. on a class trip and learned more about the ins and outs of the capital. 

After reading the article I learned more about the roles within the Supreme. While I knew the roles of Supreme Court I did not know what each roles job did individually. A chief justice is the highest is the highest judicial officer I did not know what it entailed. This makes me understand the situation of Donald Trump being acquitted. After doing research I have realized that the chief justice has the power of over the trials of impeachment involving the Presidents of the United States of America. 

The amount of chief justices that have served since 1789 is an interesting fact to me. There are 115 supreme justices that have served over the years. It shows that these Justices are committed to their job and will keep their job until they can't physically can't do it anymore, for example, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It is interesting to look into the big cases that the Supreme Court had to handle like Dred Scott vs Sandford and  Plessy vs. Ferguson!

Blog 2: Privacy, Online & Off

Privacy. Something we think we all have but really we don't. Most people have a smartphone, it seems to be one of the greatest gadgets but when you look into it deeper it could be scary. It always seems like the ads just so happen to know what you are interested in but really there is a reason for it.

Many private companies, if not all, take data about the individual's hobbies, interests, political views, purchasing habits, etc. to cater to a feed of ads that will interest the viewer. The government would be breaking many Amendments if they were the ones taking the information so they get the private companies to seek the information. After watching the TED talks it really shows that there is a big problem with privacy, or lack of, on phones that everyone encounters. This will help people learn how serious it can be, this is an idea that is worth spreading!

Blog 1: My Top Five New Sources

There are many different new sources that people can get their news from but my top five new sources consist of: 

Apple News is where I get most of my news and would consider it my top news source. My phone gives me alerts daily on the latest information around the world within seconds of it happening. It is an easy way to check because a notification will just pop on your phone instead of having to look anything up. Apple News has various news stories on the same topic so that most can find an article they like or agree on. 

Another source of news that I enjoy catching up on is Entertainment News. This helps me stay on the latest trends in the celebrity drama that is going around in LA, California. I tend to read more about the little problems that celebrities encounter instead of the bigger problems that are seen all around the world. This is because I rather read about stupid problems than sad things going on in the world.

Instagram is the next platform where I get my news from. There are popular Instagram pages that are all about world news as well as news in the celebrity world. There are certain pages that are trustworthy but there can be fake news pages so sometimes it's hard to believe something when scrolling through your feed. 

Youtube is one of my favorite places to get my news from. This is because once I hear about something going on in the world I can learn more about it by visual aids to understand it more. Youtube has everything whether you want to watch it about 100 years ago or 10 days ago. I watch Youtube every day, it helps me learn about events I don't know much about. I recommend for people to give it a try.

CNN is the last new source that I follow. I don't use it as much as I use Apple News, Entertainment News, Instagram, and Youtube but I do use it pretty frequently. It has quick updates on politics, weather, entertainment, and much more. They average about 29 posts per day so they are updating their website throughout the day.