Audit Online Presence

 I would say that I have an average or just below average online footprint. I have a Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Google. I have my name connected to some of these accounts and some of those gaming accounts have my banking information associated in order for me to purchase games. My spam email account has been given to these site for the sole purpose of password recovery. That email is used for password recovery and online shopping coupon codes. The last time I looked, that email had over twelve thousand unread messages. 

A visitor to my social media pages could easily determine that I am a single college age male living in the united states who enjoys the outdoors, gaming, movies, cars, sports, and fitness. 

I do feel that Facebook, other social media, and our connection to our phones is making us a more lonely and depressed society. There is data from the CDC showing that teens suicide rates and reporting of mental illness has skyrocketed since 2010. This is touched on in The Social Dilemma, social media companies are designed to make you lonelier without you noticing. You get a small hit of dopamine every time a notification goes off but that makes a lack of notifications give you a lack of dopamine. A person will then wait by their phone and ignore the easy sources of face to face human interaction, which provides a much larger dopamine hit, and sit in a depressed solitude waiting for the ping of a like or a comment.

Click Here for The Social Dilemma

Click Here for CDC reports

Policy

 Policy is defined as the written guidelines by which a government and its society should operate. However there ca be many times where the current policy on the books is not adequate for the modern climate. We have seen this become increasingly true with the advent of tools like social media. I do not see much changing in the favor of the people. Current laws allow social media companies to track your information plugged into their app, mine information from the device on which the app is installed, then sell that information to the highest bidder. That includes a national government. If you have ever gotten an advertisement for any form of military service, congratulations. Your information was sold by a company that is more than likely owned by Google to a federal government. The government uses social media companies to spy on you in ways that they cannot legally spy on you. However, they still conduct their own illegal surveillance on you as well as if you report them then the government will investigate itself and months later clear itself of any wrongdoing. 

While there is hope for me that the right thing will be done by the Department of Justice in their hearings against Google and Facebook. I am not holding my breath. Just as people say that corporations do not care about their customers, I have very minimal faith that the politicians of the United States care about their constituents.  Policy is defined as the written guidelines by which a government and its society should operate. However there ca be many times where the current policy on the books is not adequate for the modern climate. We have seen this become increasingly true with the advent of tools like social media. I do not see much changing in the favor of the people. Current laws allow social media companies to track your information plugged into their app, mine information from the device on which the app is installed, then sell that information to the highest bidder. That includes a national government. If you have ever gotten an advertisement for any form of military service, congratulations. Your information was sold by a company that is more than likely owned by Google to a federal government. The government uses social media companies to spy on you in ways that they cannot legally spy on you. However, they still conduct their own illegal surveillance on you as well as if you report them then the government will investigate itself and months later clear itself of any wrongdoing. 

Not only is the current law rather lacking on the books, it is very lacking in the courts as well. Law is a very fickle thing with some of the most absurd defense options for an accused individual. Tim Parlatore told a story about his time as a lawyer in New York where he was given a case involving some base jumpers leaping from the roof of a building to base jump down into the streets of New York. The exact legal wording of the charge for base jumping in the city of New York stated that the individual is forbidden from jumping from inside a building from a height of more than forty five feet. Tim Parlatore used and won the case with the defense of, "well they did not base jump per the law, they jumped from the outside of the building not the inside." I included that story for several reasons. I think it is honestly a pretty funny story, and I think it is important to highlight how easy it can be to skirt around the law for anyone in the US. Not to mention how easy it would be for someone with the resources of Jeff Bezos.

While there is hope for me that the right thing will be done by the Department of Justice in their hearings against Google and Facebook. I am not holding my breath. Just as people say that corporations do not care about their customers, I have very minimal faith that the politicians of the United States care about their constituents. I must hold out in the hope that this cycle will be broken. The government will actually use the power of the Sherman Ant-Trust Act to break up America Inc. oops sorry, I meant Alphabet Inc. and their clear and clearly illegal monopoly is so many facets of the modern American society. 

For the full Tim Parlatore story and more about him, click here

For an article on the DOJ hearing click here

Privacy

 I am incredibly disappointed however I am not surprised by these Ted Talks. We have not had any privacy for a very long time and we do not seem to really care. We claim that we do, but then turn around and elect the same officials and allow them to continue to destroy and trample upon our rights. My mom had gotten an Amazon Echo and my brother and I were horrified because Jeff Bezos now has a wire tap into my home. My mom argues well why should we care? We are not doing anything wrong. I would argue back that throughout history under authoritarian style high surveillance regimes, the definition of what is wrong can be changed on a whim. The way that our government is set up, the shift to an authoritarian system is not easy and must be done subtly. US politicians leverage national and international tragedies to do two things: get more power, and line their own pockets. 

Earlier this year there was the court evaluation of the several surveillance acts that were exposed by Edward Snowden and others. In this instance of the government investigating themselves, they actually did find that their program had not one time in the thirty years of it's existence been the determining factor in the prevention of a terrorist attack on the United States. Then the programs are reinstated. I do not understand how things like this can happen in a supposedly free society. Where is the accountability and where is government for the people?

Click here for the Snowden movie trailer

EOTO One Social Media

I have to say my favorite presentation was probably about the invention of social media. The landscape now is so different from how it was around the time that the technology was first implemented. The evolution of Instagram specifically was most interesting to me given that the company started off as small as it did and was created by people around my own age. The story of Instagram's meteoric rise to popularity is genuinely inspiring as I hope to one day start my own business. Hopefully my endeavours will bring even a fraction of the success that Instagram has brought and will continue to bring to it's owners in the coming years. 

To learn more about the current state of our social media culture check out The Social Dilemma here, or on Netflix at the time of this post.

EOTO Communication Methods

 One communication method that has been around now for hundreds of years, is paper. We still use paper today, however, it does seems that we are moving towards a paperless society. I had very little trouble finding my research for the EOTO assignment. I ever learned that the original intended use for paper was not as a writing material but as a cheaper alternative to silk as a wrapping material for certain goods. This occurred in ancient china close to the rule of the Han dynasty, however, an exact date cannot be deduced as archaeological evidence of the papermaking process predates the generally credited inventor of paper, the eunuch, Cai Lun. The Chinese also invented the idea of toilet paper which was seen as a strange concept by foreigners who came to trade with the Chinese in the year 851. (This being 1000 years after the rule of the Emperor Wu of Han. Wu of Han. Wuhan. Then 1000 years after the invention of toilet paper, the Wuhan virus makes toilet paper nearly impossible to find. Coincidence? Most likely haha.)

(Illuminati Confirmed)

After the popularity of paper as a writing material increased a culture of appreciation for literature very quickly moved to this new technology which allowed for a more weather resistant and portable form of literature in the form of books. Later, during the Tang Dynasty China surpassed the Mediterranean nations to become the world's leading book producer.

The oldest known paper document in Europe is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th century, which is theorized to have been created using paper made in the Islamic part of the Iberian Peninsula. They used hemp and linen rags as a source of fiber. The first recorded paper mill in the Iberian Peninsula was in Xàtiva in 1056. Papermaking would later have reached Europe as early as 1085 in Toledo and was firmly established in Xàtiva, Spain by the mid 1100's. It is clear through preserved documentation that France had a paper mill by 1190, and by 1276 mills were established in Fabriano, Italy and in Treviso and other northern Italian towns by 1340. Papermaking would then spread further north, with evidence of paper being made in Troyes, France by 1348, in Holland sometime around the mid 1300's, in Mainz, Germany in 1320, and in Nuremberg by 1400. This was just about the time when the woodcut printmaking technique was transferred from fabric to paper in the old master print and popular prints. 

Click here for a paper documentary I found on Youtube.

8 Values of Free Expression

 Free Expression is the hallmark of American Society. How can a nation claim to be free if they are not free to put their opinions out for the public to hear? One should not be thrown to the proverbial wolves just because they are not onboard with the public idea, nor if another person simply disagrees with an aspect of the publishing party or their stance. Additionally, in a capitalist society, the freedoms of any person to move the needle of progress forward for the good of all is paramount. 

 The marketplace of ideas is a theory that is very important to myself as well as many entrepreneurs. This idea originated from John Milton on the basis that there should not be a licensing requirement to be able to print or publish. This would allow a greater ease of access to the Marketplace of Ideas for individuals who would be unable to pay for the licensing to print or publish their ideas. Without this ideology, there would be no middle nor lower class representation in any form of public information. 

Protection of Dissent and Promotion of Tolerance are two theories that I feel are critical to the functioning of a civilized society that are also very closely linked. We must be tolerant of the different ideologies within a society. No two people are exactly alike in terms of their personalities and belief systems. A mature person must be able to tolerate the reality that a different person is not going to agree with them and that person is just as entitled to their beliefs as you are to your beliefs. Tolerance goes further than just the tolerance of people with different opinions, it also covers different people in regards to their various minority statuses whether that be racial, religious, sexual, or otherwise. If a minority group is not given the proper respect and access to the ability to speak freely, they lose their rights within a society and more importantly they lose their qualities that make them individuals. 

Protection of Dissent is another hallmark of a "free society". This idea protects an individual who would disagree with the government as well as any other citizen. America was founded on this principle. The Founding Fathers were tired of being suppressed by the Kings' governments in Europe and they revolted in order to live a more free life. You will not always agree with dissenters. That is what makes them dissenters is that they are a minority opinion. 

I find George Orwell's 1984 to be a fantastic and genuinely terrifying account of the downfalls of a society and how the people allow their freedoms to be taken away. Click here for a review and analysis on the novel.

Post 4

 It is not surprising that the mainstream media is rarely critical of the military actions of our country. If you look at it from the perspective of the government then you would be very appreciative if the media would not report on your mistakes and ineptitudes in a military operation or conflict. This would present a divided front that could be easily exploited by a foreign entity in order to destroy or hurt a given nation. While I understand this practice and the purpose of this practice, I do not find it to be ethical. I wouldn't say that we never heard of the writers for websites such as ANTIWAR.com or theamericanconservative.com, and I would actually say we hear about them constantly and through mainstream sources. The issue is that we never hear about them in a positive manner. They are only ever referenced as "the radical left" or "the far right". They are portrayed as these insane individuals that are devoid of any sense or ability to form a logical thought. This is because they not only make the federal government look less than perfect, but they also would lessen the political divide in our public and would limit the money that would be made by the politically endorsed mainstream media sources as they make money off of the political and socioeconomic division of the American people. This is why mainstream media pages work on several fronts in order to suppress these voices. They run their own smear campaigns against these antiwar publications, and they pay search engines such as Google to push those links for these smaller publications so far down in the search results that the average American would never put in the work to read their content. 

Post 3 Six Freedoms

 The First Amendment of the United States Constitution gives the American people the freedoms of religion, from religion, freedom to assemble, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom to petition. These freedoms however are not unremovable under certain circumstances. Some times that these freedoms could be removed would be in a case of an action or speech that would put the public safety at risk such as a bombing or mass shooting. They are NOT valid forms of protest. Actions such as wearing a black armband as a form of war protest is considered a valid form of protest as confirmed by the case of Tinker v. Des Moines. 

In an article published by CNN, they reported on incidents all across the United States involving the Black Lives Matter organization and their supporters after what was seen as the wrongful death of a black man named George Floyd. The protests started off as compliant with the First Amendment and did stay that way in many non-metropolitan areas of the United States. In many large metropolitan areas, however, the scenes turned ugly with protesters burning, looting, and assaulting both law enforcement officers and other members of the public. I struggle to find accurate and unbiased data reporting on the exact percentage of violent protesting as CNN has released articles about the low rate of violence while The Federalist has published articles that say the exact opposite. Please leave a comment if you have been able to find an accurate and unbiased data source regarding the violence rate for the Black Lives Matter protests.

Link For CNN article about nationwide protests

Link For CNN article violence rate article

Link For The Federalist article