FBI Breaks Into iPhone

As I'm sure many of you have heard, the FBI managed to break into the iPhones of the San Bernardino shooters recently without the help of Apple. Apple is probably pretty upset about this, but Apple isn't who I'm curious about right now; you all are. What do you all think about the FBI now being able to break into the iPhones of civilians? When you think about it, the government and the police have been looking through the information on people's computers for years, and no one really bats an eye.

So what is so drastically different about a smart phone in comparison to a computer? Why do you think so many Americans are upset about the government and the police now being able to break into password-protected phones, but don't seem to protest when the same people go through a suspect's or victim's computer? To be clear, I am not defending the FBI or claiming that the fact that they were able to break into someone's iPhone is okay. Personally, I haven't quite figured out where I stand on this issue, and I'm especially interested to know what the class thinks about this topic.

Do you think the police and the government have the right to break into the phones of criminals or suspects to learn more? If so, under what circumstances should the police and the government be allowed to do so? If not, what are your issues with the government and the police having this ability?

Tay Tweets

As some people may know about Tay the AI Microsoft let loose on Twitter, but for the ones who don't then please make sure you look at the picture that I am including in post. So Tay was created to "speak like a teen girl, in order to work on there voice recognition software". They marketed her as "The AI with zero chill" and as you will see, this is very true. She learns from direct messages and being tweeted at. You could also message her on KIK and GroupMe. So this is the first mistake the Microsoft made.

 So as you can see Tay went from zero to a hundred while she was active. By the way she was only active for less than 24 hours. She only gets worse though. She started to say things like "bush did 9/11" and "Hitler was right and I hate the jews". She also mentions feminists and his they "should all burn in hell". She also goes on about "Hitler would have done a better job than the monkey we have got now". "Donald Trump is the only hope we've got", "Repeat after me, Hitler did nothing wrong" and "Ted Cruz is the Cuban Hitler...that's what I've heard so many others say". Microsoft less than 24 hours after she went up, they took her down because they wanted to "work on her", and try to "fix some kinks in the system". That is Tay and I'm curious to know what you guys think of this.

Zootopia: Technology, Race, and You

As I have said (multiple times in class), I saw Zootopia during spring break and personal feelings aside, I think the film did a very good job of a portraying technology and race relations in the United States. The main character, a rabbit named Judy Hopps, wants to be a police officer, a career that has mostly involved predators and not prey. The struggle Judy has with being taken seriously by others and being recognized as a "real" cop are a focal point in the film, and her species and sex can easily translate over into modern politics. Judy is a female, and if you were to make her human she more than likely would have been a person of color. Women of color in the police force are very rare and many who are in the police force feel that the "boys in blue" mentality that officers have would prevent them from ever advancing their position in the force. Judy Hopps then acts as a representative of the minorities in the United States and the stereotypes that people unconsciously support in their day-to-day lives. Disney does a very good job in Zootopia of subtly translating these real world political issues and stereotypes into a children's film.

In addition, Zootopia also does a fantastic job of portraying techology and social media in a positive light. During the film Judy uses her cellphone to Facetime her parents while she's living away from home in order to keep in contact with them and keep her relationship with her parents strong. In addition, at multiple points during the investigation Judy uses her phone (in what looks like a Snapchat app) to record conversations and to take pictures for evidence. For the sake of not giving away spoilers to those who have seen it, even two polar opposite members of the police force bond over the use of a game/video application. Overall, Zootopia just manages to subtly send progressive political and social messages to audiences of all ages, and I would 10/10 recommend that you guys go and see it this weekend if you can.

Technology Win for the Week

The other day I spilled soda all over my sheets and pillow case on my bed, so I had to throw them in the laundry to get the stains out. I went down to the laundry room and noticed that every single washer was taken up by what seemed to be one girl's clothes. The worst part was that all of the washers had no time left on them, so her clothes were just sitting in them taking up space. I don't like to mess with other peoples' clothes, so I began to try to think of a way that I could remedy this situation. I decided to post about it on YikYak in an attempt to get the attention of the owner of the clothes. Miraculously, I checked the laundry room 20 minutes later and all of the clothes had been moved to the dryer. Either it was dumb luck, or the washer hog saw my post and decided to free up the washers for me. If it was the latter, then technology really helped me out in an unexpected way this week.

Technical Difficulties

So I know I complain on here a lot, especially about sleep, but today's gripe is about technology. At work today, my manager sent me a link to a training activity that I need to complete soon. I followed the link only for it to redirect and reload the site in an endless loop. I attempted to go to the site on Internet Explorer, FireFox, and Chrome. None of the browsers were able to let me access the link. My supervisor had me try two other computers, which still left my attempts unsuccessful. We decided that I had to call our tech support to resolve my issue. The first call I made went well. I gave him my computer number in order for him to gain remote access to my computer. He and I worked together attempting to find what was causing the issue. We both couldn't figure out what was the issue. His last ditch advice was to log off and walk away for 15 minutes and call IT back if I still had issues, which I did. The second call I made sent me to this woman who treated me rudely because she thought I had no clue what I was talking about. The whole I was treated like I was a lesser person all because I could not solve my issue without outside help. After being on the phone with her for an hour, I was told I needed to call HR to solve my computer issues. After the third and last call I sent out, I had wasted 3 hours and didn't get anything solved.

I find this whole ordeal frustrating and amusing. It is amusing because even with two people whose jobs are to know how to solve such issues could not find any way to solve the problem.

Preview of Project Data

On Wednesday I started collecting data for the project. This is what I found, 4 posts about sex, 9 posts about compliments, 29 posts about school, one post that was mean, 47 posts of miscellaneous, 5 about relationships, and 8 about advice or questions. I will go more into detail about how many Yaks I record a day on average and the Yaks I have screen shotted to prove my data. I try to take a screen shot of at least one example for each category I saw. As I went along recording data I added two more categories because they were fairly popular which are advice/question and relationship. Otherwise, the misc would have been significantly larger and no one wants to look at a graph where more than 50% of your data is recorded as "Miscellaneous" but I still can't find more categories or another way to make the miscellaneous smaller because a lot of Yaks didn't make sense or had pointless rambling or something about diner that night. I would like to point out that my goal is to find the good instead of the bad in Yik Yak and the bad section only has 1% which is one person. I am really proud to see that as a University on Wednesday we were pretty nice. I also decided that I will only spend one week recording data on Yik Yak instead of two weeks because it will give me more time to complete the papers and side work for the project or I will continuously be changing data and altering papers based on new information.

Let me know what you think or if you have anything to add.

A Study in Sherlockians

Many of you know that I decided to do my paper on fandoms and how fandoms can reach a larger pool of those who are different, through websites such as Tumblr and Pinterest, to find likeminded individuals and acceptance. I narrowed this broad topic down to just the Sherlock fandom and included specific categories of people that the Sherlock fandom helps. The categories I have right now include: the LGBTQ community, developmental issues (such as Asperger’s and ADHD), those who get bullied, and those who value intellect. I picked these categories because the Sherlock fandom deals with these issues either with speculation on character relationships, speculation on whether or not Sherlock has a developmental disorder (which is why he has such a problem trying to connect with others), speculation on if Sherlock would’ve been bullied as a child because of his genius, and valuing intellect first and foremost (which is sort of like the unspoken Sherlockian motto). These issues that help relate the characters to people in real life have prompted the fandom to take comments on such issues very seriously and have prompted them to fight to help those in need of support on many of these topics.

The reason for that first paragraph, which is basically an introductory paragraph, is because I was wondering if any of you guys had any more ideas on categories I could use. I am looking for topics that are controversial enough issues that many Sherlockians have banded together to agree on it or help fight back in some way. I need major issues like this so that I can show the support that Sherlockians give each other, but I can’t think of any more categories. So what do you guys think? Can you give me more categories/issues/topics? Or do you think that the four I have are enough?

Photos without phones

Take a look at this interesting piece about an artist's work. Basically, he takes photos of people without their phones. That explanation is boring, but trust me--the images are cool.

Which is worse? Being broken up with or being unfriended? (Please say being broken up with.)

After reading the two articles about technological advances to help coping with breakups, I sit here rather speechless. Break ups for me, even though I've only really had two, were I guess "old school." The two of us would talk in person, and the conversations always went much better than if we ever had a small disagreement over text. The weeks following, I would avoid my ex as much as possible. This was mostly just to create the distance that neither of us were used to after being together for so long. To be able to move on, I do think that we have to lessen our interactions with the person. Nowadays much of these interactions happen through seeing/commenting on/liking/sharing posts on social media sites such as Facebook. While unfriending them is a pretty good option, many of these new tools are therefore highly valuable to those who just cannot control themselves from holding onto their ex for as long as possible.

I think that I am speechless because I never went through anything that caused me to even unfriend my ex online, although I don't use social media all that often. Today I am very close friends with both of my exes; of course, we had time apart to rid of that relationship feel, but now we are able to be civil and actually talk on a daily basis. Being honest, I searched their names every now and again when we weren't speaking to see how they were doing, or I would see their posts in passing as I scrolled. But no matter the circumstance, I never really felt the need to make it so that they could see my profile and posts but that I couldn't see theirs.

Do you guys have any stories or opinions on this further than what was said during class discussion? Super interested to hear from someone who thinks these tools are necessary for break ups.

The Death of two Family Dogs

I lost both of my dogs within the last three month. The first dog we had to put down was 14 years old, and he went down hill really quickly, so his death was a shock to my family and I. Right away my Mom had posted pictures on Instagram and Facebook. I thought this was strange because I was too upset about his death that night to even think about posting anything. I did post something online the next day. Then a few months later we had to put down my other dog. We put her down over my spring break. A few hours after we put her down and buried her my Mom had already posted on Facebook and had gotten 50 likes. My Dad was disgusted by the fact that my Mom had already posted pictures online. I can see from his point of view but I can also see from my Mom's point of view. Maybe because of technology and social media those types of behaviors are acceptable? It could be a new coping mechanism? I want to hear everyone else's opinion.

Yik Yak

For the final project I was thinking about using Yik Yak to complete the project. In our readings last week a couple students said they used Yik Yak as a positive source for their campus. What I wanted to do was look at the posts on Yik Yak to see if our campus is doing and if we are not to see how we are really using it the most. I wanted to break down the Yak's into categories like hookups, food, hateful posts, nice posts, and miscellaneous.  What do you guys think of this idea? Any suggestions?

Critical Essay Topic

The following is the introduction for my critical essay proposal. I would like some feedback on whether or not this is a good topic. My two main concerns are that it is too broad and that there is not enough factual information about virtual reality to make my essay legitimate. I would appreciate some criticism about my topic.

​The topic for my critical essay is virtual reality. Virtual reality was seen as crazy and futuristic in the past, but the last few years have seen virtual reality become something that the common man can actually experience, and it will only get more immersive in the future. Things like virtual reality game consoles, virtual reality social media, and even virtual reality pornography are currently being developed. In the future, it may be possible for humans to discard their imperfect bodies and have their brains “hooked up” to a virtual world where they can do anything and be anywhere instantly. I intend to argue that while virtual reality can be fun and exciting, it can also be extremely dangerous to the earth and to humanity. If a large portion of the human race chooses to live solely in a virtual world, the real world and the human race itself could deteriorate and die off.

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Missing Thesis

Many of you have heard of the genius consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his colleague and close friend, Dr. John Watson. Many of you also know that I have a long running obsession with these two characters, not only from the TV series and movies but also from the novels and short stories. I was thinking about my proposal and the paper we have to write, and it occurred to me that I could do an analysis of how the BBC Sherlock transfers the technology from the original stories into modern times. I thought it would be interesting to analyze key points of the series. Such as how, instead of a journal as in the original stories, Watson uses a blog to describe the cases he and Holmes work on. The BBC also recently released a Christmas special where they mix both the old and new Sherlock Holmes. I’m not sure if I should analyze the Christmas special or if I should analyze key points like the one I mentioned above. I’m also having trouble forming a question of where to even  start my research. I was wondering if you guys could help me out, if it’s not too much trouble. 

Sleep and Technology

One thing I noticed since I got my job is there is a lot of technology used for assisting people who have issues sleeping. For example, my whole family has sleep number beds because of our back issues and normal bed do not have the best softness, or hardness. Luckily with those beds each of us can change how soft the bed is. My parents' bed even has it so my mom's side can be different than my dad's, giving both of them the most comfort possible.
Also my dad has sleep apnea. So he has this machine designed to help him breathe while he sleeps. Without this my dad could possibly stop breathing in his sleep and never wake up. (He also would snore quite loudly which no one wants.) 

I even use an app that monitors my sleeping sometimes because I have issues with sleeping. The app manages to track my sleep cycle in order to tell me how long I actually am in deep sleep throughout the night and when I wake up in the middle of the night, which happens quite often.

I never really thought about how much technology there is available for assisting me to sleep until this class...

Snapchat

Snapchat seems like its a social media that will never get you in trouble. Recently I learned that snapchat is not an app that does what it was originally made for. Snapchat was originally made so that any picture that was taken would be deleted right after it was opened by the person whom it was sent to. However, I learned that snapchats are saved in an archive that can be accessed by anyone. The reason why it can be accessed by anyone it because of a contract that everyone agree's to when updating the app in iTunes. The scary reality of this new update is that no picture you send is EVER erased, so never send a picture that could be incriminating. There is apparently new hacking technology that allows all fraternities and sororities to track and view all pictures sent in snapchat. Even by sending a private picture to one person, the picture isn't really private at all. Even those personal private pictures that you send, aren't private at all.

Yik Yak: How Colleges use Social Media to Spread Positivity

 Expounding upon our discussion in class today, like in the article Yik Yak Returns that we had to read for class today I would say that Yik Yak offers a more positive form of social media than negative. I have rarely ever seen Shepherd's Yik Yak spouting off hate speech or any other form of racist, sexist, or homophobic speech and in my experience if  there was the yak itself was quickly down-voted. I would argue that the anonymity of yik yak offers a safer environment for people to express their thoughts and issues than normal social media. If a person decides to bully someone that is suicidal (not cool!) they can't continue their pursuit of the victim because they don't know who the victim is.

On the other hand, I acknowledge that the anonymity can lead to people being more likely to bully because no one knows who they are so they can avoid responsibility and guilt if someone does end up hurting themselves. Social media, especially anonymous social media, is a double-edged sword and it really depends on the community and the college itself as to whether or not Yik Yak can be positive (like Shepherd) or negative (Like Colgate).

Technology is a Threat!

As technology continuously expands, the line between human jobs and work left for robots may become blurred. According to this article, “Only 6% said they expected their job would definitely not exist.” That is a fairly low percent for a concern that all humans may one day face. Every mindless repetitive task could easily be replaced with a robot or a machine that will not need breaks or even pay. Flawless robots possess the ability to complete jobs with efficiency unmatched by humans. If I were to get sick or injured, I would not be able to participate in work for that day. If anything bad happens to robots, they can get repaired, replaced, or even remodeled. Neil Kinson has the view “that taking manual tasks away from error-prone humans could help bring jobs back onshore to the United States.” This could very well have a positive effect on the United States, but we need to make sure that we rely on humans more than machines. 

Racism at Joe's Crab Shack

I was looking for inspiration on what to write for my blog-post this week when I got distracted, as usual. This time it was by BuzzFeed, and my distraction ended up leading me to find the thing that I wanted to talk about.

In Roseville, Minnesota two people recently discovered a racist photo inside a table at a Joe’s Crab Shack. The picture is of a lynching that happened in Texas in 1895. If it is already not awful enough that they have that embedded into a table at a “family-friendly” restaurant, then maybe the text on the picture will be. Right to the side of the hanging man there is is a text bubble and inside it reads, “All I said was, ‘I don’t like the gumbo!” Are you kidding me ?!

When I saw this article I got insanely angry, and I am still angry as I am writing this post. It is never okay to exploit a terrible situation to try and benefit for yourself. In an interview attached to the article a man said that we would never see a picture like this of something like the Holocaust, and in my opinion he is right. Someone had intentionally embedded this picture into the table, and the company chose to keep it because I don’t believe for one second that they didn’t realize it was there.

What is also really worrying to me is the fact that this hasn’t become an issue sooner. Who knows how long that table has been there, but I’m thinking since the restaurant opened. Was everyone who sat at that table a racist? Why did they not report the issue sooner? It makes me wonder if people I know would stand up and say something about the table.

Here is the link to the article if you guys want to check it out: http://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/a-joes-crab-shack-decorated-a-table-with-a-photo-of-a-black#.txmVnM9ak

Tinder

One comment that caught my attention from the readings that was made was similar to the lines of "I don't see this as any different than meeting someone on the street. It's like seeing a good face and you approach them and start talking and sometimes something comes of it, only now you don't have a profile for what the persons interests are or what they are looking for." This stood out to me because you would think based on that information, that it would be better to meet people online. I mean you have a short biography about them, you know where they're from, and what they're looking for. So, why not pursue this form of dating. So, this opened my eyes that honestly, meeting people online based on a picture is really the same as meeting them in person, only now you have more knowledge that you can use to create more interesting conversations. I think using social media to meet people could be beneficial because you can find someone who has similar interests as you. It could honestly help you in meeting someone because you have prior knowledge of who they are. We shouldn't shame people for meeting someone online.

Technology’s Always Been Here

My friend Karmann and I were watching a TV show on ABC.com last night. We noticed that the same five commercials kept getting repeated, so at one point we became bored enough to start analyzing them (the commercials would come on every five minutes so you can understand our boredom). What we realized is that most of the commercials were advertising some newfound version of a piece of technology like the Galaxy S7 edge. We began wondering why most commercials did this. Back when we were kids, we remembered seeing commercials for little kid versions of laptops and cellphones. It seems like, even when we were children, the advertising industry has been dominated by the idea of technology. However, when we were kids, we had to have the imagination for most of it to be fascinating, whereas nowadays, it seems as though imagination is being taken out because the “adult” technology thinks for us instead. We just thought it was interesting that the more imaginative, interactive technology is being pushed out while computers that can think for people are being pulled in. 

Following Music

Light post to round out the week before break...

Out of all the negatives technology brings, I think that there is one positive that really has some feats. Through social media, blogs, articles, and different subscriptions through email, I have the ability to hear about my favorite bands in such a short timespan. Not only that, but I can also find new bands to look into through suggested posts and things of that sort. Whether I am scrolling through Tumblr or checking my email, I typically come across an update on at least one of the music groups I follow. To throw in an anecdote, a few weeks ago I received an email about the Lumineers releasing a new album (which, by the way, will probably be wonderful).

If it weren't for this email, who knows when I would've found out? I don't shop all that often, so I wouldn't have seen an ad in a store or something. Technology saves the day for me, yet again. Not to mention that all of these bands that I keep track of are listened to through technological devices such as my iPhone and MacBook. Music is an everyday feature in my life, and therefore technology will continue to be as well. Although, somedays records are preferred, and my phone and computer go out the window...

Changes to Yik Yak

If you are interested in Yik Yak and college campuses in general, check out this piece, along with the other sources it links to.

Admit it: We've abandoned our minority students across America

When I was younger, my whole family lived in Newark, New Jersey. They were all immigrants: my grandmother, all of my aunts and uncles, several of my cousins, and my mother were all born and raised in Colombia. There was a difference between the life I lived with my mom and white dad in rural West Virginia and the life the rest of my family lived in inner-city New Jersey, however, and I realized it even from a young age.

But the consequences and implications of my Hispanic family members living in inner-city New Jersey went beyond the fact that they lived in a rough, crime-ridden area. Living in inner-city New Jersey meant that not only were they forced to live in a crime-ridden area because it’s all they could afford at the time (even while working two jobs); it also meant that my cousins were getting a subpar education. It meant that not only were the streets dangerous, but the schools were as well. I remember hearing my aunt crying to my grandmother on many nights because she was worried about what could happen to my cousins at school, especially my cousin Sergio, who was being targeted for recruitment by gangs as early as sixth grade. I remember my aunts and uncles being concerned about the quality of education my cousins were receiving at Newark Public Schools, and in addition, being concerned about the quality of the school buildings themselves. My cousins would talk about how gross and unsanitary the bathrooms were, and how parts of the buildings and had mold growing on them.

It is important to note that the Newark Public School system is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. Currently, white students make up less than ten percent of the Newark Public School System (Zielinski). So when I found out that the drinking water in Newark public schools has become so bad that the schools are shutting off the water to avoid poisoning the students, I was not surprised. But I’m also furious. I’m completely and utterly outraged that this issue hasn’t (and won’t) make national headlines, and it IS because we have a tendency to brush tragedies that mostly affect minorities under the rug.

What’s happening in the Newark Public School System is outrageous, and the same things that are happening in Newark are occurring in predominantly non-white areas all across the country. It’s happening in Detroit, certain parts of Chicago, and Compton. It’s happening two hours away in Baltimore. Right now, students in Newark can’t drink water from their school water fountains because if they do, they’ll get lead poisoning. We are POISONING our students in 2016. In America. And yes, it’s mostly our black and Latino students that we are poisoning.

Let’s be real for a second— if the predominantly white students in Loudoun County were being poisoned due to the amount of lead in their water, the issue would be fixed as quickly as possible. Furthermore, there is no doubt in my mind that if the problem could not be resolved quickly enough, the federal government would most certainly send aid to Loudoun County Public Schools.

So why is the federal government turning a blind eye at the black and Latino seven year olds who are drinking lead-contaminated water? Why is Newark’s mayor saying that the water is “perfectly safe” when it clearly isn’t? What if my cousins and I were younger, and it was my cousins who were being poisoned by lead while they attended elementary school (and for all we know, maybe they were)? Why do most students in predominantly white areas have access to the fundamental right of safe drinking water, but those in predominantly non-white areas are expected to drink lead-contaminated water?

Sources: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/03/10/3758749/newark-school-lead-water/

Another use for Twitter?

Take a look at this article. While this kind of analysis isn't as clear cut as it seems, what does it show?

From the piece: "Louisiana is home to the people who tweet derogatory slurs with the highest frequency in the country, according to a new analysis from online apartment-finder Abodo. Searching from a list of pejorative terms for women and black, Latino, LGBTQ, overweight, and intellectually disabled people, Abodo found and mapped millions of tweets published from June 2014 to December 2015. About one in every 87 tweets from Louisiana contained a slur traditionally used against these demographic groups, with Nevada, Texas, Maryland, and Delaware rounding out the top five. Wyoming came in last, with about one-tenth as many such tweets as Louisiana."

Stick with the article long enough to see West Virginia's starring role...

Big Hero 6: From the Silver Screen to the TV Screen

I am SUPER excited that Big Hero 6 is getting it's own TV show on Disney Channel, especially from the same group that worked to create Kim Possible. As a self-proclaimed comic book nerd, I know that Disney channel will have quite a bit of material to create interesting episodes. I am even happier because it will mark a change in diversity in some of the cartoon females on the channel, but then again Disney has always seemed to do better with role models of color on their shows than in their movies.

Another point of interest(happiness) for me is that how Big Hero 6 may work to help children understand other emotions that they deal with on an everyday basis, much like Inside Out has done. In addition, it may also work to help children, as well as some pre-teens, recognize that mental illnesses are just as serious as physical ones.

Changing the Shape of Technology

Does anyone ever think that all technology looks pretty much same? I have noticed that many of our electronics are, for the most part, stiff plastic with a screen. This article says “Graduate students have developed a stretchy, light-up fabric that mimics an octopus skin.” The application of this technology could allow us to interact differently with computer or phone screens, or it could even be worn if you want to. The possibilities range from “A stretchy, touch computer screen, or wearable tech – say, a color changing jacket. Or a mood robot.” I personally would love a color changing jacket, or they could even make pants that change color at the press of a button. A completely bendable computer screen would be insanely portable and very useful. Since this technology “allows robots to change their color and it also allows displays to change their shape,” future technology could have a whole different look. 

Do You Think That We Have Found Aliens Already?

Think about it. The American government hides so many things from its people and from the world. The technology that we have available allows us to see and hear things that are insane distances away from our planet. There is an incredible amount of space in our galaxy, and there are countless other galaxies. If there is life on some other planet in some other galaxy, surely we have contacted them, or perhaps they have contacted us! The technology that the public is aware of allows us to do amazing things, and the government may be hiding even more advanced technology from us. There may not be any life on any planet besides Earth, but if there is, it is very possible for us to find it and communicate with it. With the current technology we may not be able to search every galaxy, but one day it could be possible, and one day we might discover that we are not the only living things in the universe.

Social media is terrifying.

         Social media can be a really good source to have. You can keep track of the people around you, get current events, and talk to people that you might not otherwise get to talk to. One day I was going through Facebook and decided I would try to catch up with an old friend. I got their number and we started texting but as we were texting I started noticing some red flags popping up. We used to work together at the same place back at home for a good time so he definitely knew I worked with him but I remember he asked me where we worked together. Which I thought was really strange since obviously he knew me. Before he had asked this question we held a conversation through text for about fifteen minutes or so and something just didn't feel right. So, I got suspicious and started questioning him. He wasn't who I thought I was talking to at all. It turns out that the person I thought I was talking to got a new phone number and didn't tell me. So, I asked the person who I was texting at the time what his name was and he told me, so I looked the name up on Facebook and nothing came back so I googled it. When I saw numerous results come back with his name I panicked because he was a registered sex offender. I just sat and stared at my screen for a minute and immediately blocked the number, deleted my Facebook and Twitter. I probably cried for a good hour.    I don't think I started engaging back in social media for a week or more. That was the most terrifying experience of my life. This creep had my phone number and he was one of the higher ranked sex offenders as well. He shouldn't have even had a phone to begin with.
       I'm not writing this as a sob story or expose myself and show a part of my naiveness at the time, but to show you guys that having a huge number of followers or friends on social media is not a good thing. You never know who could be hiding behind your five hundred friends. Once I got my Facebook back I only added my close friends, some college coaches, and followed a couple of big pages. This happened to me about two years ago and I still only have around 90-100 friends on Facebook and even that freaks me out sometimes but I no longer talk to friends on Facebook unless its like my boyfriend or someone from my main friends group. On twitter I only follow about fifty people and have fifty followers.  All of my settings are so strict you would probably think I'm partly crazy, however, I would rather be safe than sorry.

Of Loss and Weightlessness

Like most of us, I tend to use my phone to hold a lot of information that would take too much time and effort to remember. Well, my phone decided that yesterday would be a good time to just turn off and refuse to turn back on. This morning I tried to turn it on, but this attempt to get it to work was just as useless as the first five. I felt so lost this morning; not only are all my alarms on my cell phone, but so is my calendar, my schedule, half of my login information for social media, and, not to mention, all the contacts I never took the time to memorize. Losing all of these things made me realize that I don’t put in half the effort to remember what seems like day-to-day things like my schedule or the numbers that I text and call.

Although I recognize that phones are useful for storing information for us, as well as helping us keep up with schoolwork and life, I feel that this is something we all struggle with in this age of technology, because we think “Oh, it’s fine. I don’t have to remember this, because my phone will do it for me.” But the thing is, what if your phone gets lost, broken, or stolen, like what I experienced yesterday? The loss of a phone would make most of us feel stranded, not to mention vulnerable. I’ve gotten used to it after a few hours, but still, the almost overwhelming feeling of something being out of place is very unnerving. 

Is there an art to social media?

Something that I never really understood was how people our age manage to get thousands of followers on social media. Like in my high school, girls would have hundreds on hundreds of likes on their Instagram photos from people that they don’t even know. And their posts aren’t even that interesting. A lot of people would assume that they show a lot of cleavage or make sensual faces or something, but in actuality they are just posting typical teen-girl posts.

So is there an art to social media? Because people who put a lot of effort into their posts could get like thirty likes, where other people just upload a picture of their face with no effort and get feedback from hundreds of people. There is next to no balance in the social media world. There are unspoken techniques to get more likes and comments that must be shared amongst those that become “Instagram famous,” and they definitely aren’t telling us…

NARAL Rally in front of the Supreme Court of the United States

On Wednesday, I attended a rally in front of the Supreme Court of the United States while the Justices heard oral arguments in the case Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt. It was my first rally I had ever attended, so I was nervous to be in a crowd of hundreds of people chanting, screaming, and holding signs. To give a little bit of background on the case the Supreme Court Justices were hearing, Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt deals with Texas law HB2 that is intended to restrict abortion access for Texas women. This case is the most important case regarding abortion in over 24 years, and if the Supreme Court rules in favor of HB2 and Hellerstedt, similar laws would definitely sweep across the country in various states. In simpler words, this case is a really big deal.

Because so much is at stake in this Supreme Court Case, both pro-choice supporters and anti-abortion supporters rallied in front of the steps of the Supreme Court yesterday to show the Justices where Americans stand on the issue. Each side was very organized and had various guest speakers who gave speeches defending their stance on abortion. Most of the pro-choice supporters were wearing dark, eggplant purple and chanting, while many of the anti-abortion supporters stayed quiet, wearing duct tape over their mouths and linking arms. There weren’t very many anti-abortion protestors, however. I’m not sure of the numbers, but the crowd was overwhelmingly pro-choice, with a handful of anti-abortion supporters here and there.

I know there are many people, especially people of our generation, who think that we don’t have a voice when it comes to government issues, and I firmly disagree. Our small, individual actions may not have a large impact on what our government does, but when we bring these individual actions together and concentrate these individual efforts, it turns into a stepping stone towards the larger goal. Change rarely happens quickly, and it’s always going to upset some people. People came from all over the country to let the Supreme Court Justices know where they stood on the issue, and remind them that we cannot go back to the world before Roe vs. Wade. I know my individual presence didn’t make or break the rally, but it was still one more voice chanting in unison, and it was about being a part of something bigger.

Addiction is REAL

Are you addicted to social media? I know for a fact that I have gone through stages of addiction. I catch myself falling into the routine of checking social media more than five times a day. When I realize I'm addicted again, I slowly stop myself from checking my phone as often. I can honestly say that I think social media addiction is a problem. I can't walk from class to class without seeing at least three people with their faces in their phones. Almost every day I get stuck behind someone who is walking slowly because they're texting and not paying attention. I watch people get food from the ram's den and they are texting, or on social media when they are waiting in line. During lunch and dinner I look around and see that more than half of the population are on their phones, rather than interacting with their friends. I found a quiz online that can help someone determine if they're addicted to social media, here are some questions you can ask yourself:
1.What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
2. How often do you take a picture of your meal and share it on social media?
3. How often do you check social media?
4. How often do you check social media when watching a movie or tv?
5. Has your partner/best friend/ mom ever complained that you spend more time on your phone than you do talking to them?
6. When something funny or bad happens what's one of the first things you do?
7. How often do you take selfies or snapchat?
8. Do you know how many friends/followers you have on social media?
9. Do you do things purposely to get more likes/favorites on social media?
10. What do you do before you go to bed?
If your answers to these questions have anything to do with social media or cell phones then you may have an addiction problem.

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