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Extra Blog: 4th of July in Washington, DC

This Wasn't a Normal 4th of July Holiday for Many Americans While many Americans experienced 4th of July differently this year, with closed beaches in California, no firework shows in much of New England to discourage crowds gatherings, and parades being canceled, other Americans gathered on the lawn at the President's invite despite spiking coronavirus numbers nationwide and outrage for many Black Americans who were not granted freedom until June 19, 1868, almost 92 years after July 4, 1776. Enslaved Black Americans watched 4th of July celebrations of freedom for their fellow White Americans for almost 100 years before being granted freedom themselves. This has been a new topic discussed on social media within the past few weeks and with the current political climate, was never, to my knowledge, addressed by the current President. The President named the event that took place yesterday on the lawn "Salute to America." It's almost as if he is asking us t
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Final Blog: My Online Presence

What Do Employers See When They Search Your Name On Google? Below are screenshots of what would come up on google when an employer would search my name in relation to social media. All of my accounts are public and every post, like, and comment would be visible to my future employers.  I would consider my online footprint to be pretty large. I have a personal social media account on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, VSCO, and a professional website to promote and sell products on my personal Arbonne website. On my social media accounts, I express my political and social views and allow my voice to be heard, while attempting to be respectful of other people's views as well. Someone looking at my social media accounts could probably find out a lot of personal information on me such as my family, where I live or am at the moment, places I have worked, and people who I hang out with or interact with on social media every day.  I have seen many of my friend&#

EOTO 2: Confirmation Bias

A Breakdown of the Impact of Confirmation Bias Photo above found  here When I looked at the phrase "confirmation bias," I wondered how damaging could it really be to a world where so many people interact with so many other people's opinions. The answer is it could be very damaging to the truth behind a situation. So what is confirmation bias? Confirmation bias is " the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs ." Due to this, when you come across information that is inconsistent with your belief,  you often automatically dismiss it as incorrect. In a simple, non-damaging example, if you were to meet a person with brown hair, and they were annoying, you would assume everyone with brown hair is annoying. When you meet another person with brown hair that actually was annoying, it will confirm your belief that all brown-haired people are annoying, even though that's

Blog 7: The Value of Expression

Social Media is the Gateway to Free Expression Photo above found  here In my first EOTO, I discussed the emergence of Instagram, how it was used in day to day activities, and the influence it allows me to have on other lives. I feel that for the younger generations social media, especially Instagram, is often their only source of political news. For that reason, the Value of Free Expression that is most important to me is the idea of Participation in Self-Government. It is becoming more and more uncommon for people in the younger age ranges to watch the news or stay informed on political issues at their own convenience.  Social media can often bridge the gap between political leaders and the younger generations. Average citizens are able to generate content, post it in the form of an Instagram story or post, and have it shared to millions of users on Instagram. Instead of going out of their way to sit in front of a TV and flip to a particular news channel, they are able to s

Blog 6: Reflection on Technology

Reflection on Deep Fakes After reading Joe's  blog post , it is scary how much false information could be passed to people who were uneducated on deep fakes, didn't know they existed or didn't know how to tell if it was real or not. Words, phrases, and overall ideas could be attached to major influencers or political figures names that they never once said, and it would look to the general public like it came right from their own mouths.  The life of someone you admire or even your life could be ruined by an edited photo or video showing that you said or stand for an idea or concept that could be offensive to other people. Even if in real life you never said those things, proving that the photo or video that said them were a deep fake and mending your social image and platform could be difficult and time-consuming. Earning back the trust of the public after your name was blasted to the whole world in one way could be extremely hard. Deep fakes are dangerous to the in

EOTO 1: Instagram & Its Impact

Social Media & Instagram Image above found  here History Social media can be defined as using online communication and must consist of user-generated content. Social media in those terms did not begin until the creation of Six Degrees and Friendster which were started between the years 1997 and 2002 (Jones). MySpace launched in 2003, followed by Facebook in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. Since they were founded in 2010 and 2011, Instagram and Snapchat are two of the newest, most popular and prevalent forms of social media, and they haven’t even been around for ten years. Social media is new to society and is having clear impacts on the generations that are now having to grow up with it. Although social media is new, in 2015, 2.62 billion people used social media, and it was projected that 3 billion users will be on social media by 2021 (Jones). Social media’s ever-changing, adaptations to what society and viewers demand at one specific period in time is what makes the concept

Blog 5: Anitwar Voices

Why hasn't it ever mattered to us? Recently in the news with the Black Lives Matter Movement, we have seen many people stay silent. That could be for the same reason that we see many people stay silent about issues such as war. These people who don't speak up against their government may deem that this issues do not directly affect them, and due to that, they stay silent or silent others in hopes that mass chaos does not occur. Many Americans don't see the impact of war or military force because it often doesn't directly affect us. Wars aren't fought on US soil, therefore, our property, economy, and infrastructure don't take as hard as a hit as other countries where the bombs are dropped and wars are fought. In addition, it doesn't affect us in the way of innocent civilians losing their lives. On US soil, we are safe. Many of us all don't know innocent people who have died due to wars, other than people who have joined the military. That is