The Truth is Hard

I find a lot of power in this short poem. Freedom of the press is one of the fundamental rights that sets the United States apart from being a dictatorship. The fact that any individual, group or political party would want to restrict our freedom of expression is a really scary thing. This country is set on a foundation that people have the freedom to more or less say what they want. That is also key to keeping our government in check. The United States is a DEMOCRATIC-Republic. Shutting out people’s views and opinions just because they go against your own is in itself a mild form of fascism. I consider myself to be a Republican, but I will not tolerate restrictions on freedom of speech, expression and press on any group or individual. 

Topical Blog Post #6

I was looking back on tweets made during the presidential election of 2016 and I found something interesting. I viewed tweets made by both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton during the election. Here is an example of a tweet Trump made:

 “Nancy Pelosi and Fake Tears Chuck Schumer held a rally at the steps of The Supreme Court and mic did not work (a mess)-just like Dem party!”

And here is an example of a tweet Hilary made:

“Trump just criticized me for preparing for this debate. You know what else I prepared for? Being president. #DebateNight”

Looking at these tweets, I noticed that social media has become more of a battleground than a source of quality political discussion. Rather than people criticizing the other's policies or plans for the future, each candidate attacks the other personally. I have seen this countless other times among political authority figures as well as the general-public.

"Speaking For Utah Women"

The tone of this article is clearly sarcastic, it brings humor but seriousness into the issue of the wage gap concerning the women of Utah. I think her tone is very effective in getting her argument across. It shows how fed up and annoyed she is by the decision the "GOP guys" have made. This tone might even be more effective than a formal argument. Sometimes people get tired of hearing fact after fact after fact, sometimes people would rather hear an opinion of a real person who has real experiences. Her tone really brings her argument to life. While personally, I think opinions are an invalid way of supporting an argument (I believes facts are needed to back up real world claims), her argument comes across in an very effective way. This type of article is definitely persuasive and it does kind of inspire her readers to be fed up/get angry about the situation at hand. Her implied call to action is definitely being heard here.

Topical Blog Post #5

One of my sources written by Benjamin Lyons and Aaron Veenstra is titled "How (Not) To Talk on Twitter: Effects of Politicians' Tweets On Perceptions Of The Twitter Environment." Some new information that I had not previously thought about was presented. They call it the "Nasty Effect". This effect refers to the fact that people's comments on a social media post can drastically alter the true nature of the original post. False information or even people who disagree with the post can produce comments that twist the meaning of the original post. I have seen this constantly on sites like Twitter and Facebook so this information will definitely help me further my research.

she persisted

She spoke, she was warned

They gave their explanation

firm, she persisted 

Topical Blog post #4

Another problem that political social media has caused is confirmation bias. This term means that people tend follow people/read posts that agree with their pre-conceived notions about political topics and they block out any information that opposes their beliefs. This is dangerous because people are only looking a one side of the coin that is politics. There are at least two sides to every story and social media is causing people to believe that the coin is the same on both sides. That or they will create stereotypes and biases against the other side as well. Combining this information with the misinformation effect, it is clear that social media can easily distort the truth and produce polarization on a mass scale. 

"millennials"

I really like this video! This is not the first time I have watched it, but it gets better every time I see it. I do believe that he is correct when he says that millennials have been “dealt a bad hand”. We were born in a time that where so much is expected of us. We also live in a time of great technology which has brought about a certain need for instant gratification. The combination of all these things has primed us millennials to have a very big fear of failure. Along with that we feel large amounts of shame when we do fail. This certainly backs up the statistics that show that the millennial generation is more prone to things such as shame, depression, laziness etc. While this is very true, I also believe everyone is in charge of their own lives. I believe we all have the power to choose our own destiny. While millennials have certainly been dealt a bad deck, that is no excuse to have the millennial mindset. There are plenty of millennials who still believe in honest hard work and that the past doesn’t create their future, they do. I am in no way discrediting real mental health issues, such as depression, I am simply saying that everyone has the power to create the circumstances they want. You can’t change the world in yoga pants people!

No gender barriers

While this article held some valid points, I really think many of things it said men expressed were kind of absurd. I do agree that yes everyone loves to express themselves and not “bottle up their emotions”, those types of things are healthy regardless of gender. And yes who doesn’t love to smell a good ol’ bed of roses every once in a while. I just have a hard time believing that every guy they surveyed wanted to paint their nails and wear sundresses. One thing I noticed is that they never state how many guys they surveyed or more importantly what type of men they surveyed. In other words, what was their population and sample like that they put in the survey? We don’t know! This article also never tells us of any guy who says he wouldn’t do any “feminine” things even if there weren’t gender barriers. Personally, I would never paint my nails or do anything likened unto that activity. So I don’t think this article can be presented as real evidence for the subject, it can be skewed or misrepresented to easily. Of course, I don’t speak for every guy out there, but personally that is how I viewed this article. .

Topical blog post #3

In my research, I have found that one of the biggest problems with political social is the misinformation effect. Many studies and articles have shown us that fake information can be easily posted and distributed on social media. Along with that, social media is allowing people to post information without having to have that information fact checked or backed with any real evidence. Anyone can just blast their uniformed opinion onto social media sites. More studies have shown that people who use social media to gather political information cannot tell the difference between real and fake news sites and/or articles. They also tend to not look further into the posts to check if they are real or not. Obviously, there is clear and present danger with the misinformation social media is causing.