I Can't Hear When You Talk That Loud

I was sitting in my room last night watching TV and wondering what I should rant about in my last blog. Thoughts kept popping up in my mind but I couldn’t focus because the sound was so loud. As I irritably reached for the remote, I couldn’t help but think WHY ARE THE COMMERCIALS ALWAYS SO LOUD!

First off, wasn’t there some bill passed that banned this?

Second…I can’t remember what I was going to say because this ringing in my ears!

I shouldn’t have to jump out of my seat and rush for the remote every time my show takes a commercial break. This doesn’t happen on every channel, which is almost more irritating because then it always gets me by surprise when it does happen.

Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones

But Words Break the Heart

Cyber bulling has had a growth of attention by the media in the past couple of years. This is resulting by the growth of the internet and how the people are using it as a weapon. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are giving people the freedom to connect with friends and communicate with one another instantly from the safety of their own bedroom. The fact that people don’t have to be in front of one another to talk is one thing, I think, that is feeding this growing problem. You can say whatever you want to someone without even having to see their face. You don’t even have to know the person you are writing something about, you can just post a comment and walk away. These things, I believe, are making people less accountable for their actions.

I have even had this happen to me. My junior year of high school me and one of my friends made a quick 20 second video of us singing a song to jokingly post on one of our friends Facebook page. To be able to post the video we uploaded it to YouTube. Our friend commented on the video on Facebook and we all laughed and I hadn’t thought about the video for a few years now. Earlier this year though, the video popped into my mind so I decided to go take a look. When I went to the video there was a random comment. It was from some little 14 year old boy that was from some other state. He commented on our joke video calling us ugly names. It really shocked me. I was a little taken back for a minute and it kind of made me mad. Now I look at it and just laugh, but it makes me wonder how horrible it would feel for someone who posted a video of them singing who really thought they were good. It would really hurt to put yourself out there just to get horrible things said to you by people you don’t even know.

It is really easy to say something over a text or through the internet compared to someone’s face. I think everyone needs to take more accountability for what they say in cyberspace. “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me,” isn’t a phrase that applies to our generation anymore.

Who is Joseph Kony?

I stumbled upon something tonight. Yes, even at 1 in the morning I felt the need to share and to write.

When I was in high school a group called “Invisible Children” came and talked to us. They showed us a video about an African rebel group, the LRA, in Uganda and their leader JOSEPH KONY. He abducts young children and turns the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers. He makes them mutilate and kill their family and fellow boys and girls. He now has an army of over 30,000 young boys. Boys and girls of all ages are now hiding in fear of being abducted, murdered, raped and forced into the LRA.  

The LRA is now moving into other countries and growing. Kony is #1 on the international most wanted list. Why isn’t he arrested? Why isn’t he captured? Why isn’t he stopped? Well, to put it plainly 99% of the world doesn’t even know who he is.

Referring to hundreds of children all packed into one room hiding and seeking shelter, the man in the video says “if that happened one night in America, it would be on the cover of Newsweek.” I couldn’t agree more.

Compared to Uganda and many other places in the world, our media is so much more advance. The way things spread with such speed and the different mediums we have to access and pass such information is almost incomparable.  

Why aren’t we using this advantage for the greater good? We pass hundreds of ads a day about food, sex, cars, clothes, and celebrities. It’s time to advertise things that really matter. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Blogs are only a few of the things that we can use to spread the word.  We can tell 600 of our “closest friends” what we ate for lunch on Facebook. Or what we are doing second by second on Twitter. So why not share something greater than ourselves?

 The Invisible Children group has already made some success at the end of next year when on December 2 2011 our United States government sent over 100 troops to help with advice and assistance to the Ugandan military. But they may not stay there long. If the government doesn’t see how this affects us, or that we care, they could remove our military support at any time.

The Invisible Children group is now starting a new mission; making Joseph Kony famous. The easiest way to get the word out about the injustice going on around the world is to spread it by all means possible. THEY NEED YOUR HELP. We, as Americans, have the power to post, to write, to share and to search the web.  The more Kony’s name is brought to light, the more light is shed on his crimes.

Want to help?

For more information go to

www.Kony2012.com

Anyone Could Be A Reporter, And Thats A Fact....

...I Think...?

In class this past week, we have talked a lot about newspapers and how they are being affected my new media. With the rise of the internet it is now faster to post news and read news stories. Instead of professional reporters being the ones to break the latest story, common citizens are the ones posting their own accounts, photos, and videos of breaking news stories. The thought got brought up in class: do we really need professional paid reporters? What if amateur reporters, non-paid volunteers citizens, were the ones who reported all of our news? We were asked at the end of the class period what we thought would be lost if we did this shift in news reporting.

The class ended before anyone really got to respond and I thought about it on my ride back home from campus.  I would have to say I think a lot would change. One of the biggest problems I could see happening would be the loss and blur of fact and opinion. I immediately flashed back to high school. I was part of the newspaper staff for three out of my four years. The first year you are considered a staff reporter. Before you can write anything for the paper you had to take a test. The test consisted of 15 sentences. You would have to read the sentence and say whether the sentence was a fact, or an opinion. It was eye opening to see the things I had mistaken for facts and others had mistaken for facts. One word in a sentence can blur that line. Every year you were on the paper you would have to do this test. I think it helped me a lot as a staff reporter to just be writing about facts and not let my own personal opinions creep in.

These things, and more, are the types of things that professional reporters and journalist are taught in school. If we had just anyone out there writing our cities, states, or country’s news than I think it would start consisting of people’s opinions being represented as facts. There is a reason that reporters are taught and trained to make their stories factual and unbiased and I think that it should stay that way.

"Ugh, I Can't Get Into Facebook.."

"I Know This Proxy Site..."

In class when we talked about internet filtering instantly my own memories of it came to mind. Freshmen year in high school I could remember Google-ing different proxy sites desperately trying to find a way to get into Facebook and gaming websites. I can recall these memories up until junior year of high school. After that I can’t recall having trouble trying to get into any site that I wanted while at school. I don’t know if my school didn’t have these internet filters up, or if they just stopped filtering out the sites that kids my age commonly used.

Since I had my own experiences with and without these pesky internet filters I have gotten a chance to see how it has affected me both ways. I know that these filters are used to keep bad material away from us, and I see the purpose there. School is the one place that kids are constantly with their peers. Peers that can easily influence someone to see or do something that they normally wouldn’t see or do at home. So I can understand why those things would need to be blocked while at school.

I don’t get though, why sites like Facebook or gaming sites are blocked. Honestly, I think I spent more time trying to break through the filter than I actually spent on the website after I cracked it. Being told you can’t do something just makes that something more desirable. I feel like, in this case, that what the filters are doing. They are making that content that more desirable to the people they are blocking it from.

Status Update: You're In Third Grade

The question was asked, “Does it bother you that people make profile for their pets on Facebook?” My initial thought was yes, how annoying. But, after checking my own friends list and finding out that I am in fact friends with four animals, I must be mistaken. This made me think, why am I friends with pets? I think it is just one of the many things I have gotten use to on Facebook.

Is it normal that someone would make another Facebook account just for their pet? No. Is it normal for a 9 year old to have a facebook? No. Is it normal to know everything someone is doing in their day to day life in real time? No. BUT we are just use to it.

It doesnt really shock me to see someone so young on Facebook anymore. I see it all the time. I work with second and third graders who have thier own I Pads and I Phones. I didn't have an I Phone till 4 months ago... Younger and younger kids are starting to feel the need to "grow up" and be like the older kids. They want to text, they want to talk on the phone, and they want to have a Facebook.

 Do I think they should have one? No way. But what is stopping them? Parents don’t want their kid to be the outcast. “But everyone else has one mom” can be just the right amount of guilt trip a kid needs to get their parent to give in. If the parents aren’t stopping the activity what else is? Facebook? Oh, sure they are! Only a computer technician would be smart enough to put up a fake birthday…

 Who are we kidding? That’s not stopping anyone. Even YouTube says “this video contains mature content, please verify you are over 18 by clicking yes.” Well, that will prevent anyone under 18 from watching that video for sure.

In order to get underage users from using social networking sites like Facebook, something needs to be done to actually prevent them from joining one.

Big Brother Is Watching...

And Big Sister...
And Big World Wide Audience....

In class we talked briefly about crazy reality TV junkies like the “Survivor Sucks” group. Other groups about reality shows like “The Bachelor” were also mentioned by classmates.  This got me thinking about the inner reality TV junkie inside myself and in other young people in my generation. I know I am not the only one who gets sucked in. It seems like every year the amount of reality TV series doubles. The ideas blow my mind.

Live in a house together for a summer and film it. Live in a house together and film it AND compete against one another. Live in a house together and film it and compete against one another AND let anyone watch you in real-time 24/7. Say what?

The idea seems totally creepy. Why would someone want to watch every move someone makes? Why is this entertaining to us? Yet, these are some of the most successful ongoing series on TV. Even I get sucked into shows like “Big Brother” the whole summer. And, although it is hard to admit, I’ve even got sucked into watching the real-time cameras online before…

I think we are becoming a generation of people without boundaries. We give up all personal space for the sake of fame and entertainment. The idea of a camera crew following me around during my day to day life seems so bizarre, yet I watch it all week long. Maybe this is why we have become so incline to share personal things about our lives on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

When you watch people share secrets, have fights, get married, get divorced, have sex, and have babies on national television, what really is personal anymore?