Blog #4 EOTO KEY POST

 Emoticons And Emojis. 

Are they the same thing?

Short answer, no. While they look very similar, and are somewhat similar in what they achieve, they are not the same thing.

Vs. 

 The Difference

-An emoticon is a representation of a human emotion using keys on a keyboard. For example :) 

-An emoji is a small digital image used to express an idea or emotion. For example 😃

The History of the Emoticon 

    On September 19th, 1982 Scott Fahlman (AKA Father of the Smiley face) gave birth to the very first emoticon. At the time, Fahlman was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He had posted on the school’s computer bulletin board the silly idea to add :-) when students were making a joke and :-( when they were not joking. Little did he know at the time, he would make a huge impact on human expression online. While he may have not realized it, Scott did in fact solve a huge issue at the time. Prior to 1982, there had been no good way to indicate whether someone was being sarcastic via text or email communication. There was no great way to tell if someone was happy, sad, angry, etc. Unless they flat out said “(p.s. I am really mad at you).” In the English language, there is so many ways to interpret a message without the use of facial expression, tone of voice, or even body language. 

    The emoticon quickly caught on and was widely recognized within a couple years. Professor Fahlman had not only solved a need, but he had triggered people’s imagination everywhere. This lead to the creation of many many more human expressions being expressed via text. 

What was his big mistake?

    The professor didn’t have the slightest inkling that he was on to something. Had he recognized this or been told from a friend that this was a pretty cool thing to discover, he might’ve thought in a more entrepreneurial light. He failed to trademark, copy-write, or patent this idea and it’s got to be his biggest regret. Could you imagine the amount of money he’d have, had he been a little bit smarter? 

Does this just mean that he is a nice guy with no hidden agenda?

Maybe. 

Could this also mean he is an idiot? 

Maybe. 

I get second hand pissed off for him, almost 40 years later. This poor chap really missed out on what could’ve been the easiest money he could ever earn. I guess you live and you learn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The History of the Emoji    

    The emoji was first seen used in 1997. People probably assume the word “emoji” comes from the word emotion, but that is entirely not the case. It is actually just a coincidence. The word comes from the Japanese word for picture. DoCoMo was a Japanese mobile phone company that originally had the idea to add a heart picture “♥️” on a new pager made for teens. People loved it. So much so, that when the company added a new pager for business professionals, the public was mad there wasn’t the famous heart icon on the products software. This in turn sent people to another brand that had already adopted the heart from DoCoMo, and included some other new features. This mistake of failing to add the heart was a sign for every other company at the time to start creating more and more icons that can be added to text. The trouble, early on, was that if you wanted to use these emojis your friends had to have the same device as you. As popularity continued to grow, the problem needed a solution. In 2007 a Silicon Valley nonprofit standardized the software so that the pictures appeared the same or very similar and different devices. Today, on Facebook Messenger alone, nearly 5 billion emojis are sent a day. Quite the progression from a heart on a messily pager.   

The Pros and Cons 

    I feel like almost everyone would agree the emoticon and emoji creations have only been good for our society. They address the issue of emotion and feelings on an unemotional platform. They can stand in for verbal tone and clarify the tone of a message in fewer characters.

    Some negative Nancy’s disagree however, and rightly so. These opposers say that emojis erode the ability to communicate clearly. They also see it as a lazy and unprofessional way of interacting. 

Emoji Scandal

     This last piece is just a funny meme I remember from a while back. There was this whole segment on a news channel that warned parents of the dangers of emojis. People thought it was hilarious and clowned on the news channel, making memes about it. The news’s message was shared in a way like “kids we know your secret.” They “decoded” emojis and their dirty undertones. They also warned for combinations of certain emojis that meant your kid was up to no good. It’s a pretty funny article and I linked it above. 

Blog #3 KEY POST

 8 Values of Free Expression

The 8 values of Free Expression include “8 theories that scholars use to describe why the freedom of expression is so important to us as American citizens.”

A summary of the 8 can be found here.

Today, I’d like to talk about the four theories that resonate most with me. Then I will connect them to a specific thing happening today, to better understand how a theory can explain what’s going on in the real world.  

2. Participation in Self-Government

— see Alexander Meiklejohn, Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government
     It has been suggested that citizens will not make wise and informed choices in elections if candidates and proponents of certain policies are restricted in their ability to communicate positions. We want an informed electorate involved in debate.

Wow. Is this not so true and prevalent, not only today, but in the past couple years during the last presidential election? This suggestion, that citizens will not make wise electoral decisions if their media is sifted through, is not only common sense, but plain fact. How is one going to decide what to have for their main course at a restaurant if half of the menu is hidden behind closed doors? While this analogy may seem inapplicable to elections, that is not the case in the world of spreading mass communication through social media. President Trump has been censored on a number of occasions by platforms that are very critical to the campaigning process, and also as a means to reach American citizens quickly and directly. This overreach is done by a private entity however, and “state action doctrine” states that a company not affiliated with the government is exempt from First Amendment violations. I still think it is totally relavent to this theory of participation in Self-Government because President Trump was not allowed fair access in communicating to citizens his policies and ideas. This is all to the fault of Twitter. Much more research can be done on how Donald Trump’s voice was dismissed here. As a man of solutions, he is in the process of creating his own Free Speech platform. This sight will not feature the corporate bullying and censorship that Twitter does simply because the one entity disagrees with another. I look forward to the former president’s sight launching  

3. Stable Change 

— see Benedict Spinoza, Tractatus-Theologico Politicus  
     It has been suggested that a society in which angry and alienated citizens are allowed to speak their mind, or "vent," will be more stable, as people will be less likely to resort to violence.  It has also been pointed out that allowing the alienated and discontented to speak freely enables government to better monitor potentially dangerous groups who would otherwise act more clandestinely. Ultimately, it is in the governments own self-interest to allow such venting.

The phrase from this paragraph I want to highlight, “It is in the governments best interest to allow such venting.” This is an idea that will foreshadow a later discussion below.  I want to write a conjoined thought provoking passage that includes this theory, “Subtle Change,” and the later theory, “Protect Dissent.” The two are incredibly similar, and something I find myself being passionate about. I will write the following thoughts below, under theory “8.”

6. Promote Tolerance

— see Lee Bollinger, The Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist Speech
     It has been argued that freedom of speech, especially through our  practice of extending protection to speech that we find hateful or personally upsetting, teaches us to become more tolerant in other aspects of life — and that a more tolerant society is a better society. Somewhat counter-intuitive, the First Amendment protects hate speech because society learns valuable lessons from, including why it is hateful and worthy of condemnation. It’s how we spread norms about acceptable behavior.

This theory could be discussed in a multi page blog, and I may just do that on a later date. The topic I’d like to apply this to today is the topic of “cancel culture.” What an insanely radical opposition to the First Amendment this is. While I agree to the belief that statements from celebrities (and citizens alike) should take some responsibility and consequences for what they say in certain situations, I do think it has gotten out of hand. People today are so quick to become offended and, in turn, send hate wherever they were “hurt.” These people, or keyboard warriors, are so thin skinned that they want YOU to change what YOU say, to protect their feelings. What a joke.  

I’d like to add a personal note, relating my stance on bullying to tolerance. Bullying is a good thing. The lessons people can learn growing up with bullying teaches them to have thick skin, and helps them to learn character. I can speak to this, growing up with two older brothers, and being picked on quite harshly in middle school, I learned to take things from people I do not respect with a grain of salt. The only people that could really hurt me, are those dearest to me. Those people, whom I surround myself, are of the character that makes me happy. Bullying made me turn out so much better. The kids that used to bully me are absolute losers now, who peaked so early, they make me feel so glad I wasn’t the in their shoes. Maybe they’d be in a better situation had they taken some shit growing up. It’s interesting though, because now that I am in a position that could absolutely roast them and hurt them, I don’t do it because that wouldn’t make me feel any better. I want to quote Frank Gallagher, from the TV series “Shameless.”  “Bullying is a vital part of every ecosystem, it teaches kids resilience. The world is a rough place, bullying is like getting inoculated. It’s a vaccine…… How do you think Steve Jobs turned out so great? Bullies!”

Cancel culture helps no one, and teaches kids the wrong answer. The answer is to not change others to make yourself feel better. It’s impossible to control outer forces, one has to learn to accept things on their end, to be okay at the end of the day. Allowing freedom of all speech, including hate speech, has it’s important function in society, teaching kids to cope with the world, as it REALLY is.

8. Protect Dissent 

— see Steve Shiffrin, Dissent, Injustice and the Meanings of America

     Our system is not supposed to be one of mob rule. The First Amendment protects minority views, no matter how unpopular. You have a strongly protected right to disagree with the government — and everyone else. In fact, it is your patriotic duty to criticize the government.

~stable change continued…

 The coined term “conspiracy theory” does a wonderful job at discrediting average readers from challenging government. For me though, it only makes me more interested. Knowing that the CIA coined the term as a weapon to cut down “anti government theorists” I read even closer. What is the CIA hiding? Why are they so threatened by a post on Reddit, or a tweet that even slightly brings to light the hypocrisies of our government and its officials. This should be encouraged. As a country, we seem weaker when we silence these outside thinkers. Opposition is so important in the Marketplace of Ideas. 

    

Blog Post #2

 The Supreme Court Reflection

    I had always had a respect for the Supreme Court implemented into me, but not so much a deep understanding of how intricate the court is. The videos, part 1 and 2, really opened my knowledge of how the court functions. For example, I knew the Supreme Court was powerful, but I didn’t know it was the “most powerful Judicial body on Earth.” The nine justices have an extremely difficult job to solve some of the countries most pressing issues, on the determination of interpreting a 200 year old Constitution. In those 200 plus years, our country has only seen just over 100 justices. These justices all sign up to serve the rest of their lifetime, which is an average of 16 years, but many have had the privilege of their time being double the average. 

    Something that surprised me in the video, was that the courts were not always in Washington. They moved there in 1801.

    I learned that the Dred Scott case is known as the courts “great self inflicted wound” that affected their credibility and authority for years. This was solved by the Civil War. I also learned that the 14th amendment is sometimes referred to as “the second Bill of Rights.”

    I wasn’t aware that the court receives about 7,000 cases a year, and each of the like are treated with the same consideration, no matter who wrote it. I also found out that in the event that a petition goes to the Supreme Court, each side has an uninterrupted 30 mins to present their side of the case in a public court. 

    In general, the first draft of the courts opinion takes an average of four weeks. In this, their most time consuming job for the justices is opinion writing. The most important takeaway from these videos is that if the court every lost credibility or stopped upholding the Constitution, our countries freedom would not work the way it so beautifully it does today. 

Blog Post #1

My 5 Top Sources of News and Information 

    You’ll see a pattern throughout this blog, as a majority of my information comes from Instagram or YouTube. This is simply because it is where I spend the most time, and quite frankly don’t delicate my energy towards watching or reading the news. I am very much a visual learner.

1.) @foxnews Instagram 

       The first news source I get information from is Fox News. They post many times a day so it is very relevant on my feed. I’ve grown up with the news always on in my house, and this is what we watch. I like the conservative, contrarian view of Fox as they do not over hype the government. They call out what is unconstitutional and I really appreciate that. What is also cool about their instagram, is they have a link in their bio that allows you to click on a particular photo from their page that interests you, and it will take you to the full article. Fox’s instagram is great because it is very broad in that they cover local, state, and country news. This is very diverse and allows me to see the awesome things that Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida, for example.