Key Values of Free Expression

The first amendment protects so many of our precedents. Within this amendment, there are eight values of free expression. All of these values have very important points that have good reasoning behind their existence. However, they were two that mainly stuck out to me. Two of the Eight Values of Free Expression really stuck out to me, which were the promotion of tolerance and the protection of dissent.

    The first one was the Promotion of Tolerance. This value says that under the first amendment, hate speech is protected because it teaches society a lesson from it. To go a bit more in-depth, this means that basically the government will not step in and say you can not say that. However, society can step in and say that this can not be said. 

The reason why I overall think this is a good thing is that it teaches people. It can teach people, more specifically the youth, what is acceptable behavior in society today. Seeing what is deemed acceptable in society today, builds what everyone is socially tolerated. Everyone can agree that hate speech is totally unacceptable and just wrong but showing it and the consequences behind it sets an example and shows how it builds up a sense of right and wrong. There should be no use for the government to interfere with this if society interferes with it. 

    The second one is the Protection of Dissent. This value makes it so the unpopular opinion is protected. This basically protects the one percent of people’s opinions if the ninety-nine all have the same opinion.

This is important because popular opinion will always be protected in size and numbers but the unpopular might be shunned and beaten down constantly. In these instances, everyone will have different opinions on topics and it will always cause feuds. When people tend to disagree with each other, it can turn ugly and pretty much make people badger until one folds. If we put this on a larger scale, then you can see the reasoning that this is important. Also, people tend to attempt to force their beliefs on others who think otherwise this is important to protect those people who differ. It is just the human norm for people to force and make everyone think like them. Whether it is to show dominance on someone or just to prove them right.

Let’s go through a quick example of this. If we were to take fifty people, and the room is split twenty-five even then most people might just keep to themselves and not say much. However, if we were to have the same number of people and the room was split into ten who disagree and forty who agree then you might have a different reaction in this instance. The more popular opinion might target the unpopular opinion and badger them into changing their mind or making them feel bad about their opinion.

This is why the Protection of Dissent and the Promotion of Tolerance are the main ones that stuck out to me.

YouTube: The History & Its Impact

    YouTube is a popular app that everyone uses to watch videos of all calibers. This algorithm has been in use for almost two decades now and has kept many of us entertained for hours on end. What if I were to tell you that YouTube's original reasoning for existing was for a meet-and-greet site?

    Everything starts with an idea from someone, and this particular platform was created through a group effort. Youtube has three founders. Their names are Chad Hurley, Steven Chen, and Jawed Karim and at this given time they were all working under the same company, Paypal. Since this was not well received, they changed their pivot to sharing videos.

    On February 14, 2005, Chad Hurley would register the “YouTube” trademark, logo, and domain on Valentine’s Day. In April of that same year, the first-ever video was uploaded. Karim was the first person to post a video which was titled “Me at the Zoo”. The site would later be officially launched in December. By January of that following year, YouTube had more than 25 million views.

    Ever since then, Youtube has grown on an exponential level. The most recent statistics from YouTube are higher than ever. More than 2.6 billion people are actively using YouTube as of 2023. Youtube is the second biggest search engine. It is also the largest video-sharing platform as well as the second-largest social media platform.

    This platform was created for the freedom to post videos without "restriction".  Even though they say that there are no restrictions, there are some. Under the guidelines that YouTube has you can not post certain things. If you do violate those guidelines, then the video will be taken down, and/or your page will be terminated. Throughout the years of YouTube, there have been many pros and cons.

Some of the positives within this app/site are that it helps with improved career, and saves money. This is a very good thing. People who want to post videos of things for free with "no restriction" can do so using YouTube. Posting videos on YouTube can help with many different things. They can teach you how to use or do many things. YouTube can be used to post things for your portfolio and to show off your work. Since this is a free platform that is accessible to everyone, most people lean toward using it because it costs nothing to use.

With all of these positives, there are negatives as well. Some negatives are that this might cause misinformation and kill productivity. With the power to post things on the internet, you can technically say whatever you want within that video until YouTube takes it down. So within these videos, a lot of misinformation can be spread and anyone watching the video would not know until they fact-check. Another thing is that sometimes you can be sucked into watching videos and videos on end due to the recommendations you receive.

U.S. Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court has existed since 1789. This powerful part of the system of checks and balances plays a major part in deeming things as constitutional or not. While watching the videos and reading the article, it has taught me a lot of things about the Supreme Court that I did not know. 

    One of the few things that I learned is that the Supreme Court is the U.S. highest federal court and head of the judicial branch of the government. My original thought on this branch is that the Supreme Court was the only part of that branch and no one else. 

    Another thing that I learned is that the court's first draft of the opinion is finished in four weeks and sent to all nine-justice. Then a justice may re-draft it twelve or more times in an effort to persuade others. The revision and adjustments may go on for months trying to accommodate different views. The way I thought it went was that they spent time talking about it and coming to a decision at that moment. This also ties in with the next thing that all case decisions are announced in late June. 

    The third thing that I learned is that the number of justices changed over six times until 1869. The number changed between five and ten for a six-year span. I always thought that the number stayed the same since the beginning. 

    The most surprising thing that I have learned is that everyone must speak one time before anyone else can speak again. Before this rule was put in people could not get a word out due to people talking over each other. At this point, I can see why it was implemented because imagine trying to discuss something and people keep talking over each other. You would get nowhere and just waste a lot of people's time.

    My thoughts about the Supreme Court were that they were a bunch of old people who only sat there and do nothing most of the time. Now that I have a better understanding of what they do, I feel like I can respect what they do as a whole and how tiring their line of work is.

Privacy Issue Breach

    These issues become more under the branch of privacy. Hearing these different TED talks raises a big question about today's society. Does privacy even exist in this given day and age anymore?

    The reasoning on why these issues are important is because they affect everyone in different and more ways than one. When using any social media platform, they have the terms and agreement section which no one ever reads because it's long and worldly and everyone thinks it's a waste of time. Within these terms and agreements is the ability to use whatever pictures you post on that social media platform as well as use any information you gave them. These terms and agreements also say that any information you give to them can be given to any other company. This information may include your name, phone number, and address. This does not seem like a lot but in reality, these things can give out info like who exactly you are linked to and what else your name is linked to.

    Unfortunately for everyone, I mainly feel like the government is the main cause of all of the breaches of privacy due to their paranoia of everyone. If I were to think deeply about what the government should do I would say to get rid of any information that is deemed as not suspicious of any kind or they do not have a history of incrimination in the last 2 years. This to me is completely unnecessary unless they have a valid reason to do so. So in order to get rid of this predicament, the government would not have tabs on us in the sense of knowing what our daily lives and routines consist of. After listening to Catherine Crumps and how the police basically keep tabs on you, it feels as if the government always wants to know what you are doing and where you are at all times so getting rid of this information that is not useful for anything can protect our privacy in the sense of tracking our location and routine.

    The same can be said about tapping into people's phones for no reason. The government can tap into your phone at any given time without you even knowing. Unfortunately, this is happening to people who have nothing wrong. This could mean that any phone conversation you have with someone can be recorded at any time and possibly be used against you. 

    There are ways that you can protect yourself from an invasion of privacy. One way is to be careful of the things you post online. Another thing is to not get distracted by things that are meant to keep you there. There are also certain apps that help with privacy like Duck Duck Go and Whatsapp.

Five Top News Sources

As someone who is not completely consumed by different types of news outlets of sorts. Here are some of the sources I get my news from.

One of my main sources of news comes from my family. Since these are people who I talk to on a daily basis, the topic of news always appears. From there I get the news and their opinion on that news.

Another source of news is CNN. At my grandparents' house, 9 out of the 10 times the news would be on more specifically CNN. I have no idea why my grandparents were so obsessed with this news outline but I would also watch it with them without complaint. CNN gives news from all over the place from the East to the West in many other countries.

Being on social media at times, I see different types of news on Instagram. This news either comes from friends' and families' stories or the suggested area on Instagram. Sometimes, whenever anything piques my interest I click on the post in order to learn more information on the subject. Sometimes my friends and family will post news that affects them or the way their loved ones live. 

TMZ is another one of my news sources. This source of news however is deemed under the latest gossip in the entertainment industry. Though I never really pay attention to celebrity rumors and gossip, I sometimes go here in order to see what happens from another aspect of the world. I also look at this for a source of entertainment at times. In this case the entertainment industry side of the world.

One of the last major news sources I use is IGN. IGN is a news site mainly for video games. I rarely check and look at this though. I might check this once every two weeks or once at the end of the month. I mainly only ever check this site to see the most recent news in the gaming industry.