Blog Post #6: Selfies or not?

In this day and age, everybody has taken at least one selfie. Or maybe you've heard of it, but you decided that you weren't narcissistic enough to take one. A “selfie” is a picture taken by the person in the picture, using holding out a camera facing them. To take a good selfie, the camera must capture you in good light at a flattering angle. These pictures are then shared on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

However, some people like to take things to the extreme. There are selfies that feature large groups of people and even animals. There are pictures of people atop high buildings or standing at the edge of cliffs looking downwards.

Selfie sticks are extendable devices that help you hold the camera (on your phone) further away from yourself. This helps to capture more of the scene around you, as well as include more people in the picture.

I personally think that selfie sticks should not be banned. I guess there should be some sort of rule against extending selfie sticks in crowded areas. For safety purposes, of course. Tourists tend to take selfies everywhere they go, and in popular tourist destinations, people should be aware of their surroundings. Concert stages and large gathering areas such as sports arenas have already banned the use of selfie sticks. It obstructs the view of the people behind and could injure someone.

The use of selfie sticks are managed by who is on the other end of the device. If that person is mindful of his/her surroundings, then cautions should be minimized. If that person is not mindful, then the cautions should be kept in mind otherwise someone could get hurt. Otherwise, selfie sticks are an enjoyable device that should not be banned.

Blog Post #5: Is artificial intelligence taking over?

Today, technology is graded as advanced and still developing. Artificial intelligence is one among the many advances producers and scientists today are working to broaden. As the future approaches, people tend to look and depend on the closest piece of technology the can manage to get their hands on.

What would this mean if these pieces of technology were at the furthest step of development? Let's face it: technology is always developing. A new piece of tech must always be better than the one before it. This obviously implies to AIs.

AIs aren't necessarily at the peak of its development. If you think about it, we've reached at least the mid-point in contrast to the predicted high-end future of AIs as put forth in today's media. Communication devices have been altered with the installation of artificial intelligence.

Communication has improved in one sense, and gotten worse in another.

Technology helps people connect in so many ways. Calling across the globe, live video streaming and connecting strangers on the internet. On the other hand, people always have their noses buried in a phone or a PC.

Artificial intelligence like Siri helps us to communicate better as well as learn new things. But do we rely too heavily on AIs? Artificial intelligence does all the thinking for us. Those who develop the AIs are very smart, but people who use it rely on it for entertainment and knowledge. Robot teachers in Japan are taking over the education system. I believe that in the future (not too far away), humans will be living like the characters from the film Wall-E. We could be controlled by electronics. This may sound far fetched, but artificial intelligence could take over.


                 

Blog Post #4: Are Stereotypes Shaming?

There’s always that one advertisement on TV that doesn’t make any sense…at all. A lot of advertisements on television these days are directed towards particular audiences. And I’m not necessarily talking about different age groups, I am talking about different genders. Barbie doll commercials are targeted towards little girls, and Hot Wheels are pointed towards boys. But why is it like this? Since when was there a gender divide between toys for children? There shouldn’t be a gender gap for a lot of things.

The Chevrolet truck advertisement features a picture of a man in front of the Chevy Colorado and the same man in front of a regular car. Groups of people in the ad collectively agreed that the man in front of the truck was a lot cooler, more rugged, and more handsome. The advertisement should include why the model of the truck is better than other models, not why men look better with trucks and not cars. Also, back to the gender stereotypes, this ad should also not be directed towards men in particular. Even though men are seen to use large vehicles more than women, women use vehicles like this too. Deciding that someone looks better because of the things they use is offensive towards the people who don't use them. If a person has no use for a truck, they don’t need to be persuaded to buy it because of some stereotypical comments.

Away from the truck commercial, many other gender stereotypes are shown in the media. People everywhere are judged by how they look. Jaden Smith wearing a skirt caused an outburst in the media. Wearing skirts and dresses are viewed to be feminine, but never was it said that men could not wear such clothes. There are perfume commercials that advertise women's perfume, where 80% of the time, it is shown that the scent appeals to men. Why does perfume have to appeal to men for women to be convinced to buy it? Old Spice commercials that feature cologne for men (why does it need to be for a certain gender?) show that women are attracted to men who smell like Old Spice. The media often show women as objects that need men.

Around Christmas time, we all know about the abundance of advertisements for toys. In magazines, there's always that one page labelled "Toys for Girls" and the next page is dedicated solely to "Toys for Boys". There should be a page collectively labelled "Toys" with no regard to who is going to purchase the toys. So what if adding gender labels to products help them sell? Kids should not grow up thinking that they can't behave differently than what is expected of them. Girls can play with action figures, and boys can play with tea sets. It's the 21st century, and it's time to get rid of gender roles and gender stereotypes.

Blog Post #3: Is Shaming on Social Media Shameful or Shameless?

All kids make mistakes. They misbehave and disagree with their parents. Their parents can choose to punish their children or to let them off with a basic warning. Sometimes irritated parents go to the extreme, and feel the need to punish their kids by shaming them on social media.

It is arguable that this works, publicly shaming your children to get them to stop doing something wrong. The children would become so embarrassed and this would ideally make them stop misbehaving. But is it the proper thing to do as a parent? Children can sometimes be an annoying handful of misfits, but they're just children. They have a childhood to enjoy, and negative experiences aren't going to help with that.

Publicly punishing your children will probably have negative effects. It could cause the child to be bullied at school, and be made fun of by their peers. This could also harm the child's self-esteem. If this is essentially what the parents are aiming for, isn't this just mean? It's just plain wrong when parents want their children to be made fun of simply to improve their behavior. It's one thing to ground them, and another entirely to tell the world that they have bad kids.

There are also parents in Atlanta who are giving their kids "old man" haircuts (the "Benjamin Button"), where the entire crown of the child is shaved clean like that of a senior. As if social media shaming wasn't bad enough, these kids have to go through teasing at school because of their comical haircuts.

                           

There is no denying that the majority of the time, this method works. It may seem harsh and just outright mean, but the kids do respond better afterwards. They are embarrassed and want to try and be better to avoid having to face this kind of humiliation again.

Is it the parents' fault for being unable to cope with the behavioral issues of their children?

Blog Post #2: Does Twitter torture or tease?

We all know about the dangerous effects of social media. People use it for advertising, for marketing, and for personal uses. But what we generally don't realize is that many people use social media to say hurtful things to someone that they would never say to them in person. Hiding behind a screen and saying mean things to hurt someone's feelings is not only cowardly, it is also abusive and unnecessary.

Take Twitter, for example. Twitter was originally programmed to connect and bring people closer together through the Internet. Today, Twitter is being used to harass others online. Being able to insult people through the Internet allows bullies to be hateful without having to physically face the victim.

Cyberbullying involves the use of communication technologies such as the Internet, social media networks, emails and text messaging to harass others. This includes: (i) sending mean or threatening messages to someone, (ii) posting embarrassing photos of someone online, and (iii) pretending to be someone else by using their name.

Some would argue that "freedom of speech and expression" should prevail even online, but there is a thick line that exists between commenting or posting positive things online and insulting or threatening someone. Although it is not illegal to hurt someone's feelings on social media, it is something that people have the ability to control and should control, simply for the good of humanity. Some extreme cases of cyberbullying have led to situations where people have committed suicide to avoid being a victim of nasty comments. If bullies and trolls could learn to control themselves when they feel the need to bring someone down, there would be hundreds and maybe even thousands of people still alive today.

Even though hurting someone's feelings is not against the law, it is illegal to threaten and intimidate someone online. Twitter is hoping to make online bullying (as a whole) illegal. Twitter is giving online users a tool to report the abuse to law enforcement rather than to just the Twitter staff.

Cyberbullying is not something that will go away on its own. It will continue to grow and get even worse as people are starting to use social networking sites more. Unless we can come up with a permanent solution to online harassment cyberbullying will continue to affect people who become victims of this cruelty. Social networking sites could take steps to ban the use of certain words online. This may be a big step that steps over our rights in freedom of expression, but consider it like this: would you rather have people control their hateful thoughts and mean words or would you rather have people commit suicide because of an insult that they read on their phone?