The Horror of Internet Privacy

Privacy on the internet is so rare. So many websites are trying to take and keep information about everyone and many try to hide it. There are very few companies and websites that keep your interests in mind. From the videos I watched, I think they all made very great and interesting points for privacy. There are some scary tactics out there. A lot of these tactics are hidden in the terms of service which are meant to be too long and confusing. The first video explained how everything we do on the internet is traced. He explained that your internet usage is similar to getting a tattoo. Companies will hold on to pictures and messages and use them for their own gain. Most of the revenue made from social media is from selling information of the users. The second video moves on to explain that even the government has eyes everywhere. Our privacy at home is not as apparent as most think. Just from scanners and cameras, the government is able to tell where you are and when you were there. This is problematic because there is nothing that we can hide and do privately. We do not deserve to be spied on every hour of every day. Now it does make it easier to catch people who may be threatening the government, but this is doable even by giving us space and privacy.

It is understandable to think that there is no reason to have privacy. After all, you probably did nothing wrong. Why should you be worried? Well, you might be surprised to find out that there are hackers that are good at doing what they do. These companies that consume and hold your information could be hacked, releasing all of your information to people who can use it against you. Your identity could be stolen or used to bribe or threaten you. The third video dives into the hacking aspect of this concern. The fourth video, though, is by a person who was taken advantage of due to her information being taken. It wasn't necessarily taken from her internet, but it still gave a clearer understanding of how our government reacts to the internet and our privacy.

With the internet still being a relatively new invention, we just do not have a great enough understanding of it. Laws are still forming around this advancement and precedents are being set regularly. The sixth, and last, video is a man who explains how companies are taking advantage of these lack of rules. He points out a doll that can be connected to the internet and talk to a child in real time. The creators of the doll made a statement saying that only professional hackers would be able to crack into the internet connection of the doll. The speaker, however, showed proof that the doll could easily be manipulated. The doll was picking up conversations of everyone nearby, and the speaker from the doll was intercepted and a person from outside the room could speak through it. This shows exactly how unsafe companies and their products can be. The fifth video is a speaker showing off a product to combat these unsafe companies. With all of these companies like Google and Amazon, they are able to read and save your emails. Andy Yen, though, created a new website that takes the message in the email you are trying to send and then creates a randomized code to make the message secretive. Then, once the message sends, the code is unscrambled for the receiver to read. It confuses the interceptors, while also letting the messengers converse. This new website is a great way to make yourself more private on the internet.

The History of Emoticons and Emojis

The word emoticon is a mashup of the two words “emotional” and “icon.” Emoticons are “glyphs used in computer-mediated communication” to represent an idea. This could be people and faces or animals and cars. Eventually emoticons became emojis. Emojis are very similar to emoticons, but are more official and widely used today. Emojis are Japanese creations and are formed by the words, “e,” meaning picture, and “moji,” meaning character. Now emojis are the new normal that people constantly use. Emojis even replace words in most cases, but can also provide emphasis to a conversation.

The first emoticon was created in 1982 by Scott E. Fahlman, a Carnegie Mellon professor. He created this in order to give emotion to his messages. The first ever emoticon was the smiley face. It contained a colon, a dash, and a closing parenthesis. He also reversed the emoticon to create a frowny face. This consisted of the same symbols, except instead of closing parenthesis it used an opening parenthesis. This started out on the Carnegie Mellon campus but eventually branched out to other places through discussion boards and emails. Fahlman originally used these emoticons in emails.

Eventually Fahlman’s idea of expressing with symbols reached out across the world. In 1999, the first emoji was then created. Emojis were invented in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita. He created 176 emojis using a grid made up of 144 pixels, twelve by twelve. Emojis made it much easier because with emoticons, you had to use punctuation and symbols similar. This could become confusing if you wrote out an email and then used random punctuation. So, there was more ease in communication due to the creation of emojis when there was just one symbol. It was not until 2010, that Unicode started including emojis. Unicode is used in the coding of text. Apple and Android released 722 new emojis through Unicode in 2010. The next year, in 2011, IOS 5 was released. This incorporated an emoji keyboard as a new feature which would become the keyboard that holds 3,961 emojis today. 

As the invention of the emojis advanced, more and more were created. In 2012, however, Fahlman spoke out in an interview. He said that “they ruin the challenge of trying to come up with a clever way to express emotions using standard keyboard characters.” When the creation of the emoji first arrived, there were many people creating new emoticons. Fahlman mentioned that he loved seeing all these creative contributions. There were emoticons that represented people like Abraham Lincoln and Santa Claus. The word “emoji'' was not added to the dictionary until 2013. There are no plans for the emojis to be added to the dictionary though. That would be quite ludicrous and time consuming. 

As the years progress through this era, emojis start to become more prevalent in society. They are used for us to show emotion so commonly in texting and emails. They became so commonplace, that they inevitably were used in commercials and media. Here, their use was to show off people’s actual emotion rather than give context through text. McDonalds ran an ad in 2015 displaying people as emojis. In 2017, the release of the Emoji Movie smashed the box office numbers and gained much popularity. Its Rotten Tomatoes score was a 7% and yet still showed that emojis are so used that a successful movie could be made about them. 

So the invention of the emoji changed the world and subsequently the way we communicate. In some ways, the new communication strategy is helpful. It gives more explanation behind sarcasm and conversations, but in other ways proves that we are using less words to explain our lives. We constantly find shortcuts to make typing to each other easier. The original emoji and its companions were added to the Museum of Modern Art to further show that it made a significant impact on the world.

My Thoughts on the 8 Values of Free Expression

The eight values of free expression are eight theories that derive from the first amendment. They all relate to the freedoms that we have and how they affect us. The theories also give ideas to how the freedoms given to us are interpreted and used. The fifth theory, “Check on Governmental Power,” resonates with me the most because I feel like it is such a useful idea. This theory conceptualizes the idea that individual people and the press are a part of the checks and balances involved in the government. Because there is a freedom to the press, they are able to release information about abuse of power by politicians. From learning these bits of information, we are able to act on it and elect a different official to take their place. I like knowing that we have a say in this matter and can speak out against these abuses of power without being fearful of persecution. This also seems like one of the most important theories mentioned, but there are many other theories.

I would argue that the seventh theory, “Promote Innovation,” is also one of the most important theories. The seventh theory basically states that freedom of speech is a very valuable thing. It also grants citizens more energy and creativity, which overall is better for the individuals in the long run. This theory runs along with the sixth one and is very similar. The sixth theory, “Promote Tolerance,” presents that all speech should be protected, even if it is hateful. Hateful speech creates a society that is more tolerant and those that are more tolerant make the community better. It is similar to a concept of how some people say bullying is okay. That is not true, but a little teasing should be okay. It builds a person up to be stronger against others who might be harsher. 

One theory that surprised me was the third theory, “Stable Change.” It completely slipped my mind that the government could be keeping a closer eye on those who vent about the government. This theory explains that giving people free speech is smarter and more efficient in the long run. By letting people state their grievances against the government, they are less likely to act out in violence from them and in doing so, the government can see who is more of a threat. This is a very simple idea and yet I was still a little blown away by reading it. It makes so much sense to hear who has a problem while also allowing people who are not threats to state their problems. There might be a lesson learned along the way for them as well.

The first theory from this batch seems to be a more personal one because it can be used in life. “Marketplace of Ideas” says that in the battle between truth and falsehood, the truth will always win. I personally really like this one because it feels sort of motivating. Truth will always come out and any one who tries to hide it will fail. Especially with all the sources of news and media nowadays, there is never really a place to hide. Which can sometimes be scary, but in this case, it is good.

There are two different theories that I think are being widely used today. One of these is the second theory, “Participation in Self-Government.” This theory is about politicians not being limited on what they are saying so that we can gain a full grasp of what they stand for. We as individuals have a right to know who exactly is running and who we are electing. The second theory that I believe is widely used today would be the fourth one, “Individual Self-Fulfillment.” Many people are identified by their actions and words. This theory states that people take their freedom of speech as their identity; what they say and do not say. I think this comes into play a lot especially today because identity is a very popular topic. People also get identified by things they say and have said in the past. I do not usually agree with digging into the past to find dirt on people, but it can become their identity.

The Importance of SCOTUS

 One of the most powerful positions in the world and yet widely forgotten, the Supreme Court of the United States is one of the hardest jobs to obtain and hold. In class, we watched a video on the Supreme Court that explained their challenges and every day life. I find it weird that everyone looks to the President when pointing out powerful roles in the government when the Supreme Court sets the laws and precedents that affect and have affected our everyday lives. Anyone can run for president, but to be nominated as a Justice for the Supreme Court would be extremely rare. When looking at the United States's history, it is hard to ignore the courts, as they are the ones who set the laws. Still, I sat here watching this video in class and began to recognize the complexities I forgot this job held.

One main thing I learned from the video, was the fact that the Supreme Court only accepts about 100 cases a year. In my mind, I originally thought that they did way more than that. After I took a step back to make sense of it, 100 makes more sense. each case takes multiple days and there are only 365 days in a year. So 100 is actually pretty impressive. I also found it really cool that before there is any voting or conversation, the justices all shake hands as to discourage hard feelings toward each other. I always thought that because it was such a controversial job, the justices would be rude and petty to each other. I like that they can be civil in a job like this. To be fair, they could still be rude and petty, but they're at least good at hiding it. I think that one of the most important take aways from the video was that the power rests in the trust and faith of the people. The Court doesn't just have power from no where. The people give them power and trust them to be impartial and fair. Something that was very surprising from the video was the overwhelming number of cases that are denied every year. It is totally up to the Court on which cases they take. Like I mentioned earlier, they only accept about 100 cases a year. That is out of the almost 7,000 proposed to the court each year. The video definitely brought much more perspective to their job. I have much more respect for the Justices and the work that they put in.