Life Changes, Instagram Changes Too

I can remember when I first heard about Instagram. I was in 7th grade and I was a manager for our JV softball team. I sat and listened while all the older girls talked about this new platform and what their usernames are. When I got home that night, I immediately pulled out my iPod touch, made an account, and I have logged into Instagram every day since.

Instagram has many benefits. It's an easy way to keep up with friends, it's a way people can express themselves creatively, and it's a way to meet new people. It way created for these reasons and a few more but I don't believe it was ever intended for what it has become.

Instagram has changed the way people view the world. People have made their living solely because of Instagram by becoming an influencer with millions of followers and promoting their lifestyle and companies which endorse them or creating a company based promoting these influencers. Instagram is the new billboard: post an advertisement, pay Instagram to have it promoted, get more views than you would on an interstate highway.

While Instagram has done good like promote causes and allowed people to express themselves while keeping up with friends and family, Instagram like any other social media platform has its dangers.

My brother just turned 12 years old in January. For his birthday, all he wanted was an iPhone and he's a good boy so of course my mom was a genie in a bottle and granted him his wish. The first thing he wanted help with was setting up an Instagram account, not adding contacts or taking pictures. So, with parents permission, I set up an account for him and was sure to put it on a private setting so random people couldn't see his posts. Two weeks later he came to me with his Instagram account and showed me that another random account had taken a screenshot of one of his pictures and reposted it on their account.  Even though he was on private and we thought his posts would be safe, somehow this still happened.

When you're 12 years old, you don't give much thought into your future career. However, the pictures and videos someone posts and reposts from the time they create their account could have an impact on their future career.  At 12, you don't think about the future consequences of your current actions but now children must.

What was made to be another way to keep up with friends and family has turned into a new way of shopping, a new career, a new news source. Instagram continues to change and society continues to love it. I don't believe Instagram will go out of style for a long, long time.

One Value of Free Expression

There are eight values that Americans hold to be true, each important and right in its own way. Personally, I think that participation in self-government is the most important of the eight.

Essentially, this value means not restricting American citizens and press to speak about election candidates, policies, and the government as a whole. We want citizens to talk openly about all these things because we want an informed electorate in every American election and we promote Americans with differing opinions to debate their reasonings with one another.

Participation in self-government also means protecting dissent, protecting minority views and allowing citizens to freely criticize the government. Without the protection of dissent, there would be much fewer political views than there are in today's America.

American citizens participating in self-government will also check on governmental power. The American citizens are allowed to speak freely on any government subject, including the government's abuse of power. Through participating in self-government, American citizens can make changes at the ballot box if they feel moved as to do so.

While each of the eight values play a crucial role in how America functions today, participation in self-government is arguably the most important value. Without this, there would be no opposing sides, there would be no change to the government, and the American citizens would have no way to check the government. Participation in self government is the most vital value of free expression.

Learning about the Supreme Court

While every American knows the Supreme Court exists, I have never actually thought about what it would be like to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court.

When I think of a Supreme Court Justice I imagine an older, intimidating man. This is partly because I still had the same perception of justices as I did when I first began learning about the Supreme Court in fourth grade. After watching the video in class, I realized that I my fourth grade perception wasn't accurate.

Each Supreme Court Justice is very different, even if they are supporting the same party. They each have different backgrounds and appearances. I believe this is helpful when resolving court cases because each Justice will have a different opinion and different point of view of the case.

I learned a lot that I didn't know before from this video like the Justices read the cases individually and form their own opinions before meeting together and I learned about how the Justices interact with one another.

I also learned just how much I don't know about the way our judicial system works. This video brought to my attention how little I read or learn about our judicial system and how it works. I don't remember going into detail about our Judicial system, even in my Advanced Placement classes, in high school. This is saddening to me because I believe an important part of being a good American citizen is to be well informed and I feel as if I am not as informed as I should be.

Due to this realization, I will be making more of an effort to learn about the Supreme Court and our Judicial system by watching more videos like the one shown in class and making more of an effort to give attention to current Supreme Court cases.

Using Twitter as a News Source

As I was sitting talking to my mom, we began talking about current events. When I told her how I get my news from Twitter, she began to lecture me saying that's not "real news."

When you think of Twitter, your first few thoughts are usually memes, gossip, and celebrity drama. While Twitter certainly has a fair share of all of this, users can also check Twitter for important current events and news.

Younger generations check their social media more than older generations check the news. In today's world, if companies don't have social media accounts they can become irrelevent to millennials. Rather than checking our news and social media, millennials can now follow news outlets' social media accounts so important stories, breaking news, and world affairs are just a tap away.

Twitter has a "moments" feature that makes it easy to find news, sports news, and what is trending on the internet each day. The app also shows trending hashtags that is customized for each account. Users can follow these hashtags so any tweets with that hashtag will appear on their newsfeed.

Like any social media platform, there are some accounts that can't be trusted for valid news. However, it is up to the reader to determine if the source is creditable or not. Twitter makes it easy to keep up with accounts users follow by offering a feature which allows notifications to appear on a users phone each time an account tweets something. Turning this feature on for news outlet accounts is just another way users can use Twitter as a reliable news source.

Eventually at a certain age, it will be time to get off of Twitter and pay for a subscription to a reliable news outlet. However, as a college student who doesn't enjoy spending her free time reading the news, following news outlets on Twitter allows me to be informed about events occurring in the world, all in 250 characters or less.

To find out more, click here!

Making some Major Changes

As an incoming freshman, I had no idea what I wanted to do after college or what type of classes I would enjoy during my time in college. However, I did know that I never wanted to answer the constant "what's your major" question with only one word: undecided. 

While faculty and peers will tell you "it's okay to be undecided as a freshman," I couldn't bare the thought. I'll admit, it is perfectly normal freshmen to be undecided but, being a person who has always known what I wanted, not knowing scared me. So, I decided to major in something I enjoyed, journalism.

That is until I took my first Communications class, Human Communications. Once I gave my first presentation in the classroom I knew I wanted to do something later in life that involved public speaking rather than writing or broadcasting. This realization led me to switch my major to a broader communications field: Strategic Communications.

Freshmen year was easier than high school for me. I thought to myself, "why do people complain about college?" Then came fall semester of sophomore year and I realized why people said that when I was overwhelmed with projects, tests, and my extracurricular activities. 

When I began to create my spring semester schedule, I came to another realization: it gets harder.

As I was talking with my advisor, I decided to switch on to the new track for my major. I would no longer have a degree in Communications with a concentration in Strategic Communications. Now my degree will simply state Strategic Communications when I graduate. 

What I didn't realize at the time was this also meant taking 6 classes a semester. As a student who has only taken 4 classes at a time throughout my college career, this semester has been a challenge for me.

As of today, we have been in classes for almost 5 weeks and I still have not mastered my schedule and keep a picture of it pulled up on my laptop so I won't miss a class. Three of the classes I am in only meet once a week and all on different days, this has forced me to be more organized with my school work and schedule than ever before. This was very overwhelming for me the first few weeks of school. 

 

I know, college is supposed to be difficult to prepare you for the "real world" and I should have known it would be hard going in and there are majors more difficult than mine and so on. 

So far, I am really enjoying my major and I am learning something new every day in my classes, which I appreciate. However, at the end of the day I still feel overwhelmed with classes and class assignments. Perhaps if I can get comfortable taking 6 classes a semester, all focusing on different subjects, then when I do make it to the "real world" I won't feel overwhelmed anymore. 

My Favorite News Sources

As a 19 year old college student, I'm still trying to find my own opinion on certain issues. This is why it is so important for me to find news sources that are unbiased when it comes to business, politics, and world issues. While I am still figuring out which news sites I like and can rely on, these are my current favorites.

The New York Times
In early high school, when I realized it was time to start keeping up with current news, I googled the most popular news outlet. I know, you're probably laughing at me. The New York Times was number one on the list and since that day I've been reading it. Not necessarily because it's my favorite but because if most Americans get their news from this source then if I read it then I will be in the same loop as most other Americans. 

The Wall Street Journal
This is one of my favorites because they publish new articles 6 days a week, they were voted one of the most reliable news outlets in the nation, and they have a student plan with discounted prices. This news site reports national and international news about business, politics, and international affairs.

PBS News Hour
This news outlet was voted as the most unbiased news source in the nation. As a 19 year old who is still trying to figure out my own opinion, it is important for me to read facts rather than someone else's views. The website also consistently publishes videos along with their articles which is more interesting to me.

Snapchat
Okay, I know. Technically, this isn't a news outlet but magazine and news sites post 'stories' of videos and articles about the latest news. News outlets like NBC and The Washington Post upload new stories to their Snapchat everyday, you can also subscribe to their stories so theirs will be at the top of your feed. There are usually videos, music, or interactive features included in the short, to the point stories that are uploaded.

Twitter
I know, another form of social media but Twitter has recently added a feature called 'Moments' which contains articles about subjects in news and politics that people are tweeting about. It's a pretty cool feature because after reading the article you can click on the hashtag that has been viral for this issue and read all the tweets where people have been sharing their opinions on the issues. I stay logged into Twitter on both my phone and computer so it is easy to just scroll through and look and stories and headlines. Reading normal people's opinions about the issues discussed is also one of my favorite parts about using Twitter as a news outlet.