Author Archives: dfrias

My neighbors daughter needed help to write a poem. The theme of the poem dealt with bullying in school. She is only 9, so I asked her what she thought of bullying and how she felt about it. I was surprised by her response because I didn’t think she felt so strongly about it.  She isn’t a victim of this crime and/or act but it’s nice to see that even a child know that it is wrong to treat another person badly for no reason. In the news I’m constantly hearing of teens who are bullied in school and suffer great amounts of emotional pain. YouTube has had many videos go viral because of teens expressing their hatred of having to go to school to face the daily torture. I’ve also come across a few videos of victims attacking their bullies to make them feel the same pain. It’s sad to see young people having to go through depression instead of enjoying life with no worries.

There have been many artists who have debut songs that speak out against bullying from anyone you encounter whether at school, work, or by family members. Pink has a video that shows one girls self-worth diminished from a very young age having to go through struggles and trying to fit in. Fortunately, her story turned into a positive one and she was able to turn her life around. Sadly, the same cannot be said for many teens that are currently being tortured by fellow peers for pure satisfaction.

YouTube has a trend tab/link which lets people know what has been and are currently the popular videos circulating on their site. You can find very funny videos or the most annoying videos ever made. When I’m bored I tend to look through this trend site for a laugh. I came across a video of a little boy, about 2 years old, who loves his iPad. I thought it was a cute video then I noticed many other parents who are doing the same thing. So now the iPad is not only being marketed by Apple but also by soccer moms and dads. Now that children are being exposed to this new rave technology, will they be putting aside their Barbie and GI Joe? But the upside to this new trend is the educational spin that could be put on it. Parents can download educational apps to help their children transition into school or help them while they are in school. As oppose to other toys that only serve one function, the iPad has many options.

This new generation of children has been raised in a world full of technological advances. Put any device in their hands and they will teach themselves how to use it in under 20 minutes and become pros. Give the same device to an older person and they will be lost for hours. We have taught children, either directly or indirectly, that it’s all about having the ‘it’ thing. New technology is always being marketed toward young trendy folk who want to be ahead of the game with new gadgets. When children see adults raving over new gadgets they want a piece of the action as well. They want to see what the hype is and why it consumes much of our everyday life.

This was the headline by an article written by Tim Herrera that spoke about the iPhone having a tracking feature that is a part of the phone that sends your location to a server where it is stored but not shared. The NYT also featured an article named “Your iPhone is Tracking You. So What?” concerning this iPhone feature, in which two researchers discovered the iPhone and iPad keep a minute to minute log of where you have been and where you are going.

Apparently many customers already knew about this feature in the phone but did not mind it. For those who recently found out about the tracker they shared in the same feelings of not caring too much. So, it seems that people are used to or are getting used their privacy being taken away from them. The fine line between public and private content has been crossed so many times that it is difficult to pinpoint which is which anymore. The people with iPhones who do not care if their location is transmitted to a server seem to heavily outweigh those who do care. For those who want and wish to maintain some sort of privacy, even if it is with their phone, suffer because more and more people are finding it ok to share personal information. We are slowly moving towards a society that all will be public knowledge. Similar to Josh Harris’ idea behind “We Live in Public.” Just like in Harris’ Big Brother project, people will eventually get fed up with having no privacy whatsoever but by then it will be too late.

Even as a college student I still enjoy watching cartoons just because I find them to be funny and innocent in nature. One of my favorite shows growing up was Arthur, usually seen on Pbs Kids. One of their newer episodes actually relates to our class; the good and bad behind blogging. Long story short, one of the characters mentions “One should not write anything in an email they would not want to see on the front page of the newspaper.” This comment, I think, sums up what most people should think about before writing anything that can be made public content. This comment relates to many articles and discussions in class concerning texting and emailing. Sending an email or text to a friend is in our nature to ask the simplest questions. But what if in one message we are ranting to a friend about another friend, a work related situation, or anything negative, must we then worry that are private message will be leaked? Well in many instances that has been the case unfortunately.

Now we have to worry about personal conversations being spread through a social outlet, informing the world how we feel and think because one person decided to share another’s thoughts. If we have ever wronged someone, what are the chances that person will take what you have said and twist it to make you look bad? Again, this always happens. People like to make others look bad to feel better about themselves and nowadays it is as easy as ever to do so with evidence.

In Jeffrey Rosen’s article “The Web Means the End of Forgetting” he discusses the inerasable memory of the web. The article introduces a woman who was a victim of how the internet can harm a person’s image. The internet is an on-going, live record of every little thing we do, say, and think. We may think we have deleted something of our facebook, twitter, or blog page but some other person may have already saved that little piece of information we are trying to forget forever. That is the problem with many social outlets. Unless we limit the access of our information to the public then anyone can use the information we put our there to do some kind of harm, whether it be personal or business related. We may think that the information we share on the internet is innocent or fun and can’t really be taken in a negative way. But what one person may perceive as positive another may interpret as negative and offensive.

Then again, we are also responsible for the information we choose to share on the internet. If we think for a second that anything we post or discuss on the internet can’t come to bite us in the butt, then we are all sadly mistaken. A person cannot act as a victim or cry for help when something on the internet is linked to them. One needs to take ownership for any content they share on the internet, good or bad.