Antiwar

Antiwar is pretty much never talked about in the media, the news, or even online. It is crazy to wrap your head around the idea that a certain topic is not discussed about more considering the wide realm of communication we currently live in. It is not a hidden fact that people talk about violence and anti-violence. Why are people so likely to openly discuss violence but not war?

 

After looking through the first antiwar article I was pretty confused. I had never seen an article like this before and so much talk about why people are against war. The second antiwar article had a plethora of sections to chose from when browsing the cite. Each section presented different types of information but that all lead back to the common concept of antiwar. 

I think it is safe to say that commonly considered “violent acts” do not have as an extensive affect that war does. I think with the extreme negative effects that war brings to America, people refrain from talking about it. With war comes effects on both the people of America and the government involved. Effects include, death and/or injury, illness, PTSD, disabilities, and many more physical and mental outcomes. On the other hand, the government may lose cities to war, go into great debt, loss of social order, and more. 

 

Antiwar is a known concept but definitely has many differing opinions. Whether the opinions are good or bad, it is still prevalent that antiwar is not talked about as much as you would think it is. Due to the outcomes brought by war, I believe the sore topic is too hard to discuss casually on the internet despite how big the web is. 

EOTO Project - Emoticons/ Emoji's

    Emoticons, or you may know them as Emojis, have taken over within the online realm of communication. Emojis are relevant in text messages, tweets on twitter, posts on Instagram, snaps on snapchat, and so much more. Although you may believe emojis have been around for just a short time they actually have been around since the mid 1800s. Considering emojis have just recently began to become popular we have noticed major impacts within communication and society because of them. These impacts are both positive and negative, but in the end it is up to the viewer to decide their overall opinion on the use of emojis. 

    The first emoticons date all the way back to April of 1857. At this time, the National Telegraphic Review and Operators Guide had stated that number 73 in the Morse Alphabet would be expressed as “love and kisses”. We then see in 1881, in the US Satirical Magazine, Puck, that Typographic emoticons were published. In the article they expressed that emoticons were a new way of using punctuation in sentences and consider it a “Period that Chuckles”. The next really big time we see emoticons published in the paper is in 1969 in the New York times after discovering the famous “smiley face” that Harvey Ball had created in 1963. Ball was told to raise the spirits of employees in an insurance company and do so through the creation of the smiley face. 

 

    Now that emojis are a lot more relevant and popular, we are beginning to see the impacts that they cause. On the negative side, with an increase of emoji usage, there is a decreased concern for grammar, spelling, and even sentence structure. People, more particularly traditionalists, have said that language is now becoming shortened, more abrupt, and there is a loss of communication cues. Emoji’s have created this concept of getting to the point, meaning people aren’t focusing on the grammar or spelling of their text message or tweet but rather getting their overall point across to their audience. Although there are negatives to the use of emojis, there are a good number of positives. Emoji’s follow one major grammar rule, which is acting as a punctuation mark and coming after a complete though has occurred. Emoji’s also help to avoid confusion when communicating over the phone. Sometimes things like sarcasm are hard to infer from a text message, and with the use of emoji’s we avoid the confusion. Lastly, and most common, emoji’s are one of the best ways to express emotions when not being able to communicate in person. Sometimes it can be difficult for people to express their emotions through words and with emojis people are able to send an icon that shows facial expressions of exactly how they are feeling. 

 

    Emoji’s are not a new concept to us but rather a newly popular thing that most of us use daily. As humans continue to reach for the perfect way of communication, emojis are just one step closer on finding it. With every invention there are positives and negatives, and based on the viewers opinion, it will show how they ultimately choose to look at emojis. Despite opinions on emojis though, we will continue to be given more advanced emojis as technology continues to adapt and improve with society. 

EOTO Technology - Instagram

 Through the EOTO Technology presentations I learned a great amount about Instagram and how it came to be. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger came up with the idea of Instagram and initially called in Burbn. After they started to critique the app and try to make it more unique than others, they decided on making the app more focused on photo-sharing. They pinpointed the goal on likes, editing, and sharing of the pictures that people would be posting.  On October 6, 2010 Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released Instagram to the public and people initially were attracted to the idea.

 Since Instagram became so popular it is clear that there would be an impact from the app. The major impacts of the app could be considered body issues, beauty standards, and the encouragement of travel, these being positive or negative. As far as body issues go, young girls and boys, and honestly anyone, may see a photo of an influencer on Instagram and instantly compare themselves. This also ties into the idea of beauty standards. Influencers use a lot of filters or even editing apps to make themselves look beyond attractive, but in reality, it is not what they look like. This idea creates an unrealistic beauty standard that the viewers on Instagram are now looking into. The two major problems with Instagram both go back to the same concept of normal people comparing themselves to unrealistic standards and making themselves feel bad. On the flip side the most positive impact from Instagram is the encouragement of traveling. When viewers see influencers travel to an intriguing place, it encourages them to travel to that same place. 

Although Instagram is still a recent released use of communication it has had major impacts on our society. These impacts include both positive and negative. The social media is based around “photo-sharing” and continues to thrive off that same concept today in 2023. 

Diffusion of Innovations

 Emoticons, better known as emojis caught on so quickly due to the fact they were easy ways of communicating and expressing emotions. It is easy to say that people became early adopters because of the exciting new idea and way of communicating with desired others. Once it was known that emoticons were being used, it immediate intrigued others and encouraged them to follow the trend. Emojis are a very creative concept, so when the announcement of them came it was clear to see they would take a grasp on society.

There are five very distinct sections of the diffusion of innovation theory. The first section, or group, is the innovators. The innovators are the people that would like to be the first to try things and/or test new ideas and creations. A great example of innovators are the people that had camped outside the apple store in order to buy the first iPhone. The next section of the diffusion of innovation theory is the early adapters. Early adapters are the people that like to take risks and promote new opportunities when it comes to an invention. Thirdly there are the early majority. The early majority are the people that like to know an invention is good before they go and buy it. This tends to be when an invention gets popular and people begin to buy it. The fourth section of the theory is taken over by the late majority. The late majority are the people that are scared of change and tend to refrain from any type of change. The very last section of the theory is devoted to the laggards. Laggards are traditionalists that are extremely hard to get interested in new inventions. 

            

With all positives there are negatives. In this case, the early adopters and early majority would consist of those that supported the idea of a new way to communicate with others and using emojis constantly. This group of people is most likely younger generations such as teenagers and 20s-40s. On the other hand, you had people that didn’t love the idea of new communication and found that these emoticons were actually hurting our language. This next group of people are the older generation that typically don't know much about technology and like to stick to the way things use to be. There are also people like traditionalists that believe that emojis are the reason people refrain from using sentence structure and proper grammar when texting or online communicating, these people would also be grouped within the late majority and laggards. The majority of the laggard population would include people that truly hate the idea of changing how we communicate with each other and push for the idea of grammar being important, even if it is on posts, tweets, texts, etc. 

            After mentioning the downfalls presented by traditionalists it can be easy to see why some people chose not to use emojis at all. One may choose to focus on their grammar and sentence structure rather than focusing on quickly getting their point across through icons. If this person was to start using emoticons, they would save time, present more emotion when communicating with others, and avoid confusion through wording. As you can see, there are both positive and negatives of the use of emoticons but in this case I must say that positives outweigh the negatives. Emojis have created a type of new language that helps humans communicate quicker and more efficiently, although they cause some issues involving less worry about grammar and/or sentence structures. 

U.S Supreme Court

    Within the United States it is extremely important to know that the Supreme Court "is the highest federal court in the country and the head of the judicial branch of government". This means that the Supreme Court pretty much is the highest power in government, currently consisting of 9 justices, and has the ability to watch over both the Executive and Legislative branches. It is surprising to know the extent of power that the Supreme Court ultimate has, despite the idea of checks and balances.

    The real beginning of the Supreme Court was in 1789 when the Judiciary Act was put into place by George Washington, stating there would be six justices. The Supreme Court went on to have their first meeting February of 1790 and their first decision in August of 1791. This decision was made a day after hearing the arguments of West V. Barnes, in which there was a financial problem involving a farmer and a family that he owed money to.

The Supreme Court consists of about 6 justices that are nominated by the President of the United States and denied or approved by the US Senate. Although the Supreme Court began with 6 justices, a rule was put into place later on that the amount of justices can range from as low as 5 to as high as 10. The most important one of the justices would be the Chief Justice. Before reading this history article, I did not know the importance of the Chief Justice. This person is responsible for the agenda, the writing of opinions, sits on the board of Regents, and looks over trials of impeachment. 

    The Supreme Court has a much larger role than I previously thought. It has the most powerful jurisdiction over federal court cases and even state court cases that include some federal law. Despite the intense power I realize the Supreme Court holds it is vital to keep in mind that it is balanced by the Executive and Legislative branches.