Net Neutrality and You

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What is net neutrality and what does it mean to you? Net Neutrality is the regulation that says that Internet Service Providers (ISP) must treat all data the same. Basically, this means that web sites can not charge you extra for a faster experience on their website or a little benefits like that. Now that Trump is in charge he said he promised to shake things up.

In 2015 the FCC voted to regulate broadband internet. This has allowed them to enforce Net Neutrality just like any other public service. With Trump coming into power, he and his administration will look to turn Net Neutrality back into an information service. Well what does this mean? ISPs would manage their customers data differently. The government would not be involved anymore and it would be up to trade groups and industries to determine what is fair and unfair. In addition to this, “Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire at the end of 2017 and along with it the federal government’s ability to spy on the communications of foreigners outside of the U.S.” (Greenemeier, Larry) Trump also wants to increase cyber security. This is what Trump planned to do in his first 100 days. An article after he officially became president helps summarize what has happened since then.

Recent activities favors the internet companies over customers. The U.S. Senate voted last week to allow internet service providers to sell data about their customers’ online activities to advertisers. (Ali, Christopher) Last week was late March 2017 which is when the article was written. It used to be about what is best for society. Now, it is what is best for business. Today a few companies own the media market. Companies like Comcast and Time Warner make a majority of the money and while the public does not get to see some of that money. In addition to all of this, we need to worry about apps as well. There was an investigation about phone companies not having mobile data with apps like Spotify. Another point that we should all know is that the U.S.A has a budget of 445 million dollars for public broadcasting. That means that it relates to about $1.35 per person. Other countries? Germany spends $143 a person and Norway spends $180 per person. This means that broadcasting will not get the exposure it needs in the U.S.

This seem like a disaster if Trump decides to go through with less regulations on net neutrality. Companies could have the power to make us pay for things we did not have to previously. We can not have few companies run the market or else we will see a decrease in what we are able to say. Just to quick paraphrase Nicholas Johnson. He said that “no matter what your first reform is, your second reform should be about media. His point is we need our voice to be heard so that our wishes can be fulfilled. I like his thought process because believe it or not, it makes sense.

Video Games and Violence: Do the two correlate?

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Video games have come a long way since the first game invented back in 1958 called ‘Tennis for Two’. Now we have 4k graphic compatible games and multiple game consoles. There are many genres of games ranging from adventure to sports. One genre causes more discussion then the rest. That genre is violent video games like first person shooters and fighting games. Examples would include Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, etc. Even Pokemon can be included because the monsters have to fight each other to determine a winner. So now to the main question, do video games cause violence or violent actions?

I came across an article on CNN titled “Do video games lead to violence?” About a year ago a teen killed nine people in Munich, Germany. This teen was a fan of first person shooter games, so naturally the discussion came up about if video games cause violence. The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics each agree that teens should not being playing violent video games. The American Psychological Association (APA) says that 90% of children play video games in the United States. 85% of games for sale contain violence of some sort. The APA says that “research demonstrated a link ‘between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior … and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement.'” The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says “that violent media set a poor example for kids” and “should not use human or other living targets or award points for killing, because this teaches children to associate pleasure and success with their ability to cause pain and suffering to others.” The academy conducted over 400 studies that show a link between violent video games and acts of violence or aggression in society. However not everyone is on the same page. Some scientists have some other thoughts and experiments.

Whitney DeCamp has discovered other evidence that opposes the APA and AAP. Whitney is “an associate professor of sociology at Western Michigan University.”  He concluded that evidence does not show a correlation between violence and violent video games. He says the studies have shown that the two correlate, however, he says that there is a chance that the kid or teen “may have a predisposition toward aggression.” In his own studies he asked 6,567 eighth graders if they had played violent video games within the past year. He concluded that violent video games do not predict violent behavior. Christopher Ferguson, associate professor and co-chairman of the Department of Psychology at Stetson University, not only agrees with this statement, but even goes as far to say that playing these games reduces societal violence. His reasoning behind that statement is that they stay off the street and do something they enjoy, hence causing less harm to society. During the week of the release of a popular new game, there is a general decrease in societal violence.  Recently a group of 238 scholars told the APA to retire its “outdated and problematic statements on video game violence.” To me it seems as if times are changing and these two professors and other scholars seem to think there should be an update in the studies. DeCamp said that almost young males play violent video games and the large majority do not commit crimes in society.

Personally I do not think video games and violence have a direct correlation. I have played violent video games since I was 12 and I have never once thought of committing a violent act in society. Obviously I can not speak for everyone who plays violent video games. There are studies that prove and disprove the correlation. I think there is a slight correlation but I think there are other factors besides just the violence of the video game. The best method which was pointed out in the article is that parents should monitor the games they play and their actions.

 

Distractions are Everywhere

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I would have started this sentence earlier, but I got distracted. Sorry that was corny but appropriate. The technological world we are growing up in is different than anyone born before 1990 or so. Why is that? It is because we grew up with this never before seen technology. Now we have phones that can send instant messages or pictures. Oh yeah, then there is social media. Social media has been the distraction champion every since it was created and will most likely never be dethroned. I’d be willing to bet that within the last week you were distracted by something on social media while working or doing homework. These distractions do not seem like a big deal but it could affect how we learn.

Lets start off by saying that we can all agree that overall, studying is not fun. Wouldn’t you rather be with friends or watching TV? Well the sad reality of that is that we can’t always have that. Adam Gazzaley stated in a interview that “When we switch between tasks, we suffer a degradation of performance.” For every distraction that we come across can slowly make us less likely to perform our current task at a high level. This does not just apply to work, it also applies to everyday tasks like driving. Texting and driving is very dangerous and checking your phone once to see what Billy Bob had to say could alter your life or someone else’s.

Digital distractions are not the only thing that can slow down the learning process. Today, we can read articles online for a class instead of having to buy the book. Yes! We all get to save money now, but it still comes at a cost. In the article “A textbook dilemma: Digital or paper?” The author (Claudia Wallis) says that Patricia Alexander, educational psychologist, discovered that out of  “878 potentially relevant studies published between 1992 and 2017, only 36 directly compared reading in digital and in print and measured learning in a reliable way.” So 842 studies say the opposite. If that does not say something then I don’t know what else would. It all comes down to personal opinion on what you prefer, but studies do indicate that we should all consider studying print instead of digital text.I personally find it easier to study off of a text book. I will say however that in some cases I do prefer reading online. For the most part I find it easier to read on paper.

Now, you would think that in this digital age that reading online would be more popular and would arise a problem right? Well not necessarily, actually it is the other way around. In the article “Book Reading 2016” that “Nearly four-in-ten Americans read print books exclusively; just 6% are digital-only book readers.” However a 26% of Americans do not read a book at all. So 38% of Americans prefer books in print than digitally. Thankfully that trend isn’t going anywhere, for now.

At least we know that people so far are sticking to the old fashion way. As time goes on it will be interesting to see if people start shifting towards digital learning, reading and writing. Maybe technology will change and we may see that learning, reading and writing can be scientifically proven to be better. For now, I am content with how it is now.

 

Benefits of Blogging

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With the evolution of the internet, ways of spreading information have become more broad. If anyone could start a blog, they could. It could be to write about their life or write about a variety of different topics. Did you know there are hidden benefits as well? In the blog post https://kdshives.com/2016/04/22/blogging-to-establish-your-digital-identity/ that a good way to stand out is by starting your own professional blog. That is only one source though. You could be thinking so what? It is just one website. Well I found others that agree with me and others who have the same thought process.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2472969/internet/why-blogging-is-still-important.html

The man who writes this post talks about the reasons he finds blogging to be very important. He recalls submitting his first post and remembering getting feedback on all the grammar and structure mistakes he had. That is understandable because when you start blogs. He also talks about how you get to create content and not just consume it. Also that it should not be too long. Long enough to get the important details across but do not make it too long so that the reader loses focus. One final thing is he is to support others. Comment on other peoples blog to help them out with their process of writing.

Not convinced yet? Well in https://blog.wishpond.com/post/47804902390/4-reasons-why-blogging-is-important-for-your-business we see that the author agrees with some of the points in the last post and has some points of their own. The blog is mainly focused around if you have a business however I still thing the points are valid. The author states that blogging can help create traffic to your own website. I like this point because if you want to start a small business you can have a blog on the side and plug your business in occasionally. Another point the author mentions is showing your leadership at your business. Well written articles can indicate that you are running your business successfully. One final point relates back to the first article and that is communication. Being able to communicate with others on their blog is important to help them and it also helps your business out as well.

If you use your blog correctly, it could benefit you a lot. They are many benefits of blogging and the reasons shared above are only a few of the many reasons.

Have you ever googled yourself?

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I think it would be safe to say everyone here has used google. In fact, you probably used googled when you were young. Back then you could not really google yourself because you most likely did not do anything worth notice. However now it may be a different story. Have you ever googled yourself? I did and what I saw shocked me a little bit.

Okay so it did not really shock me because I did not really expect too much. I am not really into social media that much so I did not think I would see much and I was right. The only social media applications that came up was Instagram and Facebook which is what I expected. I only created my Facebook so I could join the Muhlenberg Class of 2021 page. My twitter for my First Year Seminar also came up. Now I know from doing this in the past that people with the same last name as me also show up. In fact the people with the same last name as me show up more than I do.

Now besides social media and other people my name does actually appear on google! Is that not crazy? In high school we had a news network that I was apart of and we covered sports and other school events. Since I was a senior I took one of the leadership roles in developing the sports footage. The featured video was from my friends and I covered National Signing Day. My friend and I also made sports hype videos for the school and for professional sports. We made Super Bowl, March Madness and NBA finals hype videos.

A year ago in the summer my friend asked me if I wanted to write a sports blog for fun with him and his friend. I accepted as I thought it would be a cool opportunity to write about sport topics I liked to talk about. Throughout the course of a month I wrote four different blog posts. One about football, another about basketball and two on baseball. As I continued to write I noticed my writing was getting better and more people from my school would read it. The blog never really took off but it was still fun during that last month of summer.

Naturally I used google before I looked up myself like I would assume everyone would. It is interesting to see if Yahoo or Bing came up with something else. It was interesting to see that Yahoo and Bing showed less of me and more of others with the same last name. My Facebook did not show up as well as my twitter for my First Year Seminar. My blog post were also nowhere to be found either. So do not just google yourself, check out the other search engines as well. Overall googling myself was interesting. You never really know what you are going to see on the internet. Hopefully down the road when you google my name you see that I am sports broadcaster.