BLOG COMMENTING

Angelica Aldana: "Commercials Involving Stereotypes?"

Victoria Leung: "Fresh Cuts"

Kevin B: "Twitter"

Liam Kismatali: "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Communication"

Reenu Kandiah: "Maybe Parenting isn't for Everyone"

Mikaela C: "Blog Post #4"

BLOG POST #6: Tree Sticks or Selfie Sticks?

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In the past, the only stick that many people would know is a stick from a tree. As there are many inventions on its way, they begin as something that is underground or something that is not as mainstream as many other things. They become popular over time and more known to people when one person buys that certain item and they pass it on to others creating what is known as a tree diagram effect. An invention that has been quite popular for these past few months is what is known as the “selfie stick” A selfie stick is an expandable metal stick that you would put your phone on one and so that you are able to capture the background of a scene since the effect of the phone being further away from where it usually is makes it seem like it. Another purpose of this “selfie stick” is to take a group photo as it is able to get every single person you are with in the photo without having to cut someone out of the image.

The selfie and the selfie stick have been popular around today’s society creating these things to become something big and popular. However, as the selfie stick rises in population, many problems would occur because of this small invention. In a few countries, including Canada, the selfie stick has been banned in certain places. Some of these places include  museums and tourists sites. The question is, why has the selfie stick been banned in these particular places? From researching about this topic, there has not been much explanation to the reason why the selfie stick has been banned from these places. In my opinion, I see the selfie stick as a handheld device that lets owners of this invention attach a camera or a smartphone in order to take a selfie from further away than arm's length. I don’t see that there is a problem with the selfie stick and I have not heard any news about the selfie stick harming people who actually do use them.

BLOG POST #5: The Power of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is something that has been in active and in existence for quite some time, especially since this generation is known as the generation to live in a technological era. For many of those who are unclear to what artificial intelligence is, it is the making of machines or robots in order to make these inventions think likewise to human beings. These technological inventions are getting closer to reach its potential to become the human minds of the world. Sooner or later, computers will be able to have develop a common sense within a decade. This could then lead to us humans to count on these computers not only to be a reliable source, but also to become a person or a friend to people like us.

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As we live in today’s century, we all need to realize that artificial intelligence is the future for us. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this. In my opinion, I strongly believe that although artificial intelligence was created by mankind himself, it is able to take away the standards that the human brain already has. The human brain is known to be able to store anything a person’s mind would come across, however, as technological devices rise to its power, machines like computers and cell phones are able to store the information one needs and within seconds, one has what they require without needing to memorize it. I also feel that artificial intelligence is able to ruin the minds of the children for the upcoming future. With artificial intelligence, children will become lazier than ever and this is indeed a problem. Learning through the history of the past years, our parents, grandparents, and many generations before that did not learn through technology - they have been taught through the use of many school textbooks and library books. Nowadays, since technology is available for use kids in school use technology as a reliable source to find their answers to a certain question in an instant. There may be many disadvantages of artificial intelligence but there are also some positive things about it as well. From going around person to person, I have asked a few people about their opinion to artificial intelligence. One had told me that it isn’t possible for artificial intelligence to overpower the minds of humans. If you look about it this way, think about who built these computers and who programs them to become what they are today. The human brain does all of this. The information that has been programmed and stored into these technological devices is because of the ideas that humans come across and think of.

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As I mentioned before, artificial intelligence is the making of electronic machines like cell phones, computers, laptops, and much more into making these devices think similarly to humans. Technology that is being created by humans can only be as smart as the people that make these devices. As computers become faster and their memory increases, there will be no data that they are incapable of recouping.

BLOG POST #4: Mean people or cultural stereotypes?

Society is known to have many stereotypes no matter what the subject of conversation is that is being talked about in the moment. Some people see stereotypes as a bad thing while some might see it as something funny. Stereotypes are used to categorize a group of people or it is also known as an image or an idea of a particular type of person or thing. When someone says “Asian people eat rice everyday” or “Blondes are not as intelligent as others,” these are known as a stereotype. As you can see, these stereotypes are not something an individual would want to hear everyday. We are able to see how people really are when the continuously “joke” about these kinds of things. Although it may be funny to the person saying it, the person that it is being said to would not want to hear something like this.

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I am not the smartest, the prettiest, or the cutest out of all the girls surrounding me.” “I am not the nicest or the funniest.” “I am not the skinniest or the most popular person in school.” “I am not the most talented or the most athletic one out of all of my friends.” These are the few of many words that someone would hear coming out from a girl’s mouth, especially one who is at their teenage years. Many girls want to be all of these. They want to be known as the “perfect girl” with the perfect skin, perfect body, and someone who everyone wants to get to know and love as a friend. If not all of these characteristics, then at least a few of them. Because of society and stereotypes, girls in their teenage years are not able to live their life to the fullest. They hear people on the social media proclaim that “if you don’t have a flat stomach, then you’re overweight.”

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There are many advertisements that viewers see on the television during a day to day basis. Some commercials are meant to be funny while some are meant to send a message to teach the viewers something. Commercials that are meant to humour the audience are quite funny when you first watch them, however, as you come to the end of a commercial, you think back and realize that some of these commercials give a hidden message that is able to offend some people who see it. An advertisement from the car brand Chevrolet has come out with a commercial about one of their trucks a few months ago. This commercial is directed mainly towards men since is proclaims that you are not a “man” unless you are an owner of a truck. In my opinion, this commercial is similar to a situation of where you are shown two images of the same woman however in one photo she is fully clothed while the other photo shows the woman in a bikini and you show these two images to a group of people to ask them which one they would choose. This advertisement also shows that if a man who would drive a simple car that is slightly smaller than a truck is sexist and biased.

BLOG POST #3: For fame or for shame?

Living in the twenty-first century, it is already bad enough that young adolescents shame others because of their appearance, however nowadays even parents are shaming their own children as well? This is something that people have been noticing for quite a while and don't do anything but just sit there in amusement and read these kinds of posts about parents shaming their children. There is a difference between blaming someone and shaming someone. When putting the blame on someone, you're telling that person that they did something wrong whereas shaming is when you are telling the person that they are indeed something bad.

Not too long ago on the social media world, a man had posted a photo of a young child on Instagram. This photo included a four-picture collage of a young boy with part of his hair shaved off of his head. The man who co-owns this barber shop tells others that he was inspired to do something like this after he had seen results on something once he tried this out. Frederick, the man who co-owns the shop was upset about the fact that his twelve year old son was getting bad grades. After giving him this certain unpleasant haircut on a twelve year old boy, his school grades went up high significantly. The dad of this boy had a reason for giving the haircut to his son. "Parents are at a loss. When you go to discipline kids these days, they can't necessarily use physical punishment the way parents did in the past, but they have to so something." Some people believe to see shaming someone as a form of discipline and can be ineffective or even destructive.

Some people would agree with this method of shaming their kids, however, I am appalled about this. Shaming someone is not only disrespectful, but it also makes the other person feel self-conscious about themselves. In my opinion, I think that people only post photos to shame people, however they want to receive fame from this. Posting something like this would receive a lot of feedback from those who see it making them think that the purpose of these kinds of posts are for humour and entertainment. Parents need to stop sharing photos of their behaviour online and brag about it. It's degrading enough for the child to live with it and know that the whole world is able to see it. Putting children in a situation like this is able to humiliate them to promote bullying, not to discipline them.

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BLOG POST #2: Tweet Tweet Twitter

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Celebrities in particular  get a lot of abuse on the internet especially on Twitter because of its direct connection and some people are just so inherently cruel. Some people write harsh things to famous people without thinking about the fact that they are people as well.
It's a tough life to live in if you're a celebrity. We have the paparazzi following celebrities around or we have people from across the world posting mean things about these celebrities on social media like Twitter. However, celebrities are humans too and they deserve to have some respect from their fans. People are drawn to have attention from others which is why I think that they would do such a thing to post mean things about others on Twitter. However, this has been going on for quite some time - probably back to when Twitter was just a few months old and it was still in the process of being out there for the whole world to know. 

Being a fan of Jimmy Fallon and watching his show once in a while called "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," there is a bit that he does to entertain his viewers. "Mean Tweets" is what this is called. What is "Mean Tweets?" Mean Tweets is something created by Jimmy Fallon where different celebrities read tweets from people around the world that they don't know. However, these tweets that they read are most likely to me mean, hence why this bit is known as "Mean Tweets." As I began to take a look at these different videos of the "Mean Tweets" bit, I found it funny and entertaining. When going in to watching a few of these videos, I come to realization that these tweets were rude and unnecessary. I understand that these people are posting these tweets for fun and for entertainment, but they also need to realize that celebrities are humans as well and need to be respected the same way that the person posting these tweets want to be respected. 

The famous Jimmy Fallon's bit called "Mean Tweets" is not the only problem that is currently being faced on Twitter today. During the winter months of the year in the GTA, we usually deal with the bad weather - the cold, deep snow. This may be a good thing, but it is not a good thing for high school students across the GTA. While these bad conditions occur, many high school students, including myself, complain about having to go to school in these hectic weather conditions. We pray for school cancellations from our district school boards, but this ends up not happening. Because of this, students who attend the school boards tend to tweet and complain about not having school closures and also tweet unnecessary tweets to the school boards. We see that some high school students tweet vulgar words to the school boards. An example is "I can't believe the school board puts education first over our health." It's understandable that students would complain about this however they don't have to put this up on the internet for everyone to read. 

The question is, why would student do such a thing? Students clearly have a lot of time on their hands and don't have anything else to do other than to post mean things to others or about others. They could also be doing such a thing like this because they need to take their anger or other emotions out of their system and this is the only thing that they are able to do since it is easy access. What do they even get from doing this - from treating others badly through the internet? They get nothing but pleasure for themselves and at the end of this, they probably feel regret for doing this. To stop this we can report the people tweeting these mean tweets. In my opinion, there isn't anything we can really do about this. We can't confront the person tweeting about these situations. The reason why we can't really confront them is because they're already behind the screen. Clearly, if they're behind a screen and can't say these bad things in front of their face, they obviously can't be confronted in front of their face. From witnessing this in real life, I feel that this shouldn't even exist. The purpose of Twitter was not for bullying or for mean tweets. It was for people around the world to communicate with each other. I see this as a big concern for future generations because they learn from this which can cause bad attitudes for them. However, if someone attempts to stop this from happening, then it might just go away. But we never know what the future has for us. 

BLOG POST #1: Iggy's not so fancy after all

Majority of the famous people out there around the world don't really enjoy the fact that they are always being followed around by the paparazzi every day. Just like us, celebrities are humans too and they deserve to have some privacy in their lives. Unfortunately, the paparazzi can't seem to realize that celebrities deserve this and end up doing such unnecessary things. The paparazzi can turn into wild animals when wanting to take a photo of a celebrity and don't really care about what the celebrity does or say to try and stop this.

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Recently, a video of a famous celebrity named Amethyst Amelia Kelly, also known as Iggy Azalea, had been posted on the internet and went viral. This video included Iggy Azalea and her friend, as well as the paparazzi. Iggy and one of her friends were out shopping at a grocery store. This video starts off with Iggy’s friend yelling at the photographer and the photographer yelling back. Then suddenly, Iggy exits out of the grocery store and the fight begins to escalate unnecessarily once she comes out of the store. The choice of actions made by the paparazzi as well as Iggy Azalea and her friend were poorly made decisions. While Iggy does make some questionable comments in the video, this photographer was way too aggressive. This photographer was way too pushy and I think that he should have just backed off and left the scene.

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Many other celebrities other than Iggy Azalea go through this as well. Some celebrities that have been in somewhat of a similar situation are Lindsay Lohan, Kanye West, Britney Spears, and Justin Bieber. Rumour has it that nearly a month ago, Justin Bieber got into a little fight with the paparazzi in Paris as Bieber’s crew were trying to get into a hotel they were staying at. Articles written about this say that Bieber appeared to throw a few punches at the crowd. However, there is a chance that Bieber did not actually punch anyone, but he does have history with assault. Unfortunately, things got out of hand with the paparazzi and Justin Bieber.

When we see news about celebrities versus the paparazzi that become viral, viewers always choose a side. It’s either they pick the paparazzi’s side or the celebrity’s side. In my opinion, there really is no side to choose from. Yes, celebrities are sick and tired of being followed around by the paparazzi but the paparazzi can’t help it. It’s their jobs to take pictures of celebrities at their best and worst moments. However, celebrities should know by now that there will always be someone around them to snap a photo of them and post it all around the internet.