Discussion Questions

1. How has the Internet affected your views on politics?

2. Which party do you think the Internet as a whole is more supportive of? Why and how-so?

3. Referring to the table above from the reading, which of the 4 digital democracy opinions do you think you most resemble? Why? Examples?

"Google has awarded a $5 million grant to the World Wildlife Fund to use and adapt new technologies to combat animal poaching around the world. The group has grand plans for the money, which will be used for everything from camera-equipped drones to next-generation animal tags that send text messages with critical information to rangers." Google is going out of it's way to donate a very generous amount of money. I think this is yet another good thing that Google has done on top of the already cool things it does as a company everyday. I think that this is going to a good cause because the article states "Poacher operations have grown in scale and sophistication, despite efforts to curb them. Rhinos used to be poached at a rate of 15 or 20 per year in Africa — but now, because of high demand for rhino horn coming primarily from Asia, over 600 have been killed this year alone. Statistics for elephants and tigers are equally disturbing". This is obviously an issue and Google is doing a very good job to contribute to this cause. This technology that they are implementing with the funding money can be used for a number of things ranging from tracking African militia's to animal migrating habits. There is a lot of good that comes out of this technology

scroll right to see the rest of the comic

Social Media After Effects

            I chose to blog about the potential effects of social media in the near future. So like most everyone here at John Carroll, you have a social media profile on some platform whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Etc. Having that profile comes with a huge responsibility. For example, In the midst of Senior year I was filling out college applications left and right. I was also constantly doing things like Joining clubs, getting good grades, etc. to look good for colleges. One of the things I made sure not to forget was to disable/block all my social media profiles so colleges could not find me. Why? Because almost every single college will look you up on most social platforms to get more information. And let's face it, nothing good could have come out of a college finding my Facebook or my Twitter. I had to actually take hours off of my day to make sure I was completely off the grid. You don't realize how much actual risk and responsibility you take on once you join social media platforms until you give it a second thought. And It doesn't stop at colleges, oh no. Next time you put in application for an internship or a job, guess what one of the first things they do is? You guessed it, run your name through the social media database. To think that the one factor that determines if you land that dream job that pays well or you end up waiting tables could end up depending on what you posted on Facebook up to 5 years ago. That's mind boggling.

Digital Media and Social Justice weekly BlogPost #1

              I chose to blog about this Video depicting Edward Snowden being interviewed about his decisions, intentions, and motives. The interviewer goes on to asks Snowden what his initial intentions were when getting into the government, Snowden replies that he had no intention of becoming someone who would leak information. Snowden Also goes on to say that after joining the government he payed attention to the information about Iraq in the media with contrast to the actual information only to realize that the two were very different from each other. The government had interfered with the information that was broadcast through the media in an attempt to "create a certain mindset in the global consciousness." He believed to be a victim of this because he believed in the nobility of the US's intentions of freeing the oppressed people of Iraq only to find out that there was little nobility actually based on the US's involvement. After the interviewer changes the subject; Snowden starts to talk about how much the government is actually involved in the internet as a whole. Everything you do on the internet is monitored, processed, analyzed even down to the littlest "happy birthday" wish you post on someones wall. He talks about how big internet based companies you have learned to depend on, support and trust are really not as confidential with your information as you may have thought. Companies such as Google, Verizon, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook give direct backdoor access to your information, searches, interests, and habits. So essentially you can't use the internet without all information being relayed to the NSA. The rest of the video talks about other accounts of the government using abusing their power to wrongfully eavesdrop on not only the american public but a number of international groups, communities, and companies.
             Personally I don't view Edward Snowden as a "Traitor" because in essence he worked to keep the general population correctly informed, which was supposed to be the government's job in the first place. Now don't get me wrong, I believe what Snowden did was highly Illegal and he should't have leaked some of the that compromise our national security. So to reiterate I don't view Snowden as a hero because he's not, he chose a lesser of two evils to benefit the american public's knowledge and freedom.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jul/08/edward-snowden-video-interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_qdnyEqCPk

Meaningful Discussion Questions: Internet Access Is Not a Human Right

 Meaningful Discussion Questions:

 

1. Seeing as though France and Estonia have made internet access a human right, would you want the U.S. to do the same? Why or Why not?
 
2. What do you consider necessary requisites to becoming a human right?
 
3. How would you react if the Governmet banned access to the Internet? How would your life change?

Blog Assignment #1

Joseph Joel Gramling, Peters Township PA, jgramling17@jcu.edu.

I prefer to go by my middle name "Joel", that's why I mentioned it in the line above.

In terms of sports I like to Hunt, Snowboard, Wake-board, Skim-board and casually like to play lacrosse (surprisingly not skateboarding haha). I'm actually Joseph Joel Gramling the 5th and that's why I go by my middle name seeing as though all the previous Joseph's went by their middle name Joel. I went to Spain for a month this summer and ran with a bull in a bullfighting ring. I'm 50% Sicilian (my mom is 100%). I have a golden retriever named "Nahla" and I love dogs.

For me to feel comfortable enough to take intellectual and creative risks I would need to be in an open comfortable environment where the discussion topics won't make anyone think less of anyone because of someone's opinion.

I think the most important technological invention was the computer because computers are in everything today and we come in contact with something computer related everyday. The internet was also a huge invention but it only came to be because of computers.

I rely on many technologies in my day to day activities but the main two are my phone and my computer.

 In high school I learned 2 programming languages (qbasic and java) and took a gaming computer programming course. I also built my own computer and I've always been the IT guy of my family. I've worked with adobe Flash, Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver. I use Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and Reddit (I don't go on Facebook much but I have one). I would Rate my Technology Proficiency at about a 6 or 7 because there are others who are much more advanced than me.

(Assuming you weren't involuntarily picked) Why did you want to teach this class?