The History of The Emoticons and Emojis

 Emojis or  Emoticons are a digital image, mostly used in text, to describe ones emotions, idea or statement. They have widely been coined as the millennial language  as they first appeared in phones in the 90's. However before you knew emojis as "😂" they were emoticons and presented as " ;)" or " :)" or even ":(" .  

History of Emoticons 

Emoticons can be traced back to the 1800's from type writers and the first winky face emoticon can be found in a transcript of an Abraham Lincoln speech written by the NewYork Times. The term emoticon is derived from emotion and icon. It refers to a  digital representation of a facial expression using characters. Emoticons were often used in online communication to convey emotion or tone. People began experimenting with different combinations of characters to create a wide range of facial expressions, emotions, and even objects. The creative use of punctuation marks, letters, and numbers allowed for a level of expressiveness in text based communication that was previously difficult to achieve.However the first documented emoticon was used by Scott Falhmn who was a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. On September 19th, 1982 the first ":-)" was used. He proposed these for students to distinguish which post were jokes or not. These combinations of punctuation marks laid the groundwork for the emojis we use today.

History Of Emojis 

 The emojis we love and know now such as "😂" first popped up on mobile phones in Japan around 1997. The word emoji stems of the "moji" which means character in Japanese and "e" which means picture. In 1998, an engineer at the Japanese telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo, created the first set of 176 emojis for their mobile internet platform. These early emojis were dull and boring compared to todays colorful and detailed designs we see today, however they laid the foundation for what was to come. With the rise of instant messaging platforms as well as social media in the late 1990s and 2000s the use of emojis became even more popular, as users found new ways to express themselves online.With the advancement of smartphones, emojis went through another transformation, evolving into the emoji we know today.  In 2010, a non-profit organization that oversees the development of international standards for computer text and characters called Unicode Consortium, began incorporating emoji into its Unicode Standard. In 2011 is when Apple officially added an emojis keyboard to the IOS and have added many new emojis with every update.

The Impact of Emojis

One of the greatest impacts of emojis is their ability to enhance the emotional depth of online communication between individuals . In such a digital age where face-to-face interaction is often forgotten, emojis fill the gap by providing a great way to convey tone, mood, and sentiment.

Today, emojis have also become a huge part of online communication between the world.Emojis are the one form of language that doesn't have a barrier between cultures. From smiley faces and laughing faces to gestures such as hand-waving or thumbs up or more specialized emojis that represent food, animals or weather, emojis can provide people with a universal and engaging way to convey emotions, information and enhance their online interactions.

Privacy Blog

Privacy by definition means the state of being free from being observed or disrupted by other people. Privacy has been a growing concern in our society as more and more violations are becoming present. I have never really thought about privacy as an issue until concerns about privacy relating to media arose. 

The first video is an introduction to online privacy. Juan Enriquez compares our active lives on social media to that of a tattoo. Detailing that social media post our a "electronic tattoo". Social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and instagram all use facial  recognition and what you post to decide everything about you. Much like tattoos, what you post on social media is permanent and while both can be removed they aren't forgotten. I knew of the fact of social media companies tracking due to ad control and who they are going to, however I was never aware pf how extreme is was. 

In Christopher Soghoian 's ted talk describes the concern of wiretapping and surveillance through communication such as phone calls, texts and emails. He mentions the use of wiretapping for surveillance within products through telephone companies specifically for government use. These however, were found to be easily tapped by other governments and intelligence agencies as well as anyone who had the capability. Personally, I believe this is so scary due to the stalker-ish nature of listening in on ones phone call wether it be the government or a regular person. There has been an increase protection in surveillance issues through the birth of the smartphone. Companies like apple and google are programming their systems to make it more difficult to tap in. 

8 Values of Freedom

 

In todays society, the publics freedom to maintain free speech seems to dwindle day by day. Social Media platforms such as Meta are constantly limiting the ability to express ones opinion. News outlets and media are also very well-known for being very biased on one opinion and striking and silencing other views. These 8 values I feel are losing themselves within today's society and it's scary to witness it. These 8 values include the Marketplace of ideas, the idea that the truth will present itself, even within a false narrative. Participation in self-government is the idea that citizens will not make wise choices in elections if candidates of certain policies are restricted in their ability to communicate their positions. Stable change the idea that a society in which citizens are allowed to vent or criticize the government will be more stable. Individual Self-Fulfillment the idea that free speech will enable people  to express themselves and create their own identity. Check on governmental power the idea that freedom of the press allows  citizens to learn about abuses of power and be a part of the check-and-balance system. Protect Dissent the idea that the first amendment protects even the most unpopular views. I found two ideas that I most value, one being promote innovation which is the idea that when free speech is valued and protected the people within society are more likely to participate and engage in it. The other idea is promote tolerance which is the idea that by protecting speech society finds hateful helps us become more tolerant. 

1. Promote Innovation

Promote Innovation is the idea that when free speech is valued and protected society is more likely to engage in it. In 2020 we saw the now poplar social media app , Tik Tok take off due to its allowance of 30 second to 3 minute videos where you could showcase and discus frankly anything you wanted. Coverage of any type of media grew super popular on Tik Tok such as election news, pop culture news, etc. The app gained such a popularity due to its allowance of unfiltered speech. Unless you spoke of threats or presented violent actions, your video can be viewed by all. Every year, politicians have "threatened" to ban Tik Tok however, this March a bill was created including the banning of Tik Tok due to the company's influence within China. This ban is a huge violation of the first amendment right due to the government potentially restricting the ability of the people to express themselves through social media, politically or not. While concerns about data privacy and national security are legitimate, banning TikTok outright undermines the fundamental right to free speech. Ultimately, this could harm the participation within speech and how society expresses it.

2. Promote Tolerance

When being presented on the list I couldn't understand why this wasn't common sense to most people. Promote tolerance is the idea that by protecting speech society finds hateful helps us become more tolerant and better as a society. Cancel culture has become huge within the newer generation and while this became a great tool of bringing awareness to people in society who need to reflect on themselves, it started to be taken overboard by members of society. I constantly think about to Jenna Marbles, a popular YouTube content creator, when I think of unnecessary cancel culture. in 2020, two videos from 2011 and 2012 were resurfaced of Marbles, years after she had released an apology for her racist jokes. After days of receiving relentless bullying and death threats, Marbles announced her indefinite leave from YouTube.  While promoting tolerance is something that as a society we need to uphold constantly, we also need to recognize changes and shifts presented by people over time. 

The Supreme Court :The Law of the Land

 

    The Supreme Court is one the three highest branches in the United States Government and the highest court in the land.It is responsible for evaluating the constitutionality of following the law. The court itself was established by Article lll section 1 of the Constitution  however, section ll establishes the power of the court. The biggest power the court has is Judicial Review which is the power to declare a violation in the Legislative or Executive branches. As of 2022, there have been around 115 Justices that have served on the Supreme Court. 

 

     The biggest thing I learned that I didn't already know about the Supreme Court was the amount of cases they don't take. Even though they receive around 7,000 cases a year they only hear about 100-150 cases give or take. I also feel like all we hear is about how divided the Supreme Court justices can be , when most cases turn about to be a unanimous vote. I also learned that they are originally appointed by the President of the United States, then voted on by congress. The presidents do this to help gain more control over the court by their party. The current justices are Chief Justice Roberts, Associate Justice Thomas, Associate Justice Alito, Associate Justice Gorsuch, Associate Justice Kavanugh and Associate Justice Barrett who were all appointed by republican presidents. Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Sagan and Kentanji Brown Jackson were all appointed by democratic presidents.  I also learned that Former President William Howard Taft was not only president but Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his presidency. 

    The Supreme Court is almost the silent branch of the land. They do so much and determine so many things every year and yet we barley hear about them. I think this surprises me so much because the only main times Ive ever heard about the court was during the Brett Kavanugh and Amy Coney Barretts hearings because of how controversial they were. I also find surprising how we didn't have a female court justices until pressured by the people to do so. In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Regan as a new supreme court justice as the rise of abortion laws and cases presented. Regan believed that by appointing a conservative female justice he would still get his way with his abortion stance but appeal to the people who complained about there not being a female voice. However this choice backfired, when O'Connor sided with four other justices in 1992's  Planned ParentHood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey. They decided to uphold the decisions made by Roe v Wade.

Top 5 News Sources

 

I never been a big person on keeping up with the news. In recent years however, I feel I've become more aware of what's going on around me. As a member of Gen Z, I feel older generations consistently argue about what's going on in the news and biases which has therefore turned me more and more away from consuming it. 

1. Google News

Google news was developed in 2022 by Google itself, to help bring unbiased news to all people. I really enjoy google news because I feel it does do what it was built to. Especially for younger generations who don't really lean a certain way or aren't sure how they believe its a great source to use.

2. Instagram

Instagram is a social media site where accounts can post whatever they like under guidelines. Currently it is under META ran by facebooks creator Mark Zuckerberg. I feel in this day I collect a good amount of pop culture news from instagram rather than political however almost every news site utilizes their instagram page. If someone reposts something going on in the world, I usually find out from the news accounts post rather than the website itself. 

3. Tik Tok

I find myself gaining most of my information about anything going on whether it be sports or political from Tik Tok.  Tik Tok is a social media site where you can post 30 second to 10 minute videos of anything you want. It launched by ByteDance in 2016, it gained huge popularity in the US in 2020 during the start of the pandemic. It's very easy to find biased media on Tik Tok, however there's so much content of news being made that middle grounds as usually sorted through.  

4. ESPN

ESPN is the largest sports network and app in the US, starting in 1979. ESPN is where I gain primarily all my news about sports, as well as streaming them as well. I lean more towards sites and apps like this because even though it is sports, I feel it's one of the only news networks that don't contain some bias to it.

5. Spotify

 Spotify was founded in 2006 and is a streaming platform for music, auto books and podcast. I find myself consuming a large amount of podcast on Spotify and is one of the main reasons I downloaded it. One of the main ones I listen to is the Global News Podcast hosted by the BBC World Service. It's a great source to find out what is going on around the world.