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The history of instagram: 

Instagram is an app that gives people the chance to communicate with images, unlike other social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook who rely on text, Instagram users use images to socialize online. Since its launch in 2010 the instagram community grew to 1.386 billion members and is one of the most valued social media apps of our generation. But how did it start? 

Kevin Systrom created the app 11 years ago for his simple love of photography, not too long after the launch, the app had over one million users, when creating the app Systrom said that he took all the other options out and only left the option to upload photos, leaving a comment and liking,  this helped him envision the app. The name instagram came from the fact that people were sending instant telegram. The app was then bought by facebook in 2012 and the community has only grown since. 

Why do people love instagram so much? 

    

    According to recent surveys , teenagers say that they love instagram because it is a positive place where they feel comfortable. The survey also showed that a lot of people used the words "real content" to describe instagram and that made me think. What these people mean by real content is that they get to follow their favorite celebrities and see their everyday lives which makes it possible for them to relate and say " Hey, I can be like them". This is actually one of the biggest concerns that people have about instagram is that it gives people unrealistic expectations. 

    Instagram models for example are usually influencers who market products for companies through  their instagram. These specific people are chosen because they have a large following audience which provides good marketing for the brands, but these large amount of followers are usually people who want to be like these influencers
( dress like them, have their job, have their bodies ) And in a lot of cases these followers put in effort to look like their favorite celebrities. The problem is a lot of these pictures posted by these influencers are heavily photoshopped and modified... So people are setting unrealistic expectations for themselves which can cause severe mental and physical health issues. 

    This is an issue hurting millions of people all over the world which is why influencers have to speak up and share the fact that these pictures are not realistic. 

    Movements like these have started, instagram-versus-reality movement was initiated to show that we see on instagram isn't always a reality by putting pictures of influencers before and after their pictures had been modified. 

It is important to make sure that people make a difference between what they see online and reality and this applies to all social media apps. If people give too much importance to their online presence they might forget about the real one and live in a simulation. 

Eight Values Of Free Expression

    

Throughout history, society  has seen that restriction is the start of a revolution. When civilians are restricted and their voices are not valued or sometimes silenced people tend to resort to violent ways of getting their message across which is why Stable Change is the speech theory that stuck with me. 

According to safety-valve-theory “it implies that citizens are free to make  statements concerning controversial societal issues to express their displeasure against the government and its policies. In assuming this right, citizens will be deterred from undertaking violent means to draw attention to their causes”. In other words, giving the people a chance to speak and lay out their concerns and thoughts while being heard decreases the chances of rebellion and people going against their government. 

    This in my opinion is more than a speech theory but a need that every human has to be heard. The stable change theory is nothing other than establishing a clear and healthy communication between the government and its people. But this becomes harder when the governments needs to do more than listen.When people speak up on social issues that are bothering them or sometimes threatening their lives they want to feel valued and that can only be shown through action caused by the government, without action than it becomes a one way conversation where people are speaking and the government is ignoring them.

        A survey from the American Psychological Association found that feeling-valued at work was linked to better physical and mental health, as well as higher levels of engagement, satisfaction and motivation. All the things that lead to a healthy and productive relationship between employer and employee. This can easily be applied to the government and its people: if civilians are heard, acknowledged and action is taken to help their situation there will be no reason to use violence to pass a message across. It can also help keep the government in check and make sure that they are doing what is right fo the country and its people. 

    When thinking about the American government today, one can say that it does not possess a healthy communication with its people, a lot of mistrust and it has to change. In order to do that the American government needs to establish a clear line of communication between citizens and the government, once that’s established there needs to be room for debate, in most cases nothing is black or white and people have to work together in order to enter the grey area. By doing that the government will show the people that they care and that they are valued. Overall this is not just a short term goal:  having healthy communications and debate will help make decisions faster and create room for change and growth. 

The Founding Era

     After watching the videos provided by Dr. Smith, I began to ask myself a lot of questions about the Supreme Court, the first one being: So, what do they really do? 

    According to supremecourt :"As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution". This sounds very promising right? So you might understand why I was shocked when Dr. Smith informed us that the first time the Supreme Court ever used the first amendment to protect people was in 1931 in near-v-minnesota. Yes, 140 years AFTER it was put in place. Knowing this made reading the definition of the Supreme Court very ironic to me, especially after seeing the timelines in the videos and realizing how much was going on at the time and the power the Supreme Court had to stop it. 

Some important takeaways that I had from this lecture and videos were that: 

For starters I learned that there were already people revolting against the idea of slavery all the way back in 1620 most of them being religious groups, this made me realize that the fight for racial justice has been going on for longer than I expected. On one hand it’s good to know that there were people fighting for this in 1620, on the other it’s sad to see that there are still people fighting for racial justice today in 2021. Something else that was interesting to me were the three compromises made by the north in 1787, I always believed that the south was the big evil trying to keep slavery alive and the north was against slavery and wanted to end, but I quickly realized that there were a lot of people in the north benefiting financially from slavery which is why things were moving so SLOW. 

One thing that stuck me from the bedrock principles video was that that the first amendment is not absolute, throughout history this has been shown to protect the wrong people and while it is good to know that people are still charged with incitement and other felonies like that it really all goes back to who’s judging you and how they see your actions, this to me means that the first amendment is not as strong as people think it is and it might not always protect them.