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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. 

Where Do I Get My News?

When I first arrived in the United States I rapidly picked up on the major news sources that people use (CNN, FOX News, BBC…). What I didn’t understand is why it was considered a personality trait? But then I realized how divided the press is in America. 

    Basically: If you say you watch CNN you are considered a democrat and if you watch Fox News you are considered a republican...After watching both channels one can understand where these labels stem from. But why? As far as I know, the press is responsible for reporting information to the public, not telling them how to feel. 

So after a few years of only reading international press I decided to look for some news sources that I can use to get good, factual information from reliable reporters, here are my 5 top sources of news and information: 

            1- LE MONDE: 

After living in France for a while it became almost vital for me to check lemonde.fr  every morning, As opposed to CNN or Fox News, the information I get on there is far less prejudiced and more authentic. I specifically realized this during the 2016 elections: I remember my friends in high  school having debates on which news source in the best when both are clearly very biased which made me decide to investigate what the international press had to say about the election, there I got a realistic perspective on what was actually going on and from there... It became my favorite news outlet. 

     In my opinion it is a news outlet that is always aware of what is happening around the world...Something that a lot of Americans don’t really seem to care about but is very important to me. I remember being so confused when the Covid-19 pandemic started and I could barely get any info or data on what was happening in my home countries from American news. To me it is important to be aware of how the rest of the world is doing because it allows people to look at the bigger picture and get a better understanding of the situation. 

 

2- TWITTER:TIME...TIME...TIME. It might not be the most reliable, it might not be the most honest, it might not be the whole story… But when something happens twitter always knows first. As a PR person it is impressive to me how news always breaks out on twitter, if a customer is not happy with a product and wants to rant about it online, they are most likely going to use their twitter platform to do so. When something bad is happening around the world and nobody is talking about it, there is most likely going to be an independent journalist on twitter writing about it which leads me to why I love using Twitter as a news outlet: “INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS” To me it is very important to read news articles that are not biased, independent journalists on twitter like MaryEmilyOHara  or daniellewlkr. Now I don't trust everything that I read on Twitter but I will most likely hear about it there.

3- TikTok: Ok, I’m not saying I go on TikTok to get my news but I will say that I have learned a lot about what’s happening around the world by scrolling on that app. Most people that I know have a TikTok account in 2021 and go on it almost everyday. There is a lot that goes on on the app: You can watch something funny, something cute, learn how to cook, cry… But you can also get your news! There people on the app with accounts specifically dedicated to reporting on what's happening around the world @ac2ality For example, she makes one minute videos to talk about 5 events that happened everyday. after doing some research a lot of her followers realized that the facts she was bringing up were true which helped her gain over 106K followers who watch her videos everyday. There are hundreds of people like her who simply report on daily news everyday. Now the older might have an issue or see a problem in GenZ getting their news from an amusement app but I think that it's great, it is amazing that teenagers today can get their news so easily and fast. 

4- World News Tonight With David Muir:

 When I’m bored and just want to learn  about what’s happening around the world I tend to enjoy listening to podcasts, one of my favorites being World News Tonight with David Muir. Now this is far from being my first news outlet I go to when I want information but Muir does a good job at providing facts about a situation, providing information on how the people IN the situation are feeling and then he starts giving his opinion which is honestly when I stop listening but he does his job: he gives me the facts. Podcasts are also enjoyable to listen to after a crisis happens because it provides listeners with different perspectives on a subject and show how the population is feeling about it. 

5- The New York times: If I had to choose one news outlet to read from in America it would have to be The New York Post. according to britannica.com "Its strength is in its editorial excellence; it has never been the largest newspaper in terms of circulation. The Times was established in 1851 as a penny paper that would avoid sensationalism and report the news in a restrained and objective fashion". Which I believe, The New York times does a great job at staying objective and calling out the government, it provides the people with factual information on what the government is doing and why (which is what all of them should do by the way). Overall I like what they report on but I wish they would go more international, it is almost impossible to find an American news outlet that reports on America's actions outside the boarders, this is dangerous knowing that a lot of people in this country would not agree with where their tax money is going.