Liberating the Internet

  There are many problems facing with today's internet technology, especially social media, and that leads to the affect of having to liberate the internet. A Ted Talker named Wael Ghonim, shares his thoughts to everyone on how to liberate the internet and he points out 5 specific critical challenges facing today's social media users. First of all, he states that using social media spreads rumors everywhere that's hard to erase. Also, this impacts the people too because the people who see those rumors start believing them and that will make them bias. Second, he states that people who tend to use social media are more likely to make their own group of the people who thinks like each other similarly. For example, people only follow the people who they agree with and block or un-follow the people who disagrees. Third, he states that "online discussions quickly descend into angry mobs...It's as if we forget that the people behind screens are actually real people and not just avatars." So, he basically means that people will usually get in a sort of fight with each other over a specific topic in social media and they would only talk to the people they like. Forth, he states that when a post comes out that everyone agrees with, you will tend to believe it too. This will lead to the hardship of changing your opinion because of the fastness and speed of social media. Finally, Ghonim states ¨It´s as if we agreed that we are here to talk at each other instead of talking with each other.¨ This means that social media is made for positively socializing with people from different regions but instead, it´s going through the negative way because people are tending to argue with each other instead of supporting. These are the 5 critical challenges facing today´s social media based on what Wael Ghonim said. 

   Wael Ghonim also states different few suggestions of how to liberate the internet. One of the suggestions he states says ¨ if we want to liberate society, we first need to liberate the internet.¨ This means that the change of internet is based on the change of society. So if internet needs to liberate, the people of the society needs to liberate first or else it would't work trying to liberate the internet. The second suggestion that Ghonim states is the people in the society need to change by thinking more positively on the internet so positive information can spread around instead of having rumors or other negative stuff going around. These are the 5 challenges and suggestions that Wael Ghonim states for liberating the internet. 

Based on this personality test, I deeply agree with the strengths and weaknesses described here. In my personality description, it talks about the strengths. My personality strength is creative, insightful, inspiring, decisive, passionate, and altruistic. Out of the 6 strengths, I mostly agree on 3 of them because based on what I think, I'm usually not creative, decisive, nor altruistic. However, I agree that I am passionate, inspiring, and insightful. For my weaknesses, I am sensitive, extremely private, perfectionist, always need to have a cause, and can burn out easily. Based on my weaknesses, I deeply agree on all of them because the personality matches on what I think. It's true that I am sensitive to others, I am really private and don't like to share things, I am a perfectionist which I want everything to be perfect, I always need to have a cause which means I get disappointed when the result that I didn't expect comes out, and I burn out easily which means I get mad easily. These strengths and weaknesses match my trait and I get to know surely on what my personality is.
Another topic in which I can know my personality on is social engagement, or friend relationships. On the personality description of friendships, it says I am very quiet and when I try to make friends, it takes a long time to get to know them and get comfortable with them. Also, it says that I don't have a specific friend that always looks out for me and I'm always searching for a soul mate. Based on these statements about my personality, I think it's true about me and I agree about it because it matches on what I think about myself.

For my career path, it says I will get a career that I can help and socialize with people a lot and I will most likely get a career in healthcare like doctor, life coaches, psychologists, and etc.. I agree with my career paths because I wanted to get a career that connects to hospital stuff like pharmacists or nurses. However, the weaknesses of my career path is I will be sometimes forced to manage someone else's policies, alongside my own. This means it will be hard for me to find a leadership position and I agree with this because mostly, in my opinion, I lack a sum of leadership in me. I also agree with my strengths of my career path because before I knew about this, I thought about the career I wanted to work in and this description of my personality matches that.

Dear Future Self...
It's already been 10 years since middle school and I can't believe you're already attending college. I hope you're studying well to become a pharmacist. I know your favorite hobby was to draw and cook back in the days. I don't know if your hobbies are still the same but I hope they are. I remember you were really quiet back in middle school but I can imagine that you changed a lot. You became really talkative and outgoing. I know you'll be living in a small house with your pets and driving around in your mini car. I hope you're making your own pharmacy business and I remember that was one of your goals back in 10 years before. Are you having a hard time studying and trying to meet your goal? I hope you're not but I know you'll get through it. First of all, I hope you study hard to get the job you want. Second of all, I hope you don't have a lot of hard times coming your way but if they do, I hope you'll get through it.

                                                                                                                  From,
                                                                                                                       Present Self

Reflecting on my Goals

Did you reach the goal(s) you created in January? 

The goals I had planned in January was 2 different goals. One was a personal goal and the other was a academic goal in my digital literacy class. From January until now, fortunately, I had reached my goals. There wasn't any specific steps in achieving these goals but as I got more used to the classes and the learning strategies, unexpectedly, I achieved my goals. For my personal goal, I wanted to have more closer relationships with my family and friends and after some time passed, I achieved that goal. For my academic goal, I wanted to be more used to the computer and be closer to the techniques that are used in there. As I learned more things in my digital literacy class, I got to know more about the computer and that achieved my academic goal. As said in January, I didn't necessarily follow the steps to achieve these goals but I met these goals by getting used to the school and my classes.  

National Inventors Day

"I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world." -Thomas Edison

This quote by Thomas Edison means friendship is important as not swapping a favor of the king of the world. This quote basically means friendship is really important and it shouldn't be wasted that easily. This is valuable to all people who has friends because it will show how important it is to maintain friendship and how important it is to have friends and not betray them and think of them as valuable people in your life. This is one of the quotes that is important in one of Thomas Edison quotes. It shows the meaning of valuable friendship. 

Thomas Edison (the famous inventor)

List or describe some of the most popular searches of 2015 from the video.
- Paris terror attack
- water found on mars
- The color of the dress

What is a trend?
A trend is a continuous development of fashion or any other subjects that everyone does.

What trends do you notice in searches?
Some trends I notice in searches is they all mostly fight for something and they mostly come from the news. People usually search up these results because they are curious on what is happening or they want to know about it more and check.

Dear Alien, let me tell you about Earth...

I''m sure you have never or nearly never came to Earth. Earth is a very environmental planet and you can find mostly everything there for a living. There is water, food, and mostly everything for a person to live. If you come in today's society, mostly everything is made from technology. Humans are becoming more lazy as time goes. Instead of dictionaries, there are online dictionaries where you just type a word and a definition comes out automatically. Instead of telephones, there are smart phones. At earth, there is less natural environment places and more human-made areas. However, in the good side, earth's technology is very interesting and cool. If you come and visit earth, you will very like it.

Media Codes

* What is your favorite brand? Why?

My favorite brand is NB (new balance) and it is my favorite shoe brand. I've tried on and bought these shoes and I thought it is the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn.


* What types of code(s) are used by this brand to make it appealing to people (symbolic, written, or technical)?
The code that this brand uses to make it appealing to people is symbolic codes. They use different colors and objects to make it appealing to people on their advertisements or posters.

* Find an example of a code this brand uses and copy/paste it into your blog post.

WRITTEN:

* Do you think this brand's advertising influences whether you like it? Why or why not?
I think this brand advertising doesn't really influence whether I like it or not because other shoe brands can copy the way the brand advertises so it won't be any use of how the brand advertises. Instead, people need to know if the brand is really useful and works good for the people.

NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

* List 3-4 national holidays (including yesterday's)

* Why do you think we have national holidays?

* Are there benefits to having national holidays? Are there downsides?

There are different national holidays that are celebrated around the world. Some holidays are Martin Luther King Jr. day, Independence day, Cesar Chavez's day, and etc...

I think we have these national holidays to celebrate the history that changed the world to now. There are specific people that we celebrate in national holidays like Martin Luther king. Celebrating national holidays helps us remember and keep history that changed our world. There are good benefits to having national holidays. For example, it helps people not forget the important history and it also celebrates to the people who made the changes to the world. There are some downsides in national holidays like some people dislike or disagree to celebrate some national holidays so that can be some downsides to having national holidays.

MY SEARCHES

What are the top 3-5 websites you use for educational purposes?
The top websites I use for educational purposes is brainpop.com, google.com, khanacademy.org, and studyisland.com. I use these websites for some subjects like math and science and I practice some problems on there. The top-level domain they use is .com because mostly it's an "educational" site so the information on there is most accurate. .com is used usually for a commercial entities or business website.

What are the top 3-5 websites you use for personal entertainment?
The top websites I use for personal entertainment is I sometimes use youtube.com, google.com, and brainpop.com. For my personal websites, I sometimes go to educational websites when I'm bored and play some practice games and it's actually fun. The top-level domain they use is .com because it is mostly a commercial entity or mostly a business based website.

 GRIT

What is grit?

Describe a challenging experience in your life when you showed grit?

Do you think that grit should be taught in schools? If so, how?

Have you ever experienced grit in your life? Well, I did but before you know, here is a definition of grit. A grit is the effort you make and the hard-workings made in long-term goals. Grit is the way everyone can succeed including me. One of the experience I had in my life when I showed grit is when I was in school. During school, there was a hard time where I had to catch up or improve my grades. For example, when I´m failing a grade in class, grit is useful because it can help me overall improve my grades up. Grit is also useful for everybody to use. Grit should be especially taught in schools because it will definitely improve the effort the students are making. A way of how grit should be taught is school is maybe the student can learn to make plans in their life. For example, the students can make their future plans including college plans, or life plans. After the students made those plans, they can have an actual assignment of researching about their future dreams and the reasons of how they will achieve it. The teachers can also teach the students more about grit and make them participate to make them actually understand the meaning of grit and how they can succeed in their future life. Also, games and group works can be included to make students participate. Doing these activities will definitely help the students have grit and succeed in life. All that is needed, is effort made by the students and teachers at school in order for grit to be learned by everyone. ;)

MY GOALS

One academic goal I would like to accomplish in my digital literacy class is improving in working with google drive, docs, and etc.. I can accomplish this goal by using my google drive often when working on a project assigned in other classes. Another way I can accomplish this goal is, when there is a chance to work on google drive again in class, I would work on the topic more seriously and put more attention to it so I can accomplish my goal that time. When I´m at home, I can spend more time working with google docs, forms, sheets, and etc... Instead of using other apps to use my printer or my computer, I can use google more often when I have time to do so.

One personal goal for me in my life is having closer relationships with my friends and my family. I can accomplish this by hanging out with my friends more often and I can be closer with my family by talking to them often or going out on family outings often too. Also, I would want to make new friends too by talking to other people and spending more time with them rather than spending my time always with my friends.