Online Bullying

Online bullying has been an issue that has been in the news now more than ever.  With the accessibility of so many online sites that people are able to hide behind, it is easier to bully someone over the internet than in person.

Kids in today’s society have to deal with an entirely new type of bullying.  Online bullying can be just as detrimental as physical bullying.  Making crude comments on Facebook about someone’s appearance can make a child have extreme insecurity issues. 

A 13-year-old young girl by the name of Nicolette Taylor, from Long Island, N.Y., recently did an interview with ABC News explaining that because of being taunted tremendously on Facebook about her nose, she underwent rhinoplasty surgery to “fix” the problem and change her appearance. Fellow Facebook friends of Taylor’s would make comments on her Facebook wall and photos calling her names such as “hey big nose” and “big nose Taylor” which lead her to having the surgery. 

What these Facebook friends of Taylor’s probably didn’t know is that Taylor had broken her nose twice as a child.  Once when she was two and again when she was again, and has been made fun of ever since.  Originally Taylor’s parents were going to wait till she was 18 to have the surgery, knowing that teasing is a part of being an adolescent, but the teasing simply became too much for Taylor to endure. 

Taylor’s parents have admitted that allowing their 13-year-old daughter to have the surgery is a very drastic way to “solve” the bullying issue but he stated “If it’s something you can do for your child that’s within your control, that’s really a reality factor, than why would you not do it.”

                                     (Actual picture of Nicolette Taylor before and after her plastic surgery.)

Click here to read the entire story of Nicolette Taylor

Newspapers: On their way to extinction?

Newspapers used to be such a crucial part of how we, as society, received our news on the current events in the world.  Over the past few years, it has been in question whether or not newspapers are going to be able to survive.  In fact, Ted Turner predicted 30 years ago that newspapers would be completely obsolete in 10 years. 

With all of the new technology that has emerged over the past few years, i.e. iPad, iPhone, it has become even more convenient just to receive our news through those devices versus having to go to the store and pick up a newspaper.  Receiving your news through these sources, as well as the internet, has allowed up to not only look at the sections of the newspaper that we want to look at, but many applications are free. 

Receiving our news through the internet is completely free, another reason why newspapers have been considered to be slowly dying out.  The internet allows its user to go to which ever news source they choose whether it be the conservative side such as Fox News or the more liberal side such as CNN.  As a society, we love having choices and having control over which news we receive.

The internet and new technology has allowed us to access news any time we want, when we want to access it.  There are, however, certain people that still do enjoy the flipping of a newspaper page, the smell of the newspaper or some that simply do not wish to merge with the concept of new media. Whether or not newspapers are on the way to complete extinction is something that only time can tell. 

Opinion article on the possible extinction of newspapers.  

How Steve Jobs revolutionized the way we listen to music.

Ever since I was young, music has been an essential part of my life.  I can remember riding around in the car with my dad as a little girl and listening to Journey, Boston, The Beatles, Aerosmith and Stevie Ray Vaughn.  My dad would tell me, "Brianna, no matter how you are feeling or what mood you are in, there is a song that will always match it."  To this day, I have yet to find that statement to be false.  Music has a way of lifting us up, brightening our day or reminding us of a memory whether it be good or bad.  Everyone has that one song that can completely change their mood from bad to amazing, for me that song is "Free Fallin'", by Tom Petty.

The music industry has been changing ever since I can remember, which granted isn't that long of a time span but the amount it has changed is astronomical. When I first started driving, I had an endless amount of cd's stacked into several cd holders and "binders" as I called them.  I had cd's from the time I was 11 to that present time.  At times it was certainly overwhelming to dig through stacks of cd's just to listen to that song that I had stuck in my head.  Even at the gym, I had to lug around a bulky cd player with just one cd in it to listen to for my entire work out, which eventually became very annoying. I figured that there had to be an easier way to listen and enjoy all of my favorite music without having to deal with the hassle of interchanging cd's every time I wanted to listen to a different artist or song.

When my older brother came to me and told me about this new device that he had just bought that enabled him to download his entire music collection and store it, I figured there was absolutely no way this was possible.  He showed me this thing called an iPod and said that he had every single piece of music he has ever owned downloaded onto it.  At first it seemed somewhat complicated to maneuver and it took me a quick second to completely figure it out.  I told my brother that this just seemed a little to good to be true.  He let me use his iPod for a couple of days for me to test it out and to see if I wanted to spend the money on it before I went out and bought it, since it wasn't exactly cheap.  After a couple of days testing it out, I was completely hooked and had to have it.

Steve Jobs, without a doubt, completely revolutionized the entire music industry.  With the invention of the iPod, Jobs made it to where our music could be portable without having the bulky factor of a portable cd player.  We are now able to pick and choose which songs we want to download through iTunes.  Instead of having to go out to a record store or shopping center to pay the $15.00 for a cd where we may only be interested in a couple songs, we can simply just open our iTunes on our smartphone and/or computer, search for the artist or band and click the specific songs we want and download them.  iTunes even allows us to preview about a minute and a half of that song to decipher whether or not that is a song we want to spend our money on.

Jobs did a magnificent job at accomplishing a way to revolutionize the music industry and making it to where it benefits the artist as well as the consumer.  Jobs opened the door for new media to constantly be changing and reinventing itself and has made the way for aspiring inventors to realize that absolutely anything is possible if you want it bad enough.





"It's not about charisma and personality, it's about results and products and those very bedrock things that are why people at Apple and outside of Apple are getting more excited about the company and what Apple stands for and what its potential is to contribute to the industry."  -Steve Jobs




Click here to read more about how Steve Jobs changed the music industry

5 Ways Apple revolutionized the way we listen to music

Social Media -- Changing the way we live without realizing it.

Social media has completely dominated the way we communicate as well as live.  For instance, if we go out for a night out on the town with friends, it used to be that you take along your camera, snap a few pictures then take the film to be developed the next day and you usually had to wait a couple of days before the film was processed in order to be able to share the memories you and your friends created with others.  That whole process has completely changed due to social media sites.  Now all you have to do is upload the pictures you just took with smart phone and upload them to Facebook and/or Twitter and they are instantly shared.  Facebook and Twitter have made it accessible for virtually anything to be seen immediately within minutes of capturing the photo.

Thanks to Facebook, if a user has their information about themselves public on their page, we are able to find out religion, political views, what their hobbies are, if they are in a relationship and if they are then it displays who they are in a relationship with.  We are able to find out tons of personal information about someone by simply typing that person’s name in the search option on a website.  Facebook has recently added a feature that allows its user to tag their location meaning if you are at Target shopping, you can go to Facebook on your mobile device, click the “location” option and it will tag and show not only that you are at Target, but exactly which Target and it even comes along with a map so people who are friends with you on Facebook can locate you.  I don’t know about what you think, but the fact that someone can see where another person is without even calling to ask, is pretty astonishing.  Sometimes it completely amazes me just how accessible our information is to others. 

It has been documented that 1 in 8 marriages started by the two spouses meeting on social networks!   Connecting with someone over the internet has become extremely popular.  I think it has something to do with the fact that we don’t have to leave the comfort of our home and we have the ability to find out more information about someone before we meet them so it’s less of a gamble when and if we decide to meet up with that person.  It has gotten to the point where we, as society, don’t even have to leave our houses in order to meet our potential life partner!  When the internet was invented I am certain that no one ever thought that relationships and marriages would develop through it! 

To show you just how popular being a part of a social network is, I’m going to leave you with two facts that I found pretty astounding:  Generation Y has already outnumbers the amount of baby boomers in 2010, and 96% of that generation is a part of some kind of social media networking site. 

http://tweetthisjob.com/twitter-2/social-media-is-changing-the-way-we-communicate-globally/

Something you're college doesn't want you to know!

As a college student, it amazes me at just how much my tuition has been raised in the past couple of years, and that doesn't even include the heavy cost of text books that are "required" for class.  I decided to take a look at some of the fees that go into my tuition.  Some of these included a "Land Acquisition" fee that racked up to $75.00!  What exactly that charge means or how it is benefiting my education, I honestly would not be able to properly tell you because I myself do not know.  

When I first applied to the University I currently attend, my tuition was nearly half of what it is now.  Even with the H.O.P.E. scholarship, which is a $3,000 scholarship that is provided here in Georgia for students with high academic achievements, that used to cover my entire tuition as well as cover the cost of books.  Now, it fails to do that due to the ever increasing tuition rate and it only provides an additional $100 for books.  It is getting to the point where my college degree is becoming more of a financial investment than anything else. 

An article I stumbled upon makes a very valid and interesting point about college.  "“The current system makes little sense,” argues Henry Eyring, author of The Innovative University. “A student pays one amount regardless of credit load or type of course being taken, and the university has no financial incentive to help the student get a good grade,” he told FoxNews.com. " The fact that it doesn't matter how many credit hours we take, we are still expected to pay the same amount as someone who it planning on taking 18 credit hours.  It simply does not make any logical sense. 

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/03/stanford-yale-and-oxford-educations-are-free-online/

The fact that it doesn't matter how many credit hours we take, we are still expected to pay the same amount as someone who it planning on taking 18 credit hours.  It simply does not make any logical sense.  

There are now Professor's at Ivy league University's, such as Stanford, that are taking a different and somewhat controversial approach to educating their students.  There is a class that is currently being offered at Stanford called "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence". It is only offered online, and guess what? Yup, that's right, it is completely free! The only set-back about these free, online classes are that they are unaccredited, however, they do put you ahead of the game when it comes to putting it on your resume.  There are currently more than 135,000 students that have decided to take on these additional free, online classes that are being offered by these prestigious universities.  Some may ask, why would any university offer free classes?  It's simple, exposure for the college which in turn will give them a "good" image as well as the possibility of potential new students.  As much as I disagree with the almost 400% increase of tuition over the past few years, I do commend the universities that are going against the norm by offering such unique classes are of absolutely no charge to students!