Post (7): EOTO: Internet and YouTube

 The Internet was created by the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1958.

Tim Berners- Lee created the World Wide Web in 1990. At first, the web was not accessible for the general public, but Berners-Lee wanted to change that. In April of 1993, the World Wide Web was accessible to everybody.

The Internet has positives and negatives. A few of the positives are online shopping, instant messaging, and exchanging of ideas from all across the world. A few of the negatives are hackers, anybody could contact you, and underage kids online, even though a lot of the social media apps are for 17+.

YouTube opened a door for new content needs (study videos, tutorials, comedy) and they provide a new form of income. Even though it comes with a lot good, bad comes as well. For example, people hide behind comments that are insensitive to others feelings, and people can post what ever they feel like, and it could be an invasion of privacy.

Post (6): EOTO: United States Postal Service

I believe that the United States Postal Service has made an impact in each and every one of our lives in some way from the mailmen, to the mail we receive, the mail we send out, all of the mystery packages we get, and so much more. A lot of times we don't show recognition to the people who make our lives easier each and every day.

The United States Postal Service was founded in 1971, but they started their delivery process long before. It all began in 1775 when the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as their first Postmaster General, and he put in place a lot of the foundations of what the post office in today's time looks like. Before working for the USPS, Franklin was a postmaster general for Philadelphia, but he was soon fired for his revolutionary activities. But, before Franklin was fired, he made tremendous advancements to their systems, cutting delivery routes down from Philadelphia to New York to half of what they were accomplishing before. After being hired in 1775, he brought this same energy to the United Colonies until 1776. In 1789, President Washington appointed Samuel Osgood as the first postmaster general of the American nation. By this time there were 75 post offices in the United States.

By the 1860s, the USPS had begun the usage of stamps and had began the Pony Express. The Pony Express was a mail service that had men riding on horses delivering messages, mail, and newspapers from Missouri to California. But, this service only lasted 18 months after being abolished because communication wasn't fast enough. By 1896, rural free delivery had began. Before families from rural farms had to come pick up their mail themselves or pay private carriers themselves, but this changed that and gave them mailmen. Scheduled airmail service began, residential deliveries reduced to one day, express Mail® began experimentally, and zip codes were inaugurated all by 1970. 

The United States Postal Service began officially operating in 1971. This was a government owned company, expected to bring in revenue on its own. For decades after this the USPS worked just fine, and by the 1990s they started steadily turning a profit. By 1994, the USPS had opened the National Postal Museum, and they launched their first Internet site. Everything was going good for the USPS, until more people started getting a hold of computers and they started using email more than sending physical mail, dropping the USPS's profit margin by 34 percent. But, by 2009 the USPS revealed their first free iPhone app, which helped their ratings a lot allowing receivers to check the progress of their packages, and the people really loved that.

But, still this was not enough, in 2012 the USPS began to default on the retirement benefit payments, they found that this was their only option. Now, their mail services are plummeting due to the coronavirus, and they don't know if they have enough money to make it through with full operation. According to the National Geographic, there has been a lot of talk about the outcome of the USPS, but nobody officially knows what is going to happen, but we just hope for the best, for all the employees and employers.

 

Post (5): Eight Values of Free Expression: Protect Dissent

 

The first amendment holds a big impact on our day to day lives, a lot of the things we say or do are only legal because of the first amendment. For example, back in the day we probably would have been arrested for the peaceful protests that we encountered during the summertime. I know a lot of people were still arrested during the protests even though they broke no law, but if we were not under the first amendment law then there would have been so many more than there was. 

But for my entry, I will be talking about Protect Dissent. Protect Dissent strengthens our participatory democracy because it protects the right of political expression. The right to dissent is very essential to have a fully functioning democracy, because it makes every citizen feel like they can be heard. Also, giving people the right to dissent, can end a lot of violence before it starts, because if you don't give people that right then they will find a way to do it whether it be legally or illegally. 

I chose to do the Protect Dissent because it is the one that I found most interesting and it is the one that I can relate to the most. As a BLACK young WOMAN in America, I feel like that it is important to be heard and understood especially during these unprecedented times when the killing of blacks are high and the sex slave trade is high for young women. I feel that dissent is a way that I can let other people know that I am a human as well, I am not a "threat" neither am I "asking for it". I just cannot wrap my head around not liking a people because of the color of their skin, it baffles me that people are so simple minded. It also baffles me that people keep mistaking basic human rights for politics. Why can't an employee wear a "Black Lives Matter" mask to work without being fired for mixing politics and work. The fact that somebody would use the term "All Lives Matter" in retaliation to the Black Lives Matter Movement or even defend the police with the "Blue Lives Matter" slogan, it literally makes me sick, and I pray for people like that. Even if you are an "All Lives Matter" person, black lives still fall under that category, and you still treat us like we don't matter is just a problem. Black Lives Matter is not saying that white lives don't matter or anything like that, it is just saying that black lives are the lives that are in trouble, and we need to do something to save them. The "Blue Lives Matter" slogan should not even be a thing, because in all seriousness, BLUE LIVES DO NOT EXIST, nobody was born a cop, so there is no such thing as a blue life...YOU HAD A CHOICE OF BEING A COP, I DID NOT CHOOSE MY SKIN COLOR.

Through the trying times, these protests did bring about some change, but there is still so much to be done. But the country will not stop until the injustices of our being righted.