Blog Post #3 - Eight Values of Free Expression

-

 All eight values of freedom of speech and expression are equally important reasons why freedom of speech must always be protected, especially in our current political and social climate. There are many examples of restrictions of free speech in the news recently, and these eight values provide reason why we, as a society, should be cautious of such restrictions. The one that I found most relevant is the first one, marketplace of ideas. The main idea of this point is that while it may often seem that silencing and restricting false ideas and opinions is the best option, if they are allowed to be stated, truth will ultimately win anyway, and the truth will come out stronger having defeated the opposing viewpoints. In the modern day of “fake news”, this philosophy rings true more than ever. Countless social media pages and news sources are shadow-banned, deactivated, or censored in order to “protect” those who see them and may form ideas and misinformed opinions based upon them. The reason for these restrictions is understandable, yet nonetheless, a restriction of free speech. Former president Donald Trump was even banned from multiple social media sites. However, diversity of opinion and thought is crucial to democracy and our society as a whole. While blatant lies and false claims are an issue, proper fact checking can easily prove them wrong. The silencing of those with opposing viewpoints is the greater evil in that it alienates citizens and prevents us from forming our own opinions. This concept goes along with the third point, stable change. The continued restriction of these ideas is frustrating to people, and in the long run will always lead to violence. For example, the attack on the capital was due likely in large part to the banning of Donald Trump and many of his supporters from major social media platforms. The bans do not by any means justify the actions of those who participated in the attack, but they probably contributed to their frustration and motive.

The ones that feel most important to me are 4 are 7, both which pertain to freedom of expression and how it results in personal fulfillment. Freedom of expression is a crucial aspect of finding oneself and determining one’s purpose in life. Without it, there is essentially no intellectual or creative diversity in society. People would be one and the same, without anything to differentiate them from each other. Allowing people to create and share opinions is what results in new ideas and ultimately societal progress.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #8 - Diffusion of Innovations: TikTok

-
Image
  One very unique example of a recent innovation that I think is especially interesting when viewed through the lens of the Diffusion Theory is TikTok. The app has been around for around 5 years at this point, but has only grabbed ahold of society in the way that it has in the past year or so. Why is that? When TikTok first came out, it was a rebrand of the Musical.ly app. The majority of society saw this app, and subsequently TikTok, as a place where cringeworthy content is created, and were hesitant to be a part of that. Over time, however, it became more and more popular for typical consumers. The graph below shows a portion of that growth, and it’s apparent that it took off out of nowhere. Growth was initially pretty steady until around early 2018. As the content created on TikTok became more “normal”, more and more people started to accept it. I know I personally downloaded it in early 2020 pretty reluctantly, after being nagged by my friends. I still have friends who don’t use it
Read more

Blog Post #2 - The Supreme Court

-
Image
  I knew close to nothing about the founding and creation of the Supreme Court before reading this article, and it’s interesting to me that it was founded so early on in our country’s history. It makes sense, in that a higher, unbiased authority was necessary to settle disputes that could’ve gotten out of hand. The Supreme Court has made monumental decisions over the years, and has had a huge impact on society. The most important thing I took away was something that I already had an idea on, but was further emphasized by what I read. The Supreme Court has the ability to not only change policies, but to change public opinion on certain issues. For example, the legalization of same sex marriage in 2015 was a major turning point and the beginning of a good bit of progress made over the following years in terms of public perception and social acceptance of the topic. It’s also important to note that the manner and process of selecting justices for the Supreme Court ensures that it is unbia
Read more

Blog Post #10 - A.I. and the Future

-
Image
  There are a lot of important facets to think about when considering how A.I. is already an aspect occupying most, if not all, of our daily lives. From RING doorbells to Amazon Alexa and other relatively new innovations, A.I. is becoming more and more common in our homes and workplaces. The most important take-away for me that I had already been previously thinking about in a way is that it’s becoming imperative to consider the pros and cons of implementing these new innovations into one’s life on an individual basis. People must weigh the benefits and negative consequences when it comes to their own safety and the safety of their families.  Obviously technologies like Alexa and RING come with a lot of positives in terms of security and an overall interconnected home network, but there are also negative consequences to consider. Is it worth completely throwing privacy out the window in order to maintain safety and security? These decisions cannot be made for you, and one must be able
Read more