Thursday, October 26, 2017

move·ment /ˈmo͞ovmənt/

As the year is coming to a conclusion, it still amazes me that we are still fighting the same fight that has been pushing and tugging itself for years and years now. With many fallen leaders and people that have made things harder for those fighting, the topic is still around these days. It is important to not give up in really anything you believe in. I've felt strongly towards the idea that if you want something to happen then you will get to that finish line by any means possible.


Image available  via Active Response Security

In recent news, a Judge had overthrown a case that was filed to SUE 'Black Lives Matter'. Of course, there were many different feelings towards this from everyone. A baton rouge officer had been hurt to the point where he'd had enough of the movement, but the Judge was not having it because BLM is not a real-living person. With this going on, it lead people to think that maybe BLM does not have any kind of leader(s). Karpf's first claim in his first chapter in "The MoveOn Effect" is mainly about "organizing without organizations", this ties in with the BLM movement not having any leaders to pinpoint anything to.

I feel that many people are still naive to the idea that BLM was not started because a few kids felt that police were picking on them just because it happens on TV. Black Lives Matter and is still going on today because they stand for something so much bigger than people of color are deserving of equal respect from everyone. Dream Defenders is another organization that resulted from the unfair death of Michael Brown nearly 4 years ago in 2013. His unfortunate death led to two important already existing organizations, Working Families Party and Occupy Wall Street, coming together to create the Dream Defenders. The organizers of these two groups also created the widely popular phrase and hashtag used by BLM, "Hands Up - Don't Shoot!" Not many people really understand this phrase or where it is based from, but there are so many videos to watch that can help really without needing to read articles or needing to go deep into the web to find information on.


Image available via Wikipedia Commons
At this point, if you are not angered by what happens to so many people of color then you are not informed enough. I understand that if it's not happening to you then why try to make a difference, but what some people don't see is that the ones who are being treated unfairly would greatly appreciate any kind of support.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Toxic

No, not the Britney Spears song. There is plenty of reasoning as to why people say that online gaming or any kind of gaming where you are able to talk to one another whether you are showing your face or not could be pretty harsh at times. Bullying is nothing new and it's so easy to say whatever you want when you are behind the screen since you are anonymous... for the most part.

Image available via Wikipedia Commons
At this point, we have ALL either experienced or heard stories of people who are bullied through social media or through gaming. After so many instances of certain cases turning horrible, social medias and many companies for that are beginning to take bullying even more seriously. They are all becoming creative in their own ways when it comes to cracking down on those who unfortunately do it. With companies becoming more creative in finding bullies on their sites/ games, the bullies themselves are also getting more creative. 

Riot Games hired Jeffery Lin, who is the lead designer for the company and the face of the research done for bullying in their own games. League of Legends is a widely popular game bringing in 27 million users more or less every year and even hosts worldwide championships. Lin always wondered why people felt the need to be so harsh online. With Riot Games bringing Lin into the loop of what they had planned for finding all of these people who were being reckless and rude online, they created 'The Tribunal" which was basically a group of people who were gamers that became the judge and jury and people who were found to be rude online would go through them and instead of the company itself banning them, they let the gamers decide. Doing this made things go by faster and be more fair. Riot Games of course had other ways of finding these people online, but it was a much slower process. 

Other companies have obviously began to find ways to make being on their sites and games more of a community and more inviting. Twitter recently started giving people the option to "mute" certain words or phrases to mute off of their timelines and you are also able to mute accounts so you don't see any of their posts at all. Facebook allows you to be in your own "personal bubble" and a lot of social media sites like asking follow up questions when you decide to report an account. People do find this annoying at times because they wonder why they should have to explain every single thing, but they also understand that with more explanation and proof they are able to suspend the account faster. 

Image available via Pixabay

Bullying is a much bigger problem than most people think and it all branches out to racism and sexism. It is such a horrible thing that so many people face all day and everyday and it ultimately does not fix anybody's life or problems they are facing. If you see something, say something. 

mil palabras ~ one thousand words

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