I do not know where to begin after watching and reading all the material for this week. I thought it was trying to get at cyber bullying at first, but as I sat back and thought upon it longer I think something that was not so highlighted is the power technology and social media is giving people. One click of a button or tap of a screen and someones life could be ruined. Cyber bullying would have never been what it is today if we did not allow it to be so I just ask myself and everyone else who’s to blame?

Black Mirror’s episode “Hated in the Nation” is by far my favorite episode so far that we have watched. You could interpret it as cyber bullying, but I think it is aiming for a bigger picture than that. The power these people had just from a hashtag was outrageous. One post with the hashtag #DeathTo… and you were entered in almost some death lottery. This is very far fetched, but that is what Black Mirror does best. They leave it up to us to either get the message they are given or not. I think this could be a possible thing in the future if we do not recognize how much this resembles today. Social media can ruin someone’s entire life just with one picture or post just like that hashtag in the episode. We hear so many stories of people whose lives were ruined and could not go on because of the hands of social media and technology all because we gave social media that power in everyday life. Technology is not the only one to blame though people are also at fault. The episode shows people are just as bad as technology. The hashtag in the show and the things we post in real life are really not that different, but not as flat out as the show made it. If I could takeaway one thing from this episode it is that as a whole we need to do better.

The article on Harper’s Magazine “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” was also a very good read and struck very controversial topics. This ties into that recurring theme I stated earlier because it goes into depth on instead of us trying to get better and reform the problem at hand we are just looking to punish and if we keep this mentality we are just going to mess up the use of social media for everyone. Everyone runs to social media for their problems nowadays instead of resolving them. In the article it says social media was meant to give people a voice and express their freedom of speech, but how can we if people abuse this right and are making the things we are allowed to post limited. “If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us.”(Harper’s Magazine, 2020)

Last but definitely not least the YouTube video “Bad Behavior Online: Bullying, Trolling & Free Speech” is what I gives us that first hand look on how this is going on today. People are saying whatever to whoever on social media. It could be a joke some of the time, but we fail to realize that one of the cons of saying jokes on social media is that we don’t know the tone of what is being said. One thing the video states that I do not agree with is that it is children and teens, but I feel it is everyone. Now after all of the material we had for the week I ask everyone who is at fault here social media and technology or us?

WEEKLY NEWS https://www.foxnews.com/us/suspect-louisville-cop-shooting-during-protests-pleads-not-guilty

The news article I chose for this week has to do with the tragic death or Breonna Taylor. She was killed because police officers had a no knock warrant and went into the wrong home and murdered her in cold blood. This upcoming week after months of protest only one of the three cops were accused for the shooting, but only for the damage to the neighbor’s walls. He pleaded not guilty and I feel justice is not being served at all. This was a bright and upcoming young black woman whose life was cut to short. All three officers should be charged and the proper evidence should be released.