Netflix's Takeover

   

    Netflix has taken over the entertainment world and completely changed the way the industry works. No longer do people turn to Hollywood for the newest hit show; instead, they turn to Netflix. The rise of Netflix has even pushed other companies (like Disney and HBO) to turn to streaming their content to keep their loyal customers and to capitalize on the billions of dollars Netflix makes every year. But it took Netflix a long time to gain its fortune and fame. 

    

    The idea for Netflix started in 1997, when Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph wondered if it was possible to rent DVDs by mail instead of going to a physical store (like Blockbuster). The problem the two had with the current video rental system was that it was inconvenient for customers. Customers had to pay a late fee whenever they returned their movies late, and for busy families renting a ton of movies, this was a big inconvenience. So, they test out their idea by first mailing a DVD to themselves. The DVD arrived in perfect condition, so they decided to roll with their idea and create Netflix. 

    In 1998, the pair launched Netflix.com, where customers could now order DVDs online and have them shipped directly to their homes. In the following year, the subscription service Netflix is known for debuts. Customers could now pay one flat monthly fee for unlimited access to rentals. The best part? There were no return due dates, no limits on how many movies you could rent, and no late fees. 

    In the following years, Netflix grows even more, adding a recommendation system, Profiles for users, and, most importantly, streaming (in 2007). With streaming, subscribers had the option to stream movies and TV shows from their own homes over the Internet instead of ordering a DVD. From there Netflix kept on growing, creating deals with other entertainment companies to allow its streaming services on other platforms and devices (like Xbox). Netflix even expanded to reach other countries, including Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean, by 2011 and to over 130 countries by 2016. Now Netflix has created many of its own hit shows and movies, streams in multiple languages, and can be downloaded onto nearly any device. 

    

    There have been both positive and negative impacts of Netflix's takeover, though. On the positive side, Netflix has made it easier than ever for people to find and watch whatever movie or TV show they want. Because of its algorithms, it can recommend new movies and shows to viewers based on things they have already watched. This recommendation service is pretty successful too, as 80% of watched content comes from the recommendations the algorithm provides. This means that the algorithm is very accurate and does a really good job of marketing new media to consumers. And by recommending Netflix's own content, the company makes even more money as viewers watch and enjoy its productions. And since people can download content from Netflix, they have the convenience of watching things whenever they want.  

    

    Another positive impact of Netflix is that it has a global reach and shares media across countries and cultures. Viewers are able to watch media that comes from other countries that they would have never seen before. And with the availability of subtitles in different languages, viewers can watch media that isn't originally in their own language. This has made the world more connected through the thing everyone loves the most: entertainment. This is a great way to learn more about a culture and what they find valuable by seeing what they make content about, because if they spend the time and money to make a movie about it, it surely must be important to them. 

   

    There are also some negative impacts of Netflix. One of the main drawbacks of Netflix is actually for other entertainment companies. Because Netflix grew so popular, other companies were actually losing money because consumers were turning to Netflix instead of the original company for watching content. Because people are also turning to streaming services, which can be used on any device, many cable companies are also losing customers. It is estimated that in 2021, 27% of people planned to get rid of their cable subscription (equal to more than 35.5 million households). Consumers are also now very picky about the content they are shown. People want things personalized to them and don't want to have to go through other nonsense to get that. This has led to the possibility that in the future, cable companies may unbundle their services so people only have to pay for the channels they want and nothing else. 

    Other negative impacts of Netflix are on the consumers themselves. More recent studies suggest that "binge-watching" can lead to poor health, and the addictive nature can not only affect students. but also adults in the work field. "Binge-watching" is when a viewer watches multiple episodes of a TV show back-to-back or multiple movies all in one sitting. Researchers' main concerns are that it can lead to decreased physical activity, sleep problems, behavioral problems, and other unhealthy habits.

    

     Binge-watching leads to decreased physical activity because viewers are sitting for long periods of time, which means they are not exercising or stretching their muscles. Not moving the body can weaken it over time, which can lead to more problems down the line. Sleep problems arise because viewers are more concerned with finishing the next episode than going to sleep early. Studies have also shown that binge-watching can lead to insomnia, which makes it even harder for people to fall asleep. Not getting enough sleep can lead to cognitive decline, fatigue, and a weakened immune system. Behavioral problems are mostly linked to social isolation and depression. Binge-watching can become an addiction for people, which leads to them wanting to spend more time alone watching TV instead of engaging with others. And for people who are already dealing with depressive feelings, binge-watching has been known to make those feelings even worse. Other unhealthy habits include things like snacking constantly while binge-watching (which can lead to weight gain), getting distracted easily, and the inability to know the difference between reality and fiction. 

    So while Netflix has overtaken the entertainment industry, it has also overtaken our lives, for better or worse. Now people can watch practically anything they want whenever they want, for a cheaper price than traditional cable. But Netflix could also be damaging our lives and leading to some pretty negative effects. As with every addiction, we have to be careful and always monitor ourselves. That is the only way to protect ourselves while still being able to enjoy the things we love. 

The Key Values of Free Expression

 The First Amendment is arguably the most important of the Amendments because it sets up so many precedents. The First Amendment allows us as Americans to be who we are and to have the privileges that many people in other countries don't have. Where else in the world is the word of ordinary people protected so well?

    Of the Eight Values of Free Expression that can be found in the First Amendment, the one that resonates with me the most is the 4th value. This value is called the "Individual Self-Fulfillment" value and it allows individuals to express themselves freely and thus create their own identity. This allows people to not only be their true selves but also to find others like them who have the same views. That is the beauty of this value. It not only protects an individual and their uniqueness, but also the uniqueness of others.

    

    I think the fact that the 4th value allows me to be myself is why I like it so much. One of the things that I most identify with myself is my words. What I say to others is a key part of who I am. How I come across to friends, family, and teachers is very important to me because that is my reputation and my legacy. Being able to create my own identity through my words is so special because, without it, I would just be a shell of who I am. If I couldn't truly voice my opinions or share my thoughts, I would be hiding. As said by the ABA "Censorship stunts personal growth and individual expansion." No one would ever get to know the real me. The real me would be trapped inside my own head. Luckily, it doesn't have to be that way. 

        

    If I had to choose one value that was most important to the nation itself, it would probably be the 5th value which is the "Check on Governmental Power" value. This value allows normal citizens to speak up about anything they don't agree with that the government has done. This includes calling out abuses of power, or just objecting to a new law simply because it goes against our own personal ideals. And if we feel especially strongly about the issue, we can take it to the ballots and oppose the person or law with no governmental consequences. This ensures that the government doesn't gain too much power and also allows for the values of the people to be heard. If a group of people doesn't like something the government is doing, they have the right to oppose it and work to create a solution. This also creates a balance within our society where one group may be in power, but there will be others who fight against them until they themselves are in power. This cycle continues so we are never stuck with one group in charge forever. This protects our democracy, which is why the 5th value is so important.  

     The value I think is most active in our society today is the 6th value, which is "Promote Tolerance". This means that any speech, including everything from accepted notions, to societally unaccepted, to even hate speech is protected. In this day and age, I think we put a lot of value on promoting tolerance. With social media and its reach, people with any kind of view can be found. This means everyone's voice can have an audience and a support group to back it back. So even if a person's ideas might be considered wrong in their community, that person can find a community online where they will be accepted. I also think this is in action a lot because currently, our society is the most accepting it has ever been of ideas that in the past have been considered "against the norm". You can see this clearly with the rise in all of the movements to protect different minority groups and their rights. 

    

    I also think the 6th value has a lot of application today because society decides what is not okay to be said. Because hate speech is technically protected under the Frist Amendment, this means that the government cannot tell people what hateful things not to say. The responsibility is instead left up to the people themselves. I think this is so important because the meanings of words change so much over time and those meanings are all based on how people feel. The government should not be able to put restrictions on what words people cannot say because it is aloof from the normal day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Plus, it would be nearly impossible to keep up with all the changes that are constantly happening to words and their meanings. It is better to let society choose what is acceptable to say and what is not. Those who are saying unacceptable things will learn their lesson without the need for government interference. 

 

The US Supreme Court

    

    The Supreme Court is a powerful and important part of our democratic society. It is arguably the one agency that holds our democracy together. It is also something I am sure every American child has learned of or at least heard about at some point. I have even taken a government class, but yet there are still things I did not know about the Supreme Court. 

      After reading this article by the History channel, I learned many new things about the Supreme Court. Firstly, the first court meeting ever held was on February 2, 1790. What is more interesting is that there were no cases heard in the entire first term. The first meetings were instead concerned with working out organizational procedures instead. I guess I always assumed that the court had a plan beforehand and jumped right into judging cases, but apparently not. The second new thing I learned is that the justices of the Supreme Court are nominated by the President and then either confirmed or denied by the Senate. I had never really considered who appointed new justices before now, nor had I considered who had the power to determine if they were accepted or not. 

    The third thing I learned was that the first Supreme Court was made up of 6 members, with the Chief Justice being John Jay. The rest of the members included John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison, and James Wilson. I had heard of John Jay being the Chief Justice before, but I never remembered hearing all the names of the other members. I also learned that the Chief Justice also presides over Presidential impeachment trials. I knew some court dealt with this, but for some reason, I never realized it was the Supreme Court's responsibility. 

  Out of all of the things I learned, the most important thing I took away was that the Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial body in the world. This is because the Court has the ultimate jurisdiction over all laws and is responsible for determining if those laws are constitutional or not. This also means that the Court has the ability to check the actions of the branches (the legislative and executive) to keep them from gaining too much power.

    The most surprising thing I learned though came from this video where there are a group of justices talking about their experiences of being on the Supreme Court. In the video, they mention that the first thing they do before anything else is shake hands. Shaking hands is the first thing they do even before starting a conference or even sitting down at the bench. This was so surprising to me because it seems like both an odd, yet wholesome tradition. To me, it showed how human they all are because they all wanted to shake hands before starting any other business. 

    Even though I learned many things, my general feelings about the Supreme Court did not change much. I now have a greater appreciation for the work they do since I now know that each justice reads all the appeal cases themselves before considering which ones should be taken by the Court. That is a tremendous amount of work and someone, like a justice, would have to really love his/her job to put that much time and energy into it. But besides that, my opinion on the Court has not changed. I always knew that it was valuable and had many responsibilities and I will continue to think this way. But it was nice to learn new facts about the Court even if they did not greatly change my views. 

Is There Such a Thing as Privacy Anymore?

 

        In this modern world with all the brilliant technology, alarms, and safekeeping, people expect their information to be safe too, but in reality, our information is more vulnerable than ever. From social media, to telephone calls, to even our own streets, everything these days is trying to steal our information. 

    For years, I have been told to "Be careful" when posting or doing anything online because "it will never go away". And I have come to learn that warning has never been truer. By agreeing to the terms and conditions, you are letting any social media company use your information including posts, pictures, and whatever other media you upload for its own use without you ever even knowing. And since no reasonable person would ever read the entirety of the terms and conditions, we never know exactly what we are agreeing to when signing up for apps or websites. It is a good thing I listened to those mentors long ago because I actually don't have social media except for Snapchat and Pinterest, and I hardly post on Snapchat and never post on Pinterest. So while I am not perfectly safe, I am safer than most since I am not posting every moment of my day on Instagram or Facebook.

    What is more concerning is the surveillance I didn't know was happening. I had heard of telephone surveillance happening in the past, but I did not realize that it was still happening today and was happening to ordinary people. It made sense to me that an important government official or someone of high status, but in reality, it could happen to anyone and everyone, which is scary to think about. Any phone call I have with my dad or friends could potentially be recorded and then used against me even if I have done nothing wrong. 

    Even worse, and even scarier is the fact that police departments across the nation use special cameras to track license plates. I have never even seen the cameras that are mentioned in the linked video, but like they say, the cameras are everywhere, and just because we haven't seen them, it doesn't mean they aren't there. Anyone and everyone could be tracked to wherever they go, and your entire life could be determined just based on where you go. The fact that police just keep this information on everyone is concerning and honestly makes me feel less safe, even though I am sure the intentions behind it are good.

    So, what can we do about it? True privacy is a must that we should all strive for. But to achieve this, we have to start petitioning the government to make laws that actually protect our privacy. For example, passing laws to dispose of any information (including location tracking and recordings of phone calls) on innocent individuals who have no reason to be tracked in the first place. We should also prevent companies from making such outrageous laws about what they can do with our data too so none of it can be used against us in the future. 

    Other than that, there are some things we can actively do in our personal lives to secure our privacy. We can first take some valuable lessons from Juan Enriquez to protect ourselves online: 1) Be careful what you post. 2) Don't look too deeply into the online lives of those you care about. 3) Don't get distracted, especially by things that are put in place to get in your way. 4) Don't be self-centered. 

    And we can also download apps (some examples pictured to the right) that don't track our every move but still allow us to go about our daily lives scrolling through the Internet. It would also be smart to routinely check for viruses or malware on your personal devices. And when you are downloading an app, be sure to go into the settings and see what information is being shared. 

My Top 5 News Sources

     As a person who does not usually read or watch a lot of news, the sources I do use are somewhat random and exist on different platforms. But to get the best view of something, I gather news from those different sources and put them together to create my own opinion of the situation. 

    The source I get most of my information from is my friends and family. My father watches mainstream news like Fox News and will often share with me whatever major story is happening that day, or whatever story he feels most passionate about. This type of news usually involves how the stock market is doing, global news, major crises, and issues of national safety. 

    I also get a lot of news from my friends through conversations with them. My friends are all of a younger generation and are a diverse group of people, so the news I get from them is a bit of everything. They will often talk about pop culture news, movies and TV news, scandals with celebrities, and anything else that closely impacts our generation. But sometimes they do mention things of major importance such as how our state handles COVID-19 or what new laws the government might have made that would affect us. 

    The source I get most of my local news and weather from is Spectrum News. Almost every day when I was in high school, I would check the news in the morning before school to see what the weather was like so I would know how to dress for the day. And since my cable service at home was Spectrum, every time you turned on the TV, it would start out on the Spectrum News channel. Sometimes I would catch stories they were covering at the time and listen in for a while. I would recommend this mainly for local or weather news because it is specific to the area you live in.

    The next source I get a majority of my news from is Google News. Because my phone is an Android, it automatically comes with a bunch of Google apps downloaded. Google News is one of those automatically installed apps that are on my phone. If I just swipe all the way to the left, I can scroll through different news articles that I am interested in. Based on what I click on, Google then decides what my interests are and will show me more topics based on those things.  

    Because of the app, I also get "breaking news" notifications that appear across the top of my screen with the title of an article. These are supposed to be the most important new updates for stories I follow, but because I do not click on a lot of articles, they tend to be more random. If I actually read through articles instead of skimming the little blurbs that were provided under them, I am sure my feed would be more personalized and interesting, but because I don't I often see stuff I don't care about. But I do get to see at least two or three news alerts every day, which at least gives me an idea of what is going on in the world that day. I would recommend this if want to be constantly up to date on your topics of interest.

    The next place I occasionally get news from is YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts are similar to TikTok where it is a collection of short videos on any topic. From time to time I will see a video about something newsworthy that has happened that people are either reacting to or trying to make the public aware of whatever is happening. But the videos you see are based on the topics you are interested in (the algorithm records what videos you click on or watch all the way through) so I usually only see news about topics I follow closely such as pop culture news. I would recommend this if you are a more casual news watcher/reader because it has a more laid-back feel than reading through a full article. 

    The last place I go to for news is the Microsoft Edge homepage. Every time I open a new tab, the homepage is full of news articles, ads, and even a weather report for the day. I don't usually spend time here because I only open a tab to go search for something or type in a website, but sometimes the title of an article or the cover picture will catch my eye. I will then click on whatever it is and take a look, but I only do this very rarely. So, I would not really recommend this as a good way to get your news unless you spend a lot of time on the homepage. But the one benefit of it would be that there are a variety of topics presented on the homepage, which would give you a wide variety to choose from and read over.