jedoubles

In today’s American society, there are a number of sources of information surfacing on the internet. You can find information for just about anything. However, one must be critical of the information being presented and where it comes from. Many youth are looking to the news, youtube, wikipedia, and facebook for their information. Failing to check their sources. I also find that many youth don’t even care where the source of information comes from, as long as it makes sense. With all the information floating around on the internet, I think that it is important to fact check in order to avoid being mislead. Furthermore, fact checking is needed if you want to enter into a debate online.

I for one like to fact check my ideas before posting online. When I speak my thoughts I like for them to be a source of knowledge to my peers. There has been times I have watched something on social media or youtube that made sense to me. Instead of posting it, I did further research before officially accepting the information presented. In some cases the information was accurate and in other cases there was little or no evidence to support their views.

For example, the following is a post linked to an article I saw on facebook  with the headline “Two White Men Doused With Gasoline, Set On FIRE By Blacks – Media CENSORED (VIDEO).” The text above the video suggests that the incident is an attack by the Black Lives Matter protests. It was clear the poster was very upset because (s)he also said, “share if you’re angry as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore!”

However if you bothered clicking on the link, you would of saw that the incident had nothing to do with black lives matter protesters. In fact the was actually an altercation between two people, about a year ago.

If you jump on google you will find that court documents allege that the fight began with the co-worker throwing the first punch. Allegedly, the second man caught on fire due to him coming into contact with the first man who was in flames. Furthermore, this story was previously covered by Baltimore media and CNN.

As you can see, Social media is not always the best location to get accurate information. You must remember that many of these posters are looking to gain more followers and/or stir up emotion. They are banking on the fact that most people won’t actually click on the link or do further research.

Memes have become apart of the social media culture. Memes are usually jokes, urban legends, viral videos, funny pictures or trending music.  A meme typically involves words and/or a picture to depict a trending topic or cultural idea. Memes have influenced modern language and culture. They personify how people view and live their lives. I personally find memes entertaining because sometimes they seem to express what a group of people are thinking. Sometimes I come across a meme and it is so outrageous and humorous that I think to myself “Oh my goodness,  who made this?!” I also find it exciting to see the different interpretations of an social event or topic through creative memes. Memes can be a great way to express yourself, rather you are creating the meme or reposting it on your timeline. For some, memes are great as long as you are not on the receiving end of the joke. While some memes are inspirational and funny, some are quite cruel and many times inaccurate. The following are some examples of meme on social media.

The first group of memes are what I’d like to call accurate memes. Accurate memes are memes that many groups can relate to. For example, the meme that says “my boyfriend’s face when we’re at the mall and he sees we’re getting close to Sephora.” I think most guys who has a girlfriend with an obsession with makeup dreads trips to the mall. I know my boyfriend does. Sometimes he has to drag me out of Sephora.

I created the following group of memes. I’d say they are accurate. I think most students would agree that they enjoy when a professor cancels class, especially on a friday. Not that we don’t love learning, but sometimes its good to have a break here and there. The next meme I created was about group assignments. Most students hate when they are assigned group assignments. Not that we don’t like to communicate, but in many cases group members don’t contribute appropriately (or at all) to the assigned task. Many students feel that group assignments are unneeded stress and ultimately does more harm than good. The last meme I created was about Black Friday. Black Friday, the busiest and most chaotic day of the year. I personally am a cashier, and the thought of working on Black Friday next week is frustrating.

The last group of memes are inaccurate. Two of the memes include rude stereotypes about overweight individuals and African Americans. The other meme, while quite funny, is inaccurate. This meme was created in response to president elect’s wife, Malania Trump, after she was caught plagiarizing Michele Obama’s speech. The meme says :speech writing degree, Trump University.” While I am sure a degree does not exist, Trump University has been proven to be a scam.

This photo illustrates the misconception of the school board’s resolution to reference Ebonics in school.

Since results were revealed from the 2016 presidential election, there has been a number of heated discussions. It seems that while half the country was pleased that republican party candidate Donald Trump was elected president, the other half feels crushed. It isn’t a surprise that many people have taken their views to social media. As you can imagine many arguments have taken place in the comment sections. This post is to further discuss the importance of maintaining a professional social media presence as you exercise your right to free speech. The following are posts that I uploaded on Facebook the morning after the election. Perhaps you can tell from my posts that I was certainly not in favor of Donald Trump being crowned president elect of the United States. However my purpose was to urge those who, like me were upset at the results of the election, to stay positive and find better ways to make an impact in their communities. As you can see many people responded positively to my posts.

It is easy to post your emotions on social media in the heat of moment. However you must always consider your audience. As an African American women many of my followers were African American as well. Many of them were also not in favor of Trump’s election. I could have decided to make offensive comments about Trump supporters or those who chose not to vote. Yet as the polls revealed, many Trump supporters were not vocal about who they were voting for. So negative comments about Trump supporters could of offended many of my followers without me knowing. I think that it is important in this period of time in America that we unite as people. If you are offended at the results of the election, take political action. Form organizations and find ways to exercise your rights in a peaceful and effective manner. In the words of Malcolm X “don’t whine, organize!”

Be the voice of reason as you post on social media. Don’t play into the divide and conquer rhetoric that is propagandized in the media. If you run into a few bad apples on social media, vanquish them with facts and evidence rather than hatred and profanity. Even if that bad apple did not learn a lesson, your followers will. Lead by example and use your platform to uplift others. I look forward to viewing peaceful debates online. Use this debates as tools to understand the views of the world you live in so that you can make positive change.

The Internet and Social Media

As a millennial, the use of the internet is as fluent as brushing my teeth every morning. In contrast to older generations, who spent most of their time without technology, much less the internet. Children and adolescents of today are regularly looking to social media for connection to their world and peers. Social media sites such Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat allow us to share our daily lives and feelings with the world instantly. This form of convenient sharing has its pros and cons however. Social media is a great way to keep up with current events, friends and family, or your favorite celebrity. It can also teach you new tips and skills. On the other hand, the ability to instantly upload to the world can sometimes lead to irresponsible postings that may get you into a bit of trouble. Many young adults are not looking at the bigger picture when uploading posts and pictures on the internet. I have heard of many cases where a child or adolescent has been blackmailed, expelled from school, or fired from their job because of the things they posted online. The common reasoning behind the irresponsible posting is that they did not intend for certain audiences to see, only their friends were suppose to see the posts.

My Cyber Life

I personally use the internet and social media on a daily basis. My favorites are Instagram and Snapchat. I like to occasionally share my thoughts online using snapchat. I admit that my snapchat is a tad bit unfiltered because I know who will be watching my snaps and that the postings will expire within 24 hours. I usually vent about my days at work, college life, and things that interest me. I also post what I am doing from time to time, such as going out to dinner or hanging out at a party. Generally I only post the photos from Snapchat of special events on my Instagram account.

I think that I, like many of my peers, have evolved in terms of social media presence. When I was in high school I did not think about the influence my posting had online. I would post whatever was on my mind without considering my audience. I rarely directly initiated any arguments online, but I have had a few heated comments on my statuses on Facebook. I have also unintentionally offended a few people by my comments. I had to learn that rather I like it or not, people will have a opinion on the things that I post. Therefore, I must be sure that what I post represents my views, values, and my public image. Once I realized that, I posted less and when I did post it was more thought out. I now check for spelling errors and consider the effects of what I am uploading to the world. I like to make sure that I am okay with my postings being shared universally, in case it is viewed by those outside of my intended audience.

Advice and Recommendations 

While I have become more aware of my social media presence, many people still have not quite grasped the concept that the internet is very public and permanent. As professor Susanne Thomas stated, communications instructor at Fayetteville State University, “what you publish may never be read by someone outside of this class.” “Or it could be accidentally found and then shared around the universe.” This is extremely important to keep in mind while sharing online. Social media can be as fun as you want it to be, however I recommend that you remain professional and respectful simultaneously. Postings may be reviewed by not only your peers. Your postings may also be viewed by family, potential and current employers, clients, and government officials. In other words, the entire world! It is important to make sure that everything posted under your name is represents accurately who you are, including the posts you are tagged and linked to. Many employers review the social media accounts of candidates when they are looking to fill a position. Therefore, it is important to think about the message you are sending on your account. Avoid the use of inappropriate language, racial slurs, or confrontational remarks. I also recommend that you avoid uploading inappropriate photos that suggest violence, racial prejudice, or sexual behavior. Use social media as effective means of marketing yourself. Many millennials have been successful at building meaningful business connections and relationships, careers, and fan bases while online. I hope that you take advantage of the online platforms and find success as well!

Until recently, I overlooked the term Ebonics. Misinformed, I thought the term was used to define a type of slang used predominantly by African Americans in the English language. Now that I have done some research on Ebonics, or the African American English (AAE); I have a few thoughts I would like to share. In my opinion, Ebonics is a type of speech predominately used by American Americans. Ebonics is not a language, it is a dialect. It is way of speaking that involves heavy use of slang and punctuation differences. For example, ‘past’ (pas’) and ‘hand’ (han’) (Rickford). In my personal experience as an African American, Ebonics is spoken only in urban settings among family and peers. When speaking in professional settings, African Americans are able to speak with ‘Standard American English.’ Prior to researching this issue that is Ebonics, I was unaware of the group of African Americans, primarily of the lower class, who do not know how to make the adjustment from AAE to ‘Standard American English’. Therefore, originally I immediately took offense to the term Ebonics and everything I thought it stood for.

Conversely, Ebonics is a play on the use of the words ebony and phonics, in regard to black dialogue in connection with the English phonetic system. The term was created in 1973 by a group of black scholars who wanted to address the negative overtone of terms like ‘Nonstandard Negro English’ or ‘Black English.’ Ebonics remained unrecognized by linguist and the public; that is, until the Oakland California School Board began to identify Ebonics as the ‘primary’ language of the majority African American students in their schools. As a result, the Oakland board resolved to reference Ebonics when teaching students of the identified demographic standard or academic English (Rickford).

This photo illustrates the misconception of the school board’s resolution to reference Ebonics in school.

This resolution sparked controversy due to its declaration of AAE to be the ‘genetically-based’ language of its African American students, not a dialect of English. The Oakland board initially called AAE a separate language derived from African linguistic roots, with heavy borrowings from English vocabulary. This would suggest that somehow African Americans took their African language and transformed it into some kind of scrambled language that has similarities to English, however it is not English. Immediate criticism emerged, leading the Oakland board to issue a clarification of their resolution in order to end the misconceptions displayed in press stories (Edwards 176).

“Many factors contributed to the negative reaction towards efforts of the Oakland resolution. These include TV images representing Ebonics as the equivalent of Black slang, the positioning of Black children speaking this variety in school (which is perceived by African Americans as a formal environment), and the media’s framing and coding of the case in a way that was antithetical to the notion that language use is contextual. For many African Americans, this resolution stood in opposition to their historic stance of wanting their children to gain oral and written competence in the formal and informal varieties of Black English and ‘white’ Standard English. And thus the Oakland resolution, contrary to its enormous possibilities, threatened to be another instance of the narrowing of options for African American children” (Perry and Delpit 10-11).

The Oakland board denied the rumors to teach Ebonics in the place of English, to classify AAE speaking students as bilingual, or to encourage the use of slang. In efforts to defuse the backlash of the initial statement’s usage, “genetic-based”, it was restated that the term “genetically based” is synonymous with genesis. In the clause, “African language systems are genetically based and not a dialect of English”, the term “genetically based” is used according to the standard dictionary of “has origins in” (Edwards, 172).

This photo exemplifies the racist overtones of Ebonics.

Overall, the Oakland board’s intent was to suggest that AAE is an independent system, with a genesis unrelated to English. Further changes were made to the resolution, which now reads: “…demonstrated that the African language systems have origins in West and Niger-Congo languages and are not merely dialects of English.” Other sections were also amended by the Oakland board to clarify its intent to build upon existing language skills in order to move students from the language patterns they bring to school to English proficiency (Edwards 176). The board recognized the non-standard student’s lack of the ability to register, a situational variation that occurs when a person talks one way to parents, another way to an employer, and still another way to a stranger encountered in a grocery store (Blair, Calderonello and Martin 7).

The following is a clip from the documentary “Do you speak American,” which demonstrates how many California schools use their knowledge of the structure of AAE, in the classroom to speak and use the standard American English dialect.

All in all, the Oakland board’s sole purpose was to acknowledge AAE as a dialect that exists in the black community. The Oakland board sought out to dismiss the misconceptions of both black and white people, who speakers of AAE to be limited in education or sophistication. It is important to note that all language variations reflect in many ways the cultures of people who speak them. “Although every human being is born into a language community, no one learns to speak ‘just’ a particular language, such as English, French, Chinese, or Arabic. Instead, each human acquires facility with a particular variety of his or her language, called a dialect. Dialects feature changes from the basic language in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, or grammar that follow a pattern. Moreover, because the language variety associated with educated, middle class speakers is considered ‘standard’ or normative, grammatical forms, pronunciations, and language variants associated with other dialects are often regarded as bad or substandard” (Blair, Calderonello and Martin 6-7).

On the subject of public views in regard to AAE, I would like to direct your attention to the testimony of Rachael Jeantel, a witness for the high-profile trial against George Zimmerman. During her testimony Jeantel speaks in AAE, as well as Haitian Creole and Spanish. The public responded negatively to Jeantel’s speech and sparking heated debate. Jeantel was compared to “a junkie,” an “animal,” and “the missing link between monkeys and humans.” One commentator stated that “You could swap her out for a three-toed sloth and get the same witness value and response.” Another commentator stated that: “She has to be the most, ignorant, ghetto, uneducated, lazy, fat, gross, arrogant, stupid, confrontation Black bitch I’ve ever seen in my fucking life. Yes, I said it . . . and I’m Black.”

An Instagram photo that was posted by Molly West, the adult daughter of Don West, George Zimmerman’s defense lawyer.

Many have suggested that Jeantel’s language is not correct and that she should instead speak ‘standard’ English. Such ideas about the perceived ‘correctness’ or ‘incorrectness’ of her language are misguided in that they mistakenly assume there is one Logical form of a language. Ultimately, Jeantel’s use of AAE is an important aspect of her ability to communicate and identify with other African Americans.

The following is a photo posted on photo-sharing site Instagram from the account “mollywestttt” showing a picture of
veteran criminal defense attorney Don West and his daughters eating generously-sized ice cream cones. The photo’s caption reads: “we beat stupidity celebration cones,” along with “#Zimmerman,” “#defense” and “#dadkilledit” (Kuo).

To get further understanding, please take a moment to watch the following video of Chris Hayes and an linguistics expert, John McWhorter, breaking down Rachel Jeantel’s ‘articulate’ use off Black English.

To conclude, the anti-Ebonics ideology that is described here illustrates the public perception of what is intelligent and “proper English.” The Oakland resolution brought about discussions of language ideology. The resolution, moreover, initiated a national discourse on language in which attitudes towards Ebonics served as a safe proxy for a discourse on the threats that racialized groups pose to dominant group power in the United States (Karn and Ronkin 173-174). When discussing language and dialect who must be aware that no dialect is better or worse than any other; no dialects are “broken.” Language use does not exist free of dialect. All dialects serve the needs of their speakers by allowing meaningful communication and follow a clear system of rules; those who know the rules fit in, and those who don’t, don’t (Bir 7-8).