EOTO Research Project

     The history of video games is a long and complicated one. There is not one direct inventor of video games but rather, multiple as the origin of video games can be traced back as early as the 1950s and 1960s. During that timeframe, computer scientists began designing simple games on minicomputers, which would later translate to the first video game, SpaceWar! in 1962. Created by MIT student hobbyists, this was the first video game to use a video display. After Pong was created in 1970, many video game companies wanted to capitalize on its fame, causing the industry to go through several boom or bust cycles due to lack of innovation.

    Around the 1980s, video games were going through a really tough time. The 1983 video game crash hit the United States really hard from too many games to cheap knockoffs. This prompted Japan to take charge of the video game industry, as the crash did not seem to hit them as hard, if at all. In 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System, reviving the video game industry and brimming it full of life for many years to come. Nintendo's original ideas bundled with its very easy to understand game mechanics allowed for people of all ages to enjoy video games once again

Since then, video games have changed the world, becoming a dominant branch of the entertainment industry, being present in many families homes, and a common hobby among children and adults alike. Video games have brought forth a positive impact on the world by helping strengthen problem solving and social skills in children. This can be explained by video games constant engagement with players and how they utilize puzzles, strategy, and problem solving to encourage critical thinking skills. With the recent introduction of online multiplayer gaming, communication has evolved in video games with people now able to communicate across very long distances with friends and online opponents alike.

However, it has gotten quite the negative impact in recent years. Contrast to its improvement of social skills in children, video games also teach children to be antisocial if they are not playing and interacting with other people. Video games have also brought on unhealthy habits such as obesity and carpal tunnel, two very important diseases that are heavily linked to obsessive play of video games. Gaming is also very addicting, as it is officially labeled as "internet gaming disorder" (IGD) and can suffer dire consequences such as loss of appetite, loss of sleep, and even losing relationships and interests in other activities.

    Despite the negative criticism towards video games, video games have changed the world for the better, and in some cases, for the worst. They help communication while also hindering it. They evolved the world while also setting back. It is a very give or take subject that as humans, we are still figuring out. Gaming has evolved into a very popular branch of the entertainment industry and thanks to its communication benefits, will stay around for many years to come.

Privacy, Online and Off

     When it comes to digital privacy, it becomes very hard to determine how safe I feel online. There are good sides to this like two factor authentication, to ensure your information to an account is safe. But that also means giving this company your information... so am I really that safe online? It very much affects me because now that my information is out there, there is so much that people can do with it. They could change your name, address, birthdate, the possibilities are endless as long as you keep giving them information.

    Because the safety of online privacy is unclear, I think the government should strictly outline what information companies are allowed to ask for. Asking for some information is ok, but I think that companies and organizations are getting way too personal, especially online. There is not a clear reason as to why the government allows this, and even does this in multiple instances. Having all this information hoarded for other people to use as they wish is very dangerous, and the government should regulate this to make it so that innocent people aren't worrying for their lives

Now this sounds all sort of scary...

    And yeah. It really is scary, knowing that your personal information is not safe and can be used against you at any time. However, there are protective measures we can take to defend us against this invasion of privacy. One of the easiest things you can do is be aware of the kind of information companies want to steal from you. Are they asking too much from you? (the answer is usually yes). If they ask for your information, claiming they are using your it to curate "a better experience", that's their secret code of "say goodbye to your rights buddy". Companies just use that information to share it with other companies in the form of advertising. In other words, you really are not safe if you allow that kind of information sharing to happen. So it is very important that you take important steps such as these to ensure not only that your data is safe, but that you are safe too.

Eight Values of Freedom Expression

    When it comes to the eight values of freedom expression, I think all eight values are extremely important in achieving governmental balance. As part of a democratic government, we, the people have a civic duty to uphold in achieving that governmental balance. Being involved in the government by keeping up with news, voting in elections, and speaking up when something is unconstitutional or infringes on our basic rights is really important, and by doing all of these civic duties, you are fairly contributing to the United States government as a United States citizen.

    I think that promoting tolerance is the value of freedom expression that resonates with me the most because of how desperately important it is in society today. As a society, we are taught to respect each other and understand that while we may come from different backgrounds,  we can come together to respect each other and celebrate our differences. However, we are becoming more intolerant and divided as a society, thanks to social media and lack of communication with others in general. It is quite a drastic change to how our society usually runs, as our Founding Fathers knew how to create an accepting society. This was underlined in The First Amendment as tolerance theory and follows the belief that by promoting expressive freedoms, it will make individuals and institutions more open to ideas than they otherwise would be. With the prevalent rise of social media in recent years, it has taught us that we should not be tolerant of other peoples interests, hobbies, even as far as race and cultural backgrounds. Because of this, social media has become a dangerous place for some, who do not feel that they have a place of acceptance and tolerance in the world.

    Now usually, I would not be this huge advocate for promoting tolerance. This is not because I am some sort of mean person who hates free speech, I very much encourage it and think it is a wonderful freedom we are given as humans as part of The First Amendment. What worries me as of recent is how future generations may never learn the lessons of tolerance promotion and accepting people regardless of race, gender, background, etc. That social media has such a huge impact, that it could quite literally shape the future for coming generations. Even sometimes, I am guilty of not being as tolerant of people as I once was and try to work on that myself so that I can get the message across that I am an advocate of promotional tolerance. I really do not think we are all mean spirited people that actively try to hurt each other and shun others who do not agree with our standards. I think social media has gotten inside all of our heads just a little and messed them up in a pretty major way. We all have the potential to be tolerant and accepting of one another, we just need to take the time and action to make those important changes and strive for greatness.

History and Workings of the US Supreme Court

    What I learned that I did not already know about the Supreme Court is the Supreme Court is made up of people just like us, and that while many people assume that there is some sort of "inside story" of the Supreme Court, the truth is that there is not an inside story. Another thing I was surprised to learn about was that verdicts in the Supreme Court still go to majority vote, so there will still be Supreme Court justices who do not agree with certain things that happen. I also learned that there are Supreme Court correspondents, who essentially dictate everything that is written down by the Supreme Court justices and share that information with the press, who later shares that information with the rest of the world. According to Part II, depending on how arduous the case is, correspondents can write anywhere from just a few pages to over 80 pages of documentation.

    The most important take away point about the Supreme Court is that it's not this easy foolproof justice system that so many people think it is. There is a lot of work that goes into processing a case in the Supreme Court, and it is not as if all the Supreme Court justices are constantly in agreement with each other. They also have to make tough decisions sometimes to uphold the Constitution and decide if something can be considered unconstitutional.

    The most surprising thing I learned about the Supreme Court is that it is more of a team effort than I had previously realized. Most of the Supreme Court video was talking about how all the justices on the Supreme Court really worked together and how they were able to do that so efficiently. The video changed the way I thought about the Supreme Court in the process because before, I had assumed that while the Supreme Court was made up of 9 justices at a time, they all had individual strengths that they specialized in a division. I did not realize there was this much teamwork that went into running the Supreme Court, though now I can see that the teamwork makes up a really huge part of what makes the Supreme Court run so smoothly.

My Top 5 Sources

                        Here are my personal top 5 sources of news and information that I like to use.

1. CNN. I really like using CNN because it is a really reliable news source that is very up to date on all the latest news in various topics. CNN is most notably known for their news on politics, but they cover everything in between from food, to entertainment, to fashion, to stocks, and so much more. I have also used CNN in many scholastic researches, and it has proved to be a valuable source time and time again.  If you want to be reliably up to date on everything happening in the world, I recommend using CNN. 
   
   
   
2. Twitter. No I'm not calling it "X". You can't make me. Despite the name change, Twitter can be pretty useful sometimes as a source of news and information. I find that it covers areas such as entertainment with a different lens that a source like CNN would not usually cover in that way. Being a social media platform, there is not much credibility to it, but they do get news and information accurate now and again. I personally think Twitter works best as a news platform that has all information taken with a grain of salt. It may not be the most reliable platform, but it is definitely the most interesting.
   
   
   
   
3. Instagram. Similar to Twitter, Instagram is a social media platform that has information and news on varying topics. I find Instagram to be more entertaining than Twitter, as I actually use Instagram and barely touch Twitter. Bias aside, there is not anything too different about Instagram compared to Twitter that would make me pick one over the other. I just find Instagram to be a mainly entertaining social media platform that I prefer to use over Twitter for news and information.
   
   
   
   
4. NBC. NBC is once again, a very reliable news and information source that is constantly up to date. I grew up watching a lot of NBC news, and it is the reason I was able to keep up with current events. NBC usually gets a lot of personalities such as celebrities and politicians to share their own perspectives on current events or information on future events. This makes their news and information a lot less one-sided and gives more personality to processing this information. Whether it is from "The Today Show", or "NBC Nightly News", NBC is constantly reporting news for the public to process, retain, and enjoy.
   
   
   
   
5. New York Times. The New York Times is one of the oldest news sources I grew up with and it is still very reliable to this day. Compared to the other news and information sources I have talked about, The New York Times is the only source that is available in print. Being a newspaper, it reaches people like seniors, who still very much use newspapers as their main source of news and information. Part of that is just how reliable they are after a digital age where social media and online news outlets usually reign supreme. The New York Times will still be special to me as it is as simple as information and news processing gets. There is nothing extra with The New York Times, just good, old fashioned news.