Week 5: Topic 2

Topic 2:

Topic 2:

1)         I believe that what WikiLeaks is good and bad and here’s why. What WikiLeaks does that is good is not let people be in the dark, while the government tries to hide stuff from the public. Seeing videos of how our government acts in foreign countries gives people an idea of where they are living and who they are living under. The government has hidden tons of information from the people, and to have someone ballsy enough to step up and show us the true colors is good. The bad side is not everyone needs to know everything. There are some things that are good not to know, you learn that when you grow up. Leaking a video of our military shooting people over seas can release a ton of conflict with our society, splitting them up into different sides of who agrees with it and who doesn’t. Another bad reason is that some videos can be released and seen in different parts of the world. If Kenya has been killing people and we release it to America to see and Kenya finds out that we know, it may start conflict. So, other than it being nice to know information, sometimes knowing everything isn’t always the best for the people.

2) 3)    I feel that way because I have heard people I am close to argue over something they saw that WikiLeaks leaked about our government. It was about a soldier shooting a young child about 4 or 5 years ago. My parents were raged about it and said a lot of not so good things to people about our government. If just my parents are doing that, then what are the millions of people who saw that video saying. Its nice to know things like that, but it causes a lot of unneeded conflict to areas we can’t help.

4) 5)    I feel that we have way too much access to information. I can go on google, twitter, Facebook, etc. and find information or videos of issues that I do not really need to know. It is giving way too much access to everyone. Also kids that are too young to realize what they are being exposed to is becoming an issue. Especially when a 11-year-old has an iPhone that gives him access to the whole world wide web. My younger brother knows things that he should not know until he is about 18 years old and he is 13. It makes me nervous for the next couple generations growing up. How much more messed up will kids be learning graphic or messed up information at a young age.  I do not mind the access we have to free speech, because it lets people let out issues and start debates, but there should be a slight limit. Letting someone who needs help have the freedom of speech to ask for it on social media, too let people really tell how they feel about certain debates on social media is a plus, too let people feel like they are being heard is great for society. What’s not great is people who have the freedom of speech but tell lies to get reactions. The internet is a huge place to make a lot of money fast. The more people view your posts and comment/like them you can bring in money for that. Someone could say that a famous person was killed and get millions of people to comment or share their page, making them “internet famous”, when really that person did not die. Its close to impossible to limit freedom of speech online now, but I believe we need to start trying to control it a little bit. I have no clue how it would be possible, but it should be pursued to try.