Democracy? 2.0

Really? Democracy... That describes my basic feelings toward this topic. Especially at this time in our country when the elections are so "exciting." I mean come on, who are we kidding anymore? Do they teach what any of this stuff means in schools growing up? They say the words democracy and "a government by the people for the people" but who actually learned what that meant in elementary, middle or high school? I'm in college and I'm not afraid to admit that I don't fully understand democracy but I feel like whatever our country is doing isn't democracy. We hear the dumb jokes about Obama being a dictator and how Trump will do the same but will that really change much? I feel like no matter who is in office and what their title is, the government is going to do what they want when they want to without our permission. Elections only matter for the electors and they can do whatever the hell they want when they vote. I think the best explanation of the elections I've ever see is a clip from TruTV's new show Adam Ruins Everything. For once someone who doesn't seem like a crazy conspiracy theorist is explaining the election and citing sources showing why it is so screwed up. If you don't live in Ohio, Florida or Pennsylvania (aka "Swing States")  then why bother?

Before I get too off topic with this rant I want to look into what democracy is at it's core.  Dictionary.com says that democracy is: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or a by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Well there's quite a few problems that I see with this in the United States. First off, I didn't elect an elector he was appointed that by someone with prominence. I don't feel like I have any power in what is done in this country especially living in Utah. And if it is truly by the people how come my only options for President are rich politicians who can afford to run and whatever it is you would call Donald Trump? I don't see any middle class blue collar workers running because they got weeded out by the rich. In fact, what I would love to see is a homeless man in office. Because he doesn't have a job or a house and so he isn't worried about things like segregating us from the world or hacking an iPhone. All he cares about is survival and trying to help everyone survive and that is ultimately what a government should be there for is making it possible for us as a people to co-exist while helping each other survive. Politics has become a game rich people play against other rich people and I'm getting real tired of having to hear about it. I want my voice to be heard in society and not silenced by the the number following the dollar sign on my bank account. Will we ever be equal?

Confucius says: Keep it under 140 Characters - Religion 3.0

Millennials like their religion like they like their food: vegan, gluten-free and presentable for an Instagram photo. At least 1 out of every 3 Millennials feels this way about their religion. They want to pick and choose the things they like out of each religion and form their own set of beliefs that align to their design. Gathering with a group of similar individuals would be nearly impossible with how personalized this quest for spirituality is becoming. Now while the hippies of old were fighting the system and challenging "the man." Millennials are denying the existence of the system and creating their own "man." Moral pockets will cease to exist amongst groups and the number of offended people will skyrocket if this trend catches on completely. Pastor's will be left unemployed, church buildings will become vacant, and the traditions that have lived on in religion for hundreds of years will slowly die out.

But what are these new "Mix-n-Match Spirituality" systems made up of? The answer is everything! Social media posts, prophetic sayings, horoscopes, idols, objects, bands, fabrics, clothing, the list goes on and on! The ideas of worshipping a brand or person that were joked about 20 years ago are no longer a joke but an actual thing. Religion is becoming a sense of being yourself and not of building yourself. Imagine if this idea was prevalent during the 90's, we would still have music like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears because the worshippers wouldn't have let them fall. No bands would try to emerge but without the backing of the fans you would fall much like an underfunded church will fall. The leaders would be involuntary people who just had an idea that got them famous and now they would be leading hoards of teens and twenty-somethings. While religion views technology as a benefit to spread "the word" the millennial generation sees it as a way to ignore "the word." Former generations couldn't just create their own ideals and accept it as their Spirituality, they had to choose a church or the lack there of. Buddha and Jesus couldn't have sayings in the same book previously without religious riots. But now the author is just a person and not a leader of a sect of religion. This age truly is all about changing everything we have ever known. And has the radical's who see the world differently work to promote this new Spirituality movement and the 1/3 become 3/4 we will see the power that has always been available that lacked the backing that the hippies of the 60's and 70's desired.

Spy on the Wall - Privacy 2.0

George Orwell's "1984" is becoming a reality. The machines are now listening to us, watching us and tracking us. But now the detection is coming from unexpected machines in our homes. The most shocking is the refrigerator. Now with the advances in technology you can play music, watch television, and even voice command your fridge. But this means it is enabled to connect to the internet and report back it's observations to whomever wants to access the data.

The one that is truly bringing "1984" to 2016 is the Samsung Smart TV which recently changed it's user agreement after many complaints of privacy arose. The original agreement stated that any spoken word, including private information, recorded would be sent to a third party source for translation to text in order to transmit the command to the TV. Now they reworded it taking out that private information is involved in this. However, they didn't change the function of the TV. It still does the same basic things however, now the user just lives in ignorance. But where is the bliss behind being spied on? What happens when our TV begins to talk back and eventually tell us what to do? Well, isn't it already doing that? The smart TV's track what you watch. They make prediction based on the things you watch and the times you watch it. So in a way it is going to be telling you what to watch and when to watch it. Soon we will no longer have to touch a remote or make a voice command because it will just play what it thinks we will watch and we will think it is what we want.

Our computers and phones were already known to track us, listen to us, and even see us through the camera. But now the one way transmission that was TV is a two way street that is reporting back more pertinent information then what we are receiving. What's next? Our couches will be taking our butt imprints and telling the government how long we like to sit down? Or our silverware will be submitting our fingerprints to the highest bidder? It's a scary road we are on and yet we all seem to accept the privacy we have given up.

http://www.myce.com/news/samsung-changes-smart-tv-privacy-policy-after-user-concerns-but-still-shares-spoken-words-with-third-parties-78598/

http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2016/February/US-Government-Can-Spy-on-You-Through-Your-Fridge

No Money, No Jobs, Big Problems - Learning 2.0

What is a college degree really worth? Over the past decade more and more of the media is erupting with the fact that there are no jobs for college graduates and being that it is 2016 and we love to blame everything on someone else we are finally turning toward the colleges themselves as the problem. But not all colleges are at risk, mostly just for-profit colleges and especially career based colleges. According to the article by usnews.com the new head of the education department, John King, is putting his focus on making sure students are getting educations that will pay off. And in his pursuit of getting to the bottom of things he found that many schools were charging more and more in order to receive more of students Federal Aid. Finding loopholes through veterans, and overall taking advantage of our government trying to supply citizens with an education.

The problem is that the education is not only overpriced but misrepresented. Schools across the nation are putting out deceitful numbers of students receiving jobs after they receive their degree in order to recruit more students. Some higher education facilities were caught paying their employees by the number of recruits they have like a commission. As the government looks to go after these colleges for settlements the sum of the settlements is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Meanwhile a former deputy secretary of the education department is taking over Apollo Education which is a giant for-profit organization in a huge $1.1 billion deal.

The real question boils down to is the government in the wrong? Is the school in the wrong? Or is society just wrong? And the answer is undetermined. The school is a business like any other and wants to make money. The government is doing its duty of protecting the people from a corrupt form of government, as in the governing of schools. And society just isn't interested in our education anymore for job placement. Schools aren't necessarily teaching the things we need to know to get a job so those with the most life experience and street smarts can take the job before someone who knows the pythagorean theorem because most jobs don't require that. The learning process isn't corrupt in the higher education but in the lower education as well as we have seen in past years with the fairly new common core learning epidemic. People can attribute this learning curve to social media, to bad parenting, to poor schooling, but really it is a societal effort that is ruining things because everything seemed to work much smoother in the past. Sure, there were some bumps along the way but at no point was it appearing that the job market had collapsed and college and university education was becoming obsolete.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-08/new-education-department-unit-to-take-aim-at-errant-for-profit-colleges