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Social networking has affected to world in the positive and negative in ways we could have never imaged. In some ways, it has greatly enhanced our agencies ability to track down fugitives and communicate with the public that were difficult to reach before.

In Hawaii the military has been using social networking sites (like Facebook) to communicate with people about public safety that would have been hard to reach before: 

And here DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project) and MIT team up to see how the internet and social networking has improved communication; the goal was for people to find 10 large balloons in undisclosed locations as quickly as possible. This task was completed in a shocking 9 hours after the balloons were released! Balloons may seem silly to find, but this demonstration showed how useful social networking would be in the search of state enemies or to track down missing persons. 

However, social networking has also affected us in the negative and created a desperate need for the development of Cyber Law (the career I am aiming for!) Cyber-bullying, child solicitation, identity theft, and various other heinous crimes have become easier than ever.

Last year a college student's suicide gained national at Rutgers University after it was discovered that his roommate had videotaped him having sexual relations with another man and then spread it all over various social networks. 

According to Bullying Statistics.org over 25% of teenagers are bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or internet and around half of all adolescents admit to having been cyber-bullied at some point (even more, around half of adolescents admit to engaging in cyber-bullying!) z

 What has become abundantly clear is that social networking has moved from being a niche between close friends to a massive force that can influence us both positively and negatively. It allows our nation of millions to communicate quickly and efficiently within hours, and keep up to date on the personal and informational news in the world. However, it also allows the scum of the world a new medium through which they can accomplish their goals.

On a more personal note, I think that social networking has greatly changed the way we see privacy. We desire to know as much as we can about our friends and peers, or delve into their lives more than we would have 20 years ago. Things that used to be said in the confidence of friends can now be spread through your whole social circle, and your head or paper has become one of the only truly private places for thoughts or ideas. I have read a few articles about how social networking has changed our view of romantic relationships, changed the way many people perceive intimacy, or encouraged personal isolation which can have numerous physiological effects.

When it comes to me, I love the versatility of social networking, Web 2.0, and the integration of technology into everyday life. As I said earlier, I want to pursue a career is Cyber Law which is founded on our physical connection with technology. I love how technology and the internet has made knowledge so much easier to access, and is improving literacy rates around the world! Cultures that were thousands of miles away can be studied in seconds now; and answers to questions are at our finger tips. I think that my "digital persona" has given me more depth as a person, I am able to explore whatever avenue I want through the internet. For example, I am able to get my bachelors degree from my couch while being a stay at home mother to my two darling angels!

"If you build it, they will come."

I am going to keep this short and sweet as it is currently in the early hours of the morning and I don’t want to go on and on. First things first however; I would love to write more but many of my posts are more of projects that involve some research, I am currently working on a novel, and I always try to have a life with my family, friends and interests!

Now if there is any subject you are interested in or points you would like to have reexamined, let me know! I often enjoy a challenge and always love a good project.

So here is my point for today; the blogging rule of thumb “Make sure that the content is there and the readers will follow”. I really don’t care if people read my blog and this post is not about technology or thought but rather  I felt that this rule of thumb applied to people’s personalities. It’s a simple concept, right? If the content is there in our actions, our thoughts, our personalities than the people will follow. You can see this time and time again with Tinsel Town’s latest and greatest jewel, but just as quickly as they came they leave. However, the people who dedicated their lives to substance and good are remembered ironically. How could you forget Mother Theresa?

Like I said, this is short and sweet. The package is all for show the immortality comes from a solid core. I encourage you to look for the quotes that truly change your life rather than pulling the first suggestion from Google. Examine your position on life, your position in the world, and all that is relative around you. What will you contribute with this short time we have? Will you be flashy but simple minded, or embrace all that the mind has to offer and maintain the simplicities of life?

Our actions are like ripples in the water. Will your ripples be gentle or deadly?

After a long day of driving around, hungry and tired children, and insane summer heat, my family was finally on our way home. Our drive included a long stretch on one of New Mexico’s highways (Paseo Del Norte). Unfortunately due to rode construction this major three lane highway that connects Rio Rancho to Albuquerque was cut down to two lanes. It is the right and middle lane that turn onto our exit and the left lane that continues on, it also happened to be the right lane that is currently closed. Normally, details like this are not important in my posts but this one needs the details explained in order to make sense.

A teenage girl with two friends in her gold van was talking on her cell phone and must have decided she couldn’t wait in the middle lane so she moved to the right lane and sped up to the front of the line. Right before the lane was blocked off by those lovely cement blocks, she switched into the middle lane (mind you, no turn signal) in an attempt to save herself time and cut everyone else off. She must have realized that there was not enough space between the car she cut off and the car in front of her to slow down; just as fast as she swerved into the middle lane, she swerved out to the left. The car she cut off tried desperately to avoid an accident and slammed on their brakes, this however caused the car behind them to crash into their rear. (This is where my family comes in.) A little red car in front of me hit their brakes and managed to swerve into the left lane. I had seconds to hit my brakes so that we did not hit the two people who just wrecked ahead of us. The woman behind me didn’t have a chance. My husband looked back in time to see this, he warned us all and we had only a second brace ourselves. 

CRASH!

Our beautiful daughters are terrified now and screaming louder than ever. Fantastic “French” is flying out of everyone’s mouth and my husband and I dart from the car. I swing the girls’ door open so that I can check on them and make sure they are okay. 

(Thank God they were.) 

Not five feet behind the woman who hit me, a truck is able to hit his brakes and stop in time to avoid a three car accident. The van behind him? No chance. They hit the back of his truck, and now there have been rear-end accidents at 40 miles per hour. 

Everyone is okay, and by some crazy Grace a police aid and EMT happen to be driving by. In 100 degree weather we sort out information, comfort crying children, and check to make sure everyone is okay. 

The beauty of this event was found in the actions of those who crashed. They were grateful, kind, and patient. As badly as I wanted to scream at the woman behind me, she greeted me with concern and worry. A young boy, who couldn’t have been more than ten, came over to make sure that everyone else was alright. (He was in the van accident). 

The ugly side to this story is that the teenage girl in the gold van probably had no idea that she facilitated three separate accidents with small children involved. It was through her reckless actions that dozens of people had to wait half an hour longer while things got sorted out. Because she was in such a rush to get wherever she was going, six cars are now wrecked. We are lucky that the incident went as well as it did; however things could have been much more tragic. 

I now come to my point. While our actions may not always affect us instantly, they do affect someone around us. Think of your choices like a pebble being thrown into the water. The pebble is gone before it ever sees the ripple of the water, but the flowers, frogs, dragon flies all feel it. That ripple shakes their world. Our actions are ripples in the world around us; they shake the lives of people we may never meet. When we make careless, vengeful, or selfish actions we hurt people who were only passing by. When we make kind, generous, and loving actions we leave an imprint of kindness on people who just happened to be in the same area. I was angry with that teenage girl earlier, but now I have let it go. I worry that her actions will lead to a ripple even worse than the one today. 

Think about that. Especially when doing things (like driving) that can affect so many people in such great ways. The few seconds you save by cutting someone off isn’t worth the your life, the life of the soccer mom, the kind Californian, the old couple, the laborer, the two beautiful girls, the concerned 10-year-old, the young married couple, or who ever… 

It takes only one second to ruin countless lives; do you think that is a second you could spare?

Tupac Was Right

My post here will be short because of the data gathered that I have displayed in this interactive time line from www.timetoast.com.

I have been thinking a lot about women's history lately. It is not uncommon in 2000-something or other to see women  dressing how they want, saying what they want, and having freedom other their bodies and choices. I was shocked to find out that this is new to our generation (Gen X) and those after us!

While this time line combines feminism and women's suffrage, it is only a very generalized collection of events that happened. I encourage you to go and look at more extensive histories. Especially those of Susan B. Anthony, who for example; was allowed to register and vote, then arrested the next day and held for the equivalent of over $75,000!

Or check out Alice Paul who was arrested for "obstructing the side walk" when she and others picketed for women's suffrage outside of the White House. She was refused a trial with a jury of her peers and force fed when she refused to eat in jail.

A very detailed post about Women's Suffrage

These are only a few of the women who gave up everything so that we could be where we are today.

Another important movement? Birth Control. While it has been around for decades now, Gen X and those after are the first to be able to get birth control without jumping through a million hoops and stigmas. While birth control is meant to prevent pregnancy it also has tons of other great affects! It is only recent that women have been able to choose when they would have children and who that would be by.

I am not saying by any means that women are better or deserve more (as is the notion associated with feminism or promotion of the female) but I certainly admire the millions of women who have laid down their life, pride, security, and freedom so that their children and maybe themselves may be equal citizens of this country!

I felt that a good visual explanation of women's rights through the last century would be demonstrated through the change in cheerleading uniforms and swimsuits. I wanted to include cheerleading uniforms because they represent what the general society is okay with seeing in a school. As a side note; the first picture in the cheerleading time line is only men, that is because it was the men who sat on the side lines that did the cheering!

I wanted to include this little bit from Tupac "Keep Ya Head Up"

And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up

I want to pose a question for you as well; where does all the hatred towards another sex come from? Is it taught? Do we have deep within ourselves? What do you think? I will be doing some more exploring on that issue myself as well.