Net Neutrality 2017

The battle over the internet is here. ISP's such as Comcast and Verizon and Silicon Valley giants like Google and Netflix are warring over whether all data should be treated equally. Under the Obama administration, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) ruled in favor of Silicon Valley and ordered ISP's to be regulated as a utility like Con Edison. 

Under Trump, the FCC is poised to eliminate any regulations on telecommunications companies therefore allowing them to charge customers based upon usage.

Here are two argument for both sides:

Pro Net Neutrality: https://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

Against Net Neutrality: http://mashable.com/2014/05/16/5-arguments-against-net-neutrality/#GXx6m4ddomqn

Read both articles and educate yourself on the issue. You have 2 options for this post.

1) Weigh in on which side do you support?
2) Find out how other countries deal with this issue. Are Net Neutrality concerns only an issue in the US? What if you lived in Portugal? What would you pay for internet service?

There will be a 5 question quiz on Net Neutrality based upon the 2 articles.

Real vs Fake

What happens when we put our trust in fake people?
https://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/russia-fake-twitter-facebook-posts-accounts-trump-election-jenna-abrams-20171103.html

The internet is an amazing tool and has transformed society and how we communicate in profound ways. However, what happens when we begin to place trust in people or personalities we have no connection with at all. Social media is increasingly playing an important role in shaping publisc opinion. More people are getting their news and information from Facebook and Twitter than legitimate news sources. https://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/ This is increasingly dangerous when we know there is a lot of incorrect and misleading information online.

For this post you have two options.

1. Find a recent trending article/story that has been found to be misleading or outright false. Read the article and tell us what the controversy is surrounding it. 
2. Find out what is the phenomenon behind people who are not convinced by facts. Fake news retractions get less attention than the fake stories. 

USE SNOPES.com to see if a story has been debunked. 

Q2 Ice breaker blog post

Here’s a simple query of your personal life: 

What are you reading?  

What are you watching?

What are you playing?

For our first blog post of Q2, please answer each of these 3 questions in the comment section. Please include the question. Do not include school work.  You can have multiple answers to each question.  I'll get started: 

What am I reading?

Vineland, Thomas Pynchon

What am I watching? 

Narcos

What am I playing? 

Bass guitar