I believe that the media has always shined a dim light on women compared to men. Women of color to be specific has always had it 10x worse than any race or sex and have always had to work 10x harder for whatever they pursued in life. African American women were looked at as useless. In the 1830s African American women began to fight for their rights day by day with the African American Women’s Suffrage Movement. This movement was a fight for their political rights because at one point they weren’t able to vote.

By 1910 women were beginning to win the right to vote but this was just one obstacle that they had to get through. Women of color would go many more years fighting for the rights and the opportunity for things that were given to people of the Caucasian race. When people of color began to act it was very rare for you to see an African American male on screen but it was even more unknown to see a woman of color so when Hattie McDaniel made her television debut in Gone with the Wind, the people watching were stunned. Whites would have never expected a colored woman to act and the African American community was happy she got a chance but also in a rage because she played a house slave named “Mammy”. Whites did not want a woman of color to win over America so they portrayed her as one of the most degrading characters that they could get away with. The television industry from film to the news media has always been run by a majority of the Caucasian race and the feud between the races tracing back from slavery has made it so African American are usually cast for stereotypical roles. After “Mammy”, African American women were beginning to be sexualized in films and movies like Pam Grier and Shaft emphasized that. Years of African American women receiving roles like this didn’t give young women strong positive role models and it affected the way they believed they should be treated and what they should accept. It wasn’t until things like Black Girls Rock or Me Too movement where women really began to come together as a strong force to stand up for what they deserve.

I transferred to Howard University for the Spring 2020 semester and when first enrolling in Howard I was completely scared. I believe that anytime something new is presented it is a normal feeling to be a bit scared and have a little anxiety. I was transferring to a brand new school where I didn’t know a single person that went there. I grew up in Washington DC in the Petworth neighborhood so I was very familiar with the area, the culture of DC, and Howard Homecoming, because I would always ride through the, backed up traffic due to the activities on Georgia Avenue growing up but to be realistic kids where I’m from don’t go to Howard unless they are offered a scholarship because it is too expensive and Howard doesn’t offer any in-state tuition like most universities so most leave home.

The school that I attended before Howard was a small private HBCU in Raleigh, NC with less than one thousand students enroll so you can only imagine the atmosphere, everyone knew each other and it was like a big high school compared to Howard where there are thousands of students and you can go there all 4 years and still never meet everyone that goes there. I was completely nervous because Howard has always had a reputation where you have to be the cutest girls to go to Howard and have the most money to afford it but growing up directly down the street it was always a dream. I remember my senior year of high school going to Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School a public school a few blocks from Howard telling one of my teachers who was a Howard Alumni that I wanted to attend Howard and I was told that I wouldn’t get in so I shouldn’t even waste my time to apply that made me extremely discouraged of my dreams so I settled for the first college that accepted me but even though I settled I never let my fears stop me I maintained the Dean’s list while at my first university so I could get the opportunity to transfer.

On my first day on campus, I sat down with my advisor and she suggested that I enroll in this Digital Media Literacy course I was very hesitant because of the time I just knew that this course would be my worst nightmare. On the first day of class when entering the class, I was completely shocked because we started class with meditation and I had never known a professor that cared enough about his or her student’s mental state to do this. It felt like a breath of fresh air that there is a professor that actually cares about their class and as the first day of class progressed when it was mentioned that students that need help purchasing books could receive help it showed me again how much you care about your students because many students like myself with already a million things on their plate need help to purchase books. After the first day of class, I already knew that I would love the course because I knew that I had a professor that cared and as the class went on and we began to be assigned homework I began to become more and more comfortable with Howard University and glad that I transferred because it was nothing that I expected and everything that I always wanted.

This course challenged me more than any other course has, it brought me out of my shell. I was challenged to read new things that I wouldn’t think would interest me. I was challenged with the weekly assignments to include Vlog videos into my blogs and even though it is something I am interested in I am a very shy person and this helped me become more comfortable with recording myself and discussing different topics. From the in-class debate to the assignment where we had to capture random people on their phones to bring to light how cell phones affect our everyday lives. I can go on and on about the many instances that I encountered in this course that helped me grow. This course is one that I will always remember and I greatly appreciate the extra care and mile you go from your students.

 Many companies and programs have been using the internet for years. Most Americans use the internet almost everyday, it has become an essential in everyday life in Today’s society. Studies show that about nine out of ten Americans use the internet every day. 

What is the Internet ? But what exactly are we referring to when we talk about the internet? Well, the internet is a massive global network of billions of computers and other electronic devices used to communicate around the world by different people.The internet is a great way to connect to the entire world and most people use it to socialize through social media , share information, share files, share images, and many other things. The internet as we know it today was developed in California. It was first created to be used by the military for their purposes only, then it later expanded to the purpose of communication between  scientists and later universities, companies, and personal use in homes.

It is said that in January 1958, the President at the time Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite created by the Soviet Union in October 1957 teamed with the United States of America Department of Defense to create The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network also known as ARPANET. This is considered to be the world’s first operational network and the predecessor of the internet. But during the beginnings of the internet when it started to expand to universities and company’s many people were afraid to use it because it was rumored to be used to spy on people if they were in homes due to it being said to have been created to help survive a nuclear attack many Americans were sceptical. But in Today’s Society about 61.4% of the world has access to the internet and uses it frequently.

Who Created The Internet?

The internet has had many people help it become what it is today. Robert “Bob” Kahn an engineer and computer scientist and Vinton Cerf the inventor of the transmission control and internet protocol were the Fathers of the internet. These two men created in the 1970’s after creating TCP/IP ARPANET adopted it in January of 1983 from there they began to assemble to “network to network” that is the modern internet Today. Then in 1990 computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, a combination of all resources and users on the internet that are using the hyperlink (HTTP). This is commonly confused with the internet but the two are completely different. 

The World Wide Web saved the internet and made the economy rich. It paved the way for many things such as hyperlinks and the start of MSN, Google, Java, Yahoo, and Youtube.  So where would we be without the Internet and World Wide Web? We would probably still be lost and somewhere in a library for hours 

In Today’s blog I will be discussing the relationship that people have with their phones. The Good, The Bad, and The Inevitable.

First let’s discuss the good. In Today’s society technology has become something that we can’t avoid. Everywhere you go you have to use some sort of technology whether it is ordering a simple sandwich at WaWa’s or getting groceries at Walmart. Everything is either based on a computer or smartphone. This isn’t always a bad thing. Technology has made things more convenient in many ways such as easy access to information on the web instead of having to go to the library and look through books and smartphones have given us everything we may need in the palm of our hands. Smart phones give you the opportunity to stay current on news, weather updates , and let you keep in touch with long distance family and friends. Cell phones play a major role in people’s everyday lives like calling an ubers to work every morning or ordering your coffee in advance. Smartphones can be used to your own advantage.

The Bad is that most people are so dependent on their phones that they forget that there is an outside world beyond their phone. Some people actually believe that they can’t live without it. They wake up and check their phones before doing anything else and based their whole day around their phones.This has caused people to inhabit terrible communication skills. People have used their phone so much to communicate via text or social media that they don’t know how to actually sit down and talk to people anymore. Cell phones let you be whoever you desire, you have the opportunity to sit and think about what you want to say before you send the message or not in send it at all! Before there were cell phones, things that are hard now like  relationships, worked better because you actually had to sit face to face and have a conversation. Whereas, in this generation everything can be done over a text message. Imagine getting your heart broken over instagram or a text.

Lack of communication skills render basic skills for everyday life such as job interviews or even sitting at a dinner table cell phones are addictive and not always good for your health.

The Inevitable I mean, its 2020 folks, Everyone has a cell phone. People of all ages from 5 years old to 65. Everyone needs some source of communication to get through their everyday lives in Today’s society because It isn’t like back in those days where there were pay phones on every other block or people had a two way pager. It isn’t about how much you use your cell phone it was how you use it. Take advantage of your resources but also don’t forget to put your phone down and enjoy life and what it has to offer.

Believe it or not, selfies have actually been around for a very long time. Robert Cornelius in 1839 took what was said to be the first-ever selfie on a Kodiak camera.

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Years after that you see people standing in the mirror holding what looks to be big boxes but they were cameras and years later in 1925 came photo booths where you sit in a seat and press the button and your selfie was taken

During those times people didn’t have all the resources that we have now. Pictures, in general, were taken to capture memories and most times used as art later on.
There are many opinions of what exactly are selfies, and what they stand for. Some people believe that selfies are for narcissistic people to stroke their ego but others believe that selfies are just a form of art and expression. I believe that selfies can be both, a way for narcissistic people to stroke their ego and a form of art. The reason I think this is because this is the generation of Social Media and a lot of Social Media influencers that most of us see every day try to depict this perfect image of themselves. They use apps to enhance their beauty and they even go to the extremes to pay people to like their pictures and if their pictures don’t get the attention they’d hoped to get they delete their pictures. Social Media influencers usually try to depict this perfect image of themselves and most times usually are very narcissistic and insecure.

Lacking self-love and trying to be someone that they aren’t through social media. To be perfect for the world isn’t the reason you should be taking selfies because nobody is perfect. This isn’t the way you should look at the art of taking a selfie. Selfies, in my opinion, should mean something to you. Selfies are a way to express yourself, there should always be meaning behind why you chose to take this picture and when you are taking the picture you can use your phone and take as many retakes needed to get what you feel may be the picture image for you. I believe that taking selfies builds confidence, for those who lack and that is the beauty of it because if you don’t love yourself who will. Selfies for me, have always been a way to express myself using the angles, facial expressions, backgrounds, and filters to express my thoughts and feelings. Selfies and pictures, in general, have taught me to look at the bigger picture and to savor every moment because you never know what may happen.

As I completed the “Street Calculus Cartoon” and the “Inside/Outside Identity Chart” exercises, I couldn’t help but think about how most times people view me when we are first meeting compared to the person I actually am and why. When you first meet an African American woman she is usually expected to be what society considers “ghetto”

or she is considered “stuck up” if she is the complete opposite.

When I first meet someone I am always told that I am very quiet and am an introvert which is the complete opposite of the person I actually am. I am a talkative person and not an introvert but I am more observant and shy when first meeting some. This is usually looked at as “stuck up” but I’ve also been told that I am “ghetto” because of the accent that I have or the slang that I occasionally use. In most cases, with first glance people usually gather a perception in their head of the person they think you are rather it be true or false without ever speaking to you and getting to know you. It has been said that for most African American children, by the age of 12 years old society has already determined rather they believe that you will be successful or not. They have already created this bias perception on rather you will be successful before you’ve experienced what life has to offer. I believe this comes from years of how we have been looked at in America. The African American woman, especially the darker tone has always had to prove herself and this goes back to slavery. We have always been looked at as more aggressive and less feminine or assertive because during those times darker skin toned women were put through much more. During slavery times and even a little while after there was something called the “paper bag test” where women of African American descent were compared to a brown paper bag. If you were equivalent to the color or lighter than you were looked at as better than or superior to those of weren’t and you received better treatment such as working in the house, whereas the darker-toned woman had to work outside and was usually beaten more. This created the stereotypes that you see today and that black women face every day and Today’s media doesn’t make it any better. When you turn on the TV Yes, you see successful black women but the numbers are few and to what extremes. Love and Hip Hop, Bad Girls Club, and Basketball Wives are all tv shows where African American women are portrayed to be ghetto, or weak by showing them being mistreated in relationships, fighting one another, etc. You see few women being portrayed as educated or well-mannered. I believe that in order to change the dynamics it starts within the African American community, we have to instead of feeding into these stereotypes uplift one another instead of belittling each other and appeal to how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us instead of how America paints us to be we have to paint our own picture.