Humanities 1
Technolgy Op-ED
My Political Cartoon
Op-ED
It Could Be Your Fault Someone Is Watching Your Child Unknowingly
A stranger spying on your child because of a parental control app, it isn’t that difficult. Anyone can see your child without your knowledge, but it’s your fault. At first, having surveillance on your child seems like a great idea, you can make sure that they’re where they’re supposed to be and check that the stuff they send is appropriate. Then you start thinking about the hackers.
Before we get into the frightening things, I’d like to give you some rather harsh background. I'm sure all parents are afraid that their children are being spied on, judging by the over 10,000 reviews on a parental control app (Google Play Store), so what actions do parents take? Get an app to spy on them of course! Apps like Teensafe, MamaBear, and TheSpyBubble are everywhere and easily accessible. Teensafe's website has even stated that they prefer the parents to tell their children and form an agreement with the child, otherwise they can find out.
If the parent decides to download the app anyway, without the child's consent, it could backfire. Once a child discovers their parents don’t trust them, that same trust the child had for the adult would be gone. It’s effortless for the child to find out, I’ve experienced it myself. Just looking at the ‘all apps’ section on their phone, it will reveal the parental control app.
Following that, if the child is still unaware, let's say the parents saw something they didn't approve of. They confront the child and obviously, it's kind of suspicious that the parent knew. The child might have been hanging out in their room, who could've seen? The child will most likely be even more upset and once again BOOM! The trust is gone.
After hearing simple risks of parental apps without hackers, I want to mention worse things that should be put into consideration. Around 2014, the app StealthGenie was shut down, it was quite similar to the parenting apps we all know and love. The app was for others to see someone's messages, pictures and even intercept your calls. Terrifying I know. While looking at what the app is capable of, if you paid for a premium package you could record others calls, and track them with a GPS.(Best Phone Spy Reviews)
Imagine someone being able to hack into your phone with only an app. Capable of seeing all of your personal events, whether that just be you lying around in bed or going on a jog. It's a scary thought I know, now the government and strangers can look at you through a camera.
T-Mobile has said that around 350,000 customers pay extra so they can "control" the child's phone. This includes blocking numbers on their phone, shutting down their phones at specific times and some other inappropriate elements.
You might be thinking, “What does that have to do with hackers”? Let's say that the parent's phone has been stolen. The thief can now control the kid's phone, and if they have the update can even find the child by GPS... I just got chills.
Of course, it ’s understood where both sides are coming from whether to have the app or not, but it seems like the bad outweighs the good more often than not. With it becoming so simple to spy on others, including children, it shouldn’t be trusted. A lot of people who wrote articles about these apps stated that they've tried it and they felt guilty afterward, where others have said they felt like a God.
The worst part about these apps is how easy it is to spy. Anybody could do it and it's terrifying. Someone can watch you act in everyday activities through that tiny little camera on your phone with an app parental control or not. I hope that if you're a parent you can trust your child enough to go without a parental control app.
There are other options, such as getting their social media passwords, check it a couple times a week, but don't make it so easier for someone to hack into their phone.Would you rather have a stranger watching your child without your knowledge or simply putting trust into your child to not lie?
Alvarez, Edgar. “Seller of StealthGenie Spyware App Gets Fined $500,000.” Engadget, 1 Dec. 2014, www.engadget.com/2014/12/01/stealthgenie-spyware-app-seller-guilty/
Duffy, Conor, and Mendes, Jessicah. “Police Caution Parents against Using New Teensafe App to Spy on Children's Smartphone Activity.” Abc.news, 13 Apr. 2015, www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-13/police-caution-against-new-teensafe-spying-app-for-parents/6389660.
Gillman, Jack. “StealthGenie Review.” Best Phone Spy Reviews, 6 July 2017, www.bestphonespy.com/stealthgenie-review/
Grisham, Lori. “Teen Tracking Apps: Good Parenting or Risky?” USA Today, 17 Sept. 2014, www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2014/09/17/teens-parents-tracking-apps-security-mamabear-teensafe/15716335/
“About.” Grom Social, https://gromsocial.com/grom/en/about.html
Morris, Regan. “Child Watch: The Apps That Let Parents 'Spy' on Their Kids.” BBC News, BBC, 29 Jan. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/technology-30930512.
Keilman, John. “Spy-Master Parents Might Uncover Trust Problems.” Chicagotribune.com, 19 Aug. 2014, www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-keilman-column-surveillance-20140819-story.html.
Wingfield, Nick. “Should You Spy on Your Kids?” New York Times, 9 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/style/family-digital-surveillance-tracking-smartphones.html
Word Count: 891 With Sources 719 Without Sources
The Mask Project
My Mask Essay
Beauty Standards Are Destroying Our Society
Beauty is a distorted vision that is forever changing. You can never truly see beauty, just your interpretation. As a young woman, I have been socialized to ‘look’ like a certain person’s perspective of beauty. There is no specific source of this problem but more so how I view myself.
When I see myself in a mirror I automatically check out how I look. Is my makeup ok? Do my clothes look nice together? Is my hair the center of attention? And so forth. No one told me to do this it just shows how my interpretation is different. Everyone is obsessed with getting to the point of their life where they finally accept themselves but does anyone truly get there?
The second I get my phone I go and check social media, I look onto my Instagram and see how every other post is this completely beautiful and flawless person staring back at me. Their skin is smooth, eyebrows are sharp, and their lips are plump. This is the main reason for self-hate. Any random person sees this picture and suddenly they aspire to be them. Plastic surgery, anorexia, hair change. All to appear ‘beautiful.’
Five out of the seven day week I go to school, where I am pressured most. I am self-conscious about my clothes and my hair the second I walk outside my house. Sometimes I ditch a jacket because it doesn’t ‘work’ with everything else. I spend 30 minutes every morning just looking at myself while I apply these products to make me look better, but I’m not the only one. Around Durango, there are people who spend sometimes hours to appear perfect, but the truth is that no one can achieve perfection.
I want young girls to understand their beauty and that they do not need to change themselves to follow the standards. It worries me watching girls who didn’t realize in time saying they hate themselves because they aren’t perfect, who cry themselves to sleep or post pictures of the scars running down their arm. They are missing that thigh gap they “need” or the flat stomach in time for summer. If we take to long to spread the message this is going to continue.
Sadly, this can never be fixed. It is irreversible now. The perfect person will never exist no matter how hard we try. Every “beautiful” person can impact how one person feels about themselves which is slowly corrupting our society.
Mask Reflection
To begin our mask project we started watching videos about how socialization affects people around the world. We watched videos of feral children, how young boys put on masks, “Fotoshop” and many more. When Stephen was gone we worked on a socialization packet which was one of the worst packets I’ve ever done. It was boring, there was little to no instructions to help us move along, and overall, it didn’t seem very “Animas” culture like.
I tried my best to be responsible with my mask but during the “Jared Era,” we never got any free time to work on it. However, when an idea struck I wrote it down, and sometimes drew it, so I could have a strong idea to work with. While we were painting it was really difficult because I could never find the perfect skin tone, eventually, I just picked one within the last week so I could begin on the other parts of my mask. I don’t advocate as much as I should, especially while we were working on the masks. If I need help with things, like learning how to apply the Plaster de Paris. I winged it and based it off of how other people were doing it, this resulted in my mask not being as soft as I would’ve liked it to be. I thought that this project was going to be easy, but boy was I wrong! It really started while my first mask was being made, I was incredibly dehydrated and scared of what was going to happen. I ended up having multiple breaks where my breathing was unsteady. The first mask turned out...okay. I thought that it was too long so I ripped most of the chin off. Then I made my newest mask which turned out a lot better. This project was really difficult to work with because of how many mistakes I made. The mask I ended with is not my most beautiful piece of work that I’ve created, (That would be my mask essay,) but it is the first time I’ve ever made something like that.
This project really changed me, it opened up a door that I was too afraid to go into myself. It wasn’t necessarily the mask, but some of the assignments leading up to it. I have much more respect for people’s opinions and actions because of the videos we watched. I always knew most men had a tough exterior and very soft inside, but I didn’t understand how difficult it was until I heard of the man-box. It gave me a whole new perspective on some of the boys I go to school with everyday.
Tkam/MWB Seminar
The main focus of the Socratic seminar we had yesterday was mostly racism. It was a recurring topic no matter how hard we tried to avoid it. We talked mostly about the racial slur and the meaning behind it. We also touched on how there was so much -ism included in this book, (racism, sexism, classism, etc,) all of which connect with the socialization unit. I feel like we wouldn’t have said some of the things we said if we hadn’t studied things like the ‘man-box’ and how people hide behind masks.
I really liked the question, “Why should or shouldn’t this book be banned from certain schools?” Most of the people involved said it shouldn’t be banned because it is one of the biggest insights of American history and students should be allowed to explore it without restrictions. To Kill A Mockingbird is mostly banned in the south of the United States because the setting is placed in Maycomb, Alabama. It shows how badly they wanted slavery and it is most likely banned for the fact that it isn’t a ‘good’ part of the south’s history. An example of this is how many times the N word is said. Here are a few examples, “Your father is no better than the n****** and the trash he works for!” “I seen that black n***** yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!”
And even more.
I had everything I needed for yesterday’s seminar, my annotations, the book, and my timed essay with my self-evaluative rubric. I have not finished the book but I did research key points that I should read before the Socratic seminar. Even though I didn’t read the whole book I followed the conversation quite seamlessly. The most difficult part for me was the fact that I wanted to include people who weren’t talking but either never had the right time or I couldn’t phrase a question to interest them. My favorite part was the whole seminar in general, I love being able to share my opinions about our reading yet still hear everyone else’s. It was also pretty cool seeing people who are normally quiet during group discussions show their passions. Something I hope to see next time is us diving deeper and further into the next book. I remember our practice seminar and how we ended about wolves raising a baby, that’s the kind of thing I would want to experience again.
I’m on the fence if this book matters or not. Yes, I understand it is important but it is quite boring at times. I enjoyed seeing how similar the past and present are, but would other people show that same interest? Overall, the book itself was kind of repetitive but did have a deep message hiding throughout the whole book.