Live Video Feed

            I could tell immediately that nineteen year old San Diego resident who goes by the name Justin Wizard is obviously comfortable on camera when we begin video chatting. With a few thousand followers on Twitch, a website that is primarily used to live stream video games, and a thousand subscribers on Youtube, he is familiar with the Internet video world. “It’s great to be able to share experiences with your friends and even make new friends with people around the world,” he says, mentioning the various destinations, like Australia, where his Internet friends reside. 

            “Going live” is becoming possible through more and more large media outlets every day. Now, anyone can record and watch live video from almost any social media outlet: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, even Tumblr. Live video already has appealed to the instant gratification in all of us and we can instantly see the benefits to using the technology. We can be a part of someone’s life at any given moment, allowing a greater connection with those around you. It has also, as blogger Darren Rowse explains, provided instant feedback and sales for small businesses and entrepreneurs. According to eMarketer, digital video advertising spending grew 46% within the last year and is projected to grow to $13.4 billion in 2018. Businesses are dedicating larger amounts of money and effort into video advertising, striving for a more personal and overt connection with consumers.

            But on these sites anyone, not just businesses, can have access to earning money also. Justin Wizard says that when he streams himself playing video games on Twitch, watchers can donate money to him and is encouraged to do so. “They can also pay for a subscription every month, like $5, to watch a person stream,” he elaborates. Twitch seems to have the ability for watchers to directly pay the person streaming. Users on other social media outlets, like Youtube and Facebook live, can also earn money but it a more indirect fashion through the site itself. Google Ad Sense pays the Youtuber an amount in relation to the number of views they get on a certain video. In other words, more views equal more money.

            However, the longer “going live” is popular, the more people are taking malicious advantage of it. A month ago, four Chicago teens were arrested for abducting and torturing a man. They filmed the whole affair through Facebook live. Three men in Uppsala, Sweden were arrested a week ago on suspicion of raping a woman. They too filmed the assault on Facebook Live. There are many institutions put in place already that help large social media platforms to censor and clean the information being put on the web. According to Adrian Chen from Wired.com, “a large amount of content moderation takes place overseas,” specifically in the Philippines. There, companies from Microsoft to Facebook, hire thousands of moderators to sift through the data online to delete “pornography, gore, minors, sexual solicitation, sexual body parts, and racism.” But live video has proven to be extremely difficult in censoring. “I’ve seen that it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to take down a live feed on Twitch,” says Justin Wizard, shaking his head. It seems to be an abhorrent length of video that is now released to the world. As we know, no matter how hard we try, once something is put on the Internet, it stays on the Internet. “There’s also a scarier privacy issue at hand,” Justin continues seriously, “It is very possibly to find the IP address or location of someone who is live streaming. Many times I have seen assholes send the police to their location as a ‘joke’ saying that the filmer was doing something terrible.” He says that it happens on Twitch, but it is a possibility on other sites as well. Although this may be a horrible “joke,” giving a stranger your location can lead to much more dangerous consequences.

            All in all, this new wave of connection through the Internet can bring many aspects of progression and positivity. But it also seems that we have to be careful what we show to the world and find better ways to recognize the crimes, take care of them accordingly, and delete the posts. Justin Wizard leaves with the last key point: “As with all things, the best thing to do is to educate yourself and know what you’re getting into.”

College Experience

We’ve all heard the phrase. Sometimes it’s to explain the difficulties of being away from home and taking responsibility for ourselves for the first time. Sometimes it’s an excuse when we party too hard. But it’s the backbone to spending thousands of dollars to go away to a school for education. We all want the “best college experience.”

Many people have the notion that college is going to the best years of our life. We’re young and wild! Taking in wisdom wherever and however we can. In some way it can be. During these first years on our own, we learn a lot about ourselves and about the world. But in my opinion, college isn’t everything and it definitely should not be the absolute best years of our life. Think about it. We graduate when we’re in our early twenties. The average lifespan of the American is 79 years old! Are we really supposed to have the best years in the first third of our lives?

Rather, I’d keep trying to make the next year better than the last. We can get a job or volunteer to change the world. We can get married and have kids. We can tour the world exploring new cultures and meeting new people. Endless possibilities! College is a time when we often have no money, little self-respect, and emotional torment.

My decision about moving off campus instead of staying at the dorms was in heavy tension with the duty to my “college experience.” Needless drama with roommates? Insufficient sleep because of noisy neighbors? Having to share nasty bathrooms and have little space for anything? Why would I want any of these things?

I might bow to the idea that freshmen should go through this pain to gain an understanding about “the real world” and it does give you a better chance to meet friends. But after Freshman year, everyone’s already settled into their own cliques. Finding new friends is much more difficult and is definitely not dependent on where you live. If anything, the only new way to make friends is through work and extracurriculars.

As an outsider, I can tell that Greek life isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Why is this such a pressure for everyone to join a group when in reality only 25% of students are involved? I mean alright. I may be a little cynical and people do find some lifelong friends in their organizations. But can we agree that it’s another terrible role we have to fill?

I’ve watched a wonderful human being’s self-confidence crushed over the fact that he wasn’t accepted into a fraternity. Chase, a sophomore at Loyola Marymount University, kept asking me, “Am I weird? What’s wrong with me?” A few days later he explained what he believed about college experience. He said, “It is anything that you want it to be. However, there is pressure from everyone around you to be cool, to join a frat, to party. From my experience, college is almost a continuation of high school.”

We all remember how awful high school can be. But we always had hope that our future would be filled with happier days surrounded by better people. That is what we need to continue to hope for instead of dwelling in the glory days of college. 

Love

It is 11:23 AM, and I am currently sitting at work, listening to the phone ring as I stare at the computer. I work in the Financial Aid Office here at LMU, where I feel the most studious. I know everything about federal student loans, institutional loans, interest rates, scholarships, grants… you can name it. I’m listening to the ladies in the office gossip about what they did yesterday for their significant other. It’s February 15th, the day after Valentine’s Day and I’m thinking back to everything that I have been through in my life. This is where the feelings start.

I have been with a guy I thought I was in love with for four years. Four years of growing up together; sharing memories, families, laughter, and love. I never thought I would be “in love,” especially since I’m only 20-years-old. I have been with this guy since my junior year of high school and we did everything together. As of now, I don’t know anything else but my life with him. I feel like we became one person since he’s my best friend.

But in life, you hit speed bumps where change happens. It’s so shocking how things can change instantly, and you have to live with a certain type of pain. There’s no other pain compared to a breakup with someone you love. My boyfriend of four years cheated on me and risked everything just for one night. After reading his laptop with the messages between him and another girl, I shattered into a million pieces. I felt no pain at the moment, but the feeling of disgust and hate. Everything shut down inside of me and all I could feel was my heart racing for answers. I felt regret, hurt, and blame. I blamed myself and asked myself, “What did I do that made him do this to me?”

Now that the holiday has passed, I think about what it even means to be in love. Is love even real, when I loved someone for that long that did something so horrible to me? Millennials in our generation don’t really care about being in love or bother to be in a relationship, well a majority of them don’t. This generation likes sex, and doesn’t necessarily stick to one person. According to Rolling Stones, “Straight Millennials may not be having more sex, but they are certainly having it differently. A study found that today’s college students are significantly less likely to report having a regular sexual partner (77.1 percent versus 84.5 percent), while they’re more likely to report having sex casually with a friend or random partner.”

This may not be a bad thing, but being in “love” is so different for millennials. In an article written by Bolde, this generation has redefined love and romance to the point that they actually might be unrecognizable to the other generations. We recognize love as something that should be public. Millennials post on social media because that is how a relationship becomes official. It’s not official until you post about it. We turn to technology to feel love. In Bolde, they mentioned that, “There’s nothing like falling asleep over Skype of Facetime together… This makes long distance more fun.”

I’ve been doing long distance and trust me, it sucked, but I never really had a problem with it. I was always a firm believer in long distance, and if you loved someone then it will work itself out. One of my roommates, Helena, has been dating a guy for several months, but she’s nervous that he may be asking her to be his girlfriend soon. She came home from lunch with him one day and said, “Guys… I think he’s is going to pop the question. I don’t want a boyfriend. I like where I am in my life and how my life is. I don’t think I have time for anything more than just dating.”

In the generation we live in, we have grown up to be so independent and so “free,” that sometimes being in a relationship can stop you from doing the things you want, but sometimes it doesn’t. In my situation… this is something that I need to work on, and I’m still trying to find myself.

Valentine's Day

“I love you. I don’t just say that to say it. I mean it every single time” My heart began to beat fast and blood rushed to my cheeks as I read the first words on the page long hand-written letter. The whole day had already been perfect; my favorite cupcakes and chocolate, flowers, and a romantic dinner. But this hand-written letter was the icing on the cake. I felt exactly what I was intended to feel on Valentine’s Day, love.

 I love Valentine’s Day and I always have. Growing up, I looked forward to picking out valentine’s cards for all of my classmates. I recall setting aside a special valentine’s card or candy for whoever my crush may have been at the time. My parents have also always made a point to make Valentine’s Day a special day by gifting me with flowers, candy, or other similar gifts. “Any guy that you date in the future needs to know that you already have a man in your life who loves you dearly, so he has to meet that standard” my dad would tell me as he handed me my Valentine’s Day gift.  My fond memories of the special holiday growing up definitely contribute to my current love and appreciation of the day.

Today, I enjoy the idea of celebrating love. Although I try to make it a point to express my love for others on a regular basis, I appreciate taking a day to focus on recognizing the love in your life and expressing it. This definitely includes romantic love, but it is not limited to it. I also use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to shower my friends and family in love, and when I have kids of my own I will make the day special for them just as my parents did for me.

Although I feel this way about Valentine’s Day, I am very aware that there are many people who do not. Critics of the holiday may claim that it is too commercialized, or not an actual holiday. According to an article in Forbes, there are various reasons why people dislike Valentine’s Day which include being reminded that you are not in a relationship, being reminded of past relationships, pressure to meet expectations, forcing roles, and being reminded that you have no money.

I understand why people may feel these ways, but I think that people who dislike Valentine’s Day often misunderstand the purpose of the day. Yes, the holiday has become commercialized, but what American holiday hasn’t? Despite its commercialization, Valentine’s Day is about love. That does not necessarily mean romantic love either. It is more than just the gifts or the cute decorations that take over during the month of February. “Thank you for being you, Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you” was the last line of the hand-written letter I received. This expression of love meant more to me than any other material thing could have.  Love, any type of love, is a beautiful thing and I enjoy having a day dedicated to it. 

Being a Target

In America, it is one thing to be black and another thing to be a woman, but it definitely a very unique experience being a black woman. In an article in the Chicago Tribune, Janice Neumann describes the way in which African American women in the medical profession have succeeded despite adversity. Neumann interviewed multiple African American women as part of a Yale School of Medicine project. In her interviews, she discovered that the women not only had to overcome racism in order to become successful physicians, but sexism as well. Reading this article, I immediately empathized with the women who struggled to obtain success, because I have had personal experiences which have made it clear to me that the combination of my race and gender make it more difficult for me to achieve certain goals than some of my counterparts. One of those experiences in particular occurred while I was studying abroad in Madrid, Spain.

“Why can’t men take no for an answer?” Taylor asked me as we were running out of a club into the foggy air in the middle of the night. This experience that made me very aware of my race and gender actually involved an American man although it was in Madrid.  It was one night of many in one of Madrid’s many vibrant night clubs. I went to the night club with three of my friends. Two were male and one was female but they were all African-American. We were all dancing and having a great time when a tall white man bumped into me a spilled some of his drink onto my shoes. “I am so sorry!” He exclaimed, apologizing immediately after, and I told him that it was fine. For some reason the man took my forgiveness as an opportunity to hit on me. When I informed the man that I was not interested, he walked away and yelled, “You stupid black bitch!” as he stormed off.  I did not even have time to react before my two male friends asked me what he said. I informed him what the man had just said to me and before I could object, my two friends followed him into the bathroom. My other female friend and I ran after them but of course could not enter the men’s restroom. From outside of the door we could hear loud banging and grunting. I screamed from outside for my friends to get out of the bathroom. The next thing I knew, the man who had just verbally harassed me walked out of the bathroom with blood leaking from his nose. Shortly after, my male friends walked out of the bathroom unharmed. Security began to gather so we all ran out of the club. I was in complete shock. I had never experienced anything like that in my life. 

            The next day, I began to reflect on what had occurred the night before. I questioned why I was verbally attacked. I went from blaming myself, to ultimately realizing that it was much bigger than me. American society and media hypersexualizes women, and especially black women. The man felt comfortable making advances at me even though they were not invited, for a reason. The more I began to reflect on the incident, the more I realized that my race and gender played a key role in provoking the attack. It was not my reaction and it was out of my control. “You stupid black bitch!” I replayed the words in my head over and over again. He made it a point to degrade me not only for my race, but my gender as well. As angry as I was, I could understand that it was not completely his fault. It all boils down to the way that as Americans, we are socialized. It is our responsibility as a society to call out misrepresentations of people of color and women, especially in the media. 

A Woman's Right

“Donald Trump elected the 45th President of the United States.” I stood staring at the words displayed in bold white letters across my television screen in shock. My body felt numb, but my mind was racing with too many thoughts to single any one out. Once the numbness subsided, I began to feel a wide range of emotions; sad, angry, frustrated, afraid, but ultimately confused. I began to consider the implications of a Donald Trump administration. Well that was nearly three months ago, fast forward to today and now the implications of a Donald Trump administration are my reality.

“I feel like all of my options are being taken away from me and my rights are being compromised.” I could see the panic in my friend’s eyes and hear the pain in her voice and she described her concerns as a young woman in the face of the new Trump administration. My friend and I talked for nearly two hours about all of the swift changes that are being made and how our lives, and the lives of millions of women across the country, will be directly impacted.

One of the main topics we discussed was women’s health and reproductive rights. It has been made clear to the nation that the new administration is taking steps to both make abortion illegal and take away funding for Planned Parenthood. In fact, on January 24^th, the president signed an executive order which prevents international non-governmental organizations that perform or promote abortions from receiving U.S government funding (Koran, 2017). He was photographed signing the order surrounded by six other men.  “Why do men get to make decisions about what women do with their bodies?” my friend asked with confusion in her tone. This is a question that crosses my mind every single day, but unfortunately, there is no answer.

Bearing a child is an ability unique to women, so I believe that women should be able to control when, how, and if they want to have a child. It makes absolutely no sense for the government to be able to force a woman to have a child, and by retracting women’s abortion rights, women will essentially be forced against their will to produce children.

Further than aiming to make abortion illegal, taking away Planned Parenthood funding as a means to try to ban abortions is a violation of women’s rights. Shutting down Planned Parenthood would not only infringe on the abortion rights of women, but it would leave millions of women without basic general healthcare, especially in low-income communities. Planned Parenthood provides general healthcare services such as anemia testing, cholesterol screening, diabetes screening, physical exams, flu vaccines, help with quitting smoking, high blood pressure screening and tetanus vaccines at little to no cost. (Planned Parenthood, 2017). The organization also performs screenings for various cancers specific to women.

After a long discussion about all of this with my friend, I was left considering many questions. Why do they care? Is it about money? About the rich receiving lower tax cuts? Well if that is the case, what about human lives? Apparently the value of the dollar is more than the value of a life. 

Fragile

Fragile

We usually communicate every time I go back home. The day before, a friend posted on her Facebook timeline a cautious post regarding a checkpoint near home, about six or seven minutes away from my house. In the meantime, I’m here in school wondering if this was actually real and if perhaps people I knew such as family members, old high school friends, or old coworkers had been affected.

Once again, I felt like I was in seventh grade when media outlets circulated news about the expansion of employment eligibility verification better known as e-verify—when Immigration and Customs Enforcement would go into companies to exercise massive raids where several people were detained and ultimately deported.

This time however, everything seemed more real considering the current administration and almost felt like a slap on the face, after my attendance at the Migrants day international protest in DTLA. I had the honor to hear and attend my first ever protest. California Senate President pro tempore Kevin de Leon assured and reassured that Los Angeles would become a sanctuary city and I felt the most hopeful, especially when he said:

We are confronting a dichotomy, a democracy where it appears that the most abate head of state, and more than ever it’s important that California continues to be America's exceptional example, a beacon of hope and opportunity for all individuals irrespective of who you are, where you come from, the color of your skin, the language that you speak or who you love. California will protect its people.

I think a tear or two traveled down my face when I heard his words of Lucha, struggle and earnest efforts to combat threatening attacks towards our communities and families in the city of Los Angeles.

My anxiety heightened, however. I mean, not only was it the post that had me worried but there were rumors of Trump wanting to defund California for declaring itself a sanctuary state. Trump declared in a news interview with Fox “I don’t want to defund the state or city, I don’t want to defund anybody, I want to give them the money they need to properly operate a city or a state. That said if they’re going to have sanctuary cities we may have to do that-certainly that would be a weapon.” The next day after scrolling down on my news feed and finding out about the immigration checkpoint it felt worse, if anything I thought we’d be safer in the walls of my intimate, small inner city, after all I'd say jokingly among friends, “honestly who wants to come near, outsiders usually assume the city is infested with low lives, individuals who have no interest in progress.” That same afternoon I couldn’t think of anything besides getting home as fast as possible but this work meeting was holding me behind. At 6:59 pm the meeting was finally over, I quickly unlocked my bike and jumped on it, then headed to my apartment to charge my phone and call dad.

This was the scary part, I dialed but no one picked up, dad rarely misses any of my calls since he abhors when I do it. I couldn’t avoid the thought but, I truly imagined the worst possible. I packed all my belongings and headed to the bus stop that takes me to the Green line station and from there I usually call dad to come pick me up. When finally, I arrived to the Green line station which seemed quite empty, I called dad for the third time and then began to think of my growing up in this very fragile community. From time to time fears roam around my head.

So I’m about ten minutes away, close to arriving at my stop when my phone starts vibrating. I looked at the screen and to my comfort it was dad I felt my heart content once again. This is not the first time communities are attacked. I’ve been in the fight somehow, someway and it hurts me at all levels when families are being separated after they’ve poured their hearts sustaining their families and hoping that one day they’ll live comfortably with more options and opportunities.