1.) Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, does not believe in your right to privacy.
Zuckerberg seeks an "open society", and he has publicly admitted to making statements in leaked IM's in which he referred to his users as "dumb fucks" for trusting him with information.
4.) Facebook can lead to, or exacerbate depression, especially in young people. A girl quoted in the linked article below said, "Its like a big popularity contest."
Your government spies on you. We all basically understand this.
"Republican" president George W. Bush supercharged domestic spying by slamming the Patriot Act through Congress in the wake of the "9/11," and a significant proportion of the American population nodded in approval with blank stares, glossy eyes, and no real information. Corporate mass media aided in facilitation.
Since then, Constitutional-civil rights outcry has risen to a crescendo in the free media, and "Liberal" president Barack H. Obama has extended the international worldwide war campaign and domestic police state accredited to the Bush regime.
When dark-skinned men, women, and children are killed in countries halfway around the world, most Americans aren't directly affected and frankly, don't care. They are largely content with their daily pursuits of work and play. But when Americans learn that their personal information is being recorded, categorically organized, stored, and used against them for profit or legal action, some do care!
As a history and social studies educator, I find it imperative to encourage my students to ask questions, think critically, and analyze primary sources when possible. I am most interested in recent history for its immediate relevance to the current status of our world, and the world of young students. By far, the most interesting, important, and controversial recent event was "9/11".
There are hundreds of primary source videos of the collapses of the iconic Twin Towers, and of the nearby 47 story WTC Building #7. Whatever your present belief about 9/11 may be, the magnitude of 9/11 and its repercussions cannot be denied. It deserves a real investigation, if not by Congress, why not by your American history class?
The world wide web offers the ability to reexamine this historic event by watching primary source videos shot by television stations, home video cameras, and cell phones. There are hundreds available on YouTube. The internet is also an excellent place to find a vast array of information and opinions about 9/11 and post-9/11 American domestic and foreign policy.
The diversity of free, web based multimedia about this critical event allows for open ended exploration, and it can support a deep, critical investigation and debate about the attacks of 9/11 and the ensuing actions of American government and media. Opening this debate sparks inquiry, critical thinking, and student engagement in the classroom, and encourages learners to apply critical evaluations of other historic and current events, as well.
Students could read and respond to YouTube video comments sections with research-backed information as part of a learning activity. A culminating project could be for students to engage in debate or dialectic and form self assigned groups in which they create their own video or podcast to post online, from their own perspectives, backed by sourced research.
Below are two videos that spark interest in further research.
1. This video shows primary footage of the WTC 7 collapse compared to primary footage of controlled demolitions.
2. This video is a recording of the BBC news broadcast in which reporter Jane Standley reported the collapse of WTC 7 before it occurred. The building is visible in her background.
