- Three things I follow:
- The Portland Trailblazers
- Favorite basketball team. Great at updating information about the team, funny and generally enjoyable tweets.
- CJ Mccollum
- One of my favorite basketball players. One of the few players who's account isn't bogged down with ads and generally has normal and relatable tweets.
- The Daily Show
- Always gives a comedic take on the crazy politics of today.
- One of the best tweets I've seen lately was when The Daily Show tweeted: Встречайте 45-й президент, Donald J. Trump! #InaugurationDay
- I found the tweet pretty funny because it's written in Russian and translates to "Celebrate the 45th president, Donald J. Trump!" The speculation of Trump's ties to Russia, what he has said about NATO, and his comments supporting and defending Russia's leader Vladimir Putin is an odd red flag that his supporters like to completely ignore.
- I think social media absolutely could help enhance people's ability to participate in democracy. The world is more connected than it has ever been and websites like Facebook and Twitter give a voice and platform for people to discuss whatever is on their mind. It isn't really properly utilized though. It's not because of the websites themselves but I feel that people are too deeply divided on every issue the country faces that progress can never really be made without someone feeling cheated. There is always truth in different perspectives but people like to root for their political party like it's a sports team, they never think for themselves. Arguments become moot because they become hate fueled, close minded tirades, rather than just hearing out a difference in opinion to gain additional perspective on their view of the world and what's going on.
Topic 2
- The LA Times wrote a piece about the Japanese Trump Ad. It essentially gives a complete rundown of the video and translates some of the Japanese text that appears in the video as well.
- From a visual and audio standpoint the ad was a mixed bag. It was actually pretty appealing to look at aside from all the Trump heads. It was colorful, vibrant, and the song was very cheerful and pleasant as well. The Trump imagery was really unsettling though. The strange trump creature the girl rides in the middle of the ad looked like something out of a fever dream and the Nazi salute juxtaposed with the cheery music caught me completely off guard when I watched it the first time.
EC
- I have been a part of a fantasy football league for about 8 years now. I was introduced to it by one of my friends who explained the concept of fantasy sports to me and I was immediately hooked. During the football regular season fantasy football is like another responsibility for me. I study the players in the offseason and develop draft strategies for the upcoming season. I analyze pretty much every player's stats during the season to see if I should add/drop anyone. Fantasy football is always a big topic of conversation between my friends and I on sundays and will casually come up in our iPhone group chat from time to time. My friends and I love football and fantasy football is just another way to enjoy it. It's more than just some stupid league of fake football, it's a social network of good friends getting a chance to communicate with one another.
