The Rise of Amazon (Blog #5)

 We live in a world that feels completely controlled by electronics and each day technology advances tremendously. Back then no one would have ever imagined a world where you could order anything you wanted to your doorstep, let alone even order something online. Still, people's lives worldwide changed forever when Jeff Bezos released his internet invention "Amazon.com" in 1995 and fun fact, Amazon was actually close to being named "Cadabra" as in an acronym for "Abracadabra," yet Bezos's lawyer misheard him for the word "Cadaver," which means corpse, so he decided to come up with more names. 

Bezos began his career working at a management investment company called D.E. Shaw, and quit in 1994 to pursue the development of his ideology on the internet. When working at the company he had access to a computer system, and when playing around with these computers he learned that the internet was predicted to grow at a rate of over 2,000% in just one year. With this in mind, Bezos began to think about how inconvenient mail-order catalogs could be; since the postal time to receive and ship new mail could take at least two weeks for the customer to receive their product. This sparked a motivation in him to create something on the internet that people would find useful and just like that Amazon was invented on July 5th, 1994, although he did not release it to the public until 1995.

When coming up with a list of potential products to sell, he wanted to find something that many people enjoyed along with something that sold easily, while also selling a product that he would not have to write page-long biographies about for the website's description. He then decided that selling books would be the best thing since books were extremely popular and you do not have to have a huge description on a book other than the "book blurb" on the back. He learned all of his professional book-selling skills from a class he took from the American Sellers Association, and just after two months of selling books on his website Bezos was making at least $20,000 per week. At this rate, Amazon was now a huge competitor to Barnes and Noble.

All was going steady for Bezos until he thought it was time for a change in 1998. Since his website was doing so well, and technology continued to spread worldwide he wanted to change his horizon of product selections. He decided he wanted to try and sell CDs and DVDs since they had become significantly popular since the release of DVD players in 1998.  This was a great professional and business-owning call on his part, as revenue for the company increased 300% in a year after this change. Another change that Bezos profited significantly was creating the "Amazon Prime" program for his shoppers. Although Amazon had always had free shipping over $99 orders, he decided to create free two-day shipping for customers who would like to pay a fee of $75 a year, and many people decided it was worth it.

Amazon is now known as the number one online shopping website, due to its high selection of products, fast and free shipping, and occasional deals on higher-priced items. Amazon has peaked throughout the years since it was invented, and one main peak it received was the Covid-19 pandemic. Since everyone was told to stay put in their homes unless necessary, people began to take advantage of online shopping. Since Amazon had this two-day free shipping, many people began to order groceries, necessities, and things to keep them entertained. Since the pandemic went on for nearly two whole years, it became a norm for people to shop on Amazon weekly.

Although Amazon had its peak and huge impact on our society, it has also caused negative effects. Many well-known companies like Pary City, K-Mart, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond either permanently closed or filed for bankruptcy. Since it had been so easy for people to order things online with a bigger selection, these companies had no choice but to shut down since they could not afford to stay open. Many people felt that online shopping was so much easier than going to a store ten minutes away, and since Amazon had become so popular so quickly, people did not think to even look up these store's websites to order online.

Another major impact Amazon has made within the past few years would have to be its employment cuts. After the peak for Amazon ended in 2022, and the introduced its new CEO Andy Jassy, it began to have a decrease in its profit and decided to keep the company going to the best of its ability with inflation they needed to cut back on some pricing. This resulted in nearly 27,000 employees getting laid off or "pushed out" of the company. This left many people without a job within such a short period without notice to find a new one and the company began to suffer from the lack of help they had when trying to fulfill their mission statement of getting people their desired products within the two days. Personally, my dad just recently became unemployed with the company after his dedication for seven years all because of the changes that the company has been trying to change from these budget cut employees.

Overall, Amazon was an intelligent and unique invention that Bezos produced right from his garage, and his invention has forever changed the world especially when it comes to retail and technology. Although it has had its ups and downs as a company, Amazon will continue to dominate many other online shopping websites and will undoubtedly have more inventions to come.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/94240-amazon-turns-2-7-billion-loss-in-2022-to-a-profit-of-30-billion-in-2023.html

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EShp4X-WlmoC&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&dq=why+did+jeff+bezos+start+amazon&ots=5kUiqjsw0e&sig=1f0IAomG1xNzBGQQ86kl8Ui5fJA#v=onepage&q=why%20did%20jeff%20bezos%20start%20amazon&f=false

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StaMb1iwPNE

Blog Post #2(Supreme Court)

When going through the video about the Supreme Court, I learned much that I did not know before and learned more about what I previously had knowledge about as the video went into intricate detail. One thing that I learned that I did not know prior to watching this video was that each Justice who is part of the Supreme Court has secretaries and law clerks who are hired to assist them while looking into trials and making the decision on the outcome of each trial that gets put into their hands. Even though they have this small staff working alongside them, each Justice is responsible for their own work no matter what happens. I find this very interesting because if there was the tiniest mistake made on behalf of one of a Jsutice's helpers, everything would fall onto the Justice whose case it had been.

 A piece of information I found astonishing when observing the video was that the supreme court receives almost 100 cases each week, and ends the year off with receiving around 7,000 total cases. Out of all of these cases that get sent in to petition against a lower ruling or certiorari, only about a hundred of them actually get looked at and go further into a trial, and the rest of them get dismissed. Before viewing this video I would have assumed that the Supreme Court received way more cases and accepted way less of these cases out of the amount they receive throughout each year, but I was wrong. 

This video is filled with many different fragments that show how much the Supreme Court easily makes a difference in the society that we live in. A main takeaway I got from this video was seeing how much effort the Supreme Court really puts in when it comes down to making decisions on what cases to take. Each Justice sits down with each others once a week and takes that whole day discussing the cases that had been sent their way. Every person is allowed to voice their opinions on the case, and every Justice gets to say what they want with no interruptions or others belittling your thoughts. It really goes to show that these Justice's put in a tremendous amount of effort, and have an open mind when deeply diving into each case that is put onto their table. 

This brings me to my final view on what my thoughts are on The Supreme Court. This video changed the perspective that I have had on The Supreme Court through the last few years. I have always believed in The Supreme Court since I know they have to make a tremendous amount of difficult decisions each day when choosing what cases to continue on while also creating a solution for all those cases. Yet, I never realized how much effort and time goes into each and every case that gets brought to their attention. I really like the fact that everyone on the board takes the time to listen to everyone's opinions and they don't just allow each other's opinions to go in one ear and out the other if they do not agree whatsoever. They all get involved with everyone's opinions, which is something lots of people do not have the patience to do day after day. The Justice's have very excellent patience and stress on their shoulder in their position of work, and we should celebrate them and what they do for many people in our country each and every day.

Blog Post #3: 8 Values of Free Expression

     The eight values of free speech are fundamental in our everyday lives in our society, as they are the key component allowing us to speak freely. The values of free speech consist of the following: The Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on government power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. Although each value is important regarding free speech in the United States, some of these values seem more compelling when used in our everyday lives.

    Out of all these important key values of our free speech, the one that resonates with me the most is Protect Dissent (Protect Dissent — see Steve Shiffrin, Dissent, Injustice and the Meanings of America). Protect Dissent allows all United States citizens to freely speak about their opinions and views on our country's government no matter how unpopular your opinion is compared to one another. 

    When it comes to my own personal opinions I like to believe that I am allowed to speak freely about them, since I am not physically harming anyone. Although The First Amendment expresses in many different ways that you have the right to voice your opinions, many people try to take away these rights when they disagree with what someone has to say against them or even when people decide to protest against something going on in the world. 

 With elections being right around the corner, it is important for many people, including the government, to remember that this aspect of free speech does exist. People tend to forget that even though some words that come out of people's mouths can be harsh, as long as it is not promoting violence or causing any harm it is allowed to be said freely.

 A great example of when this value was not protecting someone's free speech within the past few years is when Donald Trump had his Twitter account deleted. Twitter came forward with a statement explaining why they took this action to ban Trump's Twitter that said, "In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very cause of hard." Although Twitter believes they were doing what was best for the country by banning Trump's account, it was completely a violation of his First Amendment rights as a citizen of the United States, especially the value of Protect Dissent.

The two specific Tweets that caused Twitter to take action are as follows: 

 "“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" 

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

    Although the timing of these posts followed the astonishing event in American history of the Capitol being stormed by protestors, these tweets made by Trump do not in any way, shape, or form say to go storm the Capitol. He is simply using his First Amendment right stating that he would be back before anyone knew it, and simply stating he would not be attending an event. Therefore, his value of Protect Dissent was taken away from him just because he had a voice that was heard by more people than others.

   

    When Elon Musk bought Twitter out and became the new owner, he granted access back to Trump as Twitter as many people in America began to bring up the fact that what the previous had done with Trump's account was unconstitutional. Musk's goal in investing in Twitter was to restore the factor of "free speech" that had been taken away by millions but especially taken from Trump in front of the public eye.

  All of this shows how important the First Amendment is to our people and society, and it shows how strong the value of protecting dissent can be, and how it is taken very seriously in America. I am a firm believer in the First Amendment and all the values that come along with it, and clearly, many other people feel the same way as Americans voiced how they felt about the whole situation of Trump getting banned. I feel it is important for everyone to freely voice their opinions when it comes to pure and hate speech because it is how we continue to evolve as a country and as citizens. 

    With the elections being months away from now, many people are going to take advantage of Twitter allowing free speech, and it is important to remember that everyone is allowed to voice their opinions as long as it does not enforce violence, even if you completely disagree with what they are saying.

    Every American citizen is protected to have their own opinions, so let us let Protect Dissent take its course and not be taken advantage of again in the future.

     

My Top 5 New Sources (blog post #1)

    When it comes to the news and information, I tend to find out about news and information in many different ways. I don't tend to go digging around for news unless I am not receiving enough information when finding out about it, but when I do need to do some digging there are many different ways that I find out about what is going on in the world.

Since sorting through many different platforms can be stressful and a nightmare at times, I am going to share with you the top 5 ways I receive trending information and the platforms I use to research more on this information.

Other People:

Although hearing information and trending news is not considered a "credible source," it is a great way to find out what has been going on in the world if you haven't been kept up to date in other ways. Communicating what you know about specific topics to someone else can help them gain more knowledge on things they might not have been aware of and vice versa. So at the end of the day, you are helping out one another when you exchange your knowledge on different events. When someone informs you about a piece of news they heard about and you want to know more if there was not a lot of information given, it gives you the opportunity to do more research on what you have been told if you please. 

Google:

This may seem like a very simple way to find out information, but Google is such an easy way I find out what I need. On Google, I can search for any topic of interest I have and a massive list of articles pop up on my screen that I can choose from to read. When looking up a question, the articles that other people have found the most helpful and what people seem to find the most credible pop up first for you. Sometimes you even get lucky and you get the answer to your question highlighted in a sentence that Google has found in an article, then they even link the article underneath the answer if you want to know more. Google also has a "news" tab when you look up a recent event, and credible news sources pop up with articles for you to look through. Google gives you an endless amount of answers and that's what is so great about it. 

TikTok:

As much as I do not like to admit it, I spend an average of 20 hours a week using TikTok alone. Although this app is a place where people post videos mainly about their lives, many people run accounts where they post about breaking news or presidential campaigns.  I enjoy using TikTok for all the funny videos and the relatable content but I also really like that it knows me well enough to spread information that interests me and that I should be paying attention to. 

TikTok has this feature called the "For You Page," where they suggest videos that would interest you based off of the videos you have watched and searched for throughout your time on the app. This allows us as viewers to not have to go searching for the information we are looking for all the time, since it pops up right in your feed for you. This is a way for everyone to find out news and information in a more entertaining setting that TikTok provides for us. 

X(Aka the new name for Twitter):

X is another way I find easy and accessible when discovering breaking news and information. Once you have an active account on X you are allowed to follow different accounts, and along with following them, you can also control notifications for them. I follow accounts that I see as trustworthy and turn the notifications on for their new posts. This allows me to see these posts pop up and I can easily delete the notifications if I don't find them interesting or relevant to my daily life. 

On top of that X allows you to search anything in the search bar, and you can click the "most popular" or "most recent" feature when searching, which allows you to see what people have posted about each event of news. This helps you find information according to your preference of either credible sources, which tend to be verified, or from second-hand sources. 

Apple News:

Coming from an iPhone user, Apple News was one of the best apps they introduced to Apple products. Apple News allows me to get notifications on of breaking news or articles that have a title that draws you in so you feel the need to click and read. I love that when you go into the app it shows you the "Top Stories" as soon as you open the app, this allows you to reconnect with what has been going on in the world if you haven't been caught up recently. 

Another feature that is great is that if you go to the "following" feature on the app there is a section called "Suggested by Siri" that shows different genres of stories that fit your interests based off of your other apps. When something is more personable people tend to use it over and over, so Apple adding this feature is great for many people who like having their news be recommended by their interests.