Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/why-social-media-ruining-political-discourse/589108/

Today social media is a source of most media that people intake. I know that I personally use hours of social media in a day. I use snapchat, youtube, twitter, etc. and while you can get tons of useful information on these apps, the potential for false information is still very high because no one controls what is put up on these sites. That is exactly what this article talks about. It takes a look into the effect that social media has on politics because of the misinformation. With the possibility of information people should be considering what they hear and trying to get accurate information more than ever but that is not what we tend to see in these situations. We tend to see rumors and false truths spread around like wild. This article makes some valid points about how it is possible to get rumors that are un true in a political climate but I would take the article with a grain of salt as well because it seems to have a bias and agenda about Trump which is not what you want in a reliable source. I would say that people in todays age should work harder on trying to identify real information from false information. If we try harder to distinguish between these lies and truths then we can’t be fooled because we aren’t just taking information at face value.

A school in Albany, Oregon will have an increase in police presence after school shooting threats. The Albany police department said that they had received multiple threats that a shooter would be entering the school tomorrow 5/6/2019. The Albany police department is still under investigation of these threats and are continuing to look into it. This threat is said to be low at this point as they think the threats are not substantial at this point. The Albany police that they plan on having an increased presence of police officers on campus in order to act as a deterrent towards any potential threats that could be made towards the school or the students. The police will be acting as a front line defense in order to keep the peace and safety of all. This article really struck me for 2 reasons, the first reason is because of how crazy it is that school shooting threats can be so casual and the second reason is because it reminded me of what we are talking about in class this week of police being the front line and the most visible link to the public. The police planning to up the presence at the school is a form of deterrence as well as a form of protection incase of real life threatening danger. Simply by having more police they are showing the police force will be there in order to tackle any problem. This works good in two ways, it keeps peace of mind for those that have to attend school as well as threatening harsh reaction if anyone does want to come to the school and harm others. This is a good way to deter people from causing any harm to the public.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/health/age-discrimination-ohio-state.html

Author: Logan Bronemann

            Age discrimination in the work place is a serious problem in the United States that is vastly overlooked. Many employers don’t understand or simply don’t even know that age discrimination in the work place is actually against the law. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 is a US labor law that forbids employment discrimination against anyone at least 40 years of age. As two woman working at Ohio State University found out this law is not always up held in the work place. Julianne Taaffe and Kathryn Moon were subject to subpar work conditions such as forcing them out of their offices and sharing laptops in an attempt to force them into an early retirement. Ohio State University was looking to give jobs occupied by older employees to a younger generation of workers. They came together to file a law suit against their employers which is a lengthy process but they were willing to go for it in order to make a change and let the University know that they would not stand by while discriminated against. Ultimately after years of fighting the court sided with them and Taaffe was granted &203,000 and Moon received $237,000 as well as $325,000 in lawyer fees paid off.

This article is interesting to me because when you think of diversity in the work place age is almost always left off of the list of what makes a company diverse. I have personally seen age discrimination in the work place, while not to this extent, it still does exist. Many times it is just people talking down to someone of older age because they are having a harder time understanding technology or because they forget something and that fits nicely into the stereotype of old people. This article shows a big win for age discrimination activist allowing employers the chance to realize that it is something to be taken seriously and will not be tolerated in the work place. I also think that companies underestimate the power and diversity that people of older generations bring to the table. As the population of the United States is getting older they can provide valuable information, marketing strategies and important social skills for what could be the biggest demographic in the United States. These woman have shown that not only is the law going to remain to be upheld but also that people of older age have just as much if not more drive to work for things they believe in as a younger generation of people.

The income gap in the United States has been increasing says cnbc. “The top 1 percent of families took home an average of 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent in 2015”. This is a large increase from 2013. Income inequality is on the rise and the top 1% of people make on average 441,000 dollars where as the average for the other 99% is 50,00 dollars. Income inequality affects all areas of the country and not just the urban and city areas. This article describes how even though the minimum wage has been steadily increasing continuously the wage gap continues to increase. in 1965 the CEO average wage was 20 times more than the average income in the US while now the average CEO makes more than 271 times more than the average US income. “For some reason, the economy just doesn’t have the generation of wage growth we’d like to see,” Price said. “We like to focus a light on the way that income is distributed to share that the people who make decisions are benefiting from the economy in a way we might not all be.”. I think this quote is the real Embodiment of what this article is about, even though the minimum wage continues to grow we are not seeing the wage growth we would like to see. The wage increase is not enough to keep up with the current price increase and the current economy in general. The wage increase is enough to keep up with the increase of price of goods and inflation but not enough for anyone to get out of a poverty situation or become one of the wealthy ones in the top 1%. This is a major problem because not allowing people to get out of this cycle of increasing wages and inflation can really limit a persons way of life and their ability to get out of the low income situation they are in. CEO’s and other high level executives make far more money then most and in a lot of cases do less work than those who make far less money but because they are in a position of power they can continue to grow their wealth while others that make the company successful get paid a fraction of that wage. This connects to the sociology reading because it goes back to chapter 2 part 2 of class inequality. Poverty continues to increase, social and economic classes continue to become more separate and most importantly as people wages continue to cover less and less of the cost of living it creates many problems such as not being able to afford health care, difficulty find housing, and lack of education which isn’t good for anyone in a productive society.

Written by: Logan Bronemann

source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/income-inequality-continues-to-grow-in-the-united-states.html

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