Blog Post #3: The Most IMPORTANT Value of Free Expression

What Value of Free Expression Resonated With Me the Most?

As a college student with aspirations to enter and succeed in the very competitive sports media industry, the one word that is always running through my mind in how I want to proceed my class assignments, field assignments, and other forms of work is "unique". I strive to not be like everyone else and instead am in favor of thinking outside the box and bringing something innovative that no one else has ever seen before. Out of the eight values of free expression that I read through, number 7: "Promote Innovation" was the one that resonated with me the most. Promoting innovation allows for citizens in our society to spark more immense amounts of creativity and to bring in their own ideas which is what helps our society to continuously expand and never get dull. 

Pros of Promoting Innovation

Now, are there many norms that have existed for decades and decades in the U.S. that are followed by almost everyone? Yes, of course. A lot of individuals in America know not to just walk into a movie theater shouting vulgar langue or not to walk into a court room and start blasting rock music. However, that is not what this value of free expression is entailing. Promoting innovation is meant to help increase the value of an individual human being as well as the value of something massive like a multi-billion dollar company. The idea of promoting innovation can be witnessed and interpreted in various forms, but ultimately it can be best viewed as the "secret sauce" of business success, that drives the growth of individual companies and entire economies. Having innovation promoted is going to provide that much needed boost to continue to bring more uniqueness into society which will allow for more ideas to be expressed which can lead to newer inventions and beneficial norms brought into our nation. If everyone were to back away from coming up with new ideas, then this country would be a whole lot more bland and this would result in there being less milestones being achieved since there would be no first of something being innovated any more.

Today's society relies so heavily on innovation with social media 

playing such a critical role in our everyday lives and all these social media

platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and more are constantly trying to find more ways to ramp up their platforms and make them more appealing to their users. All these social media apps have a major thing in common: They all were invented. The innovations of these platforms ended up having a significant impact on our society, a greater impact than any of the founders of these companies could have ever imagined. Without any promotion of individuals to be innovative and create new ideas, none of these platforms would be existent and prevalent in our society today, and it is safe to say that our world would look VERY different without social media platforms. Social media can almost be seen as the driver of innovation. Think about how many times you have seen a trend/challenge be created on TikTok or Instagram or how many times you have seen YouTubers create some stellar content on their channel whether it's a giveaway or a video showcasing some sort of remarkable talent. Every single day, lots and lots of creativity and innovation is spread like wildfires across all of these platforms that allows for our entire world to be connected with one another. All of this ties in with what promoting innovation is all about which is the idea of free speech being valued and protected in a community in order to be "a more "energized, creative, and interesting society as it citizens actively fulfill themselves in many diverse in interesting ways."

The fascinating thing about this is that the ultimate test of just how worthy innovation is to our society started last year in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic rolled around in March. When everyone was forced to quarantine and socially distance from one another, it meant large social gatherings and events had to be postponed and the opportunities for influencers and YouTubers to continue releasing entertaining and fresh content were severely limited.

At the beginning stages of the pandemic, everyone could have easily decided to just sit home and not do anything productive or unique and use the pandemic as an excuse, however our entire world elected to do the opposite. TikTok blasted off into becoming one of the most popular social media platforms as many individuals decided to start fun little dances and trends that were then recreated by millions of other people across the world. The app where 60 percent of its users are under the age of 30, has been able to heavily appeal to the next generation and the biggest stars that have launched from the app because of innovations they made are only in their late teens or early 20s. Many educational institutions like universities from across the world decided to create a TikTok account for their institution to showcase remarkable spots on their campus as well as day-in-the-life of some of their students. The app now has over 1.1 billion users today, compared back to November of 2018 where it was at 680 million active users. In addition, TikTok generated a revenue of 34.3 billion in 2020 alone, which was more twice as much than the revenue they generated back in 2019. YouTubers ended up shifting some of their content over to TikTok and now even professional athletes and celebrities' have accounts on the app that they stay active on. Without a social media platform like this, and the idea of innovation being promoted on this app, a lot of these videos that now will live on forever would not have ever existed and would have certainly altered the way our world would have been connected during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Ultimately, the concept of innovation has taken off drastically in our society today, and it is only projected to keep rising for years to come. Some doubters out there may not like the idea of people being able to post anything new on their social media accounts, but there are times where we as individuals need to appreciate the good, but also embrace the mistakes and flaws that are made. Of course there will be times whether a post or trend is made on social media that has gone too far and is affecting one person or a large group of people, but the intention of social media is for positivity to be spread and to allow our society to be more well-connected. Platforms like TikTok and Twitter are well-known for creating some very infamous trends that actually end up bringing society together as a whole whether its a make a wish being granted on Twitter or a widespread issue like body shaming being expressed through various short videos on TikTok.

Lots of people today tend to focus more on the negative effects on social media rather than the positives which is devastating to hear. Does anyone think that Kevin Systrom, Biz Stone

or Steve Chen, some of the notable co-founders of all of these platforms intended for it to be a way for hate and negativity to be spread? Yes social media is used by billions of people across the world, but there is such thing as entering a circle with any social media accounts you may have that can make your experience a whole lot better. That is an approach that I take and I have found it to be extremely beneficial for myself. By having a circle, I mean having an account on private and only having people that are close to me follow that account. My Instagram account is private as is my Facebook and I will only be sure to add friends I know and have a personal relationship with on Snapchat. If I want to see some random person stupidly jumping into a lake of dirty water, I can search that up whenever instead of having to see it on a Instagram story or TikTok video. Doing little things like having that circle with your social media accounts or blocking people who's content or comments on your posts is putting you down will make your entire social media experience a WHOLE lot better. Most importantly though, solely sharing your content with people you admire will allow you to feel more comfortable to be yourself and not put out a fake image of yourself like so many people do today on social media. 

Conclusion

Showcasing the real you is the best innovation you could ever come up with. Everyone out there has a talent, it's just the matter of embracing those talents and stellar qualities and displaying a positive fun side of you to the world. Innovation has allowed for many amazing people to be discovered and recognized for a talent they have, an action they did, etc. We should never be telling others to not be free and creative in what they say or do. Our job as quality human beings is to lift up and persuade others to be the best version of themselves. Too often, our giant magnet in this world is not connected, but with the proper mindset and steady and intelligent usage of our social media accounts, the better we can get at accepting and embracing innovation more. Inventions will never stop, but how much we appreciate them can easily alter back and forth at a rapid pace and it's up to us human beings of today to keep promoting more innovation because it will ultimately make our society a more lively, energetic, and well-functioned place.