Minnesota Nice

BLOG THREE

I am not sure if I am naive, or if I try to stay ignorant, but I do not see a reason for people to lie. And if one must lie to cover something else then I feel obligated to thank them for not disturbing my inner piece. There is already so much going on and I don’t have nor want the time to argue or do research on dissecting a statement.

The first critical thinking class I took was my senior year of high school. While I did not fully understand this concept at the time, I have learned that college thrives off this way of thinking; college’s (especially English professors) onanism on people who don’t take something at face value.

Which is why is should come to no surprise that the state that refers to them as nice (“nice”) was once the smartest state in the United States. What we aren’t the smartest? Yeah, New Hampshire is beating us by 0.3 points, crazy I know.

I did look into a blog about the origins of our coined niceness. It mentioned that this idea resembles rule one in the Scandinavian Law of Jante stating:

“Don’t think that you are special“

It means that not one person is more important than another; it’s a Scandinavian social norm. Ironically, I looked into the 10 Law’s of Jante on the notoriously untrustworthy Wikipedia and the rest of the laws basically state that you are insignificant compared to us, in Jante’s terms “we.”

While I think this origin idea is cute (I suppose), I would argue that this term came to play after the 38 hanged Dakotan men concluding the U.S Dakota War, but I digress. Well, actually, I suppose this could be my critical argument. So basically, near the end of the war, a handful of Dakotan men were believed to do human injustices like r@p!ng white women and all that jazz. Many Minnesotan’s were furious to find this out, they caused such an uproar that the president (Abraham Lincoln) had to step in. To satisfy the majority of the state, Lincoln ordered to gather the men who committed these crimes and be hung. I believe there was 39 but one got a get out of jail free card as he was proven innocent. So 38 where hung in Mankato Square; it was quite the site from what I was told, people came far and wide to see this. Pictures where taken and many made it onto postcards.

This hanging was told all over the United States and caused a crash in the market. People where scared to visit Minnesota because they saw how much Minnesotans were please and proud by what they have done. So the sales decreases, and the Minnesotans needed a quick pitch to get tourist again. So they sweeped the war and hangings under the rug and told people things like how green our state is, it’s peaceful, there’s lakes everywhere, everyone is so hospitable, the nicest people you will ever meet.

And it worked, still does. And that is my Minnesota Nice origin story.

Ethics of Online Research Using Publicly Posted Opinions

Quinton Miller, Public Relations Major, MDST 485, January 29th, 2021

Ethics are the moral principles that dictate a persons possible courses of action in given situations. This academic journal goes into depth on the belief that social media is or isn’t effective for collecting health research data. Relevancy to us is is captured by the means to how that data is collected in relation to a change that has happened in technology since this was written. The article explains that some individuals wonder if the data collected affects the people who posted it. Paraphrasing peoples words instead of copying still provides the same amount of insight. Gonzalez-Hernandez argues that the anonymity of sites such as Reddit allows for full reproduction of statements even when the wording is not changed. This could pose as an alternative source to peoples social network postings like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as the identities are further concealed in anonymous posts. As an additional personal input, I would argue that publicly made posts are already made to be seen as well as share opinions that can be used as research information on the web. Therefore, finding a conglomerate of unnamed opinions for researching purposes isn’t a terrible idea. Especially when social media sites, companies and developers actively listen for key phrases as is.

What I had absorbed is that the way things are done determine their clearance. This could help marketers in the way they present the data collected for commercial and legal purposes. This passage suggests that asking for opinions via surveys makes the research more clinical which requires consent. If the information is expressed publicly it illuminates the issue of meeting a full review by the National Institute of Health. For example, this entity, The National Institute of Health, wouldn’t allow research information related to medical marijuana to surface for credibility if it goes through them because the study of the drug is illegal in designated states, thus negatively pressuring it’s expansion and help to the nation. If anonymous opinions are recorded this study would be allowed to be utilized.

This is only one way to gather information as technology is ever changing and evolving. Bio-technology is predicted to become a more widely used assessment of specific individuals health structure in the near future. Biotech has been used by ancestry.com, myheritage.com and others to determine the ethnic make up of its paying users. I, myself, am awaiting my assessment. This technology will now be used more widely as it becomes more affordable and accurate than doctor diagnosis. Physicians, as qualified as they may be, sometimes inaccurately diagnose patients. This leads to more cost and less effectiveness. This redundancy can be avoided by using a biotech analysis of inherited health concerns and personalize a template for all age ranges of users.

Overall, what’s expressed in the reading is that the way things are done, determines its clearance. This could help marketers in the way they present the data they’ve collected for promotional and legal purposes. An example being, the passage suggesting that asking for opinions via surveys makes the research more clinical which requires consent. If information is expressed publicly, it leads the issue of needing a full review by the NIH.

Gonzalez-Hernandez, G. (2019) On The Ethics of Using Social Media for Health Research https://nlmdirector-nlm-nih-gov.mtrproxy.mnpals.net/2019/06/25/on-the-ethics-of-using-social-media-data-for-health-research/comment-page-1/

Biotechnology Innovation Organization https://archive.bio.org/articles/diagnostics

I shouldn’t talk about this but…

Trigger warning: abortion

Typically, I avoid talking about subjects like this outside of my close circle. Abortion is a topic that brings out the raw emotions in people and can tear relationships apart. I’m not hear to talk about my opinions on abortion. I’m here to talk about the importance of having factual information, ESPECIALLY when it comes to topics like abortion.

credit: Signe
https://www.mainepublic.org/post/fake-news

My cousin and I rarely see eye-to-eye. Wanting to see photos of his family, and keep in touch with him, I’ve maintained a Facebook connection. Typically, when he posts a news article, I quickly scroll away. He could care less if the “news” he reads is biased, or even if it’s factual. If it aligns with his beliefs, he’s happy.

The other day I wasn’t paying enough attention and clicked on the link before realizing who had posted it. It was too late. I forced myself to read through an incredibly biased article on New York’s Reproductive Health Act. I can handle opinion articles – as long as they use factual information. This one DID NOT.

Not only did this media source skew far right, but the author, Ben Marquis, made several inaccurate statements. His claim that:

“Say what you will about Trump, but he was dead-on accurate in calling out Clinton and the pro-abortion crowd for their “unacceptable” position that late-term abortions are “OK,” when the brutal and painful murder of fully-formed unborn babies that are viable outside the womb is most certainly “not OK” by any stretch of the imagination. ”

–BEN MARQUIS

Ummm…no! That is NOT what is happening, and that is NOT what this law allows. If Ben had done any kind of responsible research on the topic, he would have learned that in the event of late-term abortion (preformed due to the risk of the mother’s life or the absence of fetal viability), a live birth is extremely unlikely. In the event that a live birth does occur:

“The RHA does not change standard medical practices. To reiterate, any baby born alive in New York State would be treated like any other live birth, and given appropriate medical care. This was the case before the RHA, and it remains the case now.”

Justin Flagg, spokesman for Reproductive health act

Spreading outright lies is not only a bad practice for journalists, it’s dangerous. Misinformation is spreading like wildfire in today’s world. I hear quite a bit about attempts to unify our country. The only thing fake news is going to accomplish is create a bigger rift.

When Should You Tweet?

I like to think that I am pretty active when it comes to Twitter or Facebook. I post on a semi-regular basis, but I never stopped to think about the actual timing of my posts. Miranda Miller over at searchenginewatch.com wrote about a study that bit.ly put out in a blog post showing the right and wrong times to tweet, like, and post about anything and everything to maximize effect. “By understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people,” says bit.ly.

In the article, it pretty much sums up that working hours are a great time to post, specifically in the middle of the day and week – specifically between 1pm and 4pm. Oddly enough, that happens to coincide with the end of the lunch hour, doesn’t it? I think I’ll have to remember that the next time I want to push a show or or get a point across…