Tag Archives: Student Perspective

Opinions

A hard look at the internet’s influence on children

With a slew of new kids’ content popping up all over TikTok, YouTube, and any site an unsupervised toddler with an iPad could get to, it’s easy to forget that at one point, the internet was largely untamed, unregulated, and definitely not a place for children. It’s almost foreign to think of an era with no TikTok, YouTube not being nearly as prevalent, and Xbox Live party chats and Skype being the internet’s primary forms of communication. While there are multiple reasons for the internet evolving in the way it has, some of those reasons can be attributed to the kids of the early internet.

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Children In Gaming

Games like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and most Nintendo games are commonly associated with children nowadays, but that doesn’t mean that kids can’t be found in games that they really shouldn’t. From mature FPS games like Grand Theft Auto V to obscure indie horror like Poppy Playtime, it’s hard to find a game that hasn’t been played by someone younger than the ESRB rating on the box. While it’s now common practice to ignore games with predominantly young player bases, writing them off as “kids’ games” and leaving them alone to do their own thing, internet users’ first significant experience with an influx of children was not handled quite as deftly as that.

Call of Duty 4 marked a significant change in the series’ history, being the first game to not focus on World War II but on modern – well, modern for 2007 – warfare. The game quickly skyrocketed in popularity due to its revolutionary campaign and endlessly repayable multiplayer modes. With such immense renown came fans of all kinds, particularly fans of all ages.  

I’m not sure what parent thought that getting a COD game for their child – or even leaving them alone with a credit card, for that matter – was a good idea. Still, as young and impressionable kids found their way onto multiplayer servers, they quickly began to gain notoriety as the worst kind of teammate imaginable. While it was possible to ignore their poor in-game performance, it was much harder to ignore a high-pitched and annoying child over the voice chat, screaming their heads off and yelling obscenities at the slightest inconvenience. 

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The issue wasn’t with the games the kids were playing; it was with the community that played them. For those unaware, the COD community has a reputation of being extremely toxic – especially back in the day – so it’s easy to see the problem with dropping impressionable kids into a lobby with server-wide voice chat with them. “Squeakers,” as they were called, quickly became despised by the community, with some players opting to leave squeaker-occupied servers entirely and search for another match to save themselves from getting a headache, while others stuck around to get a rise out of the tainted and easily excitable new players. The latter would often record these antics and post them to a – then growing – site called YouTube, garnering millions of likes and views in the process.

YouTube, Demonetization, And The Future Of Video

In its early days, YouTube wasn’t nearly as mainstream and, as such, wasn’t as highly regulated as it is now. People on the platform could often get away with posting whatever they wanted, so long as it didn’t break any rules or infringe on any copyrighted material. The idea of monetizing YouTube content – or at least be entitled to it – is a relatively modern concept. Back in the day, monetization was saved for the most prominent creators on the platform. However, as the years passed, the bar for being allowed to monetize content grew lower and lower, and eventually, some pretty offensive content was making reasonable amounts of money.

Around 2017, a lot of YouTube’s advertisers threatened to pull out of the company unless the company cleaned up its act and ensured that the content hitting the front page was clean enough to be suitable to the advertiser’s wishes. YouTube, very interested in keeping its bottom line stable, started demonizing mass amounts of content in what was referred to as the “adpocalypse.” While the terms for demonetization were extremely vague – and sometimes entirely unjustified – it led to a massive change in the image of the platform, even leading to the death of some forms of content in the name of making the platform more advertiser-friendly.

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While not directly trying to make YouTube more accessible to children, the adpocalypse’s aftermath left a landscape that allowed children’s content to flourish, and for years, this was the case. Children’s content – especially the animated variety – was easy, quick to make, and entirely advertiser-friendly. Some channels began using easily recognizable characters in their videos, like Mickey Mouse, superheroes, and Disney princesses. Through this, they spread their content even further, despite the actual content of the videos often being bizarre and completely incoherent at times. Even the comments section of these videos followed this bizarre pattern, with kids seemingly mashing their hands onto the keyboard, letting autocorrect try to decipher the mess they just typed, and posting. YouTube children’s content was an absolute cash cow that many thought unstoppable; however, it would be shipped off to the proverbial slaughterhouse sooner than imagined. 

Around January 2020, the FTC came after YouTube’s predatory ad policy toward children. According to COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule), running targeted ads toward children wasn’t strictly legal, or at least not how YouTube was doing it. It forced another major split in YouTube policy. Now, you have to mark whether your content is targeted toward children 12 and below or not. If you mark your videos as content for younger audiences, you aren’t allowed to run ads before your videos, and the comments section and like number are entirely turned off. Despite doing their best to shun kids’ content on their site, YouTube’s damage had already been done, and children’s media was forever changed. Examples like Cocomelon come to mind when thinking of modern kids’ content, but they aren’t the only thing that comes to mind.

TikTok’s primary goal is to keep us scrolling for as long as possible. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of losing track of time while scrolling social media and later realizing that you’ve spent an hour on mindless scrolling. It’s a pretty solid strategy for TikTok that’s executed pretty well; more time spent scrolling leads to more ads playing, which leads to more money. I’m not wholly against TikTok, but every time I use it, it reminds me of those kids’ YouTube channels with how it presents its content. It’s constantly trying to keep the attention of a demographic with a continually decreasing attention span; it just doesn’t feel like social media to me, it feels like a daycare.

Alex Magno is a junior member of the Multimedia Journalism Class.

Opinions

How Musk’s Twitter purchase will change the platform forever

On October 27, 2022, both Twitter and the world of social media would change forever. On that fateful day, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, bought Twitter for $44 Billion. It is safe to say Twitter hasn’t been the same since Elon Musk purchased the company. Elon aimed to improve the platform, allowing for an environment where freedom of speech prevails. However, Elon’s decisions have debatably left a negative impact on the platform, with some questioning whether the platform is knocking on death’s door.

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In the first week of Musk’s domain of Twitter, hate speech surged on the platform due to Elon’s approval of unfiltered freedom of speech. The usage of the N-word in the first week was three times the usage for the entirety of 2022. 

However, Musk recently announced a new policy on freedom of speech. While this change allows harmful and hateful speech on Twitter, it will only make those types of tweets visible to those seeking them out. With this change, Twitter remains a place of freedom of speech but also allows users to avoid seeing hate speech on Twitter. With time, according to Musk, hate speech impressions have actually decreased from before the purchase. 

Along with his belief in complete freedom of speech, Musk unbanned Donald Trump, Ye West, and Andrew Tate. Trump was banned following the attack on the Capital after he promoted the actions taken. West was banned following his usage of anti-Semitic language(and recently had his account suspended again for “inciting violence”). Tate was banned for his misogynistic beliefs. Now, all three are back on Twitter and are free to say whatever they want.

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Not only has Musk shown his belief in freedom of speech, but he has also shown his democratic values while running Twitter. Musk has run numerous polls that have caused significant changes on Twitter. These polls include whether or not Donald Trump should be unbanned and if banned accounts should be given amnesty, barring illegal activity or spam. 

Another issue with Musk’s takeover of Twitter came with the new verification process. Before Musk bought the company, verification was given to companies and people to let users know whether they were reliable. However, Musk implemented a system where verification is given to anyone who pays eight dollars a week. This has caused impersonation issues, as users paid for verification and changed their usernames and icons to resemble a company or person.

However, a solution has arisen in an attempt to fix the problem. Tweets by companies, government officials, or any other powerful or influential person or organization are labeled “official.” That way, there can be a distinction between real, verified accounts and fake, verified accounts.

Since Musk’s takeover and drastic changes to the platform, half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have stopped advertising on the platform. In response to this, Musk revealed a plan in which Twitter will match the spending of advertisers who spend $500,000 or more, up to $1 Million, in marketing value. With these advertiser incentives and an all-time high of active users, Twitter appears to be thriving under Musk’s leadership.

While Musk’s tenure had a rocky start, his frequent changes and new policies appear to be leading Twitter in the right direction. It is safe to say that Musk, and Twitter, have changed the social media world forever. Whether or not this new takeover will cause the platform’s demise is still up for debate. In the end, only time and the decisions of Musk will tell the ultimate fate of twitter.

Jimmy Thomas is a senior member of the Multimedia Journalism class.

Aidan Bajadek is a junior member of the Multimedia Journalism class.

Opinions

The appeal of historically black colleges and universities

Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been a staple in Black education since 1837. They allow an opportunity for community, family, and a sense of belonging. So many times at predominantly white institutions, Black students feel like they have to fit in and don’t have people that understand them.

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Representation is everything. Being a black student at an HBCU is the most refreshing thing. You see black excellence and young black men and women thriving. When you see them win, it pushes you to believe that you can win. As opposed to what you see on TV, you’ll see unity. There are people there that really support each other and love to see their brothers and sisters shine. There’s a culture that’s just natural. You’re surrounded by like-minded people. Everyone knows how to get up and dance when that song comes on and what to do. There’s just a shared experience and love of being Black in America. This is great for many black students who are used to education systems working against them.

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One thing about HBCUs is that you will encounter professors who care about you. They aren’t shocked by your greatness, but they expect it. They believe in you more than you’ll ever believe in yourself. They expect and push you into continual growth. Seeing you thrive is their primary goal. They will make time to know you outside of just a student. They want you to push towards your own personal excellence.

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HBCUs give you a home environment. Being the majority helps make you feel comfortable and seen because you relate to things just from skin tone; it doesn’t even matter where people come from, but rather that shared cultural experience makes all the difference.

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You have a sense of security knowing the people around you have the same fight. They go to sleep worried about family like you and pray day and night about the inequality across America. They know the same struggles as you.

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With HBCU homecoming season having just passed, you can see how a school connects so many people with one event. Homecoming isn’t just a game or a day; it’s a week-long experience. It’s a week full of love, people putting on their best outfits, parties, and really everything you can imagine. The homecoming event entails tailgates, a parade, fashion shows, concerts, a coronation, and alumni returning to hang out with people they love. Homecoming is the embodiment of its name; people are coming back home to where they lived some of their best years. Homecoming also helps welcome new students and show them what it is like outside the classroom. Homecoming allows you to run into old friends or even make new friends.

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The student life at an HBCU is second to none with the Divine 9 [fraternities and sororities]. Also, the HBCU Marching Bands are the best in all aspects, with drum majors, dancers, and majorettes on top of that. They also have events centered around having fun as a community.

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HBCUs allow many opportunities religiously with Gospel Choirs, Chapel, and so much more. Many of them are built on faith and also service. They are full of community service, giving back to others, and excelling at doing more for others.

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Special thanks to the current Director of Liberal Studies, and Psychology professor at Hampton University, Dr. Tamara Monet Baldwin Williams (Spelman College alumnus). Also, thank you to two current HBCU students who provided their experiences – Amaya Short, Hampton University, Class of ’25, and Bria Williams, Howard University, Class of ’26.

Nicholas Paxton is a Senior Member of the Multimedia Journalism class.

Opinions

The rise and fall of Andrew Tate

Disclaimer: The views shared by Andrew Tate and his community are not the opinions shared by The Quill or Mount St. Joseph High School.

After a brief stint with fame, self-proclaimed hustler Andrew Tate has been banned on most social media due to concern for his preaching towards young men. Tate is a 35-year-old British-American who rose to prevalence with his polarizing opinions on masculinity, especially in male teenagers. His ban sent waves throughout the internet as the former kickboxer completely dominated the online world this summer. Posting his final video to Vimeo, the only available video platform after his ban, Tate solemnly said that many of his quotes were wrongly taken out of context and that his eradication would leave a “black hole.”

Now that a few weeks have passed since his defeat and the dust has settled, we can question how Tate grew to such infamy and whether or not his ban was rational.

Tate had grown from 1 million Instagram followers in June to 4.5 million shortly before his ban. (Lumared, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Anyone who was on the internet this summer knew that Tate was everywhere, rapidly building a fanbase of young fans that knew him as the “Top G.” Fan accounts were reposting his debatable opinions, such as that depression isn’t real or that men need to “man up.” Content creators voiced their disagreements with him, and commenters were split entirely. Others think his controversial speeches are stunts to gain more traction for his “Hustler’s University” program since many of Tate’s sermons contain harmless motivational advice. An example of this is in his quote, “Close your eyes. Focus on making yourself feel excited and powerful. Imagine yourself destroying goals with ease.” 

The bigger problem is Tate does not only make controversial claims about the mindset and hard-workingness of young men but how disrespectfully they should treat women. He has said many times that women should be submissive to men; a more recent interview sees Tate admitting that he loves women but thinks they cannot fulfill the same roles that a man could, and vice versa. It is important to understand that Andrew Tate’s ideas when it comes to gender roles are sexist and harmful to listeners.

Tate claims that he should help women and protect them. But by comparing them to dogs, children, and sports cars, he endangers the minds of his listeners with sexist views.

Tate began his empire shortly after his failure to reach success on the reality series Big Brother in 2016; he began to overflow his pockets with money from crypto and casinos, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to expand his brand. By 2022, Tate had set up online learning programs such as “The War Room” and “Hustler’s University,” teaching money-making strategies through the online platform Discord. Costing $49 per month, H.U. taught the strategies of crypto, e-commerce, copywriting, stocks, affiliate, and freelance. Although receiving negative reviews from professionals, the “college” still thrives with over 100,000 members.

The critical success of Hustler’s University comes from the affiliate program, which tasked students to find somebody else’s product and advertise it for their own financial gain. Many enrolled simply advertised Tate’s products by flooding TikTok with clips and edits of his finest quotes. A viral video in which Tate recounts his response “what color is your Bugatti” to a hater gained millions of views. These short but iconic videos not only made thousands for Tate but attracted a mass of impressionable young men to his brand. While the program is currently paused due to Tate’s ban, he is creating a 3.0 version which should only achieve a far higher level of success.

Above: The Front Page of “Hustler’s University 3.0” claims that it is the “future of learning.”

However, after his ban, one could argue that it is harder for him to network himself online. It seems as if the showrunners of social media want to keep Tate’s ideologies from young men. They, and many others on the internet, believe that his idea of “grow up” masculinity is harmful to our newer generations. A separate group defends him and his vision of a return to a more polar traditional masculinity. This minority argues that his ban was unfair, as anyone on the internet has a right to their own opinion. The season-spanning incident this summer may seem like a loss for Andrew Tate. Still, his message to the world about the unreliability and chaos of modern masculinity has left a massive mark on the internet.

Jude Danner is a sophomore member of The multimedia journalism class.

Clubs & Activities, News

The Weightlifting Club is here to help you achieve your strength goals

What is weightlifting

At this point in our lives, many young men, like us, are striving to achieve their peak physical strength and appearance. While we know that we cannot achieve pure perfection, there is a club at MSJ that could help us reach these goals. The Weightlifting Club provides a way of exercising that helps build up physical and mental performance.

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Weight training is all about putting stress on the muscles to build strength, which can be beneficial in gaining muscle mass and reducing body fat. The Weightlifting Club provides that opportunity and encourages its members to go above and beyond to improve their physical form.

The Benefits of Weightlifting

Lifting weights provides many benefits, particularly to those who play sports. Mr. Matt Schmidt, the Weightlifting Club faculty advisor, points out, “The major adaptation that weightlifting provides is injury prevention.” Along with reducing the chances of injury, weightlifting can improve cardiovascular endurance, agility, and energy levels. So, the Weightlifting Club might interest you if you play sports like football, basketball, or hockey.

According to Mr. Schmidt, weightlifting provides several benefits besides improving muscular form and appearance. He describes how weightlifting supports various body systems, including the skeletal system, the immune system, the circulatory system, and the nervous system. Mr. Schmidt also describes how consistently working out and doing physical activities, like weightlifting, can help maintain your body throughout your life.

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While weightlifting helps your body physically, it can also help your body mentally. Studies show that weightlifting helps improve the mood of people suffering from depression and anxiety. In addition to helping with mental wellness, Mr. Schmidt claims that individuals who reach physical fitness milestones are often filled with a sense of accomplishment. Studies have concluded that weightlifting helps keep the mind mentally engaged and stimulated.

Why you should participate in the club

The Weightlifting Club at MSJ provides an experience you will not find by working out alone. The club offers weightlifting resources to students who either cannot afford it or find it too intimidating to participate in a social environment. But the most unique thing is the club provides a sense of community. While the community is described as loose, it is a community that encourages its members to go above and beyond and reach milestones they find intimidating in order to reach their full potential.

Aidan Bajadek is a Junior member of the Multimedia Journalism class.

Art & Music, Features

Donuts: The best album you have never heard of

J Dilla’s magnum opus Donuts is the best album you have never heard of. J Dilla is regarded as one of the best Hip-Hop producers ever. Anyone who enjoys 90s Hip Hop has probably listened to a J Dilla-produced song. Donuts, unlike Dilla’s former albums, was an entirely instrumental album. Dilla’s voice is not heard during the album, yet Donuts carries a vibe that most instrumental music fails to portray.

Donuts has multiple meanings. Dilla loves donuts, something his friends would bring him during their weekly vinyl drop-off while Dilla was in the hospital. Donuts also represented the album’s flow, songs do not end, but they are only interrupted by the next song. Tracks suddenly stop once the listener gets the hang of the song. This is a perfect metaphor for how life is always bringing new challenges and exciting moments. Although the album has 31 total tracks, the album’s run time is only 43 minutes. The run time shows that life will go by quick, and you need to cherish every moment.

One of the reasons this album is so excellent is the context of Dilla’s life during the creation of Donuts. Dilla, in 2005 was diagnosed with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and lupus. Dilla’s family almost went bankrupt due to his medical bills and treatments he received, like dialysis. This caused Dilla to produce twenty-nine of the album’s thirty-one tracks from his hospital bed in Los Angeles in the summer of 2005. Dilla rushed to complete Donuts as he couldn’t walk and could barely speak. During the making of Donuts, Dilla’s mom, Maureen Yancey, was always beside him. She would massage his fingers when he was too weak to use a 45-rpm record player and a Boss Sp 303 Sampler. Donuts was released on February 7th, 2006, his 32nd birthday. Unfortunately, Dilla passed away three days after Donuts was released.

Despite his success later in life, Dilla came from humble beginnings. Dilla was born James Dewitt Yancey on February 7, 1974, in Detroit, Michigan. Dilla came from a music background; His mother was a singer, and his dad played piano and bass. During high school, Dilla would meet T3 and Baatin. The trio would later get together again to form the group Slum Village. Dilla, throughout the 1990s, would work with artists such as Janet Jackson, The Pharcyde, Tribe Called Quest, Q Tip, De La Soul, and Busta Rhymes. In the 2000s, Dilla started rapping, and he recorded Welcome 2 Detroit, Jay Dee Volumes 1 and 2, Rough Draft, and then a collaborative album with fellow legend, Madlib called Champion Sound.

Dilla, in these projects, showed a love for the Production Center (MPC) 3000 and sampling machines. With these projects, Dilla had asserted his soul sample-heavy, with loud percussion style. Quest Love of the Roots said about Dilla, “One of the strangest things about Dilla was he wasn’t even a musician in the classic sense, he just had a sound in his head and was able to put it onto tape flawlessly.” Kanye West called Dilla “a drum god.” Dilla in these first albums sounded very mediocre and average in terms of his rapping, but his production was outstanding.

Donuts starts very weirdly with its Outro titled by the same name. J Dilla had switched the intro and outro. Collin Robinson, a music journalist for Shoegaze, says, “it’s almost too perfect a metaphor for Dilla’s otherworldly ability to flip the utter expletive out of anything he sampled.” This twelve-second beat is by far the prettiest in the album. The album’s last song also fits perfectly into the first song, which makes a perfect transition and helps fit the album’s circular nature. Right after those twelve seconds, the album takes a dark cut with the track Workinonit. Workinonit is a homage to Dillas’ hometown as you hear the sounds of speeding cars going by. The first third of this album signifies Dilla’s early life growing up in Detroit. The fact that the outro is the intro and vice versa also shows that Dilla will die in the same setting as he was born – in a hospital surrounded by family. The album continues in this continual flow, just like a river. The only things that change throughout the album are the samples Dilla uses. These samples were given to Dilla by his friends, who would fill crates full of records weekly and give them to Dilla to listen to. Dilla, being from Detroit, had a close relationship with the soul music of Motown that is often forgotten about with people of this generation.

Through Donuts, Dilla reinvented soul music and packaged it for a modern audience to consume. Young people who listen to music now often fail to recognize that almost all their favorite rap songs are sampled from a soul song. Don’t Cry, Last Donut of the Night, Bye, Time: The Donut of the Heart, involve samples from the Jackson 5, Charles Sherrel, The Moments, Gene Chandler, Stevie Wonder, The Escorts, and The Temptations. The song Don’t Cry is dedicated to his younger brother. Donuts talks a lot about Dilla’s mortality. One For The Ghost could be interpreted as death, but also this song was made for Ghost Face Killa from Wu-Tang. One For The Ghost leads into the song Go.

Go is a message about his passing and how he has come to terms with it. The sample throughout says, “come on, baby, go, it is all right.” U Love is dedicated to fans of Dilla. Throughout the track, the listener is told that we are loved by Dilla through a sample of the Commodores. The following two songs are called Hi., and Bye. Bye. It wasn’t the last beat of the album, but it was the last beat of his illustrious career. Last Donut of the Night then hits the ears with such rhythm and beat it is hard not to dance to. Donuts’ sadder songs acknowledge how tragic and sad the present moment is only to find an optimistic tone.

The album is then wrapped up with the upbeat Welcome to the Show, all about how Dilla has accepted his death. The song he sampled was even called When I Die, where the ending of this song has a beat switch that matches perfectly with the first beat of the album. Donuts is an album all about Dilla confronting death in a way no other album can compare to. Without saying a word, Dilla, through samples and song titles displays a specific mood with each song. Donuts would even inspire new sub-genres of Hip Hop such as Lo-Fi. All the greats had great instruments for making music. Jimmi Hendrix had his guitar. Louie Armstrong had a trumpet. J Dilla had an MPC.

Andy Rossbach is a junior member of the Multimedia Journalism class.