If I'm being honest, this weeks topic of User Generated Content was boring for me but that doesn't mean I did think of things when reading and watching the Ted Talk. User generated content is pretty much anything, anyone posts online. After reading the articles and watching the Ted Talk about user generated content it reminded me of how some people share or post about "news" without checking their credibility. That's the first thing that came to me while learning about this weeks topic. I also think its one of the bad thing if user generated content. Since anyone can post about anything online its even more important to check your sources credibility. For example, in facebook ive noticed a couple of people on my newsfeed share articles that aren't credible. You may ask, "well how do you know if they are credible or not", personaly I think some of the articles are pretty obvious. When I run into thoe types of articles being shared by people on my news feed it makes me want to tell them but I dnt because I feel like I might come off as rude or as a "know-it-all", which I'm not. Being a political science major, credibility is a huge deal. We ALWAYS have to check it or else itll ruin the paper or whatever we are working on. Okay so that's one thing I see as bad for user generated content. The good thing I thought about was that people get to share their stories online and if youre ever dealing through the same thing you can read about that persons experience and it might help you. For example, for a lot of legal questions about immigration there is a lot of forums out there of peoples experinces and maybe, hopefully not, that can come in handy for me. Oh and another thing, user generated content does make something like writing a paper harder than it should be. Like I said anyone can post anything online so cause of that, you should ALWAYS check the credibility of your sources. 

How Does Social Media Influence Relationships?

I believe social media has good and bad things about it. for example, one of the good things is it helps people who are far away from each other stay in contact. My parents and I are 10 hours away and I sometimes feel very lonely when so having skype really helps me. I usually talk to them once a day and we recently got into using skype which is even better because now I can see them, my pets and even my home. I know it might seem weird that I get happy about seeing my home but it really does put me in a good mood to see the place I grew up in.my parents and I also text, so when I'm busy and cant skype or talk on the phone we can text, theres always a way to stay connected. Another good thing is you can stay in contact through social media. For example, my parents have a lot of friends in mexico and because of facebook now they can message them and catch up on all those years they missed out. I have also ntied how the immigration community gains good things through social media. We receive a lot of good information like on our rights and where to find local resources. We also get a lot of support which I appreciate. After the whole issue with DACA its nice to see so many people stand up fpr DACA and state their support towards the immigrant community. It is honestly so heartwarming and it restores my faith which I really need right now.
Now to talk about the bad things, one of the bad things about social media that affects relationships is it creates trust issues. For some relationships "liking" the opposite sex picture can create a problem which arrises from trust issues. Then you have single people messaging one of the partners which can also create problems.
Social media really does help with building your strength in the field youre pursuing. For this I think its best to use LinkedIn. On linkedIn you can find a lot of professional people who are working in your same career choice and maybe you don't need those connections right now but it will come in handy later on. For the scholarship I won, I had to create a linkenIn account and through that I started to get a lot of recommendations from people who work in organizations from back home I used to be interested in. the reason I say "used" to be it was because those were the organizations I wanted to be in while I was in high school but I couldn't. Now that I am about to graduate maybe one day one of those connection will come in handy.

Undocumented and Unafraid

I'm sure everyone has heard the decision of trump to end DACA and I'm also sure everyone who's on my blog knows I will be focusing on immigration. Well now more than ever, I feel that its time that I stand up again. I am Undocumented and Unafraid. I am a DACA recipient.
I was brought to the United States at age 3 and growing up my mom did tell me I was undocumented. She explained I wouldn't always get the opportunities my friends got and I had to keep that a secret. I did what I was told to do, I kept my legal status a secrete even from my friends. While I was in middle school and a freshmen and sophomore in high school I was never really interested in college and being undocumented wasn't the reason behind it. Until I reached my junior year and got into honor and AP courses. One day I went to my counselor and talked to him about college but he told me I was wasting my time even thinking about going to college because I was undocumented. let me tell you, that burst my bubble. every night I would cry myself to sleep thinking, "what am I going to do after high school?" and "I will probably have to work in the fields", but I didn't want that. at some point I even considered of dropping out of high school or getting home studies because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle seeing all my friends applying to college then being asked what colleges I applied to or why I wasn't applying to any of them.
Then I remember coming home one day from school and my dad told me to watch the news and there I saw Obama announcing DACA. I finally got the opportunity I had been crying for every night. I told myself "now more than ever I have to work harder" and I did. I got myself involved in so many clubs and did a lot of community service. I knew that even having DACA I still wouldn't get enough financial help but whatever I got, was enough for me. until this at the only financial help I get is through the state of California and its always just enough to cover my tuition. fortunately, my hard work paid off and I got a scholarship for the four years of college. with that money I pay my books, rent, utilities and food.
After DACA was enacted, a lawyer went to our high school to help anyone fill out the application for DACA and there I was with my parents. the next day, one of my close friends asked me if I was at the meeting for DACA and I said yes. she then said "omg why didn't you ever tell me you were undocumented? there's so many opportunities for you now. I can help you out". I accepted her offer and I will always be glad I did. I later told the rest of my friends about my situation and they all accepted me and showed me how to be proud of who I am. from that day on I was never aging afraid of being undocumented...... until now.
Now I don't know how my life is going to turn out. Congress has six months to decide what to do with my life. I'm trying to stay strong and just deal with it day-by-day but being on facebook and seeing all those videos of people talking abut their stories and being so similar to mine makes it harder than I thought it would be. I can be happy all day and the moment I get on facebook ill be crying my eyes out because I'm scared and mad. I'm scared of being deported to Mexico, a place I haven't been to since I was 3 years old and im mad because I have worked so hard to get to where I am today.
I was debating whether to make this post or not because there are people out there who will use this information about me against me. Then I thought that now everyone is like that and there's actually people out there who aren't DACA recipients and will stand by me and protect me, so that was what helped me write this.
I am not a criminal, I am not a drug dealer and I am not a rapist. I am you, someone with dreams, someone with a family and friends and if I hadn't shared this I can be anyone of your friends right now. So If you do have a friends who is a DACA receipt let them know you are there for them, let them know you will protect them and wont allow them to be sent back to a place they don't know.