I think sometimes it can be easy to forget how deeply engrained every part of society is rooted in partiarchy. From the earliest times there has been evidence of the idea of males as being superior or more highly valued. Women were often excluded from things like education, voting or finances from very early on in society. It is really concering to think that there are people that believe that patriarchal control is what "should" be maintaned, effectively wanting to set women back to the sort of rights and expectations that were placed on them many years ago. It makes me think of how we can promote the unlearning of these patriarchal beliefs in young boys and girls, and have nuianced discussions about the patriarchy with younger people in schools.

In the last couple of years especially, there has been a rise in protests for families to want their children only to learn things that fall in their own personal belief systems. I have seen influencers online who have chosen to homeschool their children because their religion doesn't believe in ideas like evolution and they don't want their children exposed to information that threatens that belief system. However, what researchers are finding is that a lot of times the people who choose to homeschool their kids for the purpose of limiting their exposure to "corruption" often do not have any experience in teaching or education. And because of this these children are often working at a lower level that they should be for their age. There needs to be a push to educate people that exposing children to conflicting views/ideas/information is essential for developing their critical thinking skills, and that if they learn or hear views that don't match their families views it will not "corrupt" them.

We can see very clearly in North American culture of the assault on women's rights. Right-wing politicians have passed laws/dismantled existing laws to try and control women (ex. abortions rights in the US). While this was one of the first things that Trump's government put in motion to try and control individuals, but we have seen this trickle down effect to laws being passed about transgender individuals (like having the gender stated on their passport match their sex assigned at birth). As disappointing as it is, I expect we'll probably see laws/legislation being passed to continue to attack and control the American people (and these ideals can and will impact us in Canada too as other Canadian right-wing politicians take a page out of the US's book).

I think it's incredibly interesting to see the drastic shift social media had taken towards the idea of women's domestic life. In my early life you would hear of influencers or celebrities fighting for womens equal rights or for equal pay in work setting. But now, even as we progress through the years we have seen a shift to women perpetuating the idea that women should be stay at home moms, and they should home-school their kids (especially when looking at the rise of Mormon influencers in popular media and their religious ideals directing individuals views). I think this could also have a really detrimental effect on young women and girls in schools who are very active on social media and are being fed this idea that their place isn't in the work force but to stay home and care for their family.

This sentence specifically reminds me of the continuous topic of debate surrounding transgender males using the womens washroom. Statistically, there is no evidence that suggests that allowing transgender individuals to use the bathroom of their choice leads to violence against cisgendered woman. But right-wing conservatives use the language of womens safety to deny the right for trans people to exist and be in public spaces.

I think this is an incredibly relevant point in this era of the internet, when we see billionaires and political figures trying to take over social media platforms ultimately for power. Social media and other technologies are currently the main source of information (especially in a political and news context) for the average person, taking control of these platforms gives them control over the narrative that is presenting. Effectively eliminating free speech in an attempt to silence critical voices rather than fostering open debate and criticism.

When these AI models are learning information, but not keeping a connection back to the original content where they learnt it from it can be incredibly harmful, especially for AI novices, to be able to discern whether the information they are getting from AI is reliable. Especially in a classroom setting, students are often looking for the quick answer, which AI does provide, but if there are no links to the credible sources where they have got this information from it can cause students to just pull that information without a second thought. It is incredibly important as teachers that we try to relay the importance of looking for information from reliable and credible sources.

I think that this point is really interesting because it is true that the reason the web can be such a useful tool is because it can be accessible to a large amount of people, and also connects those people who wouldn't be able to typically interact. It creates a line that everyone, both consumers and producers of these open web platforms, must balance of when is it too much? If these businesses continue to create these open web sources for a monetary return without thought for the impacts on the consumers, it can lead to a slippery slope where there is no more line and these platforms can be used for harm.