Olivia Cantadori ‘23  

Staff Writer 

The First Amendment: Why Aren’t We Embracing It? 

The first amendment guards our rights to free religion and press but most importantly, it protects our speech. The first amendment is by every means the very foundation of freedom in this country. By this, it has protected much of what has surfaced in the country, but for better or worse?

Without our rights, humans are nothing more than animals, floating through violence and oppression. But are we content in living without our rights, so long as there is someone to guide us and tell us what to say and what to do? 

People have become more bold with their opinions due to the rise of social media but people are also growing increasingly lonesome behind their screen.

It seems that the only way to achieve any kind of connection with the rest of the human race is to voice our opinions over social media platforms. 

The problem occurs when people use the world of social media to try to create actual social change. We put “Live Laugh Love” on everything,  post inspirational quotes in front sunsets on Facebook, and send our prayers in the form of comments to the victims of gun violence, but no one actually does anything. Social media and what people post is one giant facade. 

Can we trust what we see? Of course not! How can anyone possibly do anything, or say anything with any impact, emotion or importance, when people only focus only and believe everything we see or read on social media is true?

How can anyone expect to go anywhere blinded by a fake happiness and imitation social change? 

We hide emotions everyday. We choose exclamation points when texting or posting to highlight our excitement and anger because people are offended by actual emotion –  have we actually forgotten how to cry and how to shout, or is society just afraid to truly express themselves? 

With social media we allow ourselves to be degraded, harassed, stepped on by racism, and sexism. Government officials laugh at hunger and rape in their country, and show no emotion, show no tears.

 How wretched the human race has become in it’s cowardice. We use the first amendment as an excuse not to stand up for ourselves. ‘It’s not trespassing on the rest of our rights because of the first amendment’ we say, and yet we do not use that same right to fight against the injustice. 

The reason for the first amendment is not to be a pathway for societal erosion, not to allow the powerful to step upon the rest until they think they can do nothing against it, but to allow the people to progress, unmarred by imitation happiness or outrange that we litter social media with.