6 Clauses

The Breakdown

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Before we dive deeper we must take a look at the first amendment and break it down into the main components that make up the amendment:

1. Freedom of Religion (Establishment Clause)

2. Freedom of Religion (Free Exercise Clause)

3. Freedom of Speech

4. Freedom of the Press

5. Freedom of Assembly 

6. Freedom of Petition

Social media is a great example to express the functions of the 1st amendment and what it condones and what it doesn't condone. For example although the first amendment allows you to exercise the six rights listed above but it does not protect you from obscenity, speech that constitutes threats or fight words, etc.

 We see a lot on social media especially in most recent events like the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black LivesMatter movement was created in order to reduce police violence towards Black people. With the movement growing there were counter calls through social media with other movements like Blue Lives Matter which grew from stressing the dangers for police officers and what they now became subjected to. After that other movements began to rise like All Lives Matter. With all the movements the Black Lives Matter movement was the most potent and some would even say there were many similarities with the Civil Rights Movement.

The first amendment is something to be grateful for but it has its issues. It makes it hard to decided what can and cannot be censored. Its movements like that the ones listed above that really make us think about what we want to start talking about as well as getting involved in whats going on in the world. 

Sources:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment

https://www.britannica.com/topic/First-Amendment

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-first-amendment-p2-721185