The Power of (In)Equality

The article “Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Social Divisions?” by Danah Boyd is about the development of social media and how these websites have developed into everyday segregation. When the internet, and social media, started to become popular, most people in society believed that it would be the “end of social divisions.” She uses a lot stories from students in order to prove to the optimist who think that the internet is going to solve the cultural problems. By directly speaking to the main demographic that uses social media, the young high schoolers, Boyd is showing directly how there are social rifts being formed that even the users themselves don t realize. The author provides information on the topic using personal fieldwork, or information that she researched. She used a multitude of footnotes in order to establish her ethos in that she had a good understanding of the topic. After every topic, she has a self-reflection on what the problem at hand means, and how it relates to social issues present in the teenagers lives already. Instead of relying on interviews from students who use social media, Boyd also refers to aspects of everyday lives such as the iPhone software Siri. By demonstrating how everyday technology shows a bias towards race, she connects to a broader range of audience who might otherwise think that racism online is just a hoax. Her attempts to grapple with the complexity of this issue offer in depth analysis of the issue from all points of view. She uses a majority of her work to describe how the internet subtly promotes biasness, but concedes at the end of the story that in internet it also extremely beneficial to students. She adds to the complexity of the issue by stating how the connections that people build between each other through networking online is extremely valuable in helping you find opportunities later in life. The article reminded me a lot of the loneliness of the interconnected, but I found it more interesting because of the primary research she put into the work. However I didn’t like how her analysis were so complex that I found myself getting lost in her paper and many of the points seemed to overlap to me. 

I love Lobster

“Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace is another self-reflection article about his trip to the Maine Lobster Festival. He begins the article by providing good background information on why the festival is so important to the midcoast region of Maine. Wallace does a good job of portraying the positive and negative aspects of the festival in order to get a full picture of the experience. One of the things I dislike about Wallace is his sometimes meticulous attention to detail. He spends a lot of time using these details, such as the “four-mile, 50-minute” cab ride from the airport, for the audience to feel the experience as he does. This does a great job at answering the questions he poses, but sometimes I consider to be too many details. The author spends a majority of this article talking about the morality of eating lobsters. He starts by telling about the member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) assimilate themselves into the Maine Lobster Festival (MLF) in order to pass around anti-lobster brochures. They argue against the live killing of lobsters by boiling then in the largest lobster-cooking tank in the world. He continues to spend the rest of the article to describe whether or not lobsters can feel pain. The tone he uses implies that he believes that lobster can feel pain and is a little unethical, but he doesn’t this that the right to celebrate at the festival outweighs the negatives. Wallace uses a humorous and interested tone to describe the MLF, which I do enjoy. He also does a great job at establishing his ethos in this article. He provides a vast amount of background knowledge to demonstrate his knowledge on the subject and he spend an even larger time speaking of the scientific aspects of pain and how lobsters feel pain. Wallace uses all of these techniques in order to build a strong relationship with his audience, so that they can relate to his experiences. I enjoyed this article better than his last one because it was more scientifically based and was more than just eating lobsters and how he felt eating them.  

Shipping out for good

“Shipping out” by David Foster Wallace is a very, very long article written about his travels aboard a luxury cruise liner. The first thing I noticed about this article was the length and amount of descriptive words he uses to describe his experiences. I had trouble trying to pick out significant points in this article because of the sheer amount of words and feelings he uses to describe each individual experience along the trip. Wallace also tends to exaggerate on some cases, which can be a writing effect, similar to the way the brochure only told the beautiful side of the cruise, to manipulate the audience to believe what he is trying to say. In addition, it is hard to recount many of the specific events because it is not user friendly going through the PDF file. However even though I personally did not like the length of this piece, he does do a great job of psychoanalyzing each individual experience from all points of view. For example, the cabin cleaning lady, Petra, is so good and meticulous at her job that it causes him to develop a “paranoia.” Most people would be overjoyed to have someone come in behind you and clean your room perfectly, while leaving you a fresh basket of fruit and a mint. Wallace, however, personally is freaked out by the fact that she only cleans when he goes out for 30 minutes or longer. The point of his article was to demonstrate how luxury cruises ae too perfect in the sense that they cause individuals to forget the little things in life a real responsibility. He does point out though that the cruise population is composed of almost entirely rich older folks, or their kin who benefits from their money, Mona. Personally, I did not enjoy this article very much because I found myself getting lost in all the words and I tended to begin to skim. I can see how people enjoy his writing though because it’s relatable due to his in depth analysis of his feelings and what is going on around him, I personally just hate reading.

field work

I am a chronic nail biter. I could not tell you when I first began to bite my nails, but now it has turned into something of a comforting action. In fact, according to WebMD, “about half of all children between the ages 10 and 18 bite their nails at one time or another.” The goal of my experiment is to attempt to go as long as possible without biting my nails. I am attempting to do this with the hopes of ending my bad habit and to prove to other people that it is possible to do it. The issue of nail biting is not actually the biting itself, but apparent lack of self-control. Scientist call nail biting one of the top nervous habits, which includes hair pulling and nose picking. It is a controllable habit but to many people like me you find yourself biting without even knowing. It seems to be more of a comforting thing to me, especially during Virginia Tech football games but that is most a stress relieving habit. In all honesty, I doubt that I will be able to make it the duration of this experiment without biting my nails. I mean in two weeks your nails grow to a length where they need to be trimmed anyways. Even if I fail thought, I think that this will give me the confidence to know I can last more than one day. I have attempted this before but failed horrible, I gave up after the first couple of days. Just the sight of my nails growing out gives me the urge to bite. Maybe after these two weeks then I will be able to stop and I will not looks so much like a child without self-control. 

Unitasking By Jacobs

Today’s piece by A.J. Jacobs was another weird article, which I guess is part of the way he has made a name of himself as a writer. The subject matter of this article was the art of multi-tasking, or making it appear that you are multi-tasking. He starts the article with a personal account of how multi-tasking can be bad for our health, in the most literal way, by being a distraction and potentially causing us to drive into oncoming traffic. He relates to the other article we read by him, in that technology has aided in societies obsession with multi-tasking. It adds a personal aspect to the writing because even as I read this I found myself distracted by many things such as my phone, food and the internet. Additionally he uses a personal tone, as if he is speaking directly to the audience, in many of his example of how easily he gets distracted during everyday things. Jacobs also uses real life facts and experts to demonstrate how multitasking is harmful to our lives. He references a recent UCLA study in that multitasking essentially “rots your skull” by causing tit to constantly switch tasks. However, he also reveals to the audience that no matter how much training and focus he uses, multitasking is inevitable. While attending a meditation class to improve his mental strength, he recalls how during one meditation exercise on of his fellow students breathed like “Darth Vader. With asthma. During heavy foreplay”, which really caught my attention. He reinforces his belief by ended the article how he began, he started by being a distracted driver and ends the story with him going off on a tangent about his son want to play mini golf, which he began during a story about his first experience driving in two years. The structure of his article drives in his point of “uni-tasking” by being separated into sections. I assume the sections made it easier for him to sort his information and reflects how it can be helpful, it made it easier for me to read the long article. 

Overly Document Life analysis

In A.J. Jacobs article “The Overly Documented Life”, he explains to us how the human body is virtually unreliable in the sense of remembering things and how technology can be a possible solution to that. He presents the issue of using technology to document every hour of our lives with a combination of both the dinner table model and Aldous Huxley’s three directions model. He argues that the constant filming of everything done can be extremely beneficial, in the case of trying to find your lost wallet or using it to settle a dispute, but at the same time causes people to be less “real” because they don’t want whatever is about to be done to be filmed. He continues to follow many aspects of the dinner table with stories of how the documentation of his life has caused him to have fights with his wife and how it has helped him with the important things such as proving that he has seen a multitude of celebrities in person. He also always circles back to the fact that each new piece of technology that he uses initially appears to be helpful, but has some sort of hidden catch to it. While trying to find his lost wallet, Jacobs has the ingenious idea to use his Looxcie, a wearable camera that films everyday life, to try to find it. His long and tedious search proved was futile, but his wife succeeded within minutes by personally searching his nightstand.  However, I think he uses more of Huxley’s three-direction model. Since the author is documenting his experiences with these technologies, he offers a lot of personal insight into how effective they really are. He provides information on the subject such as the high costs of these technologies and how they require many other technologies to operate these programs. For example, his Looxcie cost $150, but to store the 186 GB of video he has on it he needs to buy an external hard drive which can cost anywhere from $120-$700. He also applies universal aspects that anyone can relate to such as wanting to remember a conversation to win an argument, being able to stay more healthy, and finding tose lost keys. 

Reference 2

William Ellson. Facebook. Facebook, 26 August 2015. Web. 3 September 2015.

Summary: Will’s purpose in creating this Facebook post was to call to action the people who are friends with him to try harder to prevent these types of tragedies from happening. He doesn’t use fact of evidence but his own ethos to gain people’s attention and respect for what he says. He also links an article that highlights the wonderful lives of the two reports killed in the recent Roanoke shooting, which exemplifies why we need to try harder to prevent shootings.

Critical reflections: Will’s audience is obviously his Facebook friends since they are the only ones able to see his post. This plays a large role is his ability to make his tone less formal and more personal. He is known by everyone as a respectable and educated young man, which allows him to have influence over his peers already without having too many rhetorical devices. Also since he has a small audience of his peers and friends, it allows him to put more emphasis on other appeals such as pathos. He brings connections to the fact that this tragedy was so close to VT and that it’s our job as a community around VT to protect and help the people around us. Compared to the other sources, Will is a lot more formal and less effective to the general public. Since his audience is just his Facebook friends it allow him to write in such a way. Like the other source, he appeals heavily to people’s emotions but doesn’t establish his ethos as much through fact and numbers because it already has been established.

Quotes: “I am a gun owner and responsible shooter myself, but something must be done to prevent these tragedies for occurring.”  

“It is not just the responsibility of one individual, it is an issue that we must all address, as a community, as a country”

Reference 1

Perez-Pena, Richard. "Problems Plague System to Check Gun Buyers." The New York Times.        The New York Times, 27 July 2015. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.                                                                      <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/problems-riddle-system-to-check-buyers                         of-guns.html?ref=topics&_r=0>.

Summary: The author of this article aims to show people that the background check system to purchase guns is a very flawed system. He believes that the system should be fixed before any other legislation considering gun laws is created. He uses a multitude of information and data to put his point across to all types of people. For example he points out that if the system wasn’t so flawed then the SC church shooting and the LA Theater shooting could have been prevented. It was proven that both those men did not fit the guidelines to purchase a gun, but through inadequate record keeping they obtained weapons. Also he uses hard figures to demonstrate that something can be done, stating that after the VT massacre federally prohibited buyers tripled from 2006-2014. The author wrote the article in an effort to make citizens push for better gun buyer screenings, as a sure fire way to prevent some people from getting their hands on guns.

Critical Reflection: I believe the author’s audience is as many citizens across the nation as possible. He is writing for the New York Times, which is a very well read newspaper, so he must try to appeal to as many people as possible. Since he is trying to appeal to as many people as possible that causes him to support his claim from all different perspectives. He adds in information from prominent gun rights activist the NRA and anti-gun supporters like the Brady campaign to show that many sides believe that this is a good start to the solution. Also this writer works with the editors of the NY Times, so it’s safe to assume that the article was revised so that many people could relate to it and that the article is written well. This article is much unbiased compared to other resources that may be trying to argue one side of the story, such as the Progressive Cynic’s article.

Quotes: “if Mr. Houser had been involuntarily commited in his state, he could not have passed a background check” (11)

“From 2006 to 2014, the total number of prohibited buyers in the federal database tripled, to 12.9 million” (17)

“Mr. Roof, who was captured after the Charlestown shooting, was able to buy a gun because of sloppy record-keeping, officials say” (23)

Rhetorical Analysis Project beginning

The subject that I chose to discuss is the issue on gun control, which now seems to be a very apparent issue. I aim to show both sides of the argument, whether gun laws should remain how they are or should they be more restrictive, through the use of formal and informal references. I chose this discussion because it is a hot topic in politics at the current moment and has been for many recent years. Also it’s a personal issue because I look to be a future gun owner and come from a family where hunting was a popular past time, my father owns more than 5 firearms himself ranging from .22 caliber pistols to .50 caliber muzzle loaders. People who argue for stricter gun laws aim for laws that either restrict the American people from owning guns, or make it increasingly difficult for them to purchase guns. People against stricter guns laws argue that the right bear arms is a constitutional right and should not be hindered. This topic has a large range of discourse due to its wide range of arguments and reasons. In John. R. Lott’s 2013 book “More Guns, Less Crime”, he tells how even throughout the years gun ownerships still continues to rise throughout all groups of people in the US. I chose this book because in order for his book to be creditable and published, all the information and facts that he provides must be proven and unbiased so that he may reach out to a bigger audience. The less subjective and more factual his book is, the better reviews and better sales for the author. Also there is an article in the New York Times about the problems in the background check system. This is one of the major proposed ways to begin gun control rather than strict gun laws, and being in the New York Times it would be viewed by potentially over 1 million people. The Progressive Cynic, which can be considered an extremist political page, demonstrates the argument that many people have for why guns should be control and why people who argue against gun-control are misinformed. For my final reference bring up my good friend Will. Amidst the tragedy that happened in Roanoke last week, he made a Facebook post which showed the beliefs of many Americans on this issue. Many of the citizens are not psychotic, but responsible gun owner with good intentions and no matter how hard this issue may be to solve, it is our responsibility as a country and community to do something to protect the people around us.