The International Center For Media and The Public Agenda's article “Students Addicted To Social Media” in Signs of Life In the USA claims that Students of all ages have a difficult time coping with everyday life if they are not able to communicate through via technology. For the students taking the surveys during this time, a majority have said they had felt alone and secluded from their friends even if they were at school with hundreds of other classmates. Explaining the feelings that these student would have when not able to communicate through social media was said to be unbearable, somewhat like having withdrawals and becoming very miserable such has the same behaviours that come from alcohol or other substance abuse. “We were surprised how many students admitted that they were ‘incredibly addicted’ to media” ( Moeller qtd in International Center For Media and Public Agenda 483). In my expansion essay I will use “Students addicted to Social Media” for the discussion of knowing how social media can become very dangerous to an individuals health and may cause a high risk of symptoms very similar to those taking substance drugs, that does not completely mean social media is bad for all teens and adults. we may turn to social media because it is an easy escape an emotional attachment and even an easier way to make friends. Using social media as a 15 minute break is a useful way to have the time go by faster. But, using social media for 3 hours+ is a dangerous lifestyle to live. Also, Consuming so much time online is very harmful with most families, pouring attention to a different object.

Reading for a second time, "How to Tell a True War Story" by Tim O'Brien, I have gain a better understanding of this short essay. O'Brien talks about having a friend in Vietnam who went by the name of Bob Kiley, or better known.. "Rat". Kiley write a beautiful letter to a his friend's sister because he had past away during the war. Kiley tells her what an amazing brother she had and how this guy was a number one pal and comrade among all the men. Telling her how her brother would always volunteer for stuff nobody else had any interest in or were too scared to just do. Stuff like night patrols or doing recon, and also telling her how he was a little crazy, but in a good way. He was the type of man you knew was crazy in the head, but you would absolutely trust with your life.. a tremendous human being. A few lines down in the letter , words start to become very serious. Kiley starts to pour his emotion through his pencil, expressing his true feelings for his friend who died. Writing how he loved him a lot, saying how he was his best friend in the whole world. So, O'Brien goes on to speak about how a true story is never moral.. "It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things man have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from a the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie" (65) I agree a lot with what O'Brien has to say about this short story. I was surprised when reading this story how true it actually was. A lot of what O'Brien has to say through out these few short pages really opened my eyes.

Sample Proposal:

I plan on revising my second essay, which analyzed both positive and negative effects of social media for the lives of adults, teens, and even children. I thought it was best to select this essay for expansion because I feel like I did not go fully in-depth as I would have liked to with my claims compared to the authors. In “ Virtual Popularity Isn’t Cool -- It’s Pathetic, ” Ian Daly claims that social media is a distraction and can be easily addicting, causing a separation from the real world. My intention was to write about the equality between the Negative and Positive effects of social media to its users, but I had focused more on Daly’s claim and less on mine. I think it would be much more interesting to hear both sides of knowing positive side effects and negative side effects through social media and networking, and to also know why  children, teens and adults are so fixate between online popularity and communication.

Key Terms:

• Negative effects of social media

• Positive effects of social media

• Social media marketing

• Virtual popularity

• Social networking addiction

• Social media addiction research

• Age influences on social networking

Kid Kustomers

In “Kid Kustomers,” Eric Schlosser discusses the role of children in advertising and marketing schemes. Children have big potential for marketers because they have the “nag factor” or “pester power” needed to convince parents or other adults to buy products as well. Even products that are not directly meant for children have been marketed in their direction, such as alcohol and cigarette brands. Schlosser writes about how the Joe Camel cartoon character, a representative of Camel cigarettes, became a familiar figure to young children. He reports, “A 1991 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found nearly all American six-year-olds could identify Joe Camel, who was just as familiar to them as Mickey Mouse” (223). This research is a shocking example of how children are targeted by commercials and then view the product being sold as kid-friendly or tempting. Moreover, Schlosser says, that the information found on the Internet by marketers was used to improve their business tactics to attract more kids. In addition he discusses the persistent nag, which is a constantly repeated plea that children use to persuade their parents to buy things for them. Children learn this method by playing on a parent’s guilt,

Schlosser argues, and marketers learn how to create products that convince kids to use this and other nagging methods. Bringing up the idea that these marketers are exploiting children, in that they are not able to comprehend the idea of advertising so they are sucked in to it. I agree that children make up such a big part of the buying market that advertisers need to put a focus on them, and I think that this will only continue to grow with the continuance of childhood technology. Ten years ago, it was unheard of to have a cell phone before high school, maybe even before college, but nowadays kids as young as eight or nine have iPhones. The increase in technology use by children will just fuel the children’s advertising industry even more, by hitting them at an even younger age. and even with food companies, The best thing to do when it comes to toddlers and the weekly shop is to leave them at home. You can’t make sensible decisions when buying food when there are 2 or 3 kids wrecking your head looking for  muffins, and candy! Every time  I went to the store with my mother when me and my brothers were much younger , I noticed she ended up spending a lot more money than intended and forget half the stuff she needed.

Finishing the book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, I have been researching more about racism from the 1930s to present time and studying historical events taking place in the book. Many African American people lived in the southern states. During that time, racism reached its highest point. For instance, the whites treated the African American very poorly because they thought that the African American were lower than them. Therefore, the blacks had to fight for the right to be treated equally. As a result, black people had to face the Jim Crow Laws and the Ku Klux Klan.  During the 1930’s, black people had to suffer through the Jim Crow Laws. For instance, many Christian ministers said that the white people were the chosen people and the black people were the hated ones that were to be servants and were not to be treated equally. For example, a black male could not shake hands with a white male because it would look like they were socially equal. A black male may also be accused of rape if he shakes hands with a white woman. Another example is that black and white people were not supposed to eat together. However, if they did eat together, white people were always going to be served first. There would also always be some kind of divider placed between the black and white people so that they were separated. In addition, to keep the black and white people separated, there would be signs showing where black people were allowed to go.

As Angelou recounts memories of her childhood in Stamps, she manages to maintain a double-edged view of the South. Although she is careful to let the readers know of humorous occurrences, she balances this throughout with reminders of how entrenched racism dehumanizes and terrifies those who are regarded as being at the bottom of the hierarchy. She describes the complete segregation of the town and how African-Americans have been taught to dread the ‘whitefolks’ and is trained by Momma to never be insolent (because of the fear of retribution). I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings stands as a testament to the bravery of those who have been oppressed but not silenced by this deeply racist society. As the eponymous caged bird, that is taught the necessity of living a restricted life through fear, Angelou’s work shows a refusal to be silenced. Though Maya struggles with insecurity and displacement throughout her childhood, she has a remarkable number of strong female role models in her family and community. Momma, Vivian, Grandmother Baxter, and Bertha Flowers have very different personalities and views on life, but they all chart their own paths and manage to maintain their dignity and self-respect. None of them ever capitulates to racial indignities.

SUMMARY:

During the past week in class, I have read Maya Angelou's " I know why the caged bird sings" learning that Maya is filled with a sense of inferiority in comparison to the white girls in her town, believing herself to be uglier and just generally less competent than her white counterparts. Her brother, Bailey, a more well-adjusted and confident kid, often sticks up for his sister when others attack her. Eventually, when Maya's about eight, their father reappears seemingly out of the blue and brings the kids to live with their mother in St. Louis. While this might seem like an improvement for the kids, it quickly proves not to be. Their mom, Vivian, works in casinos and is taken up with a man the kids call Mr. Freeman, who will eventually rape Maya. Freeman stands trial and is found guilty, only to end up brutally murdered, most likely by some members of Maya's family or someone acting on their behalf.  As a testimony to the trials of growing up as a Negro facing racial and gender discrimination in a rural community in the 1930’s, Angelou reflected, “It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life.  It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense.

RESPONSE:

Maya Angelou’s tenderness may come from being a woman; the strength and courage conveyed in her narrative emanates from within her heart and soul as a testimony to her own experiences.  The reader can feel that strength, especially from Marguerite and Momma as well as from Bailey and Uncle Willie.  As a young woman finding her way in life, Marguerite defies racism by being the first black conductor of a streetcar in San Francisco. Maya Angelou’s tenderness may come from being a woman; the strength and courage conveyed in her narrative emanates from within her heart and soul as a testimony to her own experiences. Angelou’s writing is reflective of her life and the difficulties she suffered as a young black child. Children feel at times that simply because they are young, they have no control over their. Maya Angelou is so inspirational to many people so reading about her childhood and adolescence was really special. I found her autobiography tragic and also hopeful at the same time. Things have changed a lot since Angelou's childhood, such as segregation, and colorism in the black community (to an extent). The fact that she went through that period of history and was alive to see the first Black president in US history is just wonderful.

SUMMARY:

How much do you think Social Media has affected society?

Technology is one of the most persuasive studies changing place in the twenty-first century. The unchallenging , and effortless use of new technologies has risen the significance and welfare of social networking. People are enlarging their ability to share  with other groups more quickly and maximizing productivity. Nonetheless the use of social networks has changed how people share or exchange information, their ways of organizing and carrying out correlation and correspondence led in some ways the loss of our privacy.. and although disappointing, it is true that people sometimes prefer to have additional interactions with friends through a social network, calls or texting than to be seen in person. The way people used to have coffee with friends on weekends, meet to chat about an important event that happened or just hang out with an old friend seem to have been lost along with the importance of real friendship. Now, people have more friends on Facebook that they used to have when social networks were not widespread, and probably they do not know 80% of their Facebook friends. In the article of Ian Daly “Virtual Popularity Isn’t cool-It’s Pathetic”, he writes “Take a good, long look at your friend list and ask yourself how many of these people would meet you for a beer- or how many you would actually want to meet for a beer.” (481)

RESPONSE:

Men and women of all ages want to feel as if they are significant, connected and more important to others as being independent. This controls the direction of fixation in a sense that no one wants to feel abandoned , but the price you pay for feeling included jeopardizes aspects of life that are far more reputable. People never really feel that they are missing out on something because they no longer give the things that are actually significant much importance. Ian Daly believes that if you resist the allure, you will be vindicated. Social networks inhibit actual relationships. The social network sites are time consuming, ‘it’s like a 24-hour obsession that you have to update and take care of. “There aren’t too many benefits to this site that can’t be realized via email and telephone, “says Daly (481). The author in a sense treasures old fashion communication and sincere relationships...