Materialistic 'Merica

As Americans, our culture has taught us that "one cannot get on well in the world without money". The cold reads we discussed in class this week opened my eyes to our society's materialistic-ness. In the shorter piece of the cold reads, the author discussed how people either "earn a precarious and irksome livelihood by... laborious employment" or not be tied down to a job, but still having to depend on the "good-will... of others". Basically, you can spend your whole life working hard and long, to put a roof over your head, so you can live comfortably, or you can attempt to enjoy life, but you won't have any money to travel anywhere or to buy what you want.

Last night, my mom and I watched Into the Wild (which was based on a true story). Christopher Mccandless, the main character, lived a pretty decent life. He graduated from Emory and was possibly going to Harvard for law school, his parents even wanted to buy him a new car. Most people I know would be elated at the thought of a brand new car, but Chris was not a materialistic person, so he rejected the gift from his parents. He then donated his life savings to charity and set off on his "great Alaskan adventure". Chris had the right idea in the beginning, but he took it a bit far. Yes, our society is highly materialistic, and maybe we shouldn't base all of our worth on what we own, but that does not mean one should completely abandon civilization and live in a bus in the Alaskan wilderness. What we should take from Chris' story is that there is more to life than shiny new cars, and the rank of the college you graduate from. Don't focus all your time and energy on getting the job that will get you paid the most, save some of it for adventures, and experiences, and your friends and family. When you're dead, your car won't even known your gone, but the people you've encountered on your travels and your family are the ones who will keep you in their hearts and remember you.

The Beauty of Technology

I love iPhones. I love their ability to distract you from what ever you are doing without you even noticing. It all happens at the speed of light- first you hear the ping of a text message, you decide to quickly open the message, but now, since you already read the message you have to reply. Once your fingers are wrapped around the device, you begin to formulate and type your response...you realize it is imperative to find a witty gif to accompany your response. You scroll through Tumblr, Google images, and Twitter, and finally (in a perfect span of time- not too short ( or people will know you horde gifs) and not too long (so you don't seem like an inexperienced noob who can't find gifs)), you find a gif to send back. After you've sent your gif, you remember a funny account you passed by on Twitter, so you return to Twitter, find the account, and you start to scroll through their tweets. You tell yourself, "only 5 minutes", but then you refuse to exit out of Twitter because you have invested too much time on this account! All of a sudden, a Snapchat notification drops down from the top of your screen and its taunting you to click on it. You have to make the quick decision on whether or not to tap it before it disappears. You have made the decision. You open the snap, and in doing so, you have engaged yourself in hours of making ugly faces and creating snapchat masterpieces with the app's vast and varied color palette. You hear another ping, you glance up and you see a text from "❤︎ Mommy "... uh oh. Her text zaps you back into reality. You check the time on your phone and wonder where the four hours you were supposed to be spending on homework went. That's the beauty of technology.

Everything is Not as it Seems

Science is responsible for all of our medicine and luxuries today, such as light bulbs, TVs, cars and much more, but are extraneous experiments such as the glowing tobacco plants from Chet Raymo's piece necessary for our society to flourish? Scientists have to learn their boundaries and not experiment on things just for the heck of it. They need to tread with caution, because “the unexamined quest for knowledge is hemmed with peril” (Raymo 216).  Not only do scientists need to be cautious, but the consumers who use their products. For example, after Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium, people went wild with it and performed “radium dances”, they used it in “health spas”, and drank “radium-spiked liquid” (Raymo 213). These people drank and coated themselves with this chemical which they were just introduced to, they did not take the time to look into any possible side effects.

            Whenever I decide to try out a new product or food I like to look into the negative and positive benefits of it. For example I recently discovered stevia which is a type of sugar from the stevia plant. This sugar contains zero calories, but it is not an artificial sweetener like Splenda. At first glance, stevia sounds like the perfect solution for dieters and people who are trying to eat healthier, but as I looked into the product I realized that maybe I shouldn’t be dumping stevia into all my foods. Stevia was banned in the United States in the 1990s, but the FDA reapproved it in 2008 (INH). After its approval, companies such as Sprite and Coca-Cola immediately leapt at the opportunity to use it in their drinks. Did they jump onto this trend too soon? Stevia intake has been linked to liver mutations, fertility problems, and distruptions in energy metabolism (INH). After some research, I have come to the conclusion that stevia is okay to be consumed in proper amounts, but it should not be over used, like radium was at first.  

Sources:

http://institutefornaturalhealing.com/2012/07/is-stevia-bad-for-you/

WWJD?

Today in the 21^st century, we do not hear much about child labor in first world countries, and for that we are lucky. As for the time when Florence Kelley gave her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, this was not the case; Child labor laws were either not very effective, or not there at all across the United States. Once upon a time, “two million children under the age of sixteen years” had to work long, grueling hours to be the “breadwinners” of their families (Kelley 1-2, 12). Instead of snuggling with their stuffed, toy, pink elephants in their beds, “little… girls will be working eleven hours at night”, which is so sad ): (Kelley 29-30). The facts and examples about the sufferings of young, innocent children Kelley shares with her audience bring out their empathy and guilt. For example, she explains how while people are sleeping “several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms”(Kelley 18-20). Also, Kelley’s repetition of the phrase, “Tonight while we sleep,” many times in her speech emphasizes the fact that young kids are out in the night slaving away and a good majority of the population doesn’t even notice.  At this point everyone in the room is probably thinking, “What would Jesus do?” while they debate with their consciences how they can help put this terror to an end. Her persuasive rhetoric is effective in convincing her listeners to answer her call to action, which is to give women the right to vote.

Equally Ever After

This week in class we discussed Brent Staples' piece, "Black Men and Public Space". I felt that our class had a good discussion about how boys and girls act in public versus private spaces, which can be related to how Staples writes about how races, specifically blacks, have to change their actions in public. In Staples' piece he provides personal accounts about how he has to change his behavior in public to be  slightly more accepted by the social norm. For example, Staples has to "whistle melodies form Beethoven and Vivaldi" to reduce the tension he brings to the streets while on his evening strolls (Staples 207). The author has to change himself in order to make sure other people will be be more comfortable around him. He has to prove that he is not aggressive or a thug, which is a stereotype commonly associated to African Americans. This all leads to my next point that stereotypes are a major reason why many people act differently in different situations.

Preconceived ideas that people have about different races or genders influence their behaviors. For example girls have been taught since a young age that they are supposed to be polite and proper, so in public girls usually won't burp or fart or even blow their noses very loudly in fear of others, especially boys, thinking they are repulsive or undesirable. On the other hand, when girls are around their close friends, family, or by themselves they, contrary to popular belief, fart, burp, pick their noses, and what not (Yes we poo too, in case you're wondering). Likewise, boys have to keep up their macho facades in public, whether it be burp-offs, or bragging about work outs, when in private they might really have a sweet sensitive side. Also, maybe, just maybe, at home they like to blast Britney Spears really loudly and dance around their rooms, at least thats what i like to think. Moving on to races and cultures, a lot of cultures are stereotyped in one way or another. Often times, people like to try to break away from the labels that have been slapped onto them, which in turn causes them to conform towards societies' social norm. For instance, some Asians don't want to come off as too smart so people won't expect every single one of us to be the next Confucius. Blacks may not want to come off as too aggressive because they don't want people to associate them to some of the negative stereotypes of Black people.

There is no solution to stereotypes or racism yet, but people are trying. I like to think of hipsters as an example of people's efforts to bring stereotyping to an end. Hipsters, according to Urban Dictionary, are people who "reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers". Although it is a conscientious effort to break away from "mainstream" people, eventually most people will cross over to the "hipster side" and it will become the norm, then new hipsters will form, and it all leads to a never ending cycle of conformity. Hopefully one day the cycle can be broken and we can all live equally ever after. 

Mom vs. Dad

This week in class we had seminars on Sarah Vowell’s and Brad Manning’s essays titled “Shooting Dad”, and “Arm Wrestling with my Father”, respectively. Both of these essays had a similar father-child relationship theme. During our class seminars, we discussed our relationships with our fathers and our mothers. I have a very different relationship with my dad than I do with my mom. For instance, I am a daddy’s girl. My dad is super sweet to me (besides when he is trying to get me to study for ACTs) and he spoils me, where as my mom is not afraid to tell it how it is. If my mom is mad, she’s mad and will make it obvious, my dad, on the other hand, will try to ignore it. Another example of how my relationship with my parents differs is that I get in a lot more fights with my mom than my dad. My theory is that I can be more open with my mom about things, for example I can rant to her and gossip and all that, and all that shared information is a basis for more topics to argue about. In contrast, my dad would rather hear about how I did on my tests, rather than what my friends and I do on the weekends. Finally, another major way my parents’ relationships differ with me is, my mom will go shopping with me for clothes and basically anything, while my dad only handles electronics and sports equipment.

Even thought I have a different bond with my mom than with my dad, my love for them is the same.

                                

                                 I always see this picture around the internet and I find it funny!

Donald Zolan

Donald Zolan

The warm, afternoon sun caresses the child
As she strolls through the vast sea of yellow dandelions.
The cool summer grass tickles her delicate feet.
She joyously plucks the dandelions from the ground
Believing she can capture their beauty forever.

But she doesn't know.

The child spends all day in the sun

Enjoying the peace and tranquility.

Only the jubilant songs of the Robins break the silence.

The sun's warm rays grace every inch of the meadow.

The child is happy, she has no worries.

But she doesn't know.

A gentle summer breeze carries the scent of moss and soil

From the dark woods behind her.

Her mother's warnings about the woods ring in her innocent ears

So she does not dare to venture into the dark forest. 

She is safe.

But she doesn't know.

One day she will grow tired 

Of picking the same old weeds, from the same old field.

The flame of desire and unrest will ignite and grow.

She will turn against her mother's word,

And enter the woods. 

There she discovers, from the decaying leaves and tree stumps,

Beauty does not last forever.

The woods are dark and damp. She cannot see where she is headed.

She becomes lost. She worries that she won't find her way home. 

She hears the crisp snap of branches behind her. She is not safe. 

The world beyond the field is terrifying. 

Now she knows.