Compare and Contrast

              We generally compare and contrast to view two or more points' similarities and differences. When we write a compare and contrast essay these two or more points are easier to see. We can see how the points are very related to each other or even how different they are. For example, two sisters living in America for over 30 years and having two different views.
             The essay "Two Ways to Belong in America" by Bharati Mukherjee. Mukherjee write her life story of how her and her sister lives in America. She writes about the 2 different life styles they live, and their reaction to the immigration changes. Her sister Mira was stuck in her Indian culture while Bharati finds her new set of cultures.
              Bharati married a half American half Canadian man and traveled around the country finding new cultures and trying to fit in. While her sister Mari married an Indian man, lived in one place having the same job, and hoping to move back to India when she retires. Most of the essay describes how different they are. However in the end they agree on how they felt to the immigration changes "I felt then the same sense of betrayal that Mira feels now. I will never forget the pain of that sudden turning,..."(Mukherjee 275). Although they had many differences they agreed on one thing.
             The story focused on manly their differences, but they had some moments where they agreed with each other. I agree with both sisters side. I think that sometimes you should seek out others cultures and learn them, however you should keep your own culture as well to a certain extent. I understand how the two sisters feel and there was nothing wrong with their decisions.

WATCH OUT!

          The picture here provides us with ads that tell us about the data sharing plan, that give us unlimited text and talk. However I wonder how many of the pictures were actually taken by the people making the ads or taken at randomly and without question on your social media sites? Google recently came out with new policy programs that they're allowed to use your pictures on ads without your consent. you can opt out of the service, but who really knows about this? Our parents who really don't know about the internet are oblivious to this. So people like them, or anyone in general who doesn't know about this, get their face on an advertisement if google wanted to. The video here explains things better, and tell you how to opt out! So, react fast people! 

DEPRE$$ION

            Steiner's thesis is that CAPS doesn't have enough money to take care of all the college students with depression. Steiner believes CAPS is not funded enough to take care of the students timely, and in that “time” something can happen. Steiner first tells us how depression is really common amongst us college students. Then she goes on the saying that seeking counseling is the best. However that is really hard to do because of the lack of funding that goes into CAPS. Steiner says that lots of students cannot get very good appointment times, and says during that period of time anything can happen, and it can be crucial.  

           

            I like the first half of Steiner’s essay, where she starts to talk about depression amongst college student. How it can affect anyone, even to the least unexpected. She describes the symptom of depressions and the scary outcomes of it. However I do not like her endings of the essay. I think Steiner should’ve just kept on talking about the students instead of “help centers” that need more money to help them. This made the essay’s main idea/thesis about the help centers that need the funding to help the college students. I think that Steiner should’ve just talked about many ways to help with depression. She touched on it a little towards the end, but it was too little. Steiner’s essay should’ve focused on how to fix these problems with depression rather than talk about the help centers needing help. 

Are you smarter than a sports player?

                Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, discusses the differences between street smart and intellectually smart. Graff says being smart is knowing how to: make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the view of others and so on. Graff is saying in his thesis above that being street smart is more important. He’s problem is that schools do not take these street smart into account while they teach.  

                Gerald Graff uses many examples to support his thesis. Graff manly uses his personal life and sports to support his thesis.  He believes that sports players have the attribute of being street smart. They have to move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the view of the players to become a good sports player. Graff thinks the world of sports brings stuff such as: arguments, debates, problems for analysis, and intricate statistics. However he undermines his point by saying the school doesn’t bring this attribute at all. He doesn’t consider the fact that schools can have debate teams, learn statistics, and also learn about arguments in English class. Overall in his writing he believes that sports players, magazine, articles are smart because there all have an attribute of street smart.

                I do not agree with his thesis. I do believe that having street smart is important, however I do not think one is better than the other. I believe that you should have a balance of both.  Having more of one side is not good. 

OMG LOL LMAO BRB !@#$

               Peggy Orenstein and Steven Pinker both discussed of how the internet/social media is affecting us, the people, today. Peggy Orenstein talks about how the social media is letting one “promote” themselves in front of people. Orenstein states in her article that, facebook, twitter, and other social medias, makes people care a lot more about what others think about them.  Orenstein is basically saying people lie about themselves to others to gain the attention. Steven Pinker believes that the internet is making us dumb. He is saying that we are becoming too dependent on it. He says in the end that people are still “smart” due to the internet being around.

                I agree with both of them. I believe that the internet/social media is making us both dumb, and fake about ourselves.  Orenstein’s and Pinker’s use of ethos, pathos, and logic persuaded my thoughts.   They both site famous people/articles to strengthen their arguments. They both use statistics they gathered to prove their thesis. Also Peggy Orenstein made are article in first person saying I lots of times. This let the readers connect with her and were emotionally attached with her throughout the article.  

Obesity

David Zinczenko playing as: David Z.

Radley Balko Playing as: Radley B.

David Z: Hello Radley, I have read your article

Radley B: Good afternoon David, It seems we both have different view regarding obesity

David Z: Indeed we do

Radley B: You believe that we should help obesity, by changing around the fast food industries.

David Z: And you believe that people should just help themselves.

Radley B: Yes, if we or the government, kept helping the people they will never learn to do thing on their own.

Radley B: There is such thing as “parenting”. The parents should know that the food is bad for their kids, and should not feed them fast food so often, because they’re lazy.

David Z: But some families cannot be helped like my situation.

Radley B: How many of the kids in our country have your situation though, David.

Radley B: And nowadays, schools have come out to serve both lunch and dinner for free, for children with circumstances like yours. 

David Z: I still believe, however that the pricing and the advertisement can’t be helped and they are lured in to buying fast foods.

Radley B: A big mac meal costs around 8$. An average cost to make dinner is around 30$ for 4 people. If you do the math it is cheaper to make your own food. It had that people are so dependent on health insurance and government doing stuff for them that, they stopped caring about their own responsibilities David.  

David Z: I see what you’re saying. I will take your opions in to account.

I Say: I agree to parts of what Radlet B. says. I think people/Parents should stop being lazy and start taking care of their own/child's health. 

Social Phobia

       The short narrative, Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, talks about Orwell's incident while he was working as a British Imperial. His job often made him act violently to show authority to the villagers that he was on patrol for.  His narrative starts out when an elephant went lose and starts making a mayhem in his village.
      After reading I Thought to myself two questions: Why did he shoot the elephant?, and what would I have done if that was me in that situation. Orwell shoots the elephant because of social phobia. Social phobia is a fear of being judged, laughed at, or left out, so he/she acts in a certain way to satisfy the social crowd, even though it was not their intention. Orwell feared being laughed at. He knew if he hadn't shot the elephant he would have become a laughing stock in his village. He knew his morals told him not to shoot the elephant. He knew at the moment the elephant was peaceful and the situation could have been taken care of easily. However his fear has taken over him, causing to shoot the elephant.
     After reading Orwell's narrative, it made me think about myself as a reader: What would I have done if that was me? I think people in general, in our society nowadays, all have a bit of social phobia or the feeling of wanting to "fit it". If I was in Orwell's shoes I would have shot the elephant. We can see in people nowadays that they would dress differently, talk differently, and even act differently just to fit in to a social group. Whether you like to believe it or not, we all do. I know that if I was in Orwell's shoes I would have shot the elephant to make the crowd happy.
     Orwell uses many descriptive language to portray images inside the readers head. He also tells the readers how he felt during that situation. He gave the readers a picture of what he had saw. Comparing himself to a toad under a steam roller, or the stomped Indian man to a skinned rabbit shows the readers how dangerous the elephant was. Later on Orwell describes the elephant as being grandmotherly. This give the readers a picture of a harmless elephant that can't even hurt a fly.  He describes his feeling of shooting the elephant to Imperialism. Orwell expressed his hatred towards Imperialism in the beginning of the narrative. The thought of extending a country's power by using military force bothered him. Readers now can tell how Orwell felt about the shooting. Him comparing the shooting to his thought on Imperialism tells us that he was really bothered by shooting the elephant, and even hate it himself for doing it.