Making a Blog Work

        Creating a blog is not that difficult. I was surprised at how simple it really was. Compared to last semester, where the blog was made up of just posts, this blog was much more interesting to work on. Having the visuals was great. Wallpaper, images, and font were nice to design and change. This blog took a lot of creativity, time, and effort. Following the directions from the handout made creating this blog very straight forward. One thing that was different from last semester was the fact that this blog could be viewed by anyone with an Internet connection, which was not possible before. This particular aspect really made me think about my audience. Scanning in pictures from the book and downloading them from the camera proved to be challenging, and definitely took several tries before it actually worked. Making the posts themselves was the most time consuming aspect, otherwise everything else was artistic inclination and technical work.

Media's Effect on Me

      

         Media influences me a lot on a day to day basis. In the modern day and age it would be difficult to get away from computers, phones, televisions, and other electronics. A type of media that is pretty addictive nowadays is the television. A lot of people watch it probably just for entertainment. Not all TV is necessarily negative because some of it can be educational. By far the most popular gadget out there is the computer. No one can go around without seeing it being used at the cafe or the library. Overall I think that the computer is positive because it is like the television, the phone, and Wal-Mart all rolled into one. Telephones can be useful, but mostly I think that they are used for entertainment. Technology is commonplace almost everywhere, and I think that it can make life easier when it comes to studying or socializing. However, there is a negative aspect to always using technology because it can make people rely on their gadgets and stop using other sources of information. Books and face-to-face interaction no longer seem as prevalent as they used to be. The reason why I made this post was to show that technology plays a big role in people's lives, and that it can be close to impossible to avoid.

How Diverse Are We?

       In the essay "People Like Us," David Brooks talks about how American society is not as diverse as people think it is. He states that people like to associate with others that are similar to them, which makes them exclude people that have differences. I agree because a billionaire would never befriend a homeless person, or a school teacher would never live next to a drug lord. It would just be weird and make life more complicated. The most powerful class system out there is based on money. It is never too difficult to tell social classes apart because of the clothes people wear and the neighborhoods that they live in. Sure it makes life easier to associate with people that share their interests because it can be less aggravating. I agree with the ending of the essay that states that new experiences can be beneficial in some ways.

A Different Perspective

      

This cartoon is not particularly funny, but it does express how many people feel about immigration in America. Being an immigrant myself I cannot say that I am against immigration. It seems that this cartoon was targeted towards people that were actually born here. One thing that is good about people moving to America from other countries is the fact that a lot of them are actually really smart and want to live here because they are able to get higher paying jobs. This is not always the case, but look at Albert Einstein and Arnold Schwarzenegger, they are immigrants but they also have achieved a lot while living in America. It looks like the people in this cartoon worry about immigrant's effect on America's economy. This really sounds like they are just trying to find a scapegoat to blame for every one's problems. Compared to Europe, which is where I am from, America sure has a lot more immigrants living here. In Europe it is sort of the opposite because everyone puts a lot of stock into their family trees and ethnicity. Overall I think that immigration is always going to be a big aspect of America, but it is up to the government and not the immigrants to find ways to regulate it.

http://www.leftycartoons.com/wp-content/uploads/immigration_history_color.jpg

Generation M Squared

     

       The film about Generation M Squared pretty much proved to me what I already knew: that teens like technology and are always using it. I thought that it was interesting how these teens socialize via their phones and computers, which can sometimes feel as if they are not present but are somewhere else. One of the teens said that once she got a new cell phone her grades got worse, and another admitted that he stayed in his room and played video games a lot. I can understand that technology is fun, but I think that it is important not to overuse it. While watching the film I was surprised that they could actually text, be on the computer, and play video games all at the same time. I also use technology a lot, but probably not as much as the kids shown on the video because I do not text, or use Facebook all that much. The computer is great, though, and it is amazing that I can listen to music, play games, and look up information whenever I want with a click of a button. Like the teens shown in the video I also like to watch TV, and DVR is awesome because it allows me to skip any commercials. I am neither a technology junky nor a Luddite, although there is a lot more pressure to be the former because it is more popular these days.