Final Project

I created my own personal website that entails all the different types of personalities I have on a daily basis. Here is a link to my website that defines my true Identity on the web.   http://identityofme.weebly.com/index.html

Essay 2

Stephen James

Professor Mulliken

English 1113

4 October 2011

The Voters’ influence

            The two articles, “Stupid Voters Enable Broken Government” and “Beliefs and Voting Decisions: A Test of the Pivotal Voter Model”, both advocate the voters’ interest towards influencing the government. The main controversy between the two articles is whether or not they will play a critical role in the outcome of elections and if the voter’s are pivotal in the election outcomes then the article is exploring the effects of the voter’s decisions. The position of the article, Stupid Voter’s Enable Broken Government, advocates that voters are making drastic decisions throughout their voting which is causing the government to fall apart, and the second article, Beliefs and Voting Decisions: A Test of the Pivotal Voter Model, advocates that the voter’s benefit from the election are connected with the voter’s chances of importance to the outcome of the election. The two sources both deal with the question of whether or not the decisions that the voter’s make are effective or not towards the government and the results of how the government is affected.

            The two articles both convey rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos but they also have false ethos, extreme pathos, and even some logical fallacies. The article Stupid Voter’s Enable Broken Government by LZ Granderson includes a incident about a former mayor, Marion Barry, who served time in prison and advertised a commercial with him with a crack pipe in his mouth saying “B**** set me up” which convinced the black community to vote for him because by blaming the crack pipe in his mouth was the white people’s fault. After Marion Barry was involved in the commercial and after serving time in prison he still got re-elected for mayor and this is an example that conveys ethos because the fact Marion Barry had taken advantage o his voters due to the fact that he was portrayed as a good man to his voters but a criminal on the inside strengthens Granderson’s credibility because this example supports his argument of how the voters’ enable broken government. The other article, Beliefs and Voting Decisions: A Test of the Pivotal Voter Model, by John Duffy and Margit Tavits includes ethos as well because they had created experiments in their voter model. The voters were more likely to vote when they thought that their vote was going to count towards an election. This is an example of ethos because the fact that the two graduate students had proved something through an experiment that had been tested strengthens the author’s credibility.

The article by LZ Granderson includes false ethos in a way because he is not an expert on information about the government because he is a Sports Center contributor. The majority of his ethos is false because even though he provides facts about incidents he based his claim from his own opinion about each incident or election in the article. The scholarly article by the Stanford graduates did not really have any false ethos whatsoever because they had provided information to support they claim and the evidence that they had provided was hard evidence. The audience of the article by LZ Granderson does not respect his claim about government because he essentially is blunt about his reasoning and insulting his audience by stating “A lot of us are just plain stupid” (Granderson) as well but, his motives are excellent. The article by the graduate students had an audience that also involved the voters and how they vote or if they even vote at all but their audience would be more subject to respect their claims because they provided laboratory experiments as well as models to support their argument about how voters vote or do not vote towards the outcome of an election. The similarities between the two articles is that both of the articles advocate that the voters should start thinking independently and spend time thinking about who they will vote for rather than jumping onto the bandwagon and voting for whoever is doing the best in each party. The differences between the two articles are that one article argues that voters are so effective that they are breaking the government and the other article is advocating that the voter’s vote is either pivotal or not in the outcome of an election.

The two articles both involve rhetorical strategies such as pathos. The article by LZ Granderson entails pathos because of the tone he is in while he is making his claim seems to be very blunt towards the audience by stating “All of us are at the very least lazy”(Granderson) which may have caused the voters to feel a certain way that is hurtful to the voters. The fact that LZ Granderson had blamed the voters for our broken government by calling lazy and stupid is in the category of extreme pathos because he provides weak evidence to support his claim dealing with the fact that the voters are the reason why our government is broken. The article by the two Stanford graduate students had involved some pathos because the fact that their experiment dealing with voting based on their beliefs caused the voters to feel whether or not that their vote is pivotal or not. Whenever the experimental election involved beneficial opportunities. For example, in one of the experimental elections the voters were offered more money if they voted for a candidate that they agreed with their political beliefs. The article by the two Stanford graduate students did not include any extreme pathos because there are reasoning’s behind each claim that they made. In the article by the two graduate students had used pathos in a way that was not easy find because the majority of the article was filled with hard evidence, facts, and experiments but they used pathos in way that had to be identified beyond the words in the article. In the article by Granderson he had used pathos in a very visible aspect because the expressions that had been place in this article were obviously seen by his own audience. The two articles did not really have similar advocating sides for how they both used pathos rather they had both advocated for opposite sides for how they had used pathos throughout the article. The two articles had described the way they had used pathos in a very intricate way because of the different types of examples used in the articles.

The last type of rhetorical strategy that each of these two articles appeals to be the logical appeals. Unfortunatly, Duffy and Tavits article does not really appeal to logos because the article is about voters participating in experiments to see if their vote is pivotal. One  logical appeal that this article appeals to states that  “voting happens because people systematically think that their vote counts more than it actually does, though this overestimation declines with experience”     (Duffy and Tavits)  appeals to logos somewhat because the authors provide a logical reasoning to why voting actually happens which is also in support of their claim that they are making. The fact that the logical appeals that the article by the graduate students have logical reasoning that logically makes sense means that all the logical fallacies cannot be identified within the article. However, the article by Granderson is the total opposite in regard to logical fallacies. The article “Stupid Voters Enable Broken Government” appeals to logical appeals. The logical appeal that this article states that “Newt Gingrich, who cheated on two wives and is the only speaker of the House to have been disciplined for ethics violations, and yet somehow he is running for the president of the United States as a religious conservative and managed to get eight percent of the votes during last week’s straw poll in Florida”(Granderson) this statement appeals to logos because the logical reasoning is that since he is disciplined for ethic violations it makes it logical for him to a candidate to run for the president of the United State. This statement is actually a logical fallacy called Ad Hominem because LZ granderson is making personal attacks at Newt Gingrich rather than giving reasoning to his original claim about the government. Another type of logical appeal in Granderson’s article states “The fact that he is even on camera discussing the country's sense of morality during the GOP debates should be offensive to any thinking person regardless of party affiliation” (Granderson) is an appeal to logos because he it is logical to be offended by the person because you are a thinking person. This appeal to logos is also a logical fallacy called bandwagon because it he is saying that the thinking people known as other people are convinced to be offended by this person. Another type of logical appeal that this article appeals to states “The biggest reason government is broken is because of voters“(Granderson) which appeals to logos because he is providing reasoning for why the government is broken. This statement involving voters being the reason for broken government is a logical fallacy called false cause because he is making a claim about stupid people are the cause for broken government. Theathe two articles had different types of arguments that had distinguished the articles together.  The article by the two Stanford graduate students did not have any logical fallacies therefore there was not any type of logical fallacies that could have discredited the two authors articles but however, the article by LZ Granderson had numerous types of logical fallacies that had most definitely discredited the author because all the supposedly facts that he had made throughout his article are all discredited because some of them are logical fallacies. The effectiveness of the appeals that both the articles had used was equally affective because they both had committed appeals that were interesting to their types of audiences. The effectiveness of the appeals in the article by granderson was effective in a way that had tried to make his audience see their own flaws towards the government and the effects of what that is doing to the government. The effectiveness of the article by the two Stanford graduate students was effective in a way that proved how voters thought that were pivotal towards the outcome of elections and proving that the voters beliefs increase the voters to vote because they believe they are pivotal towards the outcome of the election.

                                               

           

Works Cited

"Stupid Voter Enable Broken Government." Interview by LZ Granderson. CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Cable News Network, 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://CNN.com>.

Duffy, John, and Margit Tavits. "Beliefs and Voting Decisions: A Test of the Pivotal Voter Model." American Journal of Political Science ns 52.3 (2008): 603-18. American Search Premier. Web. Oct.-Nov. 2011.

Essay 3

Stephen James

Professor Mulliken

English 1113

4 October 2011

A Falling Government

            In the opinion section of CNN.com a CNN contributor named LZ Ganderson wrote an article titled “Stupid Voter Enable Broken Government”. LZ Ganderson states the government is falling apart due to the voters that choose to elect the people who run for government. In order for the government not to fall apart, Ganderson argues that voters need to take the initiative and start investing their time and mind into a candidate before they elect their favorite candidate.

            In order to support his claim, Ganderson uses different kinds of rhetorical strategies that appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos. The author first immerses the reader by describing the footage of a politician named Marion Barry in a room of crack smoke who says “B**** set me up” (Ganderson). Marion Barry’s actions in the video footage had no negative impact on the voters’ minds. The voters had still re-elected as mayor after he had been released from a federal prison which is “because he convinced African Americans that the video of him with a crack pipe was the white peoples fault”(Ganderson). Even today, Marion Barry now serves on the City Council. LZ Ganderson analyzes this incident as an example to prove that there is something wrong with our government. 

            The author earns the reader’s respect because of the facts that he displays throughout his article and through his logical presentation about why the government is very broken according to Ganderson’s argument. In support of Ganderson’s position, he refers to a member of the speaker of the house, disciplined for ethics violations, Newt Gingrinch who has cheated on two of his wives. The most ironic thing about Newt Gringrinch is that he is actually running for president of the United States of America as a religious conservative who surprisingly got eight percent of Florida’s votes in the straw poll. LZ Ganderson strongly disagrees with what Gringrinch is doing and what he has accomplished while he has been running for president which supports Ganderson’s argument even more. In response to the incident about Newt Gringrinch, Ganderson states “Are you freaking kidding me?”(Ganderson). LZ Ganderson also emphasizes the importance of how alert voters should be in electing any type of candidate by stating  “The fact that he is even on camera discussing the country's sense of morality during the GOP debates should be offensive to any thinking person regardless of party affiliation”(Granderson).

            LZ Granderson appeals to ethos that pertains to his argument by using an example that deals with the Arizona government. In the Arizona government incident, a lady named Jan Brewer who said last year that law enforcement officials had found headless bodies in the dessert which was done by a Mexican cartel but was forced to say that everything she said about the law enforcement officials finding headless was all false information by saying she had “misspoke”. The worse thing about the whole incident was that Jan Brewer had a relationship with private prisons that are set to profit because her campaign manager and her spokesman were both former lobbyist for private prison companies. The voters had still elected that woman to become governor of the state of Arizona which is another reason why this incident supports Granderson’s argument about how the government is still broken. LZ Granderson states in his article exactly what his argument by stating “The biggest reason government is broken is because of voters.

Let's face it. A lot of us are just plain stupid.Or at the very least lazy”(Granderson).

                Throughout, Granderson’s personal feelings are strongly stated directly in this article. As a CNN Contributor, Granderson openly expresses his opinions about his argument but express those opinions in a way that are supported through current events that have recently occurred and different types of facts that are expressed throughout the article. The type of audience that this article appeals to are regular voters which essentially may weaken the solution as well as the effectiveness to his argument about why the government is so broken because the approach that Granderson is taking is in an impolite manner. However, words that Granderson uses to describe the voters such as “stupid” and even “lazy” appeal to pathos according to the reader because of the harmful descriptions that he uses to define many of today’s voters and basically blame them for the reason why our government is broken. Granderson’s choice of words may also weaken the solution to his argument that he is trying to make. Even though Granderson’s approach is a little blunt he is arguing that voters should educate themselves with facts and candidates involving political issues that will affect the voters future and in support of his argument he states something that entails that the government does not have to be perfect at all but goes along the lines of the voters as well as the people to be able to make smarter choices by stating that “We have to move away from easy-to-repeat campaign slogans and promises of easy solutions, because we're a country with more than 300 million people, a complicated racial and religious history and the world's largest GDP. There are no easy solutions.”(Granderson). LZ Granderson makes his argument in a very blunt and informational way that will hopefully change the readers perception on electing candidates.

           

Essay 4

Stephen James

Professor Mulliken

English 1113

1 December 2011

People of the Web

            Technology has significantly changed over the past years as well as the people using our diverse technology. People have a tendency to reveal more information about them online than to give their information to someone in person. Although, people may reveal too much information online there are also people that may only put a small amount of information online.

            People on the web tend to show a bountiful amount of personal or private information on different types of internet sites. The abstract of an article, Revealing only the superficial me: Exploring categorical self-disclosure online, uses a research study of 48 students and non-students to observe their attitudes towards online relationship formation questionnaire and relationships, personal matters, interests, and intimate feelings questionnaire. The research results show that people are more likely to reveal their information online the more positive their attitude towards forming relationships online. The research results from the abstract supports the argument that deals with the fact that people self-disclose their information on the internet than they would in real life. On a site dealing with forming relationships, it is human nature to reveal more and more information about yourself because of the type of attitude of wanting to be in a relationship with someone else online. The results from the research only dealt with one type of scenario of putting personal information on the internet that dealt with forming relationships on the web but there are also other types of examples of exploiting peoples information on the web that may come with consequences or benefits.

            Not only do people display personal or private information on internet sites dealing with forming relationships but they also are displayed on social network sites as well. One type of example of information being displayed on social network sites is facebook. For example, whenever you go create your own facebook profile it asks you to reveal work, education, sports, art, entertainment, activity, interest, basic, contact information as well as pictures and things that maybe on your mind to all be revealed on your facebook profile. The reason why people may display all of the different categories of information on their facebook profile page is because there are privacy settings that can make all your information private or limited to who can see your information such as friends and family which also supports the argument about people displaying information on the web than in person. There are also consequences to revealing personal or private information on the web as well.

            The fact that people tend to reveal information on the web than in person can cause a dangerous situation. The dangerous side to putting information on the internet are that there are computer genius’s that have the ability to hack computers if they want to, having a public facebook profile page, and even going along with computer scams on the internet. Consequences that will go along with putting information on the web is that once someone has your personal or private information from the internet, it can be very difficult to delete or cover up someone’s information on the web which can be used in a hurtful and embarrassing way against the person who put their information on the internet. A public facebook profile page can also be dangerous because it gives other people an opportunity to know everything they need to know about you without even knowing you on a personal level and can use all the information however they please. Internet offers can also be a dangerous situation because some sites may offer things that are pleasing to the eye and request all of your personal information and then the offer is actually an undercover computer scam that just wanted your information. There can also be benefits to revealing information on the web as well.

            Consequences play a major role in revealing information on the internet but benefits play a major role in revealing information on the web as well. It is very rare, but it is possible to benefit from putting information on the internet because every internet web site does not always offer something that can somehow turnout to be a computer scam that scan cause virus’s on your computer or even be detrimental to you. For example, a friend of mine was looking for scholarships for college on the internet and while he was on a scholarship site he saw an offer for a free dell lap top at the top of the screen. The only thing my friend had to do is complete a Netflix movie trial and put in his address to send him the free laptop. My friend had to pay money to be able to go along with the Netflix trial but after he put his mailing information into the information box his free laptop had suprisingly showed up at his front door step within about two to three weeks. This supports the fact that putting information online seems more protected and beneficial rather than just giving someone you do not know your personal or private information.

            People usually do not give other people their personal or private information if they do not know that person. It is not common for people to give their information in person because you can visually see that person and not on a computer screen which makes it less convincing to give information in person based the type of body language, tone, and attire of that person. The reason why people do not regularly give their information in person but instead online is because information such as credit card, social security, drivers licence, address, and contact information are not fully protected by a person based off of their human nature. Privacy settings can be applied to certain internet sites on the computer but there are no privacy settings you can apply on an actual human being because people cannot always be trusted especially people that you do not know. This logical reasoning supports that people display more information online than they would in person.

            Although, people that have a tendency to reveal more information about them online than they do in person there are others that feel that this idea of revealing more information online than in person should be prevented. In the article, Ads Discourage Teen Girls from posting photos or info on myspace, friendstar, the national center for missing and exploited children believe that revealing more information online should be prevented because they are launching a think before you post campaign. The national center for missing and exploited children are launching this campaign because they want to discourage teenagers from posting personal information online due to the fact that one out of seven teenagers are sexually solicited or approached over the internet who post personal information online. The society today is definetly based on young sexual advertisement throughout the web because the youth are selected online due to posting all their personal information. People should stop posting all their personal information online period because the majority of the social networks have become a necessity of staying in contact with friends and family. If we step away from all the technology advances for a little while and go back to the old methods of staying in contact with people you know then maybe people would be more cautious of how they use the many types of technological devices that we have today.

            People do not always think to not post any personal information online completely because posting personal information on any type of internet site can always have room for dangerous situations. The idea of not posting any personal or private information online simply means that your information cannot be hacked, used, or even used in computer scam whatsoever. For instance, one day as I was checking my personal e-mail an ad popped up on the middle of the screen telling me to claim my free ipad and a hundred dollar gift card. The prizes looked very pleasing to my eye because it was something I really wanted but even though I wanted the cool looking prizes I turned down the offer. The reason why I turned down the offer to claim my prizes because I knew that if I had given all the information the site had requested to receive my prize and if it had turned out to be a scam then my computer would have virus threats that could possibly damage the quality of my computer. This example proves that it is better to not take a risk at putting your personal information online which is in support of the fact that people should not display personal information on the web.

            Revealing no personal or private information on the internet with less revealing information in person is never bad but it can sometimes be unfortunate. The reason why it is unfortunate to not display personal information on the web is because you never know if the offers on the web sites are computer scams or if they are actual real offers that actually let you receive what is offered to you. It is rare for a computer offer to actually let you receive what has been offered to you but it is not something that could not happened. If you are offered something online that you want and you put all your information to receive it then after awhile you actually receive what you were offered simply means that you got lucky.

            People feel more obligated to display more of their personal or private information online than they would in person. Even though others feel that people should not display personal information online the fact that there different types of settings on the internet that make your information private proves that people feel safer displaying their personal or private information online.

Works Cited Page

Gonzales, Alberto. "Ads Discourage Teen Girls From Posting Photos Or Info On MySpace, Friendster." TechWeb (2007). LexisNexis Academic. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.

Attrill, Alison, and Rahul Jalil. "Revealing Only the Superficial Me: Exploring Categrical Self-disclosure Online." American Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.

My Presence on the Web

Diversity of the Web is a blog that I have been using for my Composition I class since the beginning of the semester. Throughout this semester, I have posted revised essays, opinions about articles, and even responses to other people’s blog. The topic essay’s that I have wrote about and discussed were very intriguing on a very intellectual level. I felt that my response to the essay topics were positive considering the fact that my points were valid and researched but the grammar that I used to explain my valid points were not exactly a positive influence. The use of grammar that I used on my essay’s were negative but all of organization and structure was quite positive. My response to all the articles that were selected by my English teacher were completely based on my opinion about what I thought each article. I felt that my response to each of the articles were positive considering the fact that my response was own opinion. My opinion to the eyes of other people may be offensive to them because my opinion may not agree with whatever opinion that other person has. One of my opinions was that people have the reason to whine about whatever they please on Facebook. I had felt that facebook had a purpose to display whatever is on your mind. This opinion may not be the same opinion as someone else’s opinion. My presence on the web is a very positive identity towards all the things I have done in my English class.

Dippin Dan

One day while I was doing my blog post about an article that I read, I figured I go head and respond to one of my friends named Dan Lindblad. One of his posts talked about the reason why some people wine about things in their life on Facebook. He agrees with the fact that some people have a good legitimate reason to wine on facebook because it could be a serious matter that could involve a family death. I felt that everybody has a good reason to wine about whatever they want even if it is good or bad because that is the whole reason why facebook was created.

here is a link to dan's blog http://danimal25.tumblr.com/

Netvibes

This a link to my netvibes page.   http://www.netvibes.com/stephenjames#Music

Mapping in the Mind

This is a mind map. Mind Map is a map of everything that I do and defines who I am in a sense.

There go those griefers again!

Even though I really did not feel like doing much of anything over thanksgiving break except for eating and playing video games, I felt that blogging about playing video games could be interesting. I figured why not an article about people in the video game lifestyle. I read an article named “"Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World"  it had key points about everything that I was dealing with in my gamer life. The article explained certain type of gamer person in the virtual world who basically is group of people who destroy other people’s fun on a video game or on a game in the virtual world who play a video game in a way that is not supposed to be played which is essentially cheating.  The effects of this can be very drastic because it leaves room for gamers who want to enjoy playing video games to not have any fun at all.  Griefers have a large amount of difficulties in any type of video game because it ruins regular gamer’s fun. The type of companies that create any type of video game can also have an economic hit because of griefers. The fact that companies are able to have an economic hit because of griefers is not fair to the creators of the actual video game itself. The creators of the video game put numerous hours into creating video games in the virtual world and their effort in creating video games is taken away due to griefers.

Avatar

This picture is my profile picture on my facebook which also serves as my avatar. For instance, my friends on facebook see me as an outgoing and adventurous person based on the type of things that I post occasionally. The type of things that I post are along the lines of wishing for something I never had or even my own feelings about what good or bad things in my life. I believe that this profile picture represents myself as a happy and outgoing type of person which is something that is also conveyed to my friends on facebook and even people that I am not friends with on facebook. One way for other people to see what type of person that they see you as is to either like what that person posts or comments about on facebook. The fact that I have a small piece of my whole entire personality displayed on the web makes it a little easier to act a different way than what I act in the real world. Another type of representation that is displayed by my profile picture is that I like to have a good time with other people that I am surrounded by. For example, my profile picture is a picture of me at a Halloween party dressed as Michael Jordan which did not really work out as I had planned. Even though my facebook personality allows to have more freedom than I have in the real world I still am the same person.

Stephen James

Google Yourself

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Stephen%20James%22&hl=en&gbv=2&prmd=ivnso&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw

This is a link to the google results of myself.

One day after I had finished all of my homework, I had begun to think about what it would be like to be famous so I decided to Google myself. Once I had Googled myself I realized that I was not really that famous at all. The type of people that appeared on the result list was not even me at all. I wish that my facebook profile had appeared on the result list because then I would know that I could at least be found on the internet. I noticed that many people have the same name that I do and that some of the people on the result list are very successful, criminals, singer, dancer, musician, astronaut, and even a poet. I found the majority of these results quit interesting because some of those things are things that I actually like to do as a hobby such as dancing, singing, musician, and writing poems. I believe if someone wanted to try to find me on the internet on Google they would probably be very disappointed because they would not find any information about who I am as person but, they may find information about other people with the same name as me. The fact that my information is not really on the internet means that my identity on the web is not really a true identity of who I am on the web. The reason why my identity on the web is not necessarily found does not mean that I ignore the uses of technology it just means that I feel that all of my information should be for everyone to see.

facebook problems

As I was daily checking my facebook today, I noticed that some people on facebook were whining about things that happend in their life. I honestly think that everyone should have someone or write about something to wine about whenever they feel like they need to relieve some stress or maybe just to vent. Sometimes I do not think that facebook is always the place to post things that you whine or even things that are said wrongly about other people. I believe that putting too much information on facebook is a matter of opinion upon different people because I do not think that the friends that I have on facebook put too much information about themselves but it make just take time to see. The reason I do not think that you can put too much information about yourself on facebook is because of the type of social network that will ask you “What’s on your mind?” or “write a comment”. The types of questions and commands that are on facebook discredit the fact that you can put too much information on facebook. For example, one of my friends posted on facebook today that said “When I call my parents, & they don't answer.. It’s no big deal! But when they call me & I don't answer it’s like... World War III!”  I felt that my friend was whining about his parents giving him grief about not answering his phone which was something that I thought had appealed to extreme pathos. I do not necessarily think that the fact that my friend posted this defines him negative on the web but possibly positively because other teens can also relate to that same situation as my friend.

Facebook fallacies

One of my friends on facebook had posted an image like this on facebook because that person thought that it was a little ironic. When you actually analyze the image, you find out that a woman who is supposed to be a mother who is being sprayed with a water hose is advocating that vaccine's caused her son to develop a disease called autism. There are two types of logical fallacies that are within this image. The first type of logical fallacy is called a hasty generalization which draws a conclusion on a sample that is not quite large enough to make an assumption which is what this image is converying but saying that if you give your child a vaccination then your child will develop autism and it will be the cause of autism. The mom is drawing a conclusion on the vaccination of her son having autism which is not a large of sample to draw an assumption from. The other type of logical fallacy that is conveyed in this facebook image is called non-sequiter. The reason why the image is conveying non-sequiter is because it is trying to compare sexuality such as the mom with nothing on except a wet bra to a child having a vaccination that causes autism. Essentially, the mom dressed as a sex symbol does not really have any thing to do with her son having a vaccination that develops autism and it being the cause of autism. The logical fallacy might have been place there to attract the eye to the woman instead of what was said.

Memory under emotional stress

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aq9C03aoYmY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This the link to the video.

 This video clip from the movie twelve angry men dealt with a first degree murder case about a boy killing his father. One man in the movie belived that the boy was not guilty at the beginning of the movie who was named henry fonda and his occupation was an architect. Another who believes the boy was guilty mentioned a very good point which was that on the night of the murder the boy could not remeber the movies he had seen at all while he was under emotional stress. This arguement that the man is making is an appeal to logos because he simply talking about the facts of the case. Henry fonda begins to change the other mans arguement into a way that will appeal more to ethos than logos. Henry fonda begins to ask the other man some personal questions about what he did last night, the night before that, the night before that, even the night before that. The man that was being questioned could barely remember what he did every night in the past week while was not under emotional disstress. This also appeals to ethos because he had the expierence of what it is like to try to actually remember what he had did in the past so that way he would be forced to imagine what the boy was feeling on the night of the murder while he was under emotional disstress. I personally think that it is understandable to not be able to remember everything after your parent or parents had died, especially on the night of their murder.

The Infosphere

Once I had looked at everything that influenced my identity through technology I began to think about how they affected my identity. My thoughts about how technology influenced that I am was that technology had sometimes affected the convenience of how I do things but technology never became a type of thing that I had to depend on. Technology had always made my life a whole lot easier when it came to things that I regular do on a daily basis such as my social networks, sports updates, religious values, school assignments, and even important events pertain to my college. The sites that I included onto my info sphere had usually sustain my ideas and challenged my ideas because there were things that I did not quit which had essentially challenged my ideas but there were also things that I enjoyed on many of the sites that I went to.  The sites that challenged me were sites that had broadened my horizon about things that I did not know about which had basically forced me to learn more about the world around me. The sites that had usually sustained my ideas were sites that I already knew information about which had just stimulated my ideas. I do feel that sometimes I am attached to technology such as my cell phone, computer, television, and my iPod because these are things I could not see myself functioning without. The more information that I get from all of my electronic devices influences who I am.

Social Networking

One day while I was checking on my social network called facebook, I started to wonder how good or bad ethos is on all the comments and posts on facebook. I began to think that many comments and posts on facebook are really bad ethos in a way because people are not always who you think they are or who they appear to be. Sometimes they are some good ethos on many people’s facebook status, comments, or even posts. Generally, the majority of good ethos usually comes from older people who have good background of wisdom under them such as people over the age of eighteen years of age. Personally, I used to post unnecessary things on facebook when I was in my earlier teens but since I’ve gotten a little older I have became more wiser and more responsible about the types of things that I would share on facebook. Another aspect that realized as I got older was the importance of my reputation and the fact that everyone on the internet can see everything that you post, share, and comment on facebook as well as any other social network such as twitter or linked in. My thoughts about ethos on facebook in general is very good because the majority of the time you know that person in reality so you can tell whether or not if that person has good or bad ethos. I believe that any type of social network always has room for trustworthy and untrustworthy information as well as good and bad ethos.

Pathos

In the picture a large seal is depicted, holding a blunt object, which may be a club.  On the ground in front of him lies a vile depiction of a recently beaten infant.  As terrible as this picture may seem it is an actual advertisement against human cruelty to animals.  To understand why this image has an explicit appeal on human emotion it is important to examine all the elements of this image, disturbing as it may be, in their entirety and how they are connected.

             The first thing that can be examined is the seal holding a bloody club.  Seals of course are not capable of such actions.  This fact is important because it is giving human traits to a very non-human entity.  What it suggests is that the animal is in fact capable of human actions and therefore causes the audience to consider that it might also be capable of human emotion.   In this depiction the animal is the dominant, as is the case for humans in human-animal relations.  Here the roles of dominance have been reversed for emotional appeal.  Furthermore the incident is taking place in the animal’s home environment as to suggest that the infant is the intruder in the animal’s home.  This is summed up in the only text found on the advertisement, which reads: “Don’t treat others the way you don’t want to be treated.”  The audience feels compassion and remorse for the abused infant, which in this case assumes the role of the animal.  What it makes the audience consider is the idea that not good or normal person by basic standards of society would ever treat a child that way, why would we treat any other entity, in this case animals, the same way if they are at all capable of emotion which is what the image suggests. 

            This poster might appeal to animal abusers.  If the picture does in fact cause the reader to consider things like remorse or compassion for animals, those who are currently abusing animals might encounter feelings of regret or disgust for their actions, thus causing the reader/viewer to abstain from such actions.  In the most desired case those who are affected will not only avoid animal cruelty but also assume a proactive stance against it.  The sole objective is to both propose ideas of circumventing animal abuse and conceive notions of pro animal protection in those currently lacking or opposed to the idea.

Everyday Life

Stephen James

Professor Mulliken

English 1113

8 September 2011

The Ordinary World

            Chapter one, Everyday life in Our Weird World, of the book The Virtual Self: a Contemporary Sociology by Ben Agger is about the sociological structure of today’s society. Ben Agger’s main argument of chapter one is a major aspect to a wired sociology.     

Agger introduces his chapter by explaining the worldliness of ourselves through the use of the technologies of today and he states that “The more people know about ephomora- things that come and go – the less they know about what really matters”. According to Agger, Agger believes that the themes of sociology that entail economy, politics and culture and how they impact people’s daily lives are things that we take for granted. In other words, he argues the fact that people normally expect the themes of sociology to impact people’s daily lives when essentially people do not appreciate the sociological themes. Agger argues that sociology entails daily experiences that create who you were and who you are and he uses his own personal experiences to see if he has an everyday life because he makes a simple run to the grocery store an exercise that deals with theory. Agger also evaluates the sociological structure by stating that “I assess the relationship of self and social structure in this unprecedented stage of capitalism” which shows that his view between self and social structure is a major factor dealing with sociological structure.

In the middle of chapter one Agger starts to argue how historical sociological events and theories are important to everyday life. Agger argues that “ Everyday life, is transacted between practical reasons, with pragmatic if not pro competence, who thus renew social structure by in effect, “doing it” “ (22) which simply means that people have the power to make decisions throughout everyday life to make a difference in an impactful way. Agger also points out that capitalism will become a crisis while others may say it will become a success. In addition to Agger's point he evaluates that people tend to depart from politics because of everyday life where he argues that before you make assumptions about capitalism you have to be knowledgeable about historical and social context backgrounds before you can comprehend capitalism issues.

As the chapter begins to end, Agger starts to make arguments that involve socialism and Marxism to convey how they are important to everyday life. Agger has strong beliefs about the importance of Marxism and how it is important to everyday life but he makes it clear that he is not trying to change the readers beliefs to Marxism. Instead he states that he is “defending the concept of everyday life as centerpiece of a weird sociology” (35). Agger also argues the reason why our everyday life is in this wired world by stating that “Everyday life implies on ordinariness corresponding to a mode of consciousness or natural attitude, contrasted with a theoretical attitude that view the taken-for-granted world as strange” (27).

According to Agger, the meaning of chapter one is that there is a relationship between everyday lives and social structure. In support of the relationship between everyday lives and social structure agger states that “The Internet and other Electronic connections that alter the distinction between self and society” (40).

Work Cited

 Agger, Ben. "Everyday Life in Our Wired World." The Virtual Self: a Contemporary Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004. 20-41. Print.

My Infosphere

In Michael Vlahos article “Entering the Infosphere” he mentions the fact that the world is going through a big change in a way that deals with migration and revolution. Michael Vlahos declares that the reason for the world’s big change is because the society passes information down to other people where everything that has or had happened can be received. Vlahos simply states that his argument of the definition of Infosphere is “shorthand fustian of all the world’s communication networks, databases, and sources of information into a vast, intertwined and heterogeneous tapestry of electronic interchange “ which simply means that the infosphere can assemble all knowledge and people in one place. Vlahos points out how his definition of infosphere is compared to a personal infosphere by stating that “The infosphere changes through a storage, but not alien, blonding of technology and culture…Technology’s network ecology brings fundamental change to us… Ultimately, we decide we want to be in the Infosphere”. Vlahos also points out another reason how the infosphere is important to a personal life by saying that people have to realize the importance of the infosphere towards life. Michael Vlahos explains that the infosphere has to involve a place when essentially you can make anywhere a place by simply knowing where you are. For Instance, the cyberspace is an actual place because you know where the cyberspace is. Vlahos definition of info sphere is quite similar to my own personal infosphere because everything that I watch, listen, and read are the types of things that I can put into my own infosphere.

My Own Writing Style

As I was writing my essay for my English paper, I noticed that I had started and ended my paper in a descent amount of time with no interruptions at all. I realized that the type of environment that I was in was in a serene type of environment. When I was writing I played instrumental classic music, turned on a small fan, drink water, and eat a box of hot tamales. I noticed that playing instrumental classical music began to make my brain more relaxed and think more clearly. The one thing that was a battle for me to deal with at times was keeping my fan on while I was writing my paper. When I am in the process of writing my paper my fan causes me to get too cold or not cool enough at times which hinder my train of thought and my whole entire writing environment thoughts. The whole idea of listening to instrumental music, drinking water, and eating my box of hot tamales all stimulate my brain to write in a serene type of environment that causes me to think of ideas that will make whatever I am writing about more effective and thought out. The one thing that I can do to ensure that my writing environment is comfortable is to wear warm clothes so that my fan is not much of a hindrance to my writing and to turn my small fan on and off from time to time. I realized that writing is a cycle that has a beginning and an end along with a good writing environment that will make anything that I am writing more effective.

The Pure Truth of the Web

In Andrew Keen         ‘s book on chapter one called the great seduction he makes it clear that he wants to make the world a better place. He wanted to make the world more musical in a way. Andrew Keen argues that democratization on web 2.0 is taking away the most important things around us involving our culture as well. Keen states that “Because democratization, despite its idealization, is undermining truth, souring civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience, and talent “ which shows that the fact that everything is so democratized diminishes the pure honest truth. For instance, Keen had joined a camp that was going to change the world, FOO Camp, which had directly been aimed at Keen’s goals. The FOO Camp had started to see and realize the new web called web 2.0. The FOO Camp had saw that web 2.0 was categorized to democratize everything that was put on the web to an extent of being the loudest or most entertaining on the web. The overall argument of this chapter is that the world is entirely consumed of their own selves that they do not see the actual truth in the world and everything around them which is also a type of argument called evaluation. Chapter one also entails other types of arguments such as cause and factual types of arguments. For example, when there was an incident about Wendy’s involving people putting their finger in their chili it had caused people to stop eating at Wendy’s and the fact that Wendy’s business had lost two million dollars of business for a while which is an example of argument of cause and fact.

The Impact of the people on the World

On December 25, 2006 Lev Grossman created an article “You—Yes, You—Are TIME’s Person of the Year that had really showed how the world has been progressively changing throughout the Internet. In the article Grossman states that “It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.” In my own opinion, I personally agree with this quote one hundred percent because the article had explained that famouse intelligent people are the real men and women that have changed the world while the article also refutes that statement by proving that  its not just the famous or intelligent people who have changed the world through the web its also the ordinary people of today as well. The idea of Web 2.0 is a very new and effective that allows ordinary regular people to establish any type of idenity of their own. The article also mentions another idea that states that “ Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom.” I totally agree with this statement to an extent to learning from other peoples mistakes and making smart decisions. Web 2.0 expresses the fact that regular people have the freedom to do whatever they want to say, do, or even blog about on the web at any time and at anywhere that they please. Essentially, people are entitled to establish their own identity on the web by shaping how the world is changing as well as how fast the world is changing.

About Me, Myself, and I

My name is Stephen James. I am a freshmen at Oklahoma State University majoring in electrical engineering. Im interested in the wide range of identies of the web in an online enviorment and how they are conveyed throughout the web itself. In this post I will be analyzing and exploring different types of web identies in my Composition 1 class this year. I graduated from Southmoore High School with Honors in Moore, Oklahoma. I was originally born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma since I was twelve years old. I love to play basketball, football, and I also have an eternal desire to dance. Im hoping that electrical engineering gets me far in my career goals as well as pursing my dream to work for famous oil and gas companies such as chesapeake energy, IBM, and Kicker when I earn my degree in electrical engineering.