In “Stop buying into the ‘busyness’ narrative, and start using the time you have,” by Stewart Topor, the author articulates how the emphasis people place on their busy lives has only fed into ideals within society that connote a heavy workload to success, and that in fact claims of being busy have not been concretely substantiated. Topor then states the importance of recognizing “busyness” to be an obstacle in our lives, and the importance of acknowledging the amount of time we have to “lead more enjoyable lives, with less stress and greater focus.” Through his use of relevant, connecting anecdotes to keep his audience attentive, use of thorough data and credible sources to provide concrete evidence, and use of reasoning through human nature and characteristics to connect the evidence presented, Stewart Topor is able to build a powerful, persuasive argument. …show more content…
In the introduction, Topor begins his argument by stating, “We’ve all heard the news, Americans are busier than ever, perhaps the busiest people in human history.” Through this statement, Topor is immediately able to grasp the attention of the audience he may direct his argument towards, as many “busybodies” within the audience may come to agree with his statement. By going on to say, “We’re over-scheduled, over-booked, and overworked…Ask how a friend how they’re doing lately, and the typical answer is ‘Busy.’,” Topor is able to advance his argument by allowing his audience to agree with him even further. Through this technique, Topor is able to, in a way, infiltrate the opposition his audience may hold to his argument. By building this connection with his audience, Topor is then able to ease into his argument with the use of logical
He uses logical reasoning to make the readers see his point of view by using facts. He states that every crime offense committed in the modern world makes the offender go behind bars even if the crime is not brutal (197). He thinks that they offenders should be beaten and flogged rather than being locked like animals in a cage. He uses statistics to also prove his point that and says that not even all of these criminals are brought to justice by the government (197). His solution for the problem, hence, is flogging. I think his logic is flawed because not all criminals, no matter the level of public embarrassment and degradation are going to reform and turn new
Why do people follow the crowd? This is something that happens everyday and few notice it . Sometimes people follow the crowd because it is easier or we don’t want to be made fun of for being different . The article “The Third Wave,” by the commonLit Staff is the very definition of following the crowd.
“My very ability to work tirelessly hour after hour is a product of decades of better-than-average medical care, a high-protein diet, and workouts in gyms that charge $400 or $500 a year. If I am now a productive fake member of the working class, it’s because I haven’t been working, in any hard physical sense, long enough to have
His conclusion, life is not fair. Boobie Miles, for example, is a High School student who has dedicated his life to football.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Time allocation, or time management, is a trait that everyone is capable of. However, there are people who tend to manage their time better than others. People often find themselves wasting time on unimportant activities. The time wasted can depend on the type of person they are, though. Say there is a successful businessman. That man is less likely to waste his time doing something unimportant than a teenager who doesn’t have their priorities straight. In the story, ‘Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, Tom Benecke struggles with balancing the time spent on his work and time spent with his wife. In our generation, technology is all around us. Whether it be phones, computers, or video games, people are wasting away their lives doing activities
“In the last twenty years the amount of time Americans have spent at their jobs has risen steadily. Each year the change is small, amounting to about nine hours, or slightly more than one additional day of work (Schor, 1). Juliet B. Schor’s The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure explores the decline of leisure time in American professionals and laborers as a result of an increase in working time. In comparison to our European counterparts, American workers are now working close to 320 more hours yearly. Schor highlights the fact that American workers are choosing to work multiple jobs contributing to less leisure time due to longer working hours. In conclusion the book depicts the idea that the materialistic nature of Americans results in them choosing to work more so that they can spend more.
He expresses about his mother working at the restaurant is what made him and this article credible. He got to witness and experience his mom and her “waiting brilliance” up close and personal (Rose, 273). He also states, “I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands of both the body and the brain” (274). In this statement he establishes his own credibility as a source of authority on this issue. Rose, the author, wants to open social minds by showing “mental activity” (279) required in blue-collar work is still under-recognized and undervalued by society. The blue-collar workers are not as valued as they deserve but the capability they have is not less than other high-level workers, even sometimes it’s more than
In a world that is all about how fast you can get things and how well you do it, time is essential, but is getting that work done more important than taking time spend with loved ones or showing that you care? That is a question I kept asking myself during this period. We live in a selfish world where sometimes we are taught to put our needs in front of others and there is no such thing as being “too busy”. A phrase that I say constantly, as well as many others is: “I don’t have the time for…” or “Sorry, I can’t. I’m too busy”. People are not willing to take time out of their schedules to be there for others and showing that you care. One of the first things I started doing was making more time for my loved ones and almost automatically, I started noticing that the relationships were getting stronger. When I took the time and effort to show someone that I care about them, even in just the little things like sitting down for a few minutes and talking about their day, it helped make the relationship stronger. No one should
The pace of life correlates with our endeavor to achieve success and upward social mobility. Every day we put up a fight against the clock as we try to fulfill our daily responsibilities and effectively run all our errands. Rushing to complete an irrational
American’s and people in general are an audience targeted for various commodities, advertising being a major contributor. The world of advertising has become a multiplex science, as mentioned in “What We Are to advertisers,” Twitchell divides consumers into 8 categories and Craig, in “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” concludes there are specific times of day for advertisements to be displayed to reach specific audiences. “Mass production means mass marketing, and mass marketing means the creation of mass stereotypes,” claims Twitchell. These stereotypes of men, women, and humans in general are how advertiser’s reach their targeted audiences.
Tim Kreider, an American freelance writer living in the New York City (NYC) area, published an essay in 2012 called “The Busy Trap.” He proposed that people who proclaim that they are “Crazy busy” do so in a proud way as if to complain but responses come in admiration or to fill a void of emptiness by remaining busy. Kreider generally caters his argument to a specific working audience, dare I say possibly elite career professionals, by arguing that no one has time to spend together because they choose to sound important to others by saying that they are busy. The author seems to claim that being busy is a choice of whether people work to live or live to work, moreover, he believes that people need to
We live in a society today that is all about getting ahead of the rest of the world, no matter what one must sacrifice whiter it be ones morals, belief systems, or even ones family, it as all become about "me" and "my needs". In the book "Ordering Your Private World", author Gordon MacDonald addresses the physical busyness f people today and how it is affecting them in other aspects of their lives. In this paper I plan on addressing how MacDonald gives sound advice to a new generation that is needed, for them to live life from the inside. This paper will contain a brief report on the book, and also my personal opinion on the entire thing.
In Don Delilo’s, White Noise different themes are displayed throughout the novel. Some themes are the fear of death, loss of identity, technology as the enemy, and American consumerism. The society represented in the novel views people as objects and emotionally detached from many things. Death is always in the air and trapped in peoples mind. The culture that’s represented in the novel adds to the loss of individualism, but also adds to the figurative death of the characters introduced in the novel.
Kreider has made some bold conclusions or outcomes with little evidence to support other than his opinion. I think he is stereotyping groups of people and sharing his opinion of their definition of busy and others who read this article may feel the same way. A example of him committing this fallacy is when he he says “Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extra-curricular activities. They come home at the end of the day as tired as grown ups” (Krieder, 983). This commits the hasty generalization fallacy because thats his point of view and only his. Also, what he said about the children being busy all the time makes me wonder where is he getting that information from and why doesn’t he provide any outside information supporting what he said. An opportunity could be to change some of the words on his opinion to ensure that it is allowing others to think about this population who think they are too busy and allow the reader to think about his own life to determine if they are victim to this scenario. I don’t think it allows others to think about it when it reads as if Kreider is an experts and what he is saying is the
Our perception of time can be very distorted, preventing us from making changes that can drastically improve our life. It can be invaluable to take a step back and take a look at your time usage. To accomplish this, I recorded my activities and tabulated the percentages of time spent for an entire week. Through analyzing the time diary, by creating categories, I am able to gain valuable insight into my time habits. To see past bias and recognize patterns allows enhanced utilization of time.