Rough Draft #2
In 1987, Rick Astley released the song “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which became a number one hit all over the world. Almost 20 years later, this song and music video remains well recognized among Internet users due to meme known as “rickrolling.” A meme can be best described as a popular form of expression in the form of emails, chat messages, and hyperlinks on the internet (Gil). Generally, they’re meant for laughs; however, they can also be used to create controversy, teach a lesson, or create interest in a subject. (Gil). Rickrolling resembles an April Fool’s joke, where a user will notice a video link to something that sounds too good to be true. In numerous cases, it will be a movie trailer that hasn’t been released yet or
Most often, it appears that people can be hurt and harassed by memes. “Scumbag Steve” happens to be another popular image macro character that shows a young man wearing a T-shirt, oversized jacket, and a sideways baseball cap while standing in a doorway. A quick internet search shows the type of character Steve portrays as one caption states “TAKES DATE TO TACO BELL…MAKES HER PAY.” Another one says “DON’T WORRY BRO. I’LL PAY YOU…TOMORROW.” The character’s real name is Blake Boston, and the famous image had been taken by his mother years ago, which he had uploaded to his My Space account. Blake explains his story in a back and forth interview with Know Your Meme called “Q&A with Blake Boston (Scumbag Steve).” Blake admits that at first he had found it amusing when he began seeing the ideas people were coming up with. However, soon he and his family members would start getting phone calls and messages accusing him of racism. Blake also admits in the interview that he would receive threats to his unborn child after he had posted an ultrasound online. It would seem as if people were affected by a fictional character and attack Blake once they discovered his real
We won’t budge is an autobiography by Manthia Diawara which was published in 2003. This book contains the author’s own life experiences in his home country as well as in both France and America where the he goes on to include how his fellow immigrants were mistreated and struggled to establish themselves in the new countries. Manthia Diawara argues that most mistreatments faced by immigrants like himself had much to do with racism rather than just being immigrants. Racism “Paul Berg’s Dictionary of New Words in
In “Luck Swallows Everything” and “Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility” Galen Strawson and Susan Wolf’s explain the concept of responsibility in both a compatibilist and determinist view. Strawson argued that change was not possible at all when it comes to responsibility due to an individual’s mental nature, while Wolf argues that change is possible for an individual when it comes to responsibility. This essay will be focusing on the criticism of Wolf’s work.
In the article, “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk” author Sherry Turkle wants to tell the reader that people should value and respect their relationship by replacing smartphone with face-to-face conversation. She is a professor who studying psychology for around 30 years; she uses many other psychologists study to proved that people are rely on smartphone too much and start to replace conversations with texting. In the essay, she explains how the smartphone is becoming an essential part of America lives; which later affected people’s way of communication. She also provides several solutions for people to solve the negative effect that come from those devices; so people can learn how to push back against it and start to engage more in the conversation for benefit yourself with friendship and society.
The short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates is full of symbolism that represents elements such as evil and loss of innocence. The symbolism is a crucial part of the story because it helps the reader to read between the lines and see beyond the obvious meanings of things. Some of the important symbols present in this story are Arnold's car, Arnold himself, and the doorway of Connie's family's house.
Hiding behind anonymity doesn’t make you any better.” It was voted on a total of 45 times and has 19 upvotes. That’s a breakdown of 32 upvotes and 13 downvotes. While I see how people may think it’s okay to just downvote something as a joke, and I wasn’t necessarily trying to start a social revolution with my yak, I do genuinely find it concerning that there are people who legitimately don’t see anything wrong with calling people out by name in a negative light. Though it may be true that I did this to myself, I think that the fact that we’ve created a culture here where cyber bullying is so acceptable “because they deserve it” is
"Evil". When most of us hear this word, we think of negatively influencing people such as Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. Without a doubt, these people are evil, although, it is a bit extreme to the way I’m here to portray it. Evil is a powerful force that can result in many destructive consequences within societies and around the world. Some people have the ability to perform such cruel and unacceptable things without experiencing a slight feeling of shame and compassion, yet, the majority of people continue to say, “All people are inherently good”. Sure, in our eyes, most people physically behave well and are generally good hearted, but we have all started with an evil state of mind. It is the morals and laws cultured into society that restrict us from doing evil, and lead us into doing good. Although we have many reputable people that have made a positive impact in our world, there is undeniable evidence that humans are naturally evil beings .
Taking a look into one of the three articles “Some Consequences of Having too Little,” written and studied by Anuj K. Shah, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir, people often faced with too little tend to borrow excessively and focus on the present rather than the future (Shah, Mullainathan and Shafir 682). In order to test this hypothesis, the writers have conducted 5 experiments to show how scarcity affects behavioral, environmental and psychological conditions that re-inforce poverty (Shah, Mullainathan and Shafir 682). These studies also prove that having less requires more attention on tasks at hand while neglecting other tasks that seem not so pressing (Shah, Mullainathan and Shafir 682). For example, I know a lady named Marci. Marci depends on her food stamps each month to feed
Culture Centers in Higher Education: Perspectives on Identity, Theory, and Practice is a powerful and enlightening book by Lori D. Patton. Patton is a higher education scholar who focuses on issues of race theories, African American experiences on college campuses, student development theories, campus environments, inclusion, and multicultural resources centers at higher education institutions. She has a variety of publications and was one of the first doctoral students to complete a dissertation that focused exclusively on Black culture centers entitled, “From Protest to Progress: An Examination of the Relevance, Relationships and Roles of Black Culture Centers.” In Campus Culture Centers in Higher Education Patton collaborates with many higher education scholars and faculty members to discuss various types of racial and ethnic culture centers in higher education, their overall effectiveness, relevance, and implications for improvement in relation to student retention and success. Diversity, inclusion and social justice have become prevalent issues on all college campuses, and this piece of literature gives a basic introduction for individuals unfamiliar with cultural resource centers. This book successfully highlights contributions of culture centers and suggestions for how centers can be reevaluated and structured more efficiently. For many faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals unfamiliar with the missions and goals of culture centers, Patton’s text provides a concrete introduction and outline for the functionality of these resources and also offers recommendations and improvements for administrators managing multicultural centers.
Sophocles wrote the classic tragedy Antigone in 496-406 BC this play dramatizes the conflict between self-morality versus human law by representing each conflict by two characters; Antigone and Creon. In this play Antigone decides to bury her brother Polyneices regardless of the king Creon’s decree. After Antigone is caught Creon decides that the punishment of death will be enforced. This sets of a chain reaction of conflicts between Antigone and Creon, both filled with pride and will. The chorus states that the gods vigorously punish the proud, yet punishment brings wisdom. ( )
Have you ever been so focused on achieving your dreams that you become unaware of your current situation? When we focus on the goals ahead of us, we fail to see the obstacles and dangers that are in front of us. In order to achieve our goals we involuntarily put ourselves in an unwanted situation. Connie, herself, struggles to achieve her goal of being a desirable girl that turns heads when she walks into the room. She becomes so set on being this girl that she doesn’t realize the danger of the situation. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates utilizes metaphors, diction, and imagery to show how Connie is in a constant tug between her reality and her dreams, and how this confines her freedoms in a world that is surrounded with malevolence.
All the Way was written by Robert Schenkkan in 2012, and won a Tony Award in 2014. I am not surprised the play won a Tony, there is nothing but good reviews about performances. From what most can tell, the play is about the trials and tribulations of an accidental president. In some ways, that might be true, but in my opinion it is about so much more. All the Way follows the first term of Lyndon B. Johnson after an assassin’s bullet ends the life of, arguably, one of the United States most popular presidents in history (http://www.seattlerep.org/Plays/1415/AW/Synopsis ). Throughout the play, LBJ has to deal with the war in Vietnam, Civil Rights tensions coming to head, and most importantly the presidential election. But beyond the superficial themes, play reveals a fragile system full of flawed individuals deciding the fate of the United States, and depicts a complex, manipulative President Johnson.
The musical Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda tells of Alexander Hamilton’s impressive journey from an all but irrelevant street child, to one of the most important men in American politics. It is based off of a true story of growth, heroism, and determination. In writing this musical, Miranda takes a dry, historic story, and turns it into a captivating performance. His project to take the story of Alexander Hamilton and make it relatable to the average American is extraordinarily successful, mostly because the methods by which he does this are unprecedented. His unique methods and practices have resulted in Hamilton being so popular that it was awarded a record breaking sixteen Tony nominations (Paulson). The musical tells how Hamilton doesn’t
#10. The picture that I had in my head was a picture of Alex clinging to the back of the Jeep. Also he was trying to keep a tarp over him so he could not be seen. This was so the guards at the front gate could not see him. If they saw him it would certainly mean the end if his life. The other picture in my head was a picture of when Alex had been hearing what was happening in the meeting room. This picture was of 3 men talking over the prices of gold. Then Alex being grabbed by the collar of his shirt. These are the pictures that were in my head for this book. ( P.g’s 158-172)
Social media can cause some great trouble for some people. Some people can become bullies over the internet, while others are the innocent victims for these emotionless
Pepe the frog, is a victim of society. In Brain’s article he wrote about how Pepe is seen as a hate symbol, but he, himself does not see Pepe as a hate symbol. Although he never did say he was not a hate symbol. “Memes only gather steam when they change and transform and get passed around.” When the memes get passed around, it is like playing the game of telephone as a kid. You start out with the word apple, and as it gets passed around people interpret it differently and during this process some one could then end up with pirates. The memes are just like that game getting passed around until they get changed from a harmless apple to a swash buckling pirate controlling the seven seas. “They can be used for hateful purposes, and often are, but are not inherently hateful,” Brain says this and this also helps to further explain it in a way that is easier to understand on a more basic