The Role of Culture in Shaping us as Individuals Culture has a big impact on how we all fit in as individuals in today’s society, and since this assignment is about that I decided to include some of my own experiences to illustrate my point of view and compare it with those of my classmates and some of the readings. My family and I moved to United States in 1998 from Albania. My parents believed that I and my sister would get a better education here and also it would be useful and interesting to learn another language and its culture. Considering I didn’t speak a word of English I was very scared about starting high school. I was scared about fitting in with the other kids, I was scared about not being able to understand …show more content…
All I remember is turning red in my face and using the same phrase I had told myself many times that I was never going to use… “I don’t speak English.” When we moved here I told myself I was going to try my best however I wasn’t going to be like another one of those foreigners you see in the movies that move to a different country and make no attempt to learn the language. I also told my self that I was going to repeat every word that I heard in my brain and then later using the dictionary to find out what that word …show more content…
It’s funny, when I read “Real Indians Eat Jell-O” by Laurie Carlson it reminded me of all those times I sat in the library wondering and analyzing other people’s behaviors. I agree with the message Carlson is portraying in her essay that it is a good thing to belong to a different culture however you should always have room to grow in you. What I think she means is that each culture can be as different from one another as it can be interesting. There are a lot of good things to be picked up from it and not so many good things that should not. We, as individuals will always have our culture to reflect back on, however we are who we are and never be ashamed of that. Also, as I was reading during high school I came to create this idea of a perfect culture…everyone worked by the age of 15, most children moved out of their parent’s houses by the age of 18, and parents were not obligated to pay for their kid’s tuition fees. All that was very strange to me, since where I come from these things are never heard of. As time went by I came to realize that not all that was true. Not everyone moved out at that age, not everyone had job by the age of 15 and certainly not everyone had to pay for their tuitions on their own. As I read “Real Indians Eat Jell-o” by Laurie Carlson I thought of all those things as I compared them and found them similar to the
With the rise of technology and the staggering availability of information, the digital age has come about in full force, and will only grow from here. Any individual with an internet connection has a vast amount of knowledge at his fingertips. As long as one is online, he is mere clicks away from Wikipedia or Google, which allows him to find what he needs to know. Despite this, Nicholas Carr questions whether Google has a positive impact on the way people take in information. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr explores the internet’s impact on the way people read. He argues that the availability of so much information has diminished the ability to concentrate on reading, referencing stories of literary types who no longer have the capacity to sit down and read a book, as well as his own personal experiences with this issue. The internet presents tons of data at once, and it is Carr’s assumption that our brains will slowly become wired to better receive this information.
In the articles, “How Facts Backfire” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Keohane and Carr explain the cognitive blocks we are faced with in society. Keohane explains how we can be misinformed because of our beliefs. These beliefs can cloud our judgement of what is true and what isn’t true. Carr focuses on how the internet has changed the way we think. Carr includes how the internet can distract us, making tasks harder to complete. Both Keohane and Carr show us the negatives side effects of cognition.
Advancements in technology have strived to make life easier for so many people. In most cases, the advancements have achieved its goal, but in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr questions if the improvements in society have unintentionally hindered our thought process overall. Carr begins the article by providing personal instances when his concentration seemed to diminish due to the internet. He explains how he now loses interest when reading lengthy portions, his mind just can’t seem to remain connected to his readings. He then proceeds to talk about how today’s life is surrounded by the internet, and explains the pros and cons of it. The negative side of it is that his mind now wonders off when seeking information from
Glass, R. M. 1995. Caffeine dependence: What are the implication? Journal of the Medical Association 272:1065-1066.
With the rising of technology in the modern age, lots of new inventions have been introduced and the appearance of those inventions has helped our life significantly. But the growth of technology has also raised a vast amount of concerns, and most of those concerns are due to the negative effects of technology to our minds – the users who benefit from it. Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” has strengthened those concerns by coming up with the idea that the advance in technology is influencing our thoughts and behaviors to be functioning differently than the way they used to be.
Writer Tariq Ramadan once said, “Cultures are never merely intellectual constructs. They take form through the collective intelligence and memory, through a commonly held psychology and emotions, through spiritual and artistic communion.” This quote makes a valid point: culture has a major influence our opinions, art, and mind. Where we come from, where we live, who we’re around, and the values of the world around us shape who we are. In the stories Everyday Use, Two Ways to Belong in America, and Ethnic Hash, the idea of the influence of culture, whether it’s ours or someone else’s, is presented.
In the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr writes about the internet and how the internet has a bad effect on people. Carr thinks that the internet has changed the way that people think, and how we no
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
Whether you belong to a certain race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, geographical region or you identify with a certain sex you belong to a particular culture. Culture as define by Shiraev and Levy (2013), “Is a set of attitudes, behaviors, and symbols shared by a large group of people and usually communicated from one generation to the next” (p. ). In other words, we are a product of what has been handed down to us from the generations before. However, culture is evolving and it changes all the time. Hence the reason, no one group has a unique culture, since we are all influenced by each other’s way of life. As a result of this influence, we form relationships with people we know little about and share our values and beliefs with each other. Thereby creating a cross-cultural mix.
Experiencing a society of multi-cultures is beneficial through a variety of concepts to epitomize each individual identity. A person may vary in the degree to which he or she identifies with, morals, or...
Caffeine is the single most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the United States (Einöther & Giesbrecht, 2013). According to Einöther and Giesbrecht (2013), 80% of the world’s population consumes caffeinated products every day, with coffee and tea being the primary sources. In the recent years, the demand for
The consumers will be able to know exactly the effect and role of coffee in relation to alertness. This study will also provide information about the individual regarding the amount of consumption and number of times of consumption. This is relevant, especially to the youth, because the youth are primary consumers of coffee as they always consume coffee in order to accomplish tasks related to academics and knowing its effects on alertness and health is beneficial for the students as they can adjust their levels of consumption or look for alternatives base from the results of this
Consumption of 1000–1500 mg per day is associated with a condition known as caffeinism. Caffeinism usually combines caffeine dependency with a wide range of unpleasant physical and mental conditions including nervousness, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, headaches, and heart palpitations after caffeine use. Caffeine blocks the neurotransmitter adenosine, which acts as an inhibitor of the other neurotransmitters. “When adenosine flows normally through the brain, it slows down the brain and body… When adenosine is blocked, the brain and body become more alert and active (Marcovitz 33).” Caffeine from coffee or other beverages is absorbed by the small intestine within 45 minutes of ingestion and then distributed throughout all tissues of the body. Peak blood concentration is reached within one hour. The biological half-life of caffeine the time required for the body to eliminate one-half of the total amount of caffeine varies widely among individuals according to such factors as age, liver function, pregnancy, some concurrent medications, and the level of enzymes in the liver needed for caffeine metabolism. It can also be significantly altered by drugs or hormonal states. In healthy adults, caffeine's half-life has been measured with a ra...
Millions of Americans begin each day by consuming the most widely used drug in the United States: Caffeine. Over 90% of United States adults consume caffeinated food or beverages on a daily basis and over 50% take more than the recommended amount. Our innocent daily ritual can turn into an addiction for some because many do not realize that caffeine is even a drug let alone the effects it can have on their bodies. Its use it becoming more and more prominent in our society. It’s not uncommon to walk outside and see a Starbucks or coffee shop on each corner. Innovative foods are coming out infused with coffee, and energy drinks are being pushed at every angle. Caffeine to many is a necessity to wake up in the morning and for others to stay up all night. This is dangerous because people are not only becoming more and more dependent on coffee drinks and energy drinks but they are beginning to ingest more of it each day and are now mixing it with other drugs that can be life threatening. Proper knowledge is important when taking any drug including one that the FDA considers to be a safe multi-purpose food substance and education is the key.
On average, coffee drinkers in the Unites States drink 3.1 cups of coffee a day. Caffeine and fast food dominates our lives. About 90 percent of Americans drink caffeine whether through caffeinated beverages or cocoa. The majority of studies on the health effects of caffeine are inconclusive because caffeine affects individuals differently depending on their size, intake, diet and the amount of exercise they get. (1)