Category: English 110

Lucas deMey

Emerson

11/11/17

Internet paper

 

The internet is always a controversial topic especially when used for the reason of finding one’s purpose. The internet provides us with many benefits and services from education to shopping there are always drawbacks like addiction and false senses of purpose as well as the social drawbacks of the phone zombie. Using the internet to find purpose can be a dangerous thing for humanity, as it is ever-changing and constantly moving forward,leaving people and ideas behind, so at the beginning of the day one might be at the top of the world he can be pushed back to the bottom of the pile all of his progress and work will go with him leaving him a shell of his former self.

One of the dangers of an internet based life is the sheer amount of time it takes to get anything done. Modes of communication like email and Im take twice as long as a phone call, due to time spent proofreading, spell checking and correcting make the process long and sometimes pain staking. Sam Anderson  mentions in his essay in “Defense of Distraction” where he talks all about the numerous and constant distractions in our lives. Anderson interviews a man named David Meyer, an expert on multitasking, who claimed that meyer made the following claim about the internet.“because of the way the Internet works, once you become visible, you’re approached from left and right by people wanting to have interactions in ways that are extremely time-consuming. I could spend my whole day, my whole night, just answering emails” (Anderson #).  All of this time he uses answering emails and dealing with internet in general could be spent pursuing his real goal with research. But instead he must spend a lot of time frittering and fiddling with the internet just so people will even consider looking at his work. Another danger of the internet involved finding one’s purpose is the constant distractions. Whether its pop-ads, games, or social media notifications it’s really hard to stay on task with all of the endless possibilities the internet has to offer.  “It seems unrealistic,” Anderson states “to expect people to spend all day clicking reward bars—searching the web, scanning the relevant blogs, checking email to see if a coworker has updated a project—and then just leave those distractions behind” (Anderson #).  People are losing focus on the importance of their careers or families all for the sake of a little amusement. This shows that the internet can be harmful especially because our jobs give us the means financially to pursue our purpose. If we are unemployed due to this constant distraction  we may very well lose those means and be unable to attain and fulfill our purpose, leaving us with a sad hollow existence thanks to the endless flood of distraction that is our internet.

 

Another destructive property of the internet is something called the bandwagon effect,which  is defined as “A psychological theory where individuals will do something primarily because other individuals are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs” (dictionary.com). This bandwagon effect is caused by the ease of sharing that is created by the internet through social media. Bill Wasik the author of “my crowd experiment : The mob project” explores the power of the bandwagon effect through experiments called flash mobs which in the end became an inadvertent fad. Wasik talks about a fear of being left behind or becoming irrelevant as a cause for this so called bandwagon effect. This effect is may very well be the death of individuality which is scary for a species that thrives and grows because of our ability to think for ourselves. Being that the internet is filled with so many people throwing their opinions around, sometimes it’s easier to just agree with the majority rather than thinking for ourselves. This is one of the primary dangers another point that wasik makes is that boredom is what leads people to join these so called bandwagon ideas, because it’s so much easier to just follow some else on their path to their purpose. Instead we must forge ahead on our own paths towards finding meaning in our lives. Even if this bandwagon doesn’t satisfy one’s need for purpose, it can distract them from there hunt for purpose and state the boredom for the time being making them feel more complete.

 

Another dangerous application of the internet is a plague that’s sweeping our nation Known as the “phone zombie.” This is a phenomenon that is explored thoroughly by Andrew Leonard in his article “The Rise Of The Phone Zombie,” in which  leonard talks of the havoc smartphones are having on our social interactions. Leonard gives the classic example of a couple on date, but instead of passionately staring into each other’s eyes, their gaze is locked onto the screens of their iphones. What type of world are we living where we people would rather look at their twitter feed than have a conversation with the one that they love?. For in my personal opinion that lLove is one of the greatest purposes we have on this planet and it would be damn hard to find it on one’s phone screen. Leonard mentions Dan hoyles one man Show “Each And Everything” where hoyle vents his frustration with modern technology And pulls this quote from the show “It’s one thing when we’re all alone in our homes, connecting online,” says Hoyle. “But when we’re out in public checking in on our phones, we are creating new private spaces in the public arena.”By using our devices in public, we are shielding ourselves off from the world and disconnecting from all around us. Diminishing our social experience and dampening our view of the world, these “private arenas” cut us off from other humans and being the social animals that we are it could be horribly detrimental to us finding our purpose in life as it usually involves being a part of something larger than just us. Clearly it must be hard to connect with others whilst in our own personal “cyber bubble”

 

At one point in the article leonard quotes Dan Hoyles one man Show “Each And Everything” where hoyle speaks of  his frustration with our New found   dependence on smartphones He gives this example. “I wonder how alienating it must be for the cashier to see a long line of people staring down at their phones, only raising their eyes when it is time to pay. And yet, on those rare and horrible occasions when I forget to bring my phone with me, I feel destitute, at the mercy of an unforgiving universe.” This quote shows our scary and growing dependence on the internet that we show symptoms of withdrawal if we go without it for even small periods of time. This internet addiction is extremely dangerous as it seems like no big deal people are just having fun or killing time. But the danger comes when we try to fulfil our selves by living vicariously through the internet like in role playing games. People play thousands and thousands of hours on games like world of warcraft or starcraft where the game started out as maybe a place for them to have fun or blow off some steam. But at some point they thought this virtual world had more to offer than the physical world we all live in, so they sink themselves into this world with orcs and elves because it’s easier to find meaning when there’s giant arrows pointing towards the path to success. So they pour hour after hour into these huge games with no ending. But what they don’t realize is that these hours could be spent attaining  something different working towards a goal or purpose in the physical world that would fulfil to the point where the wouldn’t need this online escape from the real world. They could stay in the physical world and interact with real people and make real progress and rid themselves of their online addiction and become enthralled with the real world.

In our modern world that is essentially built around the internet, and it is easy to get lost online with all of the games and ads. But we must have to remember to pull our heads out of the clouds every now and then and hunt for our purpose in the physical world. Instead of staying content with the virtual rat race that a lot of people allow themselves to be content with. i’m not saying the internet’s bad, I’m saying that that we need to be careful how closely we identify ourselves with the internet because once we find ourselves getting too close to that virtual world,. Wwe will start losing our social skills that’s when were going to find ourselves in trouble because without the social interactions that we share are we really human or are we just organic button pressing machines. So we must stay true to the physical world and find our purpose within it and then we’ll finally be on the right track.

Lucas deMey

Emerson

11/11/17

Internet paper We always hear we cannot trust everything and everyone on the internet. So it is no surprise that the controversy surrounding internet use only escalates when individuals seek to find their purpose in life while online. The internet is a wealth of information and provides people with many conveniences. However, of growing concern are the social drawbacks of the “phone zombie” and bandwagon ideas. Using the internet to forge relationships and find our purpose is proving itself to be hazardous to society. The internet evolves continuously, leaving people and their ideas behind. Relationships, professional progress, and fads can come and go in an instant. At the beginning of the day a man could be at the top of the world and within moments lose all of his hard work and progress- leaving him a shell of himself days or even hours prior. It is this constant evolution and growing dependence on the internet in all areas of life, that is changing the human species and many of our defining features.One of the dangers of an internet based life is the sheer amount of time it takes to get anything done. Modes of communication like email and IM take twice as long as a phone call, due to time spent proofreading, spell checking and correcting make the process long and sometimes pain staking. Sam Anderson mentions in his essay in “Defense of Distraction” where he talks all about the numerous and constant distractions in our lives. Anderson interviews a man named David Meyer, an expert on multitasking. Anderson claimed that Meyer made the following statement about the internet.“Because of the way the Internet works, once you become visible, you’re approached from left and right by people wanting to have interactions in ways that are extremely time-consuming. I could spend my whole day, my whole night, just answering emails.” (Anderson 3).  All of this time he uses answering emails and dealing with internet in general could be spent pursuing his real goal with research. But instead he must spend a lot of time frittering and fiddling with the internet just so people will even consider looking at his work. Another danger of the internet involved with finding one’s purpose is the constant distractions. Whether it’s pop- ads, games, or social media notifications it’s really hard to stay on task with all of the endless possibilities the internet has to offer. Anderson states  “It seems unrealistic, to expect people to spend all day clicking reward bars—searching the web, scanning the relevant blogs, checking email to see if a coworker has updated a project—and then just leave those distractions behind” (Anderson 5).  People are losing focus on the importance of their careers or families all for the sake of a little amusement. This shows that the internet can be harmful especially because our jobs give us the means financially to pursue our purpose. If we are unemployed due to this constant distraction  we may very well lose those means and be unable to attain and fulfill our purpose, leaving us with a sad hollow existence thanks to the endless flood of distraction courtesy of our internet.Another destructive property of the internet is something called the bandwagon effect,which  is defined as “A psychological theory where individuals will do something primarily because other individuals are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs” (dictionary.com). This bandwagon effect is caused by the ease of sharing that is created by the internet through social media. Bill Wasik the author of “my crowd experiment : The mob project” explores the power of the bandwagon effect through experiments called flash mobs which in the end became an inadvertent fad. Wasik talks about a fear of being left behind or becoming irrelevant as a cause for this so called bandwagon effect. This effect may very well be the death of individuality which is scary for a species that thrives and grows because of our ability to think for ourselves. Being that the internet is filled with so many people throwing their opinions around, sometimes it’s easier to just agree with the majority rather than thinking for ourselves. This is one of the primary dangers another point that Wasik makes is that boredom is what leads people to join these so called bandwagon ideas, because it’s so much easier to just follow some else on their path to their purpose. Instead we must persist in forging ahead on our own paths towards finding meaning in our lives. Even if this bandwagon doesn’t satisfy one’s need for purpose, it can distract them from there hunt for purpose and state the boredom for the time being making them feel more complete.The internet can be accessed everywhere not just in front of a computer screen. A dangerous application of the internet is a plague that’s sweeping our nation known as the “phone zombie.” This is a phenomenon that is explored thoroughly by Andrew Leonard in his article “The Rise Of The Phone Zombie,” in which  leonard talks of the havoc smartphones are having on our social interactions. Leonard gives the classic example of a couple on date, but instead of passionately staring into each other’s eyes, their gaze is locked onto the screens of their iphones. What type of world are we living in where we people would rather look at their twitter feed than have a conversation with the one that they love? In my personal opinion, connecting with the people around us and fostering relationships is one of the greatest purposes we have on this planet and it would be damn hard to find it, and build a sound foundation, on one’s phone screen. Leonard mentions Dan Hoyles one man Show “Each And Everything” where Hoyle vents his frustration with modern technology And pulls this quote from the show “It’s one thing when we’re all alone in our homes, connecting online,”(leonard 2) says Hoyle. “But when we’re out in public checking in on our phones, we are creating new private spaces in the public arena.”(leonard 2) By using our devices in public, we are shielding ourselves off from the world and disconnecting from all around us. Diminishing our social experience and dampening our view of the world, these “private arenas” cut us off from other humans and being the social animals that we are it could be detrimental to us finding our purpose in life as it usually involves being a part of something larger than just ourselves. Clearly it makes it more difficult to connect with others whilst in our own personal “cyber bubble”At one point in the article, Leonard quotes Dan Hoyles one man Show “Each And Everything” where Hoyle speaks of  his frustration with our new found dependence on smartphones He gives this example. “I wonder how alienating it must be for the cashier to see a long line of people staring down at their phones, only raising their eyes when it is time to pay. And yet, on those rare and horrible occasions when I forget to bring my phone with me, I feel destitute, at the mercy of an unforgiving universe.”(Leonard 4) This quote shows our scary and growing dependence on the internet that we show symptoms of withdrawal if we go without it for even small periods of time. This internet addiction is extremely dangerous as it seems like no big deal people are just having fun or killing time. But the danger comes when we try to fulfill ourselves by living vicariously through the internet like in role playing games. People play thousands and thousands of hours on games like World of Warcraft or Starcraft where the game started out as maybe a place for them to have fun or blow off some steam. But at some point they thought this virtual world had more to offer than the physical world we all live in, so they sink themselves into this world with orcs and elves because it’s easier to find meaning when there’s giant arrows pointing towards the path to success. So they pour hour after hour into these huge games with no ending. But what they don’t realize is that these hours could be spent attaining something different, such as, working towards a goal or purpose in the physical world that would fulfill to the point where they wouldn’t need this online escape from reality. They could stay in the physical world and interact with real people and make real progress and rid themselves of their online addiction and become enthralled with the real world.

In our modern world that is essentially built around the internet,  it is easy to get lost online with all of the games and ads. We must remember to pull our heads out of the clouds every now and then and hunt for our purpose in the physical world. Instead of staying content with the virtual rat race that a lot of people allow themselves to be content with. I’m not saying the internet’s bad, I’m saying that that we need to be careful with how closely we identify ourselves through internet. Once we find ourselves getting too close to that virtual world, we will start losing our social skills. That is when we’re going to find ourselves in trouble because without social interactions in person we then must ask ourselves if we are really human or are we just organic button pressing machines. So we must stay true to the physical world and find our purpose within it and then we’ll finally be on the right track.

 

Works Cited

Works Cited

Anderson, Sam. “In Defense of Distraction.” NYMag.com, Ny Mag, nymag.com/news/features/56793/.

Leonard, Andrew. “Rise of the Phone Zombies: What We Lose when Technology Gives Us Everything.” Salon, Salon.com, 8 Aug. 2014, www.salon.com/2014/08/08/rise_of_the_smartphone_zombies_what_we_lose_when_technology_gives_us_everything/.

Wasik, Bill. “The Mob Project.” BillWasik.com, 6 May 2009, billwasik.com/post/104403795/the-mob-project.

This is Mike and i’s Peer review of Sukis paper.

Lucas deMey

9/6/17

Entry Prompt

 

In this day and age of machines and computers i believe nothing is more valuable than education and luckily in the united states we’ve all been blessed and provided with a solid public education which is more than we can say for most other countries around the world. Sadly i believe that this system is being taken for granted and not appreciated as it should be. We’ve all been given an opportunity to succeed in this world and all we need to do is grasp it.

 

Personally i agree with barnetts philosophy of higher learning it involves taking the student out of their comfort zone and making them work and showing them they can succeed even with a force working against them.It also makes students realize that no matter how much the question no matter how many hours they log there will never be a final answer there will always be more you can do to further your knowledge and understanding in a certain topic.

One point both authors make is that they both press the fact that you can never understand absolutely everything about a certain topic or area of learning that there is always something you can do to further your learning/understanding. Coming from a family that has worked in education for many years My opinion on education allies with that of Barnett i believe that we take education for granted and that we have to leave our comfort zone or cozy area of learning to truly grow in an educational aspect. Although i believe students should never be challenged to the point where they feel stupid albert einstein once said “if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree it will live its entire life believing it’s useless”. The reason i believe this quote is relevant is because it shows the importance of a liberal arts education by way of diversifying your learning and making it so you work on things that come natural to you instead of focusing just on the things that are difficult. So at the end of the day i believe that my ideas and opinions align with the authors fairly closely i believe that a student should always be challenged in the classroom. Also their learning experience should be diverse and full making sure they are stimulated at all ends of the spectrum. And when these things are done i believe that young adults and teenagers will once again to take education seriously as they will finally realize clearly it’s a gateway to a better life.

Lucas deMey 9/13/17

English 110H6                                                               Emmerson

 

Adopting Emerging Adulthood

 

Today we live in a rapidly changing world New technologies are being invented daily but surprisingly it’s our social atmosphere that is stuck in the past. Our parents and grandparents both led the same social narrative (childhood,adolescence,teenage,go to college, get a job,get married, have a kid,…Etc) but if the world has changed so much since then why are we being held by the same exact social narrative.What we fail to realize. Is that like our ancestors we too must evolve to better society not physically but socially. So much in our society is powered by social norms like the way we dress the foods we eat the ways we talk and finally the way we view life our parents train us from the day we are born to follow the social narrative. They tell us all of these fairy tales about how life will be when you “grow up big and strong” but sadly our parents can’t predict the future meaning that they are preparing us for the world today instead of allowing us to prepare for the world of today. And this is where we can benefit from emerging adulthood.

 

One way we can all benefit from society accepting emerging adult as a part of the social narrative is that the “extra time” will allow young adults to prepare for jobs in an emerging field king mentions this when he makes all of his bold predictions for the future. With claims  like “⅔ of our population will live in cities”. All of these people moving to cities means that there would be a ton of rapid expansion going on which means we would need a whole new wave of urban planners which is something we may not need right now. But with the freedom with emerging adulthood we are no longer under the social constraints to get a job immediately after graduation we can use the time to educate ourselves to better fit the needs of society. Also we use this time to find ourselves and find the passion hennig says “young adults will usually have seven different jobs in multiple fields”. Some might say this is young people just being lazy and not having any commitment but to me this is just an example of young adults experimenting and finding their passion a key staple of emerging adulthood.

 

Divorce rates in the united states in the united states are at an all time high at fifty percent that means half of all marriages will fail. I believe that without the social pressure to get married people will be much happier. henig says  that “young adults live with at least one romantic partner they have not yet married” i think this is a start to finding oneself and finding what one truly wants out of a relationship without making a full on commitment to someone. this will benefit everyone because it will help lessen ugly expensive and sometimes outright hostilities of divorce and in all will hopefully make our population happier as a whole.

 

A third reason why emerging adulthood will benefit us moving forward is that it will help all of the impoverished people of our world have a second chance to change their life for the bette.r henig mentions this when she talks about nicole who escaped her dysfunctional family in order to follow her own dreams. This all goes back to the main idea that we need emerging adulthood in order to find ourselves and become something greater than we ever believed possible. nicole grew up in the projects of new york city and at the age of 6 she became the head of the house after her mother became mentally il.l a lot of people could have used this as a cop out and just found themselves living a life  that few would envy .but eventually after many grueling years nicole managed to graduate high school and move out she needed freedom and began working and going to school at night.  with her new found freedom began excelling in the classroom to nicole emerging adulthood was a chance for a fresh start which is exactly what many people are waiting and praying for each and every day .

 

In the rapidly changing world of today things are quickly being replaced and left behind so finally i believe it’s time for our current socially narrative should be amended. or replaced in order to make one that includes emerging adulthood so that we may finally stop preparing for the past and start forging ahead to the future. we musnt continue to just keep pushing blindly ahead or else we’ll never reach or full potential. We must believe in second chances that this life stage brings. We must believe in ourselves in order to find our passion which is truly what this stage of life is about. finding one’s self and insuring  we know exactly what we’re getting into before just blunder in like a bunch of blind elephants. so in conclusion in order to obtain the benefits and proceeds that come from adopting emerging adulthood as a way of life we we must first adopt it as a part of our social narrative and treat it as any other so called part of life.

Works cited

Hennig, Robin. “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia, www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=all& cubz

king , thomas. “Adults it’s time to talk” ted talk.