Speak blog

As William James says in the Social Me we do not define ourselves but how others define us. We act in a way that others will like, we do not act however we want whenever we feel like it or the world would be a very different place. These principals are true for me to. I act in a way that others will enjoy I do not try to make people mad or be mean to them because that would just hurt my reputation. I try to funny and nice around other people and I am also very strong willed and I will usually not back down on an argument if I do not agree with what is being said. In the novel speak Melinda dose not follow these principals. She cares what other people think about her but she dose not act in a way that causes other to want to be around her. She tends to stay to herself and act in ways that most people consider weird. She bites her lip to pieces and then when she can’t do that any more she goes for her fingernails. She doesn’t care how she looks and doesn’t brush her hair. Because of this she dose not fit William James idea. The opposite of Melinda is Rachel who is desperate for attention. In just the period of half the book she goes from acting French to acting Goth to acting Muslim. She takes William James ideas to the extreme.

Privacy

I think that the discussion we had in class today and the book Little Brother do relate to literature. This is because literature helps us understand the world in the past present and future. We can learn a lot from reading especially when it comes to places far away that are strange to us and it can even help you learn things you didn't know about your own home. Reading little brother and talking about how china is censuring the Internet has showed me that it is easily possible for people to see what I am doing. It ha made me more aware of what I do for security. I have never really cared about how private my computers were and I have never cared if someone might be watching me (because I have had the that if it doesn’t affect me don’t worry about it) but I have made a few changes to my security and I also found a lot of cool applications that are free while doing it. The way you can take over are computers and even look into are files without us knowing and the fact that even students can do that shows how unsecure we really are. I have the view that the government should be able to view are computers if they have a cause to but things like the patriot act where they can just come into your home when you are gone without you even knowing is taking it a bit far. What china is doing is totally wrong in my mind. They should not be able to block every single person in the entire country from knowing the truth about there homes. It is not write to prevent someone from knowing what happened and the truth is it will probably just make things worse. I can understand them wanting to watch what dissidents are doing but that dose not mean they can watch every single person In the whole country and block what they can and cant do on the internet. While reading this book I also learned about a lot of other gadgets that people can watch you with like the ARPHIDS and things you can use to stay private like the onion router. I never knew most of these things existed before I read this book but I am still not good enough with computers to understand how to do any of the stuff he dose. This book helps us understand many of the things that can happen in the modern world and I know many of us never knew about them before. The talk we had about China also really helps put things into perspective because we can see how things we are reading about are really being done in the real world.

the Dumbest generation 3

I was very surprised at some of the things that this article brought into view. I was amazed at some of the statistics that it brought up such as two thirds of seniors not knowing what a colored entrance sign over a theater meant. I was also amazed at the fact that most people couldn’t identify who was our ally in World War 2. But I didn't know who William Rehnquist was though. I think that people don’t know these things any more because they don’t play an important role in our world now. I think that most people would think to themselves that they don’t need to know things that don’t apply to them or affect them. I am very interested in the ocean and fish and I have asked almost 20 people now and not a single one of them has been able to tell me how many oceans there are even though they make up more then 60% of out planet (there are 5 oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and southern). This is because people don’t need to know how many oceans there are to live their lives. I personally do not think that technology is the cause for this lack of knowledge, I think that these things used to be considered common knowledge but now they are not. If you were to ask an adult questions about technology that you considered to be common knowledge they probably would not know the answer and then you would think the same thing about them that these scientists think about us.

The Dumbest generation 2

I was very surprised at some of the things that this article brought into view. I was amazed at some of the statistics that it brought up such as two thirds of seniors not knowing what a colored entrance sign over a theater meant. I was also amazed at the fact that most people couldn’t identify who was our ally in World War 2. But I didn't know who William Rehnquist was though. I think that people don’t know these things any more because they don’t play an important role in our world now. I think that most people would think to themselves that they don’t need to know things that don’t apply to them or affect them. I am very interested in the ocean and fish and I have asked almost 20 people now and not a single one of them has been able to tell me how many oceans there are even though they make up more then 60% of out planet (there are 5 oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and southern). This is because people don’t need to know how many oceans there are to live their lives. I personally do not think that technology is the cause for this lack of knowledge, I think that these things used to be considered common knowledge but now they are not. If you were to ask an adult questions about technology that you considered to be common knowledge they probably would not know the answer and then you would think the same thing about them that these scientists think about us.

The Dumbest generation

I was very surprised at some of the things that this article brought into view. I was amazed at some of the statistics that it brought up such as two thirds of seniors not knowing what a colored entrance sign over a theater meant. I was also amazed at the fact that most people couldn’t identify who was our ally in World War 2. But I didn't know who William Rehnquist was though. I think that people don’t know these things any more because they don’t play an important role in our world now. I think that most people would think to themselves that they don’t need to know things that don’t apply to them or affect them. I am very interested in the ocean and fish and I have asked almost 20 people now and not a single one of them has been able to tell me how many oceans there are even though they make up more then 60% of out planet (there are 5 oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and southern). This is because people don’t need to know how many oceans there are to live their lives. I personally do not think that technology is the cause for this lack of knowledge, I think that these things used to be considered common knowledge but now they are not. If you were to ask an adult questions about technology that you considered to be common knowledge they probably would not know the answer and then you would think the same thing about them that these scientists think about us.

Why americans are restless questions 2 and 5

2. Societies devoted to equality weaken the individual because it makes harder for anyone person to get ahead because they are all the same. Tocqueville states, “ When men are more or less equal and are following the same path, it is very difficult for any of them to walk faster and get out beyond the uniform crowd surrounding and hemming them in”. In other words this means that if everyone wants the same thing and they all have the same opportunity to get then they will all be competing and this will make it almost impossible to achieve. Tocqueville says that it is imposable for life to perfectly equal and that even it something happens that makes it so things are equal then there will still be differences in intelligence. Tocqueville also notes that in societies that are based on inequality that the greatest of inequalities don’t attract much attention but in a society based on equality the slightest inequality attracts attention. This is why societies devoted to equality weaken the individual.

5. Tocqueville thinks that Americans are restless because they know what they want but it is not obtainable. Tocqueville states “That is an equality which ever retreats before them without getting quite out of sight, and as it retreats it beckons them on to pursue. Every instant they think they will catch it, and each time it slips through their fingers. They see it close enough to know its charms, but they do not get close enough to enjoy it, and they will be dead before they have fully relished its delights”. This means that we set are goals to high to a level that is imposable to reach and every time we get close we set the standards even higher and it gets away again. According to Tocqueville this is why Americans are never happy even though we have so much.

blog 2

It is difficult to not care about how others think of us because no one wants to be made fun of or think that someone hates them and it is human nature to care about these things. You always care what people think even if it is not a person you know very well because you might think that they could go tell someone that you do care about. I think that it is human nature to think this way because if we didn’t care how others felt about us than people would just go around doing whatever they want without worrying about what other people think. We do control the way other people think about us all the time and some people take it to the extreme. People are often doing things they might not like to do or do something they know is stupid because they want to look cool or fit in. This is what pier pressure is. One of the most extreme cases that happen quite often is drugs. People might try some drugs because they want to look cool to their friends and they end up ruining their life. People might try and change how they behave and say they like things they really don’t to try to impress their girlfriend or one of their best friends. I new someone who loved to ride his bike and was captain of the bike team at his school but when he got a girlfriend he just stopped riding his bike and said he did not like it any more. I think that this tendency that humans have to try and fit in can be a good thing and a bad thing. I think we should try to fit in and worry about what other people think but not if it mean changing things we like or making a bad decision.