My American Studies

KONY2012

2012-03-08T08:04:00.001-06:00

I began as simply an innocent bystander. As I logged on to Facebook after school on Monday night, I had no idea what I would discover, and how it would impact me. I was scrolling down the page, when I saw about 15 people had shared a link, a video labeled KONY2012. I just ignored it, but I had this nagging feeling that the name Kony seemed very familiar to me. Finally, I remembered why. Mr. Bolos' daughter had come to talk to us about the program, Invisible Children, and how they helped the child soldiers in Uganda. Kony was the leader of this war, a war for nothing, and a war that abducted children and forced them to kill.

The second I remembered this, I immediately went and found this video link. The video is 30 minutes long, and it explains that it is the people of Americas duty to spread the word about what this man is doing. The more people that know and care, the more likely that the US government will keep the hundred military advisers that are helping the Uganda Army.

This is a subject with so much to it, which is why I encourage everyone to watch the video.

http://vimeo.com/37119711

The amazing thing about this is that the next day at school, everyone knew. People were watching it in the hallways, talking about how much they had already donated, and brainstorming ways to help the cause. I have never seen a single video stir up so much reaction. Interestingly enough, the beginning of this video is about social media, and the way that we are connected. This video is all over Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Then man who made this is fully aware of the power of media, and I think he is achieving the outcome that he was hoping for. It is possible to spread the word with the technology we have today, which will hopefully help other causes like KONY2012 in the future.

2012-02-28T19:10:00.001-06:00

Today, I spent the day watching Grey's Anatomy. It has always been one of my favorite shows, because I love all the drama. I have seen all the episodes, but I decided to start rewatching them. After learning about "TV Tokenism" though, it was almost as if I was watching a whole new show.

We learned about how TV shows need to have the token minority, so they don't seem racist. The problem is, in their quest to not offend people, are the creators of our favorite shows being just as racist?

What I love about this show, though, is that they occasionally like to make it clear that they are aware of TV tokenism. They are clearly a diverse cast, with nearly as many minorities as white people. Some of the main characters are black, Asian, and Latino. Although they try to avoid the race card, occasionally they will let a joke in their to show they are aware.

In an early episode, a Chinese woman needed help, but could not communicate with the white doctor because she could not speak English. The white doctor proceeded to call of Dr. Yang, a woman of Korean decent, and asked her to translate. Yang responded with, "I grew up in Beverly Hills. The only Chinese I know is from the Chinese restaurant menu." Yang is one of the primary characters, so it was funny to see them point out that she was of another race, yet just the same as all the white doctors.

Although I love how diverse this show is, a lot of situations the minority actors are put in have to do with race. There are episodes where patients won't be treated by the doctor because it is a woman, or the doctor is black. Is it good or bad that these shows are addressing race issues? Are they using the minority actors to make better episodes?

That's so Gay!

2012-02-13T20:17:00.001-06:00

After school one day, I was at the local tennis center. A dad and his son came in to play, and the son needed to borrow a racket. The man working the desk went over to the rental rackets and picked up a small one. He handed this small boy that could not have been older than five or six a pink one, and the boy proceeded to drop the racket and yell, "This racket is pink. I'm not gay!". I couldn't believe my ears, so I turned to the boys dad, expecting him to tell this kid off, and hopefully give him a smack in the head for being so ignorant, but the dad just laughed and walked toward his court.

I was so appalled that a boy of such a young age is already learning that it is OK to associate someones sexuality with being stupid or bad. It reminded me of a commercial that used to be on TV.

It shows two teenage girl using the phrase, "that's so gay" to describe a sucky situation. A woman comes over and agrees, saying, "yeah. that is so Emma and Julia!" I think this video is very poignant, because most teenagers are guilty of saying something is gay. I myself have said it. I stopped as soon as I actually realized what I was saying. I was using a word that so many people associate with to say something was bad. I never though gay people were bad though. So why did I say it? It is the same when people say retarded, and other words of that nature. So many people toss these words are around, but I am sure that not many of them truly believe that gay people are bad, or that people with mental disabilities are stupid. As soon as people truly think about what they are saying, I think that they will be more aware of the hurtful nature of these common phrases.

Meta Post

2012-01-17T11:55:00.001-06:00

Blogs have always been fascinating to me, and there have been times where I have wanted to start one, but I never had anything to write about. Although we are given guidelines on what to write about, like issues pertaining to America and storytelling, the rules are so broad that there aren't many things we can't write about. Since we have so much leeway with our posts, I tried to make my topics vary, instead of only focusing on one or two main points. This got difficult sometimes, because sometimes I wasn't as interested in a blog idea, but I wrote about it anyway. This is something I really want to work on next semester. There were some blogs, like my first blog post--http://hungerford1016.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-blog-post.html--that I had a lot of fun writing. This post is nowhere near my best writing, but I had a lot to say on the topic, so I think it was one of my more successful blog posts.

One other thing I tried to work on over the course of this semester was my blog length. I started out trying to shove as much information into the posts as I could. I did this because I didn't know which point would be the best, so I wanted to have everything. I have learned that this is not the best way to write because no one wants to read a blog post that is 5 paragraphs long. I really knew I had to be more concise when I read Mr. O'Connor's blog about Troy Davis. He only had a couple paragraphs, and they were short, but I was one of the most compelling and informative blog post I have ever read. I have tried to work on being more concise since then, but it is something that still needs a lot of working on in the coming semester.

I believe that something I improved a lot on is linking my blogs to articles. I never did that in the beginning, and I can see how it weakened my arguments. They seemed more like rants and scattered opinions than actual information. I think the best blog that I have written--http://hungerford1016.blogspot.com/2011/11/learning-how-to-play.html--was so strong because I used an article and then pulled quotes out and analyzed them. I could really back up my claims, which made the blog more appealing.

I liked reading how my writing has evolved over this semester, and hope to see much more during the rest of this year, and beyond.

2012-01-08T21:57:00.001-06:00

Since New Trier is approaching finals week, I have made the decision to deactivate my Facebook page. I need all the time I can get to study, so the wasted hours I spend stalking my classmates needed to be eliminated. It got me thinking about all the time teenagers spend on social networking, so I Googled "teenage Facebook use" and almost all the links that popped up had to do with the physical effects that Facebook has on teens. They listed everything from depression, to smoking, to narcissism. I was pretty amused by all these headlines, so I took a look at some of them.

I particularly like the first article that came up, http://digitaljournal.com/article/310086. I claims that the students that are constantly on Facebook become narcissistic because they voluntarily "broadcast" themselves 24/7. I don't think that this is very true. Just because I love when other people see how cute my dogs are, it doesn't mean I have full of myself. I like seeing what other people are up to over the weekends just as much as I like putting pictures of myself.

The articles about teen depression did make sense to me though. This one, http://articles.boston.com/2011-03-28/lifestyle/29360664_1_facebook-friend-requests-teen-depression, talks about how seeing all of your classmates happy and constantly with friends can lead to feeling depressed and lonely. I have never thought about it, but Facebook can be a popularity contest. The pictures people put on Facebook are generally of social situations, like birthday dinners, concerts, and holidays. There are people who participate in things like this every weekend can make people who don't awfully aware that they don't.

Although Facebook has not turned me into a depressed smoker who thinks very highly of myself, it has definitely impacted a lot of life. What are some major impacts that social networking has on students? I believe the goal of social networking is to bring people together, so how can come together we get rid of yet another thing that teenagers have that makes them self-conscious?

Children Below the Poverty Line

2011-12-13T12:14:00.000-06:00

I was watching 60 Minutes a couple weekends ago, and I was intrigued by the previews for their main story. It was about children living below the poverty line. I watched in horror as small children and teenagers told their stories.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358670n

I am fully aware that I have lived a very blessed life. I have always had a home, a comfy bed, and food to eat. My parents have worked hard to make sure my siblings and I never go without anything. But I have never really considered what would happen if suddenly there weren't jobs for my parents to work hard at. These children on the TV showed what life is like when there aren't enough jobs for parents to work.

In America, there are 16 million children living below the poverty line. One area where the recession hit hard is Florida, around Orlando. Over 1000 students have lost their homes. This episode of 60 Minutes followed families living in their cars, living in Motels in bad neighborhoods, and children going to bed hungry. I felt heartbroken when they showed a tiny boy explaining the pain of trying to sleep with no food in him. I felt equally sad when a brother and sister explained their embarrassment of their living situation, which was in their car, and how they were forced to brush their teeth and hair in a Walmart bathroom every night.

Never having to go through these hardships, I feel so lucky, but I am also frustrated. Why would the government not do more to help these families? Our country is spending trillions of dollars on a war that doesn't seem to have much of a point, but meanwhile, families don't even have enough money to give their children food.

2011-11-30T14:25:00.001-06:00

Today in American Studies, we heard a story about how enough people have to make the same mistake in order for a law to be made. An example of this was 900 people got burned by McDonald's coffee, so now they have to label the top of the hot, to warn people. This got me thinking, I have heard of some pretty stupid laws, which is why this Huffington Post article intrigued me:

17 Ridiculous Laws Still On The Books In The U.S.

These laws are absolutely outrageous, like In Ohio, It Is Illegal To Get A Fish Drunk. How many people were slipping liquor into their fish tanks, and what terrible outcome was there that it had to become illegal? Another law is In South Carolina, You Must Be 18 Years Of Age To Play A Pinball Machine. On a child's 18th birthday, he is going to want to do something like vote or buy a lottery ticket. On South Carolina, all they are going to want to do is play pinball.

Society needs law to keep order and structure, but how can lawmakers not see that they are going a little overboard?

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out...

2011-11-28T14:06:00.001-06:00

This was the startling image I saw as I entered Bass Pro Shop over the weekend. The store had shifted into "Christmas Wonderland" mode, so the place was filled with fake snow, elves, and Santa taking pictures with small children. It was so cute and happy, it was like a fairy tale. That was, until I saw a very small boy run past me with a kiddie sized riffle. I was shocked. As I looked around, I noticed some of the elves running shooting games, where the children use their guns to shoot down fake, cardboard animals. If they shot and "killed" the animal they would get a prize.

I was pretty disgusted! When I was growing up, my siblings and I were never allowed to play violent video games or watch T.V shows or movies with excessive violence. As I have gotten older, I have also learned about the dangers of guns, and what they could lead to. There are always stories on the news about a twelve year old finding a gun and accidentally shooting and killing his friend. This is in huge part because of societies influence. Everyone loves watching shows like CSI or movies like 300, which show a lot of fighting, shooting, and blood. I myself like watching shows like this, but I can also see how it might spark ideas in children's minds about how cool and tough people look when they have a handgun in their waistband.

I am a vegetarian, so I am probably biased towards the subject of hunting. I believe that killing animals for fun has not benefits to children or adults. I leads to the mentality that we need to be the most powerful species, which can probably be a cause for a lot of conflicts America and Americans have gotten themselves into over the years.

Why do we as Americans feel the need to kill? Does this have anything to do with the need to be the best?

Lonely Learning

2011-11-20T17:10:00.001-06:00

High school is something that has a lot of meaning in it. For some, it is the best years of their life. For others, it is a time that they associate with suffering and harassment. This is all thanks to the 4 year hierarchy that forms in every high school across America. My ideology was proven wrong, though, when I read this article:

Stanford Stamps Online High School

The words "Online High School" really caught my attention, so I read the article and I was shocked. I had never heard of teenagers escaping the tortures and struggles of everyday high school. These people don't have to deal with the pressures of how they look every morning, and they don't have the stress of acting the right way and saying the right words. I began to think of how awesome it would be to attend this unconventional educational process. It would be like those t.v commercials where the girl goes to school in her pajamas! As I began to think of it though, I realized that it wasn't all good. Teenage years are where our personalities begin to develop and our attitudes and ideals begin to mature. Most of those changes happen because of experience. School sports, clubs, and service opportunities teach us discipline, commitment, and integrity. Homework and tests teach us time and stress management. All these things prepare us for college, and our lives beyond education. There is also the social and emotional side of it. I have learned how to grow a thicker skin for being corrected constantly, which will help me learn and grow later in my life. Another important part of adult life is socializing and marketing. If you grow up around people, most learn how to speak and act around cowokers or acquaintances. I know to act differently around teacher then I would with my friends or family. All these things will help me later in life.

What are the pros to Online High School? What are ways it would help develop a child, or on the other hand, stunt growth in teens?

Learning How to Play

2011-11-14T12:14:00.001-06:00

I worked as a camp counselor over the summer, working with small children who live in my surrounding suburbs, and because of that, I have received a lot of babysitting jobs from parents of my campers. The kids I babysit for have only one thing on their mind: The Chicago Toy and Game Fair. This is a giant event that is held at Navy Pier every year at the end of November. These kids had gone last year, so I listened for hours as they told me about every game they played and every character they met. I was intrigued because they mentioned both old classics that I had played as a kid, and new games that I had never heard about. When I got home, I decided to research it. Not only did it look like a blast, it also has a very interesting blog. One post especially got me thinking:

The Future of Play

The blog talked about about how they interviewed a "Youthologist". Vanessa Van Petten has spent a lot of her life, since she was 16, helping parents "build and maintain healthy relationships with their children". She has been so helpful because, unlike the usual experts, she was giving this advice from the viewpoint of a child. Parents were finally getting the other side of the relationship, and it really helped them to connect with their children. The most important part I took out of this article, though, was how they described play, now and then.

Playing used to be all outdoors, and with limited resources. This forced neighborhood kids to come together to find new and creative ways to play tag, or use a wooden stick. Now, as the world gets "less safe", playing is more indoors based, which can lead to kids playing individually more and more. It is also a lot more technologically dependent. People could argue that the way kids play today is better because it is more educational for the kids, but kids go to school to learn. Why should they be giving up play time for more learning. Also, kids can learn plenty from just playing. Back in the day, kids would have to use problem solving to find new ways to use their limited resources. They also learned how to team-build and work with others.

I believe that kids need to listen when grandpa goes on one of his rants about walking 50 miles to school barefoot, because his anecdotes hold valuable information on how to improve society.

All this made me ask myself, when does technology completely take over our children's lives? How much of our youths creativity has been lost to the new age of play?

No More Muammar

2011-10-20T21:06:00.000-05:00

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I found out today that the Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, had been shot and killed. Although he has done atrocious things and should have never been put into power, I feel like this situation is Osama all over again. There will be celebrations, T-shirts made, and everyone will feel relief that the world is now a better and safer place. I am not excusing their actions, but I will never celebrate in the death of another.

In the wise words of Mr. King, people celebrating with hate only leads to more hate. We as people must rejoice in the future, but never in another persons suffuring.

The Celebration of Laziness

2011-10-19T16:22:00.003-05:00

This weekend, I finally made the switch to the 21st century. I made a trip down to the Apple store and picked myself up a new iPhone. I always tried to be one of those people who is appalled at the number for New Trier students with smart phones. Even though I still think that the number is a bit ridiculous, I have to admit that I absolutely love the phone. I can drive in the city and not get lost, and I can catch up on some Grey's Anatomy during my free period. Since I am now part of this new, technological world, I perked up when I read a news headline about apps. This article made me once again feel very cynical about iPhone owners.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/19/tech/mobile/apps-celebrate-laziness-netiquette/index.html

This article is all about apps that give people more reasons and excuses to be lazy. This person who wrote this article was spot on when they connected these apps to the "American Way". We as Americans always want to be bigger, better, and faster. By accomplishing this, we have more and more things done for us. People want to work out? They go for a run. This task was apparently to hard for people, so they are making an app that scares you into doing, by, I'm guessing, telling you that you are being chased by zombies. People have to wake up in the morning for work and school? Hit the snooze button and you will be donating money to charity. Every time a person presses the snooze button on their phone, 25 cents gets donated to certain organizations.

Everyone is guilty of being lazy sometimes, but is it really right for the creators of new technology to influence laziness, when most people know that you have to live an active and healthy lifestyle?

College--Madatory?

2011-10-02T14:07:00.000-05:00

In school, we get our school news paper every Friday. As I was flipping through it last week, scanning for some interesting headings, I thought back to last May, when the coveted senior's college list gets published. That is a huge time in the year. Right now is also a big time for college. Teachers are busy writing recommendation letters, seniors are spening countless hours writing their common apps, and juniors are starting to begin this journey, visiting colleges and starting to meet with their college counselors. Going to a school where almost every student ends up going to college, I was raised thinking that no matter what, I was going to graduate from New Trier, and the go straight to a 4 year college. This is what everyone teenager does in America. But that isn't true. Only 50-60% of people graduate and go to college. Learning this figure was shocking to me. This changed my views, which is why I wasn't suprised when my sister decided to take a gap year before going to Indiana University. She wanted to take some time to work, so she would be going to college completely financially and mentally prepared. Other people didn't know this though. All they saw in that yearly newspaper was the blunt "undecided". In most other societies, that word would not be a big deal at all. It doesn't mean that person isn't going to college, or that they won't be sucessful in life. But at New Trier, it reads as being a faliure and having no drive. My sister was embarrassed and felt ashamed because no one knew that she had been accepted into every college she applied for, or that she would be going to study at the prestigious Kelley School of Bussiness at IU. They only thought that she just wasn't going to college. People at New Trier need to break out of the little bubble we live in and see how the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, live.

Tennis: Saving the Way We Remember 9/11

2011-09-13T20:43:00.002-05:00

One of my favorites days of the year occurred yesterday: The US Open Mens Tennis Final. The date was September 12th, 2011, and it was a bright and sunny day; ideal for playing tennis. As I sat down at my computer, i noticed something written on the side of the court. There was just a simple, yet powerful, line of numbers: 9/11/01. I began to think about this because we had just spent our American Studies class discussing the disturbing way that companies try to cash in on one of the worst American tragedies in history. Businesses like Verizon Wireless and State Farm made commercials talking all about how they "remembered". This was just a way for them to get customers on their side; make them seem compassionate and the obvious choice for when you are deciding on a cell phone plan. I believe that the way that the US Open commemorated 9/11 was a different story. They were not advertising, and there were no logos anywhere near this date. Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the US Open is held, is located in New York City, so it has a strong connection to 9/11 because it was so near to the World Trade Center. They were innocently trying to show their support in a non-showy way that really hit home with me.

Another way this mens final helped the image of 9/11 become less tainted by the advertising business was the players themselves. The two finalists, Novak Djokovic (Serbia) and Rafael Nadal (Spain), were two men, not from America, who chose to take time out of their speeches at the end of the match, to show their support for the USA. Nadal started his speech saying how he wanted to let all the victims and families know that they were in his thoughts. Djokovic came on the stage wearing a New York Fire Department Hat, showing his support for all the men and women who risked their lives to save others. He then said that he was just playing a sport, and 9/11 was so much more than that. These two men showed me that there is good, and the world isn't all about image and the impression we leave on others.

Toddlers and Tiaras--Ruining our Youth

2011-09-12T16:57:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I found myself at my computer about to blog, and once again, couldn't think of anything to blog about. I turned on my TV, intending to turn on the news, but instead started watching TLC's show, "Toddler and Tiaras". I kept watching it, as I find myself guilty of doing quite often. I always thought it was a funny show with crazy moms and out of control kids. I turned back to my computer and saw the empty blog box, and started thinking about the deeper message of "Toddlers and Tiaras". This was when I started thinking about how disturbing this show truly is. These young girls are being taught to judge themselves based on looks and useless talents, like dancing and singing. They are judged on their "bikini bodies" before they are 3 years old. This show is also showing men and young boys to judge girls and women they meet solely on looks. This is not a message that should be sent across after all the hard work that women have done for decades to try and promote gender equality.

first blog post!

2011-09-05T14:06:00.000-05:00

Since this is my first blog post, I had no idea where to start or what to write about. I tried looking at the news, but nothing really jumped out at me. I then proceeded to give up and go on Facebook. That, surprisingly enough, was where I found the inspiration for my first blog post. Someone has posted a link for a video there:

This video is pretty long, but the gist of it is a man walks around New York and asks people with headphones in what they are listening to. Usually videos like this are jokes, trying to make people feel uncomfortable, but this video wasn't. The guy was genuinely asking what these people were listening to.

Something that surprised me about this video was i expected it to be all about how the music people listen to represents who they are, but after watching this and thinking about it, it doesn't have much to do with that at all. We can all see that by the nerdy looking guy listening to "Lollipop" by Lil' Wayne, or the big, tough looking guy listening to "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga. If I was to be asked myself, on any given day i could be listening to Beyonce, and 3 minutes later I could be listening to a song by some obscure band from the Netherlands. I love this video because people could try to go so deep into it, but it really is just an everyday man asking people what song they are listening to. It is quite refreshing.

It was easy to tell that the people innocently walking the streets of New York were didn't know what to expect when they hear a random guy with a camera talking to them. You had some people just straight out ignore him and keep walking, some people tried to ignore him, but eventually were so curious they had to listen to him, and others were completely willing to listen and talk to him.

I think that the reactions tell a lot about the people. Some people were so immersed in their technology they didn't have to time to stop and listen, or stop to do anything at all. These, I assume, are the workaholics that constantly text, e-mail, and Bluetooth their hearts out. On the other side of the spectrum, we had people who were actually excited to talk to this guy. They took the time out of their day to look at their Ipods, chat with him, and seem happy to be on camera. These people were a little more laid back, and my guess is they don't have as much as an attachment to their precious technology.

I don't want this to sound judgmental because I myself am quite addicted to technology. I would be lost without my phone, literally, and i spend a lot of my weeknights on the computer doing homework, more or less. I just would like to think that I would be one of the people who just smiled and was more than willing to get my 15 seconds, or less, of fame while telling the man what song was I was listening to.