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Leo Cassel-Siskind

In class we have been watching Digital Nation. It is about how all humans and teenagers in particular are online so much more than they used to be that being online is becoming a new lifestyle. The most scariest thing I viewed was about how people were chatting each other and encouraging each other to kill each other. There was even a website you could go to for the best place to kill yourself. It’s important to learn about things like this because it helps us protect ourselves online and helps us understand what we are doing online. If I was a parent I would make sure that I could see what my family was doing online whether talking to friends or posting pictures on social media. It’s important to do this so that in case someone is bullying my kids I can see that’s happening and help them out. Parents today who grew up without all of these things need to keep track of all the things their kids are doing online even though it may annoy them. Being online can be dangerous and they need to be protected.

Yesterday in class we watched a Frontline program called growing up online. It was about technology in our world now and how it is changing the way we do things, mainly our memories and behaviors.The most memorable part of this show for me was Evan Skinner's overreaction to her son's trip to New York and the videos of it. I think she was ridiculously irrational and should have kept her reactions and opinions to herself. However, it is important to watch shows like these because they have many opinions by researchers and professors, as well as kids like us. They often give a well rounded perspective on controversial topics. To keep my future family safe online, I would teach them about the dangers and benefits online, instead of shielding them and reprimanding them. The more educated they are on this topic, the better online decisions they will make. It is important to talk with your family about internet safety to see if anyone is being harassed online and your family can help you prevent bad situations online. If there are people in your family who are very afraid or opposed to the internet, this talk could help them use the internet as a resource and also protect them from unsafe online situations. Parents who are struggling to keep their kids safe online, here is some advice: Learn about the uses and dangers of the internet so you are not ignorant to everything your kids do online. After that, make sure your kids are informed of situations and consequences online. If you want, Parental Controls are available, but most of us kids know how to get around those. I mostly recommend talking about it, instead of making the internet a big, exciting, and possibly dangerous unknown that kids will try to explore in secret.

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/11970795853/in/photolist-jePsxX-5XLTnD-3zGzJ2-jricQS-4kqwPN-3zPQNp-s4iLpC-3zPYFR-rMrt9r-3zKnTP-4hgCYc-6D53JD-nQaxoG-4VqLEw-4VFqxx-9gYgXa-nNbvSY-nQe85e-nS1DG8-nxK8iz-nQe5Nv-nQatLm-nQax5f-nQe7UV-nQ59XN-nxJrqv-nQauXQ-nNbx6j-nxJqXL-nQavYs-nPW4wT-nQe72x-nxJE6w-4VqMcb-4VqN3m-4VqKUu-4VmyRD-4VqMPw-4VqLaE-3A7U2M-4V679p-9FJKy3-4hkKhN-4AeyQ3-4VKHe7-EmGgn-2mAPEP-4DDwYE-nTquwM-4Vmx1r/

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off passes the Bechdel Test, but just barely. The movie revolves around a high school senior named Ferris Bueller and his circle of friends. The plot shows us that Bueller has perfected the faked sick day, and the movie begins by him fooling his parents into letting him stay home. As soon as his mother and father leave for work, he goes on a series of wild adventures throughout the city with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron. The Bechdel Test is utilized in one of the final scenes, when he is racing home to beat his parents and sister (Jeanie) there. Jeanie was given a ticket for speeding while out searching for Ferris, and she is driving back from the police station with their mother in the passenger seat. The car ride consists of their mother nagging and lecturing Jeanie for her behavior, and the scene is interspliced with Ferris and his father travelling back home as well. Technically, this scene would qualify as a pass for the Bechdel Test because there are two women who have a conversation about something other than a man. But this interaction is extremely short, is not an isolated scene, and the dialogue is ultimately unimportant to the plot. Furthermore, many renditions of the Bechdel Test require both women to have names, while in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris’ mother does not have a specified name. The Jung-Allen Test requires the following things: two named women, at least one of color, that have an interaction about something other than a man for a full, uninterrupted thirty seconds. This would mean that Ferris Bueller would definitely lose this test. It is not as low a bar as the actual Bechdel Test, but it is still a relatively low bar that I can only think of one movie of the top of my head that would pass this test (The Help). As a reminder, both the Bechdel and Jung-Allen Test do not measure anything about the movie except for its amount of representation. It does not measure whether the movie is feminist or not, and does not grade its actual quality. But the Jung-Allen Test will do a better job of performing the aforementioned tasks. The racial component encourages racial representation (however low), and the uninterrupted thirty second rules encourages the idea that the conversation will have actual relevance to the plot.

The TV show was called Growing Up Online. The show was about kids and how they grew up with computers, how it impacted them, and how they spent most of their time online. The thing that I remembered the most would probably have to be how people would spend so much time online that they lost their ability to communicate with others and that people would die doing a long marathon. I think it is important that we watch these shows so that we can learn from the mistakes of others and and from those of the world. I would inform them of the dangers and tell them what to do and not but encourage them to use it but only if they let me know when they make an account so I can monitor them. It is important to talk to your family about internet safety because they should know what could happen from their doings and how different things can impact you and your family. I would tell parents to make sure they know what their child is doing and monitor it the best they can and ask your fellow parents about what they do.

‘Sisters’ Movie Review Using the Bechdel Test

The movie Sisters is about two sisters whose parents are trying to sell their childhood home. They come home to pack up their stuff and they decide to throw one last party in the house for old times’ sake.

This movie definitely passes the Bechdel test. The first piece of criteria in the Bechdel test is that there are at least two named women. The movie’s two main characters are women: Maura and Kate Ellis. Kate’s daughter, Haley is also named many times. Another is Brinda, a woman who the sisters hate from their childhood who ends up trying to get into their party.

The second piece of criteria in the Bechdel test is that women must talk to each other in the movie. The main characters, Maura and Kate, talk to each other about many things, most of which is about their childhood home being sold and party planning for their party. They also do some talking to Kate’s daughter, who is going through a hard time because Kate is not being as responsible as her daughter would like for her to be.

The second piece of criteria for the test is that they speak to each other about things other than a man. There are times in the film where Maura and Kate talk to each other about men but it is not an overwhelming amount. They each have a crush at the party they throw but only Maura really falls in love with the man she likes and that is not until the end. They talk about the home, their parents, the party, and Kate’s daughter a lot more than they mention men.

If I were to make up my own test the criteria would be:

-At least 2 women are named in the film.

-They do not abide by strict gender roles.

-They are at least somewhat developed characters in the film.

‘Sisters’ Movie Review Using My Test

The first piece of my test says that at least two women are named in the film, like the Bechdel Test. I found this to be an extremely important for a film to be woman-friendly, so I kept it in my test. As I said before, Kate and Maura Ellis are the two main characters as well as Kate’s daughter, Haley.

My second piece of criteria for my test says that the women in the movie do not abide by strict gender roles. I found that “Sisters” also passes this part of my test. Maura and Kate are not overweight, but they are an average weight and they are proud of it. There is a scene in the movie where they stick out their stomachs and laugh about it, which I found pretty funny. They are not ashamed of their normal weight and they are not trying to obtain the skinny woman image that so often appears in the media. There is also a scene where they are picking out provocative dresses for their party. They are not doing this to attract men, they are doing it for themselves and they are laughing about it because the dresses are tailored more for younger girls. I thought that was pretty cool because they were just being themselves and showing as much as skin as they would like-just like a guy can. They also swear and drink which goes against the “polite, happy, and pure” stereotype that girls are held to.

My last piece of criteria says that the women in the movie are at least somewhat developed characters. “Sisters” of course passes this one with flying color as the two main characters are women.

Conclusion

• What TV show did you watch in class?

• We watched Growing Up Online

1. What was this show about?

• It was about teens who grew up in the generation of new technology and social internet interactive websites.

2. What is the most memorable thing to you about this show?

• When the boy said he never read book only the summary online and when the girl who was anorexic went on websites that praised anorexic people.

3. Why/Why not -  is it important to watch shows like these?

• It's important to watch these types of shows because it’s important to have an idea about what your kids are thinking and doing online

4. How will you keep your future family safe online?

• By telling them that everything that goes on the internet isn’t good and tell them everything that can harm them

5. Why is it important to talk with your family about internet safety

• So, that nothing happens to them and they won’t go buck wild online and to keep their reputation in tact

6. What advice would you give to parents that don't know how to keep their children safe online?

• I would tell them to show their children clips of predators online and  people's children going missing from online interactions with strangers

1.) The TV we had watched in class was called Growing up Online.

2.)This show talked about how kids were affected online and how their entire lives changed after something that was put online. They had told us about a fight that happened in their school and that it was recorded and now whenever someone looks up the kids or the school they will see the video.

3.)The most memorable thing about this show was about the girl who was a model on the internet but in real life she was a nobody.

4.)Yes it is important to watch these shows because it teaches us about the dangers of the internet and shows us how much it can affect our lives.

5.)I will keep my future family safe online by not letting them have any social media until they are of appropriate age. Also I will block any websites that are inappropriate or unsafe to children.

6.)It is important to talk to family about internet safety because they need to know how dangerous the internet is and how it can affect your future.

The TV show we watched in class is Growing Up Online.

This show was about teens being obsessed and overly using their phones, going online, and what they did online. It was also about how teens were being attacked online and those who attacked them.

The most memorable thing to me about this show was the fact that teens did everything you wouldn’t ever expect for them to do online. It was like they were living two lives. One in the real world and another online.

It is important to watch shows like this so you can get a visual image of what society was like before and what it will be like now if we continue our live’s always on online and on our phones/laptops/computers. It is also important to watch shows like this so you know what to avoid and what to do.

I will keep my future family safe online by allowing them to go online and posts things as long as they don’t have any inappropriate pictures of themselves or any negative things being said or put out there.

It is important to talk with your family about internet safety because you want to protect your family from what bad things happening online and so they don’t end up with situations online with others and/or themselves.

The TV show we watched in class was Digital Nation from WHYY.

1. This show was about teens and their life online and the comments/opinions that the adults had about it.

2. The most memorable thing to me about this show is how much effect the internet has on people especially teens.

3. It is important to watch shows like these because it allows you to see what’s not obvious to some people in detail. It is not important to watch shows like these because even though we see these things happening because of the internet, we still do the same thing. We don’t stop.

4. I will keep my future family safe online with the ability of trust and help from each other when in need.

5. It is important to talk to your family about internet safety because it can lead to a lot of bad things that’ll bring you yourself into the whole situation.

           6.   I would give them advice about one little post can lead a huge situation/problem so they should                        

                 think before they post.