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YouTube. BBC Radio 4, 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Personal Identity: Crash Course Philosophy #19. Perf. Hank Green.

YouTube. PBS Digital Studios, 27 June 2016. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Arguments Against Personal Identity: Crash Course Philosophy #20. Perf. Hank Green.

YouTube. PBS Digital Studios, 11 July 2016. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

Garden City: Doubleday Anchor, 1959. Print.

Introduction:

My goal for this paper is to introduce the idea of personal identity struggling against a larger groups. I want to jump start a discussion within my peers. My original idea was almost entirely different; I restarted with a stronger point, and less repetitive statements and observations. I struggled with finding a structure that tied all of the quotes together, but eventually managed to find common ground. If I could change anything, I would delve deeper into the idea of a community deciding your self worth.

Essay:

Individuals that are a part of a group have an inherent conflict between acting in their self interest, as an individual, and following a group’s ideals. In this environment, there is a delicate playing field of striking a balance between being yourself and still belonging to the group. We see this conflict play out in satire, science fiction, and in our daily lives.

The selfish behavior of forced superiority is especially difficult to control. A review of the popular book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell analyzes interactions within the group of animals. “The thoughtful reader must be further disturbed by the lack of clarity in the main intention of the author. Obviously he is convinced that the animals had just cause for revolt and that for a time their condition was improved under the new regime. But they are betrayed by their scoundrelly, piggish leaders. In the end, the pigs become indistinguishable from the men who run the other nearby farms; they walk on two legs, have double and triple chins, wear clothes and carry whips.” In the beginning, the pigs act in the best interest of the group; help conduct a revolt, and devise a new system. As time goes on, they see the benefits of acting for themselves as individuals. In their quest for self gain they became the oppressive farmers they had supplanted. The pigs claim to be a part of the group, but have seized a more powerful role. This is a clear case of Primus inter Pares, meaning first among equals, someone who is above the others in their likeness. While the pigs claim to be group members like all of the other animals, they clearly develop a sense of self that they are “more equal” than the others.

Your being is often decided by those around you; affecting your interactions and ideas of self-worth. In ‘Flowers for Algernon” written by Daniel Keyes, the main character Charlie Gordon expressed very little self interest beyond the benefits of being a part of a group. Focusing almost exclusively on fitting in did not bring the lasting happiness he craved. “How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility, who­ would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes-how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence. It infuriated me to think that not too long ago I, like this boy, had foolishly played the clown. And I had almost forgotten. I'd hidden the picture of the old Charlie Gordon from myself because now that I was intelligent it was something that had to be pushed out of my mind. But today in looking at that boy, for the first time I saw what I had been. I was just like him! Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined with them in laughing at myself. That hurts most of all.” In this moment Charlie realized that he had never truly been accepted. He had unknowingly made fun of himself to be a part of the group. His focus was always on belonging, even when he grew intelligent and didn't feel like he belonged, he yearned for it.

Not all individuals choose one path or the other. They adapt to their surroundings to survive. This habit is often used in social situations, like changing speech patterns or body language to best fit the situation. In the new york times article, Why ‘Self-Identifying’ Is Different From Coming Out by Wesley Morris, Bill Kennedy, a professional basketball referee, has different identities for different groups. In public life he allowed people to assume he was heterosexual, until recently when he publicly came out. Those close to him knew about his homosexuality beforehand. His decision to have two separate identities most likely spawned from an effort to gain acceptance into two different worlds. “There was no ritual to Kennedy’s announcement. He’s a self-identified gay man who, again, has a job best done with little to no identity. News reports reverted to ‘‘coming out,’’ which, clearly, is what this was. But it was also something more complex. ‘‘Self-identified’’ alters the tenor of the outing. Not only does it imply ownership of the identity. It also implies that the person coming out was, under the circumstances, not actually in. He just wasn’t out to you. If you’re self-identified, you might have cultivated a life that’s self-selected, meaning the people aware that you’re gay know because you’ve told them.” In his personal life he was able to act more selfishly with less risk of rejection. Kennedy could focus more on his individuality, while as a referee there was more pressure to conform to the group ideology. His existence was considered irrelevant unless someone was there to validate it.

The complex actions of individuals assimilating into a group or a set of groups are split between acting with themselves in mind or adopting the mindset of a community. Balancing these two behaviors is critical to an individual's identity within a group and whether or not they will be accepted by that group. Without it, you aren’t even the beginning of a concept.

Works Cited

• Keyes, Daniel. "Flowers for Algernon." New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. Print.

• Soule, George. "In 1946, The New Republic Panned George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'." New Republic. N.p., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

• Why ‘Self-Identifying’ Is Different From Coming Out. New York Times, n.d. Web.

Introduction:

In this essay, my goal was to explain what comes along with nationalism, and how it relates to patriotism. While writting this essay, I was able to understand the world slightly better. Being in SLA allows me to interact with different people while giving me willingness to learn about others. These are experiences that many people might never experience outside of this school, city, or country. In a sense, I was brought back to the real world. Writing this reminder that the world, is not perfect.

Essay:

Throughout the world, people are separated into different categories, which impacts their lives completely, in a good or bad way. Possessing a classification is completely inevitable, especially when the whole world is built around classifications and division. There is a reason why people are divided in this world, and it's all because of something most of us, see no problem with. Nationalism.

When a nation comes into being, an invisible barrier appears at the border of this nation. Inside of this barrier, lies a certain kind of belief. Thought. State of mind. A mindset that all of those, inside of this barrier possess. This mindset isn't unique to this nation, as all of the other nations also possess the same kind of mindset. People in these barriers are connected to one another when it comes to their own nations. They feel pride, love, and hope, as their nations succeeding could mean their own success. When they accomplish any great dead for their nation, they feel patriotic. These people would give their lives to keep those inside of the barrier safe, and to keep the barrier from shattering. Political activist, Emma Goldman, who criticizes the mindset behind patriotism, states, ¨“When the child has reached manhood he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner…” This quote perfectly touches upon the mindset of those in a nation. Inside of this barrier people will be shaped from young, to protect it from any other outsiders who are not from within the barrier. This mindset isn't something new either as it reaches as far back as ancient times when knights would protect their homeland from intruders.  The moment you become part of a nation, being patriotic becomes something extremely important. Especially when trying to fit in. When everyone possesses the same mindset, the only way to fit in with everyone else is to possess the same mindset as well.

Nationalism plays a huge role when it comes to people's refusal of understanding other nations. These people are completely blind when faced with the truth. They believe in something completely imaginative. A concept, which restraints and shackles them to their own nations, preventing them from interacting with one another. Making learning and understanding each other much less probable. These are done through various ways as social media, education, books and many other things within a certain nation can cause a person to be this way. Especially if purposefully created to guide someone´s mindset, as we see today in North Korea and China.

These shackles and these barriers could be easily taken down as long if their ignorance and arrogance were to disappear. If they didn't allow themselves to become mindless sheep and followed their own thoughts, they wouldn't be like this. A quote from Benedict Anderson´s book, ¨Imagined Communities,¨ uncovers this, “It's an imagination because the members of even the smallest nations, will never know of their fellow members, meet them, or hear about them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” These people will never truly be capable of truly understand one another. They share the same mindset and choose not to go through the barriers of other nations to understand them as they are patriotic towards their own, even though, not a single one of these people know everyone in their own nation. “Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. “ This quote from Emma Goldman and her piece, ¨What is Nationalism¨, is perfect for this idea because it shows the reasons why many of these people, choose to not understand others. Even though patriotism can be seen as prideful, successful and helpful, in truth, patriotism is formed from arrogance, segregation, greed, and other evil ideas.

There is a reason we go to war. This idea of being better than others that nationalism brings, allows countries to become greedy, causing conflict with one another. Russia going after Ukraine, England and the many places it colonized many years ago, colonizers. The greed overshadows their emotions as even the cruelest of things, becomes something acceptable, just because they are doing it for your own nation. Emma Goldman declares ¨We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens.¨ This quote is a complete summary of how nationalism can turn people into beasts. Normal people who have never seen blood in their lives, from young to old, accept other citizens being killed for the sake of their greed. As long as nationalism exists, humans will never be able to come together and live in peace as Benedict Anderson states, ¨No nation, Imagines themselves, continuous with mankind.”

Bibliography:

Anderson, Bennedict. "Imagined Commmunities." Rebels library. N.p., n.d. Web. Jan. & feb. 2017.

In the beginning, my goals were for this paper to explore a side of me that I never really have before. Although this writing process was sort of non-existent I discovered things about feminism both within myself and out in society through research. The one thing about my essay is that I wished it was more personal.

Essay -

It all began in the year of 2013 when Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines was released and was a major hit on all of the radio stations. I heard it going to and from school all the time and I always thought it was super catchy but I didn’t really know what the song was about. However, that all changed one day when I was in the car with my step-mother, the feminist, and she was ranting about how the song was normalizing rape and in a way that everyone can enjoy. A few weeks later I was at a family and friends party and Blurred Lines came on. I started to get really angry when everyone was dancing and singing along and asked them if they knew what it was about. They said they did, but it was ok for us to listen because they were feminists. But how could they listen to such a degrading and oppressive song and still consider themselves feminists?

In an article from Vice magazine, Monica Potts talks about what it was like to grow up being one of the only feminists in redneck country. Potts talks about how people in her town would make sexist jokes and remarks and many people would just laugh but she would feel uneasy about it. Similar to my Blurred Lines story, Potts deals with being surrounded by normalized sexism and misogyny in her community, although mine is a little lower scale.  I believe that this kind of upbringing can affect anyone’s identity, it just depends on where they go with it. Potts says in her article that “The subtle messages women pick up starting from an early age are part of the reason women become nurses instead of doctors, and teachers instead of engineers.” This quote tells us a lot about how being a feminist can get you further than you would have if you had not been. Engineers and doctors are normally roles taken by men. However, any woman can become head of a male dominated career with feminism by proving that her abilities are just as valid as any man.

Even though feminism in the end is how you see yourself, in this day and age it is hard not to be influenced by what we see in media and through social interaction. Being a feminist can put you at the top of some social pyramids and on the very bottom of others. According to a recent Harvard study “While young Americans have strong opinions on gender advantages, however, they appear to reject labels. Only 27 percent of young Americans consider themselves feminists (16 percent of men and 37 percent of women). However, 49 percent of those polled "support" feminism.” The entire meaning behind “supporting feminism” has never been fully clear to me. However, this is what I get from it; If you support feminism you can see the reasoning behind it, but can’t fully commit to it yourself, and if you are a full-fledged feminist you support the ideas and reasoning behind feminism. Anyways, So being a feminist and learning that only 27 percent of the young U.S. citizens are feminists made me feel as though I was some sort of minority, especially that the other 73 percent either support feminism or are not feminists. In another article the author states “She is focused on getting women into boardrooms and into high-level jobs, doing away with the idea that there's something wrong with women being bosses or ‘bossy.’” This idea that women are “bossy” when really they’re just doing their jobs is another reason for women to let feminism affect their identity. “Bossy” is such a negative word that as soon as most women hear it being used to describe them they back down and let men take the stand. Though, there are the few who simply reply with “insert clever feminist remark here” and continue with doing the jobs they were hired to do.

Introduction

My goals for this paper were to make sure my analysis and evidence was well balanced. Also to make sure there isn't more evidence then there is analysis.I feel like I did a great job process wise completing this assignment considering I had it done a couple days early. I had plenty of time to revise and I think that will play a big part in the outcome of my essay. Overall, I believe I did a better job balancing my analysis and evidence and had a great topic to expand on.

The Rules Unbeknownst In Our Society

Advertisements combined with the media are constantly flooding our brains with ideas, stories that influence the way we think, unbeknownst. These influences impact what we like and how we think. It alters what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong. The media constructs rules on how we’re suppose to look and act in our society. If the guidelines are broken, we are judged and looked at differently, making us feel isolated from society resulting in a system where people need to change who they are and what they do to fit in and not be called weird or different.

As advertisements influence us without our consent, standards are being built. Whether its watching a commercial about clear skin or a commercial about underwear where they only show “slim” and “skinny”models, you are constantly seeing this, making you think if underwear is only for those kind of people. While advertisements build standards and create rules, social media is what basically enforces it. You might not or might notice how advertisements influences you, but in social media people would go post with the idea of the standards that were built with the advertisements. Now the posts on social media are reflecting back upon these standards.

In a article “Teen Girls And Social Media”, by Nancy Jo Sales talks all about teenagers and their struggle in social media. “She says girls face enormous pressures to post "hot" or sexualized photos of themselves online, and she adds that this pressure can make the Internet an unwelcoming environment.” From experience I have seen girls get more likes on pictures that were “hot” or “sexualized” photos. I'm not saying that you can not get attention or fit in with not posting “hot” photos, but it is difficult. It was almost like if you weren't posting any sexualized or hot photos, you wouldn't attract a lot of attention or you would not be fitting in. The more of these posts that are seen, the standards ore being pressured upon girls in social media.

It's a similar standard for boys as well. In a story “It's Complicated”, it has a short introduction titled, “Why do teens seem strange online?”. They questioned, why would the boy lie to the admission committee about what he's about, when the committee could easily find out online?. “perhaps this young man is simply including gang signals on his MySpace profile as a survival technique.” Survival technique in this situation would be fitting in. The young man’s posts included gang signals, but the reason behind it was to fit in. He was trying to blend in with his local community, and if he did not try to blend in and post the things he posts, he would be looked at differently and judged.

Being judged and the pressure to be someone you not is hard for some people. Especially when there's advertisements showing you what's perfect, right and pressuring you to be someone you not. In a short blog post, “False beauty in advertising and the pressure to look 'good'”, by Jo Swinson, she takes us through her perspective on advertising on beauty. “From smoothing skin and erasing wrinkles to enlarging muscles and slimming waists, airbrushing, or "photoshopping," men and women to so-called perfection is the norm in advertising. These images don't reflect reality, yet from a younger and younger age, people are aspiring to these biologically impossible ideals.”. In this quote she shows how advertisements paint a picture of what perfect is and set a standard for people to obtain. Although, these standards are nearly impossible to reach. “People unhappy about their bodies can develop eating disorders, turn to diet pills or steroids, or try cosmetic surgery and Botox injections.”  People using steroids so they can have that nice toned and muscle to getting a botox injection, so they can have a nice butt, these standards are now casting standards upon people to change their lifestyle just so they can fit in this society.

Annotated Bibliography

Keyes , Daniel . "Flowers For Algeron." Pdf. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2017. <http://www.sdfo.org/gj/stories/flowersforalgernon.pdf>.

Boyd, Danah. "Its Complicated." Pdf. Yale university Press, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2017. <http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf>.

Sales, Nancy Jo . "Teen Girls And Social Media: A Story Of 'Secret Lives' And Misogyny." NPR. NPR, 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

<http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/02/29/467959873/teen-girls-and-social-media-a-story-of-secret-lives-and-misogyny>

The goals of this paper was to bring up the issue of pre-chosen identities based on the values and standards we as a people created and implicated in society. Reflecting on my final product, I think my goals were met, however next time I have a stronger sense on how to achieve those even more. I believe my process was good when working on this essay and that my main idea was interesting to explore and write about.

Essay:

Identity is how we as a species have changed throughout life and tried to individualize ourselves. However, what if our identities are pre-chosen for us based on the standards of the old society we created? In the dominant American society, we can see patterns of identifying based on socialism throughout the entirety of our history as a nation and as a people. All people want to do is to fit into boxes and limit themselves based on what is more desirable in certain communities.

America has had the system of classes for as long as people can remember. High class, low class, middle class, these are just everyday terms Americans discuss frequently. However, the classes might not be as clear cut as they seem. Patricia Cohen points out, “The feeling of comparative deprivation and the ultrarich separating themselves from the rest of society helps explain why only 1 percent of Americans accept the rich or upper-income label. Even most people earning over $250,000 — the top 5 percent of wage earners — identify as middle class. There’s always someone wealthier around.” (Cohen). This ties into the feeling of wanting to identify with someone else or a larger group of people. In the United States it seems like people don’t want to be shamed for having a certain amount of money so the majority more or less puts themselves in the middle. This idea of wanting to fit in can not only be seen within the classes of America, but as a species, humans do it all the time. Everyone tries to fit in because they are scared of not fitting that standard society places.

Not only do we notice the behavior of trying to fit into society’s view of having the most popular or desirable identity in America’s political system, but it also makes itself known in American literature. Flowers for Algernon, a popular book written by Daniel Keyes, explores identity in terms of being intelligent and how that self proclamation affects the community and other people. One quote states, “Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart.” (Keyes, 1) As seen here, Charlie (the main character) believes being “smart” is the best thing to be. This point of view can also be taken out of the book and into real life as well. It is drilled in every student’s head that they need good grades to get into college, that students have to go. And the idea that “smartness” can be measured by a number is also a way society has pushed us to identify as. And once again, people usually like to be near the middle of that spectrum of between a genius or being stupid.

Trying to change your identity on the surface is also another way people want to fit into a larger group or system. In another book, Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, the idea of changing your outward label was a major decision the main character, Rafe, decided to pursue. He was not satisfied with being labeled as different and wanted to fit in in the “normal” crowd. This idea is immortalized in the following quote, “I was thinking about how snakes shed their skin every year, and how awesome it would be if people did that too. In lots of ways, that’s what I was trying to do.” (Konigsberg, 11) Trying to change people’s views on your own identity can show that you are in fact, trying to transform yourself, no matter how small, to fit in with the popular option.

Throughout American culture, the idea of fitting into a system which is deemed more likeable and/or popular fuels how people identify today. This idea has increased drastically in the current generation due to the rapid and ever changing social media fads and trends. What is considered acceptable or not in terms of identity has always been based on the society standards we created as a people. And in reality, just having society to blame for this constriction of self is untrue. We have always been constricting ourselves.

Works Cited:

• Cohen, Patricia. "Middle Class, but Feeling Economically Insecure." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2017. <https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/business/economy/middle-class-but-feeling-economically-insecure.html>.

• Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. Print.

• Konigsberg, Bill. Openly Straight. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine, 2013. Print.

Introduction

I had a little bit of a hard time writing this paper. The topic of identity can be really hard to write about due to the fact that it’s so broad of a topic. But after a couple of days of thinking and sorting out my ideas, I finally was able to to come up with a question and a stable structure on how to answer my question. Overall, I’m proud of my work because I wasn’t too confident in this assignment when we first got it. But I think I met all the requirements. I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts.

Essay

What truly contributes to defining our identity?

Society is so consumed in the materialistic aspect of our world. Whether it’s worrying about how many followers/likes they have on Instagram, “needing” to wear the latest fashion, religiously watching the lives of our favorite celebrities, or concerning ourselves with how much money we have/want. We believe that these things make us better, more popular, or bring us happiness. But the problem with this is that all of these material things are only temporary. They only provide temporary happiness; we as a culture strive for things to be permanent because we aren’t satisfied with temporary. In a video called “Celebrities Speak Out On Fame and Materialism”, different celebrities discuss identity and happiness in the fame industry. During an interview with actress, Cameron Diaz, she  states, “If you are looking for fame to define you, then you will never be happy. You will always be searching for happiness.” In today’s society, fame is one of the top goals people would like to achieve. But when they get there it’s like, what else is there to do now that they have everything they could every want? Fame doesn’t bring happiness and define your identity because all the praise is going towards what the person is known for, rather than who they are beyond their talent. Fame is a perfect example of how martialism as a whole shouldn’t define you. The material thing can get uninteresting really quick and it can overshadow who you really are as a person.

Our culture focuses on materialism so much that we begin to slowly forget what truly defines who we are or want to become; and that’s us. Going back to the “Celebrities Speak Out On Fame and Materialism” video, actress/model Cara Delevingne touched on the topic of identity. She says, “The most important journey…..is the journey in ourselves. To find our truth, to find who we are and what makes us happy.” It’s important that people go on this journey because it will separate us from the material world and “force” us to focus on ourselves and what we want to become in  life. This sets up the stage for what should truly define one’s identity. Before one can reach the final destination in the journey of discovering who they are, they must make one pit stop. This pit stop will be most helpful in defining one’s identity. But depending on the person, it can be extensive.

This pit stop is called expanding your horizons. This consist of several other sub-pit stops, but we are going to only focus on a couple. Such as expanding your knowledge, surrounding yourself with the right people, traveling to new places, and taking risk. By expanding your knowledge, you could learn things that can change the way you think for the better.  This can be achieved by reading more books or learning from the experiences of others. Knowledge is power; the more you know, the better you become. By surrounding yourself with the right people, you open yourself to new opinions and ideas that could indeed shape your identity. These people should be uplifting and contribute positively to upbringing of your identity, rather than being negative and influencing you to become someone that you don’t want to be.

This world is so vast and has so much to offer. By traveling to new places, you can start the process of figuring out the role you want to play in the world. Traveling doesn't just mean going to another continent or even across the country; you could also stay close to home and just travel to a part of your city(or state) that’s new to you. Your identity is shaped by your environment; by traveling to new places, you learn about what you can take away from the environment and if you are affected positively or negatively by it. By taking risk in life, you open yourself to endless possibilities that can shape your identity. If you stay in “the safety zone” of life by sticking to what you already know and have done in life, then you won’t become worse or better; you would just stay as you are. But if you take a step into “the risky zone” of life by experiencing new and different things, you may discover things that you never thought you would like, but do. You may also discover things that you never thought you could do, but can. Taking risk can be two sided, you could improve as a person or worsen, but you’ll never know if you don’t try.

The larger idea here is that our identity is defined by the world. Maybe not all of it, but certain aspects of it like culture, religion, politics, or even materialism. By expanding your horizons, you’re opening yourself up to all of the world. Experiencing all it has to offer and seeing what works for you and what doesn’t. No matter what people say defines their identity, all of their ideas are a product of their experience living in the world.

Citations:

"Celebrities Speak Out On Fame & Materialism." YouTube. Ed. Elina St-Onge. "Think For Yourself", 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.       <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYDKCx4hSQQ>

This is a video, but you didn't list the format we should have for videos on the MLA Style guide. So i just used the website format.

This paper was for me to express my views on how society and powerful people, create ridiculous standards for people to follow, which leads people to believe in false images of becoming wealthy and someone who they are not. Along with that, my goal was to open up and write about a scene that I haven’t exactly opened up about, publicly and I have successfully accomplished that. Overall, I am proud of my end product because I portrayed everything I wanted to in as many words as I could, and I expanded on my creative writing. I spent a significant amount of time on this as well, with extensive amount of peer editing and review, and I am happy with my essay.

Identity is something that you hold dear to you. Something that you become over time, where you discover and explore different things around you, and that eventually builds up who you are. Your identity affects what people think of you and your future. Identity is everything you do, your appearance, your behavior, your daily lifestyle, etc. Identity is impacted by the people who construct society, people who have power and create expectations that you must follow. This builds a false mindset around you, that being wealthy, prosperous, and changing yourself into someone who you are not, will make you happy. When in reality, that is not the case. People slowly start to follow this mentality and change themselves so they can fit in and grow into this facade society has built for them.

A method society uses to do this, is to push people to believe that you should establish and improve your self image, so you are noticed by the more powerful people of this world so you can become affluent. Though this “improvement” occurs slowly, and in daily aspects of your life such as at work, school, financially, and economically, the continuous effort and drive to become someone you are not, adds and adds to your shoulders and augments into a heavy pressure which becomes tremendously unbearable that eventually leads you to break. Society will always have these certain rules about beauty, careers, lifestyle, etc, that will never change, and if one person follows it, it becomes a chain reaction and more people will want to follow them to “fit in” and become wealthy. This makes it even harder for people to ignore it, which is why people get sucked into perfecting themselves.

Not only are normal people affected by this, but many celebrities as well. They come from all over the world and they believed in this fantasy as you are now, but it did not end well for most. Cara Delevingne, a model, stated the truth behind this in an interview, “We are told that if we are beautiful, if we are skinny, if we are successful, famous, if we fit in, if everyone loves us, that we’ll be happy. But that’s not entirely true.” Delevingne's statement exploits society and how it feeds lies to people in order for them to being wealthy, but when they get to that point, they are no longer happy or guaranteed what they were promised in the beginning. The voice Delevingne is portraying, is that none of the things society tells you to do is the right answer, you don’t have to change yourself, just work on yourself the way you choose and you will be happy. She expresses the message to not follow the footsteps society tells you to. Russell Brand, an actor, emphasizes in an interview, “I’ve been inside now. I’ve seen the other side of the looking glass... It don’t feel your soul. I still feel empty inside.” Brand demonstrates his discomfort of being a celebrity and how he woke up from the fantasy. Once he saw past the “looking glass,” which symbolizes how society portrays the rich, he realized that it wasn’t worth believing. Being wealthy and living that kind of life will not feel your soul, like society illustrates. In the end, you will be empty and unhappy.

I, along with many others, have experienced different aspects in their life where they have been discriminated or told to change something in their appearance, attitude, or personality to fit into society or to be accepted. Personally, I was treated negatively many times during my life, but one specific aspect was directly from my relatives. My story goes hand in hand with society’s beauty standards.

It often breaks down when my family has gatherings, such as dinner at my aunts or my place. I’m always around my female cousins and aunts and it always has to come to the conversation about who's gaining or losing weight. During these times, I shy away from the circle but one particular time, I wasn’t paying attention and I was happening to be eating chocolate cake. I mean come on, who doesn’t love cake? It’s irresistible so I kept munching away.

As I was savoring the taste of the silky, smooth, milk chocolate on my tongue until one of my cousins giggles and exclaims, “Look. She can’t stop.”

The moment that statement slipped from her mouth, my face dropped and I felt a sharp pain in my heart and I could feel blood rushing to my cheeks. I set the plate of cake aside and bit excruciatingly hard on my inner lip to fight back the tears. As everyone in the room realized my sudden change of mood, their snickers died down and they moved on to another conversation.

That wasn’t the only time that happened and I do not think that will be the last either but everytime it happens, a piece of me grows even stronger and stronger to love myself, and to not follow society’s standards in beauty. I promise myself to not believe in people’s criticism and society’s false ideas and views and to only follow my own raw beliefs and not the fake ones.

Society teaches us to follow erroneous images where we are all told to look a certain way or to be a certain way. It is about finding what is for you and not letting people tell you how things are. It is all about discovering the world for yourself and seeing the truth behind it all, and then deciding what you want to do and not what society wants you to do. It is about demolishing the these barbaric images for yourself so you can move on without the burden of society.

Bibliography:

Celebrities Speak Out On Fame & Materialism. Perf. Josh Radnor, Lady Gaga, Russell Brand, Tom Shadyac, Alexi Panos, Cara Delevingne, Essena O'Neill, Alanis Morissette, Tupac Shakur. Think For Yourself. YouTube, 4 Mar. 2016. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYDKCx4hSQQ>.

Coming from an Asian household, but being raised in America, there are many advantages and disadvantages between Asians and Asian Americans. Asian people who immigrate to America want to be successful in this country, and have a positive and fulfilling life. Back in their home country, it was a struggle and due to multiple reasons such as poverty, low income, no jobs, etc. So for their children who are born in America, they are considered, “Asian American.”

Asian American parents, much like many immigrant families, will go through difficulty like working low paying and tiring jobs. They must work hard to achieve their goals and to provide for their families. Asian parents will encourage their child, and help them to be hard working, do well in school, and have a nice job, in the future. Such as, working at an office, becoming a dentist, or engineering, and etc.

There are also many disadvantages for Asian people who have immigrated here. But for Asian Americans, they have more an advantage living in America. For example, speaking the english language. As I grew up, I noticed that my parents struggle with speaking English and they still do. At times my parents would ask me or my brother to translate for them, like talking to a bank teller, going to pay for a bill, calling someone, etc. If an Asian American were to live in Asia, they would have the disadvantage because they have not grown up in that country, for them to know the ways of lifestyle such as speaking the language, finding jobs, communicating with people, etc.     

My parents and I, are very different, but we always come back together as one family. My parents were immigrants, but now they’re United State citizens. But for me, I wouldn’t consider them as an “Asian American,” completely because they came to America for an easy and better life. Asians that are in America still struggle today with financial problems, jobs, and communications . An example would be working at restaurant, which could be a struggle for some Asians. “Working 12 hours on the weekday, and 13 hours on the weekend was tiring,” my Mom said with energy. My parents go further into how difficult working at a restaurant is, saying that there are “no vacations, if you injured yourself for example like getting a bad cut, the boss wouldn’t care as much because they’re not going to pay for your injuries.”

My parents told me since I’m “American,” they expect me to have a better working job than them. They don’t want me to be in their shoes, working hard every single day, barely getting any breaks, getting paid $8/hour which my parents think is considerably low, etc. They want me and my brother to go to college, since they didn’t, and do extremely well because as an Asian, they want their children to be successful in life. They want their children to be better than them since they experience it themselves.

To me, being Asian American or fully Asian, I’m happy and I’m not. I can communicate with people around me, but then I don’t usually speak Chinese with my parents. Although, I understand them I can’t really speak back and if I do try, I sound like a foreigner to them. This causes me to be confused about my identity. It is really different because I feel like if I choose one between Asian American or Asian, it could be right or wrong. I don’t know where I stand when people ask me about my “identity” to be quite honest. Am I fully Asian or Asian American? To this day I’m still trying to find out where I stand.   

Bibliography:

Tan, Jude. "7 Differences between Chinese and American Culture You Should Know About Before Living and Working in China." Teach English in China - Current TEFL / ESL Teaching Jobs. N.p., 31 Oct. 2016. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Intro: My central question in my essay is How does society and the way they teach race and culture affect the knowledge of a person's racial identity ?,In my essay I tried to incorporate  experiences of not just me but students and youth as a whole and how they are affected by my essential question because I believe youth are definitely affected by it. I also tried to incorporate a lot of the quotes I found as evidence to prove my thesis to be true. I think that I did pretty well explaining such a complex topic and getting  the reader to understand the importance of the issue.

Essay:

 In every grade from kindergarten to 12th we have history as one of our main subjects. School systems have the mindset that  the curriculum they teach for this subject is suitable for all of their students. They know  that they are instilling false knowledge about American History  and neglecting their duties to help each and every child  find their own racial identity.School systems are letting the stereotypes and  misconceptions the media portrays about race teach their children and in return students are amplifying their ignorance in schools,work,at home if they don’t have the proper support  in their household  to correct their wrong information, social situations, and even more. Students who  are not taught correctly about their racial identity and aware  and informed about  other racial identities are the ones who usually end up becoming the stereotype or using their incorrect information to be little other races. If school systems cut common misconceptions and stereotypes about racial identity at the roots they’ll be no room for ignorance to grow.

The way school systems teach students about their  racial identity has gotten so out of control that it is starting to  affect the way students perceive themselves and how much effort they put into their school work .In school now a days  how well you study or how much attention you pay in class is no longer the measure of how successful you’ll be in a subject but  the color of your skin.  In an article  recently written by Heidi W.Durrow  she explained how even though she was Dominican the results she had in math decided she didn’t fit in with being Dominican but another race. “I learned that because of the peculiar way that math and race work together in America, I was black.”. The quote is a perfect example how the school system is helping to categorize races in a stereotypical way which is taking away from the  actual learning experience of the students. It is also striping them away and confusing them about their  real racial identity and leading students to believe false information about a race.

Students should  be trying to learn about their racial identity and history  without the fear of being already categorized  before they even get to show off their skills in the classroom. Without the students even getting to the point of being aware of their own racial identity, the school system does a good job of indirectly applying definitions to the social,economical, and political meanings of race. Angela Willing states ““Unlike race and racial identity, the social, political and economic meanings of race, or rather belonging to particular racial groups, have not been fluid.”  Students especially in the  12th grade and under are trying  find out their self identity and how that ties in with their racial identity but how can they, when society is already crafting the definition for them. This makes it much more confusing for students trying to find the truth about their racial identity and even makes them more vulnerable to believing stereotypes and misconceptions the media feeds them.

 It is not practical to ask the school system to teach about every single race in the world, it just isn’t possible especially in one school year. It is way too  much information and history to investigate and research but it is practical to want the school system to teach about  a wide range of different races that don’t all come from the same region. It is essential that the school system dives deeper into racial identity and eliminates misconceptions about different races. This will lower the rates of ignorance that has already spread so vastly across our country. Also  helping students find their racial identities early in life might make finding their self identity a lot easier.Students shouldn’t have to be unfortable in their own skin. Students should not have to be afraid to be who they are. The  students race should not determine  how well they do in school.The student should not be limited in their education because of their complexion. Skin color does not define the student, the student defines her or himself.

Introduction:

My goals for this paper were to make a piece that explores the difficulties of making art in the modern day. I wanted to take a look at how the internet and online trends have combatted with honesty surrounding what people make whether it be music, visual art, or any other creative medium. My process was slow, this was the most difficult advanced essay by far. Reviewing my work was hard and I feel like this is the closest I could have come to a final product I would enjoy.

Essay:

Being both a self titled creative and shy person, I struggled for a long time to gain the confidence to share my work. The raw face to face exchange that takes place when showing someone something you have created is difficult to say the least, there is a reaction that you can gage almost instantaneously from this viewer simply through their overt emotional reaction.

I then became familiar with the internet, this vast expansive web of connection. It had loomed in my periphery, it was this mysterious complicated minefield of social standards and I made a distinct decision to avoid it. Although, for the past two years I have begun making music and I have found the internet to be a place to share it without the awkward societal exchanges that follow. This blanketing effect made it wonderfully simple for me to place my musical pursuits online, leaving my friends and strangers to peruse my work. Whereas I gained the positive side to this, there are also many people who receive hurtful and negative reactions to their work. This facade of the internet also allows people to say whatever they want without the actual threat of physical violence. An online presence involving creative pursuits have both negative and positive effects on the quality of the world.

My experiences have been solely positive on the internet. My music and art have registered fans who tend to be mostly my friends and family. But the growing use of social media in everyday life is both oversaturating these music platforms but also giving these creative people the fame and love they deserve, it divides the good artists from the bad solely based on honesty. This quote an article relating to American’s relationships with the internet from The Atlantic sums up this expansive quality of the internet perfectly: “Americans are followers: Nearly half of all Americans are now members of at least one social network, double the proportion of just two years ago.” This massive shift in human interaction has opened the world to an innumerable amount of creators who just keep coming, making the ability to stand out extremely difficult.

There are definitely negative experiences though, the internet has made this veneer of numbness that is slowly filling major sections of it. Art is extremely personal, and many times placing it on a social media platform feels vulnerable. People take this vulnerability and place nasty comments upon it for personal pleasure, the pursuit of a power complex. I have a personal example of this, a friend of a friend who attends this high school is a poet. They delivered a poem alongside a fellow student crafting a conversation between them and their future white son, going in depth about how this boy will be placed in a position where they are not allowed to feel bad for themselves. This poem was recorded and uploaded to Youtube. This being an uncomfortable subject a few people on the internet bashed it because they disagreed with the poem, then the negativity began to pick up steam and these children were being torn apart based on their physical appearances and the way they held themselves. This of course began to pull away from the few opinionated issues that followed this piece and became a conformist bully party, allowing people to attack these two peers of mine with intense superficial insults that led to these students needing support.

The internet provides the most raw gateway to human interaction, raw but isolated and removed. This honesty brings up questions about how art is dissected and viewed online, people are who they are and they place that for millions to see. Then other people who are also being genuine, will be brutally honest with no regards for feelings. I find this criticism is much worse than it would be in real life, the lack of human connection is robotic and alien. It stimulates this sense of destructive mystery, not knowing tone or context. I am a person terrified by people not liking what I make. I find real life interaction in this regard to be frightening, the idea of the internet seemed like this foreign sanctuary where I could express myself but I found it to be much worse. I need to know how people feel by sharing my music to the people I am closest to, the people I know on a deeper level who will tell me if my art or music is good or not. I find this person to person connection will forever trump the plasticity and falseness that follows the internet.

Source:

Jackson, Nicholas. "Infographic: The American Identity According to Social Media."The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

Introduction:

For my essay my guiding question was In what ways does social media cultivate or challenge media? I tried to incorporate my own experience with black identity and how social media shaped that. The goal I set for myself is to establish the struggles of being a black women and feeling like you're in constant competition with people you should be united with. I tried to make my essay as relatable as possible which I why I chose to use one of my real experiences. I feel like I did a really good job expanding on this topic and really identifying a problem within social media.

Essay:

It was the summer of 2012, on a cool Tuesday morning in the middle of July. I was awakened by the smell of burnt bacon and the almost never ending sound of the smoke alarm. I ran down the stairs to find my brother almost burning down the house. My mom and I rushed to get a towel to calm down the alarm. The piercing sound finally became calm my mom then yelled and me and my brother

“Hurry up and get dress we’re going to be late”

I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going, but I wasn’t passing up any opportunity to leave the house. She made sure to tell us to pack bathing suits; I was hoping we were going to an indoor pool. Oh, how I loved indoor pools. It was never too hot or too cold; always just right. Best thing of all-there wasn’t that burning sun on my back. We drove in the car for almost three hours and to to my dismay, we pulled up to the beach. Don’t get me wrong, the beach was fun; the nice cool breeze in my hair, the clear water, the tangy smell of sea salt in the air, but there was just that one thing: the sun. I hated the sun for one good reason I hated the fact that it made my complexion darker. When my skin was a shade darker, I used to feel as if that changed who I was and how people perceived me. I used to scroll on instagram and see all the memes talking about light skin black girls compared to brown skin or dark skin black girls. On my timeline in particular, light skin girls were always seen as “the prettier girl” so in my eyes I had to be as light as possible. Even in songs you would hear “light skin is the right skin.” For me, I never considered myself light skin until I started using social media and seen the huge debate between the different complexions and even the stereotypes. If I was going to be anything I had to be light skin because according to my instagram feed that was the right skin.

This idea of colorism shaped my identity as a young black women. It put black females against each other as if it was a competition and the people who determined the winners were the black men. They made females compete for their attention by demeaning their complexion and making them feel as if they weren’t the same. Black men controlled the women’s identity and social media controlled theirs. Social media fueled the idea that light skin black women were supposed to look this way and act a certain way and then undermine the black women who weren’t that complexion and try to poison their worth.  A culture that’s supposed to be united was divided. Instead of uplifting all black women as the queens they are the men put them against each other because of these unobtainable ideals of black women cluttered their minds. They gained the satisfaction of seeing them fight for their attention and they fed off of it.

In Colin Daileda’s article Race related conversation remain divided on social media he talks about how many black people talk about or see conversations about race “Around 68 percent of black people who use social media say they see posts about race and relations on their social media feeds, and 28 percent of them say they tweet and post about race as well.” Black people unite on topics like #BlackLivesMatter or #BlackTwitter but never on uplifting our women. Colorism stems all the way back to slavery the only reason light skin black women were seen as “prettier” is because they were closest to white. This idea was instilled in black minds and pushed into social media. The modern way of putting black women down.

Social media has it’s own flaws. It amplifies the wrong things and sometimes the right things. But it has challenged black identity in particular. It gives the men the idea and they push that idea onto black women tarnishing their identity before they even realize what it is. They shape themselves accordingly until they see fit. With no real idea of their true self or actual worth just the perception that social media gives them.

Bibliography: