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:

Introduction:

Writing this essay really helped me explore what I went through in my years before high school and how I experienced literacy. It helped open my eyes to things I never actually thought about until now. How in schools they try to limit your reading and your literacy to one thing or one culture and same with home. People often look over it without actually realizing what they are doing. I am very proud of how I incorporated my scene of memory into my actual piece and larger idea. Something I can improve on as writer is trying to make connections within my writing and also my use of commas. Both my peers saw that there were times when there could’ve been more of a connection in my writing and where a comma or two could be added. In the future I want to improve on my use of commas and trying to make connection within my writing.

The smell of hot chocolate tiptoed it’s way up the steps and slowly into my room. It wrapped itself around my nose as it pulled me from my sleep. As I woke up all I could think about was that it was Christmas and that thought flooded my five-year-old mind. I jumped out of bed and raced down the steps as if someone was chasing me. The only thing that was chasing me was my excitement. Nothing made me happier than Christmas, the warm clothes, the sweet smell of hot chocolate, oh and of course the presents. How could I forget about the presents? That year the only thing I asked Santa for was a Barbie. Everyone in my school had a Barbie so I knew I just had to have one. When I finally got downstairs all I could see was the huge Christmas tree it was covered in the brightest lights you could ever imagine and the ornaments almost looked like they were made specifically for that tree. The one thing that topped it all off was the tree topper. I’ll never forget it, it was the most radiant star I had ever seen. My grandpa always told me that he pulled it straight from the night sky just for our tree and I believed every word he said.

As I stood there gazing at the beautiful tree my mom yelled at me and said

“Girl, if you don’t come here and open these presents before I have to open them for you.” So I rushed over there and she handed me a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and my first present to open. I don’t know what was more exciting ripping the wrapping paper off or trying to figure out what was inside. When I finally opened the gift I noticed that it was a white box and the only thing that comes in a white box is clothes. Oh, how I hated getting clothes as gifts, it was like eating spaghetti for breakfast, it just wasn’t right. I continued to unwrap my presents scavenging for the only thing I wanted, that Barbie. I finally got to my last present by then I was getting a little anxious. I was praying this last present was my Malibu Barbie I rushed to open it and when I saw that Barbie logo I couldn’t believe it. I took the entire wrapping paper off and when I finally saw her face, she was white. My five-year-old mind thought nothing of it but years and years of getting the same white barbie I started to question “Why don’t they look anything like me?”

   That same question stuck with me throughout my years of elementary school but my love of Barbies turned into my love of books. Same as Barbies, books gave me a separation from reality, they gave me a new world to look into rather than my own. My favorite genre was fiction it opened my eyes to all the different things people could do. I read about people flying in magic school buses, the adventures that the brother and sister went on in their tree house and one of my all time favorites the stories of Junie B. Jones. I couldn’t help but notice that all the books I read none of the characters were anything like me. Sure, it was fun to read about all these different adventures they went on but I didn’t really have a character I connected with. All the books I did read that had some form of a black person in it were limited to minor characters or books about the civil rights movement. In The Apartheid of Children’s Literature Christopher Meyers emphasizes how people of color are used in literature: “characters of color are limited to the townships of occasional historical books that concern themselves with the legacies of civil rights and slavery but are never given a pass card to traverse the lands of adventure, curiosity, imagination or personal growth” Within in all the fiction novels I read about people traveling through time and helping to save the princess there was never one black character or any person of color for that matter. This, of course, gave me a fixed mindset as a child. I knew there were certain things that children of color couldn’t do. Those things being traveling through time, in a magic school bus and going on adventures in treehouses with their siblings.

   This thought transferred itself into my writing as well. As much I loved reading fiction I loved writing it too. Sometimes I found it difficult to try to incorporate myself within my writing. A lot of the things I wanted to talk about I had no idea to, well at least I thought I didn’t. In Write What You Know Heller illustrates how writers shelter themselves without even knowing “— unconsciously censored themselves and thrown out the wheat, mistaking it for nonliterary chaff. In this sense, the reminder to write what you know” Many of the things I tried to write about I believed I had no business writing because I didn’t know anything about it. It wasn’t until high school I actually read books about black people. I finally learned that I don’t have to limit myself or color myself in between the lines. Just because I only read about white people traveling through time fighting dinosaurs doesn’t mean that people of color can’t do the same. Just because I only had white Barbie dolls doesn’t mean the black Barbie wasn’t any prettier. I learned that Literacy doesn’t mean writing about what you know and limiting yourself. It means both writing about what you know and what you don’t know. Extending your knowledge to all regions and opening your mind to the new things in the world.

The overall You and the World project was a great and new experience for me. I never have done a project like this before and as a whole it was semi-fun. At times the project became very stressful it felt like a mini-capstone but instead of a whole year we had one quarter. Considering that we had so little time I think I did an okay job on this project and there are many thing I could have done better, of course. But I am proud of myself and all the hard work,sweat, and tears I put into this project.

The Research part of this project was maybe one of my favorites. I found so many disgusting facts it was appalling. But I wish I could have dug a little deeper into other fast food restaurants. I mean I found out some stuff about Chic-fil-a chicken sandwiches but I wish I could’ve dug a little deeper into that. I also wish I could have really gotten into what is in Chipotle’s food. It looks like an okay place to eat but I really would like to know if it is for real. But that might have to be some individual research I’ll have to do and I’m fine with that.

The Original Research aspect of this project I wasn’t really a fan of. My results for my survey came out horribly. I think I should’ve asked better more centered questions that no one knows about. My blog post was terrible too because I think I could’ve did so much better I forgot the little/BIG things and it really frustrated me because I know I could’ve done better than what I did. But if there was a next time I would do something completely different for my Original research. I don’t know what but something better than what I did.

My agent of Change I am kind of iffy about. With the topic I chose for my project it was kind of hard to pick what I wanted to do for my Agent of Change because what can I actually change? No matter how many disgusting facts you tell people about what they are eating they might get disgusted but they are still going to eat it. I just wish for my Agent of change that I could’ve did something that made a bigger impact on people. Something that would have made them stop and really think about what they are eating. But I think I did an okay job on my Agent of change but like I always say I am my biggest critic so I’ll never think anything is good enough.

All in all I think my project went okay. I’m happy it is finally over. This project was one of the most stressful projects I ever had in my life. But I’m happy i stuck through it. Throughout all the pain and tears I think I had a successful project and I am semi-proud of myself.

As you may or may not know for my You and the World project I decided to bring awareness to what is in Fast food. In my first blog post I explored the ins and the outs of different fast food restaurants researching what’s actually in their food rather than what they tell us and what we believe is in our food. What fueled my project is I feel that people don’t know what is in their food when they eat from fast food restaurants. What I wanted to do with my project is bring awareness to what’s in their food and hopefully stop people from eating so much of it. In my Original Research I decided to do a survey to show that people don’t know what’s in their food. In didn’t turn out as well as I thought it was but it did prove that some people don’t know what they are eating and it’s sad. What I hope to do with my agent of change is hopefully change this and help my generation out.

For my agent of change I decided to bring my project to the SLA hallways and social media. For the first step of my agent of change I made a twitter account for my project. Social media has been such a key component in this generation’s lives and I thought what not a better way to bring awareness to my issue than social media. I came with a hashtag for people who followed the page and were really passionate about it and wanted to join the movement. Here’s a snapshot of the twitter page.

Although there’s not that much of a following now it’s a gradual thing and hopefully soon there will be a huge following and everyone will be hashtagging #ChickensDontHaveNuggets in no time. But I didn’t just stop with the twitter account, Step two of my project was bringing it to the SLA hallways. I decided to show a picture of a 12 year old McDonald’s Hamburger. You would think after 12 years there would be some type of mold but there wasn’t a spot. The burger looked exactly the same. What I put on the posters around school is that picture and the twitter page for my awareness campaign. Here’s what the poster looks like below.

What I hoped to accomplish with this is having students all around SLA looking at my poster and feeling disgusted but educated. Not much has changed now because it is only the beginning but even now I hear from some of my peers that they have taken a strike on eating certain fast foods because of my blog post and the information that I provided. Just hearing that makes me want to make this more than just a English project.

Throughout this whole project I’ve had mixed feelings about it because even though it is a great topic for this project there isn’t much you can change about it because some people aren’t willing to change. No matter how many disgusting facts you tell them they’re still gonna eat the food. But I’m still willing to fight for the cause. I feel like this project there are countless things I could do better because with this kind of topic there really isn’t a wrong way to go for me. But if I had to do something better or change something it would be my Agent of Change. Although it was a great idea and it turned out great I just wish I did something that could’ve make a bigger impact but I’m my biggest critic so who knows. But all in all I’m happy with my project and how it turned out. Maybe now some people know what’s in their happy meals.

Do you ever stop and look at the nutrition facts before you take a bite of your juicy McDouble? On McDonald's own website they tell you as much as they want to asin what’s in the McDouble. In the bread alone there are many different chemicals and preservatives that are harmful to human health. They claim that their patties are 100% beef and I highly doubt that. I again ask do you ever stop and take a look at the nutrition facts before you take a bite of your food. 9 times out of 10 you don’t and that is exactly what my project is about. We as humans never stop and think about what is actually in the food we eat from fast food restaurants. What I hope and want my project to accomplish is bringing awareness to what really is in fast food. I became interested in this topic because my brother is 30 pounds overweight for his age and I am 100% sure it is because of fast food. I want to bring awareness to kids like him and all of America really because none of us and look to see what we are eating. You can get a lot more information on my topic in my first blog post."4% of the Meat in a Mcdouble Is Real Beef,What's the Other 96%?" Our Food. Your Questions. McDonald's, n.d. Web. 11 May 2015. <http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/questions/9246>. ( Challenges McDonald’s claim to 100% beef)

Since my first blog post I have explored my other 2 fast food restaurants that I wanted to dig deeper into Chipotle and Chic-fil-A . One that particularly surprised me was Chic-Fil-a. Chic-fil-a makes the claim that they’re chicken is real and children in our generation have debated about this and it has become this big epidemic rather or not Chic-Fil-a’s chicken is real or not. Well fortunately I found some information on that subject. In a Chic-fil-a chicken sandwich there are 100 ingredients and 18 preservatives. The FDA allows these companies to add these preservatives but there is a limit. However they don’t say anything when companies add different preservatives and put them all together. When I read this article I was appalled to find out what TBHQ does to the human body. TBHQ is found in Mcdonald’s, Wendy’s and now Chic-fil-a products. Too much of this chemical can cause ADHD in children, asthma, allergies and stomach cancer. Not only is TBHQ is in Chic-fil-a’s chicken but in their buns too.  Chic-fil-a has become very popular this year and hearing this changes my whole view on Chic-fil-a and their food.

For my original research I decided to do a survey because it best fit my issue because the answers are shocking. It started with the simple question “What is your favorite fast food restaurant?” 50% of the people who took my survey said Chic-fil-a which is understandable because many people believe it to be the healthiest choice when it isn’t. The question that surprised me was the question that asked “How many ingredients are in McDonald’s fries?” What surprised me is that many people picked the highest number for the amount of ingredients in their fries and I thought that maybe they read my first blog post and got the answer but it was pretty cool that many of them got the right answer for that question.

Many Americans have explored the luxurious world of fast food but not many of them know what they are actually eating. On the top 15 fattest Countries in the world the United states is number nine. I believe most people are or becoming obese is because they don’t know what they are eating. I would now like to introduce you to my project. My project is based upon fast food industries, what I am doing is bringing awareness to what is actually in the food that we are eating. Yes, they might tell you the calories in their food but they don’t tell you what’s actually in their food. That is what my project is for to raise awareness and hopefully make a change in people’s diets. I’m interested in this topic because my little brother eats McDonalds, Wendy’s, Popeyes, etc. and he is 30 pounds overweight for his change and I don’t only want to show him what he’s doing to his body but my mom as well because she feeds it to him. Showing them Data and all the things I researched will hopefully change my brother’s eating habits.

"Average Height to Weight Chart- Babies to Teenagers." Disabled World. Disabled World. Web. <http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/height-weight-teens.shtml>.

My project is very significant to the World because no one ever stops to take a look and see what they are actually eating and I think it’s about time we should. McDonald’s is one of the most famous and largest fast food restaurants in the world. There was a documentary called Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock. It brought awareness to what McDonald’s food does to your body. Yeah sure people laid off McDonald’s after seeing the documentary but of course Most people went back to their regular diet. With my project I want to dig deeper into the fast food industries food. Not only McDonald’s but Wendy’s, Chic-Fil-A and Chipotle. I picked these other 3 because they seem to be the most prominent fast food joints now and I would like to research more on where where all of their food supply comes from.

I first researched the World’s favorite side order, French Fries and what I found is horrifying. I first researched McDonald’s French fries and rather having the usual three ingredients Mcdonald’s had 17. I found this great website that tells you all 17 ingredients and how hazardous they are to human health. One in particular that I found very disturbing is the sodium acid pyrophosphate which is used for the color in the fries. It makes you think well what is the actual color of the fry? This is not only McDonald’s fries either, it’s Wendy’s too. Wendy’s has made a claim that their new and improved fries are natural, well that’s a lie. They first get a dip of sodium acid pyrophosphate then they are powdered with a little more natural D-glucose. So this proves that Wendy’s is a little less natural than they make it seem and this website gives you a lot more information on Wendy’s fries. Vaughan, Mark. "We Did the Fast Food Burgers,now We Need to Do the Fries." You Are Not a Fit Person. 26 May 2010. Web. <http://youarenotafitperson.com/2010/05/26/we-did-the-fast-food-burgers-now-we-need-to-do-the-fries/>.

It is important for everyone to know about this because I bet you are reading this now and wondering what is in the food you are eating now. I bet you are questioning everything you eat and order from fast food restaurants. Have you ever questioned what is in the chicken nugget and what makes it a nugget. Well these doctors in this article questioned the same thing and they did a whole experiment on it. They dissected two different chicken nuggets from two unknown places. When they looked at the chicken nuggets under the Microscope they found blood vessels, fat, skeletal muscles, cartilage, organ tissue, bone fragments and many more disturbing things. So if you have to ask why this is important to you, read that. It’ll change your mind.

Hamblin, James. "Look Inside a Chicken Nugget." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/look-inside-a-chicken-nugget/280720/>.

Going through the process of my project I am wondering about many more things that I haven’t researched yet. For one where does all of the beef come from that is in the burgers? Also questions like where does Chic-Fil-A’s chicken come from since it claims to be real and I also want to dig a little more into Chipotle and see what they’re hiding. Moving forward with this project I am sure that I will answer all of the many questions I have. Not only will I do that but I will accomplish my goal with this project which is raising awareness. At least 2.8 million people in the world die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. I want to stop this and I am hoping my project will atleast help with this problem.

Annotated Bibliography

Sarcasticos

Nadya, Jamie, Avery

Somos Los Sarcásticos.  Asistimos a Science Leadership Academy.  SLA es una escuela basado de proyectos, en el centro de  Filadelfia.  Está en 22 calle y Arch.  Está cerca de una estación de tren.  El edificio tiene cinco pisos pero el cuarto piso es prohibido. Nos gusta SLA porque tenemos muchos amigos aquí.  En SLA trabajamos duro, tomamos apuntes, prestamos mucha atención, y hacemos toda la tarea.  La escuela tiene acerca de 500 estudiantes y 20 profesores.   Tenemos desayuno y almuerzo gratis, expendedor automático, sudaderas oficiales de la escuela, y mucho mucho más.  Tenemos un equipo de Ultimate Frisbee, Basketball, Campo y Pista, Voleibol, Fútbol, Debate, y Robótica.  Tenemos también el club de música, ¨comunidad participación club¨, poesía club, club de cantar, y  club de bailar.  Participamos en Ultimate Frisbee porque es divertido y ejercicio bueno.         

Algunos cursos son bioquímica, inglés, matemáticas, historia, arte, y tecnología. Nuestros cursos favoritos son inglés y español. Estas clases son divertida y desafiante. Necesitamos unas plumas, una computadora, y nuestras revistas para inglés. Necesitamos una carpeta, un aglutinante, un lápiz, y computadora para español. Para tener éxito en esta clases tenemos que estudiar y foco en clases.

Nuestros profesores en Science Leadership Academy son inteligentes y comprehensivos. Tenemos muchos profesores. Tenemos una profesora en la clase de español. Su nombre es Señorita Manuel. La Señorita Giknis enseña inglés. La Señorita Giknis es muy divertida y loca. El Señor Todd enseña historia.  Su clase es tremendamente divertida, dependiendo del dia. En la clase de inglés leemos novelas. También escribimos muchos ensayos. Los Profesores en Science Leadership Academy son comicos. Nuestros compañeros de clase son diversos. Todos en Science Leadership Academy son muy fabulosos.

Net Neutrality

What is Net neutrality? Net neutrality is that Internet Service Providers and the government have to treat all Data on the internet equally. Not discriminating because of the user, website, application, etc. Net neutrality protects us from ISP’s treating traffic differently. Without Net neutrality you can forget about youtube,netflix anything online you can forget about it. If the ISP’s get control of that you won’t be able to do anything like that.

I think it’s important for teens to know about Net neutrality because in the future in can be in jeopardy and since we know about it we can do something about it. Right now Net neutrality is in danger and I think it’s because not many people know about it so they don’t care. Us teens are the new generation we can fight this. WE can make a difference just by having this knowledge and sharing it with the world how important it is. I don’t people understand without Net neutrality the internet would be a completely different place.

I also think it’s important for teens to know about net neutrality because our generation lives off of the internet. All most teens know is that the internet works fast. They don’t know why the internet works fast or what some people have to do to fight for our internet rights. Soon they will want to know when the internet isn’t working fast anymore. But we don’t have that type of time. So that’s why I think it’s very important for teens to know about Net neutrality and what it does for us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

http://time.com/101794/obama-backs-away-from-net-neutrality-campaign-promises-after-fcc-vote/

http://www.businessinsider.com/simple-explanation-of-net-neutrality-2014-4

Nadya

• Intro: ¡Hola! Te presento a los seres queridos en mi vida.

• Yo: ¡Hola! Mi nombre es Nadya, pero mi apoda es Nah. Soy de Filadelfia. Tengo quince años, mi cumpleaños es el  cinco de noviembre. Mi comida favorita es pollo frito y pernil. Mis programas favoritos son Teen Wolf. Me encanta bailar es por eso que me gusta dormir.

• ella: Te presento a Aubrey. Me da risa, Ella es loca. Le gusta comer. Ella es muy

bonita. Ella es mi prima.

• el: El es Rahkim Mayers pero su apodo es A$AP Rocky. Es mi alma gemela. ¡Es un broma! Es el fabuloso. Me da risa mucho. Me encanta mucho.

• ellas: Interview

¡Hola!

¿Como te llamas?

Ramon: Mi nombre es Ramon

Namia: Mi nombre es Namia

Ellos nombres son Namia y Ramon\

¿De donde eres?

Namia: Soy de Filadelfia

Mone: Yo tambien

Ellos son de Filadelfia

¿Que te gusta hacer?

Namia: Me gusta jugar futbol

Mone: Yo tambien

Les gusta jugar futbol

Ellos son mis primos

• Nosotros: ¡Nosotros!

Te presento a Emily, Janeesa, Devi y Yo.

Emily es mi tía. Ella le gusta ir de compras y cantar. Janeesa y Devi son mis primas. Janeesa le gusta para rato con los amigos y Teen Wolf. Devi le gusta bailar y Barney & Friends. Nos Encanta comer mucho y ir al cine.

• Conclusión: Gracias por tu atención, Vale tengo que bailar práctica.

The reason I made my slide look this way is because simplicity is key. Although my slide is very simple it makes a statement. I will first explain to you the picture. I made the picture huge because humans are visual beings as said on Presentation zen vision trumps all the other senses. I didn’t want my slide to only be a visual aid I wanted to make a statement that will be left in someone’s mind. I made the font size on my quote as huge as possible to catch someone’s eye. Although my text is huge I contrasted one part of the text to make it bigger than the rest. Kerning was definitely a difficulty since I used such a big font but since I used few words it all worked out.

What inspired me most was this website I found that’s listed in my sources below. It’s a ted blog and what stuck out was one thing that it said which was find pictures with meaning. The picture I chose has meaning to it. The picture is so strong and it will catch someone’s eye. The rule of the thirds is also another thing that inspired me because I have a lot of empty space in my design and I feel as though that either attracts the person to the text or the picture or even both. Empty space gets your slide noticed and remembered.

sources: http://blog.ted.com/2014/07/15/10-tips-for-better-slide-decks/

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2008/08/learning-from-the-design-around-you-ikea.html

Hola mi nombre es Nadya,Vivo en Filadelfia.

Tengo quince anos.

Soy muy baja,simpatica,guapa y boba.

Me gusta mucho bailar. Odio ayudar en casa.

Me encanta comer.