A Meaningful Finish
Victoria Trainer
Journal 1 - Media Literacy
Microphones
Word it out
How media is Consumed
Journal 2 - 24 Hours w/o Social Media
Every day I roll over, turn on the Weather Channel, and pick up my phone. Usually I only have a couple of notifications - new Instagram likes if I've recently posted a picture, a few snaps from German friends or night owls, and maybe a Facebook notification telling me it’s someone’s birthday or a new message from my English friend. Throughout the day I stay connected with people through both Snapchat and Facebook messenger, so when Ms. Lowe posed the challenge of going 24 hours without social media I genuinely wanted to try, but I had a bad feeling that maybe I am little too connected to my phone. The challenge started at 4:00pm, so that left me with almost two hours to get my fix in after school. I chose to first contact my European friends since I knew they were going to bed soon anyway, then I snapped all of my friends in college who I no longer get to see daily. After I finished doing that it was only 3:30pm so I wasn’t too worried. I ate and did some chores to keep my mind off of my phone in general. My sister asked me to take her somewhere so she could get her violin back, and on my way there at 4:10pm I hear a little buzz and see the yellow notification light for Snapchat. I ignored it. I got home around 4:20pm and I took a nap until 5:00pm, which meant that there would be no way for me to be checking social media. I woke up from that and saw 3 notifications: there was one from Instagram, one from Facebook, and one from Facebook Messenger. Seeing as they were not very pressing matters, I was again able to ignore it and get ready for the gym. On my way to the gym, my sister asked if I could play her a certain song, and to do that I would have to go on Youtube, so instead I just played her something I already had on my phone. I worked out for an hour and felt great due to those post exercise endorphins. I was also excited since I found out that my trainer’s birthday falls on February 25th and I really wanted to throw a pizza party for that. We were all giggling and joking about how we would throw him a kid’s birthday party and that’s when I remembered that he had posted a picture for #tbt on Instagram that was both hilarious and cute, and that’s when at about 7:00pm I broke my challenge by finding that picture so we could all get a good laugh in.
Journal 3 - Advertisements
Everyday we are constantly bombarded with advertisements. It’s become impossible to escape them. I know that when I used to look at these advertisements I would long to be that 5’10” model who weighs only 115lbs. They always seemed so happy advertising whatever product they were paid to endorse, and of course they always were able to attract men that were just as good looking. At 120lbs I weighed more than a lot of these models and I am usually at least half of a foot shorter than them, so I wanted to know how they stayed so thin. It was not too shocking to find out most of them suffered from eating disorders, but what really struck me was the effects of the eating disorders, especially the deaths that have stemmed from them. Luisel Ramos was a Brazilian model who died from heart failure at the age of 22, and her younger sister died less than a year later. Both deaths were caused by complications due to anorexia. It was when I stumbled upon that case that I wanted no part in being that thin. While some models really are naturally thin, the majority of them do not eat much and/or get help from a team of artists who will then use photoshop once the shoot is over. I believe if society really knew what goes on behind the scenes of these models lives, we wouldn’t glamorize the “thin” look, and instead embrace more sizes and shapes. We have taken some steps to fixing this problem such as banning size zero models, but I highly doubt that the beauty and fashion industry want us to know how edited these models are or else they would not be able to sell their products as effectively. Girls everyday are choosing to risk their lives and harm their health just to look like these models who don’t actually exist in reality. Another thing is that I feel that women in advertisements should get to look just as powerful as their male counterparts. It really bothers me that not a lot of companies are using their brand to break stereotypes. Why don’t high end luxury brands depict a strong independent woman wearing their clothes and accessories instead of an over sexualized model who just cares about doing edgy things like drugs or boys? I feel like they should be the first ones to depict strong women since their stuff is expensive because it’s hard working women that are the ones mostly able to afford it. For a little over two years now I have been very skeptical of advertisements not only because the companies creating them allow for questionable practices, but also because sometimes their ads have nothing to do with their product. While I must concede that I do enjoy funny advertisement, the majority of them do not appeal to me. I do also think the presentation made a good point about speaking up to those making these harmful ads.
Journal 4 - Fact Checking
Marco Rubio
Hillary Clinton
The People's Needs
Journal 5
The October Revolution
WHY?
The Russian Revolution was a two-part series of events that took place in February and October of 1917. After Russia’s poor performance in WWI, Tsar Nicholas II had no choice but to abdicate the throne leaving in place a weak provisional government. The Bolsheviks, which means part of the majority in Russian, were a branch of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party led by Vladimir Lenin. They saw that this provisional government was capable of nothing and took advantage of it by staging a failed coup in July and a second one in October, which was successful. They went in and took over the government buildings in Petrograd, which was the capital of Russia at the time.
WHAT?
Russia is a huge country full of many people. The Romanov dynasty, which had ruled for over 300 years in Russia, was finally coming to an end. Members of the Bolsheviks included Trotsky, who led the coup, Lenin, who would go on to lead Russia during his death, and the infamous Stalin who took Lenin’s place. Russia went from a monarchy to a socialist nation. The change in power would lead to the Russian Civil War and eventually Russia would amass more land and become the Soviet Union. Once the Bolsheviks took charge, Russia was turned upside down. Laws were amended, including those involving marriage, the church became a victim of the Bolsheviks wrath, those who were left of the provisional government were arrested, and the banks were nationalized. Lenin also tried to keep his new government pure and would not let non-Bolsheviks have positions with any sort of power to rule.
TECHNIQUES:
The Party needed immense support. While the Bolsheviks called themselves the majority, they really were not at first. They appealed to the Russian peasants who were oppressed under the Romanov Dynasty by promising land. By using the simplistic slogan “peace, land, and bread” they were able to clearly get their message across and gain their supporters. The Bolsheviks did not shed much blood, though, when they actually took over. They simply occupied the buildings until the provisional government gave them what they wanted.
Works Cited:
"Russian Revolution." Infoplease. Columbia University Press, 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Journal 6 - Torture & Responsibility
Journal 7 - Reflection
Journal 8
Having gone through a lot of personal growth this semester, I have learned that I was once addicted to social media, but that addiction is so easy to break. People must simply make the choice to live their lives. I got a job this semester to pad my pockets before heading off to college, which broke my addiction. I used to check social media when I woke up, on my way to school, during school, and pretty much all the time once I was home. Now it’s more like once or twice a day. I value the time I have with my family way more now because I do not get to see them as often even though we live in the same house. I cannot imagine how little time I was truly spending with them before. By working every day, I have sacrificed quantity, but I have so much more quality time with them. I feel like people around me are definitely addicted. The easiest example I can come up with is my own boyfriend who prefers to scroll through Facebook at dinner instead of talking to me. It is hurting us because I feel like I only see the back of his phone and feel like I have to text him in order to communicate. It is not healthy, but it is so controllable. All it would take is to put the device down. We need to remember we live in the now or else we will lose the limited time we do have. I will admit I used to be an obnoxious person who takes pictures of their food, but now I have decided that by pulling out my phone I am distancing myself from the moment I am in. I would never say social media is horrible, but there is a responsible way to go about it. When something major in my life happens that I would like to share with those who do not live near me, I post on social media. There is not a need to be on it every day, and a couple of weeks ago, a parent at my daycare asked if I had my prom pictures on me and my first question was “Can I add you on Facebook so you can see?” Her immediate was response was that she was not on Facebook, proving that not everyone everywhere is on social media. Just a couple of decades ago, most people did not even have a computer and certainly not a cell phone. It is mind blowing how far we have come. Social media awards us instant gratification, which makes people feel good, so they post more and stay on it until it spirals out of control. The easiest way to free yourself is just to log out and let go, because for the average user, what is happening on social media usually does not matter once they log off, but the connections you make with those in real life are so much more important.