Exercise 5.6, last exercise of the year and my last chat with Dave!

Hey friends! Today is my last time posting a blog on here. Bruce Ballenger, the author of "Curious Researcher", wants us to finish strong with this assignment. Mr. Bruce set up one last interview with Dave. Remember him? He was a few blog posts back, but he helped me organize my essay better and keep my thoughts on topic! So, here is a short look at my last chat with Dave. Enjoy!!!

 Dave: "Hey you, I think you can't really say that one opinion is better than another one. Don't you agree?"

Me: "I have to agree with you Dave, but to an extent. From one perspective, I think that everyone's opinion should matter and should be treated as valued and respected. However, I do not think that everyone's opinion is right. This being because some people's opinions have no research or material to back themselves up and they don't make a whole lot of sense. But then again, that's just my opinion, right?

Dave: "There's all this stuff in the book about research as a process of discovery. What did you discover?"

Me: "Well, Dave, I discovered a lot about social media and how it affects a teenager, however, I also learned a  lot about my sense of writing. As far as social media goes, I learned a lot of statistics and facts that proved to be very beneficial. I also learned that many teenagers allow their thoughts about themselves to stem from what they see from other people on social media websites. There is far too much pressure on teenagers today to be involved in social media. It's disgusting!
          I also learned about my sense of writing, though. I learned that I love to have a sarcastic tone added to my writing. However, I learned how to construct my thoughts so that they can be spunky and fun, but they also maintain a level of formality. It has been quite an interesting semester learning about all different types of things!

Dave: "What do you figure was the most challenging problem you had to solve while working on this research project? How did you solve it?"

Me: "The most challenging problem for me was that I wish I had just a little bit more time to put into this essay. I would have loved to do just a little bit more research and be able to write a more in-depth thought about the topic. But I am very glad that I was able to find what I did and learn all that I learned. I wasn't necessarily able to solve this issue. But I do know that next time something like this essay arises, I will have a better handle as to how to ensure myself enough time to thoroughly research and write about my findings."

Dave: "After all this work, what do you take away from this experience? What have you learned that you can use?"

Me: "From this experience, I was able to realize that there really is a lot of information out there for us to use, we just need to look for it. As far as for future use, I have learned how I can better research my project by taking more time, thinking through things more clearly, and writing about my findings right away to ensure that I will not forget one detail."


Well, we have finally reached the end of this journey and we are adding the finishing touches to our essays! I hope you have enjoyed seeing how our class has been able to work on this essay from start to finish. Maybe you learned something that will add to your next essay, either way, happy writing!

Exercise 5.3

Hi again! I was unable to make it to class today, so although I am not able to answer the following questions from the perspective of someone who did it firsthand in class, I was still able to do something of the same idea. For this assignment, we needed to basically try to look at our essay in a different way and take each paragraph separately to see if each paragraph was able to relate back to our original thesis. The following questions were asked by our professor to be our blog assignment for tonight.

1. Experiment with the order / structure of your paragraphs. Try at least two different set-ups.  How are they different? What did you learn? Even though I wasn't able to literally cut my essay into different paragraphs and do what the rest of the class did, i did take my essay apart and switch the paragraphs around to see if each related back to the thesis. I definitely liked my second re-arrangement than the first because it flowed so much better. I was able to see where my paragraphs fit best as well as what should be erased from them to make sure that they ultimately relate back to my original thesis. I learned that some of my paragraphs did need to have some revisions because my thoughts were not necessarily in order the way that they should have been.

2.  How did this whole process help you re-see your essay? This exercise helped me see my essay differently because it allowed me to realize that all of my thoughts were jumbled and not put together very well the way that they should have been. I learned how to make sure that my essay stays on topic and that I am able to always tell exactly what my paper is supposed to be about and what point I am trying to get across.

Exercise 5.1

Hello again! Welcome back to my essay in progress. This week, our class has been doing a little bit more "in-depth" work on the essay. Our text book, Curious Researcher, has instructed us to take two separate highlighters to the paper. We had to take one color highlighter and highlight every sentence that reports facts, quotes, sources, or any other information or ideas that were not our own (189). Then with the other highlighter, we needed to mark the parts that showed our personal thoughts, opinions, definitions, or claims (189). After we finished this, we were given a list of the following questions. Enjoy reading as you get a closer look at my essay!

 1. Which color dominates? I had an even amount of mark between my thoughts and the thoughts of others.
2. Are you turning over too much of the text to your sources? As of right now, I have not finished the essay, so at this point, I have a fairly small amount of direct quotes.
3. Are you ignoring them and rattling on too much about what you think? Considering that I do not have any direct quotes right now, I would honestly have to say that yes I am rattling on too much for the first page and a half of my writing.
4. Or does your source use seem appropriate to support your purpose? The paraphrases that I have used have been very helpful thus far to back up my personal thoughts about social media.
5. What do you notice about the patterns of the highlighting? I noticed that they were pretty much every other. However, my thoughts did seem to dominate the larger portions of my essay.
6. Are you taking turns paragraph by paragraph with your sources, or is your own analysis and commentary nicely blended within paragraphs, so that the information is always anchored to you own thoughts? I am doing my best to put the quotes and paraphrases where they are most needed and where they best support my thoughts. I do not want to overload any one spot of the essay, but I am trying to incorporate the best thoughts of others where they are most useful.
7. Do you surround quoted passages with your own voice and analysis? Yes, at this point I have surrounded the paraphrases that I have used well with my own thoughts and ideas.
8. Who wins the wrestling match? So far, I am winning the wrestling match against the thoughts of others. We will see what will come in round two!

Exercise 4.3 "Three Ways In"

Today is the end of the fourth week according to Curious Researcher, written by Bruce Ballenger. In the last exercise for this week, Ballenger instructs us write three different introductions or leads into our essay. He suggests that each should be about a paragraph or two. While I have not entirely written my essay yet, here are my three tentative introductions. Enjoy!

1. Kelsey starred in disbelief at the screen before her. The words blurred in front of her as the tears began to form in her eyes and  trickle down her cheek, only to drip off her chin. Quickly she hit the exit button on the top right corner of the webpage. She was  no longer interested in what Facebook had to offer her. The hurtful words Kelsey's "friend", Laura, had written as her status had slapped Kelsey in the face. "You are a back-stabbing, no good, stupid girl and no one will ever like you. Not me, not a boy, no one...". The status continued on for a sentence or two more, but that was all Kelsey was able to read. "Laura is right", Kelsey convinced herself, "I'm nothing."
      As sad as this may be to read, this sort of thing happens all the time. Social media has caused many young people to second guess themselves. The pressure to be like someone else and not be ourselves can cause nearly anyone to re-think who they are. Nasty comments left by the "cool kids", peer pressure to be with the "in crowd", to have the most friends and "likes" each day, have caused problems with not only the person receiving the pressure, but also the family of the  oppressed. Social media can have lasting affect on a person and their family without them even knowing what is happening.

2.       We've all done it. Yep, that's right. We have all logged onto a social media website at one time or another. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Ask.fm, or a blog, we are all guilty. Many adults will plead innocent until proven guilty when accused of being with the “in” crowd; meaning they are involved in social media. However, adults are just as drawn to social media as teenagers and adolescents are. According to the Pew Research Center, a poll and research facility, nearly 78% of adult online users from ages 30-49 take part in social media; as well as 60% of adults ages 50-64.

        This may seem shocking at first, but then one might say, “So what? Why is that important?” The problem with adults using social media is that social media is no longer seen as a “teen” thing, it is now seen as a “family” thing. Teenagers are no longer the ones who spend too much time away from quality time with the rest of the family and their friends, now their parents are too easily distracted by a notification, tweet, or post. Each person of the family is equally drawn to social media. However, this can cause more problems than we may be aware of. 

3. As I sit here writing, I am guilty. I am one percent of the fifty percent of all people who sign onto Facebook daily. I have a Facebook tab sitting right next to my research tabs ready for me to click on it at any second to see what news has just been posted. Over one billion people have a Facebook page at their disposal. At their fingertips is the opportunity to see every picture posted by their friends, every status written in the last few days, and every piece of information that their friends decide to share. Teens are daily exposed to the drama between either themselves and others, or just others amongst themselves. 

    Now wait a second, one might say. Facebook is not bad, is it? No. Facebook is not bad. What is bad is the things that are said, done, or posted via Facebook. Now, not everything that is posted is bad. But what about the millions of posts that are posted each day that are bashing another Facebook user? What about the inappropriate pictures that people find amusing, so they post them for all to see? The things that have been posted on Facebook have caused countless tears, self questioning, and insecurities on all users, whether young or old. Sadly, this has resulted in problems socially amongst friends and amongst family members.

After I finished writing my three introductions, I read them to my mom who chose that the first introduction caused her to want to continue reading. She guessed that my paper was about the abuses that social media can have on a person and their family. She also stated that she thinks that I will be showing how this generation lacks discernment and how that can impact the posts that are put on Facebook. I hope you were able to come up with conclusions much like my moms and that you were able to figure out what my essay will be about. Which introduction did you like best? Were you able to figure out my thesis? Please feel free to let me know! Happy reading!

Exercise 4.2. It's thesis time!

Today, we are given the responsibility to write a thesis statement for our essay.  Our research is well underway, and it is time to start organizing our thoughts to prepare for the draft that is due next week! (Yikes!) This exercise is once again from page 158 of The Curious Researcher, by Bruce Ballenger. From this page, Ballenger has given his readers several ideas for a thesis from different perspectives. These five perspectives are as follows: Question of Value, Question of Policy, Questioin of Interpretation, an Hypothesis Question, and a Relationship Question. For this project, I have chosen to write my essay from the Hypothesis Question Perspective. Considering that my topic is about how social media can affect a family as a whole, here is tentative thesis that I am going to be using for my essay.

    Based on my research, I am able to conclude that social media can have a major affect psychologically on a family due to the amount of time that the family spends on social media rather than with each other.

I can't wait to work on this essay and to see how all my research can be put together into an essay form that I hope you will want to read! 

Exercise 4.1, Let's go talk with Dave!!!

Hi again friends! Today, I am going to let you in on a secret conversation I had with a man named Dave. Dave is one of friends who read my latest research about my topic, and he had a few questions. Considering that I haven't allowed anyone else to read my essay yet, I thought allowing you to read this conversation would give you a little peek into what my essay is all about. I hope you Enjoy!

Dave: "Why? Where? Who? When? What?"
Me:  "I chose the topic of social media because I felt convicted with how often I am starring at a computer screen each day. I easily get lost in all the statuses, tweets, and posts my all of my friends that I quickly forget how much time has passed since I first got on. I could go on any sort of social media no matter where I am, but particularly while I am at college. A lot of college students can attest to using Facebook or Twitter as a means of "escape" from homework. It doesn't matter if it is 3 am, 11 am, or 10 pm, social media has been seen as a good way to escape reality."

Dave: "What do you mean by escape reality?"
Me: "Social Media is something that most teens turn to when they are lonely, sad, or just struggling with something in life. It allows the teenager to stop thinking about the present of their life, and see what is going on in someone's elses life. Often times, social media can make a person feel better because they aren't thinking about themselves at the time. However, the fact of the matter is that in reality, nothing in their life has changed at all in those hours they spent starring at a screen."

Dave: "How do most people see this? How do you see it differently?"
Me: "Most teenagers see this as a normal part of their day, but they don't think that it is necessarily an escape from reality. They just think it is a way to waste time. But actually, wasting time is an escape from reality, because ultimately there are probably things that they could be doing that are more educational than just being on a website via social media."

Dave: "Are you kidding? I didn't know that! What else did you find out?"
Me: "I recently read from a psychological report on social media, that teenagers can spend from 8-11 hours a day on social media. That is 1/3 of the day just gone, wasted! Do you know how many better things that teenagers, including myself could be doing with that time? Maybe, I would be spending time with my family or friends, or doing homework, and getting better grades!"

Dave: "Can you give me an example?"
Me: "Yes, I can. Those eight hours of day could be spent working at a job and saving money for college. Or maybe hanging out with a friend and taking them to Bible Study at night. Or even having dinner with your family and watching a movie and playing games together! How many more life lessons teenagers would learn through personal interaction than just reading things on social media."

Dave: "Did that surprise you?"
Me: "That teenagers could be using their time better? Yes and no. Yes, because I had never really thought about how much time I spent on social media, particularly Facebook, and I realized how I could be getting to know people better and being in better touch with reality. But no, because when i actually thought about it, I knew that I was spending too much time on Facebook, but I just didn't want to get out of my comfort zone to meet people."

Dave: "What other questions does this raise?"
Me: "What about, why is Facebook and social media so attractive? Why do we as teenagers get so easily entrapped into sitting there for hours? How is this a problem psychologically for teenagers in this generation?"

Dave: "Who does this affect mostly?"
Me: "This definitely affects teenagers the most directly because of the problems it can have on a family. The child will start spending more time on social media that with the family and this can cause tension between siblings and the teens parents. But it will also have an affect of the parents because they will get frustrated with not being able to seemingly reach their children unless they are "plugged in". This will only cause more problems throughout the entire family."

Dave: "What should we do about this?"
Me: "I think that parents should monitor the amount of time that is spent on social media. Once the child is in college, obviously they should have enough knowledge to know when "too much" is "too much". However, I was raised in a family where our computer time was limited, but I still struggle today with spending too much time. In this case, I have had many consequences with late night homework, less time to relax, and most importantly, less time to do my devotions because I was so concerned to read "her" newest post! In this case, the teenager will learn from his or her actions and will have to take responsibility for their poor decision. Maybe we could create a social media website that is only for educational purposes that allow people to teach one another and work together to study and work on homework assignments."

Dave: "I'm not sure I believe this. Why do you?"
Me: "Because I was, and still partially am, one of "those" teenagers who struggle with spending too much time of facebook and allowing my social life to diminish with my family."

Dave: "What do you think we should do about it?"
Me: "Well, Dave, much like I said before, I think that we should monitor ourselves and limit ourselves to certain time spent a day. If that doesn't work, than make sure that we aren't spending more time on social media sites that we are with the Lord and doing homework."

Shortly after this, Dave and I said our goodbyes, and Dave voiced that he is anxious to read my essay! And now that you have seen a little bit of what my essay is going to be about, I hope you can't wait to read my essay either! See ya next time!

Annotated Bibliography and Double Journal Entry

Well hello there! Welcome to my blog. Last time we spent some time together, I told you that I had chosen to write my next essay on the affects that social media can have on a family. I have found some interesting information to share with you today! For this assignment, we needed to find about ten sources and then narrow those ten down to five. After we found the five sources that we liked, we needed to write an annotated bibliography on the source. What is an annotated bibliography? Well, it's basically a way that I can prove to my readers that my source is credible and will be useful towards my research. And beneath my first source you will see a box with two columns. This is called a double journal entry. This is where we can pick out some interesting things from the articles that we chose as our source. Or we can pick out things that we do not agree with or maybe it's something that we completely agree with, but either way, we pick what interests us and type that in on the left column. Then in the right column we write out personal responses to the interesting things that we picked out of the article. So below is what I was able to find. I hope you enjoy!

Topic: How does Social Media affect a persons social life/reality and how does that affect their relationships with their family?

Works Cited

1. Davis III, Charles H. F., Regina Deil-Amen, Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, and Manuel Sacremento Gonzalez Canche. "Join Academia.edu & Share Your Research with the World." Social Media in Higher Education: A Literature Review and Research Directions. The Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

Annotated Bibliography:

I chose this article as a source for my next essay because first and foremost, the authors of this article are professors or assistant professors at a research based university, the University of Arizona. Each of these contributors have either written a book or done extensive study on the variables (race, culture, technology, and finances) that can affect a students success through out college. Amen and Aguilar have even recently received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (a foundation dedicated to funding technological advances for the benefit of those in need) in order to research how colleges and universities are able to use social media for educational purposes. I focused primarily on page three, with the topic title of “Becoming Social”. Throughout this portion of the article, Davis, Amen, Aguilar, and Canche discuss the affects that Social Media has had on any one person. In short, they argue that social media has given people the ability to feel connected. However, this has resulted in the lack of time spent doing homework and other educational and emotionally uplifting experiences (time with friends, family, etc.). The authors even go on to state how much time on average is spent on social media each day and how that affects our brain development. Being that my topic is how social media affects people and their interactions with their family, I believe that this source will be incredibly helpful as I research the psychological affects that Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. affect any one person and how their time is spent in regards to their relationships with others.

Double Journal Entry: “Over the last decade, and particularly in the last five or six years, SMT has transformed our thinking about our relationships, our connections with and affinity to others, and the influence and persuasive power of online communities on how we think, organize, and act politically.” “Since the inception of the internet, and integration of email technology into our personal and work lives, our ways of communicating began to change.” “Social media technology links people together in ways that resemble traditional feelings of connection, belonging, loosely defined memberships, exchange of feelings and ideas, and the reporting of experiences and actions.” Today, the adoption of social media technology now stretches across the globe integrating into the lives of individuals of diverse social, national, racial, and ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.” “young people...spend on average, more than eight hours a day exposed to digital technology.”

how has social media affected our thinking processes? Is there a way that we can still be involved with social media and not fall into this trap? MAKE NOTE TO RESEARCH MORE. How does social media have a tendency to change our views on how we think, organize, and act politically? How have our ways of communicating begun to change? Is it because social media has a tendency to change our views? I think that social media takes up too much time that we should be using learning life. Social media makes me feel connected to others through long distance communication. But how else are there ways for me to keep in contact with others without becoming addicted to social media. How does culture have an affect on our use of social media? Is there a way that we can all stay on the same track with communication in different cultures? How does the time that we spend on social media have a way of distracting us in the long run? I think that those eight hours a day would be better of spent learning life through family time and experiences with people around us.

2. Ho, Sally. "Bullying on the Latest Social Media Sites for Teens Worries Parents." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.

I believe that this website will be a reliable source because it's article is a contemporary look at how parent's are concerned about what happens on social media. While this article focuses more on the bullying aspect of social media, this too, can have a major impact on the way that the child interacts with his or her family member. Sally Ho, a Tribune reporter for the Chicago Tribune News, recently wrote this article because of the rapid increase in bullying due to communication on social media websites. This article references Kristine Schultz, a mother of a girl who was highly involved with social media. While Mrs. Schultz did some research on a specific media site that was often used, Ask.fm, she came across an alarming and very saddening discovery. There were actually youth suicides linked to this website because of the bullying that had taken place vis this place of communication. However, while suicide might be the most severe outcome of social media, there are many other results that can have a major affect on a child. I believe that while this source may require extra research to distinguish between what is valuable for my essay and what is not, I am certain that with the quotes, personal examples, and explicit suggestions, the Chicago Tribune will prove to be of great value.

3. Bowen, Lisa. "About APA." Http://www.apa.org. American Pyschological Association, 6 Aug. 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

I chose this article as a source because it is a fairly recent depiction on the good and bad affects that are attached to social media. While the author is not directly affirmed on this website, there are a few people that the article refers us to for further information. The most prominent, however, is Lisa Bowen, the Director of Public Affairs. In the right side column of this article she offers her services to discuss both privately and openly about this issue as well as information as to where the article's reader could find some added information about this issue. In this article, the author portrays how easy it is for a student in either middle school or high school, to allow social media to affect their attitude socially among friends. However, it is also suggested that social media can help a child who struggles in face to face conversations to still feel social and make friends through an internet connection. The author also adds some positive aspects to social media that I do not necessarily agree with. While I will have to deepen my thoughts about some of these statements, I do believe that this article will be most helpful as it will add some variety to my essay as well as a professionals perspective on how social media can become too much a part of a child's life.

4. Lazarus, David. "Facebook Shows How Privacy Is Passe." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 03 Feb. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

This article has already proven to be one that will be immensely helpful just because I read the title, “Facebook Shows How Privacy Is Passe”. David Lazarus, the author of this article, is a writer for the Las Angeles Times, the largest metropolitan newspaper in the country. Lazarus takes this small portion of the newspaper to briefly tell his readers that we live in a “post-privacy era”. Lazarus also mentions how the lack of privacy has caused some people to have conflicts with others because of the amount of information that was shared via the net. Our culture is so open about every aspect of our lives, that there is no sense of a private life within the family. This being said, I believe that this article will be beneficial to me as I write this article. Mainly because Lazarus takes me a little bit deeper into the thought process of how much social media users today are posting about themselves online for all to see. And also how that can result in conflicts and tension between not the other web users, but also family and friends who are subjected to social media.

5. Schurgin O'Keefe, Gwen, MD, and Kathleen Clark Pearson, MD. "The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families." The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. American Academy of Pediatrics, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

This article will be of great value to me because it was written especially by two doctors who are pediatricians. They took this article to a whole new level by introducing me, as its reader, to the real effects that social media can have on a child. Because adolescents spend far too much time on the internet, O'Keefe and Pearson say that these children are growing and experiencing puberty through the internet rather than through real life situations. They also briefly discuss how children who are highly active in the social media world, often get involved in cyber bullying, sexting, and many privacy issues. Because of these problems, children are prone to not associate themselves with people around them and often fall into even more situations much more harming to themselves. This article is easy to read and full of a lot of professional insight on this issue that I think will be helpful as I write my essay.

Exercise 2.2

       Welcome back to my blog! I have finally picked a definitive topic for my evaluative essay! For this essay, I am going to be writing about the positive and negative affects that social media can have on a family. Does social media truly draw families closer together? Or does it push them farther apart?
       For this exercise, our class needed to read several pages from the book, Curious Researcher, by Bruce Ballenger. Exercise 2.2 is focused entirely around "Academic Research on the Internet". We were allowed to pick one of the three steps, and I chose the second. This step instructs us to perform a search from one of the following websites:
                            1. www.dogpile.com
                            2. www.mamma.com
                            3. www.search.com
                            4. www.surfwax.com
                            5. www.yippy.com
        After attempting a few searches from some of these websites, I finally landed on something of importance through the metasearch engine, www.mamma.com. From this website, I was able to find a website titled, www.saltywaffle.com. While scanning through what the authors of this website had to offer me and my research attempt, I came across an article with the title, "5 Psychological Effects of too much Social Media [Good and Bad]". In this article, the author, Mitchell Cuevas, says that there are five things about social media that everyone should know.
        First, blogging can make you happier by causing you to feel more connected. The second one is a negative effect, the more friends you have on facebook, the more socially awkward you are in person. A study was done on college students who had more friends on facebook than in "reality" and the results were that the person with all the facebook friends was more socially awkward. However, these results faded over time as the person got older. The third point is negative as well as Mitchell argues that people choose facebook/social media over personal or physical relationships with others. 46% of women chose facebook over spending time with their spouse/significant other.
        Cuevas tries to end his article on a positive note by numbers four and five. Fourth, blogging can improve friendships by making people more able to communicate with one another at a faster rate. And last, but not least, twitter brings us closer together. Psychologists have come to the conclusion that twitter and other forms of social media boosts our "ambient awareness". This is basically being more aware and knowledgeable of our friends lives. Overall, I think that this topic will be very interesting as, like Mitchell Cuevas, I dig deeper into this issue from both the positive and negative sides of this argument.
         As I continued my search through www.mamma.com, I came across another website that proved very helpful; www.parentfurther.com. This website focused entirely on what parents thought about social media as well as a link to another page to inform parents just what goes on through social media and some of the benefits or dangers of internet access. This website offered both their own thoughts as well as posts from other parents who had already experienced their child participating in social media. One of the authors of this website even included a prezi that provides step by step information as to what to expect from social media as well as the best way to control what your child is or is not posting online for the safety and best interest of the child.
        The last website that I landed upon was via www.yippy.com and it was www.cnn.com. While I thought that parentfurther.com was the most informative website I had found thus far, I actually found cnn.com to be even more helpful. These authors wrote on how teens and parents tend to struggle sharing social media. One daughter said that she even blocks some of her information from her mom because she doesn't want her mom to be able to see everything that she herself, or other people, post on her timeline. The daughter admitted that she tries to keep her profile clean and not allow pictures of her from parties or other events to end up on her timeline, but she ended by saying "it's hard to be 100% clean when your entire life is online". Her mother still does not know that her daughter has partially blocked her from access to certain parts of her profile. I think that these websites will prove to be very beneficial as I continue to research and record my findings on how social media affects families. Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you visit me again!

Curious Researcher 1.5 Research Proposal

1. Is there a direct correlation between the excessive use of electronics (Iphone, Ipad, etc.) and the lack of respect in today's society?

2a. Explore: how does the over-use of technology affect a person's mood? Does the use of electronics cause a person to care less about life, or more? Do the availability of electronics cause insecurity and/or selfishness in young people today?

2b. Argue: Electronics cause young people to question themselves and their authority.

3. I, personally, have seen how friends of mine have gone from being happy and secure without electronics, do becoming attached to them as soon  as they get them. My friend, (for the sake of privacy, we will say her name is jenny), Jenny, received a new phone for her 16th birthday. Before she got the phone she was confident and knew that the Lord was in control of her life. Following the receiving of the phone, she began to question a lot of things about life because things were not working out to the way that she had planned anymore. I think she became so attached to her phone that it became part of who she was. So when she didn't have the phone, she felt insecure and wasn't sure if so and so liked her or if she would be able to keep her friends if she wasn't talking to them constantly through texts/ phone calls.

Curious Researcher #2

Step 1: For step number one, we needed to take the following topics and brainstorm a lsit pf words that came to mind whenever we thought of the inital word. Here is what I came up with:
Places:
 1. Germany
 2. France
 3. Italy
Trends:
 1. tattoos
 2. oversized sweaters
 3. glasses without prescription
Things:
 1. clothes
 2. shoes
 3. chairs
Technologies:
 1. Ipad
 2. Iphone
 3. flat screen t.v.
People:
 1. Jesus Christ
 2. George Bush
 3. J. F. Kennedy
Controversies:
 1. Obama Care
 2. Death Penalty
 3. Abortion
History:
 1. Martin Luther being shot
 2. the Holocaust
 3. World War II
Jobs:
 1. Retail
 2. McDonalds
 3. lawyer
Habits:
 1. chewing gum excessively
 2. biting your nails
 3. playing with your hair
Hobbies:
 1. Reading
 2. Playing piano
 3. Riding horses

Step 2: For step two, we needed to choose one item from each category to build off of and then choose one example out of all of favorites to continue your research about.
 1. Germany
 2. oversized sweaters
 3. clothes
 4. Iphone
 5. Jesus Christ
 6. Death Penalty
 7. the Holocaust
 8. Retail
 9. chewing gum excessively
10. Riding horses
 My final choice: the Holocaust

Step 3: Take your final choice and make a list of as many questions as you can think of about that particular topic. For example, my topic that I have chosen is the Holocaust, therefore, I would write questions such as:
      1. Why did Hitler feel the need to murder Jews?
      2. How many Jews were killed?
      3. Why was Hitler so cruel to the Jews?
      4. How many different ways did Hitler commit the crime of murder?
      5. What do the "non-Jews" have to say about the Holocaust?
      6. What did Hitler's family think about is actions?
      7. What did the soldiers think about the Holocaust?
      8. What are some of the last words of those who were murdered?
      9. How is this a good example to us about our boldness for Christ?
     10. What was it like to live during the time of the Holocaust?

Exercise #1, pages 1-12. Pick two statements and take three minutes to try to write whether or not you agree or disagree with what has been said.

Step 1: You're writing mostly for the instructor.
             I believe that this is a false statement. If I was writing just for my instructor/professor then I would probably not try to relate to that person in a special way. I would just try to sound as smart as I could and use as many big words as possible to make myself sound more educated. When I was growing up, and when I was assigned to write papers/essays, I would always try to read other people's work first to get an idea of what I should be writing, and  then I would write my paper with big, "only smart people would know the definitions" kind of words. However, that concept always seemed to back fire on me and the professor would not like my paper as much as opposed to if I had tried to relate to him/her on a more personal level by incorporating stories and being myself in my writing.


Step 2: When two experts disagree, one of them has to be wrong.
             I definitely disagree with this statement. My boyfriend's mom has always told me, just because it is different doesn't make it wrong. Now this is a true statement. Just because I have a different way of playing piano than my friend Ruth does, that doesn't make either of our ways of playing piano wrong. We both just have different styles and different thoughts on what sounds better and what works better for our own personal experiences and abilities. I believe that two people are entitled to have their own thoughts and opinions no matter what the circumstance.