Link to aid in research

One link that I have found that may potentially aid my project is:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/milena-cochinescu/2013/05/what-it-was-like-to-grow-up-in-the-ghetto-as-a-white-girl/   

although this is a first account blog type article so I may have to transition my research into articles written by a member of the othered group as opposed to articles written about the group by those outside of it.

English Blog 6

For this project the othered community I think I will be discussing are the poverty and crime stricken residents of places like Brownsville New York in areas which are considered “ghettos”.  I’ve chosen this group because it is a large group of people that occur in almost every megalopolis, where changing eras have transformed once booming inner cities into places of poverty and turmoil.  These places are othered by other residences of the cities, by police and just the general public.  I think that I will find myself looking at more texts about the culture by others as I think there is a lot of research on those types of areas, more specifically I think that I have seen a lot of research on those areas in the criminal justice classes I have been taking.  I will most likely be using a collection of online news articles as that’s generally what I use for projects such as this, however, I might use a video to switch things up a little bit.  Right now I’m thinking that for the most part I understand the requirements of this project and how to go about getting started with it. I think this should be a fairly interesting topic especially because I have touched on this subject briefly in other classes.     

English Blog #5

In the Hanfler article it describes social construction on page 13 as “what we label deviant depends on context and how we interpret the meanings of deviance” and that “deviance is not understood as an objective fact but as constructed and interpreted meanings that are subject to change.”  Basically in essence it is saying that there is no one meaning of deviant and no one set of norms, values or society.  The definitions of all those change depending on the culture or subculture defining them.  

This idea of social construction is represented in the Lorber text by describing how gender and what society sees as the gender norm is constructed by the society that surrounds you.  For example on page 56 it discusses how gender identities are simply shaped by society and that “Western society only has two genders “man” and “woman”.  Some societies have three genders men, women and herdaches or hijras or xaniths.”   This third gender or herdaches are biological males who for the most part live as females.  In addition to this third gender of males there is also a third gender for females in some societies, “There are African and American Indian societies that have a gender status called manly hearted women – biological females who work marry and parent as men, their social status is female-men.”  In this it is interesting how in other societies it is seen fit to have these third types of “gender” in order to express ones typology, where as in our society that isn’t seen as “normal” or acceptable.

The idea of social construction is represented through the Young text by describing how society has constructed one set English language and other linguistics or dialects that infringe on that language are seen as “wrong”.  A good example of this way of thinking is represented with the quote on page 111 “disabuse yo’self of the notion that students have a right to they dialect” and although Young’s argument throughout this article is to fight against one socially constructed language and that everyone should have a right to their own dialect, one that they should be able to integrate into the standard English in both written and oral communication,  Fish argues against him, saying that it should just be seen as learning a second language and “who could object to learning a second language?”

My thoughts on social construction are that it’s not really a new concept to me.  Through my criminal justice classes I have learned how socially constructed norms and values determine what deviance is and what specifically is labelled as deviant behavior.  Definitions of deviance are different depending on cultures, locations and situations.  Social construction on other subjects such as gender and language are very similar in the way that there is no one definition of “normal” even though society may define something as being abnormal that doesn’t mean that it necessarily is.  What really stands out to me from the text is the discussion on the first page of Lorber’s article (page 111), about the child in the stroller who at first the gender is unknown of; “The child in the stroller was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and dark print pants.  As they started to leave the train the father put a Yankee baseball cap on the child’s head. Ah, a boy, I though.  Then I noticed the gleam of tiny earrings in the child’s ears and as they got off I saw the little flowered sneakers and lace trimmed socks.  Not a boy I thought.”  The fact that having others know the gender of this child was so important to both the parents and to Lorber is interesting.  This stood out to me because I don’t personally agree that making sure from the get-go that the gender of someone is known is incredibly important.  I personally spent most of my child hood years dressing like a boy, playing outside with bugs and dirt and I don’t ever remember owning a Barbie.  My parents gave me the option of what I wanted to do, play or dress like, they weren’t worried that someone would see me dressed in a plaid button up boys shirt and wonder if I was a boy or a girl.  I still grew up to conform to the norm of what a girl should act and dress like even though to this day I still don’t have pierced ears.  I think that in today’s society people are so worried that their child is going to grow up to be gay or lesbian that they just shove gender roles on their child way too soon. I loved my childhood and it wasn’t as if my parents forced me to behave like a boy, they just gave me the option between my clothes or my brothers, or a Barbie or a baseball.  In today’s society people are just caught up in feeling that it’s extremely important that everyone appear “normal” and confine to the constructed norms of how girls and boys should act and look like. 

I see social construction played out in my life every day through gender and gender roles.   I see boys act masculine and girls act feminine, boys who are taught that they shouldn’t ever cry and girls who are taught that they can cry at the drop of a hat, in order to get what they want. Fashion is also constructed by society and it teaches girls to wear tight clothes and boys to wear them loose.  It seems as if almost every aspect of life is somehow influenced by social construction however, I feel that especially when it comes to gender norms it is especially visible.

Blog 4

The quotes from the article that have caught my attention or I feel are important, as well as the reasoning behind them, are as follows:

 

Intro section (9-12)

“As soon as he wakes up, Ronnie, An undergraduate student at large, sends a tweet from his phone which lets his roommates know he is awake” (page 9)

 

This quote is important because right away this article is showing how dedicated of a social media user Ronnie is and that this media may be a huge way that he constructs his identity.

 

“he ends his evenings studying in the library on campus, listening to music through the website last.FM.” (page 9)

 

This is important because this shows that even though social media may be a big part of life that doesn’t mean that people can’t balance it sufficiently with normal daily activities, such as school or studying and so this is something I may want to bring to my partners attention as I write this paper, as neither of them really use social media.

 

Methods 12-13

 

“the information discussed gave an overall sense of how Ronnie perceived his own identity representation online” (page 13)

 

This is important because it is potentially something I think my partners should discuss in their screen casts so that I can add it into my paper.

 

“Ronnie is of Irish and Chinese descent, plays the bass in the orchestra, is an avid blogger, experienced with web design and coding and is an informatics minor” (page 13)

 

These are some very descriptive traits about Ronnie that really help to shape his identity and I think important traits such as these would be important for me to look for in my partners Facebook pages in order to help shape their social networking identity.

 

Results 13-30

 

“he rotated between profile pictures that portrayed himself as a musician… close up artistic shots, to one of his face painted in school colors” (page 16)

 

This is important because it really describes in his pictures how he wants others to see him or how he wants his identity portrayed.  This makes me think that I should pay special attention to the profile pictures of my two partners in order to help me draw conclusions about their identity.

 

“Ronnie’s Facebook was filtered and focused on college related activities” (page 17)

 

Similarly to how the profile pictures portray him Ronnie is also using his filter and selection of one major topic to discuss on his page, college, as a way of creating a public identity for himself for his online friends to see.  In addition to this, in this way of making Facebook more professional and focused he is creating different identities for himself depending on what type of social media he is currently using.

 

Discussion 30-34

 

“so many people just kind of go with what’s on Facebook and trust it” (page 31)

 

This is a very important point and goes along with taking everything you see at face value on social media.  For example my partner is involved in some Jewish groups, whether he is indeed Jewish or not is yet to be determined but it would be a good thing to ask in my interview and address in my paper.

 

“I don’t mind the information being out there.  I guess having it in Facebooks hands kinda bugs me” (page 31)

 

This is important because a user knowing people have a lot of access to the information that they post on social media may influence the amount of things they post on it therefor potentially influencing their identity.

 

Conclusion 34-36

 

“Ronnie represents an extreme case of social network site use” (page 34)

 

I love this claim because it puts into perspective that it’s important to realize that not everyone is this active on social media and that its okay not to be, this may or may not mean that they are creating any more or less of a social media identity.

 

“managing information on these services and navigating their complicated settings requires sophisticated literary skills” (page 35)

 

This claim really hit me because it really shows how media pertains to this class and project, really providing a “why are we doing this?” explanation.  This really shows how social media and networking really connect to what is learned in an English class.

 

Blog 3

Twelve general questions that I would like to ask my partners about their social media page are:

1.  On page 22 the article discusses how Ronnie’s roommates would instantly know he was awake because he would tweet them to tell them that he was, this causes me to ask: How does the Facebook community affect your daily life?
2.  On page 22 it discusses how Ronnie was generally involved in at least one social network site at a time and since each social network site can be a community this leads me to ask: What kind of community do you consider your Facebook to be?
3.  On page 22 it discusses how his social networks were laminated into his daily activities and literate activities, this makes me ask: What kind of things do you put on social media throughout the day or why don’t you post on social media throughout the day?
4. On page 22 it discusses how Ronnie was usually constantly involved in at least one social network site at a time and generally posts to them regularly throughout the day, this causes me to ask: Why don’t you post to social media regularly?
5.  On page 21 he discusses how he manages his identity through social networking so my question as a result of that is: How do you choose your screen name and how does it reference to your identity? (ie full name, first name only, middle name included?)
6.  On page 22 it discusses how he visited Facebook a few times a day to keep up with friends, this causes me to ask: What does your ratio of friends on social media mean to you?
7.  On page 22 it discusses how when Ronnie would see a picture of something that interested him and he thought one of his friends would like he would send it to him or her.  This causes me to ask: Does social media affect your interests?
8.  On page 24 it discusses all the various things Ronnie could do with his phone and through social media, with all these various outlets and the possibility that anything could become public this causes me to ask: How do you choose what you do and don’t allow on your Facebook page?
9.  On page 22 it discusses how Ronnie checked his Facebook news feed a couple times a day, this causes me to ask: How often do you view your Facebook news feed?
10.  On page 22 it discusses how he connects to his personal contacts by documenting lived experiences on social network sites, this makes me ask: Do things you see others do or post on Facebook affect your relationship with them outside of the virtual world?
11.  The article discusses on page 22 how he photographed objects he saw throughout his day and instantly added them to Facebook, this causes me to ask: How do you choose what photo to use as your display picture or what photos to add to Facebook?
12.  On page 26 Ronnie discusses how a lot of the things he posts are for the benefit of his readers and not himself, this causes me to ask: What would you need in order to instigate you to do more with your social media?

English Blog #2

The people in the social media readings are all creating identities for themselves through social media in different ways.  For the mother and her children in the article, Why I didn’t post this photo, it was her choice to decide if she wanted to build an identity for herself that showed that she always had a wonderful time with her children or if she decided not to show others a “lie” by pretending that they did in fact always have a wonderful time.  She chose to create the identity that showed both the good and the bad, that she was a good mother attempting to do activities with her children and also the struggles behind each happy go lucky post and photo.  For the poets in the article, Writers of color flock to social media, they are creating an identity for themselves through their poetry and then conveying it across social media.  Through every aspect of the poem including geography, history and language they are creating their identity as a poet and then sharing it with readers.  For Bev Gooden in, Hashtag activism, she very strongly built an identity for herself that spread through twitter as a women who was taking a stand against domestic violence.  She built her identity through three conjoined words; whyIstayed and as a women who had overcome domestic abuse and now wanted to bring awareness to the subject and to those who are still experiencing it.  They are creating discourse communities because they are writing about something outside of themselves and they are bringing awareness to issues and raising concerns, As Harris states in his article: “rather than viewing the intentions of a writer as private and ineffable, wholly individual, they have helped us to see that it is only through being part of some ongoing discourse that we can, as individual writers, have things like points to make and purposes to achieve”.  They are creating communities of people who are interested or connect to what these people are writing about.  The only online community I am a part of is Facebook.  The discourse that marks this community is a group of friends or acquaintances that may or may not have similar interests who comment on, or discuss things that people write that interest them.  They may be very casual subjects such as how their day was or what they had for breakfast or they could be more intense postings such as letting others know about the death of a relative or posting something that could be politically upsetting.  Discourse shapes these communities by creating discussion and topics to be written about, otherwise it would be a blank slate because without outside things going on in people’s lives they would have no topics or issues to address and others would have no responses to them as Harris states in his article: “We write not as isolated individuals but as members of communities whose beliefs, concerns, and practices both instigate and constrain, at least in part, the sorts of things we can say”.   I imagine that facebook became a community through the need to keep in touch with others and be able to continue connections and therefor continue communication with others, which requires discourse.

 

Two quotes from Harris’ article that I used to help me answer these questions were:

“rather than viewing the intentions of a writer as private and ineffable, wholly individual, they have helped us to see that it is only through being part of some ongoing discourse that we can, as individual writers, have things like points to make and purposes to achieve”

I think this is a very important point because I think it’s very true that without things outside of the writers self, there would not be much to write about and it would be much harder for others to connect to a writers writings.

 

And

 

“We write not as isolated individuals but as members of communities whose beliefs, concerns, and practices both instigate and constrain, at least in part, the sorts of things we can say”

Without having communities of people that share similar beliefs, concerns and practices writers audiences would be considerably smaller, so in order to have these things in common it creates things for writers to write about.

Blog #1

Patricia Duncan

English Blog

First off I am Patricia Duncan, I am a senior here at UNL, majoring in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Communication Studies. I enjoy spending time at home in Chadron, Nebraska with my family and friends and I always am a little disappointed when I have to return back to Lincoln for the new semester.  I share a cute little apartment with my cat, Willie, and two guinea pigs, Bear and Butter.  I hope to attend law school after obtaining my degree in December 2015.  In regards to who I am as a writer I would say that I write because it’s required of me in order to be successful and I write because it’s the thing to do in the college setting.  I write to express feelings and ideas that I cannot say.  I write to remember and I write to forget.  I write to organize and alphabetize, and I write to thank and to console.  I write to celebrate and I write to give thanks.  I am the kind of writer who will spell check everything a million times because I am a terrible speller and I don’t want anyone to know that.  I am the kind of writer who will doubt my work because I once had a professor who used me as an example in the class as the worst piece of writing.  I am the kind of writer who will spend hours brainstorming before I’m able to put any words down on the page.  I’m the kind of writer who will go the extra mile and write the extra page in order to get the better grade.  I’m the kind of writer where I never feel like I’m quite on the same page as everyone else.   

Harris’ idea of community really relates to having many different communities and being a part of various communities and not just one.  He also believes that in order for a writer really to have anything to write about there must be some sort of community surrounding him in order for him to have issues to address.  He believes a writer is never strictly alone within himself and that there is always a community surrounding him. Based on his readings and my own understanding of community I would say that community is being connected to something outside of yourself, to A network of people and ideas, norms and values. Being in a community means that you are connected to others in order to share these ideas and to those who may share similar thoughts and beliefs with yourself.  Some communities that I am part of would include the Immanuel Church community, the community of writers within my class room, and finally living in a small community of people back in Chadron. The Immanuel Church community came from people coming together to worship and sharing similar beliefs and therefor coming together as a group.  The community of writers in my class room came together because of the need to expand knowledge, all yearning to expand their knowledge In the field of writing, and my community in Chadron came from people wanting to get away from other places so they all moved to one spot where we have come together as a small town to form bonds and create a community. These are communities because of the bonds and connectedness within its members that they create.  Language and writing is an important part within all of these communities such as through scripture, through ordinances and laws within the town and all of the writing and communication that will take place within our classroom community.