In Dedication to my Best Friend...

...I'm singin' uh-oh on a Friday night...



To people who are not her, and feel left out of this pathetic inside joke, and are not familiar with British indie rock, perhaps this shall clarify some things...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW6EP3-Q-DA&feature=related

This...is...Jeopardy!!!!!!

My Jeopardy categories...on a whim...would be..hmm....

1. Polynesian Dance Moves
2. Music Scales
3. Food
4. Random Facts
5. Annoying Things About Arabs
6. Gender Roles
7. Makeup Tips and Tricks you Will Never Use

Television, Food, and Other Randoms...

Ah...life. The joys of it. I'm a bit behind on typing out my personal blog...that was due like two weeks ago...but God knows I've rewritten it a few times by now, with a different topic for each one. The one I got furthest on in researching was on Joe the Plumber, but show's over, Obama won, McCain lost, old news, and no one really cares anymore. Well, maybe someone out there does...it's just not me and therefore won't be on my list of things to take time out for and write 500 words about.
I'm sure you're probably thinking that, "Well, not many things are". Eh, jokes on you, you'd be surprised. There are many things that I'd LOVE to take time out for and write about. Will I? No. There's probably something good on TV in which my time can be spent watching other people's productions rather than creating my own. It will never get me recognition, but I'll never have to think or put in effort either, and as long as it comes with cookies, cake, ice cream, or even a really good steak or something, then it's a win-win situation. Immediate happiness at no cost. Except maybe that of cable, unless you watch local television, which is free until February 2009 when you will need a digital converter box. To which I recommend to you, the things are costing up to $80 dollars in some cases, but the government is giving $40 dollar coupons to every household. And you get two of them. But you have to apply. So you probably should. Here is the website.

https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Save money. Use it to buy something else, like dinner, or a sweater, or a new TV. Though I don't suggest buying the latter, as then you will need a converter box for that as well. Actually, the new TVs come with them built in. Well, some do. I don't know. My biggest aspiration is still praying hard enough for the Brady Bunch to come back to TVLand, or of course, Daria to come back to MTV or the N. Not that I leave my bedroom to watch either. But hey, maybe if something besides "Paris Hilton's New Best Friend" would be aired, my vampiristic self would go out into the world every so often. Or the living room, at least.

So now it's a week later since I begun typing the first part, and I'm sitting in the UC with Tiffany staring at a handsome XY-chromosomed specimen. I am intrigued by his hair. It's shiny. Apparently, the bookstore is having a sale until the thirtieth of this month. Buy any one item and get the second 50% off. It's a "Stock Up Sale". Though I recommend print the "U of M" symbol off the internet and taping it on to your folders, and buying said folders from Target or something. Because, people, if we're saving money on our digital conversion, we might as well save some on folders, which are probably significantly cheaper at Walmart and Target. Use the money on food, once again. Because what else do we have in life to spend money on besides feeding ourselves, or donating money to feed or help others? Hm...TV. Once again.

And now I am fidgeting. And thinking about how we have so many so-called "friends" who we don't even like, but just put up with. Why? I don't know...it's a good question. If someone drives you half crazy, what makes it so difficult to just walk away from that person? Now I feel like I'm starting to sound like Carrie Bradshaw, whose character is based on a real person by the way, and I'm going to shut up before I start blogging about relationships or something mushy. Yeah. So...that's my blog.

Sorry for Not Handing it in on Time; I’ll Post it to Your Wall: A Look Into How Facebook Affects Student-Teacher Relations

It’s Wednesday night. Being the procrastinator that I am and liking the idea of thinking all possibilities out for as long as possible, I have just decided to start my English paper. I sit down, open and turn on the computer to start typing (because of course pen and paper are seemingly becoming obsolete nowadays), and wait for it to load. Then, I double click the little Microsoft Word Icon; you know the one that has become synonymous with the words “write an essay (or paper)”? Being the good modern-day student that I am, I stare at the white and blue screen, place my fingers on the keyboard, and…move my hands to the mouse. I need to go online and find resources (because going to the library to find books or do research, according to “Checking Out Facebook.com: The Impact of a Digital Trend on Academic Libraries” by Laurie Charnigo and Paula Barnett-Ellis). Firefox loads quickly, but not fast enough, compared to how fast instant messages, or in online slang lingo, “IMs”, are sent, anyway. The page pops up, and the phrase “Yahoo.com” manages to creep its way into the thin white box at the top of the screen. I could always use this search engine to do my research, but that’s what Google is for…I’ll just check my email since, “It’ll only take a second”. The preview screen says I have 23 new emails, and one of them may be important. As always, 17 of them happen to be alerting me to something along the lines of “Ayah Omar shared a link on your wall”. Then I’m plagued with the guilty feeling of, “I ignored my paper for this?” It’s not enough of a guilty feeling, however, to stop me from checking just what that link was. So I check it, along with all of my messages and comments and pokes etc, and proceed to “IM” some kid I don’t even like all that much simply to avoid doing what I should be…
Facebook, a rapidly growing and popular social network, is seemingly pulling a Pinky-and-the Brain and trying to take over the world. That is, if it hasn’t already. This phenomenon is changing everything from the way we interact with our friends, to the atmosphere of libraries, to politics and presidential elections. One of the things it is changing most is something that most people probably don’t even notice: student-teacher relationships. While not the most common of scenarios, a high number of professors and teachers are becoming members of social sites Facebook and MySpace. Many of them do it to keep in touch with their own friends and family, and a few do it to get to know their students. Whether in a direct or direct way, role model authority figures acting funny or displaying their lives on the internet affects how students view them. On the other hand, teachers seeing what their students are doing after hours is often disturbing enough in itself as well. The image of the teacher living in the classroom closet after all the students go home for the day is slowly diminishing. Even though we are grown enough to know that our teachers are real people and have lives, seeing their profiles online forces us to actually think about their lives, which could be very good or very bad. Seeing your professor at a barbeque with his or her family may be a strange image to grasp, but one that lets you see what an all around good person he or she truly is. Seeing your teacher cuddle a bottle of Jose Cuervo in bed, like long-term substitute for Prince William County Schools Erin Webster’s students would if they ever added her, is not so much strange as it would be disturbing. Parents seeing their special education child’s teacher adding bumper stickers that have the words “MILF” and “retard” on them probably wouldn’t be too proud to send their children to school either.
Teachers often add their students to get a new perspective, enjoying the opportunity to see their pupils in a new light, and to better understand them. Sociologist David Grazian enjoys reading his students’ likes and about me sections, as he finds the information useful for his research. People like Patrick Shrout and Mark Witte, on the other hand, simply add students to help them to better match names with faces. Often times, to many people’s surprise, it is the students who add their professors, not the other way around. Many professors and teachers find it may seem pushy to request students to add them, as they may feel pressured. Being Facebook friends allows students and teachers to feel closer to one another, and to better understand each other on different levels.
Befriending teachers can also help students with information on school and classes. When a group of teachers in Montana realized that their students were not reading morning bulletins or checking their school email, they made a Facebook group to update them on school events. Some teachers and professors even use this for class relations, as a way of giving their students extra help. Allowing students to log on to Facebook and read what they need to know or do seems less formal and less stressful, and makes it easier to stay in touch with them. Since teenagers strive toward social networking sites, teachers following them their and putting notices up seems to help. It makes students like Cooper Livingston, a school President at Hickman in Montana, feel appreciative and as though their teachers really care, as they “adapt” to students.
Seeing the way students behave, however, can lead some teachers to question what education and the world have come to, and can be embarrassing for students. A student who gets “wasted” at a party on a Saturday night and acts crazy, may end up tagged in tons of pictures of Facebook within the next few days. While all of this person’s fellow partygoers may find this to be a great achievement and look to it as a funny memory, his or her professors, former teachers, parents friends, and potential employers may not appreciate it as much. In some counties and states, employers are denying well-qualified people jobs they deserve due to the content found on their Facebook and Myspace pages, mainly, the pictures. Teachers who realize this probably feel at a loss knowing that this novice that they invested all of their time in, lost what they themselves worked so hard to instill and to help them achieve, because of a stupid internet post.
Relationships between students and teachers can also cross a line due to Facebook, and may in some cases become inappropriate. Students getting to know teachers on a more person level can lead to a great admiration for them as role models, but can also lead to a greater admiration for them as more than such. If both parties cross the line, trouble could be at hand and boundaries could be broken. Whether this is acceptable or not depends on school rules, state laws, and simple morale of the two individuals. Being Facebook friends can cause trouble, but it also allows students the opportunity to make older and wiser friends.
I am personally friends with one of my former teachers on Facebook, and we comment each other fairly often. It is nice to see pictures from old family albums that he has, comics that relate to books I remember reading in his class, and to get updates on plays he will be performing in or directing. Most of all, it’s nice to have a wise and older non-relative to look up to. It also lets me witness firsthand how intriguing our superiors are, and lets me get a glimpse into their lives. Without Facebook, as much as I hate to say it, I probably would not be so great at keeping in touch with him. There are a select few other teachers I have been wanting to check up on, but due to the formality of email, I have put it off for months. With this particular teacher, I can right one or two sentences every few weeks, ask a question about his life, and move on with mine. The gratification is instantaneous.
Facebook is a new trend, spreading quickly and making a lasting impression. It has changed the way we interact with one another, and is slowly creeping in and changing the way the school system has so long kept students and teachers separate. This can be a negative in some cases, but the good it brings may not be possible or as effective if approached different ways. It is something to appreciate for the positives it provides.




Works Cited
The Columbia Tribune. “Warnings aside, teachers embrace Facebook."
Janese Heavin of the Tribune’s staff. 6 December 2007.
< http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Dec/20071206News003.asp>

The Lansing State Journal."Facebook Etiquette: Careful What You Share."
Lauren Cohen-MCT News Service.14 August2008.


The Washington Post." When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web
Public Profiles Raise Questions of Propriety and Privacy."
Ian Shapira- Washington Post Staff Writer. 28 April 2008.

Questions and Experiment Idea

Questions:

1. Explain, in detail, how Facebook has kept you in contact with others. Explain why you prefer to use Facebook over other mediums of communication for keeping in touch with certain people. Agnes

2. In your opinion, what is appropriate behavior and content for your Facebook; and how does your age affect this? What creates a "professional" looking Facebook? Jordan

3. According to the article, how do most librarians feel about Facebook? Why do they feel this way? Do you believe there is such a thing as Facebook addiction that causes people to use Facebook from the library? Amouna

4. According to the article, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook; do you agree or disagree? Allison



My question for the paper: How does Facebook affect student teacher relations? Is this a positive or negative thing?Use examples to prove your point.

Experiment:

Survey of how many people actually go to the library to check out books, and do research. Then, break it down and see how many are graduate and undergraduate students.

The Digital Space and the Lack of a Race

In his article, “Generational Myth”, Siva Vaidhyanathan argues the, “Once we assume that all young people love certain forms of interaction…young people rush to adapt to those changes we assumed all along that they wanted”. Vaidhyanathan’s assertion that assumptions are often made about young people that cause them to conform to a “one-size fits all” persona is , while somewhat accurate, in the sense that the atmosphere of many educational institutions in modern times do behold a strong trend to becoming incredibly technologically advanced, mainly an inaccurate generalization due to the fact that it advocates that “young people rush to adapt”, clustering all the individuals in a certain age range as technological adapters, when such is not the case. His use of hasty generalization, zealous over-defense to his supporting side, and the preference of many young people in these cases, all contribute to the inaccuracy of Vaidhyanathan’s claim.
“Generational Myth” is a deep interpretation of how technological advancements affect certain viewpoints and cause stereotypes to erupt, and give a hiding place for racism and class differences to seem virtually inept, as all races and classes “unite” under the World Wide Web. The author disputes the ideas of generations, from those that were around during the hippie movement to those that exist now, in the “Digital Native” (page one, paragraph three) phase. While he makes many valid claims, Vaidhyanathan himself inadvertently generalizes by grouping “young people” into one specific category when discussing them, and trying to infer that they all have different personas and cannot be classified as Digital Natives. By stating that “young people rush to adapt” simply because they assume that all older generations expect them to and long for them to be tech-savvy, Vaidhyanathan has assumed that all “young people” are willing to rush off and follow the rules of all older generations simply because of the expectations of others. There are many people who fit into the category that he describes who would be very unwilling to change, no matter who expects them to. While discussing that the white middle-to-upper classes ( page three, paragraph four) are the people who have access to technological advancements and that generalizing everyone into one group because of this aspect is wrong, Vaidhyanathan overlooks the fact that high school dropouts, people who choose not to continue their education after high school, and students in lower level schools and low class urban neighborhoods that do not have computers or where the majority of people cannot afford them, are often not forced to adapt nor are they pressured or willing to. Many students and young people who do “rush to adapt”, on the other hand, due to school assignments or outside pressure, do nothing more than learn the basics of Microsoft Word, internet search engines and social sites, and in some cases, PowerPoint (page two, paragraph six). While there are few that may decide to go past this phase and take into consideration web-building and computer design, they are a minority who are generally interested in the topic to begin with, regardless of outside influence.
By vastly defending this younger cohort, stating that they are all individuals and are not all technologically-obsessed simply because they’ve grown up with computers in their lives, Vaidhyanathan goes on forcibly overestimating their plight, making it seem as though this age group is so stressed about needing to be technologically advanced to satisfy the supposed requirements brought upon them by older people that it is affecting their daily lives. In reality, the majority of “Digital Natives” do not think twice about what they do or how they act. Unless individuals are either interested in technology or need to use a new form of it for some sort of presentation or school/work assignment, their daily use is usually consistent of mindlessly sending a text message or checking their Facebook messages at most. Hardly any of these people rush to understand how to hack Facebook, how to fix html and create digital designs for Myspace, or how to program a flaw by changing the source code on Linux, regardless of whether they are expected to or not. If they are assigned to do this, the person teaching it to them is usually of a different time and age group, yet understands the topic much more in a depth fashion than his or her students do. Then, of course, when the assignment and/or test is over, many of those students go on to forget what they learned anyway.
I believe that there is not a “one size fits all system” existent in modern times, as many educational institutions only require basic knowledge of simple programs, ones that are much less complicated than the use of typewriters was long ago. Special classes that teach detailed computer understanding are usually electives, available for students who either show interest and choose to learn more, or for those who are lost in their paths of interest, to try to give them a new route to try. A hybrid system is definitely the best ideal for education at the moment, as the world is rapidly moving to adapt to the technological takeover, something that saves valuable time, money, and resources, yet there are still computer illiterate people and places out there in which case traditional forms of information and production work best. As technology becomes available all over, traditional sources and methods are still important and useful. If electricity suddenly became unavailable, many people would be unable to comfortably function, regardless of age. Knowledge of basic methods is always necessary and important as, if not a first priority, a second source or backup way of doing things.
Vaidhyanathan’s essay, “Generational Myth”, does a very good job of investigating the truth behind the idea and structure generations and proving its argument. It’s assertion that “young people rush to adapt” to technology because of the standards that have been set up for them disputes itself and is questionable because of the fact that many young people, especially those without access to computers, do not rush to adapt. The existing hybrid of methods in the educational system and in most social cases is likely the best path to follow, giving a taste of the best of both worlds.

Gender Roles and Specifics: Advocating for Equal Pay in the Job Market

My advocacy project is about gender equality in the job market. I find it fascinating that despite the Equal Pay Act, so much talk of how far we’ve come as a country in terms of racial and gender understanding, and with a woman being able to run for President without a shortage of supporters, there is still a huge pay gap in the job industry that women face for being just that…female.Some of the statistics were ones I already knew, just nothing I really thought deeply about until now. The details and facts I was able to pick up, from reliable websites, (mainly the American Federation of Labor), were absolutely shocking once they had enough time to process in my mind.
As a female undergraduate college student, I am working and striving to keep a high average, allowing my parents to help me pay tuition, and cutting back on both spending and free time so that I can buy books and in turn, study from them, all to earn a piece of paper that certifies that I majored in such and such at said university so that employers will know I have experience and knowledge and will hire me. Students of both genders in the same situation go through the same thing, give or take a few setbacks. We all pay roughly the same price, take the same required courses, and suffer through four or five years of being robotically programmed to follow what professors assign, tell us, or “suggest” we do. Then, of course, beside the aspect of grad school, we apply for jobs and pray that employers accept us or hire for a decent wage and hopefully some good benefits. Yet, somehow still…the female degree is worth a little bit less. It’s not because we didn’t work as hard, or because we’re not as smart as men are. The degree the university will give us has the same basic fundamentals behind it for everyone. However, when it is applied in the long run, the guy who sits next to us in the prerequisite for our major is going to be earning about $0.33 per dollar more than we will. If we are so privileged as to become lawyers, we’ll be earning more than someone working a more remedial, or lesser paying job, however we’ll be getting less than out male colleagues; about $373 dollars worth a week, to be exact. That’s only a 76.8% gap though: if we work at a restaurant waitressing as a summer job or as a way to pay the bills, we’ll only be making about $46 less per week, but the gap will be 87.1%. Even jobs traditionally seen as “women’s work” and that contain 90% of women in their force, still often pay men more. Female nurses earn about $119 less a week than men, who only make up about ten percent of that field. Basically, we earn less no matter what we do.
The pay gap is not just something that’s unfair to us either; it’s unfair to our male partners and family members as well. An employer afraid of appearing biased may pay women more, simply to avoid lawsuits. If a woman’s husband is injured or laid off, or the woman is a single parent, and the sole provider for her family,the family is at a huge loss due to her earnings, versus if the household were run by only a working male or a single male parent. Families with two salaries would earn more too, as the average woman working a full time job in the U.S. makes about $700,000 to $2 million less per year as opposed to her male counterparts. That’s enough money to pay for college, buy a house, and a car, of decent quality, nonetheless.
The figures I found were absolutely striking to think about in the year 2008, but it made me realize how blindsided we can often be by media perspectives and by personas put out from opposing views. Women have come a long way since the traditional days of working only in the home, but we still have a long way to go before we truly reach “equality”. Being able to work the jobs we do is a privilege in itself, but earning our fair share for them should be our true goal.