The Next America

So I am reading this and I am not digging the quotes from Fox News. I hate Fox News. They are not fair and balanced that is a joke lol. I really don't like the style of this. I feel like Taylor is talking down to the reader as he writes this nonfiction book. While he incorporates pop culture in it to captivate his audience, he really doesn't do anything that makes me feel like I want to keep reading. I feel like he repeats things that are obvious to me as a millennial and after what I've read from this class.

It is just annoying to me that none of this is new information. I also am upset that he stops after the silent generation because I think it would have been super interesting from him to just talk about the Lost Generation as they would be a really good comparison to the Millennials.

Proposal Outline Thingy? What? Quriky?

I'd like to discuss in my project the two viewpoints of Millennial that we are connected but lonely and non-creative. The reason I picked these two are because I feel as though they can strongly relate to me. There has been a lot of harsh feedback from those older than me claiming my generation is "the laziest generation." I would like to say that this statement is not true. Comparing myself to my grandparents, this past September was my grandparents sixty-first wedding anniversary. I was the same age as my grandmother 61 years ago on that day and she had gotten married by then. By the year after they were married, they had their first daughter. Already my grandmother was 19 and decided not to go to college, since that wasn't the norm for girls to do. She has her high school diploma and now was a mother. I am not saying having a family is being lazy or slacking off, but my generation is waiting longer to get married and start a family, showing that we put careers first compared to what my grandparents had thought. Getting a job and into college is harder but my generation has prevailed and not just slacked off. With being compared to the older generations and how creative they were and how technology decreases our creativity. I would just to take a moment to look at those who create their own websites or video games and ask if you still think that my generation is not creative.


Inspired Writer versus Real Writer”

According to Sarah Allens' article, "The Inspired Writer vs The Real Writer", this article shows the misconceptions of being a writer in today's world. According to Allen, writers battle with the idea that creative artists love what they do the first time no matter what. The purpose of the article here shows how you can think that creators or writers have everything all figured out but how that is a misconception. Through this article Allen makes the statement that just because you are something, that doesn't mean that you love constantly doing and being that one thing. This article allows the reader to see that creativity comes from everywhere in your life.


“How Computers Change the Way We Think”

I also am using Sherry Turkle's article "How Computers Change the Way We Think." This article shows how the computer has been used more and more. It also shows how humans have gotten so abbreviated in our information. The intended audience of this article is both my generation and the older generations almost as a haha look what you are/created. While Turkle focuses on how computers have negatively impacted our lives, she neglects to show how they help. With using skype or facetime to keep in touch with friends or families miles away allows one to keep a better relationship with them rather than growing apart. Computers also add a new way to be creative. With social media sites you can create a video or a writing piece or a drawing and create friends at the same time showing that millennials are creative and connected but not lonely as they have meaningful friendships.


Millennials: We Suck and We’re Sorry

My final source would be Stephen Parkhurst's video: "Millennials: We Suck and We're Sorry." This video's purpose is to be a satirical video that makes the point of how Millennials we're born this way but were rather raised this way. Parkhurst addresses issues that never seem to come up when talking about how awful Millennials are compared to the Baby Boomers. Parkhurst's purpose is the show that all the blame is not placed on the millennials while being humorous. This is an example of a group of millennials working together on a creative endeavor and connecting over the same viewpoints and making something out of that.

The media I will be using for this project will be the social media site, Tumblr. I have worked with this site before and know how to use it well. Tumblr allows conversations to start and supports a large amount of different formats to be uploaded as well as shared. Tumblr is known for being opinionated and being very updated on whatever is going on the world. Whether it's award shows or dealing with what's going on in Ferguson, you can be updated. My stance for this project is that millennials are not non-creative and connected but lonely and that these are not true.  I will use repetition in my posts, humor, description, and other sources to get my point across. With what I post I will most likely add more strategies for my argument but I don't want to get too crazy with it. I plan on using the video to help with my humor as well as emphasize the points I'm making as I agree with the points they make in the video. I also will use Turkle's article as a counter argument and show how it is good to have computers in our lives. With Allen's article, I plan on quoting that to show how creativity doesn't come easy for anyone, even those who are talented writers. (Did I do this right? I don't know.)

Reflecting on being almost done with my FIRST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE

WHERE HAS THIS TIME GONE??? How am I halfway done with my first semester of college? With my classes I have learned a lot and grown as a person as well as an academic. I've been able realize that I think rhetorically quite often in my own life. I think a lot about why I say certain things and what my purpose is, I think a lot about who I say my audience is and make sure if I turn in a piece of writing there is a message behind it. In my seminar I have learned that it's good to review my writing before submitting it and thinking how to fully support my message and thinking of counterarguments and whatnot. Some sticky points this semester for me would be getting a good schedule. I still want to figure out a good schedule and sticking to it. Other than that, I haven't had any issues. I want to work on my homework sooner rather than later and try to get ahead of the schedule so I can hang out with my friends more without feeling guilty about it. Overall I love college and I love my friends.

Midterm Version of "First Time On My Own, And They Hate It"

If the phrase “overprotective parents” was in the dictionary, you would see a picture of my parents there. They are having a very hard time with me being away from school and did not like the distance I was putting between them. My parents set ground rules for me while at college.

Rules For Rachel While At College

·      Must call or text them every day

·      Carry pepper spray with me at all times

·      Never walk alone at night

·      Let them know of all of my plans in advance

·      Tweet my whereabouts so they can check my twitter compulsively

·      Don’t have fun

·      Don’t learn to be independent

My mother is very offended when I don’t talk with her every day and feels that I talk with my sister and my father more than I talk with her. I do not intend to do anything like that but she does work making it harder for me to talk to her. She also limited what I could and could not do when I was in high school. If I ever wanted to hang out with anyone she needed to know who would be there, what time we would get there and leave, where would we be, what exactly would we do, and the list went on and on. 

Now my mother didn’t have to do this when she was a child, being the last of six she was the baby of the family and could do what she wanted. She even was allowed to get on a plane by herself at the age of sixteen and fly to Arizona to visit a friend of hers. This past summer I had the opportunity to visit my cousin in Chicago alone and was not allowed to go because “it’s a different world now.” That phrase seems to be uttered all the time from my parents. The world is so different from what they grew up in and they can’t accept that the world will always be changing and evolving.  For them, their world was a lot safer. There wasn’t the threat of terrorist attacks on every corner and it was more carefree. There are more worries in today’s world, despite it being safer than the world she grew up in, according to Hanna Rosin’s article The Overprotected Kid. What my grandmother had to worry about was making sure everyone was home for dinner while my parents worried about me getting picked up by a stranger to help them find their puppy.

Parents are more overprotective because of the recent fear of terrorist attacks. With the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11 having just passed, the comparisons of what the world used to be and what it is now are extremely different. Following 9/11 there have been so many school shootings with Columbine being the one that sticks out most in my mind. As a parent, there is that fear that something like that could happen again and you just want to protect your kids. There's the fear that tragedy could strike and you can't help your child get out of it and save them. I understand that. At the same time, your kids do need to learn to be independent and not go running to mommy with every problem they have. Being the oldest child, I think it’s hard for them to accept that I am no longer their little girl and am on my way to becoming an adult all on my own. They have shaped me the best they can and now need to learn it’s time for me to mature on my own. So for this I have decided to take my parents to court (not really)

Their parenting styles now are considered the norm, but in Hanna Rosin’s article “The Overprotective Kid” is quoted: 

“Actions that would have been considered paranoid in the ’70s—walking third-graders to school, forbidding your kid to play ball in the street, going down the slide with your child in your lap—are now routine. In fact, they are the markers of good, responsible parenting.” 

We have to understand that there are different concerns now in this world but there needs to be a line drawn somewhere. There is also a double standard for women in this world. Just because I am a girl that makes me weaker and defenseless against any attacker, even though that is not true. I have on my keys pepper spray and a rape whistle just in case anything happens on campus. The media perpetuates that I being a girl cannot take care of myself with news stories like Steubenville, hearing of school shootings- I live about a half hour from Sandy Hook, and seeing girls being raped in television shows such as Veronica Mars. The show was on the air from 2004-2007 on CW/the WB and addresses very real issues. (Veronica Mars is the best TV show of all time and you all should watch it.) 

The thing that bothers me, especially in the Steubenville case, is that no one did anything. So many people witnessed this occurring and just used their phones and posted it on social media. It irks me so much that this was fine and the boys involved with this had their football careers ruined. I am very aware of the issues that are occurring in today’s world and realize women are treated less for being a woman. I am a feminist and I long to see a day where we can be treated equally to men and defy the social norms that girls have to be protected. Human beings need to be protected; women do not need to be singled out just for being women.

Feminists aren't man haters, they want equality for all. Queen B supports it and you should too! 

After ranting about how overprotective my parents are, it may surprise you to know that I don’t hate my parents. I actually get along with them very well. We tend to like the same music and I don’t yell at them at all, compared to my little sister. Yes they are overprotective but I really feel badly for my sister, as they probably will be worse on her. I know that already they are talking about me and what they think I could be doing right now and etc. I admire my parents, especially my mom for being the leader of our family and getting shit done. I don’t think my parents know they need to balance their overprotectiveness in accordance to their letting me mature. Hopefully they’ll find a balance soon and I can start to deal with my own issues, like blowing the fuse in my dorm room. I don't know what it's like to be independent. I don’t want to call my parents all the time but I do because it's weird for me to go a day without talking to them. I've already called my dad today to thank him for the Mallomars that came in a care package. My parents are great although they are overbearing. It's nice they know me so well but I want to be able to mature on my own. That being said, I am currently looking at how to get home this weekend... isn't it ironic?

My one true love, Mallomars! 

Relevant Video

After watching the video above from one of my favorite youtubers (check her out, she is one of my favorites!) I realized how relevant this video is for one of my classes at college. The video addresses millennials and why we shouldn't look down on our peers for saying "YOLO" or hashtagging in conversation. Margaret uses humor throughout her video as a way to elaborate what people despise about millennials. She addresses the issue of older generations hating on millennials for having a new way of speaking. She uses analogies in her video to show that other generations have changed words too and that our generation is not the first to do so. Through her narration, she talks directly to the camera just as she would if she was talking to you in person.  This allows the viewer to feel involved in her discussion. She also compares and contrast what generations dig and what she didn't get by saying she doesn't understand the appeal of Elvis just as older generations don't get YOLO. She makes the point that language has evolved and what Shakespeare wrote sounds funny but it's worth figuring out.

Margaret ends her video by addressing we shouldn't look down on our fellow peers as a call to action. She acknowledges her faults within her video, making her human, and says that this is a rant- knowing that some people may look down on her for just ranting instead of having a formatted video. Overall Margaret uses multiple strategies for arguing very effectively and makes a point very relevant to my seminar for class.

How to Argue

We all know how to argue but there are many different strategies when it comes to arguing. You can start of with an analogy like our President, Barack Obama does. When he says in his speech in 2012 that "our destiny is stitched together like those 50 stars" he uses the symbol of the American flag to invoke a sense of patriotism with the listeners of those speech. Classification is also a way to be used in arguing and is when you sort things together into certain categories by a defining characteristics. An example of this would be apples and their different types like Macintosh, Gala, Granny Smith etc. There is also comparing and contrasting where you can compare the similarities of a certain book series like Game of Thrones to another fantasy series such as Lord of the Rings. You can use the block method where you compare within a paragraph or you could do point by point like David Sedaris commonly does and just explain things sentence by sentence.

You need to be clear when you define within your analysis when it's a term that isn't commonly known- use your common sense with this. You also need to be good at describing things like Terry Tempest Williams does because she goes into details and uses imagery to help the reader understand what happened. You also can use pathos, which I've talked about before, and appeal to the audience by talking of things that tug at the heartstrings. For example when Steve Jobs talks about his cancer he says how he has to get his affairs in order and running out of time with the people you love. Everyone has people you love and care for and it hurts to think of yourself doing that- adding credibility to what Steve Jobs had to go through.


Humor can be used but you need to know WHEN to use it and how. Satire isn't easy to do properly. The Onion does a great job of it and on page 319. Here they are making a satire out of how important sports are to certain colleges, making the academics come second. When you use a problem/solution you start off with a proposal that is first openly addressed and then is made more apparent and goes into a deeper discussion. Finally the last thing I want to address is quite possibly the most well known speech anyone would ever know. The "I Have A Dream Speech" by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is known so well because of the repetition that everyone knows Dr. King has a dream and it's that he envisions equality among his children. With the use of repetition, everyone knows it and it's become so well known because of this.

How Computers Affect Our Lives

After reading this article. It made me think about how much I use the computer myself as well as how our generation uses it. This past summer I was able to attend a three day camping trip where you left all technology behind and was just one with nature. My college hosted it and it was called ECHO. During this entire time, funny moments would happen and on the first day I constantly wished I had my cell phone so I could tweet a quote from it. Why did I want to do this? Well, my generation has this addiction called FOMO. FOMO is the Fear Of Missing Out, which explains why we tweet our funny moments, take the perfect picture for Instagram, and are sure to update our facebook profile pictures with a picture of us at college with our friends. We are used to giving little status updates with growing up with Microsoft Powerpoint where we were instructed to give just the facts and not explain everything on the powerpoint slide. We've been raised to just give minimalistic information which is why we get bored while reading something super long. Reading Sherry Turkle's article really made me reflect on how my generation almost depends on technology in order to stay in the loop and helps me realize my parents complaining about my computer usage isn't all that crazy.