Review Assignment

I have chosen to do a review of the iPhone

Commentary Final

Technology: The Destruction of Communication

Technology is a wonderful thing. It has made our lives easier and makes connecting with people on opposite ends of the world a reality. But it has also seriously damaged society’s communication skills as a whole. Between the easy access to the internet and cell phones we have forgotten how to really speak to people. On a campus which has its own computer store that sells every type of PC and Mac available, the sight of laptops in class is not very uncommon, but it’s what people are doing on these laptops that is so disturbing.

Facebook. Everybody knows what it is and almost everybody has one. It’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t have one and somehow has survived college life. Even during orientation the summer before starting my freshman year here at UCF, we were told,

“If you don’t have one, get one.”

I mean, if I look around a lecture hall filled with 400 students I can guarantee that at least half of them are on Facebook either on a lap top or a cell phone. In the middle of class!!!! I mean I can understand checking it every once in a while, but certainly not in the middle of class. I usually try to pay attention in Chemistry. I just feel like society is now more concerned with the brand new bumper sticker our best friend sent us on Facebook than our actual education which is kind of disturbing. Think about it.

How do these people actually pass their classes? Chemistry is hard enough to learn with the teacher lecturing for an hour twice a week. Even with thorough note taking homework can take up to 4 hours to complete if I want to get above a 90%. And most of the kids are on a Pre-Med track, meaning anything below a 3.9 is really not an acceptable GPA. To their credit the students seem to be managing to pass somehow even with the distraction. And that’s not the only way Facebook has managed to seep into our daily lives.

Walking around this massive campus which boasts over 50,000 students, you might happen to run into a friend or ex room mate you haven’t seen in a while. You stop and chat, ask the usual questions, “How are classes? Do you like the new apartment?” and then instead of saying call me or text me and we can do dinner soon it’s “Facebook me we should totally get together soon.”

Other than the obvious use as a social networking site, it has also become an event planner. My whole life is on Facebook. It has almost completely obliterated the idea of a formal invitation sent through the mail. Now all we have to do is create an event and send an invitation to our friends online. It even reminds me when these events are coming up. No more excited phone calls between girlfriends to set up a date night for the girls, all I have to do is send them a notice on Facebook and by the end of the day the entire night is planned out and I can know exactly who is coming. It has created an easy way to organize a mass amount of people with just a few clicks on a mouse. And while I can concede that it has made keeping in touch with people easier, especially since we all went away to college, I feel like we have lost the personal touches that society once held so dear.

I remember when I would have to spend hours, hand writing thank you notes for present and things like that. Now all I have to do is go on Facebook and send something through my inbox. Birthdays are another thing. Facebook automatically tells me when one of my friend’s birthday is coming up. To me if you consider this person a friend you should know simple things like his or her birthday with out having a website send you a reminder.

Communication has all been seriously degraded. We all have at least one of those friends that we can talk to for hours on line, but as soon as we meet them in person, we freeze up. We don’t know how to talk to them face to face. It’s like the only way we know how to having a working relationship with this person is behind a computer screen.

Cell phones are another thing that has managed to slowly eat away at our verbal communication skills. We don’t call any body anymore, we text them. I’m pretty sure other than my technologically decrepit father, everybody I know has a cell phone, and most if not all have unlimited texting as an option on their phone plan. I personally can safely say that 5,000 texts a month is not unusual and one of my best friends can lay claim to just over 10,000 in one month. If my mother could text I would never actually have a reason to call her.

Just walking around campus, 90% of the people are on theirs phones and at least 80% of those are responding to a text or just sending one to a friend. Remember those annoying chain letters for email? We now have those for text messages. Although some of those tend to be useful. I remember receiving a text last semester from a couple of my friends that claimed that the police were asking women to stay away from Walmart that night because there was supposed to be a gang initiation. So it’s not all bad per-say, but there are those friends, just like Facebook, who we can talk to constantly via text message but meeting face to face just seems to be a problem for most.

So while technology has admittedly made our lives easier, it has also seemed to thrown our communication skills out the window. Between the constant text messaging and the all consuming force the is Facebook the personal touch that society seemed to so ardently engrave into the minds of previous generations has been lost on ours.

Draft

have started to notice over the last couple of weeks that people are completely obsessed with Facebook. I mean, if I look around a lecture hall filled with 400 something students I can guarantee that at least half of them are on Facebook either on a lap top or a cell phone. In the middle of class!!!! I mean I can understand checking it every once in a while, but certainly not in the middle of class. I usually try to pay attention in Chemistry. I just feel like society is now more concerned with the brand new bumper sticker our best friend sent us on Facebook than our actual education which is kind of disturbing. Think about it.

You are walking around this massive campus which boasts over 50,00 students and by chance you happen to run into a friend you haven’t seen in a while or an ex roommate. You stop and chat, ask the usual questions, “How are classes? Do you like the new apartment?” and then instead of saying call me or text me and we can do dinner soon it’s “Facebook me we should totally get together soon.” Instead of sending out invitations to parties or doing phone tag to get people together we just send them an invite over Facebook. And while I can concede that it has made keeping in touch with people easier, especially since we all went away to college, I feel like we have lost the personal touches that society once held so dear.

I remember when I would have to spend hours, hand writing thank you notes for present and things like that. Now all I have to do is go on Facebook and send something through my inbox. Birthdays are another thing. Facebook automatically tells me when one of my friend’s birthday is coming up. To me if you consider this person a friend you should know simple things like his or her birthday with out having a website send you a reminder. Communication has all been seriously degraded. We all have at least one of those friends that we can talk to for hours on line, but as soon as we meet them in person, we freeze up. We don’t know how to talk to them face to face. It’s like the only way we know how to having a working relationship with this person is behind a computer screen.

At this point, Facebook has started to seep into every portion of our lives. It seems to be a necessity for us to function as individuals in society.

In class Commentary Questions

Tyler Sunderland

Leslie Kulina

1. Increased groom involvement in the wedding planning process.
2. It could be more interesting, but it’s out of the ordinary enough to keep your attention.
3. The author gives a kind of general over sight of the growing trend but nothing too in depth. The article seems to be more for a casual reader than anything else.
4. The author mentions the fact that since people are getting married later, women already have established careers and are not able to do all of the wedding planning on their own.
5. The author doesn’t bring in any personal experiences its more of a research and report kind of idea.
6. The author really doesn’t take a stance on the issue, he/she isn’t openly bashing it, but isn’t embracing the idea either.
7. The cultural shift it represents in gender roles.

Letter

Hey Mimi,

How are you sweetie? You need to come and visit me soon. At any rate I just kinda wanted to vent to someone. I have started to notice over the last couple of weeks that people are completely obsessed with Facebook. I mean, if I look around a lecture hall filled with 400 something students I can guarantee that at least half of them are on Facebook either on a lap top or a cell phone. In the middle of class!!!! I mean I can understand checking it every once in a while, but certainly not in the middle of class. I usually try to pay attention in Chemistry. I just feel like society is now more concerned with the brand new bumper sticker our best friend sent us on Facebook than our actual education which is kind of disturbing. Think about it. You are walking around this massive campus which boasts over 50,00 students and by chance you happen to run into a friend you haven’t seen in a while or an ex roommate. You stop and chat, ask the usual questions, “How are classes? Do you like the new apartment?” and then instead of saying call me or text me and we can do dinner soon it’s “Facebook me we should totally get together soon.” Instead of sending out invitations to parties or doing phone tag to get people together we just send them an invite over Facebook. And while I can concede that it has made keeping in touch with people easier, especially since we all went away to college, I feel like we have lost the personal touches that society once held so dear. I remember when I would have to spend hours, hand writing thank you notes for present and things like that. Now all I have to do is go on Facebook and send something through my inbox. Birthdays are another thing. Facebook automatically tells me when one of my friend’s birthday is coming up. To me if you consider this person a friend you should know simple things like his or her birthday with out having a website send you a reminder. Communication has all been seriously degraded. We all have at least one of those friends that we can talk to for hours on line, but as soon as we meet them in person, we freeze up. We don’t know how to talk to them face to face. It’s like the only way we know how to having a working relationship with this person is behind a computer screen. Anyway, I need to go to class. I will talk to you later sweetie!!!

Leslie

Questions

How do you know what you know?

I actually started looking around my chem class one day and the student union to see how many people were on Facebook

Who are you to the subject? (perspective)

A participator and observer

How is this event connected to other events?

It shows how technology dependent our world is becoming

What if things were different?

It would be a lot harder to keep in touch with people, but our communication skills as a whole would be a lot better

Why is this important?

Communication is the only way to make it in the world, if we can’t properly communicate our ideas we can’t work in the world

How often do you use facebook?

2 hours

Do you check it during your classes or strictly during your free time?

no, I don’t take a lap top to class

Do you find it a little impersonal?

Yes it makes things a little less personal but it makes it easier to keep in touch

Do you think people have become too obsessed with it?

no I don’t

Do you think it’s becoming a problem?

A little bit, but I don’t think it is something we should be really concerned about yet.

Start of commentary...

Facebook. Everybody knows what it is and almost everybody has one. It’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t have one and somehow has survived college life. Even during orientation the summer before starting my freshman year here at UCF, we were told,

“If you don’t have one, get one.”

Other than the obvious use as a social networking site, it has also become an event planner. My whole life is on Facebook. It lets me know when one of friend’s birthday is coming up. It has almost completely obliterated the idea of a formal invitation sent through the mail. Now all we have to do is create an event and send an invitation to our friends on line. It even reminds me when these events are coming up. It has created an easy way to organize a mass amount of people with just a few clicks on a mouse.

But at the same time it has destroyed the personal touches that society once held so dearly. Now instead of calling someone or sending a card for his/her birthday, all you have to do is write a little note on his/her wall. No more excited calling between girlfriends to set up a date night for the girls. Thank you notes can be sent through the inbox, no more hand written notes that our mothers once made us slave over for hours. Instead of talking to people face to face or over the phone all you have to do is instant message them. People now have “friends” they have either never met in person, or “friends” that are easier to talk to through a computer rather than in person. It has diminished a society to nothing more than a computer screen.

Commentary ideas

1. Facebook has taken over the world

2. People are way too attached to their cell phones

3. the parking here at UCF has steadily gotten worse

January 22nd Memoir FInal

BANG!!

I hear the door to my parents bathroom slam, quickly followed by the sound of the water turning on. I turn to my left to look at the clock on my nightstand. The annoyingly bright red lights tell me that its 3:02 a.m. What the hell are my parents doing up at this ungodly hour? The sound of feet softly padding on the carpet warn me of my mother’s imminent arrival in my room.

“Les,” she says “come on we have to go to the hospital, her oxygen levels have dropped.”

I hoist myself into a sitting position and slowly open my eyes, thankful that my mother decided not to blind me by only turning on the hallway light. As my eyes adjust to the semi-darkness of my room I start thinking about what I need. Jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie are my top priority. The last week taught me that being in a hospital with a naturally low body temperature and no sweatshirt of any kind is not a good idea.

I hear the water turn off and realize I only have about three minutes until I need to be out the door. Scrambling around my room I pull on my jeans and t-shirt and grab my sweatshirt off the floor. I locate my cell phone and iPod on my desk, grab them and head down the hall to wait for my parents.

The car ride seems shorter than usual seeing as my father drove at 75 mph the entire way there. My parents and I jump out of the car as soon as my father puts it in park and walk towards the doors of the hospital. The nauseatingly clean smell I have come to associate with hospitals assaults my senses as we walk through the automatic doors. My feet move on autopilot as I make my way on to the elevator to the second floor and then from the elevator to her room.

My grandmother laid there, unmoving as we walked in. Her naturally curly peppered color hair has all but disappeared from the chemo. Her sky blue eyes I’ve been so jealous of my whole life are hidden from me and her glasses lay beside her on the table. The constant beeping in the background tells me she’s still here.

The many wires and tubes sticking out of her seem to be doing her a sort of injustice. They don’t tell you of the bright, funny, strong, sarcastic, and ridiculously stubborn woman that lies there in the bed. No. They produce the image of a sickly and weak woman coming to the end of her time.

My Aunt and Uncle come in ten minutes later and my cousins and I make our way to the atrium down the hall. The boys each claim a love seat as their own as my cousin Erin and I take the couch, making ourselves as comfy as possible. We were gunna be here for a while.

Two days later, sitting on the side of her bed, I have so much to say but my mouth won’t form the words I so desperately want to get out.

I’m going to miss you. You can’t leave me here like this. You can’t leave grandpa behind. Make it just two more weeks please, stay for my 16th birthday. You have so much left to see. I need you here. Why are you doing this to me? You need to see me graduate in my annoyingly bright white dress and you need to see Erin get married. I love you.

None of my thoughts could make it past my lips. My voice box had decided that today it just did not want me to talk, that a good bye was not a good enough reason to function.

“Dance with me Henry?” I managed to croak out.

She gave me a feeble smile and responded.

“All right baby...”

I didn’t need to say anything else. The old back and forth phrases we had used since I was a little girl with curly hair were enough to get it all across. I left that night knowing that it hadn’t necessarily been the good bye I wanted to give, but it was the good bye I needed to give.

The funeral two weeks later was what broke me. The plane ride up to Philadelphia was miserable and the short visit to the Boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey was snowy and dreary enough to fit my mood. Through the tears and the sobs I somehow managed to get a out a speech that maybe the first two pews could understand. The casket sat to my left, sky blue in color, almost reminding me of her eyes. The only difference was this blue, held the cold hardness of steel, not the warmth of my grandmother.

As we walked out side after the service it was warm and sunny, a nice 72 degrees which was quite abnormal for the beginning of February. I’d like to think that maybe someone was watching over us, over her.

Dealing with her death is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with in my short 19 years, but it also changed me in a lot of ways. She was always there for me. The one that got to spoil me and the one that made me laugh when I was about to cry. The greatest lesson I have learned from her is simply to live. Even through her cancer treatments she traveled the world, seeing things I hope I can one day appreciate with my own eyes instead of the pictures she brought back with her. She was one of the most annoyingly stubborn women on the planet, a trait I have inherited much to my parents dismay. But she had a passion for life and her family I only hope I can imitate during my years here. She has given me a much closer tie to my family and many memories to cherish. And most importantly she taught me that even though grand gestures are always appreciated, it’s the little things that will always mean the most. In a way she forced me to grow up, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Rough Draft

BANG!!

I hear the door to my parents bathroom slam, quickly followed by the sound of the water turning on. I turn to my left to look at the clock on my nightstand. The annoyingly bright red lights tell me that its 3:02 a.m. What the hell are my parents doing up at this ungodly hour? The sound of feet softly padding on the carpet warn me of my mother’s imminent arrival in my room.

“Les,” she says “come on we have to go to the hospital, her oxygen levels have dropped.”

I hoist myself into a sitting position and slowly open my eyes, thankful that my mother decided not to blind me by only turning on the hallway light. As my eyes adjust to the semi-darkness of my room I start thinking about what I need. Jeans, a t-shirt and a hoody are my top priority. The last week taught me that being in a hospital with a naturally low body temperature and no sweatshirt of any kind is not a good idea.

I hear the water turn off and realize I only have about tree minutes until I need to be out the door. Scrambling around my room I pull on my jeans and t-shirt and grab my sweatshirt off the floor. I locate my cell phone and iPod on my desk, grab them and head down the hall to wait for my parents.

The car ride seems shorter than usual seeing as my father drove at 75 mph the entire way there. My parents and I jump out of the car as soon as my father puts it in park and walk towards the doors of the hospital. The nauseatingly clean smell I have come to associate with hospitals assaults my senses as we walk thru the automatic doors. My feet move on autopilot as I make my way on to the elevator to the second floor and then from the elevator to her room.

My grandmother laid there, unmoving as we walked in. Her naturally curly peppered color hair has all but disappeared from the chemo. Her sky blue eyes I’ve been so jealous of my whole life are hidden from me and her glasses lay beside her on the table. The constant beeping in the background tells me she’s still here.

The many wires and tubes sticking out of her seem to be doing her a sort of injustice. They don’t tell you of the bright, funny, strong, sarcastic, and ridiculously stubborn woman that lies there in the bed. No. They produce the image of a sickly and weak woman coming to the end of her time.

The funeral two weeks later was what broke me. Through the tears and the sobs I somehow managed to get a out a speech that maybe the first two pews could understand. The casket sat to my left, sky blue in color, almost reminding me of her eyes. The only difference was this blue, held the cold hardness of steel, not the warmth of my grandmother. It was warm and sunny in Philadelphia that day. A nice 72 degrees which was quite abnormal for the beginning of February. I’d like to think that maybe someone was watching over us, over her.

She was always there for me. The one that got to spoil me and the one that made me laugh when I was about to cry. The greatest lesson I have learned from her is simply to live. Even through her cancer treatments she traveled the world, seeing things I hope I can one day appreciate with my own eyes instead of the pictures she brought back with her.

Brainstorming

I just thought about where to start and I thought starting with our early morning call from the hospital was the best place to begin. There were enough details to really set the scene for the rest of the paper

Draft of Introduction

BANG!!

I hear the door to my parents bathroom slam, quickly followed by the sound of the water turning on. I turn to my left to look at the clock on my nightstand. The annoyingly bright red lights tell me that its 3:02 a.m. What the hell are my parents doing up at this ungodly hour? The sound of feet softly padding on the carpet warn me of my mother’s imminent arrival in my room.

“Les,” she says “come on we have to go to the hospital, her oxygen levels have dropped.”

I hoist myself into a sitting position and slowly open my eyes, thankful that my mother decided not to blind me by only turning on the hallway light. As my eyes adjust to the semi-darkness of my room I start thinking about what I need. Jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie are my top priority. The last week taught me that being in a hospital with a naturally low body temperature and no sweatshirt of any kind is not a good idea.

I hear the water turn off and realize I only have about tree minutes until I need to be out the door. Scrambling around my room I pull on my jeans and t-shirt and grab my sweatshirt off the floor. I locate my cell phone and iPod on my desk, grab them and head down the hall to wait for my parents.

The car ride is shorter than usual seeing as my father drove at 75 mph the entire way there. My parents and I jump out of the car as soon as my father puts it in park and walk towards the doors of the hospital. The nauseatingly clean smell I have come to associate with hospitals assaults my senses as we walk thru the automatic doors. My feet are on autopilot as I make my way on to the elevator to the second floor and then from the elevator to her room.

My grandmother laid there, unmoving as we walked in. Her naturally curly peppered color hair has all but disappeared from the chemo. Her sky blue eyes I’ve been so jealous of my whole life are hidden from me and her glasses lay beside her on the table. The constant beeping in the background tells me she’s still here.

The many wires and tubes sticking out of her seem to be doing her a sort of injustice. They don’t tell you of the bright, funny, strong, sarcastic, and ridiculously stubborn woman that lies there in the bed. No. They produce the image of a sickly and weak woman coming to the end of her time.

My ideas

1. My grandmother's death January 22, 2006

• This would be about how I dealt with her death and how it changed me as a not quite 16 year old girl and the affect it still has on me now as an almost 20 year old
• Why is this significant? Because that was the first time I had actually had to deal with a major death in my family and it was a family member that I was very close to

2. My Best Friend Trying to Sue Me

• This is me really realizing how naive I was and how sheltered I had been going to a private prep school in a somewhat small town kind of setting
• This changed the way that I looked at the world and how trusting I am of people

3. My Father Cheating on my mother

• This is basically the fall of a hero. The devastation of seeing your hero fall off a pedestal to the ground below
• It changes the way you view the world, you become a bit bitter and mad at people that did nothing wrong to you