Life's too short to not give thanks.

Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays. I love going to see my family and eating as much as my stomach can possibly bear. My family is a bit extended so we go to three Thanksgiving feasts. Some may say that it's hectic but I love it. I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my day with all the people I love. I'm so thankful for my family. At times they may be the most obnoxious people to be around, they give me a hard time, they tease me, but most of all I know they love me. It's sad how it takes this holiday to make most people appreciate what they have when we should really be doing this on a daily basis. I know I fall short of this too. Thanksgiving makes me look around and appreciate that I have a mom and dad that love me and take care of me and a little sister to bond with. Besides all my family, I'm thankful for my friends. They are always there for me when I need them. We have fun, we take care of each other, but most of all we're always there for each other no matter what. There's also all the material things I guess I'm thankful for like food, shelter, and other amenities. There are so many people around the world who don't have the opportunities we have or the comforts we experience daily. Yet most of those people who have less are more grateful for what they have. I feel like we can learn from them. It's not all about having the best of everything but appreciating what you have. I realized the past couple of days that life is too short to not be thankful for what you have because someday all of those things may not be there. It was our first Thanksgiving without my great-Grandma Rena. She was the matriarch figure in our family and she was always the most grateful woman I have ever met. My uncle gave a little toast to our family in remembrance of her, but what stuck with me the most was what he said at the end. He reminded us that grandma would not want us to dwell over what we have lost but to be happy with what we have. We have to live with a smile on our face and be grateful with everything we have and to appreciate how lucky we are to have a family as loving as we do. It made me think. Life is a gift, family is a gift, and everything else is a gift. Be happy with what you have and realize you are lucky :)

Visual Essay

During our visual argument unit, I thought it would be fitting to do something on how media affects society. I chose the argument of body image. My intentional claim was: Media has shaped society's image of perfection of one's body. My reason behind this was people are using extreme measures to be skinny or buff using steroids, purging, or being anorexic. Some warrants I thought of were media is prevalent and affects a majority of the world, people want to follow trends, and self-image depends on what others think is "in". Some people may say that it is society affecting the media but I truly believe girls or boys wouldn't be pushing themselves to perfection in body types if everyone they see wasn't doing it themselves.

My general audience is of course our class, but overall the video was aimed towards young adults and teenagers of both sex. The reason this is the key audience is because these are the main people who are faced with negative media affecting their self-image. This age group is at such a high rate of depression, suicide, and eating disorders that distort body image. The audience should see all of the negative effects media has placed before them and what it has led many of their peers to do.
My song is called Crazy by Simple Plan. The lyrics to this song really went well with my claim I was trying to get across in my essay. The part of the song I put in included these lyrics:
"Tell me what's wrong with society
When everywhere I look, I see
Young girls dying to be on TV
They won't stop till they've reached their dreams
Diet pills, surgery
Photoshopped pictures in magazines
Telling them how they should be
It doesn't make sense to me
Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?Tell me what's going on?
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong"

I found this song very fitting because it was exactly what I wanted to get across. I wanted people to see what images society has placed into every one's minds. It leads to extremes like the song says. The media is presenting images and people are taking those images and trying to perfect their bodies to look like those presented to them. Most people don't see the big picture of what these images are doing, but this song ends with the fitting "You'll see that something is wrong". You just have to open your eyes to what these images are really doing to our society and really see what's going on. I thought this song did a very good job at looking at the negative parts media has brought into society.

The logic of the placement of my pictures is a little complicated. I first began with pictures of "normal" models or icons we see in modeling or magazines. This is to show where our stereotypes and definition of perfection come from. It then gradually gets into skinnier famous faces and models. This shows how people trying to be like those "perfect" people have overdone themselves. The pictures eventually lead to someone purging, who suffers from bulimia. To get both sides of the story, I then placed a picture of an anorexic man. I wanted people to see guys are faced with the same problem of trying to fit in. After, I placed a picture of a famous actor and his physique body. It was another example of what guys are trying to keep up with. Then I placed a picture of steroids and then someone who is a bodybuilder on excessive amounts of steroids. I know these are the extremes but I wanted people to see what society has pushed many to become. I then wrap up my whole argument with three key images. First one is a picture of someone stepping on a scale. This was to show how so many people become worried with what that scale will say. It is as if no one is ever satisfied with what it says. It's always too big of a number. I followed that picture with someone looking into a mirror. This picture moved me when I first pondered upon it. At first it just looks like a skinny girl looking into her reflection. But once you look into the mirror, her reflection is of an obese girl. This reflects what most girls see when they look into the mirror. To an average person, this girl is extremely skinny, but compared to what she sees in the media to her she looks fat. The picture I ended with was a girl with negative words and sayings written all around her. It includes sayings like not pretty enough, not talented enough, and not good enough. I thought this was an appropriate picture to end with because with all this impact society has put on people to become this "perfect" image, people are seeing themselves in a negative way. People can't seem to reach their goals because their goals were created by someone else.

I really enjoyed this assignment. I hope this video affected people in some way and made you look at what you see a little deeper. I always thought pictures were worth a thousand words :)

Entitlement

Well, this blog on entitlement could take me to many places. I guess entitlement is the act of being entitled, meaning having claim to something. I think our lives revovle around entitlement. If you really think about it, everyone has entitlement to something, often multiple things. I always remember my parents saying everything is their's until I turn 18, then I can claim my rights to everything (even my own privacy).
I feel like some people take life as a game to gain as much entitlement as they can before they die. It's like we gain status by the amount of things you're entitled to. The more you have, the better off in life you are. Whether that's right or not, it is how society has grown to be. We struggle to keep our entitlements, we fight to gain entitlement, and we judge others on their entitlement. Thinking of entitlement this closely has made me think how everything is revolved around it. It seemed at first like such a simple concept until I looked into it deeper. There is some sort of heirarchy. I'm entitled to my blog, but some company is entitled to the website this blog is on. So is it really mine? It gets to be so complicated for me to understand. Are we truly entitled to anything? I guess it comes down to what level of entitlement you are looking at. I'm entitled to my own opinions and thoughts and that is something no one can take away. Your sense of entitlement depends on your views, some are concrete, legal entitlements, others are abstract like your thoughts. I dare you to look around. Are you entitled to what you are looking at? Take a closer look and maybe you'll just realize how much entitlement really is a part of life.

Ads

The other night, while taking a break from my homework, I was watching T.V. and of course in between I was boggled with several commercials. The one commercial that hit me hardest was one about saving the children in some third world country. I swear I have seen this commercial several times before, but this time I looked at it differently. I watched for techniques they used to gain appeal with viewers like myself and most of them actually worked.
The speaker was a lady in her mid-40s I assumed. She spoke with a soft, tender voice, which made her sound like she was speaking with care. It made the viewer want to sympathize with what she was saying. She was also holding a fragile child while she spoke to show the sadness not only in her own heart, but in the child's eyes. She used so many appeals to pathos by guilting the audience into feeling the pain of the children with her. She also used logos in saying how little you have to pay to save one child's life. She would also pause to scan the environment around her to give you a sense of the conditions these children were living in. Her whole appeal was calling the audience to pick up the phone and give. Analyzing the commercial made me wonder what these people's intentions really are. It made me question if they knew all these tactics would work or if they just really cared. With commercials like these you really don't know, but they do however get the audience to think twice about what they could spend their money on.