avatars and the gaming world.

Gaming seems to encompass all social walks of life with almost every type of person playing some sort of video game. Whether it be world of warcraft or a barbie computer game, there is a game for just about every person out there. These "alternate realities" found in games have a strong affect on the people playing them. For instance, games can influence gender roles, violence, social interaction, and much more. When a person plays a game, they create an alternate personality called an avatar. The gamer can make this avatar as real life or as fake as he or she pleases. This avatar represents their personality and strongly affects people's impression of the gamer when playing with them. Gender roles are enforced through these games because many girls will choose to be guys in a game just so they can be respected in the gaming world or avoid being hit on. While a lot of these avatars are an accurate representation of reality, most are an exaggerated, idealized version of the person.
I personally do not understand this whole virtual world.  I have never gamed and do not plan to in the future. However, I do understand the need to idealize themselves to appear in the most positive light possible. I have a personal blog, so this was something I could truly identify with. Subconsciously, I put forth only the absolute most interesting/ best things about my life in my blog to consequently idealize myself online. Once again, all of this was completely subconscious! Therefore, I completely understand with the idealized avatar part of the virtual world; however, I just cannot connect with the gamers out there simply because I do not play video games of any sort.

Myspace vs. Facebook

In the article "Social Network Site Taste Test: Myspace or Facebook?", Danah Boyd presents the very prevalent social network struggle; the battle of Myspace and Facebook. The article states that there is a clear divide between myspace users and facebook users; therefore, both find the other far less appealing. For instance, the writer states that myspace users found facebook's clean uniformity very boring and unoriginal. On the other hand, facebook users found myspace to be too cluttered and tacky. On facebook, every profile is the same for the most part. This particular social networking site follows a specific order that can be personalized with pictures, interests, and posts; however, the creativity aspect is very limited with this site. In the complete opposite direction, myspace offers a multitude of options when seeking to express one's individuality, but can often appear very disorderly and a bit gaudy or overdone. Myspace users have the option to personalize their pages beyond that of facebook users in that they can change the backgrounds and even add music to their page. While choosing a social network is completely up to the individual, the writer argues that culture plays it's role in this decision as well. The writer states that Myspace users are predominantly African American because of the "pop" nature of the website. While I don't believe this is absolutely true, I am supporting evidence for this argument. I am a Facebook user, and I've never had a myspace. I must admit that I got on facebook because my friends had that, and I never even considered getting a myspace. I do also admit that I like the clean layout of facebook and that it suits my needs in a social network. 

thoughts

This past week, we were assigned to write a 1500 word essay on Rhetoric. All I can say is that I am very glad that I got that first draft over with and turned in. While it is very important to know how to convey your ideas into written word, I must say that I am not a fan of the long English essay (but honestly, what student is...).  I love writing, but the essay was a daunting task unfortunately. My essay seemed to ramble on and on and on and on about the same things. I know this really isn't the case and that I am being a tad hard on myself, but I literally felt as though this essay dragged on for what seemed like forever. Despite this terrible feeling, I know that knowing how to write an essay is imperative to success in college and that I will be glad to have these skills someday... at least I sure hope so. fingers crossed.

I wrote my essay on this political cartoon by Daryl Cagle

In my essay, I stated how the symbolism, imagery, and captions all combined to convey an argument against Obama's solution (or lack of) to the economic crisis. 

post 6: Dove's campaign for true beauty

In the essay on Dove's campaign for true beauty by Susie Orbach, the author sides with and shows her overwhelming support for this campaign. She argues that images of the "perfect" body definitely have a negative effect on the body image of women around the world. Such advertisements lead to many eating disorders and general disillusionment of women with their own bodies. This dissatisfaction definitely can be traced directly back to harmful media regarding women's bodies. Such advertisements make women feel inferior, insecure, and inadequate.With that being said, Dove's campaign for true beauty is absolutely a breath of fresh air in a world so void of positive body image messages. This advertisement campaign, while their motives do seem pure, could be rooted in seeking alternate ways of reaching women. While uplifting and empowering women might be their outward image in this campaign, the true motives could be to have an edge on competitors by making them appear to bring women down about their body image. Because this provides such a breath of fresh air and offers such a differing and positive message, Dove's campaign truly stands out as something different.

This advertisement campaign is genius, not only does it provide a new outlook for women and encourage women to "love the skin you're in", it also gives Dove an edge over competitors. Therefore, I believe that this advertisement campaign is wildly effective for Dove and will ultimately help women realize their true beauty.

post 5: The DK handbook- evaluating sources for relevance

When presenting an argument, sources play an imperative role as supporting evidence.  There are a few questions that the person presenting the argument must consider when selecting a source. First, the writer must decide if the source makes sense to his or her particular audience. The writer must assess the audience because different sources appeal to different groups of people. Secondly, it is important to use a source that relates to the presented argument. If the source has no relevance to the topic of the writing assignment, the source is completely ineffective in proving the point. Another thing to take into consideration is if the source adds a new perspective to the article. A supporting detail must be on topic, have a relevant publication date, provide new interest, bring in differing data, and suggest other possible research opportunities. In every type of rhetoric, their credibility is determined by the relevance. When trying to support an argument, the writer must consider each of these steps before proceeding with the analysis. 

post 4: representing reality

This chapter presents the idea that photographs can use rhetoric to present arguments or reveal a specific message. Like words, photographs prove just as effective in conveying a message evident in the everyday norm. The photograph can depict a specific situation, and be interpreted in completely different ways by people with differing backgrounds or points of view. Photography offers great understanding about the reality around us.

Just as a writer poses an argument, the photographer captures a situation about our reality that must be interpreted. The snapshot of the passing moment still says something about that particular reality, even if it isn’t the predominant reality of the situation. The snapshot of happy people in one scenario can be challenged by another snapshot of these same people in an argument. Regardless of the actual reality, two arguments are presented by the two differing snapshots. By interpreting both snapshots, a greater reality can be understood. The excerpts from “Don’t Smile for the Camera”, “Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America”, and “America 24/7: A Family Photograph Album” all describe this snapshot effect. Lenore Skenazy first speaks of how they only recorded the “Kodak moments” of their young children’s lives. These snapshots made the Skenazy family seem like the perfect happy family regardless of the daily dysfunction associated with the everyday lives of most families. The second excerpt explains how photography began and its power in creating these snapshots. The third excerpt tells of how photographs define our character. Therefore, with these photographs or snapshots, we can make our own sense of reality.