not a laughing matter

[English 2000 essay]

Is Facebook and Twitter the new burn book?? With the uprising of social media throughout society and age groups, controversy continues to break out. In recent years, many stories have up to the surface about students experiencing bullying viral and even committing suicide over the tangents students have through their keyboard. Most recently, a story about and Indiana middle school expelling three middle school tweens for “joking on Facebook about which of their classmates they would like to kill”. What kids do not seem to understand is whether it is face-to-face or through a computer screen, words are hurtful and should be taken seriously. The students parents continue to buck the expulsion claiming the threat was not real and “If you make a legitimate threat against someone … you don’t follow it up with an emoticon.”

Parents claim it is a charge against free-speech for the young’s students. The school is right in expelling these seemingly brainless tween girls for their stunt. It should not matter if an LOL and an emoticon accompanied the threat. The school system had no way of knowing if the threat had truth behind it even though there was a “smile” attached to it. Often times, the ones who accompany a threat with a smile are the sickest of them all!

Is Amazon hurting the book industry?

Eng. 2000 essay

If a buyer would visit Amazon in search of 35 Shades of Grey, they may come across a book with a similar title such as 50 Shades of Grey. Both books are trilogies and relate with each other. Even the authors name’s are formatted the same. All the credit goes to Amazon for creating CreateSpace,a publishing type tool on their website where a new author can create a book and publish it through Amazon. Many people are quite upset that Amazon, a large and well-respected company, would allow these types of things to happen.

“It’s the book equivalent of spam,” says lawyer Eric Rayman, a former attorney for Simon & Schuster. “Amazon should be taking steps to stop this. It’s bad for consumers and it’s bad for the book business.”

Many of the “authors” are taking advantage of this spam-creating tool by Amazon. One mother claimed to have published around 10,000 books through this tool. Because of CreateSpace allows anyone with a keyboard to write a book, they are downplaying the skill and education a highly acclaimed author has. Amazon is bombarding customers with spam books instead of the real book they initially searched for. Amazon seems to care more about gaining customers and money than producing quality books. The saying quality over quantity is quite relevant for this situation.

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a thirst only He can quench

Let me just say that I have not become sucked into the Hunger Game phenomenon. Sure they are great, but I just can’t get attached to it for some reason. In fact, I bought the first book on February 1st and I’m only on chapter 12. It’s a good read, but I don’t see the big hype. The last chapter I read stuck out to me though. I cannot tell you what page it was, but it was the scene when Katniss thought she was dying of dehydration (that’s right I’m not very far at all). At this point she is two days without water and wondering why Haymitch hasn’t provided anything for her. She begins going in and out of consciousness still wondering why Haymitch hasn’t saved her from death’s grip. As she sits in a tree, she realizes that Haymitch hasn’t given her supplies because she is close to the river. She understands that Haymitch was allowing her to persevere through this because she was close to a well of life.

This particular scene encourages me so much. I compared Haymitch to Christ and myself to Katniss. There are so many times when I think that I’ve been abandoned and left to die. I am constantly fighting thoughts on why I’m going through rough patches in my life. Haymitch could have easily sent provisions for Katniss, but he chose to teach her to persevere. Christ does that with me daily. He doesn’t withhold answers out of cruelty, but out of love. He knows that it will build my faith and challenge me to rely on his direction more.

Christians, including myself, easily give up and automatically assume that God left them just when they start going through hard times. It is not until after the matter that the realization of a deeper meaning is clear. Think about how much better a hard experience would be if the thought that He is teaching a lesson..a hard less..but a good lesson that will build up faith more.

I’ve been starting to feel fed up with the semester. I only have a few weeks left but I feel like they are dragging by so ridiculously slow. I cannot express how pumped I am for Spring Break. I feel like I have had a weekend to do nothing in so long. You could say i’ve been in an extended season of perseverance. I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Because of that, i’m excited for the end of the semester and summer. I just have to keep pushing forward. No matter how strenuous it may be.

Should we blame the movies?

[English 2000 essay]

The movies influence teens more than people suspect. It is commonly known that what a person surrounds himself with it begins to transform them. If a person surrounds himself with junk food, his body will reflect it. If a person subjects himself to hours of violent video games, he would show tendencies toward violence (most likely). Movies like Project X, give ideas to teens on what a “real” party should look like. The movie doesn’t show the serious consequences a crazy rave like that could have.

Teens in Houston took notice  of the movie and decided to throw their own version of Project X. Unfortunately, their party did not end as smoothly as the movie portrays it to be. The teens spread party invites through the popular social media websites, Facebook and Twitter. When the party started taking off, witnesses claim there was barely any room to movie around in the abandoned house. A worried neighbor called the cops and they broke up the party. Once the kids flooded the streets, gunshots started going off. One innocent teen was killed in the process of this shooting.

It is unfortunate that some teens feel the need to go above and beyond a movie like Project X. Because it is just a movie, there are no real consequences throughout it. The viewer sees the “ideal” outcome of a party for a couple of geeks. Sadly, teens that mimicked the party had a detrimental ending. Social media/media have a major influence on this situation. Because the movie came out, teens had the thought of having an outrageous party and because of Twitter and Facebook the news spread like wild fire.

I am not blaming social media completely because it is hard to monitor everything that goes through them, but hollywood should realize the effects that it has on society.