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Wednesday, 18 July 2012

0 Is Facebook the New Student Union?

Students, more than any other internet user group, have been finding it most difficult to resist the tactics that have turned facebook and twitter into the most used websites in U.K with a greater addiction level than even alcohol and tobacco (naomip93).

“Most would argue that stopping students’ use of Facebook would be impossible.” (Heiberger and Junco)

The importance of facebook and other social networking sites in the daily lives of students has become a force to reckon with. Being aware of this it would be eccentric to underestimate their influences on all aspect of their lives.

In the light of the above can facebook be considered as the new Student Union?

Everything we may think of is there on facebook, to be liked shared and talked about. The variety of pages that you get to see now, range from representing high-end international organizations to neighborhood communities, from work to recreation, entertainment to religious ideals, celebrity pages to hate groups and the abundance of pages that comment on things we barely notice in routine life.

Studies have shown that students today spend, at the very least, more than an hour and forty minutes on facebook each day (Heiberger and Junco), not taking into account the increasing popularity of mobile facebook usage.

According to another research, most internet users claim that social networking influences their lives to a great extent (Raizada, Vinayak and Srivastav). Having virtually connected one end of the globe to the other, and giving all the people in it a larger platform for self expression, social media is responsible for a greater sensitivity and cross cultural influence among its users (Raizada, Vinayak and Srivastav).

But are the affects of this extended exposure to social media limited to a personal level or do these social interactions change the way we behave in public too?

Facebook being an extension of our social spheres exerts the same pressure as our real life peer groups do, but to a deeper extent. This results in a greater social conformity and compliance to similar ideals which in turn influence social behavior.

Conformity, the most common social influence, results from a subtle social pressure which is higher when opinions or actions are to be made public (Feldman). Since Facebook encourages its users to share their lives and thoughts with their extended social connections, it has a major role in enforcing social conformity.

This is seen for example, when a particular page is liked by a group of connected users, their friends are informed of this approval and this encourages an increase in its popularity.

Compliance, another type of social influence, also makes its way to facebook pages, when upon the joining of a cause or an event; it becomes sort of an obligation to invite others to it. This may serve well as an example of the foot-in-door technique for compliance stated by Robert S. Feldman (Essentails of Understanding Psychology 550).

Being in a virtual space, a lot of the hurdles that come in the way of making real life connections are not present in social networking sites, and this encourages a greater freedom of expression and, contradictory to some researches, discourages antisocial behavior (Jenness).

In a study regarding the behavior of undergraduate students and the usage of social media, it has been observed that the students that are more active on these sites are more involved in on-campus activities and are better at socializing (Jenness). Thus the use of facebook mobilizes the student body, encouraging community participation and the expression of opinions, the execution of which in the form of student communities or unions has efficient and better organized results.

Facebook, along with other social interactive sites, has both positive and negative impacts on the behavior of students towards their education and their communities. It is undeniable however that this influence is strong and that it could be and is being exploited for the conveyance of thoughts and ideals that could persuade organizations, communities and even governments.

0 Mixing Spanish and English to Excellent Effect in Junot Diaz’s Work, “Fiesta, 1980”.

Coming of age narratives are as old as time – they usually relate the story of how a young person reaches a status that allows them some kind of worth or value in the community that they developed in, and essentially act as tales of acceptance, of communing with one’s culture. In modern times, however, things are not so simple, and many people around the world are coming to terms with coming of age in multicultural spaces that have vastly different expectations of the transition from childhood to adulthood. “Fiesta, 1980” is a work that grapples with this problem, and it does so in ingenious ways – through the use of mixed language. This short fiction tells the story of a boy, the son of immigrants, who grows up in New York City. He attempts to deal both with his family and with the expectations of the white society that surrounds him, not ever fully being able to make sense of either of them. One of his greatest struggles is the use of language – his family grew up speaking Spanish, but the expectations of him in American culture requires him to speak predominately English. The author uses this conflict to great power by the intermingling of Spanish and English words in the main character’s dialogue, revealing him for what he is: a mix of both places. Fiesta, 1980 written by Junot Diaz is a short story of a dysfunctional family told from the point of view of a teenage boy Yunior. Diaz ingeniously combines both English and Spanish languages into this narrative to capture the true voice of his main character, ultimately producing an exceptionally relatable tale.

One of the best examples of Diaz’s mixing of languages to show the state that his main character is in rests in the main character’s name: Junior (Diaz 73). This is the name the character goes by throughout the entire text. This name has meaning in several ways. Firstly, it is an English word – showing the importance of the adopted country in the development of Junior’s identity – his very existence is tied to English, rather than to a similar word in Spanish. This shows a necessity or a desire to adopt the dominant cultural traits of the area that his family moved to, in that they identified their son using terminology that would only exist in that context. So fundamentally, the name Junior represents the central conflict of the work, and the central element of the character of the main character: the difference between his origins and his destiny, and huge impact the dominant society has on his life and his development.

Beyond simply representing the Americanness that Junior must simultaneously embrace and separate himself from, the name Junior also functions as a reminder of his divided state. Junior is not, in fact, a name, it is two names: to people who speak are primarily English speakers he is Junior, and to his family and others that speak primarily Spanish he is Yunior (76). The author’s choice to use this name consistently, beyond simply representing it as an artifact of accent (which he pays little attention to otherwise) is genius. It tells the reader that Junior/Yunior does not simply have one identity that is represented or interpreted differently depending on his context, but that he actually has two identities – the Junior that must deal with the massive white, American word around him, and the Yunior that must relate to his family and his original culture. This is an entirely unique representation of the plight that he faces – it really drives home to the reader that he must contend with a split identity, not just two things pulling on him, and that the quest of his coming of age story is really about trying to unite these two halves of himself into some kind of united whole.

Growing up in a split culture, or even two different cultures, is far from unique. Countless people all around the world do so consistently. Their situation, however, is not very well understood. Diaz’s effort to bridge this gap of understanding in “Fiesta, 1980” is quite clever. He uses the mixing of Spanish and English to point to the split identity that anyone growing up in such a situation must develop. Beyond that, however, he uses different spellings of the main character’s name, Junior/Yunior, to emphasize this divide.

Works Cited
Díaz, Junot. “Fiesta, 1980” in Drown. New York: Riverhead, 1996. Print.

0 Grouping in School

The term tracking or ability grouping is a technique used by certain schools to classify and group the students depending upon their levels of achievement or perceived ability. In order to provide the students of a certain IQ level with suitable instruction and curriculum, the students are placed in low, middle, or high tracks. This practice was started during the 1930s. Over the decades, it has gained a lot of controversy (Hyland). The tracking or ability grouping in schools allows the teachers adequate distribution of time and attention across tracks but is not a very good technique as it relies upon dubious levels of achievement for the classification of students, deprives the week students of the help of strong students, and promotes inequality among the students.

The pros of tracking or ability grouping include uniformity of capability in all students in a certain class. The teacher can expect the performance of students on the basis of the track in which they have been placed. This makes everything more predictable for the teacher so that he/she can make realistic and practicable schedules. The teacher prepares the lecture as per the individualistic needs of the students in a certain track. Usually, the students in high track take lesser time to understand as compared to those in the low track. This makes it possible for the school administration to spare right amount of time for the right track of students. In such a system, the students particularly those who are in the low track are advantaged in that they get more attention from the teacher than what they would otherwise get.

The cons of tracking or ability grouping include classification of students according to their level of achievement which may not always give a fair estimate of a student’s ability. There are certain students who are quite capable but are not able to achieve very good grades because of certain factors like parental divorce, or bullying in the school. The tracking or ability grouping system is oblivious of such influencing factors. In addition to this, weak students in the tracking or ability grouping system are not able to seek help of stronger and more achieving students because the two are in different tracks following different curriculums.

The tracking or ability grouping promotes inequality. Students that are placed in the low track tend to think low of themselves. They tend to believe that they are losers, and cannot achieve much even if they try. On the other hand, students placed in the high track are at risk of becoming over-confident, which in turn, may ruin their performance.

Concluding, tracking or ability grouping method of teaching is controversial. This method of teaching is more favorable for the teachers as compared to the students in that the teachers can make fair estimate of time and effort required by the students of a certain track. However, this method of teaching increases students’ risk of becoming under-confident or over-confident depending upon the tracks in which they have been placed.

Works Cited

Hyland, Meghann. “Ability Grouping in Schools: Helpful or Harmful.” 1997. Web. 22

June 2012. <http://www.wright-house.com/ac/papers97/Hyland-ac1.html>.

0 The Four Creations

The four creation story originated from the Hopi people who lived in Northern Arizona. The name of this community connotes that they are people who strive to live in peace and harmony. In their creation story, the community talks about a supreme being who created the world and her constituents for times and destroyed the world for the same number of times until he was satisfied that the last world was perfect (Fredrick and Naomi 57). Taiowa is the creator who existed in the void universe, which existed before the creation begun. The rest of the creations and creatures were only in the mind of Taiowa. Taiowa created an agent who he named Sotuknang, and he gave him the power and the mandate to create the planets.

Further, he collected the entire waters and placed them in seas and lakes, separating it from the dry land; he also created breezes and winds from air. Sotuknang created life n the world by giving life to a woman he named Spider Woman, and he delegated the duty of creating life to her of bringing life into the new world (Fredrick and Naomi 57). Her first assignment included creating a couple of beings; she created them from a paste of her own saliva and earth. The first being was called poqanghoya and the second one palongawhoya. The two beings were sent to the opposite poles of the universe to control the rotation of the earth. Later Spider Woman created two pairs of men and two other pairs of women from herself; she instructed them to reproduce and fill the earth. Spider Woman created animals and plants in line with the beings (Fredrick and Naomi 59).

The two pairs of couples multiplied rapidly, and the world was full of people. However, they defiled the direct order of obeying the creator, except a small group of people that remained faithful to the creator. Therefore, Taiowa destroyed the World and he only spared the small group, which got another chance. For four consecutive times, the people disobeyed God; each time they were destroyed until the creation of the fourth universe. People were allowed to live in the fourth creation, but the life in that creation was not easy.

The Hebrew story of creation differs from the four creations story slightly; however, there are a number of similarities. The two stories are similar to the extent that a super natural being is responsible for the entire creation and men disobeyed the supernatural being (Fredrick and Naomi 65). These transgressions made human beings suffer, but God would liberate them from their anguish. However, the two stories differ in several points of belief. In Hebrew story of creation, God did not delegate the creation duty to another being, but he did it with the word of mouth. He would only mention what he wanted, and the creation would proceed from the command of his words.

Further, he created the world within a period of one week, and man was the only being created from molding. There are no accounts of God destroying the whole world and recreating it again in the Hebrew story. However, in both cases, the creator was annoyed by the human transgression, and this explains the current situation of human suffering. The creation stories attempt to explain the origin of the universe, and the effect of the forces of supernatural powers and the position that each community occupies in the creation of the universe. These stories strengthen the religious faiths of believers and act as social controls of human behavior.

Works Cited

Fredrick, Oswald and Naomi, Oswald. The creation stories from around the world. New York: Cengage Learning, 1950. Print.

0 Do Postmodernism Texts Find Ways to Articulate Our Unfreedom?

Current postmodernism texts continue to find ways in which they articulate people’s unfreedom. An author like Slavoj Žižek in his book Welcome to the desert of the real posits that society lacks a language to articulate its people’s unfreedom. In order to comprehend this, one must first understand the rationality behind postmodernism as a theory, and how theorists in this school of thought rationalize the world they live. Firstly, postmodernism theory refers to a nontraditional approach of defining existing concepts, which deviates from previously known superstructural theories. Most scholars consider modernism as providing the foundation of postmodernism theory. However, these scholars also agree on the fact that postmodernism theorists deviate from modernism in their radical, critical approach. Unlike previously existing theories which took a traditional approach in explaining concepts, Postmodernism takes into consideration the dynamic nature of social concepts. The theory advances that absolute truths do not exist because all apparent realities result from social construction by individuals. Meaning, people’s continually changing experiences influence their perception, and in turn, affects the way they define concepts. The subjective nature of individuals’ perspectives serves to explain the role played by language, motivations behind the formation of ideas and power relations. Examples of postmodernism theorists include; Michel Foucault (1926-1984), and Jean-François Lyotard among others (David, 1994) (Žižek 113).

Žižek tackled a variety of issues in his novel, which he claimed best showcased how people’s lack of a defined language affected their ability to showcase their unfreedom. His work proved influential in works such as Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Brett E.E’s novel Glamorama. Žižek first examined people’s obsession with the concept of unreality by explaining that, people direct their efforts towards the attainment of what they perceive as real failing to realize that the reality they seek is unreal. Therefore, this brings problems when a person needs to face reality because they do not know how to deal with it. Žižek’s book explains this phenomenon by explaining why people celebrate heroes despite the inhumane acts done by these heroes in the name of serving their countries. He posits that people have a higher inclination towards doing noble things for their country rather than committing criminal acts for the same country. As a result, citizens of these countries exalt these heroes (Žižek 34)

The psychology behind this phenomenon explains that people tend to gravitate towards those they perceive as heroes especially if the said heroes involve themselves in doing the dirty work on their behalf. This leads to a misguided sense of well being and creates a state of unreality. This is because most of these exalted heroes rely on their selfless, sacrificial actions to awe their onlookers, therefore, solicit preferential treatment. For example, they begin to live their lives outside of the law, which guarantees no negative consequence for their actions. The novel Glamorama illustrates this further by showcasing the lives lived by most celebrities through following the lives of the characters mentioned in the book. In the film, Pulp Fiction characters played by actors, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta sere as illustrations of this phenomenon. The fact that they do the dirty jobs on behalf of their boss allows them to work recklessly beyond reproach. Living in a postmodernism society reinforces people’s unfreedom by allowing them to passionately obsess over their perceived versions of reality. As a result, most live in a state of unreality. For example, many people’s perception of beauty proves unreal because of the media’s influence, which advances certain stereotypes that define beauty. As a result, many continue to fall prey to these versions of unreality, whereby, they engage in extreme behaviors, which impact negatively on the psychological, emotional, physiological well being of an individual (Žižek 30).

Žižek also addressed the issue of liberal democracy in depth, in his book. He viewed the concept of liberal democracy as a lie because it created an illusion of freedom. According to Žižek, liberal democracy was a mask of people’s real state of unfreedom. This is because the concept of liberal democracy offered people a chance to be independent in the way they expressed their opinions especially political opinions. However, it provided a limitation to the extent in which people could exercise their liberal democratic opinions by instituting laws in which people had no choice but to conform. Social psychologists explanation to this is that people seek to conform to the given standards laid out by the given majority in order to avoid excommunication from the group. Therefore, they follow the rules and regulations despite their inner rebellious nature. As a result, the standards set out by members of a group offer an unreal sense of freedom to the group members. In reality, these standards play a crucial role in holding people captive and denying them their sense of real freedom (Žižek 56).

He further critiqued the concept of tolerance within a liberal democracy. He claimed that tolerance was not an absolute since it introduced Agamben’s Homo Sacer concept, which Žižek referred to as Homo Sucker concept. Žižek advanced that the concept of tolerance was nonexistent in liberal democracies because of the underlying rules and regulations. The fact that the latter limited people’s views show that tolerance within a liberal democracy was not absolute. Žižek illustrated this by examining the old German Democratic Republic. This regime concluded that individuals could not possess the following features; honesty, conviction and intelligence simultaneously. Meaning, a person viewed to possess intelligence did not qualify to possess the other two features. In addition, Žižek also critiqued the wars fought by the US by claiming that these wars acted as a ruse concealing the real intention of the warfare. He claimed that the wars fought did not happen between nations instead they occurred between Homo Sacers and armies because of nonexistent absolute tolerance between the two groups. Žižek claimed that the US excused torture by justifying it with their liberal democracy concepts. Lastly, Žižek advanced that individuals efforts directed towards manipulating others prove futile because they end up rendering these individuals as Homo Suckers. This is because the current liberal democracy concept ensures a person cannot make fun of ruling ideologies (Žižek 123).

Žižek’s proposals receive backing by the postmodernism arts like Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. The film revolves around the lives of characters played by Samuel and Travolta who are associates of the greatest gang running the city they live. These characters symbolize the state of citizens in the current society who lack the freedom allowing them to express themselves as unique, opinionated individuals without interference from the liberal democracy which enslaves them. Despite the work's basis on fiction, the themes and characters showcased in the film show the lack of absolute tolerance within the liberal democratic society. The death of these main characters also reaffirms this presumption. On the other hand, Brett’s Glamorama also showcases through its characters the nonexistent intolerance within the liberal society. According to Brett’s characters like John, people resort into living in an unreal world evading the freedom less state brought about by the liberal democracy in the society. They do this by involving themselves in actions which eventually prove harmful to their psychological, physiological, emotional and social welfare. They alter their appearance through cosmetic surgeries in order to appeal to the society’s definition of beauty. This might compromise the immune system of the body increasing the chances of an individual’s fatality. Issues relating to body image issues might lead to psychological issues, for example, depression. The way people relate with each other also becomes superficial. Characters in Brett’s novel mirror these aspects with such clarity (Žižek 73).

Happiness is a feeling, emotion or state desired by most. This is because it establishes a sense of well being within individuals. As a result, psychological, physiological, emotional and social aspects of an individual's life remain in a state of equilibrium. Therefore, many people ensure their daily endeavors remain directed towards the achievement of happiness. Despite people's ability to live in a place filled with happiness in an ideal society, vices, such as desire manages to creep inside society destroying all the efforts directed towards the achievement of happiness. The illustration used by Žižek in his book explores the Czechoslovakian population in the 1970s and 1980s. He characterizes this population as one whereby individuals possessed features responsible for maintaining happiness. Firstly, they had the unlimited resources needed to satisfy their material needs. In addition, they had the option of shifting blame to the ruling political party when things did not go as planned. Finally, fantasies about the existence of a perfect place resonated among the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Despite living in a state filled with happiness, desire crept in destroying the balance which existed among the entire population. As a result, other vices associated with desire became rampant, thus leading to a state of unhappiness. This also took away their freedom (Žižek 59).

The solution provided by Žižek in his book includes the development of a strong resolve which prevents one from getting sucked into the Homo Sucker world. A world characterized by desire, unhappiness and the lack of freedom when one needs to express themselves. His illustration of such a world included the IDF forces which refused to engage in the Israel-Palestine war. The character of Samuel L. Jackson best showed this in the movie Pulp Fiction. This is when he talked his co-stars from committing a crime that would result in extreme penalties from the law. He prevented them from going through with their armed robbery crime. In addition, he gave them his boss’ money and told them to leave. Figuratively speaking, Samuel’s character proved that he was not a Homo Sucker since he did not engage in violent acts with the robbers. Brett’s character John also abandons his exclusive lifestyle as a successful model and actor in order to pursue a career in life. This gave him an opportunity to know the world without the material things present in his previous life to cloud his judgment. Both forms of postmodernism pieces of art showcase the yearning of human beings to achieve control which guarantees them freedom to do as they please (Žižek 63).

In conclusion, Žižek's work attempts to describe the state of unfreedom people live in within the current postmodern society. He attributes this state to aspects such as liberal democracy, desire and people's fascination with what is real despite the fact that it is not. Through his illustrations, Žižek manages to show how these aspects continue to rob people of their inherent right to freedom in the way they express themselves, and interact with others. A critical appraisal by Žižek on liberal democracy shows how the rules and regulations underlying democracy contribute to enslaving people. It does this by limiting the way in which they express their opinions. It further encourages the development of low tolerance among individuals, for example, people justifying acts of torture within the US. Žižek also analyzed the impact desire has on the state of happiness of an individual. He reckons that most people lose appreciation for all the things they have when desire creeps. As a result, they begin to covet things owned by those around them. Therefore, they resort into inhumane acts, which seek to satisfy their desires at the expense of others. A postmodernism appraisal of the American dream shows how desire turned this dream from a positive concept into a negative one. Instead of the American Dream encouraging equality in the treatment of the citizens of America, the reverse occurred especially when most of these citizens strived to accumulate wealth at the expense of their fellow nationals. Desire managed to overpower the concept of the American Dream which would have ensured the happiness of most people. Therefore, Žižek, Tarantino and Brett played an influential role in using their literal skills to articulate most people’s unfreedom (Žižek 149).

Works Cited

Žižek, Slavoj. Do postmodernism texts find ways to articulate our unfreedom? 2002: Verso, Italy. Print

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