Popcycle Linking

The connection between “career” and “family” that Ulmer makes is interesting.  According to him the family institution reflects “a set of norms…within the idealogical identity categories” while the career shows  one is an expert within a specialized field of knowledge.  There are fundamental differences here and yet there are common links between the two once you have the opportunity to look towards the bigger picture. These connections are imperative in defining the identities of individuals since this connection can be made across fundamentally different aspects of that person’s life.  Thus this connection is an ingrained part of the individuals identity since it never changes.

The connections people can make are infinite since they depend solely on the individual in question.  For me when I think about my job and my family the term “time” comes quickly to mind.  “Time” for my job means a deadline, or a restraint on the work I can put in or also the restraint on me from doing other things.  Mostly this is different from what I consider “time” to be when I think about family.  It’s precious and means a selected period where I am free to be me and to really relax and enjoy myself.  The difference in stress between “career” and “family” makes the difference for me but underneath it all I can make out a connection, a similarity.  “Time” in both institutions means constraint.  My time at my job restrains me from perhaps doing a better job or making more money.  Time for family restrains me from seeing my friends or doing work like schoolwork since it’s a time that I should be around my family members and participating in social activities.

This connection shows that “time” is an important aspect of my life.  I find myself thinking about it no matter what situation I’m in.  I’m always weighing the other possibilities I could be using my time for and most of the time I’m worried about those things and wishing there was a way for me to just have more time.  Despite it seeming like a negative part of who I am, my concern with time also shows me that the I have other connections that reach across these institutions and show more positive aspects of myself.  “Satisfaction” is big one since through always being concerned with time, what I’m also concerned with is that I can satisfy people’s expectations of me.  I want to be able to do a good job for my superiors and to let my family know I’m happy and that I care about them.

These popsicle linkings show important characteristics about an individual that makes up their identities.  This in turn leads to other common characteristics of individuals that also cross institutions and become defining characteristics of that individual’s identity.  They aren’t always positive characteristics but they are nonetheless important and truly define the differences between people.  For me “time” is an important term and shows characteristics about myself that are not necessarily positive but lead to other strengths of mine that are important parts of myself and define who I am.

Prompt 4

When talking about education inequity, the issue that comes up is that education inequity leads to a lack of success for kids later in life.  The term means different things to different people but what can be agreed upon is that success means a stronger standing in life and a good education is an important foundation for any attempt at being successful.  Education in another way can be considered the starting point of a map leading to success.  However, education inequity causes this starting point to be skewed and blurred.  Students who would have normally had a good sense of what comes next in life to be successful have the added challenge of an unequal education system that does nothing but make that path to the future much harder to see.

As I discussed in my last post, the public school system in Hawaii has suffered for many years due to lack of funding, political pressure, and culture differences.  However, the Department of Education in Hawaii has made leaps and bounds since my residency there 10 years ago.  Aware that the students of local families were trapped in a cycle of education inequity, the department has since brought college credit courses to public schools and increased Advanced Placement subject material for students.  Since this has begun a decade ago, Hawaii has seen an increase in 8% in high school graduates who attended college the following year.

I look back on my public school education experience in Hawaii and I am amazed that the public school system has made such progress.  The map to success that I had begun to follow was already blurred for me when I was still in elementary school.  The system was so bad my parents were wondering how to transition me to private schools and how to pay for it and how to prepare me for the entrance exams.  As the schooling seemed to get worse, the situation became more stressful as we looked for ways for me to learn outside the public school system that would still keep me on the map to success.

If the education inequity in Hawaii hadn’t caused a rift between locals using the public school system and the private school system, the map to success for Hawaii locals wouldn’t be so difficult to follow and the percentage of “successful” adults in Hawaiian society would dramatically increase.  What is another obstacle to overcome is that in most families minds in Hawaii the map to success is an altogether different map from what it should be.  After generations of this education inequity and relative struggle to find success, most family’s idea of success is to just make it through high school and use family and local connections on the island to find stable jobs.  These jobs are stable, but they aren’t what most would call “successful”.  “Success” is a very subjective term but if it is being restricted by limitations such as those brought on by education inequity then the term is not fully being used.  The situation in Hawaii has been improved but the map to success is still far too blurred due to education inequity on the islands.

Educational Inequity Through Identity

Today people tend to identify themselves through institutions and communities.  When looking specifically at the education system, identity plays a major role in shaping a student’s expectations.  A larger school that receives more funding and tends to be located in more ideal and wealthy areas attracts students of the same traits.  A school that receives less money and is located in less ideal settings also attracts students with similar traits.  So the inequity begins before the student is even able to review classroom material.  By enrolling in a school that has limited resources and knowing that it doesn’t have the best reputation, the student is already at a disadvantage compared to students in more well funded schools.  They enrolled in the school because it’s what was available to them, therefore they identify with its quality, and therefore they expect their time there to have the same poor quality along with what the future will hold.  The same holds true for students enrolled in higher quality education institutions except that a positive identity is created and so the students live with an identity that tells them they are to be successful.  The identity that the institution has created, wether it be poor or high quality, has caused educational inequity.

Education and Race

An important issue concerning education inequity is one concerning race and ethnicity.  An example that I’m well acquainted with concerns the education system of Hawaii.  The public school system there legally is not segregated but what actually happens there is another story.  The population of Hawaii is very diverse and the mixing of culture between the local population and the caucasian one has caused friction in the education system.  The majority of the caucasian population moved to Hawaii with sufficient wealth to sustain themselves in an environment where the price of living is much much higher than on the mainland.  Therefore, these resources are used in the private school system where the instruction and material are much more advanced than what most of the local population uses which is the public school system.  This in turn creates a boundary between the two populations, it starts in education and leads to the future as education defines what livelihood these people will have.  The existing friction worsens as these two systems continue to separate the already tense populations.

Roots and Education

From our discussions in class over Electronic Monuments we have begun to cover the topic of root cause and in turn we have begun focusing more on the individual and not groups such as society.  An easy topic that can be seen as the cause of a lot of societal issues is educational inequity.  Looking at the United State’s education standpoint in the world, this country is lacking.  Our society has become focused on the fact that as one of the most influential countries in the world, we are no where near the top in terms of the level of education most of our citizens have.  This in turn can be seen as a root cause of other societal issues, such as poverty and crime.  We can see a correlation between the level of education in general the American public has and the level of crime and poverty seen.  On the individual level, an individual who has received less education becomes more prone to criminal and negative activities.  This distribution can be seen by narrowing in on individuals in communities where the educational level tends to be less than say a community where the education level is high and therefore crime rates are lower.  A culmination of these communities weakens the entire society.

 

Emblem Composition

Emblems can be incredibly simple designs and yet hold more meaning for people than most essays.  They not only define subject material, but also inspire emotions that go along with it.  By looking at an emblem one can immediately determine what the subject represents and what they should feel while inspecting it.  That’s why constructing emblems is so important when one is trying to make material stick in stranger’s minds.  Emblems like the red cross grab people’s attention and really convey that the material they are looking at has significant meaning and is backed by a trustworthy organization.  The tick to emblems is to get them to the point where they are in fact easily recognizable by everybody.  An emblem is only as good as the amount of people who can recognize it.  For our group, our emblem is not known at all so it’s very hard for it to carry any meaning for people.  A good way to get the emblem more popular is to encourage people to manipulate it so that they have their own version of the emblem and yet it still holds that small piece from the original.  In this way a small group like ours has a chance at increasing the popularity of our emblem and thus increasing the awareness of our issue on the online public sphere.

Exercise 3

Parodies are one of the most entertaining and popular forms of network culture.  They are inspired by mass popular culture, such as movies, t.v. shows, and music, and they represent the creativity of multiple individuals and portray multiple meanings for each audience.  The fact that the original structured media can be manipulated to have other meanings than what the original owner intended and the popularity and interest that it draws from a large audience shows the importance of participatory culture and the effectiveness it has in generating interest.  This is imperative for our group in generating the interest of an audience for our short term goals.  Of course the idea of the parody is to be a hilarious misinterpretation of existing popular media, and our topic is one where a humorous approach would be inappropriate.  However, the pull that participatory culture has on people would prove an important factor in our project.

My specific parody youtube video is a voice over of the popular Disney song “Let it Go”, and the audience being those who have heard or know of this song.  The original song is massively popular and so the author of the parody chose that song knowing that people would be interested in their version since the original is so well known.  The message of the parody concerns studying for finals and also the crude title of the parody all serves to target a younger audience, an audience which is most likely to be on youtube the most.  The author therefore displays Ka-knowledge in basing their digital rhetoric on their target audience.  This goes to show that our group needs to consider the audience we are trying to reach out to.  Parodies and humor are probably not the best way for us to reach out considering the sensitivity of our topic.  Instead we should try for ways to evoke sympathy through somber emotions and heartfelt stories so that our audience truly sees our issue as something that affects them as well.

That transition from saturation to occupation is also key and seen in my parody example.  By viewing the video you can also see that other people have taken the parody and continued to make their own parodies of the same song, granted with a lot less viewing success but they are there nonetheless.  In showing the possibility of what can be created using a combination of existing media and original creativity, the author has inspired other people to try making something of their own.  That’s exactly what we want to accomplish in our project which is to inspire people to just think about how our issue effects their lives and recognize that there is a problem.  The daily challenges we present are an attempt to get people inspired to think about about the issue of mental illness and connect it with their day to day lives.

The point of the parody video is just to convey the author’s personal thoughts and ideas through existing media, so one sees the effects of Clicktivism in the “likes” section of Youtube but overall there is no negative effect since the fact that many people are viewing the video is what matters.  However, the interaction that my group is looking for for our project requires us to stay away from simply asking for people “like” our efforts.  Interaction is key, so every video we post or every challenge we present is an attempt at inspiring more sacrifice from our audience instead of just clicktivism.

Network/Participatory Culture Example

Networked Activism

John Jones’s Article argues that networks are less effective than hierarchal power.  Malcolm Gladwell explains that the without centralized power and guidelines of authority networking fails to set clear goals and “reaching consensus” and therefore prove generally ineffective at campaigning.  I can see this to be true when compared to actual campaigns in person where risk is involved and that attracts people to invest more than a simple click on a website.  Networks are too prone to turn to clicktivism and attract people with too mild opinions of the cause to actually be effective in changing the real world.  Networks make communication within a campaigning group extremely easy and large in scope, but when networks are relied on to change the minds of strangers, they fall short.  Hierarchal power relies on risk and draws people to it on a personal level.  In the end strangers will feel more affected by an issue when presented it through hierarchal power.  An experience through something that involves real risk, power, and a sense of control will stick more than an experience through the safety that networks provide.  Identity, thoughts, and sacrifice are used minimally online and create a safer feeling environment, and safety makes us believe and feel affected by things a lot less than if we felt truly impacted by the issue.

Exercise #2

Literacy

Literacy for me is experienced through school.  I depend on it for many things besides the “purpose” that school is supposed to fulfill.  Many things also affect my outlook of my connection with literacy, mostly family as they are the ones who I connect my schooling with the most.  The meaning to me changes from school year to school year as future goals change and the situations in which I’m getting my education changes.

Another class, another 50 minutes of battling the desire to switch on standby mode.  The material comes and goes, I’ll look at it later  because today is not the day.  But it’s so much harder to get it later. I’ve done this time and time again, I need to focus.  The grades must get better, it will mean so much to them. It’s the least I can do.

How many classes do I have today? There’s too many, too much to do, too little time.  How can I do well in everything? There is no such thing as a throw away class.  I wonder if they think I’m doing well.  I won’t disappoint, I have to listen.  What’s going on on Friday again? 45 more minutes to go.

I can do this, I study and I work hard.  Why is this not making any sense? It’s okay, there’s so much time.  I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine. 40 minutes to go.

Orality

I believe orality has significant differences when experienced through different mediums.  Conversations through technology fell different than face to face encounters.  Even a phone call creates a noticeable screen between individuals where the conversation is warped and different meanings are interpreted from what originally was intended.  Unfortunately, the convenience of technology makes it hard to communicate in other ways.

I need to talk to you, can you Skype me? I know it’s late but I’d rather not do this over a text.  Yes everything is okay.  Stop everything is fine, don’t worry! Then just pick up the phone.

I’m sorry about last week, I didn’t mean for anything to sound like that.  Of course, I just want to talk real quick while we’re here.  You’re not busy are you? Oh, okay. Yeah, call me tonight.

I’m sorry I missed your calls, something came up at work! Can we talk now? I didn’t mean to leave you hanging…. Alright, I guess I’ll call you tomorrow.

Electracy

Sometimes I’m glad I don’t play professional sports.

It’s like I’m actually there!! Wait…

The online social sphere is one of the greatest achievements of mankind.  Experiences from all over the world of virtually anything you can imagine is accessible via the internet.  You can experience all of these via the online community, but always remember you are only truly understanding these in very basic forms.  The connections that the online social sphere makes are only surface level connections that we must understand do not give us the full experience of what we find online that meant something to those who posted the original material.