Blog 6

I think I will be examining Asian American students. I chose this group because it relates to me. I think I will choose a variety of both texts about the group and texts by the group. I have attached some URLs for some sites that I found regarding the topic. One of the sources is an article on discrimination and how it affects the mental health of Asian Americans. Another article I found deals with the academic achievement of asian americans. The last one is an article by Zac Keith, an Asian American who writes about his experiences. It is about the chink joke. I also think I am going to incorporate pictures about this mockery in my paper. The last source I would like to use is Being a Chink by Christine Leong. I remember reading it in high school (or first year in college, I don't remember). It was in the Bedford reader. I can't get my hands on it, so Nicole, if you can get your hands on it, that would be awesome! Otherwise, I think i'll get by!

I think I am going to focus on discrimination by Asian american's peers, and how that affects mental health. I'm going to be using a lot of facts from all the sources I gathered. But, I will also explain (maybe in the conclusion... i'm not sure yet) how even with these stereotypes, asian americans perform well in school. This is my general outline and the direction I figure I will be taking.

SOURCES SO FAR

http://depts.washington.edu/sibl/Publications/ch10.pdf

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-why-do-asian-american-students-perform-better-than-whites-20140505-story.html

http://www.zakkeith.com/articles,blogs,forums/not-racist-just-goofy-squint-eye-faces.htm

Blog 5

In Hanfler's article, I really liked the quote "deviance is not automatically understood as on objective fact but as constructed and interpreted meanings that are subject to change." (13). I think this really brings up the idea of social construction. It was said also in the article that construction depends on interpretations and how "behaviors and traits come to be labeled...and how cultural context influences definitions of deviance" (13). As we said in class, social construction affects everyone, and everyone is doing it. This is reflected upon Hanfler's explanation of symbolic interaction. "Symbolic interactionists recognize that human beings are meaning makers. We interpret the world around us and create meaning through interaction" (23). So I think the greatest and most important part of social construction is knowing that it is always objective and subjective to change. In class, we talked about social construction. We included a list of what it meant to us due to the reading. We said that social construction included grouping, creating meaning, expectations, interpretations, generalization, normalcy/standard, stereotypes, and social learning. The meaning I related to the best and that made the most sense to me is having a normalcy and a standard. We make meaning out of everything that we do. It is either said to be "normal" or "weird". Anything you do that is not represented in the "normal" category is said to be against social norms. 

In Vershawn Ashanti Young's article, "Should Writer’s Use They Own English?" was really interesting to me. The point he brought up was so true. People set a standard for how to write. People are expected to write in standard english, just like how you were taught in school. Even if you speak in a different way, speak with an accent, whatever. You are expected to throw out your own voice in order to represent the standard way of writing. "Standard language ideology is the belief that there is one set of dominant language rules that stem from a single dominant discourse (like standard English) that all writers and speakers of English must conform to in order to communicate effectively." (111). I can definitely relate to this. I even said this in my Blog 1 that even I contort my own writing in order to sound smart. As students...no...as writers, we never really write how we would speak. We write in order to impress others, to sound smart, intellectual, and valuable. I feel like school puts so much pressure on students in order to sound the correct way when writing---to not use slang, to not use everyday language. We use the language that is "standard" to english classes. But...where does our voice come from? Our ideas of language come from our own experiences and how we live our lives OUTSIDE of the classroom. If English departments were less of a pain in the ass to impress the professors with this standard language ideology that we have to keep up daily, I feel like it would be a lot more fun and a lot more interesting (and less intimidating). So basically... I agree with Young that "we should be mo flexible, mo acceptin of language diversity, language expansion, and creative language usage from ourselves and from others both in formal and informal settings." (112). 

In Lorber's article, gender and sex are explained to be a part of social construction. "Individuals are born sexed but not gendered, and they have to be taught to be masculine or feminine" (57). Lorber brings up a great point, one that we actually talked about in class once, that in our society, there are two genders: male and female. "Some societies have three genders- men, women, and berdaches or hiiras or xaniths" (56). The simple fact that we only give two options is already contributing to our social construction. In our society, girls don't really learn to be girls, and guys don't really learn to be guys. Our parents just kind of do it for us. Whether it is by dressing the baby up in a certain way, introducing certain sports and not others, our gender is shaped for us before we even realize it. We never had a choice, really. "Individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order" (Lorber, 60). As stated earlier, much of what social construction is includes creating meaning and setting standards that we (society) feel is normal. Gender is one of those things that creates a human being's life meaning before we even realize it. We act, react, think, and say things that are acceptable to our gender. For example, a female playing hockey or football is a very odd thing. When the female does try out for the team, the male players are caught off guard. Even the coaches feel awkward. They either don't want to hurt the girl (which is a gender norm and construction all itself) or they just simply "don't fit in". Even if the girl is a badass and is just as tough as the males, she is still said to be inferior. Another example is one that we talked about in class. If a male and a female sleep together after getting drunk at a party, the male will be seen as superior, a player, and will be given a high five from their male friends. A female would hide the act and be embarrassed of it because she will be thought of as a slut. There are stereotypes and norms that come along with gender, which means gender is definitely socially constructed. Gender is part of social construction, and it is much less changeable. People think of it as a norm and that it is or should be stable for every generation. I agree that gender is socially constructed and gender is set up for the person. As much as I hate that the two genders have so many standards to meet, when I have a kid, it will be the same thing, just because it is embedded in my mind and is sooo prevalent in our society!

Blog 4

Introduction (pages 9-12)
1. "Living a 'literate life in the information age' increasingly means learning to navigate these spaces, managing one's identity and online data, and considering complex issues of privacy and representation" (10).
This quote is important because the whole paper is basically about this single sentence. The whole paper is about how one person (Ronnie) uses his social media (those 'spaces') to represent his identity. This is what we need to do in our Introduction. We need to introduce our main topic and what our whole paper is about.
2. "Using ethnographic case study data, this article examines how one undergraduate student integrated his use of social network sites into his everyday literary practices to represent his identity" (10).
This quote is also important because it not only specifically says that she focuses on one individual, it tells us what kind of study is used (ethnographic). We need to describe, just briefly, that we are interested in only one person's social media and we need to describe how we gathered this data (apart from the Methods section).

Methods (pages 12-13)
1. "The information discussed in the profile tour gave me an overall sense of how Ronnie perceived his own identity representation online, some history behind that representation, and his perspective on what those representations meant to him" (13).
This quote is important because we can directly translate it to our own project. We need to make sure that our screencast interview will give us enough detailed information about our subject. We cannot simply make rash judgements or assumptions (kind of like what Anna was saying in class), but instead, we need to use this interview to gather hard facts about the person. We need to not only gain information about their social media site, but also about their personality and perspective about themselves.
2. "The research interviews, for example, allowed me to gauge my own interpretations of comments Ronnie posted online, as well as to gain background information unavailable in the textual activity I recorded" (13).
This quote is important because it takes into account her own interpretations. This cannot be like a Biology research paper where it just states the hard facts. That gets boring. We need to integrate the facts with our own interpretations (without making judgements). This will give us a sense of how this person works into their own community.

Overall, a very important part of the Methods section was all the subheadings. This makes it a lot easier to navigate through the paper and figure out what we are talking about. The subheadings allow us to focus our attention on one aspect of the project.


Results (pages 13-30)
1. "The information he shared on Twitter varied widely, such as updates on what he's listening to, thoughts and musings on his way to class, images from his daily life, and questions to his friends about weekend plans or other topics. Some of these tweets were updates on his mood and daily activities" (15).
The paper then goes on with examples of particular tweets. This quote is important because it shows the structure of how we should go about our own paper. Since we cannot and should not integrate all the tweets we saw on their profile, we should generalize them into categories and then pick out certain ones that stand out and are important in the person's identity & community development. This takes into account who the audience is and what point you are trying to get across with the paper. Everything must tie in to what their identity is within social media.
2. "Through these tweets, Ronnie showed himself to be busy and social, involved in musical performances, video games, and social activities with friends and family. These tweets gave Ronnie's Twitter followers a glimpse of not only his daily thoughts and activities but also his location" (16).
This quote is important because it showed how Buck integrate the tweets and her own interpretations. She gathered information and tweets and made a very educated interpretation of what those tweets meant regarding identity and community development of Ronnie through social media. It shows how we should integrate our own interpretations of their social media (tweets).

The use of specific photos that Buck gathered online were also put into the results section. This is important because it is a great example of what we could do with the pictures we think are important to our author. Because the audience (Nicole) is not going to creep on their twitter, putting these pictures up and demonstrations of what we see is a great tool to use when getting your point across.

Discussion (pages 30-34)
1.  "Part of managing one's online identity, I argue, involves small interventions like this, ways for individuals to adapt the interfaces of social network sites to work more effectively for their needs" (32).
2. "While social network sites often place a number of restrictions on users' activities, individual users adapt these guidelines for their own uses and their own meanings" (32).
Both of these quotes are important because it does a huge thing for the paper. Taking the information from Ronnie's case study, she generalizes the results and her interpretations to the general public. She states what she believes is applicable to everybody. This is the "so what" part of the paper. This is the identity and community findings. This is how social media establishes an identity for oneself.
3. "There have always been technological, material, social, and rhetorical constraints placed on literacy, and social network sites provide one example through which to consider how writers work within specific forms of constraints to represent themselves in digital spaces and to interact with others" (33).
This quotes explains how social media and literature are similar. Specifically, it shows that social media is a form of literacy. This is important because we are using literature and language in social media to establish ourselves and the communities we are associated with.

Conclusion (pages 34-46)
1. "Ronnie's activity within these spaces represents important literacy work that relies on his knowledge of site infrastructure, genre conventions, and audience" (35).
This shows how her case study backs up her idea that social media is an example of literature and literacy.
2. "Viewing this rich literate activity as part of students' everyday lives will give us a greater understanding of the literacy experiences they bring with them to the classroom" (35).
This is important because it is another "so what". This is how Buck interprets her results and translates the results within her own life. We need to do this in our paper. This isn't a research paper, it is an application paper. We need to state why this is important in our own lives. We need to say how we construct our own identity online and how we integrate in specific communities.

Blog 3

The twelve questions that I would ask JD are...

1. What do you mainly use Twitter for?
2. Who do you mainly tweet at and why are they "worthy" of your tweets?
3. Why do you follow the people you do?
4. What community do you feel you are in within the Twitter world?
5. I notice that you don't tweet very often. Why don't you tweet that often? When do you tweet?
6. Even if you don't tweet that much, you can still be on twitter. How often per day do you check twitter?
7. You told me that you didn't have any other social media besides twitter... Why did you choose to have Twitter instead of another form of social media?
8. What affordances do you use most often & why?
9. Do you have any particular habits you have regarding Twitter. If so, what are they?
10. Which kind of posts do you like for retweeting?
11. What is your cover photo and why did you pick that one as a representation of yourself?
12. Why did you choose the name @jdtheginge?
13. What purpose does Twitter have in your life?

Blog #2

            Social media is often thought of as recreational and fictional. The three articles give rise to a new purpose for social media.  The article by Erin Zammett describes how social media often misrepresents things. People never know the “behind-the-scenes” moments behind a post on Facebook. Zammett encourages truth and honesty with her social media and believes that more people should do the same. The NPR article with the interview with Bev Gooden also describes a sense of truth and honesty. Bev created the hashtag #WhyIStayed for hashtag activism. This hashtag activism encourages women to answer the all-time question of why they say in an abusive relationship. She is creating a more honest and open social media community. Kima Jones in “Writers of Color Flock to Social Media for A New Way to Use Language” describes how writers of color use social media in order to get their literature and poetry out to the public. In the article, Teju Cole states, “A lot of the people I want to be read by… are not people who have subscriptions to The New Yorker or The New York Times, so it’s important for me to speak to them in this way also”.  This is a strong reason behind the new social movement of using the social media websites to bring about change and honesty. What better way to get information out to the public than to use an outlet that is growing and expanding everyday by everyday people? All of these articles describe how social media reflects social movement and change, all involving honesty. They make up a “social media bringing about change” community, if you will.

            In Harris’s article, he states, “Community thus becomes for Bartholomae a kind of stabilizing term, used to give a sense of shared purpose and effort to our dealings with the various discourses that make up the university” (14). This ties into the social community because they all have a shared purpose of creating a more honest community of change. They see themselves all as dealing with a bigger purpose of creating a movement. Talking about the “discourse community”, Harris states, “Abstracted as they are from almost all other kinds of social and material relations, only an affinity of beliefs and purposes, consensus, is left to hold such communities together” (15). Although it is probable that none of these writers know each other, they all share the common goal of brining about change within our community.  They make up an "interpretive community", as they all have a shared desired interest in changing the future and bringing about change. As they do so, they are bonded with the belief and purpose, which leaves behind their own community.

            I believe that these writers are in a community of their own because they share purpose, agenda, and meaning. I would not be counted as being within this community. I do use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but I do not actively write or use my social media toward creating a change within the world. Being a part of Twitter, Facebook, and/or Instagram puts anyone in a community. The Social Media community is one that has flourished, as many people download and find various uses for these apps. These social media sites themselves are a community that houses many other communities. There are communities within each site that are specific in what they talk about, post about, etc. One may use political discourse, activist discourse, etc. People who have a passion and interest in that particular area make these specific communities. The way individuals speak and use their language within these communities shape its purpose and ultimately, its entire meaning. Language determines whether it is thought of as professional, amateur, democratic, liberal, conservative, or any other label.  Social media is definitely becoming a growing community with multiple mini-communities, all with different ideas and meanings.

Blog 1

I am Katie McGuire and I write because I have to. I am from Omaha, NE and I am in the health care field. I hate English classes and dread them, even though they are often some of the most exciting courses, due to the discussions. I am the kind of writer who writes when they are told to do so. I do not voluntarily write. I am the kind of writer who has never thought of texting, tweeting, etc. as forms of writing. Now that I have opened my view of the writing world to those outlets, I now come to the conclusion that I am a writer who seeks attention. But doesn’t everybody? Why do you sent a tweet? Why do you send a text? To be noticed. I write to be noticed—but not too noticed. I’m the kind of writer who seeks to be agreed with. I write to be responded too, and never to be ignored. Unless, of course, you disagree with me. In that case, don’t read what I write. I am the kind of writer who doesn’t really care about writing. But, when I do write, I write to be sarcastic. To be funny. I write to get a smile out of you. I write to sound like I’m a good writer, when in reality, I am a writer who sucks at writing. I am Katie McGuire and I write because I have to.

Community is such a vague word. It’s a word that is not thought of deeply, yet used so often. Community is a sense of belonging. Being in a community is labeling yourself as having similarities with other people. From the reading, the idea of “discourse community” is important. A true sense of interaction and community is “replaced by a discursive ‘forum,’ and their one-to-one interaction is reduced to a system” (15). Communities these days are more labeling instead of face-to-face interactions with others.  In the reading, Harris explains that he belonged to a community “whose values and interests I could in part share but to some degree would always feel separate from”. He explains how he felt like he was in several communities, and yet “never wholly a member of one” (11). Within those two paragraphs, I found myself diving deeper into the true meaning of community. Community is feeling like you belong. Finding people that share similar values and interests is important in establishing different communities and putting yourself into a community. Even when you put yourself into one and label yourself as being part of a specific one, the sense of actual belonging isn’t fully fulfilled. Looking at myself, I am in plenty of communities. I label myself as a UNL Pre-Nursing student, an Omaha native, a Christian, a maturing woman, a daughter, and many more. I label myself a part of these communities because I share values and similarities with each group. But even when I share similarities with these groups and people, it doesn’t mean I feel a sense of belonging. I disagree with some people within those communities. People strive to belong, putting themselves in communities. Writing and language play a role in making them communities because they are the forums to which a community communicates. These days, there are clubs and websites where you can go in order to share your ideas and interests with others. Language encourages communication of ideas and topics.