The Age of Oversharing Essay Example for Free

The Age of Oversharing Essay â€Å"My battery in my phone is dying† or â€Å"Oh, he can tweet but can’t text back? † is what floods Twitter user’s timeline on a daily basis. Meghan Daum refers to this as the Age of Oversharing in her essay â€Å"I Don’t Give a Tweet What You’re Doing,† where she sarcastically dissects the controversies behind Twitter and how nearly fourteen million users have completely abandoned Twitter’s â€Å"initial function to serve as an information conduit between close friends and family† (233). Along with her beliefs of Twitter adding to our already compromised interpersonal skills she carries the tone of being bitter and harsh throughout her essay as she evaluates the many answers to the question â€Å"what are you doing? † with a better question â€Å"what the hell are we doing? † Although Twitter serves to connect others instantly it ceases human interaction almost instantly as well. We live in a world where everything around us is done almost instantly and more conveniently. Prime examples, fast food restaurants, self-serve salad bars, fast thirty day weight lost results and JG Wentworth’s â€Å"it’s my money and I need it now! We expect everything around us to move at a fast pace and that is exactly what is happening on Twitter, what you ate for breakfast, what article you read during lunch and your favorite show you watch every night before bed is now being shared with the world instantly with the click of a button. Daum refers to this as the Age of Oversharing, consecutive irrelevant post right after another which completely defeats the purpose of solely connecting with love ones not only because of geographical dispersions but also the reality of daily work and school commitments. Researchers at Harvard came up with studies that explain how Twitter has contributed to the Age of Oversharing and that is because nearly eighty percent of tweets on Twitter are of one’s own immediate experiences. This is because â€Å"researchers found that the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating food, getting money or having sex† (Susan 2). That explains why every time I check my timeline someone either is willingly announcing that they are on the bus this morning for work or what kind of cereal that had this morning . I admit I am guilty of also tweeting about the day I just had or how I cannot wait for class to be over so I can watch Basketball Wives later that night on VH1. Our constant tweets reveal to our followers what we are truly about. Twitter can be obnoxious at times, constantly viewing irrelevant tweets from your followers on a daily basis. Daum takes the time to evaluate Twitter as if it were a person, stating that Twitter would be â€Å"an emotionally unstable person†¦that person we avoid at parties† (233). She goes further to add that Twitter will be the person we would view as mentally ill and will eventually feel sorry for. Her tone here towards Twitter is depicted as being fed up with users disclosed thoughts of one’s self. Daum examines these tweets as unstable and this is apparent because if you take away the whole purpose and backbone of Twitter, it is just mostly users microblogging their every move and thought. Looking at the bigger picture this is when â€Å"I don’t give a tweet what you’re doing† becomes notable. It is true that we all have that one friend that constantly rambles about something either random or irrelevant. My friend Bobby is that friend that mirrors Daum’s reflection of Twitter as a person. For instance, Bobby is always looking for attention and if no one is giving it to her she splats out something pointless just like most Twitter users do. I would rather not answer her phone calls because she can go on about herself and drift off upon pointless conversations becoming â€Å"the tragic oversharer† we would all like to avoid. Today since gestures like a wave hello or a polite smile are now being used more openly than before in emoticons through social networks, face to face interaction between people has now diminished. Daum asks the question of, are we tweeting because we truly want to communicate with a select group of true friends, or because typing has replaced talking? Being that free thoughts and videos are now instantly streaming to friends and family over Twitter, there leaves little room for story telling of a series of unfortunate events that can fit in a 140 character text box. It seems many prefer typing over talking, this can also explain the oversharing on social networks. Daum argues that we have misused Twitter for what it is really worth; instead of spoken words they are typed. I see this in my best friend Stephanie’s family where favors and questions for each other are preferred typed. Just last week I was over, Stephanie’s older brother sent her a tweet asking her â€Å"where is the remote? † Spoken communication becomes absent as connecting online becomes apparent more and more. Collectively, more ideas are being typed instead of spoken and excessive feelings are being squeezed into emoticons rather than expressed in person. In â€Å"I Don’t Give a Tweet What You’re Doing† Daum argues that this generation has entered the Age of Oversharing and has left the age of the telephone. Obnoxious and pointless tweets fed our ego’s.

The Patriot Act Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Patriot Act. On September 11, 2001 Muslim terrorists instilled with a hatred of the west attacked the United States in a brutal fashion. Planes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York. Over three thousand people were killed and the impregnable nation known as America was know scared and vulnerable. Almost immediately the legislature began drafting an act that would make the war on terror and the fight for homeland security a little easier to fight, this would come to be known as the Patriot Act â€Å"PATRIOT† is an acronym for â€Å"Uniting and Strengthening America by providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The Patriot Act allows the government and law enforcement agencies to have certain freedoms that have not been allowed since before the attacks. The most controversial part of the Act is that surveillance guidelines have been relaxed along with investigative guidelines, while no system of checks to safeguard civil liberties are provided (Podesta) Another problem that is somewhat alarming was the quickness and haste with which the act was introduced-less than a week after the attacks. President Bush signed the Act on October 26 with no House, Senate, or conference reports. (Podesta) The Act is an expansion of the Anti Terrorism Act of 2001 (ATA) which was also intended to strengthen America against terrorism. Both acts expand the ability of law enforcement and an intelligence agency, the only difference is that the ATA contained safeguards against violations of constitutional rights. One of the safeguards was known as the â€Å"sunset provision†, which stated that certain sections of the Act expired after a period of time if it was not renewed by congress. Due to the fear and pandemonium our country was suffering the implementation of the Patriot Act commenced without any sort of judicial oversight. This has caused people to be discontent with the violation of their constitutional civil liberties. In the months before September 11, 2001 many ideas and provisions that are found in the Act were already being proposed and debated, especially those relation to electronic surveillance. Podesta states that the topic of broadening electronic surveillance was criticized harshly but after the attacks people chose panic over their misgivings. This is why the act passed so quickly. Podesta warns that many of ... ... an inferno. â€Å"But its my toy† they would complain, and your duty as a parent would be to tell them that trying to hold on to that toy would result in a serious injury to themselves and people around them. Civil liberties will come back to America in the coming years but for now I want my security to be first priority. Works Cited Frieden, Terry. â€Å"Attorney general defends Patriot Act† CNN.Com Apr. 6, 2005 http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/05/patriot.act Hatch, Orrin G. "Judiciary Statement: 'America After 9/11: Freedom Preserved Or Freedom Lost?'" Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Nov. 18, 2003. http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.View&PressRelease_id=215260 Masci, David. "Civil Liberties in Wartime." The CQ Researcher Online 11.43 (2001). 4 May 2005 http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2001121400. Document ID: cqresrre2001121400. Podesta, John. â€Å"The USA Patriot Act: The Good, the Bad and the Sunset†. Winter, 2002. http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/ The American Civil Liberties Union. "Civil Liberties after 9/11". 2004. http://www.garynull.com/Documents/ACLU/911_Report.htm

Barack Obama’s Final Campaign Rally Essay

The final speech Barrack Obama made the night before the election. The artifact examined in this paper is the final speech of then-presidential candidate Barrack Obama in the state of Virginia at the night before the election. It is his last chance to address and persuade the people to vote for him in the coming election. †¢ The search model used: The Neo-Aristotelian approach of rhetorical criticism was used to analyze the artifact. The Neo-Aristotelian approach was used to analyze Barrack Obama’s speech in this paper. This approach covers all significant areas to determine the genre of the speech. This leads to the understanding of the presidential made by Barrack Obama in the campaign period. †¢ The thesis: â€Å"The speech Obama is analyzed to provide an understanding of the rhetorical style that successfully helped him be elected as the president of the U. S. † The thesis of the speech analysis on Barrack Obama’s last address to the public aims to understand its significance to his whole campaign as it made a conclusion on the series of speeches he made during the campaign period. Summary of Analysis: †¢ Rhetorical situation: The last speech Obama made before the election in Virginia, Republican state, is very significant to analyze the whole period of his campaign. This speech is said to have win him the election. It is evident that the analysis of this speech will make way to understanding of what is the approach the Obama did in his long campaign for it is the conclusion of all his speeches and it is the night before the election. †¢ How the search model was applied to analysis of the artifact: The speech analysis makes use of canons of rhetoric presented by Aristotle. The speech analysis makes use of the five canon of rhetoric in the Neo-Aristotelian approach to analyze the detail of the speech. The speech was analyzed using the canons like invention, arrangement, elocution, memory and delivery. And the speech was found to be outstanding in the five canons. Conclusion: †¢ Usefulness of the search model: The Neo-Aristotelian Approach gave way to a detail analysis of the speech that made Obama the 44th president of the United States. The approach use in this analysis clearly covers all components the speech has to measure its effectiveness to the public. It is found that Obama is very good oratorical speaker that awarded him an advantage in the election. †¢ Value of doing the paper: The analysis gave way to the understanding that the Obama I definitely won the public in his speeches. This analysis prove the claim that Obama touch the hearts on the American people by delivering such effective speeches that presented what he is and what he wanted to do in the future when he become president. His speeches instill such great impact to the public it probably influences the people to strive for the change. Supporting Material: †¢ Visual aid: The sign of a major event held by officers in roads covered in the rally. The Obama party uses sign boards that says a major event happening and that they have to expect heavy traffic somewhat affected people stuck in traffic to attend in the rally. †¢ Audio: The Stevie Wonder’s song Signed, Sealed, Delivered is a major factor which conveys meaning from the speech. The Stevie Wonder song at the end of the speech made a great impact to the listeners of the speech for it gives a message that Obama will do what he promise and that he mean what he said. †¢ Other: The â€Å"yes, we can† tagline and the â€Å"fired up, ready to go† chant. The meaning involve his tagline ensures the American that they can change anything if they want to. And the chant is use to make the people in the rally to remember what they just heard.

Commonly Confused Words Moot and Mute

The adjectives moot (rhymes with boot) and mute (rhymes with cute) are two different words that are commonly confused. Definitions As an adjective,  moot refers to something that is debatable or something that is of no practical importance. As an adjective, mute means unspoken or unable to speak. Also see the usage notes below. Examples She successfully defused one argument by pointing out that a controversial  proposal was moot  because a date had passed.(Betsy Leondar-Wright, Missing Class. Cornell University Press, 2014)   I wanted to say to them, No human being is illegal. But I  stood there mute, salty tears sliding down my face.(Demetria Martinez,  The Block Captains Daughter.  University of Oklahoma Press, 2012) Usage Notes A moot point was classically seen as one that is arguable. A moot case was a hypothetical case proposed for discussion in a moot of law students (i.e., the word was once a noun). In U.S. law schools, students practice arguing hypothetical cases before appellate courts in moot court.From that sense of moot derived the extended sense of no practical importance; hypothetical; academic. This shift in meaning occurred about 1900 because the question has already become moot, we need not decide it. Today, in American English, that is the predominant sense of moot Theodore M. Bernstein and other writers have called this sense of the word incorrect, but it is now a fait accompli, especially in the set phrase moot point. To use moot in the sense open to argument in modern American English is to create an ambiguity and to confuse readers. In British English, the transformation in sense has been slower, and moot in its older sense retains vitality.(Bryan A. Garner, Garners Modern American Usage, Oxford University Press, 2003)Moot in British English means arguable, doubtful, or open to debate. Americans often use it to mean hypothetical or academic, i.e. of no practical significance.(The Economist Style Guide, Profile Books, 2005) Practice (a) Without a doubt, one of the epicenters of competition has to be Centre Court at Wimbledon. . . . Its terribly lonely out there.  Even the players coaches are supposed to remain  _____, distant, and removed. This is a temple to competitive agony and ecstasy.(Wess Stafford, Too Small to Ignore. Waterbrook, 2005)(b) Because medical bills ate up his estate, the inheritance issue became a _____ point.   Answers to Practice Exercises Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words Answers to Practice Exercises: Moot and Mute (a) Without a doubt, one of the epicenters of competition has to be Centre Court at Wimbledon. . . . Its terribly lonely out there.  Even the players coaches are supposed to remain mute, distant,  and removed. This is a temple to competitive agony and ecstasy.(Wess Stafford,  Too Small to Ignore. Waterbrook, 2005)(b) Because medical bills ate up his estate, the inheritance issue became a moot point.Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words