In this blog post, I am using and "X-ray" process so i can see the "bones" of my research project argument. At this point, my research project is still a work-in-progress, so this post serves as a part of my revision process.
1. My thesis statement is: Cell phones encompass a negative American zeitgeist today and in the future because they consume almost all the time and attention of, and embody the younger generation of today. 2.My first supporting point that argues the how or why of my zeitgeist is: The first supporting point that I use within my project is the fact that cell phones consume almost all of the time and attention of the younger generation. In my project, I almost split this into two supporting points. The first of which being focused on the time aspect. 3. My second supporting point that argues the how or why of my zeitgeist is: The second supporting point that I use for my project is branched off of the first. Like I just said in question 2, I kind of split the first point into two parts. So the second part would be focusing on the attention aspect of cell phones and how they take up almost all of the attention of the younger generation. 4. My third supporting point that argues the how or why of my zeitgeist is: The third and final supporting point of my project is that cell phones embody the younger generation of today. Now this can be taken as a very broad point, but I narrow it down. Overall I use the term "embody" to mean that it has taken over the lives of the generation. I go into detail about how when the generation is thought of the first thing that pops into your head is someone on their phone. I also touch on the aspect that cell phones are so important to this generation that many say they cannot live without them. 5. My counter-argument and rebuttal is: For my counter-argument, I dip into the fact of how useful having a cell phone on us at all times is. You can make emergency calls, you can always stay in touch with people, and you have the entirety of the internet at your fingertips that can be used for research or furthering knowledge on something. My rebuttal to this is that while that is true, that is not what they actually use the phones for. Of course some do, but 90% of the time, it's looking at apps and social media. Not doing research or being productive.
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For this weeks blog post, I am going to do something a little bit different. This blog post is going to serve as a place for me to get all of my sources down in one place, and to take those sources and grab the most relevant info for each of them. This way I will have all of the source material for my research project in one place. It will also help me with further narrowing my topic from Blog post 10: Exploring American Zeitgeist, as well as compiling information for my argument from Blog post 11: Cell phones. So unfortunately this blog post will not be very interesting, but it will give you a better idea of what I am looking to do. Keep in mind, I am not done researching my topic, so these will not be the only sources I use.
1. US Time Spent with Mobile Phones
Welcome back once again! The semester is starting to close out, only a few more weeks and we will be done. However, we are not there yet, so another week, another blog! For this weeks blog post I am just going to be talking a little bit about my research project. We have a lot of freedom with the upcoming posts in regards to what we want to actually put into the blog posts, but whatever it is it must relate to the research project.
So my research project started out in Blog 10: Exploring American Zeitgeist. In the blog post, I talked about the beginnings of my research project. I answered various questions that helped me lay out the framework for my research project. As the answer to the first question stated, I wanted to do my research on the negative affects of social media on young adults starting college. However, once we sat back down in class and talked about it more I realized that this was not the right direction to go in. So I looked into it more and I am going to change my research topic. Now, I am not going to change it drastically, I am just going to make it less broad and more focused. So the focus of my research project is going to be: Cell Phones as a zeitgeist. When I looked at my research question I asked what social media is mostly attributed to the negative affects on people. I realized it wasn't one type or one certain app, but in fact it was the phones. So the main question that I am going to be researching is "Why are phones an American Zeitgeist and why will they continue to be". The focus is going to be on younger college students just like before, somewhere in the first year or two of college. I figured that the overall negative affects come from the fact we have phones on us at all times, and they are the things leading to distractions. Without having a small computer in our pocket many of the problems with social media wouldn't arise. Therefore, it makes more sense that a zeitgeist for American young adults in college would be cell phones. More to come in my research paper, so stay tuned. Hello once again and welcome to my blog page! This week is blog number 10 and it focuses on our research paper for class. For our research project we will be exploring Zeitgeist and creating an argument based on one we find interesting. The term Zeitgeist is roughly translated to “Spirit of the Age” and refers to something that encompasses a point in time and represents it. For this blog post, I will be answering a few questions on my zeitgeist topic. These will help me lay out what exactly I will be researching and give me a good base to start from. However, my topic is subject to change, if I so choose to go another direction.
What is the zeitgeist topic I want to research? I believe that I am going to research the topic of social media and how it destroys our ability to communicate, interact with one another, and overall live. Now days everybody is consumed on their phones and on social media, nobody knows how to interact anymore and it essentially poisons our minds. I want to research into this as it is a huge part of our society today. What is the primary source I will use to begin my research? The primary source I will be using to begin and go through with my research will be a scholarly article published by Waseem Akram entitled A Study of Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society. For me this provides a good basis for argument as it has both sides of the argument throughout the text, and provides a lot of good information from a reliable source. Who does the zeitgeist topic impact the most? This topic is mostly effecting the youth of America, but I am going to focus specifically on college students between the ages of 18 to 22. When did this zeitgeist emerge? This zeitgeist would have emerged from the start of social media, which would be roughly around the early 2000’s. The first official social media site was brought about in 1997, however not everyone had access to the internet and social sites. It was not until the early 2000’s that people really started using social media, and it has only gotten worse and worse and the time goes on. Where (consider community) does this zeitgeist impact the most? I would argue to say that the community or group of people this impacts the most is college students, especially those in their early years of college. This is the generation that uses social media the most and is most tied to the internet. If you took everyones phones away, these would be the people who it would impact the most. Why does this zeitgeist exist? This zeitgeist exists solely because of how tied people have become to the internet. The invention of the smart phone with capabilities to access the internet at the touch of a button is a large contributor to this. We are carrying a small computer around with us day and night and people have become so unhealthily attached to it. Having all of the access to the internet we have and having so many social media sites people would rather sit on their phones and scroll through facebook than actually communicate with each other or pay attention in classes. How does the zeitgeist topic make me feel (impact on your being)? For me personally it aggravates me. The fact we live in a society that everything is at our fingertips and we still have people who are lazy and sit around all day doing nothing but scrolling through social media makes me angry. For me, I try to stay off of my phone and social media as much as possible, because I know that in order to succeed in life you need to be driven, and the use of social media and constantly being tied to your phone hinders this. How does the zeitgeist topic make me think (impact on your knowing)? Following the last question, I look for this in people all of the time. I am constantly looking to see who is continuously on their phones, whether in class, on the road, or even while having a face to face conversation. I see it way too often and it proves the point that we as a society have a problem that needs to be addressed. How does the zeitgeist topic make me want to make change (impact on your doing)? I want to inspire people to get off of their phones and stop basing their lives off of social media. This zeitgeist is not something that I want to be a part of and I am ashamed that it really does describe our society. This topic invokes anger in me as I said before, and I want to do something to change it, because it is one of the downfalls of our society. |
Douglas Neubauer"Expanding my writing through experimentation." Archives
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