TOW #26 - Head in the (Instagrammed) Clouds

Isabel Evans writes, “Head in the (Instagrammed) Cloud” to discuss social media, particularly instagram and how it affects the life of a young adult. The author is a student at Harvard who admits to being “guilty of everything [she has] mentioned.” Evans writes the text for students at Harvard. Evans made a few comments relating to life at Harvard, such as studying for finals in the Harvard library or boring Harvard Friday nights. However this could apply to any young adult who uses social media. The text was written to address our dependence on social media as social media is a rapidly growing part of society.

To establish her argument, Evans uses first person point of view and allusions. She says, “Most of the time when I’m staring and scrolling, I’m not engaged in any kind of socially productive exercise.” She uses first person point of view to establish ethos. Through her perspective she can explain that she too is affected by social media and can waste an hour on her phone doing practically nothing. This helps the audience agree with her more, but also shows that she knows what she is talking about because she too experienced it.

She also uses allusions to real world events. She says, “So often sites like Twitter and Reddit offer news quicker and more concisely when stories are just breaking. When the lockdown hit our campus after the Boston bombing, I was constantly checking my different feeds rather than relying on the slower CNN.” By having a real event and explaining how social media spread the word, she shows that social media does serve an important part of society and it can help get the word out about big events.

Evans writes this essay to explain that, “it’s important to remember that we should have accomplishments we can really see and touch, not just ones on a touchscreen.” She wants to reach out to students at Harvard and remind them to focus on their real lives and not their instagram life. I think she did accomplish her purpose. She used rhetorical devices well to explain that social media is not a bad thing; she did not attack social media. Instead she said that it’s a good idea to pay attention to one’s life outside of their phone. I think that through her examples and experiences she argues her point well.

IRB Intro Post #4

I decided to read "The Industries of the Future" by Alec Ross for my IRB this marking period. My dad showed this book to me and I was interested in reading it because it talks about businesses that have recently come out that utilize technology in an interesting fashion. I'm really interested in business and wanted to see what the businesses of the future looked like. 

TOW #25 - WWI Propaganda

During World War I, there were many propaganda posters that were created to push citizens to help with the cause. Many factories focused on only creating materials to help with the war, like weaponry. Even though after the war this loss of a market caused a dip in the economy, during the war it was very important for the soldiers that weapons and food were made in excess to help them fight.

Many of these posters involved saving food so that the extra food could be donated to the soldiers. Without this food, soldiers would starve and die, leaving no one to fight the war for Americans. In this particular poster, the author is asking Americans to donate food to the soldiers that are saving them from a German control.

There is a deductive argument in this World War I propaganda poster. The major premise is that in general, well fed soldiers win the war. The minor premise is that if you donate food, you help feed soldiers. So the conclusion is that one should donate their food to help win the war.

The deductive element helps create a strong argument for citizens to donate their food. It outlines the effects of where the food is going and shows that it is beneficial for citizens if they help with the war cause. There is also an emotional appeal in the poster because it clearly states that soldiers are saving your lives, so you need to donate food for those soldiers.

Ultimately, the deductive element organizes the argument so that it has a clear conclusion: donate your food. It is used effectively as an effort to help soldiers get more food. Through the civilian help, soldiers could fight to the best of their ability. These posters most likely helped Americans win the war, as the Allies eventually did win World War I.

TOW #24 - Killing the Rising Sun

The second World War waged on for four years of America’s direct intervention. The main fight was against Japan, as Germany had all but surrendered towards the end of the war. Japan was weary and close to surrender, but Japanese leaders were determined to fight until the death. Americans believed that the only way for the war to end was to fight with similar determination. This led to the decision to drop the atomic bombs on the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Author Bill O'Reilly writes about the war leading up to the decision and the aftermath of the decision. He argues that it was right for the bombs to be dropped, because no one knows how many more American lives would be lost during the remainder of the war. He describes how many scientists were questioning the morality of the bomb, but ultimately both President Franklin Roosevelt and President Truman had decided to let the bomb be dropped if it meant saving American lives. Truman sympathizes with the many Japanese lives that were lost, but believes that it was ultimately for the better.

I agree with part of O’Reilly’s claim, that the dropping of the first bomb had some reasons to be done, and although in retrospect the war would have probably ended soon regardless of the bomb being dropped, in the moment the president had to make a decision, and it was for the better of the United States. I think that he has some validity in his argument, even if the morality of the decision is not entirely intact.

However, I do not believe that dropping the second bomb was entirely necessary. The first bomb killed thousands of people and wrecked havoc on Japanese citizens. Once the word of the first bomb spread, the Japanese decided to surrender until certain conditions. However, Americans wanted an unconditional surrender, and ruthlessly attacked another city in order to receive that surrender. I think that the loss of lives in Nagasaki was not worth the conditions of surrender, especially if the bombs were only supposed to be dropped out of necessity.

Bill O’Reilly makes a compelling argument for the dropping of the two atomic bombs. I agree that there is validity in his argument, and that in the time that it seemed necessary to drop the bombs. However, in retrospect there may have been a better solution that could have saved two cities from being brutally burned.

TOW #23 - Pilots' Confidence

Many pilot only manually control their plane for a couple minutes each flight. The rest of the time is spent monitoring the autopilot system. However, without the autopilot, many pilots feel unconfident in their flying ability. They rely so much on the system that when it crashes, the plane typically ends up crashing too.

The author, David Learmount, writes an essay arguing for the probable cause of the AirAsia flight QZ8501’s crash. He believes that the crash occurred because of the pilot’s self confidence, not because of the plane itself. To support this argument, he uses 3 similar plane crash stories. He also uses a study that was done about pilots to explain how pilots rely on their autopilot system.

The first story was of an Air Algerie flight that went missing after a change in course. The second story was of an Air France flight that’s black box revealed that the pilots were given control from the autopilot, but they lost control of the plane without having an autopilot to help them. The third story was of a West Caribbean Airways that went out of control after the pilots flew the plane too low. However, there was nothing wrong with the plane, if the pilots had had practice without their computers, they would have been able to lift the plane more and saved their passengers. In every story, with more training, the pilot could have saved the flight.

By comparing these stories to the story of the AirAsia flight, one can see that the similarities point to a common cause. The evidence strongly suggests that the pilot’s training is at fault, instead of the plane or the weather. With this evidence, one can see that more training is necessary in having safe flights.

TOW #22 - Muckrakers

The living conditions for immigrants during the early 1900’s was horrible. Many people were dying of disease, poor, and had harsh work hours. Upton Sinclair wrote a book to expose to the American public how horrid the life of an immigrant was. However, he described the lack of proper sanitation of the meatpacking industry in too much detail, leading to the American public demanding change for their food, but not for immigrants. President Roosevelt did pass acts that changed the meatpacking industry, however was angry that, he believed, Sinclair exaggerated the conditions of the meatpacking companies.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, wrote “The Man with the Muckrake” which is a speech about journalists. He targeted journalists, especially Sinclair, that over exaggerated what they were reporting, and ultimately hurt the companies they were bad-mouthing. He calls them muckrakers because they focus on the muck of the story. In today’s world, Roosevelt would be incredibly unhappy with how manipulative the media can be.

In everyday life, one can tweet about someone else and create a false rumor. Regardless of the validity of the rumor, the existence of it itself can cause the person that was tweeted great stress; it can make someone seem bad regardless of whether they actually are or not. On a larger scale, a bad review can cost a company customers even if the company did not earn that review. Comparably celebrities can lose fans over false rumors.

All over the world, journalists hold a special ability. Through their words, they can expose bad companies to the public. They can cause real harm to companies that are causing harm in their own way. However, they can also cause harm to fair businesses. Rumors hold enough weight in today’s world to not need facts to support them. The rumor itself can destroy a person or business’s credibility, even if it is completely false. Through writing lies, journalists today can spread the word quickly about a company and have it shut down the next day.

Roosevelt wanted to prevent mudslinging to occur. He wanted companies to be treated fairly if they acted fairly. However, in the world that we are in today, media plays such a huge role that it can really hurt businesses. Roosevelt would disagree with the way that media is used, and would beg people to stop acting like the muckrakers from the early 20th century.

TOW #21 - By Gum

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the author’s central claim?

During the late 1800’s America entered the Age of Imperialism. With it came a thirst for overseas expansion, leading to the admittance of Hawaii as a part of the united states. Another addition to the united states, although not permanent, was the Philippine Islands. The United States won a war with the Spanish and ultimately gained control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. President McKinley decided to maintain control of the Philippines, even though the Filipinos were not given rights as American citizens.

In this political cartoon, Uncle Sam, the representation of America, is playfully putting American flags across the globe. He is casually smoking a cigar whilst selecting areas for the United States to conquer. By saying “By gum, I rather like your looks” he is expressing how much he likes American imperialism. However, this portrayal of Uncle Sam shows the dark side of imperialism. Uncle Sam is being very casual in deciding where America will grow to; ultimately he shows how Americans wanted to expand to expand and they wanted to win other territories because they liked their looks, not because they wanted to help the other countries.

I agree with the author’s central claim that America during the Age of Imperialism was being too casual with the imperialistic powers it had. For example McKinley claimed that by controlling the Philippines he would help the Filipinos, but life for the Filipinos was worse under American control than before. He also decided to keep the Philippines because he said that God wanted him to, not because of political reasons. Making a decision based off of religion is not fair to do while president of a country free of religious tyranny because there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. Finally, America did not need to help the Philippines, they could have granted the Filipinos independence and let the country run on its own, but America instead casually played with a country and took leadership of it, not considering the drastic effects on the actual inhabitants of the territory.