This week, I learned about how much impact the internet has had on normal things that we do every day. We watched a video about how the internet has changed dancing. It has brought people together who love to dance. This video got me thinking about how the internet has changed other things, and I realized just how important the internet is in my lives and the lives of people all around me. Everywhere you look, you see people on their smartphones, browsing various types of social media. Have you used a computer without internet access in the past couple years? Neither have I. Computers have become so dependent on the internet for various applications that there is little you can do if you're not connected. I have also been thinking about how this affects society. People have become so accustomed to having a certain level of comfort and connectivity that it would be a huge shock to have the internet taken away. Some would say that we rely too much on the internet, and need to learn to function without it. While this argument makes sense, another argument could be made about how the internet has opened up so many doors for so many people. We rely on the internet, but for good reason. The internet is capable of so many great things, like connecting with old friends, making new friends, researching with ease, and finding people with similar interests to you. The internet is great.
https://www.ted.com/talks/the_lxd_in_the_internet_age_dance_evolves http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/keeping-young-offenders-jail-reduce-crime/ In this video, we learn about how putting minors into jail could actually be worse for them than keeping them out of jail. Juveniles who have been arrested once already have a higher 21% higher chance of being arrested again, and may carry out more serious crimes later on. This is related to what I have been learning about how traditional methods (for anything), may not be as good as alternatives. An example of this would be how in "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch often goes about raising his children in ways that are different from social norms. Often times, people question why he doesn't just beat his children to get them to act better. Atticus does not conform to what other people think. His children turn out fine, maybe even better than the other children (smarter, more polite), which just goes to show you that the traditional method is not always the best. Atticus also goes against social norms by sticking up for "Negros", which was a frowned upon practice in the time period the story takes place. His unwillingness to conform to other people's beliefs tells us a lot about his character. Throughout the story, a common motif is him telling his children that they do not need to be a part of the hivemind, that they can choose to what they want. He teaches his children that even though an idea is different, that doesn't necessarily make it wrong. Another reason that putting minors into jail could be a bad thing is because of how much money it costs to keep open juvenile detention facilities. In social studies, we have learned how governments spend their money and what this means for the citizens. These facilities cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year to operate. That money could be put towards more useful things, seeing as how there is evidence that these places are not very useful. Budgeting is another important thing that I have been learning about. We could allocate the money that is spent on detention centers for children to something more useful, such as funding public school funding or community based activities that the kids getting sent to detention centers can put their energy into. There are more effective ways to help children stay out of trouble. Putting a child who comes from a troubled background into an environment with more troubled children is probably not the best way to stop them from being troubled. That's like thinking the best way to help a drug addict is to surround him with other drug addicts. The thought that putting children into jail goes against a lot of the things we know about child development. We know that children tend to turn out better when raised in better environments, so why would we put them into bad environments to help their bad behaviors? Nelson Mandela was a peacekeeper who assisted in bringing an end to apartheid. He was a human rights advocate who led protests, both peaceful and armed. South Africa was racially divided, and Nelson Mandela helped get rid of white oppression. He was imprisoned for 27 years, accused of conspiracy to overthrow the state. He was released in 1990, and worked to get rid of apartheid, and became South Africa's first black president in 1994. He retired from politics in 1999, but still remained an active and devoted peacemaker. He died at age 95 in 2013. |
Kelan MartinezI talk too much Archives
April 2015
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