HW #10

Nick Bell

Professor Dories

English 101

8 April 2012

Homework #10

            Just yesterday my friend, Duke, and I were bored since everyone went home for Easter break. We couldn’t decide on what to do since it was one of our first free days since we have been completely booked with pledging a fraternity. We finally came to the conclusion we should play some X-box, Fifa 2012 to be exact. This makes our culture unique because we turn to technology in time of savior from boredom. Not all cultures are blessed like ours to have such advancement in technology like ours and even the ones that do they do not over use their technology like we do. We as a society play video games non-stop, you can go online at any time and find over a million users on playing any given game. This is a good time killer but it will not help us advance as humanity.

            I was sitting in fosters eating the other day when I overheard the football team talking. They happened to measuring who had the biggest biceps throughout their table. This makes them stand out among the rest because they go to the gym every day and happen to be obsessed with their appearance. I am pretty sure if I happened to stumble upon a conversation that the female swim team was having they would not be talking about the size of their biceps or who lifted the most. So from that point of view it makes the football team unique to other teams.

            This is the time of the school year when many kids are finishing up the pledging process. For my fraternity kids are not allowed to leave for the weekend because it is so close towards the end of pledging. This weekend was Easter weekend, a weekend that is very important for families to get together and rejoice life. One kid who is pledging with me stepped out and left even though he knew there would be consequences. This shows that he is his own person, that he would stand up for what he believes to be right even though he knows there will be a severe punishment for his actions. 

1.) People have became found of money. Before money even came into the scence everyone was happy, doing favors for everyone else just knowing that the favor will come back to you in return when you need it. But now people dont work unless they get the maximum amount of money they can get also pulling people apart from each other in the end.

2.) Before money became the medium of exchange the man could have probably traded the jars for what he wanted. Now that money was important to buy materials the man wanted as much as possible and the shopkeeper wanted to give out as little as possible.  This is a perfect example of our economy today, people are way to greedy and concerned about money.

3.) “Kids in Perth and Prague and New Delhi are all tuning in to [Jersey Shore] on TV, and pulling on their [Nike sneakers], while singing along to [Lady Gaga’s] latest in English.” This sentence is the most important in my eyes, because it shows you how everyone in the world is changing. Now im no geographer thinking of Prague and New Delhi I think of a a country who that is not compariable to the US when it comes to material things. Now we see that everyone is watching Jersey Show (which is a joke) and throwing on their expensive Nikes, it makes every place in the world the same which in the end would make traveling obsolete.

4.) The two positives are everyone would speak english and our economy would be better. The two negatives are every place would be the same and I feel as if small buisness would not succeed because of the fact that everywhere you look all over the world there will be a McDonalds, Burger King, or Wendys.

HW #5

Nick Bell

Eating Disorders

1.)    Every person wants to have an amazing body. Females want the lean body with long beautiful hair, while males want those six pack abs with the huge biceps. Both males and females will go to extreme lengths to make sure they have the correct body image even though to some extent they are destroying their body. Television stars have a lot to do with this; people see how TV stars get with the most beautiful counterparts and want to be very similar to them. But what people don’t realize is that they have the money to afford the best physical trainers so they can be in such good shape. Another influence, especially on males, is body builders. Kids grow up looking at these males as a guideline to what your body should look like. A good example of this is Arnold Schwarzenegger who was a huge icon to the body building world. Even though he has those huge muscles that every person wants, people have to understand that he achieved them unnaturally. He took steroids that destroy a person’s body for the near future. Even though there is only two influences there are many more that exist.

2.)    I believe there are different expectations on males and females to a degree. Both males and females are excepted to have the perfect bodies. Females need to have the perfect slender body with the skinny waist while males should have the ripped huge arms with the bulging six pack abs.

3.)    Three things that are masculine that come mind are body builders, athletes, and super heroes. All three of these are very similar; they all are strong and conditioned in their own way. A body builder can lift a lot of weight while doing multiple reps in one set making him conditioned. Athletes have to be in the best shape so they can be the top of what they do. And super heroes, well they are super heroes for a reason. I personally would not stand toe to toe with Batman because he has the ability to basically destroy me in more ways than one.

4.)    Two ways the males are pressured into acting masculine are by not going to the doctors and the other way is by protection. Both ways show that males can take care of themselves with no help for an outside source. Not going to the doctors can be harmful for one’s health because they can be all tough even though they are truly sick which can result in death. Protection of one’s family is the next way a male can be pressured into acting masculine. This can be harmful if they put themselves on the line to safe their family members.

HW #4

Nick Bell HW #4 1.) As technology advances people will start to alienate or isolate themselves from society. Even though I did not live in the 1960’s, I heard it was a very different time period than that of today. Kids would be outside playing, running around, or just having a good time in general together. Now if a kid wants to hang out with their friend they just play Xbox online verse each other from two completely different households. This shows us that as we gain materials we become lazier as a society causing isolation from each other. 2.) If the income of people in a society increased then I believe it will not help people from within that society to isolate from each other. If people gain money they will have extra money to spend on things that are not needed to survive. Even though these material objects are always good to have and everyone wants them, they do tend to isolate people from each other. Where as to a person with little to no money, even though they do not have all the materials in the world, have a perfect live because they have what they need to get by happily and have loved ones around them when they are needed. 3.) One main societal factor that encourages competitive consumption is income. A person who makes more money will obviously have more materials so to keep up with the norms of society a person is in need of a solid income. Another thing I believe that encourages competitive consumption is our youth. Parents want to know as the best parents in the neighborhood by buying their children the best gifts and toys. If it wasn’t for the youth and their overwhelming need for material things then parents would not strive to make buy more material things for their kids. 4.) Competitive consumption can obviously shape someone’s identity. For me in particular, I fall right into the norms of society. I am your average teenager who needs to up to date on technology and have all the newest things. But on the other hand I stand alone at the same time. The majority of my friends have not worked a day in their lives so far; I on the other hand worked three jobs last summer alone putting in over 50 hours of work a week just so I can buy my own materials while not relying on my parents to buy me everything.

HW #3

HW #3

1.)    I’m not too sure if that will take place, but I would not be surprised if something more natural involving the earth and ALL of human extinction took place. First of all within the next year the world is supposed to end, what’s more catastrophic than that? And not going to lie I don’t think it will end but something is definitely going to happen. And if such an incident were to happen I think you would see total chaos. There will be die hard believers who think that you need to end your life and your own turns and end up committing suicide before the event even takes place similar to a little cult. On top of that you will see people start not to care about laws running the streets of your home towns bring complete and total anarchy.

2.)    Even before reading the texts from what I have seen on television shows, such as modern marvels, and even just watching those videos about chimps in class I completely agree that such a machine can be made to work and run without human help. One day, possibly in my lifetime, we will be walking the streets with robots as if they were humans. This would completely change our human identities because as of right now humans think they are omnipotent which will completely change if robots are able to walk to earth free. On the other hand if robots are made just so Americans can have them as house maids my generation will become even lazier than they are right now. Kids are all for technology doing work to make their lives easier, a category I even place myself into, and with the creation of robots I feel as if humans will not have the urge to do anything and simply tell there robot to do complete whatever task they must do.

3.)    There will be both good and bad effects that come from the creation of artificial intelligence. The bad things will be I see humans becoming lazier than even having robots do all their work for them. Another disadvantage is if we build moral decision-making machines and someone was to mistreat a robot, and with the power to morally know what is right and wrong they will be able to react to the mistreatment and possibly take over and rule mankind, because I don’t know about you but if I were to stand toe to toe with a robot in a fight I think they would have a slight advantage seeing the fact that they are completely made out of metal. On the flip side there will be positive effects from creating and manufacturing robots. One of those positives goes hand in hand with a negative, and that is they will be able to make our lives easier. If we were to have robots they can help with the tasks that a father of two children does not want to deal with after he has already worked a 12 hour day.  Another positive could possibly be military help. If we can create and train robots to service in the US military it will help bring home millions of fathers, sons, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives back to be with their families and not overseas fighting, risking their lives for us to live ours freely.

4.)    I have never come across my computer failing on me at any time in my life but I do recall numerous amounts of times where my cell phone would shut off in the middle of an important conservation. This is not that big of a deal but after it happens a few times you start to get fairly fed up with technology. So to think a little further what if we had robots and there job was to watch the elderly and make sure they are doing well at all times, and the systems crash leaving let’s say 5 elderly without support and help and they end up dying because of a “technical difficulty” then we as humans need to really step back and see if we are heading in the right direction with all of this artificial intelligence advances.

Morality

Nick Bell

HW #2: Morality

1.)     At first when I have read the question my first and instant thought of a person who is more admirable was Bill Gates, not because his invention of Microsoft and how he helped streamline our technology, but because I know Bill Gates donates millions of dollars to help people in need. After reading a little further I thought to myself, “Would Bill Gates be as generous if he didn’t have the money to spare?” On the other hand there is Norman Borlaug, who I didn’t not even know existed up to 20 minutes ago, has made numerous scientific advances to help save billions of people. Not only do I admire that he has done so, but he remains to stay out of the eye of the media, which in return makes him like a masked superhero going around saving people’s lives and not taking the credit that he so deserves.

2.)     One person that stands out among the rest in my eyes which I’m sure a lot of people would agree on is Oprah Winfrey. She is very similar to a Bill Gates who has made billions of dollars throughout their life and now is in return giving money back to help sick and poorer individuals so they can move on make the world a better a place. Now on the other hand there is an individual who did not make billions or even millions of dollars and he fought for what he believed was right and in return he ended up losing his life over such a cause, that individual is Martin Luther King Jr. He stood up and peacefully (key word peacefully) rioted the segregation of black individuals which in the end did indeed end black segregation, helping our society to advance, making our world a better place. Yes this is basically a description of me and my moral judgment making. Even though I do not have millions of dollars I attempt to help the needy whenever it comes into play even if it is as simple as helping and old lady carry her groceries into her house. And with Dr. King Jr. I believe a person should have the right to live free no matter what their skin color is or where they are from.

3.)    I believe morality is universal throughout a society. So if you look at a child who was raised in the United States where we have a set of laws and norms that we must live by he should be morally compatible to another child of the same age from the same region. But if you try and compare the morality of a child growing up in the US to a child who was raised in the Middle East where he was raised to kill individuals who do not follow his families/towns ideological ideas then there will be little or no comparison.

4.)    Haidt’s five elements of human morality are: harm, fairness, community, authority, and purity. At first when looking at this I thought the US focused mainly on community because of the 9/11 attacks, but after some deliberation I have changed my mind to harm. I believe it is harm because we went far past community when certain individuals starting attacking Israeli men just because they decided to come to America to have a new and better life.

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