1. 3 unique takeaways/tips from the readings were thinking about who the primary audience of the text is, breaking down the introduction so that you can understand what the text will be about and considering the author’s choices. These would help me in particular because I have a very hard time at comprehending and trying to understand WHY the author writes what they do, their thought process etc. Comprehending and understanding is a big part of learning for me because you can’t really take away from a reading if you can’t or really anything if you don’t have a full understanding of what you’re reading.

 

1. I think that this means to go into a reading as if you’re a part of the reading. While reading the text you could think, why is this being said, who is this meant to touch, why is it so important etc, You break down the text better which leads to a way better analysis.

 

1. You can learn the context of a text before reading by figuring out the author’s purpose and who the intended audience is.

1. A single-story is basically a rumor that gets told over and over again. Many single stories however, lead to stereotypes and people to have a certain view over a certain place or group of people.
2. I liked to read fantasy stories. Books like Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl etc, The characters were usually outcast with secret incredible gifts. I don’t think the stories I read specifically created any single-stories for me because my mom kind of taught me about different cultures and backgrounds at a very young age. It wasn’t until I got to middle and high school that I noticed the different single-stories in the books I was reading. 
3. Modern Technology definitely contributes to single-stories just because it opened different lifestyles people had to live up to you. Also, with modern technology there’s memes and live streams etc that allow people to openly express any narrative they want and millions of people have access to it. Modern technology has caused single-stories to spread faster than before which leads to way more stereotypes.
4. I feel like these two pieces are talking about how single-stories contributed to identity issues and with how they viewed their world against the world they read about.

I do agree with what Carr was saying about our reliance on technology growing. When we need to find somewhere to eat, find directions, do research for a paper or anything, we use our phones/computers. We automatically run to technology. Because of this sometimes we feel like we don’t really need to learn certain basics or take it as seriously because technology will always be there to fall back on. These crashes could have been prevented if the pilot would’ve taken his training a little more seriously. Also, if who/whatever trains the pilot, should not only teach the pilot how to work the technical side of the plane, but should also be taught how to take control of the plane when the computers etc fail. I think it’s a matter of the worker. As a society, we unfortunately rely on technology way too much. When the wifi shuts off, a whole household stops. We shouldn’t constantly upgrade technology just so we don’t have to do any of the heavy work. Technology was created to help and make things more efficient. Not completely take over our lives and do everything for us. I don’t really have much of a stance on technology taking jobs. It is definitely a possibility which is why we should start trying to catch up to technology so that if THAT fails, we won’t be completely screwed. 

It has now been a year since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic happened and everyone’s life changed. A lot of people lost jobs, loved ones, jobs and only god knows what else. The Covid-19 Pandemic has dramatically changed my life in positive and negative ways over the past year. Thankfully, through all the struggles I was still able to take care of all my responsibilities, graduate high school and complete my first year of college. Because of the pandemic, I was forced to stay home, attend school online and since everything closed down I wasn’t able to go out and just take my regular little breaks from stressful things.

Me being stuck at home all day caused me to worry. I am a very bad overthinker and tend to get into my own head a lot. I was constantly worried about what was happening in the world and where meals were coming from, how I was getting my sister to school, how was my brother getting lunch money, taking off work to get things done. Anything there was to worry about, I did. It caused me to  be really stressed out. I started slacking and losing a lot of motivation which made it harder for me to handle my responsibilities. I couldn’t really reach out to any one or do any of the things that were stress relievers for me. I was just stuck home, stuck in the same routine, stuck in my head. This eventually got in the way of school, highschool AND college.

Going to school from home made me feel isolated from my friends. On top of issues the pandemic caused, I have other health issues so I had to be on lockdown way more than the people around me. And all though I missed my friends and going out, I was glad I didn’t have to worry about all the little petty highschool issues. Who liked who, who wanted to hang out with who, all the stupid issues. I hated my highschool but love my friends if that makes sense. Besides my 3 main friends, I’m not a very social person. I try to come in contact with the least amount of people I can. But even for someone who doesn’t really talk much, I was way too alone. It’s one thing to just not see people but when you can’t really call or contact them as much because their parents sent them out of state it becomes too much. I felt very alone. To avoid this, I tried different hobbies. I got back into reading, writing little wattpad stories, playing my cello & violin etc. Which worked for a while but eventually I started feeling the same way.  Everything slowly began  to appear as a nightmare I was not able to wake up from. My job ended up going on furlough and shutting down and I was back to stressing a new set of issues. What used to be, how can I get my sister from school if I work turned into could we even afford to send her. And she’s too young to stay home alone. I had to worry about how long my final check can last us until I find another job. ( Thank god for PUA). However, once this happened more family started coming around and it was good to have my family beside me. My family helped as much as they can but with the rising prices, declining markets, and cost of living rising it’s almost impossible to be on top of everything. Slowly, I got very depressed but was still pushing through.

I feel like Carr meant that because it’s so easy to just search up a topic and get so much information on it our brains don’t really need to think much. When looking in a book, you have to find the book, the chapter, then your topic, then break down what you wrote, make sure you fully understand and then use your research. With all this modern technology all you have to do is type in your topic, and worry about how you’re gonna word it. Carr definitely has a point. We’ve become so dependent on knowing that the internet will have what we need we don’t ever do any real digging for info. Millions of articles and sites pop up with all the information. When I was younger, I did walk to the library and I used to walk all around the library, find my books and either research there or at home. From me doing both I definitely noticed a difference. I definitely become a little lazier with researching. In earlier years I would research weeks before an assignment because I knew how long it would take. Now, I could put aside 1-3 hours to research and put together the evidence that I need. The internet gives both. It gives us all the knowledge we want right away, but it kind of takes away the learning sense of it. With researching now, I don’t really hold on to the information for as long as I did when I spent days reading and re-reading it. Now research is more for the assignment or whatever you’re researching for rather than actually taking anything away from it.

1. In early schooling I was always told not to use Wikipedia because it isn’t reliable since any one can edit the articles there. A Lot of times, essays wouldn’t even count if we used Wikipedia. After reading the article, I feel like Wikipedia could still be used as a source, as long as you double check what’s on there.  Wikipedia has definitely came a long way from when we were in elementary/middle school.  There’s more articles to site from and more people want to actually teach people stuff.
2. Some ways Purdy explains that Wikipedia can be useful because people can go in and update information which keeps topics up to date. That way, you’re not always getting told the same old information from years ago. Wikipedia articles are constantly being revised and fact checked so now Wikipedia articles are more reliable in a way. Purdy also points out how Wikipedia isn’t just a place for research but for spreading knowledge too. Wikipedia has multiple usages and thats why it’s recognized for being more useful.
3. I wouldn’t really consider Wikipedia a community platform because although anyone can edit and show where they cited evidence you can’t really interact with the authors. For example, our forum for this class would be considered a community platform because we are able to interact with each other, comment, and actually have discussions. Wikipedia could only be considered a community because any one can write and edit things. I didn’t really understand of all the conversations in the article honestly.

I chose the Science News article  “How Coronavirus Stress May Scramble Our Brains”. I chose this article over the others because I felt that I could relate to this article much more. Before the pandemic I already had to deal with a lot of stress. I take care of all my siblings while my parents can’t. I relied on working a lot. Once I lost my job in the beginning of the pandemic, the stress piled on. The stress of not working, the stress of figuring out what to do with my siblings, the stress of what happens if I get the virus. I genuinely feel like having so much stress hit me like that at one time has turned my brain into permanent mush. I really do feel like the stress of everything that happened during this pandemic caused many people’s brains to be a different way. The author used im guessing interviews with psychologists, brain experts etc to show how the stress from the pandemic affected our brains. In the article, there was an image showing how the brain functions when people are stressed and when they aren’t. When we’re stressed, we have a weaker control of our thoughts, emotions and how we act. I would say this article is an informative text and I definitely gravitate towards that because it’s much simpler for me to understand and break down. It’s very difficult for me to write and analyze writings that kind of speak from someone’s experiences because it’s usually easier when you can understand where they’re coming from and a lot of times I can’t pick up on it.

Reflective writing is when someone basically thinks before they write. Whatever the person wrote was well thought out, they put a lot of time into their writing. I do reflective writing a lot but never realized it until this course. I overanalyze and take time about what topic would fit in one place, how long it should be, should it be a leading point or an ending point, everything. In a way, reflective writing pushes you to really write your best work. It helps organize your thoughts and organize it a certain way. When writing, I always start off with an outline of some kind so that I can organize and see all my thoughts in one place. I then organize it by importance. For example, with the Discourse Communities assignment I wrote about my community Brooklyn. In my head I already knew I would have to present the problem and then suggest a solution. Once I identified the problem, I formed my solution. However, in order for someone to really feel the severity of an issue to even want to help with a solution, some personal flair needs to be added. I left the ending paragraphs to talk about personal experiences and tie it into why not having the solution at that time was a negative thing. After that, I added a few words anyone can relate to. Not just people in my city, not just minorities but anyone who needed something done and couldn’t have it done. This was probably one of my favorite pieces that I wrote because it hit so close to home and I was finally able to use things I go through to maybe make someone not feel so alone or finally feel like their community isn’t the only one going through it.