To be perfectly frank, Tinkercad doesn't phase me too much. In seventh grade, I worked with SketchUp in an elective class, which had first introduced me to this kind of work. SketchUp is pretty much the same thing, except it is a lit less annoying to work with and it is much easier to use. That's pretty much all Tinkercad was to me: annoying. Regardless of how irritating I thought it was, I've decided to use it for a major project in biology to make a small plastic model of a large wooden replica we are going to make of the Brandenburg gates. My partner in biology, who is actually making the assignment, agrees with me on the premises of SketchUp being better than Tinkercad. Tinkercad is a bit hard to grasp, and it makes it difficult for me to be able to do exactly what I want with my design, but I guess that's why I'm in a GT class. I
need to find ways to compromise with a computer program.
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Do me a favor, okay? Close your eyes and envision yourself in a world where you don't have access to your phone. That means no Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or any of your other social media sites. It's a world you don't like, right? You can't imagine living without having your device with its bright little screen with you at all times. The way we see our society nowadays is very strongly influenced by our screens. In fact, it's not just our society that is affected. It has spread to our teaching system, as well! I wouldn't even be writing this in a blog form for school if we weren't so focused on using our electronics.
The same way we are unable –or unwilling– to imagine having to survive without our technology, people of the past were unable to create a world in their minds where everything we did was focused on it. The way we learn about what is going on outside of the safe bubble of our town is through watching the news on television, hearing about it on the radio, or reading a twitter post from the politician you are following, anything but the good old fashioned newspaper. If you took away the devices and asked someone what is going on in our society, they would be unable to form a coherent correct answer. Why? It’s because they rely solely on social media to fuel their needs to know the information of modern times. The people of the past read the newspaper when they wanted to read the news, and would crank their bulky radios on for entertainment. They would do school work on paper or chalkboards, and would interact with people face-to-face rather than instant messaging. What happened to our simple happy way of life? Studies show that people –especially teenagers– are more prone to become depressed and are more likely to commit suicide. Is that because of what they’re eating? Drinking? No. It's because of their exposure to the internet and the harmful side effects it produces. When someone uses the web, or is a member of social media, they create a persona, no matter who it is, and they proceed by lying to themselves about who they are. They step out of the pixelated realm and see everything how it is, who they really are, and it makes them upset. The ads online portray the prefect men and women, and when they look back at themselves in the mirror when they return to reality, all they see are the flaws with themselves, and do anything within their power to achieve the malnourished model frame. They starve themselves, losing not only whatever fat they had, but also all the muscle mass until they are nothing but skin and bones. Think that's bad? On social media sites, it takes only a minute of someone's time to leave a harmful comment, but a harmful comment can take up so much of the recipient's life. The comments line up, slowly driving the bullied to drastic measures. “What's the point,” they think, “of living when no one will be there to miss me when I’m gone?” They may take their life, and the bullies might never know or care that they just single-handedly pushed someone to the extremes. Technology is so important to some people that their lives revolve solely around what might happen to them on a unimportant thought that came out of someone's head. Some people are so focused on their image online that it can turn them insane, to a Gollum wearing human skin. We use electronics almost every minute of our days, and are unwilling to give it up. Technology has morphed our society into one that our ancestors would be unable to recognize as one of humans. The Storyteller is a satire about how technology can affect humans and our ability to act in social situations. In the satire, Homer is trying to tell his grandson a story, but Brandon is so obsessed with technology and hasn't had any training in how to interact with real humans, so he keeps interrupting the story by asking questions. The questions are all about things a device might have that a story doesn't, and Homer is answering them as best he can, but he makes a wrong move by saying there is no electricity so one thing will not be able to work, and Brandon goes out to get back on his portable technology. Homer is trying to be a good grandfather and tell Brandon a story and keep him out of the electronic world, but no matter what he tries, it won't work. The questions and reactions make fun of our inability to stay away from out electronic devices, especially phones and I-pads.
War is...
War is a necessary evil that has shaped our world into what it is today, both in physical geography and in demographics. The countries all got their borders by countless men fighting on either side of the war and laying down their lives for the good of their country. However, many wars are ended with a treaty, long after men died. The treaty would not have been able to come about without first the clashing of steel on steel or the popping gunfire. War can be ___________, or it can be ___________. War can be beneficial, or it can be devastating. For the winning side, all the destruction in both mind and body will have been worth it because they finally got somewhere. On the other hand, for the losing side, war can have done nothing but wrought destruction and chaos. They would have lost too much money and people for their nation to continue, so they could easily be overtaken by a strong force. What we don't realize is... What we don't realize is the cost of war can be too much for a nation, a family, a soldier, a mind. If too many people from a country die in a war, the entire next generation could be gone, leading to a nation becoming weak and weary. The crops would have none to tend them, so the food would become scarce. The livestock would run wild, with one to feed and tame them, the cows would have no farmer to milk them, the sheep would have none to shear them, so there would be no meat or milk to feed the surviving broken families, or any wool to weave fabric from to cloth the weary remnants of a population in the winter. War can be too much for a soldier, leading them to abandoning their post to save their own skin, to return home to their families, no matter how much shame they would receive from their commanding officers, despite the regret they would face later when they hear the news that their entire infantry was wiped out, just so they could see their family again, only to hug their spouse again, to have their mother kiss them again. Regardless of what we think about it... Regardless of what we think about it, without war, we would not have come this far in the world. Every time there is a war, whether of wits or of arms, things change. Without war, Great Britain would still rule half of the world. Great nations would be reverted back to their colonies, established empires would shrivel back up into the frostbitten bud that fought to live and bloomed into strength. War changes us by... War changes us by strengthening us in ways we might not imagine when we first think of war. War toughens national leaders, sparring them into a stronger position in the world by not making the same mistake twice. They build up their military, and the next chance they get, they win. War strengthens families, by introducing them to loss. Families begin to understand fear and worry in depth, and they begin to learn the truth in the world, through sadness and loss. Families of fallen soldiers begin to not take the good things in life for granted. The other day, the kids and voulenteers from Circle of Friends paid us a visit, to help educate people about special needs and why things like it happen. Much of the time, it occurs when as an infant, they undergo physical trauma. It was interesting to see how people with sensory issues other than my brother see, hear, and feel the world. My brother has Aspburgers, a form of Autism that is less severe than most others. He is very attached to things like Legos and sea creatures (Mostly Sharks!) and gets very territorial when it comes to people trying to tell do anything concerning his hair: brushing, washing, and cutting it. He has a very short fuse, and tends to have emotional breakdowns when people tell him he is doing something wrong or tell him to do something more than once. It was good or us to hear about the people who are gifted with the ability to see the world the way it was meant to be seen: without labels, without prejudice, and being able to stand out.
In our ever-changing world, it is only natural for the people who are different to want to call themselves something that represents them. This brings up the question, “Do we need new ways to identify gender and sexuality?” The answer is yes, we do need new ways to identify gender and sexuality to fit in with our evolving society. Sasha Kolodkin, a transgender man-to-woman, says on gender labels, “But use of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ is very confining. When you have to choose between the two, the complexities of your identity are lost. It's like looking at a painting in black and white instead of color” (Schulten 11). People should be allowed to represent themselves any way they want to.
It's in human nature to want define themselves and fit in with others. Adding new identities to the L. G. B. T.+ community to accommodate the people who aren't identified by an existing term will not hurt anyone, and will only help people who aren't sure who they are and are searching for themselves. “Who is harmed by people trying to express themselves better? I don't see the problem” (Alix 2). René Alix asks and answers his own question . People don't hurt anyone by defining themselves; everyone else shouldn't be so opposed to people wanting to find the right way to express themselves. For years, new terms have been added to the Q-munity (the Queer community), starting in the nineteenth century, when equality was far from everyone's minds. Before 1892, the term “bisexual” wasn't used, and before 1914, it had not been used in its current context, meaning feeling attraction to both males and females. Before then, there was just the term “homosexual” in use since 1868, meaning attracted to the same gender. Even back then, people who felt different wanted to fit in with a group of people with similar interests. Michael Schulman wrote in his 2013 article Generation LGBTQIA, “The core question is... who they are– that is, identity as distinct from sexual orientation” (Schulten 3). This is an age-old question that he answers: Who am I? If people want to find new ways to identify themselves, to feed that primitive want to fit in with a group, what does that have to do with anyone else? The people who would condemn people for wanting new ways to identify themselves also use different ways to show who they are. All people think and feel differently, so terminology that applies to some people will not appeal to others. René Alix said on this very matter, “People who feel constrained by the old terminology are trying to express how they, personally, feel” (Alix 2). People try to fit in, no matter how difficult it might be to find a group they fit in with. Alejandro Fuentes, a young man who is scorned by the comments on his blog about this topic, said “Despite differences in culture, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, or sexuality, we are all human beings living on the same planet; so instead of having all this hatred in the world, we should learn about the differences in people” (Fuentes 5). He acknowledges the fact that all people are different, so we need to recognize people as their own person, even if that means using new terminology other than lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersexual, asexual, ally, and pansexual. If people feel like they don't don't in with other people around them on personal matters like what gender the are and what their sexuality is, then we need new ways to identify gender and sexuality to accommodate those people. People should be able to fit in using any terms they feel fit them the best, no matter what anyone else says against them. Works Cited Alix, René. "Do We Need New Ways to Identify Gender and Sexuality?" Do We Need New Ways to Identify Gender and Sexuality? - Quora. Quora, 19 Dec. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. Fuentes, Alejandro. "Do We Need New Ways to Identify Gender and Sexuality?" Recognizing Self-Identity. Weebly.com, 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. Schulten, Katherine. "Do We Need New Ways to Identify Gender and Sexuality?" The New York Times. The New York Times Blog, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 8 Feb. 2017. |
BENJAMINTHEGREATI am a bisexual transgender who can get very political and triggered at unjust things, especially things towards people in the LGBT+ community. ArchivesCategories |