A recent article in Upfront Magazine called "Drive-Through Generosity" discusses the trend of what is called "paying it forward." This means repaying a kindness to someone other than the person who paid you a kindness. According to the article, people have been paying it forward by paying for the food of the people behind them at drive-throughs. It is common in the US and Canada - in fact, in 2012, 228 consecutive customers paid it forward at a Tim Hortons in Canada. Some people think that the trend is due to increasingly negative and gloomy news, both in the US and around the world.
The author wants me to think that this is a good thing. Paying it forward is a much-needed act of kindness in a world that can be gloomy and depressing. With everything I hear on the news every morning - murder, pollution, greed - it is nice to hear about something as small as buying a stranger a hamburger. The author uses a quote from a woman who pays it forward frequently.
She says that the trend is about "letting people see... there are nice
people out there and maybe we can turn it around." The author is biased in that they believe that paying it forward is a good thing for society. Of course, the opposite view - paying it forward has a negative effect on society - seems more than a little ridiculous to me.
Before I read this article, I did not know that paying it forward existed, let alone that it was a trend. I think that paying it forward is a great thing to do. This article is similar to other stories I hear about random acts of kindness to strangers. After reading this article, I have realized that I want to be the kind of person who pays it forward whenever I can.
Works Cited
"Drive-Through Generosity." Upfront Magazine 13 Jan. 2014: 3. Web.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Power in The Circle- revised
The Circle by Dave Eggers is a scary book. Well, maybe not
scary, but ominous. In the near future, a young woman named Mae gets a
job at a large Internet company called the Circle. The job comes with
amazing perks, like dorms for people who work late and a fully stocked
and operational health clinic. As Mae rises through the ranks of the
Circle and becomes distant from life outside of it, it is clear to the
reader that the Circle has power in the text.
The Circle's goal is transparency. It started off as a network meant to combine all of your online profiles into one account - your 'TruYou' account. Because you had to use your real name and information, it eliminated Internet anonymity. Over time, the Circle evolved into a larger technology company, interested in safety and clarity not just online but everywhere. When Mae first enters the Circle, she meets a man who is working on a tracking device to be implanted into small children with the intent of eliminating kidnappings. However, not all of the Circle's endeavors are as noble. There are slogans plastered all over the campus, and later in the book Mae helps to create a few: "privacy is theft" and "secrets are lies." These slogans sound odd and brainwashy to you and me, but Mae smiles when she delivers them at a press conference.
In the book, the Circle has power. Its power is mainly shown over the main character, Mae Holland. When she begins work at the Circle, she is simply happy to be working at a place that is changing the world, rather than a boring desk job at the utility building in her hometown. She soon discovers that being a part of the Circle is a 24-hour job. She is expected to answer survey questions, be active on Zing (some form of social network, most like Twitter), and be a part of several on-campus groups. She is pulled into Human Resources for not being active on Zing over a weekend. She tells Josiah, the HR worker, that she took a kayaking trip,and he's furious with her because "I'm looking at your profile, I'm finding nothing about you and kayaking. No smiles, no ratings, no posts, nothing." When a minor crime Mae has committed comes to light, she is forced to become "transparent" - she wears a camera around her neck, and anyone who wants to can see what she's doing. Transparency is meant to ensure that nothing shady is going on where no one can see it, and many politicians became transparent as soon as they could. After all, secrets are lies.
Mae never sees why any of this is wrong. She allows herself to be brainwashed. The Circle's power over her is clear and absolute. Mae's parents and her ex-boyfriend Mercer see the Circle and its goals as wrong and nosy, but the Circle still holds power over them. Mae's father has multiple sclerosis, and was covered by Mae's fancy health insurance plan as long as he and her mother installed cameras around their home, a slightly less invasive version of transparency. However, they quickly become uncomfortable with the cameras, first covering them up and then leaving, refusing to speak to Mae around cameras and through social media. The Circle forces them out of their home, but they still depend on it to pay for Mae's father's medicine. They disapprove of the Circle, but it still controls parts of their lives.
Then, there is Mae's ex-boyfriend Mercer. Mercer is against social media in general. Soon after Mae starts working at the Circle, she and Mercer get into a big fight about social media. Mercer claims that Mae is willingly giving herself and her personality to the Circle (which she is). Mercer also cuts off contact with Mae, and attempts to go underground, away from the Circle. Towards the end of the book, Mae helps to test out a new Circle service that makes it possible to find anyone in the world using the power of Circle users all over the globe. She asks for Mercer Medeiros. People all around the world begin to search for Mercer, and he is located in the woods in Oregon. He tries to drive away, but he's chased by drones with cameras and audio feeds onto a bridge. Chased by voices saying things like "Mercer, submit to us! Submit to our will! Be our friend!" Mercer drives his truck off of the bridge to avoid being caught. The Circle - or rather, the people of the Circle, caused him to kill himself.
The Circle is in complete power in this text, and not many seem to know that. Not even one of the heads of the Circle understands how completely it has taken over the world. Social media isn't quite at this level yet - the most Twitter can do right now is decide what TV shows get canceled. However, I think that if we're not careful, something like the Circle could easily exist in the future, and knowing me, I'd be Mae.
The Circle's goal is transparency. It started off as a network meant to combine all of your online profiles into one account - your 'TruYou' account. Because you had to use your real name and information, it eliminated Internet anonymity. Over time, the Circle evolved into a larger technology company, interested in safety and clarity not just online but everywhere. When Mae first enters the Circle, she meets a man who is working on a tracking device to be implanted into small children with the intent of eliminating kidnappings. However, not all of the Circle's endeavors are as noble. There are slogans plastered all over the campus, and later in the book Mae helps to create a few: "privacy is theft" and "secrets are lies." These slogans sound odd and brainwashy to you and me, but Mae smiles when she delivers them at a press conference.
In the book, the Circle has power. Its power is mainly shown over the main character, Mae Holland. When she begins work at the Circle, she is simply happy to be working at a place that is changing the world, rather than a boring desk job at the utility building in her hometown. She soon discovers that being a part of the Circle is a 24-hour job. She is expected to answer survey questions, be active on Zing (some form of social network, most like Twitter), and be a part of several on-campus groups. She is pulled into Human Resources for not being active on Zing over a weekend. She tells Josiah, the HR worker, that she took a kayaking trip,and he's furious with her because "I'm looking at your profile, I'm finding nothing about you and kayaking. No smiles, no ratings, no posts, nothing." When a minor crime Mae has committed comes to light, she is forced to become "transparent" - she wears a camera around her neck, and anyone who wants to can see what she's doing. Transparency is meant to ensure that nothing shady is going on where no one can see it, and many politicians became transparent as soon as they could. After all, secrets are lies.
Mae never sees why any of this is wrong. She allows herself to be brainwashed. The Circle's power over her is clear and absolute. Mae's parents and her ex-boyfriend Mercer see the Circle and its goals as wrong and nosy, but the Circle still holds power over them. Mae's father has multiple sclerosis, and was covered by Mae's fancy health insurance plan as long as he and her mother installed cameras around their home, a slightly less invasive version of transparency. However, they quickly become uncomfortable with the cameras, first covering them up and then leaving, refusing to speak to Mae around cameras and through social media. The Circle forces them out of their home, but they still depend on it to pay for Mae's father's medicine. They disapprove of the Circle, but it still controls parts of their lives.
Then, there is Mae's ex-boyfriend Mercer. Mercer is against social media in general. Soon after Mae starts working at the Circle, she and Mercer get into a big fight about social media. Mercer claims that Mae is willingly giving herself and her personality to the Circle (which she is). Mercer also cuts off contact with Mae, and attempts to go underground, away from the Circle. Towards the end of the book, Mae helps to test out a new Circle service that makes it possible to find anyone in the world using the power of Circle users all over the globe. She asks for Mercer Medeiros. People all around the world begin to search for Mercer, and he is located in the woods in Oregon. He tries to drive away, but he's chased by drones with cameras and audio feeds onto a bridge. Chased by voices saying things like "Mercer, submit to us! Submit to our will! Be our friend!" Mercer drives his truck off of the bridge to avoid being caught. The Circle - or rather, the people of the Circle, caused him to kill himself.
The Circle is in complete power in this text, and not many seem to know that. Not even one of the heads of the Circle understands how completely it has taken over the world. Social media isn't quite at this level yet - the most Twitter can do right now is decide what TV shows get canceled. However, I think that if we're not careful, something like the Circle could easily exist in the future, and knowing me, I'd be Mae.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
How different can people be?
*SPOILERS*
Sadly, I've never seen the play Wicked. But I have read the book three times. This was my first time reading it for school, though. Wicked by Gregory Maguire is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, but it's no kids' book. It's disturbing at times, and it's full of social issues One of these is how different people are allowed to be. In Wicked, people are most definitely looked down on for being different.
One shining example of how people aren't allowed to be different in Oz is the terrible treatment of Animals. Animals are self-aware animals that can speak and think as well as humans can. When the book begins, the Wizard has just begun to pass laws limiting Animal rights. A Goat who is studying what makes Animals any different from humans is murdered just as he is about to make a breakthrough. As time passes, Animals become more and more oppressed. About five years after the Goat's death, a man named Fiyero witnesses a family of Bears being punished by a member of the Wizard's guards: "Below, because the Bears had not stood to join the lineup,the soldier raised his cudgel and it came down on the skull of the cub." Do you see what I mean by disturbing? Animals are punished for simply existing. By the end of the book, a Cow who is freed expects to be "served up rare on your finest Dixxi house porcelain dinner plates before the year is out." They have lost hope.
Another example of being punished for being different is Elphaba Thropp, the main character. Elphie is the Wicked Witch of the West. She is born green, with a full set of razor-sharp teeth and a deep hatred of water. The first people to discriminate against her are her parents. Elphie's father, a preacher named Frex, thinks that Elphie was sent by the Unnamed God to punish him for his sins. As for Melena, Elphaba's mother? Well, "For days Melena couldn't bear to look at the thing. She held it, as a mother must. She waited for the groundwater of maternal affection to rise and overwhelm her." She never really feels affectionate towards Elphaba. Both of Elphie's parents prefer her half-sister Nessarose over her. As a young woman, people (even her roommate Galinda) exclude and laugh at her because if her skin color. Elphie becomes very passionate about Animal rights, even as the rest of Oz ceases to care. I think that part of the reason Elphie is so passionate about Animal rights is because of the alienation and unfair treatment shown to her simply because of her skin color.
In Wicked, the characters are diverse and many, but they're not supposed to be. Every character in the book except for Galinda is punished at some point for how they look or what they are. Ideally, everyone would be like Galinda - a well-off Gillikinese girl who's smart but not quite smart enough to notice what's going on around her.
Sadly, I've never seen the play Wicked. But I have read the book three times. This was my first time reading it for school, though. Wicked by Gregory Maguire is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, but it's no kids' book. It's disturbing at times, and it's full of social issues One of these is how different people are allowed to be. In Wicked, people are most definitely looked down on for being different.
One shining example of how people aren't allowed to be different in Oz is the terrible treatment of Animals. Animals are self-aware animals that can speak and think as well as humans can. When the book begins, the Wizard has just begun to pass laws limiting Animal rights. A Goat who is studying what makes Animals any different from humans is murdered just as he is about to make a breakthrough. As time passes, Animals become more and more oppressed. About five years after the Goat's death, a man named Fiyero witnesses a family of Bears being punished by a member of the Wizard's guards: "Below, because the Bears had not stood to join the lineup,the soldier raised his cudgel and it came down on the skull of the cub." Do you see what I mean by disturbing? Animals are punished for simply existing. By the end of the book, a Cow who is freed expects to be "served up rare on your finest Dixxi house porcelain dinner plates before the year is out." They have lost hope.
Another example of being punished for being different is Elphaba Thropp, the main character. Elphie is the Wicked Witch of the West. She is born green, with a full set of razor-sharp teeth and a deep hatred of water. The first people to discriminate against her are her parents. Elphie's father, a preacher named Frex, thinks that Elphie was sent by the Unnamed God to punish him for his sins. As for Melena, Elphaba's mother? Well, "For days Melena couldn't bear to look at the thing. She held it, as a mother must. She waited for the groundwater of maternal affection to rise and overwhelm her." She never really feels affectionate towards Elphaba. Both of Elphie's parents prefer her half-sister Nessarose over her. As a young woman, people (even her roommate Galinda) exclude and laugh at her because if her skin color. Elphie becomes very passionate about Animal rights, even as the rest of Oz ceases to care. I think that part of the reason Elphie is so passionate about Animal rights is because of the alienation and unfair treatment shown to her simply because of her skin color.
In Wicked, the characters are diverse and many, but they're not supposed to be. Every character in the book except for Galinda is punished at some point for how they look or what they are. Ideally, everyone would be like Galinda - a well-off Gillikinese girl who's smart but not quite smart enough to notice what's going on around her.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)