zstein's blog

Jon Stewart discusses the new trend of making homeless people into walking wifi hotspots. I personally don’t feel that this method is exploitative providing the homeless are individually in agreement with the job. However, if the job may cause injuries, then it is sort of exploitative because homeless people will probably not be too picky about what they do for money, and corporations understand this.

Both of these articles seemed to stress that we are heavily influenced by others in our opinions and social decisions. “Group Minds” says that we (americans) aren’t aware to the extent that our society shapes our opinions and behavior. I agree that most people (esp. America) think they are more unique and unconditioned in their choices than they truly are.

In his article, Erich Fromm proposes the idea that disobedience is necessary for human progression and evolution. He gives his own interpretation on how stories such as the garden of eden and the greek myth of Prometheus (and more) represent stories of disobedience leading to a positive change in their characters lives. He then speculates that obedience may very well be the end of human civilization.

However, there is a flaw with this view: If the whole world were to disobey their rulers or law, then society would fall apart; the very thing that was created to benefit all of humanity would cease to be. I’m not saying that society doesn’t have its issues and corruptors, and that we should just surrender to injustice. However, what happens when disobedience is no longer necessary? When does disobedience stop being a necessary means to contentment? People will always have differing view points and theories… there needs to be a point where we can respectfully disagree with each others differing views without disrupting other individuals views. I would agree that sometimes disobedience is necessary, but not as often as Fromm implies.

Jon Stewart discusses the agressive SOPA and PIPA acts, that prohibit piracy on the internet. Its flaws include that you can be arrested and jailed for streaming online music or other copyrighted material. The act at first may seem like it would be a good thing, right? I mean, it’s acting to stop online piracy. Except that this act goes too far in its enforcement. I believe that it should have more rational boundaries to the extent you go in pirating media. There are entire websites that are devoted to sharing media in an easily  accessible manner, sites like youtube, hulu, spotify and more. When you access these sites, you don’t actually steal the media, you’re just streaming it. I don’t feel that viewing media should be an offense enough to arrest and jail people over. I mean, isn’t television the same thing?

This trailer portrays a female agent of some sort who is betrayed by her government employers. She is an ex-marine. This movie may differ from other female-oriented (having a female playing the main role) action films one, because she is an actual MMA fighter in real life so it’s actually believable that she would play such a character, as opposed to just having a good looking female with no real fighting skill.

Argumentation – Paul Martin (Author) does a good job at keeping an unthreatening, informative tone throughout the article. It does not attempt to disprove or argue at all. It is strictly an informative article.

Amount of Quality of Information – This article gives a lot of information of the effects sleep have on us and the importance of sleep. All of the information given is relevant and useful, so I would say that it has just the right amount. The information, as far as I can tell is credible since it was gathered by a PhD in the field of behavioral biology, and sleep falls under that category. The information that is brought up in the article is very easy to understand. There is no contradicting or opposing information. All of the information in this article sounds extremely legitimate and believable, and consistent with the author’s purpose of teaching the reader about the effects of sleep on us and the important role sleep plays part in our lives, as well as how society and societal obligations are detrimental to our sleep.

Representation of Material – This information throughout this article seems very authentic and true, nothing in the article sounds like it is skewing the truth. The author exhibits a deep understanding of sleep in humans and animals. The information was on very common ground. It has a very neutral stance and doesn’t attack anything, but hints that society is causing sleep deprivation.

Writing Style or Tone – This text is directed to anyone who sleeps. It’s an informative essay that teaches about sleep and the effects of sleep has on us, and what happens when we don’t get enough sleep. How it can change our moods, cause depression and even make us susceptible to illness. The author tries to show how important sleep was in the past by presenting excerpts from literature in the past, and how people valued sleeping and dreaming more than they do today. It is meant to be informative. I believe this essay was effective due to the author’s ability to effectively present a lot of information on sleep and still keep it interesting. It makes the article more persuasive because of this.

Circadian rhythms, or our internal clocks determine what time is natural for us to be tired. Humanities circadian rhythms evolved by the 12-hour day and 12-hour night cycle that is present on the equator, where we evolved. Society forces us to go against the internal, natural rhythms. Things like work, school, jet lag, business trips can and do effect our ability to have fulfilling sleep.

The Author’s goal in this article is to convince us that adolescents are not getting as much sleep as they should to be healthy and functional. He gives us many statistics to convince us of this. For example, ” At least one a week, 28% of high school students fall asleep in school, 22% fall asleep doing homework, and 14% arrice late or miss school because they overslept.” It is mentioned in the section “Awareness Gap Between Parents and Teen About Sleep” that, while most parents (9 out of 10) believe that their children are getting sufficient sleep on school nights, 56% of the students themselves think they are not getting sufficient sleep. In the following section it is mentioned how circadian rhythms, or, our internal clocks make adolescents want to go to bed around 11 pm. However, the adolescents have to wake up early for school, making them go against their internal clocks and wake up without the recommended amount of sleep. Dr. Mindell, a director of a graduate program in psychology mentioned, “Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast. Sleep serves not only a restorative function for adolescents’ bodies and brains, but it is also a key time when they process what they’ve learned during the day.” The author also mentions that the caffeine consumptions of the adolescents can attribute to the lack of sleep they get. The author’s style of writing is affective from a persuasive standpoint. The use of statistics makes it seem like a legitimate article, which helps in convincing its readers. I think there are good arguments in this article. I would agree that sleep is an issue regarding the amount of sleep adolescents get, and would even say that adults and college students also don’t sleep as much as they should.

In the chapter ten piece called “A Third of Life”, Paul Martin (PhD) informs readers about the great impact and importance of sleep in living creatures, especially humans. This piece is targeted toward humans that may not be getting enough sleep, or not know that much about the effects and influence sleep has on our mood, outlook, and overall health. He seems to be credible, as it is stated earlier on that he is a PhD that attended Cambridge university, a very prestigious school. The overarching theme in this piece is sleep, and how it effects living organisms.

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