Eyes Without A Face

There are a lot of stereotypes associated with teenagers in high school: the bullies who throw freshmen in trash cans, the cheerleaders who torment the socially stunted. When we think about it, the majority of these stereotypes are negative. We’re expected to be hormone-driven and unable to stand up to peer pressure. And while these stereotypes of high-school students are, in most cases, very much fact, I think that the way we communicate, positively or negatively, has changed drastically since as recently as the nineties.

MySpace was invented, and with it, insulting photo comments became routine and, worse than that, we gave pre-teens an outlet for their negative emotions. Now a days, teenagers and adult experience Facebook, a less subtle version of MySpace because it allows us to see every conversation between our peers. We have groups dedicated to the hatred of certain people, TV shows, religions. We may not see it as confrontation because we type a sentence on our cell phones, but us as teenagers need to realize that the hurtfullness of a word doesn’t come from the way it’s said, but the fact that it was said at all. Cyber-bullying is a controversial topic because in cyberspace, it is sometimes hard to determine what is bullying: i.e., there’s no way to link a verbal attack to a physical one, and some more subtle online attacks are hard to interpret as bullying.

I know we have many epidemics in our world right now, but I honestly believe that cyber-stalking is a HUGE epidemic. No, the internet is not always private, regardless of who you add as your friend, and who you deny. But we can take proactive steps to deter these perverts who stalk innocent teenagers. I witnessed this one man cyber-stalk one of my friends, something that she thought was harmless and not worth reporting. It became a joke between us and our friends: “Guess what he said today?” This man would literally comment all of her photos, “like” every status update, and AIM her every minute of every day. While it didn’t affect my friend, there are young girls out there who worry every night about these creeps who have made cyber-stalking their obsession. Statistically, 1 in 20 adults will be stalked in their lifetime; and the sad truth is, when the stalker is hidden behind a computer screen, he might never be stopped.

Final Exam

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

When my classmates and I were first told that we would be blogging on topics we choose as opposed to writing monotonous weekly essays, there was a completely different vibe in the classroom. We realized that this English class was progressive, embracive, and imaginative. As I sat in a classroom with thirty of my peers, I imagined us all breaking free of the shell that analyzing poetry and conjugating tenses kept us trapped in: I saw our indivisuality coming through in our blogs. In those moments, I realized what I wanted to blog about: the people surrounding me, who inspired me without my even realizing it. We teenagers are the ultimate topic, because no two of us are alike, yet we all suffer through the stress of school and relationships, the peer pressure that thrives in social settings, and the drama of friendship. I have never had to Google for support on my blogs, with the exception of statisctics because I am, essentially, writing about myself and the people I spend every day with. All the information I need to create a strong blog post is doodling on the desk in front of me, walking past me on the sidewalk at lunch, succumbing to the lure of drinking and drugs at the party I am at. I looked at writing about teenagers as a single, limitless topic that I could approach from different angles with every post. I don’t think you need to travel a hundred miles or open that fiction novel to draw inspiration: the strongest opinions can be inspired from the goth listening to german heavy metal in the corner, or the overcompensating jock cracking jokes with his teammates. Teenagers as a whole are a in a category of our own; thankfully, this category inspires a steady stream of blog posts.

2. Choose one of your posts. (Your favorite? Your least favorite? The one that surprises you the most when you reread it? Any one you want to pick.) Analyze it in detail, with quotes etc.

In December, I wrote a blog post that was very close to my heart; I called it “What is Sacred, and What is Sin” and it focused on the fact that while our society is progressive in many ways, we’ve yet to translate the basic human needs for equality and understanding into a law that would force the government to embrace those of us who are in love, regardless of who they are in love with. I started the post by claiming “California is seen as the liberal state, the hippy state that supports legal marijuana, random tree-sitters, and most of all, the gays” because I wanted to portray California as an accepting and undiscriminatory state. But then I focused in on the fact that we as a state regressed, and rescinded our decision to allow the gays to marry. This is my favorite blog post of the year, not because it is in support of the gays, but because when I re-read it, it does surprise me. I still feel as strongly, but there is something empowering about going on the internet and realizing that your voice is out there, being heard. And I don’t regret any of it. I targeted the older generation whose views have caused the gays’ freedom to be stifled; I chose to reveal my optimistic side by reinforcing the idea that times do change, and maybe one day they will change in favor of the gays: “But with each generation, the perception of what is ethically sound has been reconstructed to fit the needs of the individual”. I think that love is in the eye of the beholder, and that a lot of the reason gays have been universally unaccepted is because of a lack of understanding; we don’t know what it’s like to have these feelings, to live this alternative lifestyle. So how can we support it? It’s simple: we need to adopt the frame of mind that it IS our fight, it IS our issue. This is an excerpt from a quote I used: “They came for the homosexuals and I said nothing, because I wasn’t a homosexual…Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Maybe my optimism is clouding my vision of reality, but I do strongly believe that one day, all races will be accepted, all shapes and sizes will be seen as beautiful, and all orientations will be embraced.

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

I have always loved English class; it stems from a need to construct something on my own, and put my name to an idea I’ve commited to paper. However, the past couple of years have been soul crushing. English became routine, memorization and formation; essays were no longer subjective, but were either right or wrong, A or B depending on sentence fragments and correct use of vocabulary. Blogging has reinforced my love for English class, especially the fact that we students have the freedom to blog about what matters to us, not what matters to Shakespeare. I think that as we transition from children to adults, the need to express our indivisuality is very important. For me, personally, being able to write about matters that I feel strongly about has helped me become more in touch with myself, my morals and my ethics. Having this blog made me realize that what makes a paper wonderful isn’t the number or errors it has, but how strong your voice comes through in the writing. I don’t feel stifled anymore; I don’t feel like my paper will be seen by myself and my teacher alone – having it on the internet, connected to other students, forces me to really believe in what I’m saying, and to not bullshit my ideas for a better grade. I write “blog post” in my planner, accompanied with a smiley face, as opposed to last year, when I would write “essay” and adorn it with a sad face, possibly a tear coming from the emoticon. I think that a blog not only saves paper, ink, and other materials, but it creates of web of interaction where people as young as fifteen and sixteen can connect to their peers on a whole different level. Analyzing “Macbeth” and having my subjective essay red-penned and degraded? No thank you. Writing freely about political issues, social interaction and teenage dilemmas? Yes, please.

Writing Groups

One of the main things I hope to get out of working with peers is the feedback; it’s one thing when you and your teacher are the only ones with the red pen in concern to your writing, but if you have someone with similar opinions or a knack for finding gramatical errors, your final draft will be more powerful. I also hope to develop a stronger side to every point I’m arguing by paying attention to the points/counter-points of the people in my group.

I think I could contribute a lot to my group when it comes to vocabulary and grammar; also, sentence formation. I could also contribute by sharing my ideas on their blogs, ie if they’re writing on politics I could share my views and hopefully help them form a stronger argument. I think I would be a good asset to a group where their writing means something, and has a strong point of view. If I can’t convince them of my opinions, I could at least help reinforce their own by argument.

I think that it is more important to work with your friends than with people who write similarly to you. Yes, writers can collaborate better with somebody who understands their writing skills, but I firmly believe that if you are in a group of strangers, your ideas will be more supressed and you would be less willing to ask for help. Having a comfortable environment that revolves around people who can freely speak their minds around you can really help with writer’s block.

Lastly, I would be very loose on the guidelines I suggest for the group. I would, of course, banish negative comments, but I think that stifling critisism is as bad as stifling freedom of writing. How are we going to evolve as writers if we don’t have somebody standing over our shoulder, saying that this point is meaningless or that sentence is distracting. I would also make it mandatory for people to contribute: it might not be useful to that indivisual, but it could be useful to somebody else in the writing group.

TTYL, 2009

We thought we had entered an entirely new era when the radio was invented; our entire way of life, from communication to technology, evolved drastically with the invention of the computer; and now, according to USA Today, approximately 75% of all teenagers around the age of 17 have a cell phone. The way we live today, where we text our parents asking if dinner is ready or flip through our Ipods to make situations less awkward has created a society where “Google” is a verb and courting has transferred from flowers and chocolates to insinuating texts and web-cam dates. We have entered 2010, and as we enter this decade, we are ambushed by new technologies that are tempting us into a socially stunted personality and unproductive lifestyle.

I believe that teenagers these days are completely desensitized to the amazement of technology. 100 years ago, if someone had pulled out an Itouch and started playing with one of their apps, people would be astonished. Now, an Ipod, Iphone, or Itouch have almost become a basic. While I believe these new inventions will positively influence our unemployment rate and new technology will definitely increase the US’s intimidation factor, I have to wonder if we’re trading in our potential social capabilities for comfort.

Teenagers are often associated with their technology: you can tell if someone is in a sappy mood, or ready for a party just by inquiring what song they are listening to; we’ve traded in laughs for LOL’s; the only farming we do is on Facebook’s Farmville; and when we are away from these technologies, we find ourselves bored. While I am definitely a willing victim of this new technological frontier, I think that the negative side effects are ones that we should learn from.

Instead of going outside for a bike ride, more often than not teenagers would rather stay inside on YouTube or watch MTV. Are we mature enough to understand the balance we need to keep between our technologies and our physical activities? We are a culture possessed by touch screens. Also, we simply need to learn to deal with awkward situations, instead of reaching into our pocket to draft a text that may have been pointless; we need to learn how to be comfortable alone with ourselves, without a technology to distract us from our thoughts. I think the future holds many possibilities, but not every possibility is beneficial to our society.