Reflection...

When I started out this semester I believed that it was going to be a breeze. I have been writing stories and many different kinds of blogs and poetry since I was a kid. This class has pushed me towards being a better writer as well as giving me the courage to post on a website. This has taught me that review and reflecting are a necessary part of creating a great piece of writing. This class has taught me that I have to be open to other ideas. I have to be open to different teaching styles as well.

Editing my writing has always been the most difficult part of my writing. I hate criticism even if it makes me a better writer. When I receive it I always take it to heart and what usually ends up happening is after I get it I usually stop writing. I am a perfectionist so when I do something wrong I feel like kicking myself over it. This class has taught me that I need to take it in stride and try and improve my writing when I receive it.

When people give me ideas for what I should write about I usually will take it the exact opposite way of what I think that they meant by it. When I write normally it is only for me. Writing with a script of what I am supposed to do has never been my style. I write what I want to write and how I want to do it and usually that is all that I will do. I greatly dislike when people tell me what I can write. This semester I had to do just one writing that I did not want to do and that was the What’s Wrong with Cinderella paper. That one held absolutely no interest for me which was probably why that was my worst paper this semester. When I don’t want to do something it is impossible for me to do a good job with it. This semester I learned that I have to have some diversity in my writing in order to move forward.

Through out my entire time in high school I was praised for my writing especially from my favorite English teacher Mr. McMeel. He pushed me to use every ounce of emotion inside of me to make me a better writer. At one point in time I actually managed to scare him I think with something that I wrote. It was very dark but even he had said that it was very well written. In all four years of high school I usually had the same response to my writing after my teachers read it so adapting to a different teacher was difficult. After I got the first grade back on my paper I was upset because I had every thought in my mind that I was going to be getting a good grade on it. It was exactly how I wrote in high school with my own personal experiences.

This semester has taught me many different things that I am thankful for. I know that a lot of what I learned will stay with me. This has improved my writing and it makes me happy to know that I have progressed this semester.

Sexting

Cell phones are a great tool if they are used correctly. Many people think that phones are the way to get away with things that you never thought you would. As a belief that you can get away with anything, these days we have a lot of disturbing images being sent over cell phones. People in these times believe that all of the material that they send is a secret. All texts can be traced back to not only the sender but the direct person and location that it came from. Sexting is a major issue and in order to stop this we need to understand a few different consequences to these actions.

Texting is a wonderful tool, but the issue is Sexting. Sexing is the exchange of sexually themed messages and pictures between mobile devices. Sexting has been an issue that has been all over the news. Three years ago, nineteen year old Vanessa Hudgens was caught sending nude photographs by cell phone to her boyfriend Zac Efron. There was a major issue with this as well as the photos that are still all over the internet. Not only does this serve as a privacy issue, but it is also a moral issue. If people feel comfortable enough to reveal themselves as they do on their cell phones, what will happen with other things in their lives? Will they just allow themselves to be objectified?

The way that we can shy people away from doing this is by putting more harsh consequences in place for the people that get caught committing this crime. According to Guardian.co.uk, “American teenagers are increasingly facing prosecution as sex offenders as a result of the rapidly spreading practice of sending explicit photos of themselves by mobile phones.” There is not only punishment for the people who take the pictures; also the people that receive the photos face prosecution as well. “In the latest case, three teenage girls in Greensburg Pennsylvania who sent nude self portraits and the three male classmates who received the images have all been served with child pornography charges. The girls have been charged with manufacturing and disseminating child pornography while the boys are accused of possessing it.” These are not charges that go away. These charges stay on your record. There are many jobs that will not hire people with these charges. Not only that, but take this as a personal and moral defeat. When these people grow up, these issues will haunt them for the rest of their lives. That isn’t something that most people can consciously handle.

Another reason that this is a problem is that it promotes the usage of cyber relationships. According to the Social Behavior& Personality: An International Journal; One of the reasons that people get into these kind of relationships is because not only does it eliminate most chances of a physical relationship there for also eliminating the thought of being let down or emotionally hurt. That offers the freedom in relationships as well. These relationships are not a replacement for the human contact though which causes a major issue. People need the human contact in order to function. That is why these people are resorting to sexting these pictures to each other. This isn’t something to be laughed off. This is serious issue that without being brought to the public attention will cause further problems in the minds of our future generations. Imagine how you would feel to look at your child up in court because you allowed them to have a cell phone.

Issues are also arising with the fact that most children by or even before the age of 12 already possess a cell phone. Children at that age do not possess the knowledge or comprehension to understand the consequences of taking that action of taking a photograph of themselves like that.

Let’s look at the percentages of people that have openly admitted to taking part in Sexting. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy “Teens and young adults are conflicted about sending/posting sexually suggestive content- they know that it is potentially dangerous, yet many do it anyway. 39% of teens and 59% of young adults have sent or posted sexually suggestive emails or text messages, and 20% of teens and 33% of young adults have sent/posted nude or semi-nude images of themselves.” Those numbers are almost too high for the demographic that they are studying. Seeing these results is almost sickening. Understanding that the number of people that took part in this survey was few compared to the owners of cell phones that are in our world. If this number was studied not only through just under 2000 people and was spread across every cell phone user in the world these numbers would definitely have an increase.

This is a difficult issue to deal with. According to Guardian.co.uk, “Prosecutors are facing increasing dilemmas because case law has not kept up with the impact of digital media on teenage behavior.” Not as many laws have been set in place for the issues of Sexting as of yet. In order to stop this growing epidemic we need to create harsher laws to try to shy people away from trying this behavior. Thinking back to the early 2000’s when this type of technology was first coming out there was a song put out by N’sync called Digital Get Down.

I lose my mind just when you're speaking/I see you on the screen I get to freaking'/So get down babe/And I'll get down for you..(I'll get down for you)/I get so excited when I'm watching' girl/I can't wait to see you touch your body girl/It's just me and You,/So we can do what we gotta do yea.

This was in the early 2000’s before this technology was even widely available. This music was exposed to kids. Thinking back I am able to recall that at the age of 10 I was dancing around singing this song. Older teens may have taken this a different way thinking that this behavior as appropriate.

According to Cincinnati News, Two Mason teenagers charged in Sexting case, they found nude photographs on a cell phone. The Warren County prosecutor’s office charged the two juveniles in contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first degree misdemeanor. The children whose pictures were found were of a fifteen year old student on another student’s cell phone. “The way that the statue reads, these teenagers could be charged and labeled as sex offenders. I do not believe that these teenagers are felons or sex offenders, but these are illegal and dangerous actions that must be stopped.”

In order to get rid of this issue, everyone needs to be on board with punishing those who break the laws and trying to teach the cell phone users before it even gets to this point. People being prosecuted and images ruined of model students isn’t anything that any of us would like to see. This isn’t something that we would want to see our kids doing when they get older. We need to start setting an example for our peers and for our future. This isn’t something that we can shove off as kids being kids. This issue continues to grow and there needs to be something in place to stop this from occurring. Please practice safe texting.

Journal Four - Designer Babies

This is one topic that I am sort of in the dark on. I am not too into the idea of picking how my kids look or anything like that. I want them to be healthy. That is all that I really care about when it comes to my kids in the future. They can be little ginger kids with tons of freckles and as long as they are mine and they are healthy that is all I care about.

People that are that determined to have that kind of control over how their children turn out need help. They need to understand that this is supposed to be a beautiful, natural thing. The only exception that I am open to is if a woman is infertile and they have to do a procedure in order to get pregnant. I understand that. People want to be able to be parents and if there is no natural way to do that then medically they should be able to.

I want people to stop trying to change the natural. I want people to see and love the world around them for what it is and stop trying to change it. Scientists need to stop trying to mess with the natural order of things in this world. They need to back off and let nature take its course and worry more about how to stop diseases like cancer. They need to focus on what is important, rather than the cosmetic. If all the scientists in the world focused more on cancer and all other diseases rather than what they can do to change the natural order of things, there would be no more diseases and dying for no reason.