Prone to Pathos

First I’d like to take a bit of a closer look at the people on facebook. Who are they? Why are they taking part in it? Do they post a lot? What and why do they post so much or so little? Well obviously people join so that they may connect with family and friends to communicate keep in touch, and share stories and feelings with others they hold dear. In other words, they wish to convey their emotions with others. We may come to the conclusion that a person who does a lot of posting, desires to be heard. We may also assume that a person who decides to share more than what the average person deems to be necessary, that they desire a closeness with different people in their life. People who are content with who they are as a person in real/everyday life do not necessarily feel the need to run to a computer and share their feelings with everyone online. Someone who desires people to be close with must share details with a computer and cannot do it face to face with fellow humans.

                So, I don’t see these people as being prone to arguments of pathos. No. I see them as poor souls craving to be heard, or desiring to be close to people because they may or may not be able to do it face to face with the other humans around them. Yes they are “prone to pathos”, but that is in the sense that they are craving emotional contact, to fill the void that they are unable to fill face to face as it should be done.

Have you ever strapped bread to your head?

A good friend of mine posted this picture to my facebook page. I laughed uncontrollably because of the preposterousness of this picture and why anyone would want to do this, or how anyone would even think this would do anything to help them get want they want! I laugh every time I see it now! My friend I’m sure meant it as a joke; just to send me something funny and make me laugh to brighten my day a bit. But that sort of got me thinking, why would someone strap bread to their head?  It would indeed be wrong to say that all of the protestors strapped bread to their heads just by seeing this one man feel the need to do it. That I suppose is what we would call a hasty generalization… believing that all the protestors did it because someone took a picture of one man doing it.

This could be just one of those pictures that is taken out of context and a new caption is tacked onto it to just make people laugh. It is not uncommon, which is why I know it is a possibility of it being likely. But then again it could be something cultural. Maybe strapping bread to your head in the streets of Eqypt, does really say something!  Maybe by strapping it to your head you are saying “Give me liberty or Give me death!” I doubt it, but I can also say I know next to nothing about modern Egyptian culture…

Klugman and the Knife

This is a clip from the movie 12 Angry Men. It is part of the scene in which the jurors are arguing over the alleged knife wound and how it could possibly have been made by the switch blade. Earlier in the film we as the audience learn that Juror #5, was brought up in the same sort of bad neighborhood as the boy who is being tried for murdering his father. So when he says he knows how to use a switch blade, and has experience seeing/watching knife fights, we are assured through ethos that he knows what he is talking about.

In this scene, juror #5, as portrayed by Jack Klugman, is using logos to explain how the accused kid could not have been the one who stabbed is father. He begins by explain the logic in how the knife was made. He demonstrates that the knife was made for and easy open and an upward thrust stab as opposed to switching hands and using it for a downward stab. He then has everyone remember that the boy was experienced with switch knives because of where he lives. Then Juror #5 asks the rhetorical question of: if the kid knew the right way to use the knife, then logically speaking, why would he use it the wrong way? He ends by stating that if the kid was experienced with a switch blade, then he would not have wasted time in switching hands just to use to the wrong way.  

I am My Own Person

In looking at my info sphere, now that I am done compiling all of the websites that I use on a fairly regular basis, I am able to see how they have influence my identity. For example, the types of sites I visit for my entertainment are, I am sure, different as they pertain to each individual person. For me they show that I enjoy a wide spread of entertainment, from stand up to drama. I do not mean however, that it accurately portrays me. Not at all! The only way it could do that was if we were attached, meaning it is my proverbial “third arm” or I cannot go without the internet for more than 2 hrs. I assure u I am completely capable of going without the internet, my cell phone, my iPod, and other such items of the technological nature.

The Internet for me is mainly for my gain. I use it to expound on different ideas or different thoughts that interest me or have sparked some sort of desire to learn or know something. The internet is there to serve me and my personal and or public needs. Because I have found certain sites easier to use than others, of course one could say that it is shaping me to think that way, especially with political websites. It is very hard if not impossible to find a political website without a slant in favor of one side or another. I see myself as my own person. It is hard for anyone or anything to sway me on a way of thinking, or on a certain political view. I think about matters that I find to be important and I do not make amateur decisions on them. In other words I try to be mainly my own person and the Internet doesn’t really influence who I am… I am what I am and I use the internet to help me continue being who I am.  

The way we look online should mean a lot to us!

I remember when I first heard about facebook. I told myself it was just another one of those fads. That I shouldn’t get involved in it that if I asked my mom if I could have one that she would say no. It was one of those “myspace” things that is twisted by adults who do not want their children to put any of their information on line. But It took off. Rather than trying to pretend that it wasn’t the way of the future I joined in.

I made a facebook page all about me. I wanted people who didn’t know me to be able to look at my facebook and see who I was, what my interests were, and what I stood for. In a sense I was trying to make a credible page that would portray me as well as I could give people my credentials in person. I think that is what everyone strives to do. They want to make a page that is them. Then with everything they say, everything they like, and everything they do on it is viewed by the rest of the world and it is judged!

Credibility online is really big no a days, considering a lot more of our lives has to do with the Internet. If we do not check up on ourselves and how we look on line to others then people could end up assuming the worst! Even prospective employers use the internet to check up on their future/prospective clients to check their credibility. If they find pictures of u drinking under aged or something else along those lines, it could mean the difference between getting a job and not getting a job. The way we look online should mean a lot to us.