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Video Game Violence

When preparing for my TED Talk I specifically payed attention to the variation in the speed I was speaking at. However, I also made sure to keep in mind my arm positions. As I will explain later on, even though I had thought about keeping good eye contact, I was unsuccessful. Starting off with appropriate preparation. I think that there were definite moments where I owned the content, but other parts where I definitely did not. There was a segment in the middle where I simply forgot where I was going, which is a lack of preparation. The next category is eye contact. This is definitely something I did not do well. I actually realized toward the end of the presentation that I was basically only looking in one direction and tried to look around more. However, one thing I did not realize in the video was how much I look down. I am looking back at the video and thinking that there must be something really interesting on the ground because I keep looking there. The next categor...
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"I see sh*t like that for breakfast"

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With the development of the internet, access to information as exponentially increased. However, this also means an increase to access to violence. This one line from a popular television show on Adult Swim called Rick and Morty, "I see sh*t like that for breakfast," when referring to videos of beheadings illustrates this shift very well. The increase in access to violence in media has led to the desensitization of youth, which causes an increase in violent behavior. Morty illustrates someone from before this shift, the desensitization to violence, has occurred, while Rick can be seen as someone from today's society. Throughout the show, Rick displays violence constantly with no hesitation or guilt. This seemingly shows what our society is moving toward with the current access and constant bombardment of violence is our society. The shift I will be discussing is the desensitization to violence in America's youth and the impact it has. It has been shown th...
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Hieroglyphics Are Back

One example of a paradigm shift is the change to less and less words when communicating. As communication has become easier and the number of people that can be communicated with the number of words people use to communicate have decreased. First, incomplete sentences began becoming common and messages could be conveyed without filler words such as 'the' or 'a' and many more. Then entire phrases began to shorten to a bunch of letters such as ily or hmu. Then, as you can observe now, our society has moved back to hieroglyphics aka emojis. Messages can now be conveyed in a couple of emojis. The most likely reason for this occurring is that as communication becomes easier and quicker, so does our language. Our communications must also speed up to keep up with our technology. Thus, as communications gets faster, our sentences evolve, or devolve depending on how you look at it, into simple pictures that takes barely any time at all to send and understand. Another example...
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Preparation and Composure

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What separates an average talk from a good and great one is the composure and preparedness of the speaker. With both of these attributes a speaker can convey his or her message in an engaging manner and be able to adapt to any audience. A speaker who is so unprepared that he or she clings to dear life onto his or her written speech might not be able to adapt to an audience's question or any other unexpected interference. The ability to adapt to an audience is crucial for a speech to be effective at conveying its message. A good example to illustrate how bad a speech can be if it misses its target audience is Sheldon Cooper's speech on the Big Bang Theory season three episode 18. The audience members are either confused, disgusted, or offended. This is of course an extreme and silly example, but it still captures the essence of a speech that misses its target audience and thus shows the important of being able to adapt to your audience. Another way a speech can be a good ...
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Inside Joke

There is nothing less effective than telling an inside joke to a group of people on the 'outside.' Rhetoricians would say this group is outside the network of interpretation of the speaker. Networks of interpretation are an almost innate concept and used by all ages on an everyday basis. Inside jokes may be the most profound example this concept on a small scale. A group of people interpret certain words or phrases a certain shared way due to a shared experience. An even smaller scale example would be a friend knowing just the right to say to their friend to cheer them up. They wouldn't say the Mets won, if the friend was a Phillies fan, because it is known that within this particular network of interpretation, the Phillies are favored team. Networks of Interpretation can play a role on a larger scale such how different words are interpreted in completely different ways between the northern and southern United States. One major example is the word 'bet.' In the ...
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Our Answer!

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provided by NYTimes This is a North Korean propaganda poster calling people to join in the destruction of the United States. The words displayed in large blue font translates to "Our Answer!". The other characters in the bottom right corner of the poster translate to "Military option," "Pre-emptive strike," and "Sanctions resolution" according to the Telegraph . Also, according to Express , these posters are recently made in response to the escalation between Trump and North Korea. My engaging hook would center around the idea of the complete destruction of the United States. This is exactly what the poster is calling the people of North Korea to help with. Yet, the question is whether this is civic. Having a poster that challenges my, and probably most of my audience members', civicness and discussing the civic nature would be the foundation of my hook. I might lead with a question, can the destruction of your nation which yo...
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Split Decision

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Picture provide by Drew Mackie "I'll Just Do It Tomorrow." Procrastination is a commonly known struggle that nearly everyone faces at some point in their academic career. As a college student, finally free of the parental leash, procrastination may become more frequent. I personally find myself falling victim to the phrase "I'll Just Do It Tomorrow." It is a blessing of a phrase right up until there is no tomorrow. Throughout the five blog posts I will not only share my own personal struggles with procrastination, but uncover the mystery of where it comes from, what types there are, as well as some tips on how to quell the bad habits. This blog would relate to nearly all people, young and old, and will be written in a way that will hopefully inform the audience about their procrastination as well as how to improve. I will most likely adapt my blog to focus more on procrastination in college and ways to improve in a college setting. However, the topics ...
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