In my everyday life, I go to school, ride the subway, and work at my job. At all of these three places, I see hundreds of people in a day and have to learn to practice crap detection. It starts with someone on the subway offering me food or asking me to answer a question for them. I know the dangers of people in NYC and what can happen to young girls, so I learn to ignore them and stay away. Furthermore, at school and my job I come in contact with people who lie or exaggerate the truth and have to use my own knowledge to find out what’s real and what’s not.
A new tool that Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz offered me is the following questions to analyze my field research. They ask a series of questions that involve the accuracy of my claim, my part in my research, and properly thanking people for their help in my research. I especially took knowledge away from the last point because I never thought of verifying words people told me about a claim I’m asking about or thanking them in a mannerly, professional way.
A past rule I’ve been taught about writing that is unhelpful is to always start with an introduction and then complete the body and conclusion. I find it hard to make an introduction without completing the body of the writing piece first because I don’t know what all my claims are yet. It is quite hard to develop an overall theme/message without properly explaining each of my claims.
Social media does more harm than good for young children and teens minds by giving them a false perception of how they are supposed to look, feel, and act. As a social media user myself, I feel the negative effects social media has on me a few times a week. Social media makes people think there is a certain way to live your life and if you don’t look like the latest celebrity in the news, you are doing something wrong.
I asked two people for their opinion on how social media affects their mental health and how they feel when not using it. The first girl claimed that she often compares her body to that of media influencers and then will feel down for the rest of the day. When she isn’t using social media, she feels more at peace. The second girl I asked said that social media makes her feel like her life is boring and she isn’t having as much fun as celebrities. When she isn’t on social media, she sees how great her life is and all the amazing opportunities in front of her.
I believe social media does more harm than good by using the opinions of two young girls who avidly use social media. Although social media allows us to stay in contact with friends, learn new skills, and explore trends, the harmful effects on our mental health outweigh the good.