Month: February 2019

In the modern day, especially in our country, the media and ideologies of the people are highly polarized. Fake news runs amuck all over the internet in order to slander and belittle different views on issues. The country has not been this polarized in many years, even decades. Some say the last time the divide was this huge in the country was when the issue of slavery was being dealt with in the Civil War. To add to he polarization, Democrat Senator of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren has announces her candidacy of the next presidential election in 2020.  Elizabeth Warren is a complete polar opposite to Donald Trump, she is an extremely liberal left wing Democrat who opposes nearly all of Trump’s rhetoric and ideology. Conservatives get their news from conservative minded biased news media outlets, as well as, liberals who consume left wing biased news media. Breitbart and FOX News are famous for being biased to the right wing and CNN along with The New York Times are famous for being left wing. An article by CNN on Warren’s newly established campaign called “Elizabeth Warren kicks off presidential bid with challenge to super wealthy — and other Democrats”, shows Warren in a positive light. The article describes Warren’s presidential bid in a positive aspect without slandering her and it highlights a detail of how a campaign manager for Donald Trump congratulated her on her bid, however, also slandered her saying that voters would never vote for her and her socialism and dishonesty. This detail was highlighted by CNN to show the Republican party in a malignant way to belittle them. While it is despicable the way the campaign was slandered by the manager, that single story does not speak for all. In a Breitbart article regarding the same current events on Warren’s bid for presidency entitled “Trump Campaign Knocks ‘Fraud’ Elizabeth Warren Upon 2020 Announcement”, Elizabeth Warren is shown in a negative light due to the Republican bias of the news media outlet. The article focuses heavily on an incident involving Warren in which she tries to make the claim that she is a part Native American according to DNA test. It said how she impersonated and disrespected the American Indians in her career to whom she apologized. The entire article paints her in a negative image. The bias is so obvious it is as simple as looking at the images included in each one. In the CNN liberally biased article, Warren is portrayed in a humble way showing her as a wholesome candidate, whereas in the conservatively based article by Breitbart, Warren is show screaming and unstable as well as a video playing highlighting her incident with the Cherokee. As with the cartoon of Gladstone, the truth is seen today as the bias is so evident in each news outlet it’s shocking. The Red Feed Blue Feed project does an amazing job highlighting the abundant bias in the news media. It shows the same stories in real time from different outlets with completely different takes on them. People can literally see the news as they want to through a red or blue lens. Republicans highlight their values in the news and Liberals highlight their values and the same story is often told very differently. Postman’s work clearly shows the idea of reporting the news on TV and putting a bias onto it simply the way the anchors speak about it with their attitudes, they can impose a bias onto the news.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/09/politics/elizabeth-warren-campaign-kickoff-massachusetts/index.html

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/09/trump-campaign-knocks-fraud-elizabeth-warren-upon-2020-announcement/

I believe each generation of people has its own flaws as well as its own merits. Each generation has its advantages and disadvantages compared to those before and after. Generally, when I hear millennials I have mixed response, I think both positively and negatively. The negative that instantly comes up is how millennials are babies in way. They are much softer than previous generations have been and have been coddled way too much. According to a TIME article by Joel Stein, “Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% believe they should be promoted every two years, regardless of performance,”(Stein). With everyone so worried about hurting one another’s feelings and parents/schools giving everyone participation trophies, having no one feel left out, millennials have grown to be narcissistic (from all the unnecessary praise) and entitled. Everyone believes everyone owes them everything and believes they are special. Millennials also have good qualities as well. Due to the competitive nature they grew up in, with technology up and developing fast, Millennials have had to excel at school and extra-curricular activity and strive for the best. According to BuzzFeed, “I didn’t do internships in high school or in college, because they weren’t yet a standardized component of either experience. I took piano lessons for fun, not for my future. I didn’t have an SAT prep class. I took the one AP class available to me, and applied to colleges (on paper, by hand!) based on brochures and short write-ups in a book of ‘Best Colleges,'”(Petersen). While technology can be seen as a good thing, millennials use technology to the point of abuse. Constantly on their phones answering texts, emails, and on variety of multiple social media platforms all at once, millennials lose track of the real world. According to TIME, “Millennials have come of age in the era of the quantified self, recording their daily steps on FitBit, their whereabouts every hour of every day on PlaceMe and their genetic data on 23 and Me. They have less civic engagement and lower political participation than any previous group,”(Stein). It seems as though they are more focused on their screens than the world around them and even the people near them. It is such a pet peeve of mine is when I am out with friends and they are stuck to their phones instead of enjoying a meal or simply having an intellectual conversation. Technology has its setbacks. Millennials are notorious procrastinators, constantly scrolling rather than completing the tasks at hand. According to BuzzFeed, “I’d put something on my weekly to-do list, and it’d roll over, one week to the next, haunting me for months,”(Petersen). Millennials cannot seem to grow up and handle their business in a professional adult manner. Personally, I was born on the edge of the New Generation Z and the Millennial Generation. I identify more with the new generation as it does not have all these stereotypes. While I do procrastinate I enjoy speaking with friends and going off of the grid and taking breaks from technology and social media. If I was a millennial I would be unique in that way. When I sit down to eat my meals I will turn on a show or something to watch if I am alone, however, if I am with someone or a group of friends I will put my phone down. If my friends ignore me or I see that everyone is in their screens and devices I will ask everyone to put their phones in the middle. I always say how you can scroll at home or on your own time, while we are out let us talk to each other and share our thoughts as intellectual beings and as peers. I love music, however, I am not the kind of person that will not keep their earphones in no matter how cool the AirPods are. I do not like to constantly listen to music, even if I am alone. I would rather sit in silence, or take in the sounds of the city around me and get lost in my thoughts. On the train, I pay attention to those around me I do not enjoy blasting loud music into my ears. When driving I enjoy music when I am alone or even podcasts because I find them to be very enlightening. When people are in the car with me we would play music but I would much rather keep it at a lower volume and have a real conversation rather than sit in silence, I envy the older generation for living life in the real world rather than trapped in a screen.

Petersen, Anne Helen. “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation.” BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed News, 31 Jan. 2019, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work.

Stein, Joel Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation.” Time, Time, 20 May 2013, time.com/247/millennials-the-me-me-me-generation/.