Millennials

Mitchell Levin

English 2150

Response 3:

Conservatives and liberals have been in constant dispute over women’s rights of their body for some time now. Liberals believe that a woman has absolute control over her own body. If she chooses to abort the fetus in her womb due to personal or health issues, that decision is available according to the views of liberals. Conservatives on the other hand, who are made up of many religious Angelic Christians, believe that abortion is unacceptable no matter the severity of the health problems of the woman. This demonstrates  how two very similar stories, both having to do with abortion laws, can have such different views. Both New York Times articles: “How the Pro-Life Movement Has Promoted Liberal Values” and “The Flagrant Sexual Hypocrisy of Conservative Men” express different viewpoints of abortion laws and how it affects women’s lives.

Liberals and Conservatives are each political parties that express different political, and social views and how to correct them. Conservatives for instance believe that gay marriage should be illegal as well as abortion and embryonic stem cell research. They also support the right to bear arms, death penalty, and personal responsibility as an individual. On the other hand, liberals believe gay couples should get equal rights like everyone else, abortion should be legal as well as support embryonic stem cell research. They also support restrictions and regulation around the right to bear arms.

There is evident bias however in the New York Times article about conservative viewpoints toward abortion. Abortion is claimed to be forbidden for conservatives, unless it threatens one’s political future according to the following quote from the article. “All life should be cherished and protected, as Mr. DesJarlais’s website insists, unless it’s your girlfriend who’s unexpectedly expecting, in which case you’ve got to cherish and protect your political future instead.” This is undoubtedly biased. These conservative political figures seem to only care about “preserving a child’s life” when it doesn’t directly affect their power as a political figure.

I agree with the main concept of Neil Postman in his essay about news. He explains that televised news can be biased and not share the entire story or perhaps not the most important story. Televised news is still a television program that receives profit. They care more about profit than spreading relevant news. Profit is dependent of entertainment from the people. News channels want people to watch them and so they usually use news stories that would provide the most excitement and entertainment from the people like an explosion or high speed chase for instance. News that is written online or in a newspaper is a lot more in depth because unlike televised news, there is no specific time limit in which interesting information must be stuffed.

What strikes me about the bluefeed, redfeed article is that conservatives and liberals can’t seem to agree upon anything. Every significant dilemma is separated into two sides: conservatives and liberals, whom always express different views on issues. Also, the article is very accessible in that both the conservative and liberal viewpoints are organized side by side and next to the common issue. Also, it was surprising witnessing how liberals would prefer the citizens pay more taxes because it seemed that liberals compared to conservatives were more moral and rational.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/opinion/abortion-roe-wade-liberals.html

 

Response 2:

The two articles, both have in common, the misleading idea that our entire generation is filled with indolent and under-achieving youth. Although the advancements in technology have created a sort of social barrier, it fails to provide the facts stating that teens these days are lazy or unintelligent. However, I am not unaware of the narcissism born in many millennial’s minds after the creation of cellular phones, and social media. Social media is a corruptive networking system that makes users addicted to increasing or maintaining their social status. Due to this fact, many people are constant users of multiple social media platforms, texting friends, or becoming friends, and posting pictures of the food we eat every single day. In effect, of building up our social status, many people can acquire a narcissistic trait, becoming obsessive with their own looks, clothes, pictures, and profile, along with a sense of entitlement.

However, many people can be reading this thinking, “What’s so wrong about being somewhat self-involved or concerned with our own wellbeing? Well according to Time magazine: “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation”, “Though they’re cocky about their place in the world, millennials are also stunted, having prolonged a life stage between teenager and adult that this magazine once called twixters and will now use once again in an attempt to get that term to catch on.” This quote from the passage demonstrates how these newly acquired traits from our Social Media has placed us in a stage of teenagehood and lost the factor that makes us all become adults.

Being that social media is an enormous part of many people’s lives, people can be influenced by others along with being peer pressured for almost their entire lives. Social media allows people to have unlimited contact and connection. Although we all go our separate ways, we still know many things about the life of social media users. According to Time magazine: “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation”, ‘”Never before in history have people been able to grow up and reach age 23 so dominated by peers. To develop intellectually you’ve got to relate to older people, older things: 17-year-olds never grow up if they’re just hanging around other 17-year-olds.”’ Associating with elders can be a learning experience about events from their lives and how to act and present oneself in the grownup world. Being in constant contact with people your own age may not be helpful in figuring out where we belong in the world, people who have already gone through the process are a good resource that this generation may not use to full extent due to the progress of social media.

Besides this generation’s socialization problems, we’re also a generation of big spenders. I myself can relate to this. Before I took on the responsibility of having a job, I would carelessly ask my parents for money with ease whenever I needed. I didn’t realize how hard they really worked to make that money before I got a job myself. Even with work, it’s hard not spending on things I desire such as food and clothes, which is what many people struggle with nowadays. According to Buzzfeed News: “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation”, “Financially speaking, most of us lag far behind where our parents were when they were our age. We have far less saved far less equity, far less stability, and far, far more student debt.” This portrays the lack of responsibility and maturity in millennials.

Many millennials think of social media as a means to gain satisfaction from other social media users. Many millennials post almost every day, whether it be their food, clothes, school work, or job. People simply do it to share their lives with others to gain a sort of approval from others, to prove that our lives are significant. This is evident by the following quote from Buzzfeed News: “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation”, “Posting on social media, after all, is a means of narrativizing our own lives: What we’re telling ourselves our lives are like. And when we don’t feel the satisfaction that we’ve been told we should receive from a good job that’s ‘fulfilling,’ balanced with a personal life that’s equally so, the best way to convince yourself you’re feeling it is to illustrate it for others.”

The two articles from Time magazine and Buzzfeed both explain the detrimental effects of social media toward many millennials that affect people’s confidence, communication skills, and maturity. I personally agree with the negatives that the two articles portray. All the time I witness how important social media is to millennials, including myself. People are on it at all times in the day, and post almost everything they do. I myself can be classified as a millennial. If an interesting moment comes up in my life, I would definitely take the liberty of posting it on snapchat. There’s nothing wrong with being a millennial, we just have to drop that phone every once in a while and view what’s going on in real life.