Homework 11 Cultural Assignment 2

One artifact that I think represents the American culture is a cell phone.  Americans are constantly on their phones, whether it’s making phone calls, texting, downloading a new app, or taking a picture,  we cannot put our phones down.  How many people do know that don’t have a cell phone?  Probably not many, most Americans have some type of cell phone.   We strive to have the newest device, the most memory, and the best picture any phone has to offer.

I think that a cell phone represents American culture in many ways.  One being that we are a very technologically based nation and we want to have the best that we can get.  Cell phones are just one way of showing our urge to have the best we can possibly get.  When the most up to date device is released millions of people rush to buy it, we have to have it! It’s like a game, if you don’t have the latest phone you aren’t as “in the times” as everyone else is.

Another way I think cell phones show American culture is by the way we use them to talk to each other.  Today we have many forms of communication like, phone calls, texting, email, skype, and even the almost obsolete mail.  Americans stay in touch with one another by use of our cell phones mostly, people are sending thousands of text messages in months and making numerous phone calls.

 

My thoughts lay printed on sheets of paper, Stored in the drawer of my  mind. They are organized, neat, Nothing out of place.
They can’t be touched by outside strangers, Filled with dangers and cruel  intentions. I’m the only one with the key, To this infinite drawer with  ideas.
-Aliss Sanders

This poem shows my individuality because it’s about having dreams and not letting anyone or anything stand in your way and you’re the only person who can pursue these dreams.  To me this poems means a lot because I can relate about following my dreams and not letting obstacles get in my way and continuing to chase my dreams.

 

 

Homework 10

Individuality and social interaction are two things that are very important to our country.  We have our own way of doing things and our own way of being ourselves and expressing it.  Our nation values these freedoms greatly.

A social interaction that I witness that is unique to American culture is baseball.  America is the only country that shows complete interest in this activity.  Going to the Pittsburgh Pirates games and seeing how involved the fans get and how serious they take the sport makes it unique to our culture.  People buy season tickets, have all kinds of Pirates attire, fans wait for hours in the parking lots before the games even start; this is serious dedication! Other nations don’t show as much support for baseball as Americans do. To us baseball is very important because it is a way of relaxing and having fun.

My group of friends and I are always making up new words that mean something, or using different words that mean something else.  This is unique to our group because we have developed our own language in a way.  To other cultures this may seem strange or different, but to us it is perfectly normal and we have fun doing it.

A way of showing individuality is being your own person and doing what makes you happy and not others.  My aunt has been dating her boyfriend for over ten years, they also have a child together.  They have been pressured from her side of the family and his side of the family to get married and make it official, but to them it doesn’t really matter if they are married, as long as they are together! To me this is showing extreme individuality because everyone around them is telling them to do something but they are resisting to please themselves not anyone else.

 

Homework 9

1. Three things that Americans think it is rude to talk about are personal life, income, and privacy or asking very personal questions.  I think that Americans think it’s rude to talk about personal life because it is their own lives and their business.  Americans think it’s rude to talk about income because it brings on competiveness if one person makes more than the other.  Also, it could hurt a person’s feelings to talk about how much money they make.  Asking personal questions or talking about private things is rude because people don’t always want to talk about private subjects or get asked questions about it either.

 

2.  In Thailand, older grandparents are expected to move in with children or grandchildren, the children will then take turns caring for the elderly. Living in the same house adds moral support between each generation; the family learns to depend on each other.  In America, children will hire attendants to care for their elderly instead of caring for them themselves.  Unlike in Thailand, Americans learn to be independent from one another, also families aren’t as close as in the Thai culture.

 

3. My parents stressed to me since I was in ninth grade that I needed to get a job to help pay for things and save for college.  I have had a job since I was fourteen; my brother also had a job to pay for things he wanted as well.  In Thailand children from lower class income families are forced to work to help the household, parents of children from middle or upper class families did not encourage kids to work or help out.  I think that parents from Thailand would find it strange that my parents wanted my brother and I to get jobs to aid in expenses.

Homework 8

1. I think that an international student visiting IUP would find that people aren't really as friendly and nice as they are in the movies. In the movies people are made to be approachable and caring. In real life if you just walk up to somebody and introduce yourself and expect to have a conversation most people will just say 'hi' talk for a few seconds then end the conversation awkwardly and walk away. I also think that international students will find that college isn't as hard as the movies make it out to be. In the movies you always see college classes with crazy things drawn on the board in the background and really intricate chemistry models on the desk, and teachers always being really boring and not making sense at all. In real life classes aren't like that, well at least not the classes I have taken. I think that the movies make college campuses look this way to make other countries think that we are friendlier that what we actually are. I think that they make the classes look hard to make people from other countries think we work harder than what do. We do work hard but the movies make it seem like we have no life other than school.

2. The pamphlet describes the Americans view of time as something that is scarce and a tangible item that is very valuable. I think that Americans think of time this way because we always have so much to do before time runs out, whether it is going to a meeting, turning an assignment in, or getting to class in time. It seems we never have enough time to do everything we want, all the time in class teachers always say ''if we have time, then we'll do this..". I hear people talk about wanting to add more hours in a day or another day to a week to get more accomplished.

3. The pamphlet says that Americans don’t like interruptions because one person speaks their thoughts and feelings and then the other person speaks, they take turns.  In groups like classes people are allowed to interrupt, but they should interrupt politely by raising their hand and being called on to talk.  In other group settings such as family dinners it is okay to interrupt if the conversation is not serious. Interruptions are thought of negatively when someone is giving some instructions as to how to do a job, for example when a boss is telling employees how to perform a certain duty it is not acceptable to interrupt then.

4. University life has its own cultural norms related to status and hierarchy.
I chose this sentence because I think that it is important that international
students should know that there are different ways to act around professors
and friends.  During a meeting with a professor you should be more serious
and straight forward, when eating lunch with your friends you can be more
relaxed and laid back.  I thought it might be difficult for international
students to understand this at first.

I agree with Sc…

1. I agree with Schor.  I think our consumer culture creates dis-ease and alienation.  I think that because there are people buying things every day and spending lots of money that other people start to think to fit in they have to spend money on different items whether they need them or not.  People will continue to buy just to fit in with the norm.  I don’t think that people will be happy about buying things just to fit in though, it will create dis-ease.

 

2. If the average salary were to be increased I do not think that it would solve any problems.  I think that the people who can afford to buy more will continue to keep buying and the people who have increased salaries will also continue to buy just to keep up with the others.  I think if the average salary were increased it would only make things worse and people would be in more debt. 

 

3. One reason for “competitive consumption” is television.  Families spend more time watching television shows that are based on the lifestyles of the rich and upper class, the public saw granite countertops, new vehicles, and huge houses and like any other person they wanted those things for themselves.  The decline of neighborhoods also aided competitive consumption.  Families would compare themselves to other families with the similar incomes, because of this spending was moderate. Trends in inequality also helped the new consumerism.  The share of after-tax family income going to the top 20 percent rose, and the share of wealth control also rose.  This resulted in a surge of conspicuous spending at the top.

 

4. Competitive consumption influences my identity in many ways.  I only wear certain clothes and use certain products like shampoos and make-up.  I do this because I don’t like generic things or off brand items. To me it’s a way of expressing myself in my own way.  My parents don’t really care about that type of thing.  They buy whatever is cheapest and fits their need.  I think we are different because my generation is growing up differently than theirs did, today kids are trying to dress like people on TV, or use things that celebrities are wearing back then to them it really didn’t matter what you wore or anything like that.

artificial intelligence

1. I think that the catastrophic incident described could happen someday.  New robot technology is found every day, one day we are going to go too far with how much robots to for us and how much they interact with our everyday life.  Eventually robots will be everywhere, doing everything and taking humans place in different areas.   I think that the human race will take advantage of robots doing everything for us and it will catch up to us with a catastrophe one day.  Humans will be shocked if this ever happens because we will be so accustomed to robots in our everyday life that we won’t expect it!
2. I don’t think it is very likely that an Artificial Intelligent will be created that can think and reason like a human.  Humans have conscious, thoughts, and feelings that I don’t think can be duplicated or created.
3. Some positives of creating artificial intelligence would be we could use them to do dangerous tasks, such as explore space or go to war, instead of sending humans and putting them at risk.  We could also program robots to do time taking tasks more efficiently, with greater speed and reliability than humans.
   Negatives of artificial intelligence would be unemployment, if robots started to take the place of humans in work areas.  The idea of robots replacing humans sounds nice at first, but then if you think about it would you really want a robot working in a hospital or doctor’s office?  Robots wouldn’t show care and concern to patients like a human would.  Also there would be no dedication and whole heartedness in their work like there is humans work. 
4. I have had a machine fail and cause me difficulties, my cell phone freezes every day!  I have a smartphone, an LG Revolution, which has a mind of its own.  Some days it will work perfectly with no flaws, but other days are the complete opposite!  There are days that it will freeze for hours on the same screen and I can’t do anything but let it fix itself, taking the battery out does nothing at that point!  My phone will send text messages to people that were meant to be sent two days ago, it won’t receive text messages sometimes, and it will even call people without me touching it. The phone isn’t even a year old so I’m not sure what is wrong with it.

moralities

1. My gut reaction was that Mother Teresa was the most admirable of the three choices.  Mother Teresa helped many people, including poor, sick, disabled, and victims of disease.  She also started many refugees for people to retreat to in time of need. I didn’t know if Norman Borlaug was admirable until I read the whole text, I’ve never heard of him until now.  Bill Gates to me wasn’t admirable because he is the richest man in America or one of them and he hasn’t done anything with some of his money like donated a certain amount to research to cure diseases or just to a certain charity in general.  After the author gave some facts about each of the individuals I changed my mind to Norman Borlaug as being the most admirable.  Norman saved millions of lives by reducing world hunger through agricultural science, Mother Teresa helped many people but her care wasn’t always top notch.  Prayers were said for her patients, but they didn’t receive safe medical care and the conditions were often harsh for the patients.  My reaction was Mother Teresa meant well with her actions and it’s the thought that counts but Norman Borlaug actually changed the world with his research and studies.

 

1. Oprah Winfrey is one of the people I admire most.  As a child she was always in trouble, and went through many hardships.  Oprah overcame these rough times; she graduated high school, attended college and had her own television show.  Throughout time she has contributed to many charities, opened schools in Africa, she is a humanitarian and donated money to rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina and donated money to help victims in Haiti. I believe that Oprah is an inspiration to many people; she worked very hard and deserves everything she has!  
   Another person I think is admirable is Lance Armstrong.  Lance is very dominant in cycling, he has won the Tour De France seven consecutive times; the Tour De France is arguably the toughest endurance race in the world.  This is just one of his many accomplishments.  Lance battled testicular cancer, which had spread to his lungs and brain.  Armstrong had to overcome many challenges to earn respect as one of the world’s greatest cyclists’. Overcoming major surgery after battling cancer was a major success for him.  Lance had to stay confident and believe in himself to achieve his goals, he has great determination!
   I think that because I admire Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong I judge peoples morals on how hard they work for what they have and how determined they are.  In my opinion you should have to earn everything you receive and be focused on achieving your dream and to me Oprah and Lance fit that category perfectly!

 

1. I do not think that morality is universal.  I believe that it changes from person to person.  The question “Would you steal food to feed your starving family?” proves my point, there are some people that would steal to provide for their family while there are others who wouldn’t steal because they don’t think that is morally right.

 

1. The five varieties of moral experience are harm, fairness, community, authority, and purity.  I think that authority is ranked first.  To us people with power and authority have more control over what happens and in a sense morals are based off authority rather than anything else.