A restrictive society, like in The Crucible and The Handmaid’s Tale, drives people to hide themselves from others. When there are deadly consequences for any small mistakes you make, it forces individuals to put on the guise of being perfect in fear they will be killed.
Reputation
In The Crucible, any act that goes against the Ten Commandments will immediately put one at risk of danger in their religious town. John Proctor, a respected man in the town holds a dark secret; his affair with former servant Abigail Williams. As Abigail charges Mrs. Proctor with witchcraft in attempt to get her out of the picture, John forces Mary Warren to confess Abigail’s lies.
PROCTOR. …you will tell the court what you know
…
MARY WARREN. I cannot do it, I cannot!
PROCTOR. Make your peace with it! (76).
He is too cowardly to claim Abigail is lying for then she will expose their past affair, thus ruining his reputation in the town. However, he has no trouble terrorizing Mary Warren into exposing Abby, even at the risk that the girls will turn on her.
PROCTOR: Because it speaks deceit and I am honest! But I’ll plead no more! I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free! (59).
John Proctor desperately wants to be a good person and tries to convince himself that he is good, despite his mistakes. However, he isn’t able to tear free from his mistakes because the only person that focuses on it is himself. He is scared the town will find out about his affair because it will ruin his honest reputation. At the same time, the fact that the town doesn’t know is what makes Proctor torture himself with the idea that he is a hypocrite who puts on the facade that he is honest, when in reality, he withholds the truth due to his fears.
Paranoia
In Gilead, the people are in constant fear that they are being watched in case that what they have done is not orthodox. The government makes handmaids travel in pairs so they are able to monitor each other in case one of them goes against the rules. Offred thinks of her new handmaid partner as a goody-two shoes who truly believes in the Republic’s ideals.
I think of her as a woman for whom every act is done for show, is acting rather than a real act. She does such things to look good, I think…But that is what I must look like to her, as well. (31).
They must both follow the strict rules expected of them if they wish to survive in Gilead, but Offred complains that her partner is too virtuous, when she herself has also only ever followed the rules and said what was expected of her because she is scared to be punished for anything otherwise.
In The Crucible, Abigail was able to manipulate people and events in a way that helped her to take control of the community similarly to how Hitler and the Nazi party seized reign over Germany through intimidation and manipulation.
What Caused It?
1. Hatred–> Pushing the Blame
ABIGAIL: She hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold sniveling woman, and I will not work for such a woman! (13).”
When Parris accuses Abigail of having tainted her own name in the community, Abby immediately jumps on the defensive and states that the cause of her unemployment is the fault of Mrs. Proctor. Abigail holds a deep hatred for Elizabeth Proctor because she is the wife of John Proctor, who Abby is in love with.
Her jealousy and hatred of Elizabeth is what causes Abby to accuse Mrs. Proctor of witchcraft, since she knows that the only person who could prove otherwise is John (who is held back by his reputation).
The Germans were in a political and economical crisis. Rather than admitting their own faults had caused the current struggle, it was easier to push the blame onto the Jews. Gradually, their own frustrations and hatred against the Jewsbuilt up and violence was used in order to express their anger (which was really against their situation, but they chose to believe the situation was caused by the Jews).
How Did It Succeed?
2. Manipulation/Sharing of power
MARY WARREN: I cannot charge murder on Abigail.
…
MARY WARREN: She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! Proctor continues toward her. Abby’ll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor! (75).”
Abigail and Hitler both held the image of being strongleaders who would stop at nothing to get what they wanted. This appealed to and scared people into doing what they said.
They were also good at making people feel like power is shared amongst everyone, which is technically true because Abby and Hitler both needed the others in order to keep them in power. They were the ringleaders and perpetrators, but the true power is always in the hands of the majority and the majority chose to keep them in power because it also benefited them.
What Were The Consequences?
3. Baseless Deaths
HALE: The jails are packed-our greatest judges sit in Salem now-and hangin’s promised (75).”
Abby and the girls just keep accusing anyone and everyone they dislike. This leads to many innocent people being held in jails and then hung if they did not confess to the crime they didn’t commit. Those who did not confess did so out of their belief of keeping their integrity and the truth sacred.
In the Holocaust, the Nazi regime senselessly tortured and killed millions of Jews because of their belief that the Aryan race was superior and Jews needed to be eliminated. Like Abby, they just killed those that they did not like.
MLA Citation:
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play In Four Acts. New York: Penguin Books, 1976. Print.
This speech unit was focused around using a variety of speaking techniques to communicate with different audiences. In this unit, we created a speech based on our own chosen proposal, which was our opinion affirming or negating a chosen prompt. I chose to write my speech on how we have to find sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, and the most reasonable solution, is nuclear energy. What I had to keep in mind throughout my writing process was that I had to remember who my target audience was and how I was going to talk to them, because they were all factors that were going to affect how I talked to my audience.
I learned that the most important part in a speech is that you need to keep your audience in mind in the way you write, talk, and act.
Oh! Well, you’ve stumbled upon a different kind of radish field!
Moos (meaning radish in Korean) is the fandom name for the K-pop group Mamamoo, clearly derived from the band’s name.
Who Are They?
Mamamoo is a 4 member girl group from RBW entertainment. They’re mostly known for their vocal talent as well their varied discography. The blend of their unique voices and perfect harmonies has gotten them far, from starting as an unknown group from a small company, to a popular group that continues to b r e a k stereotypes in the K-pop world.
But it was only around their “Yes I Am”era that Mamamoo started to cement themselves as legitimate artists as well as becoming icons for feminism in the industry.
The music video is comprised of the members acting confident and funny
That song spotlights each member’s unique qualities and teaches the audience to not be so focused on typical beauty standards or expectations by accepting what makes them special.
Through all their music and projects, they’ve established themselves as strong, independent artists who break away from the mold and continue to push the boundaries of music, fashion, and beauty standards!
This project was liberating because students had a say in:
what their project was based off
who they work with
pace they work at
Before this project, I was nervous because this project had a much bigger outreach than anything we’ve done in the past. The scale of the project all of a sudden became so much bigger than just “This is my individual project”.
3 other people were factored in, and with them, their schedules, opinions, and lives.
It suddenly wasn’t a just a project about making a movie, it was about how to communicate with others and putting your trust in others.
My partner ended up being Yumi which was good because we worked well together! I had a really positive experience working with her because we were friends, but at the same time, we respected each other by splitting work and keeping each others’ needs (work for other classes, daily schedules) in mind.
First, we created a schedule in order to meet the deadlines. That was helpful for us to always stay on the same page.
From then on, we just used our class-time efficiently to divide and conquer.
As soon as we finished a task, we would just discuss the next step, then set a date for us to complete it.
Most of the time, we finished our work early because we did a majority of it in class, where we were able to help each other develop ideas and give feedback.
Before the project started, I was worried because I didn’t know anything about my BMSA partners! I was extremely concerned about communication because often times, between cultures, there’s a difference in communication etiquette.
Those worries intensified as they were the type of partners to reply back slowly. Often we would not hear from them for days. Important opportunities for communication (feedback) were not received, so I had to just keep going.
It felt like I was the only one making an effort to reach out, but every time I did, conversation was short and forced. However, I learned that sometimes you don’t always have to constantly communicate in order to complete a goal.
When we talked, we would cut straight to the chase and talk about the project.
I was grateful that they didn’t waste time on small talk.
I could utilize my independent time and do things at my own pace.
Learning how to write a script was confusing because similar to how different writers have their different writing styles, different script writers also have their different styles.
I used Screenplays For You as a reference because the best way for me to learn is to follow an example. I looked at a couple of screenplays before I chose to use American Hustle as my guide. I liked the style of the author’s writing because they clearly separate the background information (camera angles, sound effects, etc) from dialogue. I wanted my script to have the same clarity so my partners could read it quickly so filming would be more efficient.
To Kill a Mockingbird Script:
We ended up tweaking the information in the book to fit modern times and to make filming more efficient. We weren’t aiming to recreate the book scene by scene (there’s already a movie for that), but instead, we wanted to use it as a stimulus.
This was only possible because scriptwriting is not confined to a specific thing I have to do.
It’s just a way of writing to help me communicate my thoughts in the most efficient manner.
Looking Good 😎😎😎
Storyboarding was very intimidating because I’m not very good at drawing, so I wasn’t sure what direction to take my storyboard in.
Should I add shading?
Should I draw in 2D or 3D?
Should I try to make my characters look realistic?
These were all questions I had.
I felt a little better after looking at some websites that taught me how to storyboard. The one that I found to be the most influential in helping me complete my own was Drawing for Visual Storytelling.
I liked this website because it just had a lot of examples. That seemed very smart for a storyboard website because why would you explain how to draw with words when you can just show people how to draw?!
To Kill A Mockingbird Storyboard:
I came to realize that my drawings didn’t have to be perfect in order to be understandable.
I spent so much time in the first page just trying to make everything look realistic that whenever I would make a mistake, I couldn’t bare to erase it. It made me spend less time on the notes, which were as helpful for the director as the drawings.
Movie
Conclusion
With Yumi, I think we were able to work well together because we communicated about what we wanted to do and when we wanted to do it before we even started.
That way, we were both working towards a clear goal even though our process was different from each other. We would also talk to each other if we need more time to complete a task, so we always knew if one of us was going to be late.
Honestly, working with my BMSA partners was not the best experience, but I did learn to trust.
I really thought that this project would turn out well because there were so many platforms we could talk on; email, instagram, etc. However, I severely overestimated the power of the internet in communication.
How do you communicate with someone who doesn’t want to talk to you? I can’t force them to talk to me because I don’t see them everyday and I can’t reach over the screen.
They taught me how to put trust in others because the only thing I could really do was to trust that they will eventually get back to me, and they came through at the end!
I think by giving students choice and freedom, they will be more likely to take responsibility for their work because you’re letting them be independent and letting them work at a pace that works best for them.
My partners and I had the same end goal – a completed movie – but how each person got there is drastically different.
I think often times, pop music gets a lot of hate that it doesn’t necessarily deserve. Musicians, the general public, and the pretentious music connoisseurs (who are actually just people that think they’re knowledgable on music after listening to Mozart once) all like to complain about how over-generalized and copy-paste the pop industry has become. It always boils down to this:
1. No one who sings pop music has any musical talent
Personally, I feel it’s ignorant to say that pop music takes no talent, because many of these artists are skilled, but their choice of genre (pop) restricts them from breaking out of people’s preconceived image of ‘pop stars’ and becoming something more. You see, the problem with pop music isn’t the people, it’s the fact that it has become a “hit-making machine.” Artists understand that the songs that become popular are the songs that are the most catchy. This has led to an industry filled with the same artists trying to release radio-topping singles all with the same ear worm tune that gets stuck in people’s heads, making them want to keep hearing it.
Artists now believe the only way to earn exposure is by having constant Number 1 hits, prioritizing quantity over quality. When their sole aim is to become famous through radio directed hits, their intentions for being a musician no longer is to produce music for themselves, but for fame.
Pop music is widely hated because it’s created for mass appeal, not bothering to take risks with its musical direction. Pop doesn’t lack quality, it just does not strive to be more than a straightforward tune with catchy lyrics.
Like Broken Record(s)
However, the same artists that are now considered revolutionary and have produced classic hits once started as pop artists too. In actuality, pop music doesn’t lack talented singers or people with the ‘it’ factor. When examined, these ‘timeless artists’ started with pop and were regarded as pop artists until they broke out of the mold.
1. Legendary boy group The Beatles, who broke numerous charts and records were also a pop group until they expanded to songs with more instrumental influence and serious lyrics. “Love Me Do” (one of their earlier songs) is clearly not on the same lyrical level as “Tomorrow Never Knows” (came out 3 years later).
2. Alanis Morisette debuted with her hit song, “Too Hot”. Like most of today’s pop songs, “Too Hot” is a catchy tune with that features surface level lyrics. Eventually, Alanis Morisette became the household name that she is when she transitioned from pop to grunge with classic songs like “You Oughta Know”.
These artists didn’t get magically better out of nowhere, but it was a matter of them gaining more credibility as an artist as their material became more serious. Perhaps when the older generation reminisce about “classic artists” like The Beatles, they only remember these people through rose tinted glasses and sing their praises like a broken record. The same things they complain about now are the things their parents complained about when they were younger and listening to the younger versions of classic artists.
“Modernity Has Failed Us”
The lyrics of pop songs sound very superficial and lazily written because pop music is overgeneralized and because the lyrics are played over simple, radio-directed tracks. The song lyrics to certain popular songs especially proves that musicians (like The 1975) can produce deep and meaningful song lyrics.
A state of the union address for a fractured planet – Tom Connick (NME, 2018)
You want deep song lyrics? The 1975 will hit you with a whole song about everything wrong with our world.
Every sentence is loaded with cultural references. Even if it’s not heard in the song, it’s shown in the video.
Everything from selling melanin to Eric Garner to our flawed the prison system. The 1975 was not afraid to lay out humanity’s wrongdoings plain and simple in the form of a 4:25 minute song.
“Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men Start with misdemeanours and we’ll make a business out of them”
Melanin: Matty (lead singer) references to “selling melanin” – a recent phenomenon that ironically sees the rich and white purchasing melanin to purposefully make their skin darker. It exposes the irony and hypocrisy that is white people darkening their skin, amidst ongoing racism.
Eric Garner: The second reference “…and then suffocate the black men,” follows up white people’s idolisation of darker skin, with the phone-shot video of the death of Eric Garner, a African American man choked to death in New York by a police officer. The killing broke NYPD codes of conduct, which sparked nationwide protests, but also goes to show how ironic it is that white people somewhat fetishize the idea of darker skin when, for centuries, it has been the target of racism and discrimination.
Prison: In “Start with misdemeanours and we’ll make a business out of them,” Matty references to the increasing privatisation of the prison system, which had controversy not properly rehabilitating the prisoners, but instead, was a way for the rich to get richer off the private sectors.
These 3 topics alone were covered all in a 9 second span of time from 0:34-0:43, but is only a brief microcosm of the whole song.
Funny how a call to action for the world to admit its wrongs is being delivered in the form of a 4 minute pop song when the president of a first world country doesn’t even recognize global warming…And pop songs are the ones usually being trashed
In a sense, that’s what lyrics are for; Giving you hope when you’ve lost yours.
Like the song says: “Modernity has failed us, and I’d love it if we made it” the lyrics symbolize the hope we hold in our society and as individuals that we will be able to learn from our mistakes and continue to live.
I know lyrics are just words, but words are power.
Music is about changing society by inspiring individuals – Matty Healy (The Guardian, 2018).
MLA Citations:
– The 1975. “Modernity Has Failed Us.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 19 July 2018, genius.com/15014723.
– Connick, Tom. “A State-of-the-Planet Address: Every Reference in The 1975’s Powerful ‘Love It If We Made It’ Video.” NME, NME, 16 Oct. 2018, www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/1975-love-it-if-we-made-it-video-explained-2390473.
– Theodosion, Constantine. “Why does pop music get so much hate?” Quora. 2 Aug. 2017, https://www.quora.com/Why-does-pop-music-get-so-much-hate
– Snapes, Laura. “Matt Healy of the 1975: ‘I’m Not Scared of Myself Any More’.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 July 2018, www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/20/matt-healy-of-the-1975-im-not-scared-of-myself-any-more.
You probably don’t think it’s THAT important to credit other people for their work do you?
Or maybe you know it’s important, but you still don’t give credit to other people because you think no one will ever find out you stole.
No you didn’t steal their pen or their notebook.
Oh no, it’s much worse.
You stole their work.
And it doesn’t matter that you stole…until that person finds out. Dun dun dun.
Here is a dramatic reenactment (it probably happened somewhere sometime throughout history and then they probably never spoke again because humans are petty like that) of a friendship falling apart due to one friend’s ignorance to the importance of giving credit;
A friendship ended over something petty.
Welp, nothing new, sounds like humanity alright. 🤧🤧🤧✊✊✊
Just because you’re friends doesn’t mean you can steal things.
Video tips: When making this video, I found that it’s much easier to plan out your videos before you make them because then you can visually see all that you have to do, which makes organising your time easier. Here’s our “storyboard” that I roughly drew up before we filmed the video:
Cred-ez: Also, something new that I learned is that when choosing what videos and background music to use, you can type in “no copyright” or sometimes, certain creators put in the description that it’s free to use as long as you give them credit. They don’t even give a specific way that people have to give credit, it’s just as long as you recognise the creator of the original song/video. This makes giving credit much simpler, which I think is cool because I think it pushes people to be more compelled to actually credit others. People are usually deterred by the different formats (APA, MLA…) that they just don’t want to give credit, but with something as simple as saying “Credit to blah blah blah”, I think it will push more people to credit.
Overcoming Audio Problems: The actual editing of the video went a lot smoother than I expected, because since we had already planned everything out, the only thing left to do was to put all the clips together and voice over. Adjusting the volume of the video gave us some trouble because it sounded kind of fake (love ahahaha, get it?; A/N: that’s the title of the background music) due to the sudden change from muffled (original) to clear (voiced-over) audio. However, in the end, I think it was incorporated well into the video because it makes the viewers feel as though they’re part of the conversation.
“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.” – Dr. Seuss
So many things come into mind when it’s Christmas, but all too many times, it’s centered around the act of giving and receiving….presents. However, what people should focus on in the holiday spirit is looking forward to is the 💖 heartwarming 💖 time spent with family and friends.
There are so many ways that one can get away from the commercialism and stress that surrounds the idea of having to exchange presents 🎁🎁🎁🎁. Don’t be dragged down by the thought of finding a ‘perfect gift’ because Christmas is supposed to be a light and joyful time. Because in the end, the true meaning of Christmas islove. Presents can be a way of showing love to the people you see once or twice a year, but a better present you could give them is time spent together.
There are so many ways you could take the opportunity to partake in the cheerful festivities of Christmas; hang lights with your family 👪, make gingerbread 🍞 houses with them, bake cookies 🍪 with awful looking Santa frosting designs on top, go pick out a fir tree 🎄 that you’ll struggle carrying through the doorway. Maybe the tree or lights or the cookies won’t last long, but the memories will. It’s okay to want to buy presents for your family, but like Christmas lights, the holidays are about lighting up those around you and surrounding something to make it better.
“All is calm and all is bright…sleep in heaven, heavenly peace” – Joseph Mohr
During Christmas, when snow is falling gently outside the window ❄️❄️❄️ and the crackling sound of the fire 🔥🔥🔥 can be heard over the CD playing Christmas songs, the world seems to finally be at peace. Kids in pajamas and adults gathered around a table drinking hot chocolate, it’s then that the true meaning of Christmas can be felt. The frozen stillness of the outside contrasts the joyful atmosphere of the house, but as the snowflakes keep falling and the children keep laughing, everything becomes softer and more beautiful.
And as you look outside your window, you realise that in the midst of being blanketed by the snow around you, you’re not cold because you can feel the warmth of not only the fire, but your family. Maybe it’s the ‘snow’-tinted glasses making you sentimental, or maybe it’s the song in the background that’s gotten stuck in your head, but you think that Christmas is “the most beautiful time of the year”.
As you wake up the next morning, the sight of a snowman is the first thing you see. With its carrot-orange nose and it’s Abraham Lincoln top hat, for a split second you think it’s Frosty ☃️. Who can blame you? The two look iden-cicle.
You bundle up and run outside to play with the snowman, whom, despite being made of snow, give you flashbacks to your childhood that makes your heart warm 💓.
But as you learned from the past 2 days, maybe someone can decorate all they want in preparation for Christmas. Maybe no matter how many Christmas lights you hang, or how many classic hits you sing while the snow falls, or even how close your snowman is to becoming Frosty, maybe none of it has meaning without family.
A family gives joy.
A family cares.
A family loves.
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…Right within your heart” – Johnny Mathis
In this assignment, it was fun to choose what 3 pictures to put, but hard to make captions and think of a good theme that I wanted to write about. As it was getting close to Christmas, I thought it would be reasonable to talk about what everyone seems to have forgotten; what Christmas truly means. It’s not about about the presents or the traveling, it’s about being with family and enjoying the time you have together. So we decided to choose 3 things that symbolically have represented Christmas over the years and help the readers look perspectively look deeper into what the picture shows through the use of caption. Throughout writing this blog post, I learned that choosing the correct caption can provoke the audience to subconsciously try and find a connection between the caption and the picture, forcing them to explore the greater, overall theme.
The parts of the blog post that was easy for me was weaving the individual stories of the 3 pictures together, and giving attributions for the pictures. Since “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” and along with the holiday season, it also brings along lots of heartwarming emotions for everyone, I thought I should remind everyone that Christmas isn’t about material possession. What made this easy was that I could change the picture if it didn’t fit with my theme since I didn’t have to worry about having to keep making new MLA citations for each photo I change. The attributions are made easy by creative commons since it allows me to give credit to the author, but it doesn’t make it excessively hard to do so.
Do kids cheat because they didn’t study before a test? Or maybe they just don’t have the time to write their own research paper? Perhaps they were ambushed by a surprise pop quiz? Well, 60-70% of high school students have cheated before and 90% have copied another’s homework. Is this because kids are lazy and don’t want to do their work…or is it due to another factor?
Maybe It’s The School’s Fault?
“Teachers should be focused on encouraging mastery rather than performance on assessments” (Lahey, “A Classroom Where No One Cheats”).
Jessica Lahey wrote an article discussing the how the class environment encourages the students to cheat. By assigning numbers to the student’s level of understanding, they are lured into thinking that grades are the end-all be-all. Grades are making students believe that it’s more important to get a good grade than to take the time to fully understand the concept. According to that article, these are the main contributors for why kids cheat:
– Higher stakes: Getting a good score on a test versus failing a test have started to become sort of a life or death situation for students where if they do not earn a “good” score, they feel as if they have ruined the rest of their lives. It’s natural for students to want to be seen as smart, but when their belief is that the result of one test decides whether they will graduation or flip burgers at McDonalds, the risk of failure pushes students to cheat despite their better judgement.
“The more pressure you load onto an exam or assessment of any kind, the more you are likely to have students who respond to that pressure with academically dishonest measures” (THNK, “3 Reasons Grades Are Bad for Education”).
– Self-efficacy: This is when students have a “belief in their own ability to succeed” or basically, confidence in their abilities. Students with low self-efficacy have a higher probability to cheat, meaning that the influence a teacher has on the student plays a big role in their success. Students want to feel that someone believes they will succeed and when they have the belief that they have the knowledge and skillset to complete the task, it will give them the effort to learn, but more importantly, try.
– The end goal: Grades were originally intended as a means of measuring learning, but have gradually turned into a goal itself. Giving assessments and putting a “grade” on learning essentially forces students to memorize only the necessary materials to pass a test, whilst not making sure the student understands the topic thoroughly. The student’s pursuit of knowledge put on a back burner, eclipsed by the significance that we ourselves have appointed with grades.
If we wanted kids to stop being academically dishonest, then maybe we have to start by changing the way our grading system works.
Does KAS Properly Deal With Academic Dishonesty?
“Furthermore, when students and teachers maintain academic honesty, trust is nurtured and culture of learning is strengthened” (High School Handbook 2018-2019 Kaohsiung American School, 32).
KAS takes academic honesty seriously and judging from their handbook, it seems as if the school understands the importance academic honesty plays in furthering the student’s understanding and individual growth. Along with taking academic honesty seriously, that means there are consequences such as no credit, conferences, etc, but nothing quite like the consequences for dishonesty in college.
As my group found out when we did research for our presentation, the consequences for academic dishonesty in colleges can include getting kicked out, which is kind of ironic when the source of their dishonesty stemmed from wanting to attend a good college in the first place. Other consequences can be found in the presentation below –>
The More the Merrier…Or Not
Group work allowed us to be able to come up with a lot of unique examples because each person talked about an example that they were passionate or interested in, which added more depth to the topic of academic (dis)honesty. Through the different examples, we were able to explore how something that seems so insignificant in high school can lead to disastrous results in different universities and colleges.
However, group work made the organization of the presentation hard to arrange, which limited the amount of information we had. There were certainly a lot more colleges or a lot more examples of consequences that could have been included, but in a group, everyone has different visions of what the presentation should look like. Eventually, the flow
MLA Citations:
– Lahey, Jessica. “A Classroom Where No One Cheats.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Dec. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/a-classroom-where-no-one-cheats/282254/. Accessed 19 Nov 2018.
– “3 Reasons Grades Are Bad for Education” THNK, 22 June 2018, www.thnk.org/blog/3-reasons-grades-bad-education/. Accessed 19 Nov 2018.
– Lahey, Jessica. “’I Cheated All Throughout High School’.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 Dec. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/i-cheated-all-throughout-high-school/282566/. Accessed 20 Nov 2018.
– “Section 14: Academy Honesty Policy.” High School Handbook 2018-2019 Kaohsiung American School. 2018.
This is a problem that not only plagues you, but most of those who access the internet. Well, not rick rolling in particular, but getting tricked by whatever they see online.
This is happening because the people who post these kinds of links are not thinking about their digital citizenship. Sure, rickrolling is just harmless fun, but as more and more people are venturing into deeper and deeper depths of the internet, soon these fake links will no longer just take you to Rick Astley’s 1987 single “Never Going to Give You Up”, but instead, to things that are much worse. The fake links are more than just rick rolling, scammers also trick people by impersonation, using fake anti-virus pop ups, email phishing, etc.
This is part of the reason why it’s important for all generations to take control of their digital citizenship, and with that, their digital safety as well. First off, we have to define digital citizenship, which is hard, considering that it’s such a broad topic that covers a multitude of other issues.
Digital Citizenship mainly boils down to 2 points:
– Represent yourself
– Protect your safety and privacy
Represent Yourself:
Ever wonder why all your friends are always on vacation or eating at the newest restaurants? Nowadays on social media, we often see people projecting exaggerated images of themselves or only specifically choosing to show the good things that happen to them. This happens on instagram, twitter, snapchat, basically every social media platform available. Why wouldn’t people want to show the best version of themselves? It’s understandable. However, this is hurting not only yourself, but also the people around you.
When we post about our life accomplishments, goals, or the highlights of our lives, we feel better from the likes and comments from others because it gives us a sense of accomplishment. The more likes we get, the more we strive to get more….and more. The cycle keeps going and you will feel compelled to only post about things that will get you likes or purposefully push yourself to do something worthy of posting everyday. To be a good digital citizen, you have to not only take care of others, but also yourself.
– Make sure what you post is something you want to post for your own sake, not for the entertainment and attention of others.
– Make sure it represents you, because you will take responsibility for everything you post.
– Make sure it represents well on the people and school around you.
Safety and Privacy:
The younger generation is facing a problem that has worsened as technology is becoming readily available and accessible to kids; they don’t know how to keep themselves safe online. As technology advances and becomes a necessity, that means the internet has become a place for people of all ages, personalities, and ideas. This means it’s important for kids to take responsibility of their digital presence.
Digital footprint is constantly being left whether you know it or not. When you leave comments to your friends, use your email to sign up, upload stories, anything and everything can be leaving your digital footprint. Doing these things is revealing more and more about yourself to anyone who stumbles upon your digital presence. You’re telling them what you like, what you watch, what your social media habits are….
We often believe that whatever we post on social media doesn’t matter because it’s lost in the vastness of the internet, but in actuality, it’s very easy to trace everything someone has ever posted. Even when the post is deleted, it’s never really gone. Even privacy settings do not guarantee that the post will remain “safe”. So it’s important to be mindful of what you post and remember to protect private information about you, your family, and friends.
It’s easy to get caught up in all the lights and glamour of all that the internet has to provide that we don’t realize we’re falling down into the vastness of the online world.
MLA Citation:
– Slavin, Tim. “Online Guidelines for Student Blogging, Commenting, and Personal Safety.” Beanz, 27 Aug. 2013, www.kidscodecs.com/online-guidelines-for-student-blogging/
– Borovoy, Amy Erin. “5-Minute Film Festival: Teaching Digital Citizenship.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 14 Sept. 2012, www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-digital-citizenship.
“Hypocrite” Photo on Flickr / CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
