Proposal

As of now, I am looking into researching the concept of the “untouchables” in India.  I know that this is a bit of a challenge since I am not specifically residing in this country but I believe this type of “othered” community is an extremely potent example of what it feels like to be outside of the “norm”.  I have chosen this group of people because I have researched this group on my own and two of my good friends currently reside in India and I have talked at length with them about the caste system.  I think that the fact that this system is fixed and that there is nothing you can do about the caste you have been born into really fits this project well. I will probably look at texts about the group and I will contact my friends currently living in India for their insight into what it is like to witness this group of people firsthand.  I am hoping to use a variety of sources: an interview from my friends in India, a short video or two, a couple articles about the group of people, and possibly American reactions to the “untouchables” by interviewing people here and asking if they know anything about them.  I think it would also be interesting to link the “untouchables” to other groups in history, but I’m still wrestling with that idea because I don’t want to take on too much before figuring out how I can adequately analyze this group of people from afar. 

Links that I've looked into:

http://www.ispp.org/jsc/blog/humiliated-by-caste-understanding-emotional-consequences-of-identity-denial
This source deals with the sociological and psychological effects of the different caste systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM85zVt6xCU
This is a video about the fact that untouchables still exist within India. 

Blog 5

In terms of Lorber’s notion of “social construction”, the definition is rooted in the roles and labels that society creates in order to categorize people.  For instance, Lorber deals a lot with gender and the notion that we have constructed roles that males and females must fit into from the moment they are born.  In example, the color blue being for boys and the color pink being for girls.  Without realizing it fully, we, as a society, as labeling different behaviors and beliefs that each different sex should hold and what type of gender that they should fit into.  In the TEDtalk, Sam Killermann stated that “gender is more complex than what we learn as kids”.  He dealt with the concept that gender and biological sex are two separate compartments and that society should not define people by their sex.  I found it interesting that he was able to share a bit of his story and enlighten us about the fact that the way he dresses causes people to ask him if he’s gay a lot of the time.  This really made me stop and ponder upon why we have these stereotypes and the notion that the way that we dress or express ourselves defines our sexuality.  Zimmerman was quick to make the point that sexuality and gender are almost separate entities, as he is not gay but he would describe himself as metrosexual.  Thus, Zimmerman describes that gender expression is “how you present your gender to the world”.  He focuses deeply on the fact that this type of expression cannot be limited into two categories for the copious amount of people that we have on this earth, and even just in this country.  Thus, his call was not for a specific change of action (except the light-hearted request for transgender bathrooms at the end of the film), but rather for a paradigm shift for people. 

            In connection, Hanfler states that “we act toward people, things, and events based upon the meanings we have for them…we actively transform the world into images and concepts, giving it meaning and order” (Hanfler, 23-4).  Thus, it is human tendency to act upon the meaning that we have given others; for instance, when we label a male as a boy, we have certain stereotypes or behaviors that we expect from them as a result of this labeling.  We are made to never question the gender roles that we learn from birth so we look for the correct order of these things in our lives as adults.  This goes directly into another one of Hanfler’s points as it’s stated that, “we learn meanings” (Hanfler, 24).  We learn “initial interpretations of the world” from important people in our lives or from the media and these are the ones that tend to stick (Hanfler, 24).  It takes stepping back and recognizing that a lot of our ideas or behaviors, such as blue and pink labels, are learned and are a creation of society.  Overall, I believe the most potent step in this conversation is to understand the definition of social construction and to open our eyes to where it has gone unnoticed in our lives.  Now, this doesn’t mean that we must change everything we have grown up believing but it does mean that we need to open our eyes and our hearts to the million other people on the planet that may see things a bit differently. 

Blog 4

Intro

“As soon as he wakes up in the morning, Ronnie, an undergraduate student at a

large, Midwestern research university, sends a tweet from his phone, which lets

his roommates know he’s awake.” (9)

• I like how Buck uses the information that she has gathered from Ronnie to begin her paper in a way that relates Ronnie’s experience to how many other people may use social media. 

“Ronnie’s experiences represent common ones for undergraduate students

across the United States.” (10)

•  Furthering the idea from the first quote, Buck has a strong emphasis on how this study on Ronnie’s social media use is not only representative of his identity but the identity of many other undergraduate students in the nation as well.

Methods

“Collecting data from these various sources allowed me to develop a multifaceted

picture of literate activity in connection with social network sites.” (13)

•  I like that this quote highlights the importance of uses various sources while doing research.  For instance, I wouldn’t want to just observe my partner’s Facebook because I wouldn’t be equipped with the information that I received by interviewing her.

“The information discussed in the profile tour gave me an overall sense of how Ronnie perceived his own identity representation online, some history behind that representation, and his perspective on what those representations meant to him.” (13)

• Buck ties in the purpose of the research in the Methods section as well.  She doesn’t just step by step lay out what she did, but also includes why it matters and what was achieved by doing the research process the way she did.

Results

“Through these tweets, Ronnie showed himself to be an overcommitted and engaged

college student, preoccupied with a busy schedule and sleep-deprived in the

first and last tweets, always online, and managing school and leisure tasks online

through projects and side activities like fantasy hockey.” (16)

• I find it interesting that Buck includes her perception of the information that she sees on Ronnie’s social media.  She includes not only matter of fact observations, but also information that she received from talking to Ronnie.

“Ronnie envisioned different audiences with different concerns and interests

on both Facebook and Twitter and constructed his identity on both sites with

these audiences in mind.” (18)

• Similarly to the first quote, this represents the information that was provided by Ronnie, as Buck couldn’t have known what he thought about his audience when it came to social media use.  This shows me that the Results section can also include more than just our black and white observations.

Discussion

“Ronnie’s practices and the situations he confronts in representing himself

online make visible the issues that many others confront in their social network

site use, usually in more subtle ways, when engaging in common activities such as

sharing family and vacation photos or making comments on a political issue or

event.” (34)

•  Buck comes full circle in her discussion, as she discusses how Ronnie’s situation with social media is not exclusive, but is a representation of the struggles that many others face when dealing with social media.  Buck zooms out and gives us a fuller picture of the purpose of this study.

“For students like Ronnie, spending time on social network sites means developing digital literacies to negotiate the new rhetorical situations they encounter, where one status update is broadcast to many different friend groups and where social media companies frequently change privacy configurations.”

•       I think it’s imperative that Buck mentions that social media is a type of literacy and rhetoric.  This is an important aspect because it brings our attention to what we consider to be “texts” and how much of a role they play in our lives. 

Blog 3

Why do you pick pictures?

He frequently photographed an object he encountered in his daily life and shared it with a friend through Twitter or a different social network site. (22)

How do devices affect social media use? Ronnie primarily used a Dell laptop for his social media use; he also bought an iPhone during the course of the study, through which he also updated social network sites. (14)

Why do you post or hold back?

The information he shared on Twitter varied widely, such as updates on what he’s listening to, thoughts and musings on his way to class, images from his daily life, and questions to his friends about weekend plans or other topics. (15)

What’s the average user and how are you different?

In this way, Ronnie saw himself as different from the average user, and he worked to present himself as such through his social network site use. (14)

What does your follower or friend ratio mean to you?

On Twitter, Ronnie was conscious of keeping his number of followers higher than the

number of people he was following. (14)

How often do you post versus how often are you on social media?

He also visited Facebook a few times each day from his laptop computer to

keep up with his friends. (22)

How are you understanding community? What is their community? How do you contribute to this community?

One’s friend list on Facebook could include several hundred contacts: extended family members, friends from childhood and from college, coworkers, and professional colleagues, each of whom sees the same updates. (14)

How reflective is your social media of your true identity?

Representing or cultivating one’s identity through social network sites is an activity that happens through every tweet and every message sent. (14)

Do you feel that your Facebook identity has changed since you first got your profile?

Ronnie’s profile on Facebook at the beginning of this study presented his

identity in much the same way. (16)

Do you find it easier (or more enjoyable) to put quotes from others or personal thoughts on social media?

The information sections of his Facebook profile were devoted to his favorite quotations and a record of recent and upcoming musical performances. (17)

How much do you cater to or be mindful of your audience when you post?

Ronnie envisioned different audiences with different concerns and interests

on both Facebook and Twitter and constructed his identity on both sites with

these audiences in mind. (18)

Which social media site do you feel gives the best representation of your identity?

Starting a new account on a social network site was also Ronnie’s way to try on a

new persona for himself or a new aspect of his identity. (20)

Blog 2

While reading through these articles dealing with social media, I’ve seen evidence that many people are all seeking a sense of community through common issues, as well as, trying to reach other people who can emphasize with them.  In the article “Writers of Color”, the author states that “a lot of people I want to be read by, a lot of people I want to speak to, are not people who have subscriptions to The New Yorker or The New York Times, so it’s important for me to speak to them in this way also”.  Thus, the goal that this article emphasizes with social media, such as twitter, is that it is a way for individuals to reach may people with their poetry and to get their written works out into the world. Therefore, social media becomes a platform in which all people are given a voice - a voice that is able to create a community of people who share similar ideas, experiences, or beliefs. As Harris states, “we write not as isolated individuals but as members of communities whose beliefs, concerns, and practices both instigate and constrain, at least in part, the sort of things we can say”. Therefore, social media can become a means through which people are able to truly write as individuals by having the ability to express their thoughts and beliefs freely.  While, at the same time, social media becomes a community that invites multiple people into the conversation, which may influence and alter the topic or issue that each individual is writing about. For instance, in the article about hashtag activism, a woman shares about her experience with an abusive relationship and galvanizes a hashtag, #WhyIStayed, which provides a stage for many people to deal with the complicated issue that is domestic abuse and to know that they are not alone in this battle.

Social media writing seems to create more of a sense that people can write without the filter that seems to be required of them in other aspects of writing and life.  It may be this type of honesty that draws people into the type of expression that is attainable through social media. Further, according to Harris, a discourse community is important because it allows “opportunity for sustained engagement”.  With this, Harris also describes that the “literate community can be defined through the clusters of allusions and references that its members share”. Therefore, social media doesn’t only give people the sense that they can be completely honest, but it also connects other people in the “literate community” of social media together through a specific reference, such as a hashtag.  On the flip side, the article about “Facebooking” deals with the fact that social media can easily skew the truth as well.  From personal experience, I’ve seen that social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, can tend to be used by people to convince others of how “great” their life is.  Thus, we use social media as a way to write and present ourselves vulnerably, yet this action can be due to poor motivations, in which we are trying to get certain needs met by affirmation through a social media source.  Overall, social media is a unique and valuable tool in the literate community, as it opens up opportunities for writing freely and vulnerably, creating discourse, and galvanizing connections with others through our posts.  However, it is also a tool to be used with caution.  As members of the literate community of social media, we must recognize the limitations of social media to create a true sense of community; understanding that the opportunity to have no filter in discourse doesn’t always mean that what we write or post is beneficial or productive to ourselves or our community.

Blog 1

Hi! My name is Rebecca Baxter but I go by Becky! I was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska.  This is my fourth year at the University but I will be taking 5 years to complete my major (super senior status!).  I am studying Secondary Education English with a minor in Spanish.  I am hoping to teach high school students! On campus, I am involved in my sorority, Delta Gamma, the Navigators, a Christian ministry on campus, and I am a part of Dance Marathon.  I love to travel.  I have been to Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and many places in the United States, and I hope that the list continues to grow in length! I am a huge people person and I love meeting new people wherever I go.  I am a huge movie junkie.  I love comedies and sports movies.  Remember the Titans is my all time favorite movie. I am also a big sports fan.  I’ve played volleyball my entire life and love to watch basketball.  My team is the Duke Blue Devils and I’m a die-hard fan; March Madness is one of my favorite teams of year.  I love to write.  However, since a majority of my schoolwork is writing, it can become tiresome and a burden at times.  During our sharing of “I write because” during the first class, someone said that they “hate to write but loved to have written”.  This describes exactly how I feel lately about writing.  It is a discipline to start writing, but looking back over what I have written and seeing the place that it has taken me in my thoughts brings a great deal of joy.  With this, I write to uncover thoughts, ideas, or parts of my mind that may go untapped unless I seek and search through reflection and writing.  I also express my thoughts on paper in order to understand what is truly happening in my heart and in my mind. Lastly, I write to remember.  I am constantly taking in so many experiences and ideas on an everyday basis.  I write to preserve these moments and lessons because life is fast and fleeting. I write as discipline in the hopes that it continues to transform into joy.  It usually doesn’t fail me. So that’s a little bit about me!

            After reading Hastings’ writing about community, I began to analyze the fact that community is usually based upon a “shared purpose or effort”.  This made me think of one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes, which states, “friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You, too? I thought I was the only one”.  This, in a nutshell, is my belief about where community begins: with some sort of commonality.  This common bond is what creates a sense of being an insider or an outsider to a community.  For instance, I am involved in the Greek community as a member of Delta Gamma sorority.  Thus, I have created friendships and bonds with other people in the Greek community based upon a single common factor of being in a sorority or a fraternity.  With this being said, I also recognize that being a part of community does not mean that there is always a consensus on everything we do.  I believe that, similar to Hasting, that conflict or disagreements can be good and is an important part of a community.  Therefore, I have this idea that a community is a group of people brought together by any commonality, depending on one another in some type of way, yet with diverse and distinct members.