Eco-friendly lifestyle

Do the benefits of an Eco-friendly life style out way the costs?

http://clarifygreen.com/eco-friendly-products-cost-more/
It is a post/blog written by Kathy and it discusses why Eco-friendly products cost more then regular items. The main reason why they are so expensive is because of increased manufacturing costs, Eco-friendly products use sustainable material that cost more to grow and manufacture the regular products. However, if there was an increase in demand for these products it would cause the cost to go down. When a product has a low demand, it costs the company more to produce it, which is  why the company raises the price. As citizens we can change this by buying more Eco friendly products to create a higher demand. So basically Eco-friendly products may be considered expensive now, but if more people switch life styles, products will become less expensive.

https://biohomecares.com/discover-biohomekeeping/does-it-cost-more-to-be-more-eco-friendly/
This article believes that even though Eco-friendly can be expensive, the long term benefits outweigh the short term costs involved. For example, foods that are considered Eco-friendly and organic cost more, but they can help you improve your health causing you to spend less money on doctors and medication. The article also discusses Eco-friendly energy, and how we could decrease fossil fuels and how this could benefit out planet in the future. In conclusion, the article agrees that this type of life style is expensive, but you have to treat it as an investment for the future.

https://www.youngadultmoney.com/pros-and-cons-of-eco-friendly-products/
This article written by Kristi discusses the pros and cons of Eco-friendly products. One pro is the going Eco-friendly could help you save money in the the long term. For example, Eco-friendly appliances typically lower your energy and utility bills by using less water and power. Another pro is the health benefits. Organic products are less processed and contain less chemicals, resulting in better health. Some con are  that they can be difficult to purchase because depending on where you live your local stores may not sell them. Also, these products can be inconvenient, especially when it comes to single use items such as coffee pods. This article understands that it is difficult for a person to be completely Eco-friendly, but it is important as citizen to try our best.

MLA Citation Practice

MLA Citation Practice

ISSUES that matter to us (Middle Ground)

The first video I decided to watch was "Straight A vs. Flunking: Do Good Grades Matter." I choose this video in particular, because I consider myself a straight A student and school has always been apart of my everyday life. However, I never took the time to think about how students with low grades may see things differently. The first problem they discussed was "do grades define intelligence," and most of the participants said no. When  it comes to courses that you take in school such as math or science, then yes grades do show that you are intelligent, but only in that category. There are a lot skills that schools do not teach, which is why a grade shouldn't define how smart you are because there is not a grade for every thing in life. Another argument they discussed was "I can get good grades if I work hard enough," and the answers varied. Some participants did believe that if you put in the effort then you will earn the grades that you want. In reality though there are other obstacles students have to face that others do not. For example, a young African American female struggled in her English class in middle school, no matter how much work she did she always ended up receiving a c grade or lower. It was not until later on she found out that her teacher was actually racists and was not grading her papers fairly. Another claim was that teachers have favorite students who they reward even though they may not deserve it, and some students have "road blocks" that other students do not struggle with. The last important topic they discussed was  "I am smart" and everyone agreed to this statement. They all came to the agreement that there are different forms of smart such as book and street smart. Everyone has something that they can offer to the table that another person does not know about, meaning everyone is smart in their own way

The second video I watched was "Climate Change Activists vs Skeptics: Can they see eye to eye." This first topic they discussed was "I believe global warming should be our number one concern" and only the activists agreed. They decided that if earth does not survive then neither will we because we will not have a a home. While the Skeptics argued that no matter what regulations and rules the US puts in place to help climate change, it will not have an impact because other countries are not following the same regulations. If we did create these regulation it would put us at an economic disadvantage with other countries. The second topic they discussed was "I know people who have been affected by environmental regulation" and everyone sat down, but had different view points. The skeptics said that they have seen people lose their jobs such as truckers due to regulations and how severe they can be. While the activists agreed that these regulations can be difficult, but only at first because you have to look at regulations long term and what benefits they will have in the future. The final topic they discussed was "An Eco-friendly lifestyle is expensive," and only the skeptics agreed. They all came to the conclusion that green energy such as wind and power is twice the price as regular energy. However, the activists made some very good points that the skeptics were not taking into consideration. Such as there are incentives for choosing a Eco-friendly life style, it will help prevent larger costs in the future, and it will benefit your health. The activists also discussed that you can use all the water you want for green yard or whatever else you need large amounts of water for, but you are going to have to pay for it.

Brainstorming for Research Paper: (bold: favorite ones)

1. Climate Change
• Should citizens be held responsible for climate change and if so what precautions do we need to take to help fight climate change?
• Should the US number one concern be climate change? If yes then why and how will this effect the citizens
• Why do some people believe that they should not be held responsible for climate change? How do we persuade them to change their minds?
• Is a Eco-friendly life style to expensive for the average citizen? What can our government due to make going Eco friendly easier for the people?
• Do environmental regulations infringe on citizen's rights and are doing more harm then good?
2. Endangered Wildlife
• How should environmental groups address endangered wildlife? What are some of the things they can do to push the government and corporations to protect the environment?
• As citizen, how can we help protect endangered life and make sure our government is also protecting the animals?
• Why are we so concerned with endangered wildlife? How will losing certain wildlife negatively impact our planet?
• Extinction is a natural process but it has rapidly increased compared to the past, why is the bad? Do humans have an influence on greater extinction rates?
3. Environmental Pollution
• Should the government be held responsible for environmental pollution or the citizen? What regulations or change in life styles should we put in place to decrease environmental pollution?
4. Stress
• Is school more stressful now then what it was in the past? Should schools be held responsible for these high levels of stress? What actions can schools put in place to help decrease student's stress levels
• Do practices such as meditation, soft music, and dietary changes help reduce stress
5. Work Life Balance

• Are low wages causing people to work more hours and ultimately spend less time with their families? Would higher wages (including a higher minimum wage) solve the problem?
• Is technology causing workers to be over scheduled? Is it causing a negative effect on workers home life? What should companies do to help?

Paragraph topic: Is a Eco-friendly life style to expensive for the average citizen? What can our government due to make going Eco friendly easier for the people?

Some citizen are making the decision to switch from their regular life style to one that does not harm the environment. Choosing a life style that is not harmful to the environment is called Eco-friendly. However, there is a lot of  debate if an Eco friendly life style is possible for all citizens, because most people believe that this type of life style is too expensive. What people do not realize is that choosing to be Eco friendly does not have to be expensive, it is just changing little things like eliminating food waste and reducing how much power you use in order to the better the planet. If everyone was Eco friendly, it could have a huge impact on our planets over all health. Sadly, people refuse to switch to this lifestyle because they feel they can not afford it , which raises the question what can our government due to make going Eco friendly easier.

Reflection #2

As the year progresses, I'm slowly starting to see my writing improve when I use the writing process. Brainstorming has helped me think more outside of the box allowing me to create more creative papers and ideas. For example, when choosing a topic for my pop culture paper I easily could have chosen a movie or game that portrays women in very little clothing and explain why it is bad. I realized though while brainstorming that I did not want to choose a topic that would be obvious to the reader. This is why I choose Super Mario Bros, which is one of my favorite childhood games, the impact this game can have on its younger viewers is not obvious, at first glance, it looks like an appropriate game for all ages, but in reality, the game has a very negative stereotype towards women.

The second step in the writing process is creating a draft, which can be a difficult process. In the past, I use to just start writing and figure out topics and arguments along the way. However, for my pop culture paper, I tried a new technique, I started by creating a list of possible ideas for paragraphs, as well as doing some research first to help find quotes that may help with my topic. This technique not only made writing my paper easier but also more enjoyable because I figured out which topics would benefit the paper the most.

The third step in the writing process is peer editing, I have never had problems with peer editing, but I think it is a very important step because as the writer of the paper you can easily make mistakes. It can be intimidating to ask a professor for help but have the ability to reach out to other students is easier. Like most students, none of us are perfect writers so it is important to receive feedback and corrections.

Another step in the writing process is having your paper revised by a tutor. Writing can be challenging for everyone and which is why having the opportunity to have your paper looked over by a tutor is beneficial. Not only will they catch mistakes you missed, but they can help with other things such as grammar, citations, drafting, and more. When I went to a tutor for my personal culture paper, the tutor helped me with imagery and issues with grammar.

The last step of the writing process which is revisions is the most challenging for me because I never know what to change. For example, when you spend a lot of time on an essay, it is difficult to revise the paper yourself, because you have worked on it for so long that you do not see the errors that others may see. Which is why, having access to a tutor and peers who can edit your paper, makes revisions easier because they suggest changes that you did not see before. For example, when going back and looking at my pop culture paper, one of the students pointed out I had an incorrect citation that I had not noticed. If it was not for that student, I might have lost some points for not doing a citation correctly.

While working through the writing process I was able to analyze my writing. I realized that I always went with the first idea that popped up in my head because that seemed the easiest at the time. However, this resulted in papers that were not my best work or did not go outside of the box. Taking the time to think about multiple different ideas and use the process of elimination to figure out the best ones, was beneficial. Not because it helped me earn a better grade, but it allowed me to choose a topic that I was passionate about and enjoyed. I also found out through the writing process its sometimes best to just allow yourself to write instead of worrying about little things. For example on past papers such as our first one, I focused too much on the grammar and unique imagery words, causing my paper to have way too much imagery. Having too much imagery can be overwhelming to the reader and make the story confusing. Therefore, when I wrote my pop culture paper I allowed myself to just write everything I wanted to say, and then went back and edited mistakes and changed the wording, so it would sound more professional.

Despite all that has happened in March, I feel like overall my grade should be a low A. It has been challenging trying to study and also be motivated at home, but I still do all my work and make sure it is done on time. The pop culture paper has been difficult to write because I have a lack of motivation, as well as slow internet. I do not believe I deserve a perfect A because I know my writing can always improve and I have never been good at citations. So there is a high probability that I made some citation errors on my pop culture paper. Even though being at home and trying to still do college work is challenging, I'm still pushing forward and trying to put out good quality work.

Using Quotes

According to Jean Kilbourne's TED Talk, called "The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women," she argues that “...The body language of girls is usually passive, vulnerable, and very different from the body language of boys and men.  Women are often shown in very silly poses, whereas men are generally afforded dignity and strength, even as children” (Kilbourne). Kilbourne's message is crucial due to the fact that showing women as vulnerable and passive can have negative impacts on women in the real world.

(Parenthetical Citation)

• Authors last name
• Page number
• Will not get in trouble if you double site something
• Can use "... " to show that there is more to the quote
• If quote inside of quote use ' ' 
• Period does not go inside " " goes after citation
• quote can't be larger then 3 line, must block (tab 2 times)
• block quote still needs citations, but no " "

(Kilbourne)

(Jean Kilbourne: The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women)

Quote #2
In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” say says “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story). Stereotyping women can have negative impacts on their self esteem, but if we start to normalize stereotypes it could actually put women in danger.

Critique #4: Video Games

“...turning  a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person.”

“...The body language of girls is usually passive, vulnerable, and very different from the body language of boys and men.  Women are often shown in very silly poses, whereas men are generally afforded dignity and strength, even as children.”

The power of technology is constantly increasing and so is animation and graphics of video games. Video game characters are starting to become more realistic and more detailed, given gamers a higher quality experience when playing them. However, this is not exactly a good thing, because video games have a history of sexualizing and objectifying women. A popular game that came out recently is Red Dead Redemption II, which is a western action adventure video game. It allows the player to explore the western United States, rides horses, shoot guns, and interact with the environment. This game is considered one of the most expensive video games ever made and took five years to fully create it. So you can imagine how detailed and realistic the game is and how the characters are portrayed. However, despite this the company still puts certain emphasis and details on women such a low cut dresses, and emphasis on the breast area. Also women in the game are seen more as background characters or a damsel in distress. On top of that women, who may want to play the game, don’t even have the option to play as a female character. It’s disappointing to see how much time and money was put into a game, only to find out that a female character has no real effect on the main plot.

In my opinion, Sarkeesian's critique is accurate when discussing the gaming  industry and how it has negative impact on the reputations of women. An example she uses is how women in some games are seen as rewards or objects. Making women appear helpless or seen as an object. She also talks about at the end of her video how there have been issues at gaming conventions, where women were being touched inappropriately without their consent. Some positives are the fact that gaming companies are are give female characters more important roles that are not as sexualized. Also, some gaming companies are changing how female characters dress and making them more modest.

Critique #3: bell hooks

We use media almost every single day, for example apps like twitter, Instagram, you tube, and more. Media has the ability to influence its viewers, sometimes its simple things like trying to get their viewers to buy their product or vote for a certain person in the next election. However, despite how harmless it might seem, media can truly have a negative impact on it viewers, as well as be harmful. The quote from bell hooks video would also agree with this idea and how media can have negative impacts. For example, how media can use negative stereotypes,especially when it comes to gender or the race of a character in a movie. The second quote from the Disney video, also talks about representation, but a different way. It says that the media creates these environments and images that slowly over time shape what we know and understand about the world. An example of this could be a little girl who watches older princess movies, this could shape her into thinking that as a girl she is helpless and the only way things will become better is if a man saves or helps her. It's not only young girls who are damaged, but also boys because they will believe that men have to be brave, strong, and they can not show any emotions.

In my opinion, motivated representation is how films are stereotyping roles such as gender, ethnicity, religion, wealth, and age. In her videos she uses lots of evidence to help support her argument, bell hooks especially uses evidence from older movies, for example movies making fun of feminist and showing white supremacy. She showed one clip of a woman just openly selling herself to a man, which makes women look bad and that they are just an object. This can not only harm women's own beliefs about themselves, but as well as what men think about women. It also, damages the work women have done during that time period, trying to break these awful stereotypes. Another movie clip that grabbed my attention was in part 1 of her speech, which was called Thieves and featured a two main characters, one that was white and another that was African American. However, in the film the black actor played as the thief and when bell hooks tried to ask the director why he choose to make the character black, when in the original script it showed no evidence that the thief had to be a certain ethnicity. The director could not give her answer, not because he had no answer, but because he didn't want to say the true reason behind the character choice.

As our society continues to grow and make changes, I feel like production companies are also trying to make changes as well. As an older sister, I have spent many summers and snow days baby sitting and the best distraction was a movie, so as you could imagine I have watched plenty of kids movies. One that stood out to me the most when choosing a movie to critique was the movie Wonder which was originally based on a book. It is about a boy name Auggie who has Treacher Collins syndrome which is a condition that causes facial deformities. This causes Auggie to not want to go to public school for fear that kids will make fun of him and he won't have any friends. Now in the movie there is of course the typical mean bully, who picks on Auggie and make him feel bad about his condition and not want to go back to school. As well as popular girls and other stereotypes. However, this movie in my opinion teaches children a very good lesson about how they should view children who may look different then them. Not only that, it also helps kids who have deformities and make them feel like they are not alone.

• Advertisement of the movie
• https://youtu.be/C0KLb_v50-k
• https://youtu.be/vYH5urNq1Ao

Adiche's story is very similar to what bell hooks discuses in her video, they both deal with stereotypes and how after seeing the same image or environment multiple times, you start to believe it. Which is why bell hook stress how these "motivated representations" are harmful to its viewers. We need to break away from constantly showing people the same stereotypes in movies or shows, because its starting to shape people and children into thinking that this is normal and that it is okay. Production companies instead should be challenging gender, race, religion, and wealth stereotypes in order to stop their audience from believing that it is true.