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            Comparing and contrasting help us discover subtle and/or hidden differences and similarities between two subjects. Comparisons also help us create analogies of seemingly unrelated subjects. For example, Mary Roach compares being dead to being on a cruise ship since in both instances, the individual is lying on his back in endless relaxation. Had it not been for this analogy, the similarity between death and being on a cruise would not have been noticed. Furthermore, we can learn about a subject that we are not familiar with by comparing it to something that is familiar to us.

            In “The Meaning of Life”, Roger Cohen compares two rhesus monkeys with different lifestyles. There is Canto, who is on a restricted diet, and Owen, who is allowed to eat whatever he pleases. Both monkeys are part of an experiment about the causes of aging conducted by a team from the University of Wisconsin. Cohen reports, “While just 13 percent of the dieting group has died in ways judged due to old age, 37 percent of the feasting monkeys are already dead” (291). As shown by the experiment, monkeys on a restricted diet lived longer than those who ate freely. Cohen and other scientists challenge this finding since it should not the quantity of life that matters, but the quality of life. Owen may die sooner than Canto, but unlike Canto, who is not really living at all, Owen will die happily, knowing that he has lived his life to the fullest. Cohen goes on to compare the demeanor of both Canto and Owen, “Canto looks drawn, weary, ashen, and miserable…Owen, by contrast, is a happy camper with a wry smile” (292). Just by looking at Canto, one can easily tell that he is not happy and would much rather be taken out of his misery. On the other hand, Owen has obtained the chief good in life, happiness.

            Cohen focuses more on differences between the two monkeys. Cohen goes into descriptive detail when mentioning the physical differences between the two monkeys. He also emphasizes the difference in quantity and quality of life between Canto and Owen.

            Cohen argues it does not matter how long you live to if you are miserable the whole time. The allure of life is the fragility of it; no one knows when his or her time is up and it is important to live everyday to the fullest (293).

            I agree with Cohen. It is important for people to find happiness in life, whether they obtain it from their job or the food they eat. It is especially upsetting to see people work at jobs that they absolutely loathe. Those jobs may be reliable sources of income, but if the person gets no satisfaction out of the job, does the money even matter? It may be a risk chasing after your dreams, but as Hershel Greene puts it, “You step outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water, you risk your life…The only thing you can choose is what you’re risking it for.” Life is all about taking chances and if you don’t take a chance, life will pass you by and before you know it, you will die and the real issue will be whether you lived at all. 

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

            Stephanie Ericsson classifies the different types of lies that are commonly used by people in her essay “The Ways We Lie.” I agree with her classifications and I am especially glad she included the lie of omission. People might not always believe they are lying when leaving out information since they are not directly voicing the lie, but it is indeed a method of lying and I am pleased that Ericsson takes this into consideration. Ericsson only misses one important type of lie. It is the lie told by those in power, typically the governing party of a nation. This is called the “big lie” and an example of this would be the United States government falsely claiming that another nation is acquiring chemical weapons. This is obviously a very big and serious lie, unlike the small lies told by people daily. People are more readily able to believe these lies as they cannot imagine anyone with the impudence to lie about such a severe issue (Wiki – Big Lie).

            Ericsson’s purpose for writing this piece is to force people to face the music and accept the fact that many of us lie in our day-to-day lives. No matter how small or big the lie is, we all do it. It is hard to be truthful as sometimes we do not want to hurt other’s feelings, or we are afraid of the consequences of honesty (such as when the bank charged Ericsson $60 overdraft fee). And since lying is so common, Ericsson warns us about the consequences of certain types of lie. For example, the consequence of dismissal can lead to schizophrenia since the person is living in a distorted reality (342). Ericsson’s purpose is also to teach people about the different types of lie they tell and the different effects of each.

            I enjoyed Ericsson’s piece until the very end. I dislike how she concluded the essay. “Maybe if I don’t tell the bank the check’s in the mail I’ll be less tolerant of the lies told me every day” (343). I cannot tell if Ericsson is joking or not, but she claims that by changing one lie to the truth will lower her tolerance for liars. Her claim does not make sense; how can her action of telling one measly truth distort her perception on the value of honesty? Also, she is being unfair. Just because she wants to start living a more honest lifestyle, she will judge those who don’t? How can she say that when she used to be one of them? If she was kidding, it was not a successful joke.

Connors' Skunk Dilemma

             Robert Connors titles his essay “How in the World Do You Get a Skunk Out of a Bottle?” since it gives readers a snippet of the process that is being analyzed in the essay. However, Connors questions this because he did not know how to properly handle the situation he is in – having to get a glass jar off the head of a skunk. Also, given that this is such a rare occurrence, he is just completely baffled by it.

            This odd situation Connors is in does not frequently happen to others, and even then, it only occurs once in a blue moon. Although the situation is such a rarity, the point of the process analysis is more relatable. The purpose of this essay is to inspire others to rescue animals in need of aid. No matter how dangerous the animal may seem to be, such as the skunk in Connors’ case, it is crucial for people to understand their moral duty to save the helpless animal. Without the people’s help, the animal will suffer and eventually, perish.

            Connors is trying to convey the concept of helping out the wildlife in his essay. One way to achieve this is by performing miracle acts similar to Connor’s act of [literally] prying the glass jar off the head of the skunk. The second way is more practical since everyone can get involved and it does not require you to actually be in a hazardous situation. It is achieved by refraining from littering, especially cans and jars, since these items can be “traps for unsuspecting animals (258).” It is important that everyone throws away his trash in either a recycling bin or a regular garbage bin. There is no excuse to recklessly discard trash as it endangers animals.  

Subliminal Messages

This is an ad for Axe body spray for men. The ad displays a guy who is made entirely of chocolate and has a fixated look and creepy smile whilst holding Axe. The caption states that, “Axe Dark Temptation, as irresistible as chocolate.” Axe compares their product to chocolate, which is a well-enjoyed commodity amongst the general public. By doing so, the company is essentially claiming that their product is just as well received by consumers.

By having a strange looking man covered in chocolate promote their product, people will view this ad as being humorous and because the ad was enjoyable, people will want to buy the body spray. The ad also appeals to consumers' desires; Axe claims that their body spray is just 'as irresistible as chocolate' and considering that girls typically love chocolate, boys who use the body spray will become irresistible to girls. Boys will have flocks of girls chasing them and this is more or less every boy's dreams.

Many ads besides this one deceive people and manipulate their perception of the product by appealing to emotions and desires. The quality of the product is rarely put into consideration, it is rather up to the companies to persuade buyers into believing the product will be beneficial to them. Even though the product is not any better than other similar products or the product may not even be necessary, people still feel compelled to buy these items due to the tiny subliminal messages hidden within advertisements.

Advertisements classically condition us to relate their product to something irrelevant. Coined by Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a process of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by a different stimulus. The neutral stimulus is some stimulus that causes a sensory response but does not produce the reflex being tested. In this case, the neutral stimulus is the Axe body spray, it causes a sensory response to the olfaction. The unconditioned stimulus is some stimulus that triggers or elicits a physiological reflex: chocolate. The unconditioned response is an unlearned, innate, involuntary physiological reflex that is elicited by the unconditioned stimulus: hunger. Finally, the conditioned stimulus is the formerly neutral stimulus which has acquired the ability to elicit the conditioned response: Axe [Dark Temptation] and hunger, respectively. Due to this classical conditioning, it is made to believe that if girls smell the Axe body spray, they will associate it with chocolate and since chocolate is so irresistible, the boy using the spray will become irresistible as well and girls will hunger, or desire, for the boy. The boy would want this outcome and therefore, buys the product.

Ads are all around us and unknowingly, we fall for them not because the product is great, but because of its underlying messages.

Depression Hurts

Stein theorizes in her essay "Depression in College Students" that in order to prevent suicide, college students should be better informed about what depression is, the symptoms of depression and learn about the available resources to anyone who is depressed or knows someone that is. Stein also advocates for more funding towards counseling as there is often not enough counselors for the overwhelming amount of students. She supports this thesis by utilizing statistics such as, “A study by the American College Health Association in 2005 showed that 15 percent of college students around the country have been professionally diagnosed with depression, up from 10 percent in 200.” It is clear that the rate of depression in college students has increased and Stein provides a solution to this up-rise: to educate people about what depression really is. There is a strong correlation between college and suicide rate and this cannot be ignored any longer.

Stein supports her claim that counseling departments are not being funded enough by using expert opinion. “According to Hill, one of the biggest challenges CAPs faces is a lack of funding, leading to fewer counselors than are really needed to serve the number of students coming in.” Depression is becoming dreadfully common among college students yet when they attempt to seek out help, there is none available. Counselors are filled to the brim with appointments and students are not able to schedule an appointment. The student dealing with depression is already feeling insignificant and this inability to get help will only deteriorate their feelings of self-worth.

I agree with her solution to the issue of depression in college students. Students must be better educated about depression and how to detect this alarming mood disorder. Besides being educated about the disorder itself, students must also be encouraged to seek out help if they are struggling with depression and they should not feel embarrassed or ashamed. I also agree with Stein’s call for more funding to counseling services. It is vital that there are enough counselors for students to talk to or else the student will believe that there is no one to help them or worse, no one to care about them.

No I would not do anything different had I wrote an essay on this problem. Her essay was well written, well-organized and she was able to provide a feasible solution. She made good use of her sources to support her thesis. I like how Stein concluded her essay by reminding us that it is also up to the student to watch out for each other and be supportive of each other.

Gerald Graff

In "Hidden Intellectualism", Gerald Graff argues that being street smart is just as important as being academically smart, if not, more. Graff states, “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seems pale and unreal.” Being street smart gives individuals infinite amount of opportunities to learn anything that sparks interest to them and the information they learn have practical applications in life. On the other hand, the information students learn in school is limited to the curriculum given by the school or teacher. The syllabus is stated clearly and strictly with no room for adjustments. If students are uninterested in what is on the syllabus, they will have little motivation to work hard. Also, what is taught in school typically does not have practical applications in the real world.

           

            Graff uses personal experience to support his claim. He writes how reading and arguing about sports, which is something he is interested in, taught him to create solid arguments that is backed with evidence and support. By using his personal experience to support the thesis, he becomes a somewhat credible author. It is true that if people argue with others more often, they will naturally become better at arguing. This goes with any skills; the more you practice, the better you get. However, I doubt that reading sports magazine provided Graff with knowledge of creating concrete arguments.

Graff also advocates for teachers to allow students to write academic reports on magazines but he does not take in consideration the fact that magazines are simply written for entertainment; there are no intellectual values to them. Of course magazines can teach readers how to become more fit or stylish or even wealthy but they do not provide readers with deeper knowledge. Knowledge that can be found in books such as teaching readers to think for themselves or to search for their meanings in life are not found in magazines. Also, the stories in books have many interpretations to them and every reader can come up with their own meaning whereas magazine articles are straight-forward and concise and do not give room for interpretation.

I do agree with Graff’s point that students should be allowed to read stuff that they are fascinated by. However, that does not mean they should do academic reports on magazines and stop reading books altogether. Students should still read books but be given permission to select books from a genre they enjoy or a book that completely captivates them. 

Orenstein and Pinker

            In Peggy Orenstein’s essay "I Tweet, Therefore I am", she theorizes that social media causes individuals to lose their identity. People are becoming more invested in their social profile and they are able to manipulate the way others perceive them by carefully selecting the photos and statuses they share with others. This nitpicking process turn the person into her ideal self but in the end, she is just deceiving herself and the people around her. This obsession with hiding behind a façade of perfection leads people to being unable to gain a conception of who they really are. Orenstein was able to use the rhetoric of ethos, or credibility. Orenstein can be trusted because she explains her own personal experience with social media. She also referenced the sociologist Erving Goffman who argued that in every aspect of our life, we are all just actors in a play. I do agree with Orenstein to an extent; social media makes it easier for people to be ‘fake’ as people are basically hiding behind their computer screen and not thinking of the consequences to their actions. However, even before social media, we have always been actors in our everyday interactions. It is difficult to achieve self-awareness and many people go through life wondering who they really are.

            In "Mind Over Mass Media", Steven Pinker argues that technology is not making society dumber but rather, it is the only thing keeping society smart. Pinker believes that technology provides people with quick and accessible information with the touch of a finger. Books are no longer perceived as necessary since technology is much more convenient and not as heavy.

Pinker attempts to use logic in his essay but ultimately, fails. For example, Pinker writes, “These days scientists are never far from their e-mail, rarely touch paper and cannot lecture without PowerPoint…discoveries are multiplying like fruit flies…philosophy, history, and cultural criticism, are likewise flourishing.” Pinker mentions that scientists are relying on technology more but it seems as though the reason scientists use technology is for conveniency. E-mail makes it convenient for scientist to stay in contact with other scientists and PowerPoints makes it convenient for scientists to convey their ideas but none of the applications used are actually making the scientist ‘smarter’ or influencing the rate of discoveries. There may a positive correlation between scientists using technology more and the number of discoveries but correlation does not mean causation. Technology is simply making communication easier and allowing scientists to share their ideas amongst each other at a more advantageous pace. Pinker then states ‘examples’ of how technology is making society smarter yet his examples are so broad and generalized, it hard to agree with his argument. He only states that technology is making people smart but does not go in-depth with specific examples of how. He does not give readers specific cases in which technology has helped science, philosophy, history ‘flourish’.

            I do not agree with Pinker’s thesis. I do not believe that technology is the only thing keeping us smart. Technology is not making us dumber or smarter, it is just making information more accessible to us and it is whether or not we use the information to become smarter or misuse it and become dumber. But, that is on the individual and is the individual’s responsibility, not technology’s. Also, before technology, people were able to obtain knowledge from books and modern society still has the opportunity to do so. One part of Pinker’s thesis that I do agree with is that the individual should develop self-control strategies to not let technology dominate their lives.