Facebook Rewind

My "ideal" citizen, Morgan Klein, from the first few weeks of the quarter was a blond student at Ohio State who was involved in many different things such as a sorority. Her interests included sorority life, nursing, music, intramural sports, and movies. She associated herself with the Democratic Party and was a Christian. Her music selection included the more popular music of today's society such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, The Fray, Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, and Rihanna. Her television shows were the popular dramas and reality shows. Her favorite movies consisted of mainly chick flicks with the occasional comedy. Morgan's favorite books were Twilight, Gossip Girl, and Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants due to these books' popularity for today's teens. Morgan enjoyed shopping, hanging out with her friends, partying, listening to music, sorority life, and going to movies.

My newly imagined "ideal" citizen would have several different changes made. For example, her music selection would consist of more "indy" bands because to be "ideal" does not mean to be statistically normal. I think a person's musical selection tells a lot about a person, and for Morgan to stick with her favorite music as of the first week of the quarter, would explain that she listens to what "everyone else" listens to. Another thing I would change about Morgan Klein is her favorite movies. Although a lot of people are fans of chick flicks, there are a lot of different and inspirational movies out there that don't just tell love stories. For example, some of her favorite movies could consist of Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Laramie Project, Crash, or Thank You For Smoking. For the most part, this new list of movies are "based on a true story" and all have unique plot lines which address different issues seen around the world. To me, this new list of movies is much "deeper" than the flakey list of chick flicks and comedies.

Like Michael Warner explained in his essay regarding normalcy, everyone's desire to be an individual is corrupted by their yearning to be labeled as normal. Individuality is not something that we work for, it is a quality that just comes to us. For my "ideal" citizen to be individualistic, her interests and favorite media would have to be unique. People are only labeled as normal when they follow statistical analysis. Also, as Warner explained, "normal" would be defined as having bad breath, outstanding debt, and health problems. Nobody I know of has the desire to have these problems in their own lives. So, in conclusion, to be "normal" is not something that people should strive to be because "normalcy" is defined by statistics.

Self Image Response

Real Life Community

Every Thursday night at 8pm a religious organization called Real Life: Campus Crusade for Christ at OSU meets at Independence Hall to have their weekly meeting. Every Thursday a group between 300 and 500 people gather to learn more about their belief in God. There are people gathered on stage and they hold a sort of church like gathering in which they have the audience join in with songs. There is a live band at the gathering which encourages attendees to join in with the rest of the congregation. When I chose to attend this gathering I was not specifically agreeing with their views and I was not exactly against them either. The Real Life organization believes that God has a brilliant plan for all of us and we can discover that plan through reading the Bible. They believe that yes, people are all sinful, but that is why God created each an every one of us and without sin our lives would be uneventful. They explain that you get to know God through Jesus Christ--the one who died for our sin--and once you recieve Jesus into your life, you will personally experience God's love and his plan.

Just a couple of days ago a Real Life member came into my room and asked if I would participate in a survey called Soularium. To me this just seemed like a normal survey that I would partake in but to my surprise it concerned my religious beliefs and awareness. For this survey, the Real Life member, Lauren, presented me with about a hundred different post cards with different pictures on each. Once I laid them all out across the floor of my dorm room, she began to ask me different questions. For example, she asked me to pick out three pictures that described my life and explain them to her. Another question was to pick out three cards that described my relationship with God and three that showed what I wish my relationship with God would be. Once I completed the survey, Lauren explained to me how she found God--which was her personal testimony she shared with me. She explained first how God has a plan for all of us, second how there is a problem we are all presented with, third how God has a solution for those problems, and fourth how it is up to us to make a decision about our relationship with God. Although this Real Life member was not trying to persuade me to act upon my experience, or lack there of, with God, she was definitely an activist for this particular religion. She and the Real Life service raised my awareness about my relationship with God and definitely attempted to persuade me to act upon it. At the end of the survey I was given a card with my answers and a website I could visit to see how other college students were answering the same questions. This strategy encouraged me even further to question my religious standing and persuaded me to follow their lead.

Prompt #2: (Un) Media Analysis

Ani DiFranco, the author of this spoken word poem, is clearly a poet with very strong views of our American government. DiFranco would definitely be considered an activist, but not only for specific issues, but for the American democracy as a whole. Whether she is for or against the administration under George W. Bush's reign is not a mystery. She clearly and nearly satirically explains that the truths we hold to be self evident are not what they used to be. Ani DiFranco claims to be "looking out over my whole human family" and assumes that we all agree with her opinion. Aside from the poet's viewpoints, she made it pretty clear who her intended audience was supposed to be. In my opinion, Ani DiFranco intended for her audience to be any generation that experienced the attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001. I think that DiFranco's use of timeliness--as we discussed and read about in The CommonPlace--was extremely well-crafted. DiFranco definitely took into account who would be reading this poem, or listening to it for that matter, and considered what her audience would genuinely care about. And, as we all learned from The CommonPlace authors, to be timely is a necessity when attempting to be persuasive.

Although she makes some references to events before my time, I think that her use of relevance attracts both listeners and readers. Ani DiFranco was successful in capturing her audience's attention and considered who her ideal audience would be. In addition to her timeliness and relevance, DiFranco used analytical tools such as repetition to emphasize her point. For example, she explained that the attack on The World Trade Center "looked more like war than anything i've seen so far / so far / so far" (1). Had she only written or spoken "so far" once, personally I would not have understood what she was trying to say. In my opinion, I think she's expressing that there are sure to be more horrific events still to come in our lifetime. In addition to repetition, DiFranco uses logos in explaining the infatuation of the American citizens with popular entertainment devices. Although in my opinion, her statement that "take away our playstations / and we are a third world nation" is a bit harsh, her rational that we are so consumed with what is the most popular materialistic item, is in fact reality (2).

This type of media was harder for me to analyze in comparison to the music videos, commercials, and songs we have done thus far in class. Although I would have thought that it would be easier to analyze something physically in front of me, it was much more difficult. But, it is definitely important for us to learn rhetorical analysis on different types of mediums. My analysis on this piece of work would be slightly different than it would on a YouTube video due to the fact that with Ani DiFranco's poem, there is no actual picture painted for me. So not only does the reader or listener have to analyze the actual writing, but he or she also has to visualize the writing for him or herself.

Facebook Project

My “ideal” Ohio State freshman is Morgan Klein. I chose this first name because it is not an unusual name and seemed to fit my impression of an ideal citizen perfectly. Although Klein is also my last name, I found it appropriate due to the fact that there are very few Ohio State students with the same or similar last names. For the most part, Ohio State consists of a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds, and therefore last names too. Morgan is, in my words, “the typical Ohio State female student,” which in my opinion consists of being classified as Caucasian. I based my opinion off of what I see on a daily basis at The Ohio State University. Although Ohio State is an extremely diverse university, I still believe—and this is strictly constructed off of what I see—that the majority of students would classify themselves as Caucasian. Morgan Klein also associates herself with the Democratic Party because I feel as though one of the main support systems for the Democrats is college campuses. Morgan is a Christian simply due to the fact that Christianity is one of the major religions in the United States so I felt as though the “ideal citizen” would also associate with that religious belief. Aside from Morgan’s basic information, in the “About Me” section of the Facebook profile, she describes herself as being a nursing major from Columbus, Ohio who has a younger sister, a younger brother, a dog, and a cat. She also restates, as she previously expressed in the “Activities” section, that she loves to go shopping. Although I hate to identify the typical college student as materialistic, I feel as though shopping is one of nearly everyone’s hobbies. In addition to shopping, Morgan enjoys hanging out with friends, including her sorority sisters. I am aware that Greek Life is not a huge part of the Ohio State’s student body, but I feel as though the stereotypes associated with sorority girls’ personalities would apply to my perception of the “ideal citizen.”

Aside from Morgan’s beliefs and basic information, I chose her favorite music, television shows, movies, books, and quotations also as if I was crafting the typical female Ohio State student of 2009. Morgan’s favorite music includes Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne, The Fray, Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, and Rihanna. I do not believe that the typical college student solely associates him or herself with one specific music genre, as shown by the variety of artists displayed on her profile which range from hip pop to pop to rap to rock. Her favorite television shows, however, stem from very similar television channels which have very specific types of audiences. Her favorite shows include The Hills, Sex & The City, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, The Real Housewives of Orange County, Gossip Girl, and American Idol. I feel as if these channels—including MTV, ABC, The CW, and Bravo—target teenagers. In her “Favorite Movies” section, Morgan likes chick flicks and comedies the most. These movies include The Notebook, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Twilight, Anchorman, The House Bunny, and Sex & The City: The Movie. Although I have a hard time believing that the ideal college student has enough time on his or her hands to accumulate a well-constructed list of “Favorite Books,” Morgan’s favorites seem to consist of easy-reads. These books, very popular with other teenage girls, include Twilight, Gossip Girl, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Lastly, Morgan’s favorite quotations are from teen-idolized female figures such as the women from Sex & The City and Marilyn Monroe.