April Non-Fiction Post

I read an article called “Online Shopping, With Sales Tax Added” by Anne Carnes. It was about a new proposed law that is currently going through Senate, which would add a sales tax to merchandise purchased online. It discussed why they were adding this tax onto merchandise, and which states were for the tax. The article said that it is supported by “some revenue-hungry states, as well as brick and mortar merchants who say it would eliminate an unfair advantage for online sellers.” This shows that the author might be against the tax, because of the negative connotations that she placed on the states that support it. I think the overall main idea of this text was that the tax is unnecessary, and takes away a lot of what made online shopping attractive to many shoppers. The author gave details about the history of this subject, and this helped support the main idea by giving background information to help the reader understand why the author disagrees with it.

The author wants the reader to think that the new sales tax is unnecessary and partially defeats the purpose of shopping online. The author does this by using adjectives with negative connotations to describe the law. For example, she said “If the proposal becomes law, a perk of online shopping would go away and shoppers would pay the sales taxes to the online retailer at the time of purchase — just as they do now in physical stores.” This is showing how it is taking away some of the charm and simplicity of online shopping, and the author wants the reader to agree. The craft moves also include that the author included quotes from people who had a similar opinion as her, to show that it was more than just her bias. This worked to make it seem more reliable and also made her thesis seem stronger.

Now that I have read this article, I will pay more attention to the websites that will charge sales tax. It also helped me think more about the commercial goals of many companies, and given me a different view of online shopping, and shopping in general. I will now think more critically about the merchandise I am buying, and where it is coming from. I would like to learn further about what caused this sudden change, and why this tax will be added. I now think of online shopping as more than just an easy way to consume, but as another way that companies are manipulating people.

March Non-Fiction Blog Post

I read an article from the New York Times called “Syrians in the U.S. Are Given Protected Immigration Status” by Julia Preston. This article gave a brief overview of some of the terrible situations that almost everyone in Syria is experiencing. According to the article, “conditions in Syria are going from bad to worse.” In Syria, everyday people feel unsafe and threatened. Most likely, a civil war will break out between the government and the rebels. There is violence, and not enough food and resources for citizens, making it a very unsafe place to live.

Because of the violence and lack of safety, thousands of people are fleeing to live somewhere else. As stated in the article, Syrians who are already in the U.S. will be eligible for a temporary protected statues, similar to that given to other countries who could not return home due to violent conflicts or natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that 2,500 to 3,000 Syrians in the United States would be eligible for this status.

The author wants the reader of this article to feel sympathy towards the Syrians who are unsafe in their home. The author also wants the reader to think that the United States offering protection to Syrian emigrants is the right thing to do. The author is trying to make the reader of the article feel sorry for the Syrians, and make the reader believe that they deserve to be protected by the United States. Some craft moves that the author uses to achieve this are by using quotes from specialists, such as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. In a statement, Napolitano said that Syrians “would face serious threats to their personal safety” they were forced to leave the United States and go back to Syria.

From this article, I will take away the knowledge that the United States is contributing to help save Syria and bring them to safety. I now think that the United States should do as much as possible to help countries in need because it will help keep the world at peace, and could stimulate alliances between more countries, so that when the time comes for America to need, help, it will have plenty of alliances to support it. America has a stable government and plenty of resources, so helping out another nation in need would not be much of sacrifice. This article also made me recognize how much the United States is willing to help other countries, because of all the immigrants we take in, and the protection statuses that we offer. I would like to know more about how the issues in Syria can be resolved, and if there are other countries who are helping Syria fight for peace and justice. 

February Non-Fiction Post

I read the article “Facebook Fever” by Nick Bilton and Evelyn M. Rusli from Junior Scholastic Magazine. It was written on April 2, 2012, so it is a bit dated, but it is about Facebook “going public” in the stock market. The article did a good job explaining the background information about stocks, corporations, and the stock market. It also described how Facebook is used by advertisers to target users to specific advertisements that will be most interesting to them based on “likes.” The main idea of the article was how Facebook would affect the stock market and how it is used in advertising in addition to social networking. It was also about how Facebook has developed from a small company to a huge corporation with more than 845 million users worldwide. I think the author included this to show how quickly a small, independent business can develop into a huge, multimillion-dollar industry. According to the article, shares are expected to be worth about $200 million. Because of the major advertising that Facebook is involved in, “everytime a person ‘likes’ something, or changes a relationship status, shares a link, or listens to a song, a piece of data is added to Facebook’s vast library.” This information is then used to match users with ads that are most relevant to them.

I think the author wants the readers to think about how a small, independent business can grow into such a huge industry. The author uses facts, statistics, and data about how large the company has become to show this. For example, “Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook’s 27-year-old founder and CEO, is expected to enter the ranks of the world’s richest people…. His shares could be worth more than $28 billion. The author also shows how the business has developed by comparing it to other Web enterprises, such as Google and Webvan, but Facebook still had a high I.P.O than both of those businesses. I think the author also wants us to think about how Facebook will change the ways people interact and communicate with each other, and how it will affect advertising. However, something I noticed about this article was that it did not state whether or not the authors thought it was a good thing or not that Facebook was such a large, important company.

From this article, I will take away the knowledge of how quickly a company can grow. I also learned how much Facebook depends on advertising, and how much advertising is used in Facebook. My thinking has been changed a little, because I think it is a bit creepy how much information about each user Facebook can retain, and how it is used just for advertising. I wonder why currently, Facebook stock has dropped so much. 

January Non-Fiction Post

I read an article called “The Many Problems With Online Dating’s Radical Efficiency” by Peter Ludlow from a magazine called The Atlantic. The main idea of this article was that online dating, and other online methods of communication or coping with relationships, was an issue because it is causing us to value our relationships less, and it has been shown that people pay less attention to whether they actually have a connection with the person they are dating.

The article also stated that online dating has become a “frictionless market.” The author explained that this means that this means that the buyer and seller are put together without transaction. The author used this as a metaphor for online dating because on online dating sights, where people don’t meet based upon similar interests, but by being “matched.” He says that this limits they way people bond, because when it is so convenient to just go online and get matched, people will not spend as much time trying to get to know someone by talking to them, or going out to meet people. 

The author conveys these main ideas by connecting online dating to issues in the real world, for example, to business, as in the “frictionless market.” He says that “in the real world, there are no frictionless markets, but some markets have less friction than others.” This is showing that online dating is slightly unrealistic because it does not involve any “friction,” which in this case would be the natural connection between the two people looking to date each other.

The author wants the reader to think about making real connections to people, not just meeting them because it is convenient, or because they get matched on the Internet. I think that the author of this article is against online dating because it allows people to be less passionate about the relationships and put less effort into finding the right person based on common interests. For example, in the article, it is stated “By reducing the cost of finding someone, online dating also makes it too easy to avoid being alone after a relationship fails. Most people don't want to be alone, but a traditional inefficient dating market made this an unavoidable reality for most people.”

From this article, I will take away the knowledge that online dating provides less strong connections between people when they first meet. Now, I think that it a much better idea to meet people in real life, and do date them based on connections the two people have together. I think that online dating is not as good as making connections in person. I would like to find out more about how online dating affects relationships, and whether more males or females use online dating methods. I think this is a fascinating topic that is becoming more and more relevant as technology advances and is more intergrated into society.

Ludlow, Peter. "The Many Problems With Online Dating’s Radical Efficiency." The Atlantic 7 Jan. 2013: n. pag. The Atlantic. Web. 29 Jan. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/the-many-problems-with-online-datings-radical-efficiency/26679