Month: June 2015

Dear Samantha Taylor,

I strongly disagree with some statements that were made in your article by other authors. I believe that these authors getting the wrong image of some teenagers and overall it is wrong of them to state that all teenagers are ‘enslaved inadequates’ Teenagers are positive in regard to having a social life, and in this letter I will state my arguments to prove that their judgements of teenagers is ill thought out.

From my own experience, I can tell you that their generalisation doesn’t apply to all teenagers. I am more concentrated in chasing my dreams than spending hours on social media. Nevertheless, when I am on social media I am generally doing productive things that help me in developing my qualities. Criticism of social media is very common; commentators argue that it changes teenagers, resulting in them becoming ‘selfish and attention deficient young people.’ I disagree in the sense that adults alienate us from them as we are a different generation in numerous ways. The way teenagers live has evolved and adults need to accept that. We will never be the same as them when they were teenagers. Adults also need to realise that teenagers are not their target market and don’t seek to form relationships with them. I don’t feel that social media compromises my strong relationship with important members of my life such as my parents, siblings and other significant figures. I think social media allows teenagers to elaborate their thoughts and problems to the networking world. It can be emotional problems that you might get support in resolving or general discussion, jokes, entertainment or it can be educational.

Perhaps more than anything else social media allows you to be aware of what is happening around the world. The communication is instant. For example, my friends can tell me straight away if anything important is happening, or my mother can inform me on when she’ll arrive. Or on the bigger scale you can be informed on the political crisis there is around and see how it may affect you. For example, when the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia broke out in 2010, Twitter and Facebook were critical in mobilising the protests trying to disrupt an oppressive political state and became in themselves a force for freedom. A blogging group named Nawaat.org was extremely influential in gathering anti-government and uniting different anti-government groups which later on was rewarded with an award from Reporters Without Borders for online media freedom.

Furthermore, I feel that they’re misunderstanding the concept and the role these types of social networking sites such as FaceTime, Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp play in teenagers’ lives (not to mention adults’). There is a means to an end, allowing you as teenagers’ today to meet up with people who in the future could become meaningful. Social media is much more than just a conversation, you have to paint a picture of yourself to the people you speak to. A boring conversation doesn’t appeal to both parties so you as a person have to aim to understand of how to make conversations more interesting and effective, as you’re on social media to a person for a reason even allowing you to organise events with groups of people crossing boundaries (geographical and cultural) that would never of happened before.

To conclude this argument, I feel that their judgement of teenagers on social media was harsh, we as a generation of teenagers brings huge excitement to the world as we produce new trends in the world that majority of the time is positive. The world is ours to reform and not keeping it the same for the world to be a fun and exciting place to be in. We only live this life once so enjoying it to the fullest is required. It’s not a crime that social networking has taken over you just have accept that this is how the world works now and enjoy it while it lasts.

Bernie

Both poems revolve around Civil War where ‘At the Border, 1979’ its events conspired by Iraq and ‘Belfast Confetti’ was between Irish natives. All wars are tragic but civil wars are very difficult for civilians as at any costs your family can turn against you and fight against you for what they believe is right for the future of the country. Contrasting to this Ireland was caught in two minds. Having gained independence from the great empire of Britain a minority still wanted to be controlled by the power of the British. These people tended to be the ones who followed the ‘Protestant’ way of Christianity with was formed by Henry VIII in rebellion to the pope. This sparked political feuds as Catholics had their freedom compromised as the British gave land to the Protestants now known as Northern Ireland. Catholics had their work cut out and were not getting pushed over once again by Britain so they sparked war for what they believe was right and fair. A once peaceful atmosphere was transformed into a place of hatred and despair as streets were active with acts of violence. Whereas in the other poem it’s a moment of relief as civilians are travelling to their native country after the war. The differences have been put aside between both the differing political ideologies and peace is found. Families can reunite together, people can restart bonding with one another without fearing the worst, the country to develop further to prevent disapprovals.

Within Belfast every stanza has punctuation in place as metaphors to present the tension of the war. The different punctuations have different meanings on different aspects on the war. ‘Blocked with stops and colons’ is meaningful to the fact that the war has enclosed and trapped civilians from fleeing anywhere. They’re trapped in the violence almost like enslaved to their own death. This suggests why Carson uses the different of punctuations as the subject of the various metaphors as it allows the reader to understand how manipulative and powerful conflict is to people’s minds and how difficult it is to maintain stability mentally with all the events that occur. When we turn to ‘At the Border’ the people have freedom and peace as now the civil war in Kurdistan has came to a close. Knowing there’s peace around excludes the fear natives had and the disharmony between the people and the government. ‘A man bent down and kissed his muddy homeland’ indicates the same element of strong emotions portrayed by the natives. It proves the relief people feel when conflict is at an end. It shows the joy of being back into familiar territory which you call ‘home’. It’s almost like a source of redemption as natives are retrieving their beloved land to their grasp away from the scandalous people who took no regard of how their actions can destroy and malfunction a country. The end of conflict enforces the message across that there is hope for a dismantled nation.

Both poems are written from the perspective of the protagonist (first person). However the emotions of each of them in contrasting to one another. The mood is totally different in the poems, which differentiates the tone and the tempo the poems.