Article Summaries

The two article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and “The Internet Is No Substitute for the Dying Newspaper Industry” state their opposing outlooks on the effects of Google, the internet, and technology.
The first article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” by Nicholas Carr, explains how we have become so used to Google and the internet giving us the quick answers to basically everything that we want, that it has become harder for us to go about our daily lives, or even simply read a book, anymore without it. I sadly have fallen victim to this myself. The writer tells how his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.” I, too, used to be able to read tons of books when I was younger. However, as the years have gone by, and I have become more accustomed to the internet-taking advantage of the brevity of AOL news rather than actual newspapers, and just searching Google for the shorter version of the book I was assigned to read for Literature class- I seem to have lost that ability to sit through reading a simple 200 page novel.
This may seem like a negative aspect of the rising use of internet and search engines, such as Google, but I believe that it has also increased my knowledge of so many different things I may never have been introduced to if not for the internet. I can now search so many assorted texts, researches, maps, stories, and online articles on about anything and everything. Even if I’m wondering what tomorrow’s weather will be, I can easily find out with the click of a few buttons.
Google continues to successfully accomplished it’s goal of gathering the world’s information and making it “universally accessible and useful.” However, Google’s computer genius founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, might be taking their ideas one step too far. They are now working on turning their online search engine into an artificial intelligence attached to our brains. Personally, this is a very scary thought to me. I would not want my brain being taken over my a computer chip stored with all different kinds of random facts. Then again, am I putting these random, maybe even erroneous, facts into my head on my own just by using the internet as my #1 guidance for all my inquiries and turning to Google for the answer to all my daily questions?
In the article “The Internet Is No Substitute for the Dying Newspaper Industry” the decline of newspapers is not being blamed on the rise of the internet and technology, but rather on the “intellectual poverty of our post-literate world.” People in our generation have just become too adapted and comfortable with short reading and quick moving images on the screen that we don’t even bother to pick up a newspaper anymore.
Chris Hedges relates his concerns about newspapers journalist all around the world losing their jobs, and about how and increasing amount of people are now referring to the Internet as their source for current event updates. He says that newspapers “are a public trust” informing citizens about cultural and political life by hiring people “to write about city hall, the state capital, political campaigns, sports, music, art and theater.” Hedges states that people who rely on the Internet as their source for news will be apt to return to those specific sites which support their opinions and viewpoint. The author tries to reinforce his position by warning the public that we should be careful not to lose our journalists and reporters of the newspapers to bloggers because “facts, for many bloggers, are interchangeable with opinions,” whereas journalism gives you all the details of the present story whether you want to hear it or not. I agree with the author in the sense that people who turn to the internet for their source of news may only be reading one side of the story; although, I still believe that many have benefited from the internet’s news reports. I mean, I know even though I may enjoy picking up a newspaper on a Sunday morning, my 15-year old brother would never be able to sit through reading an entire newspaper article and the short news posts or videos he picks up from the internet may be all he’s getting all week long.

The Onion Review:

I have never heard of TheOnion.com before this assignment, and now, just in these past few days, I’ve been hooked. The articles, videos, and stories are truly hysterical and they really know how to take one small piece of current events and turn it into a satirical ‘laugh-out-loud’ newspaper article. The funniest story I saw on The Onion, was the video called “Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids”- of a daily morning news talk show, called The Onion News Network-Today Now!, guest starring a desperate mother wanting to know everything about her sons college life. It is so silly how this mother describes how to use Facebook and how she checks out her son’s pictures during his college experience with girls and at parties. The talk show host ends off the program with sarcasm and mockery by saying: “Now the only excuse to not stalking your son’s life, is having a life of your own.” It was very humorously and entertainingly played out.

This story sets out to reinforce how ridiculous and comical it is that parents are so disconnected with teenagers college-life reality these day. It also puts across how desperate some mothers are to being directly involved in their children’s lives that they resort to Facebook and Twitters to “keep an eye” on their children.

Fuming Father Refuses to Pay for Pageant Mom's Mess-Up!

HOW FAR WILL PAGEANT MOMS GO TO WIN?!?!?!?

By: Elisheva Liviem
Date: September 21st 2009

Houston, Texas- Angry father, Timothy Jones, tries to sue TLC’s new hit show: Toddlers and Tiaras, for his wife’s own stupid mistake, after she spent 40 grand on plastic surgery to give 5-year old daughter, Briana, the perfect nose which ended up a nightmare.

“I told Veronica that she was taking it too far from the day she started taking my 3-year old, Briana, for spray tanning and fake nails,” disappointed Jones tells lawyers “but I completely blame the pageant company for encouraging these mothers to do all it takes to make their innocent little girls perfect. It‘s really all their fault.”

Veronica Jones put her sweet daughter, Briana, in her first beauty pageant when she was just 9 months old. Veronica felt very intimidated by the competing pageant mothers and did all it takes to make sure that her lovely Briana took home the winning tiara at every pageant. “She loves competing,” mother Veronica relates, “she enjoys the traveling, staying at different hotels, and getting all dressed up for the shows. And I’m just happy that she’s happy.” However, this little slumber party ended when judges criticized Briana’s nose in one pageant and Veronica’s immediate succeeding response was plastic surgery.

After the surgeons screwed up Briana‘s nose, mistakenly switching it for Michael J. Jr.’s nose chart, Veronica kept it all a secret, hoping hot-tempered husband, Timothy, wouldn’t realize.

Luckily, Timothy didn’t say a word to either Veronica or Briana until 2 weeks later, when the crazy surgery bill was sent in the mail. Fumed Jones is convinced he will win the court case hearing, scheduled for next Tuesday, to get the pageant show and Toddler&Tiaras to reimburse for Briana’s surgery.

18 Year-Old Volunteer Finds a New Meaning to Life from Heartbreaking Experience with Autistic Child:

The Friendship Circle

By: Elisheva Liviem
Date: September 17, 2009

Within her first five steps into the Friendship Circle Center, a ragged old house on the corner of East Shore Road, in Great Neck, N.Y., early Sunday morning, Eli Liviem immediately knew that she would not be able to survive a day volunteering to be a “friend” to functionally and mentally disabled children.

“What the heck am I doing here? What a huge mistake?” Eli affirms were her first thoughts, “Why did I ever sign up for this?”

The room was loud, crowded, and demanding as temperamental autistic children threw unexpected fits. Eli was about to turn around and leave the center when she suddenly caught eye to a young girl who was sitting on the other side of the room. This child’s warm, loving smile and the happiness shining from her eyes immediately fascinated Eli. Staring at her cheerful eagerness as she completed the last few pieces of her alphabet puzzle, Eli realized there was something particularly special about her.

Mr. Rosenthal, the Friendship Circle director, informed Eli that she would be working with a ten year old girl named Joelle who had an undiagnosed form of mental retardation. Eli’s job was to provide companionship, support, and encouragement for the special needs child assigned under her care. (Joelle was adopted at birth, as a perfectly healthy child, by a lovely couple that was unable to have children of their own. Unexpectedly, due to a virus at the age of three, Joelle developed a mental impairment.)

As Eli was lost in her gaze, Mr. Rosenthal called her over to introduce her to her “friend.” He led Eli across the room to a small yellow table in corner where Joelle sat with her puzzle. “I couldn’t believe it.” Eli told reporters recounting her initial surprise, “Joelle was the girl for whom I felt such a strong attraction to when I first walked into the room that morning!” Something about Joelle’s warmth of attitude made Eli feel welcome and perfectly comfortable.

From that first day three and a half years ago, Eli has spent almost every Sunday morning playing, learning, and laughing with Joelle. In addition to their weekly meetings, Eli occasionally took Joelle bowling, out for pizza, or to see the latest Disney movie. As the years passed, it became increasingly obvious that Joelle not only appreciated Eli but really thought of her as a true friend.

Eli’s week always started with the sweet flowery scent of Joelle’s hair as she wrapped herself into Eli’s arms, in the beginning of their session each Sunday morning. The months flew by and Joelle remained as happy as always until one Sunday morning in early May, the Sunday morning that would change Eli’s life forever.

She arrived at the Friendship Circle Center a little late and immediately noticed the back of Joelle’s head as she sat alone at a yellow table in the corner of the room. Expecting the usual hug and kiss, followed by a shriek of joy and laughter, Eli lightly tapped Joelle’s shoulder to grab her attention. Instead, Joelle turned her chair, stood up-staring straight into Eli’s eyes, and slapped her across the face!! Joelle screamed, yelled, punched Eli’s shoulder, and kicked her legs.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” Eli explains, “My heart raced, my fingers trembled, and my body began to shake. Never in my life had I been as petrified as I was that exact moment.” Eli’s body began to tremble. “What had happened to Joelle? Why didn’t she remember me? Why was she acting like this?” As the questions rushed through Eli’s head, tears began to run down her cheeks.

Mr. Rosenthal saw what had happened and hurried over to calm Joelle down and explain to Eli her sudden aggressive behavior. A few days earlier, he explained, Joelle’s doctor changed her medication in hope of reducing her mental impairments. The doctors didn’t know if the new medication would successfully work on Joelle, but warned her parents that the change might affect her personality and behavior. It wasn’t Joelle’s fault for hitting Eli; it was the effect of her new medication.

Eli cries when retelling the story, “Joelle didn’t play and laugh with me that Sunday morning. She wasn’t the gregarious, high spirited, friendly girl I used to know. And it was only then that I realized I needed Joelle to be my friend as much as she needed me to be hers.”

After three years of standing by Joelle, as she grew and developed from a lonely ten-year old child into a wonderful teenage girl, Eli finally recognized how much Joelle had added to her own life all along.

As she left the Friendship Circle Center that Sunday morning, Eli’s life was not the same. It was missing something--Joelle.

Joelle made Eli realize that giving to others was something she deeply wanted to do with her life. She showed Eli that being a mentor, teacher, and educator were each important and fulfilling. Being a friend, however, was more valuable.

“I never thought that volunteering my time at the Friendship Circle would give me something back;” Eli confessed, “Yet, it gave me a gift I would not have been able to obtain anywhere else, the gift of ‘friendship.’”

Eli hopes to take her experiences with Joelle and use them to be a better educator and teacher one day. As Joelle said when she was only 11 years old, “teachers are the best people in the world!”
Eli has now moved on to graduate as a Special Education major and spend the rest of her days with little boys and girls just like Joelle.

Blogging

As subtle as it may be, this simple fun typing activity- blogging has changed the entire face of journalism, media, and the publishing industry.
Michael Skube, a journalist for The Los Angeles Times, strongly regards blogging as a form of destruction for journalism and newspapers. In his article, “Blogs: All the noise that fits,” Skube portrays blogging to be a hobby that bloggers occupy themselves with in order to give over their own opinions and takes on different issues which should not to be mistaken for the factual information journalists would provide. Bloggers have the ability to write and post whatever they want to say and don’t need to worry about any rules, while journalist and editors need to go through an entire checking process by the newspapers. Michael Skube feels so strongly on his point because he doesn’t think that bloogers are putting enough effort into making sure what they’re writing is the correct information, rather just stating their own independent opinions.
Even before the internet was created, Christopher Lasch, a journalist and historian, expressed his view on public affairs, saying that there is a vast amount of facts and information being supplied but, what the audience now needs is to hear different opinions. So on the contrary to Skube, Lasch originally agreed with the blogging idea.
Andrew Sullivan’s report called “The Blogging Revolution,” takes a totally different twist. He supports the bloggers side, and believes that it’s a more personal piece from the writer’s point of view. Anyways, he says, readers know that writers and editors for newspapers are just simply the same as these bloggers sitting behind their computer screens. Ten years ago, if you wanted to get your idea out, there was a whole process of getting and editor, then a publisher, make it into a book, etc…Although, now with the blogging revolution, anyone can easily do this entire process from within their own very homes.
Both Michael Skube and Andrew Sullian agree on the fact that blogging has greatly affected the journalism and media field, but their positions are totally contradictory. Andrew Sullivan enjoys the fact that he could write and posts blogs without having to pass through the newspapers, so he can feel free to add his own opinions into the articles, whereas Michael Skube supports the principle that articles need to be written by fact, not personal outlook. They both agree on the concept that readers clearly understand the bloggers emotions about the topics being discussed. Sullivan and Skube also agree on the fact that blogging has become more popular as the internet has become a more focal societal interest.
I personally agree with Andrew Sullivan because I feel that readers are interested in not only hearing the facts but also knowing what others have to say about them.

The Friendship Circle of Great Neck

“What am I doing here? Why did I ever sign up for this?”
The room was loud, crowded, and demanding as temperamental autistic children threw unexpected fits.

Within my first five steps into the Friendship Circle Center, a ragged old house on the corner of East Shore Road, in Great Neck, N.Y., I already knew it wasn’t the place for me. However, I was suddenly attracted to a young girl who was sitting on the other side of the room. Her warm, loving smile and the happiness shining from her eyes immediately fascinated me. Staring at her cheerful eagerness as she completed the last few pieces of her alphabet puzzle, I realized there was something particularly special about her.

Mr. Rosenthal, the Friendship Circle director, informed me that I would be working with a ten year old girl named Joelle who had an undiagnosed form of mental retardation. My job would be to provide companionship, support, and encouragement for the special needs child assigned under my care. Joelle was adopted at birth, as a perfectly healthy child, by a lovely couple that was unable to have children of their own. Unexpectedly, due to a virus at the age of three, Joelle developed a mental impairment.

Mr. Rosenthal called me over to introduce me to my “friend.” He led me across the room to a small yellow table in corner where she sat with her puzzle. I couldn’t believe it. Joelle was the girl for whom I felt such a strong attraction when I first walked into the room that morning! Something about her warmth of attitude made me feel welcome and perfectly comfortable.

From that first day three and a half years ago, I have spent almost every Sunday morning playing, learning, and laughing with Joelle. In addition to our weekly meetings, I occasionally took Joelle bowling, out for pizza, or to see the latest Disney movie. As the years passed, it became increasingly obvious that Joelle not only appreciated me but really thought of me as a true friend.

My week always started with the sweet flowery scent of Joelle’s hair as she wrapped herself into my arms in the beginning of our session each Sunday morning. The months flew by and Joelle remained as happy as always until one Sunday morning in early May, the Sunday morning that would change my life. I arrived at the Friendship Circle center a little late and immediately noticed the back of Joelle’s head as she sat alone at a yellow table in the corner of the room. Expecting the usual hug and kiss, followed by a scream of joy and laughter, I lightly tapped Joelle’s shoulder to grab her attention. Instead, Joelle turned her chair, stood up staring straight into my eyes, and slapped me across the face. She screamed, yelled, punched my shoulder, and kicked my legs. I didn’t know what was happening. My heart raced, my fingers trembled, and my body began to shake. Never in my life had I been as petrified as I was that exact moment. “What had happened to Joelle? Why didn’t she remember me? Why was she acting like this?” As the questions rushed through my head, tears began to run down my cheeks.

Mr. Rosenthal saw what had happened and hurried over to calm Joelle down and explain to me her sudden aggressive behavior. A few days earlier, he explained, Joelle’s doctor changed her medication in hope of reducing her mental impairments. The doctors didn’t know if the new medication would successfully work on Joelle, but warned her parents that the change might affect her personality and behavior. It wasn’t Joelle’s fault for hitting me; it was the effect of her new medication.

Joelle didn’t play and laugh with me that Sunday morning. She wasn’t the gregarious, high spirited, friendly girl I used to know. And it was only then that I realized I needed Joelle to be my friend as much as she needed me to be hers. After three years of standing by her, as she grew and developed from a lonely ten-year old child into a wonderful teenage girl, I finally recognized how much Joelle had added to my own life all along.

As I left the Friendship Circle Center that Sunday morning, my life was not the same. It was missing something-Joelle. Joelle made me realize that giving to others was something I wanted to do with my life. She showed me that being a mentor, teacher, and educator were each important and fulfilling. Being a friend, however, was more valuable. I never thought that volunteering my time at the Friendship Circle would give me something back; yet, it gave me a gift I would not have been able to obtain anywhere else, the gift of “friendship.”

I hope to take my experiences with Joelle and use them to be a better educator and teacher one day. As Joelle said when she was only 11 years old, “teachers are the best people in the world!”

My Great Neck Community

Anyone who is familiar with the Great Neck neighborhood, is probably also familiar with the “Mashadi” community. The “Mashadi” community is an extremely private and eccentric close-knit community of Persian decent (yes, I speak fluent Persian.) Being part of this community comes with expectations. My parents expect me to keep with the traditions that I was brought up with, have Mashadi friends, and always stay part of the community. (What does that mean? I must marry a Mashadi!) When I was just a little kid I didn’t even know that there were people in this world who weren’t “Mashadi” Jews. I always thought it was something special to be part of this neighborhood, with its own private synagogue, lectures, parties, events etc… I always felt like I was part of this separate world. This world where everyone knows each other, and we all know that we know each other; however, it wasn’t until recently that I realized that there’s a whole other world outside of Great Neck.

I went to a Jewish private school all my life, and even after I graduated I spent one year abroad learning in another Jewish school for girls in Israel. It was great! I loved it so much! But I guess I truly did never realize how much I was in a bubble growing up all my life. I always just felt kind of comfortable and safe with my own friends, my own community, my Great Neck- my usual life. I suppose the truth is, I never really ever had to leave Great Neck. Whatever I needed was always just there- shopping, restaurants, movies, parks… However, it’s all different now. My eyes have been opened. I’m living in America 2009- I better start getting with the game and facing reality.

It all started hundreds of years ago in Iran, where all my family (parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins) were born and raised. The Jewish community from the city called “Mashad” in Iran all stuck together in hope of not getting assimilated. Since there weren’t too many Jews living there at the time, it was the norm for guys and girls to marry their first cousins. A big fear aroused the Jewish community when one day a Muslim man asked to marry a young beautiful Jewish girl. The Jewish parents wanted to take extra precautions to make sure such a fate wouldn’t befall their daughter so they would arrange assigned-marriages for their children from the day they were born, and at around 13/14 years old these girls would get married. One of my grandmothers was engaged at 11 and married by 13 and the other was engaged at 12 and married at 15. Its funny, because they still have this mentality and think it’s very strange that I’m almost 19 and still not wed.

Ever since the revolution, my parents and grandparents moved to America. Almost the entire Jewish community in Mashad, Iran moved to Great Neck, NY. This huge community emerged and continues to grow larger and larger every year. We now have our own Mashadi phonebook, weekly Mashadi newsletter, and even a Mashadi picture album website online. I can assume that from an outsiders point of view we seem pretty freakish and locked up, but I personally, in fact, find it very beautiful and inspiring that the community has stayed so strong and close, and has done so much to keep all their youth and elders so united. It’s so refreshing to know that I will always have a support system there for me.

In the 1970s, the challenges of the “Mashadi” community was learning the English language. In 2009, our youth has broken out and expanded all new territory. Whether its from Mashadi guys and girls setting off and earning their masters and degrees from all different universities, building new corporations in New York City, or even simply just attending Queens College, we have made that move and have opened ourselves to see the world through glasses that reach far beyond our “Mashadi” Great Neck Community.

In the larger scope though, Great Neck isn’t only about the “Mashadis”-even though many try to believe so. Great Neck is predominantly occupied by wealthy white families. There are many predestined assumptions that everyone in Great Neck is stuck-up and extremely rich. Not really so true! The houses in Kings Point are lovely to look at but the majority of Great Neck families live normal lives in pretty normal size homes. It’s a very cozy neighborhood with basically everything you need right here for you. In the end of the day, yes I have been living in a “Mashadi Great Neck” bubble- but I believe that its never too late to set free, meet people from all different backgrounds and to learn something new from others.