"Hawkeye The First Frontier"

A gentile lady named Elizabeth, along with her husband, William, travel north to open a new trading post in Fort Bennington. When they first arrive, they encounter dangerous Indians, valuable friends, and deceitful people. Hawkeye, a man living in the wild, along with his native friend, rescues this couple from the attacking Iroquois Indians. All the while, the British and French forces struggle against each other for privileges to certain pieces of land. As I sat down with my sister to watch the first episode of the series Hawkeye, I was not prepared for all of what went on in the next fifty minutes: deceit, Indians, a fight, a kidnapping, and shootings. That was only the beginning part of the first episode. This episode, called the Pilot, ended with a kidnapping, and that got me excited to watch and see how the rest of the series would play out.

One thing that mainly stuck out to me was the deceit that happened between two brothers. William and Elizabeth came to Fort Bennington to join William’s brother, who was already stationed there, and start a trading post. Before they arrived, William wanted his brother to secure trading contracts with other trading posts around the area, but he had not completed the task before William and Elizabeth had arrived. Therefore, William urged him to finish it in the next couple of days. William’s brother did not like to be given orders, so he planned to have William captured by the French and taken away.  To accomplish this task, he told William that he had created trading relationships with the French and that he would need to go and meet with them. When William went to meet with them and discuss business, they captured him and took him away.

I honestly could not believe that a family member would do such a despicable thing to his own brother. I know that sometimes siblings can be a pain; but I would never set up the kidnapping of any of my siblings. William’s brother was obviously very selfish to be only thinking of himself and not how this would affect William, his wife, or their new business. The writers made an excellent attention-grabbing plot line which has kept me yearning to continue the series. I do hope as I finish the watching this series that William will be recused and his brother will see that what he did was inappropriate and apologize to William.     

"Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally"

The topic of cellphone jammers is a tricky subject to discuss. On one hand I see the advantages of using a cellphone jammer, but I also see the inconvenience that it could cause the victims. The article “Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally” (pg. 163-165) written by Matt Richtel, examines mostly the benefits to owning and using a cellphone jammer, while only showing a little bit of the its negative effects. The reason cellphone jammers are bought and used is so others can secretly cut off people’s access of their phones in situations most often when being on a phone would be distracting to others or the owner of the cellphone themselves.

The author gives various accounts of how these devices work in real life situations. One story is sadly typical of our current culture, the story of the restaurant owner in Maryland. The owner bought a cellphone jammer because his young employees would repeatedly be on their phones rather than paying attention to the customers in the restaurant. Although I understand the restaurant owner’s need for desperate measures, I honestly think that cellphone jammers are not the way to fix this and many other problems that comes with cellphone usage. This day in age, cell phones are the norm. For most people, cellphones are like another part of their body, they cannot go anywhere without it. Truthfully, there are situations where cellphones need to be turned off, not just vibrate. It amazes me how inconsiderate people are to other people. By using or leaving your phone on in a movie theater, a meeting, or during a musical performance, that person is basically stating that they do not care about the event that they are attending. It is also is very rude and inconsiderate of the people you are with to be consistently checking your phone. I think there are other steps that can be taken to reduce cellphone usage at inconvenient times. One suggestion I have for the restaurant owner of Maryland is that when he sees an employee on their cellphone during work hours, he should give them a warning for the first time, and then punish them in some way. If people could see that there could be consequences for their constant cellphone use and if they started thinking about other’s feelings as well as their own, I believe eventually we could come to some sort of medium in fixing this cellphone problem. 

Rude Strangers....why?

“If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” Sometimes I wonder if various adults did not learn this when they were young. This was one of the thoughts that was running through my head as I read this (http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/020614-hey-my-family-is-not-incomplete-without-a-son/) article. In this article, a mother writes about how often strangers approach her family in public places making impolite remarks about their three daughters or asking if they are going to keep trying to have a boy. What gives complete and total strangers the right to make rude comments to another complete stranger/stranger’s family? I honestly do not understand why random people choose to say disrespectful things to someone they do not even know. The rude stranger will probably never see that other person again, so why bother them with what you think about their family? Why do strangers make others feel ashamed of their lives?  Maybe this family only wanted three kids, so why do people trouble them by asking if they are going to try for a boy or say rude things about their daughters when the girls are right there and can hear you talking about them? “Think before you speak,” is another quote that many people should take to heart. Because most of the time you do not know the whole story. Maybe after having their three girls, they found out they could not have any more children, or maybe they are trying for a boy now, but no one knows everyone’s stories. As a result, next time try saying something nice instead, or just smile and keep walking. Often times it is better not to say anything at all. Let us all try to be more polite and keep our own opinions to ourselves when amongst strangers. 

"Is Social Networking a Waste of Time?"

            In the article “Is Social Networking a Waste of Time?”, the author, Bernhard Warner, discusses how social networking does distract many students as well as adults from accomplishing their work, but ultimately states that the creativity, courage, and computer coding used outweighs the bad aspects of social networking. I honestly do not agree with his final statement. I believe that students along with adults can still be creative without wasting valuable work/school time. There are endless ways to show creativity and courage without even using the computer. Not that you cannot use the computer to do so, but I do not believe in using school/work time to accomplish that. Social networking, in my opinion, is an enormous distraction. Warner even points out how adults are wasting valuable work time by checking social media and students are often checking their phones during school lectures. By allowing this behavior to continue, people soon will be more interested in online networks than hanging out with friends. This behavior is already starting to become a norm. In a group setting, individuals are constantly on their phones: texting, facebooking, tweeting, instagraming, etc. rather than making memories and having deep conversations with the other people there. It saddens me how much time people would rather spend on their phones than with people. Now, social networking is not all bad, there are benefits also. For instance, social networking helps friends keep in touch if they have moved far away from each other. Also, the internet is full of information that is extremely helpful for school-related things or if you just want to know about a certain topic. You can see that there are great benefits and distractions regarding social media and I believe that limiting the time that students/employees are allowed on social media, will increase the productivity of both groups.