TOW #20: "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal" (IRB)

After World War II, there was a great increase in fast food restaurants in America. Over the decades into the new millennium, the food culture in America continued to change. Today, more and more people around the world are consuming fast food on a regular basis. Though it might taste good, Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal, argues against it. Through the use of alarming statistics and inductive reasoning to persuade American readers about the dangers of fast food.

The alarming statistics used by Schlosser are key to his persuasion because they reveal facts about fast food consumption that were never expected by the audience. Schlosser included a statistic about soda and milk consumption early in his book, stating that milk used to be consumed twice as much as soda, but now, it is the opposite. With this statistic, readers get a sense of just how bad the fast food problem is. They are already aware of the dangers of soda coming in, and this allows the statistic to be more persuasive. Schlosser also included a statistic about food preparation, stating that 75% of money spent on food used to be spent on home preparation, but now, 50% is spent at restaurants. By giving a little background about food preparation first, and then presenting an alarming statistic, Schlosser is able to persuade his audience that the dangers of fast food do exist.

The author also uses inductive reasoning to support the viewpoint that fast food is indeed bad for society and something should be done against it. Schlosser first introduced an example, stating that the government can demand recalls for toys and such, but it cannot demand the removal of hazardous food products from restaurants and supermarkets. This piece of evidence, which he backs up through the statistics seen earlier, are grouped together to then support a claim. He later states that Congress should take charge against the dangers of fast food with bans on child targeted advertising and laws regarding tougher food safety. Altogether, the combination of examples and claims go a long way to persuading Schlosser’s audience about the dangers of fast food.

The last time I stepped into a fast food restaurant was around 5 years ago, and Schlosser’s book only expanded that potential gap. Concrete examples, statistics, and logic were very important to his claims, and they proved to be very effective. Overall, it will be interesting to read the rest of his book.

                

TOW #19: "Shelved" (Visual)

In recent years and the past decade, as technology continues to improve and smartphone, tablet, and laptop ownership is on the rise, society seems to be shying away from the library. People I ask just say, “Well, everything is on the internet now!” In a recent The New Yorker issue, Roz Chast challenged this idea by drawing a cartoon, called Shelved, displaying a full shelf of books and a man in front sitting with a laptop and headphones. In the cartoon, Chast uses unique facial expressions and scaling to show the neglect “felt” by the books and encourage viewers to give the library another look.

On the huge shelf of books behind the man in the cartoon, Chast drew unique and humorous faces on each of the books to emphasize the lost interest in books. For example, some of the books on the shelf show confused or angry faces. They also seem to be looking down at the man in the foreground. These faces reveal, through personification, how the books feel because of neglect, and hopefully encourage viewers to give them another look. Other faces look like they are sleeping, which shows that the books “are bored” and therefore are upset that no one is opening them and absorbing the knowledge they have to offer. All of these faces are Chast’s way of appealing to viewers’ pathos, therefore encouraging them to embrace the library in a time where the internet and cyber-technology have taken over.

As the viewer’s focus shifts down toward the man from the top of the cartoon, they notice the extreme smallness of the man and his belongings compared to the shelf of books behind him. This scaling serves to reveal the vast knowledge books have to offer by showing the internet and new technology as being inadequate in comparison. The size of the computer on the man’s lap is much, much smaller than the size of the bookshelf, which emphasizes the knowledge gap between the books in existence and technology. The man himself is also very small, and his ignorant posture, with his back turned on the shelf, serves to focus the viewer’s attention on themselves. By increasing the relative size of the bookshelf and emphasizing the ignorance of the man, Chast is able to appeal to his viewers’ emotions and propose the return to the library and to books.

Released in 2010, Shelved came at the perfect time, right on schedule for age of the smartphone and cloud computing. With so much technology being shoved in consumers’ faces, it is kind of hard to resist the temptation. Hopefully, Shelved is an effective reminder of the wealth in books and an encouragement to the trips back to the library.

TOW #18: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (Written)

Recently, with the availability of information at society’s fingertips, through technology, a friend discussed how family arguments had waned in their home. Nicholas Carr also seemed to share opinions on the topic, which is why he wrote an essay in 2008 called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Written for Atlantic magazine, the essay discussed Carr’s views of technology’s effect on our knowledge and ability to learn through argumentative methods. Carr’s use of exemplification and quoting proved that technology was indeed worsening society’s ability to learn and encouraged a countermeasure to be undertaken.

                Carr’s use of exemplification was an integral part of his being able to support his purpose. He first included an example of his own findings, stating that he spent time, “watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link” (par. 2). Carr’s inclusion of the word “tripping” in this example indicates a negative approach, since the word itself generally has a negative connotation. This word shows readers that going from link to link on the internet is not a positive thing to do, which suggests that it could be detrimental to our learning ability. It shows that society isn’t thinking about what they are doing on the internet. Along with this, the author continued to use examples throughout the essay to prove that something needed to be done against the problem.

                After Carr proved that there was a problem with technology’s availability through his example, he then used a paraphrased quote to emphasize it. Later in the essay, Carr included a statement from Marshall McLuhan about technology’s effect on thought, which stated that technology, “supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought” (par. 3). This statement from a media theorist emphasized Carr’s point because it established his credibility. Since the audience could understand that Carr knew his topic, they could more clearly understand that technology could lead to a problem with learning and thought.

                Although many people, including Carr and the theorists he quoted in his essay, have stated information’s availability at fingertips could be detrimental, no one has seemed to care too much. Almost everyone has a smartphone with a data connection nowadays, which adds fuel to the fire. Carr does suggest that something should be done, and if he is right about the problem, it could lead to grave consequences.

                

"Fast Food Nation:" Introductory Post

McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, Carl's Jr.... the list goes on and on. The evidence for the infiltration of fast food into the typical American citizen's life is sound, and it shows that something needs to be done about it. Fast food is extremely unhealthy for any human, which contributes to the problem of the ever-growing fast food industry, both in the United States as well as around the world. Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser takes an in-depth look at the industry in his 2001 book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal. It will be interesting to see the inside workings of the fast food industry that we've all been warned about but have never actually totally understood. In some ways, this book continues with facts and statistics for society, like Freakonomics, but from a fast food perspective. I look forward to reading this book fully, due to its significant relationship with our lives today.

TOW #17: Facebook Friendonomics (Written)

Recently, I read the book Freakonomics, which explored the hidden economics of everyday situations. Scott Brown, New York magazine’s theater critic, wrote his essay Facebook Friendonomics, using the title to refer to the best-selling book. His essay also focuses on a hidden side of an everyday idea: Facebook. Brown uses allusions and imagery to convince readers that “friending” people of social media removes the original sensation of friendship.

                Brown’s inclusion of allusions and referrals is very important since it helps the audience connect with his point more easily. For example, he refers to the Rolodex when discussing the value of friendship. He states, “Friending has subsumed the ol’ Rolodex… But the great thing about the Rolodex was that it never talked back…” (par. 4). Brown’s reference to the Rolodex shows how friendship online can be a distant affair and cannot assume the values of pure, face-to-face friendship. In another part of his essay, Brown refers to a Showtime subscription, stating that it, like friendship, allows you to, “chance, adapt, evolve or devolve” (par. 5). This shows readers that some friendships are meant to be ended; to help one grow as a person, whereas online friends do not allow such growth. In this way, Brown is able to convince the audience that online friends cannot offer the same values and lessons included with a proper friendship.

                Secondly, Brown also includes imagery to persuade his audience about the negative impact of online friendships. He states that, “the flimsiest of attachments – the chance convention buddy, the cube-mate from the ‘90s, the bar napkin hookup – will be preserved” (par. 2). Brown’s diction in this sentence gives negative connotation to the readers about online friendship, since it shows that regretful events of the past will be preserved and will not allow someone to move on from that spot. Later, Brown considers an analogy, stating that online friends, “are the currency of the socially networked world; therefore, it follows that more equals better” (par. 3). Similarly in this case, Brown’s metaphor shows a negative side of online friends by comparing them to greed for money, and therefore is more convincing of the fact that online friends just remove the original sensations and values behind proper friendship.

                As a high school student, plenty of kids around me have increased their time on social media with “friends” from a couple minutes to hours every day. Brown’s convincing argument against such attachments shows that people around me might be making a mistake, and it’s probably time for them to get off the computer, met people face-to-face, and enjoy the values of human interaction.

                

TOW #16: "Freakonomics" (IRB)

            Throughout the past month, I have been reading Freakonomics, an informative, yet entertaining book written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Before starting the read, I expected it to be similar to the book Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, and I am glad to say it has upheld that standard. Freakonomics uses very creative methods to convey information and generally increase the audience’s awareness for the hidden sides of scenarios they are put in. These methods include both short sentences and statistics to prove the hidden side of every scenario.

            Although some of the things mentioned in Freakonomics are quite complex, the authors frequently use the power of the short sentence to emphasize their points. This structure is often used in conjunction with their narratives to simplify the long paragraphs into short meaningful phrases the entire audience can understand, not just economists. For example, when the authors introduce the book, they discuss the idea of conventional wisdom being wrong, and they reduce their long monologue about the topic down to a few short sentences at the end. This allows the authors to emphasize their point about it and give the audience a sense of the examples presented later in the book. Later in the book, while discussing sumo wrestlers and mutual cheating, quite a weird example to the audience, they use short sentences to reduce the complex example to something everyone can easily understand. In this way, the authors are able to extend their message about the hidden side of everything to the entire audience, and therefore, achieve their purpose in writing.

            Statistics are also used throughout the book, and like short sentences, they are used to emphasize the authors’ main talking points. The authors used statistics when describing the role teachers play in students’ standardized test scores. This allowed them to communicate their point about teachers themselves cheating for their students in a much more understandable way. This allows Levitt and Dubner to more effectively communicate the hidden side of various scenarios to their audience, thus achieving their purpose.

            Overall, Freakonomics has been a very enjoyable read. The authors did a great job simplifying information and making me, as a reader, think more deeply about the world around me. This was definitely their true purpose in writing and as I am sure many readers understood it well, that purpose was achieved.

TOW #15: "Girl Scouts" (Visual)

Girl Scout cookies are a huge hit in many schools and communities throughout America. To spur the popularity, the organization released an advertisement in 2011 to spread the message and increase awareness of the program. To achieve this, the advertisement color contrast and unique font to convince more students to join the organization.

            The advertisement first uses contrasting colors to show the problem with not joining the program. At the top of the ad, there is a black-and-white picture of three obviously bored girls. In this case, the grayscale colors reflect the bored emotions of the girls in the picture. However, at the bottom of the advertisement, there are color photos of girl scouts doing the characteristic activities, such as rock climbing and kayaking. The contrast between the grayscale and color reflects the emotions of the girls in the program. Therefore, the audience is convinced to join the program, since they can understand that they will have better, more fun and educational experiences by joining girl scouts.

            The advertisement also uses fancy fonts to emphasize the euphoric emotions experienced by girls in the program. The font for the phrase, “What did you do today?” is not straight like essay font. Instead, it has angles and fun edges. Therefore, the audience is convinced that the program is going to be a fun experience if they join. The font on “Girl Scouts 2011” is also a little fancy, suggesting that people that join the program will relish the experiences they had and be proud enough to sell those to others. In those ways, the advertisement is able to convince more people to join the Girl Scout program in America.

            By contrasting colors and adding fonts, the Girl Scout organization is able to showcase the experiences and emotions felt by the girls in their programs, and in turn convince others to join. Therefore the ad is very effective, and hopefully, there will be even more cookies on people’s doorsteps because of it.