cohenjo8-blog

[cohenjo8-blog]

Photo 1:

After an uproarious night of promiscuity and alcohol consumption, it isn’t uncommon to play games with the friends of ours who went too hard-too quickly, passing out before the end of the night.

Through these kinds of experiences, our friendships grow stronger every day.

After these experiences occur, we usually would find ourselves closer than we once were, based on the ability to reference and remember (altogether fuzzy) experiences of glee and enjoyment.

Photo 2:

Usually following the consumption of alcohol, we proceed to turn ourselves into walking jokes, that we constantly repeat and discuss at great length, creating a foundation for the rest of our friendships to be based on.

This behavior helps us find a collective identity in that our absurdity is what we have based our friendship on. In being funny, we are connecting through a shared identity. 

The tomfoolery aspect plays a larger role, depending on the friends being exposed to this strategy. As we make fools of ourselves, we find that our inhibitions are lowered, and we are able to connect more freely with our friends, because they seem to know intimate details about our lives.

Photo 3:

As previously mentioned, most of my (male) friends play instruments, and we engage in practicing and performing music as a band called Sabertooth Fiancée.

Since we share this hobby, we are able to connect quicker and more easily.

Arnett divulges that, “… Friends are likely to expect conformity among group members that is consistent with the similarities that drew them together in the first place…” So here we can see how we came together. We found each other based on our desires to play music!

Everyday, we set time aside to engage in routine activities that we all enjoy doing, and furthermore, that we all enjoy doing together.

We jam out, practicing music for a few hours, all the while utilizing social vehicles such as, but not limited to alcohol and recreational drug consumption.

Photo 4:

We play instruments, and we also go out to see local bands engaging in tomfoolery and instrumentalization that we all share in common. When we go out and meet people in other groups, it causes our bonds to tighten. We go out and do what we do best. We make fools of ourselves, consume recreational drugs such as alcohol, and we party very hard, thereby gaining a shared identity of foolhardiness that we share and discuss at length, later down the road.

Photo 5:

We don’t only go out to see shows. We also play shows on a frequent basis.

This allows us not only to gain interpersonal experiences together, but we also have the ability to share our experiences with the people around us, letting outsiders gain a glimpse of our collective abilities, that we have honed together.

Photo 6:

The article discussing the millennial generation in Time magazine describes the youthful generation as “interacting all day, but almost entirely through a screen...” (Stein, 29). I have experienced that to a certain degree, but when we get together to put on shows, we allow people to break their habits of digital life, bringing them together to experience something together.

This crowd of people came to see Sabertooth Fiancée at our very first show. We brought people out of their homes/shells, in order to meet each other and to strengthen their own abilities to make friends. As is the theme, this also allowed us to reflect on our abilities as musicians and friends, enhancing our socialization abilities.

Photo 7:

The way my friends and I socialize may be different from the way that most people entering adulthood behave. I believe there to be similarities to the behavior described by Arnett. He discusses the way “adolescent peers in the West encourage each other toward alcohol use… that is proscribed… by many parents…” I find these similarities because, as I became better friends with these peers, we would engage in alcohol-fueled activities that strengthened our bonds through bonding experiences.           

 In conclusion, I don’t believe my group of friends to be that different from most other groups, with my social context and background, my age and sex, in college.

I think much of social interaction between groups of friends in college depend on social vehicles such as alcohol and recreational drugs.

This seems to be a rite of passage in terms of the youth’s relationship with society, transitioning from college students to adults in the real world. With these experiences under our proverbial belts, we are able to enter society later in life, with the ability to slow down, to move on and to transition into adulthood more smoothly. I think this is a positive aspect of our rowdy lifestyles, and I, personally, would not change a thing.

[cohenjo8-blog]

The Mission Statement of MSU Student Coalition Against Human Trafficking states that: 

"...Our mission is to increase public awareness about human trafficking through educational outreach and advocacy, examine research and literature to push for legislative action and policy reform, and to raise funding and support for the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force..."

The MSUCAHT is located in East Lansing, Michigan. They work alongside the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force, open to all members of the Michigan State University, and Lansing circles.

They were founded in October of 2012, and have held many events since then. Along with avid posting on their facebook page, they have led protests and organized events to raise awareness and funding for their mission.

In January of this year, they organized a free women's health and fitness event, and they distributed a large number of t-shirts to spread awareness of their cause.

In February, they held a fundraising event at Buffalo Wild Wings, where over 80 people were in attendance from the community.

[cohenjo8-blog]

Tumblr Assignment #11 - Interview Reflections

'... Social identity dictates how a person views dating...'

I had a very positive experience interviewing one of my peers for the Seen and Heard Essay I wrote about the views of the youth on the dating scene.

My friend, who will remain anonymous has had a very interesting experience in the dating world so far, in his life. During his time at MSU, I've either seen or heard the turmoil that has errupted with his past flings, so the name of this essay holds a double meaning for me.

"... The anger and tension would erupt into a screaming match that would ultimately lead me to leave her house, to hang out with my friends, which was the original plan anyway! Once I got to their house, I would complain about her and our fights..."

My friend definitely understood the point of the interview right off the bat, but I don't think he answered my questions sufficiently. If I could interview him again, and redo the assignment, I think I would focus more on having him explain his understanding of dating as a whole, not just his personal experience. 

"... Women nowadays don’t—I mean people, men and women my age don’t really just get together and hang out without social vehicles like drugs and booze! I challenge anyone to find a place where young people hang out, where they aren’t studying or getting plastered. At least that’s how I see youth nowadays..."

The point of this assignment was to get an understanding of how my generation views dating, but instead, because of how I led the interview, we only really got a snapshot of his experience dating. Toward the end of the discussion, I slowly forced him to discuss his feelings about dating in general, but really, the bulk of the essay focused on his experiences.

** The main thing I learned about youth, in the opinion of my friend, is that youth tend to congregate around social vehicles that release the tension and anxiety that come with meeting new people; being put into new social situations. People my age, when meeting new friends, tend to gather around alcohol or marijuana, dancing at a party, or making fools of themselves in some other way.

"... People my age are always either hooking up for meaningless flings or they are already in committed relationships that they’ve been building for years..."

Through this method, the youthful generation can express themselves without fear of judgement, through the decrease of inhibitions, thanks to mind numbing substances.

[cohenjo8-blog]

The U.S. Open of Surfing turned into a riot. Mark Lukach on what it says about surf culture.

A surfing competition usually lasts over the course of a month. That way, forecasters and surfing officials can work together to find the best times and spots for surfers to compete. Over the last week and a half of June, there was a surfing competition that yielded few waves, but also mass amounts of spectators, totalling over 750,000 people. As the article states, that is a lot of people to be sitting around watching nothing happen for hours in the sun, on the beach. After an hour of idle waves, the competition ended. As it ended, a fight broke out, which erupted into a riot that caused much mayhem and dismay on the main street that led up tot he competition site.

The article begins framing the surf subculture to be one of anarchy and disarray, ie: getting rowdy, a general sense of rebelliousness and skateboarding collisions. They describe the culture to be pumped full of false expectations of punk/negatively themed experiences, far from the reality of the straight laced festivals that actually occur.

Throughout the essay, one feels a sense of thematic description. Youth cause mayhem. The youth are not to be trusted. The youth cant handle a few hours of baking in the sun. 

The main graphic for the article seems a bit episodic, focusing on the destruction caused while youthful congregants looted a bike shop, but overall, the article seems to be a call for decency, a call for youthful social reform, to turn our kids back into what they used to be, before this surf/skating culture arose and tainted our children.

I think that this event that occured, the rioting in Huntington beach was a mass hysteria brought on by copious amounts of sunlight and boredom. A mob mentality took hold of the sunburned and sun stroked members of the US Surfing Open spectators, and they were caught in a brief few hours of mass hysteria that drove them to cause some damage up and down one of the only main streets in the area.

I think this article could address the fact that no one was significantly hurt, and that the event was poorly mismanaged. 

[cohenjo8-blog]

Tumblr Assignment 9 - Creationism STILL in Schools!

'Ball State University has announced that it will no longer allow creationism to be taught in its science classes...'

Giroux spends a lot of time in this reading discussing the relationship between the pedagogy of education and the youth of America.

There is an art to raising children to become autonomous people in a thriving society, and in my opinion, we are taking steps to right the wrongs of the past. We are seeing a dichotomy between church and state, that we have never seen before, in terms of education.

While it is shocking that Ball State University is still offering courses in creationism over evolution, at least we can see a change happening, where people are turning away from the beliefs of the church, and are moving toward science, and the art of objectivity.

This is symbolic of the relationship youth has with society, because with the coming of the internet, people, especially the youthful generation, are becoming more informed than ever before. People are learning from the free flow of information the world wide web has to offer!