Hey! You Can't Wear That!

In response to Ms. Powell's Hey! You Can't Wear That!

Abercombie and Fitch, a teen clothing retailer, has undergone controversy in the past.  Recently, an interview from 2006 with the company’s executive, Michael Jeffries, re-surfaced.  Please read the following article to find out what the interview was about:

This issue was also featured on the Ellen Degeneres show.  Watch the following video to see how Ellen feels about this retailer:

Many individuals have been speaking out against Jeffries.  People are even being encouraged to sign a petition against the company’s policy.

Check out the following video to learn about what one individual is doing:

Based on the article and the video above, comment on the questions below in a blog post of 300 words.

1.     How do you feel about Michael Jeffries’ view on who should wear Abercrombie and               Fitch’s  clothing?

2.     Is it fair/equitable to target a particular group of teens?  Why or why not?

3.     How does this contribute to our already biased perception of what beauty is?

My responses are:

1. I feel that Michael Jeffries view on who should wear Abercrombie and Fitch clothing is that its really terrible and mean. I think this because he is being very stereotypical to people that are overweight. I think this because he said that overweight people will never be part of the "popular crowd" and also his clothing company does not create clothing sizes of XXL or XL while his competitors do. According to him fat kids will never be apart of his clothing brand. I feel that he should stop what he is doing and be like other clothing companies and have XXL and XL clothing. All of his comments are really mean, rude, and stereotypical.
2. No it is not fair/equitable to target a particular group of teens. It is not fair/equitable to target  particular group of teens because nobody wants to be made fun of or feel left out and out of place for something that isn't even their fault. Its not right to do what Michael Jeffries is doing, singling out and isolating one particular group. It isn't fair to target a particular group when you own a big company like Abercrombie and Fitch because you can also influence other teens and other people to isolate this particular group.
3. This contributes to our already biased perception of what beauty I. This contributes to our biased perception of what beauty is by saying being beautiful is when you are slim, clean, perfect, etc. With all the magazines with beautiful people, this is what is contributing to peoples opinions about what perception of beauty is. Showing only biased perception of beauty on magazines and television will only influence others that this is the only kind of beauty. People will only think of beauty as a very nice outer appearance and not on the what is on the inside which is their personality. Now that Abercrombie and Fitch is doing this it is going to get even worse because other companies and people will get influenced by their opinion and that's not good.

On a Tweet and a Prayer

In response to Ms. Powell's  On a Tweet and a Prayer...

Over the past few years, there has been much discussion about how to get our youth more involved in the life of our Church.  Our last Pope, Pope Benedict XVI began his own twitter account to reach out to the younger members of the Catholic faith.  Take a look at the following video clip to learn more about this:

 

The above video discusses that Pope Benedict was even encouraging people to send him questions about our faith.  In the few months that Pope Benedict XVI was a member of twitter, he made 39 tweets and gained 1.6 million followers.  Our new leader, Pope Francis, also started has a twitter account and has been tweeting regularly.  Read the following short article that talks about Pope Francis’ popularity on twitter:

http://vator.tv/news/2013-03-13-papal-twitter-account-revived-to-announce-new-pope

How do you feel about these attempts to reach out our youth?

In a blog of 300 words, please respond to the following questions:

1. Do you think that having twitter accounts will help attract youth to take a greater role in the life of church?

2. What are the benefits of having our church leader tweet? Are there any disadvantages?

3. Does your parish take part in the social media world? If so, please explain.

4. Are there any other ways that church can encourage our youth to get more involved? Do you have any personal experiences related to this?

 

My responses are:

 

1. I think that having twitter accounts will help attract youth to take a greater role in the life of church. I think this because youth already have twitter accounts and they love to use it to be in touch and use it to express their feelings and opinions towards things. If youth have twitter accounts they will become more active and participate in the life of church. Youth will become updated with information and become more active in the catechism. Twitter accounts will attract the youth to a great role in the life of church due to these reasons and youth are already really social with these sites.

 

2. I think that they're are benefits of having our church leader tweet. Benefits or advantages of having our church leader tweet is that he could answer our questions about the faith faster, instead of having to ask him questions face to face and having to travel back and forth for an answer. Another advantage of having the church leader tweet is that he can update us about the catholic church and if changes will be made. Another advantage is that the Pope can tweet about different quotes and parables about God and Jesus that can relate to us. I don't think there are any disadvantages of having our church leader tweet things.

 

3. I think that my church does take part in the social media world. My church takes part in the social media world by updating us on Facebook about different things happening like if there are certain events happening such as fundraises, barbeques, youth group, confirmation, confession, etc.

 

4. There are other ways that the church can encourage our youth to get more involved. The church can get our youth to be more involved by getting youth to be more involved in setting up events that they would like to see at church. The church can get youth to be more involved in many ways like if teens like to sing you can get them to sing for the choir and if teens like to volunteer at church they can be ushers. I have a personal experience of this and it is when my parish hosted a barbeque event at the parking lot and everyone is invited to it.

 

 

 

Social Media – The Good, The Bad and the 'Not-So-Private'

In response to Ms. Powell's Social Media – The Good, The Bad and the 'Not-So-Private'

In a blog of 300 words, reply to the following questions:


1. Are you a member of a social networking website? Why or why not?
2. Have you checked your privacy settings lately? Who can see the information that you put out there?
3. What kind of information are you allowing others to have access to? Have you thought about this before?
4. What kinds of things are safe to post? Unsafe? List some unsafe information that you should keep to yourself and not allow others to see online.
5. How can we become more responsible users of social networking websites? Why is this so important?
        My responses are:


1. Yes I am a member of a social networking website. I am a member of a social networking website because it keeps me updated with what's going on in the world like friends, family celebrities etc. One more reason why I am a member of a social networking website is because it is easier and faster to communicate with friends and family without having to be with them. Different examples of social networking websites is Facebook where people get updated with other people's profiles and twitter is where you get a constant update with your friends everyday.

2. No I haven't checked my privacy setting recently. My privacy settings are set where only friends and family can see what I post or share. I make sure that only people I know can see what i do and I make sure that no one I know see's what i do.

3. They type of information that I am allowing my friends and family to access is my photos, posts, and the different type of information about me such as birthday, sex, age, etc. The people I don't know, can only see my name, birthday, and sex. Yes I have thought about this before, if I haven't thought about this before random people I don't know will see everything I have posted.

4. Some things that are safe to post are like things you are doing right at that very moment such as eating, watching tv, play video games, etc. Another thing that is safe to post are things that are on your mind. Unsafe things to post are where you live and your phone number.

5. We can become more responsible users of social networking websites by checking our privacy setting every now and then since social networking websites update there software and web page. Another way of becoming responsible users of social networking websites is by being aware with what you post. This is so important because people can see what we post and the information that we post can be useful for them to do something harmful to you.

Twitter Trouble

In response to Ms. Powell's Twitter Trouble                                       

In a blog of 300 words, respond to the following questions:

1. Do you think that Khadijah’s comments about her teacher, that he “lives at home with his mom, eats fish sticks for dinner, and all he talks about is Star Wars” were appropriate? Explain.
2. What is your opinion on the suspension of these students? Was it reasonable for the school board to enforce such a punishment? Why or why not?
3. How do you feel about the reaction of the students – that they should be able to share their opinions freely? Is it okay to post this sort of thing on social media websites like Twitter?

     My responses are:

     1. The comments that Khadijah's made about her teacher were inappropriate. If these comments were true, that means she was just stating facts about her teacher. If these comments were false, that means she was trying to hurt her teacher. Even if these comments were true or false, these comments will make the teacher feel embarrassed and hurt, it will affect the teacher by having a low self-esteem.

     2. My opinion on the suspension of these students is that it was appropriate. I think that the punishment was appropriate because it is a reasonable punishment for the students since they were stating facts about their teacher or that they were making false statements about the teacher, this means that they were either exposing the teachers privacy or they were just posting false comments to embarrass their teacher. Yes this was a reasonable consequence and the school board should enforce such a punishment. They should enforce the punishment because it'll make people feel more safe during school and even after school.

    3. Students should be able to express their opinions freely and feelings. They could post their opinions freely, but no one told them that they could get in some type of problem once they post it. If they are able to post negative comments or any type of comment on any social networking website like Twitter, they should be able to say it in person. So if you aren't able to say you're opinion in person, then you should leave those opinions to yourself. No it isn't okay to post this sort of thing on social media websites like Twitter. It isn't okay to post these type of things on social networking websites because like Twitter and Facebook, they are a way to communicate with friends and family about updating on how their lives are going. In my opinion I don't think that Twitter or any social networking website is the best way to express any feelings or opinions because people can see what you post online.                        

"Paparazzi: Scandalous or Not?"

In response to Ms. Powell's Paparazzi: Scandalous or Not?

Based on the information above, respond to the following quesitons in your second blog.

 1. Do you agree or disagree with the way celebrities are treated by the paparazzi?

 2. How far is too far?

 3. Why would the paparazzi use media networks to their famous individuals? Is this right
advantage to post personal news about

Now, conduct research of your own:

 4. Research an appropriate paparazzi scandal that has occured within the past few years. Do you agree or disagree with the way the celebrity was treated? Why or why not?

 5. How would you feel if someone invaded your privacy (cell phone, laptop, etc)? Explain. 

 My responses are:

 1. I agree with the way celebrities are being treated by the paparazzi because everything that celebrities do will always be in the next headline whether it would be having dinner with a friend or going grocery shopping with no make-up, there will always be a exclusive twist to them.

 2. In my opinion, having the camera right at their face and going to their house is going to far. I think this is going to far because celebrities are just like everyone else, they need a little privacy for themselves, without the paparazzi going all up in their faces and taking a billion photos of them. It wouldn't hurt for them to back off a little, due to the fact that celebrities do tons of interviews a day and they entertain us.

 3. The paparazzi uses media networks to their advantage to post personal news about famous individuals because this will get their name out and the person would get lots of recognition, which will get them famous. They use media networks because they know that everyone uses Twitter, Facebook, etc, to check what has happened over the past few days with their favourite celebrity or getting updated on what happened during the day.

4.The article that I researched was "Paparazzo killed by oncoming taffic after photographing Justin Bieber's Ferrari". I agree that the way the celebrity was treated was bad. I think it was bad because the paparazzo just went across the street and took photos of Justin Bieber's ferrari, just to get get some recognition. He was invading Justin Bieber's private property and that was wrong.

5. If someone invaded my privacy, I would feel embarrassed and angry at the person that did it. I would have these emotions because everyone needs their own privacy that people can invade. I would react like this because I would lose my privacy due to everyone knowing things that are personal to me.