How does the collage represent my identity?

In my collage I included pictures that represent myself. I put a picture of the United States with the American flag as the background because I am in love with America. I included a picture of the North Carolina state flag because I am from North Carolina and have lived here my whole life. My family and I are huge UNC fans so I included a picture of the UNC symbol. My dad says if we ever cheered for Duke then he wouldn't pay our for our college tuition (he says it jokingly but we know he's serious). My friends mean the world to me so I included pictures of them throughout the collage. I included two pictures of my younger sister in my collage because she is my best friend and I don't know what I would do without her. We're two peas in a pod and are inseparable when I go back home. I love getting stuff monogrammed so I included my initials on my collage. I pretty much listen to two types of music Dave Matthews and country music. I included a picture of a fire dancer and a picture of the Dave Matthews Band because I am OBSESSED. There is also a picture of the Zac Brown Band because I absolutely love country. I would have added a lot more pictures of country singers but I didn't have enough room.

What are the links between images and identity in our society? (What types of images do I identify with?)

I think that images identify who a person is and how they fit into society. We have talked about people have different alter egos when they are on social networking than in "real life." I think that for the most part pictures that are posted on social networking sites such as Facebook are showing people's real lives just not there every day lives. When I look at pictures it brings back memories from that day/night. I love taking pictures and when pictures are taken at certain events. Some pictures that are uploaded on to Facebook I don't remember being taken or they are candid pictures and they make me laugh. When I look at my Facebook my pictures link me to who I am in society. I am a very outgoing person who loves to be around people and have a good time and for the most part that is what my Facebook shows.

America 24/7

This week in English we discussed representing reality through pictures. We read an article called America 24/7: A Family Photograph by Patrick Cox. The article is about people taking pictures for one week in May of 2003 and how those pictures represent our country. Our assignment was to think of what these pictures will be of before we go on to the acutal website and view the pictures. I think that the pictures will contain photos of families, people working, children playing, children in school and things that represent America such as the American flag and the Statue of Liberty. After looking at the images there were some pictures that I wasn't expecting to see a lot of such as all of the wild animals and pictures of farms. When I think of America I think of a bald eagle and there were a few pictures of bald eagles but I wasn't expecting all of the other pictures of the animals. There were also a lot of pictures of nature and the many different places to visit around the U.S. such as waterfalls and mountains covered in snow. I think that America can be represented through so many pictures that even though there were a lot on the website there are still so many more that could have been used.

When I was in high school this is the group of friends that I hung out with everyday. Every weekend we were always together and we are very close. Even though that we are all at different colleges now and we do not see each other very often we still stay in contact over Facebook, text messages, phone calls, and Skype. I consider them part of my everyday life because I talk to them almost everyday and they mean so much to me.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story showed the harsh reality of what is happening to our economy throughout our country. Capitalism was defined as a system of taking and giving, but mostly taking. There was harsh video footage showing families being evicted from their homes. It also showed how at 300 people at a company in Detroit lost their jobs because Bank of America stopped giving the company credit. The people were only given a three days notice and then were without jobs. Michael Moore does make some good points but at the same time some of them are a bit out there. I do like how he would add humor to his arguments by making sarcastic comments and by going to the banks and trying to fill up bags full of money to give back to tax payers. The video overall shows that capitalism effects the U.S. negatively especially the working class.

I have decided that I am going to focus on what the parents of children with childhood cancer go through. From what kinds of support groups that the Levine Children's Hospital offers and what kind of fundraisers the hospital has to help the parents with the costs of their child  being in the hospital for long amounts of time. The hospital's main focus is the children and helping them to the best of their ability and I want to see how they help the parents. I think that it is going to be hard to have to talk to some of the parents about their children but it will also be interesting to hear their stories. I am really looking forward to the rest of this project and trying to help out with the hospital as much as I can.