Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson

Books v.s Games
I think that kids these days do need to read more books whether it be digital or actual paper and binding.  But I don't think that games are bad for kids there are a lot of games there that help kids learn.  Parents just need to know what their kids need.  Also what they are capable of handling.  Kids are going to always want to play video games and when it comes to violence there is a lot in some of those games.  The parents need to know what their kids can and can't handle some kids may be able to handle violent video games and understand that they are only games while others might not understand the difference, there for causing them to have more violent tendencys.

Commencement Address by Jon Stewart

In this essay the speaker talks about life after college and how you really never know what is going to happen.  He also brings up the fact that his generation has "broke" the real world.  I agree with him our generation is stuck with a world that has poverty, war and is slowly slipping deeper and deeper into pollution.  At the rate that we are going our kids aren't going to have real world to live in.  But the whole point of his speech is that the real life like college except you aren't being graded anymore you make your own decisions and there is no right way to make them.  No one can tell you how to make the right decisions to get the life that you want.  You just have to make the decisions and hope that they lead you to the life you want and in the end it's the life that you will live.  But you still need to work hard for what you want.

My Identity, My Family

My family and friends mean the world to me.  No matter what I know that they will always be there for me when I need them.  And I can trust them with anything and talk to them about anything and everything.  I would not be the person I am today with out my family and friends.  They have helped to shape the adult that I have become.  With out my family and friends I wouldn't have made it through a lot of things that I have gone through in my life.  My mom has helped me make decisions about things in my life whether they be important or trivial and she always respected my decision and let me learn things for my self.  But no matter what decision I make or what ever I did my family supported me.  

I know that my family would back me up no matter what, even if I was wrong.  You try to start anything with someone in my family you wont win, all we have to do is call someone and we will have 20 people to back us up.  My family will stand up for me and I will stand up for them no matter what.  I love my family with all my heart and I couldn't live with out them.  My family makes up my whole life and they always will no matter what.

Alter Egos: Avatars and Their Creators by Julian Dibbell

In the Essay Alter Egos: Avatars and Their Creators the avatars of different people are explained.  The thing that interested me the most is that a few people in this essay have avatars that are nothing like them.  The one part that got my attention was the ones that had avatars that weren't even the same gender as they were.  The people they interacted didn't even know that they weren't the gender that their avatar was.  To me it seems deceiving I understand they aren't asking and that an avatar is supposed to be a way to be able to be what they want to be but I think that their needs to be some type of truth in it. The people that they are interacting with have right to know that they aren't who they say they are.  I'm not saying that in a game like these that they should put out every detail of their life, no that's how people get stalkers, but I feel like being a different gender, whether its to sell something or to have more authority with out question, is like lying to someone.