Month: December 2019

Has Technology Been a Problem in our Society?

During the school year, I feel like one of my biggest weaknesses that are stopping me from staying on task is technology. And let me tell you that it takes 6 hours to finish about 2 hours worth of homework. So has recent advances in social media made it harder for students to stay focus? 

Personally, I think it has. I think that in this generation, technology and social media has made people have less focus and lack of attention in general. But the focus and productivity have not been the only problems in our society. Texting and driving have been taking the lives of many. This also has to do with people not being able to put down their phones in any situation. I think now more than ever people are being too addicted to their phones and are making society dangerous to live in. And if this technology problem doesn’t decrease our society will be forever in danger. That’s why I think people should be educated in how they can balance their phones and social media while not letting it get out of hand in their lives. 

One solution to this recent problem to monitor screen time. This will let you be cut off from your phone when you have reached a certain limit of screen time. This could help prevent you from grabbing your phone that often because every minute is so valuable. Another solution could be to teach delayed gratification which is to delay things in your life to make you be more patient in life. Since most people in our generation have been focused on fast satisfaction than being patient. This will overall increase your attention span and make focusing on different things easier. And everyone has grabbed their phone just to open it every couple minutes for no reason. Also, I know for a fact that everyone has been mad at things not loading when searching something up. 

All in all, I think that technology is a problem in our society and will keep becoming a problem if people don’t do anything about it. But this is something that no government can control because these are fascinating inventions that have been changed our society for better and in this case for worse. 

 

The Brooklyn Nine

The book that I read this semester is The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz. This book is about nine family members that cover over 150 years with one connection between all of them. And its there love for baseball. The book is designed in innings. Every inning is one part of the family’s life. And it goes through each of the family members’ stories about their love for baseball. 

It first starts off with Felix Schnieder. Felix is a German immigrant that is trying to integrate himself into a life of a New Yorker and an American. His goal is to be an American. But one of his favorite things is baseball and has an accidental run-in with his favorite baseball player Alexander Cartwright while trying to stop a bad fire in the city. Louis Schnieder is a union soldier that puts his battle troubles aside to play baseball. During the war, he becomes friends with a confederate soldier that also has a love for baseball. Arnold Schnieder meets his idol King Kelly and asks for an autograph. But then realizes he is a drunk and his perception of his idol is altered negatively. The next one is Walter Snider. They changed their names because originally Felix was a Jew from Germany and they were not being treated right in society because of it. So his father decided to change the family name to Snider to make it sound less Jewish. Walter also meets these Cuban ballplayers that are nothing he has ever seen before. Frankie Snider is connected to the mob because of her talents with numbers and betting. She gets in trouble because her dad is a police officer and she works with this mob boss named Mickey Fists. Kat Snider leaves home during WW2 to go play baseball for the first All-American Girls Baseball League. Jimmy Flint is up against his mom because his mom is helping to move the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Obviously, Jimmy doesn’t want that. Michael Flint uses his grandma’s technique to help him complete his first little league perfect game. Snider Flint is forced to live with his uncle in an old antique shop. But while the antique shop gets destroyed by the fire he finds the hidden baseball gems from the families past. 

 

Personally, I thought this book was very interesting how it was designed. I loved how it went by innings and how each family member is connected through baseball. Also at the ending really comes full circle about the whole book. I think it also connects relevant history from the time of the family members to baseball and I think that contrast really fits in nicely. 

The minimum wage has been constantly been talked about for the last 20 years and how it should be changed. Due to inflation in the US minimum wage has to be changed. The minimum wage has not been enough money to live and is a couple of dollar off from the living wage. The living wage is the wage that is enough money for people to live on but it does also depend on the area people live in. In 2009 was the last chance for the federal minimum wage and it moved up to $7.25. The federal minimum wage hasn’t changed since. A lot of things have changed in our economy since 2009. Also, it is proven that the minimum wage increase causes a 1.5% decrease in poverty. 

I am not arguing that the minimum wage should be raised to like $12 because that would cause some problems. First off if raised to $12 businesses will be forced to minimize their workforce because if they have to pay their workers more than they will have to have fewer workers. Which will cause the unemployment rate to go up? But if the minimum wage would be set higher than it would boost the economy because more money in people’s pockets creates greater purchasing power for lower-wage workers who are living off the base minimum wage right now.

But the minimum wage needs to be changed to keep up with our country. To put this in perspective to put the minimum wage back at how it was in 1968, the minimum wage would be $9.92. The basis of where we should keep the minimum wage should be around what’s the minimum wage that is economy can handle and what’s the living wage that people can get by within this country. Now the economy is forever changing, for example, the Great Depression and 2008 housing crisis, and the living wage is always changing depending on where people live and we society around them is like. 

Therefore the minimum wage should be forever changing and changing more frequently than it is now because it’s just not fair if it isn’t. If things are costing more and more and you are getting paid the same wage than it’s just unfair.