Background History of Burberry Company Assignment

Background History of Burberry Company - Assignment Example The essay "Background History of Burberry Company" concerns the Company of Burberry and its Background History. Burberry Fashion Company started in 1856 by Thomas Burberry who was former learner of the country draper. The 21 year old Burberry opened various outfit shops in Hampshire, England and Basingstoke. The business grew steadily making Burberry to be known as ‘emporium’ due to the development and increased focus of outdoor clothing’s to the sportsmen and local residents who made frequent visits to the store. The invention of breathable fabric gabardine was not only waterproof but it was extremely durable. The opening of London Haymarket in 1891 by Burberry became the Burberry’s corporate headquarters. Further, in 1901, Burberry was commissioned by the British War Office to scheme new service uniforms for British officers. Moreover, in 1904, the Burberry Equestrian Knight logo was developed and registered as a trade mark that led to more opening of the stores in New York and Paris . Various scholars such as Captain Roald Amundsen and Ernest Shackleton were outfitted by the Burberry fashion for their visits towards the South Pole. In 1924, Burberry was checked and registered as a trade mark and introduction of the trench coats lining. The image of the Burberry could start to be seen almost in every fashion including the umbrellas, scarves and luggage in 1967. The mission of the Burberry was based on quality and unique production of various fashions for different outlets.

Social Medias Negative Influences on Social Interaction Essay Example for Free

Social Medias Negative Influences on Social Interaction Essay The purpose of this paper is to observe complete strangers and familiar groups of people in a coffee shop setting, and a college setting, and document the use of social media and their interactions with other people. The goal of these observations is to see how much people socially interact with one another, and how much time people seclude themselves through the use of social media. The observer will also record the number of  interactions that are created through social media topics, meaning conversations that would not have occurred if social media was not present. It is the prediction of the author that people are less likely to socialize with face to face conversations, and are more likely to spend their time in a social environment using social media and interacting with others online with the use of their social media devices. The data collected will give the reader a better understanding of how society prefers to interact socially in present day, and what percentage of their time do they depend on the use of social media in a social environment. Does social media positively or negatively influence social interactions? How is social media used as an external attribution? Introduction. Technology has come so far over the last twenty years, and nobody really asked what society was losing, because of all that we gained. With all the interactions occurring in social media, including text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, email, YouTube, etc., do we really communicate in person anymore? Was it that long ago where our culture was dependent on pay phones and had to mail letters to contact other people? Because of the lack of convenience that people had during that time, it was very common to prefer to interact with people face to face. Now we live in a culture that people prefer to write text messages and/or emails, instead of calling someone to avoid talking with them directly. In a span of about ten years, our culture went from wanting cell phones to becoming dependent on cell phones, and having mostly to do with being able to view data (texts, emails, internet browsing), as opposed to calling people. It is because of all these facts that this author wishes to find out if social media is helping us interact socially, or if it actually prevents us from interacting. Another purpose of this research paper is to determine whether social media is used as an external attribution. External attribution is defined when an event is caused by an outside factor (Schneider, Gruman Coutts, 2005), or in this case, social media. In this study, we will find out if the event that occurs due to social media use is face to face interactions, the extended use of additional social media, or no interactions at all. It is believed that behavior results from personal and environmental, or social influences. In this study, we will find out if social media being present will cause  conversation to take place between groups of people that know each other, as well as complete strangers. What also will be recorded is whether the use of social media will result in social media interactions, as opposed to face to face interactions. An example of this would be if a person using social media on their tablet saw a YouTube video, and due to how funny they found the video, they then proceeded to text friends or post information on Facebook and/or Twitter about the video. This study will take place in two different locations, the first place being a Starbucks coffee shop in Coalinga, CA, while the second place will be West Hills Community College in Coalinga, CA. The setting’s benefits and weaknesses will be discussed later in this research assignment. The purpose of this location is to record the actions and uses of social media with complete strangers, as well as groups of people that know each other. By monitoring the interactions of people in a coffee shop, the author is able to see how much time that people rely on social media in a half hour setting. The coffee shop is used primarily as a place to study, interact in groups, read the newspaper, or to simply drink coffee. As opposed to a restaurant, where it is a more social atmosphere and it may be considered rude by patrons for people in their group to use their cell phones, tablets, and laptops. By observing the use of social media and social interactions at a college, we can see how similar or different the results are in a school setting. This case study will apply to the purposes of social psychology, as social psychology is defined as how people influence one another (Schneider, Gruman Coutts, 2005). The twist that will appear in the research to follow is how not only people influence other people, but how their use of social media influences other people and their interactions with other people. It is the author’ s hypothesis that the use of social media, although very useful at times, is devastating to normal face to face interaction. We are reminded of those people walking down the sidewalks with their heads buried into their cell phones, causing them to run into other people and obstacles on the sidewalk. The author also believes that this research will find that most, or all interactions that do exist, will occur through the use of social media instead of normal conversations. Setting. The two different locations where this study will be held will be at a Starbucks coffee shop and a community college, both of which are located in Coalinga, CA. These locations were both chosen because they offer the author the best chance for naturalistic observation, or nonparticipant observation. Nonparticipant observation is defined as an observation made by a researcher that allows them to remain separate from the event being monitored, so they do not have to worry about affecting the results of their observations (Schneider, Gruman Coutts, 2005). Since this study deals with monitoring other people’s use of social media and its influence on their social interactions, it is necessary to remain distant from the participants so they are unaware they are being observed, so that the data collected is more accurate. Different from participant observation, where the observer interacts with the participants being monitored, nonparticipant observation allows the observer the best chance to get realistic data. When people know they are being observed, they tend to act differently, and in the case of this study, they may hesitate from interacting socially and/or using social media as much as they normally would. The first observation will take place in the only coffee shop in the town of Coalinga, CA. This is relevant, as Coalinga is a small college town, so the chances of observing college students and adults interacting and/or using social media are high. The second observation will take place outside in the quad at the local community college in Coalinga, CA. The target audience for this observation period will be students who are getting out of class, or who are sitting around killing time until their next class begins. Both settings target a younger audience, which will heighten the chances of observing social media use, since social media is used more by young adults than older adults (Skues, Williams Wise, 2012). The goal of these two locations is to give the author the best chance to see the most use of social media, and how its use affects social interactions between the users and the people around them, all in a thirty minute time period. Location Advantages. The advantages of observations made in a coffee shop and a college setting are that it allows the author to target a younger audience, which should  generate observations of social media use and its affect on social interactions. When people go to coffee shops, they stay there to interact with other people, to study, or to hang out and spend time using social media. This is why most coffee shops have free Wi-Fi now, to encourage people to stay and drink more coffee while they interact socially or use social media. Another benefit of observing interactions and social media use in a coffee shop is that we find a large number of groups coming in together, as well as complete strangers placed next to each other. This study’s purpose is to monitor the social media use and social interactions of complete strangers, as well as people that know each other. In the group setting, we can see if everyone in the group uses social media, and whether they let their findings on social media to spark up conversation topics. With individuals, we can see how much they use social media and whether their use prevents them from trying to interact socially with complete strangers, or encourages them to start conversations with complete strangers. At the college setting, it gives the author similar surroundings to a coffee shop, in that it is a social environment, since most students hang out with their friends before and after class. A common occurrence at school is to see students doing homework, socializing with friends, or using social media before class since it usually is not allowed during class. Some students may even use social media to help with their homework assignments. While observing the college, the author will get the chance to see groups of people interacting, as well as students hanging out by themselves, which makes it similar to the coffee shop environment. Location Disadvantages. One disadvantage that may occur at the coffee shop is that the observer cannot control how many people come in during the thirty minute observation period, thus making it an uncontrolled environment. The hope is that, since the small town only has one coffee shop, it will be a popular place for people to go interact and use social media. If the author chooses to go on a slow day for business, the observations will be limited. This will obviously be affected by the time that the author chooses to go observe. To avoid any  issues, the observer will do this observation on a weekend morning, in hopes of avoiding work and school hours. Another disadvantage of a coffee shop is that it has a similar environment to a library, since so many people are present, people can avoid interactions to keep the place quiet for everyone to enjoy their experience. The fact that people are ordering drinks at the front counter and there is quite a bit of noise coming from the workers and coffee machines, the chances of it being quiet are small. One disadvantage of the college setting is the fact that the observation will be made outside, and weather can affect the number of students being present outside. The fact that Coalinga is a very warm area, the chances of it being cold in the mid-afternoon are small, so this should not be a huge issue. The other disadvantage of the college setting is, like the coffee shop, it is an uncontrolled environment, so the observer cannot control the number of students present at the time of observation. To prevent any issues here, the observer will choose a time around lunch, where most classes are on break from the hours of 12:00pm- 1:00pm. How social psychology considers social media in this environment. Since social psychology is defined as people’s behaviors influenced by others (Schneider, Gruman Coutts, 2005), this case study is specifically targeting how people interact around one another. The external factor in this study is that we are also monitoring the use of social media, and how it affects how people interact with each other. According to Gross (2009), in 2000, 34% of our population used cell phones, which increased to 84% in 2009. This is clear evidence that today’s generation is becoming dependant on cell phones, tablets, laptops, and other social media devices. Knowing this, and reading what Marche researched (2012), people are using social media more than ever. The problem lies in the fact that people using social media could be a result of people feeling lonely, and through the use of social media, they feel connected to something or someone. According to Marche, people are lonely as ever because â€Å"Facebook denies us a pleasure whose profundity we had underestimated: the chance to forget about ourselves for a while, the chance to disconnect. (2012)† What Marche means by this is in the past, people had the chance to disconnect from everything and  everyone, especially when things were not going so well. Now society never disconnects, because everything is a click away. The more people use social media, the less interaction they have with other people face to face, thus creating a state of loneliness. This study fits the purposes of social psychology because it will monitor how people’s actions and interactions are affected by the people that surround them, as well as the social media that is present around them. The observer will see how much conversation is started without the use of social media, and compare it to conversation started through topics of social media. Will people by themselves have the confidence to approach people they do not know to have a conversation? If so, will it be a result of the person being outgoing or the result of social media sparking a conversation? The observer will see groups and how they interact with one another, and how much of it depends on social media. Will the interactions between groups be different between those of strangers, in regards to social media use? These are all questions that the author will target throughout his research and observations. Research Methods. To conduct this research, the author first went to a Starbucks coffee shop on a Sunday morning at ten o’clock in the morning. The coffee shop is located in Coalinga, California. The reason this time was chosen was because it is a college town, so a weekday morning would most likely be slow, and most people have work off on weekends. The goal was to try and observe the most crowded time possible, in order to get the most accurate results throughout the observation. Though the research was done in a very small town, the Starbucks coffee shop still attracts a lot of business on weekends. Since this study was to be done with naturalistic observation methods, the author chose to get a seat in the far corner of the coffee shop, so that he could avoid people being aware of his presence and monitoring. By not letting the participants know that they were being monitored, the author felt that the data collected would be a more accurate portrayal of how they normally would interact socia lly, and how much those interactions were affected by the use of social media. Due to participant’s  change of behavior when they are aware of their actions being recorded, the naturalistic observation method can be an effective way to get the most accurate results when monitoring people’s actions (Rosas, 2006). The second setting for data collection was done at West Hills Community College, located in Coalinga, California. Although this is a smaller college, there are still plenty of classrooms that are all located outside, which allowed the author the chance to sit nearby a classroom door and monitor the students waiting to go into class, as well as the students just getting out of class. The author chose to use natural observations when monitoring these students throughout the case study at the college. The observations also focused on the teachers that walked around campus, and their interactions with other teachers and students. Similar to the observations made at the coffee shop, these were done at the school by the author staying out of the way of those who were being monitored. The author was able to find a table across from the classroom, where many students gathered together while they waited to go into class. These were the two settings in which the research for this study were do ne by the author. Ethical Challenges. Since naturalistic observations are defined as those made by a researcher who neither changes the environment in any way, nor creates their own desired environment (Capella, 2013), the only challenge presented to the author in this study was not being found to be monitoring by the people who he was observing. Since the coffee shop is a smaller venue, it was difficult to not stick out while observing the actions of people so close to the author. At the school, it was much easier to blend in as the author was outside and could put sunglasses on, so people could not see his eyes. As mentioned earlier, the study results could only be found accurate if the author did not intervene with the participants, since this is the only way to view the participants in their natural habitat (Capella, 2013). The only way this study was found to be ethical was if it was done without intervening with the participants. This also included not using personal information from the participants, so none of th e documented results could be connected to people who were unaware they were being monitored. Since  none of these issues were breached, the research done was ethical. Research Analysis. The author made naturalistic observations at two individual settings, each for a twenty minute period of time. The first observation was done at the Starbucks in Coalinga, California, on January 26, 2014. The second observation was done at West Hills Community College in Coalinga, California, on February 4, 2014. In the twenty minute observation period at the local Starbucks, the researcher witnessed three groups of people come into the coffee shop together and eight individuals, three of whom were already present before the researcher got to the coffee shop. In the twenty minute observation period at the college, the researcher saw one group of 6 students, one group of three teachers, and two individuals all outside a classroom door. Groups. The first group witnessed at the Starbucks was a group of three women, two in their early fifties, and one who appeared to be a college student. The women came in and interacted with each other while waiting in line, and then grabbed a table once their order was ready. The younger girl checked her phone three different times while in line with the two older ladies, and appeared to be texting back and forth. This usage brought up some communication with one of the older women, who appeared to be the mother of the younger girl. The â€Å"mother† asked who she was texting, and then asked how the friend who the younger girl was texting was doing. Once they sat down, the younger girl texted on her phone only a few times, as the time spent at the table between the ladies dealt with interacting about the young girl’s impression of the town of Coalinga. At no point during their ten minute sit down did any of the women interact with any other people that were in the coffee shop, as they stayed completely in group. The author noted that the younger girl appeared more interested in what texts she was getting on her phone than what the two older women were talking about, but she refrained from using it too much. In the second group, which came a few minutes after the first group, there  were four college students (2 girls and 2 guys). They all had their backpacks with them, and one guy had a tablet while the other had a laptop. It was evident that they had been to this coffee shop before, as they all started up a conversation with two of the young workers at the counter, who appeared to be classmates of theirs. Once they grabbed a table, they began discussing a class project that they had in their health class. The guy with the tablet used his social media device to research certain health topics that were presented to him by both girls in the group. The second guy with the laptop was responsible for writing down their research findings, as all four discussed the topics and what was found through their research. At no point through their discussions did they interact with anyone outside their group, as they seemed focus on completing their research only. They still remained there at the co ffee shop after the author left the coffee shop fifteen minutes later. The third group of people consisted of two females, one in her late twenties and the other being a college student, and one male in his mid-thirties. The older woman and male both worked at this Starbucks, and it was evident that they held a managerial position. The younger college student female was applying for a job at this particular Starbucks. The younger female had a resume with her, and had to fill out an application while sitting down in the group. The older male was asking the applicant questions about her completed application, while the older female was documenting some of the responses on her tablet. It appeared that the two managers were using the tablet to input important information about the applicant. There were some outside interactions, as some of the other employees were invited over to the table and introduced to the applicant. This meeting lasted about ten minutes, and then the applicant left the shop while the two managers went back into the office in the back. At the college, the first group that was seen was a group of six students (five guys and one girl). It was clear that this group was waiting for their next class to begin and was killing time before the class started. Although nobody from this group had a tablet or laptop, all six had cell phones and used them almost the entire time. The female was on a phone call, while the  guys were all checking out videos and music on YouTube. All the conversations between the guys were related to their findings on their phones, and once the girl got off her phone, she was invited over to see a funny video that the guys had found. At one point, two individuals passed by this group at separate times, but no interactions were made between the group and the individuals. The final group seen at the college was a group of three mid-forties females who are teachers at the college. One of the ladies had her laptop open, while the other two were talking about creating new student learning outcomes for their particular fields. At no point did the teachers even look over to the group of students that was two tables away from them, as they seemed focus on completing their research before their next class. Although only one of the females was using the laptop, all three were conversing about the student learning outcomes and making suggestions to what was documented on the laptop. Individuals. There were eight different individuals present at the coffee shop during the twenty minute observation period. Five of the eight individuals sat down at a table, while the other three got their coffees to go. The three individuals who got their coffee to go all only interacted with the workers at the counter, and none of them used a social media device or interacted with other people. One of the five that chose to stay at the coffee shop was a college female, and she sat at a table with headphones on while viewing her tablet. She appeared to be watching a movie, as she did not speak the entire time she sat down. Another of the five (mid-forties male) had a copy of the newspaper and proceeded to drink his coffee while reading the Sports section of the newspaper for ten minutes, before he left the shop. The third individual was another college student female who sat down at a table with her coffee and made a four minute phone call to a friend. Once the phone call was over, she grabbed her coffee and left the coffee shop. The fourth individual was a mid-thirties female who brought a book with her, as she sat in the quiet corner of the shop while reading her book and drinking her coffee. She did not interact with anyone while the observation took place.  The final individual was a mid-twenties male, who brought his laptop with him. Once he sat down, he put earphones in and appeared to face-time someone on his laptop, as he was speaking into the microphone on his computer. This conversation was about ten minutes, and prevented any outside interactions with this person with anyone else at the shop. One thing noted by the author was that the people around this last individual did notice that he was speaking rather loudly in a public place, and it was evident that some conversations came up about the man being rude. At no point did anyone approach the man, as they just whispered about it at their individual tables. In the college setting, there were only two individuals present during the twenty minute observation, and they walked by the classroom that was being monitored at separate times. Both individuals were male and both were walking to their next class while using their phones. The first was using his phone to make a phone call, but because he was in the area for only thirty seconds, the contents of the phone conversation were unclear. The second male was typing on his phone the entire time he was walking to his next class, so it appeared that he was texting. The student did not raise his head one time as he was walking, which caused him to walk very slowly and it appeared that he was using his peripheral vision to make sure he did not run into anything during his walk to his next class. Neither one of these individuals interacted socially to any of the groups present as they walked by. Research Analysis’ Relationship to Social Media Statisitics. The research collected through the two observations shows that younger and older participants all were likely to use some form of social media device. About 50% of all social media users in this study used their social media devices to communicate with others through texting and phone calls, while the other 50% used their social media devices to document information and view videos online. According to research done by Baker (2012) just with regards to social media use for videos, YouTube gets 4 billion page views per day all over the world. The average person spends fifteen minutes per day on YouTube streaming video, and every day, over 800,000 videos are uploaded onto YouTube. 35% of all YouTube viewers are between the ages of  18-34 (Baker, 2012). In another study done by Baker (2012), she writes how there are one million new Twitter accounts created every day, which is equivalent to eleven accounts created per second, and over 100 million active Twitter users globally today. Ac cording to research done by Gibson (2013), over 97% of all people own cell phones, and 56% of those cell phones owned are â€Å"smart-phones†, which have the potential to retrieve email and browse the internet. She also states that within the ages of 18-29, 80% of that age group own a smart-phone. With all this said, it is clear that today’s majority culture is dependent on cell phones. Throughout this study, the author saw a majority of participants using some form of social media device, which agrees with other research on social media usage. What was unclear throughout this study is how much social media usage affects our interactions with others socially. Even though some people use their social media devices to interact with others online, does social media limit our ability to communicate with others face to face. During this study, we saw that people that were involved in a group setting still interacted with one another, whether the conversations were dependent on social media or not. We also saw that individuals by themselves did not go out of their way to converse with complete strangers, unless it was to buy a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, this does not prove if social media is the cause of less face to face interactions, because these participants may have just kept to themselves on that particular day. Although it may appear that people today are less likely to interact socially, especially with people they do not know, it is impossible to prove that based on two observation periods. Research Summary. So what has this research study shown us? The one definite that was shown is that people were hesitant to approach people they did not know, unless it was to order something from the front counter at Starbucks. While this does not prove that people today are less likely to interact with complete strangers, it shows proof that people in a public setting are not going out of their way to interact with other people they do not know. What is interesting is that through social media usage (Twitter, Facebook, etc.),  people today are more likely to engage in conversations with complete strangers than they are in face to face settings (Diaz, Evans Gallagher, 2011). What is it about social media that allows people today to be more open to converse with people they do not know, rather than doing it in a public setting in person? Diaz, Evans Gallagher believe that because people do not have to face the person they are speaking with, thus not having to deal with embarrassment if what they s ay is found to be unpopular, people are more likely to be outgoing when it will not affect them negatively in a social manner (2011). Another fact that was proven in this study is that social media can provoke interactions with other people, even though those witnessed in this study were not how the author thought they would occur. In this study at the Starbucks, a man sat at a table and spoke to another person on his social media device in a public place. Because of how loud he was, other people that did not know the man began talking about how rude the man was to act like he was in his living room and not respect the other people surrounding him. The author was hoping to find people that would find something of interest on a social media device and show other people they did not know, sparking an interaction between two strangers. Though this did not happen, one person’s social media use did spark an interaction between another group of people which would not have occurred had the man not done what he had done. This proves to the reader that social media usage can promote interactions between people that w ould not have occurred had people not used social media. Study Implications. New Trends. Though this study does not prove anything, as it is a small sample size of the world’s social media usage and their interactions, it does agree with the author’s hypothesis that people today rely less on face to face interactions and more with interactions made through social media. According to Diaz, Evans Gallagher (2011), there are several advantages and disadvantages of using social media to interact. Young adults that are shy may gain confidence to interact more, first by using social media to  interact and develop confidence. Social media also encourages people to apply more thought into their interactions, as they have more time to think about what will be said. This differs from face to face interactions, as people are put on the spot and sometimes cannot have sufficient time to think about the best thing to say in a particular moment. Some of the disadvantages mentioned by Diaz, Evans Gallagher (2011) are that social media is so widespread, that any convers ation can be seen by millions of people, rather than a face to face conversation that is only seen by those present. Social media also leads people to multi-task, which leads to a lack of attention applied to one individual topic. Multi-tasking also leads to spending too much time on social media, and not enough time studying and developing the brain. New Responses to Influences of Social Media. Does our society even have negative responses to the influences of social media? It seems that everyone is so involved with how cool technology is, and what new social media devices are coming out, there is not a lot of talk about the negative influences of social media. Is social media a more negative or positive influence on our culture? This question cannot be answered with a study like this, as many studies have been done to observe people’s usage of media, and everyone handles their usage differently. Some people may be consumed with social media, and all that comes with it, to where they separate themselves from the non-interactive world. Some people may be able to contain their usage, while using their social media use to improve their face to face interactions with regular people. The author’s feelings on this topic is that due to the data collected in this case study, people did not go out of their way to interact with people they did not know. Whereas twenty years ago, people by themselves in a coffee shop may have been more likely to try and interact with strangers because they did not have social media to occupy their time. This is not to say that people twenty years ago did not go to coffee shops to read the paper or their book in private. The data collected in this study also shows proof that the percentages of people using social media and smart phones found in recent research studies are pretty accurate, as a high percentage of the people that were observed had some of sort of social media device. Recent research  also showed that phones today are more likely to be used for texting, emailing, and web browsing, rather than talking on the phone (Duggan, 2013). This research was proven to be accurate in this observational study as well, as one person at the school was using their phone to talk, while everyone else was using their phones to browse, text, or email. Further Areas of Research. So even though this topic has been researched many times by different researchers, are there any areas that may have not been covered to try and come up with a more definitive answer to if social media usage affects our social interactions? The problem presented with all research is that every person is different, and how they are affected by social media will be different in each individual situation. The author believes that all that can be accomplished by completing further research is to add more proof to a topic that has not been proved to be 100% accurate. Even with more research leading readers to believe that social media is affecting our culture negatively, the only way that we can prove that is if one day people stop talking to other people completely and interaction is done ONLY through the use of social media. Then we can say that social media is definitely the reason that people do not interact socially face to face. One other area that can be further researched is to fi nd out the relationship between social media use and feelings of depression. It would be interesting to see how depression is related to the loneliness that comes with secluding oneself with only interacting through social media. Conclusion. It was the goal of the author to see how the use of social media affected our social interactions in today’s society. Another focus of this study was to see how interactions that do take place are a result of social media usage. Given the data collected in these two case studies, the research findings do support prior research that social media usage is taking over as the primary means of communicating. Each individual person is different, in that some may rely more on social media to communicate than others based on their personalities, but the data found by the author does support this theory and shows the reader that people are growing less accustomed to  communicating face to face with others. While it is said that communicating through social media can expand our abilities to communicate in person (Diaz et al, 2011), it can also be said that social media is preventing our society from socially interacting in person. What this author has found is that there will always be two different sides to this argument, as some will feel that the benefits of social media use will always outnumber the negative effects, while others feel that no matter how advanced social media is, the fact that it may prevent people today from having face to face interactions is a serious issue. The reader has to believe that social media will only increase the more advanced devices become, which may lead some to think that social interaction will keep diminishing. The best thing that people can do as parents is to somehow regulate their children’s usage of social media, with regards to how much time is spent on their social media devices and what content is being viewed. By doing this, parents can still allow their children to interact socially and continue to develop their communication skills by not solely relying on social media to interact socially (Diaz et al, 2011). Whether social media usage is regulated or not, it is apparent that social media is here to stay. It is up to parents and teachers to try and incorporate other methods of interacting with their children so that they receive all the benefits that can come from interacting face to face. The conclusion of this study is, although research may support the fact that social media usage can affect social interactions, it will be very difficult to prove 100% because of different people’s reasons for choosing whether to interact socially face to face or through social online networks. References Baker, H. (2012). Video Statistics. The B2B Guide to Social Media. Retrieved on February 14, 2014 at: http://www.b2bsocialmediaguide.com/2012/06/07/video-statistics/ Baker, H. (2012). Twitter Statistics. The B2B Guide to Social Media. Retrieved on February 14, 2014 at: http://www.b2bsocialmediaguide.com/2011/04/04/twitter-statistics-7/ Capella University. (2013). Social Media Naturalistic Research Study. Retrieved on February 15, 2014 at: https://courseroomc.capella.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4655_1%26url%3D Diaz, Y., Evan, L. Gallagher, R. (2011). Anti-Social Networking: How do texting and social media affect our children? A panel discussion by CSC clinicians at the Nightingale-Bamford School. Retrieved on March 5, 2014 at: http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/antisocial_networking_how_do_texting_social_media_affect_our_children_panel_discussion_csc_ Duggan, M. (2013). Cell Phone Activities 2013. Retrieved on March 7, 2014 at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/09/19/cell-phone-activities-2013/ Gibson, M. (2013). 2013 Cell Phone Statistics. AccuConference. Retrieved on February 13, 2014 at: http://www.accuconference.com/blog/Cell-Phone-Statistics.aspx Gross, M.S. (2009). Conversations in the fast lane: Social media’s influence on communication theory. Public Relations Tactics, 16(11), 15. Marche, S. (2012). Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? Atlantic Monthly. August, 2012, Vol. 310 Issue 1, p16-22. Rosas, S.R. (2006). Nonparticipant to Participant: A Methodological Perspective on Evaluator Ethics. American Journal of Evaluation. pp 27, 97-103 Skues, J.L., Williams, B., Wise, L. (2012). The effects of personality traits, self-esteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 28, Issue 6, November 2012, Pages 2414-2419, ISSN 0747-5632.

Impacts French New Wave Film on Traditional Cinema

Impacts French New Wave Film on Traditional Cinema How and why did the French New Wave upset traditional film grammar? Firstly we must look at the period before French New Wave came about to understand why this movement upset tradition. The French New Wave period reigned from the 1950s to the 1960s and entertained millions of people who watched film at the time. This period is very important as famous directors such as Franà §ois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard emerged. They were the next generation of directors; they had been brought up in a France that had been torn apart after the second World War meaning France was starting to get back on its feet. They had seen the works of directors that had come before this period titling it, cinà ©ma de papa or Dads cinema, and wanted to separate themselves from it. Films prior to the French New Wave period were often dull and had little quality put together in them. Truffaut often wrote in Cahiers du cinà ©ma, a critics magazine on film about the films he had to grow up around. Truffaut displayed an almost obsessive hostility to the post-war French film industry, attacking what he sarcastically labled the French Tradition Of Quality as nothing more than three hundred continuity shots stuck together a hundred and ten times a year. Powrie, P. Marie, M. (2006) p.83 This objectivity towards the cinà ©ma de papa began to grow and new light was being shone on other films that played with different ideas. Directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville started to make films that resembled the French New Wave Movement mixed with other techniques that had been used before. In his film, Bob Le Flambeur, he films it in a film noir style but the film has so many modern aesthetics to it such as its similarities to western gangster genres. This similarity between American film and French was an important reason why the French New Wave Movement upset tradition. We can only imagine what it must have been like to be living in France after the war and have a mass influx of Hollywood cinema that had been imported due to the production of French film being too expensive. Truffaut and Godard had witnessed this through the years and decided to start making films, perhaps influenced from the American films they had seen. Such influences are seen in Les Quatres Cent Coups with the Humphrey Bogart style hat we see Antoine wearing when he steals the type writer, and the same with À bout de souffle with the protagonist dressing like Bogart. Many of the directors and audiences that watched Bob Le Flambeur were amazed at the â€Å"clipped street language, low budget on-location work, moody street scenes and contemporary jazz soundtrack.† (Phillips, R. 2006 ) and this shines through in later works such as À bout de souffle. This was completely going against the previous era of film making in the sense, directors were starting to open up to the outside world and focus on making their own artistic impression. This perhaps can be a reason to why French New Wave upset traditional film grammar. An interesting point to look at is the way in which the generation gap from after the second World War was so concerned about the future of France. In Les Quatres Cent Coups the school master shouts, â€Å"What will France be like in ten years?† (Le s Quotres Cent Coups, 1959) and we can perhaps look at this as being Truffauts own thoughts coming through in the films dialogue. We can also look at the technology that was sweeping across the world at the time. New cameras had started to be produced and this gave people like Godard exactly what they needed to create the sweeping, moving shots we see in À bout de souffle. The American low-budget cinema, on the other hand, tended to be thought of as a commercial and studio-based product, to which Godard pays homage in his dedication of A bout de souffle (1959) to Monogram Pictures. Powrie, P. Reader, K. (2002) p.21 This was a new innovation in film making and made shots look realistic in the sense, cameras could be placed in busy crowds and could follow a person with ease. The shot of Michel in À bout de souffle of him walking through the hotel reception is a prime example of this new technique as he follows the camera through a vast open room without any sight of a film crew in the shot. Continuous shots like this excited Godard and also Truffaut, which is perhaps why he favours using the lightweight camera in Les quatres cent coups where Antoine is running down the road near the end of the film. This gave French New Wave films a sense of freedom and the scene where Antoine is running really symbolises this sense of freedom as the shot of just him breaks out into a panoramic view of the sea something he had long desired in the film. Such big camera shots echo the likes of the Italian Neo-Realism film movement where we saw similarities between the way the directors had placed the camera. The war had changed France a lot and cultures within the country started to feel the difference. French New Wave films began to explore particular human traits such as sex, violence and swearing. This may have shocked an audience twenty years prior to the movement, but instead it seemed to add emphasis to the reality of the film and story. In both À bout de souffle and Les quatres cent coup, we see a great number of references to violence and sex. In À bout de souffle, Michel is seen at the beginning shooting a policeman with a pistol he finds in the car he has stolen. Also, the way in which he speaks to Patricia in the film is quite aggressive and we can see Godard asserting masculinity into the character of Michel. His final words to Patricia are also quite offensive and this definitely would have broken the mould from films in previous years, before French New Wave. The sexual references in the films are very much giving light to the realities of modern day culture. In Les quatres cent coup we see Antoine in the police station with prostitutes and also where he is telling of how a foreigner told him he could use a prostitute even though he is very young. The way these references to violence, sex, and swearing are used in the films adds to the audiences reaction and the reality of the story. By showing people what life is like in the darker parts of Paris, French New Wave directors were able to maintain this reality. Location was a big factor in French New Wave films. The opening scenes of Les quatres cent coups are so important when looking at why the movement may have upset tradition. We see this great tracking shot of the Eiffel tower, a iconic feature of Paris and perhaps symbolising France as a whole. The reason why this upsets traditional film grammar is the way Truffaut has shot this scene with the tower in the background and in the foreground a not so nice Paris. Something that hints Italian Neo-Realism, in the way that the director wants to show the audience realistic scenes instead of a artificial studio set. This idea of getting away from the studio is ever present in French New Wave films. Truffaut discovered a new aesthetics of simplicity and sincerity. Indeed, in taking to the street to escape the heavy-handed rule of the studio system, Truffaut unconsciously doubled the rebellious attitudes and actions of his young protagonist, Antoine Doinel. Powrie, P. Marie, M. (2006) p.83 The whole factor of shooting film out in a busy Parisian street gave French New Wave films a lot more depth and created this sense of a modern France. In À bout de souffle the shots of the actors walking down busy streets enforced this sense of realism and added to the story. French New Wave films pioneered the way films were edited. They were really the first to play with jump cuts and this is apparent in À bout de souffle. This may have upset traditional film grammar because of the fast pace it gave films. the rapidity of the editing and the disorientating scale of the shots means thatMichels crime takes place before the spectator and, we might surmise, before he himself has a chance to realise what is happening. Powrie, P. Marie, M. (2006) p.93 This process of having a very disruptive cut between different characters in one scene can give the film a scene a whole new meaning. To an audience at the time this was quite innovative and gave a scene, quite a disturbing feel to it. This is an example of how directors like Godard played with the idea of Mise En Scà ¨ne. It demonstrates how a meaning can be changed by altering different cuts and camera angles even though we are still hearing the same dialogue. Godard and Truffaut were very interested in the way American Film had been made prior to the French New Wave period and in particular the studio system. Due to France being in an economic problem after the War, it meant studio filming could not be accomplished very often. This contributed to some of the fantastic shots used in French New Wave films. The new wave directors, like their Hollywood predecessors, worked individually and creatively within often severe budgetary constraints and the conventions of the studio genre. Powrie, P. Reader, K. (2002) p.21 This definitely contributed towards the innovative look of French New Wave films but without funding from the French Government. With the generation gap after the war, France needed new directors to carry on film making and to write scripts. â€Å"They were also greatly helped by the introduction, in 1960, of the avance sur recettes, a system of government loans, granted on the basis of a working script, to enable films to be produced. Powrie, P. Reader, K. (2002) p.21 Therefore, we saw a greater amount of scripts and directors willing to create films in France. This contributes towards this upset in traditional film grammar because there is an increased amount of variety from where the films are coming from. There is more of an incentive for innovative films such as the films we see in French New Wave and this certainly is a factor to the movement being successful. To conclude, the French New Wave period marks a great change for Frances film industry. In particular, the directors who contributed to the movement are probably the most influential in the change. Truffaut, a famous film critic turned director believed in auteurism the process in which the directors vision comes across in a film. He liked the idea of the camera being a pen in which he could write out his masterpiece. European art-house directors, such as Renoir or Rossellini, had traditionally been treated as the authors of their films, in much the same way as Balzac or Baudelaire were of the literary texts they signed. Powrie, P. Reader, K. (2002) p.21 Both Truffaut and Godard pay tribute to this auteur theory in their works with Godard even using Balzacs work in Les Quatres Cent Coups as an inspiration to Antoine. The idea of these new directors coming into the limelight and putting their own touch into film was a crucial part of understanding why French New Wave broke the mould and ultimately upset traditional film grammar as it had not been done before to this extent.

Media Impact on War

Media Impact on War Vivienne Owusu-Ansah MEDIA TRANSFORMATION Can media help win – or lose – a war? Answer through detailed discussion of coverage in one war since 1945 – The Gulf War II. In 2003, America and its allies, U.K., Australia and Poland, well known as the coalition forces invaded Iraq and began a conflict which has come to be known as the Gulf war II or Iraq war and were later joined by several other countries. During the Iraq war, the Allied forces permitted the media to travel with them in their tanks and jets to war fields to cover the war so as to get first hand news to the public. Though the media has been involved in covering previous conflicts, the Iraq war was said to be the war which allowed the media to have extensive coverage and brought first hand news to the public. This allowed the Allied forces to control and manage the information that went out in public Frankly, our job is to win the war. Part of that is information warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information environment. Embedding journalists honorably served that end, said Long[1]† (Kahn, 2004). Some journalists argue that the army used the journalists as a propaganda tool. This can be deemed as true because journalists’ reports were always favourable to the coalition forces. Reporting alongside the soldiers in war made the journalists feel a sense of closeness to troops. Moreover, the soldiers were the very people who were protecting the journalists’ whiles at the war front thus it became difficult if not impossible to report any negative issues about them. Another point to consider is that, because the media was reporting from the war front alongside the troops, they were able to send real time reports indirectly to Saddam Hussein’s government about the heavy artillery being used by the Allied forces. This psychologically weakened Iraq as they realised they could not match the ammunition strength of the coalition forces. Pictures of the military tanks rolling into Iraq were also another factor that helped propagate the Allied forces’ aim. This showed the might of the forces which intimidated the Iraqi forces as well as the Iraqi public. A comment purported to have been made by Chris Hughes, the spokesperson of the U.S. Marines a day before the war highlights this, â€Å"The à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rst image of this war will deà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ne the conà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ict† (Buncombe 2003 cited in Parry 2010). If the public had initially supported the Iraqi government the pictures of the Allied forces were enough to sway public suppo rt to the powerful side in this case the Allied forces. According to Professor Barbie Zelizer of University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of communication, a picture showing a crowd of Iraqis pulling down Saddam Hussein’s statue was quite influential, this is because it told a story to the public that the government of Saddam Hussein was no longer in power and that the public supported the Allied forces and this was an effective means to winning or losing the war. It showed the crowd as being nationalists thereby triggering the general public to act as nationalists too. During the Iraq war, the army is believed to have had around 600 journalists from various news organisations entrenched with the troops thus there was an overflow of news and all were in favour of the Allied forces. This therefore created a high level of fear amongst the enemies having to always read and listen to the might of the forces on TV, radio and in newspapers. Some journalists argue that the Allied forces had won the war even before any ammunitions were fired and this is because the public had already been scared into fleeing due to the fact that they were made to believe they could be killed by nuclear or chemical weapons, which in effect made it less difficult for the Allied forces to win the war. In the case of the Iraq war, the Allied forces controlled their agenda, creating awareness and used the media to portray a one sided view. Most of the pictures that were circulated were of those showing the might of the forces and in some cases a few Iraqi nationals showing their support to the Allied forces and kept any image of casualties suffered by the Allied forces out of the public eye especially in their respective countries because they wanted the public to continue supporting the war till the end. This adds momentum to the political idea of using photography during war to manipulate the public. Journalism is arguably a powerful tool often used in affecting and changing public opinion on issues. Media institutions usually broadcast what attracts their target audience. Prior to invading Iraq, George Bush – the American President, in a national broadcast which was telecast in Iraq, heard him appealing to the ordinary citizens of Iraq to support America and the coalition forces for their own good and also portrayed the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, as an enemy and the cause of all the problems of the Iraqis. He further suggested that the solution to their problem is war to overthrow what the western governments termed as undemocratic regime of Saddam Hussein and urged them to fight for their freedom. His speech was rhetoric and played very well on the public’s emotion as they did not support the Iraq government to fight when they were called to join. Bush used his message to amass public opinion in acknowledging America and its Allied’s military presence in Iraq. According to Samir Khader of Al Jazeera (the most prominent media institution during the invasion), the aim of their station during the war was to educate the world most especially the Arab viewers and to prove to them that in every war there are always civilian casualties. This did not seem to work well initially as their network was not far reached, they were also deemed not to be reliable and as such was a mere propaganda tool used by the Iraqi government and enemy groups who attacked America on September 11. The public in America, United Kingdom and other parts of the world had been persuaded into believing these perceptions by the media though there was no proof. The Arab media did not do much to help its credibility by not reporting human rights abuses against sectarian and ethnic minorities and opposition Iraqi citizens which were perpetuated on a large scale by Saddam Hussein’s government. Although Al Jazeera’s message about war casualties is true, it is worth m entioning that, this is not something new as that is some of the realities of war. There has never been any war fought without any civilian or military casualty and Jack Straw, Britain’s Foreign Secretary during the period of the Iraq war rightly described war in an article in Mail Online as an occurrence that is filled with horror. As pictures and news of war casualties (both civilians and American soldiers) got to the American public their views began to change. The public became angry and began demonstrating against the mission of the government in going to war in Iraq and demanded that troops are withdrawn. This message reflected during some of American president’s foreign visits. In the U.K., President Bush was met by anti war demonstrations in London because of the Iraq war and other cities where he visited also met him with similar demonstrations. During the Iraq war some western media used spin to get specific messages to the international world. An example is a picture showing a crowd chanting and singing which the western media portrayed as Iraqis celebrating Bush but they were rather protesting America’s involvement in the war with chants in Arabic that the troops should be withdrawn from Iraq. A journalist who was reporting for BBC interpreted the story to portray the crowd as singing praises to Bush for getting rid of Saddam Hussein and celebrating their freedom. This helped sway public opinion about the war in the western world. Before the coalition forces marched into any city in Iraq, they used the media to report extensively on how the cities had already been conquered and this plan built fear in the opposing army who showed little resistance, all these stories were however later found to be false but that was after it had served its intended purpose. Most of the coverage by the western media such as CNN and NSBC was deemed as biased to favour the allied forces. This is partly because only a few of the journalists embedded with the troops did get to experience action at the front line. Most of them were stationed at the command centre where information was always received from the military and this played an important role in helping them win the support of the public. The Arab media on the other hand did same, they also used propaganda in getting the Arab world to see the Allied forces as the worst enemy who had no right to be in Iraq with no intention of protecting civilians and alleging the coalition forces rather had their personal interest of getting control of the oil in Iraq. They propagated Arab nationalism to the public. The Allied forces knew the important role played by independent media during war. The public usually believe stories reported by independent journalists at war front as being unbiased. This is not wholly true as they always report from an angle that suits their organisation. The coalition forces used the media to their advantage rather than having the military releasing information to the press which would be seen as biased towards the aim of their mission in Iraq by the general public and not being credible as well. Local media in America had journalists attached to the troops, and most of these media are situated near military bases. The local people who are the main readers in these areas, connected with the media in the neighbourhood during the war through the news items they published, some were messages from the soldiers to their families. The public regarded the news from these newspapers as credible thereby getting them to support the mission of the Allied forces. Studies have shown how media coverage affected public opinion during the war and led to the public supporting the military mainly due to the reason that the public were not made aware of any other options other than going to war to liberate the people of Iraq and the enemy of the coalition forces (the government of Saddam Hussein) coming from the back drop of the September 11, 2001 attacks in America which had attracted massive media coverage thereby the public especially the American public viewed military action in Iraq as the only way. This point is echoed by Berinsky, 2008, â€Å"However, as threats recede, citizens begin to resist encroachments on their basic values. Thus, while the particular circumstances of war may be unique, they influence civil liberties judgements through mechanisms that are familiar from studies of domestic politics† (pg.13). Britain and the other countries that formed the coalition also viewed Iraq as a danger to global peace. Iraq had been portra yed by the coalition forces as a country that had allegedly supported and accommodated the group that attacked America. Another factor worth highlighting is that war casualties were not permitted to be made public by the media and this was strictly enforced by the military at the command centre, any journalist that violated this rule was expelled from the base. In the weeks prior to the invasion of Iraq, the American government saturated the media, especially prime time news programs of major media stations and newspapers in America such as; CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS and New York Times alleging that Iraq was planning to commit atrocities even greater than the September 11 attacks. The American public believed and therefore backed the government’s decision to go to war in Iraq. This situation was no different in U.K. where BBC, Sky and ITN were also used by the then government of Tony Blair to get the public to support the mission. The media which has a duty to present the public with the truth also failed to question these facts presented by the American and British governments but rather circulated the government’s information to the public as being the truth. The media effectively helped the coalition forces by influencing public support and also urged the military to go on to win the war in Iraq. Although certain reports disagree with the fact that the coalition forces had won the war because there were and are still sporadic incidents of fighting taking place in Iraq and also that the coalition forces are yet to completely pull out of the region, it is important to stress that although the war was fought in Iraq, the real war was the one perpetuated by the media through the stories they published which psychologically influenced the public at large and this can be seen as pure propaganda. Without that the coalition forces would not have managed to storm Iraq and win the war within a very short period. According to Jack Straw (Hinsliff 2003 cited in Parry 2010), â€Å"Twenty-four-hour news actually changes the reality of warfare. The media is changing the reality of warfare, it is not just reporting on it†. Given the amount of cov erage the western media managed to achieve in the world at large during the Iraq war, if the media in the Arab world had been able to achieve that on the same scale in the Middle East and other parts of the world, the public may not have supported the war the way they did. This would have led to the morale of the troops being at its lowest and their confidence would also have been down and more importantly America would not have got the support they had from the Allied. [1] Lt. Col. Rick Long was with the U.S. Marine Corps

Free Grapes of Wrath Essays: Religion in The Grapes of Wrath :: Grapes Wrath essays

Religion in The Grapes of Wrath  Ã‚      In The Grapes of Wrath the author, John Steinbeck, presents religion in several ways including the fanaticism of the Sin Watchers, Jim Casy’s parallel character to Jesus Christ, and through the use of symbolism throughout the novel.   Through these methods, Steinbeck weaves a web in which religion is presented as a double-edged blade; one can go to the path of being truly a devout, kind person, or one can choose the path of zealously, condemning all who would oppose or go against their views.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Sin Watchers represent the epitome of religious zeal.   They force their ideals upon others, and they point out the sinful ways of their fellow camp-mates.   These people Steinbeck presents as evil aberrations who disrupt the otherwise peaceful life at the government camp.   The most viewed Sin Watcher was the woman who berated Rose Of Sharon for her â€Å"sinful† ways.   This horrid woman told Rose Of Sharon that because of the hug-dancing and other fun activities, the baby would be stillborn.   Sadly, the baby was born dead, but not necessarily due to Rose Of Sharon’s activities.   This woman instilled in Rose Of Sharon the idea that it was her fault that the baby did not survive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jim Casy’s actions bore a close resemblance to the actions of Jesus Christ.   In the time the book was published, this was viewed as an act of blasphemy.   As discussed in class, many of the acts, trials, and tribulations of Jim Casy (along with the ominous JC initials) parallel those of Jesus.   Jim Casy represents the epitome of personal reverence, despite his renunciation of preaching.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout The Grapes of Wrath, religious symbols crop up, further explaining the significance of the section.   One use of symbolism is that when on the road to California, Tom encounters a snake.   Already established in the novel is the fact that to the Goads, California represents a place of great wealth, freedom, and prosperity.   It is a Garden of Eden, so to speak.   The Garden of Eden had a serpent who brought the Wrath of God upon Adam and Eve.   The serpent supplied them with the forbidden fruit.   California is forbidden to outsiders and migrants.

Using Computers in My Work :: Exploratory Essays

Using Computers in My Work What comes to mind when you hear the word computer? When I realized what profession that I wanted to go into I didn’t realized just how much computers will affect me. I decided around the age of sixteen or seventeen that I wanted to become an executive protection specialist, also known as a bodyguard. I never really gave it much thought about it. After putting some thought into it I discovered that computers in general, especially laptops, will play an important part in a bodyguard’s daily day to day business in the near future. But there are some disadvantages of using laptop computer also. There are many advantages for using a laptop. One, you can make out a detailed itinerary anywhere that your client may take you, let it be on an airplane or in a limo. Second, with the small size, the laptops that are on today’s market, they can almost go anywhere and everywhere that you could possible imagine! With an Internet connection, at your hotel, you would have instant connection readily available to the World Wide Web without having to monkey around with a conventional computer desktop that would consist of having to haul around the big tower, monitor, and speakers. This could be an important asset being able to check out what going around different parts of the county or even in a specific part of the world if your client is heading that way. You then could be notified about any potential trouble spots. Another example could be if you’re away with your client for a long period of time, you could use the laptop and Internet capability to keep in touch wit h family and friends. Since there are so many computer manufacturers out on the market these days this causes the price of the laptops to go down and the quality to go up. Even having the same capacity of the desktop computers. Nevertheless, with all the great thing about laptop computers, there is a negative aspects as well.

Living a Wholehearted Life

Book Project: Living a Wholehearted Life Jannie Jenkins Dixie State University â€Å"The Gifts of Imperfection†, by Brene Brown, writer and research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. The book is written to open people's minds to the power and impact of living a wholehearted life. Brown confronts the dark emotions that get in the way of leading a fuller life and pursues the behavior of courage. She shares ten guideposts on the power of Wholehearted living, and what we can do to achieve our way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.Each guidepost explores the power of love, belonging, and being enough as they each help us lead to recognize and act on our gifts of imperfection: courage, compassion, and connection. The key to living a wholehearted life is to embrace the gifts of imperfection. Guidepost number one: cultivating authenticity. Professor Brown explains that she has this as her first step to achieve wholeheartedness because we cannot be happy when we are constantly worrying about what others think of us. We must forget what other people might be thinking of us and be our real selves.When we on't embrace our true self, we deny ourselves of the many Joys of Just living. We are cultivating courage when we practice authenticity and allow ourselves to be vulnerable. Guidepost number two: cultivating self-compassion. With Brown's research, we learn that fear and shame are two major obstacles to accomplishing high self-worth and practicing self-compassion. When we let fear overcome us, we push away all ideas of aspiring our dreams and moving forward; when we get trapped in our box of shame, we Judge our self and others.Brown urges her readers to realize that veryone experiences those feelings of suffering or inadequacy, but we have the choice of being warm and understanding toward ourselves rather than comparing and putting ourselves down. If we are compassionate with ourselves, we will experience emp athy towards others, leading to our gift of compassion for others as well. Guidepost number three: cultivating a resilient spirit. Brown describes resilience as the ability to overcome adversity. Everyone goes through some sort of trial, but it's how we handle the hardships that define us.Overcoming adversity is the hardest part of living, then how do we become resilient? With her research, Brown made a list of protective factors†the things that help us move forward in adversity†and according to the people she interviewed, the very foundation of the protective factors was their spirituality She defines spirituality as, â€Å"recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us†(2010, pg. 56). Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose into our lives.Guidepost number four: cultivating gratitude and Joy. Brown made the connection that all those who described themselves as Joyful or living a Joyful life, ctively practices gratitude. The best way to cultivate Joy and practice gratitude is by slowing down our constant rushed lives. People get so caught up in the â€Å"must's† and the â€Å"do's† in life to achieve happiness that they unknowingly reject what could be joyful moments. Brown consistently emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that, â€Å"l am enough. † Guidepost number five: cultivating intuition and trusting faith.Brown defines intuition as our ability to hold room for uncertainty and our willingness to trust the many ways we've developed knowledge and insight. She also goes into depth about he importance of having faith. To engage in a wholehearted life means we must believe without seeing. Guidepost number six: cultivating creativity. What keeps people from cultivating their own creativity is comparison. Comparison is all about conformity and competition; we feel the need to fit in or outstand! When we create, we produce meaning. Brown tells us to let go of comparison.Guidepost number seven: cultivating play and rest. Brown gives numerous examples from her life as well as others about how much more meaningful their lives are when they exercise proper rest and adequate time to play. When we play we shape our brains, harbor empathy, and work through complex social groups. â€Å"Play is at the core of creativity and innovation. † She incorporates rest by explaining that we cannot live full lives without respecting our bodies' need for renewal. Play and rest cultivate connection. Guidepost number eight: cultivating calm and stillness.It is impossible to live wholeheartedly when anxiety is pressing us down. Brown emphasizes in this section the meaningfulness that comes from multiple forms of meditation. Guidepost number nine: cultivating meaningful work. Professor Brown describes eaningful work as feeling a tremendous sense of accomplishment and purpose from work. What keeps people from a chieving meaningful work is their self-doubt. Self-doubt blocks our process of finding our talents and sharing them with the world; self-doubt is letting our fear undermine our faith.Brown encourages us to establish who we are by determining our gifts and what we do with them. Guidepost number ten: cultivating laughter, song, and dance. We have to let goof being cool and â€Å"always in control. † By doing so, we allow ourselves to express ourselves in ways that make us feel the most Joy and satisfaction. Brene Brown's book is not a â€Å"how to† book (although there were times where I wished it was), it's a book that pulls out our understanding of how we choose to live. Her guideposts are all choices that we have to make.The only way we can create a life of living with our whole hearts is by practice. Brown's book influences us to make choices of how we live our lives, but we must choose to practice. We won't become self-resilient, authentic, self-compassionate, or mo re grateful if we Just sit and wait tor them to come to us. We nave to constantly practice and better ourselves, then we an live a more fulfilled life. This book covers the confusing emotions we as humans all go through. I have been able to more fully grasp and understand what things get in the way of my own personal wholehearted living.It's funny to me because everything she talks about is so plain and simple; it's common logic but yet we still feel unworthy, abandoned, or unloved. Something that I have struggled with in my life is perfectionism. Brene Brown defines perfectionism as the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we will avoid the pain of blame, Judgment, and shame. This definition really it me because I believed that I would only be loved, approved, and accepted if I were â€Å"perfect. † I worry about what other people think of me which denies me, what could be, wonderful opportunities.I am afraid to put anything out in the world that co uld be imperfect because I am afraid of failing, making a mistake, or disappointing someone. Perfectionism is self-destructive and I believe my perfectionism is what keeps me from feeling confident in myself. When I was reading about this, I wondered what can I do to get rid of this toxic belief. The number one thing is to practice self-compassion. Self-compassion consists of three elements: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.I often beat myself with self-criticism when I suffer, fail, or feel inadequate rather than being warm and understanding towards myself, self-kind. Something that I persistently try to remember when I'm going through something difficult is that it's common humanity. Suffering and feeling inadequate is Just part of the human experience. Everyone has his or her struggles and is trying their best to get through them; it is not Just â€Å"me† alone. Since reading about this, IVe been practicing self-compassion so I can lower my perfectionistic w ay f thinking. It really is a huge difference how I perceive my life.I'm accepting that it's okay to go for those moments and opportunities that make me vulnerable because I'm not perfect and I don't have to be; I'm embracing my true self while letting go of what others think of me. I do feel as if my soul is more fulfilled. Going along with perfectionism, comparison is another thing that gets in the way of living my wholehearted life. Comparison is all about conformity and competition. When we compare, we want to be like everyone else (â€Å"fit in†), but better. I refused to believe hat I was trapped in that exhausting hole of comparing myself to others because I knew I shouldn't be thinking like that.I realized though that in order for me to embrace my gifts of imperfection, courage, compassion, and connection, I have to acknowledge my weaknesses and shortcomings such as comparison. I continue to practice avoiding comparison because I know when I focus on being better or b eing the odd one out, I am not happy. I tend to forget about working on my authenticity, or gratitude when I'm spending all my time and energy conforming and competing. I lso have become aware that it's okay to be me. I Just need to focus on going through my life at my pace, by my rules while everyone else is going throughout their life at their pace and by their rules.Some may be faster, some slower, but the best thing I can do is smile, pat them on the back, feel happy for what theyre achieving and Just keep going. When I'm not comparing myself to others I feel good about my self and about my life. Recognizing my struggles with perfectionism and comparison, and working to overcome them, nave been major steps tor me living a more tultllled lite However, the biggest thing that stood out to me personally was how important spirituality and gratitude are in achieving wholeheartedness.IVe always had a strong belief in my faith and religion, but it was neat to see from Professor Brown's research that having spirituality is a core component of wholeheartedness. It's not just me who relies and believes on my faith to become resilient, the ability to overcome adversity. Everyone needs to believe and celebrate that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our onnection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion (2010, pg. 64). Practicing spirituality brings healing and creates resilience.We all have to define spirituality in a way that inspires us. I know, and have known for a long time, that my life would be drastically different without my spirituality. It truly does give me peace, comfort, and strength leading into a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose in my life. Finally, the other thing that stood out to me next to spirituality was cultivating gratitude and Joy. I think the reason this hits me hard is ecause everyone is striving to live a fulfilled life, and to me, a fulfilled life is a Joyful life.We all are wanting to be happy, but this world is filled with so much pain, suffering, and sorrow that it's hard to remain happy. Practicing gratitude is the essence of living Joyfully. When we are grateful, we immediately shut out our feelings that make up shame and destroy our happiness. The catch is that gratitude is a constant action and must be consistently practiced. Something that IVe done to practice having an attitude of gratitude is stating out loud things I'm grateful for hen fear or anxiety is creeping up on me.When I verbally express my gratitude, a feeling of warm Joy really does overcome me; I no longer feel worthless or inadequate because I'm recognizing that I have enough, that I am enough! Through recognizing my shortcomings with perfectionism and comparison and also living a life of gratitude and Joy, I have been more able to embrace who I am. I live a life of imperfection, but I am enough. I have the potential to do amazing things when I live who leheartedly, going throughout life with courage, compassion, and connection.