Monday, November 16, 2009
The Daily Me
Read "The Daily Me" by Nicholas D. Kristof. In light of your response to the "Politically Speaking" survey, do you agree with Kristof? Explain your answer and refer back to at least one quote from "The Daily Me".
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I agree with some of Nicholas D. Kristof's arugments, being most adults and college students keep their political views secluded to others who think like them. However, like I stated before, I do not think that many high school students really have an opinion on any poltical party mainly because they do not understand exactly what is going no in the world. Many reasons kids do not follow politics as much as an adult would is because most kids do not have a job, a house, kids and they do not really have responsibilities that require them to understand politics. "He argyes that American's increasingly are segregating themselves into communities, clubs and churches were they are surrounded by people who think the way they do." I agree with this quote because I find that many people I know like to be in groups of people who understand them and believe in things they do. High schoolers are definitely examples of this because they want to be accepted and be part of the group. Even adults fall into this category of "wanting to be accepted," because no one wants to be a loner. Adults are more likely to talk about politics, especially with people who think like they do because they do not want to argue. Some adults just want people to agree with them so they make it easy by joining clubs with people who will accept them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what the author says because it's true that alot of people only want to read news and look at information that they agree with. I think that people should be more interested in hearing other peoples opinions. It's good to talk with people with opposing opinions besause you can see another way of looking at the topic. the author writes, "Almost half of Americans now live in counties that vote in landslides either for Democrats or for Republicans." I agree with the fact because generally states have an overall political party. For example Vermont is very Democratic where Texas is very Republican.
ReplyDeleteI completly agree with Kristof! It seems that more and more the newspaper is getting flooded by the internet. Everywhere we turn there is someone on the internet. But Kristof made a good point about people and the internet "When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about." This is exactly true. Why would someone waste thier time browsing the internet, on a topic or web site that they could care less about? We wouldnt, unless we had to for class. So when we do go online we go to sites and pages that most interest us.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Nicholas Kristof, instead of getting our news from the television or by picking up a newspaper. "We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about." He has a great point. We look up news that only interests us. We also look up news that may agree with our own opinions. Why read about a topic that may no interest you or that you may disagree with what the author is talking about. Kristof made a great point when he said he also does this. When he reads blogs on Middle East News he often reads Professor Juan Cole's blogs instead of Daniel Pipes. It is not because one is smarter than the other however it is because Kristof often agrees with his take and usually disagrees with what Daniel Pipes talks about. "One 12 nation study found Americans the least likely to discuss politics with people of different views." I agree with this because if when someone disagrees with me I just usually don't say anything back because it’s not worth an agreement over. Does this actually help us understand the right answer or the better view point? Kristof believes people should discuss with one another their political beliefs and maybe understand more about debatable topics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with good ole' Nicholas Kristof. People in the here and now don't enjoy people who don't think like themselves. Everyone is guilty of thinking inside the box but he all have the potential to think outside of it, we just don't want to. People tend to become more wound and uptight when they discuss things with people who feel the same way, we even become impowered; we can take anything on. "But after discussiong the issue with like-minded people for only 15 minutes, liberals became more liberal and conservatives more conservative." This quote from The Daily Me explains and tells how people feed off people who agree with them. One thing I do disagree with is the whole blog thing, I personally don't get my news from blogs and as far as I know my friends don't either. However I do agree that college kids feel the need to constantly look down there nose at people. They feel that anyone different isn't good enough and that everyone should think like them.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Kristof. To go read an article on anything prejudiced is to be expected, however to go read an article with the same prejudice really doesn't help anything. In order for everyone to be truly informed, and have a full, well rounded view of the going ons, they must see all sides. Prejudice is to be expected, and isn't something that we can eliminate, however sites such as The Daily Me will only further deepen these set prejudices and will ruin any chance there is to change anyone's mind. Arguments are healthy, and needed, they help others get out of their head, and see the whole picture! “The result is polarization and intolerance. Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor now working for President Obama, has conducted research showing that when liberals or conservatives discuss issues such as affirmative action or climate change with like-minded people, their views quickly become more homogeneous and more extreme than before the discussion.” This statement is so entirely true. And without all options being considered, what is left? A single-minded, intolerant America, a place where no one wants to be.
ReplyDeleteYes I do agree with a lot of what NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF is saying in this article, The Daily Me. The sentence that caught my eye the most though was fourth paragraph, “That’s because there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information”. I feel that this sentence is very true. When people open a newspaper most of the time there are two main things people are reading about. They are sports and problems or tragedies that have recently happened. People live for drama and suspense, and that is what most people talk about
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kristof in his article, but of course I'm going to agree. Everyone here agrees, everyone in the world would agree. Honestly, the article isn't even really inciteful, its just pointing out the obvious. Deep down everyone has a core set of beliefs, these beliefs are rarely even based on logic even if its the basis for some of the most methodical people on Earth, people will always set out to justify their beliefs. This is pretty lucky for them considering that there's almost always someone else who believes, at least partly, the same as you. No-one wants to be wrong, so why would they search out news and articles on the Internet that's sole purpose to support a different set of beliefs? Kristof even says, "Let me get one thing out of the way: I'm sometimes guilty myself of selective truth-seeking on the Web." As before mentioned, no one wants to be wrong. And even if someone does decide to look at articles of the opposing view, these articles will almost never sway someone's base opinion. These articles will just cause us to scoff and shrug our shoulders at the writer's naivety. We're all ignorant. We're all intolerant. We're all prejudice. Some are just more obvious than others.
ReplyDeletePretty much I don't care to argue or to be involved with unimportant drama. i don't care what your political veiws are and i can't say i would enjoy argueing about it. therefore i do not pick the people i spend time with according to their political veiws.
ReplyDeleteI believe I said everything I wanted to say about this in my survey response. Reading the article my opinions hold true. This author of this artice makes it sound like everybody tries only to gain reassurance of their own politcal views when they discuss controversial topics and watch the news. I still feel there is a mix of the ways people go about it. One quote that caught my eye
ReplyDelete"So perhaps the only way forward is for each of us to struggle on our own to work out intellectually with sparring partners whose views we deplore."
More to the point why should wwe deplore anyones veiws. At the end of the day they are just that veiws. Everyone has the right to state their beliefs and attempts to convert people over usually fail.When is the last time you saw two passionate people argue and then one of them say "YOUR SOOOOOO RIGHT!! HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO BLIND?" All you can do is back up your beliefs to the best of your ability and when the time comes to vote hope others feel the same way you do. I apologize for any flagrant spelling errors.