Aunt Mary

Dear Aunt Mary,

To me, my Aunt Mary represents my uncle.

Dear Uncle George,
Jason told me that you wish to create a "Myface" account. Truth be told, "Myface" is non-existent. They are Myspace and Facebook, both popular social networking sites. Although they are both online social networking sites, they are very different from one another. On social networking sites, people are able to communicate through messages, photos, videos, comments, and much more. One is able to both send and receive friend requests to add someone to your friend list. Personally, I recommend that you get a Facebook account as opposed to a Myspace account because Myspace has a lot more younger teens than Facebook does. Facebook is also much more controlled, safer, and effective than Myspace with things like mass-messaging, instant messaging, groups, event invitations, applications, and much more. Also, Facebook has a lot of security options to provide the best possible service to its users. Not only that, but it's a lot easier and knowing that you barely know how to use a computer that is probably the best choice for you. Now that you know a little about each online social network, I hope you are able to make a decision and wish you the best of luck!

Love, Shereen

Exercise Two- TV Concerns

Growing up, television in my household wasn’t a big deal. As an advanced student nearly my whole life, homework and studying always came first. When I actually got a chance to watch TV, of course my parents influenced, or practically controlled what I watched. Growing up, I was allowed to watch only educational shows and movies. Shows I was allowed to watch contained a lot of information a young child could pick up on, such as Reading Rainbow, Arthur, Sesame Street, Disney, Mr. Rodgers (RIP L), the Magic School Bus, and Barney.
Television was definitely looked at as a harmful thing in my household. Even when I finished my homework and studied, my parents would tell me to go play with my toys. Of course, all the toys they bought me were mind stimulating, therefore even when I was playing, I was learning.
Growing up, TV took a bigger part in my life. I began to care about the news, whether, and a few preteen shows and movies here and there. Though I began watching TV a little more, my parents still made sure I was on top of my education. I can remember a time where my report card contained all A’s, and only one B+. My parents were very upset with my progress in school so they took the TV out of my room. I worked harder than ever to raise my B+ to an A just so I could watch my weekly show, 7th Heaven.
Today, I have little or no time for TV. Occupied with schoolwork, family, my sorority, friends, and church, whenever I get a spare second, I sleep since I don’t get much of it.
My family has, in fact, influenced the way I view TV. While TV can be very educational and informative, it is very addicting and takes away from me doing other valuable things with my time. Instead of watching TV, I could better myself by going to the gym, studying, and working to pay for my education. As Michael Leboeuf once said, “Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of life.”

Wikipedia Controversy- Speedy Gonzales

The Wiki controversy that interested me most is the Speedy Gonzales discussion. Speedy Gonzales as stated on Wikipedia.org, "‘the fastest mouse in all Mexico’, is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent. He usually wears an oversized yellow sombrero, a white shirt and trousers, and a red ascot.”
This entry arose the controversy of what exactly to label his accent. As of now, Speedy’s accent is characterized as a “comedic Mexican accent.” Previously, his pronunciation was described as “Mexican accent,” and “stereotypical Mexican accent,” and “inauthentic Mexican accent,” all of which users found problems with. Under the discussions tab of the article on Wikipedia, this is in fact the most controversial, not to mention, longest discussion. The discussion for the characterization for his accent began in August of 2006, and surprisingly is still a controversy today. After much argument back and forth between users, the phrase “comedic Mexican accent” was decided upon. Though this issue is still controversial, the characterization “comedic Mexican accent” is more descriptive and precise compared to the previous descriptions of Speedy’s accent.
What I learned from reading the article on Speedy Gonzales reinforces the fact that information on Wikipedia should be reliable, and factual information. A stereotype to one person may be different than another’s, therefore words in which users may interpret meanings differently should not be used. This also could be offensive to a specific group of people. Coming from the Middle-East, my family is often perceived in a negative way. Knowing how that feels, I understand why the issue of Speedy Gonzales' accent is such a controversy on Wikipedia.
The purpose of Wikipedia is to inform the public, not to deceive them, and as proven in this article, Wikipedia is not the best source to obtain information. In high school my teachers always told me that Wikipedia is not a reliable resource; Wikipedia has never been my primary resource to obtain information, and it never will be.