Acts of kindness go a long way, and connections can be made even through small gestures. In Maria Konnikova’s piece, “The limits of Friendship,” she mentions the Dunbar number and how we can only connect with a certain amount of people. The Dunbar number shows the limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. Although we see in Lameris’ poem on Small Kindnesses that it’s frankly easy to make connections with one another even if it’s a small gesture, like saying bless you or pulling your legs in a crowded aisle. Konnikova’s piece on friendship directly relates to Lameris’ poem and so does David Foster Wallace’s speech. Wallace mentions the default setting of how we have an impulse to be the center of attention all the time. In this case, Lameris’ poem describes how we have an impulse to do these small acts of kindness, and not selfishly think, like in Wallace’s perception of the default setting where generally all you are thinking about is yourself. Wallace and Konnikova both relate to Lameris’ poem, as the poem inadvertently argues against both the default setting and the Dunbar number. That we can make simple connections through a reflex or an act of kindness, and that we aren’t necessarily the center of attention, and on lots of occasions, we’re looking out for others, rather than ourselves.
Author: kshea13 (Page 2 of 3)
A) This is Water by David Foster Wallace is about simple awareness. His commencement speech talks about the things the students should know about the real world. His main three arguments were as follows, students haven’t experienced what day in and day out really are. “But (experiencing day in, day out) hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.” Another point he made was that the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people. “Given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience.” His third point was that you have to look at the bigger picture and that the people around you may have harder, more tedious, and painful lives than you do, and being aware of that was his main argument of his.
I agree with Wallace when he brought up that it’s really important to consider other people, and what may be going on in their lives. Not to look at it as if you are the center of attention, and if you are in a bad mood, to not act like everyone else is just in your way. I completely agreed with that. Like what if the other person is having an even worse day? A lot of things should be taken into consideration, and people should be more aware of that even when they’re doing something as simple as grocery shopping Wallace explained.
B) In my DFW Reading Response, I relied quite heavily on pointing terms, such as “that” and simple pronouns like “his.” You don’t notice this until you look specifically for that word, and I didn’t realize how much I used these two pointing terms, there’s definitely a pattern for me in some of my other pieces of writing too.
C) Wallace brought up how important it is to consider other people, and what may be going on in an individual’s life. I agree when Wallace says, to not look at it as if you are the center of attention, and if you are in a bad mood, to not act like everyone else is just in your way. It’s important to consider what if the other person is having an even worse day? A lot of things should be taken into consideration, and people should be more aware of others even when they’re doing something as simple as grocery shopping.
I’d say yes, it is easier to read now after revising it with help from the book, They Say / I Say.
[C1] – David Foster Wallace’s idea of understanding what others may be going through is something that we should implement in our everyday lives.
[I] – In DFW’s piece, “This is water,” he says,
[Q1] – “that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.” (Wallace 8)
[E] – Even when you may be uptight, stressed out yourself. It’s healthy to believe that other people have it worse and that you are fortunate. Wallace explains that we can’t take out our negative energy on other people.
[T] – Wallace’s analysis of how we treat others relates directly with Paul Bloom’s thoughts on empathy.
[Q2] – Bloom states that “Empathy is like a spotlight directing attention and aid to where it’s needed.”
[Ce] – He believes that Empathy is narrow. Meanwhile, Wallace talks about how we need to recognize that others may have harder lives, and those people may not have that person to lean on, leading to there pain they may be dealing with. This is because of narrow-minded empathy, and we can’t empathize with everyone. Wallace states that we need to establish perspective, while Bloom adds to it, by mentioning that this perspective will be hard to find when there’s a lack of empathy and a lack of people caring for those who need it most.
This is a positive aspect of social media, as you can make connections with not just those who are directly next to you and it allows you to see the world outside. However, I agree with Konnikova when she says that the connections are just more meaningful in person. She also tells us that, “there may be a physiological aspect of friendship that virtual connections can never replace” (Konnikova 5). Yet some readers may challenge my view by insisting that, “touch” isn’t valuable, and that you can make lifelong friends online and never have to go through the stress of making friends in person again, you have to look at every aspect of what a friendship is. Imagine sharing a nice laugh, or a smile, even a nudge, firm high fives, warm hugs, you get the point, these gestures can never truly be reciprocated over the screen. On the one hand, I agree that social media can be beneficial, it passes time, it’s fun, and you can still be social on the internet! But on the other hand I still insist that we need to take control and be aware of how much we’re using it, and not let it take away from those valuable connections you can only make face-to-face.
This is Water by David Foster Wallace is about simple awareness. His commencement speech talks about the things the students should know about the real world. His main three arguments were as follows, students haven’t experienced what day in and day out really are. “But (experiencing day in, day out) hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.” Another point he made was that the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people. “Given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience.” His third point was that you have to look at the bigger picture and that the people around you may have harder, more tedious, and painful lives than you do, and being aware of that was his main argument of his.
I agree with Wallace when he brought up that it’s really important to consider other people, and what may be going on in their lives. Not to look at it as if you are the center of attention, and if you are in a bad mood, to not act like everyone else is just in your way. I completely agreed with that. Like what if the other person is having an even worse day? A lot of things should be taken into consideration, and people should be more aware of that even when they’re doing something as simple as grocery shopping Wallace explained.
I don’t think he directly refers to empathy but I believe that you can draw connections from his speech that relate to empathy. For example, “…that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.” I think you could connect this, as some people need to be empathized with when you aren’t even aware of it. When someone else has their energy all bottled up on the inside, and they’re looking for that person to lean on, but they may not have that. You could connect this by saying that even though you aren’t originally aware that this person is having a bad day, you could bring up a conversation with this individual and that may be your way of showing empathy while making his or her day a little bit better.
When Wallace says that “the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people.” This immediately sparked something in my brain. I agree with this wholeheartedly and I think it’s a solid point that people don’t generally think about. Everyone can have their own opinions and own reactions to a situation. It’s important to consider that they may have different beliefs, and different ways of thinking, or that they may just be different from you, which can lead to their reaction not being the same as yours. This got me thinking about how I can connect this to Mr. Bloom and I think it relates really well to his points on empathy, but overall once Wallace said this sentence, I immediately agreed with him.
The essay, “Is empathy overrated,” by Paul Bloom is about how Bloom believes that empathy is narrow, biased, and insensitive. He tells us that empathy has a narrow focus and that it “distorts our moral judgments the same way prejudice does.” He goes into detail with his strong beliefs, attempting to convince his readers that empathy is overrated, that the negatives of empathy outweigh its positives, and that there are better alternatives.
Bloom’s three main points are all controversial, starting with how empathy is like a spotlight, and how it has such a narrow focus. His second point is that people can’t empathize with thousands of people and that we tend to empathize more with our loved ones and people were close to. His last big point is that empathy is insensitive, and how empathy is silent even when it’s needed sometimes like in the text when it says, “But suppose that stopping the vaccine program will cause, say, a dozen random children to die. Here your empathy is silent.” My initial reaction is who is he to assume that his readers would be silent here? He assumes a lot about his readers, and you can tell he wrote this piece to start a conversation rather than actually believing it. There’s no way someone can relate empathy to prejudice, and talk about how murders are just background noise. The only way someone would say these things is to make people disagree, they’re playing the naysayer or the devil’s advocate to spark conversation. “The murder in Chicago is more of steady background noise,” Bloom said. While I agree you can’t empathize with everyone, I think there are enough people in the world, and if there is an individual that needs empathy, they will have someone.
1) I believe we must monitor our use of social media or else we will lose social skills, lose valuable in-person friendships while showing the next generation that this is essential to our daily lives and that we can’t live without it.
I think I did a good job setting up the rest of my essay with my thesis statement. I took a stance, and I almost made it more extreme than it is to prove to my audience that I strongly believe it. You recommended I add more of a punch to my thesis so I thought I did that well. This also leads me well to get into my evidence, since I talk a lot about social skills and upcoming generations in my piece. I think I deliberately thought this through and I honestly think it’s pretty good.
2) I was reminded that the writing process is long. You need to set aside enough time to make revisions, as well as enough time to read through your piece multiple times. Since this was the first essay I’ve written in many months, I sort of forgot how much effort it takes to write a great essay. But, it’s also very relieving once you finish!
3) The aspect of revision I focused on the most was my thesis, and how I integrated my quotes, I changed how I introduced Konnikova and Chen when I included quotes by them. Like putting, “As Chen puts it…” instead of just saying the quote and explaining it, I focused on introducing it.
4) I’d annotate more thoroughly, I felt like I annotated well, but the more you understand the readings, the easier the essay will be. So next time, I’ll probably take a little more time on those readings to make sure I fully understand each part.
