Friday, October 29, 2010

Reflection Post

4. In what ways do writing response posts to classmates' blogs help me become a better writer, reader, or thinker? Are there other ways in which my classmates' blogs help me learn?

So far this year, I’ve been writing in my blog consistently because of homework and also because it’s become somewhat of a habit for me to write whatever comes to my mind. I’m proud of a lot of things that I post because they express my opinion to others. Response posts are especially helpful for keeping me open-minded about everything. Writing response posts to classmates’ blogs help me become a better writer and thinker because I get to see point of views other than my own and this allows me to argue my point if I do disagree with the others’ views, but also see how many different approaches there can be to one subject.
For homework, we have to respond to someone else's blog post and normally the things I respond to are on subjects that I have a strong opinion on. Many times when I have a strong opinion about something, I tend not to be able to see different sides of thing because I’m too caught up in thinking that my way is the only way to see things. You can say I’m narrow-minded, but responding to posts helps me stay more open-minded to things.  In one post, I responded to Crystal Lau’s post about prosthetic body parts.

Crystal said:
“Personally, I do not believe in exchanging one's body parts when there is no apparent reason to do so such as a disability that would make life inconvenient. A person should be happy with what they are blessed with by nature. Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival."

Here, I never saw a take on the scientific side of this at all, but after reading Crystal’s post, I saw a new perspective, understood it, but most of all, accepted it as an opinion. When I first read this post, I disagreed with it, but as I read further, I began to see Crystal’s logic and point of view she had.I still kept my own views on the topic, but I was able to see a newer eye opening view on this.

“Yet, I disagree with the part where Crystal says "Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival". Yes, humans are able to survive the way they can now because of evolution, but the reason for many people to want to get prosthetic body parts is because they are not happy with the way they appear naturally.” This was from my response post.


This post is just one example of what an eye opener. Seeing other people’s point of view helps me become a better thinker and a better person because I get to become less narrow-minded and more open to new ideas or new opinions other than my own. Writing and defending my opinion and views such as what I did in my response post to Crystal helps me learn how to find evidence and write persuasively because essentially, defending my opinion is trying to make the other person accept it or believe in it as well.



9. Has blogging had any other effects on my life beyond strictly my “school life”? Explain.
I started blogging with the sole reason only being because it was homework and i was getting graded on it, but when I continued to blog, I began to notice that the things I’m saying are not random or just for school. The things i write about are things that I really do want to tell everyone because I think they are important to be said and heard.
Blogging has become a place where I can speak out to the world without being afraid of how people would react and what people would think. Sometimes, I realize that I have a lot of opinions that I want to say, but can’t because it would start arguments and other unnecessary situations as well. Being able to blog about anything helps me get these things out of my system and allows everyone to know what I am thinking. For example, in my “What Has Society Come To?” post, I wrote about how people who are different are treated badly and shunned.

“Look at all the people around you anyone you know who has a different sexual orientation than the "norm" of society. They are not getting the rights they deserve. They fight and fight with everything they have in them and they are being neglected because they are different. They are being put down because they have the bravery and the determination to stand up for what they want and what they deserve. And yes. They do have every right to fight for what they deserve; to have what they deserve.”

In this post, I wanted to point out how ridiculous I thought our society is. Where they do not accept people for who they are and expect them to change to fit in. People with different sexual orientations are commonly looked down on because they are different from the normality's of the society we all live in. It is unfair to treat one person differently from another person simply because they are different.

Here, I was able to express my feelings on this topic. Normally, I can talk about this in in-class discussions, but I don’t have a way to show what I think to people not in that class. Also, if i talked about this outside of class, someone could take it offensively. Posting this blog post helped me get rid of some burden of the opinion I had and not to offend anyone personally because I may be going against their beliefs.


In conclusion, in the next quarter, I will spend more time on my response posts and post more for reasons other than school. Doing both of these helps me as a writer and thinker. It also helps me with being a better person and contributor to society. Being able to see both sides of things would help me become a more understanding person and being able to support the things me and other people believe in makes me a person who can help a cause in society.

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