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How gaming has affected society
How gaming has affected society
Video games societal effect
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In his book, The Forest, the trees, and the One Thing, Johnson (1999) uses Monopoly as an example in order to explain his outlook on what a social system actually is. He does this in order to the five important ideas that make up social systems. Throughout the reading one learns that these five things consist of the ideas that: People and systems have a direct relation to each other in terms of how one influences the other but they are not the same. Systems directly affect how people act and participate in building society by following the path of least resistance, but at the same time without people these systems might not exist. The role we play in the social system dictates who we are as people and how we influence the system. It shows us that that the role we play as individuals affects more than just our own selves. Sometimes, we can even be a part of more than just one system which can cause role conflict (Johnson1999). Johnson incorporates different aspects of the game and its rules in order to explain how society works as a whole. He does this by providing examples of the different pieces that are used, the rules that need to be followed and the values needed to reach the ultimate …show more content…
goal of the game which is winning. One of the five principles that Johnson seems to reiterate is that despite their influence on each other, systems do not define who a person is or vice versa. Johnson (1999) defines the system as the game of Monopoly itself (the board, pieces, rules, values, etc.). After describing what the game entails Johnson explains “[…] that we can describe the game without saying anything about the personalities, attitudes, or other characteristics of the people who might play it” (p.40). By using this example Johnson is clearly stating that there is a definitive line that distinguishes the player from the game. The game still exists without someone playing it. There is still a board, pieces, rules and regulations. The same idea goes for the player; the player still exists without the game. Given this information leads to Johnson’s next idea that the relationship between the game and the player is what actually makes the system “happen” (Johnson1999:41). Johnson goes into more detail in explaining the fact that without people there is no system. Just like in monopoly, without players there is no game, a system is also run by the people who are a part of it. Everyone in the game of Monopoly inhabits the same role, everyone is a player with the same set objective, to win the game. (Johnson1999). Without these players the game of Monopoly simply becomes “a bunch of stuff in a box with rules written inside the cover” (Johnson1999:41). What this means is the game is an inanimate pile of nothing until played by the players. The players are what make the game a system, through their interactions with the board, pieces and its rules. In continuation with the previous point, Johnson further elaborates on how systems are influenced by what is known as the path of least resistance.
The path of least resistance defined by Johnson is “[…] it’s what you are supposed to do” (p.41). The rules and regulations of Monopoly are considered to be what is right. Johnson (1999) portrays greediness as one example of a path of least resistance. Being greedy people follow their instincts and do not pay much attention to the disciplinary issues associated with it. This is going against the path of least resistance and is frowned upon by other players. That being said players are most likely to choose to follow the rules to avoid conflict. Therefore the game influences our actions by telling us what is right and what is
wrong. The importance of following the path of least resistance supports the fourth aspect of social systems, “[…] we’re always participating in something larger than ourselves […]” (Johnson1999:41). The game of Monopoly as a social system (when players are playing) is greater than the players themselves. This is because the rules set by the game are what influence the players to act in a certain way. Johnson explains, “If we were the game, then we’d feel free to play by any rules we liked” (p.41). He furthers his explanation in saying, because the game is not ours, we see it as something we cannot change (Johnson1999). The game is something greater than its players because it remains the same no matter who plays it and has influence over those who play it rather than the other way around. Along with these interactions and rules and values may come complications? The concept of role conflict can be seen in Johnson’s Monopoly analogy. When Johnson (1999) distinguished the persons role as both a player and a father. The persons his role as a player in Monopoly in his eyes overweighs his role as a father to his children. His role in Monopoly is to win whereas being a parent he is supposed to do what makes his child happy. This essentially means that the father would rather win than follow the rules of parenthood and let his children win instead. However, because there would be less conflict letting the child win that would ultimately be the path of least resistance.
In today’s society, many struggle to freely demonstrate their identity in fear of potential backlash and disapproval from others. While examining the two poems within this assignment, "sturgeon" as well as "the same as trees," I distinguished the overarching theme of identity crisis, and the inability for individuals to effectively express themselves. The first poem being analyzed is “the same as trees” by Nicola I. Campbell. As a member of the Métis community, Campbell’s life has not been simple. Often, people of Métis origin have difficulty navigating their European and Indigenous roots.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is about a Lithuanian family living in Chicago in the 1900’s. They had faith in the American dream, hoping to start a new and successful life. Unfortunately they were deprived of they hopes and dreams. They were placed in the middle of a society where only the strongest and richest survived. The rich keep getting richer and the poor get even poorer. Jurgis and his family went to extreme lengths just in hopes of finding a job, they were forced to travel in heavy rain, strong winds, and thick snow, even when they were sick, in fear of losing their jobs. The Jungle pointed out many flaws in society such as filthy meat and sickening work conditions.
An artwork will consist of different elements that artists bring together to create different forms of art from paintings, sculptures, movies and more. These elements make up what a viewer sees and to help them understand. In the painting Twilight in the Wilderness created by Frederic Edwin Church in 1860 on page 106, a landscape depicting a sun setting behind rows of mountains is seen. In this painting, Church used specific elements to draw the viewer’s attention directly to the middle of the painting that consisted of the sun. Church primarily uses contrast to attract attention, but it is the different aspects of contrast that he uses that makes the painting come together. In Twilight in the Wilderness, Church uses color, rhythm, and focal
In the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn "by Betty Smith one of the major themes that stood out was education, in the book Francie really wanted to get an education but she struggled because she belonged to an immigrant family and they were not as rich as the other families so her parents were barely putting food on the table to afford school tuition. Francie believed that education was the way out of poverty in the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn " by Betty Smith Francie said " Education! That was it !It was education that made the difference ! Education would pull them out of grime and dirt " (207,Smith) . In this quote, it explains the time in where she finally realizes what she had to do to achieve her goal, getting out of poverty.
Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
The book I chose to read is called, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by: Richard Louv. I chose this book for a few different reasons. One reason I chose this book was because I’ m highly interested in the whole concept of the book and feel very passionate about its reasoning. I also thought it would be a great read to guide me towards a topic for my main project at the end of the Lemelson program. On the plus side, I “read” this book through audible, which enabled me to listed to the book on my drive to and from work everyday. I commonly do this because of my forty-five minute commute from Truckee to Spanish Springs.
A.S. Byatt uses symbolism in her story “The Thing in the Forest” to show how children in England during World War II, like herself, felt and reacted to the events that they knew where bad but didn’t understand. This can easily be shown through the sequencing of the plot, the deeper meanings behind characters and places, and the post effects it had the main characters.
To what extent do the belief systems in The King of Trees act as a means of enforcing societal norms?
In the book Nature, Emerson writes in a way that deals with the morals we have in our lives and how these things come from nature at its’ base form. Emerson says that nature is the things that are unchanged or untouched by man. When Haskell writes his journal entries in the book The Forest Unseen he refutes Emerson a good bit of the time. He does this by the way he focuses in on things too much and looks past their importance in the macrocosm we live in. Emerson says these things should not be zoomed in on but should just be looked at in awe. I feel that although Haskell refutes Emerson a good bit, Haskell is not trying to refute Emerson and at one point in his book he actually confirms a few of Emerson’s ideas.
Multiple perspective of any kind requires a unique way of telling a story. Especially from individuals and different viewpoints on the same event. This story gives the audience seven narrators that tell each their side of the matter in the same event and all seem to contradict themselves. This is an interesting plot device from which inconsistent testimonies of the same experience can be shown and looked at. Which narrator is true, which narrator is telling a lie; it is curious to read the differences and some of the same “facts” reported by these witnesses? How can their stories are based on truth and where are the lies. Again, there is a wider range to these individual stories share. Namely who did it,
Upton Sinclair exposed the exploitation of Immigrants working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry during the early twentieth century. Many people believed his book “The Jungle” helped with the exposure of the corruption in the government during the twentieth century. The book focused mainly on the poor living and working conditions of Immigrants during the early twentieth century. Sinclair wanted to prove that labor unions and Progressive reform had little or no impact on improving the working conditions of Immigrants. He felt that capitalism, with or without unions or reform, would be bad for workers, especially immigrant workers who were even lower on the socioeconomic ladder than native-born workers. Sinclair 's book is meant to reject the capitalist system and bring in its place a socialist system. In this critical portrait of capitalism and its exploitation of immigrants and other workers, unions are in fact shown to be tools for the capitalist bosses, used as another means to control and mislead immigrants.
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.
...th supplier and consumer, as both needs to agree to one set of terms in order to complete a successful trade. It follows that greed is responsible for creating market forces that create and maintain equity, efficiency and consequently optimal utilization of resources.
It was a calm, overcast day, and I found myself resting at the side of a large oak tree, admiring the beauty of the woods that surrounded me.
Trees are one of the most important parts of the biosphere. They provide oxygen, which is one of the largest producers of life. Humans live and strive off of oxygen every second of their lives. Not just humans need oxygen to survive and thrive on Earth, but animals, and other creatures on the planet do as well. Trees are a huge part of all life and if they were gone, there would consequently be no form of life. Not only do trees create all forms of life, but they create beautiful surroundings for an area and create a comfortable and shady environment for all surrounding life. Even though trees seem to be everywhere you look, the planet is losing billions upon billions of them a year. Anywhere from three billion to six billion trees are lost every year, ("How Many Trees Are Cut Down Every Year? Rainforest Action Network Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014”). With this fact in thought, it shows that planting one tree can create a bigger difference than you realize.