I would like to revise my Lens essay. I feel like my exhibit (Facebook) raises a lot of questions and has a lot of opposition surrounding it. My goal is to show how beneficial Facebook actually is. I plan to cover the future of Facebook, regarding its use in the future. More specifically, does Facebook have the ability to drastically change the economy and society for the better, and become a a primary benefactor? Also, has the upbringing of Facebook improved our economy and society since it was first created? In my Lens essay, I used the cognitive surplus as a lens to kind of show how tapping our free time and using it to come together to communicate ideas has benefited individuals as well as the economy to an extent, creating jobs. In my research essay, I want to dive more into the past or the few years right before Facebook came about. I am doing this to see how society/the economy was then, and then look at it from 2004(when Facebook first started) to now. Most importantly, I will take a look into the future and use statistics from past/present to help determine how much of an impact Facebook will have in a few years. I will look at sources that include statistics showing things like a change in unemployment before and after the creation of Facebook. Moreover, I will look for sources that show maybe a correlation between the creation of Facebook and technological advancements, because I believe that Facebook has positively impacted us and I want to prove this.

Shirky’s Does the Internet Make Us Smarter explains the benefits of the Internet as well as attempting to put to rest the notions that the Internet is terrible compared to past forms of reading like books. This essay was an exhibit of the lens, which is the effects of the Internet. I found anothet exhibit, which highlights the use of social media and its effects. I am for the side that the internet is actually good for us and in the article I found, there were benefits of social media, which is a subset of the Web. Social media offers the “opportunity for people tobre-connect with old friends and aquaintances, make new friends, trade ideas…”. This is great because now people can come together fot certain causes. I think this is great because this way people can sympathize/relate to others eith maybe a similar disease, and possibly come up with a solution based on the symptoms. The positive effects of coming together help to evolve thr world on a grand scale.

In Clay Shirky’s Does the Internet Make You Smarter?, he presents many cons related to the Internet that opposition would argue, but refutes each one perfectly. Shirky argued that the past was not as peachy as older generations are trying to make it seem, using a quote by Martin Luther, saying that “the multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure of limit to this fever of writing”(3). The Internet actually has similar cons to it as books do. Yeah, the internet comes with ridiculous videos, theories, and opinions, but so do books. What Shirky made me realize that I did not realize before was that “our cognitive surplus(free time) is so enormous that diverting even a tiny fraction of time from consumption to participation can create enormous positive effects”(2). Rather than watching tv, we are exploring the Web and essentially finding out about a plethora of information so easily that we before were not able to do. Of course when there is an evolution in means of creating material, there is going to be “throwaway material” as Shirky calls it(5). However, the same occurred when more andmore books were being written in the past, so to handle this, we must find a healthy medium to Internet use, similar to Nicholas Carr’s solution in Is Google Making Us Stupid.

Civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most entycing and innivative speeches in history, not just for people of color, but everyone. The speech highlights the mistreatment that negroes have endured, including empty promises and dehumanizing experiences. However, he still believes that things can change with the help of the “good” whites; but the only way to ensure this “dream” can be fulfilled is through immediate action. To make his speech powerful, Dr. King filled his speech with rhetorical strategies. One powerful aspect of Dr.King’s speech was his repeated use of repetition throughout. However, the most important and effective use of repetition in my opinion was “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted…together”(406-407). This was the climax of the entire speech. His repeated use of “I have a dream” drove home the point that this is not something definite, like a plan. It stems from ambition, and he basically told the audience that the only way to achieve this dream is to act now and act together. I believe that when people are told of a plan, they assume it is definite and therefore many people will not act on it, thinking they play a small role. An example of this would be voting for our Presidents. Millions of people decide not to vote, thinking his/her role is insignificant. Where as an election like this past one, we saw that every single vote would have had a significant impact. Dr. King also uses the phrases “one hundred years later” and “now is the time” numerous times in their respective sections in his speech.(404/405) When Dr. King was repeating “one hundred years later, he was referring to one hundred yeara after former President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves. Repeating that phrase is so powerful because it drives home the point that the negroes cannot wait for the government to make changes no matter what paper says otherwise. On the next page when Dr King. repeats “now is the time” he backs up his prior one hundree years neighborhood and also brings about another point. This point, equal to using the wkrd “dream”, is that the best time to make a change is NOW, and that is a big theme throughout the speech.

Dear Mr.King,

One powerful aspect of your speech was your repeated use of repetition throughout. However, the most important and effective use of repetition in my opinion was “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted…together”(406-407). This was the climax of the entire speech. Your repeated use of “I have a dream” drove home the point that this is not something definite, like a plan. It stems from ambition, and you basically told your audience that the only way to achieve this dream is to act now and act together. I believe that when people are told of a plan, they assume it is definite and therefore many people will not act on it, thinking they play a small role. An example of this would be voting for our Presidents. Millions of people decide not to vote, thinking his/her role is insignificant. Where as an election like this past one, we saw they every single vote would have had a significant impact.

I noticed you also used this repetition strategy in your Birmingham jail letter. Your explanation of the daily struggles of black people and how white people do not experience the same experience, going from seeing “vicious mobs lynching your mothers and fathers at will” to name becoming “nigger boy John”(2), I believe really helped show these oppressors why blacks and their movements could no longer “wait”.