Blog 4

Facebook is a social networking site that has millions of users and probably gets even double that amount in site hits per day. It is a way for people to interact with each other without having to have a face to face encounter. For some, it is an extremely useful tool, however for others; it is just a complete waste of time.


For me, facebook is a useful tool, however only in the right setting. I use it just like every other college student does; however, I do have some issues with it. For one, coming from experience, facebook can be a major distraction from academics. It has gotten to the point where I have learned to leave my laptop in my apartment when I am in class because there’s too much temptation to get sidetracked from the school work that is much more important than an hour of online socializing. Also, it takes away from the more personal aspect of one’s social life, especially in college. I personally would rather go out and meet people face to face than sit on a computer and make friends virtually. On top of that, how do you really know that who you’re interacting with is REALLY who you are interacting with? It definitely leaves room for a lot of questions that have not so appealing answers.

Overall, facebook is a great way to kill time or interact with friends when you have no other way of doing so. Other than that, it’s just a waste.

Blog 2: Essay Topic

As for the essay topic that I was supposed to choose for class, I chose an article in our textbook called "Professor's Liberalism Contagious? Maybe not."  The article digs deep into the popular notion that colleges and universities around the country promote liberalism more heavily than conservative ideas.  It is also believed that student's political beliefs are often swayed by their professors.  According to the author of the article, these are simply urban myths and there is no solid evidence to prove any of these accusations.  Through his research and the research of many others, political orientation has been more heavily linked to one's upbringing and home environment; two factors that mainly shape one's political beliefs well before reaching college.  This has been the subject of a very heated debate between liberals and conservatives for years, and it has even gotten to the point where the conservative party is calling for "supervision" over colleges and universities in order to ensure political diversity on our campuses.  The author then goes on to argue that even with such supervision, the opinions of students would rarely change, as their minds have been made up about what they believe long before reaching college.  I chose to do an analysis of this article because I am a Political Science major, and I find this debate to be very interesting due to the fact that I see evidence of this debate everyday both in class and in outside social situations.