F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

In his novel The Great Gatsby (1925) F. S. Fitzgerald introduces the reader to a set of characters that stand on the different levels of socioeconomic ladder and by destiny's will share each other's lives. Reading the novel one can see that Fitzgerald puts a huge emphasis on money: its presence or absence is the deciding factor in shaping the lives and personalities of the characters. The novel takes place in New York, in the early 1920s. One might notice that the financial situation with the East and West Eggs bears an uncanny resemblance to the situation with the East and West Sides in the city. The narrator himself introduces the reader to this idea: 'I lived at West Egg, the -- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them'; (9). In the city families who have been wealthy for several generations occupy the sophisticated East Side; in order to buy an apartment there one must provi de good recommendations. West Side is less sophisticated and therefore less desirable for it is open to the 'new money.'; By creating this setting Fitzgerald is trying to make the reader understand that a character like Gatsby needs a certain environment to exist. Although Gatsby's persona is surrounded by different rumors, and 'contemporary legends such as the 'underground pipe-line to Canada' attached themselves to his name,'; people come to his parties. Money can buy one popularity and friends, at least temporarily. Most likely many of Gatsby's 'friends'; knew where the money came from, yet it did not seem to be a good enough reason for them to stop socializing with him. Money can also buy tolerance for breaking the law. In order for Gatsby to be able to have his lavish parties where 'in the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten'; (44), he had to have the entire police department on the payroll. Th e 1920s were the years of Prohibition – the sale and purchase of alcohol was forbidden in the United States. Gatsby's money bought him an unspoken permission to have those parties. Gatsby acknowledges his friendly relationship with the commissioner to Nick. He says that he 'was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers In his novel The Great Gatsby (1925) F. S. Fitzgerald introduces the reader to a set of characters that stand on the different levels of socioeconomic ladder and by destiny's will share each other's lives. Reading the novel one can see that Fitzgerald puts a huge emphasis on money: its presence or absence is the deciding factor in shaping the lives and personalities of the characters. The novel takes place in New York, in the early 1920s. One might notice that the financial situation with the East and West Eggs bears an uncanny resemblance to the situation with the East and West Sides in the city. The narrator himself introduces the reader to this idea: 'I lived at West Egg, the -- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them'; (9). In the city families who have been wealthy for several generations occupy the sophisticated East Side; in order to buy an apartment there one must provi de good recommendations. West Side is less sophisticated and therefore less desirable for it is open to the 'new money.'; By creating this setting Fitzgerald is trying to make the reader understand that a character like Gatsby needs a certain environment to exist. Although Gatsby's persona is surrounded by different rumors, and 'contemporary legends such as the 'underground pipe-line to Canada' attached themselves to his name,'; people come to his parties. Money can buy one popularity and friends, at least temporarily. Most likely many of Gatsby's 'friends'; knew where the money came from, yet it did not seem to be a good enough reason for them to stop socializing with him. Money can also buy tolerance for breaking the law. In order for Gatsby to be able to have his lavish parties where 'in the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten'; (44), he had to have the entire police department on the payroll. Th e 1920s were the years of Prohibition – the sale and purchase of alcohol was forbidden in the United States. Gatsby's money bought him an unspoken permission to have those parties. Gatsby acknowledges his friendly relationship with the commissioner to Nick. He says that he 'was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.

Lord of the Flies and Human Nature

Good and evil. These are two words that everybody has heard. One question that can arise from these two words is whether humans are essentially good or evil. The question of human nature has been a topic that even the greatest philosophers have struggled with. Even the best people still have evil thoughts which demonstrate that evil exists in all of us, however much that the trait is suppressed. Evil is not a bold line straight down the middle of what is right and this is why it is my opinion that human nature is essentially evil.The book Lord of The Flies by William Golding presents the question of human nature and allows the reader to draw their own opinions on what it truly is. The story presents the situation of various young boys stranded on an island and the slow breakdown of society that occurs afterwards. There are multiple quotes in this book that can be used to argue that human nature is essentially evil. A particular example is â€Å"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you? †(Golding 143).The Lord of the Flies said this to Simon while he was hallucinating. In the book, The Lord of The Flies represents the devil and the fear and evil within each of the boys. Further analyzing this quote, it boils down to basically mean that everybody has evil within them. Simon was the only boy on the island who figured out that the beast was not an external threat, it was inside of them. When he tries to inform the other boys of his findings he is killed by them because they were caught in the frenzy and passion of the hunt.This allowed the beast take them over and rule their actions and caused them to act with brutality. As the story progressed, it demonstrated how the boys went from calm and civilized to savages that were completely taken over by the beast of evil. This action further shows that evil resides in all of us and progressively takes us over as we commit savage acts for the acts that we commit are the ones that will ultimately dictate our nature. After succumbing to their inner beast it seems that the thirst for blood was not subdued in the boys.They killed Piggy shortly after Simon’s tragic demise and instead of expressing any type of remorse Jack says to Ralph â€Å"See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! †(Golding 181). He reveled in seeing Ralph’s tribe break down and with that the death of all order within the boys. Not even conform to being leader now, he and his tribe hunted Ralph down and lit the island on fire to try to draw Ralph out of his hiding place to kill him.This fire, the fire of savagery and evil, had an undesired consequence and got them rescued by order and society in the end. At the end of the book Ralph â€Å"wept for the end of innocence and the darkness of man’s heart† (Golding 202). This particular excerpt exhibits that at the end of his trial by fire (literally) Ralph had realized that deep inside, the nature of man is evil. Without any rules in place, the boys reverted to man’s original state of chaos and evil and destroyed the innocence that they had from being children.It was at the end that Ralph could see that humanity is an evil and twisted thing once he had experienced the death of his most loyal friend and seen and participated in Simons killing. The only two boys who realized that the beast was in them all were ultimately killed by the evil evident in human nature. How can young children, who are notably more innocent and less corrupted than adults, revert to such acts of evil? The only logical answer that one may be able to find is that everyone has an inherent sense of good and evil.This sense of evil seems to be the one that reigns supreme in mankind and its nature. There are many examples in history one can use to argue that human nature is essentially evil. A striking example is the reign of Mao Zedong in China that started in 1949. He was the founder of the People’s Republic of China and was a communist revolutionary. Once he had reunited China through his Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, he enacted a widespread land reform. Zedong used terror and violence to overthrow the owners of large pieces of land and then divided it into people’s communes.The true evils of his reign come to play during his Cultural Revolution. Zedong’s regime persecuted millions of people and tortured them, publicly humiliated them, and even forcibly relocated youth to the countryside. Another campaign that killed millions was the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward led to a famine that killed around 18 to 42 million Chinese citizens. Instead of focusing on feeding his people, Zedong was more worried on maintaining face and continued exporting grain and refused outside help.Zedong could have avoided this huge genocide but he was more preoccupied with paying back his debts to the USSR. His desire for power and to one day lead a country that surpassed the United States lead him to neglect the most important element, his people, which is an evil in of itself. Evil can come in many forms, be it how you treat someone to just human nature in general. In Lord Of the Flies, William Golding coveys the message that there is evil inside every person, no matter how good they may seem.Examples in history can also prove that human nature can be a terrible thing and no matter what, there are always going to be bad people who can embody the sense that human nature is evil. One cannot judge and say that human nature is just a good thing or just a bad thing either. There are shades of grey and the in-betweens that one has to account for. In its entirety however, human nature is good with most people just choosing to give in to the evil, leading one to the conclusion that human nature is essentially evil.

Anti-Communism in America

– Analyse the impact of anti-communism in the USA from the late 1940’s to 1953 and the impact this had on tensions between the superpowers during this time. In the years between 1940 and 1953 the capitalist nations of the world such as USA became very concerned about the communist ideologies and its possible spread in the world. As a result, the ideological war period known as the â€Å"Cold War† was developed. With the end of World War II, the USA emerged with a renewed sense of confidence as they believed that their role in the Allie alliance was a key factor when defeating their enemy powers.It was not long, however, before ironically, this alliance between USA and USSR would be the cause for rising tensions in the world. It can be suggested that the rise of Cold War tensions led to the Anti-communist policy being being developed in the USA which not only impacted its own country but also renewed Cold War tensions. This is evident when examining McCarthyism, t he Witch-Hunts and Trials, and the Propaganda campaign. The US historical period known as â€Å"McCarthyism† began long before Joseph McCarthy’s own involvement.There were many factors that contributed to its beginning including; the increased membership in the â€Å"Communist Party of the United States† during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s along with Soviets establishing communist regimes across Central and Eastern Europe. Later USA was concerned with Soviet espionage inside government institutions, and at the same time politicians were slowing down social reforms or criticizing President’s arguing they had been influenced by communism. (R) This practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence was later known as, McCarthyism.Joseph McCarthy’s own involvement began with a speech he made: â€Å"I have here in my hand in my hand a list of 205 – a list of names that were m ade known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. (McCarthy, ). (R) As a result of McCarthyism there were many Anti-communist committees, as well as private agencies, carrying out investigations about possible communists in the USA.Furthermore the federal government, under Harry Truman’s administration with the help of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover initiated a program of Loyalty Review for Federal Employees, with the aim of determining if government employees were disloyal to the government. (R) Hoover’s extreme sense of communist threat and numerous illegal practices including burglaries, opening mail and illegal wiretaps, resulted in thousands of government workers losing their jobs after unfair accusations or sometimes even without having any process. R) Among these victims was, Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project who built the fir st atomic bomb. Historian Ellen Schrecker has written; â€Å"in this country, McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist Party ever did†. (R) It was later proved that Soviet espionage did exist in the USA, but besides that fact it can be suggested that the American government could possibly had a greater threat of danger in order to react in such an extreme way, which created divisions still present in the USA.The House Committee on Un-American Activities(HUAC) was perhaps the most involved in Anti-communist investigations government committee. Earlier, this committee had investigated a number of activities including German-American Nazis during World War II, and later focused on communism, investigating an espionage case against Alger Hiss, American politician accused of perjury, in 1948. It was not until 1947 that HUAC achieved its greatest fame with the investigations into the Hollywood film industry.These investigations involved screenwrit ers, directors, and other professionals in testifying about their known, or suspected membership in the Communist Party, within its members, or support of its beliefs. The â€Å"Hollywood Ten†, as it was known, was a group of people formed by the first ten film industry witnesses that decided not to cooperate, and instead cited the First Amendment’s, which guaranteed freedom in speech and beliefs, but failed and were sentenced to prison (R).Later victims had the option of either being informants, and thus, give names of communist sympathizers or going to prison if refused to cooperate (R). On November25 of 1947, Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America published the â€Å"Waldorf Statement†, which announced the firing of the Hollywood Ten, and stated they would not employ any communist or member of a party which advocates to overthrow the government (R). This generated a †Hollywood Blacklist†, through which over 300 actor s, authors and directors were denied to work in the film industry.Those actions taken by the government not only placed USA’s famous â€Å"freedom† in question and showed an excessive use of power until the point that citizen’s rights were constantly violated but also created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, which sometimes resulted in hysteria. These extreme measures led to a great division in the country that is still present these days. Distribution of Anti-communism propaganda was, without a doubt, one of the most successful measures taken by the USA government during this period of time. [email  protected] edu. au

Free Essays on From American Dream To Rock Opera

The Search for New Direction in the musical. From the ‘American Dream’ to the ‘Rock-Opera’. 1950 to 1978 were low-spirited ones for the musical. American musical theatre had been showing signs of exhaustion. This most seemingly anti-intellectual of genres carries its own ‘ideological project’. Before this, the musicals not only exhibited singing and dancing; they were about singing and dancing, explaining the magnitude of that experience. They not only gave the most intense pleasure to their audience but also supplied the justification for that pleasure. The pop songs of the day were the songs from the shows. With the increase in number of radio stations and the availability of portable radios recorded music became the music of the masses. With the arrival of the Beatles in 1964, Rock music exploded across the land sending other musical trends into hibernation! The occasional attempt to break out of the old moulds were unsuccessful and led nowhere. They showed inadequacies; being unmelodic and formless. With rare exceptions, audiences rarely left the theatre si nging the show tunes. Rock and roll couldn’t be assimilated in a dramatic structure. The songs didn’t tell a story. If rock and roll was used it would mean songs did not enhance and push the story forward, they would be separate from the story. Not until 1960 did Broadway face up to the emerging vogue. Musical theatre accepted rock music grudgingly. The eminence of the British musical has been the most significant theatre phenomenon in the world over the last twenty years. It has not only given British theatres a greatly needed financial boost but has changed ‘popular’ theatre indefinitely. Never will audiences see new musicals in the style of Oklahoma!, Brigadoon and South Pacific. With these musicals there was a danger of tipping from musical into melodrama. They never throbbed with subtlety because someone was always bursting into song about how every thin... Free Essays on From American Dream To Rock Opera Free Essays on From American Dream To Rock Opera The Search for New Direction in the musical. From the ‘American Dream’ to the ‘Rock-Opera’. 1950 to 1978 were low-spirited ones for the musical. American musical theatre had been showing signs of exhaustion. This most seemingly anti-intellectual of genres carries its own ‘ideological project’. Before this, the musicals not only exhibited singing and dancing; they were about singing and dancing, explaining the magnitude of that experience. They not only gave the most intense pleasure to their audience but also supplied the justification for that pleasure. The pop songs of the day were the songs from the shows. With the increase in number of radio stations and the availability of portable radios recorded music became the music of the masses. With the arrival of the Beatles in 1964, Rock music exploded across the land sending other musical trends into hibernation! The occasional attempt to break out of the old moulds were unsuccessful and led nowhere. They showed inadequacies; being unmelodic and formless. With rare exceptions, audiences rarely left the theatre si nging the show tunes. Rock and roll couldn’t be assimilated in a dramatic structure. The songs didn’t tell a story. If rock and roll was used it would mean songs did not enhance and push the story forward, they would be separate from the story. Not until 1960 did Broadway face up to the emerging vogue. Musical theatre accepted rock music grudgingly. The eminence of the British musical has been the most significant theatre phenomenon in the world over the last twenty years. It has not only given British theatres a greatly needed financial boost but has changed ‘popular’ theatre indefinitely. Never will audiences see new musicals in the style of Oklahoma!, Brigadoon and South Pacific. With these musicals there was a danger of tipping from musical into melodrama. They never throbbed with subtlety because someone was always bursting into song about how every thin...

Jack Kerouac And The Beat Movement Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Jack Kerouac And The Beat Movement Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Jack Kerouac And The Beat Movement World War II marked a wide dividing line between the old and the new in American society and the nations literature(The World Book Encyclopedia 427) . When world War II ended there was a pent up desire that had been postponed due to the war. Post war America brought about a time when it seemed that every young man was doing the same thing, getting a job, settling down and starting a family. America was becoming a nation of consumers. One group that was against conforming to this dull American lifestyle was referred to as Beatniks. The Beats or Beatniks condemned middle class American life as morally bankrupt. They praised individualism as the highest human goal(The World Book Encyclopedia 428). This perspective was present in poetry and literature through out the beat movement. One of the most important works produced during the beat movement was Jack Kerouacs On The Road. In the novel Jack Kerouacs alter ego Sal Paradise represents the American man who realizes he doesnt want to conform to societies pressures but still hasnt realized what it is exactly he wants to do. He is a man who has very little direction and is very much lost in the world as he knows it. Kerouac seems to be constantly trying to escape. In examining the novel one might wonder what is Kerouac escaping and by what means does he do so? Kerouac used two means of escape through out the novel and through out his life. His first means of escape was his constant travel. He traveled from east to west, New York to San Francisco and stopped everywhere in between. He made this trip over and over, constantly on the road. The simple title of the novel exemplifies Kerouacs ongoing need to travel. When he and his friends got tried of traveling east to west they traveled north to south, driving all the way down to Mexico City. His travels gave him the opportunity to be an outsider with no worries. He was able to witness and observe all that there was to offer throughout the country. While journeying across the states, staying in small towns for no more than a few nights, Kerouac was able to obtain a life with no commitment or responsibility. Even if he was to make some sort of commitment to one of his many girls along the way, it wasnt unlike him to just pick up and leave. After all the only thing people around seemed to know about him was that he liked to drink. This leads to the other form of escape Kerouac used, the alteration of reality. Kerouac would mentally alter his perception of reality through the use of drugs and alcohol. I was getting drunk and didnt care; everything was fine(Kerouac 35). To him everything in life was fine as long as he was drunk. He was beginning to drink heavily, and to drink whiskey and gin instead of just beer (Nicosia 96). That was only the beginning of his disillusionment. Jack began taking benzedrine and smoking marijuana(Nicosia 102). Having the means by which he escapes, the question still remains what is Kerouac trying to escape? In order to understand this we must explore some of Jacks personal issues. A issue concerning Kerouac that is very often eluded to but never really spoken about in On The Road is his possible homosexuality. While Jack never actually came out about his sexuality, his close friends would often witness Jacks participation in endless rounds of sex with both men and women(Nicosia 102). Kerouacs homosexual tendencies caused an overriding psychological conflict: Kerouac was gay but despised homosexuals. Jack talked incessantly about all the big old fags he knew(Nicosia 493). Even though Kerouac would have homosexual encounters, he felt a private guilt over his homosexual feelings. In an attempt to ease his guilt Jack would denounce homosexuality, saying that gay sex is not in my line(Nicosia 142). Jack was obviously ashamed of his homosexual experiences and fought all his life against the label queer(Nicosia 154). In 1945, he wrote a letter to Allen Ginsberg trying to resolve the issue of his possible homosexuality. He stated that the physical

Both Sided of Humanity

Both Sides of Humanity A typical spring morning, crisp, cool air. Three girls in the driveway like ducklings in a row, momma behind them in the doorway waving. Three girls anxiously awaiting the arrival of bus 210, lilacs in hand for the driver. They’re so young and pure, free of corruption and clueless of the dangers of each new day. The bus takes them to school, the place they think they go to learn about numbers and curving cursive Y below the line, but today school is a haven. Imagine a seemingly unsteady world crumbling under the pressures of fate’s unsteady hand. Imagine everything you own taken in an instant. And as their mother weakly told the girls of the disaster that day, the girls wondered, was it fate? Was it always going to happen? No. And they wondered what could have happened differently in the past to prevent this tragedy as they solemnly stared at the smoldering ash that was their home this morning. Three girls in the driveway like ducklings in a row, momma beside them- and beside herself, wondering what will happen next. While the thought of reconstruction brings happiness, they know their house will never be rebuilt. Money is scarce- the miracle ration has been spent on their lives. The family is all okay; no one was home to endure the deadly licks of the fire’s vicious tongue. There are six, and for now they must all live together in one small hotel room. For the three girls, getting along with their step dad would be like a fuzzy white mouse getting along with a starved python. Tension is high for everyone, but they all have their outlets. For the girls it is school. There they thrive in A+ papers, constant praise from teachers, and â€Å"BFF† love, and in the room at night there were three in the bed and the little one said, â€Å"we made it through another day.† Winter of 2004, the house is not complete; it’s not a house at all. There are some walls, but numerous holes and open spaces. The baby can’t crawl around because the floor is missing in some places, in others there is floor board†¦or some kind of board. No carpet. The stairs are slightly safe, enough to get to the top if they go one at the time. The kitchen has an infinite number of open places so the snow comes in sometimes. The floor is too cold to walk on with bare feet, but they have a few pairs of socks. There is no electricity, but they have a generator in the backyard. Gas is expensive though so it is rarely turned on. Their only heat source is a portable kerosene heater and kerosene is expensive too. There’s no running water, but when the generator is on they get about five ice-cold minutes in the shower-sometimes seven or eight depending on how much gas there is to spare. The youngest girl goes outside and sticks her hand deep into the snow. The sn owy yard is their refrigerator. When the sun goes down candles are gathered and lit. The girls gather in a circle, pens and paper in hand to do their math homework and write tomorrow’s essay in the company of dancing shadows on the wall. It is cold but they are grateful to have this skeleton house rather than nothing at all. Friends don’t know about this new way of life, keeping it a secret is no challenge though, because there is no time for friends. School is the only social time available, but that’s okay-it’s easier to keep secrets that way. Days go by, then weeks. Thanksgiving came. Oh were they thankful. Thankful for life, each other, and good health, and thankful that they had sense enough to be thankful. On Christmas Eve the family decorated a small tree cut from the woods out back, knowing nothing would be under it in the morning. Christmas morning arrived and they huddled around the tree. No words came out, but everyone knew what the others were thinking, â€Å"Its great to be alive; its great to have a healthy family; what a beautiful Christmas morning it is.† The girls knew their friends were opening presents, but their friends were unlucky because they were not having thoughts of thanks and gratitude flood their heads like the family with the creaky, dark house d own the road. Four years later life is very different from that in the creaky, dark house and still, there are three girls becoming women with a definite past and a bright future. They have seen two very different sides of life, and despite everything they are thankful for what they didn’t have before. Nothing will ever be the same, they will never look at life through the eyes of those three innocent girls that they once were. They, along with everyone else, are a very small part of an impossibly large world. Without the past the girls would not be thankful for every meal put on the table. They would not be thankful for the clothes on their backs. They are humble, and know that no matter what is going wrong, someone out there is always worse off. Three girls standing together, not in a row but side by side, grown and strong, ready to take on the world. They know what they have, they know that may not have it tomorrow, and that’s okay because nothing can take away their passion for life and their ability to adapt to any situation. When everything is mixed up and life is kept secret from friends and society it’s hard to cope with what others may think or say. The idea of society as a whole is a fallacy. We are all driven to be the same and to conform to the thoughts and ideas of others, but how can we act like a certain person or group of people when they too are acting like someone else? There is no truth in society, yet we all follow the same path to uniformity. To find the truth within yourself is crucial. Staying strong in a faulty situation is to have self awareness and to realize that life- no matter how fancy or dull- is beautiful. No power is so strong that it can ruin someone’s self-image and sens e of self worth. Everyone has the power to reach inside themselves and find their inner beauty, their reason for being on this earth. In the words of Emerson from his essay on self reliance, â€Å"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.† In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the world is a cave full of prisoners who see nothing but what is displayed in front of them. In the words of Plato, â€Å"And if they could talk to one another, don’t you think they’d suppose that the names they used applied to the things they see passing before them?† unless the prisoners are led towards the truth they will never fully understand the real world. Three girls standing in a row, each with her own ideas of life’s truths. Each aware that she is responsible for freeing the world’s prisoners. It is their responsibility to show the world what life really is and what goes on behind closed doors. Reflecting on the past, they realize that their history is no different from anyone else’s. Together they became independent, self-reliant individuals. They have strength and passion, a burning fire within them as one, shedding warm light on each that reveals their individuality and what they have chos en to believe. Like the dancing arithmetic shadows on the wall, adversity vanishes leaving hope and certainty to their lives†¦a warm memory on a cold winter night. Three women who know: They’ve been up the rocky path and down the gentle slope. They’ve seen both sides of humanity and the miracles of hope. The light keeps glowing on them; and the moon keeps shining bright. As long as nature takes her course, they know they’ll be alright. Life cannot be touched; you can’t hold it in your hands. Its being can’t be dissected although it has the most intricate parts. Life thrives in every human being, entwines itself in every heart. Living with love, and having a passion for life are parts of life’s flawless web of catching you in time. Before your time, between your time, and after your time you’ll know†¦your life was perfect all along you just didn’t always know were to go, why you went, or how you got there. Following the brightest star, the path of yesterday and tomorrow, let your senseless worries guide you to your destination, wherever that may be. Be happy on the outside, and happier on the in. donâ€⠄¢t let others tell you how your life should end and begin. Respect yourself for who you are and love the light that guides you. Cherish every heart that has touched your very soul. Believe you can, and know you can, and you will be led home.

Technological Transformations of Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Technological Transformations of Society - Essay Example As the above definition explains, technology is about applying technical means to life. In today’s developing world, technology is all around us. Its presence can be felt in almost all fields of life. Social Networking is no exception. In fact the term social networking itself is a product of innovative technology. Social networking means to socialize via a network which is mostly done online, using some supporting platform. Most social networking websites enable the creation of a personal profile, where members of the network or ‘online family’ can feed their basic information and photographs etc. the members can then connect with other members on the website via platforms associated with these profiles. According to one definition, social networks are: â€Å"Web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.† 2 Face book is one of today’s leading social network websites. According to one survey, people spend three times more time on face book than they do on Google (Ostrow, 2009). The main features of face book include: Face book profile, friend finder, photo and video sharing, news feed, personal wall and face book games. Face book originated as ‘Face mash’ back in 2003 by a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg. The privacy policy of ‘Face mash’, which later became as ‘face book’ was criticized and the creator of this program faced many legal suites in this regard (Web hosting report, 2009). Zuckerberg mainly faced criticism against open exchange of data viewable by practically any body on the internet. The privacy policy of face book has been undergoing a lot of changes since its creation. ‘Face mash’, originally meant for Harvard