Author: edwardhawley94

The Consumer I’ve Become

While thinking about my tendencies of consuming, I noticed that I don’t buy new things unless I really really have to. I think part of this is being brought up by my dad. He always tends to make things last, never throwing anything away. Now that’s not to say that he’s a hoarder, in fact far from it, but if he can think of a use for something, or if he thinks he may be able to use something broken to repair something else, he won’t get rid of it. Watching my dad make things last, and repairing things throughout my childhood has slowly turned me into the same type of consumer.

I find myself attempting to make things last, even if they don’t work as they’re meant to. A great example of something I still use after it’s past it’s prime is a power strip, from my parents first computer in 1996. My xbox freezes every time you turn it on, until about the third try. I’ve got holes in many of my clothes, yet I still wear them on a regular basis. Many of the clothes I wear, I’ve had since my first year of high school. The only time I find myself buying new things is when my mother tells me to.

Of course my consumption goes beyond clothes and xbox’s, but not that much farther; I buy speakers and headphones to replace the ones I’ve lost, I buy new parts for a longboard I was given as a present one year, and of course I buy food. If there is any part of my actions as a consumer I feel I should change, it would be the amount of money I spend on food. I don’t mean to say I eat a lot, but I’m always looking for new foods to try, and food from England that’s hard to come by in the U.S. I tend to spend too much money on brand name food, or exotic foods. Other than that though, I think of myself as a very prudent consumer, and I owe much of that to my father.


Communication

Communication: The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. (Dictionary.com)

Communicating in the 21st century is the act of conveying ideas and thoughts, not only through writing and talking, but though texting and body expressions as well. Communication has evolved from the grunts and groans of the homo-sapiens, to the thousands of languages we know today. It has expanded from just sounds made with the mouth, to visual markings, hand gestures, and even clicks (Morse Code). Communication in the 21st century however is taking a turn for the worse. Isolated languages are dying and disappearing every day, while the common English language is being turned into abbreviated words and series of letters, such a “thx”, “brb”, and “ttyl”. Communication is slowly being changed from the art of connecting complex words that roll off the tongue, to attempting to express as much as possible in the smallest and quickest way imaginable.

However, not everything about communication nowadays is getting worse. There are a few people left in the world who value the proper use of language, who try to teach people how to write. Learning to write varies from age group and academic level. In the most basic sense, learning to write is the simple act of forming words and sentences on a piece of paper or computer screen that make at least a little bit of sense. However, as writing skills improve, much more is expected. You must be able to vary your sentence structure, your writing must flow smoothly, and you must be able to use an extensive vocabulary.

Examples of notable communication and writing can be found all over the internet, whether it is the form of scholarly papers, fictional books, or simple every day news reports. This blog however, is not such an example.