Group Pressure

Most people can agree that “Group Pressure” can influence members to do stuff that they normally wouldn’t support themselves. Peer pressure is similar to group pressure because when you have a crowd around you forcing you to do something, most cases you would do it. This usually happens when your friends are drinking at a party and they force you to try some or when they try to offer you to smoke with them. In group pressure, it makes you feel like you have more confidence or at least make you feel like you are obligated to do it since everyone is watching you. For example, I was in a club meeting and they were electing people for president, treasurer, secretary, public relations, and etc. As it was coming to the end, my ex-president elected me to become treasurer in which I didn’t want to do. Since I was in front of a huge crowd I decided to take the position and I became treasurer. As a result, it shows that group pressure does influence a lot of people to do things they normally wouldn’t support themselves. 

UFOs

Edward Condon is a scientist that believes that UFOs do not exist. In Condon’s argument, he states that scientist need invest their time into studies that will advance science unless people have good ideas regarding UFOs and they should keep pursuing. If people have good ideas for specific studies in the “UFO field” then it should be supported and hopefully it goes well. At the same time, UFO reports should not be available for the general public. For example, students read books and magazines that contain UFO reports which are providing students with erroneous evidence. The other scientist, Hynek, believes the UFO phenomena is ignored by authorities and have not been studied in a systematic manner. There needs to be more gathering of data. There needs to be a comparison among large groups who have supposedly sighted UFO objects. Scientists should contact people in other countries to figure out who seen it other than America. Hynek feels that there could be alien space crafts but there needs to be more research. The third scientist, Royston Paynter, is very skeptical about the UFOs and aliens and that there needs to be physical evidence. He states that there is literally no physical evidence to show UFOS exist. I think that Hynek provides the best argument because he shows how there needs to be more gathering of data from other countries and not only in America. Scientists need to gather all the data and compare groups of those who sighted potential alien crafts. 

Knowledge and wisdom

The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that one is what you know and the other is what you gain from experiences or mistakes. As most people know, knowledge is what you know or learn from the past. People gain knowledge from reading books, watching informational television shows, or going to school. Now wisdom is learning but it’s from experiences and mistakes you have previously went through, not from books and shows. My opinion on this is that knowledge is from a book, and wisdom is from living life. In college, I feel that we are acquiring both knowledge and wisdom. For example, in college we are advancing our knowledge by reading books, learning a variety of different subjects, and learning the right concepts to be successful with our career. For wisdom, students are learning what happens when you get too drunk in public, or experiencing how it feels to live on your own. Students are experiencing what can go wrong with certain actions and later on make sure that doesn’t happen again. I feel that the information age has just made us more knowledgeable since it’s providing us with a lot of information to be read. 

Concept-Hyperbole

A concept that interested me in chapter 3 was a Hyperbole. A hyperbole is a rhetorical device that uses exaggeration. This device interests me because it is used all the time in society. Everyone uses this device even when we are not trying to persuade or manipulate our audience. For example, a lot of students say that “Class was so boring I wanted to kill myself”. In reality they really didn’t want to kill themselves but they just thought it was so dreadful and boring. Another example, is if it was windy or a little chilly outside some people might say” WOW, my feet are frozen they are about to fall off”. Realistically, feet just can’t fall off and they meant that it was cold.  Most of the time a hyperbole is to exaggerate the truth and at times can damage some ones credibility. Like the “little boy who cried wolf”, is probably not so believable when the story is told. 

Rhetorical devices

In the past week or so, I have used a couple of rhetorical devices that actually persuaded my audience. Last week, I used the rhetorical device called Euphemism which is the replacement of a term that has a negative association by a neutral or positive term. So, last week a couple of my friends went to the gym including one of my friends from my class. The way I would describe my friend is very funny man but obese. So, while he was working out he was upset that he couldn’t lift heavy objects or move that quick so he called himself FAT. So I went up to him and said “you’re not fat, you’re big boned”, and after I said that he laughed and felt better about himself. The second device I used was a Dysphemism which is a word or phrase chosen to produce a negative effect. So, a couple days ago my friend was about to buy a used car but I didn’t like it so much. So I tried to persuade him to not buy it and I said, “Cohen, why are you going to buy that junk car, I’m sure people did weird things in there, and it’s dirty”. The next day he decided not to buy it. 

Sally Ride

Sally Ride, the youngest and the first female American astronaut in space, learned that an effective communication will benefit her in the future. As for her, it benefited her and made her serve as the Capcom for the first and second shuttle flights for NASA. As a college student, she knew that in order to be successful you will need to develop communication skills including listening, speaking, and writing. Sally Ride took advantage of that and double majored in English and physics. Sally understood the benefits of an effective communication and she analyzed what is best for her.  She gathered information and researched on what major would be the best for her and how it would push her forward. Based on her talents and interest, she evaluated the best possible options she can use and that was going to college. Sally Ride definitely represents a good critical thinker because she used her skills to enhance her success.