Building the Bridge for Equality

Source: http://www.nationalreview.com

“The name of Mrs. Emily Warren Roebling will thus be inseparably associated with all that is admirable in human nature.”— Congressman Abram S. Hewitt 

The Brooklyn Bridge is recognized as one of the most prominent structural feats in the United States. It is noted for its American ingenuity, innovation, and invincibility. However, it is not widely known that a woman, Emily Warren Roebling, was the woman behind the construction of the masterpiece known as the Brooklyn Bridge.

Emily is featured as a forgotten woman in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field, because without this brave woman, the bridge might have never been completed. She took charge of a daunting project and after its completion, she went to work on equal rights for women in the law field. Emily is one of many silent pioneering women of the United States that advanced STEM fields forever.

Source: http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com

Her story begins as any great American love story: she met and fell in love with her husband at a military ball. Colonel Washington Roebling was serving in Virginia in 1864 when the two met and knew it was forever; 11 months later, the two married in 1865. Her marriage into the Roebling family would prove to be a wise decision, as it gave her the means to execute her ideas on the Brooklyn Bridge. Her father-in-law, John Roebling, was the engineer behind the innovative wire suspension cords that changed the face of civil engineering forever. John decided to take on the project of the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Brooklyn to New York. A few weeks into the project, a freak accident led to John’s death due to tetanus. Washington, Emily’s husband, chose to step in and oversee the project himself — to continue his father’s legacy. As the Roebling’s luck would have it, Washington suffered from the bends while working on the bridge beneath the river’s surface. His sickness became so overwhelming that eventually, he was unable to visit the site to complete the bridge. It seemed as if the project would fail, but Emily stepped in to ensure it’s completion.

Her first move was to convince the president of the New York Bridge Company that her husband was totally fine and could work on the bridge despite his sickness. Amazingly, Murphy agreed to continue the project. Washington remained the Chief Engineer for all intents and purposes, but Emily was the one calling the shots. It must appear to the general public that Emily was merely taking orders from her sick husband. Emily took a crash course in engineering and studied all the notes from the project’s beginning. She played secretary and messenger for 11 years while getting the job done. She relayed her “husband’s demands” while visiting the job site. People commended Emily for her dedication to her husband and his bridge, but little did they know it was really Emily’s bridge.

Amongst cost increases and construction delays and mounting skepticism, it was called for Washington Roebling to be removed as Chief Engineer, but Emily broke boundaries once again. She wrote a detailed statement of all the reasons why her husband should be able to continue the work and presented in front of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She was the first woman to address the group.

Upon the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, Emily was the first to cross it in its entirety. She chose to carry a rooster with her across the way, some say as a sign of victory or good luck, but I believe it to be a nod to a more anatomy-based suggestion of triumph.

Source: https://undertheparrotumbrella.wordpress.com

During the dedication ceremony, Congressman Abram S. Hewitt said the Brooklyn Bridge is “an everlasting monument to the self-sacrificing devotion of woman” and today there stands a plaque honoring the Roeblings for their success, John, Washington, and Emily, in completing such a daunting project.

In her final badass moment, she wrote an essay titled “A Wife’s Disabilities”, asking for women to be equal to men before the law. She died at the age of 59 and she is one of the greatest civil engineers in the United States. She didn’t always take the easy path, but she always persevered and came out on top. I believe the Brooklyn Bridge to be a symbol of connecting men and women, a symbol of equality, and a little bit of “anything you can do I can do better.”

Emily Warren Roebling paved the way for many women to get involved in a STEM field and change the face of their community. Providing ideas, resources, and challenges, women have been involved in STEM fields longer than we think. I know when I look at the Brooklyn Bridge I didn’t think a woman had a hand in the construction, but now I know better. Women are ingenious, innovative, and invincible and deserve to be recognized for their efforts in STEM fields.

Have you ever been across the Brooklyn Bridge and seen the plaque? What was it like? Did you know about Emily Warren Roebling before you read this? Comment below and let’s talk!

Sources: here and here

The New Buzzword

The emergence of popular media website BuzzFeed has transformed itself into a credible news source with topics ranging from ISIS in Mosul to cute outfits for dogs. BuzzFeed has expertly utilized social media as a promotion tool and crafts their clickbait to a T, bringing in more than 7 billion content views per month. BuzzFeed has their handprints all over the internet: on their website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube page.

When BuzzFeed came on the scene the genre of the listicle blew up. Wikipedia defines the listicle as “a short-form of writing that uses a list as its thematic structure” so it’s something to pique our interest, but is it going to overtake the traditional form of an article? Will this new genre invade our academic spaces? Will our conferences and newscasts be focused around finally reaching number 10 and getting the OK to turn off our brains? Imagine a college senior’s final paper formatted as a list? Would you dock points for the simplistic, dumbed down style, or would you look at it as a creative, forward thinking style applying new techniques to an antiquated system? The listicle has certainly changed the game of popular news media and I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually colleges move toward a more bullet-point style of writing.

Here’s 3 reasons why listicles could be dangerous:

1. We’re becoming a clickbait culture – only opening the article based on a quick, 10 words or less headline. Our culture likes the look of a listicle, less words all stuck together in that scary article format.
2. It reduces news to a silly format and writers could have to sacrifice content in order to fit the genre.
3. We’re writers, we don’t do numbers!

The New Yorker’s article, “A LIST OF REASONS WHY OUR BRAINS LOVE LISTS” says that “it spatially organizes the information; and it promises a story that’s finite, whose length has been quantified upfront” and that if given the choice, we will choose small, “bite-sized” portions of news about China and ISIS rather than spend our time on paragraphs about impending doom. It’s easier to numb our feelings about the world and compress them into short lists instead of digesting the news, recognizing the state of our world, and making a change. If learning about the election only takes 15 easy steps, why immerse yourself in politics and get involved in the state of the nation?

Granted, there’s some days when you just need 21 Puppies So Cute You Will Literally Gasp And Then Probably Cry

Buzzfeed: Instagram: @caitie_evans

I mean, look at that little munchkin, but can’t our culture find something redeemable to spend our time on? 7 BILLION views a month! Facebook is dominated with BuzzFeed posts, so much so that you can’t look at your news feed without seeing a BuzzFeed article or copycat listicle. BuzzFeed has tapped into all genres imaginable and yet they keep coming up with more.

Buzzfeed’s content genres

For all their faults, BuzzFeed has found their niche – maybe a global niche? – and they are relishing their success. With offices around the world, 1300+ employees, and a growing credibility, it seems that BuzzFeed is here to stay.

One of BuzzFeed’s breakout stars, Matt Bellassai, got famous from his weekly video series where he “gets drunk at his desk and complains about stuff,” like the one below about the downside of fall. Bellassi went on to win a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Social Media Star.

The upside to BuzzFeed is that most of the content is purely positive. There’s no slander of presidential candidates or injection of religious perspectives (or lack there of) and what you see is what you get. They work on inclusion and acceptance of everyone, including those 32 weird shower habits everyone does but you felt alone about. BuzzFeed helps the people of the world feel less like a weirdo and brings our aforementioned habits into the light. Then we can share it all over our personal social media and Aunt Jenny can comment something like “bless your heart” and eventually we’ll delete the post. Family drama aside, BuzzFeed brings people together whereas other news sources divide people further.

Although I may not be in love with the idea of a listicle like so many of my fellow Facebook friends, but I might be interested in the possible evolution of the genre in an academic space. Do you think it has a chance to change the way we view education? Or has it already changed our view?

Please comment below and lets talk about your love/hate relationship with listicles, or send me your favorite BuzzFeed links and we can bond over that one thing we do when we’re alone in the car.

 

Emojis Take Over

I resisted emojis for a while and I would only use one when I felt it deemed appropriate. I’m not sure when my attitude changed, but I began using them more and more. “Happy Birthday’s!” felt strange without the balloon emoji and sometimes the laughing while crying emoji is really all you need to say. Emojis have not fully taken over my life, but the new iOS update is fun to play around with and I find myself altering what I’m going to say just to include emojis rather than words. Emojis convey tone when it’s needed most and  emojis do what text alone cannot. How many times have you been in a fight with your significant other over text messages simply because your tone was perceived wrong? Just to ensure a scared boyfriend that I really am OKAY and I’m FINE, I’ll make sure to add a smiley emoji because otherwise I’ll get a million questions wondering if I’m telling the truth. Emojis have a way of reassuring the lost and conveying our truths.

The new iOS 10 update for iPhone users has brought with it an entirely new way to communicate. This new method could potentially change the face of digital communication as we know it. iOS 10 finds words in texts/emails/social media to replace with an emoji. As technology progresses, our words are being replaced with images – gifs, emojis, or memes – and the coming generations could rely more on emojis than any group prior. The more we replace our words with images, the worse our spelling becomes, the less we need grammar, and our attention span decreases.

Here’s a quick example on how to use this new iOS 10 function:

Simply type your message and press the emoji keyboard symbol and particular words that can be replaced with an emoji will highlight in orange, and then press each word to select the emoji version of that word.

In the above message I typed: “I won’t be home tonight, but there is spaghetti and wine for dinner if you want” and certain words were replaced with emojis.

This new update is only the beginning. Our text based communication will evolve beyond what we could imagine and words will start falling by the wayside. Our beloved books, articles and letters will be replaced with yellow smileys, 140 character headlines, and “heartfelt” gifs. Words can no longer meet our needs and culture has shifted to accommodate emojis; it’s the signal of a change that we cannot fight. Immersing ourselves in social media has only furthered the need for a more convincing form of communication.

Our society’s lack of face-to-face communication has left some heart sized hole in us and refusing to step into reality, we look for another way to channel meaning. Emojis bring the perfect balance. Offering tone and meaning, our sentences are flush with yellow smileys or cartoon animals. We now end our “goodnight sweetheart” texts with a variety of hearts, or we offer condolences on a loss with the single tear crying face. Emojis have replaced conventional grammar like the period, question mark, or exclamation point with the crying laughing face, the scratching face puzzled look or a thumbs up. As technology progresses, what will be the place of conventional grammar? Will we even need it?

source: http://www.ateriet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/mcdonalds4.jpg

This new shift from text to image based communication will soon invade all sorts of media. Our private messages are already being shifted to image based, emojis are filtering into our social media accounts, and they are appearing in ads. McDonald’s is ahead of the times, as always and already beginning their emoji based ad campaign.

 

source: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/text-and-drive

Other organizations have taken note and created their own compelling ad, such as United Kingdom based Amvbbdo agency urging drivers to not text and drive through albeit morbid emojis.

Alongside ads, the popular mobile payment service Venmo has incorporated emojis into payment titles. This article has detailed the top ranking emojis listed for payments, ranging from an easily decipherable night out grabbing pizza and beer to a more racy night out depicted by certain fruits.

 

 

Will this shift into imaged based communication bring the final blow to bookstores? Will our civilization become so vapid that we cannot focus for the duration of a book or article? Attention spans are decreasing, but do we really need to go so basic as a smiley face to convey meaning or retain an audience?

Do you think emojis have a positive influence on society? How do you guys use emojis? Comment below!

Watching Hashtags Grow Up

I was homeschooled alongside my younger brother by our very loving mother. She taught us how to see the world through a different lens and how to sleep past 11am, just because we could. My mom would spend hours the night before teaching herself the material to make sure we got the best possible education. We would go to the basement to find our school room transformed to Ancient Greece; we would sit on pillows and eat dates and figs and learn about the culture of a new world. Our schooling involved a lot of food. We travelled the world in our basement schoolhouse, but somehow we never made it to the continent of Grammar.

Sure, we would diagram sentences and find each little part of speech, but my mom was just as confused as I was about what the heck a preposition was and where it went. I entered a college-prep private high school knowing nothing of grammar. I was terrified of MadLibs, the psycho game that makes fun out of grammar. It was never fun when kids would exclaim, “You don’t know what an adjective is?!”  Grammar seemed foreign and like something everyone understood but me.

Enter me becoming an English major. When I would tell people about my major they would immediately say, “Oh, so you’re a Grammar Nazi?” of course I played the humble card and denied it, but I knew one day in my college career I’d have to come face to face with grammar. I waited until my senior year to take Grammar & Linguistics and I couldn’t have made a better choice. Times have changed since elementary school and now aspects of social media are considered grammar. Hashtags are something that College Senior Indy is very good at.

I’ve been using hashtags since they popped up in social media. Hashtags are crucial for social involvement, brand recognition, or initiating a break up. This article is about a teen that used hashtags on an Instagram post to let his girlfriend know they were breaking up. Since then, #transformationtuesday can be used to show your new relationship status as well as your weight loss transformation.
Hashtags can get you free stuff. For instance, this past summer I was staying at a nice hotel near the airport before my early flight. The room was disgusting and had many issues. I tweeted the photo and added the hotel name in a hashtag and eventually the hotel direct messaged me and my room was comped.

Hashtags provide up to date information about major events taking place around the world. During the Paris attacks in 2015 I remember scrolling through #prayforparis and getting new information through that venue rather than televised news because it’s so much faster.  Imagine how different the catastrophic events of 9/11 would have been if we used hashtags? Social movements, worldwide tragedies, and Presidential election updates are all revolutionized through hashtags.

Hashtags evolved from just social media. The new-medium punctuation form has seeped into fashion, texting, and real-life hand gestures. They are invading all different kinds of media, from social media to television to brand management classes. Life from here on out is going to be surrounded by hashtags. You can either be a cynic, like my dad, and refuse to cooperate in the function of the “new pound sign” or you can get on board and find new information, get free stuff, and stay plugged in.

A new part of punctuation has developed and pervaded our world. It isn’t particular to just one language, or any one education level. Every person, rich or poor, man or woman, can use a hashtag correctly. There is no specific handbook of rules for hashtag uses, the scary people on the internet won’t jump down your throat about a misuse like they would for other grammar mistakes. The best thing about social media grammar is that it’s still growing up. I get to grow up during the creation of a budding grammar empire that will change the face of the world as we know it. As of right now, in 2016, I can make up my own rules to social media grammar. I don’t have to feel dumb during MadLibs anymore because I can use hashtags. I am a part of a social media revolution that is changing the rules to education, human connection, and simply life as we know it.

In what ways do you guys use hashtags? Comment below and tell me how your experience with hashtags has been!