The Gamer Stigma

    When I was younger I used to be bullied a lot about being a nerd and playing lots of video games and for this project we were supposed to make a point for a cause we believe in. I first started with welfare except my teacher and I were at a disagreement on whether welfare was an issue. The same thing happened when I wanted to talk about the death penalty. I finally decided on defending gamers and eliminating the stigma placed on gamers. This project was tough because I had to keep going back to the drawing board to get something to work but when I finally did I think I did well. 

    Were you that kid in school that was left out of everything? or just didn’t get along with anyone? I was. It was because I am a gamer, and as everyone knows gamers are anti-social, whiny, and unpleasant. But before that they were the creepy people who stood in the back of the arcade all day and never saw sunlight. And now there are over 210 million gamers in North America alone. That is almost half of North America's population being placed under this stigma of being a gamer, being scared (afraid) to share their passion or their interests for fear of being viewed as a waste of space. We need to change this. We must break the stigma of gamers.
    I have played competitive Call of Duty. I have played on the top of the charts in World of Warcraft. And I have played countless other games casually. And I have been the subject of much ridicule because of it.
    I used to be that kid that no one liked in school. I was the one who you see in movies sitting on his own. Yes, you can say I was the mean kid or I was the gross kid or I was the socially awkward kid. I wasn’t. I was the one who, instead of going home and watching sports, went and played World of Warcraft. Everyone knew that I was an avid gamer because at the time I was too naive to understand that people would care what I did in my free time.

When a pair of twins, who played also, transferred to the school I was at they weren’t even acknowledged by the other students past “hey” or “grunts.”Can you imagine going to a new school in a different state and not even having people say more than a half-assed greeting to you? Wouldn’t you feel like you meant nothing? The reason for them being ignored was the “letter” they had written to the school. They had to write what they were interested in, their name, and what they wanted to do when they grew up. It was presented to the class prior to their arrival and for both of them they wrote that they were interested in World of Warcraft. And immediately the attention of the other students was lost. Of course being a gamer and craving some companionship I introduced myself to them and we became friends instantly.

I am still great friends with them and now one of them was recruited to the  Harvard crew team and the other is on track to becoming a surgeon. They are the opposite of what they were categorized as. Instead of being low lifes in their mom’s basement they are out accomplishing their dreams and continue to play video games. We went through a childhood full of being cast out and unincluded and want no one to have to go through the loneliness we had to.
    There is no short term way to abolish this stigma. We need to accept video games as an art form and need to teach video game design in school as an art class. When people are exposed to things they become more comfortable with them. Teaching kids about game design will make them more comfortable with video games and will help lead the way to having all gamers accepted into society. Along with breaking down the stigma this would also help students develop different skills including patience, strategization, and leadership, stated by Makeuseof.com. Gamers need to be accepted because from 2012-2014 the gaming industry has increased its revenue from 76 billion dollars to over 100 billion according to Statista.com. We can not lose out on including a large group of people in our society just because of their hobbies. We need to include gamers into our society.

Lee, Joel. "5 Life Skills That Video Games Can Help You Develop." MakeUseOf. 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-life-skills-video-games-can-help-develop/>.

Nunnely, Stephan. "Number of US Gamers in 2012 Declined by 5% – NPD Report." VG247. VG24/7, 5 Sept. 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/05/number-of-us-gamers-in-2012-declined-by-5-npd-report/>.

"Video Games Revenue Worldwide by Source 2012-2015 | Forecast." Statista. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/278181/video-games-revenue-worldwide-from-2012-to-2015-by-source/>.

Immigration in America

    Unlike most of the action projects this one had more leeway with what direction you took it. We were allowed to write a poem or a song or a speech. I chose to do a speech because I did not think I could realistically write a song about immigration. I also wanted to see how I worked compared to the last speech and to see what it taught me. This speech on Immigration helped further my understanding of rhetoric by strengthening my research ability and further my writing skills. I hope you enjoy.

    Our country is losing money almost as fast as it is making it, and illegal immigration is one of the causes for this. Illegal immigration is an issue in America that needs to be faced head on. According to The Washington Times, Last year there were more immigrants crossing the border with less deportations than the years before. With more and more illegal immigrants coming into America the government’s limited funding is going to keep being drained.To solve this crisis we need a system that allows immigrants to come over legally so  we only provide our countrys’ great benefits to our citizens.

    Homeland Security has said that they only have the funding to deport 400,000 immigrants a year(Washington Times), while we had an average of 800,000 immigrants coming over from 2000-2012 according to Migrationpolicy.org. That means that only half of the immigrants who are coming over are getting caught and deported. With an ever growing population of illegal immigrants now reaching 40.8 million we must do something otherwise our country is going to be stripped of its wealth as we continue to pay for more and more immigrants.

    In 2010 it was estimated that illegal immigrants only payed 11.2 billion dollars in taxes while ALIPAC (Americans for Immigration PAC) claims illegal immigrants are using 125 billion of taxpayers dollars. This means the roads are paved slower, reduced funding for government jobs, and there are less benefits for American citizens. How can we stand by and allow our tax dollars to be drained by someone who isn’t even a citizen? To allow them to reap the benefits of our country? We can’t.

“At the heart of much confusion about immigration is the notion that we “need” immigrants — legal or illegal — to do work that Americans won’t do.” Wrote Thomas Sowell. America does not need illegal immigrants to do these jobs. How did America do these jobs before illegal immigrants came? We did it. The wages for those jobs are currently just so low because illegals will do them for practically nothing. But if the wages were raised even slightly many more Americans would be doing these jobs.  

Illegal immigration drains the country’s limited funds while supporting another country. The Washington Post said, “immigrants living in the United States will send $45 billion to family members this year.” So all that money being sent home is money that should be fueling our economy not weakening it. If this money was spent at a local store we would have more money flowing through the community and creating more jobs instead we are losing jobs. How can we keep that money here? By creating a program that would allow immigrants to become full fledged citizens.

A program that gave immigrants citizenship would require a few guidelines and standards. One of these standards would be fluency in English and renouncement of their original citizenship. It would also be necessary to have their families do the same so that the money that is made stays in America and is not sent back home. This program will allow for families to become American citizens while also ensuring that the people pledge their allegiance to the US. The other criteria that must be met is that no one in the family can have a criminal background and there will be a probationary period where if you break the law your citizenship can be revoked. This policy will allow the US to grow our workforce with hardworking Americans who obey laws and will decrease our country’s spending.

Bibliography

Dinan, Stephen. "Illegal Immigration Up, Deportations down in 2014: DHS." Washington Times. The Washington Times. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/19/illegal-
 immigration-deportations-down-2014-homelan/>.

"Undocumented Immigrants' State and Local Tax Contributions | The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)." The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.itep.org/immigration/>.

Williams, Krissah. "Immigrants Sending $45 Billion Home." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2006. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801756.html>.

Coke Can Factory

    For my final action project I was told to find a material that is frequently wasted or that is considered trash and to build an art installation out of it. The installation had to be tied to a statistic or fact that showed how much of this trash was being produced or wasted. I chose Diet Coke cans because I personally consume a lot of Diet Coke. I then decided to make a factory out of the cans. This project of collecting the cans and building the factory made me realize that 10 aluminum cans take up a lot more space than you realize and when you drink a lot of them like me you realize your impact on the environment. So what I have learned from this project is how such a small item that is used everyday can have such a large impact on the world.

    In 1960 aluminum cans were used for holding frozen juice concentrate and immediately they took off. They started to be used for beer and soft drinks only a couple years after they were invented. The business continued to grow and grow until 1990 when PET plastic bottles started to come into the market. Now in America they produce roughly 1x1011 cans a year. That is about 1 can per person in America a day. Even though two thirds of those cans are recycled there is still that one third that isn't and when a can is recycled it takes 95% less energy than making a new can from ore. This is what inspired my project. The fact that we are wasting all that energy is ridiculous and I felt that I should inspire people to start recycling more. To help people recycle more it is essential that we have recycling bins placed around for people.

    My project was a building that is a factory made out of 10 Diet Coke cans. The reason for this number is because each can represents 10 billion cans manufactured in America each year. The reason I chose Diet Coke cans is because I personally consume about 2-3 cans a day and thought that this was a way to also show me what I need to change. The reason my project is a factory is because I wanted to draw attention to the amount of energy that we waste on mining and producing new aluminum cans and I felt that a factory makes people think of the manufacturing process.

    The building process for the factory was a long one. I spent an hour figuring out the best way to cut the cans so that they would not tear or be mangled to oblivion. After figuring out how to cut them, which at the time I thought was going to be the most challenging part, we had to shape it to look like a factory. I wanted to be pure and only use aluminium but I soon realized that the building would need some sort of material to hold it together. I used hot glue, which worked pretty well but the pieces had to be held the whole time and would get very hot so it was very difficult to hold the pieces together. Once it was completed I felt very proud of my work and I think that this was the action project that I feel most proud of.

 

 (JC,2015)

(Runkel, Patrick. "Trashmaniacs")

 

 (JC, 2015)

"Aluminum Can Recycling Rate Hit 67% in 2012." Environmental Leader RSS. 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/10/30/aluminum-can-recycling-rate-hit-67-in-2012/>.

Pinkham, Myra. "Aluminium Cans - History, Development and Market." Aluminium Cans - History, Development and Market. 1 May 2002. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1483>.

Runkel, Patrick. "Trashmaniacs! Plotting Against Waste (with Time Series, Pareto, and Pie Charts) | Minitab." Trashmaniacs! Plotting Against Waste (with Time Series, Pareto, and Pie Charts) | Minitab. 30 July 2012. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://blog.minitab.com/blog/statistics-and-quality-data-analysis/trashmaniacs-plotting-against-waste-with-time-series-pareto-and-pie-charts>.

Woodword, Angela. "How Products Are Made." How Aluminum Beverage Can Is Made. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Aluminum-Beverage-Can.html>.