Final Essay Pictures

Language and Comics

The vocabulary of comics describes how pictures and cartoons are not real because they portray a real thing. A drawing of a person is not a real person, it is a copy of a person. That is similar to the other article because with photoshop a picture can be altered to portray a real thing. It also points out that language can be altered. Magazines and newspapers can alter the truth to sell more copies. Basically, a lot of what you see in the media is altered to attract more customers.

Torn Between Independence and Comfort

Kaitlin Greer

4/2/12

English Comp

Torn Between Independence and Comfort

The design of a particular space is often overlooked. Not a lot of people think about why a certain location looks the way it does. But, each individual space has a purpose and someone designed it to fulfill its purpose. Each room or store is designed to look a certain way and to function correctly. This year I have moved into a dorm at Westfield State University and I have come to think about how new students make their dorm feel like home but they also want to express their individuality. 

I am writing about a dorm because I spend most of my time in my own. I have been living in a dorm for almost a full academic year. I chose a dorm because in essence it is an interesting place to be thrown into as a freshman entering college. When living in a dorm with a roommate, challenges arise because you must learn to feel comfortable in a new living space. Some challenges are that a student must learn how to express themselves but also respect their roommate, which is hard if someone comes from having their own room for the majority of their life. Another challenge is one must feel the comfort of home but learn to behave with the new independence. That is what I am most interested in, the fact that residents want to feel comfortable and be reminded of home but also express their unique, independent personality. It is a concept where students are torn because they want to experience two opposite sides of themselves.

The experience I have had in a dorm is an often familiar scenario. I was thrown into a room with two complete strangers. Immediately, I had to learn how to adapt to this new living environment. I had to establish my space in this crowded room but also learn to respect my roommate’s space. What I did to make it feel like home is I put up a lot of pictures. There are pictures of my friends from home on my wall and on my desk. If anyone walks into the room their eyes always gravitate to the collage of pictures on my wall. My roommate also put up pictures of friends from home to make her feel comfortable. These pictures are an escape from the reality that we face here and we can remember our lives before college. Pictures help with the fact that students want to feel like they are at home but when they put up posters and string lights they are establishing a sense of independence they did not have at home. After first semester ended, my room went from being a triple to a double and that changed the feeling of my whole room. There is obviously a lot more room but there is a sense of relaxation. Roommates also contribute to the fact if you feel comfortable or not at school. A disrespectful roommate can change your college experience. Since, I live in a residence hall I have access to other dorms than just my own. I have a front row seat to how other people live their lives.

Dorm rooms are completely empty, four white walls before students move in. Once students start living in their room, it comes to life with lights and posters. The dorms are not only there to live in but they they act as a place to socialize. One function is to have your friends over even though there is not a lot of room. On the first night here, all of the doors are open and people are walking around meeting other people, welcoming strangers into their rooms. Dorms make students feel comfortable, it is a safe place for them. These rooms can represent how college is welcoming and everyone is meeting for the first time. You are at a new school as a student but you also have to create a new social life and living in dorms will help you with that. Dorms really help with that aspect because all of us are stuck in one place and sometimes you have to make your own fun.

One researcher that studied dormitory living extensively is Rebekah Nathan who wrote “Life in the Dorms”. She is a researcher who lived in a residential building for an entire year. Nathan studied different habits and schedules of students. The way dorms were decorated and how students expressed themselves were her main points of interest. She noticed that residents would decorate their room with pictures and posters. One thing she noticed were bulletin boards and white boards. She noticed, “Bulletin boards provided the official imagery of dorm life (194)”.The bulletin boards were designed for students by Residential Assistants. These students would create bulletin boards that would display tips for time management and safe sex depending on the time of year. Yet the white boards on resident’s personal doors displayed the opposite. There were inside jokes about drinking alcohol and obscene language. These whiteboards acted as an outlet for students to express themselves. They are wrapped up in school all week and have different responsibilities to take care of and they can let loose in their room. This shows a sense of individualism against society, it is a small effort but nonetheless effective.

When looking at different schools as a senior in high school, many people take a long time looking at the dorms. How the dorms look is important when choosing a school because that is where you spend a lot of your time. At the time to make a decision, students think back on two things, the food and the dorms. Students at UCSB wrote an article called “Ask Not What You Can Do For Your University, But What Your University Can Do For You” about how students these days are “purchasing” their favorite university like they were customers. They explain, “Young adults attending college view their university education not as a valuable opportunity to gain knowledge, but rather as a purchase (293)”. The perfect school is the one that is going to get them the highest paying job. Colleges are catching on to this and they know that these students are looking at their schools as products. To sell to a customer one most have the best looking or most appealing product. Schools know their demographic and they know they have to sell to the kids and parents. The larger and more expensive schools tend to make their dorms larger and more appealing because they have the means to do so. Young adults just entering college look at the material things that the school offers because at the time that is what matters to them. The mind set is that the nicer the dorms the better the opportunities will be after graduation. That is not always the case even if you buy the flashiest product, it does not always work out the best.

A dorm is created so students who do not live around the area of the school can live there. That is its sole purpose yet students find all of these other functions for the room. It gives a sense of comfort during a time that is so new and scary, yet it allows students to be unique and independent. It is a new space where residents can decorate it anyway they want to and they do not need to be told how to make it look and that is where they get their independence. It is interesting to think about how students are rushing to leave home and be independent yet they make their new living space feel like they are at home. A dorm mixes the past and the future,  it represents where the student is from and where he/ she is going. 

Work Cited

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your University, But What Your University Can Do For You. Other Words. David Fleming. Kendall Hunt Publishers. 2009. 293-296. Print.

Nathan, Rebekah. “Life in the Dorms.” Other Words. David Fleming. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishers, 2009. 193-207. Print.

Torn Between Independence and Comfort Pictures

Life in the Dorms

Web 2.0 interview

Web 2.0 from kaitlin greer on Vimeo.

My First Podcast

Hello, my name is Kaitlin Greer and this is my first podcast for my comm tech class. Today, October 18, I will be talking about what is new in the entertainment world focusing on Kim Kardashian’s wedding. Kim Kardashian is a member of the celebrity family whose fame sprung from their hit show Keeping up with the Kardashians. Kim is the second born out of 4 famous kids,including Kourtney, Khloe and Rob Kardashian, who all have shows of their own on the network channel E!.She married New Jersey Net,Kris Humphries on August 20, 2011, following in her sister Khloe’s footsteps when she married NBA Laker, Lamar Odom. It was a lavish wedding to say the least, viewers would expect nothing less than a “fairytale wedding” from Princess Kim. She found the perfect location in Montecito, California where she transformed the property into a black and white palace. She had three $25,000 Vera Wang white gowns,personally made to fit her famous curvaceous body. Family members were transported to the wedding in White Rolls Royces and Maybachs. Kim gave out expensive gift bags to her 450 guests, including her new brand of perfume, a custom made scented candle, and the new Kardashian line of O.P.I. nail polish. After the reception, Kim and Kris were spotted at LAX, reportedly going on a quick honeymoon to Capri. The newlyweds earned almost $18 million dollars from their nuptials. Some say, if the Royal Wedding hadn’t been this year, the Kardashian wedding would have been named the wedding of the year. Kim and Kris are definitely the couple to watch and we are excited to see what happens in the near future. Once again, I’m kaitlin greer and this is what is new in the entertainment world. 

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