‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?‘” – John 11:25-26
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Thought For the Day: Whosoever Lives and Believes In Me Shall Never Die. Do You Believe This?
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Tagged Believe, Believes, Do You, John 11:25-26, Shall Never Die, Thought For the Day, Whosoever Lives
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Na/GloPoWriMo Day 1: Distorted Images
Na/GloPoWriMo* Day 1: Distorted Images
by Michael Doyle
I've learned in life
To keep each distortion
That brings me strife
In their due proportion
Seeing as clear as possible
Doing what I can to be capable
To do away with what's improbable
And live my best life as inescapable
Looking into the mirror's dim glass
Doing my best to be my very best
Knowing that all things shall pass
But wondering what exactly is the test
The sun does not rise or fall
The sky is not any shade of blue
All of this is illusion as one may recall
All of it is as distorted as we view
Certain that as we always are
Living life as bearers of truth
And even as we stare into the stars
We are as ever deceived as we've been since youth
(c) April 1, 2021 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
* It's that time of the year again. If you're
not sure what I mean and you love writing or
reading poetry, please visit here: NaPoWriMo
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged All Things Shall Pass, Always Are, Best Life, Blue, Capable, Certain, Deceived, Dim, Distorted, Distorted Image, Due Proportion, Glass, Illusion, Improbable, Learn, Living Life, Mirror, My Best, Na/GloPoWriMo, Poetry and Poems, Possible, Recall, Rise or Fall, Seeing Clear, Shade, Since Youth, Sky, Stare, Stars, Strife, Sun, Test, Truth, View
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The Positive and Negative Of Social Learning From Television and Other Screens
The Positive and Negative Contributions of Social Learning From Television and Other Screens:
The case is, more often than not, made that social learning from television and other screens is largely negative. To the degree that the negative case is successfully made, it must be remembered that the multiple forms of media are largely a selective mirror not just in what has been shown to hold the attention of some in society and so that is what media largely reflects to turn its profit, Its funhouse distortions overplay some of the worse of the world because this is what sells more than other choices. (Baran, 2019). With that in mind, all a modern household needs to do is be more selective in the viewing habit of the adults and the children present there and with the wide variety of choices offered via television and other screens a great deal of self-development and overall education is available at a bargain basement price. Even in the fast paced and complicated set of offerings available via television and other screens there is even the opportunity to replace physically going to church services during these pandemic times. In fact, it is possible to attend church in the Philippines with other persons around the world simultaneously if willing to make the time to coordinate and do so. In doing so and in engaging in other aspects, “media can reinforce the good in our culture (Baran, 2019). With this in mind, former Federal Communications Commission member Nicholas Johnson, might be very pleased to know what modern television and other screen applications are indeed now doing for us. Whether these innovations will thrive or not depends on the support of the consuming public (Baran, 2019). Some of that public makes great use of it at present
The case is easily made for positive social learning and other positive gains from television and the other screens in the modern world. These range from sheer entertainment that from Arthur, to Dora the Explorer, to Sesame Street teaches skills such as handling emotions to peer interaction to offering up interactive quizzes to just teaching children how to recognize and use thinking patterns. Other forms of learning from screens include straight forward education from National Geographic to documentaries on a myriad of topics. The case is equally made that in watching sporting events, children can learn the rules of multiple sports but also be offered encouragement to be active, healthy and fully engaged in life’s emotional and physical well-being. A fairly recent addition to the positive social learning that screens can provide is the advent of Marquee TV which is a Netflix.com like application that offers ballet, opera, musical theater, classical musical and several other genres that offer up social learning centered on dance, the fine arts and music. There are multiple applications that pertain to developing adult and children’s own unique creativity both by inspiration such as cooking shows to The Great Courses Plus to several other such applications including but not limited to Youtube.com on which can be found courses from drawing to playing guitar to multiple other genres. Applications such as Grokker.com offer health and well-being programming from mindfulness to yoga and there are other programming apps such as The Great Courses Plus which offers classes in Tai Chi, Qi Gong and nutrition.
How Too Much Television Impacts Individuals:
The prevalent view in mass communications theory holds out under cultivation analysis that the degree of how much television and other screen viewing is had, people’s perceptions and thoughts about themselves, others, the world and humanity’s place is the world is shaped by that view. This seems falsely put in that the assumption is that people who consume a lot of this media will hold negative beliefs as to holding others “generally selfish, untrustworthy and out to get” one another. Though I do not see this evidenced in the text, it is seemingly as reasonable to believe that it depends on what exactly was being viewed. If the example given was demonstrative of selfish, untrustworthy people out to get one another, then that seems reasonable. Bandura’s studies indicate this as well established (Baran, 2019). If, however, the viewer spends time in deliberatively choosing positive, informative content such as TED Talks, and the myriad of positive choices previously set out, one might reasonably derive that there is a tremendous amount of good, positive, wholesomeness to be gleaned from the available media as well. This media is a tool, neither entirely bad nor entirely good but dependent like any tool on the user whose hands it rests in. Though the case might be made that negative material is much more prevalent a strong case might be made that it is a matter of selective process dependent on attention, retention and perception (Baran, 2019). In at least one example, positive comments focusing selectively on retention of positive values were able to change negative perceptions about a minority refugee group to positive perceptions (Stylianou, et al., 2019). This may be indicative of the ability to likewise choose focus on positives in media viewing consumption, retain this and change perceptions of the viewing public to consume better product that will help shape a better mass media ‘landscape’ by its leadership.
Is multimedia, good or bad? Does it depend on who is doing the choosing and what standards are used to define selective viewing? Please feel free to respond in the comments section!
References:
Baran, S. J. (2019). Introduction to mass communication: Media literacy and culture (10th ed). McGraw Hill Education.
Stylianou, S., & Sofokleous, R. (2019). An online experiment on the influence of online user comments on attitudes toward a minority group. Communication & Society, 32(4), 125–142. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.32.4.125-142
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Adults, Application, Arthur, Attention, Attitude, Bandura, Basement Price, Children, Church, Church Services, Consume, Courses, Cultivation Analysis, Culture, Documentaries, Dora the Explorer, Drawing, Education, Emotional, Fast Paced, FCC, Fine Arts, Focus, Funhouse Distortions, Grokker, Guitar Playing, Handling Emotions, Health, Humanity, Influence, Informative Content, Innovations, Landscape, Leadership, Marquee TV, Mass Communications Theory, Mass Media, Media, Media Is A Tool, Media Literacy, Modern Household, Music, National Geographic, Negative, Negative Beliefs, Netflix.com, Nicholas Johnson, Offerings, Online Experiment, Other Choices, Overall Education, Pandemic Times, Peer Interaction, Perceptions and Thoughts, Philippines, Physical, Positive, Positive Choices, Prevalent View, Profit, Public, Quizzes, Recognize, Reinforce, Screens, Selective Mirror, Selective Process, Self-Development, Sells, Sesame Street, Skills, Social Learning, Society, Sporting Events, TED Talks, Television, The Great Courses Plus, Thinking Patterns, Thought For the Day, Thrive, Topics, Use, Viewing Consumption, Viewing Habits, Well-Being, Yoga, Youtube.com
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Thought For the Day: Without Deviation, Without Exception, Without Any Ifs, Buts, or Whereases, Freedom of Speech Means That You Shall Not Do Something To People Either For Views They Express, Or the Words They Speak Or Write
“Without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts, or whereases, freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they express, or the words they speak or write.” – Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971)
First Principles: The Principles of Spending Money To Be Paid By Posterity, Under the Name of Funding, Is But Swindling Futurity On A Large Scale
“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” – Thomas Jefferson (1816)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged By Posterity, First Principles, Funding, Futurity, Large Scale, Prinicple, Spending Money, Swindling, Thomas Jefferson, To Be Paid
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Effective Communications Competence
Ineffective Communications:
Everyone knows that there is a great deal of truth to that adage about the proverbial age gap between parents and children. Imagine if you would having two budding teenagers – ages 11 and 13 and being 57 years old. This is my visitation life. There are numerous occasions on which there is miscommunication, more so with the youngest than with the oldest. Still, we do see the world differently, have different cultures and from time to time bump heads as all parents do with their kids Or, at least that seems to be the case in my experience. As we approach different subjects, there are times when I have pulled the because I am your Dad and I said so card out. That’s never effective.. okay rarely. It mostly works when they’re feeling merciful.
Greater Communication Competence Impact:
What I have implemented from the start is that I have spent more time speaking to them eyeball to eyeball, getting on my knees when they were younger to quietly explain why something has to be done or why it is a best practice as a set of principles. I cannot say this will work for every parent. But, the gain that I think I have experienced is that when I am not present and decisions need to be made, I know that they have these guiding principles in their minds that I have shown them how given situations might be handled and not lead to larger errors. With my oldest daughter, she will even tell me that she appreciates that I have taken the time to show her the advantage of my viewpoint and that she can talk to knowing that I will listen and when she’s right give her lee way to see how things work out her own way. The youngest is still a work in progress but as we spend more time together, she is slowly developing the same sort of relationship with me. I believe this is all down to the point made in the text in that “what is said and how it is said take on greater significance…” (O’Hair, 2012, p. 14).
Unethical Communications:
While I was working for a government agency, I was able to observe the difference between good and decent communication flow and then the unethical communications implemented by the successor to the manager position for the department’s agency. Where the original director had been very encouraging of active bottom to the top communications and listened carefully for good ideas that often come from the front lines, the new manager who took over the first manager’s position on his retirement mouthed the right words but had no follow through. I found it very unethical that she would stand up committee after committee with the false word being put out that she was looking to change how things were done for the better. In reality, she would take all the proposals from just about every committee and shelf these in favor of strictly crunching the numbers as to what moved the “widgets” most quickly whether or not it was providing good customer service to those we served and/or their families. The result was an ensuing moral issue that reflected in increasing turnover as the better personnel who could move on did and those stuck working there felt as though anything they did was futile and subject to change. Slowly but surely and even more quickly in fact, the sub-department within that very important agency became totally numbers driven to the extent that when I left there was a movement within lower level but skillful personnel were redirecting their attention to getting these matters before the Inspector General. There were two meetings prior to my leaving the agency in which the Manager and the supervisors were disinvited from meetings held between the Inspector General’s team and the personnel in an attempt to address what was widely seen as mismanagement and inappropriate communication. My understanding is that the situation is in process of being looked at and changes implemented. The thing I felt was the most unethical was the misrepresentation by the new manager that she was listening to the working staff when in actual practice, several from the front office reported to those of us working to be effective that our efforts were actually be looked at derisively at best as the Manager was not all that interested in the things that had worked to bring that sub-department to a leadership position prior to her tenure. Nor, did she care to listen to any feedback as to what was going wrong. Instead there came to be a punitive, micromanagement environment with constant changes that few felt made anything better.
The importance of an effective feedback loop were amply demonstrated by what was going on prior to my leaving. I am, in fact, supposed to have a meeting with some personnel in order to gather notes and try to advocate for some of the needed changes now that I have removed myself from harm’s way. We will see how that plays out in the long run. With Covid-19 coming into play, I have until this assignment actually lost a bit of sight of this as new priorities developed. I want to thank you, Professor Waldow, for this assignment as it reminds me that I need to reach out to personnel who should be probably be working in office at this point.
Greater Communication Competence Impact:
The National Communication Association’s Credo holds that “(E)thical communication is fundamental to responsible thinking” and “decision making”. “Unethical communications threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the well being of individuals” and I would daresay and add the well being of organizations and those the organization is intended to serve.
Setting up committees without good intent as to following through with the falsely solicited input and feedback received was a face saving gesture at best. It is totally disrespectful to those who workers who have served well and worked hard. As such, it does not constitute appropriate behavior. Having thought this through in the course of this Discussion Board assignment for Unit 1, I will reach out to the personnel still there to see if now would be a good time to present this the Inspector General and ascertain what has been done to date given the problematic scenario faced in dealing with personnel working from home now.
Thanks for any and all input and for the patience as I mentally worked this out as to my new plan of approach for this pressing issue.
What has been your experience in gaining greater communication competence in the circumstances of life?
Wiemann, D.O. M. (2011). Real Communication + The Essential Guide to Interpersonal Communication. [Purdue University Global Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781457692796/
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Adage, Age Gap, Approach, Best Practice, Children, Committees, Competence, COVID-19, Customer Service, Daughter, Decision Making, Effective Communications, Effective Feedback Loop, Experience, Eyeball to Eyeball, Fundamental, Harm's Way, How It Is Said, Impact, Individuals, Ineffective, Input, Interpersonal Communication, Listen, Management, Mentally, Mercy, Micromanage, Miscommunication, New Plan, Organization, Parent, Parents, Pressing Issue, Principles, Punitive, Quality, Responsible Thinking, Serve, Significance, Speak, Thought For the Day, Time, Truth, Unethical Communications, What Is Said, Widgets
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First Principles: It is the Duty of All Nations To Acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, To Obey His Will, To Be Grateful For His Benefits and Humbly To Implore His Protection and Favors
“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.” – George Washington
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Acknowledge, All Nations, Almighty God, Benefits, Duty, First Principles, George Washington, Grateful, His Will, Humbly, Implore, Obey, Protection and Favors, Providence
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Thought For the Day: High-Performance Teams and Organizations Do Not Arise Spontaneously. They Do Not Appear Overnight. High-Performance Is A Process and A Mindset. It Requires A Methodology and It Must Be Practiced – Over and Over
“High-performance teams and organizations do not arise spontaneously. They do not appear overnight. High performance is a process and a mind-set. It requires a methodology and it must be practiced—over and over. “ – John Foley, founder and president of John Foley, Inc.; former Marine Corps jet fighter instructor pilot and lead solo pilot of the Blue Angels jet acrobatics team
As It Is With the Moon Above
As It Is With the Moon Above
by Michael Doyle
In all the suffering behind poetry
It plays out deeply as if in melancholy
It's a pouring out of love and pain
Something lettered and yet still in vain
Sunshine and spring are simply a preface
For the coming winter's chilled embrace
It's a whole new world beyond reason's call
Without practicality of what does befall
To all of us as sweet time presses ever on
With a blink of the eye, the warmth is soon gone
Yet, at first it feels so akin to thunderstruck
Such is the way of love as if just our luck
In all of things of passion that we do pursue
As a source of joy in all the things that we do
Deep passions drag us into the compulsions of love
However the trickery of the silvery moon above
(c) March 30, 2021 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Above, As It Is, Beyond Reason, Blink of the Eye, Chilled, Compulsions of Love, Deep, Deep Passion, Embrace, In Vain, Just Our Luck, Lettered, Love and Pain, Melancholy, Moon, Poetry, Poetry and Poems, Pouring Out, Practicality, Preface, Presses On, Pursue, Silvery Moon Above, Soon Gone, Source of Joy, Suffering, Sunshine and Spring, Things of Passion, Things That We Do, Thunderstruck, Time, Trickery, Warmth, Way of Love, Whole New World, Winter
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On the Influence of Mass and Social Media
Mass Media Shaping of Culture and Perceptions of Self, Others and the World:
Where once Gutenberg’s printing press led the way in shaping the world, the driving technology in the modern world is mass media in its many and varied forms (Baran, 2019). Through a constant and continuous feedback loop centered on the dominance of mass media including, but not limited to social media, our values from entertainment to politics are formed and promoted into what are considered the normative values held not just in the United States but also to a greater or lesser extent in the global community. What passes as facts today are largely derived from what is accepted as factual not as much from strictly empirical evidence but that which has become normative for a global culture. This post modernistic civilization both shapes and is shaped by public opinions which often rests as much or more so on feelings than critical thinking.
Leaving politics and political agendas aside for the moment, we find this imposition being somewhat lifted now though for decades we have lived in a global culture that determined that a the perfect woman looked much like a Barbie doll and no other values could override this logical inconsistency (Thompson, et al., 1999). In or about 2016, a substantial move was made to to reshape opinions deemed as more reflective of the real world with respect to the diverse range of what companies including Mattel and many other product manufacturers, magazines and advertisers in general would portray (Baran, 2019).
This is not to fully accept and/or agree with the moral precept that finds modern mass media is pervasively dystopian. In fact, there are many who would agree that our society has found many advantages from mass media and particularly social media based on the internet has been a great leveler in providing information and the ability to communicate throughout much of the world in a swift manner through computer mediated communication as technology has continued to lead the way forward into the future (Baran, 2019). This is further explained below as illustrated by the move from a large group of conservative social media consumers from once pervasive social media platforms to those which are rising to challenge their hold due to the issue of respect for free speech.
Social Media’s Impact on the Consumption of Products and Social Issues Decisions:
Social media has been shown to have an effective impact on the consumption of products and social issues. Recent studies have evidence this impact on diverse college students and others (Meena, Z.N., et al, 2020). Long before this study, however, the ability of mass media and now social media has been well established to produce effective impact. This is true to the extent that we have had four years of argument with respect to how foreign powers including China and Russia have manipulated social media into influencing American public opinion. This is nothing new to those who follow intelligence work or have taken part in it. What is new, however, is the use of social media in the attempt and arguable success to do so.
Another example is that recently, there has been a mass exodus of Conservative thinkers from Facebook and Twitter that is still ongoing to other more free-speech orientated media platforms such as Parler for Twitter and MeWee for FaceBook. For myself, I am keeping my established presence on Twitter and primarily on FaceBook for a group that I set up and established while so far only lightly moving into more MeWee than Parler. This mass exodus was prompted by the over-zealous crack down by the platforms to impact public opinion with respect to the outcome of the present presidential election.
As Facebook and Twitter have acted to further suppress conservative opinions and statement of observable facts or what is believed to be observable facts, more and more conservative consumers are voting with their electronic feet by moving to where they believe they are finding more equitable treatment and free speech (Everett, 2018). What this has established in my mind’s eye is that these platforms serve a similar part in the interactions of citizens that pubs and taverns did in the 18th century leading up to the American Revolution. Thomas Paine would probably love the free for all of the intellectual free market that is the main part of these sites with only a thin but admittedly dark underlayer of hate groups and other such irrationality. Most of these bad actors find themselves like any other bad product being disposed of by the potential consumers. Technological determinism is currently being shown in this way to drive economic and cultural change (Baran, 2019).
Have the overlords of Facebook, Twitter and other social media moved to take away free speech and thought more so than any other age? If so, what then should be done about it?
References:
Baran, S. J. (2019). Introduction to mass communication: Media literacy and culture (10th ed). McGraw Hill Education.
Everett, C. M. (2018). Free Speech on Privately-Owned Fora: A Discussion on Speech Freedoms and Policy for Social Media. Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, 28(1), 113–145.
Meena, Z.N. & Radhika, R (2020). Forecasting the Impact of Social Media Advertising among College Students Using Higher Order Statistical Functions. Scalable Computing: Practice & Experience, 21(2), 291–307. https://doi.org/10.12694/scpe.v21i2.1651
Thompson, J. Kevin, Heinberg, Leslie J., Altabe, Madeline, & Tantleff-Dunn, Stacey (1999). Exacting beauty: Theory, Assessment, and Treatment of Body Image Disturbance. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Advantages, Agendas, American, American Revolution, Bad Actors, Bad Product, Barbie Doll, Body Image Disturbance, Change, China, Citizens, Civilization, Communicate, Computer Mediated, Conservative, Conservative Opinions, Consumers, Consumption, Crack Down, Critical Thinking, Cultural, Culture, Dark Underlayer, Discussion, Dominance, Dystopian, Economic, Electronic Feet, Empirical Evidence, Entertainment, Exacting Beauty, Exodus, Facebook, Facts, Feedback Loop, Feelings, Free For All, Free Speech, Future, Global Community, Global Culture, Great Leveler, Gutenberg, Hate Groups, High Order Statistical Functions, Influence, Information, Intellectual Free Market, Intelligence Work, Interaction, Internet, Irrationality, Logical Inconsistency, Manipulate, Mass Media, Mattel, MeWee, Normative Values, Observable Facts, Others, Perception, Perfect Woman, Platforms, Politics, Post-Modernistic, Presidential Election, Printing Press, Privately Owned Fora, Products, Public Opinion, Pubs, Respect, Russia, Self, Shaped, Shapes, Sites, Social Issues, Social Media, Speech Freedoms, Suppress, Taverns, Technological Determinism, Technology, Thinkers, Thomas Paine, Thought For the Day, Twitter, United States, Values, Voting, World
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