Social media has caused a vast array of problems for my generation. Although much of social media has been used for good, even people that would normally be nice in person might take advantage of the anonymity of social media to be cruel. Cyberbullying has become a growing problem with the advances of technology and with phones falling into the hands of children younger and younger it leads to more issues. In my middle school we had several different school-wide cyberbullying awareness seminars. Events to keep kids from harassing each other. I have watched so many problems arise over social media due to a lack of information or a lie, gossip spreads quickly in elementary schools. Parents are beginning to raise their children with Ipad and laptops as a form of entertainment and by the time they reach middle school everyone already has a cell phone so the kids who don’t have one feel left out. Social media also allows kids to interact with far more people, older and their own age. This challenges Dunbar’s numbers, referenced in Konnikova’s essay. Robin Dunbar is a scientist who studied chimps and based on their relation to humans studied our social patterns. Dunbar states that “the best known ,150, is the number of people we call casual friends” (Konnikova 2). This group of people is described as the people who you can name. With social media, kids can branch out through different towns and further. Which is what allowed Megan Phelps-Roper to discuss hate so easily. Twitter allowed Megan to reach every corner of the globe in seconds. The more views her tweet got the better and normally that meant the more radical or hateful the tweet the better.  

Megan did have a turn of heart as she aged. She met many people online, one of which was David Abitbol. He was a jewish man from Canada whom the church of Westboro had asked Megan to target. She had tagged him in several posts in hopes of a response for the church but as she began to learn more about abitbol she realized he had good intentions. Abitbol taught her about compassion and caring for others even though he was jewish Megan still listened. She began to learn to use feelings in her tweets and she made attempts to treat others kindly while still representing the church. Some would argue that it’s impossible to change the hearts and minds of people raised on hatred but Megan was unique. She was taught by generations of disgust for people that were different. Even in the early days of talking to Abitbol however she considered herself to be a friend. “Phelps-Roper still urged Abitbol to repent, but as someone who was concerned about a wayward friend(chen,9)”. Megan had begun to make progress. I found after reading this portion of the article she couldn’t remain a member of the church forever. 

I don’t use many transitions but I have a good flow to my writing. I need to be specific with my wording and use real names rather than he/she. I don’t often repeat an Idea in the same paragraph however I do go on to explore the same Ideas more in later paragraphs connecting the ideas to new developments in my writing. I do also make good use of pointing words and I have been able to connect my ideas to their explanation because of it.

Megan did have a turn of heart as she aged. She met many people online, one of which was David Abitbol. He was a jewish man from Canada whom the church of Westboro had asked Megan to target. She had tagged him in several posts in hopes of a response for the church but as she began to learn more about abitbol she realized he had good intentions. Abitbol taught her about compassion and caring for others even though he was jewish Megan still listened. She began to learn to use feelings in her tweets and she made attempts to treat others kindly while still representing the church. Some would argue that it’s impossible to change the hearts and minds of people raised on hatred but Megan was unique. She was taught by generations of disgust for people that were different. Even in the early days of talking to Abitbol however she considered herself to be a friend. “Phelps-Roper still urged Abitbol to repent, but as someone who was concerned about a wayward friend(chen,9)”. Megan had begun to make progress. I found after reading this portion of the article she couldn’t remain a member of the church forever.