Social Capital

The handout about social capital was very confusing to me until I got to the examples of social capital. I was able to follow along after that.
I have to agree with the reasons listed as to why social capital is diminishing. I suffer from many of these symptoms. I watch television far too much; I very recently moved into my own room for the first time in sixteen years; and I don’t live on campus which means I have to commute every day. These are all reasons why I personally have become less active in social settings. When the opportunity comes up for something fun and social, I usually try to get involved, but this doesn’t always happen for reasons I usually deem to be beyond my control.
I also agreed with the techniques used by the mayor and aide in the fable. Starting children at younger ages in community service may make them more likely to be aware of their surroundings later on in life. If I had been told to participate in some sort of service benefiting the community at a young age, I might be more palpable to the idea now. Personally, I find it easier to do something that I’ve done before than something brand new to me, but, again, that’s just me.
I think that’s about it for now. Something could very easily come up in class. If we are talking about this in class tomorrow, which, I hope we are.

Language and Survival

So, after finally figuring out that I am supposed to thread this onto blackboard, I think I am ready to finish this thing.

I appreciated the message of Hayakawa’s essay; language, in terms of speaking and writing, is essential to human cooperation and survival. However, the manner in which this message was presented was, I thought, lacking in continuity. If you are going to entangle animals, human growth throughout the ages, and Mr. T.C. Mits, it would be nice to have complete bridges between the subjects.

Anyway, my power went out this past weekend which meant that I was without television. When I am bored, I usually watch TV. Since I didn’t have my TV, I started to do this puzzle that I still haven’t finished. So, I was working away on the puzzle when I noticed how quiet it was. I didn’t really like it. I enjoy “swimming in words,” and I became extremely dull without them. Hayakawa seems to think that the “Niagara of Words” is a bad thing because humans do not think about language enough. I have to disagree with him about that; people who are not exposed to a lot of language do not develop properly and usually have trouble in communicating with others. I understand that language is important, but I don’t believe that I should think about that importance every time I speak. If I need to ask my mother what we are having for dinner, I will probably say, “Hey Mom! What are we having for dinner?” If I thought about what I was saying, it would probably sound the same. Language is important and I realize that it does affect us from day to day. Basically, I think that Hayakawa could have stressed the importance of language without insinuating that we are all exactly like Mr. Mits.