How Should We Give?

In a wallowing economy people tend to tie up their purse strings and sit on their wallets. This is how they remain unless something is needed for the person or for those who are important to them. Everyone wants to benefit from an dollar expenditure. Even when taxes are paid they want to make sure that they are paying for services that will benefit them. This inherent need to survive grows with a lack of resources and increased competition. In times like these people fight against any loss of their money, especially if it goes to help others and not themselves.

Near the end of this summer, I had the most tedious privilege of waiting for my car's windshield to be fixed. As I sat in the waiting room studying for an upcoming test, I listened to a conversation between a male receptionist and a man also there waiting for his car. They spoke about their lives, discussed the military and then landed the issue of welfare. The man waiting was livid that our president would allow his tax dollars to aid the poor (who apparently did not work for them)and for immigrants who he thought should go back to their home countries. I was floored by this idea. We all pay for the up keep of roads in our states and towns yet we do not use them all. We pay for the education of children yet we don't all have children and are not all in school. Yet why is it that we fight to pay a little so that people can at least get above the poverty line; people who often have not had the same opportunities or privileges that many of us have benefited from.

Although, many believe that the government is taking their arm and leg just to help someone else live easy, they do not realize that those tax dollars are not enough. It covers just their basic needs, and if one of the people living with the welfare gets a even a few cents raise they could be kicked off welfare and thrown into a worse situation than they had been before. So even though we may think that taxes are enough they truly fall short.

I believe, we as humans (not even just as Christians) need to give time and money (outside of taxes) to help increase a persons economic, social, and economic status. We need to donate money to organizations that are trying hard to give people opportunities or a service that they cannot afford. Through these programs people have been able to improve their economic status and climbed out of the hole that they might have been in. We also need to take part in service realizing where our money is going and also creating connections with people. These connections give people strength. Isn't this what Jesus would want us to do love our neighbor with the giving of our resources and most of all with our time.

I'm old-fashioned and I've been fiddling with www.blogger.com for days trying to end up on the proper page. I'm finding social media more exhausting than it is worth. I believe that technology has enhanced my education, but now I would prefer to spend my time getting to know the people in my class rather than figuring out how to use the latest method to communicate with them with my fingertips. Social media is always something you have to keep up with. But I almost don't want to keep up with it anymore. And I'd like to think that I could do well in the workforce without it as well. It was a good thing that I learned to type in school, but I never wanted technology to take so much of my time.

It is almost refreshing not to have to use social media after spending so much time in a classroom or in front of the computer researching a topic. I want to learn from the great outdoors, however, that would force me to change my major and there is certainly no time for that. I want to learn firsthand from people and cultures by talking with them, at best, but not by reading their thoughts when we live on the same campus. But give me a book if I will have no other way of understanding your thoughts are growing from your life experiences. I want to put a face to thoughts, thoughts to a personality and personality to a character. That is education to me...learning how to live with technology, but also learning how to live without.

Social Media - Too Much?

Social media in the classroom serves as a virtual extension - a component through which students can access the peer-to-peer interaction available in a normal classroom. There is no doubt there are practical uses of this technology. However, my biggest problem with a complete and successful transition to a social media oriented focus is the unwanted merging of school and personal time.

I will admit, my grades have been saved due to social media countless of times. Casual conversations on AIM generally lead to the mention of due dates and tests, which prompts me to study. However, imagine every course you took as an undergraduate included a mandatory online aspect. I am taking six courses this semester. The amount of time spent in class alone takes up most of my daylight hours. With studying included, any time I get to just nap or relax is a very precious commodity. If each of those classes required my contribution to a online classroom (regardless how little), I would very quickly learn to hate all of my classes. On the whole, the present avenues of online communication that are implemented such as D2L and e-mail are practical and efficient. Anything more than that, unless it completely replaces the physical classroom time, I would consider extraneous. Perhaps my experience with this class will change my opinion.