Argument Critque

    In “MySpace and Sex Offenders: What’s the Problem?” Bob Sullivan seems to argue that MySpace has taken insufficient measures for dealing with sex offenders. The essay illustrates a dispute between MySpace officials and a number of attorneys general, which points out more than a few flaws in MySpace’s steps in dealing with the problem.
    In response to a report detailing the presence of sex offenders on Myspace, the social networking company started to work with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to identify the lurking criminals. When MySpace started deleting offenders’ profiles, it came under fire for not announcing that it was doing so, and then for not releasing the profiles’ data apparently due to a misunderstanding. Sullivan then continues to explain how most attorneys were more concerned with how fast MySpace was acting on the problem, to which officials at MySpace responded by pointing out the lack of a national sex offender registry. In the final paragraphs, Sullivan raises questions about the step’s effectiveness in keeping predators off MySpace and appears to call for more drastic measures.
    Although MySpace has taken some steps to keep sex offenders off the site and others have suggested other steps to be taken, I doubt that it would ever be possible to keep all predators out of MySpace. When all the users can be anonymous and lie about themselves, sex offenders prove a serious problem for any social networking site. While Sullivan claims that, “[T]he prescence of 7,000 registered offenders on [MySpace] -- and the time span required to remove them -- raises inevitable questions about MySpace’s ability to keep its neighborhood safe” (119), he fails to consider (possibly because Facebook did not exist yet) that all social networking sites, including Facebook, have the same problem. In spite of this, Facebook still has hundreds of millions of users, so the suggested alternative to keep people safe: a “mandatory age verification to keep kids off the site altogether” (119) seems ridiculous. Thus, these social networking sites can do little to protect users besides setting the initial settings to the highest privacy. The responsibility then falls on the parents who let children use the sites to educate them not to give personal information to total strangers and such.

Sullivan, Bob. “MySpace and Sex Offenders: What’s the Problem?” New York Times Magazine 4 April. 1999: 144. Rpt. in Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 116-119. Print.

Advertisement Analysis

World Wildlife Fund Ad

         
          Unlike most advertisements, this one makes a claim of value rather than a claim of policy. It asks the reader not to buy "exotic animal souvenirs". The statement is general, but the reader can infer that it means live animals.
          The advertisement supports the statement with a picture of a traveler walking with a suitcase, leaving what appears to be a trail of blood. The advertisement suggests that the traveler is someone who did buy an "exotic animal souvenir", because the suitcase is leaving a trail of blood. The red streak across the floor attempts to startle the reader with the disregard for the animal or even animals. One question it tries to prompt might be 'Do I want to be like the traveler in the picture who bought the souvenir, leaving a bloody wake?'.
          The warrant is that one should not buy said souvenirs because doing so would be cruel and inhumane. If the reader accepts the warrant, they will most likely accept the claim, because nobody (I would hope so) would want to be cruel and inhumane.

A Mini-Essay about me

As you probably know by the title of the blog, my name is Cyrus. I enjoy wrestling, running fast for short periods of time, taking advanced classes, and playing the occasional video game. Most people would expect someone to wrestle because of their argumentative nature, but I am often reluctant to pick a fight or argue. I wrestle because I am extremely competitive, and this competitiveness also drove me to take classes at FGCU instead of at my high school.

For the times when I do argue, I would attribute it to my stubborness. I think I’m almost as stubborn as I am competitive. The extent of my stubborness can be seen in my attitude towards cold weather.

I used to live in Massachusetts, and this past week the area where I used to live received a little under two feet of snow. I remember riding my bike to school once the sidewalks were somewhat shoveled, and being able to see my breath on a regular basis. When I moved here, I vowed not to ‘adjust to the Florida weather’ or ever pretend that the winters in Florida were cold. I did this in part because a friend said he would laugh at me if he saw me up north again, because I wouldn't be able to handle the cold. Since then I have refused to wear a hoodie or jacket, or agree with someone saying that it’s cold outside. I still think that 40 or 50 degrees is perfect for running because it won’t be too hot or humid to breathe, and the cool temperature is like a breeze that is always there. Although I wore a hoodie while I was up north last year, that’s completely different. It was snowing and I was throwing snow at him with my bare hands while he was running away, so who's laughing now?

I would like to think I’m stubborn like this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno , but that I’m always right (especially the part at 3:00).