Artifacts
These two artifacts listed below are examples of discussion posts written in this class
Artifact #1: Project Specifics
Artifact #2 : Instagram Commodification Discussion Post Response
Thesis:
By understanding how Instagram was prefigured by a previous aesthetic movement—one which arose while the middle class was first emerging—we can come closer to understanding our current moment’s tensions between beauty, capitalism, and the pursuit of an authentic life.
As described in the article, the term "picturesque", referred mainly to landscapes, specifically "the natural, time-worn scenery of the English countryside." The term "picturesque", has evolved over the decades due to the everchanging idea of what is desirable. Back in the Victorian Era, a picturesque image could be that of an architecturally beautiful house. Instead of observing the scenery or mentally capturing the so-called "desirable" view, people would focus on physically capturing the picturesque view in order to share with others. It's interesting how the simple idea of capturing a landscape turned into an increasing opportunity for people to make money due to tourism. Back then, being able to capture these picturesque moments and share them with others made your life desirable since that required a lot of traveling. Nowadays, even though the mode of sharing these picturesque moments has changed, the underlying factor remains the same. Influencers who travel from place to place and post pictures of all the picturesque moments they've captured evokes a sense of desire in their audience to do the same. However, now people describe a picturesque image to be very different. Back then, a picturesque image would be just nature, or landscape, or architecture, but now, these things are simply the secondary context. Observing Instagram today, someone, including me, usually considers someone standing in front of a landscape or beautiful piece of architecture to be picturesque. The increase in self-focus is the main thing that has changed in the past couple of centuries and decades since the term picturesque came into play. But with the increase in picturesque images being displayed on Instagram, also comes the shift in reality to what is actually being captured. Overall, the term picturesque has changed throughout the years, but still contains the same underlying subtext.
1. Research Question- How do socioeconomic disparities-such as lack of education, resources, and money- lead to the spread of diseases and infections?
2. A working title for my project is - "Sickness: From a Socioeconomic Standpoint "
3. Healthcare isn’t accessible to everyone. The increasing number of diseases and infections that spread because of the poor infrastructure of a country or government is expected. However, the umbrella of socioeconomic disparities causing high mortality rates is numerous. Socioeconomic disparities can range from lack of resources, money, and education, which can all directly and indirectly increase the spread of diseases and infections. What factors specifically cause the spread of diseases and infections, under the huge umbrella of socioeconomic disparities? How do those factors even affect a huge continent, such as Africa? Why are the assistance more developed countries provide to those with socioeconomic disparities, only a band-aid on a bullet hole? Malaria, for example, got out of control in Africa due to the lack of mosquito nets, which eventually increased the survival rate from the disease from 2% to 46%. Lack of resources is only one of the several factors this research paper about, Socioeconomic disparities affecting global health, is what this research paper is going to explore.
4. Since my family is from India, I’ve visited very rural areas of the country and noticed the lack of healthcare in the area. Oftentimes, the place not only had poor health care, but also poor education, and poor living conditions. At first, these things all seem to be a jumble of issues honed in on one specific place, but the more I observed it, they all connected, and I can go as far as to say they were direct effects of one another. I’ve always wondered why these things can be explained as causation rather than correlation because at first glance they all seem like individual problems on their own. There were/are several factors into play when looking at a situation in India like this. India is one of the many countries that have rural areas where people don’t have access to good education, healthcare, or housing. I’ve noticed that the people living in these areas are all either very ill or very unhealthy. The reason why I chose this topic was that to even attempt to assist people in these areas, we need to understand the problems that they face and how everything is related. I hope to learn more about how all of these factors linked, cause poor health conditions for people, which eventually leads to the spread of diseases and infections.
5. Since my topic is specific, but broad at the same time, the number of evidence and research to support it is great. Choosing the right examples and making sure that I don’t get distracted by veering off-topic will be one of the challenges I might face. I need to make sure I don't get off-topic because the subject of healthcare and all the factors that affect it are diverse, so narrowing down the correct areas of interest is going to be important. The topic of universal healthcare and global health care is also controversial, so finding a source that isn’t biased will be a challenge as well. The World Health Organization isn’t a politically affiliated organization, so facts from them should be neutral and unbiased. Articles on how the lack of proper health care caused the increase in certain diseases and infections may be biased, but researching and reporting the full picture will be important to support my topic. A concern that I have is whether to choose a specific disease or keep it broad. Each disease or infection will have separate evidence on how the disparities affected it. But using several examples can also tie the main point together with similar themes.